Translators Note: Some considerations for style and terminology Throughout the next section of the Haggadah, the text offers an extended interpretation of Deuteronomy, 26:5-8. In each passage, a piece of these verses is quoted; the Haggadah then offers an interpretation of what it means often accompanied by a proof text taken in most cases from the opening chapters of Exodus although other sections of the Bible are quoted as well such as Song of Songs and Chronicles. The purpose of the proof text is twofold: sometimes it serves to support the unique interpretation of the Deuteronomy verses and sometimes it simply serves to expand our understanding of the verses from Deuteronomy by adding something we might not have otherwise noticed. Rabbi Eliyahu attempts to help us understand what the proof text adds to our understanding of the passage from Deuteronomy. He tries to discern what the Maggid, the compiler of the Haggadah, might have had in mind by juxtaposing verses from Deuteronomy with other parts of the Bible. The word Maggid, then, is used throughout this section to the author or the editor of the Haggadah. Tze u’limad, Come and Learn: This passage suggests that Laban was worse than Pharaoh. In the context of telling the Passover story, this seems quite strange. The Haggadah, however, instructs us to consider how Laban “sought to destroy” to our forefather, Jacob. Laban not only thought about hurting Jacob and his family. He set out with the intention of harming them and would have done so if God had not intervened and appeared to him in a dream warning him to leave Jacob alone. At first glance one might presume that Pharaoh was worse than Laban; Pharaoh, however, never had planned to annihilate the entire nation and was motivated out of fear that the Israelites might join Egypt’s enemies. Pharaoh wished to subjugate the nation, not destroy them. Laban, on the other hand, sought to destroy Jacob and his offspring completely. This is implied by the words of the Torah, Arami oved avi, (“Laban sought to destroy my father”). The Torah uses the word oved, “destroy” rather than the word he’evid, “caused destruction;” transitive verb rather than the causative verb implies that his thoughts and plans were as destructive as if he actually succeeded. Also the word oved, which is present tense, implies that Laban and his descendents would continually try to destroy the children of Israel.

[The author’s grandson adds the following: Tze u’limad is a proof text for the earlier statement in the Haggadah, that, “In every generation they have risen against us to destroy us.” In what way is Laban a proof that people would arise in every generation to destroy the Jewish people? Ramban and other commentators teach us that whatever happened to our ancestors as recorded in Genesis is a sign for their children, after them. The Ramban points to the each event in Genesis and shows how it later happened again to the people of Israel. In the case of Laban, we know that he set out to destroy Israel from his words in Genesis: “I had it in my power to do you harm…” proving that it was Laban’s intention to harm the entire family and that he pursued them to destroy all of them. However he goes on to say, “But the God of your father said to me last night, ‘beware of attempting anything with Jacob, good or bad.’” This incident is evidence that in every generation there will be those who rise up to do harm to the people of Israel were it not for the protecting presence of God] Rabbi Isaiah Segal Horowitz, the author of the Sh’nei Luchot Habrit, offers the following comment on the statement of Rabbi Yosi HaGalili in the Haggadah. The verse, “Please, Lord send someone else as your agent, contains the word na, please, and the word yad, hand. When these two words are combined they spell Adonai. These letters can also be inverted so that the daleth-nun spell judged and the yud-aleph refer to are a reference to the two names of God – yud-hay-vav-hay and aleph-hay-yud-hay. The aleph-yud are also a reference to the beginning of Exodus 12, in which Israel is commanded about the Passover offering on the first day of the month (aleph) and they are told to set aside the lamb on the tenth day of the month (yud). What is the significance of these two names of God? First when Moses asks what God’s name was, he was told to say: “Eheyeh sent me” and later Moses says, YHVH, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, has appeared to me…” The combination of these two names is explained by the Kabbalists by means of numerical calculations. In the book of Daniel we read, “Open Your eyes and see our desolation.” The word pikach, open, has the numerical value of 188, the same as the Tetragrammaton, the four letter name of God when it is calculated with a complete aleph, and the word aynecha, your eyes, has the same value as the Tetragrammaton when it is calculated with the complete yud, which is 161. Together these two names are known as the two eyes of God which look upon Israel and watch over them to save them from disaster. These two names are also referred to as the seven eyes of God which are designated for saving the righteous, as it says, “Seven times the righteous person falls and gets ups, while the righteous are tripped by one misfortune.” There are four ways to calculate the Tetragrammaton and three ways to calculate the name eheyeh. This is the meaning of the verse, “But I will execute judgment on the nation they shall serve.” The name Adonai is made up of four letter: aleph-dalet-nun-yud. The letters dalet-nun which spell “judgment” refer to the Egyptians, and the other letters aleph-yud are a reference to the compassion of God for the Israelites. These letters are also the first and final letter of the word Anochi - “I.” And the remaining letters kaf-nun are a reference to the twenty wonders which God performed in Egypt and at the sea (the letter kaf is 20). The letter nun (50) is a reference to the fifty days until the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai. The Torah says that Acharei chain, “afterwards (chaf-nun spells chain, the Hebrew word for “afterwards”) they went forth with great wealth” –in other words after all the miracles in Egypt and at the sea and the events at Sinai the people were blessed with great treasures!! The great wealth was not what they took out of Egypt but what they received at Sinai. Why then does it say that they went forth (from Sinai) – didn’t the people go forth from Egypt? This is a reference to the statement in Exodus that when Moses went forth with the people to Sinai.