Shabbat Hagadol
This year many of us will be at home alone for the Seder night when we would usually be with family/friends or a communal Seder.
I read a story relating to this which I think is very pertinent to our situation and can help inspire us this Pesach and Seder Night. See link below.
https://www.algemeiner.com/
In the Haggadah we recite a Mishna (the basic repository of the Oral tradition; its laws and spiritual wisdom)
“In every generation a person is obligated to see themselves as if he/she had come out of Egypt”
Egypt in Hebrew Mitzraim comes from the word Meitzar meaning narrow straits.
For example, in the Hallel service we recite “Min Hameitzar Karati Yah Anani Bamerchav Yah”- which means
From the straits I called God; God answered me with a vast expanse.
This year as we sit at our Seder Tables we may be physically, emotionally and even psychologically in a “Narrow place”.
We may be isolated physically from our family, friends and community. We are limited. It would seem to be the very opposite of what we sit down at Seder to celebrate!? We may be confused at what God wants from us at this difficult time.
The Haggadah answers this with the Mishna “In every generation a person is obligated to see themselves as if they had come out of Egypt”
2020 is no different. This year despite the narrow straits and constraints we are still spiritually free!
In the words of the famous Psychiatrist Victor Frankl (who developed Logotherapy)
“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”
Maimonides (1138 Spain – 1204 Egypt) has a variant reading of this Mishna. Instead of “In every generation a person is obligated to see themselves …”
he has a text reading, “In every generation a person is obligated to show themselves as if they came out of Egypt”
(in Hebrew Leharos instead of Liros)
One might think that Maimonides is not adding much by this change in text but in fact the difference is profound.
There is a difference between “seeing yourself” and “showing yourself”. Seeing yourself as if you came out of Egypt is an internal process. It is a about a person’s attitude. This can be difficult this year with what is happening around us. However according to Maimonides “showing yourself as if you came out of Egypt” is less about the internal and more about a physical display. For example when we lean to the left hand side when eating the Matzah and drinking the wine this practically fulfils the obligation to show oneself as free.
According to Maimonides then, the key is practically doing symbolic things on seder night to “show” we are free. It begins with action and this then leads to an internal change when we truly view ourselves as free!
This is an approach to the seder that is accessible to all of us.
May Hashem bring a cure to the current health crises and may we be blessed not only to celebrate Pesach in health but please God to merit the days when in the words of the Prophet Michah,
“As in the days of your exodus from the land of Egypt, I will show him wonders.” (Micha 7:15)
Sending you all much love and wishing you a Kosher Pesach Sameach
Rabbi and Anna and family