ספר והשיב לב אבות כרך ב פסח-שבועות תשע"ז קהל לב אבות

Transcription

1 ספר והשיב לב אבות כרך ב פסח-שבועות תשע"ז קהל לב אבות

2 ספר והשיב לב אבות כרך ב פסח-שבועות תשע"ז קהל לב אבות

3 Sefer Ve'heishiv Lev Avos Khal Lev Avos 500 Hungry Harbor Road North Woodmere, NY Volume 2 Nissan 5777 Editorial Team Moshe Buchbinder, General Editor Yoni Kirschner, General Editor Tani Sussman, Publication Lead Rob Shur, Design and Layout

4 ספר והשיב לב אבות TABLE OF CONTENTS Sefer Dedication... p. 5 to Avi and Penina Sipzner הכרת הטוב... p. 7 עץ חיים היא... p. 9 פסח The P sul of Hesach HaDaas in the Korban Pesach and Avodas Hashem Rabbi Doniel Bak... p. 13 Why was Slavery Part of Hashem s Plan? Avi Langer... p. 21 Making Matza Soft Again: Thick Matzos on Pesach Gedaliah Wielgus... p. 31 Pesach or Chag HaMatzos: Which is the Real Name? Yosef Moskowitz... p. 41 Ohr L yud Daled- Short or Sweet? Ari Szafranski... p. 45 The Purpose of Galus Mitzrayim Moshe Buchbinder... p. 51 הגדה של פסח The Four Sons and the Four Shomrim Elimelech Blumstein... p. 81 הרי זה משובח Yoni Kirschner... p. 87 3

5 ניסן תשע"ז The Mitzva of Heseiba and Daled Kosos Rabbi Yosef Friedler... p. 89 Chinuch Lessons from the Four Sons Rabbi Yosef Friedler... p. 92 Heseiba: When We Don t Lean Left Rabbi Avi Weber... p. 97 Maaseh B Rebbi Eliezer Chaim Stern... p. 101 שבועות Shavuos: The Prerequisites to Kaballas HaTorah Moshe Bollag... p. 107 Eating Meat on Yom Tov Yehoshua Allswang... p. 113 The Heavenly Captive Rabbi Yossi Schwartz... p. 119 Does One s Son or Grandson Have Priority for Mitzvas Talmud Torah? Ariel Jeidel... p א דברי תורה בעברית מה נשתנה שלום בלובשטיין בגדר ד' כוסות יונתן זאב קירשנער... ג 4

6 ספר והשיב לב אבות Sefer Dedication We would like to dedicate this D var Torah publication in honor of the many generous supporters who donated to our recent (and ongoing) capital campaign. B H, thanks to your sponsorship, we have recently purchased a beautiful Shul building, situated in an ideal location at 500 Hungry Harbor Road. Construction is already underway and we hope to celebrate our Chanukas HaBayis in the coming months. We genuinely appreciate your support and hope that you will join us to see the Kiddush Hashem that you have facilitated at Khal Lev Avos! In particular, we would like to acknowledge and express our profound appreciation to Mr. Gavriel and Mrs. Vardi Jeidel for their magnanimous contribution to the Shul, as well as to their machatenister Mrs. Vera Solomon for her exceptionally generous donation made l iluy nishmas her loving husband Mr. Yecheskel Solomon, Yecheskel Ben Yisrael Shalom z"l, a man who was known as the king of chessed and whose love and care for a fellow Jew knew no bounds. May his neshama have an aliya from the zechus of their generosity, as well as from the abundance of Torah and tefillos emanating from our Shul. We would also like to acknowledge and thank their children, our very own Ariel and Esther Malka Jeidel (nee Solomon) for their tremendous level of personal involvement in advancing the Shul s physical and spiritual development. Ariel, through his role on the Executive Board of the Shul, has been a driving force behind much of the development and planning for our Kehilla over the past year. Between board meetings, we also cherish the fountain of ruach and contagious love for the Shul that he brings to the atmosphere each Shabbos. Esther Malka is a member of the Presidium of the Shul s N shei (sisterhood) and has been the driving force behind much of the programming and Chessed initiatives for women and children within the community. We are extremely lucky to have such dedicated leaders within our community and wish them and their parents much continued nachas and bracha from all of their Avodas HaKodesh. 5

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8 ספר והשיב לב אבות אין אנחנו מספיקים להודות לך We have now crossed the one year milestone since Avi and Penina Sipzner have welcomed the Shul into their home. While many people would get fatigued from such an overwhelming, constant responsibility, we are all amazed as to the unwavering good nature and warmth which they exude in hosting the Shul, week in and week out. We once again just wanted to take this opportunity to thank you and your children for opening your doors and giving Khal Lev Avos an amazing starter home. We look forward to vacating the premises and restoring your living room to its rightful state in the coming months! 7

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10 ספר והשיב לב אבות עץ חיים היא למחזיקים בה It is our hope that you, the reader, do not just enjoy the Torah that is written inside, but are also uplifted through this Sefer to higher levels of Torah, Avoda and Yiras Shamayim. If you would like to help in our endeavor to build our Mikdash Me at and continue to publish such works of Torah, please do not hesitate to reach out. Khal Lev Avos 500 Hungry Harbor Rd. North Woodmere, NY Tax deductible contributions can be made via Chase QuickPay, PayPal or Venmo using Tizku L Mitzvos! 9

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14 ספר והשיב לב אבות The P sul of Hesach HaDaas in the Korban Pesach and Avodas Hashem Rabbi Doniel Bak In the times when we were זוכה to the המקדש,בית one of the many highlights of חג הפסח was the קרבן פסח.שחיטת Unfortunately, we currently do not have the opportunity to bring the actual korban. In lieu of an actual korban, I.וכל הלומד תורת פסח כאילו הקריב פסח can help us fulfill דבר תורה hope this קרבן פסח The process of bringing the חלק הפשט - I PART The Rambam in the first perek of Hilchos Korban Pesach list the steps required :שפיכת הדם for the Korban Pesach after דם הפסח, טעון שפיכה כנגד היסוד. ואחר ששופכין דמו, מפשיטין אותו; וקורעין את בטנו ומוציאין את אימוריו, ומקטירין אותן חלבי כל זבח וזבח לבדם. ובעל הזבח נוטל פסחו עם העור שלו, ויוצא לביתו לירושלים; וצולהו, ואוכלו לערב The Korban Pesach requires that the blood is spilled on the yesod (the base of the outer alter). After the blood is spilt, they skin the animal, they then cut open the belly of the animal and take out the sacrificial parts and fats. They place those parts on the mizbayach, each animal alone. The owner then takes the skinned animal and the hide of the animal, he then goes to his home in Yerushalayim. He roasts it and eats the Korban Pesach in the evening..תמיד נשחט The source for this Rambam is the mishnayos in perek However, the gemara records an additional step which the Rambam omits: תנא, כל אחד ואחד נותן פסחו בעורו ומפשיל לאחוריו. אמר רב עיליש טייעות. Every person puts the Korban Pesach in its own hide and tosses the bag behind his back. Rav Illish explains, like an Arab merchant. 13

15 ניסן תשע"ז The omission of this gemara s statement from the Rambam raises a few questions: 1. Why did the Rambam omit that the owner places the Korban Pesach in the hide? 2. What was the function of placing the Korban Pesach specifically in a hide? Why not just carry it in any sort of bag? 3. Lastly the commentators are troubled why the gemara adds the statement of Rav Illish that the act of carrying was like an Arab merchant, which seemingly is an unimportant historical fact. This does not seem to bear on the halachic requirements of a פסח,קרבן so what precisely does the statement contribute? Rav Meir Simcha of D vinsk, the author of the אור שמח on the Rambam and the משך חכמה on Chumash, provides an insightful halachic analysis to answer these three questions in a single elegant approach. However, in order to follow the logic of the שמח,אור three introductions to קדשים are needed. קדשים by פסול as a היסח הדעת - #1 Introduction The first introduction relates to the פסול of היסח הדעת by.קדשים The Torah requires that תרומה be supervised at all times, and if at any point the supervisor becomes distracted from the supervision of תרומה it becomes disqualified. The source for this הלכה is a פסוק in פרשת קרח which states: משמרת תרומתי.את Rashi there explains: distracted. and do not become תרומה - Supervise the עביד ליה שימור ולא תסיח דעתך Although this disqualification seems to be limited to תרומה, there are opinions that קדשים has the same disqualification. The משנה in שקלים states: בשר שנמצא בעזרה, אברין עולות, וחתיכות - חטאות. בירושלים - זבחי שלמים. וזה וזה תעבר צורתו ויצא לבית השריפה. )שקלים ז:ג( Meat found in the Azara: Whole limbs - we assume that it is a Korban Olah. Dissected limbs -we assume it is a Korban Chatas. If it was found in Yerushalayim - we assume it is a Korban Shelamim. Regardless of where it was found, we allow the form to change (i.e. we wait for the meat to spoil) and then we burn it. The ברטנורא explains this משנה as follows: If a person finds limbs of an animal in the עזרה or,ירושלים one (even a kohen) may not eat these limbs (even if the limbs were dissected in a way of a חטאת (קרבן because the limbs of קדשים became היסח הדעת 1 Thus was see that the disqualification of.היסח הדעת disqualified through does not just apply to,תרומה but to קדשים like the קרבן פסח as well. 1 See משנה למלך and מרכבת מהשנה to רמב"ם הל' פסולי המוקדשים יט:ד who note that the Rambam omits.ברטנורא proves that the Rambam agrees with the אור שמח However, the.היסח הדעת בקדשים of פסול the 14

16 ספר והשיב לב אבות פסול is a היסח הדעת Introduction # 2 The reason that The gemara in Pesachim 34a records a מחלוקת רבי יוחנן וריש לקיש regarding why there should be a disqualification of היסח הדעת altogether: איתמר, היסח הדעת, רבי יוחנן אמר פסול טומאה הוי, ורבי שמעון בן לקיש אמר פסול הגוף הוי. רבי יוחנן אמר פסול טומאה הוי שאם יבא אליהו ויטהרנה שומעין לו. רבי שמעון בן לקיש אומר פסול הגוף הוי שאם יבא אליהו ויטהרנה אין שומעין לו. It was taught regarding why hesech hada'as is a psul by teruma: Rabbi Yochanon said that it is a psul tumah i.e., there is a concern that when the person became distracted the teruma became defiled and he didn't realize it. Rabbi Shimon Ben Lakish said it is a psul haguf, i.e., there is an independent disqualification called hesech hadaas even if we know for sure the teruma did not become defiled. According to Rabbi Yochanon if Eliyahu HaNavi would tell us that the teruma never became defiled then it would be permitted. But according to Reish Lakish, even if Eliyahu HaNavi would tell us that the teruma never became defiled it is still disqualified. היסח הדעת בפרה אדומה - 3 Introduction # פרה אדומה - the והיתה לעדת בני ישראל למשמרת למי נדה :פרשת חקת )יט:ט( The Torah states in water shall remain as a safekeeping. The משניות in מסכת פרה פרק ז teach us that the water used for פרה אדומה also become disqualified with הדעת.היסח The משנה states: נותן את שלו לאחוריו ואת של חטאת לפניו. ואם נתן את של חטאת לאחוריו פסול. One who fills water for his own use and at the same time fills water for chatas (i.e., the para aduma water) may carry his water on his back, but the para aduma water must stay in front of him at all times. The Rambam in his commentary to the משניות explains: ואמר יתברך למשמרת למי נדה, בזמן שהן שמורין הן מי נדה, ולכן ישימם נכחו עד שיהיו שמורים נוכח עיניו. The Torah tells us that the para aduma water should be kept safe. They only remain qualified para aduma waters as long as they are kept safe. Putting them behind one s back is not considered a safekeeping, and thereby disqualify them. In other words when a person places the מי חטאת on his back the water becomes disqualified because of היסח הדעת a deficiency in awareness that compromises their safety. 15

17 ניסן תשע"ז אור שמח of the תירוץ The Based on these introductions, the אור שמח addresses each of the aforementioned questions. He asks, why did the ברייתא say that each one takes their קרבן פסח and swings it onto his back. If the הלכה is that נפסלין בהיסח הדעת,קדשים and we see from פרה that placing קדשים onto the back is a violation of הדעת,היסח when the owner would place his קרבן on his back he disqualified his!קרבן The אור שמח answers that since we hold like Rabbi Yochanon, that היסח הדעת distraction is not an intrinsic disqualification, but rather just a concern that perhaps when he was distracted the קדשים became defiled, the solution would be to wrap the animal in its hide. The rule is that unfinished hide is not.מקבל טומאה 2 So if the owner would take the hide and wrap his קרבן פסח in it, it would remain permissible to swing the קרבן behind his back since it is protected and.היסח הדעת There would therefore be no violation of.טומאה impervious to The אור שמח adds that the gemara holds that there is no requirement to swing the קרבן פסח behind the back. That was done as a show of beautification, i.e., it was vogue to march home with the קרבן on the back the way the Arab merchants would parade around with wares on their backs. Rav Illish was therefore clarifying the ברייתא by stating that the קרבן only needs to be wrapped in its hide if a person intends on swinging the קרבן behind his back in a show of beautification like an Arab merchant, in order to prevent the disqualification of הדעת.היסח However, if a person carries home the קרבן in a regular manner in which he would be aware of the קרבן at all times, which is perfectly permissible, then there is no need to wrap the קרבן in his hide. This also explains why the Rambam omitted this gemara from the.הלכות The Rambam in הלכות קרבן פסח is only teaching us the requirements for פסח,קרבן and carrying it behind one s back is not a requirement. But, הכי נמי,אין if one decides to היסח on his back then he would need to consult the general laws of קרבן carry the in the hide to avert a disqualification קרבן and of course would need to wrap the הדעת.היסח הדעת of עבודת השם in פסול היסח הדעת The Torah in פרשת יתרו states: חלק הדרוש - II PART ועתה אם שמוע תשמעו בקלי ושמרתם את בריתי והייתם לי סגלה מכל העמים כי לי כל הארץ. )שמות יג:ה(.הלכות כלים פרק ב ומשנה למלך שם and רמב"ם הלכות מעשה הקרבנות פרק ח 2 See 16

18 ספר והשיב לב אבות And now if you listen to my voice and guard my covenant, you will be the most treasured people to me of all the nations, because the land is mine. On this,פסוק the בית הלוי writes the following: ושמרתם אח בריתי. הנה בכמה מקומות מצינו דנאמר אצל התורה לשון שמירה. כאן נאמר ושמרתם את בריתי,וכן כתיב שמר לך את הדברים האלה, בא הכתוב לומר דדברי תורה צריכין שימור. וכמו דמצינו דחולין אינן נפסלין רק אם ידוע שנטמאו וכל זמן דלא ידוע בהם שנטמאו הרי הם בחזקת טהרה דאין צריכין שימור בטהרה. משא כ תרומה וקודש נפסלין בהסח הדעת ואע פ שאין יודע להם שום טומאה מ מ כיון דלא שמרם והסיח דעתו משמירתם נפסלין בהסח הדעת ונפקא לן מקרא דכתיב משמרת תרומותי דלענין קדושת תרומה צריך שיהיה משומר דוקא ולא מהני מה דאינו יודע בהם קלקול רק צריך שיהיה יודע שהם טהורים. וכן בתורה מוכרח האדם לשומרם בטהרה ומיד שיסיח דעתו מעבודתו ומשמירתו נפסל ואע"ג שאינו יודע בעצמו שום קלקול כל שלא נזהר להשמר בטהרה וקדושה נפסל. The בית הלוי teaches that in many places we find the Torah employing the language of.שמירה The point is that the Torah itself needs safeguarding. Although we find that חולין תרומה- non ) produce) does not become disqualified unless we know for a fact that it became defiled, the rule is that חולין does not require a special do become disqualified if קדשים and תרומה However, objects of holiness like.שמירה.משמרת תרומותי This is derived from the verse.שמירה one becomes distracted from require to be specifically watched and it is not acceptable just to קדשים and תרומה assume that the produce or קדשים did not become defiled. The same is true for Torah study if a person is distracted for his study or from his service of Hashem, the Torah is disqualified. In other words, the בית הלוי is saying that just like there is a פסול הסח הדעת for But how can we explain the opinion.לימוד התורה the same goes for,קדשים and תרומה of רבי יוחנן that היסח הדעת is a פסול טומאה regards to התורה?לימוד It is easy to understand how something that can potentially be מקבל טומאה requires safeguarding, but that seems to be a physical, technical requirement. How exactly does that carry over?לימוד תורה onto There is a famous piece by the אור החיים הקדוש in פרשת חקת that explains why the הלכה of טומאת אהל (the ability of a corpse to transmit טומאה throughout a house).טומאת אהל relates exclusively to the body of a Jew, while a gentile does not generate The אור החיים הקדוש writes: וכבר המשלתי במקום אחר ענין זה לשני כלים שהיו אצל בעל הבית אחת מלאה דבש ואחת מלאה זבל. ופינה אתם והוציאם לחוץ מהחדר, אותה שהיתה מלאה דבש מתקבצים 17

19 ניסן תשע"ז לה כל הזבובים והרמשים. ואתה שהיתה מלאה זבל הגם שיכנסו לה קצת המרמשים לא ישרה לשל דבש. כמו כן אדם מישראל שמת להיותו מלא קדושה מהתוקה והעריבה בצאת הנפש ונתרון הגוף יתקבצו הקליפות לאין קץ שהם כוחות הטומאה התאבים תמיד להדבק בקדושה ליהנות מהערב, ולזה יטמא באהל. וכ' משא"כ אשר לא מזרע ישראל להיותו מושלל מהקדושה אין כל כך התקבצות הטומאה אלא חלק הממית הנדבק בגוף ואשר וסובב הכל היא תורה. )במדבר יג:ב( I have given a parable on this topic elsewhere. A man had two vessels. One contained honey and the other contained household waste. The man decides to take the vessels and empty them in his yard. The vessels that contained the honey now is empty but has residue of honey inside it. The same is for the container that contained waste. When the man comes back later he will find that the container that contained the honey will be swarmed with flies, bees and other insects. The empty refuse container will be generally bug free. The same is true when a Jewish person dies. His body was filled with spirituality. When his souls leaves the evil forces in the world (who are sustained by holiness) come into the body and generate impurities. The cause of all of this is the Torah a man learnt. 3 To summarize, the אור החיים הקדוש is teaching an important principle. That which once contained תורה and has since רחמנא ליצלן lost it is now in a lower state than one which never had תורה at all. תנא, states: This teaching is consistent with the gemara in Pesachim 49b which - One who learned Torah and then departed from its ways hates שנא ופירש יותר מכולם Torah scholars more than anyone else. Rabbi Chaim Shmuelevitz explains why these two ideas are comparable: וטעם חומר "שנה ופירש" הוא משום שכל מקום שהיה קדוש ונסתלקה משם הקדושה הטומאה מתדבקת לשם יותר מאשר למקום שלא היה קדוש מתחילה. כמו כתב האוה"ח הק' בטעם הדבר שישראל מקבל טומאה ואין עכו"ם מקבל טומאה וכן כתב גם בטעם הדבר שישראל מטמא באוהל ואין העכו"ם מטמא באהל וכ' וזהו חומרו של שנה ופירש שמכיון שאדם זה היה מקודם מקום קדושה הרי כשפירש הוא גרוע יותר ממי שלא למד בתחילה. )שיחת מוסר מאמר ל ח( 3 The אור החיים uses this principle to answer a question in regarding the קרבן פסח which the Jews brought in Mitzrayim. There are specific laws regarding טואמת מת and the פסח.קרבן Why weren't these laws taught to the Jews in Mitzrayim if they needed to know them? (These laws seem to be only taught first regarding דורות (.פסח The אור החיים answers that before we received the תורה the Jews themselves did not generate אהל.טומאת The אור החיים there gives a few applications where we see the concept. See also יערות דבש דרוש ד who uses this principle to explain why there are evil forces on the Temple Mount. 18

20 ספר והשיב לב אבות The explanation for "shana v'peresh" is that anytime there was holiness in a place and the holiness departed the forces of evil cling in its stead (more than if there never was holiness there in the first place) as the Ohr Hachaim explains why only Jews have the laws of contracting tumah and the laws of generating tumas ohel. The same is true in regards to a man who studies Torah and then departed from its ways, where the evil forces cling to him and make him an inferior person. 4 We can now explain the בית הלוי regarding why the Torah requires constant safeguarding. When one is distracted from התורה,לימוד leaving a void in his connectivity to Torah, he becomes more susceptible for the כוחות הטומאה to cling to him just like the person who on a more severe scale is שנה ופירש and abandons Torah altogether. Even the temporary absence of Torah creates a magnetic effect for the attack of the הטומאה.כוחות Therefore, just like Rabbi Yochanon holds that similarly,טומאה to prevent the attack of תרומה וקדשים by פסול טומאה is a היסח הדעת we hold that היסח הדעת is a פסול טומאה regarding לימוד התורה since any failure to.טומאה safeguard the Torah generates a comparable attack by היסח הדעת The solution for :בית הלוי in Torah can be found in the aforementioned היסח הדעת The solution for שמח זבולון בצאתך וישכר באהלך )דברים לג(, והוא דלכאורה היאך אפשר להאדם לבל יסיח דעתו מתורתו והרי מוכרח ליצא לשוק ולעסוק בפרנסה וכמו שאמרו במס' ברכות )דף לה( הנהג בהם מנהג דרך ארץ. רק דאיתא בפסחים בני חבורה שהיו מסובין לשתות ויצאו לקראת חתן כשהם חוזרים טעונים ברכה. דהיציאה חשיבא הסיח הדעת בד"א שלא הניחו שם מקצת חברים אבל הניחו מקצת חברים כשהם חוזרים אין טעונים ברכה. דכיון מקצתן נשארו במקומן גם לגבי היוצא לא מקרי הסח הדעת. דלקביעא קמא הדר. וכן הוא בעסק התורה אם עוסקים בכנופיא ובקיבוץ אז גם כמקצתן יוצאין לפרנסתן הרי הניח מקצת חברים בבית המדרש ובפרט אם העוסק הוא מהמחזיקין ידי העוסקים בתורה כמו זבולון וישכר גם לגבי היוצאין לא מקרי יציאתן היסח הדעת. וזהו שאמר הכתוב שמח זבולו בצאתך אחרי שישכר באוהלך כיון דהוא נשאר בעבודותו בבית המדרש. Rejoice Zevulun in your excursions and Yisachar in your tents. At first glance one might ask how is it possible not to be distracted from 4 See אמת ליעקב in his explanation to פרק הספינה ד ה אמר רבה בר בר חנה לדידי חזי הורמין from the author of נראה לי ונקדים בזה דברי המקובלים שאמרו שלפעמים אפילו רשע גמור חוזר בתשובה שלימה writes: who,נתיבות המשפט ואמר כך חוזר לסורו הטעם מפני שכוחות הטומאה רואין שכבר כלה ממנו כל הקדושות מביאין אותו לשוב בכדי שידבק בו כוחות.קדושות ואחר כך מטמאין אותו 19

21 ניסן תשע"ז Torah study, since a person needs to leave the study hall to pursue a livelihood etc. The gemara in Pesachim states: If a group of diners are drinking together and leave the meal to join a bride or groom, when they resume eating they need to make a new beracha. The gemara qualifies this by adding that if they left their meal to join a bride and groom but some of the members of the meal stayed behind, when the ones who left rejoin the group do not need to make a new beracha. We see that since they left their friends at the meal their minds never left the meal and there was never a hesech hada'as. The same is true regarding Torah. If a person is part of a group of people that are devoted to Torah, then even if he needs to pursue a livelihood there never is hesech hada'as - especially if he goes to work with the intention of financially supporting the Torah scholars (like Yisachar and Zevulun). That is the intention of the verse Let Zevulun rejoice in his excursions - there is never hesech hada'as because Yisachar in in his tent studying Torah. Tying this back to the gemara quoted and explained earlier which states that the קרבן פסח was thrown behind one s back, and therefore required the protection ירבעם בן נבט rebukes נביא in which the מלכים in פסוק of the hide, we can understand a and says: - ואותי השלכת אחרי גוך - "And you threw me behind your back." 5 What the!תורה ועבודה from מסיח דעת was saying to Yerovom was, Yerovom you were נביא May our learning about the focus required for דברים שבקדושה be a זכות for us to.שויתי ה לנגדי תמיד and fulfill the mandate of עבודה and תורה be focused on our יהי רצון שיבנה בית המקדש ושם נאכל מן הפסחים ומן הזבחים במהרה בימינו אמן. מלכים א יד:ג 5 20

22 ספר והשיב לב אבות Why was Slavery Part of Hashem s Plan? 1 Avi Langer The Haggadah s Lullaby As Rabbi Fohrman is fond of pointing out, we sometimes forget to ask questions about stories and events we are so familiar with from our childhood. One of those events is the,סדר and the הגדה that serves as its guide. As we sit and discuss סיפור יציאת מצרים with our children, I would venture to say that many people would answer the following question incorrectly. Where can we find the פסוקים in the Torah that discuss מצרים?יציאת On first ספר in פסוקים thought, one would be compelled to say that it is derived from the almost completely פרשיות After all, we have at least four.שעבוד that describe the שמות dedicated to that topic. Interestingly, however, the backbone for the story and the main source of סיפור יציאת מצרים in the הגדה comes forty years after the actual :פרשת כי תבוא in פסוקים enslavement from a few seemingly minor והיה כי תבוא אל הארץ אשר ה' אלהיך נתן לך נחלה וירשתה וישבת בה. ולקחת מראשית כל פרי האדמה אשר תביא מארצך אשר ה' אלהיך נתן לך ושמת בטנא והלכת אל המקום אשר יבחר ה' אלהיך לשכן שמו שם. ובאת אל הכהן אשר יהיה בימים ההם ואמרת אליו הגדתי היום לה' אלהיך כי באתי אל הארץ אשר נשבע ה' לאבתינו לתת לנו. ולקח הכהן הטנא מידך והניחו לפני מזבח ה' אלהיך. וענית ואמרת לפני ה' אלהיך ארמי אבד אבי וירד מצרימה ויגר שם במתי מעט ויהי שם לגוי גדול עצום ורב. וירעו אתנו המצרים ויענונו ויתנו עלינו עבדה קשה. ונצעק אל ה' אלהי אבתינו וישמע ה' את קלנו וירא את ענינו ואת עמלנו ואת לחצנו. ויוצאנו ה' ממצרים ביד חזקה ובזרע נטויה ובמרא גדל ובאתות ובמפתים. ויבאנו אל המקום הזה ויתן לנו את הארץ הזאת ארץ זבת חלב ודבש. )דברים כו:א-ט( When the farmer brings the season s first fruits to,ירושלים as part of his declaration he highlights the years of slavery in מצרים where we were forged into a פסוקים nation, and thanks Hashem for giving us His special land. These are the main that formulate what we say on the סדר night. Although there is a brief reference to what happened in,מצרים why does the בעל הגדה choose to expand on what the 1 Based on a series of shiurim given by Rabbi David Fohrman. 21

23 ניסן תשע"ז farmer recites when bringing ביכורים and not the actual פסוקים in שמות that describe?מצרים from גאולה and ultimate שעבוד in great length the One might suggest that the בעל הגדה is trying to provide some perspective. Instead of describing what happened, it would give more meaning to tell it from the perspective of the farmer because he is the fulfillment of Hashem s promise. The farmer says that way back in,מצרים Hashem made a promise that He would not only take us out of Egypt, He would also bring us into ארץ ישראל where we would prosper. So the farmer says that he is living proof of the fulfillment of that promise. And we, the descendants of that farmer, read the הגדה and this recitation of the farmer because we, too, are living proof of that promise. As we impart this message to our children, we lead from מגיד directly into הלל because we recognize the fulfillment of Hashem s promise and we offer our thanks and praise to Him for it..מצרים However, the promise wasn t really made to us or to our ancestors in ברוך שומר הבטחתו לישראל Avraham. It was made generations earlier to our forefather.ברית בין הבתרים was the promise to Avraham by the ויאמר לאברם ידע תדע כי גר יהיה זרעך בארץ לא להם ועבדום וענו אתם ארבע מאות שנה. וגם את הגוי אשר יעבדו דן אנכי ואחרי כן יצאו ברכש גדול. ואתה תבוא אל אבתיך בשלום תקבר בשיבה טובה. ודור רביעי ישובו הנה כי לא שלם עון האמרי עד הנה. )בראשית טו:יג-טז( Hashem informed Avraham that his descendants would be exiled to a strange land where they would suffer in servitude for many years. But Hashem placated Avraham with a pledge that, after their enslavement, they would leave with great.ארץ ישראל wealth and would eventually return to Now, what should have been Avraham s response to this,ברית to this covenant? Thank you? Does he even need to say thank you for taking them out? Earlier, if his reward was indeed so great, how ;שכרך הרבה מאד Hashem told Avraham (טו:א) could it be that his children would need to be exiled? It would have been better for Hashem not to place Avraham s children in גלות and then there would have been no need to free them. If Hashem put them in,גלות why do we need to give שבח for taking them out? And why would it help that they would leave with immense treasure? It s a nice thing to have riches but an even nicer thing is retaining your freedom. To answer these questions, we must answer some other questions first. As we mentioned when we started, there are stories in תנ"ך that we take for granted, mainly because it is how we were taught in yeshiva as children. We know that the fulfillment of Hashem s promise occurred when the בני ישראל were enslaved and eventually freed from.מצרים But might there be another place in the Torah where this sequence of events played out? 22

24 ספר והשיב לב אבות Goats and Coats After working for his father-in-law Lavan for twenty years, Yaakov decided that it was time to return home upon the birth of his son, Yosef. What was unique about the birth of Yosef in particular that served as the catalyst for Yaakov s decision to נבואה knew about the אבות posits that all of the זצ"ל leave? 2 R Yosef Dov Soloveitchik that Avraham received but they did not know when it would occur. Upon the birth of Yosef, perhaps Yaakov saw an interpretation that rang true for him. Let s try to compare the language of נבואת אברהם in פרשת לך לך with some of Yaakov s experiences. when he left his parent s home to escape גר Yaakov became a :גר יהיה זרעך 1. Eisav. Lavan. Yaakov worked for twenty years for :ועבדום 2. Yaakov was a victim of injustice on account of Lavan (both in :וענו אותם 3. terms of his marriage partners and his business dealings). Yaakov calculated that maybe this time frame just referred :ארבע מאות שנה 4. to an extended period of time but did not mean a full four hundred years. 3 Yaakov amassed a tremendous amount of cattle and became :יצאו ברכוש גדול 5. wealthy. 4 1) Avraham, 2) Yitzchok, 3) Yaakov, 4) Yosef; although :ודור רביעי ישובו הנה 6. Lavan tricked Yaakov into marrying Leah from whom he had a number of children, Rachel was really Yaakov s wife and Yosef, her,בכור represented the fourth generation from Avraham. On account of these messages, right after Yosef was born, Yaakov demanded that Lavan send him on his way שלחני ואלכה let me go! ל:כה) (ויצא Not very different than Moshe s request of Pharoah to Let my people go! So Yaakov thought that he was experiencing the fulfillment of that נבואה did he make a mistake? Let s continue to examine the פסוקים by the story of Yaakov and Lavan and see if we can draw additional parallels to the story of the actual Exodus. 2 Other than the more esoteric פשט that Rashi mentions at the beginning of פרשת וישב where he explains, based on a פסוק in עובדיה that while Yaakov represented fire, Yosef represented the flame or spark that would burn up the straw that was Eisav. בני the,נבואה of the קיום 3 This suggestion isn t as far-fetched as it may seem. Even with the actual come up with answers to מפרשים and the מצרים didn t actually serve for four hundred years in ישראל explain this number (e.g., it starts from the birth of Yitzchak etc.). ויפרץ האיש מאד מאד ויהי לו צאן רבות ושפחות ועבדים וגמלים וחמרים - בראשית ל:מג 4 23

25 ניסן תשע"ז בני ישראל פרעה )בשלח יד:ה-ט) יעקב לבן )ויצא לא:כב כה( ויגד למלך מצרים כי ברח העם ויגד ללבן ביום השלישי כי ברח יעקב These are the only two instances in the Torah where it says that X was told that Y ran away. ויקח את אחיו עמו וירדף אחריו דרך שבעת ימים וישג לבן את יעקב ויאסר את רכבו ואת עמו לקח עמו ויחזק ה' את לב פרעה מלך מצרים וירדף אחרי בני ישראל וירדפו מצרים אחריהם וישיגו אותם ויגד, ויקח, וירדף, consistent! Not only are the words identical, even the order is twenty- Furthermore, Yaakov served Lavan for tweny years and left in the.וישג first. Was it a coincidence that the בני ישראל left in the 210th year? It s almost as if what happened to Yaakov was a microcosm of what happened to כלל ישראל on a macrocosmic scale. The בראשית רבה in (פד,א) tells us בקש יעקב לישב בשלוה Yaakov wanted to settle down וישב יעקב בארץ מגורי אביו בארץ as it says,גרים in the land in which his forefathers were just Yaakov could have been the fulfillment of the promise to.קפץ עליו רוגזו של יוסף but,כנען Avraham, but the sale of Yosef is what started the process anew. 5 There is an apparent connection between what caused Yaakov to be in גלות and what caused us as a nation to be in.גלות What other connections between the stories of Yaakov s various ordeals and the ישראל s בני time in מצרים can we find to draw that קשר even closer? One of the ways that demonstrated to the brothers that Yaakov treated Yosef as his בכור was that he gave Yosef the פסים.כתנת And what did the brothers do with it? They shechted a goat, dipped it into the goat s blood and brought that very same in order to deceive their father regarding the son who he thought was his כתונת (we will refer to this episode as Goats and Coats II ). This mirrors the story בכור with Yaakov that caused him to have to flee his parents home he tricked his father into thinking that he was the בכור by bringing him the meat of a goat while clothed in a goat's skin and wearing the coat of his brother Eisav. (we will refer to this episode as Goats and Coats I ). That which the children of Yaakov do to him, Yaakov himself had done to his own father! 6 We see that the first step in both the all started with מצרים in גלות of Yaakov and what was to be the seeds for the גלות.בכור tricking a father regarding the son who he thought was, and treated like, his If the way Yaakov got to his mini-slavery in Lavan's house was on account עיין רמב"ן וספורנו )בראשית לז:א( 5 6 Perhaps the reason why the ten multiplier was used in the שעבוד of the בני ישראל was because the ten brothers who sold Yosef and deceived their father required ten times (two hundred and ten years) the amount of תשובה (through the entire nation of (ישראל than just Yaakov (twenty one years) who deceived his father. 24

26 ספר והשיב לב אבות of Goats and Coats I, and the way we went into slavery in מצרים as a nation was on account of Goats and Coats II, wouldn t there have to be some mention of other elements of Goats and Coats when we left?מצרים In other words, if our time in of sorts for the events in Coats and Goats I, there would כפרה was to serve as a מצרים have to be some reference as to how that כפרה was realized. We can t just escape our past mistakes without a stark reminder of how we got into that mess in the first place. Understanding what put us into slavery would seem to be an essential component in ensuring that mistakes that were made wouldn t be made again. Yet, at first glance, after the מכות,עשר the בני ישראל miraculously left מצרים and there doesn t seem to be any references to Goats and Coats. Or maybe there is. Goats and Coats Replay After the final encounter between Moshe and Pharaoh, Moshe left the palace and Hashem informed him of one more נגע אחד אביא על מצרים" מכה ".עוד Based on the מכת בכורות should seemingly discuss תורה in the פסוקים sequence of events, the next and how it would relate to the מצריים and the ישראל.בני The Torah, however, deviates.קרבן פסח regarding the הלכות from this discussion and instead moves to various If you would try to find a common theme in the setup of the first few ספרים of the Torah, it might look something like this: = stories ספר בראשית First half = stories :ספר שמות הלכות = half Second הלכות = ספר ויקרא Why then does the Torah break into the stories of the first half of ספר שמות by introducing קרבן פסח?הלכות And if it were necessary to the narrative to mention the by saying that you פסוק the Torah could have accomplished this with one,קרבן פסח must shecht the קרבן and place its blood on the doorpost. Instead, the Torah lists (.שחיטה, משקוף, דם, צלי, ז' ימים, מצות, וכו') קרבן פסח related to the דקדוקי הלכות all of the It must be that these הלכות are not a digression from, but rather an essential part of, the story itself. Let s see how the Torah drops hints of Goats and Coats into.קרבן פסח of the הלכות the 1. One הלכה of the קרבן פסח is that every family needs to take a.שה 7 If the family, however, is too small on their own to finish the,שה they may invite another במכסת נפשות איש לפי אכלו תכסו על" says שמות יב:ד family to join them. 8 The Torah in souls), offering (lit. counting of the פסח Every participant in a given group s "השה ויקחו להם איש שה לבית אבת שה לבית - בא יב:ג 7 ואם ימעט הבית משה ולקח הוא ושכנו הקרב אל ביתו... - בא יב:ד 8 25

27 ניסן תשע"ז each person according to what he can eat, תכסו count himself in the group. Besides for the meaning ascribed to it here in the simple explanation of the פסוק (i.e., counting), the word תכסו is also related to the word כסה cover. The תורה tells us that "דם הוא הנפש" 9 so the phrase במכסת נפשות can be translated as covering of souls. And we find a covering of souls in Goats and Coats I by the sale of Yosef.(וישב לז:כו) "מה בצע כי נהרג את אחינו וכסינו את דמו" says Yehuda starts פרשה the (בא יב:ה) "שה תמים זכר בן שנה יהיה לכם מן הכבשים ומן העזים תקחו".2 off talking about a,שה a sheep, but continues to explain that the word שה means either a כבש (lamb, which is a baby sheep, the conventional word for (שה or an.עז It s almost as if the עז can pretend to be a.שה The brothers shechted a גדי and placed it s blood on the כתונת of Yosef to pretend as if it were the blood of a person. Therefore, now too by the פסח,קרבן we need the goat to pretend as if it were something else. 3. By the פסח,קרבן we are very careful in how the it should be prepared. The water? must be roasted and water must not touch it. 10 Why can t it be cooked in שה If Yosef is the שה of the Goats and Coats narrative, we find that Yosef also did not.(לז:כד) והבור רק אין בו מים come in contact with water ואכלו את הבשר בלילה הזה צלי אש ומצות על מררים יאכלהו says שמות יב:ח in פסוק.4 The the Pesach bread must be eaten together with bitter herbs. Where is there a bitterness mentioned in relation to bread in Goats and Coats? In Goats and Coats I, Yaakov served bread with the meal for his father and, after Yaakov received the ויצעק צעקה גדלה ומרה deceived Eisav cried out upon realizing he had been,ברכות Similarly, in Goats and Coats II, the brothers sat down to eat.(תולדות כז:לד) עד מאד bread in a family group after selling Yosef לז:כה) וישבו לאכל לחם.(וישב So we must also sit down in a family group and eat bread מררים.על And that exact word refers to Yosef. Later on in the blessings that Yaakov gives to him, Yaakov acknowledges.(ויחי מט:כג) וימררהו ורבו וישטמהו that the brothers hated Yosef 5. In describing how the קרבן פסח should be eaten, the Torah interestingly uses the word נא instead of a more traditional word like.גלם The word נא is more commonly translated to mean please why does the Torah choose a word that can mean please when instructing that the קרבן פסח must not be eaten raw? In both Goats and Coats stories we find numerous examples of the word נא in Goats and Coats I, Yitzchok tells Eisav כז:ג) שא נא כליך,(תולדות Yaakov tells his father (פסוק כא) גשה נא ואמשך בני and Yitzchok says to Yaakov (פסוק יט) קום נא שבה ואכלה מצידי When the brothers bring the coat to Yaakov in Goats.(פסוק כו) גשה נא ושקה לי בני... אך בשר בנפשו דמו )נח ט:ד(, כי נפש הבשר בדם הוא )אחרי מות יז:יא(, כי הדם הוא הנפש )ראה יב:כג( 9 ואכלו את הבשר בלילה הזה צלי אש ומצות על מררים יאכלהו. אל תאכלו ממנו נא ובשל מבשל במים כי אם צלי אש ראשו על 10 כרעיו ועל קרבו - בא יב:ח-ט 26

28 ספר והשיב לב אבות and Coats II they say לז:לב) הכר נא הכתנת בנך הוא אם לא.(וישב Everything was done so politely in both Goats and Coats episodes, but now, by the פסח,קרבן the Torah says 11.אל תאכלו ממנו נא time let s replay the whole thing but without the please this 6. By the קרבן פסח it says יב:י) ולא תותירו ממנו עד בקר (בא there should be no leftovers. What is that reminiscent of in Goats and Coats? By the sale of Yosef,.(וישב לז:כט) Reuven returns to the pit only to discover that Yosef is no longer there Just as the sheep vanished from the pit, we are instructed to make sure nothing of the קרבן פסח is leftover by morning as if there had been no sheep there at all. וככה should eat the korban בני ישראל it says how the קרבן פסח 7. Further, by the - your belt (בא יב:יא) תאכלו אתו מתניכם חגרים נעליכם ברגליכם ומקלכם בידכם ואכלתם אתו בחפזון must be tied, your shoes must be on your feet, your stick must be in your hand and you must eat it in haste. Why must they be prepared to leave? Returning to Goats and Coats we find that they are always ready to leave after Goats and Coats וקום ברח לך אל לבן אחי חרנה instruction I, Yaakov runs from Eisav upon Rivka s after מצרים and after Goats and Coats II the family rushed down to,(תולדות כז:מג) discovering that Yosef was still alive. משכו וקחו לכם צאן he told them,בני ישראל 8. When Moshe called the elders of the families. pull for yourselves and take a sheep for each of your (בא יב:כא) למשפחתיכם Why did משה have to add the word משכו he should have just said take a sheep for your family who cares about pulling the sheep? The Torah only uses the וימשכו says פסוק one other time: when they drew Yosef from the pit the משכו word The Torah is telling us that the first time you pulled.(וישב לז:כח) ויעלו את יוסף מן הבור the sheep and then sold it, but now you mustn t sell it, you must pull it and then.למשפחתיכם continues: פסוק To where should you take him? The.קחו לכם it take Take him into your family The final stage in the offering of the קרבן פסח is יב:כא) ושחטו הפסח.(בא Is there any slaughtering in Goats and Coats? 13 In Goats and Coats II, the Torah says that - (וישב לז:לא) וישחטו שעיר עזים ויטבלו את הכתנת בדם the brothers took the cloak of Yosef קרבן פסח they shechted a goat and dipped the cloak in its blood. Similarly, by the ולקחתם אגדת אזוב וטבלתם בדם אשר בסף והגעתם אל :פסוק the Torah continues in the next blood. and dipped it in אגדת אזוב - they took the המשקוף ואל שתי המזוזת מן הדם אשר בסף פסחים in גמרא was indeed just a replay to fix earlier events, that could explain why the פסח מצרים 11 If may be פסח לדורות one of them being that,פסח לדורות and פסח מצרים lists differences between צו ע"א eaten raw. Once פסח מצרים repaired earlier events, there was no longer a need to continue with the mandated remedies..מכאן שחייב אדם לקרב קרוביו כדי שישמחו עמהם בימים טובים here says רבינו בחיי In Coats and Goats I, Rashi כז:ט) (בראשית notes from פרקי דרבי אליעזר that it was,פסח but there isn't a specific reference to slaughtering in the text. Some cite this taking of the ברכות במרמה as the source.אפיקומן for stealing the 27

29 ניסן תשע"ז אל top And where did they need to place it? It wasn t enough to place it on the on the בסף they also needed to place it,אל שתי המזוזת sides and the two המשקוף threshold. 14 The word סף is an interesting word who else is יוסף? סף of course! The brothers dipped the coat of Yosef in his blood so by the קרבן פסח we need to dip a second time in fake Yosef blood. If you want your בכור to live on the night that are dying, you need to mend what you broke. 15 The brothers fought amongst בכורים themselves regarding who had the זכות for the.בכורה But this time you must take the שה Yosef your brother into your family. Only when you re together in.מצרים unity will you be ready to leave Becoming G-d s Firstborn Based on all this we can say that Hashem didn t put כלל ישראל into.גלות We did it ארמי :ביכורים to ourselves. Isn t that what the farmer declares when he brings the Aramean. explain) was a wandering מפרשים my father (Yaakov, as some אבד אבי Hashem didn t put Yaakov into the house of Lavan. מצרימה וירד and he went down to אתנו המצרים,מצרים וירעו and the מצרים oppressed us there s still no mention of Hashem in this declaration. Only by the גאולה do we first mention Hashem: Hashem took us out from there when we brought ourselves into ויוצאנו ה' משם trouble, Hashem was there to bail us out. So the prophecy to Avraham wasn t to tell Avraham what Hashem would do to them. It was only a glimpse into the future of what his children would do to themselves. They will be a גר in a strange land but, with all that, I will still be with them. The night of the סדר isn t just a night to give gratitude on the fulfillment of the prophecy and His promise to always be there for us it s a night of thanks for the ability to fix the mistakes we have made. We drink four cups of wine because there were four verbs that Hashem used to express His commitment to deliver us from I will save you,מצרים I will take you out from והוצאתי, והצלתי, וגאלתי, ולקחתי :מצרים from your terrible labors, I will redeem you and I will bring you to Me as a people וגאלתי All of them seem to make sense except for.ארץ ישראל by taking you into what does this add that isn t already captured by the other three? What does it mean to be redeemed? When someone experiences trauma, it is not enough to be 14 See אבן עזרא here. Also see the נצי"ב in העמק דבר quoting the גמרא in פסחים צו ע"א that פסח מצרים was ירושלמי concludes (also quoted in the מכילתא But the.מזוזת and two משקוף the :מזבחות offered on three in ט:ה (פסחים that R Shimon is לשיטתו when he argues that there were four :מזבחות the three listed מפרשים the threshold. Some אסקופה means the סף because he holds that the word,סף above plus the explain (see, e.g., תרגום אונקלוס and )רש"י that in this context the word בסף refers to some,כלי a basin of sorts that contained the blood. 15 As noted in footnote 10, the הזאה באגודת אזוב ועל המשקוף ועל שתי המזוזת is also listed in the משנה in.פסח מצרים as a requirement that was limited to פסחים צו ע"א 28

30 ספר והשיב לב אבות saved from the trauma; a trauma leaves its mark, especially when it s self-inflicted. To truly recover from trauma, a person needs to be redeemed, and sometimes to go through the same experience that brought about the trauma in the first place. קרבן פסח Perhaps we can suggest that Hashem gave us the power that night with the to also rectify our errors to fix the horrors of the sale of Yosef. By going through that traumatic experience we emerged clean once again. And Hashem did it in a way that we not only replayed the stories that occurred but also the causes behind those stories. In the two Goats and Coats stories, we fought with and rebelled against our brother, and deceived our father, all because we desperately wanted to be the בכור of our father. And we now need to turn this flaw into a strength. Hashem tells us on the night of יציאת מצרים that if you want to be a בכור you can be My בכורי ישראל בכור.בני But you need to do so without any rebelliousness or trickery. You must shecht the god of the מצריים and place it on 16.בעצם היום הזה them your doorposts and you will do so in front of A בכור serves as a bridge between generations so that the children born after him can learn and understand. By proclaiming our faith to Hashem and declaring בכור Him our Father, we are saying that we are brothers and we take the role of the seriously (the position of the בכור only exists if you are willing to acknowledge that there are other children also). So on the סדר night, when we recognize the fact that we became the בכור of Hashem, we must also recognize the fact that we are כל דכפין ייתי וייכול everyone brothers, too. That is why there is also a need to invite we are all brothers. Haggadah: Epilogue The name פסח is unique. It is derived from יב:יג) ופסחתי עליכם (בא Hashem passed over you. This is a new word in the Torah why does the Torah use a brand new word when it could have easily used jump /קפץ or? skip /דלג By the קרבן פסח the Torah says that it needs to be roasted יב:ט) ראשו על כרעיו ועל קרבו (בא in the fetal position. You must also eat the entire thing, nothing must be left over. We are then commanded to hurry out through a doorway that is completely surrounded by blood. This sounds very much like a description of childbirth the moment of the national birth of ישראל.כלל At a time when they are being formed as a nation for the first time and leaving the.רחם And just as this happens, Hashem skips over.כתנת פסים as in the,פסים as in stripes, as in פס is the same lashon as פסח us. The stripes from Yosef s cloak. Yaakov demonstrated his affinity to Yosef by giving כי בעצם היום הזה הוצאתי את צבאותיכם מארץ מצרים )בא יב:יז(, בעצם היום הזה יצאו... )בא יב:מז(, בעצם היום הזה 16 הוציא ה' את בנ"י מארץ מצרים )בא יב:נא( 29

31 ניסן תשע"ז him stripes 17 when we were born that night, Hashem demonstrated that same affinity to us by giving us our stripes, not with a cloak, but by jumping over us.בני בכורי ישראל.בכור and sparing His special nation. His פרשה The.קרבן פסח This also explains the strange introduction to the laws of the begins יא:ב) החדש הזה לכם ראש חדשים ראשון הוא לכם לחדשי השנה (בא begin counting your months from now. ניסן is the first month to you. Even though to the whole world it is not the first month, for you, however, time starts now. Why is that? The.בכור is your birthday when you became Hashem s ניסן answer is that 17 Though the origin of the phrase earning your stripes is typically explained to be derived from soldiers who achieve a particular rank or position (designated by a stripe) based on certain skills or achievements, perhaps this is an earlier source as the brothers felt that Yosef did nothing to earn his stripes וישראל אהב את יוסף מכל בניו כי בן זקנים הוא לו ועשה לו כתונת פסים )וישב לז:ג( it sounds like Yosef received his striped coat simply because he was born when Yaakov was older, not because he did anything in particular to deserve it. 30

32 ספר והשיב לב אבות Making Matza Soft Again: פסח Thick Matzos On Gedaliah Wielgus An annual debate occurs in nearly every Jewish household as the holiday of Pesach nears. Which matza should we buy this year? This one is crunchier, while that one is tastier. This one cracks too easily, while that one tastes like cardboard. This one is better in the soup (for those that do such things), while this one makes a great matza-pizza. There is one thing, however, that all our matzos have in common: they are all crispy and paper-thin. Sometime over Pesach, there is bound to be one person in each Ashkenazi home who remarks, Did you know Sephardim eat laffas on Pesach? Why can t we do that? You think Hillel s כורך sandwich consisted of some barely held together crackers and lettuce spilling off the sides?! He had a shawarma in a laffa! Is there any merit to this argument? Do our matzos have to be paper-thin? Can Ashkenazim partake in this alleged Sephardi-matza? This article will attempt to resolve all of these questions. But first, a disclaimer: the desire to eat soft matzos is probably a result of גנובים ימתקו.מים I was able to track down thick laffa matzos, and it was no contest. The standard thin matzos that most of us are accustomed to eat are far superior in taste. This was not merely the opinion of your humble author, but the unanimous opinion of the approximately ten individuals who partook in the thick matzos together with me. Much to our disappointment, the thick matzos we had did not taste anything like a laffa one can buy at a local Israeli eatery. Considering the requirement of יו"ט,שמחת this article is strictly להגדיל תורה ולהאדירה and one should certainly eat the better-tasting matza. 1 Does the גמרא Address the Permissibility of Eating Thick Matzos? ת"ר אין אופין פת עבה בפסח דברי בית שמאי ובית הלל מתירין. )פסחים לו:; ביצה כב:( The גמרא in both פסחים and ביצה cites the dispute between בית שמאי and בית הלל as to whether one may bake thick bread on.פסח The assumption of the גמרא is that the 1 This article uses the term soft matza and thick matza interchangeably. While neither hard matza and thick matza nor soft matza and thin matza are necessarily mutually exclusive, modern commercial soft matza is clearly thicker than modern hard matza, and this article will operate on that premise. 31