Ha Lachma Anya

Speaker:
Ask author
Date:
April 02 2014
Downloads:
0
Views:
32
Comments:
0
 

At the beginning of Magid, we have the following statement: הָא לַחְמָא עַנְיָא דִּי אֲכָלוּ אַבְהָתָנָא בְאַרְעָא דְמִצְרָיִם. כָּל דִכְפִין יֵיתֵי וְיֵיכֹל. כָּל דִצְרִיךְ יֵיתֵי וְיִפְסַח. This is the bread of poverty that our ancestors ate in the land of Egypt. Anyone who is famished should come and eat. Anyone who is in need should come and partake of the Pesach sacrifice (translation adapted from Sefaria.org.il). A lot of ink has been spilled over this, and justifiably so, on clarifying "what is the theme of lachma anya de-achalna avosana be-Mitzraim. What is lechem oni all about, and when and where in Mitzraim did they eat it? There is a big machlokes Rishonim about itAnd what is the connection between lachma anya de-achalna avosana be-Mitzraim and kol dikhfin yaysei ve-yeichol? We are all in favor of eating lechem oni because it says, Lema'an tizkor es yom tzeis'kha mi-Mitzraim kol yemei chayecha. We are all in favor of sharing our food with poor people. But the question is, what are those two doing in one paragraph? I will just throw out one of the great many important and substantive suggestions. This is something that Rav Soloveitchik alluded to on multiple occasions. He asked, why would someone share his food with poor people? Why would one person be a ba'al tzedakah while another one would not be? Because someone with empathy—a person who knows what it feels like to be poor and who can put himself into the shoes of someone less fortunate—will be more likely to have compassion, share, and give to those who are less fortunate. A person who doesn't understand what it means to be poor will have trouble having compassion for the poor. And even more so, a person who thinks that he deserves his riches will be much less likely to share his wealth with others who (in his estimation) do not deserve it. On the contrary, a person who doesn't take things for granted. Someone who doesn't think that he deserves what he has and supposes that he is lucky to have it. Such a person will be more likely to share it with others whom he deems to be in "the same boat" as himself. Kol dikhfin yaysei ve-yeichol is in the realm of Bein Adam la-Chaveiro—Do we share with others or not. The basic question of Bein Adam la-Chaveiro, before we get into any halachos and before we get to the Chumash, is—Do I only care about myself, or do I care about other people? And then, the rest is the details. So, how do we inspire ourselves to care about other people? What does the Haggadah say?  Ha lachma anya de-achalna avosana be-Mitzraim.  Many Rishonim—among them Ramban, Abarbanel, and others—say that it is not referring to the "poor bread" that we eat at the Seder. It's the "poor bread" that we ate while we were slaves in Egypt. They didn't eat fancy chala with fancy ingredients and had time to let it rise, etc. Meaning that lechem oni does not remind us only of our geula, as Rabban Gamliel says in the end, but it also reminds us of our shibud

The answer is pashut. Ha lachma anya de-achalna avosana be-Mitzraim. We used to be poor, oppressed, and downtrodden in Mitzraim. We weren't always rich. And now we are well to do. We are upper-middle-class; we are be-seder—we're doing alright. But we used to be poor. And it is not necessarily to our credit that we became rich. Hashem took us out of Mitzraim. If a person would really internalize the idea—You know what? He also used to be poor. He can imagine what it's like to be poor. He doesn't take for granted that he is rich and that his wealth is only by the grace of G-d. It's only due to the chassadim of Hashem—which is the point of the Pesach Seder. We are where we are because of the chassadim of Hashem. We did not raise ourselves by our bootstraps. When the person thinks about what it means that he was once poor and that only by the grace of Hashem he is rich now, then, when he looks at someone else who is destitute, he will say: Ah. I can imagine what this guy is feeling. We used to feel like that in Mitzraim. And you know what? Hashem helped us to get out of that even though we did not deserve that, necessarily. So, maybe I should help that fellow as well. And maybe, that's why we say that at the beginning of the Seder. What is the connection between the two halves of the Torah, Bein Adam le-chaveiro and Bein Adam le-Makom? That you recognize that you were once poor, and it was Hashem who helped you out of that. Every time we offer halel v'hodah for giving us what we have and remind ourselves that it did not come from Kochi ve-atzum yadi, we are not only growing in Bein Adam le-Makom but also Bein Adam le-chaveiro. Because once I appreciate that I am the recipient of grace and I don't take it for granted, and I don't think that I deserve it, and I know that I could have been poor, then I will be more charitable, and I will feel compassion and empathy for others. The Rav spoke about this theme many times. He said, do you know why many Jews are such big ba'alei tzedakah and why they are so dedicated to fighting for the poor, oppressed, and disadvantaged? Because they still remember Yetzias Mitzraim. They still remember what it means to be poor and have someone save you. And therefore, even though they outwardly forgot about Har Sinai, they still remember Yetzias Mitzraim inside. And it still has hashpa'a on what they do even if they are yet not very religious.

Machshava:
Pesach 

Description

Transcribed and adapted by a talmid from the YUTorah shiur originally given in the Gruss Kollel in Yerushalayim

    More from this:
    Comments
    0 comments
    Leave a Comment
    Title:
    Comment:
    Anonymous: 

    Learning on the Marcos and Adina Katz YUTorah site is sponsored today by Judy & Mark Frankel & family l'ilui nishmos מרדכי בן הרב משה יהודה ע"ה and משה יהודה ז"ל בן מאיר אליהו ויהודית and by the Polinsky Family to commemorate the 5th Yahrzeit of Gil Polinsky, Gedalyahu Gootmun Chaim ben Yaakov Dov