What is so "Gadol" about this Shabbat?

This week is the Shabbat before Pesach. This Shabbat is called "Shabbat HaGadol." It is NOT one of the "arba parshiyot" (this used to confuse me a lot!), meaning that it does not have a special maftir, but it does have a special haftarah. Traditionally, shul rabbis give a lengthy d'rasha in the afternoon (The Shabbat HaGadol Drasha) dealing with some of the halachot of preparing for and observing Pesach.

I have long wondered why this Shabbat is called "HaGadol"; there is no other Shabbat HaGadol before any of the other chagim. One would think, if anything, that the Shabbat before Rosh Hashanah would be special The Shabbat before Rosh Hashanah actually passes unremarked. It doesn't even have "m'varchim hachodesh" (blessing the upcoming new month) that all the other months of the year have. Even though Sukkot also requires a great deal of preparation--building a sukkah, buying arba minim-doesn't get its own "Hagadol". (Remember that it used to be very difficult to build a sukkah and even more difficult to obtain an etrog.) It seems that not onlyLeil HaSeder is different from all other nights; why is Chag HaPesach so qualitatively different from all of the other Chagim in the Torah?

I know that there are many answers given. I would like to offer the following thought. Pesach was the first chag. It was the first time that we, as a nation, as people free from any master other than Hashem, were able to celebrate together. It was our "Birthday" so to speak. You don't remember the day you were born. You look back on it, however, every year and celebrate it. You anticipate you birthday. You think about how you will spend it, who will spend it with you, are you going to have a party, are you going to get presents. On the day itself, you can be the center of attention, and the day is punctuated with "happy birthday" wishes, maybe some cake, maybe some presents, but all around, a sense of celebration.

The Shabbat before Pesach begins the countdown, the anticipation for our national Birthday. We are getting excited (and overwhelmed) by what Pesach really means. Pesach is the freedom to practice our religion, have our calendar, serve our G-d, speak our language, use our names, and raise our children as free people to do the same. (Living in America, that freedom is sensed even more, because it is legal and protected by the government.) Even during the depths of all the horrible persecutions Jews have endured throughout history, they have still marked this Birthday and have praised Hashem for it. That really IS a "big deal".

The word "Gadol" refers to magnitude--it can be size, weight, height, numbers or importance. Perhaps this is why this Shabbat, the Shabbat the inaugurates the week of our Birth as a Nation (thank you D. W. Griffith for the title!) really deserves to be called "HaGadol."

Shabbat (HaGadol) Shalom!

Mrs. Leah Herzog