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Celebration or Condemnation? Human Rights, Passover, and the Tenth Plague
Tables are set for Seder at Kyiv’s Brodsky Synagogue. Photo: Helen Chervits
Many of us may be uncomfortable with the sweeping destruction of the Ten Plagues as we recite them at the seder — particularly the final plague, the death of the firstborn, which the Torah takes pains to make clear affected every household in Egypt.
Was it right to kill every firstborn, including children, even if the goal was to win the Israelites’ freedom?
Today, we would in fact likely term such indiscriminate violence a war crime. The Israelites would have been justified in attacking Pharaoh or his taskmasters, but the Geneva Conventions would have prohibited the deliberate targeting of Egypt’s civilian population. What do we make of the fact that something which today we would roundly condemn and perhaps even punish is celebrated in our seder liturgy?
Some of us may resolve this tension by noting the difference between current and Biblical times. The Geneva Conventions were only codified over the last century, and of course didn’t apply in ancient Egypt. So we might regard the slaying of the firstborn similar to how the Torah treats slavery or animal sacrifices — normal and even expected then, but seen very differently today. Viewed in historical context, there is nothing unusual or remarkable about the Torah allowing the keeping of slaves or commanding the ritual slaughter of goats and sheep, and so we shouldn’t be surprised by the wartime killing of innocents in the Bible either. But even so, the Rabbis’ celebration of the plagues and their centrality at the seder may still be troubling.
Some may look to the custom of spilling a drop of wine as we read the plagues to symbolically lessen our joy as adequately expressing this discomfort. But is that enough, or is it like attempting to clean one’s hands of an atrocity with after-the-fact apologies? If this plague is something that requires us to be sorry and apologize for it, why does it maintain its central place at the seder?
Some may find comfort in the fact that the Torah states clearly that the plague of the firstborn was carried out by God. Should any human have done such a thing, we would rightfully question their morality. But all-knowing God could not have harmed the innocent or done any wrong.
While this may sound appealing, here are two rebuttals to consider. First, God’s omniscience may also serve to heighten responsibility. When innocent people are harmed in war, often the explanation is lack of knowledge or lack of ability to adequately safeguard civilians while pursuing military objectives. An all-knowing and all-powerful God cannot give such an excuse.
Second, what happens when a leader comes and says that they are sure what God wants and are fighting to bring about God’s kingdom on Earth? What is to prevent them from then imitating God’s tactics in the Bible? If we accept that norms and rules do not apply to God, there is little to stop those who claim to be acting in his name.
The famous commentator Rashi explains that the plague of the first born was justified because all the Egyptians supported or benefited from the Israelites’ enslavement. Because of that they all deserved to be punished.
While this sounds appealing, such logic would certainly not be accepted under humanitarian law today. Civilians, who must be protected from attacks, are defined as those who are not members of the armed forces and do not take part in hostilities. Even if someone supports a political leader who commits atrocities or benefits from war crimes committed by their country, they retain their protected civilian status.
This is crucial, because otherwise, in nearly every conflict, there would be grounds for wholesale destruction. In times of war, populations tend to rally around their leader, and every leader must have at least some popular support to maintain their position. Allowing citizens to be targeted due to their political opinions would undo the limits on death and destruction that the laws of armed combat set out to achieve.
So how do we explain the plagues at our seder? Some of us may find some combination of the above answers satisfying, or have other explanations as well. Or we may come to believe that this section of the Passover story is in fact at odds with our values and search for a proper way to articulate that at the seder. Human rights or humanitarian principles may at times conflict with the Jewish tradition, and how we reconcile this is an important question for those of us who are committed to both.
Personally, I state clearly at my seder that the killing of the firstborn was wrong and would today be considered a war crime. But that only serves to illustrate how far we’ve come in developing the expectation of wartime restraint. The dilemma of how to fight for a just cause, such as freedom from slavery, without impermissibly violating the rights of innocent people is just as relevant and difficult today as in ancient times. The seder presents a wonderful opportunity to discuss this, and we will likely find that even among friends and family who share our core values, different opinions abound.
Shlomo Levin is the author of the Human Rights Haggadah, and he writes about legal developments related to human rights issues of interest to the Jewish community. You can find him at https://hrhaggadah.com/.
The post Celebration or Condemnation? Human Rights, Passover, and the Tenth Plague first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Iran’s Top Diplomat Meets With Russian Officials, Supreme Leader Sends Letter to Putin Ahead of Talks With US
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks during a meeting in Tehran, Iran, March 21, 2025. Photo: Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS
Iran’s so-called “supreme leader,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, sent a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday, briefing Moscow on the ongoing nuclear negotiations between Tehran and the United States.
Khamenei also sent his top diplomat, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, to Moscow, where on Thursday he met with Putin and his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, to deliver Khamenei’s letter. During their meetings, they discussed Iran’s nuclear program, last week’s US-Iran negotiations in Oman, and efforts to expand bilateral cooperation and address regional developments.
Thursday’s high-level meeting came just days before a second round of talks between Tehran and Washington, scheduled to take place in Rome this weekend.
Since taking office in January, US President Donald Trump has reinstated his “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran aimed at cutting the country’s crude exports to zero and preventing it from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
However, Tehran has refused to halt its uranium enrichment program, insisting that the country’s right to enrich uranium is non-negotiable.
Last month, Trump threatened to bomb Iran and impose secondary tariffs if the country does not reach an agreement with Washington to curb its nuclear program.
Russia has said that any military strike against Iran would be “illegal and unacceptable.” As an increasingly close ally of Tehran, Moscow plays a crucial role in Iran’s nuclear negotiations with the West, leveraging its position as a veto-wielding member of the UN Security Council and a signatory to a now-defunct 2015 nuclear deal that imposed limits on the Iranian nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russia will continue to assist in resolving the conflict between the two adversaries.
“The Russian Federation remains ready to do everything within our capabilities to contribute to the settlement of the situation by political and diplomatic means,” Peskov said in a statement.
During his first term, Trump withdrew the US from the 2015 nuclear deal — known formally as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) — between Iran and several world powers, which had imposed temporary limits on Tehran’s nuclear activities in exchange for lifting harsh, long-standing economic penalties on the Islamist regime in Tehran.
“Regarding the nuclear issue, we always had close consultations with our friends China and Russia. Now it is a good opportunity to do so with Russian officials,” Araghchi told Iranian state media before his meeting in Moscow.
On Tuesday, US special envoy Steve Witkoff said that any deal with Iran must require the complete dismantling of its “nuclear enrichment and weaponization program — reversing his earlier comments, in which he indicated that the White House would allow Iran to enrich uranium to a 3.67 percent threshold for a “civil nuclear program.”
Although Iran has denied wanting to develop a nuclear weapon, the UN’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), has raised concerns over Tehran’s rapid acceleration of uranium enrichment.
The IAEA warned that Iran is enriching uranium up to 60 percent purity, close to the roughly 90 percent weapons-grade level and enough to build six nuclear bombs.
Despite Tehran’s claims that its nuclear program is solely for civilian purposes rather than weapon development, Western states have said there is no “credible civilian justification” for the country’s recent nuclear activity, arguing it “gives Iran the capability to rapidly produce sufficient fissile material for multiple nuclear weapons.”
Russia’s diplomatic role in the US-Iran nuclear talks could be crucial, as Moscow has recently solidified its growing partnership with the Iranian regime.
On Wednesday, Russia’s upper house of parliament ratified a 20-year strategic partnership agreement with Iran, strengthening military ties between the two countries.
Signed by Putin and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian in January, the Strategic Cooperation Treaty will boost collaboration between the two countries in areas such as security services, military drills, warship port visits, and joint officer training.
Iran’s Ambassador to Russia, Kazem Jalali, said this agreement “stands as one of the most significant achievements in Tehran-Moscow relations.”
“One of the most important commonalities between the two countries is the deep wounds inflicted by the West’s unrestrained unilateralism, which underscores the necessity for broader cooperation in the future,” Jalali told Iranian state media this week.
Under the agreement, neither country will permit its territory to be used for actions that pose a threat to the other, nor will they provide assistance to any aggressor targeting either nation. However, this pact does not include a mutual defense clause of the kind included in a treaty between Russia and North Korea.
The agreement also includes cooperation in arms control, counterterrorism, peaceful nuclear energy, and security coordination at both regional and global levels.
Iran’s growing ties with Moscow come at a time when Tehran is facing increasing sanctions by the US, particularly on its oil industry.
Last year, Iran obtained observer membership in the Eurasian Economic Union. The free trade agreement between Tehran and the union’s member states, set to take effect next month, will eliminate customs tariffs on over 80 percent of traded goods between Iran and Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan.
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Hamas Rejects Israeli Interim Truce Offer, Says Will Only Release Remaining Hostages for End to Gaza War
Protesters, mainly Houthi supporters, stand near a screen displaying senior Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya during a rally to show support to Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, in Sanaa, Yemen, Oct. 18, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah
Hamas wants a comprehensive deal to end the war in Gaza and swap all Israeli hostages for Palestinians jailed in Israel, a senior official from the Palestinian terrorist group said, rejecting Israel‘s offer of an interim truce.
In a televised speech, Khalil Al-Hayya, the group’s Gaza chief who leads its negotiating team, said the Iran-backed Islamist group would no longer agree to interim deals, adopting a position that Israel is unlikely to accept and potentially further delaying an end to the conflict.
Instead, Hayya said Hamas was ready to immediately engage in “comprehensive package negotiations” to release all remaining hostages in its custody in return for an end to the Gaza war, the release of Palestinians jailed by Israel, and the reconstruction of Gaza.
“Netanyahu and his government use partial agreements as a cover for their political agenda, which is based on continuing the war of extermination and starvation, even if the price is sacrificing all his prisoners [hostages],” said Hayya, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“We will not be part of passing this policy.”
Egyptian mediators have been working to revive the January ceasefire agreement that halted fighting in Gaza before it broke down last month, but there has been little sign of progress with both Israel and Hamas blaming each other.
“Hamas’s comments demonstrate they are not interested in peace but perpetual violence. The terms made by the Trump administration have not changed: release the hostages or face hell,” said US National Security Council spokesperson James Hewitt.
The latest round of talks on Monday in Cairo to restore the ceasefire and free Israeli hostages ended with no apparent breakthrough, Palestinian and Egyptian sources said.
Israel had proposed a 45-day truce in Gaza to allow hostage releases and potentially begin indirect talks to end the war. Hamas has already rejected one of its conditions – that it lay down its arms. In his speech, Hayya accused Israel of offering a counterproposal with “impossible conditions.”
Hamas released 38 hostages under a ceasefire that began on Jan. 19. In March, Israel‘s military resumed its ground and aerial offensive in Gaza, after Hamas rejected proposals to extend the truce without ending the war.
Israeli officials say that the offensive will continue until the remaining 59 hostages are freed and Gaza is demilitarized. Hamas insists it will free hostages only as part of a deal to end the war and has rejected demands to lay down its arms.
The war was triggered by Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel, in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage to Gaza.
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US Says Chinese Satellite Firm Supporting Houthi Attacks on American Interests
A Houthi fighter mans a machine gun mounted on a truck during a parade for people who attended Houthi military training as part of a mobilization campaign, in Sanaa, Yemen, Dec. 18, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah
The US State Department on Thursday accused a Chinese firm, Chang Guang Satellite Technology, of directly supporting attacks on US interests by Iran-backed Houthi fighters and called this “unacceptable.”
Earlier, the Financial Times cited US officials as saying that the satellite company, linked to China’s military, was supplying Houthi rebels with imagery to target US warships and international vessels in the Red Sea.
“We can confirm the reporting that Chang Guang Satellite Technology Company Limited is directly supporting Iran-backed Houthi terrorist attacks on US interests,” State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce told a regular news briefing.
“China consistently attempts … to frame itself as a global peacemaker … however, it is clear that Beijing and China-based companies provide key economic and technical support to regimes like Russia, North Korea and Iran and its proxies,” she said.
Bruce said the assistance by the firm to the Houthis, a US-designated terrorist group, had continued even though the United States had engaged with Beijing on the issue.
“The fact that they continue to do this is unacceptable,” she said.
The spokesperson for China’s Washington embassy, Liu Pengyu, said he was not familiar with the situation, so had no comment. The firm did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
China is Washington’s main strategic rival, and the latest charge comes as the two economic and military superpowers are in a major standoff over trade in which US President Donald Trump has dramatically ramped up tariffs on Chinese goods.
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