by Rav Netanel Yosifun, Rosh Yeshiva, Yeshivat Orot Netanya, yeshiva.org.il, translated by Hillel Fendel.
I once invited over some
people for a Tu B'Shvat seder, exactly two months before Passover. One of the
women said she couldn't make it: "I'm too busy cleaning for Pesach…"
Fulfilling the Torah's mitzvot often takes time – some more, some less.
But for Pesach, we all expend much effort and time in preparations. We clean,
scrub, search and destroy every crumb of chametz (and even some that are not
chametz…) that we can find. Not everyone starts quite as early as Tu B'shvat,
but the idea is clear.
There are Halakhic sources for the manifold preparations for Pesach. The
Gemara (Megillah 4a) tells us: "Moshe instituted that Israel should ask
and study about the [current] festival: the laws of Pesach on Pesach, of
Shavuot on Shavuot, and of Sukkot on Sukkot." That is, the time for this
study is on the holiday itself.
But we learn in another Gemara (Pesachim 6a) that for Pesach, the time
for asking and studying is 30 days before the holiday! Why is this night
of Pesach different than all others?
The Beit Yosef, author of the Shulchan Arukh, answers that the laws of
Pesach are very many and detailed, more than the other holidays. He also notes
that many of the laws must be fulfilled even before Pesach, such as burning the
chametz and the like.
In the times of the Holy Temple, the Paschal sacrifice was offered, as
the Torah mandates, on the day before the holiday, and could then be eaten that
night, again as the Torah mandates, at what we now call the Passover Seder. In
fact, sometimes the Bible itself uses the word "Pesach" to refer to
"Passover eve," the time of the sacrifice (see Rosh HaShanah 13a,
Tosafot s.v. d'akrivu). Here again, we see an emphasis on the time
before Pesach, the time of preparation for the holiday.
Let us delve further into the nature and importance of these
preparations. To this end, let us ask the following: We know that there is a
mitzvah to tell and retell the story of the Exodus on Passover. In the Haggadah
we see that it must be told beginning with the g'nut, the difficult and
painful parts, and ending with the shevach, the positive parts of the
Redemption from the house of bondage. Why must we tell about the
"preparatory" stage of the subjugation and the hardships, instead of
sufficing with the happy ending?
The answer, of course, is that the difficult period during which we were
enslaved in Egypt has great importance. G-d specifically, in the Covenant
Between the Pieces that He forged with Avraham Avinu, assigned us to a
torturous period of enslavement – and He had good reason. The purpose was that
we experience the crucible of Egypt, which would strengthen and forge us into a
great nation of G-d, and would also leave us with r'chush gadol, massive
material possessions. In short, we would become a nation wealthy both materially
and spiritually.
The emerging nation of Israel in Egypt can be likened to a fetus in its
mother's womb. The fetus grows there in a phenomenal manner – proportionately
much more than it will develop at any time after its birth. It begins as a
solitary cell, weighing nothing, and ends up being born with a weight of several
pounds! Israel, too, began in Egypt with 70 souls, and ended up numbering a few
million (over 600,000 men aged 20-60, plus the other males, and women and
children). This is a huge population growth, and it took place precisely during
their period of subjugation. In fact, the members of the Tribe of Levy, which did
not experience slavery in Egypt, multiplied less than the other tribes!
Egypt in Hebrew is Mitzrayim, similar to the word meitzarim, "narrow
straits." It is thus like a pressure cooker, which amasses more and more
steam inside until it finally bursts forth with tremendous power. The same
happened with Israel: Its strengths and abilities increasingly grew in Egypt,
finally bursting forth with tremendous power.
This is what is meant by "beginning with g'nut" – and
is also the idea of the days of hard preparations before Pesach. The very
engagement with Pesach and its preparations forms within us an inner process of
filling ourselves with the ideas and lessons of the holiday, which, with G-d's
help, will burst forth with great vigor at the Seder table and in the festival
days afterwards.
And perhaps this is yet another explanation for the name of the Sabbath before Pesach, which is known as Shabbat HaGadol – because on these days we "grow" (from the root ligdol).
May we merit this year to commemorate Pesach with gadlut (greatness), in our glorious and holy Beit Mikdash!