Pesach: Where Should the Haggadah Begin?

The starting point of the Seder: slavery or idolatry

Yes. We have already defined Egypt, Mitzrayim, following the Arizal, as the source of all impurities — and so, of course, as the source of all the exiles, of all the calamities the Jewish people would later endure and has never ceased to endure.

And on the night of the Haggadah we ask ourselves: what will be the starting point of our reflection? Shall we take as our starting point “Avadim hayinu le-Pharaoh be-Mitzrayim”, we were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt? We did not seek it, we did not ask for it, it was decided independently of us, was it not? We were thrown into Egypt, condemned to be in Egypt.

Or should we examine our starting point from the reflection that ought to open with “Mi-tehillah ovdei avodah zarah hayu avoteinu”, in the beginning our ancestors were idol worshippers? And in what order of preference should we take up one or the other part of the meditation that is asked of us on the night of the Pesach Seder?

In the end, we opted for “Avadim hayinu”, we were slaves in Egypt, and left “Mi-tehillah ovdei avodah zarah hayu avoteinu”, in the beginning our ancestors were idol worshippers, for second place.

And rightly so. Every time we agree to live in any kind of dependence, we are idolaters.

The sin of Adam according to Maimonides: a conception of the world

For all of man’s exile has its starting point in the sin of Adam, the sin of this Adam HaRishon, universal man. But is Adam’s sin simply that he reduced knowledge to a consumer product?

For Maimonides — no. For Maimonides, the starting point of Adam’s sin lies in the gaze the woman casts upon the fruit of the tree; that is, when the woman looks at the fruit of the tree of knowledge and lets herself be seduced by its outward appearance, thinking that it was truly good to eat.

That is the moment the sin begins. The sin lies in how we conceive the world before us. Indeed, this is why the Rambam, when he speaks of the evil inclination or the good inclination, does not speak of impulse, does not speak of tendency: he speaks of conception.

It is conceiving the good, or it is the conception of evil. Either we truly seek the truth in its essence and try to internalize it, and not only to […].

Man sown outside the garden: embracing the attributes of the Creator

[…] That is what G-d did at the very beginning. In truth, man had to be sown outside the Garden of Eden. To place everything in his hands, in such a way that he could not decide for himself, would have been to turn his Garden of Eden into Gehinnom, into hell. For what would his merit be then? What would he do? He would be shut out of the process of creation, and that would considerably reduce his own creation. He would no longer be in the image of G-d.

To be in the image of G-d is to embrace His attributes. HaKadosh Baruch Hu wanted, in creating man, that he too should be a bestower of good, that he should visit the sick, that he should care for the departed and their burial — just as He Himself does.

That is the image of the Creator the Torah gives us. From the very beginning He bestows His goodness. He even sews garments for man, to cover his nakedness. He visits the sick — Avraham Avinu. He takes care to bury Moshe Rabbeinu Himself.

These are the attributes that matter. These are the attributes by virtue of which we were fashioned in the likeness of HaKadosh Baruch Hu.

Now, to resemble the Creator is an identity, but it is not enough. The author of […] teaches that it is not only a matter of practicing kindness, not only of embracing the attributes of the Eternal, but also of taking part in sustaining the creation of the world.

Taking part in sustaining the creation of the world does not mean being a conservative. It does not mean leaving the world as it is and trying to preserve it as best one can. No — one must create the world in the same way that G-d does. He uncovers the world, He reveals the nature of the world, and man is called to do the same.

Truth cast to the ground so that it may spring up

In short, in the same way, at the creation of man, the attributes began to contest this will of HaKadosh Baruch Hu to make a being in His likeness. They say: “But he is a liar! What are You about to create? Someone who will do harm, one who feeds quarrels.”

And yet there were defenders of the creation of this extraordinary being, who said: “No, he too is capable of rising. Why not create him? He is also capable of finding compromises in life, of giving life. Why not?”

He is torn: should He, or should He not? And the Midrash tells us: He cast truth to the ground, “ve-tashlech emet artzah.” And the ministering angels protested: “How dare You cast truth to the ground — truth, the royal seal of Your creation, of Your kingdom, of Your rule?”

And He answers: “From now on, I want truth to spring up from the ground, from the earth — ‘Emet me-eretz titzmach.’ I do not want the world to be governed by a truth that is exclusively heavenly, out of man’s reach. I want man himself to take part in the revelation.”

Discovering the Torah, sowing the truth

It is important to know that the Torah is not given entirely and exclusively from above: man discovered part of it, as he did with the book of Devarim, the Mishneh Torah, which was countersigned and which he incorporated.

Of course, our Sages say that had the Torah not been given to Israel, we would have learned from the ant not to steal, and from the cat discretion, modesty.

Yes, even in the animal kingdom there are exceptional laws of nature that are part of creation. And man observes them, discovers them, lays them bare, internalizes them. And in this he truly becomes a partner in the covenant with […].

And in this way, just as the farmer sows to every wind, yet what he sows is a tiny fraction compared with the harvest, HaKadosh Baruch Hu willed that even what the Jewish people is called to sow in His universe should be accompanied by an immense harvest.

And that is why, in the same way, He cast truth to the ground — but casting truth to the ground is not throwing it away; it is sowing it — sowing the truth in the universe of creation and saying to man: “Now bring it to light, discover it, teach it, share it.”

“Atem keruyim adam”: we are gerim at the source

And that is the phenomenon of the Exodus, Yetziat Mitzrayim. G-d needed to create this Adam, this structure of Adam: “Atem keruyim adam”, you are called Adam, you are the prototype of Adam.

Does that mean the others are not? They are, in different degrees. Is the prototype of Adam truly the Jew as people try to define him, either […] or modern? There is a spectrum of Jewish identities. Obviously, some are more demanding than others.

But what is essential is that this identity gathers in the whole of humanity. We are gerim at the source. Avraham is the first ger. And a ger creates himself. A ger is not the continuation of some evolution: he is someone who broke with what he was and gave himself a new life. And that is what we are at our origin, in our essence.

If later it continued to be said that this Judaism, this Jewish identity, is conferred through the mother, it is because a mode of functioning had to be adopted. But a ger — whoever wishes to take upon himself this creation of the being that makes us wish to be in the image of G-d, in the image of the Creator — the gates are open to him, provided he is sincere in his path.

Torn from the bowels of Egypt: a new creation

In the Exodus, in this first phenomenon, we were an integral part of Egypt. But we had preserved a few of our ancestors’ rules of life and developed them, so that we wished to remain faithful to the path of Avraham.

And HaKadosh Baruch Hu, […] truly tore us out of the labor, out of the very bowels of Egypt, and that is a new creation.

This is an important idea, because through it we remain like Avraham Avinu, the father of universality, “Av hamon goyim”, the father of the entire world. And the Jewish people has no right to shut itself up in any structure whatsoever, except to protect itself against its own weaknesses; but its duty is to sow the truth.

G-d exiled the Jewish people among the nations only to increase the number of gerim. There is a potential here, and that potential must be discovered. And this is important, because in messianic times the gates of conversion will be closed. It will no longer be possible to become a ger.

Leaving all self-conditioning

Why? Because at that point it will simply be out of self-interest, as one sometimes sees today: a copied Judaism, an aped Judaism, a Judaism not lived from within, conditioned by an outward gaze. “Va-tere ha-ishah”: the woman saw that the tree was good, and one judges all that is good from that single gaze.

That is the whole problem, and that is why the phenomenon of the Exodus is to leave all self-conditioning, all abundance, and to try each time to move forward. And I have said it before: we can do this only if we believe that all of creation is yesh me-ayin, being drawn from nothingness.

[…] to go from the absence of self toward a world to one’s own measure, one’s own dimension. To conceive that this world would not exist without me, and that my self is indispensable to this world — that is truly idolatry.

That is it, […]: “I make myself, I am myself.” No, no one makes himself; that is absurd. One does not come into the world like that, starting out from nothing. No. One makes oneself smaller in order to discover […].

This is an important teaching, and it is why our Sages preferred, in the Pesach Haggadah, to begin identifying the Jewish people not by its abandonment of idolatry, but by its abandonment of preconceived ideas, of fixed ideas, of the world we fashion for ourselves and by ourselves. And that is the starting point of all idolatry. We have not left idolatry.

“Min ha-metzar karati Yah”: the present inscribed in the future

Indeed, as soon as it left Egypt, the people needed to reveal within itself […]: “Anochi Hashem Elokecha”, I am Hashem your G-d. I am Hashem your G-d who brought you out of Egypt — when you have accomplished your own Exodus; otherwise it is not possible. That is the whole definition of this conditioning.

“Min ha-metzar karati Yah”: from the narrow place I called upon Yah. What is the Yah? The heh is in the breath of the present, and the yud is in the projection of the future. I have inscribed the present in the future, and in so doing I have signed my own Exodus, that is, my own creation in the image of my Creator.

This idea is very important, for it is not something to celebrate once a year: we recall the Exodus to ourselves morning and evening in prayer, do we not? The Exodus is our point of reference. The Exodus is in the Shema Yisrael.

The Shema, the clear language and the Noahide laws

And what is the vision of this Shema Yisrael? “Az ehpokh el amim safah verurah”: I will give the peoples a limpid, clear language that affirms the unity of G-d. Affirming the unity of G-d does not necessarily mean practicing the whole Torah in its every detail. There are those who can do so, but there are those who will content themselves with the Noahide laws.

And in the future, in messianic times, humanity will adopt the seven Noahide laws as rules of conduct — but out of recognition of G-d and of the fact that these laws emanate from Him.

The Mashiach’s sense of smell and “lo tachmod”

For there is indeed always a tension between this physical reality and this spiritual reality. And in principle, one is either in the one or in the other. If one is in the one, one belongs to the reality of the angels. If one is in the other, we are simply evolved animals, even if endowed with speech. That is all very well.

But there is a language of birds, there is a language of animals, and there is a sense of smell that will be the hallmark of the Mashiach. How will the Mashiach divine the truth? He will scent it. And how will he scent it? The way the ant scents the grain of wheat. That grain of wheat has already been taken by its neighbor: it will not touch it, will not try to snatch it, it will turn away from it.

There is, within it, this instinct not to steal what belongs to another, not to covet what belongs to another. And when one knows that “lo tachmod” is the extreme point — not the opposite, the extreme point — of […], one realizes that, in the end, what I must bring to fulfillment is myself. What I must discover is my own person.

Speech, the link between the material and the spiritual world

The life I live is worth something only because I want to reach […]. By what means? By means of speech. What establishes contact between the material world here below and the spiritual world? Speech. Nothing else. For by speech the world was created, for speech can accomplish everything: “Bi-dvar Hashem shamayim na’asu” — everything is made, everything is brought into being, by His word.

And this is what our Sages highlighted when they said that all the prophets prophesied with “Koh amar Hashem”, “thus says Hashem.” They do not report exactly what G-d said, but they report its content. They recount it to us, each in his own style. Not all the prophets use the same expression, but the substance is one and the same, under different aspects, different nuances.

But why? Because it is hard to reach that higher truth, “Zeh ha-davar”, where the object is one with the word, where the word reproduces the object. That is not at our level — but let the word at least reproduce something that resembles it.

The malchut of speech and the throat of Moshe

[…] And He indeed chose His emissaries, these prophets, who chose to cleave to His word. This choice to cleave to the word is malchut, the attribute of kingship. Man is king only through his speech, through what he says, through what he expresses by means of his person.

And this with many nuances, of course; but the davar is what can govern absolutely. So who held this power of speech? Moshe. […] It is the word that the Eternal speaks: the Divine Presence spoke from the throat of Moshe, “Shechinah medaberet mi-toch grono shel Moshe”, from the vocal cords of Moshe.

Yes, Moshe truly reached — he touched — that fiftieth degree of wisdom, that fiftieth degree of understanding, that fiftieth gate of revelation.

The kohen, the one who brings near

But where do we stand? It is […] who says: note well, kohen too comes from “karov”, from nearness. Why? Because he is the educator of the people, the one who brings the material world and the spiritual world close together — that is the meaning of the korban. Korban means bringing near; “kesher” means binding. The kohen, then, is the one who binds this lower world to the upper world, who binds creation to its source of emanation.

And it is by virtue of this that he is a kohen: he has the capacity to do it. And the people of Israel, in relation to the nations, is called “mamlechet kohanim”: it too is a kingdom of kohanim, so that it is our duty to bring every element near to its source.

Adapting our language: the goal is not to convert

That is the secret of the teaching […], and the reason why the secret of this Exodus lies in speech, in the word in motion: rediscovering the true meaning, the resonance of speech, and making it resonate across many ranges, many planes of resonance.

Just as there may be several registers, […], and their variants, and there may even be those who are absent, we must adopt — adapt, rather — our language to the level of the listener. For the goal is not to convert at any cost.

There will be gerim, there will be converts who will be on a par with Israel, “ke-katan she-nolad”, like a newborn child, and who can claim Avraham as their father. But perhaps not all of them will be able to embrace this language en masse. Then at least they must be in unison with the Jewish people in proclaiming His unity.

Setting things in order, and the song that liberates

And that is why we will begin, on the eve of Pesach, at the Pesach Seder, by setting things in order: order within ourselves, order in our ideas, order in our dialogue with our wife, our children, our friends, the outside world, our neighbor, the poor.

Those who lack the capacity needed to meet our demands should at least be able to accompany us in song. Song is what truly fuses all words into a single word.

And it is on this that we close: shirah is when speech becomes song. Then it carries all of humanity along in its surge, and song is liberating — at different levels, but liberating.