SOBRE LA REDENCION Y NISÁN

Blessed art Thou, Lord our God, King of the universe, who has redeemed us: This blessing begins and ends with the words Baruch attah…The Jerusalem Talmud says that this passage must be an extended blessing (one beginning and ending Baruch attah) because in it we give thanks for two things – for the past redemption and for the hope of future redemption. That is, first we speak about the Exodus from Egypt in the past and then we speak about the future as we have explained. This agrees with what we have find in the Midrash Sifre, “Great is praise that contains the past, the present and the future, which contains reference to this world and the world to come.¹⁷Sifre Haazinu 333” Since we recited the blessing for Hallel in synagogue¹⁸It was customary to recite part of the Hallel in synagogue along with the blessing before Hallel. Since we don’t recite the subsequent blessing until we recite the Hallel again at home we do it with an extended form of the blessing. There are three forms of blessings in the prayer book: Extended blessings which begin and end with Baruch, short blessings which begin but do not end with Baruch , and connected blessing which end with Baruch but do not begin with the common formula. Depending where they appear usually affects what type of blessing we use., we don’t say it again before Hallel at the Seder and we recite an extended form of the blessing here.

One concludes with a blessing mentioning redemption. Rabbi Tarfon adds to the blessing “Who redeemed us and redeemed our ancestors from Egypt,” and Rabbi Akiva adds “So Adonai, our God and God of our fathers, enable us to reach also the forthcoming holidays and festivals in peace.¹⁹The Mishnah in Pesachim presents these different statements as the opinion of these rabbis but leaves it as if they are simply differences of opinion and not additions as they appear in the Haggadah. The Mishnah says: One concludes with redemption. Rabbi Tarfon says…Rabbi Akiva Says ”
This is surprising! Since it says in the Talmud that in the month of Nissan Israel was redeemed and in Nissan Israel will be redeemed in the future,²⁰Rosh Hashanah 11a how can the blessing say, “enable us to reach also the forthcoming holidays and festivals in peace, rejoicing in the rebuilding of Zion, thy city, and joyful at thy service.” This passage implies Shavuot and Sukkot which means that we are praying that redemption should occur in the meantime before next Passover! It seems to me that we are meant to read this passage in this way: “Just as we eat matzah and maror so may we celebrate future holidays in peace and free from the nations so that we can fulfill the commandments appropriate to each festival with noting to prevent us just as nothing is preventing us right now.. Furthermore, may we reach and may we be worthy of this festival rejoicing in the rebuilding of your Temple and the renewal of your holy house.”
The proof of this explanation is in the expression, “and there we will eat the Pesach offering and the sacrificial offerings.” This can only be a reference to Pesach. My brother, Benjamin, of blessed memory explained that “forthcoming holidays and festivals” is a reference to Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Sukkot and it follows the opinion of Rabbi Eliezer who said in Talmud Rosh Hashanah (11a) in “Nisan we were redeemed and in Tishri we will be redeemed in the future.” That is why we mention both the Regalim, festivals, and Mo’adim, holidays. Mo’adim is a reference to Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur as it says, “These are the holidays of the Adonai” (Leviticus 23:4) and Regalim which is plural is a reference to Sukkot and Shemini Atzeret which is a holiday unto itself. And there we will eat Zevachim and Pesachim – we mention the Zevachim, the offerings, first because we eat the festive offering before we eat the Pesach offering.