Now this is a terrible story. 

After nine plagues – frogs, locusts, blood -river and so on — Pharaoh still wouldn’t let the Israelites go, and Moses left him in great anger.

What happened next is a story of pain and fear. 

Moses and Aaron told all the Israelites to kill a lamb and brush their doorways with the lamb’s blood.  They were to stay indoors all night, no matter what happened.

Meantime, in the middle of the night, God struck down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, including the first born of Pharaoh as well as captives in jail, even animals.

The Torah tells us there was “a great cry in Egypt; for there is not a house in which there is not a dead man.”

Imagine being an Israelite huddled in your hut, hearing the cries of woe.  Imagine being an Egyptian and losing your son.

As I said, this is a story of pain and fear.

But in the end, Pharaoh agreed to let the Israelite people go.