Shevii and Shemini Shel Pesach

Parasha Thoughts

By Rabbi David Shasho

The seventh day of Passover marks the day when many miracles were performed for our forefathers at the Red Sea. Rabbi Avigdor Miller says that we are in this world only to become more and more aware of Hashem. And so Hakodosh Boruch Hu wants us to sing to Him in gratitude when He takes nekama (revenge) for us, because that’s one of the more important methods of gaining tangible awareness of Him.

Now, there’s no question that it’s a loss – it’s Hashem’s handiwork drowning in the sea. Those are human beings that were drowning! They’re not just a slabs of meat. It was people, with families. Hashem was drowning real people for our benefit. And therefore it is incumbent upon us that we recognize that Hashem is expending his creatures for us, so that we should grow in awareness of Him.

But not that we should feel in any way sad that the Egyptians are drowning – the loss of human life is only accentuated so that we should realize how vital it is to make use of this event. Hashem wants us to sing to Him. That’s why He did it. And if Moshe Rabeinu hadn’t led the Bnei Yisroel in shira, Hashem would have said: “My handiwork is drowning in the sea and you’re not singing songs to Me?!”

We are very happy with what happened to Mitzrayim. We sing every day Az Yashir. Even on Chol Ha’moed we sing Az Yashir. Not half Az Yashir, the whole thing! And we’re very happy. It says בשמחה רבה! We sing the song of gratitude with great happiness. We sing ירדו במצולות כמו אבן. They went down into the depths like stone, like lead. We’re very happy that they drowned. We sing and we rejoice that they drowned. We’re not sorry at all that they drowned.

And when Haman was hung up, nobody was going to be sorry for Haman. And all the resha’im of the world are the same. והזדים מהרה תעקר ותשבר ותמגר ותכניע במהרה בימינו. In that beracha we say מהרה three times. More than we say for anything else. And that’s because we have to get rid of the resha’im.
And that’s why Dovid Hamelech didn’t say הללויה until he saw the punishment of the wicked. Dovid waited until chapter קד, he waited till the 104th chapter to say הללויה. All those chapters he said, but he couldn’t say הללויה. Only when he came to יתמו חטאים מן הארץ ורשעים עוד אינם – “The wicked be destroyed from the land, and there will be no more resha’im.” “Ohhh, now I can say ברכי נפשי את השם הללויה,” said David. “Now I can praise Hashem” (Brachos 9b).

So now we know that real happiness is not when Hashem does us favors. That’s not enough. We have to see the revenge because that’s how we see Hashem; that’s how Hashem becomes real to us. When Moshiach will come it’s not enough that we’ll go back to Eretz Yisroel. That’s not enough. We’ll have to see the nekamah (revenge) on the gentiles for what they did to us. Especially in Europe. We must see the nekamah. And it’s going to be a tremendous nekamah. לעשות נקמה בגוים תוכחות בלאומים. Hakodosh Boruch Hu, in order to show that He’s a shofet tzedek (righteous judge), must justify his judgement by meting out a tremendous punishment that they deserve to get. And it will happen; it will happen. Chag Sameach!