[From
Rav Aviner's Commentary on the Haggadah]
Question: Why are women obligated in all of the Mitzvot of the Seder, when
these Mitzvot are time-bound and women are exempt from time-bound Mitzvot?
Answer: They also experienced this miracle (Pesachim 108a-b). Here
are two explanations for this answer. According to Tosafot, women are
obligated because they were also in Egyptian Exile and were redeemed.
According to Rashi, women are obligated because the Jewish People were redeemed
on account of the righteous women of that generation. The first soldier
in the struggle against Egypt was Miriam. "And I sent before You
Moshe, Aharon and Miriam" (Michah 6:4). "You have three great
leaders" (Ta'anit 9a). Miriam taught Torah to the women (Aramaic
translation to Michah ibid.). She was born during the most difficult time
for the Nation of Israel. She was therefore named "Miriam"
based on the Hebrew word "Merirut" meaning
"bitterness." The Egyptians decreed that every baby boy was to
be thrown into the river. Amram, the leader of Israel, despaired and
separated from his wife, Yocheved. He said: "Why should we bring
more children into the world to be killed by the Egyptians?" The
entire Jewish People followed his lead and separated from their wives.
This would have certainly destroyed the seed of Israel and we would have been
defeated without a fight. Everyone yielded except for one six year old
girl – Miriam. She said to her father: "Your decree is worse than
Pharaoh's. He only made a decree against the boys, but you made a decree
against the boys and the girls!" She succeeded in convincing her
father; he remarried his wife, and all Israel followed his lead and did the
same. At the remarriage of her parents, Miriam danced with her little
brother, Aharon, who was two years old. When Moshe was born, Amram was
again concerned and wondered if perhaps he acted imprudently. Miriam,
however, was confident that there would be a solution and, indeed, Moshe's
salvation came in an unexpected way. Even before this event, Miriam
showed herself to be a warrior. The Jewish midwives, Shifrah and Pu'ah,
who saved the Jewish People, were Yocheved and Miriam. Even though Miriam
was young, she helped her mother. Yocheved was called "Shifrah"
because she made the child beautiful ("meshaperet" which is similar
to "Shifrah") and cared for him. Miriam was called
"Pu'ah" because she spoke ("Po'ah" which is similar to
"Pu'ah), sang songs, and hugged him. When Pharaoh asked Yocheved why
his decree to kill the baby boys was not followed, Yocheved evaded the question
and said that the Jewish women are skilled at giving birth without a
midwife. Miriam, however, spoke brazenly to Pharaoh, "She stuck out
her nose at him and said: Woe to the man from whom G-d comes to take
retribution. He was filled with anger against her and wanted to kill
her. Yocheved attempted to pacify Pharaoh: "Do not pay any attention
to her. She is a baby and does not know anything" (Shemot Rabbah
1:13). Miriam obviously understood everything, and she began to organize
a rebellion ("Meri" which is similar to "Miriam") among the
Nation of Israel. Our Sages relate how the women established a powerful
underground in Egypt. They would encourage their husbands, give birth in
the fields under apple trees, "I roused your love under the apple
tree" (Shir Ha-Shirim 8:5), and raise their children in secret. They
stubbornly continued to become pregnant and give birth, until they reached six
hundred thousand. Including the elderly, woman and children, they reached
a few million.
At a
much later time, during the donations to the Mishkan (desert sanctuary), the
women brought copper mirrors as a donation. At first, Moshe Rabbenu
refused to accept them, since they were used to focus on the external beauty of
women. "Grace is false and beauty is vain, a woman who fears Hashem,
she should be praised" (Mishlei 31:30). Moshe was repulsed by the
mirrors because they were used by the evil inclination. The Holy One,
Blessed Be He, said to him: "Accept them, because these are the most
precious to me.” Through these, the women created legions of Jewish
children in Egypt. These mirrors were not objects of the evil
inclination, but of the awe of Hashem. The daughters of Israel beautified
themselves with them in order to entice their husbands who were exhausted from
the back-breaking work. When Pharaoh decreed that the men would sleep in
the field and the women in the city, the women heated up food and brought food
and drink to their husbands. They would comfort them and say: We will not
be enslaved eternally. Hashem will redeem us in the end. They took the
mirrors, and each one would look in the mirrors with her husband and entice him
with words…as it says, 'I roused your love under the apple tree,'" and
this is how they had children. These mirrors are therefore called "legions
of mirrors" ("Marot Ha-Tzovot"), because in their merit, legions
("Tzeva'ot") of Israel were born (see Rashi to Shemot 38:8).
Therefore,
do not be surprised that after the splitting of the Red Sea, after the Song at
the Sea of Moshe Rabbenu, "Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aharon,
took the drum in her hand, and all of the women followed her with drums and
dances" (Shemot 15:20). They knew that the redemption was on account
of their merit, the merit of the righteous women. They danced, they
overcame the laws of gravity, they floated in the air, and they were freed from
the physical reality of the land. When they left Egypt, they did not even
bother to prepare leavened bread, yet they packed drums among their belongings
out of the faith that a great salvation would occur and the chance would come
to play music to the Master of the Universe, Redeemer of Israel.
