Chag Kasher v'Sameach

Chag Kasher v'Sameach everyone!

Shkoyach to everyone who went to vatikin this morning (or even if you didn't) and said Birkat HaChamah at the beautiful sunrise. It's amazing to thing about what has happened since the last Birkat HaChamah and to think about what may happen until the next one. Iy"H I hope to see many of the same people in 28 years to make the brachah with again.

Quick Pesach Thought

The Ramban writes in Parshat Bo 13:16 that the ikar of Yetziat Mitzraim  were the nisim nistarim that Hashem did, so that we should recognize his hashgachah in everything. The same is true of Birkat HaChamah. It is not something which is discernible to our eyes. But the mah norah v'ayom everything involved in the cycle of the sun leading up to this morning! We should realize the awesomeness of Hashem's hashgachah.

Rav Yonatan Sacks said an intersting dvar Torah that you may want to mention at the seder: 

We know the famous question, brought down by the Rambam in Hilchot Teshuvah, that if Yetziat Mitzraim was already planned by Hashem, how could he then punish the Mitzrim? Were they not His tools? The Raavad & Ramban say that there was a gezeirah for slavery, but the actions of the Mitzrim were not part of that. They added to it of their own accord and intensified the situation without need. We see this from the fact that the shibud began with Yitzchak according to the 400 year calculation. And the Jews then certainly didn't suffer back-breaking work!

Why did Moshe and Aharon bring the mateh (staff) before Paroh just to turn it into a snake?Sure it swallowed the Mitzrim's staffs, but they were showing a "magic trick" in the black magic center of the world! R' Yosef Salant answers, we know that if a person injures another with something like a stick, he cannot blame the injury on the stick; it does not act of its own accord. However, l'halachah if you were to put a snake next to someone and the snake attacked him, the snake is liable and you are not since the snake acts by itself. Moshe and Aharon were telling Paroh that he was no longer the "staff" of Hashem, acting as a tool of HaKadosh boruch Hu's gezeirah. He was now a snake, acting on his own and therefore liable for his actions!