The Rema in Shulchan Aruch cites the minhog to recite a portion of the Hagadda on Shabbos Hagadol. Although the Vilna Gaon is not in agreement with this minhog, he agrees with the source for this minhog. That is because on that day the geulah began at the moment that the Yidden took the lamb to set aside as a korban. Why, indeed, is this action of setting aside the lamb for the korban Pesach viewed as the beginning of the geulah?
The Vilna Gaon disputes the minhag to recite the Hagadda on Shabbos Hagadol based on the Chazal that states that sipur yetzias Mitzrayim is limited to the time that the matzah and marror are laying before you. However, he agrees that this was the pivotal moment that began the geulah.
We are told by Chazal that Klal Yisroel were in dire need of zechuyos to earn the right to be taken out of Mitzrayim. Hashem presented them with this opportunity via the Korban Pesasch and bris milah.
In reality, even with the performance of these two mitzvos, it was still insufficient to deem them worthy of the miracles required to take them out of Mitzrayim. It was only through an abundance of chesed and rachamim of Hashem that they were taken out. If so, what was the purpose of these two mitzvos, if anyways they were inadequate to earn the right to be freed?
Rav Dessler explains that being freed from Mitzrayim was not merely the physical extraction from the Mitzrim’s clutches. Crossing the Egyptian border into a different land, itself, would not have constituted freedom, as long as the Yidden were still under the influence of their false ideals and heretic mindset. Associating with the Mitzri beliefs, equaled servitude to them. To be freed and be considered completely redeemed, they needed to cut themselves off from the Mitzri hashkafos and their attachment to them. To achieve true emancipation, they had to engage in actions demonstrative of total detachment from the alien ideals.
The act of taking the Korban Pesach was precarious to their safety. It entailed great mesiras nefesh and posed great danger to their lives. The possuk says that under normal circumstances, they would have been stoned instantaneously for tampering with the animals - the Egyptian gods. When they revealed that these animals were to be sacrificed to Hashem, this could have sealed their doom.
This was a tremendous display of allegiance to Hashem and steadfast bitachon in Him. This fearless act of ridding themselves of the avodah zora and the resolute choice to endanger themselves for the service of Hashem, was the beginning of freedom from their bondage to the Egyptian culture.
Although the physical exodus only began on the fifteenth of Nisson, the true freedom began on Shabbos Hagadol with the designation of the lamb for the Korban Pesach.
Geulah is a state of mind. Freeing ourselves of foreign ideals and alien beliefs is the beginning of true cheirus. Commitment to trusting and relying on Hashem, unilaterally, is genuine freedom.
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