Hillel makes room for what seems opposed
The rav connects Hillel’s name with the initials of a verse:
הָרֹפֵא לִשְׁבוּרֵי לֵב וּמְחַבֵּשׁ לְעַצְּבוֹתָֽם׃
He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. — Psalms 147:3
The initials of הרופא לשבורי לב are הלל, Hillel. The verse is praise of Hashem; applying its initials to Hillel is a homiletic allusion, not its plain subject. The rav attributes the allusion to the Sfas Emes.
He then reads Hillel’s approach alongside Beis Shammai. Eruvin 13b says that Beis Hillel merited having the halachah established according to them because they were accommodating and humble, studied both positions, and put Beis Shammai’s words before their own.
On the straightforward level this describes humility and the serious study of another view. The rav adds an inward reading: the chesed associated with Hillel does not ignore the din associated with Shammai. It first gives that din a place, and then draws it into a larger movement of healing. In the same way, the joy of Pesach does not become whole by refusing to hear the bitterness.
This is how the sefer’s Pesach reading approaches the deeper unity expressed by korech. It is not a new halachic claim that Beis Hillel and Beis Shammai had no real disagreements.
Even what feels outside can enter
The rav brings another striking image from the Seder table: beautiful vessels associated with non-Jewish owners being placed there even when they will not be used.
The exact source is more specific than a general rule to collect such vessels. Mishnah Berurah 472:6 reports that the Maharil displayed beautiful vessels held as pledges from non-Jews on a separate table, enjoying their appearance. Shulchan Aruch itself instructs arranging one’s table beautifully according to one’s means. This is display in a reported practice, not permission to use someone else’s property without authorization.
The rav’s inward application is that even the parts of me that feel foreign or outside the Jewish life I want to live need not be excluded from the work of Pesach. They, too, can be brought toward the circle. The metaphor concerns the person’s avodah; it does not turn forbidden conduct into a mitzvah.
The language of chotfin matzos, snatching or taking the matzos, gives him a final image. Pesachim 109a speaks about doing this so the children remain awake. Rashi offers lifting the plate to prompt questions, and also an explanation of eating quickly, which he prefers in that passage. The rav focuses on the first image and relates the familiar afikoman-snatching custom to the language of grabbing. The custom is not itself the wording of the Gemara.
Through the teaching about the circle, “grab the matzah” becomes an instruction about my sorrow. Do not leave the lechem oni outside. Bring that part of life into the joy. Korech gives the same act a form on the Seder table.
A month that is turned around
The Megillah speaks not only about a changed day, but about a changed month:
כַּיָּמִים אֲשֶׁר־נָחוּ בָהֶם הַיְּהוּדִים מֵאֹיְבֵיהֶם וְהַחֹדֶשׁ אֲשֶׁר נֶהְפַּךְ לָהֶם מִיָּגוֹן לְשִׂמְחָה וּמֵאֵבֶל לְיוֹם טוֹב לַעֲשׂוֹת אוֹתָם יְמֵי מִשְׁתֶּה וְשִׂמְחָה וּמִשְׁלֹחַ מָנוֹת אִישׁ לְרֵעֵהוּ וּמַתָּנוֹת לָֽאֶבְיֹנִֽים׃
As the days on which the Jews rested from their enemies, and the month that was turned for them from sorrow to joy and from mourning to a festive day, to make them days of feasting and joy, of sending portions to one another and gifts to the poor. — Esther 9:22
Haman saw Adar as the month of Moshe’s death; Megillah 13b says that he did not know it was also the month of Moshe’s birth. The month he thought belonged to mourning becomes a month of joy.
The rav connects this with Binyamin. He notes that different arrangements of the months and tribes associate Adar with Yosef or Binyamin. These are different arrangements, not two contradictory claims about one fixed chart. Binyamin’s name itself carries the pattern:
וַיְהִי בְּצֵאת נַפְשָׁהּ כִּי מֵתָה וַתִּקְרָא שְׁמוֹ בֶּן־אוֹנִי וְאָבִיו קָֽרָא־לוֹ בִנְיָמִֽין׃
As her soul was departing, for she was dying, she called his name Ben Oni, but his father called him Binyamin. — Genesis 35:18
Rachel calls him Ben Oni, the son of her affliction. Yaakov calls him Binyamin. The rav reads the change as the movement from pain toward the right side, associated with chesed. The verse does not say that Rachel’s death was not a real tragedy. The teaching seeks the possibility of a further movement within a life that includes it.
Yosef expresses a related recognition about being brought to Egypt:
וְאַתֶּם חֲשַׁבְתֶּם עָלַי רָעָה אלוקים חֲשָׁבָהּ לְטֹבָה לְמַעַן עֲשֹׂה כַּיּוֹם הַזֶּה לְהַחֲיֹת עַם־רָֽב׃
You intended harm against me; Hashem intended it for good, in order to bring about this present result: to keep a great people alive. — Genesis 50:20
The brothers’ harmful intention is named, and a larger Divine purpose is named alongside it. Calling that purpose good does not make their intention good. Mordechai’s description as an ish yemini, a man of Binyamin, becomes another link in this reading of Purim as the transformation of sorrow.
Begin preparing while Purim is still with me
Shulchan Aruch teaches studying the laws of Pesach thirty days before the festival. Mishnah Berurah 429:2 says that the period begins on Purim itself.
The rav reads the timing as meaningful preparation. While the possibility of reversal is alive for me, begin preparing for Pesach. Learning the laws is part of that preparation; carrying Purim’s avodah forward is another part. The Mishnah Berurah itself emphasizes practical teaching of the laws, not replacing them with a beautiful derashah.
The Torah promised that the people would leave Egypt with great possessions:
וְגַם אֶת־הַגּוֹי אֲשֶׁר יַעֲבֹדוּ דָּן אָנֹכִי וְאַחֲרֵי־כֵן יֵצְאוּ בִּרְכֻשׁ גָּדֽוֹל׃
But I will also judge the nation that they will serve, and afterward they will leave with great possessions. — Genesis 15:14
The rav sees the spiritual treasures gathered through the exile as part of that great wealth. The years in Egypt are not simply cut out of the story when the people leave. What has been gathered there is brought out with them. This is his inward reading alongside the verse’s concrete promise of possessions.
Pesachim 95b speaks of Hallel accompanying the offering of the korban Pesach. The rav evokes the gathering of Israel singing together as the korbanos are brought. The Rambam’s formal account in Hilchos Korban Pesach 1:11 names the Leviim as those reading Hallel during the slaughter and offering. That specifies the appointed singers; the rav’s wider picture conveys the shared joy. He closes with that joy and asks what we will bring into it. Will only the already happy parts dance, or can the matzah and maror come too?
The work of Purim continues through Parshas Parah and into Pesach: to recognize judgment, to seek its sweetening at the root, and to let the bitterness enter a fuller freedom. The image to carry is simple enough to hold at the Seder: bring the matzah into the circle.