Time, Yetzias Mitzrayim (Pesach)

Now by Shabbos you have the sheish zechoros or a printed zechoros. Zechiras yetzias mitzrayim, זכירת מעמד הר סיני, zechiras maaseh amaleik, zechiras maaseh ha'eigel, zechiras miriam, and zechiras shabbos. Some siddurim have from the Chida, they have the ten zechoros, not only six, but the more common form is the sheish zechoros. The pasuk for zechiras yetzias mitzrayim that is usually printed from parshas re'eh,

למען תזכר את יום צאתך מארץ מצרים כל ימי חייך.

The Chida quotes from parshas bo, the pasuk that the Rambam quotes in Hilchos chametz u'matzah of זכור את היום הזה אשר יצאתם ממצרים מבית עבדים. That’s the pasuk for zechiras yetzias mitzrayim. For maamad har sinai in parshas va'eschanan:

רק השמר לך ושמר נפשך מאד פן תשכח את הדברים אשר ראו עיניך ופן יסורו מלבבך כל ימי חייך והודעתם לבניך ולבני בניך יום אשר עמדת לפני ה' אלקיך בחורב.

Amaleik, so we know the pesukim: זכור את אשר עשה לך עמלק בדרך בצאתכם ממצרים. Maaseh ha'eigel:

זכור אל תשכח את אשר הקצפת את ה' אלקיך במדבר.

Miriam:

זכור את אשר עשה ה' אלקיך למרים בדרך בצאתכם ממצרים.

And of course, זכור את יום השבת לקדשו. So it’s interesting in the sheish zechoros, so the breakdown is that in three of them, the Torah speaks of remembering the day. Okay, so that’s not really too remarkable with regard to Shabbos; Shabbos is a day, so it doesn’t really invite too much comment that it says זכור את יום השבת לקדשו, but that with regard to yetzias mitzrayim and maamad har sinai which are events, they’re not really days. I mean everything happens at a certain time, everything happens on a certain day. Nothing can happen in this world outside of time. Everything happens on a certain day. אף על פי כן, the Torah says למען תזכר יום צאתך ממצרים, the Torah says remember יום אשר עמדת לפני ה' אלקיך בחורב. And by contrast, the other events, the other three events that are included in the sheish zechoros, Amaleik and maaseh ha'eigel and zechiras miriam, so there the Torah doesn’t talk about remembering the day, the Torah talks about remembering the event. So why is it that legabe mitzrayim and maamad har sinai, which are also events, the Torah speaks about remembering the day? Again, Shabbos doesn’t really demand too much comment because Shabbos is a day. So just very briefly, maybe give rashei perakim for two mahalchim. One mahalach which relates equally to both yetzias mitzrayim as well as maamad har sinai, and again, Shabbos doesn’t need it, but to Shabbos as well. And then bli neder im yirtzeh Hashem, again, birashei perakim, a mahalach which addresses only yetzias mitzrayim, why the Torah speaks of יום צאתך מארץ מצרים, היום הזה אשר יצאתם ממצרים. When we talk about kedushas hayom, so that’s not just a figure of speech that we use in reference to Shabbos, in reference to Yom Tov, but when we talk about kedushas hayom, we mean it very literally. We mean that the time itself is endowed with kedusha. Dehainu, that time, again, is something that exists, it's not just a way of... you can measure your age by how many times the sun has risen and set in your lifetime, or you can measure your age by how many white strands you have in your beard. There are different ways of cheshboning one's age. So that’s all time is, is just a measurement. No, so we say that time is more than that. Time is something that exists. When Hakadosh Baruch Hu created the world, He created time. And when He created time, He didn't create time homogeneously, but from our vantage point, from the human vantage point... which inheres in that in that zman. And that's what we we understand by the term Kedushas Hayom that we understand it's not just the figure of speech, but it's literally that it's a zman, a zman kadosh, that the same way kedusha relates to place, so too kedusha relates to zman. I think, I don't remember, I'm pretty sure that I saw this but I don't recall where, that the word zman is related to something is mezuman. It means it's prepared for something. So zman means that time is can be conducive. The time has certain sgullos, has certain inherent qualities which makes it mezuman, which makes it ready and conducive for different avodos within within avodas Hashem. So lichora the the message, the significance to the fact that when the Torah speaks of Yetzias Mitzrayim and the Torah speaks of Ma'amad Har Sinai, so despite the fact that we're remembering events seemingly, the Torah emphasizes the יום צאתך מארץ מצרים and the יום אשר עמדת לפני ה' אלוקיך בחורב to tell us that these events didn't occur in a vacuum. That these events happened on a yom which is mezuman l'kach. Yetzias Mitzrayim didn't just happen, well, if Yetzias Mitzrayim just so happened to happen on tes-vav Nissan, so the inyan wouldn't be so much to remember יום צאתך מארץ מצרים, it would be למען תזכור צאתך מארץ מצרים כל ימי חייך and זכור אשר יצאת ממצרים מבית עבדים. But time has qualities. The zman is mezuman. So זכור את היום הזה, remember again, remember the day on which, from which, as an outgrowth of which because it was mezuman l'kach, that the geulah came about, that the geulah transpired, that that Ma'amad Har Sinai happened. Again, it wasn't in a vacuum, it was in a zman hamusgal l'kach, in a zman hamzuman l'kach and mimeila one should therefore the remembrance should not only be about the event, but the remembrance should be about the zman. When the remembrance encompasses the zman and not only the event, so then that tells us that the remembrance is not only an anniversary, is not only is not only recollecting an an historical occurrence, but the zachor then is an awareness about a quality of the zman in the present also. I think the Sfas Emes quotes from from the Chiddushei Harim on the matbeia bracha of שעשה נסים לאבותינו בימים ההם בזמן הזה, he says that's what it means. What do you mean bazman hazeh? It means bazman hazeh that when you say she'asa nissim let's say on on Chanukah, so it means it's the same zman again which which was musgal for the for the nes of Chanukah, it's that same zman now. The nes of the menorah happened then, but the zman which was conducive, which was mezuman l'kach, it's the same zman now. שעשה נסים לאבותינו בימים ההם בזמן הזה. So when the zechira relates not just to the to the event as though it were in a vacuum, but when it relates to the zman of the event, the zman which which allowed for the event, which was mezuman l'kach, so then that reminds us that that right now also we have a chance to to access and to take advantage of the sgullos of the zman, of what the zman is mezuman for. And that's again, so when on Pesach night, זכור את היום הזה שיצאת ממצרים, so it wasn't just that geulah happened, it's a zman of geulah, that's why geulah happened. But if it's a zman of geulah, so so this year also a person has to happened, but it's a zman of Kabbalas HaTorah. It's a zman of Kabbalas HaTorah, so it can be as much of a zman of Kabbalas HaTorah in the present as it was in the past. That's yesh leha'arich, but let's leave it at that for now. So that's one mahalach in the significance of זכור את היום הזה שיצאת ממצרים. A second one, and this relating exclusively to Yetzias Mitzrayim, why the Torah again doesn't focus the zechira on the event, but says that the zechira should relate to the day as well? The Sforno comments on the pasuk of החודש הזה לכם ראש חודשים that at this point on Rosh Chodesh Nissan it begins, but presumably, he doesn't spell this part out, presumably it reaches fruition with the actual Yetzias Mitzrayim. Klal Yisrael's relationship to zman changes. Or more accurately, begins. De-hainu, an eved has no sense of zman, neither for the value of zman, or be-klal to the qualities of zman that we were just talking about, because by the eved, kol hazmanim shavin. He's meshubad yomam valayla, twenty-four-seven. So there is no, he has no, he has no kinyan to zman. With the Yetzias Mitzrayim, so Klal Yisrael began to have a kinyan to zman. The Sforno has a phrase that henceforth, yemeichem shelachem. Okay, so the peshuto, what that means is, you'll be able to do, your time is your own. So what do we mean when we say that phrase? You can do whatever you want. I'm not telling you what to do, you have your bechira chofshis, so yemeichem shelachem. Your time is yours to do with as you see fit. But itachen that there's more of an omek to what the Sforno has in mind. A person lives, everything in Olam Hazeh exists bi-zman u-ve-makom. If something exists in Olam Hazeh, you have to be able to say where it is and at what point on the timeline it exists. There's no such thing as being in Olam Hazeh and being למעלה מן המקום ומן הזמן. We all exist in makom ve-zman. But the same way the Torah allows for a kinyan be-makom, this can be my field, this can be my house, the Torah allows for kinyonim. The Torah recognizes that ability that I can acquire, that this house is my house, this is my backyard, this is my front yard, you can have a kinyan. So yemeichem shelachem doesn't just mean in a more casual sense that you can do what you want, but again, zman is something that exists, it's a beriah. You can be koneh the zman. You can be koneh the zman. The same way על ידי כסף על ידי שטר על ידי חזקה, you can be koneh amakom. You can be koneh a makom, so too you can be koneh zman. That's what yemeichem shelochem means. החודש הזה לכם ראש חודשים, you can be koneh. Shaila is agam that there's a daas acheres makne, right? HaKadosh Baruch Hu is giving us the zman. But presumably HaKadosh Baruch Hu gives us Torah also, and yet we have to make a kinyan Torah, and the Braisa tells us how to make a kinyan Torah. So how do yemeichem shelochem, so how do we make, how are we koneh zman? Right, there's the famous Zohar HaKadosh that the sefarim quote, in the pasuk in Chayei Sarah, אברהם זקן בא בימים. So he came, he came ba bayamim, he came... right? So we generally translate it as he was getting along in years, right? He was advanced in years, he was already older. And ba bayamim the Zohar HaKadosh says, no, he came with his days. He was koneh his zman. It's a mussag of being koneh zman. Shaila is how are you koneh zman? Specifically, what would seem to make zman elusive and not nitpas in kinyan is that, right, there's the idiom in Lashon HaKodesh, zman is cholef v'over. So you can't, how do you... how is it nitpas in kinyan? The makom we see you can, but how is it nitpas in kinyan? So l'chora the pshat is as follows: I mean, doesn't zman just pass and sort of slip through your fingers? So how is it nitpas in kinyan? החודש הזה לכם ראש חודשים, yemeichem shelochem, that you can be, not just that you can do what you want, but you can be koneh the zman so that you can aspire to the darga of Avraham Avinu, אברהם זקן בא בימים. So what was Avraham Avinu's... what did Avraham Avinu's... if you sort of have to describe in a sentence what Avraham Avinu, if he's the model, he's the paradigm for ba bayamim, for being koneh zman, so what did Avraham Avinu dedicate his life to? So the Rambam tells us in פרק א הלכות עבודה זרה, Avraham Avinu dedicated his life to teaching Yichud Hashem. Avraham Avinu was totally preoccupied with Yichud Hashem, initially discovering it and then disseminating it. The Rambam comments in talking about mezuzah, the last halacha in hilchos mezuzah,

חייב אדם להיזהר במזוזה מפני שהיא חובת הכל תמיד. וכל זמן שיכנס ויצא יפגע ביחוד השם שמו של הקדוש ברוך הוא, ויזכור אהבתו ויעור משנתו ושקיעתו בהבלי הזמן, וידע שאין דבר העומד לעולם ולעולמי עולמים אלא ידיעת צור העולם.

And then he continues, ומיד הוא חוזר לדעתו והולך בדרכי מישרים. So l'chora the way a person is koneh zman, the challenge in being koneh zman is that it just seems to, right, like the imagery of sand in the hourglass, it just seems to slip away. Is a person has to infuse zman with nitzchius. If a person infuses his zman with nitzchius, so then the time remains. Avraham Avinu was zakain ba bayamim, he was koneh zman. Avraham Avinu's life was dedicated to Yichud Hashem. Yichud Hashem, דבר העומד לעולם ולעולמי עולמים is yedias tzur ha'olam. A person's life is devoted, is dedicated to yichud Hashem, yidiyas Hashem. And again, l'maiseh for us, that means to through through Torah Mitzvos. So then the zman, that's a davar omed l'olam. So then the zman, instead of again being something which is cholef v'over, something which is Olam Hazeh-dik and therefore has no has no kiyum, it doesn't last, it doesn't endure. If it's infused with nitzchiyus, so then time lasts. Yisrael d'kadshinu l'zmanim is not only the pshat through Kiddush Hachodesh, so then mimaileh Beis Din is determining when the Yomim Tovim are by determining when Rosh Chodesh is. But Yisrael d'kadshinu l'zmanim also means, it's not only when Hillel Hanasi set the calendar so it was d'kadshinu l'zmanim. Yisrael d'kadshinu l'zmanim is whether it's Shabbos and Yom Tov when a person implements what it means to be mikra kodesh, kadsheihu b'ksus nakiya, Talmud Torah. Yemos Hachol when a person infuses it with nitzchiyus, that's also Yisrael d'kadshinu l'zmanim. And that's what the Rambam says: then time, which otherwise would be a davar hacholef v'over, becomes a davar ha'omed. And then a person has a kinyan on on time. Yisachen I think Rav Shechter just mentioned at the beginning of the shiur before how Kiddush at the Seder is not only it's Yom Tov so you have to make Kiddush, but it's also a part of sippur yetzias Mitzrayim. Yisachen that that's the case not only because in Kiddush we refer to the fact that Yom Tov is zeicher l'yetzias Mitzrayim because Kiddush, again, the very notion of kiddush hazman and being mekadesh hazman is is the the the legacy of yetzias Mitzrayim. The notion, again, of being mekadesh zman, thereby being koneh hazman, and perhaps that's an additional remez in the Torah's emphasis of not just remembering yetzias Mitzrayim, but in yetzias Mitzrayim so we discovered yom, we discovered time. Through yetzias Mitzrayim we discovered again what it means again, not only yetzias Mitzrayim, but there's such a yom of yetzias Mitzrayim. To discover zman, to discover zman and and to realize that yimeichem shelochem that we can be koneh zman by infusing it with nitzchiyus and that's what the Torah's m'ramez: not just zochor the event of yetzias Mitzrayim but

זכור את היום הזה אשר יצאתם ממצרים למען תזכור את יום צאתך.