כל דכפין ייתי וייכול כל דצריך ייתי ויפסח

The “דכפין” guest and the “דצריך” guest.

The commentators ask why is the term for need repeated twice, why “דכפין“and also “דצריך”?

Sefer “Mareh Cohen” in the name of Hagaon R’ Avraham Pam ZT”L, Rosh Yeshivah of Yeshiva Torah Vadaas explains. In the past in small towns in Europe, Friday evening after davening it was the accepted custom for the Gabbai of the shul to pair up guests with hosts for the Friday night meal.

In the town of Shadlitz where Rav Pam’s grandfather was the Av Beis Din, two guests showed up in the town shul one Friday night. One guest was large, husky, and gave of the impression of being a simple farmer. The other had a petite, refined and educated appearance. The Gabbai paired the guest who seemed learned with the Rav, and the less educated looking fellow to one of the local balie batim. The Rav was not satisfied with this arrangement. He explained to the Gabbai “You probably think that I require a guest that I can “talk in learning with” and that is why you paired me up with the seemingly learned guest. On the contrary, I wish to fulfill the mitzvah of Hachnasa Orchim with great ‘hidur’ and therefore I would like to host the simpler fellow for Shabbos”.

Based on the above we can identify two different types of guest. One kind of guest is hungry and looks for a host that can properly satisfy his hunger over the pesach seder. The other type of guest is a Ben Torah and his primary objective for the pesach seder is to fulfill all the mitzvos of the seder, while his secondary objective is to fulfill the requirement of Shulchan Aruch.

For the first kind of guest whose primary objective is to satisfy his hunger we say          “כל דכפין ייתי וייכול” meaning whoever is hungry should come and eat. But for the second guest whose primary objective is the mitzvos of the night we say: “כל דצריך ייתי ויפסח” for these are the things that really interest him. 

With this seemingly redundant invitation we include all the different kinds of guests.

והאר עינינו