Entering a New Realm

Mitzrayim the Zohar tells us is a compound of meitzar (a confined space) and yam (an expanse of water). Yam is the gematria of 50 representing something beyond the natural order which is always expressed in terms of multiples of sevens. Water expands indefinitely unless it is confined by something outside itself. Chazal call the sea “water that has no end ” and for that reason it represents the ein sof the infinite.
Mitzrayim had no connection to the infinite. Even the way it received its water required no recognition of dependence on any being outside of the natural order. The Torah explicitly contrasts the manner in which Egypt irrigated its fields from the Nile with that of Eretz Yisrael where the water comes only from the Heavens. As a consequence those dwelling in the Land must constantly direct their prayers for rain to Hashem.
Pharaoh who represented all of Mitzrayim proclaimed himself his own creator — ani y’ori af ani asisini I am the river even have I created it — meaning that his existence is necessary and not contingent on anything beyond himself. He thereby turned himself into a deity totally independent of any other being.
With Yetzias Mitzrayim the Jewish People left one realm of existence for an entirely different reality: They went from a domain that denied anything beyond the natural order and entered into one in which nature is only a mask. The divide between these two realms is absolute.
There was no continuity between Mitzrayim and Bnei Yisrael — nothing like the continuity between parents and children. Rather Egypt had to be utterly destroyed in the course of the Exodus — v’yinatzlu es Mitzrayim. To receive the Torah Bnei Yisrael had to be completely removed from the confines of the natural order represented by Mitzrayim.
THE SEDER TABLE is a once-in-a-year opportunity to convey to our children our most fundamental beliefs — the essence of what we want to pass on to them. At Bris bein Habesarim Hashem elevated Avraham Avinu to a realm above the stars as a prelude to informing him that his descendants would experience slavery and redemption. At the Seder table we focus on the nissim v’niflaos the miracles and wonders with which Hashem took us out from Mitzrayim to convey the magnitude of the transition between the realm of nature and the realm above nature.
But this message must not be confined to the Seder table. The miracles of Yetzias Mitzrayim were a one-time event. But the realm above nature is the ultimate reality. That reality can be experienced even in a time of hester panim but to do so we have to sensitize ourselves to it. We have to live in that realm and make its existence concrete for our children.
We do so whenever we resist the temptation to become completely sucked in by the world of kochi v’otzem yadi when we leave room for Hashem in our pursuit of a livelihood or any other goal important to us. Above all we do so when we immerse ourselves in learning His Torah and thereby attach ourselves to Him.
MATZAH MUST BE MADE within 18 minutes of mixing the flour and water. The hurry with which we make matzos writes Rav Yitzchok Hutner represents the soul yearning to break free from the bounds of space and time. When we eat the matzos we remember both our birth as a nation — when Hashem lifted us above the constraints of time and space — and that our eternity lies in our attachment to the infinite.
The rest of the year we express that attachment with our zerizus (zeal) to do mitzvos. Chazal draw the equation between matzos and mitzvos with their well-known play on the identical orthography of the two words: “U’shmartem es hamatzos.” From here we learn that one should not delay (“Al tachmitzena”) in the performance of mitzvos. From Chazal’s comparison of a lack of zerizus to chometz Rav Hutner concludes we learn that a mitzvah done without zerizus lacks that fundamental quality of the soul seeking to break free from the constraints of time.
Matzah Rav Moshe Shapiro points out also connotes conflict or disagreement as in the verse l’riv umatzah (Yeshayahu 58:4). A Jew is perpetually in conflict with a view of the world limited to olam k’minhago noheig.
Rabbi Noach Weinberg and Rabbi Yaakov Rosenberg two of the founders of the modern baal teshuvah movement were good friends in Yeshivah Ner Israel. Though they developed sharply differing views of kiruv they agreed that a Jew is in constant rebellion against the common perception of reality. Rabbi Rosenberg once said to a ponytailed young man who confessed that his ponytail was not an aesthetic statement but a symbol of his rebellion: “I too am in rebellion. I’m in rebellion against a world without Torah against a world without knowledge of G-d.” Then he offered the young man his hand and told him “Come let us rebel together.”
Reb Noach once sat down next to a young man in the Old City who turned out to be the head of the Young Communists in England. Something about the young man’s appearance must have conveyed his revolutionary bent because Reb Noach said to him “I’m making a revolution and I’m looking for people to change the world with me.” That young man went on to become a leading mechanech in England.
May we all be zocheh to experience the transition from the realm of nature to the realm above nature through the telling of the nissim v’niflaos of Yetzias Mitzrayim this Seder night and to be rebels against a world without awareness of G-d all year long.