The Fifteen Steps of the Hagadah

An excerpt from Seeds and Sparks by Rabbi Avraham Arieh Trugman

The Hagadah of Pesach and all the rituals and mitzvot of the night are ordered according to fifteen steps. These fifteen stages in which the Seder unfolds are also referred to as “signs.” Our Sages tell us that signs and symbols have great significance (Kritot 6a). For example, we begin the year on Rosh HaShanah night by eating all sorts of foods, each one symbolic of certain blessings we hope for at the beginning of a new year. The steps of the Seder likewise have great significance and symbolize the process of personal, national and world redemption. There is a custom of calling out the name of each step or  “sign” at the Seder as if announcing a lost object which needs to be reclaimed and redeemed (See The Chassidic Haggadah by Rabbi Eliyahu Touger).

     The fifteen steps of the Seder also relate to the fifteen physical steps in the Holy Temple, on which the Levites stood while singing praises to God. King David wrote fifteen “songs of ascent” to parallel the fifteen steps of the Levites in the Temple. The correspondence of the fifteen steps of the Seder and the fifteen steps of the Temple gives us the feeling of rising from one level to the next during the Seder, as if being carried on the wings of song to ever greater heavenly heights.

     Fifteen is the numerical value of the Hebrew letters yod and heh, the first two letters of the four~letter name of God, and a name of God in their own right. This name significantly appears in the book of Exodus in the story of Amalek, the arch enemy of the Jews, when God figuratively puts His hand on His throne and promises war with Amalek in every generation (Exodus 17:16). Rashi points out that only the first two letters of the name of God are written and the word for throne is also written missing a letter. This, Rashi explains, indicates that until Amalek, the embodiment of evil, is wiped out, God’s name and throne are, as it were, incomplete.

     The recital during the Seder of Pesach of the words: “ In every generation they rise up against us to destroy us…” reflects the same archetypal reality as expressed in the story of Amalek. The primordial energy of good versus evil, as expressed first in the story of Adam, Eve and the snake, and their final confrontation in the prophesies of the “end of days,” is very relevant to the energy surrounding Pesach and our present situation in Israel.

     There are “signs” all around us as Israel and the world confront the terrorist threat so prevalent today. But, as in every sign or dream, much goes after how we choose to interpret it. We are most certainly being challenged and are being spoken to by God through the events around us.

     As much as we need to react to evil and deal with the perpetrators, a more fundamental spiritual accounting is called for. We are told that the month long search and cleaning process for chametz, unleavened products,  preceding Pesach must be accompanied by the realization that physical chametz is but a reflection of the inner spiritual work we need to do to truly prepare for Pesach. Each person, community and all of Israel needs to look deeply within to see what we can do to rectify the present situation. There is certainly a need for a renewal of commitment to personal spiritual growth. To increase Torah learning and observance, to integrate sound Jewish morals and ethics, to increase our love of our fellow Jews and humanity, to give greater support to the land of Israel, and to recommit ourselves to Jewish collective responsibility. Let no one be oblivious to the fact that if Israel is seriously weakened (God forbid), every Jew in the world will be affected in a very negative way.

     The Ba’al Shem Tov taught that every Jew contains a spark of the Messiah deep within his soul and that the ultimate arrival of the Messiah depends on each and every person activating his greatest spiritual potential, thus creating a critical mass of redemptive energy. This then will be transformed into the figure we call the Messiah.

     In Egypt, when the slavery became so unbearable, we cried out in unison from the weight of our burdens and God heard and acted. Once again, we as a people need to feel the suffering and danger surrounding us and shake off our numbness and complacency in order to cry out to God to deliver us. There is no more auspicious time for us all to do this than on Pesach. We as a people have suffered enough - We Want Redemption Now!! 

Seder Night - A Poem from Seeds and Sparks

Yes my children -

I hear your questions

I too hear footsteps in the distance.

Listen!

To the story of life

As it unfolds.

Once we were slaves,

Cried out in despair and God heard:

With an outstretched hand

Nature took another course,

Water turned to blood

And later seas turned on end

As we followed God faithfully

Into the desert of our own rebirth.

And now we have this holiday

To celebrate and remember,

To engrave once again

On our open hearts

That it was us who came out

And stood on the mountain and promised

To give over to the children

Of the future

The wonders of the past.

The collective unconscious

Running through our blood.

Look!

Upon the door post -

A reminder and a sign

To protect and pass over to generations

As yet born,

A promise delivered

But not yet fulfilled,

While between the lines

Of history and precedent

The story of our people

Defies logic

Battles conquerors

Lives on miracles and faith,

In new beginnings

Tragic endings

Sanctification and sacrifice on the alter

Of human destiny

To be free!

A light unto the nations

In a world of darkness

Where groping armies

Are still pursuing us -

Their wheels sinking in the sea.

But we light candles

And make it to the other side,

Where shining in the distance

Is the prophet of the future.

Elijah come drink!

Blow the shofar!

Herald a new beginning!

Redeem the first born!

And the last to be born

Before that fateful day

Will cry out from the weight

Of human bondage

And the misery of our self imposed doom.

But here at our Seder

The light of hope is shining bright

The bush is still burning

And is not consumed.

Introduction to the World's First Advanced On-line Word and Gematria Search

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One of the most important of the thirteen rules by which we interpret the Torah (found in the beginning section of the morning prayers) is gezerah shavah, which loosely translated means that similar words in different contexts are meant to clarify one another. This device is used literally hundreds of times in the Talmud to shed light on issues ranging from Jewish law, to the alluded, allegorical and mystical meaning of the text. Quite simply it is the way we "connect the dots" of Torah and life itself.

Through using this easy to use program you can type in a word in Hebrew and virtually instantaneously see written out all the places in the Tanach, the 24 books of the Bible, where this word, name or phrase appears. By studying these appearances we begin to see connections we may have never seen before. Meanings on multiple levels begin to literally jump off the page.

Gematria, Jewish numerology, works according to the same principle. In Hebrew each letter has a numerical equivalent. According to Kabbalah, if two words or phrases share the same number, they are considered to possess some significant connection. Gematria reveals a deeper set of correspondences as seen in the literal text and points to an entire mathematical structure underlying the Torah. Similar to how physics and chemistry rest on a mathematical foundation, so too, deeper dimensions of Torah are revealed though gematria.

The Hebrew letters are explained to be the building blocks of creation. Similar to how a physicist or chemist would describe the world as consisting of atoms, particles, molecules and elements, the Jewish tradition describes this same function to the Hebrew letters. Although the language of science and Torah are different they are both describing the same reality.

Yet it is not Kabbalah alone which employs gematria. The Talmud and Rashi also use this technique of learning on occasion in order to point out a cogent idea, and it has been used as well by a wide range of commentators throughout the ages. In as much as Kabbalah seeks to make known the oneness of God and the interconnectedness of all reality, gematria assumes a major role in revealing this through the Torah text.

When the letters of a word are permutated they form other words that are intrinsically connected. An entire book, the Tikunei Zohar, explains the many permutations of the six letters of the first word of the Torah, bereishit, "in the beginning." In doing so it reveals a profound understanding of the creation and the Divine creative process. This technique of permuting letters plays an important role in Kabbalistic wisdom. Alternative alphabets are similarly based on exchanging letters in an orderly manner, revealing deeper and more hidden aspects of the Torah.

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 http://www.thetrugmans.com/trugman_gematria.shtml

Masei - The Dynamics of the Journey

Masei, the last portion in the book of Numbers, marks the end of Israel’s forty year sojourn in the desert. The entire book of Deuteronomy takes place during a brief thirty-seven day period. Therefore, in Masei, the Torah summarizes the forty-two journeys that occurred during Israel’s wanderings in the desert, from the time the nation left Egypt to the current encampment in the plains of Moab across the Jordan River from Jericho.

    These journeys are introduced by a verse that creates a mirror image: “And Moses wrote their going forth according to their journeys at the command of God, and these were their journeys according to their going forth” (Numbers 33:2). The words “going forth” and “journeys” found in the first half of the verse occur in the opposite order in the second half of the verse. The ArtScroll Chumash quotes Rabbi Shimshon Raphael Hirsch on the significance of this inversion. The first half of the verse – “Their going forth according to their journeys” – is written from God’s perspective, as each time they went forth their journey had a specific purpose, while the second half of the verse is written from the people’s perspective. Since the people were often restless or dissatisfied, the journey itself is emphasized and not its purpose. As the verse makes clear, the journeys were more about leaving than about going anywhere – “their journeys according to their going forth.” 

    This point although subtle is so true. Oftentimes we have the forethought to map out our next moves in life in keeping with our long-term plans, with regard to a broader vision of where we are going in life. Sometimes though we really do not know what should come next but our intuition, at best, or our fears, at worst, compel us to make a move without fully knowing what the ramifications of such a move might be. The Sages actually suggest that in certain circumstances a change of physical location actually provides us with such a new perspective on our lives that it can either motivate us to change our fate, or, alternatively, that it can cause our fate to be changed on a metaphysical level (Rosh Hashanah 16). Although following a well thought out plan should be the ideal way to pursue what we believe is the Divinely inspired purpose of our lives, in retrospect, even acting intuitively or out of fear can also turn out to be, as the verse states, “at the command of God.” 

   One senses a dynamic pulsating energy in the summary of the journeys which is dramatically captured by the unique way the words are chanted during the public Torah reading. The only other time this unique melody is used is when the Song of the Sea is read in public. There too the energy is palpable as the Jews have just escaped from Egypt and seen their pursuers drowned in the Reed Sea. According to Chassidut, which teaches that the Torah provides each and every person in every generation with practical instruction, these forty-two journeys are an archetypal paradigm for every individual’s life journey. Each person, though, experiences these journeys in a fashion uniquely adapted to his or her soul and his or her lifework and purpose.

Shabbat Shalom!