The Pshat Heard 'Round the World

There is a dispute in the Gemara as to how the korban pesach should be eaten. A verse in the Torah instructs us, "upon matzah and maror shall you eat it [the korban pesach]. Hillel understands this literally: "upon" implies, make a sandwich of all three - meat and bitter herbs wrapped in unleavened bread [note: fresh-baked matzah of old was thicker and softer than our present-day matzah. The Sephardi tradition maintains this form of matzah, which is more like a pittah than the matzah most of us are familiar with. It is unleavened - no yeast or sourdough leavening agent is added - but it is soft and pliable within the first few hours of its baking, longer by modern refrigeration]. The other Rabbis understood the word al ('upon") as "along with". Indeed, that usage is common in the Torah. Unlike Hillel, who insisted that the only way to fulfill the mitzvah of eating the korban pesach was in sandwich form, the Rabbis said that as long as matzah and maror ...

On Pesach we read the first of the five megillot , Shir HaShirim , a work drenched in the nature and its abundance, its fecundity. On three occasions the narrator abjures the daughters of Jerusalem "by the gazelles or by the does of the field" - do not arouse or awaken love until it please. Like many verses in Shir HaShirim , this verse, with its symbolism, is subject to many explanatory attempts by the various commentators over the generations. What, precisely, are those gazelle and those does (a deer, a female deer) supposed to represent? Well, I have the inside track on this one, since I have a doe myself. I'm speaking of my daughter, Ayelet, whose name means "doe". G-d willing, Ayelet will be bat-mitzvah in a couple of months. She's a wonderful and challenging neshamah, and one of her outstanding characteristics is a love for animals that knows no bounds. Naturally, she has special affection for her pets, but her concern extends to any animal of ...

Introduction "Thirty days before Pesach we begin inquiring as the requirements of the festival and expounding upon their fulfillment". Pesach, the holiday which celebrates the birth of the Jewish people and its liberation from slavery, is a beautiful Jewish tapestry, woven from threads of mitzvot and customs, poems and declarations, things to eat, things to drink, things to break and things to hide. By beginning thirty days before the holiday to lay its foundations, investing our energies in scrubbing and reading, cooking and inviting, we thereby prepare ourselves for a Pesach Seder overflowing with Jewish meaning and profound renewal. 1. Freedom and Slavery: The difference between the slave and the free man is not merely one of social position. We can find an enlightened slave whose spirit is free, and, on the other hand, a free man with the mentality of a slave. Intrinsic freedom is that exalted spirit by ...