Or HaChaim on Exodus 12:3/אור החיים על שמות י״ב:ג׳

1 דברו אל כל עדת ישראל לאמור, "speak to the whole community of Israel to say, etc." Why did G'd have to use the instruction דברו and could not make do with the method of communicating with the Israelites i.e. לאמור? In fact why did G'd not omit the word לאמור altogether and simply said: דברו? Moses' address could then have included both the information about the new moon as well as the details of preparing for the Passover. The word לאמור is altogether hard to comprehend since it is not clear to whom the Israelites were to communicate this new law about the Passover lamb.

2Perhaps the reason two expressions had to be used is quite simple. The law of the Passover comprised two aspects, 1) that Israel would be uplifted by showing their enemies how they themselves exacted retribution from their deities by slaughtering the sheep (compare Shemot Rabbah 16,3), and 2) performance of the command was accompanied by the threat that anyone failing to carry out this command would face death. The word לאמור is therefore appropriate for the first of the two aspects of this commandment, whereas the word דברו is appropriate for the instructions containing a warning about possible non-compliance. Another, secondary meaning of the word לאמור maybe that G'd instructed Moses and Aaron to exercise their authority gently.

3Moses was also to communicate first with the elders as we find that he did in 12,21 where he is reported as having called in all the elders of Israel. The instruction דברו was intended to the elders, whereas the word לאמור teaches that he was also to communicate the details of the law to the entire nation.

4ויקחו להם איש שה, "that they should each take a lamb for themselves, etc." The conjunctive letter ו at the beginning of this legislation is strange. Perhaps we have an allusion here to what Moses said to the Israelites later in verse 21 when he communicated the instructions received here. According to Shemot Rabbah 16,2 the word משכו contained a command to the Israelites to refrain henceforth from any idolatrous activity. This instruction did not emanate from G'd but was something Moses told the people on his own. On the other hand, seeing the way Moses told the people one gains the impression that G'd had communicated this to him as a prophetic insight. Perhaps the letter ו here at the beginning of the paragraph is proof that what Moses said in verse 21 and onwards was also part of the instructions he had received from G'd earlier. Precisely what did Moses mean with the word משכו?

5Seeing that Moses told the people to purchase the lamb on the tenth of the month people would think that those who bought it on that date could slaughter it whereas those who had failed to purchase it or set it aside on the tenth could not buy it on the 11th the 12th or the 13th, therefore Moses added the words "and they may purchase it" to indicate that even if they bought the lamb after the tenth of the month it would still qualify as a sacrifice. All this we derive from the word ויקחו which is preceded by the conjunctive letter ו. The Mechilta on our verse arrives at the ruling about purchasing the lamb on the 11th, 12th, or 13th of the month by a process called a fortiori, simple logic. If something can be deduced by that method and in addition we find an allusion in the text this reinforces our opinion.

6Inasmuch as both the words להם and איש in our verse seem superfluous at first glance seeing that all the Torah had to write was ויקחו שה לבית, we are entitled to derive additional meanings from these words. In a similar situation where the letter ו at the beginning of the word ויקחו seems strange, (Exodus 25,2) Tanchuma understands the letter as including G'd Himself. Here is what Tanchuma has to say there: "G'd said to them: 'take Me with you."' [This would suggest that the gifts the Israelites donated for the Tabernacle would ensure that G'd's presence would dwell amongst them. I have not found this text in my edition of the Tanchuma. Ed.] In our situation, considering that these were the first commandments addressed to the Jews as a people, G'd may also have suggested that performance of these commandments would ensure His Presence amongst the Israelites and that even the Gentiles would become aware of this as pointed out in Deut. 28,10. Sotah 42 claims that on occasion the word איש refers to the Almighty, such as in Samuel I 17,8 where Goliath blasphemes, provoking G'd to battle against him. Here too the word איש may be an allusion to G'd whom Moses called איש מלחמה in Exodus 15,3. The Tikkuney Zohar section 29 demonstrate that the word מצוה contains half of the Ineffable Name at the end, and the other half at the beginning if one applies the method known as aleph tav, bet shin when reading the alphabet. [The letter צ would correspond to the letter ה, whereas the letter מ would correspond to the letter י. Ed.] According to this the Torah hints that by means of this מצוה the Jewish people would make a great acquisition (לקיחה) i.e. they would establish a claim on G'd.

7I have been puzzled why G'd did not specifically exclude the people who were either Gentiles, uncircumcised, or had contracted impurity through contact with the dead from offering and eating the Passover lamb, just as He legislated for the future observance of the Passover holiday (12,43-46 as well as Numbers chapter 9). Whereas we have pointed out in our commentary on Numbers 19,2 that there was a good reason for not permitting the ritually impure to participate in that commandment in subsequent years, there remains the question why the proselytes and the uncircumcised were not excluded from participating in the original passover lamb in Egypt? According to our sages as interpreted by Shemot Rabbah 19,6 based on Ezekiel 16,6 the blood mentioned there was the combined blood of circumcision and the blood of the paschal lamb the Israelites offered prior to the Exodus and which G'd "kissed" in appreciation of the readiness for martyrdom the Israelites demonstrated on that occasion. Our sages also interpret on Exodus 12,21 that the word משכו implies that the Israelites first had to divest themselves of any remnants of idolatrous conduct. This would include circumcision. They would have to become full-fledged members of the Jewish people before they qualified for participation in this great מצוה. These are all very fine exegetical points, but they do not address our question why G'd had not spelled out these conditions explicitly, seeing that our chapter contains so many details about this מצוה.

8At the end of our paragraph, (verse 43) after Moses has dealt with the preparations for the Exodus, the Torah legislates the way Passover is to be observed in the future, as a reminder of the Exodus. We find there that a בן נכר and an עבד כעני, a Gentile or a slave whose body is owned by a Jew must not participate in the Passover. Ibn Ezra writes that the whole paragraph starting with verse 43 refers to observance of the Passover by future generations. This was why G'd used that opportunity to add other details which did not apply to the observance of the original Passover in Egypt whereas other details such as the blood which had to sprinkled on the doorposts did not need to be repeated as they would not apply in the future. If he meant that the law about the בן נכר and ערל were new additions, to be observed by future generations only, Ibn Ezra would be in direct contradiction to the traditional views we have cited. Besides, how does he deal with 12,50 where the Torah reports the Israelites as having observed the Passover in accordance with the instructions Moses and Aaron had received from G'd? Surely the Torah would not have written: "the Israelites carried out, etc." if the previous paragraph had dealt only with the observance of the Passover in the future! Ibn Ezra's comment that verse 50 speaks of the observance of the Passover while the Israelites were in the desert seems devoid of any basis in fact. It is unlikely that anyone will take these comments of Ibn Ezra seriously.

9I have found the following comment in the Mechilta on 12,43: "Scripture deals here with both the Passover of Egypt and the Passover of subsequent generations, these are the words of Rabbi Yoshiah. Rabbi Yonathan says that the passage deals with the Passover in Egypt. Whence do I know what rules apply to subsequent Passovers? Scripture says: "in accordance with all its statutes and all its social laws you shall perform it" (Numbers 9,3). According to the foregoing all the Tannaim of the period agreed that the paragraph in question speaks about observance of the Passover in Egypt, thus Ibn Ezra's words are to be disregarded completely.

10It is therefore possible that when the Torah wrote ויקחו with the extra letter ו, it referred to additional commandments over and above that of circumcision and the need to remove all vestiges of idol worship. The commandment referred to would be the restrictions on the בן נכר and the ערל, the uncircumcised Israelite as outlined in the paragraph commencing with verse 43.