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דְּצַ"ךְ עַדַ"שׁ בְּאַחַ"ב
Contributed by Miriam Shaviv

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Every year, when we got to this point in the Haggadah, we would read the following excerpt from the Breslov Haggadah - and laugh about it. I have no idea what it has to do with the story of the Exodus, but tradition is tradition!

Trying to advance in Jewishness too far, too fast, can be disastrous. We take on modes of behaviour far beyond our inner nature. Then, we either delude ourselves and lose contact with our inner selves, or we break down when our souls rebel. Either way, we lose control of our minds. And sometimes, our sanity.

The royal prince had inexplicably lost his sanity. Thinking he was a turkey, he sat crouched and naked under the table, pecking at bones and crumbs. The royal physicians gave up all hope of curing him of this madness, and the king suffered tremendous grief. Then a sage came and offered to cure the prince.

The sage undressed and sat under the table. The prince now had company. "Who are you?" asked the prince. "What are you doing here?" 

"And you?" replied the sage. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm a turkey," stated the prince.

"So am I!" the sage declared. 

They sat together for quite some time, until they became good friends. Certain that he had won the prince's confidence, the sage signalled the king's servants to throw him two shirts. He said to the prince, "What makes you think that a turkey can't wear a shirt? You can wear a shirt and still be a turkey." So they put on shirts, still sitting under the table pecking at bones and crumbs.

After a while, the sage again signalled and two pairs of trousers were thrown under the table. Just as before, he said, "What makes you think that a turkey must go without trousers?"

The sage continued in this manner until they were both completely dressed. Then he signalled one more time, and they were given regular food from the table. Again the sage said, "What makes you think that a turkey is doomed to eat only crumbs and bones? You can eat whatever you want and still be a turkey!" They both ate the food.

Finally, the sage said, "What makes you think a turkey must sit under the table? Even a turkey can sit at the table."

... And we all know that if you can sit at a table, you're not a turkey . The sage continued in this manner until the prince was completely cured. (Rabbi Nachman's Stories no. 25)

We were overanxious. In search of instant Jewishness. Perhaps too proud to work on ourselves gradually, unable to accept our present difficulty. We did not know the rule of Gradual Progression.

We must listen to the sage who advises us to change slowly, but surely. The self image which we create in the process will then have the time to penetrate deeper and become our inner nature.

Perhaps the events in Egypt should have been different. God surely could have brought all the plagues at once. Or, He could have immediately subdued the Egyptians by smiting them with the final plague right at the outset. But the actual scenario was neither of these. And it shouldn't have been.

After each plague there was a respite ( Rashi, Exodus 7:25 ). A chance for Pharaoh to reconsider. A chance for the Jewish People to internalise the lesson. After all, it is the "Egyptian" within that the   Jew needs to elevate (Sefer Baal Shem Tov, Va'era, 4). Each plague, each lesson, is a preliminary for the next. Each requires knowledge of the preceding. If the Egyptian would have been subdued otherwise, the Jew would not have learned his lesson.

This, then, is Rabbi Yehudah's message. He is nont merely telling us the obvious acronym for the plagues, grouping them according to their actual order of appearance (their order in Psalms 78 and 105 being different). No, Rabbi Yehudah wants to draw our attention to something more. Note the sequence of the lessons - their preciseness and progressiveness (Shiboley HaLeket, Orach Chaim no. 218 ). This is the rule of Gradual Progression - applied.
haggadah Section: -- Ten Plagues
Source: The Breslov Haggadah

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