Being an Egyptian
Rabbi Anat Katzir
ר ו ר
מ Maror
Almost every year , at some point when we read the plagues , after remembering how bad it was to be an Israelite slave and finding hope in the faith and endurance of my people , I think to myself . Yeah , being a slave in Egypt must have been awful , and we had Moses , and Aaron , and Miriam , and maybe God .
But what was is like to be an Egyptian ?
I ’ m not thinking about the hard- hearted Pharaoh or one of the fancy Egyptians , with headdresses and makeup , who lived in the palace and had bowls of jewelry they could taunt Israelite captured babies with .
I mean the simple Egyptians , that worked in the field . Whose crops were eaten by locusts , whose livestock died from disease . They sat there scratching their heads , perhaps from lice , perhaps because they couldn ’ t understand why all these horrible things were happening to them . What must have been their pain as they held their eldest children in their arms in that final plague … Were there no uninvolved Egyptians ?
As I sit and eat the bitter herb and charoset , and pray for freedom for children of Israel , I also
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