Thursday, March 7, 2013

Haggadah: Kadesh!

Hi,

We name each section of the Haggadah, and the first section is called "Kadesh". This is an odd title; "Kiddush [Sanctification]" is the proper name for the action we perform, while "Kadesh [Sanctify!]" is an imperative, a command.

Rav Avraham Yitzchak Kook viewed this, indeed, as a command. He wrote, in his characteristically florid poetry:

The most active root of sanctification, the individual's, with which we act upon the day, emerges with the departure from Egypt, with the revelation of implemented truth, immutable in the radiance with which it affects each individual. This is the power of freedom, the departure from the house of slaves...

Therefore, with holy emotion, all declare on the night of the sanctification of this holiday - the source and foundation for all of the Divine holidays preserving the national memory... the wealth of the points of life added on that holiday on each specific level of Israel's holiness - this holiday which sanctifies the times, on this day it is declared to each Jew that he must recognize the worth of his actions, planting righteousness and receiving a reward of truth: Kadesh!

(Olat Re'iyyah: Haggadah shel Pesach, Kadesh)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

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