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 3 The Passover Haggadah

from Egypt. Finally, their students came and said to them: “Rabbis, it is time for the morning service.”

Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah said: 1 am nearly seventy years old and I never had the good fortune to know why the exodus from Egypt should also be mentioned in the evening service, until Ben scholars in his academy at Bné Brak, east of Jaffa, One of the main supporters of Bar Kokhba, he died as a martyr in the year 185. He is the hero of mi stories describing. his unselfishness, his loyalty and his devotion. Rabbi Akibs stressed the idea that man’s responsibility is based upon man’s unrestricted freedom of choosing between right and wrong. God's foreknowledge does not predetermine man’s actions, good or bad, In matters of ethical conduct has the ability to choose between alternative possibilities of action, He used “Beloved is man, for he is ereated in the image of God. . . Beloved are the people of Isracl, for they are ealled the children of God... Everything is foreseen by God, yet free will is granted to man” (Avoth 8:18-19)

Rabbi Tarfon, who had been a priest in the serviee of the Temple, wsed his great wealth for charitable purposes. TL is related in the Talmud that his devotion to his mother reached extreme proportions. He used to pluce his hands beneath her fect when she was obliged to cross the courtyard barefoot (Kiddushin 61b). Despite his riches, he possessed extraordinary modesty. Ie used (0 say: “The day is short; the task is great; the workmen are luzy; thi reward is great; the Master is insistent... You are not ealled upon to com- plete the work, yet you are not free to evade it.. ..” (Avoth 2:20-21).

Bné Brak, near Jaffa, was the scat of Rabbi Akiba’s academy, It has be suggested that Rabbi Akiba’s older colleagues, three of whom had been hi teachers, came to Bné Brak to discuss with him the preparations for the revolt of Bar Kokhba against Roman tyranny. This took place, during all that mem- orable night cx'mon inne >), under the guise of an exhaustive account of the historic exodus from Exypt.

Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah’s statement is taken from the Mishnah (Bera- Khoth 1:5), where it is proven that even the nightly recital of the Shema should include the biblical passage which ends with the words: “I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt. to be your God” (Numbers 15:37-41). This Mishnah is quoted here because it contains the three subjects mentioned in the preceding paragraph, namely: Rabbi Ehzar ben Azaryah, the exodus from Egypt, and the recital of the Shema,

‘The expression p21 xo) Oya0 [29 73K 77 is strikingly similar to the one used by Rabbi Joshua ben Hananyah regarding his colleague Rabbi Eluzar ben Azaryah: nowy wim px... bya tna AT7a79 *maT xD) mY OND 723 °2K IT spina m9 Ay Ja “Wydx hw (“Tam nearly cighty years old and I never had the good fortune to know this until today .. . The generation in which Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah lives must not be considered orphaned”—Mekhilta on Exodus 13:2),

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