[Continued from the previous page — the end of the preceding Sicha:]
… “מיכלא דאסוותא” and “מיכלא דמהימנותא” (“the food of healing” and “the food of faith”)21 — and faith is, after all, the foundation of all the mitzvos and of Jewish life in general22 — fulfilling this mitzvah as it should be, and with hiddur (beautification), will give vitality to the fulfillment of Torah and mitzvos the entire year. When it will be a healthy year spiritually, then as a matter of course it will also be a healthy year physically.
(From the Sicha of Shabbos Parshas HaChodesh, 5714)
Pesach
The order of the Four Questions according to the Chabad custom1 is: dipping (matbilin), matzah, maror, and reclining (mesubin). Seemingly this is not understood: after all, it is arranged neither according to the importance of the matters, nor according to the order in which the child sees them first.
According to the importance of the matters, the order should have been: a) matzah — a Biblical obligation; b) maror — a Rabbinic obligation (in the present time2); c) reclining — which expresses the theme of freedom; and only at the very end dipping — which is merely a custom.
According to what the child sees first, dipping should have come either at the very end (since the main thing is the second dipping), or at any rate after reclining, since reclining already takes place at Kiddush, even before the first dipping3.
2. There are those who say: Biblical mitzvos must be fulfilled with firmness, to the point of self-sacrifice. Rabbinic mitzvos, too, must be kept with strength, because they are included in the mitzvah of “לא תסור” (“Do not turn aside”) (as the Rambam4 explained at length regarding the decrees, the safeguards, and especially the Rabbinic mitzvos, that they are included in “Do not turn aside”). But customs — if they come easily, why not? But to give oneself over with self-sacrifice for them, one is not obligated.
They argue further: when one must educate children in the way of the Torah, and carrying everything out is very difficult, it is sometimes worthwhile to overlook customs, and to devote oneself only to instilling in them strength in the essential matters.
On this comes the lesson from the order of the questions: the first thing a child asks about, the first thing he notices and that makes an impression on him, is not a Biblical matter or a Rabbinic one, but a Jewish custom (minhag Yisrael). That is what catches his eye, and that has the greatest effect on him.
If the conduct of the child, and of those around him, will resemble the non-Jewish environment — then even if he will have fixed times for studying Torah, he will pray, fulfill mitzvos, and so on, nevertheless, since in his conduct he is like his surroundings, it is not noticeable on him that he is a Jew, and in him there is no sense of “המבדיל בין ישראל לעמים” (“Who separates between Israel and the nations”), of “אתה בחרתנו מכל העמים” (“You have chosen us from all the nations”). This brings about that even in the mitzvos that he fulfills and in the Torah that he studies, a “gentile holiness” is clearly felt. And when the foundation is lacking — the holiness of the Torah and the holiness of the mitzvos — it is possible that in time he will come to be lacking, G‑d forbid, also in the actual fulfillment of the mitzvos.
3. Besides the fact that Jewish customs are themselves Torah, as the saying goes, “מנהג ישראל תורה היא” (“A Jewish custom is Torah”) (and even a custom of women5), and one must not weigh which is more important, as it is written, “אורח חיים פן תפלס” (“Lest you weigh the path of life”)6, so that consequently one certainly may not compromise on anything — besides this, the first foundation of education is that the child should know that he is different from everyone else; he should know that he is a Jew. And this he receives mainly through Jewish customs. Customs catch the eye; it is they, above all, that engrave in him the feeling of “You have chosen us from all the nations,” from which came “וקרבתנו מלכנו לעבודתך” (“and You have brought us near, our King, to Your service”) — the foundation and the existence of the entire Torah.
As our Sages say7: “גדולה שימושה יותר מלימודה” (“Serving [Torah scholars] is greater than studying [Torah]”).
4. When one educates children as it should be, and teaches them that a Jewish custom, too, is Torah, and that one must have self-sacrifice for it — then one says: “עבדים היינו לפרעה במצרים, ויוציאנו ה׳ אלקינו משם ביד חזקה ובזרוע נטויה” (“We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt, and the L‑rd our G‑d took us out from there with a strong hand and an outstretched arm”). So, too, now — “כימי צאתך מארץ מצרים” (“As in the days of your going out of the land of Egypt”) — regardless of the doubled and redoubled darkness of exile, He will take us out “מאפילה לאור גדול” (“from darkness to a great light”), and “נודה לך שיר חדש” (“we will thank You with a new song”) — not shirah chadashah, in the feminine form, but shir chadash, in the masculine form8 — that there will be the complete and true Redemption, after which there is no exile, through Moshiach Tzidkeinu, speedily in our days.
(From the sichos of Chag HaPesach, 5717 [the OCR reads תשס״ז])
5. “הרי אני כבן שבעים שנה” (“Behold, I am like a man of seventy years”)9: Concerning the wording “I am like a man of seventy years,” with the letter kaf of comparison, the Gemara9 says that in truth Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah was much younger, but “אהדרו ליה תמני סרי דרי חיוורתא” (“eighteen rows of white hair turned for him”) — he received eighteen rows of white hair — and so he looked like an elder. And this is the precision of “like a man of seventy years,” with the kaf of comparison alone.
According to this, it is not understood why he continues, “ולא זכיתי כו׳” (“and I did not merit, etc.”). According to the plain meaning of the words, the wonder of “and I did not merit” is not only on account of wisdom, but also on account of his being an elder, like a man of seventy years, who had devoted much time to it; therefore he should have prevailed10, so that the halachah would follow him. But since he only looked like an elder, the argument that the halachah should follow him falls away?
However, it is known11 that the parables and examples in the Torah are not mere parables; rather, they descend from that which they represent (the nimshal). Thus, the very fact that he appeared as an elder is because spiritually he truly was an elder of seventy years — as it is stated in the Siddur of the Arizal, that combining his years from his first gilgul (incarnation), he was then seventy years old.
And therefore he concludes simply, “and I did not merit, etc.”: since spiritually he was an elder, he should have merited that the halachah follow him.
And because the spiritual old age was bound up with a matter of Torah — “the halachah follows him” — and Torah rules over the physical, it was expressed also in that he actually looked like a man of seventy years, even in his entirely external aspects (hair — “הטפל לבשרו” (“which is secondary to his flesh”)12). This accords with the statement of the Yerushalmi13 on the verse “לא־ל גומר עלי” (“To the G‑d Who accomplishes for me”), that the reality of the world follows the legal ruling of the Torah.
6. The lesson from this in Divine service for every individual:
Most souls in our generations are not new souls; rather, they have already been here before, in a previous gilgul. So when one comes to a matter of Divine service which, judging by his powers and qualities in his present gilgul, he does not see that he will be able to accomplish, he must know that the good of his previous gilgul can also be revealed in him, and this helps him in his Divine service — not only in intellect and emotions, the inner powers, but also in thought, speech and action, the external aspects (similar to the hair) — in day-to-day life14.
7. Seemingly one can ask: if one combines the matters of the previous gilgul, then seemingly the evil is combined too. And who knows what his state was in his previous gilgul? From where, then, should he take the strength to fight the evil and carry out his Divine service?
The answer to this is: good is an eternal reality. When a Jew performs a mitzvah, it remains forever, as it is written in Tanya15, “ויחוד זה למעלה הוא נצחי לעולם ועד” (“and this union Above is eternal, forever and ever”). But evil has no true existence; it is nothing more than a concealment and hiding. And if he has already received a cleansing punishment (onesh hamemarek — a punishment that purifies), physically or spiritually, for what he did, or if he has done teshuvah for it, then the evil has certainly already been nullified. And all the more so with teshuvah out of love — through which “זדונות נעשים כזכיות” (“intentional sins become like merits”)16.
8. And this is also an answer to those who ask: how can it be that the earlier generations did not merit the revelation of Moshiach, and now, when the generation has simply become more worthy, we will merit the revelation of Moshiach? The answer to this is that in the present generation there is also the good of the earlier generations, as explained above. Therefore, it is precisely now that we will merit the coming of Moshiach, speedily in our days.
(From the Sicha of the second night of Chag HaPesach, 5718 [the OCR reads תשח״י])
9. “כנגד ארבעה בנים דברה תורה, אחד חכם ואחד רשע ואחד תם ואחד שאינו יודע לשאול” (“The Torah speaks concerning four sons: one wise, one wicked, one simple, and one who does not know how to ask”):
In this passage it is not understood:
a) … [the text continues on the next page]
Notes
18) [Marker on the previous page.] See Shemos 12:39: “עוגות מצות” (“cakes of matzos”). This is discussed at length in Responsa Maharei Asad, Orach Chaim, §103.
19) [Marker on the previous page.] See the sefarim cited in Sdei Chemed, Asifas Dinim, Maareches Chametz uMatzah, §13; Shaarim Metzuyanim BaHalachah on Kitzur Shulchan Aruch, §110; Haggadah Meva’er (Piotrkow, 5674).
20) [Marker on the previous page.] See Pri Chadash on Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim, §453; the Alter Rebbe’s Shulchan Aruch, ibid., par. 19.
21) Zohar II, 183b. See also Zohar II, 41a; Likkutei Torah, Tzav 13d; the maamar beginning “Kimei Tzeis’cha,” 5708, by my father-in-law, the Rebbe — end of ch. 12.
22) See Makkos 26a [as in the OCR]; Shaar HaEmunah by the Mitteler Rebbe.
1) This order appears in the Mishnah of the Yerushalmi, the Rif and the Rosh (though the last two questions are missing there; and the gloss of the Bach on the Rif requires investigation); in Seder Rav Amram Gaon (British Museum manuscript); in Siddur Rav Saadiah Gaon; Rambam; Tur; Abudraham (since they place it first, he explains the question about dipping as referring to the other vegetables); Zevach Pesach by Rabbi Yitzchak Abarbanel; Pri Etz Chaim, Shaar 21, ch. 7; the Siddur of the Arizal; מ״ת [abbreviation unclear]; and others. This is also the order in the first printed Haggadah (Soncino, 1485).
2) The Alter Rebbe’s Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim, §475, par. 15.
3) Seemingly, one could give as the reason why the question about reclining comes last that it was added a long time after the first questions, namely, when people stopped eating while reclining the rest of the year; therefore it is not mentioned in the Mishnah and the Gemara — as the Gra explains. But his explanation requires much further investigation, for the Rambam, Hilchos Chametz uMatzah, ch. 8, halachah 2, cites the question about reclining and also the question “it is all roasted”; thus they asked about reclining in the time of the Beis HaMikdash as well. — And see Pri Etz Chaim [the OCR reads מע״ח] there, that this order corresponds to the order of the worlds from below upward: Asiyah, Yetzirah, Beriah, Atzilus.
4) Hilchos Mamrim, at the beginning; and see Sefer HaMitzvos, positive commandment 174, negative commandment 312.
5) Yerushalmi Pesachim, ch. 4, halachah 1; Pirkei deRabbi Eliezer, ch. 45.
6) Mishlei 5:6; Yalkut Shimoni there.
7) Berachos 7b.
8) See Tosafos, Pesachim 115b, s.v. “H”G VeNomar.”
9) Berachos 28a. [back to second reference]
10) “Zachisi” (“I merited”) — as explained by the Ra’v (Bartenura) there.
11) See also above, p. 118 ff.
12) Eruvin 4b.
13) Nedarim, ch. 6, halachah 8.
14) See Shaar HaGilgulim, Introduction 3 and the end of Introduction 4. This is not the place to elaborate.
15) [The text of this note is missing from the OCR source.]
16) [The text of this note is missing from the OCR source.]
Key Lesson
The Four Questions open with dipping — a mere custom — because a Jewish child is shaped first by the distinctive customs that show him he is a Jew; therefore customs must be kept with full dedication, for they are the foundation of a healthy Jewish education. And each Jew can draw strength for his Divine service from the eternal good of his earlier incarnations — which is also why our generation, carrying the good of all previous generations, will merit the coming of Moshiach.