by Rabbi Baruch Davis, Editor-in-Chief, Daf Hashavua
We are about to tell the Story of Stories – our national liberation! Our props are set out on the table before us: flat wheat-crackers, a burnt egg, salt water, horseradish or lettuce and some brown paste. The child peers over the table, wonders what has happened to the regular Shabbat meal, and asks: “Why is this night different?”
And how do we answer? “We were slaves…” or, a bit later on, we’ll say “Once upon a time our ancestors worshipped idols…” Who wants to remember that we were once slaves, poor, or followed a bad lifestyle? Surely we should be ashamed?
Yet this is exactly how the Mishnah (Pesachim 10:4) instructs us to tell the story – “begin with the shame and end with the praise”. The third century Babylonian Rabbis, Shmuel and Rav, differed in their understanding of this instruction. Shmuel said that the “shame” is that we were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt and the “praise” is that God took us out from there with a strong hand and outstretched arm. Rav saw things from a broader historical and religious perspective. For Rav, the “shame” is that – long before the Egyptian slavery – our ancestors worshipped idols and the “praise” is that God brought us close to His service.
At the Seder, we follow both approaches, first Shmuel’s in the paragraph of Avadim Hayinu and then Rav’s in the paragraph Mitchila. We continue to include both approaches as we progress through the Seder. The song Dayenu, for example, leads us from the physical act of God taking us out of Egypt through to the giving of the Torah and the building of the Temple in Jerusalem. And the long beracha which we say just before drinking the second cup of wine concludes by mentioning our “(physical) redemption and the deliverance of our souls”.
However, the Rambam (Maimonides d. 1204) reverses the order and mentions two beginnings, the first according to Rav and the second according to Shmuel: “One should start by relating that, at first, in the times of Terach [Avraham’s father]…our ancestors were nonbelievers… and one should end with the true faith, that God brought us close to Him… And one should start by saying that we were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt…and end with the miracles…”
Clearly, for the Rambam, it is the bigger picture which is the real story. We did not endure the slavery simply in order to be “free”. Rather, it was part of the bigger picture of becoming the nation of Israel and close to God. Even so, before we can look at the bigger picture, we need to tell the children the simpler story – that we were slaves and God took us out. The Rambam hints at this approach by quoting the above Mishnah in Pesachim: “the child is told the story according to their level of understanding” (ibid 7:2). But the real message is one of religious growth and development. The slavery, followed by the miracles of the Exodus and the desert, together with the Giving of the Torah, were the means to enable us to reach this goal.