Rabbi Hershel SchachterOur Beloved Hears, Even in Our Silence

The Mishna (Pesachim 116a) records that the Chachomim established that the mitzvah of sippur yetzi'as Mitzrayim which we observe on the night of the seder should be fulfilled in a specific form of talmud Torah: we should recite the pesukim of "Arami oveid avi" (Devarim 26:5-9) and give the commentary of the Torah Sheb'al Peh on each phrase of the pesukim. We combine Torah Sheb'al Peh with the Torah Sheb'ksav. On many occasions in his public shiurim, Rav Soloveitchik repeated the comments of the Ma'aseh Nissim[1] to explain this combination. Each time we give an interpretation of the Torah Sheb'al Peh on each phrase of "Arami oveid avi", we are exposing an addition level of interpretation over and above the simple translation of the words by quoting a different passuk which teaches some additional point. For example, the simple translation of the passuk, "va'nitz'ak el Hashem elokei avoseinu" etc. (ibid 25:7) is that on the occasion of yetzi'as Mitzrayim our ancestors prayed to Hashem, He listened to their prayers and brought them out of Mitzrayim. The Rabbis who authored the Haggadah interpreted that passuk to mean that our ancestors never really prayed; they did not know how to pray! Rather, Pharoh died, the masters in Egypt then made the Jews work harder than ever resulting in the Jews crying out in anguish over this burden of slavery, and Hashem in His kindness and love for the Jewish people considered it as if we had prayed and He redeemed us.

Many of the Jews in Eretz Yisroel who suffered in the last half year are secular people who are not in the practice of davening. Because so many strange things were happening this year, they obviously must have felt in their hearts that there is an all-powerful Boreh Olam who is running this world and Hakodosh Boruch Hu certainly has considered their expressions of pain and anguish as if they had offered tefillos.

The Gemara tells us that Chizkiyahu Hamelech acted improperly by not expressing Hallel v'hodoah over the miraculous redemption that the Jewish people experienced from the armies of Sancherev, and he was therefore punished. After such a long and drawn-out war in which so many Jewish soldiers have lost their lives, and after long drawn-out negotiations with Hamas over release of the hostages which led to nothing, the Jewish people experienced a fantastic miracle last motzaei Shabbos. Several hundred missiles and drones were sent by Iran to attack Israel. These weapons of war must have cost Iran billions of dollars, and yet hardly any damage was caused to Israel. The entire Jewish people, all over the world, really ought to sing Hallel v'hodoah over this neis. However, the Jewish nation is so numb and emotionally drained by the atrocities of the pogrom which occurred on Simchas Torah and the losses that we have suffered in the ongoing war that most of us did not even think of offering Hallel v'hoda'ah. Hakodosh Boruch Hu, out of his love and kindness towards his chosen nation, will certainly consider it as if we davened to Him in the most proper fashion and as if we offered the proper hoda'ah al ha'neis, as he did at the time of yetzias Mitzrayim.

Just as the Torah Sheb'al Peh reads in between the lines of the Chumash and exposes additional levels of interpretation, so too Hakodosh Boruch Hu reads in between the lines of what we say and how we act and considers it as if we have davened properly and offered the proper hoda'ah. May He redeem us today just as he redeemed us at the time of yetzi'as Mitzrayim.


[1] The commentary on the Haggadah by the author of Nesivos HaMishpat, Rabbi Yaakov (Lorberbaum) of Lissa.

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