The story is told of an American Army unit which fought near Paris during the Second World War. Preparations were accomplished in the most thorough fashion. Battalion “D” was as ready as it ever would be. The men were trained, armed to the teeth, and assured of more than enough air and artillery support. As Zero Hour approached, the men’s confidence increased, and they felt sure that their objective would be achieved within three days. The actual story, however, was different. For two days later, Battalion “D” was in full and ignominious retreat. The mission was a failure. When an investigation was later made, it was discovered that the defeat was due to the fact that a key man, who was a scout, going ahead of the others, had forgotten his compass, and as a result, he lost his way. And when you lose your way in the thick of battle, no amount of preparation can pull through. The moral of the story, my friends, is that in every major battle in life, the most important preparations are those of the map and the compass. You have got to know what you are looking for and where you are going. And more so is this time of the great battles for freedom. On this Passover Day, we celebrate the liberation of Israel from the House of Slavery, and the Freedom G-d granted to us, as we draw new encouragement and inspiration to ever strengthen ourselves in all of Life’s fights for Freedom, we must remember to take along our compass, to know just what we want to achieve; for “Freedom” as such is an abstraction. We must reduce it to its basic elements if it is to be ours.
And I would say that the compass we Jews take along with us in our great quests for Freedom has three dials, each directing us to a great goal in this fight. These three are the three most fundamental elements of our Passover Observance – Pesach, Matzoh, Marror. Perhaps we could offer a formula for what they represent – the three T’s: Time, Tenacity, and Tactic.
The first of these is Pesach, the special Passover sacrifice of the Paschal lamb. The important aspect of this sacrifice is that before you were permitted to offer it up, you had to be sure that you had already disposed of the Chametz. The Pesach could not be sacrificed while Chametz was still about. The point here is one of TACTIC – you have to get rid of the Evil in your own home before doing the good and preaching it elsewhere. That is the Jewish order of things. Sur me’ra, says David, va’asei toc, first depart from Evil, then do good. A do-gooder strikes a false note if he still has Chametz in his pocket or soul.
How often do people try to Asei Tov without first achieving the Sur Me’Ra?
- McCarran Bill
- Orthodox criticism of Conservative (One thing more important than kosher shul is kosher home, and one thing more important than kosher home is kosher soul).
The first direction – pointer, then, on our compass in the Battle for Freedom is TACTIC, the fact that first things come first, that you must leave evil before doing good, that you must not criticize your neighbor’s cleanliness until you have swept your own house clean. The Pesach is invalid if it is al ha’chametz.
The second of the three is Matzoh. This is the second of the two T’s on our Freedom Compass, and that is Time. The difference between Matzoh and Chametz, as you probably know, is that Chametz is Matzoh which was left to ferment a little longer, as a result of which the dough rises. If you do not bake the Matzos quickly enough, you have Chametz. Exceptional care must be observed that Time is well accounted for. But this is not true for only baking. It is true for all of life, and particularly those aspects of life recalled by the Matzoh – our Freedom. It was indeed in the great battle for Freedom known as WW II that embittered patriots of democracies moaned: “too little and too late.” “Too late” is the Chametz which invalidates the Seder of Democracy.
Where Time is neglected, Freedom is rejected. Indeed, when the Torah writes: ushmartem es ha’matzos, you shall take care of the Matzos, our Rabbis play on the word Matzos and paraphrase that verse, saying, ushmartem es ha’mitzvos, you shall take care of the commandments. The rest of Chametz, of “too little and too late,” is not only the bane of Passover but the nemesis of Freedom itself. Chametz always meant, to the Rabbis, not only the tardiness of the baker of Matzos, but the tardiness of anyone presented with the opportunity of doing good. Mitzvah ha’baan le’yadcha al tachmitzena, if the opportunity to perform a good deed presents itself to you, do not let it become Chametz, don’t let it sour on you.
How important is this principle of not letting a Mitzvah turn sour: The Jew is always warned ushmartem, take care, be wary. Hassidim tell of a famous Rebbe… Shaale: milk instead of wine for 4 kossos? Rebbe gave him $10.00. Wife: Why? One dollar is enough for both seders full of milk. Rabbi: I didn’t want to wait for him to have to come back again for a donation. Wife: But how do you know he is such a poor man? Rebbe: If asked if milk for wine, sign he’s not eating meat at seder … That is ushartem. Look deep into a man’s soul: he may need your help – and now. Matzoh, Time, is the second of the three compasses.
And the last of them is Marror. This symbolizes Tenacity, the ability to hold on and continue. For one of the characteristics of these Bitter Herbs, according to Chazal, is techilasso massok ve’soffo mar, it tastes sweet in the beginning, but bitter at the end. Many people start out with the Massok, sweet and strong and confident. But, Oh, how many of these wind up Soffo Mar, bitter and weak and frustrated. It is against this tendency to big beginnings and little endings that Marror warns: you must have tenacity. “And the beginnings shall be meager”, writes the author of the Book of Job, “ve’acharischa yisgeh me’od,” but the latter end shall be great.” A meager beginning nourished and nurtured well can make for a grand finale. A colossal start, neglected, can result in an insignificant fizz. The difference is: Tenacity. This Tenacity, what the engineers call “staying power,” has long been adopted by the Jew as a method of survival. For our beginnings are shrouded in smallness. In the words of the Mishna, commenting on the Passover Hagadah, poaching bi’gnus umesaymin be’shvach, the Hagadah begins with a story of which we are ashamed, and finishes with praise. Yes, we admit that avadim hayinu, that we were slaves – and slaves to Pharaoh at that: We did not start out in History as a proud and free people. We confess that mitchilla ovdei avidah zara hayu avoseinu, that our first ancestors were idol-worshippers. But look what happened to us, as a result of our Tenacity, as a result of our taking to heart the warning of the Marror, that sweet beginnings might have bitter endings: From slaves, we have become a people whose dedication to the ideals of Freedom sustained us thru 2000 years of Exile and guided us to the State of Israel. From idol-worshippers, we have become the world’s greatest monotheistic religion. We have reversed the Marror. Our beginnings have been bitter; our ends, thank G-d, sweet.
If there be anyone who questions the Tenacity to Freedom and his staying power which builds up weak starts to grand finales, just recall a great and historic event which occurred only a very few years ago on this 1st day of Passover. I refer to the Uprising of the Warsaw Ghetto. Here was a haggard, hungry, tormented lot of people who had been taught to submit to the last of the taskmasters as a lamb to the slaughterer. All over Europe, 6 million – and let that magic number of horror ever remain emblazoned in our memories – 6 million went to their ghastly deaths without ever murmuring a complaint, without the barest whisper of protest. They were crushed men and women, those martyrs, and, besides, they had not the strength to fight back. Meager beginnings indeed. Here, there were traditions of heroic resistance, no epic poems to inspire us to war, and no Maquis or Partisans to build the morale. Weak beginnings. And yet from those weak beginnings, a handful of determined souls staged the most courageous revolt recorded in the annals of man’s battle against tyranny. Those martyrs died with guns in their hands, with the shma on their lips, and with a shower of glory bequeathed to Eternity. How? As a result of the tenacious and determined encouragement of the best in each of them, of a refusal to surrender to bitter fate, of gas chambers, of the insistence upon making the glorious best of bitter beginnings.
The three pointers to Freedom, the three T’s on the compasses of Free Men, are, then, pesach, matzoh, marror – Tactic, Time, and Tenacity. With these three, let us gain courage as we marshal our forces for the great battles for Freedom that lie ahead. With the Tactic of ridding ourselves of Evil before attempting to export Good, with the knowledge that Time is of the essence in the battle for Freedom, and with the Tenacity that the struggle requires of us, we have no recourse but, with the help of G-d, to succeed.
