Entry tags:

language, pesach

A famous line from the Maggid section of the seder is:

בכל דור ודור חיב אדם לראות את עצמו כאלו הוא יצא ממצרים

In every generation a person is obligated to see himself as if he himself had come out of Egypt...

Some versions have not לראות, lir'ot, to see, but להראות, le-har'ot, to represent. Le-har'ot is what King Achashverosh wanted to do to Queen Vashti in the Megillah - remember? - to show her off to everyone. In every generation a person is obligated to represent himself publicly as if he himself had come out of Egypt.

See the difference? The one is purely internal. When I see myself as having come out of Egypt, no-one else can tell. The other is public. When I represent myself as having come out of Egpyt, everyone knows.

Accordingly, for next year I want to make T-shirts for our seder: The Holy One brought me out of Egypt and all I got was this lousy T-shirt.