Today we continue explaining the four pesukim, which is a main feature of the telling over of the story of Pesach.
וַיָּרֵעוּ אֹתָנוּ הַמִּצְרִים וַיְעַנּוּנוּ
The Egyptians did evil to us, man’s they pained us
וַיִתְּנוּ עָלֵינוּ עֲבֹדָה קָשָׁה
They put hard work upon us
( in the pdf that was sent yesterday, you can clearly see that this pasuk is broken up into 3 units,
Unit one- they did evil to us
Unit two- they tortured us
Unit three-they put hard work on us
which the Baal Haggadah will explain)
This pasuk is from Parashat Ki Tavo. The Haggadah presents the story in what we refer to as “Cliff Notes,” and then refers us back to where the story happened, as it says,
(At the beginning of Shemot, where Paroah said),
הָבָה נִתְחַכְּמָה לוֹ
Let’s try to outsmart Him- ( Him is either G-d or the Jewish people)
פֶּן יִרְבֶּה
They might become many
וְהָיָה כִּי תִקְרֶאנָה מִלְחָמָה וְנוֹסַף גַּם הוּא עַל שֹׂנְאֵינוּ וְנִלְחַם־בָּנוּ וְעָלָה מִן־הָאָרֶץ
And if there is a war, the Jews will join the enemy, they will fight with us, and we will be thrown out of our land.
The Egyptians were using anti-Semitic propaganda, painting us as disloyal citizens. According to this, the commentaries say that it doesn’t mean that they did evil to us but rather that they made us look evil. They painted us as evil. And this has been going on throughout the generations. When the Jews start to mingle, as they did when the land was filled with them, when they left the land of Goshen, there is an automatic kickback called antisemitism. We don’t appreciate this, and we might not like hearing it, but the rabbis tell us that anti-Semitism is a gift of G-d. If not for anti-Semitism, we would have a assimilated a long time ago. One of the greatest miracles of all time is that the Jewish people are still a distinct nation. How does that happen? As the rabbis say, “ If the Jew doesn’t make kiddush, the goy makes havdala.”
Which means that if the Jew doesn’t make himself holy and keep Shabbat, the gentile will separate him through anti-Semitism.
This is a strong Emuna and Bitachon point. This is a system of G-d, and it’s still here, up until this very day. We can never assimilate. We cannot get mixed in. Hitler (yemach shemo) went all the way back to the great grandmothers to see if a person was Jewish. A Jew can never assimilate.
וַיְעַנּוּנוּ
And they tortured us
Again, the Haggadah brings a pasuk to back up our “Cliff Notes”, which says,
וַיָּשִׂימוּ עָלָיו שָׂרֵי מִסִּים לְמַעַן עַנֹּתוֹ בְּסִבְלֹתָם
The put taskmasters on them,
The whole goal of having the Jews build buildings was not so that could new buildings. It was solely to torture the Jews.
וַיִתְּנוּ עָלֵינוּ עֲבֹדָה קָשָׁה
And they put hard work upon us,
As it says,
וַיַּעֲבִדוּ מִצְרַיִם אֶת־בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל בְּפָרֶךְ
With back-breaking work
The sole purpose of the Egyptians was to break us. And all of this happened because of the anti-Semitism. Antisemitism is not a punishment, however. It is a tool of G-d, to bring us closer to Him. This is an important point. When we see anti-Semitism going on, spreading in the world, we see that it always happens when there is more assimilation. In the countries of Europe where there is more assimilation, there is more anti-Semitism. It’s there to cause us to go into the message of pasuk three.
The theme of pasuk three is that we cried out to Hashem and He heard our voices.
וַנִּצְעַק אֶל־ה'
אֱלֹהֵי אֲבֹתֵינוּ,
ַיִּשְׁמַע ה אֶת־קֹלֵנוּ
, וַיַּרְא אֶת־עָנְיֵנוּ וְאֶת עֲמָלֵנוּ וְאֶת לַחֲצֵנוּ
We cried out to Hashem,G-d of our forefathers, and He heard our voices., and He saw the torture and hard work, and pressure.
Of course, G-d always sees what is going on, but what activates G-d’s involvement in our lives is when we call out to Him in prayer. This too, is an important lesson of Emunah and Bitachon.
The cause of our problems is in order for us to cry out to Him. And when we cry out to Him, we are answered, as in the mashal by Kriat Yam Suf- A girl was being chased by bandits, and a prince saved her. Eventually they married. Then the prince and princess got into a small argument and she wasn’t talking to him, so he sent bandit out after her. She got scared and called out for the prince. He told her he did it just because he wanted to hear her voice.
Hashem says the same thing. When you were in Mitzrayim you were crying out to Me, but now that you’ve left and you’re no longer connected,, I want to hear your voice.
We should not need anti-Semitism has v’Shalom, or any problems. We should always kindle our connection and relationship with G-d.
The lesson is that Hashem always wants a connection and relationship with us. When we assimilate and we forget about Him, things go wrong, in order to bring us back and cry out to Him ,and He answers us. These are fundamentals and one of these four pesukim teaches us.
B’ezrat Hashem we will give them over, because this is the night of Emunah.
Have a wonderful day.