The Simple Child and the Law of the First Born

The Simple Child and the Law of the First Born:

Two Explanations

Students of the Haggadah have long been curious about the simple child's question. His question, taken from Exodus 13, is not related to the celebration of the Passover Seder at all but to the law of the first born. When he learns that the firstborn of the herd must be sacrificed while the first born of the Israelites may be redeemed and asks, "What does this mean,"  he  is not wondering about the Seder or Passover eve at all.

Exodus 13:11-15  And when the Lord has brought you into the land of the Canaanites, as He swore to you and to your fathers, and has given it to you,  you shall set apart for the Lord every  first issue of the womb: every male firstling that your cattle drop shall be the Lord's. But every firstling ass you shall redeem with a sheep; if you do not redeem it, you must break its neck.  And you must redeem every first-born male among your children. And when, in time to come,  your son asks you, saying, 'What does this mean?' you shall say to him, 'It was with a mighty hand that the Lord brought us out from Egypt, the house of bondage. When Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the Lord slew every first-born in the land of Egypt, the first-born of both man and beast. Therefore I sacrifice to the Lord every first male issue of the womb, but redeem every first-born among my sons.'

On the surface of it, it seems obvious that the firstborn belonged to God because God saved the Israelite firstborn during the tenth plague. It may also seem obvious to him why God would allow the firstborn Israelites to be redeemed while the firstborn of their herds remained sacred property. Rabbi Moshe Yonah Bondi, father of the commentary's author, adds a twist to this explanation: for him the essence of the plague was not the plague itself but the sacrifice which was offered before the plague began. It represented the death of Egypt's god; the gods of Egypt were powerless to stop the God of Israel. Rabbi Bondi now goes on to show why this explanation is not as simple as it first appears.

My apologies: Passover is quickly approaching so I am not going to continue including the Hebrew text of this commentary along with the translation in this blog. If you are interested in seeing the Hebrew text, please contact me and I will email you a PDF of the text.

Translation

The following teaching was offered by my father and teacher, Rabbi Moshe Yonah Bondi, on the Haggadah's answer brings to the simple child : "It was with a mighty hand that the Lord brought us out from Egypt, the house of bondage." (Exodus 13:14)

The passage from Exodus continues: "When Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the Lord slew every firstborn in the land of Egypt, the first-born of both man and beast. Therefore I sacrifice to the Lord every first male issue of the womb, but redeem every first-born among my sons."  What is the connection between the simple child's question and the answer which Scripture offers to his question?

Furthermore, these verses deserve further analysis. After saying that 'God brought us out of Egypt,' the Torah goes back and mentions that Pharaoh 'stubbornly refused to let us go.' These verses appear to be out of order!

The reason for the law of the firstborn is the same for Israelites and their animals: we offer the firstborn to God because they were saved from the tenth plague which struck Egypt. Yet the law is different for the person and for the animal. It is it permissible to redeem the firstborn Israelite with money paid to the kohen while the firstborn of the animals cannot be redeemed. The firstborn animal is sanctified. Portions must be sacrificed and the remainder was eaten by the kohanim, the priests. Why were humans and animals treated differently?  Weren't both initially sanctified because they were not put to death in Egypt?  This law does not need an explanation; the reason for this would be obvious even to the simple child. So why the different treatment of a person and the animal?

Which was more significant: the redemption of the firstborn Israelites or the  redemption of firstborn animals of the Israelites? Whichever is more significant deserves to have the praise of God as well as the statements of thanksgiving offered over it. Also, in the case of the object of the greater miracle, one should offer an explanation for why we were given a sign and a reminder of redemption. Such an explanation is unique in the Torah; we do not find this type of explanation for other commandments.

The primary act was the saving of the firstborn animals. This commandment to sanctify the firstborn was given to the Israelites to inform them that it was specifically as a result of the tenth plague that Israel was freed from Egypt. It was necessary for God to harden the heart of Pharaoh prior to this plague more than any other. The Egyptians were already exhausted from the other plagues and said to Pharaoh, "How long shall this one be a snare to us…are you not aware that Egypt is lost?" (Exodus 10:7)

This tenth plague was an attack on the gods of Egypt. That is why this plague occurred after the other plagues. The slaughtering of the lambs in Egypt was a meant to cause the Egyptians to err. When the Israelites brought the sacrifice, they began slaughtering the god of Egypt, as is written: "For what we sacrifice is untouchable to the Egyptians before their very eyes." (Exodus 8:22) The purpose of the sacrifice, then, was for the Israelites to slaughter the god of the Egyptians before their eyes.

The Israelites should have been punished by the Egyptians for doing this. Yet, when the Egyptians saw the Israelites slaughtering the lambs they stood by; their hearts had melted in them. Up until now they thought that only they were affected by the plagues; they knew that even their gods were being punished. They now understood that their punishment could only have come from the Holy One for the sake of Israel, to redeem them from Egypt. The Egyptians no longer needed to check and see if the firstborn animals of the Israelites were affected by this plague.

As a result, the death of the livestock was more significant and more deserving of praise and thanksgiving. That is why the firstborn herds of the Israelites had to be sacrificed and given to the priests while the firstborn of the Israelites could be redeemed. The verse in Scripture alludes to this: "Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the Lord slew every first-born in the land of Egypt." God caused this plague to harden Pharaoh's heart even more than Pharaoh had already hardened his own heart.   Pharaoh was depending on his gods to punish the Israelites but when the firstborn of the herd died it was proof that Israel's God was more powerful than the Egyptian gods. The Holy One brought judgment on the gods of the Egyptians and that was truly God's intention to redeem the Israelites from Egypt.  That is "why I bring the first born of the males as a sanctified portion for God and the priests while the first born of their children could be redeem. " This is a fine explanation; my father's words speak from the grave.

With God's help, I will now offer my own answer to these questions: Why does the simple child means when he asks, "What is this," regarding the commandment of the firstborn? Furthermore, since the essence of the answer to the simple child's question is, "When Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the Lord slew every first-born in the land of Egypt, the first-born of both man and beast," why are these words left out of the Haggadah? Why isn’t this written first in the answer, followed by, 'It was with a mighty hand that the Lord brought us out from Egypt, the house of bondage?" Why does the Haggadah only bring the first part of the Torah's answer, especially since the essence of the answer is missing from the text.

The Torah offers this answer in order to put more emphasis on this plague rather than on the other plagues in which the death of livestock occurred, such as pestilence. Regarding  pestilence, the Torah explicitly says, "Not one of the livestock of the Israelites died." (Ex 9:5-6) How is the saving of livestock during the tenth plague any different from the saving of the livestock during the fifth plague, pestilence? In fact, regarding the fifth plague the Torah says, "All of the livestock of the Egyptians died." One might argue that the fifth plague was even more miraculous than the tenth plague. The tenth plague only involved the death of firstborn of the herds while the rest of the livestock was unharmed. The miracle would not have seemed so miraculous since some of the Egyptian livestock survived during the tenth plague, just like the Israelite livestock. 

This is why the simple child now asks, "What is this?" He wonders, why does the Torah differentiate the tenth plague from the other plagues in which the livestock died such as wild animals (arov), pestilence (dever), and hail (barad). In all of these plagues God protected the livestock of the Israelites and killed the livestock of the Egyptians. Why does the Torah provide a special remembrance for the tenth plague and not the other plagues. Why do we have a special ritual (the sanctification of the firstborn) to commemorate the tenth plague and to single it out?   

The commandment to sanctify the firstborn is not just a commemoration for the saving of the firstborn livestock. It is also a reminder that the tenth plague represented the beginning of the Exodus. This was not the case with the other plagues. It was the tenth plague that brought about the final Exodus. It was with the punishing of the first born that God brought about judgment, measure for measure, as we saw above. It wasn’t until they saw that God exacted judgment that all of Israel gave thanks. Because of this, Pharaoh said to Moses and Aaron, "Go forth from my people," and the Egyptians pressed them to leave. This did not happen during the other plagues.

When the Torah says: 'It was with a mighty hand that the Lord brought us out from Egypt, the house of bondage," it is not clear which of plagues led to the Exodus.  It is only in the second part of the passage, "When Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the Lord slew every firstborn in Egypt, the first-born of both man and beast," that we know that it is the tenth plague that caused the Exodus. The second passage makes it clear that the commandment of the firstborn commemorates the tenth plague. Each of the plagues represented a deliverance of sorts, but only the tenth plague was the final deliverance from Egypt. Only then did it become clear that it was the hand of God that caused all these plagues.