First Day

‘And Pharoah got up at night’

Do you think Pharoah slept peacefully through to the morning on the night of the Killing of the Firstborn? It’s pretty remarkable that he went to bed at all on the night he had been told would be split by such a plague! He must have been woken up by the ‘great cry’!  So ‘at night’ seems a bit redundant.

Rabbi Chaim ben Attar in his ‘Ohr Hachaim’ quotes the midrashim that the night of the last plague was broad daylight for the Bnei Yisrael. The verse is telling us even though it was day for the Jews, it was still ‘night’ for Pharoah. Just like during the plague of darkness. The verse about the four sons alludes to this: And you will tell your son on that day saying…… ‘On that day’ is strange, since the mitzvah of relating the story of the Exodus is at night. The answer is that ’on that day’ means you tell your child all the details of the miracle: that the night of the Exodus was as bright as day.

First Day – Tal

On the first day of Pesach we stop mentioning ‘Mashiv Haruach umorid hageshem’. At which point exactly do we stop? Those who say ‘morid hatal’ in the summer months start ‘tal’ instead of ‘geshem’ at Musaf on the first day, as the gabbai announces ‘morid hatal’ before the silent Amidah. Those who do not say ‘morid hatal’ in the summer months normally continue to mention ‘geshem’ at Musaf and only stop at Mincha after having heard the Shliach Tsibbur say the ‘tal’ prayer in his repetition; an individual in a village should say Musaf before the time it is prayed in the towns and continues to say it at Musaf so as not to be different from the tsibbur. If he is praying at a time when the tsibbur may have already prayed Musaf, he should not say it.

What about this year in the many paces where there are sadly no minyanim taking place at all?

It would seem that those who say ‘morid hatal’ in the summer months start ‘tal’ instead of ‘geshem’ at Musaf on the first day as per usual.  Regarding those who do not say ‘morid hatal’ in the summer months – who normally continue to mention ‘geshem’ at Musaf – it would seem they should not mention ‘geshem’ this year at Musaf, as there is no minyan continuing to say ‘geshem’ at Musaf. [This is my own suggestion, I am grateful to my neighbour Rabbi Slade for pointing out that in the guidance put out by Shomrei Hadas shul it writes that one should still say Mashiv Haruach Umorid Hageshem at Musaph on 1st day Pesach. I should point out this is against what I wrote. [I should also add that this is talking about people who do not say 'morid hatal' in the summer. Those who do say 'morid hatal' would -it seems- start that with musaph. 

]  

Second Day

A most unusual Pesach

On the second day of Pesach the Haftara tells us of a unique Pesach – King Yoshiah made a Pesach which was unlike any previous Pesach. This king undid the idol worship of his predecessor and was the catalyst for a fundamental return to G-d among the people.

Our Pesach is also unique; unique in the circumstances; unique in the way we are preparing for it; unique in the way we will keep it.

But first let’s wind the clock back some thirty-four years.

On 26^th April 86, Reactor 4 blew up in the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Ukraine. The explosion killed 250 people; the nuclear fallout was 400 times larger than the Hiroshima bomb, and is reckoned to have caused subsequent deaths with estimates ranging from 5000 to half a million.

At first Russia covered it up. The unfolding disaster shook the Russian people’s acceptance of the Communist regime’s authority, and according to Mikhail Gorbachev, former General Secretary of the Communist Party, it was the real reason behind the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the decades’ old Communist regime.

The then Chief Rabbi Lord Immanuel Jakobovits made a penetrating observation: when G-d announced what would happen on the night of the death of the Egyptian firstborn, He said He would wreak judgements against the Egyptian idols. The Medrash explains: wooden idols would rot; metal ones would dissolve and melt down to the ground.

What happened at Chernobyl was called a meltdown, the term for a severe nuclear reactor accident that results in core damage from overheating. This meltdown brought down with it one of the most powerful regimes in the history of mankind.

Said Rabbi Jakobovits: when the time was up for that regime, G-d first took the ‘idol’ of that world outlook – technology and science – and showed its limitations; He melted it down and changed it from a source of useful energy into a force of destruction.

Back to our Pesach:

We have come to rely on technology, science, wealth, global trade and prosperity. We have come to take it as a given that we can flit back and forth between here and Israel; we can make lavish functions surrounded by hundreds of friends; we can expect at times of sorrow to have the community rally round to comfort us; we can predict the economic situation; we can organise our lives down to a digital ‘t’. Now we find ourselves in a situation where we can still communicate instantly around the world, but we cannot walk freely out of our own houses, and we cannot assume our hospitals will be able to protect our loved ones, nor that we can be at the bedside of those who…….. We feel much more fragile, forced to see the limitations of our health care systems and of our economies, as one new mutation of a virus spreads round the world wreaking havoc with so much we have grown to take for granted.

 When the melt-down happens, there is a message: we risk making an ‘idol’ out of our capabilities if we forget our limits. Ever since we left Egypt God has carried us on eagles’ wings, but the belief in our own power hides this: we think we are doing the flying ourselves. This year as we sit down to sedarim so very different from what we had planned, with the empty seats of those who could not fly, we know Who is really doing the flying. We will no doubt remember this Pesach for many years to come. Let’s remember our limitations even in the times of health, freedom of movement and prosperity which we hope will soon return.

Second Day: Eruv Tavshilin

For those on Chutz La’aretz we make an Eruv Tavshilin on Wednesday, erev Pesach. What happened if someone forgot? Can he cook on Friday Yom Tov for Shabbat? The Gemara [Beitsa 16b] relates that one Yom tov Shmuel noticed someone who was sad; the man told him he had forgotten to make an Eruv Tavshilin. Shmuel replied that the man could rely on Shmuel’s eruv. The next year the same thing happened again, but this time Shmuel told the man that he was negligent and so Shmuel’s eruv would not work for him. This is the halacha: the Rav has in mind people who forgot to make Eruv Tavshilin, but not a ‘second-time forgetter’.

Is this a ‘one strike and you’re out for life’ rule? The Kaf Hachaim writes that if a person’s omission was not at two consecutive Chagim – i.e. he remembered at the chag in between – then he is allowed to rely on the Rav’s eruv. Although the Chayei Adam remains in doubt about this point, one could argue for leniency since the Knesset Yechezkel holds that nowadays Rabbanim have in mind even who have forgotten on two consecutive occasions and all the more so when it the occasions he forgot were not consecutive.

Another point regarding forgetting is that if a ‘Ben Chutz La’aretz’ who is in Israel forgets to make an Eruv when Yom Tov falls on Thursday/Friday, it does not count as negligence, in the opinion of Rabbi S  Z Auerbach – since the Bnei Eretz Israel are not making an eruv, his omission is considered to be closer to an accident.

Conversely Bnei Eretz Israel who are in Chutz La’aretz when Yom Tov falls on Thursday/Friday are not required to make an Eruv Tavshilin. Even though they are not allowed to do regular melachah on the Friday of second day Yom Tov even in private, they can cook from Friday to Shabbat without an Eruv Tavshilin, since it is not recognisable that they have not made an Eruv [Teshuvot HaRadvaz].

Note: it is preferable to put the food/hot water on to cook on Friday Yom Tov with enough time for it to be ready before Shabbat starts.

7^th Day Pesach

 The midrashim about the splitting of the sea mention conversations between the ‘Sar shel Yam’ [guardian angel of the sea] and G-d. Here is a remarkable story of a Rav addressing the ‘Sar shel Yam’ just over a hundred years ago, as related by the mashgiach of Kamenetz yeshiva Rabbi Moshe Aharon Stern zt’l in his book ‘With Wisdom and Warmth.’ He tells this event as related to him by an old Rav, a tremendous Talmid Chacham, called Rabbi Ellberg, who witnessed it as a ten-year-old child.

The city of Dvinsk [also known as Denenburg, Russia, known now as Daugavplis, Latvia] was protected against flooding from the river Dvina which flows through it by a large dam. One winter, after much rain and snow, the water was reaching close to the top of the dam. The mayor was perplexed as the whole city was in danger of flooding, and the water was rising ever higher.

The mayor consulted with the chief of police, who suggested they needed a holy person to save them. They summoned a priest; the water was two yards from the top and still rising; the whole city assembled at the dam; the priest could not accomplish anything.

The mayor suggested the Jewish Rabbi. They called the ‘Ohr Sameach’, Rabbi Meir Simcha of Dvinsk. He looked down at the dam and saw the water coming quickly. He said, ‘Sar shel Yam, with the power of my Torah I am telling you to go down.’ The water kept rising. Then he said, ‘Sar shel Yam, I’m the Rav here. I’m telling you to go down and remove the water from the top of the dam.’ This did not help. Then he said’ ‘Sar shel Yam, either divert the water or I’ll put you in cherem. With full authority as Rav of the city, I’m putting you in cherem. I want you to know, I have the de’ah here in this town. If I put you cherem here, you are in cherem in Olam Ha’elyon too. I immediately decree b’koach haTorah that you should have the waves go the other way and that the waters should go down.’

Suddenly the waves went the other way and the water reached half of the dam and stopped. The mayor fell to his knees and kissed the Rav’s feet.

Rav Meir Simcha became the holiest person in town. The mayor, the chief of police and everyone in town swore by his name.  Rav Ellberg said he saw this himself and can bear witness to it. For months to come, everyone in the city talked about what had happened that winter. People realized what the power of Torah was. They had come face to face with the power of the Jewish Rav.