Another Angle
BS”D
Volume 39, No. 25
14 Nissan 5785
April 12, 2025
Sponsored by Rabbi Sanford H. Shudnow and family in memory of his father Mr. Phillip S. Shudnow (Shraga Feivel ben R’ Haim a”h) and grandfather Hyman S. Shudnow (Haim ben R’ Shneur Zalman a”h) whose yahrzeits fall on Erev Pesach
Please enjoy the Hamaayan Haggadah Shel Pesach
Volume 1 –
https://torah.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/The-Hamaayan-Haggadah-Volume-1-2006.pdf
Volume 2 –
https://torah.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/The-Hamaayan-Haggadah-Volume-2-2020.pdf
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Parashat Tzav continues–in part, repeats–the laws of Korbanot / sacrificial offerings that began in last week’s Parashah. However, the order in which the Korbanot are discussed in Tzav is different from the order in Vayikra. In last week’s Parashah, the order is: Olah, Mincha, Shelamim, Chatat, Asham. In this week’s Parashah, Shelamim is last.
R’ Nosson Yehuda Leib Mintzberg z”l (1943-2018; rabbi and Rosh Yeshiva in Yerushalayim and Bet Shemesh, Israel) explains: In Parashat Vayikra, the Torah introduces the idea that Hashem can be served through offering Korbanot, and it therefore lists all the different Korbanot that a person may bring–first, the voluntary offerings that one might bring to express his closeness to G-d (Olah, Mincha, and Shelamim), then the offerings that atone for sin (Chatat and Asham). In Parashat Tzav, in contrast, the Korbanot are listed in the order of their holiness. (The different levels of holiness of Korbanot are manifested in how much of each Korban is burnt on the altar, who may eat the remainder, and where it may be eaten.)
Notably, writes R’ Mintzberg, Parashat Vayikra does not discuss the eating of the Korbanot. The reason is, as stated, that Parashat Vayikra focuses on the Korbanot as an expression of man’s relationship with Hashem; indeed, the word “Korban” implies bringing something “close” to the altar for Hashem. Parashat Tzav, in contrast, is where the detailed laws of the sacrificial offerings are found, including instructions about where and by whom they should be eaten. (Ben Melech Al Ha’Torah)
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“Aharon and his sons shall eat what is left of it; it shall be eaten unleavened in a Kadosh / holy place, in the Courtyard of the Ohel Mo’ed / Tent of Meeting shall they eat it.” (6:9)
R’ Naftali Hertz Weisel z”l (1725-1805; German banker, and prolific author of works of Torah commentary, Hebrew grammar, and Mussar) writes: The “Kadosh place” referred to here is the Courtyard of the Ohel Mo’ed, as our verse says. But why is that courtyard called “Kadosh”?
In general, R’ Weisel explains, the root from which we get the word “Kadosh” (and the related word “Kodesh”) signifies something that is distinct in some way. For example, we read (Vayikra 10:10), “In order to distinguish between the Kodesh and the Chol / mundane.” “Chol” refers to all of the ordinary things a person does, while “Kodesh” refers to that which is elevated above the Chol. For this reason, the word Kodesh is used to describe wonders that Hashem performs, as in Tehilim (77:14-15), “Elokim, Your way is in Kodesh, what power is as great as Elokim? You are the Kel who works wonders, You manifested Your might among the nations.” Likewise, in the Song at the Sea, Bnei Yisrael said (Shmot 15:11), “Who is like You among the heavenly powers, Hashem! Who is like You, mighty in Kodesh, too awesome for praise, Doer of wonders!” (Hashem’s wonders are “Kodesh” because they are out of the ordinary.)
In this vein, R’ Weisel concludes, the Courtyard of the Ohel Mo’ed is called “Kadosh” because it is a place where everything that is done is in accordance with the word of G-d, thus distinguishing it from courtyards of kings and other courtyards. (Peshuto Shel Mikra)
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Pesach
“In every generation, one is obligated to see himself as if he had personally gone out of Egypt.” (Pesach Haggadah)
What does this mean in practice? R’ Shlomo Wolbe z”l (1914-2005) explains:
In Egypt, Bnei Yisrael were enslaved. They were lowly slaves to a corrupt nation. Bnei Yisrael’s masters controlled both their bodies and their minds, subjecting them to back-breaking labor and to negative spiritual influences. Thus, Midrash Rabbah records that Bnei Yisrael who left Egypt had been idolaters. Indeed, four-fifths of Bnei Yisrael did not even merit to leave Egypt; instead, they died during the plague of Darkness. And, even those who did leave Egypt were, in a sense, stuck in Egypt until Hashem “extracted” them, as we read (Devarim 4:34), “Or has any god ever miraculously come to take for himself a nation from inside a nation.”
And yet, the moment they left Egypt, they turned into new people. We read (Shmot 14:8), “Bnei Yisrael were going out with an upraised arm.” Rashi z”l explains: “With elevated and public Gevurah / strength.” This Gevurah was manifested, writes R’ Wolbe, by rising above their previous lowly state, breaking free of the dominion of evil and impurity, and entering the dominion of holiness.
We say in Ma’ariv that Hashem “removed His people Yisrael from their midst to eternal freedom.” What is this “eternal freedom”? It is more than freedom from physical slavery; it is freedom from the dominion of evil and impurity. To see ourselves as having gone out of Egypt means to free ourselves from whatever evil or impurity holds dominion over us, R’ Wolbe writes.
How is this accomplished? R’ Wolbe explains: Pirkei Avot (ch.5) describes the Ten Plagues as “Ten Nissim that were performed for our ancestors.” “Nes” is often translated “miracle,” but it also means “banner.” At each of the plagues, Hashem elevated our ancestors like a banner held high, and He drew them close to Him. As idolaters, they should have experienced the same fate as the Egyptians, but Hashem’s Hashgachah Peratit / Divine Providence directed to each individual protected him miraculously.
Every time Hashem demonstrates His Hashgachah Peratit over an individual, He is elevating that person, just as He elevated our ancestors when His Hashgachah Peratit saved them miraculously from the Ten Plagues. To “see ourselves as if we had personally gone out of Egypt” means recognizing the Hashgachah Peratit in our lives and being inspired by it to break the hold that evil and impurity have over each of us to a greater or lesser degree. (Da’at Shlomo: Ma’amarei Geulah p.10)
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Bringing the Korban Pesach Today
R’ Yaakov Yosef Waldstein shlita writes: R’ Yosef Shalom Elyashiv z”l (1910-2012; Yerushalayim) observed that some of the “elders of the precious people of Yerushalayim” used to leave the Holy City on the morning of Erev Pesach so they would not be within the city limits on the afternoon of that day, when it was time to offer the Korban Pesach. They did this, R’ Elyashiv explained, because R’ Moshe ben Maimon z”l (Rambam; 1135-1204; Spain and Egypt) rules that sacrifices may be offered even when the Bet Hamikdash is not standing. Thus, those elders held, we are required to bring the Korban Pesach even today; we do not do so only because we do not know where the altar is supposed to be, we do not have pedigreed Kohanim, and, even if we did, we do not have priestly garments for them to wear, and similar considerations. True, one who is prevented from performing a Mitzvah by factors beyond his control is exempt. However, Rambam rules that one who is in Yerushalayim but is unavoidably prevented from bringing the Korban Pesach is more culpable than one who is not in Yerushalayim at all when it is time to offer that sacrifice. Therefore, they left Yerushalayim.
R’ Elyashiv continued: In my opinion, it is not necessary to leave Yerushalayim. The anonymous sage known only as “a Levi from Barcelona” (Spain; 13th century) writes in Sefer Ha’chinuch that the Mitzvah to build the Bet Hamikdash applies only when the majority of the Jewish People live in Eretz Yisrael. Building an altar, said R’ Elyashiv, is part of building the Bet Hamikdash. Thus, there is no Mitzvah to build an altar today, when the majority of Jews live outside of Eretz Yisrael. It follows, said R’ Elyashiv, that we are not unavoidably prevented from offering a Korban Pesach; rather, we have no such Mitzvah today, since there is no Mitzvah to build an altar.
R’ Waldstein adds parenthetically: Someone once asked R’ Elyashiv whether he should observe the stringency of the “elders of the precious people of Yerushalayim” and leave the city on the morning of Erev Pesach. R’ Elyashiv responded, based on the Gemara (Chullin 105a) regarding Mar Ukva, who waited “only” six hours between meat and milk, whereas his father would wait until the next day. Why didn’t Mar Ukva adopt his father’s stringency? R’ Elyashiv asked. Because his father observed many other stringencies as well, and Mar Ukva did not consider himself to be on his father’s level. [Mimicking one stringency of a Tzaddik is not what the Torah wants from us.] Similarly, R’ Elyashiv said, only if one observes all the stringencies of the afore-mentioned elders should he also observe the stringency of leaving Yerushalayim on the morning of Erev Pesach. [Otherwise, it is merely mimicry, and it is not meaningful.] (Mishnat Ish: Leil Ha’Seder p.5)
Go to Torah.org
Date: April 10, 2025
