By the Grace of G-d 5th Day of the Week of Tazri’a1 Rosh Chodesh2 Nissan,3 5746 Brooklyn, N.Y.

Greeting and Blessing:

It has often been emphasized that everything in Torah (meaning, “teaching”)⁴ is an instruction and teaching in Jewish life. The importance of such teaching is even greater when it centers on something that is of a comprehensive nature,⁵ or on a comprehensive Mitzvah; it is especially significant when the subject is Pesach, the first⁶ of the three comprehensive festivals (Pesach, Shovuos, and Succos)—the first, not only in time, but also in being foremost as the one from which the other two festivals derive.⁷

Hence it is not surprising that Pesach is so rich in spiritual values and in practical instructions, in all of its numerous particulars and details mentioned in Torah sheBiksav (the Written Torah) and Torah sheb’Al Peh (the Oral Torah).

Today, being Rosh Chodesh Nissan, is surely the proper time⁸ to deliberate their profound significance.

* * *

In previous letters various instructive lessons of Pesach have been discussed. Here we shall dwell on one of the comprehensive aspects of Pesach, namely, that the festival of Yetzias Mitzraim is the “Birthday”⁹ of our Jewish people as a people; hence also of every Jew individually, within Klal Yisroel.

With Yetzias Mitzraim began, and was established a new “Seder” (order)—a ״סדר פסח כהלכתו״ (a “Pesach-order as ordained”)—for the future of our Jewish people for all generations. And Pesach also brings to mind that this order has to be remembered as a “remembrance of the Deliverance from Mitzraim”¹⁰ in the everyday life, and has to be reflected in the personal “Seder Pesach kHilchosoi” of every Jew and all Jews—men, women, and children.

Parenthetically: This is also one of the explanations¹¹ why many texts, according to widespread custom, do not include¹¹ the words חסל סידור¹² פסח כהלכתו (“This ends the Pesach Order as ordained”) at the conclusion of the Pesach Haggadah,

For the said “Seder” does not end; on the contrary, it has only begun today, as with a newborn child, and with a renewed self-appraisal on each successive birthday, when one becomes a year older and wiser.

Yetzias Mitzraim—the exodus from Egypt, took place in great haste¹³ (בחפזון)—“in haste¹⁴ did we go out of Egypt.” This haste started already before, when they fulfilled the commandment, “You shall eat it (the Korban Pesach) in haste”;¹⁵ so much so, that it expressed itself also in external things, such as, “your loins girded,¹⁶ your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand.” And the haste of the Jews was coupled with the haste of the Egyptians; and both hastes was derived from, as it were, the haste of the Shechinah¹⁷—G-d.

Also the name “Pesach” has to do with haste—“jumping” and “Passing over.”¹⁸

At the same time, the Torah relates, the exodus was “with an uplifted hand;”¹⁹ a deliverance through “the King of kings, the Holy One blessed be He, personally²⁰ revealed Himself before them and delivered them;”²¹ a complete Geulo; and immediately after the initial “flight of the people,”²² there appeared the Clouds of Glory²³ and they stopped fleeing.

Moreover, and this, too, is essential—it is emphasized²⁴ that the forthcoming Geulo through Moshiach Tzidkeinu will be in a manner of “you shall not go out in haste, nor walk in fleeing”²⁵; and that it is necessary to prepare for it in terms of suitable similar conduct.

* * *

The explanation of the above (seeming anomaly), especially in terms of practical instruction,²⁶ which is further underscored by the repetitious emphasis on remembrance of Yetzias Mitzraim every day:

Bearing in mind that while the purpose of all Torah Instructions is that they be translated into actual performance, this is all the more so in regard to instructions relating to Pesach, of which it is stated that “it is incumbent upon a Jew to see himself as though he personally this day went out of Mitzraim”²⁷—is as follows:

Human conduct in general, particularly Jewish conduct, comprises two aspects: that of סור מרע, “turn away from evil,” and that of עשה טוב, “and do good”²⁸ (i.e. acts prohibited and acts obligatory).

Turn away from evil means that whenever and wherever there is a suspicion of evil, one must immediately turn away from it.²⁹ Pesach reminds us and emphasizes that it is necessary to flee from it.

This is what happened with the Jews in Egypt. When they reached the level of understanding³⁰ the depth of evil in Mitzraim, to which they were exposed to, especially after they were fortified in this realization by eating of the Korban Pesach in a manner of “loins girded, shoes on their feet, and staff in hand," and then finally came the first opportunity to escape from there—they did not have to rely on Pharaoh’s urging them to leave; they fled in all haste, impelled by their own determination to escape from that evil as quickly as they could.

At the same time they went out “with an uplifted hand” (with pride, triumph, and uncompromising stance) in all matters of do good.

And this is the central point of “Yetzias Mitzraim” that a Jew is required to relive every day, namely; to free himself from the evil that was “practiced in Mitzraim,”³¹ and from spiritual slavery, all the way to the point of emancipation from mtzorim u'gvulim (limitations and restraints)³² of the world around and its mundane conventionalism, as explained at greater length elsewhere.

* * *

Herein we find also the difference, in general, between the first Geulo, the Geulo from Mitzraim, and the future and final Geulo. For, although the future Geulo will be accompanied by Divine wonders “like those shown in the days of your departure from Mitzraim,”³³ and even by greater wonders,³⁴ yet the Geulo from the present Golus (exile) will be in a manner of “you shall not go out in haste, nor walk out in flight”—

For, inasmuch as there will be no evil left at all, in fulfillment of the Divine assurance, “and the spirit of uncleanliness I shall remove from the earth,”³⁵ there will be no need³⁶ to work on “turning away from evil,” and serving HaShem will be entirely concentrated on doing good, as the Rambam concludes his opus magnum³⁷ (on the same note as he began it): “and (then) the whole occupation of mankind will be to know, HaShem as the waters cover the sea.”³⁸

* * *

May HaShem grant that as from today, Rosh Chodesh Nissan, the particularly auspicious month of Geulo,³⁹ everyone should “go from strength to strength"⁴⁰ in the days ahead, everyone—men and women—actively pursuing the Pesach teachings mentioned above, and translating them in their everyday experience and conduct all year round,

And all the above should speedily in our own days hasten still further the coming of the true and complete Geulo through Moshiach Tzidkeinu, very soon indeed.

With esteem and with blessing for

Hatzlocho in all above, and for a

Kosher and inspiring Pesach⁴¹

/ Signed: Menachem Schneerson /