Pesach: The Korban Pesach as the Symbol of G-d’s Unity

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Pesach 5772 – The Korban Pesach as the Symbol of G-d’s Unity

Summary

• Korban Pesach is a symbol of Hashem’s Unity
• Eaten in a single chabura, not many groups
• It is roasted whole, unbroken, with its entrails
• Roasted not cooked
• Cooking in water separates the meat into pieces
• Roasting the meat solidifies it
• Shechted during bein haarbaim, a “unique” time
• Korban Pesach is eaten with Maror
• Maror represents the difficulty of slavery
• With deep faith, the difficulty of slavery is understood to be part of Hashem’s overarching plan for history
• The world is designed to hide this truth for the time being, making it appear that evil can befall us¹
• Egypt represents disunity (antithetical to monotheism)
• Represented by night
• Firstborn (the paragon of Egypt) killed at night
• The Plagues
• In all plagues, the Jews were completely distinguished from the Egyptians
• One must clearly define exactly what happened in each plague
• e.g. the blood was a total transubstantiation (the fish died, it stank, and was undrinkable)
• e.g. the tzefardea was a makah sheyeish bah misa, frogs don’t have the aspect of negichah, so it was actually crocodiles²
• Three expressions in the Chumash
• “Know by this that I am Hashem³” representing metzius Hashem
• “In order that you know that I Hashem in the midst of the land⁴” representing hashgachaso yisborach.
• “So that you know that there is none like Me I all the earth⁵” representing achduso yisborach
• Three simultaneous purposes
• To redeem Klal Yisroel
• To demonstrate to Pharaoh
• To punish Egypt measure for measure
• Three representations in the Haggadah
• Drashah of dever, cherev, gilui shechina, and mateh
• Out of order, wild drasho
• Themes of the plagues, writ large⁶
• Or drashos on the individual plagues
• List of plagues
• Siman
• Why a siman?
• The siman was written on one side of Moshe’s staff⁷
• Purpose of siman here is to teach us to seek deeper understandings in Torah (40 plagues)
• Kashia in Zman Cheiruseinu
• Chazal say “ein lechah ben chorin ela mi sheoseik betalmud Torah⁸“. How could Klal Yisroel have been free at the exodus if they didn’t have Torah until they got to Sinai?
• They left chamushim: They left on the level of 50, the same level as Torah.
• Ameil did not exist at the time of the first tablets, as they were on a higher level⁹. Now, even after yegia and ameilus, Torah is still a metziah¹⁰.
• Thus Chazal in that maamar were not referring to the work of understanding Torah, but the work of changing myself in order to become someone able to accept the achraius to learn the Torah, and they had that.

Photo Credit: A Roger Davies

1. 1. Daas Tevunos ↩
2. 2. Abarbanel ↩
3. 3. Exodus 7:17 ↩
4. 4. Exodus 8:18 ↩
5. 5. Exodus 9:14 ↩
6. 6. Maharal ↩
7. 7. Zohar ↩
8. 8. Avos 5:2 ↩
9. 9. Alei Shur ↩
10. 10. Megillah 6b ↩