PESACH Neilas Hachag 5785 Avdus as bnei melachim
• Sukkah 45b Whoever binds the Yom Tov is like building an altar and offering a sacrifice. Rashi – Binds the Yom tov with food and drink, an expression of Oneg and not a burden waiting for its departure. Some say it refers to the day after yom tov.
• We had the mitzvah to ask for כלי כסף וכלי זהב to leave Egypt fulfilling the promise of Hashem to Avraham יצאו ברכוש גדול. Truthfully this will be fulfilled later at the ביזת הים with riches brought from Gan Eden and the Egyptian gold & silver would end up with the eirev rav who would use it for the Eigel.
• בימים ההם בזמן הזה – We also are to leave Pesach with a treasure of רכוש גדול.
• The highlight of Pesach’s questions and lessons is the seeming contradictions of לחם עוני but reclining and dipping twice but with bitter marror and tear like saltwater. The duality of cheirus and avdus enacted together.
• Another note is we begin with Pesach – as the Chassam Sofer describes ועשית פסח – (unlike חג הסוכות תעשה) we can jump beyond our normal limitations, yet we leave with נעילת החג and אסרו חג walking with our feet in shoes on the ground and binding ourselves once again.
• Egypt was the כור הברזל that purified us to be the chosen people as expert, experienced slaves to Hashem. Our freedom from Mitzrayim as not for “liberty peace & fun” but it was a training ground with the utmost varied experience of servitude and building skills within the fiber of our nation to be מקבלי עול – to accept and endure the yoke of servitude to Hashem בכל עבודה שבשדה- in all forms of Avodas Hashem. The servant of a king is a king himself.
• Hallel begins הללו עבדי ה' and continues אני עבדך בן אמתיך פיתחת למוסירי – We are in complete servitude we are instinctively bound from generations of עבדות – so open our binds.
• On purim Hallel is not said because we could not say עבדי ה' – אכתי עבדי אחשוורוש אנן – Not only then as they remained in galus throughout the Purim miracle, but as the Mashgiach says, הושחרו פניהם כשולי קדירה – we were darkened through the absorption of the flavors of materialism in his days. We were נהנה from his feast and like the bottom of a pot, absorbed all the flavors.
• On Pesach we do say full hallel. Pesach we kasher our כלים and remove the absorbed ta’am. (Some even get a רכוש of new כלים as well.) We are not bound or inseparable from our desires of olam hazeh. We break free with a jump, a פירצה above our glass ceilings on ליל פסח and now we move with small steps forward with נעלים – and אסרו חג - bound but also free.
• The primary example of this is the טטפת of tefilin, which the Ramban (end of Bo) describes as a crown that blends the four parshios; two of יציאת מצרים - leaving the confines of Egypt – and two with the avdus of Hashem in kabolas malchus shamayim of שמע and והיה.
• The minhag – especially for those who don’t wear tefilin on chol HaMoed – is to grab the mitzvah of tefilin early on isru chag. This comes together with an early Kabolas Malchus Shmayaim.
• We also had the longest break from מזמור לתודה as the korban Todah must be brought with 10 loaves of chometz. But just as Shavuos has a specific lesson in the bringing of a leavened שתי הלחם signifying that the Torah protects of from the usual symbolic dangers of chometz, there must be insight into the glaring absence of a korban todah throughout Pesach.
• A korban is a medium through which a person can come closer to Hashem אדם כי יקריב מכם – but in terms of rising hoda’ah אין לך הודאאה גדולה מזו – the central focus of the Seder and all of Pesach in general we ourselves – without any need for a medium – are totally encompassed with feelings and expressions of hoda’ah. (As a matter of fact, R’ Gamliel Rabinovitch says that is why Hashem gathers all the angels to hear maggid – as it is a singular time where a tremendous hoda’ah is expressed WITHOUT any personal request along with it!)
• Interestingly, we do have a halachic representation of the Korban Todah at the Seder itself. Although it is no longer our custom, The Rema in 475.7 says it is customary to make the 3 three Seder Matzos from an עישרון of flour as a זכר for the Korban Tamid. (This would make each matzoh to be more than a pound!)
• When hoda’ah is absolute, there is no need for requesting bracha. The hoda’ah is the fulfillment of the goodness’s purpose – to bring us closer in love and thanks to Hashem. So, it intrinsically will encourage more of such blessings to continue the fulfillment of the pleasure’s purpose – serving Hashem with love בכל לבבך- בשני יצריך.
• The experience of Pesach and its lessons should provide us with a רכוש to leave with. A treasure of the middah of zerizus as we learned form ושמרתם את המצות and to awaken early freed from the shackles of our bed, Kashered from being bound to the flavors of simple materialism, filled with gratitude to say an exuberant Modeh Ani upon our early morning wake up and grabbing the mitzva of tefilin – binding ourselves to the מלך מלכי המלכים with the greatest cheirus of an עבד מלך כמלך.
• This brings together the duality of Avdus & Cheirus as we are מקבל עול מלכות שמים as עבדי ה' with Krias Shema in its proper time –specifically described as כבני מלכים.