Hi,
Marror is in an odd position in the seder. Marror is meant to
represent the slavery of the Jews in Egypt, and Matzah is meant to
represent redemption, but their order is reversed; we eat Matzah before
we eat Marror!
One could contend that Matzah also represents
bread of affliction and poverty, but Rav Avraham Yitzchak Kook offered a
different explanation: Marror indeed represents the bitterness of
slavery, but one can only appreciate the value of that experience, and
the purpose it served, from the hindsight perspective of the Jew who has
already been redeemed from Egypt. Therefore, we first go through
redemption, eating Matzah, and then we contemplate the Marror of our
previous experience.
חג כשר ושמח,
Mordechai
Showing posts with label Slavery in Mitzrayim. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Slavery in Mitzrayim. Show all posts
Thursday, March 21, 2013
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Harmful speech and our slavery in Egypt
Hi,
Shemot 2:13-14 says:
"And he [Moshe] went out on the second day and behold, two Hebrews were fighting. He said to the wicked one, "Why will you strike your peer?" The man replied, "Who appointed you as officer and judge over us? Are you declaring that you will kill me, as you killed the Egyptian?" And Moshe was terrified; he said, "The matter is known!""
"Moshe thought in his heart, "What sin did Israel commit, to be the only nation to be enslaved?" When he heard the man's words he said, "They have harmful speech among them! How will they deserve redemption?" Therefore he said, "The matter is known; now I know why they are enslaved."
(Midrash, Shemot Rabbah 1:30)
Have a great day,
Mordechai
Shemot 2:13-14 says:
"And he [Moshe] went out on the second day and behold, two Hebrews were fighting. He said to the wicked one, "Why will you strike your peer?" The man replied, "Who appointed you as officer and judge over us? Are you declaring that you will kill me, as you killed the Egyptian?" And Moshe was terrified; he said, "The matter is known!""
"Moshe thought in his heart, "What sin did Israel commit, to be the only nation to be enslaved?" When he heard the man's words he said, "They have harmful speech among them! How will they deserve redemption?" Therefore he said, "The matter is known; now I know why they are enslaved."
(Midrash, Shemot Rabbah 1:30)
Have a great day,
Mordechai
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
The Egyptian magicians of the Bible
Hi,
"[The Egyptian magicians] They performed incantations, appearing to act but not acting, like the story of an Arab merchant who struck his camel, and then it rose… and many stories like these appear in the Talmud, as the sages recorded them from their times. The deeds of the chartumim of Egypt were all deceptions of the eyes."
(Midrash, Psikta Zutrita Shemot 22)
Have a great day,
Mordechai
"[The Egyptian magicians] They performed incantations, appearing to act but not acting, like the story of an Arab merchant who struck his camel, and then it rose… and many stories like these appear in the Talmud, as the sages recorded them from their times. The deeds of the chartumim of Egypt were all deceptions of the eyes."
(Midrash, Psikta Zutrita Shemot 22)
Have a great day,
Mordechai
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Moshe and the Mirrors
Hi,
"When Gd told Moshe to create the Mishkan… the women asked, 'What can we donate for the Mishkan collection?' They stood and brought their mirrors to Moshe.
"When Moshe saw the mirrors, he raged at them, telling the Jews, 'Take sticks and break their legs! For what purpose would we need these mirrors?'
"Gd said to Moshe, 'Moshe! You degrade these things? These mirrors are what created the multitudes of Jews in Egypt! Take the mirrors from them, and make from them the copper sink and its base for the kohanim, with which the kohanim will sanctify themselves.'"
(Midrash Tanchuma Pekudei 9)
Have a great day,
Mordechai
"When Gd told Moshe to create the Mishkan… the women asked, 'What can we donate for the Mishkan collection?' They stood and brought their mirrors to Moshe.
"When Moshe saw the mirrors, he raged at them, telling the Jews, 'Take sticks and break their legs! For what purpose would we need these mirrors?'
"Gd said to Moshe, 'Moshe! You degrade these things? These mirrors are what created the multitudes of Jews in Egypt! Take the mirrors from them, and make from them the copper sink and its base for the kohanim, with which the kohanim will sanctify themselves.'"
(Midrash Tanchuma Pekudei 9)
Have a great day,
Mordechai
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Calculating the years the Jews spent in Egypt
Hi,
[In Bereishit 15:13 Gd told Avraham that the Jews would be strangers in a land that was not their own, and they would be made to work and be oppressed for 400 years.]
"Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah said: The Jews only remained in Egypt 210 years! When Yosef descended to Egypt he was 17, and he was 30 when he stood before Pharaoh. There were 7 years of plenty and 2 of famine before Yaakov descended, as it is written, ‘It has been two years of famine.’ That’s 39 years [Yosef’s age at this point]. Levi ben Yaakov was 6 years older than Yosef, and so he was 45 when he descended to Egypt.
"Levi lived in Egypt for 92 years, for a total of 137, since Levi lived to be 130 years old (I believe this is an error in the text; the text should say 137, per its own calculation earlier in the sentence and per Shemot 6:16). During the descent to Egypt, Levi’s wife gave birth to Yocheved, as it is written, ‘And the name of the wife of Amram was Yocheved bat Levi,’ and she was 130 when she gave birth to Moshe, and Moshe was 80 when he stood before Pharaoh. All told, that is 210 years.
"And yet, the Torah says, ‘They will be made to work and they will be oppressed for 400 years!
"Rabbi Elazar ben Arach said: Gd told Avraham that this would begin from when he had children, as it is written, ‘Your children will strangers in a land not their own' …
"Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah replied: But it is also written (Shemot 12:40), ‘And the dwelling of the Jews was 430 years!’
"He said: They lived in Egypt five years before Yaakov arrived, when two tribes, Menasheh and Ephram, were born. They were of Yisrael, and they descended to Egypt. That yields 215 years. Count the days and the nights and you have 430, for Gd skipped to the end in the merit of the three patriarchs who are the pillars of the world and in the merit of the mothers who are the hills of the world, regarding whom it says (Shir haShirim 2:6), ‘It is arriving, skipping on the mountains, leaping upon the hills.’”
(Pirkei d’Rabbi Eliezer 47)
Have a great day,
Mordechai
[In Bereishit 15:13 Gd told Avraham that the Jews would be strangers in a land that was not their own, and they would be made to work and be oppressed for 400 years.]
"Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah said: The Jews only remained in Egypt 210 years! When Yosef descended to Egypt he was 17, and he was 30 when he stood before Pharaoh. There were 7 years of plenty and 2 of famine before Yaakov descended, as it is written, ‘It has been two years of famine.’ That’s 39 years [Yosef’s age at this point]. Levi ben Yaakov was 6 years older than Yosef, and so he was 45 when he descended to Egypt.
"Levi lived in Egypt for 92 years, for a total of 137, since Levi lived to be 130 years old (I believe this is an error in the text; the text should say 137, per its own calculation earlier in the sentence and per Shemot 6:16). During the descent to Egypt, Levi’s wife gave birth to Yocheved, as it is written, ‘And the name of the wife of Amram was Yocheved bat Levi,’ and she was 130 when she gave birth to Moshe, and Moshe was 80 when he stood before Pharaoh. All told, that is 210 years.
"And yet, the Torah says, ‘They will be made to work and they will be oppressed for 400 years!
"Rabbi Elazar ben Arach said: Gd told Avraham that this would begin from when he had children, as it is written, ‘Your children will strangers in a land not their own' …
"Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah replied: But it is also written (Shemot 12:40), ‘And the dwelling of the Jews was 430 years!’
"He said: They lived in Egypt five years before Yaakov arrived, when two tribes, Menasheh and Ephram, were born. They were of Yisrael, and they descended to Egypt. That yields 215 years. Count the days and the nights and you have 430, for Gd skipped to the end in the merit of the three patriarchs who are the pillars of the world and in the merit of the mothers who are the hills of the world, regarding whom it says (Shir haShirim 2:6), ‘It is arriving, skipping on the mountains, leaping upon the hills.’”
(Pirkei d’Rabbi Eliezer 47)
Have a great day,
Mordechai
Monday, March 1, 2010
The message of removing the table during the Seder
Hi,
"The practice of uprooting the table when saying KiHa lachma anya (“Like this bread of oppression”) is meant to explain why matzah, the bread our ancestors ate in Egypt, is called “bread of oppression.” The Jews were given into the hands of the Egyptians, who could destroy their livelihood and uproot their table, for the hands with which they would earn their living were bound to the Egyptians.
"To remember this reality we uproot the table when we recite the Haggadah, saying, “Like this bread of oppression which our ancestors ate in the land of Egypt,” meaning that our ancestors anticipated, at every moment and every instant, that their table might be uprooted – that the Egyptians might say to them, “Work for us, and we will not feed you.”"
(Haggadah haShir v'haShevach, R' Zalman Sorotzkin)
Have a great day,
Mordechai
"The practice of uprooting the table when saying KiHa lachma anya (“Like this bread of oppression”) is meant to explain why matzah, the bread our ancestors ate in Egypt, is called “bread of oppression.” The Jews were given into the hands of the Egyptians, who could destroy their livelihood and uproot their table, for the hands with which they would earn their living were bound to the Egyptians.
"To remember this reality we uproot the table when we recite the Haggadah, saying, “Like this bread of oppression which our ancestors ate in the land of Egypt,” meaning that our ancestors anticipated, at every moment and every instant, that their table might be uprooted – that the Egyptians might say to them, “Work for us, and we will not feed you.”"
(Haggadah haShir v'haShevach, R' Zalman Sorotzkin)
Have a great day,
Mordechai
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