Tag Archives: Egypt

Passover – Matzah: Celebrating our Dependence on God

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Matzah clearly plays a central role in the Passover holiday.  On Seder night, there is a specific mitzvah to eat matzah.  In addition, the Torah prohibits the consumption of matzahchametz, the antithesis of matzah, for all eight days of Passover.  What do matzah and chametz symbolize, and why are they so central to our celebration of Passover?

Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch (1808 – 1888; Frankfurt, Germany), explains that as we know, matzah is bread that is made from dough that was not given time to rise.  This type of bread would generally be eaten by one who is pressed for time.  As a matter of fact, the Talmud nicknames matzah, lechem oni – poor man’s bread.  A poor man is always in a flurry trying to survive and therefore has no time to allow his dough to rise.  Throughout our slavery in Egypt, our Egyptian masters did not allow us the time needed for our dough to rise.  Hence, we usually ended up eating matzah.  Upon our long awaited departure from Egypt, we still ate matzah, as the Egyptians were driving us out, again not giving our dough time to rise.[1]  Matzah, therefore, symbolizes servitude.  Chametz, on the other hand, is the bread of one who is his own master.  He can allot however much time he desires to make sure his bread rises appropriately.  Chametz symbolizes independence. Continue reading Passover – Matzah: Celebrating our Dependence on God

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Parshat Shemot – Advice from a Child

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nile pyramidPharaoh’s astrologers informed him that a boy would be born who would redeem the Jewish people from Egyptian slavery.  He therefore enacted a new decree that all male newborns would be drowned in the Nile River.  At this point in the story, the Torah tells us that ‘A man went from the house of Levi and married a daughter of Levi.’  This man was Amram.  The ‘daughter of Levi’ was Jochebed.

The Talmud details the interesting background to this marriage.  Amram and Jochebed were previously married.  In fact, they already had two children, Miriam and Aaron.  When Pharaoh legislated this new barbaric decree of killing every newborn male child, Amram decided that it was not worthwhile to continue having children; after all, if a boy would be born, baby boy - From G-dPharaoh’s henchmen would find and kill the baby.  He therefore divorced his wife.  As Amram was the leader of the Jewish people at the time, all the rest of the Jews followed suit and divorced their wives.  Miriam, who at the time was a mere six years old, understood the situation and recognized the obvious outcome of her father’s decision: no more Jewish children.  Disagreeing with her father, she presented him with the following three arguments as to why he should stay married:

  1. Pharaoh’s decree affected only the males, but Amram’s decision affected the girls as well.
  2. Pharaoh’s decree caused the boys to lose out on Olam Hazeh, the physical world, but by preventing their birth, Amram was causing them to also lose out on Olam Habah, the world to come.
  3. Pharaoh was a king of flesh and blood whose decree might not even last, while Amram was ensuring that the decree would endure.

Continue reading Parshat Shemot – Advice from a Child

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Parshat Vayigash – The Risks of Freedom

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egyptian slaveryIn another few months, we will reach the holiday of Passover, celebrating our redemption from Egyptian slavery.  We will spend two long seder nights amid eight complete days thanking God for liberating us from the terrible oppression that we faced in Egypt.  But wait a second – who sent us down there in the first place?  Jacob and his children emigrate from Canaan (Israel) to Egypt in this week’s parshah, and the Torah is very clear that God wanted them to go.  As a matter of fact, two generations earlier God had already informed Abraham that his children would be exiled to Egypt and that it would be there that they would develop from just a family into an entire nation.  Why did we ever have to leave Canaan?  Why couldn’t we transition into nationhood in our own land? Continue reading Parshat Vayigash – The Risks of Freedom

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