Pesach: Genus, Shvach, Nissim

Mah bignus?

רב אמר מתחילה עובדי עבודה זרה היו אבותינו ושמואל אמר עבדים היינו.

The Gemara doesn't spell out what the corresponding or contrasting shvach is for each of the two versions of the gnus, but it would seem to be pashut. If the gnus is עובדי עבודה זרה היו אבותינו, so then the shvach, the corresponding contrasting shvach is ovdei Hashem, ovdei Hashem. If the gnus is avadim hayinu, so then the corresponding contrasting shvach is bnei chorin. And that's what we generally assume, that Rav and Shmuel are talking about spiritual and political gnus respectively, and that the shvach plays itself out on both levels. פרק ז הלכה ד. וצריך להתחיל בגנות ולסיים בשבח. Keitzad?

מתחיל ומספר שבתחילה היו אבותינו בימי תרח ומלפניו כופרים וטועים אחר ההבל ורודפים אחר עבודה זרה ומסיים בדת האמת שקרבנו המקום לו והבדילנו מן התועים וקרבנו לייחודו. וכן מתחיל ומודיע שעבדים היינו לפרעה במצרים וכל הרעה שגמלנו ומסיים בניסים ונפלאות שנעשו לנו ובחירותנו. והוא שידרוש מארמי אובד אבי עד שיגמור כל הפרשה.

Just going to read the last couple lines again.

וכן מתחיל ומודיע שעבדים היינו לפרעה במצרים וכל הרעה שגמלנו.

So that's Shmuel’s gnus, right? So what's the umisayem? What's the corresponding contrasting shvach? ומסיים בניסים ונפלאות שנעשו לנו ובחירותנו. The contrast is not, the contrast to avadim hayinu, says the Rambam, is ומסיים בניסים ונפלאות שנעשו לנו ובחירותנו. And even the mention of cheirus here, it's ubecheirusenu. And cheirus is a context in which some of the nissim venifla'os happened. It's something which helps you appreciate the significance, the magnitude of the nissim venifla'os, but the contrast to avadim hayinu is beneficiaries of nissim venifla'os. I think, I think this ha'ara, I think, I apologize for not checking, I think they quote this besheim HaGriz, I'm not sure. I think so. But what's pshat? How is that a contrast? How is that davar vehipucho? How is being beneficiaries of nissim venifla'os the opposite of the gnus of avadim hayinu? So the pshatus is that you see that the Rambam understood as follows: The gnus of avadim hayinu isn't in the political social fact of avdus. In a different context not talking about avadim, ya'eh aniyusa l'Yisrael. Chazal says that poverty is... is becoming to Bnei Yisroel. We don't measure worth, value by social and political status. The gnus of avadim hayinu Chazal tells us

עבדי הם אשר הוצאתי אותם מארץ מצרים עבדי הם ולא עבדים לעבדים.

The significance, the gnus of avdus lies in the fact that having a human master obstructs one's relationship with Hakadosh Baruch Hu. An eved in any culture feels dependent upon, vulnerable to, accountable to a human master. And that obstructs his relationship with Hakadosh Baruch Hu. עבדי הם ולא עבדים לעבדים. And על אחת כמה וכמה if that avdus is in Mitzrayim. So then again that dependence upon, vulnerability to, accountability to a master who's steeped in a culture of

כמעשה ארץ כנען וארץ מצרים אשר ישבתם בה לא תעשו.

So the avadim hayinu was that we were the avdus, the fact of avdus made us remote from Hakadosh Baruch Hu. The shvach, the culminating shvach is not only to be freed and to be rid of that obstruction but to have this special relationship to Hakadosh Baruch Hu which is reflected in the fact that he performed nisim venifla'os on our behalf. The shvach is not the cheirus per se. The cheirus per se is not worth anything. The shvach is נסים ונפלאות שנעשו לנו ובחירותנו. The emes is once you see it here, so then you see something, you see the same idea but in a context which is even more remarkable. Go back to the beginning of the perek and look at the Rambam's definition of the מצות סיפור יציאת מצרים. So we know the מצות סיפור יציאת מצרים is to tell the story of how we left Mitzrayim.

מצות עשה של תורה לספר בנסים ונפלאות שנעשו לאבותינו במצרים בליל חמישה עשר בניסן שנאמר זכור את היום הזה אשר יצאתם ממצרים כמו שנאמר זכור את יום השבת לקדשו.

Remember this day means remember the נסים ונפלאות שנעשו לאבותינו on the night of the 15th. I think that the Rav zecher tzaddik livrachah commented that the Rambam places the בליל חמישה עשר בניסן at the end of the sentence, that it modifies both preceding phrases. It's not only telling you the zman of the מצות עשה של תורה but it's also telling you about the focus is the נסים ונפלאות שנעשו לאבותינו במצרים. So let's read this definition again. It's remarkable.

מצות עשה של תורה לספר בנסים ונפלאות שנעשו לאבותינו במצרים בליל חמישה עשר בניסן.

The focus, the Rambam didn't say a word about Yetzias Mitzrayim. Okay, now lema'aseh the nisim venifla'os were designed and resulted in Yetzias Mitzrayim but the Rambam doesn't mention Yetzias Mitzrayim in the definition of mitzvas sippur. Mitzvas sippur is to focus on the nisim venifla'os. Halo davar hu. The Torah has if for those who say the sheish zechiros. Amalek. We should remember Ma'amad Har Sinai, את אשר הקצפת את השם אלקיך במדבר. The pasuk that the Rambam quotes here for sippur yetzias Mitzrayim from the Mechilta, שנאמר זכור את היום הזה אשר יצאתם ממצרים. So the emphasis is the pasuk doesn't say to remember the event, the yetzias Mitzrayim. Unlike Ma'amad Har Sinai, unlike, with the exception of Shabbos, the other zechiros, which are all remember the event, here the Torah says remember the day. And again in Parshas Re'eh, למען תזכור את יום צאתך מארץ מצרים. The focus of the zechira, the zechira concentrates on everything that transpired that day. The fact of yetziah, again, is is part of the fabric of the nissim venifla'os. But the definition and the focus of the mitzvah are the nissim venifla'os. How is it, just to understand, how is it if the mitzvas asay, if the Rambam means and the flow and the halacha confirms the way the Rav understands it, that סיפור בנסים ובנפלאות שנעשו לאבותינו במצרים בליל חמישה עשר? So how does maschil bignus going all the way back to Terach or even the avadim hayinu, the two hundred and ten years earlier? So how does that all get included in in the mitzvah? So clearly the simple pshat, very simple pshat. And let's say imagine you have a family and at a certain point they move, I don't know, from one community to another community, maybe they maybe they move from chutz la'aretz to Eretz Yisrael. If you want to appreciate the significance of that event, of that day, so you can't just look at the you can't just look at the pictures of of getting on the Nefesh B'Nefesh flight and then looking at the pictures of the Nefesh B'Nefesh flight landing. No, first of all you're going to have to look, I don't know, maybe ten years later, maybe fifty years later, maybe a hundred years later, and see what the result, see what the consequences of of that decision, of that move were. But then to understand and to appreciate, to appreciate how that came about, the wondrousness of that decision, you might have to go back ten, fifty, a hundred years also. So the focal point is taka leil chamisha asar. But to understand leil chamisha asar you have to go back and you have to go forward. You can't understand things in in a vacuum. That explains because otherwise the problem is the Rambam's mitzvas asay of Torah lesaper benissim venifla'os, so the Rambam seems to be totally one-sided. The definition of the mitzvah only reflects the shvach of, it only reflects the shvach of Shmuel. Shmuel's shvach, he was

מתחיל ומודיע שעבדים היינו לפרעה במצרים וכל הרעה שגמלנו ומסיים בנסים ובנפלאות שנעשו לנו בחירותנו.

Rav's shvach was

ומסיים בדת האמת שקרבנו המקום לו והבדילנו מן הטועים וקרבנו לייחודו.

So how come that's not reflected in the Rambam's basic definition of the mitzvah? The basic definition of the mitzvah is just לספר בנסים ונפלאות שנעשו לאבותינו במצרים. So that's totally one-sided here. So so clearly the the answer is... That the kavana hamakom lo, the hivdilanu min hatoim, kavana l'yichudo, that all of this is a direct result and outgrowth of the nissim veniflaos. And lesaper be, right, as the Rav famously commented, lesaper be means be'omek, in depth, not just lesaper es means to tell the surface. Lesaper be means to delve into. So לספר בניסים ונפלאות שנעשו לאבותינו במצרים be-leil chamisha asar, so to understand the significance, the consequences, the reverberations of the nissim veniflaos. So that takeh includes the kavana hamakom lo, hivdilanu min hatoim, and kavana l'yichudo. Where did the Rambam get this definition and this emphasis not so much on the fact of yetziya but rather the nissim veniflaos that brought about the yetziya? So the Rav has another he'ara here in the leshon harambam.

וכן מתחיל ומודיע שעבדים היינו לפרעה במצרים וכל הרע שגמלנו ומסיים בניסים ונפלאות שנעשו לנו ובחרותנו והוא שידרוש מארמי אובד אבי עד שיגמור כל הפרשה.

When you look at the Mishnah, so without the benefit of the Rambam, so you would say the Mishnah tells you two dinim. There's a din of מתחיל בגנות ומסיים בשבח and then there's a second din of דורש מארמי אובד אבי עד שיגמור כל הפרשה. The Rambam clearly says no.

וכן מתחיל ומודיע שעבדים היינו ומסיים בניסים ונפלאות שנעשו לנו ובחרותנו והוא שידרוש מארמי אובד אבי.

Dehainu that arami oveid avi is not a separate din, is not a separate requirement, but rather that's how the gnus and shvach are to be presented, that's how they're to be expressed through darshing the parsha. Yitachen that according to the Rambam that the again the way the story is told in arami oveid avi is also the makor for the din of מתחיל בגנות ומסיים בשבח hashtah de'asinu lehachi. So how does the posuk describe yetzias mitzrayim in arami oveid avi?

ויוציאנו ה' ממצרים ביד חזקה ובזרוע נטויה ובמורא גדול ובאותות ובמופתים.

Clearly the emphasis again is on the yad chazaka, the zroa netuya, the mora gadol, the osos umosfim. It's on the בניסים ונפלאות שנעשו לנו ובחרותנו. Sometimes we darshen halachos, we darshen ma'amarei chazal to elicit the divrei mussar and the divrei hashkafa sheba. But here there's no need to darshen. The cheirus keshela'atzmo, what's physical, what's political, keshela'atzmo is not a shvach. It's not a shvach because lemaiseh if it doesn't if it's not used or if it doesn't reflect something transcendent, it's not really worth anything. So mistome as part of our hachanos for Pesach, it's something to think about whether all the bracha that we have in our lives, so much, such an abundance of material bracha that we have in our lives, are we always looking to translate that into a real shvach? Are we always looking to translate that into the shvach for which it's intended? As young people making plans, having dreams for the future, as you should, so do the plans, do the dreams reflect this halacha that the shvach which corresponds to Avodem Hayinu is not bnei chorin, is not that we have Sundays off, is not that we have all the luxuries and comforts that we do, but the shvach is only when it links up with a special connection and a special relationship with the Ribono Shel Olam. Sipur Yetzias Mitzrayim is a time to focus and reflect on all the nissim veniflaos, their consequences, their repercussions, and to foster within ourselves, within others, an emuna which will allow us to stay focused on what genuine shvach is and allow us to use and apply all the bracha in our lives to achieve and attain that genuine shvach.