“If there is a daily mitzvah to recall Yetzias Mitzrayim, what changes on Leil HaSeder?”
If there is a daily mitzvah to recall Yetzias Mitzrayim, asked Rav Chaim, so then what changes on Leil HaSeder? In what way is the mitzvah on Pesach night distinguished from the general mitzvah of remembering Yetzias Mitzrayim? Or, shall we say, “Why is this night different from all the other nights?”
Rav Chaim himself presented three distinctions between the mitzvah of sippur Yetzias Mitzrayim on Pesach versus the daily mitzvah of zechiras Yetzias Mitzrayim. Firstly, he says, the mitzvah on Pesach is unique in that the discussion of Yetzias Mitzrayim is to be held specifically in question-and-answer form. As the pasuk says, “v’hayah ki yishalcha bincha — and it will be when your son asks you.”
The second distinction is that while the daily mitzvah merely requires us to remember the actual exodus from Mitzrayim, the mitzvah on Pesach is to recall the entire story, beginning with our forefathers descending to Mitzrayim and all the events that followed.
Thirdly, Rav Chaim points to the statement of Rabban Gamliel — “all those who do not say these three things has not fulfilled his obligation,” as another important feature that is unique to the mitzvah of Leil HaSeder. At the Seder, not only must we remember the story of Yetzias Mitzrayim, we must explicate the reasons for the Pesach, matzah, and maror. This requirement doesn’t exist throughout the rest of the year.
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