The Seder begins with Kiddush. This Kiddush is not only that which we recite at the beginning of every Yom Tov meal. It is one of the steps of the Seder. As it is the first of the fifteen steps, it must introduce the...
The teenager finished high school and is home, bored out of his mind. He has nothing to do. He spent a day or two pounding the pavements of the city looking for a job.
The first paragraph after “Ma Nishtana” reads, “…the more one speaks about the Exodus from Egypt, the more he is praiseworthy.” The Ishbitzer Rav has a very interesting reading of this statement. He says that wherever we speak of speaking, the less you say,...
When we sing the first two paragraphs of Hallel, why don’t we sing the whole Hallel at once? Additionally, why don’t we make a blessing on the Hallel as we usually do? The answer is that we are not really saying Hallel, per say....
Before Hallel, we say in Magid “In every generation a person should see himself as if he is going out of Egypt…therefore we have to thank God …we should say in front of G-d a “shira chadasha”, a new song.” Asks Tosafot: we first...
The Vilna Gaon says that the number that occurs over and over on Pesach night is the number four. We have four cups of wine, four sons, four questions, etc. Why is four so repeated? He answers that there are four types of people...
On Chanukah and on Purim we make the blessing, “Who made miracles for our fathers in those days, and [who] also should [make miracles] in these times as well.” Rav Amram Gaon asks why don’t we say this blessing on Pesach since more miracles...
There is an interesting debate between Rambam and Raavad. When we eat the Matza we make two brachot. First we say Hamotzi, and then we say Al Achilat Matza. Rambam says not so. This is wrong. In fact, all of us are doing it...
Some say that we should read this verse as, “My father was a wandering Aramean,” where ‘my father’ refers to Laban. After all, we are all descendants of Laban. Think about it. Jacob had four wives and they are the mothers of all twelve...
The Mishnah says that when a child asks his father the Ma Nishtana, the father answers with praises of God. To do so, he should begin with something negative and contrast it with something positive. However, the Mishnah doesn’t specify which texts to use...
After the Exodus, the Jews enter an entirely spiritual existence. God feeds them, they live at the base of Mt. Sinai, and they perfect themselves until they are equal to Adam and Eve before the sin. As they are to accept the Torah, they...
The body can be compared to a governor that has been placed on the soul. (I once rented a U-Haul truck and a governor had been installed on the engine so that it wouldn’t go faster than 55mph. If you wanted to drive the...
I’d like to read you a Zohar about Magid. “After the mitzva of Matza, God gave the Jews the mitzva of praising God for the Exodus, which is the obligation of anyone who is the son of a woman to speak these praises forever....
There’s happiness in this world, and happiness in the Heavens. But there’s more. “And now, the power of Heaven increases because there is only joy in Heaven and joy on Earth.” In this way, by the Jews telling the story of the Exodus, they...
Rav Tzadok Hacohen of Lublin asks, why do we say, “…who sanctified us with His commandments,” before we perform a mitzva? He answers that it is because object of the mitzvot is to sanctify us, or to allow ourselves to be sanctified. Again, what...
We make two blessings. The first is “Hamotzi Lechem Min ha’Aretz,” as we are about to eat bread, and we also say, “Motzi Matza,” because we going to eat matza. Since we say two brachot we must eat two olive-sized portions of matza. Therefore,...
When we say “Hamotzi Lechem Min ha’Aretz,” we are saying that we want to learn how to live on a higher level. Do you see how this develops from the way I explained Rachtzah? Rachtzah is how you learn to live free in this...
Apparently, eating Chametz is very dangerous and it makes sense not to eat it. So why do we eat an offering on Shavuot that is made almost exclusively of Chametz? In the words of the Zohar, if we are not allowed to eat Chametz...
Maror is obviously a symbol of suffering. It is interesting that Pesach is a bittersweet experience. “It is taught: R. Shimon bar Yochai said: There were three gifts that G-d gave the Jews, but each of the three could only be acquired through suffering....
“Originally our fathers were idol worshippers…” Then, we quote Joshua in which he speaks to the Jews after they have successfully conquered Eretz Yisrael. He says, “So says Hashem, God of Israel: Your fathers dwelt beyond the Euphrates river, Terach, the father of Abraham...
What do we do in Yachatz? We take the Matza and we break it down the middle. Which Matza do we break? – The middle Matza. If we say that the top Matza is Abraham and the bottom Matza is Jacob, then the middle...
True Freedom If you want to have a relationship with God, then you must make choices. The only thing that frees you and frees me (and we’ll see later, the greatest freedom) is that we have a relationship with God. Otherwise we are stuck...
We speak of two reasons why God freed us. In one place we read that God freed us because He heard our cries, had mercy, and He loved us. It broke His heart, so He needed to take us out. A few paragraphs later,...
By the way, this idea is also in Magid. We go through ninety percent of Magid telling over what God did for us, and then we say, “Whoever doesn’t say these three things hasn’t fulfilled his obligation: Pesach, why are we eating it? ...
In his Haggadah Simchat HaRegel, Rabbi Chaim Yosef David Azulai (or, Chidah) quotes Rabbeinu Manoah who wrote a commentary on Rambam. In it, Chidah says that Karpas is a mneumonic of Ketonet Pasim, the coat of many colors, given to Joseph by his father...