Uncle Eli Avadim Hayinu
Avadim Hayinu
We were slaves to King Pharaoh, that terrible king,
and he made us do all kinds of difficult things.
Like building a pyramid of chocolate ice cream
when the sun was so hot that the Nile turned to steam,
and digging a ditch with a spade of soft cotton.
That Pharaoh was wicked and nasty and rotten!
He made us prepare him a big birthday cake
and buy fancy presents for Pharaoh to take,
and he kept us awake with a terrible noise,
but he never allowed us to play with his toys.
It's a good thing that God took us out of that place
and gave evil old Pharaoh a slap in the face.
Because if he hadn't, we'd all be in trouble,
still slaving away in the dust and the rubble,
cleaning up the king's mess and still folding his clothes
and arranging his torn socks in eighty-four rows,
and balancing eggs on the tips of our toes.
Yes, even if we were as smart as my mother,
as wise as my best friend Dov's four-month-old brother,
if we'd read all the books in the public library
or watched as much TV as old Auntie Mary--
We still should keep telling this wonderful story
of how we got out in a huff and a hurry.
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Ma'aseh Be-Rabbi Eliezer...
Once Rabbi Akiva and some of his friends
talked all night and forgot that the seder should end.
All the mice started snoring,
they found it so boring.
The hoot-owls were hooting,
the shooting-stars shooting--
But Rabbi Akiva kept talking away
till his pupils said, "Rabbi, it's not yesterday!
You act like the Drush-Drush
who sleeps while it's light,
and talks of the Exodus all through the night!"
---------------------
Amar Rabbi Eleazar ben Azariah...
Is there anyone sorrier than Eleazar ben Azariah?
He thought it was right
to tell stories all night.
But Ben Zoma was worse--
He could quote from a verse.
Now Eleazar looks seventy,
though he's not even twenty
(Now I think that's plenty).
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