On the seventh day of Passover, we commemorate the Israelites crossing of the sea. The following modern midrash is based on two traditional midrashim on the crossing of the sea. It is taken from A Night of Questions: A Passover Haggadah edited by Rabbi Joy Levitt and myself. We have the four children offer a running commentary on the Haggadah text. Here they comment on the custom of taking a drop of wine from our cup as we recite the plagues.
 
The wise child says:
“We spill the wine from our cup because our salvation came at the expense of the suffering of others. At the crossing of the sea, the ministering angels wanted to sing praises to God. But God silenced them, saying, ‘My children are drowning at the sea and you want to sing before me?’”
 
The vengeful child says:
“We spill the wine from the cup because our blood has been spilled. There was a dispute in heaven about how much mercy God should show the Egyptians, until the angel Gabriel showed God a brick from Egypt with a baby entombed in it. ‘Master of the world,’ he said, ‘thus did they enslave the Israelites.’  God immediately sentenced the Egyptians and drowned them in the sea.”
 
The innocent child says: “We spill the wine from the cup because our blood was spilled and their blood was spilled. We are all diminished when blood is shed.”
 
The unaware child enjoys spilling the drops.

Comment:
This comment of the wise child, a reference to a midrash about God’s rebuke to the angels, is a profound challenge to us as modern Jews. In what ways does our liberation come at the expense of others, and in what ways can we alleviate any injustice done? At whose expense have we as a community achieved a remarkable level of economic prosperity? How do we acknowledge the suffering, inadvertent or otherwise, caused to others by the establishment of the State of Israel? How can each of us, as individuals, come into our full selves without diminishing the selfhood of others?            Rabbi Toba Spitzer