A Thought On Parshas Bo

A Thought on Parshas Bo

"...seh l'bais avos..."
"...a Paschal lamb for every household..." (12:6)

In earlier times, the Pesach festival was celebrated by families and groups of people gathering together, offering a korban Pesach. The young lamb was roasted and shared by members of each group or household. It was important that the offering be eaten "l'bais avos" - among a previously designated group. One young lamb could suffice for a family or household but could clearly not feed a much larger group. Moreover, once brought forth as an offering, the lamb could only be eaten by "it's" group of shareholders. There was no way a latecomer or last-minute guest could partake of a korban Pesach. Every person needed to reserve his or her share in advance of the preparation. In turn, no one could devour a whole lamb on his own. The Pesach offering was not brought by individuals; it was brought by families, or family-like groups.

Rabbeinu Chaim Paltiel raises a question that may be familiar to some of us, or at least to those who have attended a Pesach seder and who are familiar with the above halachic standard. Since the offering must be eaten only by predesignated shareholders, how is it that we declare at the beginning of our contemporary seder, reading from the Passover Hagada - kol di'chfin yesae va'yechol; kol di'tzrich yesae va'yifsach - anyone who is needy come forth and eat with us; anyone who needs to, come forth and join in our Pesach offering.

How can we invite someone to join onto our Pesach offering (if we had one and were living in the times when they were brought in the great Temple)? There were no guests or latecomers allowed, whether needy or wealthy, when it came to the serving of the meal! No one would have ever made such a meal-time invitation! It was forbidden to do so!

Rabbeinu Chaim Paltiel explains that the Hagada has another intention. The declaration which we make refers to the eating of the matzo which is the remnant which we still have of the ancient Biblical Pesach ritual. The reason that we make the public invitation is because we are permitted, and are encouraged, to bring others in to that aspect of the Pesach observance. No one should eat alone. No one is allowed to eat alone. What we intend is to declare that this is the closest we can come to observing the Pesach spirit. In earlier times too, we would have made overtures to include the needy and other guests, although that would take place far before the actual meal. The way which we should read the declaration, according to Rabbeinu Chaim Paltiel, is

"in our times we have only the matzos and we invite all who are in need of
affiliation to join us, to feel that you belong. In earlier times, we also turned
to others, not only to the needy, to gather together and form a family-like group in
order to purchase and share in a korban Pesach."

We preserve that affiliating aspect of the Pesach spirit by inviting others. This was done at a different stage and for different reasons in ancient times. The spiritual theme continues, however, and remains an opening feature of the contemporary Pesach seder.

Wishing you a good Shabbos. D Fox