B’ezrat Hashem, over the next four days, we will dedicate each day to discussing one of the four pesukim of the story of Yetziat Mitzrayim.
Many people are not aware that one of the main points of Maggid, as described in the Gemarah in Masechet Pesachim is to explain the four pesukim of Arami Oved Avi (this is th first of the four). Each pasuk is expanded upon. These pesukim are chosen because, as we mentioned previously, the main focus is not just on Emunah (that we believe), but also on the Hakarat Hatov that we must have. These four pesukim were said, not on the night of Pesach, but when one would bring their Bikkurim
(first fruits) and thank Hashem.
These four pesukim are the shortest description of Yetziat Mitzrayim.
Our job is to tell the story to our children and this is a Torah sanctioned “Cliff Notes” of Yetziat Mitzrayim. Rather than read the entire Shemot, VaEra, Bo, and parts of Beshalach, and of Vayigash and Vayechi, which would be very time consuming, to save us time we have this Torah- approved abridged version.
We quote the four pesukim and we explain each one. The first pasuk starts with the words Arami Oved Imi...
“There was someone from Aram, who destroyed my father..” Namely, Lavan.
The segue into this pasuk is
צא ולמד
“Go out and learn”
Go out and learn what? What are we learning from here? We are learning that in every generation they want to destroy us. Lavan HaArami was not known to be an enemy- he might have been a swindler, but he wasn’t a known enemy to the point that he wanted to destroy us. We prove from
צֵא וּלְמַד מַה בִּקֵּשׁ לָבָן הָאֲרַמִּי לַעֲשׂוֹת לְיַעֲקֹב אָבִינוּ
Go out and learn what Lavan the Arami sought to do to Ya'akov, our father
This is the introduction to our pasuk.
אֲרַמִּי אֹבֵד אָבִי
This proves that in every generation they wanted to destroy us.
, וַיֵּרֶד מִצְרַיְמָה וַיָּגָר שָׁם בִּמְתֵי מְעָט,
They went down to Mitzrayim and dwelled there few in number and became a nation, great, powerful and numerous.
(see that attached Pdf, in which the pesukim are numbered; each pasuk comes with a number of explanations.)
After the pasuk is read and translated, the Baal Hagaddah can explain and elaborate.
וַיֵּרֶד מִצְרַיְמָה אָנוּס עַל פִּי הַדִּבּוּר
He went down to Mitzrayim, and he was forced to go down.
This is important, because as we will see, one of the main themes is that as long as we are in our host nation, and we are there not because we want to be, but because we have to be, we have hope to get out and not to assimilate. That is why the first thing we learn is that Yaakov Avinu went there but he was ענוס forced to go because Hashem told him he had to go.
ויגר שם
And they dwelled there
What does this mean?
מְלַמֵּד שֶׁלֹא יָרַד יַעֲקֹב אָבִינוּ לְהִשְׁתַּקֵּעַ בְּמִצְרַיִם אֶלָּא לָגוּר שָׁם,
We didn’t go to stay a long time, it was supposed to be temporary
שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר As it says, ( in Parashat Vayigash, when the brothers meet up with paroah and told paroah ) לגור בארץ בנו
To reside in this land that we have come to.
The word לגור/reside proves that we were only there temporarily.
(Some people may find these points to be tedious but this is what we are supposed to be doing at the Seder. We are supposed to be explaining these pesukim to our children.
Hopefully, with these notes, and the attached version of the hagaddah, we will all do a great job)
The next thing we say ( the next page on the attached pdf) is
בִּמְתֵי מְעָט
We were few in number. . כְּמָה שֶּׁנֶּאֱמַר: בְּשִׁבְעִים נֶפֶשׁ
We went down as 70 people and became a nation.
*This is a good place to pause and talk about emunah and bitachon.
G-d promised us that we would become a nation.
We grew from a family of 70 people into a nation in 200 years; a nation of millions of people. There were 600,000 men between the ages of 20 and 60. If we include the women it becomes 1.2 million. Then, if we add children and people under 20 or over 60, and it’s up to 3 million... And that was only the one fifth of the population that got out of Egypt, so the nation was really 15 million people. In 210 years they went from 70 people to 15 million people. That’s a miracle.
The next line says,
וַיְהִי שָׁם לְגוֹי גדול
They became a nation,
and it explains here that we kept our identity. Not only were we qualitatively a nation, but we were tremendous in numbers. It says that
פָּרוּ וַיִּשְׁרְצוּ וַיִּרְבּוּ וַיַּעַצְמוּ
we had six at one time
But the problem was that,
וַתִּמָּלֵא הָאָרֶץ אֹתָם
We started to mix with the Egyptians.
This is the segue to our next pasuk. Initially we told Paroah that we wanted to stay in the land of Goshen.
As long as the Jew stays in his little area, he is safe, but once he starts to mingle that’s when he gets into trouble.
That is our first pasuk. Our emunah takeaway is that we grew from a family into a nation.
And as long as we kept our deal to stay in Goshen, we were protected, but once we started to mingle, “and the land filled with them,” that brings us to our second pasuk, which b’ezrat Hashem we will discuss tomorrow.
Have a wonderful day.