A Vort of the Rebbe on the Haggadah. In the Haggadah we talk about the ארבעה בנים, the four sons: the חכם, the רשע, the תם, שאינו יודע לשאול. By the חכם the Haggadah says what does the חכם say? \"מה העדות והחוקים והמשפטים אשר צוה ה' אלקינו אתכם\". What are the עדות and חוקים and משפטים that Hashem commanded you? These are three expressions that have to do with different types of mitzvot. משפטים are those mitzvot that we understand. Also, if not the Torah, chas veshalom, wouldn't have been given, we still would have kept them, like don't steal, don't kill, etc., etc. עדות are mitzvot that we do understand, but if not for the Torah we wouldn't keep them. For instance, Shabbos. We have a reason why there is a mitzvah of Shabbos, because the Oibershter rested on the seventh day. But if the Oibershter wouldn't command us, we wouldn't do it. But now that He commanded us, we understand it, so it still is something we understand. חוקים are mitzvot that we don't understand at all. So he asks, what are these עדות and חוקים and משפטים that Hashem commanded? And we tell him, then the Haggadah says, אתה אמור לו, tell him, כהלכות הפסח, all the הלכות of Pesach, and picks one הלכה: אין מפטירין אחר הפסח אפיקומן, that after the קרבן פסח we can't eat anything. And the reason it says is because we want that the taste of the קרבן פסח should stay in the person's mouth throughout the whole night. Nowadays we don't have a קרבן פסח, so we want the taste of the afikoman, which is in the place of the קרבן פסח, that the taste should stay in the mouth a whole night. Now the question that the Rebbe asks is, if he is called a chacham, and the Torah calls him a chacham, then obviously he's a scholar, he knows, what does that mean he's asking what are the mitzvot? He doesn't know the mitzvot? Then how is he called a chacham? Must be that he does know, so what's his question? And also, when we answer him, why do we pick this halacha that we can't eat anything after the קרבן פסח? Why is this a specific halacha that, if it would say answer him all the halachot, we would understand, answer him all the halachot, but it picks this halacha. So the mefarshim talk about it, and there are all kinds of answers in the mefarshim.

But the Rebbe says that the she'eilah of the chacham is not what are the mitzvot, he knows the mitzvot, he's called a chacham, so he knows. His question is, why is there such a thing as עדות, חוקים and משפטים? Really, there should only be חוקים. All mitzvot should be done just because Hashem said so. חוקים are mitzvot we don't understand, so why do we do it? Because Hashem said so. Why is it that there are מצות, משפטים and עדות that we understand? A Yid should really do everything b'kabbalat ol, and the reason for the mitzvot, whether he understands it or not, should not make a difference. So it should be all should be חוקים, the Torah should have made it that Hashem gave us mitzvot and that's what it is. But why is it that we have עדות, and we have משפטים, and some mitzvot are חוקים? Why did the Oybershter make it like that? And that's a deep she'eilah. He could be a chacham, and knows everything, but he's wondering why did the Oybershter make that many mitzvot, even most of the mitzvot, have a reason? When really we should not care about the reason, the main thing should be we should do it because the Oybershter said so, like we do chukim.

And the answer is, that as much as we have to do everything with kabbalat ol, but nevertheless the Eibershter wants that the kabbalat ol, the fact that we're given over to Hashem should penetrate into every part of our lives, and every parts of our body. That means that this inyan that we're listening to Hashem should also penetrate into our intellect. The intellect of a person is the most important part of the person. So we want that the intellect itself also should be batel to Hashem and should connect to Hashem. How does the intellect connect to Hashem? When you understand it. And that's why by Matan Torah the Yidden said \"נעשה ונשמע\", we will do, and then they said we will hear, we'll understand. And we always talk about the great thing that the Yidden did, that they said we will do before we will even understand. But the question is, wouldn't it be better if they wouldn't say \"נשמע\" at all? We will do! We won't understand, we don't have to understand! The answer is no. The yesod obviously has to be נעשה. The yesod, the foundation has to be kabbalat ol, like chukim. We have to do everything because Hashem said so, no matter what, whether we understand or not. But then we have to see and to understand as much as we can, so then even the seichel is involved in kedushah, and the kabbalat ol penetrates even the seichel, that the seichel understands the right thing, understands what the Eibershter wants. And that's what we say, he asks, why are there עדות, חוקים and משפטים, there should be only chukim, and we answer him: אין מפטירין אחר הפסח אפיקומן. Pesach is a mitzvah. And a mitzvah we do because the Eibershter wants.

Especially the Korban Pesach is the mitzvah that represents kabbalat ol, because we find that when the Eibershter told them to bring the Korban Pesach he said, it was a mesirat nefesh on the Yidden's part, because the animal was the avodah zarah of Mitzrayim, and the Yidden should take it, so they pulled themselves away from avodah zarah and gave themselves over completely to the Eibershter. That's why the Oybershter gave them this mitzvah, because this was a complete kabbalat ol which was The הכנה to Yetzias Mitzrayim, the kabbalat ol. That's the קרבן פסח. So the קרבן פסח represents kabbalat ol, similar to what חוקים represent. Giving, giving yourself over to the Eibershter. Especially the word Pesach means to pass over, which means to jump. Jumping means something that doesn't go with a seder. Seder means something that's natural, normal, you go beyond. So when you do something like kabbalat ol, that's going beyond. That's mesirat nefesh, that's what חוקים are. Nevertheless, we want that it should have a taste. And the taste has to stay a whole night. The taste represents sechel. Sechel is something gives you a geshmak. The word ta'am has two meanings: taste, and ta'am means reason. Reasoning is a taste. Reasoning is something that's geshmak, something that you understand. So it says אין מפטירין אחר הפסח אפיקומן, we tell him that you should know, the Eibershter wants that we should use our sechel to understand as much as we can. Therefore, the Eibershter gave us many mitzvot to understand. But we have to remember the foundation is חוקים, that every mitzvah should be done like חוקים, בקבלת עול. But you ask the question, why do we have the ענין of עדות and משפטים that we understand? The Eibershter wants that the concept of חוקים, the concept of kabbalat ol, the concept of mesirat nefesh should penetrate into your sechel. As we see by the קרבן פסח, that the קרבן פסח has to have a taste and that taste of the קרבן פסח should stay in your mouth the whole night. Which represents the idea that this taste of the קרבן פסח should go on later, not only when you're eating it, but should continue later, which really means throughout the whole year, that the קרבן פסח, the taste should be there, because we need the kabbalat ol, the na'aseh, but then the na'aseh has penetrate into the nishma, that the נשמע should follow what the נעשה is. And that is the real inyan of Yetziat Mitzrayim.