Passover Seder in the context of "Hagaddah"

Marranos were Spanish and Portuguese Jews, as well as Navarrese Jews, who converted to Christianity, either voluntarily or by Spanish or Portuguese royal coercion, during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, but who continued to practice Judaism in secret or were suspected of it. They are also called crypto-Jews, a term increasingly preferred in scholarly works over Marranos.

The related term converso was used for the wider population of Jewish converts to Catholicism, whether or not they secretly still practised Jewish rites. Converts from either Judaism or Islam were referred to by the more general term "New Christians".

In the Book of Exodus, the Plagues of Egypt (Hebrew: מכות מצרים‎) were ten disasters that Yahweh inflicted on the Egyptians to convince the Pharaoh to emancipate the enslaved Israelites, each of them confronting the Pharaoh and one of his Egyptian gods; they served as "signs and marvels" given by Yahweh in response to the Pharaoh's taunt that he did not know Yahweh: "The Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD". These Plagues are recited by Jews during the Passover Seder.

The consensus of modern scholars is that the Pentateuch does not give an accurate account of the origins of the Israelites. Similarly, attempts to find natural explanations for the plagues (e.g., a volcanic eruption to explain the "darkness" plague) have been dismissed by biblical scholars on the grounds that their pattern, timing, rapid succession, and above all, control by Moses mark them as supernatural.

The Haggadah (Hebrew: הַגָּדָה, "telling"; plural: Haggadot) is a foundational Jewish text that sets forth the order of the Passover Seder. According to Jewish practice, reading the Haggadah at the Seder table fulfills the mitzvah incumbent on every Jew to recount the Egyptian Exodus story to their children on the first night of Passover.