GENESIS | 15:14 free — GEN846 Ten plagues did the Holy, Blessed One b...
GEN846 Ten plagues did the Holy, Blessed One bring upon the Egyptians in Egypt, and ten at the Sea. Pirkei Avot V:5 … in the detailed study of the plagues lies a more fundamental purpose. The liberation from Egypt is the very bedrock of our faith. As the Book of Kuzari [R. Judah haLevi, Kitab al Khazari I § 25] notes, the Almighty began the Ten Commandments, the blazing overwhelming charge from Sinai for all eternity, ‘I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.” Exodus 20:2; Deuteronomy 5:6. He did not begin, “I am the Creator of the world and your Creator.” As their liberator from cruel slavery and a terrifying enemy, the Almighty was known to the Israelites, in their immediate experience. On such knowledge they could life in faith. God as Creator was an abstract, general concept that would not move them to fervor. We in turn celebrate the Passover seder every year, to retell and relive the liberation of the Egyptians, that it may become imbedded in us the more firmly as a solid foundation for our faith. At Rosh Hashanah, the traditional anniversary of the creation, we do not have a seder to recount the glories of a Creator who brought the world into existence. Rather, in the Sh’ma that we recite morning and evening, the third paragraph concludes, ‘I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God.” Numbers 15:41 And for this reason, at the seder we are commanded to dwell on every detail, to tell at the greatest length about the liberation. Our purpose is not to lose ourselves in an evening of fond reminiscence and maudlin nostalgia about wonders and glories in our past. We simply reaffirm that our maker is a trustworthy liberator. He made a promise to Abraham: “Know, O know that your descendants will be alien in a land not theirs, and they will enslave them and oppress them four hundred year; but also that nation which they will serve shall I judge, and afterward they shall come out with great wealth.” [this verse]. The Haggadah affirms that He kept His word. SINAI3 52-3
Source Key | SINAI3 |
Verse | 15:14 |
Keyword(s) | free |
Source Page(s) | (See end of excerpt) |