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Beit Midrash
- Shabbat and Holidays
- Passover - Pesach
- The Seventh Day of Pesach
Translated by Hillel Fendel
We recite in the Passover Haggadah:
R. Elazar ben Azarya said: "I'm as if 70 years old, and I had not yet merited [to prove that] we should recount the story of the Exodus every night – until Ben Zoma derived it as follows:
'The Torah says that we should 'remember the day you left Egypt all the days of your life' (Deut 16,3): 'the days of your life' means that we should recount it during the day, while the addition of the word 'all' – 'all the days of your life' - means that we should recount it at night."
But the Sages say: "'the days of your life' means we should recount it in This World, while 'all the days of your life' means we should recount it even after the Mashiah comes.'"
It is intriguing to see how the Gemara continues the "conversation" between Ben Zoma and the Sages:
Ben Zoma said to them: How can you say that we will recount the story of the Exodus after the Mashiah's arrival, when the Prophet says precisely the opposite! As is written: "Days will arrive, says G-d, and it will no longer be said, As the Lord lives Who brought up the children of Israel from the land of Egypt, but rather, As the Lord lives Who brought up the children of Israel from the lands of the north and all the lands from where He had driven them…" (Jeremiah 16,14-15).
The Sages answered: "The Prophet did not mean that the story of the Exodus will be uprooted totally, but rather that the miracle of the release from the later subjugation of the nations will be primary, and the Exodus from Egypt will be secondary.
What emerges from this exchange is that according to Ben Zoma – whose ruling we accept, in that we mention the Exodus every night when we say Kriyat Sh'ma – we will not speak of the Exodus at all during the times of the Messiah. And even according to the Sages, though it will be mentioned, it will be clearly secondary.
This raises a strong question: Did the Haggadah include this dispute simply in order to detract from the importance of the Exodus after the Mashiah comes?! We are all seated around the festive Seder table – is that the time to minimize the importance of our miraculous departure from Egypt!?
The answer is that the opposite is true: The Exodus from Egypt takes on greater value - within the greatness of the Final Redemption! Ben Zoma feels that so exalted is the Final Redemption and its total future perfection, that the entire long course of events that brought us there will become totally merged within it and will no longer be a separate entity.
The Exodus from Egypt – which gives the Israelite nation strength to endure and defeat the weaknesses of human history, and to rectify all in anticipation of the Complete Redemption – will receive, on its own, a value of completeness. However, this cannot be comprehended in the way we understand things nowadays; it will be above and beyond it. As such, the aspect of the Exodus that will be "forgotten" in the future is simply the "minor" way in which we remember it today! It will become a part of the Final Redemption!
[As an example of memories of different levels, consider a little boy and his father who were at a baseball game: The boy later remembers it vaguely as a fun experience with his father, but the latter remembers every single aspect and detail of the game, who hit what, which team won, and by what score.]
The Sages, for their part, say that even this great level will not blur the "passage-way" status of the Exodus, and that even in the glorious future, the Exodus will retain its unique shining glimmer in the corridor of light towards the Final Redemption. Our miraculous departure from Egypt will be remembered and will grant a dimension of depth and the ability to recognize the beauty of the light amid a reality of darkness and narrow straights (Heb: meitzarim, same letters as Mitzrayim, Egypt) even when there is no longer any darkness or straits.
Let us now proceed to discuss our situation today:
Can we say that the above verses have been fulfilled? Are we still subjugated to foreign powers as before, or has something been released, and we have merited, even if only to a small degree and with great shortcomings, to a form of independence from those who tormented us throughout the generations?
The Shulchan Arukh (Orach Chaim 428) makes the following calculation, showing an intrinsic connection between Israel Independence Day (Yom HaAtzma'ut) and the seventh day of Passover, which we are about to commemorate:
The days of the week of Passover each correspond to a holiday, as follows: The weekday on which the first day of Passover falls is the same weekday that the day that is referenced by the last letter of the alphabet – tuv, Tisha B'Av – will fall that year. That is, if the first day of Pesach is Tuesday, so will be Tisha B'Av. Similarly, the second day of Passover is the same day on that Shavuot (which starts with the penultimate letter, shin) will fall; the third day of Pesach is that of Rosh HaShanah (starting with the third-to-last letter); etc. Until the creation of the State of Israel, the seventh day of Passover had no match for the letter ayin, the seventh-to-last letter – until it turned out that this was the day of Yom HaAtzma'ut, Israel Independence Day! Thus, the Seventh day of Pesach has great import for those who see the Messianic significance of the establishment of the State of Israel.
But for our purposes, we see that the power of the Exodus from Mitzrayim reaches its pinnacle in our generation, in that it empowers us to burst through all the meitzarim (straits) in the process of the Redemption that we are already undergoing.
Multi-Plagues on the Sea
Similarly, the Haggadah tells us that for each of the Ten Plagues on earth, there were several plagues on the sea. So, too, Yom HaAtzma'ut - which falls on the same weekday as did the day of Splitting of the Red Sea, the seventh day of Passover – multiplies the strength of the Exodus, and brings it to victory over thousands of years of history.
Specifically now, when we experience some weakness in our faith in the special spiritual stature of our nation, and with other weaknesses encompassing us from within and without, we must remember the Exodus and the many difficulties we experienced then – and know that we will also emerge victorious over these hardships.
We were totally enslaved then – not only physically, but also spiritually in the 49 gates of impurity – but G-d then judged our 40-year trek very favorably as "the kindness of [our] youth". Today, as well, we are a generation that appears to be bad on the outside and good on the inside. The only difference is that today we are in the midst of the birth of the Complete and Final Redemption, Amen!
In order to get articles like this delivered straight to your inbox every week, subscribe to the Israel National Torah newsletter here.
We recite in the Passover Haggadah:
R. Elazar ben Azarya said: "I'm as if 70 years old, and I had not yet merited [to prove that] we should recount the story of the Exodus every night – until Ben Zoma derived it as follows:
'The Torah says that we should 'remember the day you left Egypt all the days of your life' (Deut 16,3): 'the days of your life' means that we should recount it during the day, while the addition of the word 'all' – 'all the days of your life' - means that we should recount it at night."
But the Sages say: "'the days of your life' means we should recount it in This World, while 'all the days of your life' means we should recount it even after the Mashiah comes.'"
It is intriguing to see how the Gemara continues the "conversation" between Ben Zoma and the Sages:
Ben Zoma said to them: How can you say that we will recount the story of the Exodus after the Mashiah's arrival, when the Prophet says precisely the opposite! As is written: "Days will arrive, says G-d, and it will no longer be said, As the Lord lives Who brought up the children of Israel from the land of Egypt, but rather, As the Lord lives Who brought up the children of Israel from the lands of the north and all the lands from where He had driven them…" (Jeremiah 16,14-15).
The Sages answered: "The Prophet did not mean that the story of the Exodus will be uprooted totally, but rather that the miracle of the release from the later subjugation of the nations will be primary, and the Exodus from Egypt will be secondary.
What emerges from this exchange is that according to Ben Zoma – whose ruling we accept, in that we mention the Exodus every night when we say Kriyat Sh'ma – we will not speak of the Exodus at all during the times of the Messiah. And even according to the Sages, though it will be mentioned, it will be clearly secondary.
This raises a strong question: Did the Haggadah include this dispute simply in order to detract from the importance of the Exodus after the Mashiah comes?! We are all seated around the festive Seder table – is that the time to minimize the importance of our miraculous departure from Egypt!?
The answer is that the opposite is true: The Exodus from Egypt takes on greater value - within the greatness of the Final Redemption! Ben Zoma feels that so exalted is the Final Redemption and its total future perfection, that the entire long course of events that brought us there will become totally merged within it and will no longer be a separate entity.
The Exodus from Egypt – which gives the Israelite nation strength to endure and defeat the weaknesses of human history, and to rectify all in anticipation of the Complete Redemption – will receive, on its own, a value of completeness. However, this cannot be comprehended in the way we understand things nowadays; it will be above and beyond it. As such, the aspect of the Exodus that will be "forgotten" in the future is simply the "minor" way in which we remember it today! It will become a part of the Final Redemption!
[As an example of memories of different levels, consider a little boy and his father who were at a baseball game: The boy later remembers it vaguely as a fun experience with his father, but the latter remembers every single aspect and detail of the game, who hit what, which team won, and by what score.]
The Sages, for their part, say that even this great level will not blur the "passage-way" status of the Exodus, and that even in the glorious future, the Exodus will retain its unique shining glimmer in the corridor of light towards the Final Redemption. Our miraculous departure from Egypt will be remembered and will grant a dimension of depth and the ability to recognize the beauty of the light amid a reality of darkness and narrow straights (Heb: meitzarim, same letters as Mitzrayim, Egypt) even when there is no longer any darkness or straits.
Let us now proceed to discuss our situation today:
Can we say that the above verses have been fulfilled? Are we still subjugated to foreign powers as before, or has something been released, and we have merited, even if only to a small degree and with great shortcomings, to a form of independence from those who tormented us throughout the generations?
The Shulchan Arukh (Orach Chaim 428) makes the following calculation, showing an intrinsic connection between Israel Independence Day (Yom HaAtzma'ut) and the seventh day of Passover, which we are about to commemorate:
The days of the week of Passover each correspond to a holiday, as follows: The weekday on which the first day of Passover falls is the same weekday that the day that is referenced by the last letter of the alphabet – tuv, Tisha B'Av – will fall that year. That is, if the first day of Pesach is Tuesday, so will be Tisha B'Av. Similarly, the second day of Passover is the same day on that Shavuot (which starts with the penultimate letter, shin) will fall; the third day of Pesach is that of Rosh HaShanah (starting with the third-to-last letter); etc. Until the creation of the State of Israel, the seventh day of Passover had no match for the letter ayin, the seventh-to-last letter – until it turned out that this was the day of Yom HaAtzma'ut, Israel Independence Day! Thus, the Seventh day of Pesach has great import for those who see the Messianic significance of the establishment of the State of Israel.
But for our purposes, we see that the power of the Exodus from Mitzrayim reaches its pinnacle in our generation, in that it empowers us to burst through all the meitzarim (straits) in the process of the Redemption that we are already undergoing.
Multi-Plagues on the Sea
Similarly, the Haggadah tells us that for each of the Ten Plagues on earth, there were several plagues on the sea. So, too, Yom HaAtzma'ut - which falls on the same weekday as did the day of Splitting of the Red Sea, the seventh day of Passover – multiplies the strength of the Exodus, and brings it to victory over thousands of years of history.
Specifically now, when we experience some weakness in our faith in the special spiritual stature of our nation, and with other weaknesses encompassing us from within and without, we must remember the Exodus and the many difficulties we experienced then – and know that we will also emerge victorious over these hardships.
We were totally enslaved then – not only physically, but also spiritually in the 49 gates of impurity – but G-d then judged our 40-year trek very favorably as "the kindness of [our] youth". Today, as well, we are a generation that appears to be bad on the outside and good on the inside. The only difference is that today we are in the midst of the birth of the Complete and Final Redemption, Amen!
In order to get articles like this delivered straight to your inbox every week, subscribe to the Israel National Torah newsletter here.
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