Karpas: Repentance. Purification, and Memory

Karpas: Repentance. Purification, and Memory

For those who know Hebrew please share you comments and criticisms of the translation below - not exactly literal but let me know if I managed to capture the ideas. For those who are less familiar with Hebrew your questions and comments are welcome. 

כרפס ר"ל שטובל ירק במי מלח לרמז דצריך ג"כ כרפס לטבילת כל גופו ר''ל לטהר לגמרי ולא כטובל ושרץ בידו ח"ו ומרמזין. בזה לזכרון, שישראל בארץ מצרים עובדי ע"ז היו. וכשהוציאם השי"ת משם כדי לקדש אותם בקבלת התורה היו צריכים בתחילה להסיר הטומאה מעליהם ולעשות תשובה ומהאי טעמא מטבל בירק לרמז שבעל תשובה צריך להיות עניו כירק השדה שנדרסין כדאיתא בשמות רבה.

 ע''כ נקרא כרפס היינו כ-רפס שהוא לשון דריסה ורמיסה או כרפס ב-שין שהוא טיט וקרקע עיין רש"י וביאור משלי ו' ומרמז בזה ג"כ לזכרון שישראל היו  במצרים נכנעים תחת ידם כ"כ כ-רפש ו טיט עוד יש לרמז במלת ד-רחץ כ'־רפס בתחילה רחיצה וטבילה ואח''כ הזאה כדמצינו בפרה אדומה דהזאה לטהר היתה באגודת אזוב. וכן כאן מטבל אגודת ירק לרמז. על הזאה וכן צוה במצרים להזאת דם על המשקוף ועל שתי המזוזות באזוב שנאמר ולקחתם אגודת אזוב.

וטעם הטיבול מרמז בזה אחר שקשטת אח עצמך ואז נאה לך לבוא אל (אוידיעןן) להראות למלך קודם שידבר לפניו שהוא עבדו ועשה כרצונו במצותיו. ע''כ מטבל בתחילה ירק במי מלח או בחומץ להראות שעדיין הוא בזכרונינו העת שהיינו בשפל המדרגה כשהיינו במצרים ויצאנו משם ועוד מעט אשר זכינו להיותינו במדרגה עליונה. ומרמז דבר והיפוכה שעבוד וחירות בתחלה וימררו את חיינו כשעבוד כחומץ ומי מלח ולבסוף ע''י זכות טבול ירק שקיימנו מצות הזאה על המשקוף וגו' ניצלנו כל ישראל ממכות בכורות ואח"כ יצאנו לחירות:

כרפס מרמז על השעבוד ומצינו טעם הלשון כרפס בהפוכה פרך ר"ל ששים רבוא היו בעבודת פרך. ולי נראה לרמז בנוטריקון פנים ואחור. פנים כרבוא פעמים ס, אחור סופם פרך. עוד. פנים. כלו רעמסס פתום ס ' רבוא אחור ס' רבוא פתום רעמסס כלו עוד רמז למיפרע בתחילה ס רבוא פה רך אבל סוף פרך:

Karpas: One dips green vegetables in salt water to symbolize that like karpas, we must undergo an entire immersion f one's body for the purpose of a complete purification. One should not be like the person who immerses himself with an impure reptile in his hand,[1] God forbid! This is an allusion to the fact that the Israelites were idolaters while they were in Egypt. When God took them out of Egypt in order sanctify them by giving them the Torah, it was necessary first to remove the impurity that was upon them and to have them perform complete repentance. One immerses the greens to symbolize the Baal Teshuvah (repentant) who  is as humble as the plants in the field which are trampled underfoot.

The greens are called karpas, which comes from the word for trampled over; or it is related to the word refes, spelled with a shin instead of a samech,  which is the word for mud or earth.[2] (See Rashi in Proverbs, 6) The Karpas is a reminder that the Israelites were humiliated by the Egyptians; they were like "mud and dirt."

The combination of the words rehatz and karpas also hint at the process of purification: first cleansing oneself, then immersion and finally 'sprinkling,' as we find in the law of the red heifer: the sprinkling of the ashes of the red heifer  mixed in water was done with a bunch of hyssop. (See Nu.19:18)  Here we dip a bunch of greens as an allusion to this ritual of purification. Similarly, the people were commanded in Egypt to dip some greens in the blood of the Passover lamb and to place the blood on the lintel and the doorposts of their homes, as it says, You shall take a bunch of hyssops.." (Ex. 12:22)

Another reason for dipping: Having preparing himself to go before the King, he now shows his allegiance and his willingness to obey the King's command. By dipping the greens in salt water or vinegar, he still remembers the time when he was humbled  while in Egypt and that God took us out of subjugation so that we could reach this exalted level. The dipping of karpas alludes to two opposing ideas, subjugation and freedom. First is symbolizes subjugation when our lives were like the vinegar or the salt water, and in the end it symbolizes the merit of dipping  the hyssop  when we fulfilled the commandment of placing the blood on the doorposts of our homes, so that Israel was saved from the death of the first born and afterwards they went forth to freedom.

Karpas is a code word for subjugation, which we learn by reading the word backwards; the letter samech followed by the word parech (oppression). This means that sixty (number value of samech) ten-thousands were forced to do oppressive labor. (Ex. 13) Another way that I interpret this word is as an abbreviation, both forward and backwards.     

פנים כרבוא פעמים ס ,אחור סופם פרך

First they were a people of sixty thousand; afterwards they were oppressed.

פנים. כלו רעמסס פתום ס ' רבוא  --  אחור ס' רבוא פתום רעמסס כלו

Another interpretation: read forward: sixty thousand finished the city of Ramses and Pitom and read backwards: sixty thousand finished Pitom and Ramses.

בתחילה ס רבוא פה רך אבל סוף פרך

Yet another allusion in the word karpas: In the beginning there were sixty thousand who were enticed by soft words. In the end sixty thousand were oppressed. (the words for soft word Peh rach and the word for oppression - parech - are the same Hebrew letters).

Commentary:

Rabbi Bondi finds several different ways of interpreting the dipping of the karpas in salt water or vinegar.

1. The dipping symbolizes the process of teshuvah. It had to be a complete and unadulterated immersion. Rabbi Bondi uses the expression, immersing oneself with a reptile in his hand. Obviously if one does this one is not purified by the immersion since the reptile is impure - is a useless act. Following on Kadesh and Rehatz, all three of these terms are types of purification. One must conduct ones immersion with humility just as the greens that one immerses are humble plants of the field.
2. Picking up on the theme of humility, the author suggests that the karpas is actually ki-refesh, 'like mud,' an allusion to how the Egyptians treated the Israelites. We are not only humble in the presence of God like the greens but we were humiliated by the Egyptians when we were slaves in Egypt.
3. The karpas is connected with the tenth plague - the death of the first born and the Passover offering.  It is also an allusion to the hyssop plants which were immersed in the blood of the paschal lamb and they brushed against the doorposts of the house on the night of the tenth plague.
4. By performing this act at the beginning of the Seder, we are showing God that we have not forgotten how he redeemed us from Egypt and we are also showing that we faithfully followed His instructions by killing the lamb and dipping the hyssop in its blood which was then placed on the doorposts of the house.
5. Finally, Rabbi Bondi plays with the letters of the word karpas, suggesting that it contains the entire story of the Exodus from subjugation to freedom.  He reads the letters both backwards and forwards (and from the inside out) finding hidden messages in these words. Unfortunately, there is no way to capture the cleverness of these different abbreviations.

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[1] Nedarim 75b Tovel V'sheretz B'yado  By Avi Lebowitz; See  http://hearos.blogspot.com/2008/03/nedarim-75b-tovel-vsheretz-byado.html The Gemara clearly assumes that when there is a paradox caused by the mikva and sheretz (an impure reptile), even if he enters his immersion being tahor and in the mikva grabs onto a sheretz, the sheretz overpowers the mikvah and prevents the mikvah from being purifying him. This is what the Gemara means that a mikvah does not prevent tu'mah, impurity (it only removes tu'mah once the source has been removed). Therefore, regarding teshuvah it is a very good illustration, because one must let go of the sin before starting the teshuvah (repentance). If he does teshuvah while still holding the sin, the teshuvah process is ineffective.

[2] The first letter of karpas becomes a prefix, used for "like." Thus the word can now be understood as "Like refesh" the people were treated like mud in Egypt.