Tze U'Lemad - Go out and Learn - is NOT frequently used in the Talmud, although it is not as infrequent a term in the Midrash. The rarity of this term has already been remarked upon by R. Meir Ish-Shalom, the 19th century well-known editor of Midrash manuscripts.
A more common term in both Talmud and Midrash is Bo U'Re'eh - "Come and see". The Aramaic term Ta Shma - Come and hear - is very commonly used, as is the similar term, Ta Chazei - "Come and see" - in the Zohar.
Furthermore, the term Tze U'Lemad is almost always used to bring a proof or a deeper insight to a matter which has already been raised. In the Hagaddah, however, there is no obvious previously discussed topic for which this Tze U'Lemad is marshalling proof. It could be that the previous passage, V'Hi Sheamdah, is the claim for which evidence is being marshalled. "Not only once did they stand up against us to destroy us, but in every generation..." - then, "Go out and learn what Lavan the Aramean sought to do to Ya'acov, our father, for Pharaoh only decreed against the males, but Lavan sought to to uproot everything.
However, if this were the case, we should read, "Tze U'Lemad Mi...", "Go out and learn from. That is the form of this term everywhere it appears except here.
I wish to suggest, therefore, that the term that should have been used was the more standard one, Bo U'Reah. It cannot be used here, however, since we are to see ourselves as though we are in Egypt ourselves, a place of the depths of depravity and impurity. Moshe did not prophecy in Egypt, and we cannot learn Torah in Egypt. We need to GO OUT and only then LEARN. In fact, the entire Exodus is for the purpose of receiving Torah at MT. Sinai - what better way to encapsulate that than the phrase Tze U'Lemad!! When we say this phrase, we take a giant step toward leaving Egypt! Not just the Egypt of yore, within which we are to envision ourselves, but also the Egypt of fixed, ossified frameworks of our own making which we project upon the world. Go out from your preconceptions if you wish to learn, just as Hashem said to Avraham when he "doubted" whether he could father a child: "Go out from your astrological prognostications" - Avram cannot bear a child, but Avraham CAN.
The You you imagine yourself to be cannot be transformed, but the You who has not been realized yet, who is poised to spring into the world - its very being is transformation, so "GO OUT AND LEARN"
Rav Yehoshua Kahan
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Rav Yehoshua Kahan is a teacher at Yeshivat Bat Ayin. He has held pulpits in Knoxville, Tennessee and Los Angeles, and served as educational director of Livnot U'Lehibanot. He blogs on Parashat Hashavua here |