Pesach; yeridah letzorech aliyah…
Hello people!
At the start of maggid we say ‘ha lachma anya’; ‘this the the bread of
affliction…’ The version of the text that the Rambam had starts with
‘we went out in a hurry.’ Why exactly was it necessary to take us out
of Egypt in a hurry. Why not chill a bit, wait to have decent cakes,
and the exodus would have been a rather merrier affair? (can you
imagine having to eat cakes on seder night instead of matzah – that
would be great!!)
The Malbim (and shlah and alshich) answer that if we would have
waited, then we would have sank even lower and wouldhave been
spiritually unfit to be redeemed from Egypt.
However, the question remains why did HaShem wait until we had sank
that low; why not take us out earlier than this calmly and not in a
hurry at the last moment?
The answer to this is an extremely important point. The Maharal points
out that a lack/reduction/ fall always occurs before a growth spurt.
(‘a tzaddik falls 7 times and gets up;’ mishlei) Thus, for example,
one stretches back an elastic band before flinging it in the other
direction – the more it is stretched back, the further it flies. This
is also why golus has to come before ge’ula. Thus, HaShem waited until
we had reached the penultimate level of impurity before we were taken
out; because this was the appropriate ‘lack/ reduction/ fall’ needed
for the glorious exodus to follow. [And if anyone wants to see
something interesting they should check out the ipuwa papyrus which
archaeologists found – it’s an old papyrus dated back to time of
exodus with an egyptian account of the 10 plagues; exactly the same as
the torah’s account! Its currently in the museum of Leiden. – go to
http://ohr.edu/yhiy/article.php/838]
Anyway, back to the point…the time of pesach is one of ensuring we
don’t wait and let things become chometz; making sure waiting does not
spoil things. Now is the time to take on that thing you have beein
thinking of taking on, going that bit further, and doing it now as
opposed to waiting; there is no greater, more prolific killer than
time.
