The Union Haggadah: After the Meal: Vay’hi Baḥatzi Halay'loh
The Union Haggadah, ed. by The Central Council of American Rabbis [1923]
"and it came to pass at midnight."
All read the third line of each stanza in unison.
All the earth was sunk in night
When God said "Let there be light!"
Thus the day was formed from midnight.
So was primal man redeemed
When the light of reason gleamed
Through the darkness of the midnight.
To the Patriarch, God revealed
The true faith, so long concealed
By the darkness of the midnight.
But this truth was long obscured
By the slavery endured
In the black Egyptian midnight.
Till the messengers of light
Sent by God, dispelled the night,
And it came to pass at midnight. p. 116
Then the people God had freed
Pledged themselves His law to heed,
And it came to pass at midnight.
When they wandered from the path
Of the Lord, His righteous wrath
Hurled them into darkest midnight.
But the prophets’ burning word
By repentant sinners heard
Called them back from darkest midnight.
God a second time decreed
That His people should be freed
From the blackness of the midnight.
Songs of praise to God ascend,
Festive lights their glory lend
To illuminate the midnight.
Soon the night of exile falls
And within the Ghetto walls
Israel groans in dreary midnight.
Anxiously with God they plead,
Who still trust His help in need,
In the darkest hour of midnight.
And He hears their piteous cry.
"Wait! be strong, My help is nigh,
Soon ‘twill pass—the long-drawn midnight.
"Tenderly I cherished you
For a service great and true;
When ‘tis past—the long-drawn midnight." p. 117
O, Thou Guardian of the Right,
Lead us onward to the light
From the darkness of the midnight.
Father, let the day appear
When all men Thy name revere
And Thy light dispels the midnight.
When no longer shall the foe
From th’ oppressed wring cries of woe
In the darkness of the midnight.
But Thy love all hearts shall sway;
And Thy light drive gloom away,
And to midday change the midnight.
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