Machshavot HaLev - Yeshivat Lev HaTorah

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Pesach
The Seder Night
R’ Gary Brown
1. The Shalosh Regalim
Too often we see the chagim as random commemorations, without links. We see a
Pesach for Egypt, a Shavuot for Torah and a Succot for the wilderness years. Rav
Pincus explains that the Shalosh Regalim represent our life cycle. First is Pesach which
is like our birth as we were born as a nation on Pesach. Then comes Shavuot, which is
like our Bar or Bat Mitzvah, when we receive and accept the Torah and are obliated in
its commandments. Last comes Succot, which represents our Sheva Brachot – we sit
in a tent with G-d for seven days like a bridegroom and a bride.
2. Kadesh – Cup 1 – “Vehotzeti”
Based on Rav Hirsch – The cups can be compared to a tree, “the tree of life,” with each
cup representing a different part - roots, a trunk, braches and fruit. The first cup is
parallel to the pasuk, “I shall bring you out from under the burdens of Egypt” (Shemot
6:6).
Says Rav Hirsch – If a person is always working and toiling without a break then
mentally and spiritually he becomes subservient to his body and will never contemplate
his purpose in life or listen to what his neshama is telling him as it says, “and they
did not listen to Moshe because of hard labour” (6:9). Relief from burdens is not a
RESULT of freedom – it is a prerequisite for freedom. Only when we have done our
physical work and duty and raised ourselves to a point where material wants and