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Rabbi Chaim Zev Malinowitz has repeatedly urged our Kehilla to internalize the Yetziyat Mitzriyim — the B’nai Ysrael’s leaving Mitzriyim, to internalize, to feel, to make part of our very being and our daily lives that “I am a Jew who left Egyptian enslavement.”
In giving much thought to our leaving Mitzriyim, it seems that integral to the Yetziyat Mitzriyim is that the Jews took the Korban Pesach — Egyptian lambs, an Egyptian deity, tied it to the bedpost overnight, slaughtered it, took its blood and applied it to their doorposts and devoured it on the night before they left Mitzriyim.
In the previous vort, Dayenu 5769, this author wrote:
What tests akin to the Korban Pesach, or Kri’yat Yom Suf (crossing the Reed Sea) does Hashem have in mind us this Pesach, after Birchat HaChama Erev Chag, as Moshiach approaches B’ezrat Hashem, to test OUR mettle as Jews?
Firstly, let’s consider the impact of the act of taking the Mitzri deity. Imagine, the fear and trepidation you feel when your Egyptian neighbor confronts you as to take his deity.
Imagine, telling your Mitzri neighbor; “I’m taking your lamb, you goat, your deity — that which you worship, that which you hold sacred — and I’m gonna tie it to the bedpost overnight and then slaughter it, apply its blood to my doorpost and then my family is going to devour it with relish.”
We learn that 20% of brethren in Mitzriyim had Bitachon, had Emunah sufficient to override their fears and trepidation concerning taking the sacred object of the Mitzrayim. As for the other 80% who lacked sufficient Emunah and Bitachon, we learn that they died and were buried under cover of the Plague of Darkness. Others learn that the ratio was even more stark than above.
For us today to come to grips, or even begin to come to grips with the impact of taking the Korban Pesach, one must wonder what Hashem would test us with today to ascertain our worthiness of Moshiach, of the Geula Shlaima.
What would Hashem’s test of our Emunah, of our Bitachon be in our day? Perhaps, hints of the answer to this question may be found in events such as these;
- 1/ Are we prepared to risk our lives, our possible arrest and long-term incarceration to save our Jewish nation and our fellow Jews from harm as Jonathan Pollard did and is paying for dearly — some 24 years of incarceration, for many years held under solitary confinement: the harshest prison conditions possible?
- 2/ Are we prepared to risk bodily harm, loss of life or arrest and long-term incarceration as those who took part in “settlement-doubling” and massive traffic-blockages as they fought against the Oslo agreements and handing Jewish land to Arabs?
- 3/ The test we failed abysmally: failing to show in massive numbers to block an Israeli regime from seizing the property of and expelling thousands of our fellow Jews from Gush Katif almost 4 years ago.
- 4/ Confrontation with a terrorist with not an instant’s hesitation or thought of possible harm to one’s self as was the case of the soldier who killed the terrorist who had taken a carnage at the Mercaz HaRav Yeshiva, or the case of the soldiers who shot and killed two bulldozer driver terrorists, or most recently, the brave resident of Yishuv Bat Ayin who stepped in-between an axe-wielding terrorist and the 7 year old Jewish boy he was in hot pursuit of after he [the terrorist] had bludgeoned a 14 year old boy to death?
These are just a few incidents which come to mind in addition to actions such as the foiling of a massive terrorist attack in Hevron on Purim 15 years ago — the weapons, ammo and contraband hidden beneath their very prayer carpets in the mosque at Ma’arat Hamachpela, or how Divine obliteration of that Islamic abomination on the site of our Beit HaMikdash comes about — all of which possibly suggest insights as to Hashem’s tests of our Emunah, of our Bitachon in our days as with the tests of our brethren who left Mitzriyim.
The crucial question is; do we collectively possess sufficient Emunah, sufficient Bitachon to override our personal fears of possible ramifications regarding the Divine tests to come? do we collectively possess sufficient Emunah, sufficient Bitachon to override our personal fears concerning the modern-day expression of taking the Korban Pesach?
May we, the B’nai Yisrael be zocha that our brethren — the refugee families from Gush Katif be permanently settled and be made totally whole, that our dear brother Jonathan Pollard, captive Gilad Shalit and the other MIAs be liberated alive returned to us, B’Ezrat Hashem before Pesach even, in ways befitting Al Kiddush Hashem and that we fulfill Hashem’s blueprint of B’nai Yisrael as a Unique people — an Am Segula, not to be reckoned with as with “the nations” and may we be zocha to see the Moshiach, the Ge’ula Shlaima, as Dov Shurin sings; “Yom Hashem V’Kol HaGoyim”, the Ultimate Redemption, bim hay v’yameinu — speedily, in our time”, — Achshav, Chik Chuk, Miyad, Etmol!!!
Good Yom Tov! Chag kosher V’Same’ach!
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Moshe Burt, an Oleh, is a commentator on news and events in Israel and Founder and Director of The Sefer Torah Recycling Network. He lives in Ramat Beit Shemesh.
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