[Mesorah] Goy Gadol? or Gadol Atzum?

[Kenneth Miller]

When I was a beginning baal teshuva, my ideal hagada was one that would explain the halachos clearly and in detail.  As I grew, I gravitated towards the ones that would explain interesting diyukim in the words. At this point, it is my opinion that the goal of the Seder is to help us achieve "liros es atzmo k'ilu hu yatza mimitzrayim".

To that end, I realized over Shabbos that the Hagada is not bound to the strict reading of the trop, if another reading might help us better achieve Liros Es Atzmo. A great example might be R Eliezer and R Akiva, who the Hagada quotes as putting different "spins" on the same pasuk of Tehillim. So too, I now think that it may be entirely legitimate to separate "goy" and "gadol" in Maggid, despite the trop telling us to keep them together.

Previously, I referred to RYBS, who takes "metzuyanim" to mean special, and therefore feels that "goy gadol" must be kept together, because "gadol" refers to the specialness.

I saw over Shabbos that Abarbanel (on the Hagada) disagrees. He very emphatically says that "metzuyanim" means nothing more than that we were a recognizable group who did not assimilate. He follows this with many citations for "gadol", "atzum" and "rav". The drasha is two full pages in my edition, and I found it very interesting.

Akiva Miller
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