פסח, מצה ומרור
There are 3 key concepts that should be mentioned in the Seder:
1.Pesah, 2.Matsa and 3.Maror.
Pesah, represents what HaShem did for us.
Matsa, is what we, the people of Israel, did to deserve our freedom.
Maror, is what the Egyptians did to us.
PESAH
According to Rabbi Menashe Ben Israel, the word Pesah in the Tora does not mean that HaShem “passed over” the houses of the Yehudim but “protected” them (as the Targum Onqelos hayis translates. This is why I prefer not using the term “Pesah”). When HaShem sent the tenth plague, the death of the firstborn, (משחית, a mortal plague, see Shemot 12:13 and 12:23), which in theory should have affected all the firstborn of Egypt, Gentiles or Jews, indiscriminately, HaShem “protected” (pasah) the houses of the Jews, and prevented this plague from affecting the Jewish firstborn. Pesah, then, is the festival in which we celebrate the constant, direct and supernatural protection that HaShem grants the people of Israel. This selective protection (hashgaha peratit) to the Jewish people that we celebrate on the night of the 15th of Nisan (in Hebrew known as ליל שימורים) since then watches over Am Israel to this day. HaShem protects the people of Israel in a supernatural way. The existence of Israel defies statistics or the most logical predictions. The Jewish people, is the most persecuted and harassed human group in the history of mankind. “Logically”, we should have disappeared a long time ago ח”ו, but “thanks to HaShem”, literally, we are still here!. The people and the state of Israel exist miraculously, despite all those who raise their voices and their weapons to destroy us, because just as it happened on that night of the 15th of Nisan, HaShem continues to protect us. This is what we celebrate in Pesah.
MATSA
The Matsa represents what the Jewish people did to deserve our freedom. On the 14th of Nisan, HaShem ordered the Yehudim to leave Egypt and head towards the desert.
This seems a non-brainer. Who would not want to stop being a slave? But we must take into account an element that occupies a very important place in Pesah, but for some reason, not much is said about it.
Egypt was the most modern, most prosperous, most stable and safest country in the world at that time.
In Egypt, even though we were slaves, we had water and food, which was not common in other parts of the world, where many times even ordinary people died of hunger or thirst, for example, in times of drought. Egypt was almost not affected by droughts. Egypt has the blessing of the Nile, the longest river in the world, a natural and stable resource, which provided water, irrigation for plants and fish in great abundance.
There is another factor that is also not usually mentioned. I am reading a very interesting book called “1177 BCE”, which describes the invasion of the “peoples of the sea”, savage tribes from the European coasts and islands, into the coasts of the Mediterranean. These devastating invasions, the sort of which were not uncommon in those times, destroyed virtually all civilizations of that time. Egypt survived these invasions (the people of Israel too, but this is a matter for another day …) thanks to its powerful army, which was able repel the attack of these fearsome invaders. Egypt was, at that time, a very strong country militarily.
We have to understand something that sounds a bit ironic: it was not easy for the Yehudim to abandon the prosperity, stability and security of Egypt – despite the slavery – and go to the desert, to a dry land, without water, without food, without plants or fruits, with poisonous snakes, scorpions, enemies, desert bandits, etc.
When the order to depart was given, the Yehudim could have doubted, debated, delayed the departure (להתמהמה), since we were heading towards a very dangerous place.
Our great merit is that we did not delay our departure but we rather rushed to leave, with great enthusiasm and loyalty to HaShem, trusting only in the promise of His protection. The last hours before leaving, we quickly prepared as much food as we could, so hastily that we could not wait for the dough to raise and bake bread … We left Egypt carrying only a few Matsot with us.
The Matsa, thus, reminds us of this merit: that we did not hesitate to leave Egypt and go to the unknown, surrendering ourselves faithfully and lovingly in the hands of Bore Olam.
This great merit of the people of Israel is mentioned with much emphasis by the prophet Yirmiyahu, when he said in the name of HaShem, referring to the departure from Egypt: “I remember your merit of your youth; your unconditional love [for Me]: when you followed me to the desert, to a dry land [without water, and without food] … “ (Jeremiah 2: 2).
To be continued….
SHABBAT SHALOM
