I Know One!
Rabbi Label Lam
The whole Pesach Seder is driven by questions. Perhaps the most important
question at the Pesach Seder is not one of “the four questions”. You might
not even recognize it as a serious question because it is included in a cute
and fun song at the very end of the Pesach Seder. The question is, “Who
knows one?” We offer an answer right away. “I know one! One is HASHEM in the
heavens and the earth.”
How do we declare with such confidence at the Seder’s conclusion, “I know
one! One is HASHEM…”? Maybe someone can say I believe or I think but how do
we know HASHEM?
The Rambam begins Hilchos Yesodei HaTorah with the following amazing words:
יסוד היסודות ועמוד החכמות לידע שיש שם מצוי ראשון The foundation of all
foundations the pillar of wisdom is to know that there is a primary entity
How does one “know” it is so? The Rambam answers, וידיעת דבר זה מצות עשה
שנאמר אנכי ה׳ אלהיך…
The knowledge of this matter is a positive Mitzvah as it says, “I am HASHEM
your G-d Who took you out of the Land of Egypt…”
How do we “know HASHEM” based on that commandment? The Kuzari asks, “Why did
HASHEM makes such a small claim by Har Sinai when He declared… “I am HASHEM
Who took you out of Egypt”? He could have said, “I created heaven and earth!”
The Kuzari answers that no one was there by the creation of the world but an
entire nation, 600,000 adult males from 20 to 60 plus those above 60 and
below 20 and those of the opposite gender (perhaps 3,000,000 people) all
experienced the exodus from Egypt! You saw it! You felt it! You lived
through it! You experienced it! That’s how you can know HASHEM!
Since find ourselves at the Pesach Seder each year for the past 3325 years
reliving the exodus from Egypt as it says in the Haggada, “In every
generation a person is obligated to see himself as if he went out Egypt” it
makes perfect sense that at the very end of the Seder, the final exam about
whether or not we re-experienced leaving Egypt is whether or not we have the
answer to the following question: “Who knows One?”
Hopefully we will all be able to answer confidently in unison with all
generations, “I know One!"
DvarTorah, Copyright © 2007 by Rabbi Label Lam and Torah.org.