ק"ק מידטאון - Midtown Congregation פרשת שמות

(1) These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob, each coming with his household:

(1) When God began to create heaven and earth—

(1) יהוה called to Moses and spoke to him from the Tent of Meeting, saying:

(1) On the first day of the second month, in the second year following the exodus from the land of Egypt, יהוה spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the Tent of Meeting, saying:

(1) These are the words that Moses addressed to all Israel on the other side of the Jordan.—Through the wilderness, in the Arabah near Suph, between Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Di-zahab,

(8) A new king arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph. (9) And he said to his people, “Look, the Israelite people are much too numerous for us.

(1) A good name is better than fragrant oil, and the day of death than the day of birth.

(1) A certain member of the house of Levi went and took [into his household as his wife] a woman of Levi. (2) The woman conceived and bore a son; and when she saw how beautiful he was, she hid him for three months. (3) When she could hide him no longer, she got a wicker basket for him and caulked it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child into it and placed it among the reeds by the bank of the Nile. (4) And his sister stationed herself at a distance, to learn what would befall him. (5) The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe in the Nile, while her maidens walked along the Nile. She spied the basket among the reeds and sent her slave girl to fetch it. (6) When she opened it, she saw that it was a child, a boy crying. She took pity on it and said, “This must be a Hebrew child.” (7) Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get you a Hebrew nurse to suckle the child for you?” (8) And Pharaoh’s daughter answered, “Yes.” So the girl went and called the child’s mother. (9) And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will pay your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed it. (10) When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, who made him her son. She named him Moses, explaining, “I drew him out of the water.”

(20) Amram took into his [household] as wife his father’s sister Jochebed, and she bore him Aaron and Moses; and the span of Amram’s life was 137 years.

רַבָּן גַּמְלִיאֵל Rabban Gamliel would say: Anyone who does not say these three things on Pesaḥ has not fulfilled his obligation, and these are they: PESAḤ, MATZA, AND BITTER HERBS.

The PESAḤ is what our ancestors would eat while the Temple stood: and what does it recall? It recalls the Holy One’s passing over (Pasah) the houses of our ancestors in Egypt, as it is said: “You shall say: ‘It is a Pesaḥ offering for the LORD, for He passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt while He struck the Egyptians, but saved those in our homes’ – and the people bowed and prostrated themselves.”

The matzot are now lifted:

THIS MATZA that we eat: what does it recall? It recalls the dough of our ancestors, which did not have time to rise before the King, King of kings, the Holy One, blessed be He, revealed Himself and redeemed them, as it is said: “They baked the dough that they had brought out of Egypt into unleavened cakes, for it had not risen, for they were cast out of Egypt and could not delay, and they made no provision for the way.”

The bitter herbs are now lifted:

THESE BITTER HERBS that we eat: what do they recall? They recall the bitterness that the Egyptians imposed on the lives of our ancestors in Egypt, as it is said: “They embittered their lives with hard labor, with clay and with bricks and with all field labors, with all the work with which they enslaved them – hard labor.”

בְּכָָל דּוֹר וָדוֹר GENERATION BY GENERATION, each person must see himself as if he himself had come out of Egypt, as it is said: “And you shall tell your child on that day, ‘Because of this the LORD acted for me when I came out of Egypt.’” It was not only our ancestors whom the Holy One redeemed; He redeemed us too along with them, as it is said: “He took us out of there, to bring us to the land He promised our ancestors and to give it to us.”