Chag Kasher Vesame’ach – Happy Pesach!

Chag Pesach Kasher ve’Same’ach!

Despite my promise in my previous post, I have decided to give all the bad news a miss for the moment. This blog is going on semi-vacation over the next week during the Pesach (Passover) festival until after the chag (it finishes on the night of  17th April). If you would like to learn more about Pesach, have a look at Aish’s website or Chabad.

We’re heading out to our daughter and son-in-law (and their many children ☺) for the Seder together with our younger son. And with our daughter at the very end of her 9th month it might turn out to be a lot more exciting than your regular Seder. It’s definitely not going to be a quiet Seder night no matter what happens though!  We hope to go on day trips to Jerusalem and other sites around Israel during the intermediate Chol Hamo’ed days but of course it all depends if we are called upon for urgent babysitting duties.  We were planning to spend the intermediate Shabbat (Shabbat Chol Hamo’ed) with our son and his family but as you can imagine, all plans are up in the air at the moment. I will keep you all posted!

I would like to wish all my readers, along with all of Klal Yisrael, a chag kasher vesame’ach – a happy and Kosher Passover. May we all merit to celebrate in rebuilt Jerusalem “speedily in our days” as we say in the Seder.

As I have done in previous years, with the latest news being no better than in past years, I want to bring you some food for thought and some fun Pesach related videos for your enjoyment.

Rav Daniel Glanz wrote a very interesting post about the significance of the Hebrew letter Mem – מ – in the Pesach Seder and story:

The ‘מ’agnificent Story of Pesach

Every Year we sit together at the Seder on Pesach and recall and relive the story of the Exodus. Perhaps the most well known part of the Seder is in the section of מגיד called the מה נשתנה. In the מה נשתנה we ask four questions that make the Seder unique. If we were to summarize each question with one word as used in the Hagaddah, the words would be:
מצה
מרור
מטבילין
מסובין

Is it a coincidence that there is a focus on the letter מ?

Well, let’s look a little deeper into the story of the Exodus……

The Name Of The Place Where The Jews Were Enslaved: מצרים
The Ten Plagues That Hashem Sent: מכות
The Man That Was Sent To Redeem The Jewish People: משה
The Leader of the Women: מרים
On The Way Out Of Egypt The Jews Baked: מצה
After The Jewish People Crossed The Yam Suf They Entered Into The: מדבר
Hashem Sent Food From Heaven Called: מן
The First Place The Jews Arrived After Crossing The Yam Suf: מרה
The Sin That Caused The Entire Generation To Lose The Right To Enter Into The Land Of Israel: מרגלים
The Jewish People Donate Money And Build The: משכן
Hashem Counts The Jewish People Via The: מחצית השקל
Moshe Goes Up On Har Sinai To Receive The Torah for 40 days And 40 nights. 40 Is Gematria (Numerical Value): מ
The Jewish People Are Punished and Must Remain In The Desert for 40 Years. 40 is Gematria (Numerical Value): מ

Simply put, this can not be a coincidence.

The question then must be asked, what is the significance of the letter מ and what is its connection to Pesach?

The letter מ when used as a Prefix means ‘from’. Whenever we want to delve deeper into something we make use of the letter מ. The letter מ sheds light into the essence of the matter or in Hebrew, the מקור (source). When we lose focus on our life mission and live a life which is inconsistent with who we truly are, the מ is meant to remind us and draw is back to our essence.

This is why….

The person that is responsible to keep the Jewish people in check and true to themselves is called the: מלך
The person that is going to bring us back to our essence and ultimate glory is: משיח
When the world drifted too far off the path, Hashem had to reset it with the מבול which was when the world was flooded with מים which increased on the land for for 40 (מ) days.
The first commandment that a Jewish male encounters is a sign that must be made to remind him to stay true to his values and his dedication to G-D called: מילה
When a person becomes impure and needs to return to his or her true self and become pure once again they go to the מקוה which is a natural body of מים that has a minimum volume requirement of 40 (סאה (מ.
When a non-Jew wants to convert they need to potentially do three things: Do a Bris מילה. Go to the מקוה. Accept all of the מצות.
When we want to refer to Hashem as the source of all sources we refer to Him as: מלך מלכי המלכים.
Moshe, who was destined to help redeem the Jewish people was called by the name Moshe because ממין המים משיתיהו (Meaning: From water he was drawn).

Now we can understand the connection of the letter מ to Pesach.

There’s much more. Go and read at the link.

On a lighter note, here’s a very funny reversal of roles, as Egyptians try out Pesach food 😀

 

I’m not sure what Pharaoh would have had to say about any of that!

And for the Hebrew speakers, here are the staff and personnel of Channel 10 news, getting their newsroom ready for Pesach:

 

Chag Kasher ve’Sameach everyone!