Pesach 5786
A Sermon by Rabbi Avi Billet
Beyond Israel’s now 78 year war with its local enemies, the current military action in Iran is the first time another power has gotten involved on the offensive, advancing shared interests with the Jewish State. In the past some countries have provided weapons to Israel to help Israel fight her own fight. And the Patriot missiles, a not-as-good-as-Iron Dome method of intercepting missiles was used in the 1991 Iraq War. That war, as many surely recall, started after Iraq invaded Kuwait. And while Israel was not involved, Saddam Hussein had threatened that if the US invades, he’d shoot missiles at Israel. Which he did.
That war put Israel on alert to put bomb shelters in all new construction, including houses and apartment buildings. Some are actually in apartments and are for the use of the family living there, while some are in the basements of buildings and are more communal.
Anyway, while we pray for our brothers and sisters across the globe, this current war being as I described a moment ago is the first time another nation – in this case the United States – has taken up a fight that, in a way, is ostensibly looking out for the interests of the largest population of Jews on the planet since the Holocaust.
We, the collective Jewish people, should be grateful for Israel’s defense systems, and allies who help them get them.
Our Haggadah references the salvation of the Jewish people at various stages in our history, in a passage written by Yannai of the 6th or 7th century, which is in the section we call Nirtzah.
ובכן ויהי בחצי הלילה – And so, it happened at midnight
This passage speaks of events that all happened, per the Pesukim which report upon them in Tanakh, in the middle of the night (not necessarily at Chatzos). Avraham’s battles – יחלק עליהם לילה. Avimelekh having a dream to leave Sarah alone. Lavan having a dream to leave Yaakov alone. Yaakov wrestling with the angel, which some interpret its goal as giving him the confidence that he can face Eisav, took place ויאבק איש עמו עד עלות השחר. Sisera’s army was defeated by Barak and Devorah because they got lost in reading the stars incorrectly. Sannacherib withdrew from fighting Chizkiyahu when his army mysteriously died overnight. Daniel was given interpretations to Nevuchadnezzar’s dream in his own dream. Balshezzar, who had stolen from the Mikdash, was killed in the nighttime (Daniel, end of chapter 5). Achashveirosh was UNABLE to sleep and he was told about how Mordechai had saved him… just as Haman came in – in the middle of the night. This story happened during Chol Hamoed Pesach, or perhaps the second night of Yom Tov! (which raises a whole lot of questions – but that is not our topic today).
ALL of this is referring to how there is a concept of Leil Shimmurim. Not only on Pesach specifically, but possible at other times as well. The following insights on this piyyut were offered by Rabbi Zvi Dov Kanatopsky, in a sermon he delivered Pesach of 1945 as WWII was clearly nearing its end.
אז רוב נסים הפלאת בלילה – You wondrously performed a multitude of miracles at night.
It is as though the Jew is reassuring himself that he need not fear the darkness of the night.
קרב יום אשר הוא לא יום ולא לילה – a day is coming which is neither day or night
The future holds doubt and uncertainties. We see neither the sunlight of day nor the dark shadows of the night. Within the uncertainty lies the fear – תאיר כאור יום חשכת לילה – May you brighten the darkness of the night as the light of the day, is how the passage concludes.
Rabbi Kanotopsky lamented how England at the time had the Mandate over Palestine, and the concern that after the war, Churchill would say, echoing Achashveirosh before him, עד חצי המלכות ותעש. You can have a place to live, but we will remain in charge of it (which seems to even be what Balfour had in mind in the famous declaration associated with his name – which is a larger discussion about the history of that time period and the role of the United Kingdom…).
So Rabbi Kanatopsky said “If the Jew does look forward to a redeemed world, it can only be in the form of Passover – in the form of a COMPLETE redemption – which includes the return of Israel’s land to its rightful owner.”
And I’ll add, which should obviously be accompanied by peace in the land, without animus towards the Jewish State and the Holy Land, and the Jewish people. This objective has hardly been met over the course of Israel’s existence. I don’t think I need to go into detail about Israel’s wars, Intifadas, October 7, and now.
Yeshayahu Chapter 21:
12Said the watchman, "Morning has come, and also night. If you will request, request. Return and come." יבאָמַ֣ר שֹׁמֵ֔ר אָתָ֥א בֹ֖קֶר וְגַם־לָ֑יְלָה אִם־תִּבְעָי֥וּן בְּעָ֖יוּ שֻׁ֥בוּ אֵתָֽיוּ:
This is, essentially, a call to Teshuva for the Jewish people. In their time the prophets exhorted the Jewish people to do Teshuva, and as we turn to the prophets for their messages even today, their exhortations remain relevant to our experience. If we truly wish to experience a full Geulah, this is a necessary component of getting there.
Noting that there are 4 לשונות של גאולה that are often tied to the 4 cups of wine, and that those familiar with the text in Parshas Va’era know there is a 5th word – והבאתי – that is not associated with a cup of wine, Rabbi Kanotopsky noted that the 5th cup is a strange one indeed. We pour it and we don’t drink it? We’re going to wait for Eliyahu to come to drink it? How long must we wait?
And so he suggested that if instead of waiting for him to come we took the cup in our own hands and brought it a little closer to him, then we would see results.
81 Pesachs later, we can all attest to the creation of the Jewish State and the amazing things that have been accomplished there. But we also know that the Final Geulah has not been achieved. Will there be אור and יום, or will חשך and לילה rule the day? Israel’s might is known. But there is always uncertainty – no matter where we live.
While I don’t have an answer for uncertainty – its very name doesn’t allow for an answer – the anomaly of the 5th cup is something Rabbi Jonathan Sacks addressed on different occasions. His explanation for it and its name are quite compelling. Noting the preponderance of the number 4 at the Seder – 4 cups, 4 questions, 4 sons, 4 terms of Geulah, he notes how there are also 4 verses that we expound upon from the verses of “Arami Oved Avi.”
Interestingly, each of these either has or had a 5th item. The Lubavitcher Rebbe famously said the 5th son is the one who is not at the table either out of anger, rebelliousness, or even laziness. Or, perhaps, it is those Jews lost to assimilation.
There is a question that appears in the Mishneh that is not in our Mah Nishtanah – שבכל הלילות אנו אוכלין בשר צלי שלוק ומבושל הלילה הזה כולו צלי On all other nights we eat meat whether cooked, boiled, or roasted. But tonight only roasted. This question disappeared after the Churban since we were no longer bringing a Korban Pesach. Instead we ask about sitting or leaning.
There is a 5th verse in the Arami Oved Avi paragraph, but it is irrelevant to the Seder evening because it references
9And He brought us to this place, and He gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. טוַיְבִאֵ֖נוּ אֶל־הַמָּק֣וֹם הַזֶּ֑ה וַיִּתֶּן־לָ֨נוּ֙ אֶת־הָאָ֣רֶץ הַזֹּ֔את אֶ֛רֶץ זָבַ֥ת חָלָ֖ב וּדְבָֽשׁ:
The same concept holds true for the 5th term of Geulah referenced earlier – והבאתי – which focuses on coming to the land, and is less relevant to the Seder evening.
Which leaves us with the 5th cup – and we’ve already seen the conundrum as Rabbi Kanatopsky presented it. Rabbi Sacks notes how there is a debate, based on a statement of Rabbi Tarfon that “we recite Hallel over a 5th cup” as to whether a. there should be a 5th cup, and b. whether one should drink it, may drink it, or should not be drinking it. This is a debate amongst such luminaries as...
Rashi and Tosafos - there is no 5th cup
Rambam – there is a 5th cup, but it is optional.
Ravad – there is a 5th cup and one should drink it. It is praiseworthy to do so (what we’d call in contemporary language “a mitzvah” but not that we could point to as an actual “mitzvah”/commandment).
So the compromise position was to pour it and not drink it. And to resolve what we should do, the Talmudic solution is for Eliyahu HaNavi to answer the question. תיקו – תשבי יתרץ קושיות ואבעיות. We’ll leave the cup question until Eliyahu comes. Thus it is known as the כוס אליהו.
Not because Eliyahu is the Jewish Santa. But because we wait for him to come to know what this component of Pesach is supposed to look like.
Rabbi Sacks concludes his essay (which was written 30 years ago or so)
“In the half century since the Holocaust the Jewish people has emerged from darkness to light. The State of Israel has come into being. The Hebrew language has been reborn. Jews have been brought to safety from the countries where they faced persecution. In the liberal democracies of the West Jews have gained freedom, and even prominence and affluence.”
though in the middle of a quote here, please note this quick story. In his book The Will to Live On, Herman Wouk recounts about how he visited David Ben Gurion at his home in the Negev in 1955. To get there he was in a command car, escorted by a jeep with a mounted machine gun because there were regular attacks against journeyors by fedayeen from Egypt and Gaza. As it was nearing sunset, Ben Gurion encouraged them to leave telling his wife “they have to get back to Tel Aviv before dark.” Then he said “You must return here to live. This is the only place for Jews like you. Here you will be free.”
Free? Wouk replied! With enemy armies ringing you, with their leaders publicly threatening to wipe out ‘the Zionist entity ,’ with your roads impassable after sundown… Free?
I did not say safe, the old man retorted. I said free.
Anyway – Rabbi Sacks continues…
“But Israel is not yet at peace. In the Diaspora assimilation continues apace. Many Jews are estranged from their people and their faith. Something is missing from our celebration” – all those 5th items, which can be summarized to be referencing an incompleteness in the family, both on a local level and in the larger Jewish family, an absence of Beit HaMikdash, an absence of all of us living in Eretz Yisrael, an absence of a Final Geulah.
“That is a measure of what is still to be achieved. We have not yet reached our destination. These missing items remind us of work still to be done, a journey not yet complete.”
Rabbi Sacks was well aware of anti-Semitism. He spoke of it often enough. He didn’t live to see the dark turn it would take in October 7 and its aftermath. But clearly both he and Rabbi Kanotopsky, though of different generations, noted darkness and light and where we hope the shoe will drop, for us and all of Israel.
ובכן ויהי בחצי הלילה. With the darkness we sometimes feel when we think of all we’ve been through, what our people have been through, and all that is still going on, we can take solace that salvation can come in the darkest part of the night. When we aim to re-experience Geulah, we are part way there. When we do the Teshuvah the prophet spoke of, we will certainly be closer.
May Hashem see us for who we are, what we are doing, and where we wish to be. And as He did then, may He send salvation once again in the darkest part of the night, so we – all the Jewish people – may experience the light of the ultimate Geulah.
