Parshas Tzav (Shabbos HaGadol) - Chag HaPesach 5785
- Torah Tavlin
- 3 days ago
- 8 min read
ושמרתם את המצות כי בעצם היום הזה הוצאתי את צבאותיכם מארץ מצרים ושמרתם את היום הזה לדרתיכם ... (שמות יב-יז)
It is well known how careful the Brisker Rav, R’ Yitzchok Zev Halevi Soloveitchik zt”l was with his matzos on Pesach. A man once entered the Brisker Rav’s home before Yom Tov and noticed a heavy wooden box sitting in the corner of the room, securely locked. His curiosity got the better of him, and he wished to know what valuable item had the Brisker Rav seemed to lock up so well. “What is in the box?” he asked.
Upon hearing that the box contained matzos for Pesach, he was somewhat surprised, and asked jokingly, ”Do the thieves in Brisk have nothing to steal but the Rav’s matzos?”
One of the Rav’s sons responded, “My father says that since the Torah states: ‘And you shall guard the matzos,’ one must guard them as securely as possible, just as one would a great sum of money - in a well-locked safe.”
One year, during matzah baking, a certain man, upon seeing the Brisker Rav’s legendary efforts in baking matzos, shared with the Rav the following story about R’ Leib Sassover zt”l, a Chassidishe Rebbe also known for his great care and extra hiddurim in baking matzos. The Rebbe was once baking matzos at a certain bakery when a simple Jew arrived to bake his own matzos. When he saw how careful the Rebbe was in baking his matzos he became discouraged; he did not have the wherewithal to make such efforts with his own matzos.
The man turned to the wall in the corner of the bakery and raised his voice in passionate prayer: “Master of the Universe! I am a simple and poor man; it is not possible for me to be as careful as the Rebbe is in baking matzos. But, You, You can do anything. May it be Your will that my matzos come out of the oven as kosher and mehudarim as those of the Rebbe…”
When the Sassover Rebbe heard this Jew’s pure and moving prayer, he approached him and asked him to exchange matzos. “Please take my matzos that I worked so hard over and give me the ones you baked.” The man concluded the story with a smile as he recounted the Rebbe’s kindness and graciousness.
The Brisker Rav understood that this man’s intention in telling him the story was to say that matzos that are accompanied by sincere prayers are preferable to those that have been produced with the greatest hiddurim and with attention to the finer points of halacha, the way the “Briskers” do.
R’ Yitzchok Zev turned to the man and quickly responded, “On the contrary, what this story teaches us has nothing to do with exertion. It has to do with Tefillah and this story teaches us that prayer is effective. That Jew’s prayers were accepted and he therefore merited to receive the Rebbe’s matzos that were way more mehudar than the ones over which the Rebbe had worked so hard, so that they should have the ultimate level of kashrus!”
While the Brisker Rav was still young, a story occurred which served as a powerful lesson about the necessity to exert oneself to his utmost not only in performing mitzvos but also in learning halacha in depth in spite of the difficulties such efforts present. It gave him ammunition to resist the temptation to take “shortcuts” in learning.
His father, R’ Chaim Soloveitchik zt”l, placed tremendous energy into baking matzos. His degree of intense concentration on the task and the care he took in it are well-known. His sons and talmidim helped him in the work. Each person had his particular job. Young Velvel and his brother Moshe were in charge of examining the matzos as they came out of the oven. They decided which were considered kefulos (folded). Some of the matzos invariably broke during the baking, and they had to decide which pieces among the broken matzos that came out of the oven belonged to matzos that had been “folded in the oven” for those pieces would also have the status of “kefulos.” The two brothers would work long hours in the heat of the bakery, matching pieces of matzah in an effort to determine the origin of each one.
One year, a bachur who was a regular visitor in R’ Chaim’s home, came to help them in this tedious and time-consuming task. They noticed that while they had to work long and hard to match the pieces, this young man, who was a simple-minded though G-d-fearing person, would quickly and easily match the pieces of matzah, showing no signs of stress. Naturally, they wondered at his ability to complete this arduous task so quickly, and asked him for an explanation.
With his answer, it all became clear. “It is very simple,” he said. ”When I find two pieces that don’t quite match, I break off a few little pieces of each one until they match perfectly ...”
Young Velvel, wise beyond his years, turned to his brother and pointed out that the same idea is true regarding limud HaTorah: There are those who, when learning a sugya, recall another source that contradicts the sugya they are dealing with. They expend great effort in examining solutions to the problem. Much time and brain power are needed to reach a satisfactory conclusion. However, there are others who, when encountering such a contradiction, twist the meaning of one source, smooth out the other one, cutting corners until finally the two sources seem to agree with each other.
“But,” asked the Brisker Rav, “of what value is such a solution?”
את יום חג המצות הזה זמן חרותנו מקרא קדש זכר ליציאת מצרים. כי בנו בחרת ואותנו קדשת מכל העמים .... (קידוש לחג הפסח)
A number of years before his passing, R’ Moshe Feinstein zt”l developed a medical condition that caused him to become extremely drowsy, and at times his mind was not completely lucid and clear. This caused the great Gaon a large amount of consternation. Because of this ailment, he needed to be on intravenous fluids at all times.
Shortly before Pesach, the family decided to hire a nurse to take care of R’ Moshe in his apartment on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, so he wouldn’t have to spend Yom Tov in the hospital. His son, R’ Reuven Feinstein shlita, would arrive and spend the Yom Tov in the house with his father and he would handle the preparations and run the Seder. R’ Reuven, of course, did not do anything half-measure; he poured his heart and soul into the avodah and by the first night of Yom Tov, he was tired but spiritually elated as the entire family sat down around the Seder table.
Not wanting to waste any more time, R’ Reuven lifted the becher and made kiddush. As per the Feinstein family minhag, only the leader of the Seder would make kiddush for all those in attendance, so R’ Reuven then poured wine from his becher into small cups for all those seated at the table. Assuming that R’ Moshe would want to take a sip of the Kiddush wine, the newly hired nurse picked up one of the small cups from the table and held it out for the rabbi to take a drink. However, to his dismay, R’ Moshe closed his mouth and refused to drink.
Confused, the nurse held it out again and motioned for R’ Moshe to take the cup and drink, but he just closed his mouth and shook his head.
Turning to R’ Reuven, she exclaimed, “I don’t understand what’s going on here! The rabbi is always such a cooperative patient, and he always does whatever I tell him to! Why won’t he take a sip of the wine?”
Puzzled, one of the grandchildren jumped up and grabbed another cup of wine from the table and brought it to R’ Moshe who smiled at him. He then took the cup and drank the wine without hesitation.
It didn’t take R’ Reuven more than a quick moment to piece it all together. The nurse was obviously not Jewish, and when R’ Moshe saw her holding the cup of wine, he did not want to drink from it because of the prohibition of Stam Yeinam (Chazal enacted a decree which forbids the use of any wine which has been poured by a non-Jew, whether or not it was intended as a form of idol worship.). However, as soon as one of his grandchildren brought him a cup of wine, he was more than delighted to fulfill the mitzvah of Arba Kosos - drinking the four cups of wine.
The family was astounded. R’ Moshe had not been doing particularly well at the time and his mind was not fully clear. Nevertheless, he refused to transgress a halacha and refrained from doing something that looked improper to him!
R’ Reuven would later smile and say that in truth there was no problem. The wine was in fact mevushal but R’ Moshe obviously did not know this. “It was not his intellect that stopped him from the issur” said R’ Reuven. “It was his entire guf, his very body, that simply abhorred anything that was against the Torah to the utmost degree. When he saw wine in the hands of a non-Jew, his automatic reaction was not to drink it!”
וייראו העם את ה' ויאמינו בה' ובמשה עבדו ... (קריאה לשביעי של פסח)
R’ Yaakov of Mishklov zt”l once asked his holy rebbi, the Gaon of Vilna zt”l, why Moshe Rabbeinu is not mentioned at all in the Haggadah. After all, he is the most central figure in the episode of Bnei Yisroel leaving Mitzrayim. The Gaon replied that Moshe Rabbeinu’s name is mentioned in the Haggadah - once. “And they believed in Hashem and in Moshe His servant.”
“I still don’t understand,” R’ Yaakov persisted. “Since Moshe played such a pivotal role in Bnei Yisroel going out of Mitzrayim, his name should be sprinkled all throughout the Haggadah. It is mentioned one time, quoting the posuk by Krias Yam Suf, but otherwise it is totally omitted. It almost seems as if the omission is deliberate.”
The Gaon answered, “Your point is exactly correct. It is a deliberate omission. The Haggadah is teaching us that while Moshe Rabbeinu’s role in leading Bnei Yisroel out of Mitzrayim was a very important one, nevertheless, Moshe himself was incidental to the Exodus. In other words, Bnei Yisroel did not leave Mitzrayim because Moshe Rabbeinu took them out. Hashem took Bnei Yisroel out of Mitzrayim and Hashem utilized Moshe Rabbeinu to accomplish it. (This is one of the reasons why Moshe had a speech impediment; so people should not claim that Moshe used his persuasive and articulate tongue to convince Pharaoh to release Bnei Yisroel, or to convince the Jews to submit themselves to him.) If, for whatever reason, Moshe had not led the Jewish people out of Egypt, someone else would have done it.”
“Moshe Rabbeinu’s role is downplayed,” continued the Gaon, “in order for us to properly understand that, in actuality, no single individual played a role in our exodus other than Hashem Himself. The posukim in the Torah that discuss Yetzias Mitzrayim and the miracles that were done (in Parshas Vaera) teach us to clearly comprehend that it was only Hashem Himself Who released us forever from the bondage and slavery of Egypt, that it was only Hashem Himself Who punished the Egyptians and that it was only Hashem Himself Who took us out of Egypt.”
“Therefore,” concluded R’ Eliyahu to his disciple, “Moshe Rabbeinu’s name is not prominently mentioned in the Haggadah. However, it is mentioned just this one time: 'ויאמינו בה' ובמשה עבדו' - ‘And they believed in Hashem and in Moshe His servant.’ The one and only time Moshe Rabbeinu’s name is mentioned in the entire Haggadah is to tell us that he is a true servant of Hashem, an 'עבד נאמן', and not one who has any power of his own.” (Portraits of Prayer)