DIVREI MENACHEM
PESACH
BY MENACHEM PERSOFF
Special Projects Consultant, OU Israel Center mpersoff@ou.org
On Pesach and Chesed
O
nce, I was asked to write an article on “Pesach and Chesed,” and my first reaction was “What’s the connection?” And then, in the same fleeting moment, it became clear to me that that is what Pesach is all about. For, after all, our rabbis tell us that Bnei Yisrael had sunk in Egypt to the lowest levels of Tum’ah, spiritual impurity: One rung lower on that ladder and the Jewish slaves would no longer have deserved to be released from the snares of their Egyptian taskmasters and their evil mores. So, despite the people’s extremely lowly state, Hashem in His mercy, and in his love for His “first-born son,” redeemed us from the shackles of misery in a miraculous and wondrous way, the ripples of which reverberate until this day. But Chesed does not end there. I recall
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as a youngster sitting around the large family Pesach table (in London) surrounded by my family and some acquaintances. The latter were two or three individuals who had no Seder to attend and would come, year after year, to our family Seder. For, after all, Rambam tells us in “Sefer Hamitzvot” that the Torah requires us to include in our rejoicing of the festivals the needy, the poor and the converts. That is Chesed. *** In truth, however, we do not need to look far in the Haggadah to recall that as part of the Seder ceremony, we pick up a piece of Matza in front of all those present and proclaim (in Aramaic), “Ha Lachma Anya…!” – ‘This is the bread of affliction that our fathers ate in the land of Egypt. Let all who are hungry come and eat; let all who are in need come and join us for the Pesach.’ Yes, there is a reason why the invitation is expressed in terms of both “those who are hungry” and “those in need.” Rav Y. B. Soloveitchik observes that it is not just a matter of providing a meal to the poor; it is about attending to the needy, the people who are alone and have no family to support them. It is an invitation to celebrate with us and, in the rabbi’s words. “It is a pledge of solidarity among Jewish people… it is a proclamation that we are one people
