Just before the song Daiyeinu in the Haggadah we have the conversation of the Three Rabonim. The section reads as follows:
Rabbi Yossi HaGlili said: "How do you know that the Egyptians were struck by 10 plagues in Egypt and 50 plagues at the sea? Because regarding the plagues of Egypt it says: 'The magicians said to Pharaoh, this is the finger of Hashem' [Shemot 8:15]. While at the sea it says: 'And the Jewish People saw the great hand which Hashem had used in Egypt, and the people feared Hashem, and they believed in Hashem and in Moshe His servant' [Shemot 14:31]. How many plagues did they receive with the finger? Ten. Therefore if in Egypt they received 10 plagues then at the sea (when smitten by Hashem's hand) they must have had 50 plagues."
Rabbi Eliezer said: "How do we know that each plague which the Holy One, blessed be He, brought upon the Egyptians in Egypt, actually consisted of four plagues? Because it says: 'He sent forth upon them His burning anger: wrath, fury and trouble, a group of avenging angels'' [T'hillim 78:4]. Each plague was composed of 'wrath' – one, 'fury' – two, 'trouble' – three, 'a group of avenging angels' '– four. Therefore, the Egyptians were smitten with 40 plagues in Egypt and with 200 at the sea."
Rabbi Akiva said: "How do we know that each plague which The Holy One, blessed be He, brought upon the Egyptians in Egypt, actually consisted of five plagues? Because it says: 'He sent forth upon them His burning anger, wrath, fury and trouble, a group of avenging angels' ' [T'hillim 78:4). Each plague was composed of 'anger' – one, 'wrath' – two, 'fury' – three, 'trouble' – four, 'a band of messengers of evil' – five. Therefore the Egyptians were smitten with 50 plagues in Egypt and with 250 at the sea.
In order to understand what is going on here let me draw your attention to one of Monty Python's funiest sketches - "The Four Yorkshiremen". Here is a YouTube link:
The script goes as follows:
Four Yorkshiremen Sketch Monty Python
The scene: Four well-dressed men sitting together at a vacation resort.
Michael Palin: Ahh.. Very passable, this, very passable.
Graham Chapman: Nothing like a good glass of Chateau de Chassilier wine, ay Gessiah?
Terry Gilliam: You're right there Obediah.
Eric Idle: Who'd a thought thirty years ago we'd all be sittin' here drinking Chateau de Chassilier wine?
MP: Aye. In them days, we'd a' been glad to have the price of a cup o' tea.
GC: A cup ' COLD tea.
EI: Without milk or sugar.
TG: OR tea!
MP: In a filthy, cracked cup.
EI: We never used to have a cup. We used to have to drink out of a rolled up newspaper.
GC: The best WE could manage was to suck on a piece of damp cloth.
TG: But you know, we were happy in those days, though we were poor.
MP: Aye. BECAUSE we were poor. My old Dad used to say to me, "Money doesn't buy you happiness."
EI: 'E was right. I was happier then and I had NOTHIN'. We used to live in this tiiiny old house, with greaaaaat big holes in the roof.
GC: House? You were lucky to have a HOUSE! We used to live in one room, all hundred and twenty-six of us, no furniture. Half the floor was missing; we were all huddled together in one corner for fear of FALLING!
TG: You were lucky to have a ROOM! *We* used to have to live in a corridor!
MP: Ohhhh we used to DREAM of livin' in a corridor! Woulda' been a palace to us. We used to live in an old water tank on a rubbish tip. We got woken up every morning by having a load of rotting fish dumped all over us! House!? Hmph.
EI: Well when I say "house" it was only a hole in the ground covered by a piece of tarpolin, but it was a house to US.
GC: We were evicted from *our* hole in the ground; we had to go and live in a lake!
TG: You were lucky to have a LAKE! There were a hundred and sixty of us living in a small shoebox in the middle of the road.
MP: Cardboard box?
TG: Aye.
MP: You were lucky. We lived for three months in a brown paper bag in a septic tank. We used to have to get up at six o'clock in the morning, clean the bag, eat a crust of stale bread, go to work down mill for fourteen hours a day week in-week out. When we got home, out Dad would thrash us to sleep with his belt!
GC: Luxury. We used to have to get out of the lake at three o'clock in the morning, clean the lake, eat a handful of hot gravel, go to work at the mill every day for tuppence a month, come home, and Dad would beat us around the head and neck with a broken bottle, if we were LUCKY!
TG: Well we had it tough. We used to have to get up out of the shoebox at twelve o'clock at night, and LICK the road clean with our tongues. We had half a handful of freezing cold gravel, worked twenty-four hours a day at the mill for fourpence every six years, and when we got home, our Dad would slice us in two with a bread knife.
EI: Right. I had to get up in the morning at ten o'clock at night, half an hour before I went to bed, (pause for laughter), eat a lump of cold poison, work twenty-nine hours a day down mill, and pay mill owner for permission to come to work, and when we got home, our Dad would kill us, and dance about on our graves singing "Hallelujah."
MP: But you try and tell the young people today that... and they won't believe ya'.
ALL: Nope, nope..
These four men are obviously playing a game here entitled “Who can outdo the other by exaggerating about how awful their childhood was". The Three Rabonim are effectively playing the same game but in reverse. Each one tries to outdo the last with praise for Hashem. They are playing this game in fulfillment of the mitzvah mentioned at the beginning of Magid:
וַאֲפִילוּ כֻּלָנוּ חֲכָמִים, כֻּלָנוּ נְבוֹנִים, כֻּלָנוּ זְקֵנִים, כֻּלָנוּ יוֹדְעִים אֶת הַתּוֹרָה, מִצְוָה עָלֵינוּ לְסַפֵּר בִּיצִיאַת מִצְרַיִם. וְכָל הַמַּרְבֶּה לְסַפֵּר בִּיצִיאַת מִצְרַיִם הֲרֵי זֶה מְשֻׁבָּח
And even if all of us were wise, all men of understanding, all elderly, all of us knowing the Torah, there is still a Mitzvah upon us to tell about the Exodus from Egypt. And whoever elaborates on it is praiseworthy.
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