The Open Source Haggadah

Blessed are You, O Lord, our God, King of the universe, who sanctified us with His mitzvot and commanded us about the extermination of Chametz.

Any leavened bread or sour dough that is in my possession, which I have not seen and have not perceieved and know of it not -- may it be annulled and be ownerless like the dust of the earth.

Israelites lived in Egypt for 430 years. For 400 of those years, they were slaves. {Ex 12:40, Gen 15:13}

God destroys Egypt

Then YHWH said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh. For I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his courtiers, in order that I may display these My signs among them, and that you may recount in the hearing of your sons and of your sons’ sons how I made a mockery of the Egyptians and how I displayed My signs among them – in order that you may know that I am YHWH.” {Ex 10:1-2}

... but spares Israel

You shall observe this as an institution for all time, for you and for your descendants. And when you enter the land that YHWH will give you, as He has promised, you shall observe this rite. And when your children ask you, ‘What do you mean by this rite?’ you shall say, ‘It is the passover sacrifice to YHWH, because He passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt when He smote the Egyptians, but saved our houses.’” {Ex 12:24-27}

... and gives us the Instruction and the Land

And you shall explain to your son on that day, ‘It is because of what YHWH did for me when I went free from Egypt.’

“And this shall serve you as a sign on your hand and as a reminder on your forehead – in order that the Teaching of YHWH may be in your mouth – that with a mighty hand YHWH freed you from Egypt. You shall keep this institution at its set time from year to year.” {Ex 13:8-10}

[Moses spoke to the Israelites:]
And this is the Instruction – the laws and the rules – that YHWH your God has commanded [me] to impart to you, to be observed in the land that you are about to cross into and occupy, so that you, your children, and your children’s children may revere YHWH your God and follow, as long as you live, all His laws and commandments that I enjoin upon you, to the end that you may long endure. Obey, O Israel, willingly and faithfully, that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly [in] a land flowing with milk and honey, as YHWH, the God of your fathers, spoke to you. {Deut 6:1-3}

When, in time to come, your children ask you, “What mean the decrees, laws, and rules that YHWH our God has enjoined upon you?” you shall say to your children, “We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt and YHWH freed us from Egypt with a mighty hand. YHWH wrought before our eyes marvelous and destructive signs and portents in Egypt, against Pharaoh and all his household; and us He freed from there, that He might take us and give us the land that He had promised on oath to our fathers. Then YHWH commanded us to observe all these laws, to revere YHWH our God, for our lasting good and for our survival, as is now the case. It will be therefore to our merit before YHWH our God to observe faithfully this whole Instruction, as He has commanded us.” {Deut 6:20-25}