‘Go unto Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, for I have hardened his heart and the hearts’ of his servants, so I can perform my signs in their midst. And so that you shall tell your children and your children’s children’. So begins the Parshah of redemption and the primary mitzvah of the Seder night: to tell the story. It indeed seems from these verses as if the whole purpose of the Exodus is to tell the story. How are we to understand this idea? An answer may lie in another anomaly, the toast to G-d in the middle of the Hagadah. In the midst of telling the story of the Exodus, we raise our glasses and proclaim that in every generation some one has tried to kill us and G-d has saved us from their hands. What is the purpose of this statement in the middle of the Hagadah? Surely it should come at the end? An answer can be found in our Parshah, where we are commanded to observe G-d’s commands and to ‘live by them’. From this verse the Rabbis learnt that all the mitzvot can be broken to save life, except murder, apostasy and adultery/incest. There is, it appears, a religious obligation of Jewish survival. As long as one is able to continue being Jewish, being alive is more important than temporarily transgressing the Torah. A living Jew, it appears, is the greatest witness to G-d’s greatness. This, I believe is the meaning of the ‘toast to G-d’ at the Seder, and indeed the whole story. The seder is not simply about telling historical events but relating the story of Jewish survival. G-d took us out of Egypt so that in every generation our survival attests to His power. When we sit at the table, and relate the story of the Exodus to our children, three thousand years later, we are living witnesses to an ongoing miracle. For this reason we relate as part of fulfilling the mitzvah of relating the Exodus, that in every generation G-d has redeemed us. Empires have fallen and nations disappeared, but we are still here. Those that sort to annihilate us are often but footnotes in history, but we live. In this we fulfil G-d’s statement that we He redeemed us, in order that we should tell our children and grandchildren. The book Exodus, by Leon Uris, ends on such a note. In a reborn Jewish State, despite the problems they face, the family sits down at the Seder, and relates: ‘slaves we were in Egypt’. No matter what our problems or who our enemies, if every year we can do this, we triumph over them. We will outlast them and continue to tell the story. That, indeed in the promise that has stood by us in every generation, and sustains us today.

Rishon	The High Priest‘s service on Yom Kippur.
Sheni	The ceremony of the scapegoat.
Shelishi	The institution of Yom Kippur.
Revi’i	Proper slaughter of meat.
Chamishi	The prohibition of blood.
Shishi	Forbidden sexual liaisons.
Shevi’i	The Land will not tolerate depravity.
Haftorah	Malachi: 3;4-24: The Great Day of G-d.

Sidra Statistics: Parshat Aharei Mot

·                has 80 verses;

·                is the  6th in Leviticus,  29th in the Torah

·                6th longest in Leviticus,  44th longest  in the Torah  

·                has 2 pos +   26 neg = 28  mitzvot.