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Haggadah-Fifteen Steps of the Seder-Shelah



The 11th of Nisan is the Yahrtzeit of Rav Yeshayah Horowitz, author of Shnei Luchos Habris (Shelah Hakodesh) (1560-1630), born in Prague, where he became chief rabbi. In his later years he moved to Eretz Yisrael and became the chief rabbi of Yerushalayim.

 

The Midrash makes the point that there were fifteen generations from Abraham to King Solomon. These generations represented the rising star of the Jewish people, similar to the first half of the month when the moon is in its ascendancy. After Solomon the star of the Jewish people began to decline, much like the moon towards the end of the month.

King Tzedekiah was the 29th generation after Abraham, and it was during his life that the Temple was destroyed, that the light of the Jewish nation was eclipsed. The fact that King Tzedekiah had his eyes gouged out by the Babylonians further reinforces the allegory between the moon and the fortunes of the Jewish people.

There will come a time, however, when the light of the moon will be as brilliant as that of the Sun, when God and His name will be one, when a new light will shine over Zion. (Sh’nei Luchot Habrit-v’Torah Ohr; Bo)

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