15. הֵא לַחְמָא עַנְיָא / Hei lachma anya.
One cannot argue that the reason that it was decided that certain phrases in the Haggadah should be read in Aramaic is that this was the spoken language at the time, for if that were the reason, the entire Haggadah should have been written in Aramaic. The purpose of this choice is its value – not the intrinsic value of the language, but the value of the fact that it enables beirurim.1 Thus, as the Mitteler Rebbe and my father have explained,expressing Torah teachings in a foreign language elevates its letters. In fact the Mitteler Rebbe once said that if he were to hear a maamar of Chassidus being delivered in Yiddish, he would dance with joy, even if he were in the middle of the Reading of Shema. Chassidim used to point out that he said this even though the theme of the [evening’s] Reading of Shema is Yichuda Ila’ah, no less.2
16. לְשָׁנָה הַבָּאָה... הַבָּאָה / Next year in Yerushalayim!
When reading the word הַבָּאָה which appears twice in the same sentence, my father sometimes accentuated the second syllable,3 and sometimes, the third.4
My father pointed out: “That sentence distinguishes between two diverse requests – ‘Next year may we be in the Land of Israel,’ and ‘Next year may we be free men.’ So we see that it is possible to be in the Land of Israel, but not to be free men.”
17. [Two evenings earlier, before Bedikas Chametz, the Rebbe Rayatz had said:] There also has to be a parallel search for spiritual chametz5 – though the search for physical chametz is easier.
When the Alter Rebbe came home after his first stay in Mezritch, before Pesach in the year 5525 (1765), he did not eat on the thirteenth of Nissan6 – to fast at that time would be forbidden; rather, he simply did not eat – because he was preoccupied with his preparations for the search. He wanted to ensure that when that time came, all the Kabbalistic kavanos that he had learned in Mezritch would find full expression. And in fact, the actual search in every nook and cranny kept him occupied throughout the night, even though at the time he had only one room.
[Having said the above before Bedikas Chametz two days earlier, the Rebbe Rayatz resumed this thought now, at the Second Seder:] Several traditions have been handed down from that year. It was at that time that the Alter Rebbe explained the mishnah at the beginning of Tractate Pesachim, which says that “on the eve of the fourteenth [of Nissan] one should search for chametz by the light of a candle.” [That is done after the end of the thirteenth (י"ג) of the month.] Now, the gematria of י"ג equals the gematria ofאֶחָד , which represents Daas, and that intellective faculty does not call for a search. By contrast, י"ד (referring to the fourteenth of the month) alludes to the middos – the seven emotive attributes of the nefesh Elokis, the Divine soul, and the seven emotive attributes of the nefesh habahamis, the animal soul. Those fourteen middos do need to undergo a search for leaven.
That search must be made by the light of a נֵר, a candle, which is a classic metaphor for the soul, as in the verse, נֵר ה' נִשְׁמַת אָדָם – “the soul of a man is a candle of G‑d.”7 The search must include every hole and crack, and this requires a candle. A conflagration (medurah) would be out of place here, because it corresponds to the World of Atzilus, a level at which “evil does not dwell,” as in the verse, לֹא יְגֻרְךָ רָע.8 [To continue the series:] a flaming torch (avukah) corresponds to the World of Beriah, and the light of a candle (ner) corresponds to the World of Yetzirah, whereas the World of Asiyah is a World of darkness.
18. עֲבָדִים הָיִינוּ לְפַרְעֹה בְּמִצְרָיִם/ We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt.
[This section begins by asking why the text does not read, “Our forefathers were slaves…,” and proceeds to answer that question on a mystical level by means of a series of Kabbalistic metaphors that do not lend themselves to translation.]
19. אֲנִי, וְלֹא שָׁלִיחַ / I, and not an emissary.
[As above. This section distinguishes between the Kabbalistic significance of the terms אֲנִי and אָנֹכִי, both of which mean “I.”]
20. כַּמָּה מַעֲלוֹת טוֹבוֹת לַמָּקוֹם עָלֵינוּ / How many wonderful things has G‑d done for us!
Even before his bar-mitzvah, my father began to repeat from memory maamarim [that had been delivered orally]. The first was the one that begins with the above-quoted phrase, which his father, the Rebbe Maharash, had first delivered on Shabbos HaGadol in the year 5633 (1873).
When he repeated it in the presence of his father, the Rebbe Maharash told him that his father, the Tzemach Tzedek, had commented: “[On the level of derush,] the above-quoted phrase can be understood to mean not only that G‑d has done wonderful things for us, but also that they are done through us, that is, because of us – since from His perspective, ‘darkness is no different from light.’9 The difference affects only us.”
