The Mysterious Mitzvah
Among the many mitzvos that make up the preparation and bringing of the korban Pesach that we read about in this week’s sedrah is eating from the meat of the korban. הַזֶּה הַלַּיְלָה בָּשָׂר בַּחֲלוֹת וּמְרֹרִים יֹאכְלוּהוּ – And you should eat the meat on that night (Shemos 12:8).
That’s a mitzvah incumbent on every Jew — we can’t do it today, but when we finally have the opportunity, we’ll sit down at the Seder and eat from the meat of the Pesach lamb and we’ll attempt to gain all of the great ideals intended by this korban.
But it’s interesting to note that not only does the Torah require us to eat from the meat, but there’s also a certain way it has to be prepared: וּנִּמָּמֶּנּוּ לֹא תֹאכְלוּ נָא וּבָשֵׁל מְבֻשָּׁל בַּמָּיִם כִּי אִם צְלִי אֵשׁ – Don’t eat of it if it’s half-broiled or cooked in water; it has to be broiled on the fire (ibid. 9). That’s a Torah requirement: it’s assur to eat it cooked — you have to broil it and make sure it’s broiled sufficiently if you want to be yotzei the mitzvah.
Now, if you look in the Rishonim, they ask about that. It’s a question that bothers them: What’s so important about exactly how I prepare the meat for the seudah? Davka fire-broiled it has to be? And if I cook it in water, is that so bad? That’s the question the Rishonim ask. It sounds like a mystery, maybe sisrei Torah.
Mystery Solved
And the answer they give — it’s not as mysterious as we thought — is that it tastes better that way. A piece of lamb tastes better when it's fire-broiled than when it’s prepared any other way. נָא, partially broiled meat, or מְבֻשָּׁל בַּמָּיִם, water-cooked meat, is lacking the full taste. And not only the taste; the smell adds to the pleasure. You know, when you pass by a shishkebab place — shish means a skewer, and kebab means grilled meat — and you smell roasting mutton from outside, there's a certain feeling that you wouldn't mind tasting it too.
And therefore, according to these Rishonim, the Torah tells us to roast the korban because it’s more fun that way. The eating ‘experience’ is better when it's roasted, and that’s a good enough reason for this mitzvah.
A Pesach Experience
Now, if it was up to us, if we were in charge of how to make the Pesach Seder — baruch Hashem we’re not — we would say like this. An order for all Jews: Everyone should sit down at the table, and the lady of the house comes out of the kitchen — no, not the kitchen; she comes out of the study — and she’s carrying a big tray piled high with Chumashim; big Mikraos Gedolos. And that’s what she serves to everybody.
That would be a Pesach experience! What’s Pesach for anyhow? To eat tasty roasted meat? To stimulate your gastric juices? No; the purpose of Pesach is to remember what Hakadosh Baruch Hu did for us, that He took us out of Mitzrayim. Pesach is for gratitude, to thank Hakadosh Baruch Hu for Yetzias Mitzrayim; to thank Him for passing over our homes in Mitzrayim and to love Him more and more for that. That’s the point of Pesach! To love Hashem!
You never heard that before? So it’s good you came here tonight. There are a lot of ideas and attitudes you have to gain on Pesach but ahavas Hashem is number one. If you go away from Pesach and you don’t love Hashem more than you did on erev Pesach, so you didn’t succeed yet at making Pesach. You made Pesach and you fulfilled everything but you missed the point.
A Seder for the Mind
And so, had we been the ones who planned the Torah, we would have had an entirely different Seder. We would have abolished any form of physical pleasure because it’s a contradiction to the purpose of Pesach. And so we should sit down for three hours and talk about Yetzias Mitzrayim. No food at all! If we get tired in the middle, if somebody weakens a little bit, so he can sneak into the kitchen for a quick snack, but then he’ll come right back out to the table to continue the program.
There are midrashim, all kinds of interesting midrashim on each makkah. We should talk at length about the details and the lessons, the loyalty and ahavas Hashem we have to feel. At length, at length, all night! Thank Hashem! The more you talk about it, the more you love Hashem! Don't mix in anything except ruchniyus; only intelligence.
After all, it’s the creation of a mind, the perfection of the neshamah, that we want from Pesach, and so how can we profane such a noble purpose by putting things into our mouths? You’re mixing the food with the saliva and chewing it? Is that a way to serve Hashem? That's the ma’aseh of an animal! A human being has to think! His mind, that’s all that matters! To eat tasty meat? Shishkebab?
We might say that the less pleasure we get, the more mitzvah it is. We should broil it until it's coal, until we can't eat it. And we sit down, we are moser nefesh — we chew the charcoal, l’shem mitzvah. But appetite? That's gashmiyus! That’s what we would say.
Torah Psychology
And so Hakadosh Baruch Hu says, “Get out of here! Let me take over. I know how to handle you better. I know better how to succeed with you because I made you. And I know that the mind may be participating, but the body is not happy with it.”
And the body needs to participate too. And so here you have a piece of broiled lamb meat, and your mouth is watering at the prospect of digging in and eating. And it doesn’t detract from the mitzvah. On the contrary, the chewing and enjoying is the mitzvah.
And so we’re learning now an important aspect of the whole Torah system — to combine an intellectual ideal with the enjoyable physical act of eating. Hakadosh Baruch Hu wants the body should participate, and therefore that's one of the whole systems of the Torah everywhere, to join avodas Hashem with the enjoyment of Olam Hazeh. If you study the Torah, you'll see that everywhere, the same system is followed. It says ה׳ יִפְנֵי שָׁם תֹּאכְלוּ וְשַׁמָּה תִּשְׂמְחוּ לִפְנֵי ה׳ אֱלֹקֵיכֶם (Devarim 12:7). Everywhere it says that, constantly, constantly.
I don't want to insult the Torah by saying the Torah is the greatest psychologist of all — it's bigger than a psychologist — but Hashem understands the human body and the mind best. And He says that it’s not enough merely to get the mind to agree to all these great ideals. The body should also agree, and that’s going to be the best way; to digest all the Torah ideals along with the food.
Reconsider Eating
Now, if that's the case, then it becomes our duty to reconsider the subject of eating; not only the korban Pesach — the entire subject of eating in general has to be reconsidered. And it requires a great deal of reconsideration because up until now, all of us tzaddikim knew that eating is a necessary evil. It takes up a lot of time in our lives, and we could take the time we spend on our meals and use it to learn — let's say Ketzos Hachoshen, Mishnah Berurah, or a little mesichta on the side. Think of all the accomplishments for Olam Haba we would achieve in our lives instead of eating.
And even if you’re not such a big tzaddik, still you could do better things than to spend so much time at the trough filling your stomach. You could be doing business, making good money. You could go for a walk on the avenue. But eating? A few times every day? Who needs it?
But the fact is that Hakadosh Baruch Hu made it so that we have to spend a great deal of time on this pursuit. He could have made it that we don’t need to refuel a few times a day. He could have made it that we eat one little white pill every morning and that’s how we get our energy. But Hakadosh Baruch Hu in His Wisdom said “no”. He made eating into a big procedure in our lives. And therefore it becomes necessary to study the subject of eating, to understand how this physical function is actually a tool that is intended to be utilized for greatness — especially for the greatness of ahavas Hashem.
The Highest Accomplishment
Everyone knows about the mitzvah of loving Hashem; we say it every day וְאָהַבְתָּ אֵת ה׳ אֱלֹקֶיךָ. And if you take a look in a Rambam at the very end of Hilchos Teshuva, the Rambam says that the greatest of all achievements that a Jew can accomplish in his life is to learn how to love Hashem. To love Hashem truly, the Rambam says, is the highest of mankind’s accomplishments.
Now I know that if you go in the shallow circles, let’s say you go into some Modern Orthodox synagogues, so everybody loves Hashem. “Love Hashem? Certainly, certainly, certainly.” In the shtiebelach too. They love Hashem, “of course”.
They don’t even believe in Him! To love Hashem, you have to first believe in Him! Let’s be practical. Why should we kid each other? We’re friends, so we can talk straight. Love what? Can you love a vacuum? Can you love air? Empty space? You have to have Hashem in order to love Him. Which means, you have to have emunah.
But not emunah like a man told me recently, “I have emunah. I believe.” He has emunah. I’m sure this man will run into a fire for kiddush Hashem, but that doesn’t mean he has fulfilled his obligation of acquiring emunah. Real emunah means that you believe you have somebody; emunah chushis. Let’s say you have a cousin in the Bronx — you meet him sometimes at a family simcha — and so you believe it; that’s emunah. You absolutely believe! You saw him. But if your emunah in Hakadosh Baruch Hu is emunah sichlis, only intelligence, and even that is hazy, there’s no actuality about it, that’s not emunah. And to love Him?! Oh, that’s already much further away; a much greater achievement that comes only after emunah.
Fanning the Flames
But it’s an obligation, and so we have to get busy. And it’s not impossible because everybody is born with a great store of love of Hashem, potential love of Hashem, in their heart. That’s an important point to understand, that we have it within us. Because when Hashem breathed the soul into man, He gave man all the capacities for greatness of the spirit and the mind, including the highest rung of ahavas Hashem.
And so, how much is there? Much more than you can imagine. A great fire of ahavas Hashem is burning there. You know, inside the earth, a tremendous fire, a subterranean fire is burning. Sometimes you can see it when there’s an eruption of a volcano. We’re amazed at that — so much heat, so much flame, so much energy is hidden in the bowels of the earth! Same thing in every Jew; there’s a volcano of ahavas Hashem under the surface waiting to erupt.
Only most people let it remain dormant. It sleeps all their lives inside of them. Only in the Next World, they see what could have been, what they could have brought forth. Ay, a rachmanus! A wasted opportunity. And therefore our job is to avert that tragedy and bring it forth while we’re still in this world. עַמֻּקִים בְּלֶב אִישׁ מַיִם וְאִישׁ תְּבוּנָה יִדְלֶנָּה – Wisdom is in the mind of a man like deep waters, and a man who uses understanding can draw up as with buckets from a well. He can draw up this ahavas Hashem that’s concealed in the depths of his personality.
