This happened once, when I was young and at the family seder. After the Four Questions were asked, my father began the answer — עבדים היינו — “We were slaves in Egypt.” Suddenly he broke down in tears. Nobody spoke. We waited. After a few minutes, he returned to the text. After seder, I asked my mother about what upset him so — the world, some work difficulty, maybe me? She answered: When he says, “Avadim hayinu,” he means it. He was a slave for years. Now he is home.
There is a much-discussed issue about the offerings and the Sanctuary.
Was the Avodah, both service and place, an ideal or a concession? Were these institutions necessary in and of their own right, or were they responses to human weakness?
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