Passover Haggadah
Passover this year, Passover 2011, starts on Monday evening, April 18.
The Passover Seder is the done that first night, on Monday night. Actually every chag, (Jewish holidays), starts the night before the date written on the calendar.
A major part of the Passover Seder is the reading of the Passover Haggadah, through which we fulfill the mitzvah of the Torah, “You Shall Tell Your Son”, on Pesach.
In the Passover Haggadah
In the Passover Haggadah we find in the section “Metchila Ovday A. Z. Hayu Avosainu”, (our forefathers originally worshiped idols), that the Haggadah brings as a source the verse:
And Yehoshua said to the entire nation,
Thus said Hashem, G-d of Israel
On the other side of the river your forefathers dwelled originally
Terach, the father of Avraham, and the father of Nachor,
And they worshiped idols.
And I took your father, Avraham, from the other side of the river
And I took him all around Eretz Canaan,
And I gave him offspring,
I gave him Yitzchak
And to Yitzchak I gave Yaakov and Esav,
And I gave to Esav Mount Se’ir as an inheritance,
And Yaakov and his children went down to Egypt.
Now, at first glance what the Passover Haggadah wants to do is to bring a source for the point mentioned just above, that originally our forefathers (better: foreforefathers) were idol worshipers. But if so, then this is a hair raising lengthy quote, when it would seem that all that is needed is the middle part, that our forefathers worshiped idols.
I wrote once that I understand that the Ba’al HaHaggadah is bringing us a source also for the second half of the previous statement, “And now the A’lmighty brought us to His Service.” In other words that the whole bringing us down to Egypt was in order to bring us to His Service. That’s why the Haggadah brings the entire two verses from there in Yehoshua. And that is the continuation of the Passover Haggadah when it says “Blessed be He Who keeps His promise to Yisroel” that He “Chishaiv es HaKaitz”, He reckoned, calculated the ending point of the galus.
You see, Hashem Yisborach loves us very much, and when he brings suffering upon us it is not just unbridled anger, rather behind the hand that hits is a heart bubbling over with love more than we can imagine. A parent will understand this better than someone who doesn’t have children. When Hashem brings punishment, including galus, it is all carefully calculated to be exactly what we need in order to be brought back to His Service.
That’s why “VeHakodosh Boruch Hu Matzilainu MeYadam”, because the whole point of putting us into the hands of the enemies was only to save us.
And that’s why “Chishaiv es HaKaitz”.
Kaitz sam le’choshech.
We should be worthy of seeing with our own eyes the fulfillment of the promise, that like in days of our going out of Egypt Hakodosh Boruch Hu will show us wonders at the end of the last galus.
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Author: Boruch Rappaport
