The first mention of the word
Pesach in the Chumash is in Shmos 12:11. In it G-d instructs Moshe to command
the children of Israel to
take a lamb, slaughter it publicly, and then serve it as a meal on the night that
the first born of Egypt
are to be killed. The life blood of the lamb is to flow into a bowl. An
absorbent cluster of hyssop will then be dipped into the bowl and blood and
wiped on the two doorposts and the lintel above. Because of this, the
destruction that is coming to Egyptians will pass over, פסח, the houses that have this sign on them. This service is
reckoned as a sacrifice and the lamb is called the korbon Pesach (קרבן
פסח) or Passover offering. The sacrifice is to be brought annually
and eaten with matzo and a bitter vegetable. The Chumash continues that in
subsequent years their children will ask the meaning of this ritual. The
prescribed answer is that when G-d struck the Egyptians he spared (הציל) the homes of the children of Israel
(Shmos 12:27).
These passages raise questions.
The use of the word "spare" suggests a special act of clemency in
what is really a morally neutral situation. The fact that the Egyptians were
cruelly persecuting the people of Israel seems to mean nothing. The thing that is
important to the text is that Israel
slaughtered the sheep, placed its blood on the door, and then had a Pesach
Seder in their homes. For these reasons they were redeemed.
Meditating on this from the
standpoint of nature, persecution and cruelty are not evil. A cat is not bad if
it kills a mouse, and a second cat is not bad if it takes the carcass from the
cat that killed it. Abuse to enforce the pecking order is legitimate. In a
world, in which the strong rule, persecution of the weak is not an evil.
Even from the standpoint of the morality of the soul
suffering need not be bad. If the evil are suffering because they are clinging
to their evil then the suffering that comes because of it is good. One can
argue that if a person puts work into producing an article, it's his. Even a
found item should belong to the first person to pick it up. However, these are
religious positions and not purely based on nature.
The Ramban (רמב"ן)
and the Clee Yakar (כלי יקר)
discuss the significance of the choice of a lamb as the sacrifice. They explain
that the lamb was the astrological sign for the month of Nissan and the idol of
Egypt .
From a natural standpoint the entry of the sun into the constellation Aries
(the lamb) marks the beginning of spring and the attendant fertility of the
land. For this reason these symbols are viewed as possessing supernatural
powers, which can be accessed through worship. The public slaughter of the lamb
by the children of Israel
was intended to denigrate general religious belief in nature and the religion
of Egypt
in particular.
The essential merit of the children of Israel was the
heritage of belief in Hashem from the patriarchs and the anticipation of their
acceptance the Torah. The lesson to be learned is that human conduct should be
determined by the soul and not so much by the body. This is one of the things
we learn from the holiday of Passover and for that reason its first observance
made Israel
worthy of redemption.
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