Page 19 - Harlem Pesach Companion 2021

This Year: Still in Egypt, Awaiting Redemption

By Judah Isseroff

Pesach is a story of redemption. The four cups of wine that we
drink correspond to the four expressions of God’s redemption.
I will take out; I will save; I will redeem; I will take. The fifth,
the cup for Elijah, corresponds to a special fifth language: I will
bring (you into the land).

The redemption of the Pesach story is meant to function on
two levels. On the one hand, there is the redemption of the
Jewish people from their servitude in Egypt as told in the book
of Exodus. This redemption is a fulfillment of God’s promise
to Abraham back in Genesis. On the other hand, the redemption of Pesach is a
redemption that supposedly happened to us as well. In the Haggadah, we are not only
telling a story of events gone by, but also a story of what has transpired in our own lives.

This second aspect is famously captured at the very end of the Maggid section where we
read: “In every generation, a person is obligated to see herself as though she went out of
Egypt.” Several commentators on the Haggadah wonder what the scriptural support for
this statement is. How do we know that we too are obligated to look at ourselves this
way? After all, the commandment to tell our children about the Exodus (Exodus 13:8)
seems to be addressed specifically to the generation that actually left Egypt.

One commentator who asks this question, Rabbi Baruch Epstein (also known as the
Torah Temimah) looks to the context of the verse to answer the question. The relevant
context is “when you enter the land” (Exodus 13:5). For Rabbi Epstein, this context is
puzzling. Why? Because the generation that leaves Egypt never actually makes it to the
land! It’s impossible they will fulfill the commandment to tell the story of the exodus
while they themselves are actually in the Promised Land. The Haggadah also invokes
Deuteronomy 6:23: “And He [God] took us out from there [Egypt].” But, Rabbi Epstein
finds this verse puzzling for the same reason! It is addressed to the generation who was
born in the desert and did not actually experience the departure from Egypt.

From this, Rabbi Epstein figures out the broader puzzle. The first generation, those who
actually left Egypt, never could tell the story in the Promised Land. The second
generation, those born in the desert and who crossed into the Promised Land, did not
themselves experience the story of the Exodus. Nevertheless, both generations—and then
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