27 Mar PESACH NEXT YEAR IN JERUSALEM – IF…

Next Year In
Jerusalem – If: The
Symbolism of the
“Two Dippings”
Every Passover Seder
begins with a plea:
“This year we are here; next year (may we
be) in the Land of Israel. This year we are
slaves; next year (may we be) free!” Every
Seder that we have ever experienced is just
a shadow of the ideal Pesach Seder. A
proper Pesach Seder should include the
Korban Pesach and Korban Chagiga. But
“this year” it is not that way.
The truth of the matter is that the Pesach
Seder also ends with this same theme.
“Next year in Jerusalem.” The reason why
our Pesach Seder will not include a Korban
Pesach this year is because the Bais
HaMikdash was destroyed. Our Sages
teach us that the Second Beis HaMikdash
was destroyed because of ‘Gratuitous
Hatred’ (Sinas Chinam). We are taught that
the Bais HaMikdash will not be rebuilt until
we somehow correct the defect of Sinas
Chinam and divisiveness.

If that is the case, why are we not prompted
somewhere during the Pesach Seder to
address this sin of Sinas Chinam? If the
Seder in fact includes the request that next
year we should be in the Land of Israel and
in Jerusalem, why are we not told exactly
how to take corrective action to make that
happen? We should be explicitly taught to
remedy our behavior of Gratuitous Hatred.
The Ben Ish Chai states that there is such a
notion in the Hagaddah. He says that this is
alluded to by the question – “Why is it that
on all other nights we do not even dip once,
and on this night we dip twice?”
The Ben Ish Chai suggests that the first
dipping on the night of the Seder (into the
salt water) reminds us of the first place that
“dipping” is mentioned in Jewish History:
“And they dipped (Yosef’s) coat into blood”
[Bereishis 37:31]. This is the prototype of
the sin of Gratuitous Hatred, which has
plagued us throughout the generations.
The second dipping at the Seder (into the
Charoses) corresponds to a second dipping
that we find mentioned in the Chumash:
“And you shall take the bundle of hyssop

and dip it into the
blood” [Shemos 12:22].
This pasuk refers to the
dipping into the blood
of the Korban Pesach.
That dipping was the
first step of painting the
door posts and lintels of
their homes with the
sign of blood — in
order to save them from
Makas Bechoros on the
night of their
deliverance from
Egypt.
It is no coincidence,
says the Ben Ish Chai, that the Torah uses
the language of Agudah [bundle (of
hyssop)] regarding the second dipping. The
word Agudah comes from the root word
Igud, which means unity. Thus, the dipping
of unity, which took place at the end of the
Jewish Nation’s stay in Egypt, was a
remedy for the dipping of Gratuitous
Hatred, which had triggered their descent
into Egypt.
This concept symbolizes that we too will
emerge from our current exile — which
was also triggered by Gratuitous Hatred
— with unity and harmony amongst
ourselves.
Rav Elchanan Wasserman expressed
amazement that of all the slanders that
the anti-Semites have used against the
Jews over the centuries, one of the most
recurrent lies has been the ‘Blood Libel’.
This is a claim that is not only patently
false, but that makes absolutely no sense
as well.
The last thing a Jew would ever eat is
blood. The Torah has numerous
prohibitions distancing a Jew from blood
or anything that is mixed with blood.
How could it be that we have always
been accused of this specific charge?
Rav Elchanan Wasserman suggests that
this is a Divine punishment that
corresponds to the sin of “they dipped
(Yosef’s) coat into blood”. When the
brothers dipped Yosef’s coat into blood,
that did something to the system of
Heavenly Justice which caused Jews in
future generations to be susceptible to
the slanderous libel that we bake our
Matzahs with the blood of Gentile
children.
Unfortunately, Pesach has many
reminders of Gratuitous Hatred. Rav
Mattisyahu Solomon zt”l points out the
irony that the Blood Libel always

emerged before Pesach. (The libel claimed
that the Matzahs were baked with blood;
the 4 cups of wine actually contained blood,
etc.) Why specifically Pesach? Why did
they not say that we dip our Lulavim (palm
branches, used on Sukkos) in blood?
The answer is because Pesach is the Festival
of Redemption. It is the holiday of “In
Nissan they were redeemed and in Nissan
they are destined to be redeemed” [Rosh
Hashanna 11a]. As long as we have not
rectified the original sin that led to the
slavery — Yosef’s brothers Gratuitous
Hatred, which caused them to dip his coat
in blood, the blood libel rears its ugly head
around the time of Pesach.
In fact, the first night of Pesach always falls
on the same day of the week as the night of
the following Tisha B’Av. The Ramo”h in
Shulchan Aruch traces the custom of
dipping an egg in salt water on the night of
the Seder to this phenomenon of the
calendar. We dip an egg — which is sign of
mourning — at the Seder to commemorate
Tisha B’Av and the destruction of the Bais
HaMikdash. Why is this theme linked to
Pesach?
The answer is that if 5 months from now we
will commemorate another Tisha B’Av, it is
because we did not properly learn the lesson
of Pesach. We forget the lesson of the “two
dippings”. We can only remedy the sin of
Gratuitous Hatred, symbolized by the
dipping in salt water, through the unity
symbolized by the bundle of hyssop.
There are many reminders of the connection
between Destruction and Redemption. The
way that we can emerge from the
Destruction that we are experiencing, and
merit the Redemption that we so desperately
need, is by once and for all remedying
“dipping (Yosef’s coat) into blood” by
creating its antidote of “dipping with the
bundle of hyssop – through one common
bundle of unity.”