As we hav mentioned previously, we start the Haggadah with Ha Lachma Anya, when we announce the bread of affliction and go on to invite the guests to the Seder.
We have given explanations for this in the past, but the sefer Shevet Mussar adds the following:
The shechina went with the Jewish people to Mitzrayim, as Hashem told Yaakov, “I will go down with you and come back up with you.”
So when we were redeemed, the Shechina was also redeemed. And when we are happy with our redemption, we are also happy with the redemption of God, because a part of God was with us in exile. As it says, Imo Anochi B’Tsara, I am with you in your pain.”
And if that’s the case, as the sefer Shevet Mussar says, “What happiness does the Shechina have if the poor people are in pain? And when you make the poor people happy, you make the Shechina happy.”
The Shechina comes down to the Seder to listen to us. And the Ha Lachma Anya is in Aramaic, because just like Kaddish, when we don’t want the angels to understand or they will be jealous of the great praise of Amen Yehe Shemeh Rabba, so too they are jealous of our Seder night, when we say Ha Lachma Anya. Because the Shechina is coming down to listen to us. And if the shechina is there, we have to make the Shechina happy.
This concept shows up earlier in the sefer Yavetz, written by one of the earlier Rabbis, who escaped the Spanish Inquisition, and wrote a commentary on Pirke Avot
(chapter 1 Mishna ה)
based on a pasuk in Tehilim,
God is close to the broken-hearted
Those broken hearted are the poor people.
Therefore, “When you make the poor happy, you make God happy.”
He explains the famous Gemarah (Shabbat 127) that says, “It’s greater to have guests in your house than to receive the Shechina.” Because the shechina is dwelling between the shoulders of the poor. And when you take them in, there is no difference. When Avraham Avinu took the guests in, that didn’t break the Shechina. The Yavetz says it’s the opposite- The shechina gets stronger and greater when we invite guests in. Therefore, he says it brings us a benefit.
And the Hiddush is that on the night of the seder, it says, “The great fear,” can also be read as “The great revelations, which were the revelations of the Shechina.
Rav Wolbe says that we have a revelation of the seder every Seder, just like they had then.
If you want to have a revelation of the Shechina, the Shechina has to be happy. And the shechina is only happy when you make the poor people happy, and your shechina, your presence of God grows and becomes even greater.
So let’s take advantage of this great night and super charge our gilui shechina with making the shechina happy, by inviting guests, which is, of course, Ahavat Yisrael.