SO THE PEOPLE TOOK THEIR DOUGH BEFORE IT HAD FERMENTED, THEIR KNEADING BOWLS WRAPPED IN THEIR CLOAKS UPON THEIR SHOULDERS.... NOW THEY BAKED THE DOUGH WHICH THEY HAD BROUGHT OUT OF EGYPT INTO MATZOTH CAKES, FOR IT HAD NOT FERMENTED, FOR THEY HAD BEEN DRIVEN OUT OF EGYPT AND COULD NOT LINGER; NEITHER HAD THEY MADE PROVISIONS FOR THEMSELVES.

 (Shemot 12:34, 39)

 

"Before it had fermented" - The Egyptians did not let them wait for fermentation.

(Rashi, Shemot 12:34)

 

"For they had been driven out of Egypt... neither had they made provisions for themselves." - The fact that they were driven out of Egypt and that they could not even prepare the necessary bread for the journey, so that at the actual moment of the exodus, it was on their part an unwilling one, this fact impresses for ever on this exodus the stamp of its being exclusively the act of God, and makes the prohibition of matzah and chametz into a symbol of still greater significance. Without this memorial, Israel's descendants could have looked on the exodus as being a human achievement similar to so many others in history. We have heard in the preceding verses that they were 600,000 sturdy men, so their liberation would be no wonder, the wonder would only be that they submitted for so long to such inhuman oppression. But then the matzah tells us that they were driven out of Egypt, so driven that they could not even prepare their bread properly; they would willingly have tarried... but they could not, it was not in their power, the Egyptians would not permit them.

                                                                 (Rabbi Shimshon Rafael Hirsch 12:39 - translated from the original by Isaac Levi)

 

 

 

LIBERTY AND ITS PRICE

Ariel Rauthaus

 

At the beginning of his commentary to the Book of Bereishit, Rashi queried: Should not the Torah have begun with "This New Moon shall be for you the beginning of the New Moons, it is for you the first month of the year" (Shemot 12:2 - Parashat Bo), for this is the first commandment "with which all Israel was charged" [the commandments regarding circumcision and the gid hanasheh were given to individuals, as explained by the "Siftei Chachamim"]

This is an extreme and paradoxical position (ignoring, for a moment, Rashi's famous answer, regarding our claim to Eretz Yisrael): even if we accept the position that the Torah is only a book of laws and divine commandments, the story of Creation by God, "King of the Universe" lays the ideological foundation for the keeping of the mitzvot, and, as such, it is proper that it precede the first mitzvah.

But the logic of Rashi's opening words becomes clearer when we recall the special nature and content of the mitzva of "Hachodesh hazeh lachem" - This New Moon is for you." Traditional commentary sees this as a basic and founding mitzvah, its ideological significance being no less deep than the story of Creation itself: If Parashat "Bereishit" presents God, Creator of the Universe, Whose majesty commits the Jewish people to observe His mitzvot, Parashat "This New Moon is for you" reminds us of the new reality created for the Israelite nation in that month of Nissan - which we are commanded to designate the first of New Moons - a reality of redemption and freedom. Redemption and freedom are not only the return of the image of man to those who lost it in bondage; it is also the true sine qua non for observance of mitzvot. This feeling of rebirth given by freedom was beautifully expressed by Rabbi Ovadia Seforno, in his commentary on "This New Moon is for you first of the New Moons":

"From now on these will be your New Moons, to do with them as you see fit, but in the days of subjugation your days were not yours, they were for the service of others and the carrying out of their wills. Therefore - "It is for you the first of the year's New Moons", for in it began your volitional reality [your reality as people able to chose]."

The Ramban elaborates upon this subject at length, from a perspective similar to - yet different from - Rabbi Ovadia. It is clear to him that the Torah's designation of Rosh Hodesh Tishrei as the first month of the year, and the mitzvah to count the months from Nissan are related to the need for emphasizing the great and founding event of the exodus from Egypt. For when we say "the first month" or "the seventh month", we mean "the first month of the geula, and the seventh month of geula". According to his position, however, the goal of the mitzvah is not completely reached by counting the months from Nissan. Ramban was of the opinion that the mitzvah of marking of the geula, the subject of the verse "This New Moon is for you" is a fluid mitzvah, "an incomplete one", whose parameters changed through Jewish history, paralleling the misfortunes and the liberation of the nation. Just as at the exodus from Egypt Israel was commanded to count the months from "The first New Moon" of their delivery, so at the return to Zion from Babylon they decided to call the months by their Babylonian and Persian names, in order to highlight the new deliverance of Israel by God:

"When we came up from Bavel and there was fulfillment of that which was written: "It shall no more be said, "As the Lord lives, who brought the Israelites out of the land of Egypt," but rather, "As the Lord lives, who brought out and led the offspring of the House of Israel from the northland" (Jeremiah 16:14-16 and 23:7-8), we once again called the months by the names used in the land of Babylon, to remind us that there we stood and from there the Holy One raised us up. For these names Nissan, Iyar, and the others, are Persian names, to be found only in the books of the prophets of Bavel and in Megillat Esther, and therefore Scripture states "In the first month - that is the month of Nissan" (Esther 3:7). Even today, the nation in the lands of Persia and Medea call them Nissan and Tishrei, etc., as do we. Thus the months remind us of the second geula, as was heretofore with the first geula." (Ramban, Shemot 12:2)

It is conceivable, therefore, that according to the Ramban, the mitzvah of "Hachodesh hazeh lachem" recorded in Parashat "Bo", has yet to reach completion; now that a significant part of the Jewish people has departed the third exile, achieved its independence and has been 'redeemed' (at least on the most basic physical sense), perhaps the proper thing to do would be to change the names of the Hebrew calendar (actually Babylonian-Persian-Medean) to 'January', 'February', and 'March', to remind us that the first of the returnees to Zion of the modern age lived in Europe and went up from there. In this way we would fulfill the eternal commandment to mark the geula, as in the words "This New Moon is for you". In any case, it is clear that the Ramban's words (like the deep observation of Rabbi Ovadia Seforno), explain very lucidly that the mitzvah of "Hachodesh hazeh" is not simply another one of the 613 mitzvoth; it is basic foundation of the Israel's religious and national experience.

Thus we see that it could have been proper to have begun the Torah with this verse, as per Rashi, so that we know that freedom, physical and spiritual, is the beginning of every spiritual experience, and that there exists no holiness other than in the hearts of people who are able to utilize their free right of choice.

*  *  *

Until now, we have discussed freedom. From here on, a few words about the cost of freedom. Freedom can sometimes be very costly, such as when the freedom under discussion is spiritual freedom, which is achieved through a painful process of self-education and internal maturation; but the price can be costly sevenfold when seeking freedom from a physical yoke.

The opening chapters of the Book of Shemot describe events that indicate how heavy this cost can be. In Parashat "Shemot", the Children of Israel pay the price, as their desire for liberation leads to increasing of their burden. But in Parashot "Vaera" and "Bo" it is the Egyptians who pay the price, as their refusal to grant freedom to the Israelite nation leads to the destruction of their land by terrible plagues, peaking with the most agonizing of all, the death of the firstborn - "there remained no household without someone dead."

True, the Angel of Death spared the Israelite homes, but the killing of the firstborn left its mark upon Jewish historical consciousness. The mitzvah to pass the firstborn of the cattle and to redeem the firstborn son which was decreed for all generations in Parashat "Bo" with direct reference to the death of the firstborn, causes the Jew to stand symbolically in the situation of one whose son and property are taken from him, until the son is returned through the act of pidyon haben. Until this very day, it is customary for the firstborn to fast on the eve of Pesach, even though this tenth plague saved Israel and granted it its freedom and one might expect that the event be marked in less ascetic fashion. This fast was not instituted as a sign of mourning over Egypt's misfortune, but such mourning does receive expression in Rabbinical sources, e.g., the reply given by The Holy One, Blessed Be He, to the request of the angels to sing at crossing of the Sea of Reeds: "My creations are drowning in the sea, and you recite song?!" (Bavli, Megilla 10b)

The passages regarding the firstborn of man and cattle at the end of Parashat "Bo" (as other verses in that same parasha) are connected to one of the central and best known sections of the Pesach Hagadda, the berayta of "The Four Sons". Perhaps the words just spoken about the striking of the firstborn are able to shed light on one of the many perplexities posed by this selection.

In the parasha of the firstborn, the Torah writes:

 "You must redeem every first-born male among your children. And when, in time to come, your son asks you, saying 'What is this?' you shall say to him, ' It was with a mighty hand that the Lord brought us out from Egypt, the house of bondage. When Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the Lord slew every first-born in the land of Egypt, the first-born of both man and beast etc." (Shemot 13:13-15)

The Pesach Hagadda attributes this question to the "Tam" - the 'simple' son. We ask: Why particularly the 'tam'? And furthermore: What is the meaning of the question "What is this?" - a question more direct and more basic than those attributed by the Hagaddah to the 'Wise' and the 'Wicked' sons? And what exactly is the meaning of the answer given the 'Tam'?

It seems that the solution to these difficulties lies in the definition of 'tam' in this selection. The word can be translated as being synonymous with 'tipesh' - a fool. Actually, the version in the Jerusalem Talmud read "tipesh" rather than 'tam' (Pesahim 10:14) Rashi, in his commentary to Chumash accepts this version and explains the verse "And when... your son asks you" as follows: " 'What is this?" - This is the foolish child who is incapable of asking deeper questions, and asks simply". In other words, it is the foolishness of the questioner, who is unable to formulate more complex questions, which causes the question to be asked so simply.

But the fact remains that the author of the Hagaddah chose the word 'tam' (as in the version of the berayta in the Mekhilta, end of the Parashat "Bo"), and it is quite possible that he had in mind a different 'tam-ishness', a different 'temimut', that 'temimut' attributed to Yaakov, "a 'tam' person, dweller in tents" (Bereishit 25:27), and which is also hinted at in the first verse of the Psalm 119: "Happy are those whose way is blameless ['temimei derech']. Say then: Perhaps the author of the Hagaddah understood that this is the question asked by the innocent child who fully believes that God's way are straight, as he stands confused and puzzled by this terrible punishment, the smiting of the firstborn. In the Torah, as we have just pointed out, the question "What is this?" is directly related to the mitzvah of redeeming the firstborn, a remembrance of the smiting of the firstborn; the answer which the son receives is intended to explain the moral justice of that tragic - yet inevitable - event. The Jewish people had the right to be free, says the answer, but Pharaoh "stubbornly refused to let us go" and therefore the Egyptians were punished. Their intransigence and their choice of evil brought calamity upon themselves, and this is the price of freedom - for them and for us.

According to this interpretation, the simplicity of the question derives from the candor of the 'tam', not from his foolishness. The Wise Son, in his wisdom, asks: "What mean the decrees, laws, and rules?", and the Wicked Son, in his wickedness asks "What do you mean by this rite?"; but the Tam asks, in his innocence, "What is this" - a simple 'gut question' , blunt and demanding in its lack of sophistication, a question which expresses moral shock at the fact that the Angel of Death reached even "the firstborn of the captive in the dungeon", so that the Israelite nation could win its freedom and leave the House of Bondage. This question does not go unanswered, but, like all the other question of Seder night, its power lies in its timelessness and its indispensability, for even a wise man, who knows all the answers, is commanded that night to ask himself anew, and to answer himself, should there be no one else to ask.

Among all the questions regarding the labors, the mitzvot and customs which remind us the acquisition of freedom, suddenly, on Seder night, there echoes the simple question about the price of freedom - and it is good that these questions of the 'tam' are asked in Israel, in those days and at this time.

Dr. Ariel Rauthaus is a literary researcher and translator.

 

 

"And it shall be for a sign on your hand" - The Tephillin should be laid on the weak hand.

And so it is with the two hands of a person, for the left hand, weak and feeble, is next to the heart in which dwells wisdom, for the place of intelligence which is in the heart causes this hand to be weak, for the hand is occupied with physical activity, but the right hand is near the liver, for there resides the power of desire which does not contravene the hand for there is the main strength, but in the place of the sanctuary of the intelligence, there the hand is weak. And when it says here "and it shall be for a sign upon your hand" [Trans. note: In this verse, "your hand" is spelled in an unusual fashion, making possible the reading "weak hand"], as though to say it shall be a sign upon your heart, for the heart is the reason for the weakness of the hand, for the purpose of the Tephillin is to serve man as a remembrance in the place of the residence of the intelligence which is in the brain and in the heart. And it says the tephillin of the head shall be "between your eyes", because the eyes and the heart are the agents of sin (Yerushalmi, Berachot, 1:35), therefore these two places require something to remind them of the existence of The Holy One, Blessed Be He, and His powers, and thereby he will refrain from sin.

                                                                                                 (Kli Yakar, Shemot 13:15).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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