It seems rather strange that the answer given to the rosho in the Haggadah is not the same one given in the Torah. In the Torah (Parshas Bo) the rosho directs his question at the Korban Pesach. There the Torah tells us to answer him “v’amartem zevach Pesach hu l’Hashem...” The Torah proceeds to explain what this korban is all about and why it was slaughtered, yet we seem to ignore the Torah’s simple answer and instead brush him aside by telling him that “had he been there then he never would have been taken out”. Why not take the time out and give him the same answer that the Torah gives him? Why insult him and brush him aside? Why disenfranchise him completely? Why not explain to him the reason for the Korban Pesach the way the Torah tells us to? Why look for other answers?
Also, why does the rosho seem to question the observance of the Passover lamb more then any other mitzvah? Why doesn’t he also ask about the matzoh or morror or any of the other mitzvos which Hashem has commanded us?
Perhaps the rasha directs his question at the Korban Pesach rather then at the Matzo or Morror because this is the only mitzvah were someone who is not circumcised cannot take part The rosho therefore wants to know “Mo ho’avodha hazos la’chem” Why are some people being excluded from this particular mitzvah? If a person that’s not g’malt can do all the rest of the mitzvos, then why is this mitzvah any different?
The Torah answers him that this one is different from all the rest because it was in the great z’cus of these two mitzvos that we merited the redemption. It was because of the blood of milah which bonded us to Hashem for eternity and the destruction of the Egyptian avodah zarah, that we merited that Hashemtook us out of Mitzrayim. In order to bond with Hashem we must first destroy any vestige of avodah zarah. One can’t have one without the other! These two mitzvohs are therefore one and inseparable.
The rosho sitting at our seder table doesn’t question the korban Pesach since we don’t bring one nowadays and therefore only questions bris milah. Our rosho fails to understand why a Jew must be physically different from a goy. To this question we answer that had he been there and failed to circumcise himself he would not have been worthy of being redeemed. It was the blood of the korbon Pesach and the blood of milah that had to be put on the doorpost to distinguish us from the Egyptians that merited our redemption. It is because of these two bloods that we are alive today. This is what is meant by “b’domayich Chayi, b’domayich Chayi. “Had he failed to accept these mitzvahs then he never would have been worthy of being redeemed” is what we tell him.
So in essence, the answer we give him and what the Torah says are really the same. The slight difference is only because in the Torah he directs his question on the korban Pesach while at the seder table he directs it to bris mila.
By Rabbi Eli Teitelbaum
It seems rather strange that the answer given to the rosho in the Haggadah is not the same one given in the Torah. In the Torah (Parshas Bo) the rosho directs his question at the Korban Pesach. The Torah proceeds to explain what this korban is all about and why it was slaughtered, yet we seem to ignore the Torah’s simple answer and instead brush him aside by telling him that “had he been there then he never would have been taken out”. Why not take the time out and give him the same answer that the Torah gives him? Why insult him and brush him aside? Why disenfranchise him completely?
Also, why does the rosho seem to question the observance of the Passover lamb more then any other mitzvah? Why doesn’t he also ask about the matzoh or morror or any of the other mitzvos which Hashem has commanded us?
Perhaps the answer is rather simple. We refer here to the rosho of today who thinks that he is quite knowledgeable and has studied the Torah, but obviously doesn’t seem to want accept the Torah’s answer. To repeat it would be useless. Arguing or having a dialogue with him is an exercise in futility.
The mitzvah that seems to bother him in particular is the Korban Pesach. Why roast it on a fire so that all the goyim can smell it and know what Jews think of other religious beliefs? Why put the blood on the door post where everyone can see it? “Why provoke the goyim ,” he asks? Matzoh and morror are fine with him. These he can easily accept. But slaughtering the Egyptian idol is more than he can swallow. He believes in religious pluralism. Why offend other peoples’ religion? We must learn to show tolerance for each other. How dare we not allow another Jew who is uncircumcised to eat from the Korban Pesach? How dare we discriminate against another Jew just because he refuses to physically appear like a Jew? Everyone is entitled to do as he pleases? “How dare we deny the democratic and human rights of any Jew to worship or not worship as he pleases.” What right do we have to exclude the spiritually impure and tell them to purify themselves and come back a month latter? Jews must be united despite our physical and spiritual differences, he insists. How dare we delegitimize fellow Jews because of their different beliefs? All Jews must be given equal status. We dare not disenfranchise those who wish to adopt to today’s modern culture.
He starts by abrogating the laws of the Korban Pesach and ends off with him making changes to them all. He wants to burn his Chanukah lights alongside their Christmas trees. He speaks in their churches and then he invites the priest to speak in his synagogue. These are modern times, he insists. Today’s Rabbis are living in the past. They are “extremists, radical and fanatic…a medieval chief rabbinate that is a disgrace to the Jewish people and to its religion,” says Rabbi(!?) Eric Yoffie at a convention of reform rabbis that had as its guest speaker none other than Rev. Joan Brown Campbell, the head of the National Council of churches. Tell him to destroy the Egyptian or other avodah zoros? He doesn’t want to hear of it. A dialogue with him is useless. He finds himself more at ease with the Pope in Rome than with the Chief Rabbi of Israel. Tell him what the Torah says? It’s old and antiquated, he insists. Shabbos? Kashrus? Halachic divorce? Conversions? Marriages? These are things of a time gone by. We’ve got to bring these laws up to date so that they be made attractive to modern day culture!
To Rabbis(?) like him and his ilk who make a mockery of the Jewish religion and all that is sacred, the only possible answer is “ktdb vhv tk oa vhv ukt” uk rntu uhba ,t vvev v,t ;tu/
But to those thousands of others who are being misled by them and are unfortunately in the category of the kutak gsuh ubhta , our response must be uk j,p ,tu/W We must do everything possible to bring them back into our fold and show them what true living Judaism is all about.