You shall not eat leaven with it; for seven days you shall eat with it matzot, the bread of affliction [Hebrew: 'oni], for in haste you went out of the land of Egypt, so that you shall remember the day when you went out of the land of Egypt all the days of your life. (Devarim 16:3)

 

The bread of affliction: [I.e.,] bread that brings to mind the affliction they suffered in Egypt.

 (Rashi ad loc)

 

Shmuel said: Bread of ['oni] [means] bread over which we recite ['onin] many words. It was taught likewise: Bread of ['oni] means bread over which we recite ['onin] many words. Another interpretation: Bread of ['oni]: 'ani [poor] is written [the word 'oni is written without a vav, so that it can be read 'ani]: just as a beggar generally has [only] a piece of bread, so here too a piece of bread [is taken].

 (Pesahim 115b, following Soncino translation)

 

"Bread over which we recite ['onin] many words." That is: words of freedom, for 'oneh refers to raising one's voice in joy; and the other opinion - bread of the poor which commemorates the poverty and the piece of bread. [Two explanations are given] because matza has two rationales:

The first: Commemoration of the poverty, for such was the manner of their eating in Egypt - the manner of slaves who are fed unleavened bread because it satisfies hunger quickly and does not allow them to become hungry again soon after the meal. It is also their manner to eat of piece of bread - the piece they receive from their master's table.

The second reason: Commemoration of the liberation - that their dough did not have time to rise before the King, King of kings, the Holy One Blessed be He revealed Himself to them and redeemed them.

 (HaTaM Sofer Pesahim 115b)

 

The Midrash: and the children of Israel were armed when they went up out of Egypt.

Yael Levin

The version of Midrash Tanhuma based on a manuscript from the Geniza and published by Jacob Mann is longer than the standard printed editions; it includes a unique passage that is without parallel in other sources. The passage explains that Israel was helped by the merits of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and Aaron when they left Egypt. The midrash is based upon the biblical formulation: and the children of Israel were armed [vehamushim] when they went up out of Egypt (Shemot 13:18). It reads thus:

Another interpretation: vehamushim. What is vehamushim? Armed with five [hamisha] types of weapon, which are: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Moses and Aaron, who were the pillars of the world on which everything depended.(J. Mann, The Bible as Read and Preached in the Old Synagogue, I, Cincinnati 1940, Hebrew section, p. 116.)

This passage is followed by the words: "May the Lord sustain their merit for us and for all Israel." It is clear that these words are not an organic part of the midrash, rather, they were added at some later stage by a copyist.

Yerushalmi Shabbat (6:4, 8b) contains an earlier source that obviously influenced the Tanhuma: "It is written, and the children of Israel were armed [vehamushim] when they went up out of Egypt. This teaches that they were armed with five kinds of weapons." The Yerushalmi's drasha is based upon a mishnah from Tractate Shabbat (6:4), which discusses whether a man is permitted to enter the public space [reshut harabim] while armed with various weapons: a sword, bow, shield, club, or spear. The Yerushalmi wants to tell us that the Israelites were armed with these weapons when they left Egypt. The drasha in the Yerushalmi has affinity to a drasha in Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon ben Yohai (Epstein-Melamed edition, pg. 45): "Vehamushim: Hamushim can only mean "armed", for it says, And the children of Reuben, and the children of Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh, passed over armed [hamushim] before the children of Israel, as Moses had spoken to them (Joshua 4:12). This teaches that they went up equipped with five kinds of weapons - the bow, club, shield, spear, and sword." Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael (Horowitz edition, Beshalah, Massekhta DeVayehi, Pit'hata, pg. 77) does not list particular weapons but it does interpret the word hamushim as meaning "armed."

If so, there is a clear similarity between the drasha in Tanhuma which explains the term vehamushim as referring to five kinds of weapons and the drasha in the Yerushalmi. All three of the sources I have cited explicate Scripture according to its plain sense and in terms of physical might. However, while the drasha from the Tanhuma is clearly inspired by motifs borrowed from the Yerushalmi, it removes them from the physical realm and revises them in terms of spiritual strength. It explains that Israel left Egypt thanks to the spiritual merits of the Patriarchs.

Targum Yerushalmi on the book of Shemot parallels the drasha in Tanhuma, and states that the Israelites rose up from Egypt "armed" with good deeds. The passage from the Targum seems to refer to the Israelites' own merits. This is similar to the midrash about the four things by whose merit Israel was redeemed - that they did not change their names or language, that they did not speak lashon hara ["evil speech"] and that they did not engage in elicit sex (Vayikra Rabbah, Margoliot edition, 32:5, pp. 745-749). It is also reminiscent of the dictum, "Israel was redeemed from Egypt thanks to the merit of the righteous women of that generation" (Sota 11b).

The drasha from Tanhuma celebrates the Patriarchs. It should be mentioned that the literature of the Sages accords each of the people mentioned a role in the redemption from Egypt. Among those sources we can pay special attention to two anonymous Tannaitic drashot from Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon ben Yohai (Epstein-Melamed edition, Shemot 13:4, pg. 38) which credits the Exodus from Egypt to the deeds of the Patriarchs and of Moses, Aaron, and Miriam: "[He takes the prisoners out] bakosharot (Psalms 68:7) - by the deeds of the ksheirim [the goodly people]. These [people] are Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Another opinion: They were Moses, Aaron, and Miriam." Both parts of this drasha include the heroes mentioned later in the Tanhuma's drasha. It should be noted that the idea that Israel was redeemed from Egypt thanks to the merit of the Patriarchs appears in many midrashic sources, including Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon ben Yohai (Epstein-Melamed edition, 6:2, pg. 5).

The drasha from Tanhuma is entirely concerned with male figures from among the nation's founders and mentions none of the nation's matriarchs. However, by employing various motifs found in the literature of the Sages it becomes possible to create a complementary pseudoepigraphic midrash about the nation's founding mothers. Here is the proposed formulation of that midrash, combining new and original elements:

And the children of Israel were armed [vehamushim] when they went up out of Egypt. What is vehamushim? Armed with five [hamisha] types of weapon, which are: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Moses and Aaron, who were the pillars of the world on which everything depended.

Another interpretation; some say, What is vehamushim? Armed with five [hamisha] types of weapon, which are: Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, and Leah, and Miriam, who were the pillars of the world on which everything depended

The four Matriarchs parallel the three Patriarchs mentioned by Tanhuma. Miriam appears as Moses and Aaron's female counterpart, a notion found as early as Micah 6:4: For I brought you up out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery, and I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. I have already mentioned that Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon ben Yohai credits the Exodus from Egypt to the deeds of the Patriarchs, Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. Thus we see that a Tannaitic source already counts Miriam among the figures responsible for Israel's redemption from Egypt. Several sources mention the merit of the four Matriarchs as eliciting the redemption from Egypt. These include Seder Eliyahu Rabbah (Ish Shalom edition, 25, pg. 138), which details their worthy deeds: Sarah, Rachel, and Leah gave over their servant women to their husbands, while Rebecca placed her trust in God and left for Canaan with Eliezer.

The expression amudei olam - "pillars of the world" - found in the Tanhuma is applied to female figures in the new midrash, and this is also based upon midrashic sources. Midrash Alfa Beitot (Batei Midrashot, 2, pp. 442-443) says that God hewed "seven pillars of righteousness and placed all the world on their heads, in parallel to the seven righteous ones of this world upon whom the world was founded, and they are: Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, Moses and Aaron, David and Solomon. And just as the world's existence is sustained for their sake, so too the world's existence is sustained for their wives." According to this passage, the four Matriarchs are to be counted among those for whose sake the world exists. Miriam was not married to any of the righteous men listed in this midrash. Consider, however, a discussion from Devarim Rabbah (7:8; 114b) concerning the rule that each section of the Torah reading must be at least three verses long. The first opinion offered states that the minimum number of verses derives from the number Patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob). The second opinion relates it to the three siblings, Moses, Aaron, and Miriam, who gave the Torah to Israel. These are exactly the same people mentioned in the drashot from Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon ben Yohai cited above, which credit them with the Exodus from Egypt. Devarim Rabbah considers Miriam to be one of those who transmitted the Torah to Israel, and, taking into account the principle found in Avot 1:2 - that the world stands upon "the Torah, the service [of God], and deeds of kindness" - we can conclude that Miriam is also one of the pillars of the world. Similarly, it is worth mentioning in the particular context of Passover and the Seder night that we see from what R. Yeshayahu Horowitz writes in his Shnei Luhot haBrit (Amsterdam 5309, Masekhet Pesahim, Matza Ashira, Drush 4, 172a-b) that the maror [bitter herb] of the Seder night relates to Miriam, who symbolizes the motif of kind deeds.

The midrash on and the children of Israel were armed [vehamushim] when they went up out of Egypt can serve as an additional text to be read alongside the traditional Haggadah. It might be nice to read it after the passage mentioning the names of the three Patriarchs: "And the Lord heard our voice (Devarim 26:7), as it is said: God heard their cry, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob (Shemot 2:24). It might also be read after the passage beginning "In every generation and generation." There we find cited the verse: And you shall tell your son on that day, saying, "Because of this, the Lord did [this] for me when I went out of Egypt" (Shemot 13:8), which appears in the thirteenth chapter of Shemot, together with the verse and the children of Israel were armed [vehamushim] when they went up out of Egypt.

The creation of the second part of the midrash on and the children of Israel were armed [vehamushim] when they went up out of Egypt which points out the merits of the nation's mothers alongside those of its fathers, is typical of the approach I adopted in recent years of writing midrashim about the nation's mothers in a format mirroring midrashim that speak of the nation's fathers. These new midrashim are forged in frameworks that are both stylistically and thematically so similar to the original midrashim that they become indistinguishable from them. The new midrashim are legitimated by the claim that such texts could have been included in the classical sources and that they deserve to be written, since their thematic foundations can already be found in the existing midrashic literature.

This vision brought me to compose various new midrashim, some of which are intended to be read and studied at the Seder. In 5762 I wrote two new stanzas for the piyyut VaYehi BeHatzi haLayla. This piyyut lists a series if events that - like the Exodus from Egypt - occurred on the 15^th of Nisan, and relates to them from a male perspective. The added stanzas retell the experiences of our mothers on Passover eve as they are described in the midrashic literature. Midrash Anakat HaAvot VeHaImahot BeMitzrayim, which was composed in 5767 praises the four Matriarchs - alongside the three Patriarchs - for their solidarity with the Israelites during the enslavement in Egypt, and for crying out and praying together with them for their deliverance. Midrash Nisei HaAvot VeHaImahat, which was written in 5768, collects midrashim relating to female characters in Scripture and sets them in parallel to passages from Midrash Tehillim that retell miracles that saved the nation's male founders. These midrashim have already been published in various forums. They are scheduled to appear together this year in an anthology titled Midrashei Nashim, edited by Tamar Bialah and Nehama Wintergreen-Mintz.

In the specific context of the Passover festival it should be mentioned that, from my broader perspective, the creation of new midrashim should go hand in hand with the renewal of authentic customs found in traditional sources involving women and the Seder night. These customs are not essentially feminist; they are described in the sources as being directed towards the entire House of Israel. There is, for example, a custom to place a third cooked dish in the Seder plate to commemorate Miriam; I have devoted articles in both Hebrew and English to this practice. Its mention is brought in the name of Rav Shrira Gaon and its renewed popularity is now growing among a wide public. Customs that rely upon these kinds of authentic sources should be seen as connected to our roots. By my lights, they should be preferred to the entirely new rituals currently practiced by some people which have no connection with traditional sources, such as the orange that is placed on the Seder plate. Similarly, the midrashim I composed are founded upon thematic motifs already found in the literature of the Sages.

The midrash on and the children of Israel were armed [vehamushim] when they went up out of Egypt is a short additional text to be recited at the Seder in order to help fulfill the dictum: "Anyone who increases in telling of the Exodus from Egypt is praiseworthy." This midrash is meant to remind us of the merits of both the nation's fathers and mothers at the season of our redemption. In this night we are obliged to speak no less of the contributions of the mothers of the nation than of the fathers' contributions; it was also the formers' sake that we escaped the darkness and entered a great light.

Dr. Yael Levin published several studies, most of which deal with various aspects of women in Judaism. She has also composed a series of prayers.

 

The Holy Service Requires Humility

Rabbi Yehuda HaLevi, son of Rabbi Shalom said: The conduct of the Holy One, Blessed be He, is not like the conduct of mortals. In what way? The mortal has nice clothes. When goes out in public, he wears them, but when he is about to cook, he removes the nice clothes, and dons torn and filthy ones, and when he scours the pots and the oven, he wears even worse ones. But when the priest raked the altar ashes and prepared it before the Holy One, he would wear very fine garments, as is written, The priest is to clothe himself in his wide-raiment of linen (Vayikra 6) and he is to set aside the ashes. Why so? It is to teach us that there is no pride before the Omnipresent, and so we find that Elazar the Priest would conduct himself with humility before the Omnipresent.

 (Bamidbar Rabbah, 4)

 

The Future Role of the Prophet Elijah: he shall reconcile fathers with sons.

 (from the haftara for Shabbat HaGadol)

 

The Sages say: Not to push off or draw near, but rather to make peace in the world, for it is said: Lo, I will send the prophet Elijah to you and it concludes, he shall reconcile fathers with sons and sons with fathers.

 (Mishnah Eduyot 8:7)

 

 

 

 

 

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