Haggadah
HaggadahISTOCK

Rabbi Yaakov Harari and Harvard educated David Sacks each point out an idea that frames what to extrapolate from the Seder.

Sacks, in the name of Rav Shlomo Carlebach, relays that the greatest son at the Seder is the She'eino Yodea Lishol, the son who does not know how to ask, who does not speak.

How can that be? It is because the son who is in such awe of G-d for enabling him to breathe, walk and even succeed and on top of that for miraculously being freed from slavery, is unable to talk. The pure miracle of what is, the miracle of nature, is breathtaking and strips the ability from him to try to say anything, as the wonderment is above words.

Rabbi Harari focuses on the stanza, “Mitchila Ovdei Avodah Zara,” emphasizing that in the beginning we were slaves to certain practices and ultimately in the end G-d brought us close to Him. This area of the haggadah focuses on the unbelievable hardship that we had to go through in order to rid ourselves of our lackings.

As Chazal say, Egypt (Mitzrayim) was a kur habarzel, a fiery furnance that purified us. Life is about work. Work brings growth and purification. When we work on ourselves to the limit, G-d pulls us close to Him. Understandably, the wicked son, the rasha, asks why we are so infatuated with work. The clear answer is that the person who fails in life is the person who doesn't put in his full effort.

These two tracks are really the ways to come close to G-d. As Avraham, one must look at nature and see the Creator, whereby the Creator will pull the person even closer. Nature delivers awe, astonishment and speechlessness.

The second is through working in Torah and on oneself. Burning out one's impurities with the furnace of Torah and fierce introspection will pave the path to closeness to G-d. And as with the lover of nature, in this case too, G-d will pull the person closer.

What if these two tracks contradict in real time? Well, the Mishna in Avot (3:9) concludes that if you are speaking in Torah and choose to recognize the beauty of a tree then you are guilty. Perhaps when intense work and toil collides with a moment of nature, action precedes.

Nonetheless, these are two avenues to grow close to the Creator: see the miracles of life, of nature, of the world and be in awe and secondly, fiercely study the Torah and work on yourself. These two lifetime takeaways come on an auspicious night that stands for the eternity of our nation.