In order that you may relate to the ears of your children and grandchildren... the wonders that I did (Exodus 10:2)

   One question that comes to mind as we read the Haggadah at the Passover Seder is why there is hardly any refernce to Moses. Except for one time that he is mentioned in passing, the central character who dominated the entire saga of the Exodus is absent.

    The answer to this is quite simple. As the above verse indicates, Moses was commanded the mitzvah of relating the story of the Exodus to his own children. This mitzvah was initially only applicable to Moses, and could hardly apply to the Jews of the Exodus, since all their children had also personally experienced and witnessed all the marvelous events. The only ones who had no personal knowledge of all that had transpired were Moses' children, who were with Jethro, and who did not join him until after the Exodus (18:2-3). The first narration of the Exodus, hence the first Haggadah, therefore consisted of the account which Moses delivered to his own children. Since Moses was the most humble of all men, he omitted his role in the epic. The first format of the Haggadah thus did not contain anything about Moses, and as the Haggadah continued to be formulated thourghout the ages, with the preservation of its original structure, nothing about Moses was included.

    The Talmud considers humility to be the most important of all character traits. As we read the Haggadah and notice the striking absence of any reference to Moses, we should be reminded of the overriding imporance of humility.