Summary Tzav - Shabbat Hagadol 5762
Today is Shabbat Hagadol, the last Shabbat before Pesach and there is a special Haftorah. It ends with the declaration that Hashem will send Elijah the Prophet to announce the great and awesome day of Hashem.

This week's Torah portion gives more detail on the offerings mentioned last week. Here, I will focus on the Thanksgiving Offering that was brought by a person who had experienced a miracle, or had been saved from danger. A modern example might be someone who had survived a bad car accident. As well as the animal sacrifice, the person would bring loaves of bread and matzah. Our commentators suggest that there were ten each of four kinds of loaves making a total of forty. One of each kind was given to the Kohen and the remaining 36 had to be eaten within a day! Obviously this involved sharing with others, providing the grateful person with the opportunity to publicly give thanks for G-d's kindness to him. Another reason given for consuming the offering in one day is that we experience G-d's kindnesses every day, so the following day we may have further reason to express renewed thanks!

This is why we say the blessing of modim in the Amidah. We note that in the chazan's repetition of the Amidah, the congregation says its own version of modim. This is because whilst someone else can say all other blessings on our behalf, no-one else one can be our agent to say 'Thank You'.

The Thanksgiving Offering was brought every weekday, but not on Shabbat or Yomtov. Therefore, we say Psalm 100, the song of thanksgiving every morning except on Shabbat and Yomtov. We do not say the psalm on erev Pesach or on chol hamo'ed Pesach, because the Thanksgiving Offering contained bread! Nonetheless, the theme of thanks is very strong during the week of Pesach, especially at the seder.

It is interesting to note that the Hebrew word for thanksgiving is 'todah', used in Modern Hebrew to mean 'thank you'. But it also stems from the word lehodot', to acknowledge. We mention the root of lehodot twice in the blessing of Modim, first with the word modim and secondly with the words 'nodeh lecha' -' we give thanks to you'. First we acknowledge our gratitude with due humility and then we give thanks.

Everything we do at the seder leads up to the hallel, which we sing near the end. We emphasise the horrors of slavery in order to appreciate the freedom. This leads us to the conclusion that, even thousands of years later, we should continue to be grateful for what G-d did then, and that we are still the beneficiaries in an ongoing chain.

Shabbat Shalom