1.Blood.6.Boils.
2.Frogs.7.Hail.
3.Gnats.8.Locusts.
4.Flies.9.Darkness.
5.Pestilence among cattle.10.Death of first-born.

CHAPTER VI

THE EXODUS
Exodus 11.1 to 13.16

Interpretation. These chapters relate the climax toward which the narrative from the birth of Moses until this point has been leading, the exodus from Egypt. They also contain the laws associated with the commemoration of this event. The narrative begins by telling of God's promise that the next plague would be the last, and His command to the people to prepare for the exodus. Before they were permitted to leave, some expression of their faith in God's deliverance and their readiness to follow His guidance was required; therefore, we have the command to take a lamb on the tenth day of the month, which was to begin their new era, and sacrifice it on the 14th, and eat the flesh of it in family groups on that night, together with bitter herbs and unleavened bread, which thereafter were to serve as symbols of the bondage and of the liberation from it. The blood of this sacrifice, they were to sprinkle on the doorposts of their houses in order to testify by this ritual to their desire to be included in the "Army of the Lord" that was to depart on the morrow, and all who did not testify thus to their adherence to Israel's cause were to meet with the same fate as the Egyptians with whom they had chosen to identify themselves. The Israelites were to eat the lamb while standing with their loins girt and staves in their hands, in readiness for the signal to depart. The rabbis call attention to the fact that the sacrifice of the Paschal lamb in Egypt by the Israelites was a very bold expression of their faith, inasmuch as the sheep was among the sacred animals of Egypt. When Pharaoh suggests to Moses that the Israelites could sacrifice to their God in Egypt, he replies, "Lo, if we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes, will they not stone us?" (Exodus 8. 22.) But by this time Pharaoh and Egypt had been so humiliated by the plagues which did not even spare their sacred river Nile, that the Egyptians feared to attack the Israelites, while the children of Israel had recovered their lost confidence in Moses, and in the God in whose name he spoke to them.

Among the laws and observances associated with the events of this chapter are: 1. The law ordaining the first of Nisan, as the "New Year for months", in commemoration of the inauguration of the new era in Israel's history; 2. the annual sacrifice of the Paschal lamb which was eaten in the family circle together with bitter herbs and unleavened bread to recall the similar observances of the Israelites before leaving Egypt;[9] 3. the celebration for seven days[10] of the festival of Passover by the previous removal of all leaven and abstention from it during the festival and by the eating of unleavened bread in commemoration of the haste of Israel's departure that did not allow them to make other provision; 4. the duty of narrating these events to one's children, which gave rise to the recital of the Haggadah on the night of Passover; 5. the sanctification of the first-born of cattle and of men in recognition of the providential character of the tenth plague, the latter custom surviving in the practice of "pidyon ha-ben", "the redemption of the first-born", and, 6. the injunction to make of this command "a sign upon thy hand and frontlets between thine eyes" which led to the inclusion of the passage containing these words, and the command to sanctify the first-born among those enclosed in the tephillin, thus making them a theme for daily reflection. In addition to these practices, it is noteworthy that the Sabbath and holidays, even those having other historic associations, are characterized in our liturgy as מִצְרַים לִיצִואַת זֵכֶר

"memorials of the Exodus from Egypt." The multitude of observances that are thus designed to keep us mindful of the Exodus testify to the importance of the leading idea associated with this event for the Jewish people at all times, namely, the identification of the cause of Israel with the cause of God, "And I will take you to Me for a people, and I will be to you a God, and ye shall know that I am the Lord, your God, who brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians." (Exodus 6. 7.)

Aim. The aim of this lesson should be to make the child conscious of his identity with Israel and of the debt of gratitude and loyalty that this imposes upon him in view of God's redemption of Israel.

Suggestions to the teacher. The association of the Exodus with the observance of Passover is the obvious method of establishing a contact between the subject to be taught in this lesson and the Jewish child of today. Nevertheless, it is better not to employ the observances of the Passover as the technical "point of contact" with which to introduce the original presentation of the lesson, as that would delay too long the actual narration, but to use them to introduce the discussion of the topic by the class after the teacher has told his story.