Israel’s Redemption Continues Today
[From his book, “Israel Redeemed” – translated by Rabbi Menachem Weinberg]
Combining Matzah and Maror – Freedom and Slavery
“Thus did Hillel when the Temple stood: He would combine
matzah and maror [bitter herbs] and eat them together to fulfill
what it says, ‘They shall eat it with matzah and maror’ (Numbers
9:11).” (Haggadah).
As is known, matzah recalls freedom while maror recalls
slavery. Seemingly, the two are opposites. Even so, Hillel, whose
identifying trait was that he “loved peace and would pursue
peace, he loved his fellow men and would bring them close to
the Torah” (Avot), would combine matzah and maror and eat
them. Why?
Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak HaKohen Kook (Olat Re’iyah 289) explains
that we have to view slavery and freedom not as two distinct
forces that do not influence each other, but as two forces which
are linked together and which complete each other. Matzah, symbolizing freedom, alludes to Israel’s instinctive
love of God, His Torah, His mitzvot and His creations. By contrast,
maror, symbolizing slavery, teaches us that we have to
bring that love from a potential to a reality through our being
slaves to the will of God. This is exalted bondage, enslavement
to the King of Glory, which is total freedom. Thus, the
perfect form of freedom emerges when it is linked to slavery.
Today, we must learn from Hillel the Elder as we approach
reclining on the Seder night as free men. As we celebrate the
holiday of freedom, we must tell our children, and ourselves,
the remarkable story of our people when they were first born in
the darkness of Egypt. We must tell of the miracles and wonders
which God performed by dint of His love for His firstborn son
Israel. We must tell of Israel’s soul, which serves to bring light
to the entire world despite the forces of darkness which rise up
against us in every generation with the intent of snuffing out
the light of the world – it will never be! We must remember that
freedom truly demands enslavement, and we must combine the
two together, as in the words of Rabbi Yehuda HaLevi, “I seek only freedom from enslavement to man. I seek enslavement
to One – to God, because enslavement to Him is freedom,
and surrender to Him is the true glory” (Kuzari, 5:205).
The Exodus Narrative – a Love Story
Pesach (Passover) derives its name from God’s great love and
compassion for the Jewish People, in His passing over their
homes as He smote the Egyptian firstborn. As it says, “I will
then pass over you and will not allow the destroyer to enter your
houses to plague you. . . . When your children ask you, ‘What is
this service of yours?’ You shall say, ‘It is the Pesach-offering to
God, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt when
He struck the Egyptians and saved our homes.’ The people then
bowed and prostrated themselves” (Exodus 12:23–27).
Rashi relates to the Israelites having bowed: “Why did they
prostrate themselves and bow? It was in thankfulness for their
being told that they would be redeemed, would come into the
Land and would bear children.”
Their love, faith and trust in God’s love for them were so
great that they thanked Him by bowing to Him while they were
still slaves in Egypt before being redeemed. Such is the way of
people who love one another. Their distress and suffering does
not stop that love.
Indeed, the Exodus narrative is the story of the great love that
abides between God and Israel, as in our daily prayers, where we
bless God, who “has lovingly selected His people Israel.” We likewise
recite in the Shema, “You shall love the Lord your God with
all your heart, soul and might.” This is not merely a command; it is a promise. Indeed, we customarily complete the Seder Night
by reciting “Song of Songs,” King Solomon’s marvelous, profound
poem celebrating the love between God and the Jewish People.
That story of the great love between God and Israel is retold
in the Pesach Haggadah from generation to generation, father to
son, as we recline as free men on the first night of the holiday. Historically we have faced unimaginably harsh conditions – when
we were pursued to death by the Spanish Inquisition, or when
Jews were being burned to death in the furnaces of Auschwitz.
However, even throughout those times, Jews never ceased to
recite, in secret, that great love story. Reciting the Haggadah
during our most difficult hours reveals our great love for God.
As with all who truly love one another, we love God under all
conditions and in all situations.
The Haggadah begins with the words, “We were slaves to
Pharaoh in Egypt,” and it concludes, “Next year in rebuilt Jerusalem.”
This is a story going back thousands of years, but it is
replete with love.
“The children of Israel emerged [yotzim] triumphantly” (Exodus
14:8). Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda Kook, in his talks (Parshat Bo),
would stress that the word yotzim is in the present tense, and he
would say, “We have been continuously leaving Egypt from then
until now. Throughout all the generations, we have been leaving
Egypt in greater and greater triumph.”
We live in a remarkable period, in which God’s promise is
being fulfilled: “I will bring you to the Land regarding which I
raised My hand, swearing that I would give it to Abraham, Isaac
and Jacob. I will give it to you as an inheritance. I am the Lord”
(Exodus 6:8). We have to view all of Jewish history as occurring
between two places – Egypt and Jerusalem – and between two
personalities – Moses and the Messianic king from the Davidic
line – may he come speedily in our day. How fortunate we are and how good is our lot that in the long journey of thousands of years since the exodus from Egypt, we are near the end of the journey, in Jerusalem. We are not slaves to Egypt and the nations. Rather, we are in our own land, witnessing the rebuilding of Jerusalem with our own eyes.
“We therefore are obligated to thank, praise, laud, glorify,
exalt, honor, bless, extol and adore Him who performed for our
fathers and for us all of these wonders. . . . Therefore, let us recite
a new song before Him” (Pesach Haggadah).
In the Song Sung at the Sea, Left Becomes Right
In the song sung by Moses at the Sea of Reeds, it says, “Your
right hand, O Lord, is awesome in power. Your right hand, O
Lord, crushes the foe” (Exodus 15:6). Rashi comments, “It says
‘Your right hand’ twice. When Israel perform God’s will, left
becomes right.”
How can “left” become “right?” “Right” and “left” symbolize,
respectively, God’s traits of kindness and strict justice. When
Israel perform God’s will, they are exalted and they merit to see
how the trait of kindness is hidden within the trait of strict justice
and how kindness is the soul of strict justice, such that strict
justice, the “left,” automatically becomes kindness, the “right.”
Indeed, “the deeds of the Mighty One are perfect, for all His ways
are just. He is a faithful God, never unfair; righteous and moral is
He” (Deuteronomy 32:4). We must try to ascend and reach this
exalted perspective, to understand that even all of the complications
and difficulties conceal within them the trait of kindness.
Even when God conducts Himself towards us with strict justice,
concealing His countenance from us, His intention, desire
and purpose is to show us benevolence, for “the Lord is good
to all; and His tender mercies are over all His works” (Psalms
145:9). This is especially so regarding the Jewish People, God’s
beloved children. In Egypt, God conducted Himself towards them
with strict justice, with the Egyptians pursuing and persecuting
them. Now, at the splitting of the sea, Israel saw clearly how
strict justice could be transformed into kindness: “Pharaoh’s
chariots and army He cast in the sea. His very best officers were
drowned in the Sea of Reeds. . . . You made Your wind blow;
the sea covered them. They sank like lead in the mighty waters”
(Exodus 15:4, 10). Our sages comment, “The mighty enemies
and obstacles that had seemed so unbeatable sank like lead, as
if they had never existed.”
When Israel perform God’s will, we merit to see how within
the very trait of strict justice is hidden the trait of kindness. At
the splitting of the sea, God’s strict justice was transformed to
kindness, that is, left was transformed to right. The Jewish People
merited “the revelation of the sparkling primal light of the World
of Divine Unity, where all is one and no evil abounds” (Rav
Kook, Orot HaTeshuvah 12:5).
This principle can also be applied to understand the mitzvah
of obeying the verdicts of the Great Rabbinical Court and not
rebelling against its words. “You must keep the Torah as they
interpret it for you, and follow the laws that they legislate for
you. Do not stray to the right or left from the word that they
declare to you” (Deuteronomy 17:11). Rashi comments, “Even if
they say to you that right is left or that left is right, but certainly
if they tell you that right is right and that left is left.” In other
words, if the sages tell you that what seems to you to be Divine
kindness is really strict justice, and what seems to you to be
strict justice is really kindness, you must heed them, for their
perceptions and vision are profound, penetrating further than a
superficial glance bereft of wisdom and understanding.
When approaching the political and social divide in modern
Israel, we see how the community is split into right and left
– yet that too is clearly on a superficial level, viewed from the
outside. Whoever takes a deeper look to understand the entire
marvelous process of the generation of rebirth, of the ingathering
of the exiles, and the beginning of the raising of Israel’s stature
in their land, can understand that when “left” seemingly has the
upper hand, when strict justice holds sway and God’s countenance
is concealed, within these very traits, and from their very
midst emerges “right”, kindness and goodness to Israel and to
the entire world.
Each day when we recite the eternal Song of the Sea, and
especially on the Seventh Day of Passover, the day the sea was
split, we must appreciate how everything is turning out for the
best – the mighty obstacles blocking our path can, with God’s
help, disappear in a moment, while strict justice and God’s hiding
His countenance from us conceal within them His kindness and
benevolence. The day is not far off when God will show us miracles like
the time when we left Egypt. Then, all the earth’s inhabitants
will recognize and know that the God of Israel is King, and His
sovereignty rules over all. “Then Moses and Israel [will] sing this
song” – the song of faith and thanks that Israel sings in every
generation, and in the future.
How fortunate we are and how good our lot that we are privileged
to see the beginning of the fulfillment of the song, the Shira, which
states, “O bring them and plant them on the mount You possess.
The place You dwell in is Your accomplishment, God. The shrine
of God Your Hands have founded. God will reign forever and
ever” (Exodus 15:17–18). Rashi comments, “The Temple will
be built with two hands. And when will that occur? When God
reigns forever and ever – in the future when all kingship is his.
How fortunate we are, how good our portion, that we are
privileged to belong to the nation who proclaim God’s Oneness.
They are “believers and the sons of believers” (Shabbat 97a) that
“the Lord is good to all; and His tender mercies are over all His
works” (Psalms 145:9).
Happy Pesach!
