Pesach 5781 | March 2021
Rabbanit Bracha Jaffe
Class of 2017
American historian Stephen Ambrose stated: “The past is a source of knowledge, and the future is a source of hope. Love of the past implies faith in the future.”
Each year, as Pesach comes around, each of us finds ourselves in our own personal Mitzrayim (Egypt). Mitzrayim comes from the word tzar which means “narrow” or “confined”. Each year, on Pesach, we have an opportunity to think about the ways in which we feel personally confined and troubled. This year, the term “confined” feels more poignant than ever.
The Sefat Emet, Rabbi Yehuda Leib Alter of Ger, a Hasidic master, gives us a recipe for releasing ourselves from our meitzarim, our narrow places. He bases it on a classic debate on this famous quote from the Mishna (Pesachim 10:5) that we recite at the Seder:
בְּכָל דּוֹר וָדוֹר חַיָּב אָדָם לִרְאוֹת אֶת עַצְמוֹ כְאִלּוּ הוּא יָצָא מִמִּצְרַיִם.
In each and every generation a person must view himself as though he personally left Egypt.
The Sefat Emet continues with this quote (Deut 6:23):
(כג) וְאוֹתָ֖נוּ הוֹצִ֣יא מִשָּׁ֑ם
(23) and us He freed from there
What does this mean? Are we to see Pesach as a commemoration of a seismic event that radically changed our people’s history? Or are we to put ourselves back in time – actually imagine ourselves leaving Egypt and being saved?
The Sefat Emet astutely pulls these two views together. He explains that emunah, faith, is the cornerstone that connects the two.
If we can put ourselves back in Egypt, then we can feel the communal salvation.
If we can feel the communal salvation, then this can fuel our faith.
If this fuels our faith, then we can believe in the power of God’s helping hand.
If we have faith in the power of God’s helping hand, then we can believe that God can help each of us – today.
If we can do this – Dayenu!
