Let My People Know

Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz: “Did you make a Passover Seder?”

 

Rabbi Levi Yitzhak of Berditchev, one year, was engaged in the Passover Seder and utilizing very lofty spiritual  intentions and unifications.

At its conclusion, he felt very good that he had prepared such a sublime Seder.

The following day, he inquired of Heaven if there was anyone who had conducted a Seder superior to his.

The heavenly response was that there was a Jew named Hayyim Traiger (“the porter”) who had in fact conducted a superior Seder.

Immediately, Rabbi Levi Yitzhak set out to find him.

When he found him, he saw that Hayyim was a simple Jew who earned his living as a porter.

Rabbi Levi Yitzhak asked him, “Reb Hayyim, did you make a Passover Seder?”

He answered, “Rebbe, I will tell you the truth. I heard it was forbidden to drink liquor for all eight days of Passover. So, on the morning before Passover, I drank eight days’ worth of liquor. This made me very tired, so I went to sleep.

That evening, my wife woke me and said, ‘Are you a non-Jew that you are not making a Passover Seder?’

I got out of bed and dragged myself to my place at the table.

Upon seeing how it was beautifully set, with a white tablecloth, and laden with carefully prepared holiday food, I regained my energy. I poured myself first one cup, then another.

I said to my wife, ‘You know that I am a simple Jew, unable to properly tell you the entire story of our exodus from Egypt. But look, we were enslaved by the Gypsies and they made our lives intolerable and tormented us. Then God saved us from them. Now as well, we are in dire straits, and God will save us from them too’

I ate, drank more wine, and then fell asleep again.”

Rabbi Levi Yitzhak heard this and admitted: “This Seder was truly higher than mine.”

The intentions of Rabbi Levi Yitzhak were certainly loftier and more sophisticated than those of the simple Jew, but it seems that Hayyim’s intent was more complete, because it was all he knew.

Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz