@ysiegel
That is indeed quite a famous and typical vort of the Rebbe – however there are much, much more:
Why does the Baal Haggadah write אחד חכם, אחד רשע, אחד תם, ואחד שאינו יודע לשאול, Putting the Chochom and Rasha together? Won’t the Rasha have a bad influence on the Chochom? The Rebbe answers that, on the contrary, this way the Chochom will be able to influence the Rasha! This teaches us that, we needn’t worry about being influenced by our surroundings; On the contrary, we should initiate to have an influence on our surroundings!
Without meaning to put down anyone else, I can’t help but quote an interesting observation the Rebbe makes regarding the nuschaos in our Haggados. By the section that discusses the hard work that the Yidden suffered, the Alter Rebbe’s Haggada brings down the possuk וימררו את חייהם בעבודה קשה בחומר ובלבנים וכל עבדה בשדה את כל עבודתם אשר עבדו בם בפרך however this possuk appears in no other Haggadah! The Rebbe explains in his haggadah that this possuk must have been included in the Rishonim and Sifri for 2 reasons – 1. The baal Haggadah is obviously trying to detail the hard work that the Yidden had gone through after stating that the
Yidden had gone through a hard time as a general fact. If so, the possuk of ויעבדו מצרים את ישראל בפרך that appears in most Haggados is not sufficient. 2. Chazal (sota 10b) learn from that possuk that the yidden were given easy work and that the word ‘Perech’ is supposed to mean ‘Peh Ruch’. If so the Baal Haggadah couldn’t have brought a proof from that possuk, because that possuk isn’t really talking about hard work!
From here the Rebbe deduces that the possuk of Vayimareru must have been included in the original Haggadah. If so, how exactly did such a mistake make it’s way into almost all of our Haggadahs? The Rebbe answers that the scribes might have abbreviated the pessukim by writing ויעבדו…..בפרך intending the two pessukim which both end with the word “perech” but the printers didn’t realize and only printed the first possuk, which is the one printed in our haggadahs
Once again, I don’t meant to say the others ar wrong but i think the Rebbe’ss Pirush makes alot of sense.