Seder night is here. I begin to read the Passover Haggadah with uncontained emotion.  I read the story of the Ten Plagues, blood, frogs, wild beasts, etc. I delight upon listening to the song "Ma Nishtana", and hum its beautiful melody. I read the description of the four types of sons in the Torah, and the tale of prodigious miracles. Then, when everything seems so peaceful, when I get to the story of a People, who suffered so much at the hands of villains, and whose God heard their complaints, and mercifully rescued them and punished their persecutors in kind….Surprise!

A surprise propped up in the form of a verse from the Torah and a passage from the Haggadah.

"Blessed is He who keeps the promise He made to Israel, blessed be He. The Creator calculated the ultimate time of our deliverance, so as to abide by the terms of the covenant he made with our Patriarch Avraham "between portions", as it is written:

God said to Abraham, "Know well that your descendants will be strangers in a foreign land for four hundred years. They will be enslaved and oppressed, but in the end, I will judge the nation that enslaved them, and they will leave with great wealth. " "

"Blessed is he who keeps his promise," says the Haggadah, blessing the Creator for the promise He made to Avraham Avinu, that after 400 years of servitude, his descendants would be liberated from Egypt. Blessed be He. "But suddenly, I thought, baffled: "am I reading right? God not only promised Geula, redemption to Avraham, He first promised him Galut, exile, slavery and torture, and for many years. "

And all that to keep a promise

The Egyptian exile and its forced labor upon our People are the reason we celebrate our deliverance every Passover. The latter did not occur thanks to Pharaoh's overflowing imagination, as it seems. The Pesach festival does not mark the story of a people who fortuitously suffered a series of tribulations and trials, but who was saved the moment their persecutors broke through the threshold of bad taste. Nor is it just a story of extraordinary plagues, miraculous prodigies, "with a strong hand and an extended arm," blood, frogs, and the opening of the Red Sea. Although all these events took place to testify to God’s omnipotence, this is not the essence of the story. Pesach commemorates the fulfillment of a Divine promise, made hundreds of years ago, which was enacted word for word.

A script that was written many years earlier

The Pesach holiday is the story of the fulfillment of a detailed script. There is mention of Yaakov Avinu’s descent into Egypt, accompanied by his family. There is mention of slavery and torture, of Pharaoh's decrees, of the grueling work of the Jewish people, and yes, the Geula is also mentioned, as well as the ten plagues, and even the value of the treasures the Jews would take with them upon leaving Egypt.

These events transpired exactly as planned...Neither more nor less

Pharaoh’s enslavement tactics and added sanctions did not amount to much. Neither did the B'nai Israel’s dreams of freedom nor their escape plans. What was written down happened to the letter. What was promised in advance was manifested in reality, and in great detail. Pharaoh enslaved the Hebrews during the lapse of time set by the Almighty's promise to Abraham. And slavery ended precisely when the period in question transpired and the moment of liberation arrived. The people of Israel earned the privilege of deliverance because of a promise, the plagues only occurred because they were mentioned in the script. "But in the end, I will judge the nation that enslaved them" and the Jews were received great abundance, "They will come out with great riches," not a minute before, not a minute later. No more no less. What was written is exactly what happened.

Everything is decided in advance

Let's apply this lesson to ourselves...to the story of our lives. Whatever our circumstances, our social status, our financial position, our profession, our place of residence, everything has been promised, planned, and predetermined in advance. A number of "promises made in advance" are included in the Torah. Some circumstances were determined for a man before his birth, which was fixed on Rosh Hashanah, and the rest of his journey was predetermined day by day. But one thing is clear: nothing will change, what is written will happen exactly as it is. No more no less.

It doesn’t help to conjecture. Everything is predetermined

How many efforts and countless hours do we invest in improving and optimizing our work, our finances, our health, and getting our life together? When in short, everything is an illusion. And we are living a big lie. "A decree is truthful, while zeal is illusory," writes the famous Ramban. Regardless of our efforts or investment, our results are predetermined in advance. Efforts must be made because miracles do not take place every day, but it is important to remember this: our zeal is not what earns us the results, neither are our efforts or our projects, we are mere "protagonists" in a pre-written script.  Everything has been written in advance. Both our misfortunes, as well as our deliverance. Both play a definite and preconceived role. Something to meditate upon…

Happy holiday of freedom!