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A "Who Done It?" Mystery About the Plagues

Narrator: The Jews had just left Egypt. The Egyptians were glad to get rid of the Jews. Now the Egyptians didn't have to worry about bloody water, frogs all over the place, lice in their hair, crazy weather like hail or the invasion of the grasshoppers. The Egyptians could relax.

Egyptian 1: Whew! Now I can relax!

Narrator: Some people started to believe in G-d. You would see them praying toward Israel with their feet together, shuckling back and forth, just like a Jew. Some even tried to go to Israel and stay with the Jews or try to become Jewish. But then there were some others. They still couldn't believe that so many miracles could happen, and especially not just for the Jews! They thought the Jews just kind of got lucky and that their G-d was nothing special.

Egyptian 2: The Jews  just got lucky.

Narrator: So Pharaoh wasn't sure what to do. Should he declare Judaism to be the official religion of Egypt or should he stick with the sun gods, the Nile gods,  and the sheep gods? No one seemed to know for sure.

Egyptian 4: Yay for G-d!

Egyptian 5: Down with the Jews!

Narrator: Pharaoh didn't want to make anyone mad, so he figured he would hold a court and bring in witnesses to prove either that the Jews were right and that Hashem is the true G-d, or to prove them wrong, G-d forbid.  

Pharaoh: (loudly and boldly) Let-my- people- come------------- and be witnesses!

Narrator: Pharaoh called in the best expert witnesses: 1) a servant of Pharaoh who was in Pharaoh's court during all the plagues,  2) a farmer who suffered some of the effects of the plagues, 3) a soldier who was supposed to go chase the Israelites at the Red Sea but had a cold and his mother didn't let him go, 4) One of Pharaoh's wise men named Iyov, or Job, 4) A man from Goshen who used to be a next door neighbor to Moshe, 5) Moses' mother, Yocheved,  in Goshen, where all the Jews lived, and finally,  Pharaoh would use himself as a witness because he was there and he couldn't think of any smarter, wiser, more intelligent witness than himself.

Pharaoh: Pharaoh- knows -best.

Narrator: The court was under way.

Bailiff: All rise for the honorable Judge Pharaoh!

Pharaoh: We call my loyal servant Necho (Ni-ckho) to take the stand.

Necho: I saw it with my own eyes! Aharon  started the blood, frog, and lice plagues with a magical wave of the rod, and Moshe started the leprosy, hail, grasshoppers, and darkness plagues with his magic wand.

Audience: ooooh, ahhhh.

Narrator: That convinced some of the people that the plagues were from G-d, but some people just thought Moshe and Aharon were simply  really good magicians. Then they called a wheat farmer to tell everyone what he saw.

Pharaoh: What did you see?

Farmer: (Southern hick accent) I never seen hail like that before. The balls of hail was so big- well they could of gone and killed somebody! Why I saw one piece of hail that looked like a basketball! Anything in the field was flat broke. There was thunder and not lightening, but fire! The hail stones knocked down trees, animals, you name it. I was smart. I took my animals in so they didn't get hurt. And as for the grasshoppers, well, them was no grasshoppers. That was like the military invasion of an army.

Audience: OOH AAHHHH.

Narrator: This all sounded pretty impressive. Maybe it really was G-d who made it all happen, but then again, some said, maybe Moshe and Aharon were just really really smart. Then Pharaoh called on one of the only soldiers who was left. All the others got killed or drowned in the Red Sea trying to chase the Israelites. He  was sick the day of the splitting of the sea, but he remembered  going back to the army base and finding no one there. When he  asked what happened to them, they said they all drowned fighting the Israelites.

Soldier: They said they all drowned fighting the Israelites.

Audience: OOH Ahhh.

Soldier:  And let me tell you, from that day on, no one bothered Egypt any more. NO more frogs, no more hail. We had peace and quiet. I don't know, I think as soon as we let them go, everything was fine.

Audience: OOH Ahhhh.

Narrator: Why would all the plagues stop only when the Jews left? There must be something to this G-d thing. But  still, some people just couldn't believe it could be true. So then they called out  the most righteous of all men, Job, Iyov, and heard what he had to say. He said when the wise men  saw the blood and frog trick, they said, "come on, Moses, you want us to believe that? Any clown who went even to second grade in magic school could do that." But when Moshe did the lice trick,  they all realized that we were dealing with no ordinary magician but someone sent by G-d!

Iyov: At that point we realized that we were dealing with no ordinary magician but someone sent by G-d!

Audience: OOOH, Ahhhh.

Narrator: Well, Iyov was a pretty smart guy. If he thought that G-d did it, who was anyone else to argue? But they still weren't so sure. So there were a lot of plagues. What does that really prove? Maybe the Jews also got hit with the plagues. If the Jews also got struck by these plagues then who says they made the plagues happen? Would they bring plagues against themselves? For this question they brought in the next door neighbor of Moses' mother, Yocheved. She said the Jews definitely did not get the plagues of wild animals, deceased animals, hail or darkness. She said when she tried to drink Miriam's water which looked good when she had it,  it turned to blood when the neighbor took it.  About the other plagues, She wasn't sure  if they got them or not.

Neighbor: I'm not sure if they got all the other plagues or not.

Audience: OOH, AHHH.

Narrator: This was new evidence. If the Jews may have been plagued by some of the plagues, how could they be the ones who made the plagues happen? Would the Jewish G-d bring a plague on the Jewish people? Finally, Pharaoh took the stand to resolve the question once and for all as to who was considered G-d in Egypt. Pharaoh said that Moses predicted and warned Pharaoh about the frogs, animals, and hail, and that it was Moses who made the frogs, animals, hail and grasshoppers stop by praying to G-d.

Pharaoh: That proves it. Moses made the plagues happen and his G-d is the only and true G-d.

Audience: OOOH AAAHH.

Narrator: From then on, at least until the next Pharaoh came to power, Egyptians could be seen eating matza on Pesach and building succahs on Succoth, even keeping Shabbos. NO one ever again questioned whether G-d is G-d, at least until the next Pharaoh came to power. People will always find an excuse for anything. Why do you think it was so hard for the Egyptians to believe even after 10 plagues and one split sea?

Audience:_______________________