Question to Ponder:

The main “mitzvah” of the Seder night is to retell the story of the Exodus from Egypt. We are to tell our children, and our grandchildren, the story of our redemption – our founding narrative as a people. Wouldn’t you have imagined, then, that the main text of “maggid” – the section of the Haggadah that actually retells the story – would have been quotations from the Book of Exodus? The Book of Exodus lays out the story of the Exodus in riveting detail. Several Hollywood movies have taken that text, and created great dramas – just by reenacting that story on the silver screen. It would seem to make perfect sense to sit and read directly from the Torah’s text on the Seder night – to actually retell the story, as the Torah itself states it.

Yet that’s not what we do. Instead, the key Biblical text that serves as the platform for Maggid is a section taken from Deuteronomy – a section that briefly recapitulates the story of the Exodus in a matter of a few verses, as part of “Parshat Bikkurim”. Parshat Bikkurim is the text which the Torah dictates must be declared by a person bringing his first fruits of the land to the Temple. As he lays the first fruits out before the Kohen, he makes a declaration as to the history behind those fruits. That history reaches way back to the time when the Jews were not yet even a people – to when our forefathers were “Wandering Arameans”, and progresses through the story of the descent into Egypt, redemption, and the reality of living in the Promised Land. The text is terse – and in the Haggaddah, we spend much time on the Seder night reciting a Midrashic expansion and elaboration of this text. The question, though, is, why? Why, on the Seder night, do we eschew the actual text of the Exodus, and opt instead for Parshat Bikkurim? We aren’t bringing first fruits on the Seder night – or are we?

I think the question challenges us to reflect on the difference between the American idea of freedom versus the Torah’s idea of freedom. Freedom, American style, exists for its own sake, or at most, to serve as a vehicle for the “pursuit of happiness.” Paradoxically, this type of freedom can lead to the loss of freedom, as freedom that exists primarily as license to do what makes oneself happy (so long as it does not infringe on anyone’s else’s rights to be happy) can bring one to the prison of self-worship.

By focusing on the declaration of the bikkurim, the Haggadah is asking us to consider the question posed by the angel to Hagar: “Where have you come and where are you going? ” (Gen 16:8) The freedom granted by yetziat Mitzrayim must have a direction, an ultimate purpose. The end of the declaration of the bikkurim, Moses tells us what that purpose is – to be “a holy people to Hashem.” Yet, the declaration also tells us that we are to “rejoice” – which begs the question, How does the Torah’s concept of “simcha” differ from the American concept of “happiness?

“We aren’t bringing first fruits on the Seder night – or are we?” I think the answer is in the question – WE are the first fruits brought on Seder night! On the first word of the Chumash, “Bereisheit” – the Midrash interprets it as “Be – Reisheit” – i.e., the world was created for the sake of “reisheit” (the first). Rashi’s comment reads, “[G-d created the world]…for the sake of Yisrael who are called, ‘the first (reisheit) of his grain’ (Jer 2:3).”
* Last updated by: barry on 3/27/2009 @ 11:57 AM *

I have to agree with Barry. HaShem makes it very clear that Am Israel is His First-born and instructs Moses to inform Paro of that very fact. Israel is the First Fruits of this auspicious harvest feast.