Head of School Blog Post

One of my favorite rituals when my children were young was doing Kriyat Sh’ma/Reciting the Sh’ma with them before bedtime. There is a wonderful sense of closure to the day and comfort as a parent in tucking your children into bed knowing they are safe and sound.  

It has always, therefore, been curious to me that on Seder night, there is the custom of omitting or, according to the 16th century Shulhan Arukh/Code of Jewish Law, reciting only a part of the Sh’ma. The very idea of reciting the Sh’ma is based in part on God protecting us. Are we not in need or shouldn’t we recall God’s protection on a night when we recount how God saved us from an evil Egyptian Pharaoh who enslaved us? 

In fact, Exodus 12:42 states:

לֵ֣יל שִׁמֻּרִ֥ים הוּא֙ לַֽיהֹוָ֔ה לְהוֹצִיאָ֖ם מֵאֶ֣רֶץ מִצְרָ֑יִם הֽוּא־הַלַּ֤יְלָה הַזֶּה֙ לַֽיהֹוָ֔ה שִׁמֻּרִ֛ים לְכׇל־בְּנֵ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל לְדֹרֹתָֽ.

That was for יהוה a night of vigil/watching/guarding to bring them out of the land of Egypt; that same night is יהוה’s, one of vigil for all the children of Israel throughout the ages.

This verse from Exodus is the source for calling Seder night a Le’il Shimurim/a night of protecting. In Hebrew, a shomer is a security guard, and this night, according to the verse, is a night of guarding, protecting, watching, a vigil. On this night we recognize that God is the extra diligent security guard of the Jewish people.

The famous medieval Torah commentator Rashi says of Le’il Shimurim that it is a night of “anticipation and watching” when God would fulfill God’s promise to take the Israelites out of Egypt. The Midrash, Yalkut Shimoni, based on the plural nature of shimurim/literally watchings suggests that this night is a two-fold redemption: for God and for the Israelite nation. There is a notion that whenever the Jewish people went into exile, God also went into exile.

Another Midrash, Shmot Rabbah, interprets the verse to mean that the night is reserved for future redemption. It gives examples of many times when God redeemed the Jewish people on this night, not just at the first Passover in Egypt. This is why the verse ends with the words “it is a night that is guarded for all Israel for all their generations.”

Historically, however, Seder night was a time of fear and anxiety within Jewish communities, particularly in Europe. In the middle ages, Pesah and the lead up to Seder night was a time of terror where Jews in Christian lands were brutalized and persecuted because of the blood libel that Jews used the blood of Christian children to bake matzah. 

Near the end of the Pesah seder, we find a liturgical section when we open our doors and recite the words “Sh'fokh ha-Matkha/pour out your wrath!" during which Jews cursed their non-Jewish neighbors for having persecuted them for being Jews. I have always viewed these words, and the ritual of opening our door on Seder night, as an act of defiance. How else can we understand why Jews during the middle ages would open their doors and shout at their neighbors despite the terrible persecutions they experienced at this time of year. Our ancestors must have had an overriding sense that despite the terror they felt, Seder night in particular was a Le’il Shimurim.

Today, in the face of unprecedented antisemitism in the United States how might we view Seder night? I want to suggest that on Seder night this year we embrace two conceptions of Le’il Shimurim. We need to be vigilant in combating antisemitism and not be complacent to allow the United States to slip into the type of antisemitic society that existed for Jews over the centuries in other countries. And, at the same time, we should be grateful for God’s protection and the relative safety we still experience as Jews in America. We are safe in our homes.

 Hag kasher v’samei-ah/Wishing you a joyous holiday!