Volume XIII Issue 4 MA’AYANEI TORAH
‫מעיני תורה‬
‫פסח‬
“And You Shall Learn From Your Children”:
Imagination and the Seder Night
Rabbi Donny Besser
Talmud, Halacha, Mashgiach Ruchani
Many of our practices at the seder, most notably kar-
pas, are done ―so that the children will ask.‖ In fact,
we are told by Chazal not to waste time before the Se-
der so that the children do not fall asleep. This atten-
tion to the children is striking enough to almost merit a
―fifth question‖: She-be-chol ha-leilot...All other
nights of the year, children are
halachic non-entities. Parents
are obligated to train children
in the way of Torah and mitz-
vot, but (at least regarding rit-
ual mitzvot) children are hala-
chically irrelevant. Why all of
a sudden, for one (or two)
nights a year, are children the
focal point of the night most
loaded with mitzvot, mitzvot
that the children themselves
need not perform?
Of course the simple answer is that the Torah tells us
that sippur yetzi’at Mitzrayim is to be done by way of
teaching your children, as it says ―Ki yishalcha vincha -
– when your children ask‖ (Shemot 13:14; Devarim
6:20) and ―Ve-higaddeta le-vincha – you shall tell your
children‖ (Shemot 13:8). But the underlying question
remains: why did the Torah formulate the mitzvah of
sippur yetzi’at Mitzrayim as an obligation of parents to
teach their children?
The answer is that on seder night, with all the mitzvot
we have, there is one that is so overarching as to in-
clude all the others. We read in the Haggadah: ―Be-
chol dor va-dor chayav adam lirot et atzmo ke-ilu hu
Ma’ayanei Torah is a chagim publication produced by the students of Ma’ayanot Yeshiva High School for Girls
‫ניסן תשע“א‬
yatza mi-Mitzrayim - In every generation one is obli-
gated to envision himself as though he himself left
Egypt.‖ To me, this might be the hardest mitzvah in
the Torah - I don’t think I have ever been yotzei. To
really feel that we are leaving Mitzrayim? How can
we? We are real people with real lives and real prob-
lems. We don’t go around playing make-believe, and
probably couldn’t if we tried.
There is one group of people, however, which plays
make-believe all the time. Children constantly live in
their imaginations, in worlds that exist only in their
minds. And the only time any
of us ever come close to living
in our imaginations is when we
are playing with and engaged
with children. So we are com-
manded to keep the children
active and interested in our
Seder not because the children
need the mitzvah, but because
they are our best chance for us
to fulfill our obligation. For
the evening, they become al-
most our ―lulavim‖: the objects
we need to do our mitzvah.
The positive by-product of this is that the night of the
seder becomes a magical one for children. Even the
youngest children are permitted and encouraged to stay
up way past any bedtimes and be active participants in
what ends up being an evening inextricably linked with
family. Still, it’s important to bear in mind that we
have a mitzvah to do, and a challenging one at that. It
is somewhat ironic that in a way, Jewish education has
done severe damage to the goals of the seder. The
meal is structured to solicit questions from puzzled
youngsters, but nowadays children are taught in pains-
taking detail from the time they reach playgroup ex-
actly what is coming – so that nothing seems the least
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Volume XIII Issue 4 MA’AYANEI TORAH
bit unusual. The only questions the children ask are
those that they have been rehearsing for weeks and that
are printed in all of our Haggadot.
To remedy this, perhaps we should all try to add our
own elements of surprise into the seder to try to elicit
the questions that are no longer forthcoming. Rabbi
Eitan Mayer (http://www.yu.edu/faculty/emayer/
parsha_shiurim/seder.html) suggests dressing up in
costumes or play-acting the story. No matter what
strategies you use, bearing the overarching goal of the
seder in mind should allow us all to enhance the seder
experience and hopefully come closer to fulfilling the
mitzvah of seeing ourselves as if we actually left
Egypt.
Remembering Tragedy and Believing Through
Matzah
Jennifer Lebowitz (’11)
The first of the shesh zechirot, the six events that the
Torah states are supposed to be remembered always, is
zechirat yetzi’at Mitzrayim. In Devarim 16:3 it states
―That you remember the day of your departure from
the land of Egypt all the days of your life.‖ The mi-
raculous events of yetzi’at Mitzrayim are acknowl-
edged in our daily tefillot. For example, we verbally
declare that HaShem took us out of Egypt during Az
Yashir, Shema and Birkat ha-Mazon. On the holiday
of Pesach, we have an even greater opportunity to
praise HaShem for taking us out of Mitzrayim as we
partake in mitzvot that remind us of yetzi’at Mitz-
rayim.
During the seder night, there are many declarations we
make and actions we perform to express our hakarat
ha-tov to HaShem for taking us out of Mitzrayim. Eat-
ing matzah on Pesach is an essential mitzvah that re-
minds us of HaShem taking us out of Egypt. In The
Hagaddah, Rabbi Joseph Elias writes the following
comment:
Matzah is the bread of humility. Whereas nor-
mal dough is left to rest till it sours and rises,
and is then turned into a fluffy and tasty food,
matzah dough is kneaded without interruption,
to keep it flat, and is then baked as a heavy and
tasteless wafer. The matzah thus represents the
absence of pleasure-seeking and arrogant
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‫ניסן תשע“א‬
haughtiness, a
fitting food for
Pharaoh’s
slaves. This as-
pect of the mat-
zah, as the bread
of poverty, we
have in mind
when we tell the
Haggadah over
it. Matzah that
is meant to express this theme could have been
baked in advance of liberation. But there is
also another aspect of the matzah: it is the free-
dom that we eat because God redeemed us
speedily (Mishnah Pesachim 10:5). The Matzah
of freedom could only be baked by free men—
when the hour of freedom struck. Of course the
matzah, in this new role, is still without taste
and height, still expresses avoidance of indul-
gence and arrogance. But this is because, in-
stead of slaves of Pharaoh, we are now servants
of God. Where previously Pharaoh did not let
us indulge, we must now foreswear the human
weaknesses of indulgence and pride, because
they deflect us from our service of God… By
eating unleavened bread, we dedicate ourselves
to the simple and unspoiled life of a servant of
God (145).
Rabbi Joseph Elias brings the mitzvah of matzah to a
whole new level: it is not just unleavened bread; it is a
representation of what resulted from the miracle of
yetzi’at Mitzrayim. Due to the generosity of HaShem
not only in taking us out of slavery, but also in the mi-
raculous way He did it, as a nation our emunah in
HaShem is strengthened. Each time we recite ha-motzi
over the week-long holiday, we taste something we are
not used to eating. Instead of eating challah and
breads, we have unique unleavened bread that should
remind each of us of the miracles HaShem performed
for us as He took us out of Mitzrayim. In addition, the
simple taste of matzah allows us to reflect and appreci-
ate the good things in life, which we too often over-
look.
In an interview with Israel’s Channel 2, Tamar Fogel,
the 12-year-old girl from Itamar who returned home
late on a Friday night shortly before Purim to find that
Volume XIII Issue 4 MA’AYANEI TORAH
her parents and three of her younger siblings had been
murdered, said that the most important thing to her
parents was for the Jewish people to live in ach-
dut. She continued to say that this incident, as well as
all of the tragedy that unfortunately we, the Jewish
people, have faced, will not break us. Rabbi Yehuda
ben-Yishai, the father of Ruth Fogel z”l, stated: ―I
have worked in education many years, and as an edu-
cator I try to strengthen and teach people faith. I un-
derstand that I cannot be satisfied with words and that
I also must implement the same principles on which I
have educated others. This is a test of my
faith‖ (Source: Fox News).
On Pesach, the Jewish people, regardless of the differ-
ent denominations within Judaism that we each repre-
sent, celebrate and remember with one central compo-
nent: eating matzah. We are all familiar with the Ge-
mara that states ―mi-she-nichnas Adar marbin be-
simchah.‖ This past Adar, the tragedy that the Jewish
people and the entire world have faced has made it
challenging to increase our happiness. It is certainly
not a coincidence that Pesach falls soon after the tragic
occurrences of Adar. As we eat matzah this Pesach,
we should each remember: ―This is a test of [our]
faith.‖
Learning From the Makkot
Miriam Jacobson (’12)
A major factor in the Pesach story is the eser
makkot. Rabbi David Silber, in his new Haggadah, Go
Forth and Learn, discusses how the makkot seem to be
the undoing of creation. The plagues are compared to
creation: the first and second (dam and tzefarde’a) are
about water, just as are days two and five of creation.
Plagues four and five (arov and dever) are about the
land, just like days three and six of creation. Plagues
seven and eight (barad and arbeh) are about the sky,
just like days one and four of creation. All of this leads
up to the ninth plague which seems to point to the days
before creation. The ninth plague is about darkness,
which is what the world was before the separation of
light and darkness. Therein, the plagues seem to be the
reversal of creation. The plagues are meant to show
that those who oppose G-d cannot be a part of crea-
tion. This is especially relevant to us now, as there are
so many tragedies happening in both the general and
Ma’ayanei Torah is a chagim publication produced by the students of Ma’ayanot Yeshiva High School for Girls
‫ניסן תשע“א‬
the Jewish worlds. Many have committed crimes be-
yond comprehension, like the recent terrorist attacks in
Eretz Yisrael. These people are ―reduced to darkness;
they cannot be a part of Creation.‖
Rabbi Silber also brings forward Nehama Le-
bowitz’s idea that the plagues can be grouped to show
another theme, knowing G-d. For example, before the
first plague, G-d tells Moshe to tell Pharaoh that ―from
this you will know that I am G-d.‖ This corresponds to
what G-d instructs Moshe before the fourth makkah. He
says, ―from this you will know that I am G-d in the
midst of the land.‖ Then, before the seventh makkah,
God instructs Moshe to say, ―with this you will that
there is none other like Me in all the world.‖ With these
statements we can see that G-d is not punishing the
Mitzrim with the makkot, but rather He is trying to dem-
onstrate His presence and involvement in the world.
This idea, while obviously somewhat directed at the
Mitzrim, is also intended for the Jews. After the seventh
makkah, G-d says that He hardened Pharaoh’s heart to
show the Jews the wonders that have happened and so
that they should know G-d.
The makkot and Pesach can help us understand
in a general sense that while terrible things happen, and
sometimes they are done by terrible people, we must
learn from what happened and use these lessons for the
future. These experiences can and should be used to
help make us a stronger nation. Chag Kasher ve-
same’ach!
The Meaning of Cleaning
Allison Alt (’11)
The commandment is to remove chametz, but the reality
is that we throw away almost every speck of dirt, un-
needed clothing items, and miscellaneous items that do
not make the cut. Pesach becomes a type of spring
cleaning, which seems almost inevitable from the nature
of the design of chametz. Chametz falls everywhere, so
we are commanded to look in every nook and cranny
for those little crumbs that got away. Therefore, once
you are searching for chametz in an old box full of
things you have never sorted through before, why
wouldn’t you finally sort through the items? There isn’t
anything wrong with this ―spring cleaning,‖ but it does
become tiring. In addition, the message and the mean-
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 Volume XIII Issue 4 MA’AYANEI TORAH
ing of the search and the cleaning get lost in the mix of
the vigorous work.
The intensity of the Pesach cleaning is similar to the
way the kohanim used to give korbanot. The kohen
who performed the service of the korban tamid in the
Beit HaMikdash was determined by lottery. However,
before the lottery was instituted, there used to be a
race. Whoever got to the top of the ramp first got to do
the avodah. The Mishnah tells a story of two kohanim
who were neck and neck. They were so excited that
one of them pushed the other one off the ramp, and he
broke his leg. They got so caught up in the intensity of
the mitzvah that they forgot the point of the mitzvah.
Another aspect of Pesach where we have a long prepa-
ration process until the end is the 15 steps of the seder.
The 15 steps of the seder are leading us to a destina-
tion; they are all leading up to nirtzah, which leads to
the outcome of the seder. Yet we get so caught up in
the long process of the seder that by nirtzah we forget
why we are doing it. Some people have even left the
seder to go to sleep at that point.
There is a famous dispute between Rambam and Ram-
ban about whether korbanot have any intrinsic value
(as Ramban believes) or are simply a way to remove
ourselves from avodah zarah (Rambam’s view). Rav
Moshe Shapiro says that no matter how you view
korbanot, the korban Pesach has to be the removal of
avodah zarah. We take an Egyptian god, and we kill it.
We are not allowed to boil it because the Mishnah says
that boiled animals fall apart; if that happened, one
would not be able to see that it is an Egyptian god.
Nirtzah is the part of the seder where we discuss the
korban Pesach. Nirtzah represents the removal of the
Egyptian gods and culture from our midst.
In an ideal world, we would be bringing this korban
Pesach in the Beit HaMikdash. We would be taking
away all the horrible things that have come into our
homes to distract us from serving G-d, and shechting
them, removing the foreign gods, within us. This idea
of nirtzah is the same for chametz. G-d put chametz
everywhere in our houses, in effect causing us to clean
not only the chametz in our house, but everything else
that should not be there. Pesach is a renewal – spring is
coming, the cold winter is leaving, and flowers are
blossoming. So now we have to join in the renewal –
get rid of all the ―dirt‖ that has been distancing G-d
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‫ניסן תשע“א‬
from our home, so that G-d can return to us and we can
bring the Mashiach speedily in our day.
Based on a shi’ur by Rabbi Orlofsky.
Family Ties
Tova Goldstein (’13)
The transition from slavery to freedom was difficult for
Bnei Yisrael for multiple reasons. Their ―slave mental-
ity‖ was a major obstacle, but their military and spiri-
tual victory over the Mitzrim at the Yam Suf as well as
Matan Torah, which symbolically changed Bnei Yis-
rael from being slaves to Mitzrayim to slaves of
HaShem, mitigated the slave mentality to some extent.
Another factor was reinstituting the importance of fam-
ily ties. Pesach is not merely a holiday when we cele-
brate our salvation from Mitzrayim; it is also a holiday
when, as free people, we are expected to more fully
appreciate our familial relationships.
When Bnei Yisrael were enslaved, their families were
adversely affected, either directly by Pharaoh’s decrees
or indirectly by their responses to those decrees. In
Shemot 1:22, Pharaoh declared that all newborn Jewish
boys be thrown into the Nile. This decree was devastat-
ing to the Jewish family unit. As a response to this de-
cree, the Talmud Bavli Masechet Sotah 14 says that
Amram, Moshe’s father, divorced his wife to prevent
the conception of future children. Upon seeing Amram,
their gadol ha-dor, separate from his wife, all of Bnei
Yisrael followed suit and divorced their wives. Amram
did this out of love for his family, by saving them the
pain and suffering that the potential killing of a son
would have brought upon them, even though it was
 Volume XIII Issue 4 MA’AYANEI TORAH
devastating to leave his wife. As slaves, Bnei Yisrael
were not afforded the right to live their family lives as
they pleased.
The Shemen Tov brings a story in Parshat Noach to
support the idea that slaves typically have strained re-
lationships with their families. Bereishit 9:20-27 de-
scribes Noach and his sons after the mabul. Noach
planted a vineyard, drank wine, got drunk, and un-
dressed himself in his tent. Noach’s son Cham saw his
father’s nakedness and went to tell his brothers. Unlike
Cham, Shem and Yaphet walked backwards into the
tent to protect their father’s modesty and covered him.
When he awoke, Noach understood what had hap-
pened and cursed Canaan, Cham’s son, with slavery.
Just as Cham negatively affected Noach’s family dy-
namic by mocking his father, Noach ensured that
Cham’s family ties would be negatively affected as
well.
Rav Reich comments that Pesach, specifically the se-
der, is the most family-oriented holiday. The ceremony
surrounding the seder focuses on remembering that we
are now completely free. We recline while eating,
drink wine, and eat with our families. In Shemot 12:21,
HaShem commanded Moshe to speak to the elders,
saying that each family should take for themselves a
sheep and slaughter it for the Korban Pesach. HaShem
was instructing each family to sit and eat together, be-
cause when you eat with someone, you create strong
bonds.
Our annual seder exemplifies this idea, for much of
what we do at the seder promotes family connections.
Karpas, the dipping of vegetables in salt water, is
widely accepted by rishonim as a practice done to
prompt children to ask questions. Rashi writes; ―In or-
der that the children should take notice and ask, for it
is not the normal habit of people to eat yerek
(vegetables) before the meal.‖ When the child asks a
question, he is seeking knowledge from his family,
thus creating a bond. Maggid, the telling over of the
story of yetzi’at Mitzrayim, is a time when each mem-
ber of the family can participate and contribute what
he or she knows. Additionally,―ve-higgadita le-
vincha,‖ the idea that it is the parents’ obligation to
initiate teaching the story of yetzi’at Mitzrayim to their
children, is fulfilled through Maggid. Mah Nishtanah,
the four questions, is traditionally recited by the chil-
Ma’ayanei Torah is a chagim publication produced by the students of Ma’ayanot Yeshiva High School for Girls
‫ניסן תשע“א‬
dren. The meal, Shulchan Orech, strengthens family
bonds, for as the popular adage says, ―The family that
eats together, stays together.‖ Tzafun, eating of the
afikoman, comes from the shoresh meaning ―hidden.‖
We hide the afikoman to involve the children, as is
written in Masechet Pesachim 109a: ―We snatch matzot
on the night of Pesach, so that the little children will
not fall asleep.‖ We want to continue strengthening the
bonds within the entire family, and therefore do not
want the children to leave.
HaShem felt that it was important to recreate the strong
familial ties of Bnei Yisrael as part of the process of
yetzi’at Mitzryaim and obtaining our freedom. For this
reason, the family unit plays an integral role throughout
the Yom Tov of Pesach. We should strive to take ad-
vantage of the opportunity that Pesach presents for us
to strengthen our families’ relationships and bonds and
not allow Pesach to pass without taking time out to ap-
preciate the simple pleasures of freedom and our fam-
ily.
Pesach, Memory and Mashiach
Lizzy Klein and Tamar Forman (’11)
For the Sefat Emet, an early 20th-century Chassidic
rabbi, the holiday of Pesach is very much a living,
breathing holiday. The Sefat Emet compares Pesach to
Shabbat, suggesting that just as G-d commands the
Jewish people to both remember and guard the Shab-
bat, He also commands the Jewish people to do the
same with regard to Pesach: ―Memory is the inner
point (the divine presence) that one should not forget
and because Shabbat revealed this point in the souls of
the children of Israel, therefore one needs to be guarded
so that the inner point does not spread to a place of for-
getfulness…this is also the idea in the redemption of
the Jews in Egypt.‖ For the Sefat Emet, Pesach is one
of the generators of memory, along with Shabbat,
through which Jews understand or realize the existence
of ―G-dliness‖ in themselves. The question then be-
comes: what specific memory of Pesach generates this
realization? Which memory must we guard and remem-
ber?
”We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt, but HaShem our
G-d took us out from there with a mighty hand and an
outstretched arm. Had not the Holy One, Blessed is He,
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Volume XIII Issue 4 MA’AYANEI TORAH ‫ניסן תשע“א‬
taken our fathers out from Egypt, then we, our chil- have access to adequate health care. Perhaps the
dren, and our children’s children would have remained ―enslavement‖ of people in sweatshops or the inden-
enslaved to Pharaoh in Egypt. Even if we were all men tured servitude of many who pick and grow coffee in
of wisdom, understanding, experience, and knowledge Latin America is what you are passionate about. What
of the Torah, it would still be an obligation upon us to the Sefat Emet has taught us is that only way to truly
tell about the Exodus from Egypt. The more one tells celebrate the holiday of Pesach is if we understand that
about the Exodus, the more he is praiseworthy.‖ we must be bringers of our own redemption and that of
others, and we must stand up for what we believe and
The Haggadah and the voices of generations before us
take action so that next year everyone will truly be free
answer the question of what memory helps generate
the knowledge of ―G-dliness‖ of which the Sefat Emet with the coming of Mashiach.
speaks. That memory is the memory that we, the Jew- There actually is a connection between Pesach and the
ish people, were enslaved. The story of Exodus, the coming of Mashiach. The last day of Pesach is cele-
first response to the four questions of the Haggadah, brated by eating a special, festive banquet called
and the memory that sparks our recognition of our Mashiach’s se’udah, a custom initiated by the Ba’al
―inner point‖ is first and foremost about being en- Shem Tov. The connection between the last day of
slaved and then the ensuing march toward freedom. Pesach and Mashiach is explained by the Tzemach
Tzedek: ―The last day of Pesach is the conclusion of
Memory is an interesting thing. The memory itself ex-
that which began on the first night of Pesach. The first
ists in a time and space that does not exist in the pre-
night of Pesach is our festival commemorating our re-
sent, but rather in the past. You cannot affect it, but it
demption from Egypt by the Holy One, Blessed be He.
can affect you. Later in the Maggid section of the Hag-
It was the first redemption, carried out through Moshe
gadah we read that we are supposed to see ourselves as
Rabbeinu, who was the first redeemer; it was the begin-
if we were actually slaves in Egypt. The question now
ning. The last day of Pesach is our festival commemo-
becomes: what effect should the memory of the Exo-
rating the final redemption, when the Holy One,
dus of Egypt have on us as we prepare to celebrate
Blessed be He, will redeem us from the last exile
Pesach? How can we actually see ourselves as slaves
through our righteous Mashiach, who is the final re-
in Egypt?
deemer. The first day of Pesach is Moshe Rabbeinu’s
Rabbi Irving Greenberg, in his book The Jewish Way: festival; the last day of Pesach is Mashiach’s festival.‖
Living the Holidays, notes that the truth is that the
Taken from divrei Torah by Yosef HaLevi Loebenstein and
―overwhelming majority of earth’s human beings have Reuben Posner.
always lived in poverty and under oppression.‖ How-
ever, Rabbi Greenberg insists that Judaism, and in par-
ticular the holiday of Pesach, enforces the notion that
eventually justice will prevail. He writes: ―Judaism
insists that history and the social economic political
reality in which people live will eventually be per-
fected; much of what passes for the norm of human
existence is really a deviation from the ultimate real-
ity.‖ While this certainly is one of the potential mes-
sages of the holiday of Pesach, it still leaves us in a
bind. Now not only are humans still enslaved on some
level (according to Greenberg), but we have failed to
understand how to guard and remember Pesach in an The Importance of Yetzi’at Mitzrayim
active way as the Sefat Emet suggests we need to. Gali Sadek and Molly Brodsky (’12)
There are many things worth fighting for in the world.
Perhaps your cause is ending the genocide in the Dar- When reading the parshah of yetzi’at Mitzrayim, the
fur region of Sudan. Or maybe you cannot believe how Torah stresses numerous times how important it is for
many people around the world live in poverty or do not the Jewish People to remember the miracle for future
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Volume XIII Issue 4 MA’AYANEI TORAH
generations. Why the huge emphasis? HaShem has
performed many miracles in the past. Why is this one
so important to remember?
The Ramban explains that in every generation there are
always going to be atheists who will try to convince
the world that there is no higher power. By splitting the
sea and commanding us to remember it for generations
to come, He is attempting to nullify the doubts of the
non-believers for eternity. In order to explain
HaShem’s actions, Ramban says that He creates big
miracles that go against the forces of nature in order to
end the doubts of non-believers.
The Ramban then goes on to say that a Jew’s sole pur-
pose is to proceed through life seeing every tiny aspect
of it as a miracle in itself. He says that a person cannot
truly follow the Torah until he realizes that every sin-
gle thing in his life is a miracle from HaShem. When
we, average human beings, take a sip from a drink or
take a little step, we do not keep in our thoughts that
this is all from HaShem. However, the Ramban says
that we should strive to have the ability to recognize
that all we have and do is because of HaShem.
Therefore, HaShem brings big miracles in order to sen-
sitize us to view everything as a miracle. Once we real-
ize that, it will be easier to accustom ourselves to rec-
ognize every small thing as a miracle. He says that by
recognizing the big, obvious miracles it will condition
our minds to notice the hidden, everyday miracles, and
only at that point can we truly fulfill the Torah’s com-
mandments.
Rav Yonatan Horovitz, from Yeshivat HaRova in Is-
rael, comments on the various ways we commemorate
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‫ניסן תשע“א‬
Mitzrayim on a daily basis. He states that most of the
mitzvot we do in commemoration of yetzi’at Mitzrayim
have obvious connections. Retelling the story on
Pesach, remembering the Exodus daily, and all mitzvot
regarding the firstborn son all connect back to Mitz-
rayim. What about tefillin? In Shemot 13:9 we are told
the following: ―This shall serve you as a sign on your
hand and as a reminder on your forehead in order that
the Torah of the Lord may be in your mouth; that with
a mighty hand the Lord freed you from Egypt.‖ Rav
Horovitz quotes the Ramban, who explains that Torah
will be in our mouths because we are remembering and
binding the words of yetzi’at Mitzrayim to ourselves.
Rav Horovitz connects all the mitzvot we do in order to
commemorate yetzi’at Mitzrayim. We do not just com-
memorate by speaking and mentally remembering, but
by physically showing our remembrance as well. By
doing so, the story of yetzi’at Mitzrayim is not just a
story from a history book, but a guideline for future
generations of Bnei Yisrael.
With this in mind, as we go through the Haggadah and
through our daily remembrances, we should thank
HaShem for the big miracles He conducted and attempt
to recognize that every small movement we make,
every word we utter, and every minute we live, are all
from HaShem and should NEVER be taken for granted.
Moshe, Eliyahu and Ge’ulah
Talia Moss and Ilana Teicher (’12)
A memorable part of the seder night is the opening of
the door for Eliyahu. We open the door for him on
Pesach because Hallel talks about the ge’ulah and Eli-
yahu is the one who will bring about the ge’ulah.
While this does link Eliyahu to the Haggadah, there
must be a deeper connection between Eliyahu and
Pesach itself. In Melachim I chapters 17 and 18, Eli-
yahu strongly parallels Moshe and much of the story of
Pesach, and perhaps this helps explains his presence at
our Seder and the reason he specifically fills this role.
The stories of Moshe and Eliyahu are parallel in many
respects. Eliyahu starts off running away from Achav
just like Moshe fled Egypt. Eliyahu then gets sup-
ported by a widow who provides him with food and
shelter. This is similar to the support Yitro provided
Moshe in Midyan. Brushes with death occur to people
Volume XIII Issue 4 MA’AYANEI TORAH ‫ניסן תשע“א‬
close to both Eliyahu and Moshe, and they are both the
ones who act quickly to save them. Eliyahu revives
the son of the widow who takes care of him just as Editor-in-Chief: Chaya Kanarfogel
Moshe helps Tzippora save their son, Yitro’s grandson,
from a snake by performing a brit milah. It can be said Associate Editor: Tamar Novetsky
that Eliyahu and Moshe ―paid back‖ the people that
Staff Editors: Marcella Berman
supported them by saving loved ones of theirs. An-
Hannah Lockspeiser
other similarity is HaShem’s commanding of both Chana Miller
Moshe and Eliyahu to return to the place they initially Avital Peyser
ran away from. Moshe is commanded to return to Michal Wiseman
Egypt and to go before Pharaoh, and Eliyahu is com-
manded to go back to Achav. After returning to their Managing Editors: Aliza Friedman
original lands, both Eliyahu and Moshe encounter false Daniella Grodko
prophets and expose them as frauds. Moshe performs
miracles that Pharaoh’s magicians are unable to do, Layout Editors: Layla Blenden
helping him prove the power and existence of HaShem. Hanna Erdfarb
Eliyahu also proves HaShem is G-d to the people, and Asst. Layout Editor: Ilana Weinberger
in this respect Moshe and Eliyahu fulfill a similar and
Production Editors: Shifra Arnheim
important role in helping aid HaShem in showing He is Miriam Jacobson
the all-powerful G-d. After this, Eliyahu becomes par-
allel to the entire Bnei Yisrael and not just Moshe. Just Distribution Editors: Ayala Laub
as Bnei Yisrael flee Pharaoh’s rule and are provided Amalya Sherman
with manna and water by HaShem, Eliyahu runs away
from Izevel and is sustained by HaShem. Staff Writers : Yifa’t Adler, Allison Alt,
Emily Blumenfeld,
After analyzing the story of Eliyahu and connecting it Tova Goldstein, Shira
to the story of Moshe, a reason for Eliyahu’s presence Hanau, Jennifer Lebowitz,
in the Haggadah becomes clear. Just like Moshe Talia Moss, Sophie Satloff,
helped bring the ge’ulah we are celebrating that hap- Tali Spier, Ilana Teicher
pened to Bnei Yisrael long ago, we hope that Eliyahu,
who is parallel to Moshe in many ways, will bring the Faculty Advisor: Mrs. Shifra Schapiro
ge’ulah for us this year. This is one possible explana-
tion for why Moshe isn’t mentioned throughout the Thank you to Mrs. Orly Nadler, Mrs. Fran Rochwarger,
Haggadah. We are always taught the basic reason Mrs. Madeline Schmuckler and Mrs. Andrea Winkler for
which is to make it clear that HaShem was orchestrat- their technical assistance.
ing the miracles and not Moshe, but a deeper reason
If your shul would like to receive Ma’ayanei Torah, or to
could be to encourage us to look to Eliyahu as re-
sponsor an issue, please contact:
deemer of the future instead of focusing solely on the Ma’ayanot
redemption of the past. 1650 Palisade Ave.
Teaneck, NJ 07666
201-833-4307
Maayaneitorah@maayanot.org

Mrs. Rivka Kahan, Principal

Mrs. Tamar Kaplan Appel, Ms. Elana Flaumenhaft
Associate Principals
Mrs. Rachel Feldman, Administrator

Page 8 Ma’ayanei Torah is a chagim publication produced by the students of Ma’ayanot Yeshiva High School for Girls