בְּכָל־דּוֹר וָדוֹר חַיָּב אָדָם לִרְאוֹת אֶת־עַצְמוֹ כְּאִלּוּ הוּא יָצָא מִמִּצְרַיִם...
In each and every generation, a person is obligated to see oneself as if he/she/they left Egypt...
Passover Haggadah Graphic Novel by Gorfinkel and Zadok
Studies on the Haggadah from the teachings of Nechama Leibowitz
According to Harav Kook, the Exodus from Egypt was fundamentally the struggle of the Jew to overcome his secular nature and to achieve sanctity. He explained the mitzvah of wearing tefillin on the arm as follows: just as God needed a strong hand to extricate Bnai Yisrael from Egypt, so too in every generation the individual Jew needs a strong hand in order to extricate himself from his "personal Egypt."
According to Harav Kook, the Exodus from Egypt was fundamentally the struggle of the Jew to overcome his secular nature and to achieve sanctity. He explained the mitzvah of wearing tefillin on the arm as follows: just as God needed a strong hand to extricate Bnai Yisrael from Egypt, so too in every generation the individual Jew needs a strong hand in order to extricate himself from his "personal Egypt."
A Night to Remember
"The Exodus from Egypt occurs in evey human being, in every era, in every year and even on every day."
---Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav
"The Exodus from Egypt occurs in evey human being, in every era, in every year and even on every day."
---Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav
Mishkan HaSeder: A Passover Haggadah
TO SEE OURSELVES - לִרְאוֹת אֶת־עַצְמוֹ
The Sephardic Haggadah adjusts this phrase slightly by adding a Hebrew letter to the word lirot and changing it to l'heira-ot - להראות.
This tiny modification transforms the sentence, which thus refers to an obligation to show ourselves as if we had come out of Egypt." What indeed is the difference between seeing oneself as free, and showing oneself to be free? How do we demonstrate our freedom through our actions, our words, our relationships?
TO SEE OURSELVES - לִרְאוֹת אֶת־עַצְמוֹ
The Sephardic Haggadah adjusts this phrase slightly by adding a Hebrew letter to the word lirot and changing it to l'heira-ot - להראות.
This tiny modification transforms the sentence, which thus refers to an obligation to show ourselves as if we had come out of Egypt." What indeed is the difference between seeing oneself as free, and showing oneself to be free? How do we demonstrate our freedom through our actions, our words, our relationships?
My People's Passover Haggadah
First note that the text does not say that "every Jew" must see him or herself as having come out of Egypt, but rather “every one" or "every individual." The Hebrew word is "adam," which is... gender neutral and... means simply a person, a human being. The liberation from Egypt has universal significance that extends way beyond Jewish history. That is why the exodus theme has been taken up by oppressed peoples everywhere on earth. That explains why there are Haggadot that tell the story of other communities liberation from their own oppression-black Haggadot, feminist Haggadot, secular Israeli Haggadot, and the rest.
Second, note the Hebrew word kilu, "as though." Every person must see him- or herself "as though" having personally come out of Egypt. The “as though" here implies the author's awareness that there is a touch of hyperbole in the claim. Taken literally, I was not really in Egypt. But... I might have been - an accident of birth located me where I am now in space and time, but I could have been born in another time and in another place. And... more important, I must learn to see myself "as though" I was there by virtue of my communal memory. Memory is what knits together the generations; memory creates the possibility of continuity and history. Memory creates community...
----Neil Gillman
First note that the text does not say that "every Jew" must see him or herself as having come out of Egypt, but rather “every one" or "every individual." The Hebrew word is "adam," which is... gender neutral and... means simply a person, a human being. The liberation from Egypt has universal significance that extends way beyond Jewish history. That is why the exodus theme has been taken up by oppressed peoples everywhere on earth. That explains why there are Haggadot that tell the story of other communities liberation from their own oppression-black Haggadot, feminist Haggadot, secular Israeli Haggadot, and the rest.
Second, note the Hebrew word kilu, "as though." Every person must see him- or herself "as though" having personally come out of Egypt. The “as though" here implies the author's awareness that there is a touch of hyperbole in the claim. Taken literally, I was not really in Egypt. But... I might have been - an accident of birth located me where I am now in space and time, but I could have been born in another time and in another place. And... more important, I must learn to see myself "as though" I was there by virtue of my communal memory. Memory is what knits together the generations; memory creates the possibility of continuity and history. Memory creates community...
----Neil Gillman