"Tonight we recline."
This is one of the things we do to show that we are bnei horin ("free men"). In other words, there is a need for the Jewish People, who are a "priestly kingdom and a holy nation," to partake in symbolic actions that give them the feeling of who they are and what they're all about.


We are not slaves. We have a destiny that is loftier than all destinies. Thus, we should respect ourselves as free men and behave accordingly - not out of personal pride or ego, G-d forbid, but rather out of a national pride, that we belong to a nation that is the "nation of HaShem," and that HaShem's honor is our responsibility.


We must shake off the shackles of bondage.



This symbolism is expressed in our sitting in a reclining position - and how important it is to take the concept out of the framework of mere symbolism. It is incumbent upon us to live like free men in a practical sense. We must shake off the shackles of bondage and stop educating our children as if they still live in some ghetto, always worried about what the non-Jew will say and think. If we do not do this, then these actions fall to the level of empty, sterile acts of ritual, no more meaningful than the rote manners of a trained monkey.


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"For not only one has risen up to destroy us, but in every single generation they rise up against us to destroy us."


Here, there is a double stress on "to destroy us." The goal of the non-Jews is not just to persecute us; rather, our very existence is what bothers them. And so, too, in this generation, where what concerns them is not some piece of territory or another, but rather the annihilation of Am Yisrael; and this pathological hatred of the nations was hatched at Mount Sinai.


"But in every single generation they rise up against us to destroy us."


What a sweeping generalization. And the question must surely be asked: Was there not some generation in which they did not rise up against us to destroy us? But there are different methods of wiping us out. There are those who try to wipe us out physically, like Haman and Hitler. And there are those try to wipe us out physically through trickery, so we that we won't prevent the attempt to do so. Then, there are those who try to destroy us spiritually by assimilation, like Greece. In any case, the rule that Esau hates Yaakov holds in every generation, as we see in this statement.


"And the Holy One, Blessed be He, rescues us from their hands."


Many use this verse to support the argument that the Jews do not have to take practical measures to save themselves, since G-d has promised us that in every time of trouble, he will save us and everything will be okay. Indeed, it is true that eventually it will be good. But oy vey to those who take solace in this. Don't they understand that the significance of this "solace" is that, despite the fact that we will never be destroyed, we may still suffer pogroms, inquisitions and Holocausts?


Rabbi Kook said that in the Land of Israel, one doesn't "settle down," but rather "rises up."



Not just this, but "if one-tenth remain in it, then that shall be consumed." (Isaiah 6:13) And Rashi explains: "Nine parts (out of ten) will perish, and only a tenth will remain, and this too will be consumed." May G-d help us! This is the scenario we should aspire to? Is it permitted for us to remain content and take comfort in this? Rather, we must act with self-sacrifice in doing what G-d demands of us, so that we may be saved from needless tragedy, because it does not have to be so.


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"...to teach us that our father Yaakov didn't go to Egypt to settle down permanently."


My father and teacher (H.y.d.) said that when he made Aliyah in 1971 to Israel, he went to Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda Kook, who received him very warmly (and even told his students to take him to the Kotel, where both rabbis were photographed together). He said that he told Rabbi Kook that he came to Israel to "settle down," and Rabbi Kook said that in the Land of Israel, one doesn't "settle down," but rather "rises up."
 
More of the Haggadah of the Jewish Idea is now availabile online at http://www.hameir.org/haggada/.