“Moshe called to all the elders of Israel and said to them: Draw forth and take for yourselves one of the flock for your families and slaughter the Pesach.”
What, exactly, were the Bnei Yisrael “drawing forth? The Meshech Chochmah sees this as the moment that they moved to an orientation completely foreign to the ways of the surrounding pagan religions. He takes the opportunity to define, in his eyes, the essential nature of the Jewish faith as distinct from other ancient religions. Below is a summary
The difference between the faith of Jews and everyone else, explains Rav Meir Simcha, is as simple as the difference between the mind and the heart. The heart is moved by what it experiences. We attach labels to some of the stirrings we feel and speak of love, beauty, and courage. Ancient man stood in awe of the strength of the forces that surrounded him and that raged within. How did he deal with those forces whose power he could not understand? He turned each one into a god. Hence, there was a god of love and a god of beauty, and a god of courage. A human who excelled in one of these forces was known as a son of the equivalent god.
To this day, the belief systems of other people rely upon and build upon the emotions they can evoke. The soaring cathedrals, the artwork and tapestries with which they adorn their holy places – all these tap into the emotional responsiveness of the worshippers, increasing their attachment to each particular faith.
Avraham’s way was different. He understood that Hashem is not part of the created world in any way. He is without boundaries, limits, or restraints. He cannot be comprehended or understood; if He could, He would perforce have some commonality with the physical world. His existence is necessary, and all existence is contingent upon Him. He brings everything into existence from absolute nothingness. His Oneness is unique, unlike anything else known to man.
These notions are intellectual, not emotional. Nothing that we touch or feel propels them. They exist in our rational selves. To get there, we had to choose the dictates of the mind over the tugs of the heart. Our understanding of Hashem is a product of cognition. Its depth is such that, as the Chovos Halevavos (Shaar HaYichud, chap. 2) puts it, only the philosopher or prophet can grasp it fully. Nonetheless, all of Israel fully believes in His existence and His Oneness and testifies to it twice daily, despite these being entirely conceptual notions. They disparage the alternative mindsets sourced in emotion, seeing them as part of a limited, changeable physical creation that is nothing but a tool in the Hand of its Creator.
But what, in the approach of Rav Meir Simcha, becomes of our emotional reactions? Surely they hold great promise for us as well! We find the mission of emotions fulfilled through apportioning them to different mitzvos, which resonate with our emotional makeup. Love is channeled into love for our fellow man and to cement the family relationship and the commitment to peoplehood. Revenge is focused on the enemies of Hashem. Kindness is channeled toward helping those who need it.
Every emotion that typically resides within the human heart is given its due. Beauty is appreciated on Sukkos when we take the esrog, the “fruit of the beautiful tree.” Significantly, it is savored only for a week – after which it is discarded, unlike other mitzvah material, teaching us something about appreciating the esthetic but not overvaluing its importance.
The roles of mind and heart are memorialized in the garb of the kohen gadol. On his forehead – the seat of the intellect – he wore the tzitz, upon which was emblazoned kodesh le-Hashem, sanctified to Hashem. Man’s rational faculties are to be kept holy, directed at Torah study and prayer, and free of competing influences that can lead us astray from the focus on Hashem. On the choshen (breastplate), however, the kohen gadol carried the names of the tribes of Israel. Man’s heart and all the forces within it are directed at the mitzvos, the majority of which serve the unity of the nation.
Effectively, we thus crown the head as king over the body! We opt to follow the rational faculty, through which we discern the absolute Oneness of Hashem – something outside the realm of human experience.
We can paraphrase what Chazal (Tosefta, Berachos 4:16) say about Yehuda and apply it to Klal Yisrael as a whole: “How did the Jews merit kingship? Because they jumped into the sea.” In other words, jumping into the sea was an act of crowning the mind, which follows the word of Hashem, over our emotions. The Oneness of Hashem is thus raised above all other reactions.
Our Pasוk thus commands: “draw…and take.” Draw yourselves away from the way others approach the world, yielding to the dictates of emotions and imagination. Take those emotions and employ them in the life of the family and the love of fellow. Take a sheep for each household, which will also be shared with neighbors, stimulating the unity of the entire nation. In performing this avodah, all the feelings are channeled to the mitzvah, so that they are not free to challenge the faith of the mind and yield distorted images of Hashem.
