Pesach – Hagadah – Rambam – K’ilu Yatsa Attah

וגם באמת כאילו הוא בעצמו יצא עתה משעבוד מצרים. So what does it mean? Le-chora is as follows: The chiyuv of doesn't require that a person should imagine, should feel that he personally experienced the shibbud mitzrayim. Not that a person has to feel that he suffered all the deprivation and that he endured the avodas parech and that he stood helplessly by while כל הבן הילוד היאורה תשליכהו. But rather his appreciation of the cheirus of the keravo HaMakom lo, keravo leyichudo, he should feel that not that these were chasadim done to his ancestors and that they were the beneficiaries, but that he is the immediate, direct beneficiary of yetzias mitzrayim. That as we say in the Haggadah,

אילו לא הוציא הקדוש ברוך הוא את אבותינו ממצרים הרי אנו ובנינו ובני בנינו משועבדים היינו.

So the חייב אדם לראות את עצמו is that imagine the sweetness, the exhilaration, the appreciation, the gratitude, the inspiration that one feels with newly acquired cheirus, a cheirus which represents a relationship, a bris with HaKadosh Baruch Hu. That's what a person has to feel on Pesach night. He doesn't have to his back and all his muscles don't have to be sore from avodas parech of 210 years. He doesn't have to have the suffering and the anguish of having seen and witnessed and endured everything that galus Mitzrayim entailed for those 210 years. But the fact, the fact that he is in a state relative to Mitzrayim of geulah, the fact that he's in a state relative to Mitzrayim of cheirus, the appreciation he has for that has to be the appreciation of one כאילו יצא עתה משעבוד מצרים. The emes is it's an avodah. It's always an avodah, even for chasadim that were performed in our lifetime. Not just chasadim that we should understand that we're the direct beneficiaries of because of אילו לא הוציא הקדוש ברוך הוא, but historically they actually did happen thousands of years ago. So not only then is it a challenge, the emes is it's a challenge even in the chasadim which were done to us within our own lifetimes. The Gemorrah in Brachos says that b'ma'arava when a person would after a person would get married they would ask him matza o motzei. They would ask him which pasuk was... was mekuyam: מצא אשה מצא טוב or ומוצא אני מר ממות את האשה. Okay, so it depends upon what type of wife a person marries, which pasuk applies, whether it’s מצא אשה מצא טוב or ומוצא אני מר ממות את האשה. But the Gaon raises a different question, not the difference between whether it represents tov or mar, but he says why is one pasuk in the past tense and one pasuk is in the present tense? מצא אשה מצא טוב is in the past, ומוצא אני מר ממות את האשה is in the present. So the Gaon says, when a person is zoche, human nature is such that when a person is zoche to a tremendous what we can appreciate and what we can experience as a brocha from Hakadosh Baruch Hu, okay, so besha'ato it registers, and he gets engaged, he's excited and he's grateful, and when he gets married, he's excited and he's grateful. Then he takes it for granted. It happened. מצא אשה מצא טוב, it happened. It happened so many days, months, years, decades ago. When we experience something that we experience not as a brocha, when we experience something that we experience as ra, so it didn't happen. It didn't happen that so many years ago he married a shlachta wife. No, every day he's aware. Every day it's ומוצא אני מר ממות את האשה. So the emes is that the avoda, the avoda to appreciate Chassodim and to recognize that again all the whatever a person enjoys today is all the brocha that he's received throughout his life which continues to reverberate and which continues to have a ripple effect. So that's an avoda every day of the year. What's nischadesh at the Seder is again to have this again this no flight of imagination here, it's a fact, right?

אלו לא הוציא הקדוש ברוך הוא את אבותינו ממצרים הרי אנו ובנינו ובני בנינו משועבדים היינו לפרעה במצרים.

So we are and therefore need to see ourselves as direct beneficiaries of Yetzias Mitzrayim. Just imagine, imagine the simchas hachayim and the perennial mindset of hoda'ah that we could enjoy if we woke up every morning with an appreciation, with a bechina of motze rather than matza. A simchas hachayim in being alive, a simchas hachayim in being a Jew, a simchas hachayim in being a Ben Torah, a simchas hachayim in הם רצים ואנו רצים. Just imagine, imagine what kind of simchas hachayim, imagine what kind of mindset of hoda'ah a person would have if he lived with a bechina of motze rather than matza. And if we reflect on it, most if not all unhappiness would be dispelled by that mindset. Living with a mindset of motze rather than matza. Itachen, I don't know if this is true al derech halacha. Maybe, maybe better ascribed al derech agadah, that there's a second mechayev in the bechol dor vador. Again, the first mechayev, mechayev al pi peshuto, the mechayev al pi halacha is והרי אנו ובנינו ובני בנינו משועבדים היינו. But the second is what one wonders if we're supposed to see a correlation between the בכל דור ודור עומדים עלינו לכלותינו and the

בכל דור ודור חייב אדם לראות את עצמו כאילו הוא יצא ממצרים.

And if on another level, on an additional level, what it means is that the emes is that if the sonei yisrael had their way, there would be a Mitzrayim in every generation. Omdim aleinu lechaloteinu. And that appreciation, again, of of the being an immediate benefactor is really twofold. It's not only because והרי אנו ובנינו ובני בנינו משועבדים היינו, but it's because in our generation, and our generation, and that's true regardless of what generation a person lives in, mei'ein a modern day shibud mitzrayim could have, would have happened rachmana litzlan if not for הקדוש ברוך הוא מצילנו מידם. And if on another level, an additional level, that's not also part of the mechayev of of bechol dor vador. And if that's true, so itachen that that too again is not an avoda, an avoda which is most accentuated and most prominent leil haseder, but an avoda which which is very much relevant and operative in other forms the rest of the year. That really the shevach vehoda'ah that we owe Hakadosh Baruch Hu is not only that halevai that we should live life on a level of motzei and and continue to appreciate and be grateful for the chasadim in our lives that continue to reverberate. But halevai it should even be on a higher level, that the hoda'ah should be with a recognition that that we're not even aware of of the smallest fraction of of the benefactions. Naively, to a degree where where we don't we don't see it and to a degree where we're too naive to recognize the simanim of it, we don't we don't see the בכל דור ודור עומדים עלינו, but it's a reality and the hoda'ah should be there as well. The Welt teitches on לעושה נפלאות גדולות לבדו that that it means not only that Hakadosh Baruch Hu alone is the one who le'oseh nifla'os gedolos, but He alone is aware of the nifla'os gedolos that that He performs. forms on our behalf. And on the additional level, that's also what the בכל דבר ודבר חייב אדם לראות את עצמו because of the בכל דור ודור עומדים עלינו לכלותינו and the hoda'ah should encompass that as well.