THE OTHER MIRACLE
Dr. Tali Loewenthal,
Director of Chabad
Research Unit,
Passover is the festival of freedom, of
liberation - but for whom? Is this freedom only for the Jewish people? Do we
always see ourselves as facing a hostile world from which we have to be
protected and liberated, or is there another crucial element in our history and
our future?
The comments by the Sages concerning the
Shabbat before Passover provide a clue. The liberation of the Jewish people
includes the kernel of an ultimate ideal - the connection of all humanity with
the Divine. Let us see how.
Moses, instructed by G-d, had told the Jewish
people to take a lamb for each household. They should keep the lamb in their
home for a few days. This lamb was then to be slaughtered and roasted. Each
lamb would be eaten in family groups on the night of the Exodus. Around
midnight there would be the death of the Egyptian firstborn and at last
stubborn Pharaoh would give in and he would let the Jews go free.
The lamb was no ordinary creature in ancient
As we might imagine this had a strong effect
on the Egyptian public - especially on those who were firstborn! They appealed
to Pharaoh to let the Jews go but he stubbornly refused. This resulted in civil
war between the Egyptian firstborn and Pharaoh's soldiers1. In the Haggadah we
refer to this event with the phrase “He smites
All this took place on 10 Nissan ─ the
Shabbat before the Exodus. This day is given the name Shabbat Hagadol, the Great Shabbat. 1
The Sages describe this as a 'great miracle' 2,
because it meant that at least some Egyptians saw the truth of Moses' teaching
and were fighting against the evil forces of Pharaoh. This was a hint of the
ultimate process in which the hostile enemies of the Jews are transformed into
supporters and friends. 3
Hence while one miracle of the Egyptian firstborn was their destruction on the
night of the Exodus, leading directly to the freedom of the Jews, another
miracle, four days earlier, was their attempt (albeit unsuccessful) to change
Pharaoh's policy.
This episode in our history could be seen as
highly relevant to our own time. Massive forces are posed against the Jews, yet
there are also some dissident voices of reason to be heard. As yet, these are
very few, and under threat from their own people. Yet who knows what the future
might hold The Lubavitcher Rebbe points out that in the account of this
earlier, other miracle of the firstborn, we see a first step towards the
fulfillment of the ultimate goal of the Jew: to connect all humanity to G-d.
The goal of the Pesach liberation was that the Jewish people would receive the
Torah on Sinai, meaning
the 613 Commands for the Jew and 7 Noachide Laws for the non-Jew.
The Jewish people have the responsibility
to transmit these Noachide laws to society at large. They express a way of
responding to the infinity of G-d in a wholesome and life-giving way, rather
than as a fervent terrorist bringing death and destruction.
The rebellion of the Egyptian firstborn
constituted a hint of this ultimate goal. Hence this Shabbat is “great” not
only for its own time, but for what it portends for the future. 4
FOOTNOTES:
1. Tosafot
to Talmud Shabbat 87b (Sec.'And that day'). The date
10 Nisan also commemorates the passing of Miriam many years later, hence the
emphasis is on the day (Shabbat) rather than the date.
2. Shulchan
Aruch HaRav 430:1.
3. See Prov.16:7, Zeph.3:9.
4. See Likkutei
Sichot, vo1.7 pp.212-3.
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