B"H
Monday, Nissan 12, 5783 (Hakhel Year) / April 3, 2023
This will be the last Torah Fax before Pesach. Next Torah Fax, G-d willing, after the Pesach holiday.
Q.At the time of the Exodus, the Jewish people came out of Egypt with great wealth, as G-d had promised Abraham many years earlier. At the Seder we make all kinds of symbolic gestures to remember the Exodus. Why don’t we make any symbol for the great wealth we took from Egypt?
A.Someone suggested the reason is simple.. because by now there is nothing left of that great wealth. It is long gone… However, it seems.. that the bitter herbs (marror) we still have…
On a serious note: The Lubavitcher Rebbe, (born on the 11th day of Nissan in the year 5662) writes, “Jewish wealth are not houses and gold. Everlasting Jewish wealth is, being Jews who keep Torah and mitzvot and bringing into the world children and grandchildren who keep Torah and mitzvot."
This is a powerful understanding of what our true wealth is.In this context the answer is simple. The fact that we sit at the Seder together with family members, surrounded by our children and grandchildren, who ask the four questions and participate in the customs and traditions of the Seder. It is the great Nachas we derive this night, which is our great wealth at the Pesach Seder!
In the Talmud we find the following story: When Alexander the Great conquered the Middle East, the Egyptians came before him and demanded that the Jews should return the gold and silver which they "borrowed" from the Egyptians a thousand years earlier, at the time of the Exodus.
A simple Jew named Geviha ben Pesisa volunteered to argue the case and the rabbis agreed.
At the trial, the Egyptians presented their claim before Alexander, requesting that the Jews return the valuables which they borrowed. Geviha then asked the Egyptians, "Do you have proof to your claim?"
"Yes, we do, from your Torah," they replied. They quoted the passage from the Torah: "The Children of Israel did as Moshe told them and they borrowed from the Egyptians jewels of silver and jewels of gold. And G-d gave the people favor in the eyes of the Egyptians and they lent them".
"In that case," Geviha replied, "I will also repudiate your claim from our Torah. The Torah states that over 600,000 Jews (except for women and children), left Egypt at the time of Exodus. If you will pay us the wages owed to 600,000 Jews for over one hundred years of hard labor, we will return the gold and silver we borrowed!"
Alexander told the Egyptians to reply to Geviha's suggestion. The Egyptians requested three days to respond. In the end, after much calculation, they realized that having to pay for the labor of 600,000 people for all those years would be a much greater amount. They dropped the case.
HAVE A VERY HAPPY AND HEALTHY PESACH - CHAG KOSHER VE-SAMEACH
** NEXT TORAH FAX IN TWO WEEKS - AFTER PESACH **