מִתְּחִלָּה IN THE BEGINNING, our ancestors were idol worshippers. BUT NOW the Omnipresent has drawn us close in His service; as it is said: “Joshua said to all the people, ‘This is what the LORD God of Israel has said: Beyond the river your ancestors always dwelled – Terah the father of Abraham, the father of Nahor – and they served other gods.

But I took your father Abraham from beyond the river, and I led him all the way across the land of Canaan, and I multiplied his offspring and gave him Isaac. And to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau, and I gave Esau Mount Seir as an inheritance, WHILE JACOB AND HIS CHILDREN WENT DOWN TO EGYPT.”’

BLESSED IS THE ONE WHO HAS KEPT HIS PROMISE TO ISRAEL – blessed is He. For the Holy One calculated the end and fulfilled what He had spoken to our father Abraham in the Covenant between the Pieces. As it is said: “He said to Abram, ‘Know that your descendants will be strangers in a land not their own, and they will be enslaved and oppressed for four hundred years; but know that I shall judge the nation that enslaves them, AND THEN THEY WILL LEAVE WITH GREAT WEALTH.’”

The matzot are covered and the wine cup is raised.

וְהִיא שֶׁעָמְדָה AND THIS [promise] is what has stood by our ancestors and us; for it was not only one man who rose up to destroy us: in every single generation people rise up to destroy us – BUT THE HOLY ONE, BLESSED BE HE, SAVES US FROM THEIR HANDS.