The Command of Passover
When one views Passover as only a cultural or even spiritual experience, they are able to capture much of the overt significance of the observance. However, as with the proverbial iceberg, most of the Mitzvah’s power is beneath the surface. We cannot just revel in the beautiful wrapping paper. We must open up the package to find and enjoy its real content.
A Common Theme
This week’s parsha, Tzav, usually occurs on the Shabbos before Passover.
According to the seventeenth century Halachic and mystical authority, the Shelah, there is always a connection that can be found between a Torah reading and the holiday that is nearby. What is the connection between our parsha, Tzav and the upcoming Festival of Liberation, Passover?
One can find a connection in the very name of the Parsha—Tzav, which means command. In the Haggadah that we recite at the Seder, several references are made about the need for us to be commanded. For example: The wise son asks, “What are these testimonies, statutes and judgments that G-d our G-d has commanded you?”
What precisely is the wise son’s question? And how does it differ from a similar question that is raised by the wicked son—”What is this service that you are doing?” Both question the need for observing the rituals of the Seder.
Yet one’s question is characterized as a question of a “Wise son,” while the other is described as a wicked son’s question!
Second, the Haggadah states that the wicked son uses the exclusionary term “you,” implying that he is not a part of the Seder. Yet, amazingly, the wise son also uses a similar term when he asks “What are these testimonies, statutes and judgments that G-d our G-d has commanded you?” He doesn’t say “us”, but “you.” Why then is he called a wise son and the other one a wicked son?
Why the Need for a Commandment if You are in Love?
The explanation lies in the word “Tzav.” The Wise Son is addressing his parents, teachers and elders. He is in awe of their devotion to G-d and the joy and enthusiasm for celebrating the exodus from Egypt. “Why then,” he asks, “do you have to be commanded to do all this. If you are in love with G-d why do you need to be commanded to fulfill all these rituals? Perhaps, I, who is not so inspired and spiritually attuned, need to be prodded into action by way of a command, but you, the spiritual elite, do you also have to be commanded?!”
The Haggadah’s answer is cryptic. It reads, “And you too tell him the laws of Passover; one should not eat a desert after the Paschal offering.” How do these words respond to the wise son’s question as to why they need a command?
Judaism is More than Emotional Expression
The answer is that everybody needs the command because a Judaism that comes exclusively from one’s emotions, as beautiful and meaningful as that may be, will be missing some key elements of the observance.
Every Mitzvah contains within it revealed and obvious meaning. But, a Mitzvah is also replete with hidden and unfathomable levels of meaning. When one views Passover as only a cultural or even spiritual experience, they are able to capture much of the overt significance of the observance. But, as with the proverbial iceberg, most of the Mitzvah’s power is beneath the surface. It can almost be compared to one who receives a package that is wrapped with beautiful wrapping paper and revels in the wrapping, neglecting to open up the package to find and enjoy its real content.
This explains an earlier quote of the Haggadah: “Even if we are all wise, understanding…we have a Mitzvahcommandment to recount the story of the exodus.” No matter how brilliant and spiritually sophisticated we are about the exodus and Passover, there is infinitely more there that can only be accessed when we view the Holiday rituals as an expression of a Divine command.
Thus the Haggadah states, “And you too say to him the laws of Passover,” implying that you too need the laws of Passover, the commandments. Because each law is also a pathway (Halacha can be translated both as law and pathway) to plumbing the depths and embracing the totality of Passover.
When one, in addition to the emotional and spiritual excitement, recognizes that there is a hidden and elusive dimension to the Seder it enhances one’s taste for it as well. Thus the Haggadah continues: “One must not eat desert after the Paschal lamb.” The reason is to keep the taste of the Paschal lamb in one’s mouth.
The message is clear. When our approach to Judaism is based only on savoring the good taste “the desert,” we can lose the most essential ingredient the “Pass-overtranscendent-mystique” of the Holiday. However, when we appreciate the nature of the commandment—the transcendent aspect of Passover—that itself becomes the desert, whose taste will linger on—as well.
Transmitting to the Next Generation
Moreover, only the approach that appreciates the “command” aspect of the Mitzvah—that recognizes the infinite and transcendent nature of the Mitzvah—will carry on to the next generation.
When one’s Judaism is emotional and intellectual based, the next generation might have a different set of emotional needs and develop a different mindset, which doesn’t make room for Passover. Only when there is the element of Tzavcommand does it proceed seamlessly to the next generation. The command serves as the bridge over the generation gap.
The command is also what enables us to experience the full sense of freedom that Passover is all about and will be the ultimate bridge between the end of the period of exile that we are in and the beginning of the period of Redemption that we are about to enter into, imminently.
From the book Light from the Future: Parshas Tzav by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg, published by the Jewish Discovery Center.
