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Thought for the Day: Does the Torah Obligate Us to Mention The Exodus at Night? Let's Ask the Snake!

What does the curse of the wretched snake who tricked our original ancestors into committing The Original Stumble have to do with the Exodus at all, let alone about whether there is a Torah obligation to mention the Exodus at night? I know, cool; right?

This morning after davening, a very thoughtful budding talmid chacham came over to me to ask a question on chumash. (The vasikin minyan is one big family; it's not the first question he asked me.) The question was: Part of the curse of the snake was that he had his legs removed. (This young man is under the impression that that aspect of the punishment was a measure for measure result of having pushed Chava into the tree as part of his trickery. I plan to ask him for a source; not for now.) His question was: Will the snake get his legs back in the future/with the advent of the messianic age?

Why is he studying that parsha now in the middle of pesach? I have no idea, and I didn't think to ask because I was already stunned by my reaction: Actually, I do know the answer to that question, and I just saw it straight out discussed... but where?

Then I remembered... I have a very nice hagadah -- a gift from my son-in-law some years ago -- called, "אוצר מפרשי ההגדה"/Treasury of Explanations of the Hagadah. I like it very much because it first has just the text hagadah with virtually no commentary, then a couple of hundred pages of commentary; line by line, phrase by phrase. It also has copious footnotes, which enables going back to the original source. Each year I learn a bit more and leave my bookmark where I ended so I know where to start the next year. Every once in a while I even checkout the footnotes; mostly the short ones that don't look too scary.

You are wondering what this has to do with the snake, right? Patience...

There is a famous discussion brought in the hagadah between R' Elazar ben Azariah and the Sages regarding mentioning the Exodus at night. The crux of the discussion is how to understand the phrase: כל ימי חייך. The Sages understand this phrase to mean "all the days of your life" -- "life", of course being understood to be our eternal life;  including the messianic age. R' Elazar ben Azariah, on the other hand, understands the phase to mean "the entirety <ie, daytime and nighttime> of your life." Very clearly explained, I thought.

Um.... the snake? Right -- so the footnote on that explanation says that the Gr''a has a proof to the Sages understanding from the medrash, which states: In the future (ie, messianic era) everything will be cured except the snake; as it says: HaShem told the snake -- you shall eat dust all the days of your life; in The Holy Tongue: כל ימי חייך. So you see that expression means even in the future, not the entirety of each day. And that is how the curse of the snake is related to our obligation to recall the Exodus at night. Cool, eh?

One more thing: And that is why I was able to answer his question on the spot. Now please note: I just happened to have been learning this particular hagadah -- which I have not had available since before Covid -- but my son-in-law just happened to have time this year to send it to me. Also, I just happened to have reached the point in the explanations before that discussion -- about four years ago when I had last learned this sefer. Also, this sefer has so much that I just happen to leave a bookmark each year so I can start from where I last ended. Also I just happened to look at the long (and therefore scary) footnote on that piece. Moreover, the young man just happened to be learning that parsha now and came up with a question I have never before heard nor pondered.

That is a lot of "just happened"... almost makes you think that Someone is running the world.

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