We just wanted to take this opportunity to wish everybody a Chag Kosher V’Someach. We will be posting on Chol Hamoed.

Here is the link for the Beyond BT Guide to the Seder.

Here is the link for all the Pesach posts.

Have a great Pesach!

We are taught in the Mishna in Pesachim and in the Hagaddah, “In every generation a person is obligated to regard himself as if he had come out of Mitzrayim”. The question is how can we fulfill this obligation if we didn’t really come out from Mitzrayim. Are we supposed to trick ourselves into believing that we did?

The Alter of Kelm makes the point that there is a big difference in impact between thinking about something and experiencing it. He brings down the statement of Chazal that the removal of Antichious’ ring to seal the decree against the Jews had a greater impact than all the exhortations of the Prophets to move the Jews towards Teshuva. He also shows from Rabbi Akiva’s statement when he was being killed that all his days he did not understand how he could serve Hashem with his life until he actually experienced it. His third example is the Posuk, “When you will lend money to My people, to the poor with you”, from which Chazal derive that you have to make yourself feel like you are experiencing poverty and then you will help the poor properly.

The Alter is teaching us that you might think that working yourself up and trying to arouse the emotions is not the proper mature approach and that an intellectual approach is more appropriate. But that is incorrect, the effect of a full emotional experience has a much greater impact and we must try to work up to that state to fulfill the mitzvah.
Read more Is it Possible to Really See Ourselves as Leaving Mitzrayim ›

Rabbi Shmuel Simenowitz is a guest contributor and commentor on Beyond BT. Rabbi Simenowitz uses all his resources including his Organic Farm and his smoking electric guitar to bring Jews closer to Yiddishkeit.

Chazal teach us that the overarching theme of the Hagada is “maschilin b’gnus um’sayem b’shevach” -we start off ignominiously and conclude with praise. (what a delightfully appropriate subtext for the “Beyond BT” community!) So having just concluded our lofty, empassioned Hallel and essentially the entire seder, what’s left for us to do?
Read more Nirtzah (Step 15) – Bringing it all Home ›

Rabbi Gershon Seif has been a active participant at Beyond BT from day one. He is an accomplished musician and you can listen to some of his music here. It is very fitting that he has chosen to share some thoughts on Hallel.

So the Seder’s been moving right along. We’ve told the story of our nation’s history, asked the questions and discussed the answers. We’ve tried our best to drink the wine, eat the Matzah, Marror, Koreich, with thoughts on so much symbolism. After weeks of preparation, cooking, inviting friends and family, the meal’s over. Where does this special night’s journey lead us?

Hallel! – Song!
Read more Hallel (Step 14) – Time to sing! ›

Click on this link to listen to Rabbi Label Lam: Pesach – A Question of Four. (To download the file to your computer, click with the right mouse button on the link and select Save Target As)

Rabbi Lam relates a story of how he was once in an office saying an after brocha on his danish, and could not speak to the receptionist. After finishing he explained that he was saying the blessing required after eating. The receptionist responded that in her religion they say grace before meals. He explained that giving thanks before you eat is much easier than thanking after you are full, so in Judaism we say a blessing both before and after. The secretary replied, “Word – That’s the truth.”

Word it is, but the problem is that we often have difficulty Bentching properly. And on Seder night, it can sometimes be even more difficult. But with that difficulty, comes opportunity.

Pesach is a time on which we are dining at Hashem’s table. There are so many Mitzvahs of eating on this night. We truly have an opportunity to transform our everyday act of eating into a spiritual act. And what better way to top it off, then by bentching slowly with Kavannah. Pesach is a time of special protection, of a special love between Hashem and His People. What a great time to reciprocate that love with a beautiful Barech.

The Haggadah relates that:

In every generation a person is obligated to regard himself as if he had come out of Mitzrayim, as it is says: “You shall tell your child on that day, it is because of this that Hashem did for me when I left Mitzrayim.”

In this mp3, Rabbi Moshe Gordon explores some of the classical approaches to understanding and fulfilling this Mitzvah. You can download it here.

The following is dedicted LZecer Nishmas Avivah Rachel bas Malkah Zicronah Livracha whose all too short life was dedicated to Torah, Avodah and Gmilus Chasadim. May her family be comforted among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem.

I mentioned in my first post that one of the more frequent issues that arises with respect to Tzafun is that of Chatzos–eating the afikomen before halachic midnight. IOW, your seder is progressing -you have gone through Magid with a lot of Divrei Torah and Shirah and you have started the meal. Depending on the calendar, Chatzos not so suddenly creeps up on you and a halachic issue presents itself-what about the Afikoman?!

The Avnei Nezer, one of the Gdolei Acharonim presented the following ingenious solution.The He suggested that one take a matzah before Chatzos and say-If the Halacha is in accordance with R Eliezer Ben Azaryah , this is the Afikoman. If the halacha is not so, it is just a piece of matzah. Therefore, regardless of who the halacha is like., I can continue to eat because according to R Eliezer Ben Azaryah, since the time for eating the Karban pesach has passed, and according to the Rabbanan, one can eat the Afikoman until Alos HaShachar (sunrise)-all night and before Alos HaShachar I can eat another piece of
matzah to fulfull the view of the Rabbanan. ( See ShuT Avnei Nezer Orach Chaim Siman 251 Sif Katan 5 for the entirety of this fascinating solution).
Read more Tzafun (Step 12) – Halachic Approach to a Common Problem ›

The Mishnah (Pesachim 120a) tells us “ain maftiriin achar Pesach Afikoman. Rav Yehudah in the name of Shmuel states that the Afikoman is the last item eaten at the meal as a remembrance of the matzah that was eaten with the Karban pesach. Although Mar Zutrah quotes Shmuel as permitting one to eat after the Afikoman, the Gemara concludes that one may not do so. The Baalei Tosfos understand that Afikoman is a Greek word that means cessation from eating.

Many Rishonim ( Rambam, Rashbam, ) hold that the eating of the Afikoman is the essential part of the mitzvah of eating matzah. It should be noted that there is a substantial machlokes in the Rishonim and Acharonim as to whether one can drink anything after the afikoman because it would nullify the taste of matzah in one’s mouth .
Read more Tzafun (Step 12) – Eating the Afikoman ›

It is interesting that Shulchan Orech is included as one of the Steps of the Seder. I mean, since when did Jews need to be commanded to eat?! The answer, I think, hearkens back to what we mentioned in the step of Rachtza: one can eat a meal as a pure physical necessity or desire or one can take the physicality in the meal and elevate it to something spiritual.

The Ma’ainah Shel Torah asks the question of how it is possible to split the Hallel that we say at the Seder (half after Maggid and half during the step of Hallel)? Isn’t the eating of an entire meal in between the two halves considered a hefsek (an impermissible interruption)? The answer is that when we properly eat our meal, in a manner that raises it from the physical to the spiritual, the meal itself is really a continuing praise of Hashem and therefore is not an interruption at all.

At this stage of the Seder, we combine the Maror with the Matzah according to the opinion of Hillel. Most haggadahs state at this point: “This is in remembrance of the Temple, as Hillel used to do.” Hillel was of the opinion that in order to fulfill the mitzvos of eating maror and matza (and the passover offering during the time that the Temple stood), they must be eaten together.

The halacha is not like Hillel and we only eat Korech as a rememberance of the Temple. The interesting thing is that while we do find in halacha that we will fulfill a minority opinion if possible but here the minority opinion is incorporated as an actual step of the seder. Why is it that Hillel’s opinion merited to be added as a separate step of the seder and why was it specifically added as a “rememberance of the Temple”?

Hillel was the paradigm of patience and truly embodied the concept of “loving your fellow Jew”. It is Hillel’s example that we must follow in order to merit the construction of the Third Temple. By giving prominence to a minority opinion, we make the ultimate expression of loving your fellow Jew. That is, even if I don’t agree with you, your opinion, when properly formed within a Torah framework, is important. That is why Hillel’s Korech sandwich is incorporated as a step in the seder and that is why it is a rememberance of the Temple. May we all merit to see that Temple rebuilt, speedily, in our days.

The Haggada asks: “For what reason do we eat these bitter herbs?” The answer, known by most, is because the Egyptians made the lives of our fathers bitter by burdening them with back-breaking work.

The Me’am Lo’ez haggada advances a different reason. He explains that there are three words for romaine lettuce in Hebrew: maror, chasa, and chazeres. We have already explained why it is called maror, because of the bitterness we experienced in Mitzraim.

It is also called chasa because Hashem took notice of the Jews suffering in Mitzraim and had mercy (chas, in Hebrew) on them and brought them out of servitude.
Read more Maror (Step 9) – The Eating of the Bitter Herbs ›

On the night of the Seder, we have an obligation to view ourselves as if we left Mitzrayim. This is no small task and many commentators have questioned how it is possible. We have to seriously arouse our emotions for this, and the Seder provides a night filled with emotional stimuli to help.

At the center of these stimuli is the Matzah, a simple food of just flour and water. But it is around this food that we need to do emotional gymnastics. We have to think of Matzah as the staple we ate when we were slaves in Egypt. And at the same time, this is the food that we baked in haste as we left Mitzrayim.

Matzah is to be transformed in our minds and our hearts from slave rations to the food of freedom. Perhaps Hashem is showing us that we can control our thoughts, and through our mind we can control our emotions. The whole night we are being trained to go from thoughts of slavery to thoughts of freedom so that we can actually come to feel that we ourselves, each one of us, actually left Mitzrayim and thank Hashem with all our hearts.

By Rav Lazer Brody

Motzi uplifts a Jew to near perfection. A Jew possess the body of a mammal, yet the soul of an angel. No one but the Jew can take coarse materiality and convert it to spirituality. On Seder night, when the Jew grasps the matzos with his ten fingers, and then says the blessing “HaMotzi” that consists of ten words, he and his family are able to ascend the spiritual ladder of the ten spheres and attain perfect unity with Hashem, as the number ten indicates perfection. Since Hashem is perfection, all who cling to Him and subjugate themselves to Him interfuse with perfection.

On Seder night we make “HaMotzi” on the simplest of pas, the matza shmura that consists of water and wheat with nothing else. Symbolically, this shows that we attain spiritual perfection by minimizing material needs, since interestingly enough there are ten mitzvas in the Torah involving wheat. A happy and kosher Passover.

Our physical bodies are comprised of 2\3 water and the earth upon which we live is made up of more than 2\3 water. That being the case, it is easy to conceive of water as simply a physical, coarse life necessity devoid of spirituality. Of course, we know that not to be true.

Water plays a prominent part in the spiritual life of a Jew. Mikvah, Netilas Yadayim, the water drawing ceremnony in the Temple, etc. Indeed, the torah itself is compared to water. The primary function of water is to remove impurity or lift the spiritual state of an object or person. For example, after we immerse our dishes in a mikvah they become usable, one who is in a spiritually impure state arises from the mikvah in a pure state. There are many such examples.
Read more Rachtza (Step 6) – The Washing of the Hands Preceding the Eating of the Matzah ›