הגדה ברורה

Haggadot and essays for Pesah and all year round

Rashi

רבותינו אמרו שהמזה טהור ‘Knowing’ Torah (Parshat Parah)

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The Parah Adumah is famous as the quintessential example of paradox in Judaism. Its entire function is to render people tahor and yet everyone associated with it becomes tamei. The priest who slaughters it becomes tamei, the priest who burns it becomes tamei, the priest who gathers up the ashes becomes tamei, and the priest who sprinkles the mixture of ash and water becomes tamei. Except the last one on that list is wrong. On verse 21 of the chapter, Rashi writes as follows: רַבּוֹתֵינוּ …

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עדים זוממים (ii) The source of Rashi’s d’rasha

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In a previous article, I discussed at some length the genesis of the claim that עדים זוממים can only be punished for an intermediate period between the moment when their perjury results in the conviction of their victim (גמר דין) and the actual execution of the sentence. If, so the claim goes, the unfortunate object of their false testimony has already been executed then they may not be punished. Guilty as sin, free as a bird, what a country! As I demonstrated there at length, the story of …

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Children and Bircat Cohanim: A case study in the halachic process

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Can a child go up to the duchan? It's a simple question that merits a simple answer. Fortunately, Hazal gave us one (Mishnah Megillah 4:3): קָטָן קוֹרֵא בַּתּוֹרָה וּמְתַרְגֵּם, אֲבָל אֵינוֹ פּוֹרֵס עַל שְׁמַע, וְאֵינוֹ עוֹבֵר לִפְנֵי הַתֵּיבָה, וְאֵינוֹ נוֹשֵׂא אֶת כַּפָּיו. In as many words (or, to be precise, fewer), the Mishnah tells us that a child cannot perform Bircat Cohanim. The minimum age for a Cohen to participate therefore is 13 or, at the very least, is no less than 13. I add …

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‘Three days into the wilderness.’ Why lie?

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One of the most most difficult things to understand about the exodus story is why, over the entire course of his struggle with Pharaoh, Moshe maintains the fiction that the Hebrews want to go three days into the wilderness into order to celebrate a festival to HASHEM. Since we know from the beginning that the plan is to leave Egypt permanently in order to conquer the Land of Israel, Moshe would appear to be engaging in deception. The most immediately obvious way of reading this is that the …

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Parshat Bo: Who were the firstborn?

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The Torah repeatedly emphasizes that all the Egyptian firstborn died, from the lowest to the highest rungs of society, as well as the animals. However, it leaves ambiguous exactly what a firstborn is. Generally, in the Torah, the term בכור refers only to the firstborn of a mother and usually only if the child is male. With regard to the mitzvah of pidyon haben, a בכור has to be the ‘opening of the womb’ and if the mother’s first baby is female there is no בכור. However, Tehillim 78:51, …

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Parshat Bo: Borrowing from the Egyptians

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On God’s instruction, the children of Israel ‘borrow’ valuable items from the Egyptians, thus leaving Egypt with great wealth. This presents an obvious moral difficulty because they never return what they borrowed. Ibn Ezra affirms that the children of Israel did indeed trick the Egyptians, but that this was entirely licit because all property belongs to G-d and he may transfer it from one person to another when He wishes. In addition, the Egyptians only lent their goods to the Hebrews …

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