From the Rabbi’s Desk
Rabbi Manes Kogan
Bo
5762
In our Torah portion we find the first Passover Sedder of the Jewish people. In the Talmudic terminology it is called "Pesach Mitzraim", the Passover that took place in Mitzraim, in Egypt, as opposed to "Pesach Dorot", the Passover of the future generations.’
In this first Sedder we already find many of the elements of the future Passover Sedder.
And so we read in the Torah:
"They shall eat the flesh on that night -- roasted over the fire -- and matzos; with bitter herbs shall they eat it. And it shall be that when your children say to you, 'What is this service to you?' 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,' (Exodus 12:8, 26-27)
Now, if you ask any Jewish child why do we eat Matzot and bitter herbs on the first night of Pesach, he will tell you that we do so to commemorate that God took us out from Egypt, from the house of slavery.
The problem with this well known answer is that we find all the commandments related to the Passover Sedder before the liberation took place. In other words, the Children of Israel in Egypt sat around the Passover table, ate Matzah and bitter herbs, and avoid Chametz before the actual Exodus took place.
Moreover, the Exodus itself is preceded by a series of detailed commandments, included the slaughtering of the Passover lamb, the marking of the doorposts, the cooking and the eating of the meal and other commandments for the generations to come.
For those of us, whose first association when speaking of the Exodus is the movie the "Ten Commandments" or "Moses, Prince of Egypt", the sequence of the events seems altered. After all, we don’t think about the existence of commandments before the giving of the Torah and even less, before the Exodus itself.
However, the Torah is clear in this regard: the commandments preceded the Exodus.
The children of Israel, our ancestors, were told what to do, before they enjoyed freedom. Even before they were free from Pharaoh, they became bound to God.
Moreover, only by accepting God’s commandments, were they able to leave Egypt alive. After all, when Moses instructed the children of Israel to mark their doors with blood, he was not inviting them to do so, he was telling them what to do!
In other words: acceptance of a new system of commandments, of a new unknown authority, is the necessary precondition to freedom.
Moses told pharaoh countless times:
"So said Hashem - Send out My people that they may serve Me" (Exodus 7:26)
Now, even before they are sent out, they need to serve Hashem!
The children of Israel in Egypt traded one master for other. They will learn, some of them the hard way, that all the miracles that took place, and that will take place, had one goal: to connect them with their new Master.
Now we can understand the first commandment:
"I am Hashem, your God, Who has taken you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery" (Exodus 20:2)
By taking them from Egypt, by redeeming the Children of Israel from a power mightier than they, God acquired them as servants and demanded unconditional loyalty.
When the Torah describes the tablets we read:
"Moses turned and descended from the mountain, with the two Tablets of the Testimony in his hand, Tablets inscribed on both their sides; they were inscribed on one side and the other: The Tablets were God's handiwork, and the script was the script of God, engraved on the Tablets" (Exodus 32:15-16)
Our Rabbis teach us that the word "Engraved" – "Charut" can be pronounced "Cherut" – "freedom", as if the verse is saying that the Jew's path to freedom is inscribed on the Tablets. This teaches that the only truly free person is one who engages in the study of the Torah and the fulfillment of its commandments. The only real freedom is to live as God created man to live. Otherwise, one is subject to his own passions, the mores of society, or the despotism of dominant or fashionable cultures (Artscroll)
I will leave you with a little homework to do: find out what is the difference between being subservient to Pharaoh and being subservient to God, and why the first servitude degrades the human being while the second one can elevate him to unknown heights.
May it be Your will, our God and God of our ancestors that you will purify our hearts to serve you in truth!
Shabbat Shalom!