Hello everyone, Pesach kasher v’sameach.
A non-Jew heard heard about the tasty food the Jews eat on the Seder night, so he decided to dress up as a Jew and go to synagogue. He hoped to be invited to a Seder by one of the congregants. He was wearing very fancy and impressive garments, and the congregants were fighting over who gets to host him.
When he was invited he was very happy to see the table set up and smell the good food coming from the kitchen. When he saw the Haggadot on the table, he assumed they were the menus. Little did he know that those books would turn this meal into a disaster for him. They invited him to sit in a distinguished seat, and his nightmare began. From drinking wine while reclining and going through the discussions of the “menu”, to breaking the big crackers in half and not eating them, he had a terrible time. So, he left the house without saying goodbye, promising himself he would never return to eat at a Jewish table ever again. Little did he know, he left right before the meal began.
There is a mitzvah to mention the exodus from Egypt twice a day. Chazal teaches us that we should only mention the exodus (leaving Egypt), but not the miracles that were performed to Am Yisrael before they left. What is the reason for this? The question becomes even more puzzling when we read about Yitro when it says that he left Midyan and moved to the desert because he heard what Hashem had done for Am Yisrael in Egypt. The Gemara says that Yitro heard about Matan Torah. So why does Chazal change the simple understanding of what Hashem did in Egypt?
The answer is very simple. There are two ways that the salvation of Am Yisrael could have happened. The simple way is to defeat the Egyptians and Pharaoh and to stay in Egypt. But this salvation can only work as a material salvation, not a spiritual salvation.
To accomplish a spiritual salvation, they need to leave their location, and step by step, they will form themselves into a nation by receiving the Torah and ultimately dwelling in Eretz Yisrael. Starting the process was the ten plagues, but the end of the process is to live in Eretz Yisrael.
We should never stop in the middle of the process, for if we do that, we will find ourselves like the non-Jew, stopping in the middle of the process without seeing any results.