Adult Learners: Reconciling Disparate Verses
MOSHE SOKOLOW
At the conclusion of birkhot hashachar , it is customary to recite the b’raita of Rabbi Yishamel, enumerating his 13 hermeneutical rules ( middot shehatorah nidreshet bahen ), the last of which describes how to reconcile two conflicting Torah verses by resort to a relevant third. Somewhat of a conflict exists regarding the recollection of our exodus from Egypt. Here are the pertinent sources:
Moses said to the people, “Remember this day on which you went out from Egypt, from a place of enslavement, for the Lord brought you out from this place with [his] might, so eat no leavened bread.”
Eat no leavened bread with it [the Pesach sacrifice]. For seven days, eat matzot , the bread of affliction, with it, for you left Egypt in haste; in order to remember the day of your exodus from Egypt all the days of your life. A seeming contradiction exists concerning the frequency with which the exodus must be recalled. The verse in Shemot calls for an unspecified recall—reminiscent of the similar imperative to “Recall what Amalek did to you,” which, from a strict Torah perspective, can be fulfilled through a “once in a lifetime” recollection and, by force of rabbinic tradition, is maintained through an annual recall (i.e., parashat zakhor) . The verse in Devarim, on the other hand, explicitly invokes a daily, lifelong recollection. I submit that the passage in the Haggadah that we are focusing on this year provides a resolution to this ostensible conflict. In each and every generation, one is obliged to regard oneself as though one left Egypt, to wit: “You shall tell your child on that day, saying: On account of what the Lord did for me when I Ieft Egypt.” In other words, if one regards the exodus merely as an historical event, something that transpired but once in the hoary past, then a once-in-a-lifetime recollection (alternately, an annual one) is both appropriate and sufficient. However, once one views the exodus as a recurring phenomenon, something that is as vivid and vital today as it was over 3,000 years ago, then even a daily recall hardly seems adequate to the task. n For suggestions on how to make it vivid and vital, see the companion piece by Mordechai Schiffman on page 8.
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ON THIS NIGHT WE ARE ALL TEACHERS
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