עֲבָדִים הָיִינוּ לְפַרְעֹה בְּמִצְרָיִם, וַיּוֹצִיאֵנוּ ה' אֱלֹהֵינוּ מִשָּׁם בְּיָד חֲזָקָה וּבִזְרֹעַ נְטוּיָה. וְאִלּוּ לֹא הוֹצִיא הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא אֶת אֲבוֹתֵינוּ מִמִּצְרָיִם, הֲרֵי אָנוּ וּבָנֵינוּ וּבְנֵי בָנֵינוּ מְשֻׁעְבָּדִים הָיִינוּ לְפַרְעֹה בְּמִצְרָיִם. וַאֲפִילוּ כֻּלָּנוּ חֲכָמִים כֻּלָּנוּ נְבוֹנִים כֻּלָּנוּ זְקֵנִים כֻּלָּנוּ יוֹדְעִים אֶת הַתּוֹרָה מִצְוָה עָלֵינוּ לְסַפֵּר בִּיצִיאַת מִצְרָיִם. וְכָל הַמַּרְבֶּה לְסַפֵּר בִּיצִיאַת מִצְרַיִם הֲרֵי זֶה מְשֻׁבָּח.
We were slaves to Pharaoh in the land of Egypt. And the Lord, our God, took us out from there with a strong hand and an outstretched forearm. And if the Holy One, blessed be He, had not taken our ancestors from Egypt, behold we and our children and our children's children would [all] be enslaved to Pharaoh in Egypt. And even if we were all sages, all discerning, all elders, all knowledgeable about the Torah, it would be a commandment upon us to tell the story of the exodus from Egypt. And anyone who adds [and spends extra time] in telling the story of the exodus from Egypt, behold he is praiseworthy.
בְּכָל־דּוֹר וָדוֹר חַיָּב אָדָם לִרְאוֹת אֶת־עַצְמוֹ כְּאִלּוּ הוּא יָצָא מִמִּצְרַיִם
In each and every generation, a person is obligated to see himself as if he left Egypt.
ספר עטרת זהב, רב זלמין הלל פנדל
הקשה הגר"ח מאי שנא מצות סיפור יציאת מצרים בליל פסח ממצות זכירת יציאת מצרים בכל השנה כולה. ונראה שהרמב"ם תירץ במש"כ (ריש פרק ז) מצות עשה של תורה לספר בנסים ונפלאות שנעשו במצרים בליל ט"ו בניסן שנאמר זכור את היום הזה אשר יצאתם ממצרים כמו שנאמר זכור את יום השבת. ולכא' הוא מדרש פליאה מהו השייכות בין זכירת יציאת מצרים לזכירת שבת.
אבל הביאור בדברי הרמב"ם הוא שבא להוכיח דזכור את היום הזה פירושו לזכור את יום היציאה ביום היציאה, כמו שנאמר זכור את יום השבת שפירושן לזכור את יום השבת ביום השבת. וזהו החילוק בין הזכירה דכל השנה לזכירה בליל פסח, דהזכירה בכל השנה היא לזכור מה שקרה מימים קדמוניות כזכירת שבת באמצע השבוע דהוא זוכר את יום השבת העתיד להיות. אבל זכירה בליל פסח הוא לזכור את יום היציאה ביום היציאה, וכהא דזכור את יום השבת שהוא לזכור את יום שבת ביום השבת, דהיינו לקדש את השבת, וה"נ כשמזכיר יום היציאה ביום היציאה הוא עושה את ליל הפסח כיום היציאה עצמה.
R'Chaim asks: what's the difference between the mitzvah of the story of the Exodus from Egypt on the night of Passover from the mitzvah of remembering the Exodus from Egypt throughout the entire year? It seems that the Rambam justified in the Mishnah (Beginning chapter 7) a mitzvah of the Torah to recount the miracles and wonders that were done in Egypt on the night of the 15th of Nisan, which is said to remember the This day that you came out of Egypt, as it was said, remember the Sabbath. Certainly, this is very confusing, what is the relationship between remembering the Exodus from Egypt and remembering Shabbat?
But the explanation in the Rambam's words is that he came to prove that remembering this day means remembering the day of exodus on the day of exodus, just as it is said to remember Yom Shabbat which means remembering the Sabbath day on Shabbat. What happened in ancient times when remembering Shabbat in the middle of the week is remembering the Sabbath that is to come. But remembering on the night of Passover is remembering the day of departure on the day of departure. When he remembers the day of departure On the day of departure, he makes the night of Passover the day of departure itself.
אַל יַעֲבֹר בְּמַחֲשַׁבְתְּךָ דָּבָר זֶה שֶׁאוֹמְרִים טִפְּשֵׁי אֻמּוֹת הָעוֹלָם וְרֹב גָּלְמֵי בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל שֶׁהַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא גּוֹזֵר עַל הָאָדָם מִתְּחִלַּת בְּרִיָּתוֹ לִהְיוֹת צַדִּיק אוֹ רָשָׁע. אֵין הַדָּבָר כֵּן אֶלָּא כָּל אָדָם רָאוּי לוֹ לִהְיוֹת צַדִּיק כְּמשֶׁה רַבֵּנוּ אוֹ רָשָׁע כְּיָרָבְעָם
A person should not entertain the thesis held by the fools among the gentiles and the majority of the undeveloped among Israel that, at the time of a man's creation, The Holy One, blessed be He, decrees whether he will be righteous or wicked.
This is untrue. Each person is fit to be righteous like Moses, our teacher, or wicked, like Jeroboam.
הַוִּדּוּי שֶׁנָּהֲגוּ בּוֹ כָּל יִשְׂרָאֵל אֲבָל אֲנַחְנוּ חָטָאנוּ (כֻּלָּנוּ) וְהוּא עִקַּר הַוִּדּוּי.
The confessional prayer customarily recited by all Israel is: "For we have all sinned...." This is the essence of the confessional prayer.
וַאֲמָרוּ גְּבַר לַאֲחוּהִי בְּקוּשְׁטָא חַיָּבִין אֲנַחְנָא עַל אָחוּנָא דִּי חֲזֵינָא עָקַת נַפְשֵׁיהּ כַּד הֲוָה מִתְחַנֶּן לָנָא וְלָא קַבֵּלְנָא מִנֵּיהּ עַל כֵּן אֲתָא (נ"א אָתֵת) לְוָתָנָא עַקְתָא הָדָא:
They said to one another, In truth, we are guilty regarding our brother. We saw the anguish of his soul when he pleaded with us and we did not listen [obey him]. That is why this trouble has come upon us.
My Lord said: Because that people has approached [Me] with its mouth and honored Me with its lips, But has kept its heart far from Me, And its worship of Me has been A commandment of men, learned by rote—
Truly, I shall further baffle that people, with bafflement upon bafflement; and the wisdom of its wise shall fail, and the prudence of its prudent shall vanish.
לכן הנני. הוא אשר יוסיף להפליא פלא ונוסף על פלא כיסוי על כסוי אוטם על אוטם ומהו הפלא ופלא ואבדה חכמת חכמיו, קשה סילוקם של חכמי ישראל כפלים כחורבן בית המקדש וכל קללות שבמשנ' תורה שכולן אינן אלא הפלאה אחת והפלא ה' את מכותך (דברים כ״ח:נ״ט) וכאן שתי הפלאות:
Therefore, I will continue I am He Who will continue to perform additional obscurity upon obscurity, concealment upon concealment, sealing upon sealing. And what is this obscurity upon obscurity? And the wisdom of their wise men shall be lost. The taking away of the sages of Israel is twice as hard as the destruction of the Temple and all the curses in Deuteronomy, for all of them are only one obscurity, as it is said (Deut. 28:59): “And the Lord shall make your plagues obscure (וְהִפְלָא),” whereas here are two obscurities.
כִּדְדָרֵשׁ רַבִּי יְהוּדָה: לֶעָתִיד לָבֹא, מְבִיאוֹ הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא לְיֵצֶר הָרָע, וְשׁוֹחֲטוֹ בִּפְנֵי הַצַּדִּיקִים וּבִפְנֵי הָרְשָׁעִים. צַדִּיקִים נִדְמֶה לָהֶם כְּהַר גָּבוֹהַּ, וּרְשָׁעִים נִדְמֶה לָהֶם כְּחוּט הַשַּׂעֲרָה. הַלָּלוּ בּוֹכִין וְהַלָּלוּ בּוֹכִין. צַדִּיקִים בּוֹכִין וְאוֹמְרִים: הֵיאַךְ יָכוֹלְנוּ לִכְבּוֹשׁ הַר גָּבוֹהַּ כָּזֶה! וּרְשָׁעִים בּוֹכִין וְאוֹמְרִים: הֵיאַךְ לֹא יָכוֹלְנוּ לִכְבּוֹשׁ אֶת חוּט הַשַּׂעֲרָה הַזֶּה!
The Gemara answers: This can be understood as Rabbi Yehuda taught: In the future, at the end of days, God will bring the evil inclination and slaughter it in the presence of the righteous and in the presence of the wicked. For the righteous the evil inclination appears to them as a high mountain, and for the wicked it appears to them as a mere strand of hair. These weep and those weep. The righteous weep and say: How were we able to overcome so high a mountain? And the wicked weep and say: How were we unable to overcome this strand of hair?
The righteous will cry- they will remember the pain that it took to conquer this evil one during their life.
Your letter reached my hand, and your words touched my heart. Know, my friend, that your very letter belies the descriptions that it contains. Now, let me explain this statement.
It is a terrible problem that when we discuss the greatness of our gedolim, we actually deal only with the end of their stories. We tell about their perfection, but we omit any mention of the inner battles which raged in their souls. The impression one gets is that they were created with their full stature.
For example, everyone is impressed by the purity of the Chafetz Chaim’s speech. [Ed. Note: The Chafetz Chaim led the battle against lashon hara and is held up as the model of how a Jew should speak.] However, who knows about all the wars, the battles, the impediments, the downfalls, and the retreats that the Chafetz Chaim experienced in his fight with the evil inclination?!
As a result, when a young man who is imbued with a [holy] spirit and with ambition experiences impediments and downfalls, he believes that he is not planted in the house of Hashem. This is because this young man thinks that being planted in Hashem’s house means experiencing tranquility of the soul “in lush meadows beside tranquil waters” [Tehilim 23:2].
However, know my friend, that the key for your soul is not the tranquility of the yetzer hatov, but the war against the yetzer hara. Your letter testifies that you are a faithful warrior in the army of the yetzer hatov. There is a saying in English, “Lose the battle and win the war.” You surely have stumbled and will stumble again, and you will be vanquished in many battles. However, I promise you that after you have lost those battles, you will emerge from the war with a victor’s wreath on your head.
The wisest of all men [King Shlomo] said [Mishlei 24:16], “The tzaddik will fall seven times and will rise.” The unlearned think that this means, “Even though a tzaddik falls seven times, he will rise.” The wise know well that the meaning is: “Because a tzaddik falls seven times, he will rise.” On the verse [Bereishit 1:31], “And Elokim saw all that He had made and it was very good,” the midrash comments, “‘Good’ refers to the yetzer hatov; ‘Very good’ refers to the yetzer hara.” If you had written to me of your mitzvot and good deeds, I would have said that it was a good letter. Now that you tell me of your falls and stumbles, I say that I have received a very good letter. Please, don’t picture to yourself that a gadol and his yetzer hatov are one and the same; rather, imagine the gedolim at war with all types of base tendencies . . .
I have seen fit to write these words to you so that you can refer to them from time to time. Regarding specific details, it is preferable to speak face-to-face.
You are one who is planted in Hashem’s house!
Sharing in your suffering,
Confident that you will prevail,
Praying for your success,
[Signed] Yitzchak Hutner.
P.S. Now you understand the opening sentence.
עַל אַחַת, כַּמָה וְכַּמָה, טוֹבָה כְפוּלָה וּמְכֻפֶּלֶת לַמָּקוֹם עָלֵינוּ: שֶׁהוֹצִיאָנוּ מִמִּצְרַיִם, וְעָשָׂה בָהֶם שְׁפָטִים, וְעָשָׂה בֵאלֹהֵיהֶם, וְהָרַג אֶת־בְּכוֹרֵיהֶם, וְנָתַן לָנוּ אֶת־מָמוֹנָם, וְקָרַע לָנוּ אֶת־הַיָּם, וְהֶעֱבִירָנוּ בְּתוֹכוֹ בֶּחָרָבָה, וְשִׁקַּע צָרֵנוּ בְּתוֹכוֹ, וְסִפֵּק צָרְכֵּנוּ בַּמִדְבָּר אַרְבָּעִים שָׁנָה, וְהֶאֱכִילָנוּ אֶת־הַמָּן, וְנָתַן לָנוּ אֶת־הַשַּׁבָּת, וְקֵרְבָנוּ לִפְנֵי הַר סִינַי, וְנָתַן לָנוּ אֶת־הַתּוֹרָה, וְהִכְנִיסָנוּ לְאֶרֶץ יִשְׂרָאֵל, וּבָנָה לָנוּ אֶת־בֵּית הַבְּחִירָה לְכַפֵּר עַל־כָּל־עֲוֹנוֹתֵינוּ.
How much more so is the good that is doubled and quadrupled that the Place [of all bestowed] upon us [enough for us]; since he took us out of Egypt, and made judgments with them, and made [them] with their gods, and killed their firstborn, and gave us their money, and split the Sea for us, and brought us through it on dry land, and pushed down our enemies in [the Sea], and supplied our needs in the wilderness for forty years, and fed us the manna, and gave us the Shabbat, and brought us close to Mount Sinai, and gave us the Torah, and brought us into the land of Israel and built us the 'Chosen House' [the Temple] to atone upon all of our sins.
Rav Hirsh - In any case, this expression is characteristic of Judaism's attitude toward ancient and modern heathenism. That to which other peoples sacrifice themselves, the Jew offers to his God. The gods of the other nations are the mighty forces of nature, to which man must submit, and the powerful forces of nature within man, to which he is subject. The heathen idolizes the forces of nature that are around him and within him, and he submits to them helplessly. The Jew, however, in his offerings, kills the representatives of these forces and thereby makes himself
aware of his ability to master the forces of nature within himself. By mastering these forces through the exercise of his freedom, and by submitting them to the one free almighty God, he also frees himself from the dominion of all the blind external forces of nature. By offering up
the idol that is within himself, he breaks the chains of the external bondage posed by nature.
עשרה קבין חכמה ירדו לעולם כו' בכל הני קאמר ירדו ר"ל ירדו מן השמים לפי הגזירה כדאמרינן במס' נדה בחכם וגבור ועשיר שמלאך הממונה על כך מעמיד הטפה לפני הקב"ה וגוזר זו תהא חכם וזו גבור וזו עשיר מיהו אותה הגזירה מוכנת יותר בארץ הזאת מבאחרת לפי מלאך ומזל אותה מדינה בכל ארץ וארץ לפי הענינים שזכר ומ"ה לא קאמר נמי עשרה קבין צדקות ירדו לעולם ובהיפך י' קבין רשעות כו' משום דהוה דבר שאינו נגזר מן השמים כדקאמר התם אבל צדיק ורשע לא קאמר דהכל בידי שמים חוץ מיראת שמים וק"ל: