Summary of the day

Shabbat HaGadol is the Shabbat before Pesach. It is customary for the rabbi to give a sermon on the laws of Pesach (searching for chametz, destroying it, matzah, the Seder), so that everyone is ready. Malachi’s haftara promises that God will return to His people, and that Elijah the prophet will come to turn the hearts of parents to their children.

The mitzvot of the day

• Hearing the sermon and making the last preparations for Pesach.
• The haftara, which recalls the future redemption.
• In some communities part of the Haggadah (“We were slaves”) is recited after Mincha, and children begin to learn the story of the festival.

Origin in history

According to a tradition recorded by the Tur (Orach Chaim 430), on 10 Nisan, four days before the Exodus, the Israelites took a lamb for the Pesach offering, as they were commanded (Exodus 12:3). The lamb was an Egyptian deity, and when the Egyptian firstborn asked what they were doing, they answered that God would strike the firstborn of Egypt. The firstborn begged their fathers to free Israel, and the Israelites were left unharmed. This miracle gave the day the name “the Great”.

The message for today

“Great” refers not only to size, but to greatness of soul: a week before the festival, we start preparing in earnest. Malachi reminds us that “the offering of Judah and Jerusalem” will be pleasing, when the heart returns to its source. And Elijah, whom we await at the Seder, reminds us that redemption includes repairing relationships between generations, between parents and children. That is exactly what the Seder does.