There are two main verses which exhort us to remember the exodus from Egypt: "Remember this day when you went out from Egypt, from the house of bondage; leavening shall not be eaten" (Exodus 13:3); and "You shall not eat leavening with (the Paschal Sacrifice) for seven days... in order that you may remember the day of your exodus from Egypt all the days of your life" (Deuteronomy 16:3).
The first verse clearly relates to the night of the Seder, and Maimonides defines the command "remember" (in Hebrew, zakhor with the kamatz vowel under the letter zayin) to mean to retell, in the sense of to re-enact, the slavery as well as the redemption on the mystical, magical evening of the fifteenth of Nissan.
The second verse commands us to "remember [Heb. tizkor]... all the days of your life," which implies a level of cognitive awareness 365 days a year. In the words of the Passover Hagaddah:
And finally, it is interesting to note that Maimonides does not include the commandment to remember (and recite) the exodus from Egypt by day and by night as one of the 613 commandments. Why not? After all, it is fairly apparent that the sages are adding to - and not disagreeing with - the position of Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah?
In order to answer these questions, we must first ponder another curious event recorded in the Hagaddah. The paragraph that precedes - and thereby introduces - Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah's principle of remembering the exodus from Egypt in the morning and in the evening every day, recounts how Rabbi Eliezer, Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah, Rabbi Yehoshua and Rabbi Tarfon went to Rabbi Akiva's seder in B'nei B'rak, where they spoke of the exodus the entire night, until their students told them it was time to recite the morning Shema (Mishnah, Berakhot 1:5). Now, Rabbi Eliezer teaches that it is forbidden for an individual to leave his home on the festival, even to visit his Master (Rebbe), since the Bible commands that "you rejoice on the festival, you and your home," you in your home with your family. And Rabbi Akiva was not even Rabbi Eliezer's teacher; much to the contrary, he was Rabbi Eliezer's disciple. So, how could Rabbi Eliezer go against his own teaching and spend the Seder away from G-d, where he and his family dwelled, and travel to B'nei B'rak, where Rabbi Akiva dwelled?
The Talmud at the conclusion of the Tractate Makkot records how five rabbis, almost the very same five mentioned here, passed by the Temple Mount after the destruction and saw foxes emerging from the ruined Holy of Holies. Four rabbis wept and Rabbi Akiva laughed.
"Why do you laugh?" asked the sages.
Rabbi Akiva explained that since our prophets foretold the destruction of the Second Temple and then prophesied the eternal building of the Third Temple, now that one can see the fulfillment of the former prophecy, one can rejoice at the accomplishment of the latter prophecy. Rabbi Akiva was the greatest optimist, the believer in ultimate Jewish national sovereignty in Jerusalem as promulgators of world peace, even under the shadow of the destruction of the Second Commonwealth. Rabbi Eliezer apparently felt that the only place he would truly be able to celebrate our exodus from Egypt, to believe in G-d the redeemer, was in the presence of this most charismatic leader, Rabbi Akiva.
What were these five rabbis doing all that night? Perhaps they were regaling each other with interpretations and miracle stories - and perhaps they were planning the Bar Kochba rebellion, instigated by, and certainly supported and supplied with soldier-students by, Rabbi Akiva. Hence, Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah - one of the five in attendance that very special night-long Seder - declares how this was the first time he was privileged to recite and plan for extrication from painful (Roman) enslavement at night, during the bleak, black period after the destruction of the Temple. He is echoing the legalism that prescribes the remembrance and recitation of the exodus at night and is emphasizing the symbolism richly imbedded in that legalism: never give up on our national dream of redemption.
The sages go one step further. It is not sufficient to merely remain faithful; it is necessary to actively pursue bringing about the Messianic Age, which was precisely what Rabbi Akiva and his colleagues were attempting to do in B'nei B'rak.
We are now able to resolve the difficulties we raised at the beginning of our commentary. The principle enunciated by Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah in the name of Ben Zoma - to declare the going out of Egypt at night as well as by day - receives heightened significance on the Seder night of Passover, when we must optimistically remain faithful to our vision of redemption even in our darkest periods. And it is not only the retention of our faith in redemption; we must actively pursue redemption, we must "bring about the days of the Messiah" by our planting and our building, by our military might and political ingenuity. And no wonder Maimonides does not list a separate commandment to recite the redemption from Egypt every evening in the third paragraph of the Shema; this recitation is the fundamental meaning of the basic words of the Shema, words expressing our expectation of ultimate world redemption: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord who is now our G-d will eventually become the One [G-d of justice, compassion and peace, recognized by every nation in the universe]."
And Rabbi Akiva remained optimistic until his very last breath. The Bar Kochba rebellion tragically failed and Rabbi Akiva was tortured to death during the Hadrianic persecutions. He called out to his disciples, "Hear O Israel the Lord our G-d, the Lord [will yet be] One" - "and his soul expired with the word one (echad)." (Babylonian Talmud, Berakhot 61b).
The first verse clearly relates to the night of the Seder, and Maimonides defines the command "remember" (in Hebrew, zakhor with the kamatz vowel under the letter zayin) to mean to retell, in the sense of to re-enact, the slavery as well as the redemption on the mystical, magical evening of the fifteenth of Nissan.
The second verse commands us to "remember [Heb. tizkor]... all the days of your life," which implies a level of cognitive awareness 365 days a year. In the words of the Passover Hagaddah:
Rabbi Elazar son of Azaryah says, "Behold, I am like seventy years old [although he was only seventeen years of age, his hair became white overnight when he was appointed prince of the Sanhedrin High Court] and I never merited to have recited the mention of the exodus from Egypt at night, until Ben Zoma expressed the verse 'in order that you may remember the day of your exodus from Egypt all the days of your life' - 'the days of your life' refers to the daytime, 'all the days of your life' refers to the night time." And the sages maintain: "'The days of your life' refers to this world; 'all the days of your life' refers to the bringing in of the days of the Messiah."Apparently, these words from the Hagaddah are taken from the Mishnah in Berakhot and refer to the third paragraph of the Shema, recited by the observant Jew every morning and every evening, "I am the Lord your G-d who took you out of the Land of Egypt in order to be for you." But there are three problems emanating from this teaching. First of all, if this verse is not specific to the Seder evening - since it applies to the Shema recited every evening of the year - what is the paragraph that deals with it doing in our Hagaddah for the Passover Seder? Secondly, the formulation of the words of the sages is difficult to understand. If "the days of your life" refers to this world, "all the days of your life" ought refer to the world to come (olam hazeh and olam haba in Hebrew); why utilize the more unusual phrase "to bring in the days of the Messiah"?
And finally, it is interesting to note that Maimonides does not include the commandment to remember (and recite) the exodus from Egypt by day and by night as one of the 613 commandments. Why not? After all, it is fairly apparent that the sages are adding to - and not disagreeing with - the position of Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah?
In order to answer these questions, we must first ponder another curious event recorded in the Hagaddah. The paragraph that precedes - and thereby introduces - Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah's principle of remembering the exodus from Egypt in the morning and in the evening every day, recounts how Rabbi Eliezer, Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah, Rabbi Yehoshua and Rabbi Tarfon went to Rabbi Akiva's seder in B'nei B'rak, where they spoke of the exodus the entire night, until their students told them it was time to recite the morning Shema (Mishnah, Berakhot 1:5). Now, Rabbi Eliezer teaches that it is forbidden for an individual to leave his home on the festival, even to visit his Master (Rebbe), since the Bible commands that "you rejoice on the festival, you and your home," you in your home with your family. And Rabbi Akiva was not even Rabbi Eliezer's teacher; much to the contrary, he was Rabbi Eliezer's disciple. So, how could Rabbi Eliezer go against his own teaching and spend the Seder away from G-d, where he and his family dwelled, and travel to B'nei B'rak, where Rabbi Akiva dwelled?
The Talmud at the conclusion of the Tractate Makkot records how five rabbis, almost the very same five mentioned here, passed by the Temple Mount after the destruction and saw foxes emerging from the ruined Holy of Holies. Four rabbis wept and Rabbi Akiva laughed.
"Why do you laugh?" asked the sages.
Rabbi Akiva explained that since our prophets foretold the destruction of the Second Temple and then prophesied the eternal building of the Third Temple, now that one can see the fulfillment of the former prophecy, one can rejoice at the accomplishment of the latter prophecy. Rabbi Akiva was the greatest optimist, the believer in ultimate Jewish national sovereignty in Jerusalem as promulgators of world peace, even under the shadow of the destruction of the Second Commonwealth. Rabbi Eliezer apparently felt that the only place he would truly be able to celebrate our exodus from Egypt, to believe in G-d the redeemer, was in the presence of this most charismatic leader, Rabbi Akiva.
What were these five rabbis doing all that night? Perhaps they were regaling each other with interpretations and miracle stories - and perhaps they were planning the Bar Kochba rebellion, instigated by, and certainly supported and supplied with soldier-students by, Rabbi Akiva. Hence, Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah - one of the five in attendance that very special night-long Seder - declares how this was the first time he was privileged to recite and plan for extrication from painful (Roman) enslavement at night, during the bleak, black period after the destruction of the Temple. He is echoing the legalism that prescribes the remembrance and recitation of the exodus at night and is emphasizing the symbolism richly imbedded in that legalism: never give up on our national dream of redemption.
The sages go one step further. It is not sufficient to merely remain faithful; it is necessary to actively pursue bringing about the Messianic Age, which was precisely what Rabbi Akiva and his colleagues were attempting to do in B'nei B'rak.
We are now able to resolve the difficulties we raised at the beginning of our commentary. The principle enunciated by Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah in the name of Ben Zoma - to declare the going out of Egypt at night as well as by day - receives heightened significance on the Seder night of Passover, when we must optimistically remain faithful to our vision of redemption even in our darkest periods. And it is not only the retention of our faith in redemption; we must actively pursue redemption, we must "bring about the days of the Messiah" by our planting and our building, by our military might and political ingenuity. And no wonder Maimonides does not list a separate commandment to recite the redemption from Egypt every evening in the third paragraph of the Shema; this recitation is the fundamental meaning of the basic words of the Shema, words expressing our expectation of ultimate world redemption: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord who is now our G-d will eventually become the One [G-d of justice, compassion and peace, recognized by every nation in the universe]."
And Rabbi Akiva remained optimistic until his very last breath. The Bar Kochba rebellion tragically failed and Rabbi Akiva was tortured to death during the Hadrianic persecutions. He called out to his disciples, "Hear O Israel the Lord our G-d, the Lord [will yet be] One" - "and his soul expired with the word one (echad)." (Babylonian Talmud, Berakhot 61b).