Passover is no pushover

Rabbi Ryan Goldstein, West Street Shul

The good news is that this pre-Pesach stress is not new to us. Many of us can recall how our parents and grandparents slaved away in the kitchen. And many of us remember how many times we were chased out of the same kitchen when we were only trying to help (yeah right).

In fact, this stress actually goes back generations to when the Jews were on their way out of Egypt. They had a lot more stress. It was just before the last plague, the death of the first born, when Hashem commanded the Jews to wipe the blood of the slaughtered lamb on their doorposts. The reason for this commandment was, as the Torah tells us, for the angel of death to be able to identify that the house belonged to a Jew and Passover (pun intended) the house.

This explanation adds even more stress to Pesach, since in the Haggadah, it says – numerous times – that Hashem in His glory, smote (I think that means killed) all the Egyptian first born, alone, without the help of a messenger, seraph, or angel. If that was the case, why did we have to wipe that blood on our doorposts if Hashem was coming by himself? Hashem, who knows the inner thoughts of every individual, surely knew where the Jews and Egyptians stayed? Also why does the Torah make reference to the presence of the angel of death?

The answer is that every day, the angel of death has his list of people to bring to the next world by the command of Hashem. The last plague was no exception. Hashem commanded the Jews to wipe blood on their doorposts to prevent the angel of death from doing its daily job. Hashem didn’t want any Jew dying on that night, even by natural causes, so that the Egyptians wouldn’t be able to say that the Jews also suffered. This answers our question: the Torah is talking about the daily job of the angel of death, while the Haggadah is talking about the final plague that was sent to the Egyptians.

With this question answered, at least now we have one less stressful thing to worry about.