Everything is beshert. There are no coincidences. The past several weeks we've been trying to understand a little bit, ikarei hadas, Anochi Hashem Elokecha. Certainly the timing of tonight's shiur, this will be the last one im yirtzeh Hashem before Yom Tov, certainly suggests that we should focus on inyanei Pesach. So what we'll try to do im yirtzeh Hashem is to understand the significance of מצות סיפור יציאת מצרים within the context, at least one element of its significance, within the context of the ikkarim which we've been learning together these past few weeks. The Rambam defines the mitzvah in perek zayin of Hilchos Chametz u'Matzah: מצות עשה של תורה לספר בניסים ונפלאות שנעשו לאבותינו במצרים בליל חמישה עשר בניסן.
So the Rambam says the mitzvah is to recount with as much detail and depth as possible all the nissim veniflaos which Hakadosh Baruch Hu performed לאבותינו במצרים בליל חמישה עשר. The Rambam doesn't explicitly quote the Tosefta that the Rosh, the Hagahos Maimoniyos quote, which Shulchan Aruch quotes, חייב אדם לעסוק בהלכות הפסח. תניא בתוספתא פרק ו דמכילתא חייב אדם לעסוק בהלכות פסח.
That learning Maseches Psachim is a kiyum in the sippur yetziat mitzrayim, the Rambam doesn't say that. The Rambam says that the mitzvah is lesapper benissim ubeniflaos. Again, the Rosh quotes it, the Hagahos Maimoniyos, Shulchan Aruch quotes it, the Shach does quote it, but the Rambam, happens a little bit, it comes in the back door that in the Haggadah, the Rambam has the chacham and אף אתה אמור לו כהלכות הפסח אין מפטירין אחר הפסח אפיקומן.
If you stick in the Gra's geersa of עד אין מפטירין אחר הפסח אפיקומן. But the Rambam doesn't say it. The Rambam doesn't include this in his definition of the mitzvah. The definition of the mitzvah is to focus on the nissim ubeniflaos. That's the definition of the mitzvah. The significance of this, at least one element of the significance, is as follows. The Rambam writes in towards the end of perek aleph in Hilchos Yesodei HaTorah and again, with a special tefillah for siyata d'shmaya and a special concerted effort on our part to try to understand as clearly and as accurately as possible when we're dealing with דברים העומדים ברומו של עולם. פרק א הלכה יא: וכיוון שנתבאר שאינו גוף וגוייה—once
it's been explained, demonstrated that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is incorporeal, Hakadosh Baruch Hu isn't physical in any sense—יתבאר שלא יארעו לו אחד ממאורעות הגוף. All the happenings which we associate with bodies, with corporeal existence, don't apply to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. לא חיבור ולא פירוד, not connection, not disconnection; לא מקום ולא מידה, you can't associate Hakadosh Baruch Hu with a specific place, you can't associate Hakadosh Baruch Hu with a specific size; לא עלייה ולא ירידה, not ascent, not descent; לא ימין ולא שמאל, not right, not left; לא פנים ולא אחור, not front... ve'eino matzui bazman. Hakadosh Baruch Hu doesn't exist in time עד שיהיה לו ראשית ואחרית ומנין שנים. Hakadosh Baruch Hu has no beginning or end or age ve'eino mishtaneh and Hakadosh Baruch Hu doesn't change שאין לו דבר שיגרום לו שינוי because there's nothing which can cause a change, there's nothing which can affect a change in Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Skipping to Halacha Yud Bet, the Rambam quotes the pasuk from Malachi. הרי הוא אומר אני ה' לא שניתי. It's a pasuk, a pasuk in the Navi Malachi. אני ה' לא שניתי. Hakadosh Baruch Hu is unchanging. So let's try to understand, let's try to understand again a little bit on some level what it is we just read. A person doesn't exist absolutely, a person doesn't exist independently, a person doesn't exist eternally. So we exist in time, so time affects us. We age, and aging has an effect on us. We exist physically. Our existence is physical, so physical factors affect us. Here we're cold, here we're hot, here we're hungry. We're tired. We exist in relation to the world. So what happens in the world affects us. This makes me happy, this makes me angry, this makes me sad. So we're affected. Hakadosh Baruch Hu, as the Rambam tells us in the beginning of the perek, Hakadosh Baruch Hu is matzui rishon. The Rambam's phrase, synonymous phrase, hoveh kadmon. Hakadosh Baruch Hu exists eternally, absolutely, and independently. So if one exists independently, eternally, and absolutely, so there's nothing, there's nothing in the world, there's nothing which can affect one. And that's why the Rambam says שאין דבר שיגרום לו שינוי. So for that reason Hakadosh Baruch Hu is unchanging. So again, think about it. What, what causes change in us? What causes change in us is the fact that we exist in a body, in the world, in time. That's the source of the change. Exist in a body. I'm cold, I'm hot, I'm hungry, I'm tired. We exist in time. A person gets older, a person ages. It, it has an effect on him. A person exists in the world. What happens in the world affects him. If one exists eternally, absolutely, independently, so nothing can, can affect one. So אני ה' לא שניתי. So a little bit, a little bit to an infinitesimal degree, so we understand a little bit what the pasuk in Malachi means. אני ה' לא שניתי. Moreover, to some infinitesimal degree, we can even appreciate it. משל למה הדבר דומה. If we would know someone or if we do know someone who's always maintains his composure, no matter what's going on, no matter what the provocation, no matter how much stress the person is subjected to, always maintains his composure, his equilibrium is never, is never upset. So we understand that that's not apathy. we understand that that's a sign of greatness. So again, to some infinitesimal degree, we appreciate the gadlus in the statement of אני השם לא שניתי. And yet, and it's not an uncommon troubling thought which comes to mind in understanding again, as minute as our understanding is, אני השם לא שניתי, there's room for religious crisis. Hakadosh Baruch Hu, given that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is transcendent, above everything and unaffected, so where do we fit into the picture? How do we relate to him? If eichshehu we attempt to be mekayem the mitzvah אהבת הקדוש ברוך הוא, so is that love reciprocated? And if it's not, so then how in the first place can we can we motivate ourselves to try to attain that ahava? How do we relate to we understand why it is that אני השם לא שניתי in a minute to a minute degree? In a similar sense, we appreciate the gadlus of it, but then what what's life about in light of that? משל למה הדבר דומה, I don't know, if you walk into a room and a musician is playing a symphony. Before you walk into the room, you can hear him playing the symphony. You walk into the room, he continues playing the same symphony. You walk out of the room, same symphony continues. So was there any significance to having been in the room? So there are two answers. If we'll think about it, we'll realize that it's really the same answer on two levels, but they appear to be two answers. One answer the Rav suggests in his essay Uvikashtem Misham, that even though we can't say, we can't make statements about Hashem himself, right? As we discussed last time, the Rambam in Hilchos De'os, we can only describe Hashem's actions as we perceive them in the world, and it's only on that level that we talk about the middos of Hakadosh Baruch Hu. We can't talk about Hakadosh Baruch Hu himself. But the fact that on the level of Hakadosh Baruch Hu's actions as we perceive them in the world, what we refer to as as his middos, the Yud-Gimmel Middos, the fact that on that level it's an ahava raba ahavtanu, it's אהבת עולם עמך בית ישראל אהבת, so that's enough. That suffices to sustain us. That suffices that we feel that we are in a bilateral relationship. That's what the Rav says in Uvikashtem Misham. It's true that in describing the relationship מצד הקדוש ברוך הוא, we have to describe it again from the aspect of Hakadosh Baruch Hu's actional attributes, how Hakadosh Baruch Hu reveals himself in the world. We can't say anything about Hakadosh Baruch Hu. But there is a second answer as well. And the second answer is sippur yetziat mitzrayim. How does sippur yetziat mitzrayim provide the answer to this fundamental religious conundrum of our relating to Hakadosh Baruch Hu? אני ה' לא שניתי is as follows. חייב אדם לספר בניסים ונפלאות. We're supposed to spend the night describing, understanding, gaining and giving insight and appreciation into the nissim veniflaos which happened in Mitzrayim. Meaning, step back from the attempt to conceptualize, step back from the attempt to package everything in neat logical categories that we can understand logically. And let's look on the experiential level. On the experiential level, Klal Yisrael experienced Hakadosh Baruch Hu in Mitzrayim. חייב אדם לספר בניסים ונפלאות שנעשו לאבותינו במצרים. Klal Yisrael experienced Hakadosh Baruch Hu in Mitzrayim. Did that experience help them, again, conceptualize, respond on a logical or philosophical level to the question we raised? No, it didn't. We can't explain Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Obviously, on any ultimate level we can't understand Him. Right? The famous line that the Rambam writes, that the goal of all knowledge is to realize that we don't know, that we can't know. But everything we can't explain, and everything we can't understand notwithstanding, how is it that simultaneously אני ה' לא שניתי, which a little little little little bit we understand? How is it that simultaneously Hakadosh Baruch Hu is involved? I don't know. But the question doesn't bother me because I see that He is. I can't explain to you in logical terms, in logical categories. And the reason I can't explain, and the reason no one can explain: ilu yedativ hayitiv. If a person could know Hakadosh Baruch Hu and could understand everything, that person would be Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Only Hakadosh Baruch Hu can know Himself and understand Himself. ilu yedativ hayitiv. So can anyone unravel the mystery? We can't unravel the mystery of why the world is here. Right? Modern science now can prove to us that the world wasn't always here as we know it, that there was a Big Bang, that there was a berias ha'olam. Why? leman retzono. Because Hakadosh Baruch Hu willed that there should be a world. We can't explain it. We can't explain it, but the question falls away. The question just disappears because, no, I can't explain it logically, but I know that it is. And for this reason, now we can appreciate why it is: בכל דור ודור חייב אדם לראות את עצמו כאילו יצא ממצרים. מצוות סיפור יציאת מצרים
is not simply to know a story. It's not simply to cognitively learn certain lessons, but it's rather that The meager understanding that we have of אני ה' לא שניתי has to be combined with the experience of נסים ונפלאות שנעשו לאבותינו במצרים. And that doesn't answer the question, but it erases the question. The question disappears. I don't know, I don't understand, but I see, but I experience. And it is absolutely the case, absolutely the case, that every, every single person in this room and beyond, the same way חייב אדם לראות את עצמו כאילו יצא ממצרים, the same way the yedias Hashem, again, on, on the infinitesimal understanding that we have on a logical level, a person can and is therefore obligated to see the yad Hashem in his life. It's there, it's pervasive, and if a person is attuned to it, a person sees it, erev vavoker vetzohorayim. We spoke in one of our earlier shiurim that the Rambam cuts off the mitzvah of anochi after the first three words of the pasuk, Anochi Hashem Elokecha. That's all that's included in the mitzvah according to the Rambam. And, and we tried to understand why that is. The obvious follow-up question is, so, what, what is the conclusion of the pasuk, אשר הוצאתיך מארץ מצרים מבית עבדים? So we saw that anochi is not only a statement of a mitzvah, but it's also the Rambam's Mechilta, it's also a statement of קבלת עול מלכות שמים. Anochi as a mitzvah ends at Hashem Elokecha because only that is subject to yedia, again, in the formal logical sense, philosophical sense. But the statement of קבלת עול מלכות שמים is incomplete. And the reason for that is that קבלת עול מלכות שמים, there can't be a קבלת עול מלכות שמים just based on, on that yedia alone. Because that yedia alone, logically, we can't explain. Hakadosh Baruch Hu is hoveh kadmon. So Hakadosh Baruch Hu is above, beyond, unaffected. That, that can't result in a קבלת עול מלכות שמים. And yet we know from experience, a different type of knowing, not the type of knowing that qualifies for the mitzvah of anochi, a different type of knowing. We know, we see, we experience אשר הוצאתיך מארץ מצרים. We understand that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is transcendent and we experience that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is immanent. We know that He's transcendent and we experience that He's immanent. That combination, that combination leads to a קבלת עול מלכות שמים. קבלת עול מלכות שמים means, again, to have that meager understanding that we can have of Anochi Hashem Elokecha combined, integrated with the experience of אשר הוצאתיך מארץ מצרים מבית עבדים. I'd like to just one other comment unrelated to what we discussed until now, just me'inyana deyoma of Pesach, of bechol dor vador relating to bechol dor vador but to Pesach in general, specifically the night of the Seder. מעשה בכל דור ודור חייב אדם לראות את עצמו כאילו יצא ממצרים
is a tall order. A very tall order. The Father zichrono livracha used to say margla bepumeih, usually if you ask people what the most difficult mitzvah is, so depending upon what minhag you have in the family about maror, so if it's romaine, it's not such a terrible mitzvah. If it's chrain, then it's a challenging mitzvah. So if you ask people what the most difficult mitzvah of the Seder is, so it depends where exactly they come from. But if they come from the right or the wrong part of Eastern Europe, depending upon your perspective, it might be mitzvas maror. So he used to say the emes is unquestionably it's the mitzvah of בכל דור ודור חייב אדם לראות את עצמו כאילו יצא ממצרים.
A person has to mamash, mamash feel it. Mamash feel it. It's takeh a tall order. Seemingly too tall. Ella mai, if there's such a mitzvah, so it means that it's within our ability and capacity to fulfill the mitzvah. So how takeh are we able to fulfill the mitzvah? So the answer is as follows. In Nirtzah, the pizmon vayihi bachatzi halaylah, so we catalog things that happened bechatzi halaylah. Ger tzedek nitzachto, that Avraham Avinu vanquished the four kings bechatzi halaylah. Many, if not all of these things that we catalog happened on בליל חמשה עשר בניסן. Okay, what's the point of the vayihi bachatzi halaylah? The Seder's been long enough as is. It's already 1:30 in the morning, 3:30 in the morning, whatever time it is, it's late enough. And the mitzvah's לספר בנסים ונפלאות שנעשו לאבותינו במצרים בליל חמשה עשר בניסן.
Not to look at earlier history, and not to look at later history. So what are we cataloging all these events? So the answer is that the paytan is trying to sensitize us to something very fundamental. That we erroneously think that בליל חמשה עשר בניסן is significant because it was the night of Yetzias Mitzrayim. Lehavdil, lehavdil, lehavdil it's July 4th. Lehavdil, lehavdil, lehavdil the French have what's it called, Bastille Day or something? Lehavdil, lehavdil. If that were the case, so how would it be that long before Yetzias Mitzrayim, hundreds of years earlier, things were happening on leil tes vav? So clearly the relationship is inverted. The correct relationship is that the night of tes vav Nisan intrinsically is a time of geulah, intrinsically is a time of gilluy Shechinah, is a time of nissim veniflaos and mimela, that's why Yetzias Mitzrayim happened on the night of tes vav. It's not that Yetzias Mitzrayim happened on the night of tes vav and from there on when they started when they printed calendars from there on it became a red letter day. Be-emes it's a Gemara in Rosh Hashanah. The Gemara in Rosh Hashanah says ליל שימורים הוא לה' להוציאם מארץ מצרים. So the Gemara in Rosh Hashanah says משומר ובא מששת ימי בראשית. That from Sheshes Yemei Bereishis, when Hakadosh Baruch Hu created time, the night of tes vav Nisan was meshumar u-va for Yetzias Mitzrayim. Meaning that it's intrinsic to the time. The same way there's in the in the physical world, in the agricultural cycle, there's an eis, eis lintoa. There's a time to plant, and if you plant in the wrong season, it's not going to yield, it's not going to yield the same results. There's a time that's conducive for planting. So spiritually also, there are qualities in time. The night of tes vav Nisan is a time of nissim veniflaos, it's a time of geulah, it's a time of gilluy Shechinah. So how is it בכל דור ודור חייב אדם לראות את עצמו כאילו יצא ממצרים?
How does a person make that leap? What what what aids a person, what what what assists the person in fulfilling that mitzvah? So the Torah says, the Torah says if tes vav Nisan were significant only because of what happened then, so then we would be helpless to try to recreate it. But if what happened... on ליל טו ניסן happened because of the segulah of that time, because of that intrinsic quality which the time possesses, so the same way it was a zman of geulah, it is a zman of geulah. It always has been a zman of geulah, and it's up to us to try to tap into that tremendous potency and segulah which the zman possesses. Halevai we should be able to.