Pesach 2014
1. What is the Yam Suf? Is it a certain specific place, as assumed, or a generic term for a reedy sea? One thinks it ought to refer to a specific place, often assumed to be the Gulf of Aquba, the Red Sea. However the gemarah tells us that Moshe was put into the Yam Suf as a baby. His parents, who lived in Pithom or Ramses lived thousands of miles away from the red sea. How did they get to the Yam Suf? Perhaps this lends credence to the idea that Yam Suf is a generic term, meaning any sea with reeds.
2. We asked how the plain reading of the pesukim – that the sea split when Moshe waved his hand over it – jives with the chazal that Nachshon jumped into the sea and then it split (or when it reached his nostrils)? The pasuk seems to indicate that a fierce wind blew all night, turning the sea to dry land. How do the two narratives agree to each other???
3. A stray observation – I said to myself ‘What an amazing Yomtov we are having here!’ Then I thought ‘Poor Mr X, what a pickle he is in!’ The connection?? Mr X particularly likes to use the word ‘amazing’. So my mind recalled Mr X.
Ok. Whats the lesson here? That we think in WORDS, not concepts. This is huge, I think. It means that if I improve my fund of words by learning new ones and their meanings, I can improve the nuance, richness and accuracy of my thoughts!
It also means that people speaking English understand differently – different thoughts actually – than people speaking Hebrew or French. The words used are different and they carry different shades of meaning. Wow!
4. Vhi she’amda lavosenu – what exactly was it that helped our fathers and us? We suggested it was Hashem’s promise to take the Jews out of Egypt. The S’ma explains the mitzvah of remembering thew Exodus as going beyond that; Hashem did not take us out, he suggests, to grow bananas. He took us out as the first step in the eventual Messianic redemption when His Name will be one and peace rule on Earth.
So too, the promise to take us out of Egypt carried within it a great surety; Hashem will make the eventual redemption be, and preserve us so that we can perform our role therein. The promise to Avraham to take us from Egypt is what preserves us even to this day…
5. What is the song of Chad Gadia to mean? (It didn’t happen, did it? I mean, the malach hamoves is still alive and slicing…)
A. Some kinderlach explained that we set up a hierarchy of powers, culminating in Hashem. This reminds us that His power reigns supreme, above all else.
B. Another idea was that evil is repaid in kind. Hillel commented to the skull floating by ‘Because you floated other heads, your head has been floated. And those who floated your head will have theirs floated too, one day…’. So too, the poor kid was killed by the cat. The cat was not pardoned, rather the dog bit her. And so on.
C. A third idea was that we note the escalating circle of violence; a small kid, worth a mere two coins, was eaten by a cat. This set off a cycle of viciousness ending with the Malach Hamaves himself being executed! All for a five-dollar goat!
6. Simchas Yom Tov; In Shulchan Aruch it suggests that we base our meals on wine. (??”? ???”?:?) The Mishna Berurah explains this to mean that nowadays we do not the meat of Shlamim, so our obligation in Simchas Yom tov is drinking wine. This is based on the plain reading of the Gemarah in Psachim 109 and the Rambam in Hilchos Yom Tov, 6:17 and 6:18. (The Rambam refers to all the Yom Tov, including chol hamoed, and the Shulchan Aruch seems to be talking only about Yom Tov. This difficulty needs to be addressed.)
The gemarah in Sanhedrin queries with regard to the Ben Sorer Umoreh drinking wine, what type of wine it needs to be: is grape juice enough or does it need to begin percolating – three days, or does it need to arrive at full strength – forty days. This is left unresolved.
The same appears to be the case with the wine for Yom Tov. To gladden the heart it needs to be of certain vintage. In that case, perhaps light wine will not suffice, rather one needs specifically wine that has developed forty days.
7. ..and if Hashem had not taken us out, we and our children would still be slaves to Paroh in Egypt!
We asked why could it not be that we left by other means – after all, Paroh and his folk are not highly visible today. What would stop our walking out the front door? Very many other nations were held in captivity and eventually realized their independence. Why not us?
One suggestion is that had we not left then, there would not have been anything left to save. We would have totally assimilated into Egypt, thus remaining there forever. (Ritva, Shelah etc.)
Another is that the rise and fall of nations we witness today is only Providence working behind the scenes in order to secure the fate of the Jewish nation. Without the Jews to save things ought to remain stable, the rich and powerful becoming ever more so, precluding any chance of escape. (Netziv – Imrei Shefer)
A third suggestion is that Pharoh would always have legal claim to us as escaped slaves, had Hashem not taken us out Himself. (Maharal Tzinz – Bircas Hashir)
Our suggestion is that had Hashem not taken us out other powers might have. That does not negate our debt to Hashem. Just as someone who saves another takes the credit for his life, even if another would have done so had the first not, so too we owe our lives to Hashem even if another would have eventually taken us out instead.
What we are saying is that in concept we consider ourselves to have been resigned to slavery forever.