Exodus 13:17-15:26 – Numbers 28:19-25 – 2 Samuel 22:1-51 – Revelation 5:1-14

This week's edition of The Set Table contains:

Questions and Commentary on Shabbat Pesach
Chayyei Yeshua - A Devotional Commentary on the Besora Reading
In Summary
Looking Ahead

Questions & Commentary on Shabbat Pesach

1. Why did God command all leaven be removed from Jewish homes? What is the spiritual significance of this commandment?

Rabbi Jason Sobel

In the Torah, the Lord not only commands the Jewish people to eat matza but goes as far as to command us to remove every trace of leaven from our dwellings (Exodus 13:7).  Anyone who has ever kashered their home for Passover knows that this is an arduous task that often takes several days to complete. Why does God want us to expend so much time and energy removing the leaven from our homes? Wouldn't it have been sufficient enough to just prohibit us from eating any leaven?

In order to understand why we must not eat or be in possession of any leaven we must first know why we eat matza (unleavened bread). The basic answer to this question is found in Exodus 12:39 and Deuteronomy 16:3 which say,

And they baked unleavened cakes of the dough which they had brought out of Egypt; for it was not leavened, because they were driven out of Egypt and could not wait, nor had they prepared provisions for themselves.

You shall eat no leavened bread with it; seven days you shall eat unleavened bread with it, that is, the bread of affliction (for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste), that you may remember the day in which you came out of the land of Egypt all the days of your life.

Thus, the primary reason that we do not eat leaven is to remind us that when the Lord redeemed us from Egypt, we left in such great haste that our bread did not have time to rise. Therefore, we eat matza on Pesach so that we never forget the great redemption that God wrought for our people.

But, why is it important to remember the speed with which our ancestors were freed from Egypt? Our Sages tell us that at the time of our redemption, Israel had reached the 49th level of spiritual impurity. And if they had stayed in Egypt any longer, Israel would have become too corrupt to be delivered. This is underscored by a midrash that says one out of every four Jews died during the ninth plague of darkness. Why? Because they loved Egypt so much that they did not want to leave and be redeemed. The Lord honored their request and allowed them to die and remain there. The point is that if God had waited any longer, the leaven of Israel's spiritual corruption would have lead to their destruction instead of their deliverance. By removing and not eating any leaven, we remember that God did not allow this to happen but rather was faithful to fulfill the promise of redemption that he made before it was too late.

Secondly, since leaven is a symbol of sin in the Bible and Jewish tradition, we are also reminded of the need to rid ourselves and our communities of all traces of sin and wrong doing. The laborious process of removing leaven from the home in preparation for Pesach is used as an illustration of this spiritual cleansing process by Shaul when he writes,

Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Messiah, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

1 Corinthians 5:6-8

2. How is it possible that Israel would complain at the Shur desert immediately after witnessing one of the most fantastic miracles in Israel's history - the splitting of the Red Sea? Additionally how are we to understand God's cryptic instructions to Moses (Exod. 15:22-25)?

Nick Amic

It's unfathomable to us upon reading a few verses after the splitting of the sea that Israel had lost faith so soon after witnessing such great miracles. What happened? Let's back up a step and ask: What's the purpose of miracles? Are they intended to inspire and maintain faith? Or is there some other end in mind? The Ramban (Nachmanides) comments in his work Torat Hashem Temima:

From the great and public miracles, one recognizes the hidden miracles, which are the foundation of the entire Torah, for one has no part in the Torah of Moses our teacher unless one believes that all our things and occurrences are all miracles.

The Ramban points out that in fact everything we experience is a miracle in that it originates from the Divine. There are times when God's actions are obvious, such as the splitting of the sea, and times when God's actions are hidden in times of discipline for example  (see Deuteronomy 31:17-20). Israel's state of oppression and idolatry required the most obvious and open miracles in order to literally save them from plunging into total depravity and despair. The miracle of the splitting of the sea was meant to jolt them out of their spiritual darkness and awaken their sense that God runs the world. However, as spiritual infants, they expected God to perform miracles in the face of all their challenges. Instead of doing the hard work of dealing with life on life's terms, they complained to Moses in the desert at Mara. What was God's response? God used this challenge to further educate his children.

Moses is instructed to throw a tree branch into the bitter water - symbolizing what Proverbs 3:18 calls "the tree of life" (i.e. the Torah) - followed by teaching Israel a choq umishpat "an ordinance and a judgment". God here gives us the prescription for true maturity. Step one is to realize that the whole of nature is intimately controlled and sustained by our Creator, prompting us to ask what God is teaching us by way of any test or challenge (Ephesians 2:13). After this realization, we are prepared to begin to learn that we serve a transcendent God - symbolized by the choq (or supra-natural commandment) which we follow not based on its logic, but simply because it's the directive of a God whose "ways are not our ways." Lastly, we are prepared to live interpersonally within a community - symbolized by the "mishpat" (or civil ordinance, e.g. not stealing) - without motive of manipulation or ego, but only to treat others morally and decently to please our Creator.

Life is not meant to be lived on an endless chase of "spiritual highs" fed off a spiritual experience. God desires of us a process of personal growth (Ephesians 4:13-15) ridding ourselves of our destructive habits (1 Peter 2:1-3) by doing the work of renewing our thought patterns (Romans 12:1) through Torah learning (Proverbs 3:1-2). God did miracles for Israel to free them from bondage and does so for us today. However, Israel's freedom was to lead them to receive the Torah on Mount Sinai. As the late Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach commented on the Passover story: "Freedom without direction is still slavery".

Sean Emslie 

Revelation 5:1-14 - The Lamb that was Slaughtered

In this week's besora reading we come to a timely reading that fits well with Passover, a story of a sacrificed lamb or as Dr. David Stern translated it a "slaughtered lamb". 

Though the use of "slaughtered" is much more graphic than sacrificied, I think it is fitting, especially as we have considered the redemption from Egypt and the sparing of the firstborn because of the blood of the slaughtered lambs whose blood placed on the doorposts marked out a home of those who took hold of God's provision.

In this week's reading we come to a vision from the book of Revelation, as Yochanan tells of an event where the unfolding of his story and the events of his book are on hold being that there is a sealed scroll that needs to be opened to continue the events of the story and the unfolding of his "revelation of Messiah Yeshua".   Yochanan says that an angel called out asking if anyone was worthy to open the scroll and was greeted with no answer, which caused Yochanan to weep.  Then we read:

One of the elders said to me, "Don't cry. Look, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has won the right to open the scroll and its seven seals." Then I saw standing there with the throne and the four living beings, in the circle of the elders, a Lamb that appeared to have been slaughtered. 

Revelation 5:5-6

The one who was worthy was the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, a reference to Yeshua, our righteous Messiah. We will see that his worthiness to take the scroll was based on his being the Lamb that was slain. It is the "slaughtered lamb" that has proven himself through his suffering and death that can take his place as the one to keep the story going and to continue the unfolding or revelation of the Messiah and his workings in the world. 

It is not easy for us, now separated for nearly 2000 years from the Temple sacrifices and the annual killing of the Passover lamb, to take in fully the depth of what "sacrifice" really means.  Even at a higher level is the self-sacrifice of our Messiah that took place during the Passover, nearly two millennia ago.  Though we may not have experiential knowledge, it is important for us to do the best we can to take in the great sacrifice and how the death of Yeshua played a vital role in his future place where he will reign as King Messiah. His worthiness to rule all the created order was confirmed by his willingness to suffer and die to bring atonement for Israel and the Nations.

As we conclude Pesach, the celebration of redemption from Egypt may we be mindful also of the second redemption, the redemption that was brought about by Yeshua, who was the great Passover lamb.

May we honor him, who is worthy to play his role as the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, because of his being the "slaughtered Lamb," and joyfully join the chorus with these words:

Worthy is the lamb that was slain, and has redeemed us to God by his blood, to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing! Blessing, and honor, glory, and power, be unto him who sits upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, forever and ever.

Revelation 5:12-13

NEXT WEEK'S READINGS - QEDOSHIM

Leviticus 19:1-20:27
Amos 9:7-15
Luke 16:19-31

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