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By: Rabbi Shraga Simmons
A Jewish man is waiting in line to be knighted by the Queen of England. He is supposed to kneel and recite a sentence in Latin. When it comes his turn, the Queen taps him on the shoulders with the sword — and in the panic of excitement he forgets the Latin line. Thinking quickly, he recites the only other line he knows in a foreign language which he remembers from the Passover Seder: “Mah nishtana ha-lailah ha-zeh mi-kol ha-leilot.” The puzzled Queen turns to her advisor and asks, “Why is this knight different from all other knights?”
Passover is the time when each Jew embarks on a personal journey from slavery to freedom. In order to guide us in our quest, the Sages carefully wrote a book outlining 15 steps to freedom. It’s called the hagada. The Sages say that Passover occurs on the 15th of Nissan (the Jewish month), to teach us that just as the moon waxes for 15 days, so too our growth must be in 15 gradual steps. Think of these as 15 pieces of the Passover puzzle. Assemble them all and you’ve got freedom!
Kadesh
To begin the Seder, we make kiddush and sanctify the day. The word “kiddush” means special and unique. The first step to personal freedom is to recognize that you are special. You have a distinct combination of talents, skills and experiences that qualifies you to make a unique contribution to the world. In Egypt, the Jews were forced to build the store-cities of Pithom and Ramses. Why was this tortuous labor? Because these cities rested on swamp-land, and every time the Jews built one level, it sunk into the ground. Slavery is a life with no accomplishment, no achievement, and no meaning. On Passover, we begin our journey toward personal freedom by asking: What is humanity’s biggest need? What can I contribute most profoundly to nurture and protect the world? And… what am I going to do about it?
Urchatz
“Why do we wash our hands at this point in this Seder?” the Talmud asks. “Because it is an unusual activity which prompts the children to ask questions.” The very name hagada means “telling,” for the goal of the Seder is to arouse curious questions, and satisfying answers. We’ve all felt the sense of awe upon meeting a fascinating person, or reading an enlightening new book. But as adults we may become enslaved by the idea that it’s more sophisticated to “know it all.” Passover teaches that to be truly free we must approach life with child-like wonderment. “Who is the wise person?” asks the Talmud. “The one who learns from everyone.” Passover is the holiday of springtime, joy and renewal. That’s why the Seder is filled with unusual activities. Be curious. Be a student of life. Be free.
Karpas
We take a green vegetable and bless G-d for creating fruits from the ground. Gratitude is liberating. “Who is the rich person?” asks the Talmud. “The one who’s satisfied with what he’s got.” This appreciation comes through focusing on details. For example, to get this green vegetable to our table, it had to be planted, harvested, packed, shipped, unloaded, unpacked, displayed, and rung up by a cashier – before we even bring it home! If we truly appreciate all we have, we’ll be constantly proclaiming: “Life is a wonderful gift!” (On a deeper level, we dip the vegetable in salt water to let us know that even those things which appear bitter — a lost job or a broken relationship — are ultimately for the best.) Gratitude is an attitude. It requires constant effort and attention. A Jew strives to say 100 blessings every day. The reward is emancipation.
Yachatz
We break the middle matza, and put it aside to serve later as the Afikomen. Why do we break the matza now if we don’t need it until later? Because a key to freedom is to anticipate the future and make it real. The definition of maturity is the ability to trade a lower pleasure now for a higher pleasure later. Children lack this perspective and demand instant gratification. (Why not eat 10 candies now? Because you’ll get a stomache-ache later!) The challenge of adulthood is training ourselves to look at the long-term consequences. “Who is the wise man?” asks the Talmud. “The one who sees the future.” We break the middle matza, not for now, but for later. Because true freedom is a long-term proposition.
Maggid
The Sages tell us that the unique ability given to humanity is the power of speech. Speech is the tool of building and construction. G-d used it to create the world (“And G-d said: Let there be light.”). On Seder night, we use our gift of speech for the central part of the hagada: telling the Passover story. The very word “Pesach” is a contraction of the words “Peh Sach,” meaning “the mouth speaks.” The Hebrew name for Pharaoh, on the other hand, is a combination of “Peh Rah,” meaning “the bad mouth.” For just as speech has the power tobuild, it also has the power to destroy. Gossip and slander drive apart families and communities. On Passover, we use speech to “build” humanity – by communicating, connecting, and encouraging each other. We stay up long into the night, relating the story of our exodus, tasting and sharing the joy of freedom.
Rachtzah
One aspect of freedom is the ability to elevate ourselves above the lowest common denominator on the street. We’ve all felt the sensory assault of billboards, gratuitous talk-radio, immodest fashions, and violence on TV. At the Seder we wash our hands as a preparatory step before the matza, in order to carefully consider what it is we’re about to eat. One who is concerned with spiritual and physical health is discriminating about all forms of consumption: which movies to watch, which friends to spend time with, and what standards of business ethics to uphold. The streets are filled with a multitude of options. But we must not consume indiscriminately. We “wash our hands” to cleanse and distance ourselves from unhealthy influences. Freedom is the ability to say: “I choose not to partake.”
Motzi
We make the “hamotzi” blessing to thank G-d for “bringing forth bread from the ground.” Which is odd because G-d bring wheat from the ground – and man turns it into bread! In truth, G-d gives us two gifts:
1) the raw materials, and 2) the tools for transforming it into life.
Today, technology has pulled us away from seeing the beauty of G-d’s creation. We fine-tune our environment with air-conditioning, synthetic foods, cosmetic surgery, and genetic engineering. Mankind is perilously close to “playing G-d.” But in truth, man cannot create anything perfect; man can only tune into G-d’s ultimate perfection. Which is more awesome to behold – the world’s biggest super-computer, or the human brain? Between your two ears are 10 billion nerve cells — a communication system 100 times larger than the entire communications system on Earth. When we make “hamotzi,” we hold the matza with all our 10 fingers – reminding us that while human hands produced this food, it is yet another gift from the Creator and Sustainer of all life.
Matzah
Both bread and matza are flour mixed with water, then kneaded into a dough and baked. What is the difference between them? The difference is that dough has sat unattended for 18 minutes and becomes leavened (bread). The matza which we eat on Passover has been baked quickly. The spelling of “matza” is similar to “mitzvah:” Just as we shouldn’t delay in the making of matza, so too we shouldn’t procrastinate in performing a mitzvah. The lesson of matza is to seize the moment. Delaying even one second can mean the difference between an opportunity gained or lost. Why 18 minutes? Because the number 18 is the numerical value of “Chai,” meaning “life.” They say that “baseball in a game of inches.” In reality, life itself is a game of seconds. The Talmud tells of people who had sunk to the depths of humanity, and then in one moment of insight reversed their lives for all eternity. More than just the difference between matza and bread, the Seder teaches us the difference between life and death.
Maror
At the Seder we say: “In every generation they rise against us to annihilate us.” The Egyptians broke our backs and our spirits. The Romans destroyed the Second Temple and rivers of Jewish blood flowed. And so it was in every generation: Crusades, Inquisitions, Pogroms, Holocaust, Arab terrorism. Intense and irrational violence has stalked our people to every corner of the globe. Why the hatred? The Talmud says the Hebrew word for “hatred” (sinah) is related to the word “Sinai.” At Mount Sinai, the Jewish People acquired the legacy of morality and justice – a message that evil cannot tolerate.
(To Be Continued Next Week) – (Torah.org)
