Out of all the chagim, Pesach is the one which means the most to us as a nation for this is the time we commemorate Hashem taking us out of Mitzrayim (Egypt) and making us his Chosen People. The Seder night is when we fully commemorate this great event. We have specific mitzvos which we don’t have at any other time, such as Matzah and Maror, which fully enhance the commemorative experience. Another mitzvah we have on the Seder night is the mitzvah to tell over the story of Yetzias Mitzrayim (Exodus). This is different from the commandment we have every day to mention the story but we don’t have to go through the whole thing. The Seder specifically is the time to expound upon the great miracles in Mitzrayim.
Fittingly, one of the most important obligations we have on Seder night is to picture ourselves as if we were the ones who left Mitzrayim. As it says in the Mishnah is Pesachim as well as in the Magid section of the Hagadah, “בכל דור ודור חיב אדם לראות את עצמו כאלו הוא יצא ממצרים” “In every generation, each person is obligated to see himself as if he left Egypt” (10:5). How is this possible? How could we possibly imagine ourselves in a position of slavery since birth, where babies were slaughtered brutally and back-breaking labor was a way of life and then being freed with the greatest display of Hashem’s presence ever seen by man (up to that point)?
The word “סדר” means “order” and as we say in gemarah, “כשמו כך הוה” “like its name, so it is”. The Seder has fifteen steps that must be followed exactly as they are given and the nusach (style) we have in the Hagadah is pretty consistent for all the different cultures as well, meaning that everyone’s Seder should go pretty much the same. But, as anyone who has been to a Seder at more than one location, or heard about a different Seder or even at your own Seder from year to year could tell you, they are NEVER exactly the same! Everyone has different activities at the Seder to make it enjoyable and meaningful. Some people play games, some act out parts of the story of Egypt, and some go into depth of the different parts of the Hagadah. How does this happen? That an event so carefully planned that everyone should be able to celebrate in the same way ends up being completely different depending on where you are!
I believe I can answer both questions with one answer. When B’nei Yisrael left Mitzrayim, over 3 million strong, do you think any two people had the same exact experience? Of course not! Everyone was coming from a different perspective based on their age, status, experiences, and even their position in line probably affected their Yetzias Mitzrayim experience. Based on this, it’s easy to understand why everyone has a different Seder. Since everyone experiences the Exodus in a different way, your Seder, the meal where you should experience personally the coming out of Mitzrayim, will obviously be different from everybody else’s. In fact, it would be more improbable for two people to have the same Seder than to have two different ones! And that explains how every person has an obligation to see himself as if he came out of Mitzrayim, it’s not that you have to put yourself in the situation that the Jews had in Mitzrayim, everyone has their own “Mitzrayim” which they must leave on Pesach. Whatever it may be, we all are slaves to something to which we shouldn’t be. That is what we are obligated to do on Pesach, look back at what happened to our forefathers in Mitzrayim, learn from the story, and apply it to our Mitzrayims nowadays which we must leave.
So this Pesach when we sit around the Seder table with our family and friends let us think of the lesson of the Seder, we must take the experience of our forefathers in Mitzrayim, see how they overcame all their obstacles, stayed on the right path and eventually were worthy of being redeemed and to become the Chosen Nation. We should follow in that same path and leave the Mitzrayims of our lives and hopefully merit this year to the coming of Mashiach and to eat the Korban Pesach together with the entire Jewish Nation in Yerushalayim.
Chag Sameach!
I wish everyone a wonderful Yom Tov and a Chag Kosher V'Sameach. The next Dvar Torah will hopefully be Shvi'i Shel Pesach or after Yom Tov.
AIMeM
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