Hallel: Ma’ariv Pesach: Consecration II

We sing the second paragraph as part of the song that will make us free, as if we were singing while offering the original Pesach Offering, the mitzvah that earned us the merit to be freed:

A Song of Expectation:

“When Israel left Egypt, Jacob’s family from among a people who spoke a strange language, Judah became God’s Holy Place, Israel, His realm.”

How could Israel have sung these words before they left, as they were offering the Pesach? This was a song of expectation; what would happen in the merit of offering the Pesach:

“The Sea saw it and ran away. The Jordan River reversed course. The mountains danced like deer, the hills like lambs.

What’s with you, Sea, that you flee? With the Jordan, that you turn around? With the Mountains, that you dance like deer? With the hills, like lambs?

Quake, you Land, before your Master, before the Lord of Jacob!

Who turned the rock into a pool of water. Pebbles into a source of water.”

“That which we have heard and know and our fathers told us, we shall not withhold from our sons, recounting unto the final generation the praises of God, His might and His wonders that He has wrought (Psalms 78:3-4).” They reconnected to the miracles that happened to the Patriarchs, and knew that with this offering and with this Hallel they would merit equal miracles and wonders; just as they had already witnessed in Egypt.

We too, sing this song with the full expectation that our Hallel and our Seder will bring us the same miracles and wonders!