"ארמי אובד אבי" ומגילת העצמאות

And it shall be, when thou art come in unto the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance, and dost possess it, and dwell therein; that thou shalt take of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which thou shalt bring in from thy land that the LORD thy God giveth thee; and thou shalt put it in a basket and shalt go unto the place which the LORD thy God shall choose to cause His name to dwell there. And thou shalt come unto the priest that shall be in those days, and say unto him: ‘I profess this day unto the LORD thy God, that I am come unto the land which the LORD swore unto our fathers to give us.’ And the priest shall take the basket out of thy hand, and set it down before the altar of the LORD thy God. And thou shalt speak and say before the LORD thy God: ‘A wandering Aramean was my father, and he went down into Egypt, and sojourned there, few in number; and he became there a nation, great, mighty, and populous. And the Egyptians dealt ill with us, and afflicted us, and laid upon us hard bondage. And we cried unto the LORD, the God of our fathers, and the LORD heard our voice, and saw our affliction, and our toil, and our oppression. And the LORD brought us forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and with an outstretched arm, and with great terribleness, and with signs, and with wonders. And He hath brought us into this place, and hath given us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. And now, behold, I have brought the first of the fruit of the land, which Thou, O LORD, hast given me.’ And thou shalt set it down before the LORD thy God, and worship before the LORD thy God.

ארמי אבד אבי A SYRIAN DESTROYED MY FATHER — He mentions the loving kindness of the Omnipresent saying, ארמי אבד אבי, a Syrian destroyed my father, which means: “Laban wished to exterminate the whole nation” (cf. the Haggadah for Passover) when he pursued Jacob. Because he intended to do it the Omnipresent accounted it unto him as though he had actually done it (and therefore the expression אבד which refers to the past is used), for as far as the nations of the world are concerned the Holy One, blessed be He, accounts unto them intention as an actual deed (cf. Sifrei Devarim 301:3; Onkelos).

lost is an intransitive verb. If the Aramean referred to Lavan, then the verb would be in the transitive hif‘il or pi‘el form. Besides, what sense is there to say, “Lavan tried to destroy my forefather, and he went down to Egypt”? Lavan never considered going down to Egypt! The plausible interpretation is that the Aramean refers to Yaaqov, as if Scripture had said, “When my forefather was in Aramea, he was lost” — meaning, he was a pauper, without property. Compare, “give strong drink to him who is lost” [Proverbs 31: 6], where it is immediately followed by, “let him drink, and forget his poverty” [Proverbs 31: 7]. Thus the lost Aramean was my forefather. The intent of this passage is: I did not inherit this land from my forefather, for he was a pauper when he came to Aramea, and he was a stranger in Egypt, where he was few in number. Afterwards, he became a great nation; and you, God , brought us out of slavery, and gave us the good land. Do not object to Yaaqov’s being called an Aramean, since similar apellations can be found. Consider “Yeter the Ishmaelite” [I Chronicles 2: 17], even though he was really an Israelite (for so it is written [II Samuel 17: 25]).

The commandment of recital over the first-fruits: That we were commanded when bringing the first-fruits to the Temple to recite these verses in this section over them; and they are from, "My father was a wandering Aramean" (Deuteronomy 26:5), until "behold I have brought the first of the fruit of the land that the Lord gave me" (Deuteronomy 26:10). And about this is it stated (Deuteronomy 26:5), "And you will answer and you will say in front of the Lord, your God, etc." And they, may their memory be blessed, called this commandment, (Sotah 32a), "the recital of the first-fruits." I have written about the commandment of bringing them in the Order of Mishpatim (Sefer HaChinukh 91); and the commandment to bring them is likewise repeated in this section. And we already known that many of the commandments are repeated in the Torah; and all of them are for a great matter or necessity. It is from the root of the commandment [that it is] since a man arouses his thoughts and draws the truth in his heart with the power of the words of his mouth. Therefore, in that God did good to him, and in that He blessed him and his land to bear fruits, and he merited to bring the fruits to the House of our God; it is appropriate for him to arouse his heart with the words of his mouth and ponder that everything arrived to him from the Master of the universe, and he recount His kindnesses, may He be blessed, upon us and upon the people of Israel, more generally. Therefore, he begins with the subject of Yaakov, our father, whom God rescued from the hand of Lavan, and the subject of the slavery of the Egyptians over us and His, blessed be He, rescuing us from their hand. And following the praise, he requests from Him to eternally bestow the blessing on him. And from the arousal of his soul with the praise of God and His goodness, he will merit that his land be blessed. Therefore, God commanded us about this, since He desires kindness.

They mixed him a second cup, and here the son questions his father. If the son lacks the intelligence to ask, his father instructs him: On all other nights we dip once, on this night we dip twice? On all other nights we eat hametz or matzah, on this night only matzah. On all other nights we eat roasted, stewed or boiled meat, on this night only roasted. He begins with shame and concludes with praise; and expounds from “A wandering Aramean was my father” (Deuteronomy 6:20-25) until he completes the whole section.