Four appears often and there are many answers but one answer is that there are four people who bench Gomel: sea voyagers, travelers through a desert, freed prisoners, and people who recover from an illness. We were all four of those leaving. 

The word Haggadah (telling) can also mean pulling because we want to pull the miracles into the next generations. 

The Zohar says that on Pesach, everything is surrounded by speaking, “tell over the story”, that is where the term came from, Pe Sach, the mouth that spoke. Speech is an expression of the body and neshama. Pharaoh tried to come in between our head and heart, that is the neck. That is why horeph,(neck) is the same letter as pharaoh. Maybe this is why we read shir hashirim on pesach, specifically something that comes from the mouth.

Hashem told the Jewish people to ask them for their valuables. This implies that the Jews needed encouragement to take it. Why? Hashem had to make them because we may not have wanted any reminder of their difficult past. Nevertheless, Hashem wanted them to accept these riches to teach them that they should not deny their past. Rather, the proper response to difficult past events is to accept them and then turn them into positive experiences. This answers another difficult question. Why is it called chag hamatzot and not something about freedom? Because we don't celebrate our freedom by forgetting our past. We do so by specifically remembering our past enslavement in order to grow from it. 

Parshat Vayichi is the only parsha with a stuma, because it symbolizes the beginning of Galus. Parshat Bishalach, by the Shira, had open space by every line. This is because it is the beginning of redemption. Why is it like this? By galus we had no time for thinking, which is why there is a stuma. While by beshalach we had time to stop and think about what we are doing, and that is how we can accomplish geula. 

Rashi says that we were armed leaving mitzrayim. If the Jews were leaving armed for war, why didn’t Hashem command them to fight with the mitzrayim, and Hashem would help them, and the Jews can win in a natural way? Why was it necessary for Hashem to make such a big miracle, to split the sea and drown and his army? It is not right for us to fight mitzrayim. We owe some sort of hakarat hatov because they hosted us. That is what the pasuk is telling us, we left armed and dangerous, and nonetheless, Hashem did not want us to wage war against them, rather Hashem split the sea for us.

Why an egg for the remembrance of a Chagigah Karban in the Bais Hamikdash? Since we can’t bring a Chagigah now, we are at the bottom of the egg but eventually we will continue around the egg to the top and soon we will get to bring the actual Chagigah. Another answer: According to At Bash (את בש First and last letter, second and second to last letter) The day of the week that the first day א of Pesach falls out on for example this year on Thursday will also be the day of the week for ת Tishah B’Av. Meaning that Tishah B’Av will also be on a Thursday. Therefore we are mourning the destruction of the Bais Hamikdash so we eat eggs because we are now at the bottom of the egg but eventually we will continue around the egg to the top and soon we will have the Bais Hamikdash again.

What is the significance of the word Seder?

Are the four ways to explain the Torah פרדס 

Simple=פשט=פ

Hints=רמז=ר

Deeper drashot=דרש=ד

Secrets=סוד=ס

Seder has the same letters but pishat-simple is missing because of course we should say the simple story but we should go deeper into the story also.


haggadah Section: Introduction