We cried out to Adonai, the God of our ancestors, and Adonai heard our voice and saw our affliction and our hard labor and our oppression: Why did the Israelites “cry out” at this particular moment in time? The Haggadah quotes the verse: And it came to pass…that the king of Egypt died.” According to the Midrash, the first Pharaoh was afflicted with leprosy for ten years. He slaughtered Israelite children in order to bathe in their blood each day; in the end he died a shameful death. The Israelites thought that his successor would take this to heart and would not continue to oppress the people since it is the way of a new king to lighten the decrees of predecessor and to perform kind acts for his subjects when he first takes office. Instead the new Pharaoh made the oppression even harsher. That is why “they cried out to God.” The people of Israel were supposed to be in exile four hundred years. Because of the severity of their servitude, the Israelites sighed and cried out to God, and their prayer rose up to God. The Torah says, “Their cry, because of the servitude (avodah), rose up to Elohim.” The name Elohimimplies judgment - their prayer must have risen up on Rosh Hashanah,the Day of Judgment. “On account of the avodah:” Even though the Israelites ceased to work as slaves on Rosh Hashanah, they were not yet Exodus 2:24).liberated from Egypt. They could not leave Egypt until Passover after the full cycle of plagues had occurred.¹⁶¹ on this section. Like King Nebuchadnezzar, Pharaoh decreed that the Egyptians should give the Israelites no rest or opportunity to pray to God. Both of them were fearful that if they did, God would turn from his anger and forgive the Israelites and thus redeem them. When the old Pharaoh died, however, it was the practice of the Egyptians to pause in order to mourn his passing, and for all the people and slaves to cry out and sigh as a sign of mourning for the king. This gave the Israelites the opportunity to cry out to God in response to their oppression. That is why the verse says they cried out on account of their slavery.” The name elohim appears four times in this Exodus 2:23-25, the verses that are quoted here in the Haggadah. The word elohim also has the same numerical value as the word kos, cup. So this verse is another proof text for the four cups of wine, they are meant to protect us from Lilith, whose name has the numerical value of 480. There are 120 permutations¹⁶², bitter, also has the numerical value of 120 so each kos was a response to the bitterness with which the Israelites were oppressed in Egypt. The discussion of the permutations of God’s name is obviously a Kabbalistic idea. I assume that this means that we can write the five letters of God’s name, elohim, 120 different ways. of the divine name elohimso that four times the permutations of the divine name are equal to Lilith.¹⁶³ – I am not certain what work this is since there several possible works with this abbreviation.

footnotes: ¹⁶¹ See BT Rosh Hashanah 11a – and the Tosafot ¹⁶² The author does not say this but the word mar ¹⁶³ I am totally lost here…but the author seems to be saying that these numerical values and permutations seem to suggest that the four cups of wine are meant to protect us from the Power of Lilith. But what is the connection of Lilith to Pharaoh or the story of the Exodus from Egypt? The source of this teaching is a book whose abbreviation is mem ayin

The Israelites groaned because of the slave labor: The Midrash teaches that when Pharaoh became leprous, his magicians suggested that if he killed 150 Israelite children each morning and again at night, and bathe in their blood, he would be healed from this disease. The Israelites had accepted their oppression in Egypt because it also caused them to give birth to more children. But when they saw their children being killed so that Pharaoh could soak in their blood, “They groaned because of the slave labor.” The children that were killed by Pharaoh’s magicians, however, were not destined to reach adulthood anyway. We see that this is the case when Moses saved the Israelite from death at the hand of the taskmaster. Actually this person was one of the mixed multitude and was not worthy of being saved. From this we learn the teaching, “Don’t look at the pitcher but what’s inside it.”¹⁶⁴

footnotes: ¹⁶⁴ Exodus Rabbah, 1: 34 and Pirke Avot, 4:27 In other words – one must know the inner essence of the person if they are worthy or not.

God heard our voice… and God remembered His covenant: After the old Pharaoh died, his advisors advised his son to carry on the policies that his father had made with the nation and to continue to oppress the Israelites. God paid him back ‘measure for measure,’ by punishing the generations to come for the sins of the fathers with the final plague. The Torah says that God heard ‘our voice’ (in the singular). This is a problematic expression: how could they raise their voice and all their voices sound like a single voice? Elsewhere we learn, regarding the rebellious child, that he can only be found guilty if his parent’s voices are the same.¹⁶⁵ Rashi explains that this is derived from the Torah. The Torah says, “He won’t listen to our voice” – it does not say voices.¹⁶⁶ If the word koleinu means literally ‘our voice’ (and not our voices) in Deuteronomy, then it should have the same meaning here, too. But there is yet another problem with the expression here “God heard our voice.” We are taught, that “Anyone who raises his voice in prayer (instead of praying silently) lacks in faith.”¹⁶⁷ Therefore the word, kol, here implies thoughts and meditation and not a physical voice, as in the expression, “The voice is the voice of Jacob.”¹⁶⁸ The people prayed quietly and directed their hearts to their Father in Heaven, and as a result, God remembered His covenant with them. Since they prayed silently, their voices were all the same.

footnotes: ¹⁶⁵ BT Sanhedrin71a ¹⁶⁶ Deuteronomy 21:20 ¹⁶⁷ BT Berachot 24b ¹⁶⁸ Genesis 27:22