Arami Oved Avi - Kreuzberg Kollel - Nissan 5780

(4) They mixed him a second cup, and here the son questions his father. If the son lacks the intelligence to ask, his father instructs him: How different this night is from all other nights! On all other nights we eat hametz and matzah, tonight only matzah. On all other nights we eat other vegetables, tonight only bitter herbs. On all other nights, we eat meat roasted, boiled or cooked, tonight only roasted. On all other nights we dip once, tonight twice. And according to the intellect of the son, the father instructs him. He begins with shame and concludes with praise; and expounds from “Arami Oved Avi” (Deuteronomy 6:20-25) until he completes the whole section.

(5) You shall then recite as follows before the LORD your God: “Arami Oved Avi. He went down to Egypt with meager numbers and sojourned there; but there he became a great and very populous nation. (6) The Egyptians dealt harshly with us and oppressed us; they imposed heavy labor upon us. (7) We cried to the LORD, the God of our fathers, and the LORD heard our plea and saw our plight, our misery, and our oppression. (8) The LORD freed us from Egypt by a mighty hand, by an outstretched arm and awesome power, and by signs and portents. (9) He brought us to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. (10) Wherefore I now bring the first fruits of the soil which You, O LORD, have given me.” You shall leave it before the LORD your God and bow low before the LORD your God. (11) And you shall enjoy, together with the Levite and the stranger in your midst, all the bounty that the LORD your God has bestowed upon you and your household.

(1) ארמי אובד אבי, as if the Torah had written "my father Avraham was an Aramite, lost, and exiled from his birthplace Aram.”

G’d had told him in Genesis 12,1 “go forth for yourself from your homeland, etc.” Later on, Avraham himself relates to Avimelech the king of the Philistines, (Genesis 20,13) that G’d had made him wander, away from his father’s house, etc. The meaning of the word אובד here is similar to תועה, the root Avraham used to describe wandering without specific objective, almost like walking because one is lost....

Go out and learn what Lavan the Aramean sought to do to Ya'akov, our father; since Pharaoh only decreed [the death sentence] on the males but Lavan sought to uproot the whole [people]. As it is stated (Deuteronomy 26:5), "Arami Oved Avi and he went down to Egypt, and he resided there with a small number and he became there a nation, great, powerful and numerous."

"And he went down to Egypt" - helpless on account of the word [in which God told Avraham that his descendants would have to go into exile].

"And he resided there" - [this] teaches that Ya'akov, our father, didn't go down to settle in Egypt, but rather [only] to reside there, as it is stated (Genesis 47:4), "And they said to Pharaoh, 'To reside in the land have we come, since there is not enough pasture for your servant's flocks, since the famine is heavy in the land of Canaan, and now please grant that your servants should dwell in the Land of Goshen.'"

(2) ארמי אבד אבי — One mentions the loving kindness of the Omnipresent saying, ארמי אבד אבי, which means: “Laban wished to exterminate the whole nation” when he pursued Jacob. Because he intended to do it the Omnipresent accounted it unto him as though he had actually done it (and therefore the expression אבד which refers to the past is used), for as far as the nations of the world are concerned the Holy One, blessed be He, accounts unto them intention as an actual deed.

(2) lost is an intransitive verb. If the Aramean referred to Lavan, then the verb would be in the transitive hif‘il or pi‘el form. Besides, what sense is there to say, “Lavan tried to destroy my forefather, and he went down to Egypt”? Lavan never considered going down to Egypt! The plausible interpretation is that the Aramean refers to Yaaqov, as if Scripture had said, “When my forefather was in Aramea, he was lost” — meaning, he was a pauper, without property. Compare, “give strong drink to him who is lost” [Proverbs 31: 6], where it is immediately followed by, “let him drink, and forget his poverty” [Proverbs 31: 7]. Thus the lost Aramean was my forefather. The intent of this passage is: I did not inherit this land from my forefather, for he was a pauper when he came to Aramea, and he was a stranger in Egypt, where he was few in number. Afterwards, he became a great nation; and you, God , brought us out of slavery, and gave us the good land. Do not object to Yaaqov’s being called an Aramean, since similar apellations can be found. Consider “Yeter the Ishmaelite” [I Chronicles 2: 17], even though he was really an Israelite (for so it is written [II Samuel 17: 25]).

The word Avi includes all the fathers as one, since they would wander from nation to nation, and the first of them came from Aram. This is similar to the interpretation of Rashbam.

Rabbi Shimon ben Yoḥai says: A person should say his own praise in a soft voice, and say that which is to his discredit in a loud voice.

Discredit - for example, saying Arami Oved Avi, which is shameful in that one admits that their father Lavan the Aramean was wicked.

"Arami Oved Avi" - We learn that Jacob went down to Aram in order to be destroyed, and Scripture accounts it to Lavan the Aramean as if he had destroyed him, [this having been his intention].