I TORAH PORTION I

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Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Spitzer &
Mr. and Mrs. Avrohom Plotnik
wish everyone a Healthy and Happy Passover

Shabbat HaGadol:
Of Faith, Courage

DISTRIBUTORS OF KEDEM WINES

RABBI MORTON F. YOLKUT

Special to The Jewish News

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FRIDAY, APRIL 10, 1992

he Sabbath preceding
Passover is known in
Jewish tradition as
Shabbat HaGadol, "The
Great Sabbath." What is the
reason for this special ap-
pellation? Indeed, in the
Grace after Meals, every
Shabbat is described as
"great and holy" (ki yom zeh
gadol v'kadosh hu lefanecha).
Why then is this particular
Shabbat before Passover
designed as the Great Sab-
bath? Or to paraphrase the
words of the Haggadah, why
is this Sabbath different from
all other Sabbaths?
Legion are the answers of-
fered to this question in both
ancient and modern rabbinic
literature. The fact that there
are many answers suggests
that none of them contains
the authoritative explanation
for the title reserved for this
Sabbath.
The most famous explana-
tion emphasizes the great
miracle that occurred on the
Sabbath prior to the first
Passover. In the year of the
Exodus from Egypt, the 10th
of Nisan fell out on the Sab-
bath. On that day the Jewish
people were instructed to
prepare a lamb, the chief die-
ty of the Egyptians. If asked
about the lamb, the Israelites
were to explain that they in-
tended to offer it in four days
as the Passover sacrifice. In
Egypt this was a sacrilegious,
radical and dangerous act,
one that no Hebrew slave
would ever have previously

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bath prior to Passover that
the first act of defiance
against the Egyptian masters
took place. It took great
courage for the hitherto op-
pressed slaves to openly pro-
claim their belief in the im-
pending liberation.
The Sabbath on which this
public demonstration occur-
red is called HaGadol, the
Great Sabbath, as it marks
the moment when our ances-
tors openly declared their.
faith in God despite the
threats to their survival.
Without this faith and
courage, Jewish history could
not have begun.
Another explanation for
calling the Sabbath before
Passover Shabbat HaGadol
refers to the dual themes of
our Jewish Sabbath. The first

Morton Yolkut is rabbi of
Congregation B'nai David.

theme is the creation, the
idea that the Almighty
created the world in six days
and rested on the seventh (Ex-
odus 20:11). The second is the
liberation from Egypt, the
fact that we were enslaved
and God freed us from the
long and bitter bondage
(Deuteronomy 5:15). Creation
and liberation are both men-
tioned in the kiddush prayer
which ushers in the Sabbath
every Friday evening.
It was only when the libera-
tion from Egypt was at hand
that we reached the great and
complete Sabbath, the Shab-
bat HaGadol, which up until
then had appeared only in
one of its themes, that of
Creation.
There are many other ex-
planations to the "greatness"
of this particular Sabbath.
The most convincing, how-
ever, is the one that suggests
that Shabbat HaGadol is
named for its haftorah, the

Shabbat Mezorah,
Shabbat Hagadol:
Leviticus
14:1-15:33
Malachi 3:4-24.

prophetic selection read on
this Sabbath. The haftorah
for Shabbat Hagadol is taken
from the last chapter of the
Book of Malachi which con-
cludes with words "Behold, I
am sending Elijah the pro-
phet, before that great day
comes," i.e. the dawning of the
Messianic era.
The haftorah for Shabbat
HaGadol is thus linked to the
story of Passover which is
commemorated the following
week. The redemption of old
foreshadows the future
redemption, and Moses of the
past is also a forerunner of
Elijah the prophet of the
forthcoming Messianic
redemption.
The haftorah of Shabbat
HaGadol dealing with the
Yom HaGadol, "the great
day" of redemption, provides
this Sabbath with its special
title. It also makes Elijah an
integral part of the Passover
seder, where a special cup of
wine, the fifth, is poured for
him in yearning and in an-
ticipation.

❑

If they will not admit me in
the Garden of Eden, I shall
get up on the roof of
Gehenna and recite Torah;
the righteous will gather
about me and the Garden of
Eden will be there.

—Baruch of Mezbizh

