Several years ago, a grandson of mine spent the last days of Pesach with us. It being the first time his family had not attended our Seder, my grandson wanted me to give him another chance to find the Afikomen on " Shvi'i shel Pesach," the last day of the Pesach holiday, to make up for the regular Afikomen he had missed during the Seder nights. I explained to him that the Afikomen is a Mitzvah prescribed exclusively for the Seder night, and we would be guilty of the prohibitive commandment of Bal Tosif – adding to the Mitzvah – if we instituted an Afikomen during the last days of Pesach as well… he was not mollified.

My grandson nagging me for an Afikomen opportunity, I had to devise another game plan: "The hunt for the Rechush Gadol." Whereas on the first days of Passover we recall through the Matza the Oni, the affliction of our ancestors, on the second days of Passover we focus on the Rechush Gadol—the great bounty. This is what Hashem promised Avraham when He told him that his descendants would leave with Rechush Gadol after serving the Egyptians for four hundred years (Bereishis 15:14). The idea conveyed by the Rechush Gadol fits more appropriately with the notion of prizes and expensive gifts, and I felt that he Rechush Gadol hunt was the perfect game for my grandchildren to play on the second days of Pesach. The game itself is "played" with the same rules as the Afikomen search; the grandchild (I suppose all children can play this game as well) must look for the Rechush Gadol Matza that has been hidden in a clever place by the father or grandfather. When the young man or girl finds the Rechush Gadol, he or she receives a reward which ought to be even more valuable than the Afikomen!

The Bnei Yisroel's collection of this "great bounty" came in two stages. The first stage occurred when the Egyptians, in a miraculous turnabout, sent the Bnei Yisroel away with expensive farewell mementos that they had ostensibly borrowed. The second stage, when the Bnei Yisroel picked up from the Red Sea shores on Shvi'i shel Pesach, a week after the initial Exodus, the gorgeous armor of their drowned, Egyptian pursuers. This armor surpassed by far the wealth they had collected in Egypt, and in fact, Moshe had to coerce Bnei Yisroel to depart from their Red Sea riches (Shimos 15:22).

There are two explanations for the need for coercion here, which, superficially, seem altogether contradictory. Rashi says that Moshe literally had to tear them away from the Red Sea because they were so engrossed in accumulating the expensive remnants of the Egyptian cavalry. The Zohar, however, understands the need for force here in an entirely new perspective. The Jews did not want to depart form the Red Sea because never before had they sensed so vividly and unmistakably – the presence of the Shechinah.

My grandfather z"l, saw no contradiction between Rashi's understanding and the Zohar's. There are two tests of faith – nisayon ha'oni, the test of affliction, and nisayon ha'osher , the test of affluence. When dark times hit, it is often difficult to recognize Hashem's Presence and believe fully in His ultimate guiding hand. However, even a more difficult test is the test of affluence: to believe in Hashem and heed His Word in times of well being and ease. A person's recognition of Hashem even in affluent times can be an even more sublime vision than in a time of adversity. There is no contradiction here between Rashi and the Zohar. Bnei Yisroel's powerful awareness of Hashem came precisely because of their preoccupation with the riches at the sea. And this is what Chazal mean when they say: "What the plainest maidservant saw at the Red Sea was not seen evenby Ezekiel in his marvelous conjuring of the chariot."

"We are expected," I told my grandson, "To feel the Shechinah when we are flushed with Rechush Gadol, and indeed, it is possible for us to reach higher peaks of Yedias Hashem in wealth than in poorness.