Shabbos Parashas Bo - 5775

Shabbos Parashas Bo - 5775 Rabbi Hal Miller

And you shall tell your son on that day, saying, 'it is because of this that G-d acted on my

behalf when I left Egypt.' [Shemos 13:8]

This week we read about the battle between Pharaoh on one side, and Moshe, Aharon and G-d on behalf of the Jewish people on the other side. The parsha concludes with the commandment to put on Tefillin. We read about the plagues. We read about the destruction of the strongest nation on the earth at that time. Then, we read about Pesach. There are more than a dozen commandments specific to Pesach, mainly concerning food issues. This was the biggest night in history. Why did G-d spend so much time telling Moshe how to make dinner?

Amid the commandments about slaughtering the meat, not eating leavening, etc., there is a precept to tell over the story of the Exodus from Egypt. It would seem obvious that any celebration of the Exodus must include a telling of the story. Why is this a separate commandment? Who is it directed to?

Sefer HaChinuch, who bases his book on the Rambam, tells us that the specifics of the command are "to tell about the departure from Egypt, on the evening of the fifteenth of Nisan, each person according to his eloquence, and to laud and praise G-d for all the miracles He wrought for us there." But why do these instructions come to us in the middle of the story which they commemorate? Couldn't the Torah have waited until the story was finished?

We can postulate that the timing is to ensure that we understand what it is we need to

relate in coming years. This is akin to "taking notes" in a class--saving information on the topic to be a reminder later. It is usually better to make those notes during the lecture rather than rely on memory and write them later, but is that really an issue here where the Torah can always repeat word for word if necessary? We say that the Torah does not waste a single word, not even a letter, thus such repetition would be out of character. But that alone is not sufficient explanation.

The Mishnah in Pesach (Gemorah 116b) says, "In every generation a person is obligated to look at himself as though he departed from Egypt." By putting our command in the middle of the event itself, it reinforces the idea that "we are there" ourselves. Our verse says "it is because of this". When one interrupts a story with such a line, one is emphasizing the importance of whatever 'this' may be.

The Exodus from Egypt is being declared by our verse as of supreme importance.

Why? The verse continues, "G-d acted on my behalf when I left Egypt." We are personally involved.

But again, couldn't this have waited until the end of the story, and still have been given

a high level of importance?

Rashi explains that the "this" referred to does not mean the story itself, rather the

enabling of the fulfillment of all the commandments in future generations. Rav Hirsch follows by showing that Jewish education is actually the point here. He says that "our children are not to be induced to the faithful observance of the Torah by habit alone, nor is it to be accomplished by mere preaching. We must show them the way by our own example."

For the Jewish people to continue to exist, our children, and adults as well, must be taught why we are a people, rather than just part of some other nation. We are separate,

chosen by G-d to fulfill His commandments and to demonstrate to the world the

correct way to live under His laws. We can only do that if we pay very close attention

to each thing we do and how and why we do it. This is of utmost importance, sufficiently so to justify interrupting the relating of the story of that night, because so long as we exist, that story is in fact still continuing.

Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach addresses an interesting additional point. If this is a commandment, why is there no blessing surrounding its fulfillment? He analyzes what are apparently two independent commandments, the mentioning of the Exodus each morning and evening, and the telling of this story on the night of Pesach. He says that one cannot say a blessing "Who has sanctified us with His commandments and commanded us to mention the Exodus from Egypt" prior to performing the command since the mention is thus included in the text of the blessing, and the blessing would no longer be upon an act about to occur. He says that the telling of the story during the seder is a continuation of this same command, with the same reasoning for not having a separate blessing.