Lead Tidbit
The Seder Experience Continues
Here's an interesting accidental g'matriya discovery: Sh'mot 13:8 contains the mitzva of hagada - V'HIGADTA L'VINCHA BAYOM HAHU LEIMOR... And you shall tell your child on that day saying, because of this G-d did this for me when I left Egypt. The numeric value of the entire pasuk is 2522. This is the same as the numeric value of YOM CHAG HASHAVUOT HAZEH Z'MAN MATAN TORATEINU. This phrase is familiar to us from davening and kiddush of Shavuot. Upon first discovery, the reaction was: too bad it didn't match Pesach. But on second thought, we can make an important statement about Shavuot and its role as the continuation of the Pesach experience. We've said it many times in the pages of Torah Tidbits - Yetzi'at Mitzrayim, the Exodus, started us off as a people. It was our birth as a Nation. But G-d did not say goodbye good luck when we left Egypt, and wish us a good life. He brought us to Sinai and gave us the Torah and He brought us into Eretz Yisrael and gave us a way of life here and a spiritual focus of the Beit HaMikdash. Shavuot represents both of these major components of G-d's plans for us. That Shavuot is Zman Matan Torateinu identifies it as the day we received the Torah. As Yom HaBikurim, we see Shavuot as also representing entry into Eretz Yisrael and the building of the Beit HaMikdash. We can say, perhaps, that Pesach is the beginning, the Omer period represents the long roller coaster of Jewish History, and Shavuot stands for the realization of our national and spiritual aspirations and destiny.

With the g'matriya above, we can say that in addition to pointing to matza and maror (and IY"H to Korban Pesach) out to our children and proclaiming "Because of these things" G-d took us out of Egypt, we can also point to the Torah, to Eretz Yisrael, and IY"H to the Beit HaMikdash, and tell our children, because of these G-d took us out of Egypt. May we soon be able to offer inter alia the Shalmei Simcha. CHAG SAMEACH