Shabbat Hagadol: Being Suddenly Prepared

Last week, Senator Cory Booker from New Jersey broke the record by giving a Senate filibuster speech that lasted 24 hours and 18 minutes on the Senate floor, putting at ease rabbis who have been preparing their Shabbat Hagadol speeches. The Shabbat Hagadol speech has become known for the long speeches rabbis give in preparation for Passover, speeches in which, ideally–yet rarely so–the rabbis review with their communities the laws of how to make their homes and food kosher for Passover.

While this is straightforward and simple, it would not be truly Jewish if there were not a Machloket (rabbinical disagreement) as to whether this Shabbat before Pesach is actually Shabbat Hagadol or not.

A century and a half ago, two of the greatest Halachic works, the Aruch Hashulchan, written by Rabbi Yechiel Epstein, the rabbi of Novardhok, and the Mishna Berura, written by the great Chafetz Chaim, Rabbi Yisrael Meir HaKohen of Radun, disagreed on whether this Shabbat is Shabbat Hagadol or not. The Mishna Berura (OC 430:1) rules that if Erev Pesach falls on Shabbat, that Shabbat cannot be Shabbat Hagadol, since the purpose of Shabbat Hagadol is to prepare people for Pesach.

The Aruch Hashulchan, on the other hand, goes into great lengths to explain that even Erev Pesach can be Shabbat Hagadol, since Shabbat Hagadol is not merely an opportunity for rabbis to teach the laws of the upcoming Passover, but rather it marks the anniversary of the miraculous event mentioned in Pirkei De’Rabi Eliezer. The 10th of Nissan in the year of the Exodus fell on Shabbat. Bnei Yisrael were commanded to take a sheep—the god of the Egyptians—and tie it to the leg of the bed. The Egyptians were outraged and wanted to kill the Jews, yet were unable to. Thus, it is called Shabbat Hagadol, marking that miracle and the ability of Bnei Yisrael to stand up independently to who they are as a people. The Aruch Hashulchan refers to the text of the Shulchan Aruch (OC 430), saying: “The Shabbat before Passover is called ‘Shabbat HaGadol’ because of the miracle that was performed.”

Yet, on that same passage of the Shulchan Aruch, Rabbi Moses Isserlis (the Rema) comments: “It’s a custom at Mincha to recite the Haggadah from the section of Avadim Hayinu to L’chapeir al kol avonoseinu (Minhagim).” Yet many poskim, such as the Kaf Hachayim, say that if Shabbat Hagadol falls on Erev Pesach, we do not recite the Haggadah. Some say it is called Shabbat Hagadol because the Haftorah reads: “Hiney anochi shole’ach lachem et Eliyahu Hanavi lifnei Bo Yom Hashem Hagadol,” “I am sending you Eliyahu Hanavi before the coming of the great day of Hashem.”

Regardless of which explanation you take, if there’s anything the weeks before Pesach teach us, it is that some things take a great deal of preparation—from the taking of the Korban Pesach on the 10th of Nissan to Pesach Mitzrayim, the only holiday in human history to celebrate an event that has not happened yet. Bnei Yisrael sat and celebrated the event that had not yet happened, because Passover is a holiday very much about preparation.

The Torah tells us, “Ushmartem Et Hamatzot—you shall keep the matzot.” The rabbis in the Mechilta here tell us there is a rule we learn from this: “Mitzvah Ha’Ba’a le’yadcha al Tachmitzena”—A mitzvah that comes to your hands should not be delayed. In fact, for the linguists among us, this led to the creation of a word in modern Hebrew, “Le’Hachmitz,” which means to miss, though in the Talmud it means to miss something. Either way, we are to sit ready to do a mitzvah when it arrives, without waiting for it to pass by or for it to become Chametz by delaying it.

Yet no one needs a reminder of this. Whether you were shopping on your phone, standing in line in a kosher supermarket, standing in your kitchen and living room, standing in the TSA line at the airport, or any other form of preparation, you know that Passover requires more preparation than any other holiday.

Thus, the holiday of Passover embodies the perfect contradiction: on the one hand, from the dawn of the first Passover, it is a holiday that requires more preparation than any other holiday, while on the other hand, it represents the most spontaneity—the Matzah that was not even able to rise—while at the same time, it is the holiday with the most preparation. It is the only holiday which is observed even before it begins, as we describe the 14th of Nisan as a holiday in and of itself.

So, which is it? Is it a spontaneous holiday or one that requires preparation?

To answer this, I think of the renaissance of American Jewry and the obligation to set the record straight. I think of rabbis and lay leaders who set the foundation for Jewish life in America—a tragically forgotten chapter. I think about members of She’erith Israel who ensured Jews were allowed to live in the United States, I think of the Touro family and the synagogues they founded. I think of Cantor Henry Pereira Mendes, who founded the Orthodox Union, of Rabbi Jacob Joseph, the first and only Chief Rabbi of New York, Rabbi Moshe Zalman Margolis of Kehilath Jeshurun, of Rabbi Bernard Drachman, founder of the Park East Synagogue, who led the movement and lobbying efforts that anchored the rights of Jews to not work on Shabbat. I think of the great Rebecca Gratz, founder of the Mikveh Israel community in Philadelphia and the founder of the first Hebrew school in America. I think of Rabbi Shraga Feivel Mendelowitz and everything he did to establish Torah Vedaas and Torah U’Mesorah. I think of Rabbi Dr. Dov Revel and Dr. Samuel Belkin and everything they did to establish higher Jewish education. All these and so many more lay leaders who established the infrastructure for Jewish life in America from which so many have benefited.

When they laid those bricks to Jewish life in America, they may not have known how many generations or people would benefit from it, but they did the work.

What is true in our communal life is true in our personal life. We do not know what tasks life will put to us. We do not know what seismic events will take place or what sudden changes the world will go through. The lesson of Shabbat Hagadol and Passover is that we ought not think that surprises or unexpected events call on us to be unprepared, or to think that we can prepare for them. It teaches us that we must prepare to the best of our ability, and when those surprises come, we must take everything we have done to prepare for a completely different circumstance, and stand tall and prepared.