I would like to share a Hiddush we had this year at the Seder. Every year, Baruch Hashem, Hashem sends a Hiddush. This year, we were going through the famous piece where Rabban Gamliel explains the three mitzvot of Pesach, Matza, and Marror.
Why do we eat the korban Pesach?
Because Hashem was “pasach”
Most people translate that as meaning to “jump over” and that’s why the holiday is called. “Passover” in English.
At the seder, my father asked why that part, that Hashem “jumped over” us, was so important that the whole holiday is named for it? It’s true that we weren’t killed, but why is jumping over the main point? So we took out a Chumash and looked it up in Sefer Shemot, perek יב, pasuk כז, where the child asks what’s going on, and the answer is זבח פסח
It’s the Passover sacrifice.
There’s no Rashi on that Pasuk, but Targum Onkelus says,
וְתֵימְרוּן דַבַּח חֲיָס הוּא קֳדָם ה׳
Tell him it’s the slaughtering of mercy.
דִי חָס עַל בָּתֵּי בְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל
Because G-d had mercy on our houses when He killed the Egyptian first-borns.
The Ibn Ezra says the same thing. He says Pesach means Hemlah, Mercy: Hashem was hamal, He had mercy on us, because of the korban Pesach. He says it’s called “Pesach” because of mercy!
For us that was an eye-opener! Most people think Pesach is about jumping over. But here we are learning a different point; that it’s the holiday of mercy- its the holiday when G-d had mercy on the Jewish people.
I was so excited about this Hiddush, that I walked over to my father in law to share it with him (of course, remaining outside, at the proper distance). He added onto our hiddush. He said that there is an ancient custom, found in the Yerushalmi, whereby flour was was given to the poor before the holiday, in order to bake Matzot. It’s called kimha d’pischa. This is usually translated as “flour for Pesach”
But based on this approach of the Targum Onkelus and Ibn Ezra, we can now understand it as, “Flour of Mercy”
We too have mercy on our fellow brethren, and when they don’t have enough food, we’ll give them flour for the holiday. And it’s interesting that the opening line of the Hagaddah is “Ha Lachma Aniah: Kol Dichfin”
We invite everyone in.
Why is that the opening line of the night?
Our rabbis tell us an important rule:
כל המרחם על הבריאות , מרחמים עליו מן השמים
Anyone that has mercy on other people, will have mercy on him from heaven.
Which means that’s this is one of the techniques to arouse G-d’s mercy on us: to have mercy on other people.
Many years ago, I had a certain personal challenge, and I went to Rav Michel Yehuda Lefkowitz,ah the great Gadol in Bnei B’rak. He told me that I needed Rahamei Shamayim- Mercy from Above. When you hear that, it sounds scary. I asked him what to do, and he repeated this Gemara to me:
כל המרחם על הבריאות , מרחמים עליו מן השמים
Anyone that has mercy on other people, will have mercy on him from heaven.
We always need mercy from above, but sometimes we need it more than others.
Sometimes we can’t do anything. We can’t even visit people in the hospital.
What we can do is pray for people, we can have mercy on them. We can feel for them. What caused the whole Geula of Yetziat Mitzrayim to start, was that Moshe left the palace where he was comfortable, and went to see what his brethren were doing, to feel bad for them. He put his eyes and his heart on them. He got into their situation.
And it says that because Moshe did this, Hashem reciprocated and put His eyes and His heart, so to speak, on the Jewish people.
During challenging times, we must have mercy on people. Even if we can’t necessarily do something, we have to feel for them, think about them, and have them on our minds and in our prayers, do mitzvot for them, and give Sedaka for them.
Another related thought came to mind. Romaine lettuce is our primary vegetable for marror. In Aramaic (and modern Hebrew) it’s called חסה - the Rishonim (and possibly earlier sources, I saw it in Kol Bo) say we use romaine specially because the the word for it, חסה means mercy. (it’s similar to the word חיס, found in the Targum quoted above)
We use the romaine and say to G-d, חס רחמנא עלן
G-d should have mercy on us.
I saw a commentary that explains that we chose to say this on the marror, because we are trying to say to Hashem, “We understand that even the Marror that comes from You comes out of mercy.”
So Pesach is a holiday of mercy, whether it’s the korban pesach, where He jumped over us, or the marror, which is also called חסה .
The last of the three mitzvot is the Matzah. Rav Matityahu Salomon, the Mashgiach of Lakewood, (who needs a Refuah Shelemah, we should have him in our prayers) asks in his sefer Matnat Chaim, why is the Matzah the main point? If a guy was in jail, and found out he was being set free; if he was holding a coffee cup in his hand at the time, would that mean that every year thereafter, when he celebrated his release, he’d have to have a cup of coffee?
The Matzah seems to be a peripheral point. We rushed out, and we happened to have Matzah. That’s the holiday?
He answers with an unbelievable thought. If we were in control when leaving, we would have chosen to finish baking our Matzah, make it into regular bread, and then leave.
Going back to our man in jail mashal, if the man was making his coffee, and had just added water, and then was suddenly told by the warden that he had to leave, the man probably would want to just add the milk and go.
But if the warden insisted that he leave right that second, and not be able to even finish making his coffee, that would be an indication that he hadn’t left of his own volition. He was sent out. Rav Matityahu Salomon says that the lesson of the Matzah is that we weren’t in control at all. That’s another very important lesson that we must always take, especially in these times.
These are lessons of the Pesach, Matzah, and Marror and they aren’t just for the Seder.
At the Seder we say למען תזכר את יום צאתך מארץ מצרים כל ימי חייך
So that we remember the day we left Mitzrayim every day of our lives
This line, to remember Yetziat Mitzrayim every day, in Keriat Shema, was said at the Seder.
The purpose of the Pesach is not just to remember Yetziat Mitzrayim for the day, or for a week, but to remember these lessons every single day of our lives.
In our tefilin, we have the parshiyot that talk about the korban Pesach. We must remember these lessons every day:
Hashem had mercy on us. Hashem has mercy on us even when it looks bitter.
Another important lesson is that we aren’t in control, we are following our merciful G-d.
B’Ezrat Hashem, when we walk away with these lessons, that’s what brings the Geula.