The final preparations for Pesach are underway. My wife pretends to be a Jewish slave woman in Egypt as she slaves away in the kitchen. I pretend to be a slave as well by doing whatever she tells me to do, pick up what needs to be picked up and shlep upstairs and downstairs whatever needs to be schlepped. Our kids help but they don’t exactly act as if they are as enslaved as me and my wife. My nieces and nephew along with their parents and one grandmother will be joining us for Pesach. Everyone is eager with anticipation. All the kids will show us everything they made and prepared for Pesach. As we begin the Seder and we are somewhere after the Four Questions but still in the midst of telling the story of Yetziat Mitzrayim(Exodus from Egypt), the great cloud of Irony will settle over us. Several of these children, these same children who will have been talking about Pesach, preparing for Pesach, and helping out their parents for Pesach, will pass out at the table or sit on the sofa and just fall asleep. Of course we will continue with the Seder and, one after another will just sort of fade off. All that will be left will be the adults.
In the Haggadah we read, B’chol Dor V’Dor Chayev Adam Lirot Et Atsmo K’Ilu Hoo Yatzah M’Mitzrayim-“In every generation on is obliged to see himself as though he himself had actually gone forth from Egypt. Implied in the Haggadah is the notion that “the Telling” of the Pesach story will be much more meaningful if we put ourselves there. As much as we complain about the Pesach preparations, the cleaning, the cooking, the washing, and the shopping; we prepare ourselves. In a sense we began the process of putting ourselves back in Egypt at the time of the Exodus over the past few weeks. This being the first day of the Pesach Festival, it is a Yom Tov. It is also Shabbat. The Torah reading is taken from Parshat Bo in which Moshe Rabeinu spells out the Pesach Festival, the preparations required, including the ridding of chametz, wiping the blood upon the doorposts, and the eating of Matzah. Moshe also explains to them that their children will ask questions about all of this V’Hayah Ki Yomru Aleichem Bneichem Ma Ha’Avodah Ha’Zot Lachem. and that they better have a thoughtful answer. V’Amartem Zevach Pesach Hu L’Adoshem Asher Pasach Al Batei Bnei Yisroel M’Mitzrayim BNagpo Et Mitzrayim v’Et Bateinu Hitzil - And you shall say: “ It is a Pesach Feast –Offering to Hashem, Who passed over the houses of the Children of Israel in Egypt when He smote the Egyptians, but he saved our households”
Because this is the first day of Pesach, a Yom Tov as well as Shabbat it is fair to ask about the relationship between Pesach and Shabbat? While Shabbat may come 52 weeks a year and Pesach comes once a year, both are a celebration of freedom from slavery and freedom for a purpose. Both are mandated in the Torah, Shabbat being mentioned both in Exodus and Deuteronomy with the telling of the Ten Commandments as well as Parshah Ki Tissah, Breishit, Pinchas and several others. Pesach is mentioned in Bo, Bashallach, the book of Leviticus, as well as Deuteronomy. On Pesach we liberate ourselves physically from Pharaoh with the purpose of entering into a covenant relationship with God. Unlike physical liberation however, emotional and spiritual liberation is much more subtle and in some ways more difficult. Hence we have Shabbat. Shabbat offers a tool to liberate us emotionally and spiritually. No, Shabbat is not an escape from reality. We should recognize that the other six days we work, but on one day we are free from those responsibilities and, ideally, those anxieties. They will still be there after Shabbat. Pesach, and the telling of the Exodus, provides a very explicit and strong message regarding this notion of freedom. It is a message that is easily transmitted. It is transmitted in the preparation, it is transmitted in the food. It is transmitted at the Seder. The message is explicit it defines our national experience. This was and is an experience that all Jews share. Shabbat offers another means of sharing a similar experience. However the freedom that Shabbat offers is less nationalistic, and more spiritual. Shabbat probably needs to be experienced more than once in order to appreciate the subtle message and beauty. Not so with Pesach.
So we should imagine that we are back in Egypt at the time of the Exodus. Like Moshe experiences his own personal revelation at Sinai, so too did B’nai Yisroel experience its own personal revelation with each plague, and with each wonder. However the more Bnai Yisroel was invested, the more it had to do in terms of preparing for the plague (Makat Bechorot), the more activity their children saw them engage in like wiping blood upon the doorpost, then Bnai Yisroel would have more awe in Hashem, greater appreciation in Hashem as well as being aware of a revelation experience. Under such circumstances, falling asleep at the table would indeed be ironic.
Peace and Chag Kasher v’ Sameach
Rav Yitz
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