Rabbi's Derasha

Some background: There are two types of Midrash.  There is the Midrash -- more familiar to everyone -- with sometimes creative stories which highlight aspects of the narrative of the Torah.  But there is a second kind of Midrash, in which we learn Halachot out of the verses of the Torah.  It reads much like certain technical sections of the Talmud, and even overlaps with it, as they both derive Halachot from verses of the Torah.

The story-type of Midrash begins with the beginning of the Torah.  But the Halachic Midrash only begins in chapter twelve of Shemot, when the first Mitzva given to the Jewish people as a whole was announced.  That is where the Halacha begins.

That is also where the Torah itself adopts a style which is completely different.  For the remainder of Parashat Bo, the Torah will intersperse the laws of Pesach with the ongoing story of the actual redemption and exodus from Egypt.  It will not simply list the Halachot, as it will in so many other places.  Nor will it tell the story as it has done up until now and as it will again.  Rather, there will be Halacha and then story and then Halacha and then story.  They will be interspersed and intertwined.  This is the method because the Torah is now announcing a new mode of presentation.

The overall lesson of this new approach goes to the heart of Pesach.  These are the two sides of all teaching and learning, what is referred to as Binyan and as Tzmicha (building and sprouting).  First, there must always be a structure in place.  Otherwise, growth is wild and unproductive.  When someone creates a vineyard, first they set up trellises so that they can then grow the vines on them without having them choke off the life of each other.  

The person most famously associated with this insight was R’ Shlomo Volbe, ztz’l, who helped teachers and principals set up schools all over the land of Israel.  He spoke about the structures that had to be in place to allow children to learn and grow properly.  But he also related it to Pesach.  As we all know, there is so much Halacha related to Pesach.  That provides the structure of the Chag.  It cleans the house a certain way, it shops a certain way, it sets up a Seder a certain way.  These are the trellises of the Chag.

Once that is in place, then there is a place for growth.  This is an organic process.  This is the non-Halachic part of Torah, which develops at its own pace, and in its own sequence.  There is no way to use the analytic methods so valuable in the Halahchic side of Torah.  We don’t interrogate these sections the way we do Halacha.  R’ Wolbe used to say that understanding this type of Torah requires attention to one’s own instincts and thoughts.  It comes from the heart.  The Haggada arises out of us; it reflects our growth, our evolving understanding as Jews.  Some find a click after a few years; others, after a few decades.  In terms of the national Jewish consciousness, it can take centuries.  

A small example: karpas.  The Gemora says that it can be dipped in anything.  Whatever was the prevailing nature of dips and appetizers in the ancient world.  The real point of the Karpas was to upend the normal order of a Jewish meal by introducing vegetables when the second step after Kiddush is supposed to be bread.  But the custom developed to insist on salt water.  Our oldest had one line in his first model Seder -- we heard it for days before the Seder: “Why do we dip in salt water?”  The answer: To recall the bitter tears.  But that comes from our evolving understanding.  There have been many Geulas over the centuries because there have been many hard times.  As the troubles piled up, that began to shape Jewish experience, and this step in the Seder took on a more bitter taste.  That’s the evolving sense of the Jewish people.

The Halacha sets the stage for the Chag.  It governs the structure of the Chag.  But Haggada supplies the heart of the Chag, that which gives it an emotional lift.  I don’t think it’s a coincidence that people often bare their souls at the Seder.  In the decades after the war, survivors were often loathe to speak about what they had seen or lived through.  But many survivors made an exception during the Seder.  That’s the non-Halachic side of the Chag emerging.