והיה בי יביאך ה׳ אל ארע הכנעני, "It will be when G'd brings you to the land of the Canaanite, etc." The reason that this particular commandment is conditional on arrival in the Holy Land is either in accordance with what I have written on Exodus 12,25, or in order that the story of the Exodus should not be forgotten once the Israelites had lived in the Holy Land for many generations.

והגדת לבנך, "you shall tell your son, etc." The expression והגדת instead of ואמרת is unusual and our sages in Shabbat 87 state that the term implies "words which are as tough as tendons." Another peculiarity is the expression ביום ההוא, "on that day," whereas immediately afterwards the verse concludes with the expression בעבור זה, "on account of this." The Haggadah shel Pessach as well as the Mechilta understand the verse as referring to a time when Matzah and bitter herbs are in front of you, i.e. at night. Seeing that I know that the time for that recital is at night, why did the Torah have to mention "on that day" at all? Furthermore, why do we need the word לאמור seeing that the Torah already wrote והגדת, "you shall tell?"

We may have to understand all this in accordance with the statement in Pessachim 116 that when one recites the Passover story one begins with aspects which reflect discredit and concludes with aspects which reflect credit on the Jewish people. The discredit consists of the fact that our ancestors were pagans, something one can hardly boast about. The Torah therefore hints at this procedure by writing והגדת, "you will relate matters which are as tough as tendons;" you will conclude with אמירה, i.e. לאמור, words which recall that you were meritorious. The words ביום ההוא are a hint of the future redemption when the night will be called "day" (compare Psalms 139,13). It is also a reminder that the night preceding the morning of the Exodus was illuminated for the Jews (see our comment on 12,30). The Torah adds the words בעבור זה so that we will not err and conduct these ceremonies during the hours which belong to the day but at the time when we have to consume Matzah, i.e. in the evening. Possibly the words והגדת and ביום ההוא have been placed next to one another in order that we will also include the miraculous way in which that night turned into bright daylight for the Jews.

Another reason that the Torah had to write the word לאמור in addition to והגדת is that the former was addressed to "your son." A father of girls or a husband not blessed with children might have concluded that since he had no son he would be free from the obligation to conduct the annual סדר celebration; the Torah writes לאמור, to tell us that even if the person is all alone he must relate what happened during that night to himself. Seeing that this is so, you may well ask why the Torah had to speak about a father telling his son at all? Perhaps I would not have known that under certain conditions one must "tell oneself" the Haggadah shel Pessach unless the Torah had used extra verbiage. Perhaps the Torah hinted that if someone is particular about telling of the Exodus, G'd will eventually grant him a son to whom he can relate these events.

בעבור זה, "on account of this, etc." Perhaps the word זה (numerical value 12) alludes to 12 commandments connected with the Passover observance. The first three are the lamb, the unleavened bread, and the bitter herbs; then there is the Haggadah followed by the seven days of the festival and the benediction over wine on the night of the festival. The Torah has to phrase it as בעבור זה עשה because the seven days of the festival do not count as seven separate commandments in the list of 613 commandments.

והיה כי יביאך, "It will be when He will bring you, etc." The Torah underlines once more that it is G'd who will bring you to the Holy Land so that you should not forget about His commandments in the belief that you yourself have achieved all this, especially after your border will gradually extend further and further. Although this commandment is not applicable until after conquest of the land, it remains in force even if the land is lost as it is a commandment that involves the body and not the earth. Kidushin 36 teaches that all commandments which are performed by one's body apply throughout the ages and wherever a Jew resides.

והיה כי ישאלך בנך, "It will be when your son enquires of you, etc." The Torah means that when your son observes you perform the ceremony of redeeming a firstborn he will ask you the reason for that commandment. In that event you are obligated to explain the meaning of the commandment. If the son does not ask you, you are not obligated to answer him except on the night of the Passover. This is the reason the Torah added the word מחר, "tomorrow;" This means that even if your son will ask you already tomorrow you are immediately obligated to tell him the reason for this commandment. The Torah adds the word לאמור to indicate that what is meant is a situation when your son expects an answer to his question. If the son, however, simply asks מה זאת, i.e. "what is this all about?" a derisive way of questioning, then you are under no obligation to answer him at that time.

The question need not necessarily be exactly "what is this all about?" Any question whose upshot appears to be that the questioner wants to be told what our tradition is all about is to be answered forthwith. It is clear therefore that the Torah does not speak of the night of the Passover but of the commandment to sanctify the firstborn of the womb. When our sages (Mechilta) comment that the four occasions when the Torah cites the sons as asking refer to four different types of children this is all homiletics.

‎[This is a comment to the Torah’s‎‏ ‏statement, “It shall be a sign upon your Handידכה ‏‎.”] Our Rabbis ‎of blessed memory said (Menachot 37a), “’Yadchah (spelled with an extra hey implies the weaker ‎hand (yad kehah), which is the left hand. We need to understand why Hashem did not choose the ‎right hand to perform this mitzvah, since it is greater. Our Rabbis say that this is in order that (the ‎tefillin) be aligned next to the heart, which is towards the left side (of the body), and their words ‎are true. However it appears to me that there is an additional reason, for the Torah itself gives a ‎reason for the matter in saying, “Because with a strong hand.” You need to know that HaShem has ‎‎2 aspects within His attributes. The first is called “the great hand, yad hagedolah”, and the other is ‎called “the strong hand, yad hachazakah”. “The great hand” represents (G-d’s) aspect of kindness ‎and goodness; “the strong hand” represents His strength, which He repays the wicked according to ‎their wickedness. In removing Bnei Yisrael from Egypt, Hashem stretched out “the strong hand” ‎and struck His enemies with ten plagues. For this reason G-d said that tefillin, which contain the ‎written remembrance (of these events), should be placed on our weak hand (our left hand), which‏ ‏represents “the strong hand” that‏ ‏removed us from Egypt. This is why the‏ ‏pasuk here says, “for ‎with the strength of a hand.” This is correct. Granted that it says in many places (regarding ‎punishment), “the great‏ ‏hand,” in those instances G-d’s attribute‏ ‏of mercy concurred with the ‎attribute of justice, but the essence of justice is still‏ ‏performed through the “strong hand.”‎‏ ‏‎{Ed. ‎Note - Thus, despite the term‏ ‏‎“strong,” the “strong hand” which‎‏ ‏represents justice is, in fact, ‎weaker‏ ‏than the “great hand” which‏ ‏represents mercy. To symbolize the‏ ‏vengeance that G-d ‎exacted from‏ ‏Egypt through His “weaker hand,” we‏ ‏don our tefillin, which memorialize‏ ‏these ‎events, on our weaker hand.}‎

ויהי בשלח פרעה את העם, It happened when Pharaoh discharged the people, etc. Why does the Torah employ the word ויהי which always indicates some painful experience? The Torah should have described the Exodus in glowing terms! Besides, why does the Torah attribute the Exodus to Pharaoh rather than to G'd? After all, He took us out of Egypt, something the Torah does not tire of mentioning on numerous occasions!

The word ויהי may be justified in view of the pursuit by Pharaoh and the resulting fear the Israelites were to experience shortly. The Torah hints that the reason such a pursuit occurred was because Pharaoh had a hand in the Exodus, i.e. G'd had waited till Pharaoh himself had been willing to liberate the Jews. If it had all been G'd's doing such a pursuit would not have occurred. As soon as the Jews departed Pharaoh schemed to find a justification to pursue them and to convince his people that the attempt to bring the Israelites back would be worthwhile. We will explain later Pharaoh's reasoning in greater detail. All Pharaoh's scheming constituted something negative for the Israelites. It was far from a foregone conclusion that G'd would simply kill the Egyptians. We know from Megillah 10 that G'd is greatly concerned when the necessity arises to destroy His creatures. We do not recite the whole of Hallel on the seventh day of Passover when G'd eliminated the last of our Egyptian enemies because "when G'd's creatures drown in the sea it is no cause for rejoicing." Pharaoh had deluded himself that it was up to him to decide whether or not to allow the Israelites to depart. If so, he could just as easily renege as he had done during the course of his protracted encounters with Moses and Aaron. Israel had ample reason to be concerned about such an eventuality. For all these reasons the introductory ויהי is more than justified. In fact the conjunctive letter ו at the beginning of the words ולא נחם, indicates that Israel had additional reasons to be concerned of negative developments on the horizon.

Another detail to watch in our verse is the word עם. The Zohar second part, page 45 states that whenever Israel is described as עם it is an allusion to the mixed multitude of converts that joined the Israelites at the Exodus. In our portion you will find the Israelites are variously described as בני ישראל and as העם. For instance, in the next verse already the departing Israelites are referred to as בני ישראל. Apparently G'd wanted to make certain that we realised that the people described as העם were not natural born Jews. Our sages in Shemot Rabbah 42,6 consider Israel's corruption in the desert as inspired by these converts. They were the ones who wanted to appoint a new leader to take them back to Egypt (Numbers 14,4). They were also the ones who said: "make a god for us who will walk before us, etc." (Exodus 32,1). All this is alluded to in the word ויהי at the beginning of our paragraph. מThe meaning of the words בשלח פרעה את העם is that whereas G'd liberated the Israelites, Pharaoh allowed the newly converted fellow travellers to depart. G'd had been interested only in acquiring for Himself a great nation as His inheritance. Pharaoh's reasoning in allowing these newly convertedd Jews to depart with the main body of the Jewish people was that they would somehow prevail on the natural born Israelites to return to Egypt. In view of this we can understand even better why G'd did not let the Israelites travel a route to Canaan which would have taken them through territory owned by the Philistines although it was the shortest route. We may understand the word קרוב as describing people who had only recently converted to Judaism and were not yet rooted firmly in sanctity. When people like that faced the Philistines they might turn back and return to Egypt as the lesser of two evils.

The word קרוב may also suggest that these people came close to becoming sinful and as a corollary to also corrupt the (natural born) Israelites. They would indict themselves by their reaction when they would realise they were expected to battle the Philistines. As a result they would regret their recent conversion and would return to Egypt. The letter ו before ולא נחם would refer therefore to another potentially painful aspect of their departure courtesy of Pharaoh.

We also have a tradition mentioned in Shemot Rabbah 20,3 that Pharaoh accompanied the Israelites begging them to pray for him. The merit Pharaoh acquired by seeing the Israelites off enabled him to survive longer and pose a threat for Israel. We can deduce what negative effect Pharaoh's accompanying Israel had for the people by comparing this with the story related in Sanhedrin 96 according to which Nebuchadnezzar was greatly rewarded for recalling a messenger bearing a letter to Chizkiyah king of Yehudah congratulating him on his recovery from his sickness. In the original draft of that letter Nebuchadnezzar's scribe had extended greetings to Chizkiyah and to G'd in that order. Upon reflection, Nebuchadnezzar realised he should have first extended greetings to G'd. He personally ran after the messenger to recall him and change the order of greetings. The angel Gabriel interfered with Nebuchadnezzar after he had travelled only four steps. Rabbi Yochanan said that if the angel Gabriel had not stopped Nebuchadnezzar there would have been no remedy for Israel. Nebuchadnezzar's gesture of running four steps in order to accord due respect to G'd resulted in his being allowed to destroy the Holy Temple and the Jewish state. Imagine what negative effects for the Jewish people Pharaoh's gesture in accompanying the Israelites must have had on their fate! G'd apparently changed the Israelites's route to one that would discourage Pharaoh from continuing to accompany them. Had the Israelites travelled in the direction of the land of the Philistines, Pharaoh might well have accompanied them all the way and acquired great merit in the eyes of G'd. Put differently: The reason G'd did not lead the Israelites through the land of the Philistines was in order to deny Pharaoh sufficient merit to entitle him to succeed in his quest for the Israelites to return to Egypt.

According to this approach, the extra letter ו in ולא נחם is a hint that even the short distance Pharaoh accompanied the Israelites caused the Israelites sufficient discomfort so that they viewed themselves in real danger when Pharaoh pursued them a few days later. Shemot Rabbah 21 refers to this by saying that the words ולא קרב זה אל זה כל הלילה indicate that Pharaoh's merit had not yet been neutralised by the Israelites' repentance until the latter cried out to G'd, i.e. מה תצעק אלי in verse 15.

When the Torah continues: כי אמר, "for G'd had said, etc." this is as if the Torah wrote "and because G'd said, etc." It refers to an additional reason that G'd did not let the people face the Philistines, i.e. the lack of faith in G'd of the newly converted ערב רב.

וחמושים עלו בני ישראל, and the Israelites went up armed, etc. It is possible that if the Israelites had not been armed they would not have listened to Moses' (G'd's) order to make an about turn away from the land of the Philistines so that they would not face an immediate battle. The Israelites therefore needed two reasons for not returning to Egypt at the slightest danger, i.e. possession of arms and the unlikelihood of having to use these arms. Combining these two factors would result in לא ינחם, that they would not have second thoughts.

פקד יפקד אלוקים, "when G'd will surely remember you, etc." The reason the Torah repeats the word פקד is in order to emphasise the manner in which Moses kept faith with the promise made to Joseph by his brothers. The first time the word פקד simply means that G'd will certainly keep His promise to redeem the Israelites. This included only removal of the negative aspects of the Jews' exile. There was, however, also a positive aspect to the bondage, the one described in Genesis 15,14, namely that the Israelites would leave Egypt as wealthy people. According to Bechorot 5 not a single Israelite took less than ninety donkeys' loads of silver and gold out of Egypt. Joseph foresaw that the Israelites' preoccupation with loading the animals with all these valuables were a reason for their leaving his bones behind; this is why he made the brothers swear that even the preoccupation with their newly acquired wealth should not make them forget his bones at that time. In any event Moses was the only one who instead of loading his animals with valuables went in search of Joseph's remains and eventually loaded Joseph's bier on his donkey (compare Shemot Rabbah 20,19). At a later date G'd rewarded Moses by letting him keep the splinters of the precious stones from which he carved the second set of tablets.

מזה אתכם, "with you from this place." The word מזה does not mean "from here," i.e. that Joseph thought the brothers would have to locate his remains exactly in the place where he made them swear this oath. Joseph used the expression as the reason he asked the brothers to swear such an oath. He considered it as a small repayment of all the favours he had done for the brothers during their stay in Egypt. He went so far as to hint that taking his bones out of Egypt for burial in the Holy Land would compensate for the time when they had separated themselves from their brotherhood with him; the angel had told Joseph in Genesis 37,17 that the brothers נסעו מזה "had departed from זה" (the number 12, symbol for the 12 brothers, compare Bereshit Rabbah 84). Joseph used the words מזה אתכם to indicate that if the brothers would fulfil their oath he would consider them as having re-instated him in their midst. The sin they had committed against him at that time would then have been wiped out. In other words, Joseph would forgive the brothers posthumously, for simply swearing the oath.

וה׳ הולך לפניהם יומם, And G'd would walk in front of them by day, etc." The Torah chooses the word לנחותם to indicate that G'd made the journey comfortable. When it was hot G'd made the cloud spread over them to protect them against the sun. The cloud performed this function only by day. The cloud described here has nothing to do with the column of cloud which preceded the Israelites which smoothed rough passages and showed them the way to go. We have some proof for this in Deut. 1,33 where the Torah is specific by stating that the cloud in front of them was "to seek you out a place where to pitch your tents. The column of fire by night was to show you the way you were to walk, and a cloud by day." The Torah speaks of three separate phenomena then, 1) to seek you out the way; this cloud was with them all the time. 2) The column of fire to enable them to see at night. 3) a cloud by day. The latter was the cloud which we described as providing shade against the heat of the sun. We do not agree with Rashi who understands the word לנחותם as להנחותם, and that the letter ה is missing. Rashi tries to prove his point by citing לראותכם (Deut. 1,33) as a parallel. According to our interpretation the letter ה is also not missing in the verse in Deuteronomy.

ולילה בעמוד אש להאיר, and at night in a pillar of fire to provide light." According to Shabbat 22 the Israelites "walked" during the entire forty years only by light provided by G'd which was so powerful that it enabled them to look even into the darkest spot. [The discussion in the Talmud centers around the question why Aaron had to light the candelabra in the Tabernacle when G'd had already illuminated all with His own light. Ed.] The Talmud cannot speak of the hours of darkness as this would not agree with the language employed there. If that were the meaning, what does the Talmud mean "they marched only by the light of the heavenly fire?" Surely the Talmud means that the Israelites did not march by sunlight during the days. Why then would the night not be as bright as the day so that they had no need for a special column of fire at all? If we want to understand what took place at that time we must pay attention to the words ללכת יומם ולילה, "to walk by day and by night." Why was the Torah not satisfied with writing: "in order to provide light for them," and had to add the words: "to walk by day and by night?"

We must conclude therefore that A) the light G'd provided for the Israelites at that time never departed from the camp of the Israelites as our sages explained, but that B) it also never extended beyond the boundaries of that camp either. There was a good reason for this. In the terrible desert which normally is the domain of impurity, a region in which the forces of the קליפה are at home (Zohar section 1, page 126), the Israelites were the beneficiaries of the heavenly light within the boundaries of their camp; outside their camp it was night (dark) for them just as it was for everybody else. Normally, the Israelites did not travel at night. Whenever G'd wanted them to travel at night, however, they did not require the light dispensed by the pillar of fire within their camp as G'd's light illuminated every place within their camp. The pillar of fire was needed only to illuminate the way beyond the boundaries of their camp. This is what the Torah had in mind when it wrote להאיר להם, "to provide light for them." The reason G'd had to provide this additional light was "so that they could travel by this light both by day and by night." Just as the Israelites were able to see into the distance by day without recourse to the pillar of fire, so at night the pillar of fire provided illumination for them equal to that of the sunlight by day. This then explains the wording of the Torah לראותכם בדרך אשר תלכו בה (Deut.1,33), "to enable you to see by it." This is not in agreement with Rashi's explanation.