31 March 2018 15 Nissan 5778 Volume 30 No. 28 Pesach Candle-lighting for the second night of Yom Tov should not be before 8.12pm. Yom Tov ends in London on Sunday night at 8.22pm. Shabbat and Yom Tov end in Jerusalem at 7.34pm. In loving memory of Harav Yitzchak Yoel ben Shlomo Halevi The Birds' Head Haggadah, Southern Germany circa 1300 “This is the bread of poverty that our ancestors ate in the land of Egypt. Anyone who is hungry should come and eat, anyone who needs should come and partake of the Pesach sacrifice” (Pesach Haggadah). 1 Sidrah Summary: Pesach Days 1 & 2 First Day Torah Reading (Shemot 12:21-51) lasts seven days, we eat matzot. The first and last This reading is a section of parashat Bo, in which days are Yom Tov, on which we refrain from Moshe relates the laws of the Pesach offering. specific prohibited activity (melacha). The blood on the door frame will ‘indicate’ to God On the second day of Pesach, the barley Omer to ‘pass over’ the Israelite houses and only smite offering is brought. There is a mitzvah (Sefirat the Egyptians. HaOmer) to count 49 days from 16 Nisan (the The tenth plague strikes Egypt at midnight, second night of Pesach) until the night before leaving no house without a death. Pharaoh Shavuot. The mention of Sefirat HaOmer is why searches frantically for Moshe and Aharon (Rashi) this section from parashat Emor was chosen for and tells them to leave. The Jews take their the second day reading. dough with them before it has time to rise. The On Shavuot itself, the double bread wheat Egyptians agree to let them take gold and silver offering (shtei ha’lechem) is brought. Rosh items. The nation travels from Ra’amses to Hashanah is called ‘a day of shofar blasts’. Yom Succot. They bake the unleavened dough and Kippur is a day of fasting. On Succot we take make matzot. the four species (arba’a minim) and dwell in temporary booths (succot). The seven days of Maftir – First and Second Days (Bemidbar Succot are followed by Shemini Atzeret. On 28:16-25) all festival days, melacha is forbidden; the Maftir is read from a second Sefer Torah, from punishment for doing melacha on Yom Kippur is the section of parashat Pinchas detailing the more severe. extra offerings brought during Pesach. Question: Which animal offering accompanied First Day Haftarah the barley Omer offering? (23:12) Answer on bottom of page 6. The reading is taken from three different chapters of the Book of Yehoshua (Joshua). 40 years after leaving Egypt, all uncircumcised males fulfilled Second Day Haftarah the mitzvah of brit milah in a place called Gilglal. From the Book of Kings II, the haftarah relates the The nation then brought a Pesach offering and righteous deeds of King Yoshiyahu (Josiah) ate matzot. The preparations for conquering towards the end of the First Temple period. Jericho then began. Inspired by hearing the words of the Sefer Torah, he took major steps in eradicating the wide- Second Day Torah Reading (Vayikra 22:26- spread idolatry that had been encouraged by his 23:44) evil grandfather, King Menashe. An excerpt from parashat Emor, the reading begins by specifying that an animal cannot be Point to Consider: Why is this haftarah read on offered in the Temple until it is at least eight days Pesach? old. The mitzvah to sanctify God’s Name (Kiddush Hashem) is given. The laws of Shabbat and the festivals are listed. On Pesach, which United Synagogue Daf Hashavua Produced by US Living & Learning together with the Rabbinical Council of the United Synagogue Editor: Rabbi Chaim Gross Editor-in-Chief: Rabbi Baruch Davis Editorial Team: Ilana Epstein, Michael Laitner, Sharon Radley Available also via email US website www.theus.org.uk ©United Synagogue To sponsor Daf Hashavua please contact Loraine Young on 020 8343 5653, or [email protected] If you have any comments or questions regarding Daf Hashavua please email [email protected] 2 Lavish for Others, Modest for Ourselves by Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis How do we spell ‘matzot’ We learn this principle from our Patriarch, in Hebrew? This is a Avraham. After a decisive battle in which question which is not as Avraham and his allies were victorious, the King straightforward as it might of Sodom offered him the spoils of battle, which appear. were rightfully his. As a man of deep principle, Avraham declined, declaring, “I refuse to take Fascinatingly, there are two even a thread or a shoelace or anything that is different spellings in the Torah. Sometimes, yours, lest you claim that you made me rich”. matzot appears with a vav ( ) and sometimes However, he went on to insist that those with without ( ). him would still receive the spoils due to them, “Aner, Eshkol and Mamre – let them take their Remarkably, in one passage both spellings are portions” (Bereishit 14:23-24). featured just three verses apart. In Shemot 12:15 the Torah states: “For seven days you shall eat For his own reasons, Avraham opted out of the unleavened bread ( )”. Then (12:18), the Torah spoils of battle, but he demanded that others continues: “In the first month, on the fourteenth around him would receive their dues. In similar day of the month in the evening [i.e. at the Seder] vein, we might choose to experience Pesach with you shall eat unleavened bread ( )”. the most lavish of celebrations or opt for a more modest festive experience. Regardless, we must Rabbi Yisrael Salanter (d. 1883) gave a marvellous never forget our responsibility to provide for the explanation for this. The first reference to matzot rest of the community. is the mitzvah for them to be available for everyone to eat throughout the festival of Pesach, In that sense, Pesach stands as a lesson for while the second reference is to the individual the whole year. Our uncompromising generosity mitzvah for each one of us to eat matzah. Any one should be an ongoing feature of Jewish life to of us is entitled to decide, perhaps for practical, benefit those who need practical, emotional and dietary or economic reasons, that we will financial support. What is kosher for Pesach, moderate the amount that we will eat ourselves, needs to be kosher all year round. hence the symbolism of the shorter form of spelling – . However, we can never abrogate our responsibility to ensure maximum provision for the community as a whole, as symbolised by the longer form spelling – . In memory of Chaya Rachel bat Moshe Ben-tzion 3 Tzafun – Why do we Hide? by Rabbi Baruch Davis, Chigwell & Hainault United Synagogue; Editor-in-Chief of Daf Hashavua The focus on children at many matzah symbolises our future redemption, which of our Seder Nights begins will be even greater than the Exodus from Egypt, with their recital of Kadesh but, for now, is hidden from us. Urechatz, the song of the 15 stages of the Seder. Some of God not only saved us from Egypt. He has these words, such as Matzah rescued us many times since and will ultimately and Maror, are very familiar to bring Mashiach (the Messiah), announced by us, others less so. Tzafun Eliyahu the prophet. This is why we open the (hidden) is one of those less familiar. Coming door to welcome him. And this is why we save between Shulchan Oreich (the Meal) and Barech most of Hallel until after the meal, since it talks (Grace After Meals), it refers to the hiding of the about our final redemption. This is also the theme larger piece of matzah, the Afikoman, broken off of several of the songs in the second half of the from the middle matzah at the start of the Seder. Seder, such as Chasal Siddur Pesach, Leshana Searching for the Afikoman keeps our children Haba’a and Adir Hu. By not eating after the alert and involved in the events of the Seder. As Afikoman and allowing its taste to linger, we are we shall see, however, there is another reason carrying with us into the future the taste of why we hide this matzah. freedom from Egypt to become God’s people. First, let’s understand what the Afikoman stands We end the Seder with the song Chad Gadya, for. One view is that it represents the Pascal lamb a rhyme with numerous interpretations, one of which was consumed at the end of the Seder which speaks to this central theme. Many meal in Temple times (Rabeinu Asher empires (symbolised by the cat, the dog, and d. 1328). Another view is that it represents the so on) attacked the Jewish people, but they are matzah that was eaten with the Pascal lamb gone and we (the goat) have endured*. Our final (Rabbi Shmuel ben Meir d. 1158). Either way, redemption awaits us. Exactly how and when is we are not permitted to eat anything after we tzafun, hidden from us, but God has promised have eaten the Afikoman. This allows the taste of that it will happen, just as He promised he would the matzah to linger in our mouths, which redeem us from Egypt. extends the sensory associations of the evening – slavery and redemption. *For further details and other explanations on Chad Gadya see the Rabbi Sacks Haggadah. Why do we hide the Afikoman? I once heard that the two pieces of matzah broken early in the Seder are like two pieces of a puzzle. We have a story to tell, to piece together.