(1)
Long ago, our ancestors were slaves in Egypt. They worked hard building pyramids and storehouses for pharaoh. They cried out to God to save them. Pharaoh worried that there were too many Hebrews and that one day they would rise up and defeat him, so he ordered that all the male Hebrew babies be killed. He called the Hebrew midwives to tell them they should kill the Hebrew baby boys, but the midwives Shifrah and Puah did not obey Pharaoh.
(2)
One baby boy was born to a Hebrew family from the tribe of Levi. His family hid him for three months. When they couldn't hide him any longer, they put him in a basket waterproofed with pitch, and his sister Miriam floated him down the Nile River. She waited in the reeds by the shore of the river to see what would happen to him. The daughter of pharaoh came down to bathe at the river and she found the the baby floating on the water. She decided to raise him as her son, but she couldn't feed him. Miriam came to her and offered to find her a nursemaid. Pharaoh's daughter agreed. Miriam brought the baby back to her mother, Yocheved, to be nursed. Pharaoh's daughter named the baby Moses.
(3)
When Moses was weaned, he went to live with Pharaoh's daughter in the palace. He grew up a prince of Egypt. But Moses knew who he was and that he was a Hebrew, because he had lived with his own mother when he was little.
(4)
One day, Moses was out looking at the slaves building projects for Pharaoh. He saw an Egyptian taskmaster beating a Hebrew slave and it made him very angry. So he killed the Egyptian taskmaster and hid his body in the sand. Moses realized that it would soon be found out that he had killed the Egyptian and that he needed to leave Egypt.
(5)
Moses ran away to the wilderness. He came to Midian where he met Jethro, the priest of Midian, and his daughters. Moses married Tzipporah, the daughter of Jethro, and became a shepherd, taking caring of Jethro's sheep.
(6)
One day Moses was looking for a lost sheep on Mt. Sinai. He saw a burning bush. The bush burned but it was not consumed. Moses stopped to look at it and when he did, God spoke to him. God told Moses to go back to Egypt and tell Pharaoh to let the Hebrew slaves go free to worship God in the wilderness, but Moses told God that no one would listen to him. God said: I will help you.
(7)
Moses met his brother Aaron when he went back to Egypt. Aaron came with him to the palace to speak to Pharaoh for him, because it was hard for Moses to speak to Pharaoh.
(8)
Pharaoh refused to let the slaves go free to worship God. Instead he doubled the amount of work he required from the Hebrew slaves. Moses warned Pharaoh that God would bring plagues upon Egypt, but Pharaoh didn't believe him.
(9)
The first two plagues were blood and frogs. The Nile River turned to blood and frogs came out of the river and overran the land of Egypt. But Pharaoh refused to let the Hebrews go.
(10)
The third plague was lice, which infected all the Egyptian people and their animals. The fourth plague was wild beasts, which roamed the land. Still Pharaoh refused to let the Hebrews go.
(11)
The fifth plague was cattle disease. The animals of the Egyptians died from this plague, but the animals of the Hebrews were not affected. The sixth plague was boils. Moses threw ashes in the air and when they came down, all the Egyptians were afflicted with boils all over their bodies. Still Pharaoh refused to let the Hebrews go.
(12)
The seventh plague was hail, which fell from the sky and destroyed the fields of the Egyptians. The eighth plague was locusts, which ate up everything in the fields of the Egyptians. Still Pharaoh refused to let the Hebrews go.
(13)
The ninth plague was darkness. Day became night and no one in Egypt could see anything. They became very scared. But in Goshen, where the Israelites lived, there was light. The tenth plague was the most horrible of all. The firstborn son in every Egyptian family died. Even Pharaoh's son died. But the Hebrew were protected because they made a sacrifice called a "pesach" to God and painted the blood of the lambs they sacrificed on the doorposts of their homes.
(14)
When his own son died, Pharaoh changed his mind and told Moses and Aaron, "Go! Take your people and get out of Egypt!"
(15)
The Israelites had to leave in a big hurry that night. They didn't have time to let the bread dough they had made raise. As they left Israel, the strong sun baked the dough right on their backs and it came out hard and flat. We call it matzah.
(16)
Not long after the Israelites left Egypt, Pharaoh changed his mind again and decided he wanted his slaves back. He sent his soldiers after them. The Israelites were at the shore of the Reed Sea. God and Moses parted the Reed Sea and the Israelites walked through on dry land. When they were through the Reed Sea, the walls of water came back over the Egyptians who had come after them into the sea. The Egyptians were drowned in the water, but the Israelites crossed safely through the water.
(17)
Finally, three months later, the Israelites came to Mount Sinai. They were finally free, and the first thing they decided to do was accept God's Covenant. God gave Israel the Torah and Israel promised to keep God's Covenant.