Parshas Tzav/Shabbos Hagadol
March 26th-27th, 1999
10 Nisan, 5759

CONFESSIONS OF A HARRIED PESACH-CLEANER

I’m not going to beat around the bush.  I have about one hour to write this parsha sheet.  No joke. This is the first time since I’ve been married that we’re making Pesach ourselves.  (My in-laws, to whose house we usually flee for this yom tov, are off to the land of Israel.)  The list of things we have to do is endless.   To say I can’t think straight would be misleading; all thinking has completely shut down.

What was that I had to take care of....oh, right, line the shelves with contact paper, don’t forget to empty the pockets of the jackets in the bedroom closet.  Check.

We have been so busy shopping, cleaning and (let’s not forget an essential component of this whole process) agonizing that we actually forgot about our three year-old daughter Sara’s Pesach program at school!  Criminal, I’d say...and I’m not using the term lightly.  “Where were you, Abbah?” she asked so earnestly.   She wouldn’t have understood if I told her I was in bathing suit and a t-shirt at the mikveh, toiveling boxes and boxes of new Pesach cultery and kitchenware.  Well, at least I know I have something to do teshuvah on next Yom Kippur. (I was worried that I might have no aveiras, so I really should be grateful....)

Wait, what was it that I had to remember?   Right...check the number of kiddush cups we have.  Don’t forget to look for chametz in my old briefcase.

Maybe this is the only realistic parsha sheet one can write the week before Pesach.  The only kind that makes you feel the chipazon--the great haste--with which we left Mitzrayim, too quickly to allow the dough to rise. Life imitating art...or, rather, Torah.  And, on a similar note, the only way we Western Jews can imagine the avdus (slavery) and exhausting toil of Egypt is during these days of preparation for Pesach.  (Then when Seder night actually arives--redemption!)

What was I thinking...oh, right, do toothpicks have to be kosher for Pesach?  Remember to check Rabbi Blumenkrantz’s book. 

Anyway, back to the subject at hand.  Rabby Chaim Friedlander, zt’l, in a beautiful essay (Sifsei Chaim: II, 355-363) about the mitzvah of telling the story of the Exodus, explains that the goal is not just to recount our history; it’s to feel as if we personally experienced the Redemption.  The Haggadah itself says as much: “In every generation, one is obligated to regard himself as though he had actually gone out from Egypt...”  

The many props of the Seder--matzoh, maror, Seder plate, four cups of wine etc.-- and stage directions (dip, lean, etc.) are meant to make concrete for us the concepts...better, the experience of slavery and freedom.  And the inevitable result of a deeply felt personal redemption?   Hallel, songs of thanks and praise to Hashem.  (Not preceded by a brachah, he points out, quoting the Ran, since it is meant to be an exalted and almost spontaneous song of praise--shirah--and not a mere public reading, as in the prayer service.)

He concludes by telling us the ultimate purpose of the gratitude to Hashem which the Seder is designed to awaken in us: accepting the rule of G-d over ourselves, and performing the mitzvos with joy.  It stands to reason: after all, that was the whole purpose of the Exodus in the first place. “  As the Torah says in the parsha of tzitzis, “I am Hashem, your G-d, Who has removed you from the land of Egypt to be a G-d unto you; I am Hashem, your G-d.”  (Numbers 14, 41; emphasis mine.)  The liberation from Pharaoh we commemorate on Pesach was not the goal in and of itself.  It is merely what made possible our becoming avadim (servants) to  Hashem.  As we have written in previous years, Pesach leads inevitably to Shavuos. 

Meanwhile, I’d better get back to the kitchen.   Wait, what was it I had to remember?  Make arrangements to sell my chametz. Clean the mini-van.  I’m reminded of a famous Lennon-McCartney lyric: “Help!”

I’m sorry it was so rushed this week, but I do wish you a meaningful Seder, and a wonderful holiday.  And as I’ll keep telling myself for the next few days, redemption is just around the corner.

GOOD SHABBOS AND GOOD YOM TOV!!!

Insights Into Genesis
Insights Into Exodus

Rabbi Yosef Edelstein is Director of the Savannah Torah Education Project (STEP). Phone: 912-355-0157;
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