By Rabbi Dovid Sapirman, Dean, Ani Maamin Foundation
Shabbos Hagadol commemorates a great miracle, sometimes overlooked in the greater upheaval of Yetzias Mitzrayim. It happened a few days earlier. On the tenth day of Nissan, Bnei Yisrael were commanded to take a lamb for the korban Pesach and tie it to their bedposts, checking it for blemishes every day.
“Why are you doing this?” the Egyptians asked.
“We are preparing to sacrifice them to Hashem,” the Jews replied.
The lamb was considered a god to the Egyptians. When they heard this, they wanted to harm the Jews for this offense. Hashem intervened, and they were unable to cause any damage.
In a few days, we will sing Vehi She’amda at the Seder: “Not just one rose up against us to destroy us, rather, in every generation they rise against us to destroy us, but Hakadosh Baruch Hu saves us from their hand.”
These words are thousands of years old. They are just as true today. The Gemara compares us to “one lamb among seventy wolves,” a lone nation surrounded by hungry predators who want nothing more than to devour us all. Yet somehow, we continue to survive. As Rav Yaakov Emden wrote, this is the greatest miracle of all.
Just a few days ago, Iran launched hundreds of missiles against our brothers and sisters in Eretz Yisrael. The results could have been catastrophic—but there was almost no harm whatsoever. Truthfully, this is an ongoing nes.
Our enemies shoot thousands of rockets at us all the time, and b’chasdei Hashem almost no harm is done. Klal Yisrael continues to survive on miracles, sometimes hidden and sometimes open. We must not let our gratitude dissipate.
It is true that we are Hashem’s chosen nation. He loves us. But are we worthy of miracles? Perhaps Hashem weighed all of our chesed, Torah, and tefillos on His heavenly scale and found us deserving. Or perhaps, as the Navi says, He has taken pity on us and not let us perish. We have no way of knowing His cheshbonos.
Either way, we must not let the memory of this miracle fade. Pesach has always been a time of geulah, and it will be the time of the future geulah as well. May it come soon, in our days!
