[Avodah] Shabbos HaGadol

[Cantor Wolberg via Avodah]

It is not easy to explain the origin of the Hagadol which is applied
to this coming Shabbos. In the Haftorah, the prophet Malachi speaks of
a Yom Hashem Hagadol which according to various customs 
is to be read when the Sabbath before Pesach happens to be
Erev Pesach. And yet the term Hagadol as applied to the Sabbath
before Passover has been accepted by all whether or not it falls on Erev Pesach.

The Midrash offers additional insight as to why this Shabbos is termed Hagadol 
and tells us something most of us have learned that on the Shabbos preceding
the 14th of Nissan (when the Pascal lamb was to be brought as an offering), the 
Egyptian masters entered into the homes of the Jews and noticed that each family
had a sheep tied to its bedposts. The Egyptians asked: “What are you doing with 
our sheep?!” The Jews replied: “We are going to slaughter it as an offering to our God.”
The Egyptian masters gritted their teeth in exasperation and walked out. This is 
another basis for the Shabbos preceding Pesach to be called the “Great Shabbos.”
It is the Shabbos that the Jewish people experienced a miracle — they were not 
killed by their masters because of their subordination to the Will of the Almighty and
they were not deterred by concern for their personal safety. THAT was “greatness”
and they were, indeed, truly “great.”

It is also interesting that every Shabbos symbolizes complete freedom — freedom
from technology and the mundane. Pesach typifies freedom and redemption. The 
parallel to Shabbos is profound. May this Shabbos be the “GREATEST!”

"The price of greatness is responsibility.”
Winston Churchill

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