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rhuA thought on the hagadah:
In discussing the structure of the Passover seder, the Talmud (BT Pesachim 116a) says "מתחיל בגנות ומסיים בשבח" --- [the one leading the seder] begins with shame and concludes with glory.
The Talmud then asks the obvious question: מאי בגנות? What is "with shame"?
And there are, of course, two answers: רב אמר מתחלה עובדי עבודת גלולים היו אבותינו ושמואל אמר עבדים היינו Rav says "In the beginning, our ancestors were idolators"; and Shmuel says "We were slaves..."
Rav's position seems to imply that the essence of the Passover narrative is our transition from idol-worship to the religion of Judaism; Shmuel's position implies that it's about our transition from the subjugation of slavery to the nationhood of Israel.
Yet if we look in the hagadah itself, it's interesting to see how the transition actually plays out. Here's Rav:
מִתְּחִלָּה עוֹבְדֵי עֲבוֹדָה זָרָה הָיוּ אֲבוֹתֵינוּ, וְעַכְשָׁיו קֵרְבָנוּ הַמָּקוֹם לַעֲבֹדָתוֹ
At first, our ancestors were idolators, and now the Omnipresent has brought us near to His service.
And here's Shmuel, followed by an excerpt from the immediately following passage of the four children:
עֲבָדִים הָיִינוּ לְפַרְעֹה בְּמִצְרָיִם,
We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt
רָשָׁע מָה הוּא אוֹמֵר? מָה הָעֲבֹדָה הַזֹּאת לָכֶם?
The wicked one -- what does he say? "What is this service to you?"
The word I'm picking on, if you haven't figured it out by now, is avodah, which has various shades here but a single core meaning. When our ancestors were idolators, they were "ovdei avodah zarah - servants of the strange service." When we were slaves, we were "avadim - slaves". And now, we perform "avodat Hashem - the [ritual] services of God".
So even in Shmuel's narrative, we were taken out of Egypt, but we're not exactly free. Everyone devotes their lives to the service of something, and in our people's narrative, the process of Exodus brought us near to the service of God; the dispute between Rav and Shmuel is which of our previous masters -- idolatry or Pharaoh -- was the more shameful?
And yet perhaps each answer to that question includes the other. Pharaoh set himself up as a god, and the midrash tells us that, as slaves, we gave up almost all of the ways of God and turned to idol-worship. Being slaves to Pharaoh perhaps also led to us being idolators.
In the other direction, I recall Tani's observation last year. We learn in the Talmud (BT Nedarim 32a):
אמר רבי אבהו אמר רבי אלעזר מפני מה נענש אברהם אבינו ונשתעבדו בניו למצרים ... ושמואל אמר מפני שהפריז על מדותיו של הקב"ה שנא' (בראשית טו) במה אדע כי אירשנה
Rabbi Abbahu said in the name of Rabbi Eleazer: Why was Avraham our Father punished and his children doomed to Egyptian servitude? ... Shmuel said: Because he went too far in testing the attributes (= promises) of God, as it is written, "How shall I know that I shall inherit [the land]?" (Gen 15)
Here, Shmuel is telling us that the root cause of our slavery in Egypt was Avraham's moment of doubt in God. I'm not suggesting, God forbid, that Avraham was an idolator; what I am bringing down, though, is that even Shmuel, who sees the seder narrative as focused on our physical slavery in Egypt, sees that slavery as the consequence of a spiritual failing.
One more thing about the physical slavery. In the section of drash, we read in the hagadah:
וַיִתְּנוּ עָלֵינוּ עֲבֹדָה קָשָׁה - כְּמָה שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר: וַיַעֲבִדוּ מִצְרַיִם אֶת בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל בְּפָרֶךְ.
And they gave us hard work (avodah) -- just like it is said, "And the Egyptians tasked (vaya-avdu) the Children of Israel pointlessly."
This is the kind of pointless work that tyrants have used since time immemorial to break the spirit, such as digging a trench and then refilling it. Yet it doesn't always take a taskmaster to get us to waste our efforts on pointless makework, and it can be just as soul-crushing when we do it to ourselves.
"We begin with shame." We begin with the realization that it doesn't matter whether the vicious cycle begins with a spiritual failure to dedicate our lives to the service of God, or with a physical situation that distances us from God's work. Either entrance to the downward spiral can lead to the 49 levels of g'nut. Both Rav and Shmuel are correct, and they are not as far apart as it first seems.
"And we conclude in glory." The downward spiral can be broken. The message of the seder is that redemption remains possible. We can turn our lives around and dedicate them, not to pointless labor, not to the service of false gods, but to the Divine labor that will lead to the ultimate redemption.
Chag kasher v'sameach!
In discussing the structure of the Passover seder, the Talmud (BT Pesachim 116a) says "מתחיל בגנות ומסיים בשבח" --- [the one leading the seder] begins with shame and concludes with glory.
The Talmud then asks the obvious question: מאי בגנות? What is "with shame"?
And there are, of course, two answers: רב אמר מתחלה עובדי עבודת גלולים היו אבותינו ושמואל אמר עבדים היינו Rav says "In the beginning, our ancestors were idolators"; and Shmuel says "We were slaves..."
Rav's position seems to imply that the essence of the Passover narrative is our transition from idol-worship to the religion of Judaism; Shmuel's position implies that it's about our transition from the subjugation of slavery to the nationhood of Israel.
Yet if we look in the hagadah itself, it's interesting to see how the transition actually plays out. Here's Rav:
מִתְּחִלָּה עוֹבְדֵי עֲבוֹדָה זָרָה הָיוּ אֲבוֹתֵינוּ, וְעַכְשָׁיו קֵרְבָנוּ הַמָּקוֹם לַעֲבֹדָתוֹ
At first, our ancestors were idolators, and now the Omnipresent has brought us near to His service.
And here's Shmuel, followed by an excerpt from the immediately following passage of the four children:
עֲבָדִים הָיִינוּ לְפַרְעֹה בְּמִצְרָיִם,
We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt
רָשָׁע מָה הוּא אוֹמֵר? מָה הָעֲבֹדָה הַזֹּאת לָכֶם?
The wicked one -- what does he say? "What is this service to you?"
The word I'm picking on, if you haven't figured it out by now, is avodah, which has various shades here but a single core meaning. When our ancestors were idolators, they were "ovdei avodah zarah - servants of the strange service." When we were slaves, we were "avadim - slaves". And now, we perform "avodat Hashem - the [ritual] services of God".
So even in Shmuel's narrative, we were taken out of Egypt, but we're not exactly free. Everyone devotes their lives to the service of something, and in our people's narrative, the process of Exodus brought us near to the service of God; the dispute between Rav and Shmuel is which of our previous masters -- idolatry or Pharaoh -- was the more shameful?
And yet perhaps each answer to that question includes the other. Pharaoh set himself up as a god, and the midrash tells us that, as slaves, we gave up almost all of the ways of God and turned to idol-worship. Being slaves to Pharaoh perhaps also led to us being idolators.
In the other direction, I recall Tani's observation last year. We learn in the Talmud (BT Nedarim 32a):
אמר רבי אבהו אמר רבי אלעזר מפני מה נענש אברהם אבינו ונשתעבדו בניו למצרים ... ושמואל אמר מפני שהפריז על מדותיו של הקב"ה שנא' (בראשית טו) במה אדע כי אירשנה
Rabbi Abbahu said in the name of Rabbi Eleazer: Why was Avraham our Father punished and his children doomed to Egyptian servitude? ... Shmuel said: Because he went too far in testing the attributes (= promises) of God, as it is written, "How shall I know that I shall inherit [the land]?" (Gen 15)
Here, Shmuel is telling us that the root cause of our slavery in Egypt was Avraham's moment of doubt in God. I'm not suggesting, God forbid, that Avraham was an idolator; what I am bringing down, though, is that even Shmuel, who sees the seder narrative as focused on our physical slavery in Egypt, sees that slavery as the consequence of a spiritual failing.
One more thing about the physical slavery. In the section of drash, we read in the hagadah:
וַיִתְּנוּ עָלֵינוּ עֲבֹדָה קָשָׁה - כְּמָה שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר: וַיַעֲבִדוּ מִצְרַיִם אֶת בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל בְּפָרֶךְ.
And they gave us hard work (avodah) -- just like it is said, "And the Egyptians tasked (vaya-avdu) the Children of Israel pointlessly."
This is the kind of pointless work that tyrants have used since time immemorial to break the spirit, such as digging a trench and then refilling it. Yet it doesn't always take a taskmaster to get us to waste our efforts on pointless makework, and it can be just as soul-crushing when we do it to ourselves.
"We begin with shame." We begin with the realization that it doesn't matter whether the vicious cycle begins with a spiritual failure to dedicate our lives to the service of God, or with a physical situation that distances us from God's work. Either entrance to the downward spiral can lead to the 49 levels of g'nut. Both Rav and Shmuel are correct, and they are not as far apart as it first seems.
"And we conclude in glory." The downward spiral can be broken. The message of the seder is that redemption remains possible. We can turn our lives around and dedicate them, not to pointless labor, not to the service of false gods, but to the Divine labor that will lead to the ultimate redemption.
Chag kasher v'sameach!