The Passover Seder's Fifteen Sections

By R. Moshe Grunwald (author of Arugat Habosem)

Kadesh. A person who wishes to sanctify (kadesh) himself and return to God should not be frightened by the words of the evil inclination that he cannot repent—rather, he should trust that God will help him purify himself.

Urchatz—as related to the word rachitz, to trust. And “when a person accepts the yoke of Torah, the yoke of the government and the yoke of earning a living are removed from him” (Avot 3:5). That brings us to:

Karpas. The commentators state that this can be read as perekh samech (the hard labor of 600,000). And so:

Karpas yachatz. One should break–yachatz—the yoke of the samech-mem—the evil inclination—by sanctifying oneself and trusting in God, accepting upon oneself the yoke of His rule. Then:

Maggid rachtza. It is not enough to sanctify oneself, but one should accept the obligation to teach others (maggid) the ways of God and to tell them to wash (rachtza) and purify and remove the evil of their deeds. “No sin comes about through a person who improves others” (Avot 5:18). And our sages state as well that the verse, “When Hashem approves of the ways of a person, then even his enemies make peace with him” (Proverbs 16:7), refers to the evil inclination(Bereishit Rabbah 55:1)—a person who teaches the Jewish people to cleanse themselves of their sins will find that in the end even his evil inclination will make peace with him and he will not have to battle against it. And so:

Motzi matzah—he will remove (motzi) any conflict (matzah) he has with it.

One might therefore say, such a person will then be dependent on others, seeing that he does not work to earn a living—and our sages state, “The dove said to the Holy One, blessed be He, ‘I would rather have my livelihood as bitter as an olive ... [than depend on others]’” (Eiruvin 18b). But the Peleh writes on the verse, “They call evil good and good evil” (Isaiah 5:20), that such a person makes the bitter sweet and the sweet bitter—such a person turns the whole world around (Panim Yafot, Beshelach, L’maan anasenu). For example, the entire world was sustained because of the sage Chanina. And so:

Maror Korech. That bitterness (maror) will be covered over (karuch). And the reason is that he does not depend on another. To the contrary:

Shulchan orech. Others are fed because of him. And if you say that as a result, his reward in the world-to-come is diminished, we learn:

Tzafun barech. As the Peleh comments, we say in the Grace After Meals, “he has mercy and life and peace and everything good”—yet nevertheless, we continue, “he does not lack the eternal good.” (That which is hidden in the world-to-come will continue to be blessed.)

And just as a person works to increase the praise of God in this world, so will he praise Him in the world to come: Hallel Nirtzah (praise that is accepted).

Kadesh Urchatz Redux

On this night, when it is a mitzvah to tell of the exodus from Egypt and to guide people to serve God, this list indicates how a person who wishes to be a leader should act. First:

Kadesh urchatz. Sanctify and cleanse yourself as in the verse, “Adorn yourself …” Zephaniah 2:1; cf. Bava Metzia 107b). Then:

Karpas yachatz. Break your desires and corporeality. And then:

Maggid—tell others:

Rachtza—wash in the waters of awareness.

But one must guard oneself from three things:

Motzi matzah—not to say things that might arouse conflict. And also:

Maror Korech—and not to explicate things that are bitter but wrap them in words of Torah that are sweeter than honey. And also:

Shulchan orech-as Rashi says in Mishpatim: “Do not say I will teach them two or three times and not bother myself to make them understand the reason for things. The verse states ‘Place before them’—i.e., like a prepared table set for a meal.” And another piece of advice:

Tzafun barech—as Alshich comments on “when you reprove a fool he will hate you, reprove a wise person and he will love you” (Proverbs 9:8): “and when you reprove someone, don’t call him evil—to the contrary, say, ‘Is it possible that someone as wise as you should do such a thing?’” As our sages say, “when a person rebukes someone for his sin, he should bless from the depths of their heart that it is good. As the verse states “Their hearts did not turn back …’ (Psalms 44:19). And then:

Hallel nirtzah. They will praise his deeds and he will be accepted by God.

Wearing the Kittel on Passover

By R. Moshe Grunwald (author of Arugat Habosem)

For the Pesach seder, it is the custom to wear a kittel, as the Magen Avraham writes (472:5). From his words, it appears that the purpose is that a person’s heart should be humbled. And I have come upon a reason for this, which is related to our sages’ comment on “and they became there a nation”—teaching that the Jews had their own independent character as a nation there. And our sages state that the sages in Bavel had their own character as a people—i.e., that they wore white clothes(Shabbat 145a). As we learn, the rabbis are called ministering angels (Nedarim 20), for they are outstanding, like ministering angels, of whom the verse states ‘wearing white garments’ (Ezekiel 9:11).

To recall that, we too wear the white kittel.

We learn in Divrei Shmuel of R. Shmelke of Nikolsberg that a person should visualize that he is already in the world of truth and he has been shown his sins throughout his entire life, and he himself judged himself.

As we find in Avot (3:1), “Before Whom will you have to give an accounting of yourself?”—in the world-to-come, our commentators say, a person judges his own deeds. And he is given the choice as to whether to return to this world to correct his deeds.

And certainly after such a visualization and realization, a person will take great care and correct that which he did wrong. And thus it is the custom to wear the kittel: as though one was already in the world-to-come, and one returned to this world, sent to correct himself.

And as a result one should be joyful and happy and give thanks for having received such an opportunity, and then one should rise from level to level.

And an allusion to this may be found in our sages’ statement that “the [greens] are brought before him, he dips the chazeret until he comes to the condiments of the bread” (Pesachim 114a). Yet afterwards the mishnah states, “They brought before him matzah and chazeret and charoset.” That being so, the first phrase is unnecessary.

However, the language of the sages contains an important lesson: that before one opens one’s mouth to tell the story of the exodus from Egypt, one must make an accounting of oneself and consider before God all that has occurred to him in his entire life. And thus his heart will be broken and humble—and not only because of unseemly deeds, but also because of his treating meaningful things lightly, even if he engaged in mundane activities with no higher purpose (as we find in Chovot Halevavot [Shaar Avodat Ha’elokim 84).

The word chazeret is related to the word chazor, review and repent. And that is before he is brought matzah and chazeret—i.e., he reviews all he had done “until he comes to the condiments of the bread”—and Tosafot Yom Tov states that the word for condiments is related to “I was at peace and He shattered me” (Job 16:12)—i.e., a person should repent until he breaks his heart and so deeply contemplate such thoughts until even in regard to the bread which he utilizes to sustain himself he humbles and shatters his heart.

And then the opening of his lips will be straight: “and may the expression of my lips be acceptable before the Master of all created beings.”

Another possible reason for the custom is related to the verse, “he removed his garments and put on other garments” (Leviticus 6:4). Our sages state: “a person should not give a cup to his master in the same clothes that he cooked his master’s food” (Shabbat 114a). And this is an allusion to the garments of the soul—the “rabbinical garments”—that the soul wears in the world-to-come (as referred to in the passage we recite before wrapping ourselves in the prayer shawl).

And here too when he comes to pour the cup for his master, he should not do so in filthy garments that he wears the entire year, but he should remove them with thoughts of repentance and garb himself in garments of regret for the past and a confident heart toward the future.

The Difficult Birth

Before Pesach, when every Jew cleans the house and carries outside all of the furniture, the holy rebbe, R. Meirel, himself would work with great effort until he was sweating.

One time he worked very hard before Pesach to take a large pot [?] (toptshan) through a window, for it wouldn’t fit through the door. But it was also very hard to get it through the window, for it was very big and the window too small, in keeping with the small rooms.

His gabbai asked him, “Dear rebbe, why do you have to work so hard to take it out?” But the holy rebbe did not respond.

They worked at this for a long time until they finally got it through the window.

Suddenly a messenger arrived from a shtetl with a pidyon contribution from a woman who was having a difficult childbirth. The holy tzaddik answered him immediately, “Go home, the child was born healthy at the moment that Meir got the pot through the window.”

And that was what had happened, just as the holy tzaddik had said.

When the messenger left, the holy rebbe said to the gabbai, “Just think what a fool you are. Meir worked with all his strength so that the child should come out of his mother’s womb without any problem and you, fool, wanted to give Meir advice that the child should be born with broken feet!”

See and understand that he did all simple work with deep intention for a great purpose with his holy good traits, and he saw and knew everything with his holy divine inspiration.

May his merit stand by us always in all matters, physical and spiritual.

Shivchei R. Meir

What Makes Matzah Kosher?

One year before Pesach, Rabbi Israel Salanter as usual took great care to prepare his shmurah matzah, spending a great deal of money to carry out his stringent requirements. He had a man reap some wheat by hand, dry it and thresh it. Rabbi Israel usually put the kernels in a box and then grind the grain in a handmill and oversee the bakers (Or Israel).

But that year, Rabbi Israel realized that he would be unable to be present during the matzah baking. Some of his students noticed Rabbi Israel's distress, and they approached him. “Rabbi, tell us what you are particularly concerned about during the baking of the matzah, and we will make sure that it is done.”

Rabbi Israel answered, “I ask only one thing. In your zeal, don’t rush the woman kneading the dough, because she is a widow, and the Torah tells us, ‘You shall not oppress the widow.’” He added, “The kashrus of the matzos is not made complete when you care for even the most stringent Pesach halachah, but only when you are scrupulous about the halachos of Choshen Mishpat—treating other people in business correctly.”

cf. Tenuat Hamusar

I Am Filled with Love for God

by Rav Avraham Yitzchak Kook

I am filled with love for God. I know that what I seek, what I love, is called by no name. How can that which is greater than everything, greater than goodness, greater than quality, greater than being, be called by any name?

And I love, and I say: I love God.

The light of the Infinite One dwells within the expression of the Name, in the expression of the divine, and in all of the names and cognomens that the heart of a man teaches and expresses when his soul is lifted ever upwards.

I cannot satisfy my soul with the love that comes from chains of logic, from the search for the light of God via the world, via an existence that penetrates into the eyes.

In our soul are born divine lights—from the perspective of our spirit, many gods.

There is one true God—and higher than one, in the depth of His truth.

God is revealed, He rules over us, He conquers all of our spirits, the spirit of all existence.

Wherever there is idea, feeling, thought and will, wherever there is noble, spiritual life, the divine light rules, governs, conquers, scintillates, is magnificent, gives forth splendor and beauty, vivifies, elevates—all of it out of a clarity of the light of being. It rules—and it dies.

That rule is limited as long as it comes from the world, from being.

At times the light waxes. One desires a light that is more refined, more inward, more true, which is in its very essence more energetic.

The light overwhelms the vessel, thought overwhelms being. The structure cannot hold, the inner content is not congruent, the vessels shatter, the kings die, the gods die, their soul rises, soars to the heavens. The bodies descend to the world of separation, existence stands bare, isolated, torn away, scattered.

It contains within itself, hidden and concealed, an eternal desire for the supernal light.

The eternal love has placed within the shattered vessels its light, its sparks.

In every movement, in every content of life, in every quality is being. There is a spark, a spark of a spark, faint, exceedingly faint, the inner light, the light of the supernal God, building and setting a foundation, gathering the scattered, rectifying forever, organizing and joining together.

The eternal sovereignty is revealed from the light of the Infinite One that is within the soul. From God to the world a new light is born: the light of the radiance of the glory of the face of God.

Chadarav

A Holy Fire, Burning and Blazing in My Soul

by Rav Avraham Yitzchak Kook

Is this great distress that I am not permitted to pronounce God’s Name as it is written an empty thing? Is it not a holy fire, burning and blazing in my soul, which indicates the depth of the hidden longings within it for the light of the true God, the God of Israel, Who makes the precious light of the truth of His manifestation shine only with the holy Name as it is written?

All the holy Names are general— they express a concept of divinity that anyone with intelligence in his mind and with feeling in his heart can express and yearn: to desire Him and to be connected to His being.

But “who is like Your nation Israel, a unique nation upon the earth”— connected to the truth of divinity, which is revealed only in a miraculous, wondrous fashion, in a way of total truth coming from the supernal holy spirit of the “clear lens”?

The verse, “This is My name forever,” is actually written, “This is My name: to be concealed.”

It is impossible for us to pronounce it within this darkened world as long as the light of Israel has not manifested itself in its holy location, in the House of its life: in the eternal Temple.

A thirst for truth flares up, and the longing for that essential expression to be impressed into this world is great. “I have been silenced, quiet. I have been silent, lacking good, and my pain is stirred up.”

Chadarav

My Spirit Yearns Passionately

by Rav Avraham Yitzchak Kook

My spirit yearns passionately for the supreme light, the infinite light, the light of the God of truth, the God of my life, the living God, the Life-force of all universes.

This passionate yearning consumes my physical and spiritual strength. I have neither the ability nor the proper training to satisfy the totality of this great, passionate yearning.

I am filled with utter self-abnegation before the Monarch of all universes, Who opens His hand and satisfies the desire of every living being.

Satiate my desire. Satiate me in the light of Your manifestation, and fill my thirst for Your light.

“Make Your face shine, and we will be saved.”

Chadarav

Who Can Know Me?

by Rav Avraham Yitzchak Kook

Who can know me, who knows the fervor of my heart, which burns in truth with the fire of a supernal love of God?

“My spirit expires for You; my heart and my flesh sing to the living God.”

Who can realize that I am unable to take interest in any limited matter because of my great yearning for the eternal delight of the infinite expanses—that I am sick with love?

And not only do others not know me, but I myself do not know myself.

How much must I battle against myself, to keep hold of an inner faith in the greatness of my soul? And that greatness has nothing to do with deeds; it is intrinsically great, because of what it is. It is a supernal freedom, and all teachings and mitzvot only serve to make a measure of its worth clear to it.

Chadarav

The Holy Fire

by Rav Avraham Yitzchak Kook

I must recognize the holy fire that blazes in my heart—my yearning that burns ceaselessly within it for the living God—as a great and mighty ability.

I am obligated to honor that holy illumination, which constantly appears to me and at times gains in strength, all in accordance with the amount of deed and learning and in accordance with the amount of the depth of thought, freedom of mind and health of body—and the joy of the heart that is dependent on all of these.

Chadarav

The Crucial Point of the Inner Quest

by Rav Avraham Yitzchak Kook

Is it possible that I will not find what I seek, at the time that my search wells from the depths of truth?

And what do I seek if not myself, my true essence—not my physical or spiritual garments, all of which are acquisitions, which come and serve the essence? If my essence, my essential being, is beyond me, how will any of these devices help?

That is the crucial point of the inner quest, which requires true might so that a person may be strong as he engages in it.

And that constant endeavor to find my essence is also at the root of finding the existence of the entire Jewish people and of humanity in its broad sense, and of finding all existence in its inner sense and in its breadth.

And that is the gate of Hashem to finding the eternally sought: the God of the universe, the Source of all quests, for Whom every spirit yearns, and without Whom there is nothing to seek.

Behold, that search is the purest and most wholehearted quality. It harasses the spirit and seizes all inner spiritual proclivities, making them unable to find their path as long as the fundamental position of what one is essentially seeking is not based upon the spiritual foundation that incorporates all the movements of life.

To this end comes the entire wealth of Torah learning, all intelligent activity, and all spiritual awakening in its multitudinous movements in life—in a human being and in the world.

“Fortunate are all those who wait for Him.”

Chadarav

The Speech of Creation

by Rav Avraham Yitzchak Kook

I have subjugated myself to teachings, to deeds, to relationships, to a variety of different obligations—and as a result, no thought of mine is finished and mature.

Supernal illuminations fall away like blossoms that drop after having appeared, before their time to ripen has arrived, because of a storm wind.

And so the time has come to break the chains that my own hands placed upon all the limbs of my soul, upon all the parts of my spirit. I have no obligation to focus on obstacles outside myself. Salvation is firmly placed within me, within my heart.

The wellspring of tranquility pours forth and flows unceasingly. The kindness of Hashem fills the world.

All that I have to do is to attend to that autonomous awareness, to listen to the secret of the speech of creation in its inner chambers.

I will hear, and my spirit will live.

Chadarav

My Inner Gaze

I have no need to reject my inner demand to gaze at everything from the essence of my spirit.

At the same time, I am summoned to strengthen myself and broaden my perspectives, expressed in spirit and in deed, in accordance with the understanding that comes from outside myself: from friendship, mingling with others, reading books and other life experiences.

And afterwards, everything returns so as to be mixed into my very spirit, and I return to my inner gaze.

Chadarav

My Spirit Yearns

by Rav Avraham Yitzchak Kook

My spirit yearns to burrow into its inner chambers.

I struggle to draw matters forth from the light of the Torah and from the light of the world.

But I find that all the roots of these pure objects that I seek must be found in the depths of my own spirit, whose light is taken from the light of the Torah and from the radiance of the world.

If I return from the midst of Torah and from the midst of the world to my spirit, I increase my life-force when I then re-enter the chambers of the Torah and the chambers of the treasuries of the world.

And so every bright revelation is divided into three: that of the spirit, that of the Torah and that of the world.

“Speak, my tongue, your words, for all of [God’s] commandments are righteousness.”

How Can I Have Anything to Say to Others?

by Rav Avraham Yitzchak Kook

How can I have anything to say to others if I say nothing to my own spirit?

How can I express an opinion about the spiritual and physical world without first seeking a key to the treasures gathered within me?

“Gates, swing open,” I shall say to the chambers of my spirit, to my heart and to my “kidneys,” my source of counsel.

Chadarav

I Constantly Seek

by Rav Avraham Yitzchak Kook

I constantly seek that which is in the midst of my soul.

Outer servitude distracts my mind from that inner search, bringing me to seek in vain at the far-flung corners of the earth for that which has not been found in the depths of my spirit.

Chadarav

I Must Speak of Myself

by Rav Avraham Yitzchak Kook

I must speak of myself a great deal.

Matters of my essential being must become extremely clear to me.

When I understand myself, I will understand everything—the world and life—until my understanding will reach the Source of life.

Chadarav

The Hidden Treasures

by Rav Avraham Yitzchak Kook

From within myself, from my wellsprings, I must always take the hidden treasures.

I am always connected to a holy suffering that results from my search for supernal perfection.

That search is never fulfilled. Indeed, it has no need to be fulfilled.

This is the nature of such ever-lasting yearning: its foundation is divine thirst. Nothing in the world can slake that thirst except that which it seeks: the on-going revelation and ever-growing experience of the thirst itself.

That itself is transformed into the source of all pleasure, into the platform for all spiritual delights, into the radiance of the Almighty.

Chadarav