Parashat Bo

Parashat Bo
Shevat 4, 5772 ~ January 28, 2012
Todd Wilkof

Shimurim Nights

“It is a night of ‘shimurim’ for Hashem to bring them out from the land of Mitzrayim: this was Hashem’s night; a ‘shimurim’ for all the Children of Israel for their generations.” Parsha Bo, 12:42

The verse quoted above is one of many in Parsha Bo that refers to the night of Pesach. Most if not all of these references are prescriptive- they address the what, when and why of the commandment to observe Pesach.

But this passage seems different. I suggest that it serves as a central source text to the Haggadah itself, and that the Haggadah’s authors divined an inner logic in these lines that guided them in their composition.

The Haggadah’s authors might have been particularly struck by the juxtaposition of the double use of the word shimurim: “A night of shimurim for Hashem” and a “shimurim for all the Children of Israel for their generations.” The juxtaposition insists on a unique relationship between the two nights and it is this relationship which the Haggadah captures and elaborates upon. The authors manage to evoke the full range of possible meanings of shimurim and then explore and dramatize our relationship to those meanings within the Seder experience. That is a mouthful, I admit. Let’s see if we can make sense of it.

Let’s begin with how our commentators understood the word shimurim.

Rashi identifies the word as a derivative of ‘lishmor’- to guard, translating Leil Shimurim as a “night of keepings.” Since G-d always had the redemption from Egypt in mind, and had in effect penciled in the date, a night of shimurim for Hashem is to be understood as Hashem having kept this night in memory until its ultimate fulfillment.

The Ramban agrees with Rashi’s translation and adds to it. He suggests that shimurim is used as it was in Parsha Vayeshev. Upon hearing Yosef’s dreams, the brothers were jealous of him but his father “shamar et hadavar.” Yakov, that is, not merely kept the matter of the dreams in mind, he ‘waited expectantly’ for their fulfillment. In the same way, a night of shimurim implies that Hashem kept in mind and eagerly awaited the time when the Children of Israel would be worthy of redemption

In another translation, the Ibn Ezra comments that ‘Leil Shimurim' should be understood literally, as a night of ‘watchfulness.’ G-d “watched over” Am Yisrael to ensure that the final plague, the killing of the firstborn, passed over them.

The Or HaChaim HaKodosh‘s sense of the term is a slight variation of these others, suggesting the night of shimurim indicates a particular night that Hashem “reserved” for miraculous occurrences. He sights five miracles that are alluded to in each line of the verse:

“It is a night reserved for miracles:” Abraham defeated four kings with only 318 men

“To bring them out from the land of Mitzrayim” -Hashem kills the first born at midnight

“This was Hashem’s night”- In the days of Chikiyahu, the angel Gabriel smote the army of Sancheriv on this very same night of the escape from Egypt

"A night of shimurim for all the Children of Israel”- King Achashveirosh could not sleep on this night. This event led to the downfall of Haman

“For their generations”- the future redemption of the Jewish People.

And still another understanding of shimurim comes from a teaching in Shemot Rabbah (18:11). Commenting on our verse, the Beit HaLevi says “In this world, He performs miracles for the Jews at night, for they are transient miracles. In the future, He will perform miracles for them by day, for they will be permanent miracles.”

This Talmud teaching goes on to explain why the redemption from Egypt must be considered a lesser, transient miracle. The departure from Egypt, says the Beit HaLevi, was granted to Am Yisrael prematurely. It took place at the end of 210 years of slavery, not the 400 years originally decreed and prophesized to Avraham. (Many commentators disagree with the 210 year calculation) This “early” redemption came because the Israelites were spiritually degenerating so fast that they threatened to become irredeemable had the Almighty waited any longer. When The Talmud calls 'Leil Shimurim' “a night of watching” it is emphasizing this tempered and incomplete nature of the redemption from Egypt. Shimurim here suggests an observing of the night’s events as an act of waiting for the greater liberation to come; Hashem executes the action while keeping in mind that an outstanding debt of exile remains unpaid.

On Pesach night we hearken back to G-d’s ‘Leil Shimurim,’ guided by a text that manages to include and interweave all the meanings our commentators uncovered. We explore themes that recount His “keepings,” His “expectant waiting,” His “watchfulness,” His “miraculous protection” and His “anticipation of a full and final redemption.” But of course a Seder requires much more than a recounting of these themes. It is to be a night set aside for all generations; it is to be a collective experience; it is to be observed by worshipping Him through the eating of the Passover-offering, the remembering of miracles and the reciting of praise and thanksgiving. The Haggadah’s authors needed to introduce all these obligations into our Seder experience. Moreover they needed to construct the text in a way that would allow generations of readers to personally identify with and internalize these obligations.

I suggest the authors determined that this passage from Bo had something essential to teach about how to embed these multiple obligations within the Haggadah. When they looked into the construction of this passage they saw a seamless interchange between two dimensions, G-d’s experience of His night and the night to be experienced by the “Children of Israel for their generations.” Reacting to the absence of an “and“ in the passage, that would mark a separation between the two nights, they discovered that the commandment to commemorate Pesach could best be achieved by connecting the two dimensions as one. Then they designed the Seder experience to do just that. G-d’s night of shimurim demonstrates an exertion of His direct involvement, out of faithfulness and compassion for Israel- and so the authors assured that during our night of shimurim we too exert personal involvement, faithfulness and compassion for Him. As His night demonstrated that all natural forces are at His disposal, so the Haggadah invites us to deploy discussion, exploration, questioning, imagination, tactile experience, thanks, praise and so on to demonstrate the full range and depth of our resources. And just as Hashem experienced His night with eyes that saw both the past and the future in a single vision, so our Seder night merges our history into a future vision of a world under His sovereignty.

The Sages that predated our Haggadah saw the journey from slavery to freedom as the seminal moment marking our eternal covenantal relationship with G-d. They taught that Pesach’s commemoration requires that we see ourselves as though we made this journey, actively experiencing it rather than merely recounting the Exodus story year after year. The authors of the Haggadah then determined that the obligation to draw these two lessons together is the heart of the Seder. Through text and ritual they created a way of describing, dramatizing and ultimately experiencing the inextricable role G-d and man play together in the redemption process. What they made possible is a night of shimurim for Hashem, a shimurim for all the Children of Israel for their generations.

With Thanks to Rav David Milston (The Three Pillars, Sefer Shemot) for his discussion on the multiple interpretations of the word shimurim.