the killing of all the first-born. moses instructed the jews to sacrifice a lamb and to paint its blood on their doors so that the angel of death would know who was jewish and who wasn t. this is where the term passover comes from. and pass over that house. right. reporter: the seder is a time where jews are encouraged to ask questions. especially the children. how do you wrestle with that? what does it mean? there are a lot of ways to wrestle with it. you can wrestle with the political ramifications. freedom never comes easy. it has never historically come easy. wars never end easily. people do not obtain rights easily. but it says in the talmud that when we divorce justice from mercy that is pure evil. so it was unquestionably just to free slaves. and it s unquestionably right to be merciful. but it certainly seems in the tenth plague like mercy has been divorced from justice. whatever we think about the egyptian enslavers, we must
pilgrims to climb to the mountaintop and see the place where the bible says god gave moses the ten commandments. mount sinai is no leisurely hike. i don t want to talk. i just want to climb. reporter: two hours into our climb, we were getting tired. darius thought a camel might be a nice break. whoo! reporter: but it s not as easy as it looks. you feel like you re going to topple over the edge. reporter: as we regrouped in the dark and remote mountain range, it wasn t hard to imagine how the israelites, waiting for moses to return, got nervous. moses is up on the mountain 40 days, 40 nights. the israelites down at the foot of the mountain terrified that he is gone. reporter: alone, the bible says the israelites began to doubt the one god and took comfort in a familiar bad habit. at the very moment that moses
koran because these type of words can never be manmade. no matter what you call this power. allah, jesus, yahweh, whatever. it s one at the end. and in all these religious traditions, judaism, christianity, and islam, moses finally answered god s call and headed home to face down the pharaoh. coming up just minutes from now, snakes and hail and clouds of locusts. we go in search of the story behind the ten plagues and the pharaoh who messed with moses. our journey around the world and across time continues when back to the beginning with christiane amanpour returns. [ sneezes, coughs ] i ve got a big date, but my sinuses are acting up. it s time for advil cold and sinus. [ male announcer ] truth is that won t relieve all your symptoms. new alka seltzer plus-d relieves more symptoms
gods and their religion. can we account for the plagues naturally? probably. is that the point of the story? certainly not. in the space of a year these ten disasters destroyed egypt. and that s the point. it s a miracle. miracles don t beg natural descriptions. miracles are miracles. they are when god intervenes in the order of nature. then god told moses to prepare the people for the coming of the tenth and worst plague. the killing of all the first-born. moses instructed the jews to sacrifice a lamb and to paint its blood on their doors so that the angel of death would know who was jewish and who wasn t. this is where the term passover comes from. and pass over that house. right. reporter: the seder is a time where jews are encouraged to ask questions. especially the children.
[ speaking foreign language ] reporter: the ten commandments tell us not to kill, not to steal, not to lie. they tell us to worship and love god completely, to honor a day of rest, and to honor our mother and father. they have left an indelible mark on our moral code and our civil law. and in a sense they re an early unifying response to the chaos and cruelty of the world, a declaration that with freedom comes responsibility. it s why the statue of liberty, which was modeled on moses, the tablets in her arms, the rays of light on her head, both of which come from the moment when moses comes down mount sinai with the ten commandments. reporter: but like many stories in the bible, things weren t so straightforward. the story most people know is moses got ten commandments on two tablets on mount sinai. there are a whole lot more than ten commandments. traditionally, 613. reporter: many of these laws