The night of Passover.
The night of Passover is one which has enchanted most Jews and even non-Jews. The Jewish family sitting around the table reciting the Haggadah and relating the story of the Exodus has been captured in words, paintings, pictures, and film and most importantly of all in the heart. The lessons we can learn from Passover are vast.
Passover is the time when G-d took us out of Egypt to be His chosen nation and accept and follow His Torah.
A puzzling statement .
Towards the end of the Haggadah when everyone is starting to get tired and hungry, before we get to the eating of the Matzoth, we find a puzzling statement. The Haggadah states that there is an obligation upon everyone to see him and herself as if he or she went out of Egypt. This isn't just a figure of speech, or a statement made with hidden meanings. The sages say what they mean. If they wrote that it is an obligation to see are ourselves as if we went out, so then it means just that.
How are we to see ourselves as if we went out?.
The question is how to fulfill this obligation. This presents us with a two- fold problem. If the reader is someone who is living, for example, in the US in a safe and affluent environment, so seemingly they are in a state of freedom. How can we expect them to see themselves as having gone out of bondage?
On the other hand there are those who are not as fortunate and may still, G-d forbid, be in a tough situation involving suffering of some sort. Now, in Israel it is certainly not easy times or times where we can think we are free from bondage. So how then can we see ourselves as having gone out from bondage when so many are still suffering?
Elaborating on the Exodus.
One way which we have to do it and is part of what we need to accomplish this night, is by going into the details of what happened in Egypt. We talk and discuss this. This requires some homework beforehand to prepare but is certainly worth the effort. Today there is a large selection of Haggadahs which can enlighten everyone on all levels as to what happened during the Exodus. The more we talk and visualize the ten plagues and what happened, as told by the sages in detail in many places, we will be able to see and feel more and more the going out of Egypt. True it isn't as easy as just reading through the Haggadah, but this is a rewarding way to spend the evening with our families.
