Why did I say that?
Sometimes you wonder and never find out. But sometimes you do.
I was recently speaking at an event out of town (that means out of Chicago) about making the Pesach Seder as real as you can to the children and all those assembled at the hallowed Seder table. One tool in the arsenal — especially if your charges need the extra chizuk and reinforcement — can be to relate how even the nations of the world wrote about the events that we believe in with emunah shleimah. To that end I mentioned the discovery of a papyrus attributed to an Egyptian named Ipuwer that was discovered in the early nineteenth century and was taken to the Leiden Museum in Holland. A scholar by the name of Gardiner interpreted it and revealed that the papyrus described the ten makkos in uncanny similarity to the narrative in the Torah (courtesy of Ohr Somayach).
To be sure there was no reason to mention the insignificant details as to whether this artifact was deciphered in Holland or Timbuktu. But after the presentation the organizer of the event informed me that one woman in attendance was particularly moved my speech which was significant because she was making strides in her personal pursuit of Toras Emes. “What did it?” I wondered.
“You mentioned Holland. She comes from Holland and it piqued her interest in a way that nothing else could.”
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