Commentaire de citation sur Isaïe 31:5

Rabbi Horowitz focuses in the following comments on the fact that the proof text for the Pesach offering in the above passage is the same as the passage containing the wicked child’s question in the Torah: “When your children ask you: ‘What is this rite to you,’ you shall say: ‘it is a Passover sacrifice to the Lord, because God passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt when He smote the Egyptians but saved our houses…” The answer to the wicked child in the Haggadah to this question is not the one which appears in the Torah.
Rather, the Haggadah chooses to quote Exodus 13:8. Rabbi Horowitz now searches for the connection between the question, “What do you mean by this rite,” and the actual answer given by the Torah to this verse. He also explores the significance of the blood on the door post. Why is there so much emphasis on this act of sprinkling the blood on the door post in the Torah, rather than on the actual consumtion of the Passover offering?
Who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt: There is an extended discussion in the Mekhilta on the meaning of the word Pesah.¹³³Mekhilta Masekhta D’Pisha Chapter 9 “And the blood on the houses where you are staying shall be a sign for you…and I shall pass over (pasahti) you.” Rabbi Yishmael is quoted as saying, “Is not everything revealed before God, as scripture says, “He knows what is in the darkness and the light dwells with Him;”¹³⁴Daniel 2:22 (So why was it necessary for the Israelites to place blood on the door posts of their homes; surely God would have known which homes belonged to the Israelites? ) God said: “The Israelites shall place blood on their door posts so that they will be worthy of a reward for performing this mitzvah; I shall reveal Myself and protect, as it is written, “I will pass over you.” “Passing over” (pesah) merely means protecting (has)…¹³⁵This is based on the following verse: “As birds hovering, so will the Lord of hosts protect Jerusalem; He will deliver it, as he protects it, He will rescue it, as he passes over (paso’ah).” Isaiah 31:5‟
(The Mekhilta continues…) furthermore, there is a controversy over the meaning of Pesach between Rabbi Yoshaiah and Rabbi Yonatan. Rabbi Yoshaiah understands the derivation of the word pesah from the word poseah, to “hop over,” (the houses of the Israelites) while Rabbi Yonatan understands the word as Rabbi Yishmael as “protect,” (God protected the Israelites but not the Egyptians).
Why did the sages” disagree about the meaning of pesah? According to Rabbi Yoshaiah, if the Egyptians who were in Israelite homes had been killed, their Passover sacrifice would have become profane. Therefore God passed over the homes even when an Egyptian was located there and only later did He execute judgment on the first born Egyptians who took shelter in the Israelite homes.
According to Rabbi Yonatan, this was not an issue since the presence of the Egyptian dead would not have prevented them from eating the Passover offering – so that if an Egyptian was in an Israelite home his death would not have prevented the Israelite from eating the offering. On the other hand if a first born Israelite was in Egyptian home, he was protected by God while Egyptians were struck down even if they were in the homes of Israelites.
Why does the Torah place so much emphasis on the fact that the Israelites had to place blood on the door posts of their homes? This act emphasized the sacred nature of the Passover meal. The slaughtering of the lamb and the placing of the blood on the door post made the pesah a sacrificial offering and not a simple ritual slaughter for the purpose of food. Unlike the slaughtering for the purpose of kashrut for which the pouring out of the blood was necessary, this blood had to be sprinkled on the door post just as blood is sprinkled on the altar when offering a sacrifice. This meant that the offering had a sacred quality to it – for Rabbi Yoshaiah, a death could not occur in such a place.¹³⁶Similarly, the blood had to be sprinkled and was not placed in a bowl since bowl was susceptible to impurity. For Rabbi Yonatan, God would kill the Egyptian firstborn in an Israelites home but only at the end of the Passover meal.
The verse, “You shall say, “It is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord because He passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and He smote the Egyptians, but saved our houses,””¹³⁷Exodus 12:26 is the Torahs” response to the wicked child’s question, “What does this rite mean to you?”¹³⁸The Haggadah answers the wicked child with Exodus 13:8; but the Torah answers the wicked child with this verse. Rabbi Horowitz now explains what the wicked child’s question really is and how the Torah responds to him. When the first born wicked child asks, “What does this service mean to you,” he is really saying, “Why are you bothering with this sacrifice? If I had been in Egypt, I would have been struck down before we left Egypt and there would have been no one to whom you could teach the story of the Exodus ” The father answers that according to Rabbi Yoshaiah’s opinion, even the Egyptians were not struck down during the night of the Passover – therefore, even the first born wicked child would have survived to be a part of the Passover meal. And according to Rabbi Yonatan no one was struck down until after the offering was consumed – so again you could have taken part in Passover meal. The wicked child has no excuse for not listening to the story of the Passover!

And he shall take for the one being purified two birds. Above in Parashat Tazria, I wrote that the main cause of leprosy comes from three sins alluded to in the parashah: they are evil speech [lashon hara], arrogance [gasut haruach], and desire for wealth [chemdat hamammon]. Based on this, we can say that the birds atone for these three: for evil speech because they chatter [make petite sounds] etc., (Arakhin 16b); for arrogance which rises upward like flying birds (Isaiah 31:5); and for the desire for wealth, about which it is said (Proverbs 23:4–5), Do not toil to become rich, etc., for it will surely make wings for itself like an eagle and fly to the sky. And since most commentators have extensively discussed the sin of evil speech in this parashah, I will also add a good lesson to explain what my intellectual understanding captures regarding the three proclamations that our Sages of blessed memory speak about concerning the sin of the tongue.

Jes. 31, 5 werden vier Weisen der Jerusalem zu Teil werdenden göttlichen Beschützung und Rettung bezeichnet: גנון והציל פסוח והמליט, bald Umfriedigung (גנון), daß ihm die Gefahr von keiner Seite nahekommt; bald Rettung (הציל), daß es bereits von der Gefahr ergriffen ist und Gott es der Gefahr aus der Hand schlägt; bald Überschreitung (פסח), daß es mitten in der Gefahr sich befindet und, während ringsum alles der Gefahr zur Beute wird, es allein völlig unangegriffen, von der Gefahr übergangen bleibt; bald Entrinnung (המליט), daß es am Orte der Gefahr mit zu Grunde gegangen wäre, allein Gott ihm zum Entfliehen geholfen. Indem dort גנון und פסוח im Infinitiv, הציל und המליט im tempus finitum ausgedrückt sind, so ist damit gesagt, daß die gewöhnliche, stete Gotteswaltung über Israel גנון und פסוח charakterisiert, הציל und המליט in besondern Fällen notwendig werden. Indem nun ferner פסוח nur ein zögerndes Hinüberführen der Gefahr bedeutet, so ist damit gesagt, daß jederzeit, wenn "zur Rechten Tausend und zur Linken Zehntausend fallen", die Rettung wartet, bis das zu Rettende sich ihrer würdig gemacht. Und dies ist hier vollständig das Peßach. Durch die in diesem Namen zusammengefassten Handlungen sollte sich Israel erst würdig machen, daß das die ägyptischen Häuser treffende Verderben über ihre Häupter hinüberschritte. In diesem Bewusstsein sollen sie das Peßachopfer genießen, sollen sich der auch über ihren Häusern schwebenden Gefahr wohl bewusst sein, der sie nur durch das bewusstvolle Genießen des ihren Hirtenbund mit Gott schließenden Peßachopfers entgehen konnten. Diese Stimmung des Eilens, um einer drohenden Gefahr zu entgehen, drückt vollständig חפזון aus, und es begreift sich der Zusammenhang: ,ואכלתם אותו בחפזון פסח הוא לד׳ nur langsam und zögernd schreitet die Gefahr über eure Häupter hinweg (פסח); darum zögert nicht, euch des Entrinnens würdig zu machen (חפזון).

ופסחתי — This signifies I WILL SPARE you; similar to this is, (Isaiah 31:5) “Sparing (פסוח) and delivering”. (This is the explanation of Menachem ben Seruk). But I say that wherever the root פסח occurs it is an expression for leaping and springing over, so that ופסחתי here denotes that He sprang from the houses of the Israelites when He reached them, without having entered them, to the houses of the Egyptians — for they (the Egyptians and the Israelites) dwelt one next to the other. Of a like import is, (1 Kings 18:21) “How long will ye leap (פוסחים) upon two twigs?” So, too, all פסחים lame people walk as though they were springing, and are therefore termed פסחים. This, too, is the meaning of, (Isaiah 31:5) פסוח והמליט “He springs over him and delivers him” from amongst those who are being killed.