The Shaare Rahamim Haggada

Chapter 33: Pesah, Matzah, Marror

Rabban Gamliel used to say: Whoever has not discussed (said) these three things on Pesah has not fulfilled his duty, namely, Pesah, Matzoh, and Marror.

Certainly, Rabban Gamliel’s intention was not for us to simply “say” these three words. His point is that we should explain the implications and lessons to be derived from these three symbols to the best of our ability.  The first symbol we introduce for discussion is the Korban Pesah.  Why did we eat the Korban Pesah?  What special miracle did it commemorate?  It recalls the “passing over” by Hashem of the Jewish homes during makat bechorot, the killing of the firstborn.  If we think about it, would it ever enter anyone’s mind that Hashem would kill the Jewish firstborn?  After all, the purpose of the plagues was to effect the release of the Jews from Egypt, not to kill them. 

Ostensibly, the goal of the makot was to rescue the Jews from exile.  Which Jews are we actually discussing?  After two hundred and ten years of exposure to Egyptian culture, with its immorality and degenerate behavior, were the Jews really that distinct from the Egyptians?  Was the Jewish neshamah that apparent, or was it hidden under years and years and layers and layers of repulsive spiritual degeneration?  Indeed, the Baalei Kabbalah write that had the Jews  remained a bit longer, they would never have been worthy of redemption.  This is the stinging criticism that the Sar shel Mitzrayim, Egypt’s guardian angel, rained upon the Jews as they stood by the shore of the Red Sea.  “These are idol worshipers (referring to the Egyptians) and those (referring to the Jews) are also idol worshipers.”  What distinguished the Jew from the Egyptian, so that the Jew should live while the Egyptian should perish? 

It is specifically for this reason that we emphasize the miracle of “passing over” the Jewish homes.  We were not spared as a result of overt righteousness and virtue.  It was not our positive deeds and devotion to the Almighty that earned us liberation.  It was Hashem’s eternal love for us that gained us salvation.  Externally, according to our actions and behavior, we may appear to have a strong similarity with the Egyptians, their culture and lifestyle.  Inwardly, however, there is something, a spark, a nonextinguishable ember, that makes it impossible for this bond of love to be severed.  The most significant miracle is that Hashem demonstrated His love for us.  This is the foundation for all of the miracles of Yetziat Mitzrayim.  Is it any wonder that Rabban Gamliel insists that we publicize and explain it?     (Peninim Haggadah)

 

“And they embittered their lives” 

When it had been decreed in the Brit Bein HaBetarim that the Jewish People would be enslaved “in a land not their own” (Bereishit 15:13), one may ask, why did they specifically go down to Egypt, a place of impurity and abomination?  There they were destined to be enslaved, physically and spiritually, and suffer beyond imagining. A parable will help us understand why.  A rich man had a capable son who caused his father much grief.  He constantly disobeyed his father until the father was at his wit’s end.  The father decided to sell his son into slavery to teach him a lesson.  At the marketplace, a kind wealthy man and a mean ill-mannered farmer both offered identical amounts to purchase the son.  Everyone was surprised when the father sold him to the farmer.  They all felt that the wealthy man would have treated him much better. The father explained that he purposely sold his son to the peasant because it was his greatest hope that after a short time in such a place, the son would learn his lesson. He hoped that his son would realize the error of his ways and finally appreciate everything that his father had done for him over the years.  If he would have sent him to the rich man’s home, he never would have learned his lesson.  “When he will finally ask for my forgiveness and promise to change, I will be happy to bring him home,” the father told them. So, too, with the Jewish People — they had to go through the Egyptian exile in order to be worthy of becoming Hashem’s nation.  Egypt was the only country where this process could take place.  After suffering at the hands of the Egyptians, the Jewish People cried out to Hashem and were prepared to serve Him.  Hashem saw that they were indeed sincere and redeemed them.  (Ben Ish Hai)

In every generation it is man’s duty to regard himself as though he (personally) had come out of Egypt. 

One may ask what is the sense of remembering the Exodus of Egypt, if we are still in Exile? The answer lies in answering another question. In presenting the historical significance of the Exodus, the Haggadah dramatically declares, “Had not the Holy One, Blessed is He, taken our fathers out of Egypt, then we, our children and grandchildren would still be enslaved to Pharaoh in Egypt.” Many commentaries throughout the ages have questioned this seemingly exaggerated presumption.  After all, history is replete with powerful nations who have come and gone, kingdoms which have risen and collapsed.  Why must we assume that without Divine intervention in Egypt, the Jewish People would still be slaves in Egypt to this very day?

Some have explained this assumption based on the Sages’grim depiction of the spiritual state of Bnei Yisrael in Egypt.  The people had deteriorated to the proverbial “fortyninth gate of impurity.”  Were they to have remained even a moment longer, they would have descended to the “fiftieth gate,” the point of no return.  If this disaster had occurred, there would have been no further possibility of redemption, or the giving of the Torah at Har Sinai.  Bnei Yisrael would have been assimilated among the nations and would never have achieved the stature of God’s Chosen People. 

The Gemara in Masechet Sanhedrin records a dispute between Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Yehoshua regarding the conditions for our ultimate redemption.  Rabbi Eliezer contends that the redemption is contingent upon Bnei Yisrael’s performance of teshuvah (repentance). 

What emerges is the notion that the only merit capable of producing the redemption from our troubles and exile is our penitent return to the Almighty.  Given Hashem’s boundless love for His people, He responds to our teshuvah by bringing about the necessary miracles, thus saving us from oppression. 

Therefore, no redemption would have been possible if not for the Exodus from Egypt. If  Hashem had not delivered us from the Egyptian exile, we would have lived among the other nations of the world and behaved like them. We would have no merits by which to be redeemed and, consequently, we would still be enslaved by the Egyptians to this very day.  (Hacham Ovadia Yossef, shlit”a). 

This could help resolve our difficulty regarding the mitzvah of “sippur Yetziat Mitzrayim” (recounting the Exodus): What sense is there in celebrating our freedom from the Egyptian exile while we still suffer through our current exile?  In light of our discussion, the answer becomes clear.  We celebrate the redemption from Egypt since it provided the basis for all subsequent redemptions.  We must thank the Almighty for our Exodus from Egypt, as this miracle facilitates our ultimate redemption, may it come speedily and in our days.

Horav Mordechai Gifter, zt”l, explains that all the events which occurred to Am Yisrael were not singular, transitory events that were meant to be immediately forgotten. Every miracle, every incident bespeaks nitzchiyut, eternity.  The events are eternalized in such a manner that when that date on the calendar arrives, a Jew must relate to “then” as if it were “now.”  Indeed, as the Baal Haggadah says, one must “regard himself as though he came out of Egypt.”  This is not an event of the past; it is occurring in the present.  Consequently, one is obligated to recite Hallel – even at night – since it is viewed as if the miracle occurred to him personally.  (Peninim Haggadah)

                                                                                                                                                                                                              

NOTE: Where necessary, we have changed (with the author’s permission) the transliterated Hebrew to reflect the Sephardic pronunciation in the material reprinted from The Peninim Haggadah.