Even In Darkness, We Soar On the Wings of Eternity

the yeshiva.net [Music] today's class is dedicated by susan goldberg in memory of her parents arya labe ben wolfe and your heaved bat matissio and to remain a source of blessing and inspiration for you and the entire family and all of the jewish people and thank you so so much there's a fascinating rashi in the opening of parsha's truma if you'll take a look at your first source in the source sheets there's more on the bim if you need schmoys payrolls this is exodus 25 2 the opening of parshas truma hashem speaks to moisha and he says speak to the banay israel to the children of israel to the jewish people and they should take from me truma a contribution from any person whose heart is generous you should take my contribution and this is what i want should be retrieved from them and he goes through the various materials fabrics materials items metals that will all be necessary in order to build and construct the mishkan the sanctuary as he continues and says build for me a sanctuary and i will dwell among them so he begins with listing the materials of get gold khasaf silver and khaishu's copper and goes through many other materials iris element the hides of rams that will be dyed red iris the hides the skins of an animal called and ocasio would so rashi on that verse 25 5 says asks a question may i in bar where the day they discover ocasio-wood in the desert they needed to have an enormous quantity of atsa shittim of ocasio-wood in order to build the michigan because much of the exterior structure of the michigan all the beams that held up the michigan were all made of ocasio wood most of the furniture most of the utensils the kalim and the mishkan were formed and sculpt and and designed from i'd say from okay wood so rashi says how did they have all this lumber all this type of wood in the desert pirish that the jewish people are destined to build a mishkan a sanctuary in the desert in the wilderness vehicle so when yaakov relocated from the land of canaan to egypt he brought with him cedar he brought with him saplings of cedar trees vinnottam and he planted them in the soil of egypt the siva lebanov and he instructed his children litalum imam because she ate them in sarayam when they would leave mitzrayim these saplings which have now grown into cedars they should take this wood with them harvest these trees and take it with them take them with them when they leave egypt so now when they came to the midbar they had plenty of ate because they took all the trees that yak have planted they have been growing for hundreds of years remember from when yaakov planted them in israel he planted either saplings or seeds or already trees that were grown partially that he brought for maritiral and this is how they had all this occasion were in the desert i'd say them there's many different types of acacia wood but it's from the family of irazim what's known as the cedar trees it's all from a similar family you have it also in english here how did the children of israel obtain cedar one of the deserts says that yaakov avinu planted them and told them to take it along now the question of rashi is a very interesting question where did they have so much okay she went in the desert but let's see how other commentators dealt with this question take evan ezra evan ezra lived also in the 11th and 12th century of an ezra lived in spain rashi lived in france evanezer is a banu afram ebenezer was one of the greatest poets biblical commentators philosophers sages rabbis in spanish in spain during the 11th and 12th century and he has a commentary on khomus known as we just want to go for a few days for a holiday we're coming back for volcanic shield that's why they lent them so many silver utensils and gold utensils and garments why would they lend them all of these materials and all of this is expensive utensils the answer is because they were borrowing them supposedly and coming back okay so you're going on a trip on a holiday and i give you my things and you're going to bring them back now if you'd see you crush them how did they then take out from egypt so many beams are called esser amas the beams of the mishkan the height of each of the beams was 10 ammos which is approximately between 15 and 20 feet those are long pillars that they're taking from the cedar tree so they're not just taking small pieces of lumber with them that maybe you need for a barbecue or for a fire they're teaching they're taking huge trees cedar trees are from the tallest trees so they're taking huge huge trees that they can then form into these beams they didn't form them as beams in mitsrayim obviously just took the lumber and the egyptians are looking at them taking all this just for three days for a three-day holiday gambrithim then you had the bars that went through the length of the entire mishkan in order to hold the beams together they were also extremely long the amitrian and they passed through egypt the center of the of the kingship of the monarchy how did they respond to those who asked them the question why are you taking so much okay wood with you when you're just going for a holiday to sacrifice for three days says listen he says i don't know how if there's a tradition that we have from our fathers our forefathers that really the ocasio wood was taken out of egypt fine i will be obedient i will comply and accept it but the imsvarahi if this is just based on logic yes i say we need a search for a different answer vinoyma let me tell you what i say close to mount sinai where they built to the mishkan because they stayed there for a year after mountaintarian they built the mishkan there was a huge forest and the forest probably was filled with acacia trees and they cut the whole forest and that's how they had the wood and this avoids my problem of how they managed to take it all over take it all out from midstream from the egypt without anybody challenging them and confronting them what is this all about the das kainen mibaliatesvis these are the ashkenazic sages from the family of isis this is the house of rashi his grandchildren great-grandchildren he says something very identical to the evan ezra ubamidbar you in the midwest see it wasn't all a barren desert they were surrounded by places of civilization and there were places where there were forests large forests and that's where they retrieved the acacia wood the wood the lumber that's called shittum which we translate in english usually as occasion he says later you'll have in bamidbar the famous story with pinchas and zimri the jewish people are dwelling in a place in a community called shittim why is it called he says obviously that was an environment where there was an enormous quantity of occasion so they called it later in yeshua he sends spies from a place called why is it called goes okay trees grow there while shame because this forest filled with these types of trees was obviously large and popular and dominant so they call the place that's normal you know different types of names attach themselves to different inhabitants vazo shamira khasev eric shita ishayanov he says in the desert there will be a land that grows shita and the that's talking about not only in the future as some commentators say but even now er shita vahadas a place of caucasia and myrtles who hates kalman i want you to know that this is a light tree it's not so heavy and it's also smooth he says there were eight wagons eight to eight eight accent that were given to the children of murari with which they transported the mishkan from place to place and in there you had to put all of the beams and the sockets in which the beams were and the pillars and the sockets of the courtyard and the pillars which were all built of i'd say he says how can you do that he says it wasn't so heavy waffle bishop governed esther al-ashman either beams were tall they were 10 arms tall the width of every beam was an ammo and a half that's around three feet and the thick was an armor obviously this was a lighter type of wood so evan ezra and ascanin both agree where did they get all this wood there were places around midbar sinai where they can purchase they can cut forests and they can get all the sword don yitzhak abarbanel in the 15th century the finance minister of all of spain of the kingdom of spain was a man named don yitzhak barbanel he was a great sage and rabbi and also a brilliant economist he worked for king ferdinand and isabella and when they decided under the guidance of turkmedia who started with during the inquisition to expel every last jew from spain abarbanel was granted permission to remain in spain because he was so he was seen as so essential and indispensable to the economy of spain the king and the queen even offered him to keep their minion so he should be able to have a minion so not only can he stay he can even practice his judaism completely but abarbanel absolutely refused he said if my people can't stay then i have no future in spain and he led the exile out of spain tish above 1492 even had them play music on tish above to add to the mood he wanted to help lift up the jewish people who had to leave a thousand years of life in spain and they called it you know the golden torah zahav the golden era of the jewish people in spain and he wrote a commentary on khomus later in his exiles he went to portugal and then italy and in his commentary on khumas on the tanakh it's a very famous and very long commentary that barbanel also raises this question and he says it seems to me far-fetched is far-fetched to say that the jewish people took out all this wood from egypt and remember they crossed the sea with it this was a real heavy burden besides traveling themselves and their children of their families and they had on their shoulders all the dough and whatever they took out they borrowed so much from egypt in addition to that they all they had these enormous quantities of lumber and they went through the sea with it what i think is more correct is there were people who lived in the entire area in the region in the middle east not far from egypt not far from the sinai desert and they would come around they were merchants they were peddlers and they would sell the jews all types of items and materials that's how they got so much oil that they needed for the manure how they have oil so he says again they bought oil from gentile merchants that came around and sold these items to the jews hapsam they bought various spices and herbs le shema mishra tyrus which they needed for the anointing oil which they needed for the incense every day in the michigan laksha of calls to think that everything was taken out of egypt with them he says it's hard to consider um cannot say hence they bought also from these people i'd say in other words they were businessmen tagre or uma says the gemara calls them people gentiles who lived in the area remember there were many nations and many tribes and many cultures that lived at that time in the middle east and therefore everyone has to make their own money people would travel with all these types of items like they used to call them the peddlers that would go around from stettle to stetland here they had a big community that had a lot of money and they sold them all of these materials abarbanel says that's how they got attitude but as we see rashi doesn't accept any of these interpretations and it's interesting because rashid says many times ani basi loibasi allah rashi says this in parish is bereishish and in many parishes my agenda is not to quote every madrish most midrash most homoletical interpretations rashi does not quote he says my agenda is to explain and offer the most literal straightforward interpretation of aposic so if there are complex and nuanced interpretations that are madrashik rashi will try to avoid them because his objective is shot here you would think for ashley asked the question where did they get so much okay she would he could say this answer there was there were deserts around there were there were forests from which they can retrieve them like the evan ezra says or people came and sold them to the jewish people but rashi rejects all of these answers and rashi quotes a medrash from rabbit huma that it was all brought down from yaakov planted in egypt and yaakov instructed them to take them out from israel this was the tradition of in his madrish quotes and that's how they had all of this atheist what compelled rashi to see this as the most straightforward reading of the psukim one way of explaining this is rashi was very sensitive to the wording of the passage when hashem speaks to moshe says speak to the israel they should take from each rumor obviously grammatically there's a challenge here it should have said contributions you don't take you give it should have said ya viuli they should bring me truma they should give me truma they should give me a truman means a contribution of russia what's the trauma the sefarno says that you actually have to explain the passage a little differently israel speak to the children of israel vikkhuli tell them that i asked the gizbarim the fundraisers the collectors to go and take from them to ma so dabrabne israel and talking about two different groups of people speak to the israel vi so that the fundraisers should come and take and they should allow them to take from them all these materials because it's coming from me but why the need for this roundabout way of giving the mitzvah just say it and it says it three times from whoever is generous take the trump this is the contribution you should take from them so the last two make sense grammatically but all three times he could have spoken about the fact that this is what the jewish people should give especially the first time the itunes but the word is the so from here rashi perhaps deduced that the turtle is trying to intimate something and that is that all the materials that were needed for the mishkan were already present in the domain of the jewish people so all that was missing was just go and take it if the torah would say israel speak to the children of israel they should give so if i ask you can you please give to so and so this and this you may have it you may have to go borrow it you may have to go buy it you may have to go obtain it you may have to go cut down a forest and get it and then you could give it when you say please give it it includes any preparation that's necessary in order to give so the trader changed it deliberately to say just take it which emphasizes the point it's already there all that's needed is so it actually asks a question may i inherit but he doesn't have a problem with the fact that there may be forests around midbar sinai and they could cut those forests he doesn't have a problem with the fact that merchants peddlers may be traveling and the jewish people could buy these materials from them but to have such an amount of quantity of lumber ready in their domain that all you need is vehicle right people don't even if people have wood they don't travel with so much wood and this type of wood and in such a large quantity and such long beams etc so how is the vehicle happening so for this rashi says peter rabbit explained that they left mitzrayim with all of this lumber because yaakov avinu told them to take it and therefore when the commandment to build the mishkan came the reborn shalom could save just take the true man that included not only gold and silver and copper which they had the terror clearly says that they took out of egypt enormous quantities of gold and silver and copper and later after the splitting of the sea and the egyptians were there the gemara says godoyla business businessmen what they took at the sea was even more than what they took from egypt so they had all of these materials but even at say shittim which you wouldn't expect because yaakov avinu told them to take it so they had plenty of trees plenty of lumber and therefore hashem could say the word is because it's ready and if you read in russian you see how by all the materials he says different commentaries that indicate how the jewish people would have had these things for example he says by sheikh linden it said he says it he says she's pished on linen other times in earlier tests he doesn't explain it why here does he explain it because rashi already said that piston grows in mitzrayim so now you know how they had pished and how they had linen rashi says about hailes our gamma say he says there was wolves that were dyed we know how much sheep they had how much cattle they had so they obviously had a lot of wool so if you look at the commentary of rashi it seems that throughout all of the fabrics he makes sure to realize that if you have a question how they had it i'll show you how they had it so here i'd say them as well that's why also it explains why he says pirish rabbit usually when rashi quotes a madrish which is not orphan it's sometimes but not very very frequent so rashi will quote the explanation at the end he'll say tanhuma or may rabbit or madrasha here he says pirish very very rare and unusual way of rashi talking rebbi tanhuma explained almost to show that this is not just a madrashic interpretation it's pity sherbet it's the way you have to be mafarish the way you have to explain the passage because of the difficulty of the which is such a strange expression that grammatically seems completely not to fit in with the style of the with the statement of the with the message of the passage so that's why it says perishable that this is an interpretation of shot but now we come to the fundamental question and that is why did yaakov do this remember the terrorist says that the jewish people spent 400 years in egypt that means when yaakov avinu relocated from eritkinan to egypt this happened 400 years before the story rashi makes a calculation based on ghazal that it wasn't really 400 years it was 210 years the posix says they stayed there 400 years but actually says that the goddess already began earlier so the judgment of 400 years begins much earlier because according to the calculation according to the chronology it seems that they were there for 210 years but obviously it was more than it was a huge amount of time as we said there may have been okay within egypt there may have been okay sherwood in the forest around sinai there were peddlers coming around and selling so why did the acav have to work so hard 400 years before the story or 210 years before the story or whatever the exact amount of years to schlep down all the way from kanan saplings of cedarwood remember he's relocating with his entire family wives children grandchildren whoever was alive then in kanan that came down the 70 people that came down to mitsura para specifically sent empty wagons from egypt back territory so yaakov could transport everything so it sounds like yaakov was just coming himself empty hands he brought a few wagons with saplings this was a complete transformation of his life they left eretz kanan for good and they came to egypt so yaakov said well wait we have to take something else and he slept now cedar trees or cedar saplings to egypt and he plants them in egypt so they can grow in mitzrayim and he tells them before he passes away one day you're going to leave make sure you take these trees he could have just told them even if he wants to tell them he could have just told them even if he wants them to know to take out these trees out of egypt so they'll have the they'll be able to take it so yaakov could have told them make sure before you leave mitzrayim take from the cedar trees here jacob also could have planted it from cedars in mitsrayam he had to bring them over to israel yaakov could have told them buy them from people yaakov could have told them there may be four but there was four is there make sure you cut down and them i mean what a tear for yaakov what a bother for yaakov to do and also for them that when they have to leave mitsrayam they have to schlep all of the slumber so yaakov could have just told them he first of all he didn't have to tell them anything they could have tucker bought it over there when they left they could have cut it from a forest like levine ezra says they could have bought it from people even if for whatever reason yaakov wanted that they should take it out of mitzrayim he could have told him to take it out of mriam he had to plant them himself so you might say yaakov knew that hashem is going to save if yaakov thought that hashem might say the he wanted it should be ready fine so he could tell them make sure you take what was the meaning of this what was the significance of this why would yaakov feel the need to do this so i want to change the subject for a moment we'll get back to this bazer hashem and i want to study with you a piece of the haggadah in your next source everybody knows this is the opening of the haggadah after the manastana the children ask the questions and we speak about the fact whoever increases to tell the story of the exodus is praiseworthy the haggadah goes on telling a story this is the famous story with which we open up the conversation of the haggadah maison rabbi eliezer it's a story about some of the greatest talmudic sages of the time this takes us back to the second century after the common era this is some decades after the destruction of the second base amiktosh was in the year 70. tough tough hey qibla allah from toughtoff lamid in the hebrew calendar in the jewish calendar 3 3830 since creation or maybe a year earlier or two years earlier it was either 68 or 69 or seventy and in the decades following that some of the greatest ghazal some of the greatest sages of the time gathered together in benebrach for the seder who we have a man named rabbi eliezer he's also known as rebellion his father's name was hercules we have rabbi yeshua he's also known as he was actually a levy and he was one of the musicians in the second base amiktas the last years the waning years we have rabia lazar ben azaria and we have rebbi akiva and we have reptyrphen and they all come to benaibrach and they're sitting the whole night called osealila that night that night and they're telling the story of itis mitsuram until their students come to them and say teachers are teachers it's already the time to read krishna in the morning dawn has broken the sun will soon rise rabbis it's time to say krishma in other words they really sat all night and told the story of isis mitsurani and then the haggadah continues says and in some of the versions it says says to them in other words it's part of this first story it's not a second story i'm already a person who is like 70 years old the gemara explains in broadcast what does he mean kevin you're 70 you're not 70. he was really much younger he was actually 18 years old but they needed a new leader for the jewish people ram gamlil was dethroned at the time and they chose but he had to consult his wife and her concern was he's so young and he grew some white here and he accepted the position with the agreement of his spouse he says and he becomes the leader the spiritual leader of the jewish people and he says i never had a source that you have to mention you see his mistrial at night it says lamont says remember the day that you left egypt throughout all the days of your life but maybe it means only during the day by day we mentioned you'd see us by night but benzoyma said kalyan it says remember you jesus but time all the days of your life it could have said throughout the days of your life the days of your life means the day and call you may all the days is layla's even at night this is what a blasphemous tells them now here's a very interesting question we know there will be akiva until 40 years he did not learn the gemara says he was absolutely illiterate he was a shepherd and there was a woman rahul he was a shepherd for kalba savour as one of the wealthy jews of and kalba verizon had a rock daughter rocco took a liking to be akiva she felt very positive about him and she offered to marry him but he has to go learn and ruby akiva went to learn who were his rebels so our sages tell us that eliezer was his rabbi and rabbi yeshua was his rebbe isn't it strange then that the rebels came for pesach to the student rather than the student coming to the river you know we take it for granted yeshua those are the two masters the two members of rabia usually a student especially anyamdev goes toward that but not the other way around rebels they were colleagues they were friends but yeshua and rabbi eleazar abele ezra was the rebel mubarak he was the teacher of rabbi akiva and they all came to rabbi akiva how do i know they came to rabia akiva because it says they came to benedict the gemara says in sanhedrin you're looking for a good basdin you go through akiva who was the rabbi the spiritual leader of benebrach was the realm of the city of loud ruby akiva was a banabrak they all came to benebrach to arabia akiva's location but the question is even stronger and here you see how when we have a broadness we get to see new insights take a look at the next source this is from a gemara sukkah of zion amid base talmud sukha page 27. tanya rabban and the rabbis taught my siberia there was a great talmudic sage's name was rebellious he went to greet his rabbi rabbi eliezer remember we already just learned about rabbi eleazar who was by rabbi akiva for pesach but one year rabbi elio came for yomtov it doesn't say with yamthev he came to welcome to greet his rebbi rabbi elias and he went to lud because rabbi eleazar lived in lut omar his teacher tells him i don't understand don't you keep yamcha don't you observe the holidays don't you rest on yamtif what does he mean he came to see his rabbi yamtif of course he rests on yom he doesn't work used to say i have a special love for the lazy people i am fond of the lazy shayne yoits and me battery and be regal who don't leave their homes on yamtif i have admiration i have words of praise for the lazy people dixiv because eternal says if you bring joy to your household to your wife to your children i like the people who are lazy and say i don't have kayak to leave the house i don't know yet sorry i gotta stay home it doesn't mean they stay home and they sleep on the couch it means that they're involved with family so rabbi eliezer turns to the below and says you don't keep yamtiv why are you coming to me get out you have a wife you have children go back home don't come to me this was rabeliaz's view this was and the gemara then analyzes his view rebellious one second how could you be so hypocritical where did you go for pesach [Laughter] you went for pace what happened what happened with you being lazy what up with you but he himself on pesach goes to uh rebecca in benebrach these questions were raised in a commentary on the haggadah that's known as leil shimuram it's a commentary that was written by the author of the arakha there was a jew one of the great rabbis of the 19th century was a man named rabbi hill mikhail epstein rabbi hill michael is the famous city in belarus at the border of lithuania it's a city in mitchell belarus who authored a seminal work in halacha known as in which he organized the halachic literature till his day in a very systematic and organized and clear way he also authored a book called the future for after meshiach comes all the halachahs that jews are going to have to know for the future he was a great man and a great mind he passed away in 1908 of bay's other 1908 and he was born in babroysk in belarus and he has this work has other works one of them is a work on the haggadah called in his commentary on the that he asks these questions why did the teachers come to the student the students should come to the teacher and why did there be eliza behave apparently in a way that is inconsistent with what he himself taught rabbi eliot when he came to see him in lud but it's this story in the haggadah that opens a vista to go back to our rashi with rabbit rashi as a rule does not usually quote the sources of the people who give the commentary that he quotes in other words if you look at most commentaries of russia even if he's quoting a gemara or a madrish very rarely will he quote the person who said it he'll just say the commentary if you look up the source you'll see it was said by a certain sage and there's a reason for it because again rashi's objective is not to quote all the sources rashi objective is that even a five-year-old child and a 90 year old and a 90 year old elderly sage should learn really quotes the names of the people who said the statements that he quotes once in a while he'll do it and you always have to know why because there's a reason for it because most times he doesn't do it here rashi does it rashi sometimes writes rabbi saying arab is taught even though it was a person you look at the sword sometimes he'll say madrashi some say you'll say sometimes he'll just say the madrish once in a while infrequently he'll mention the name here he mentions the name he says peter srabbit he could have just quoted the interpretation if you want to give a source he can give a source why does rashi mention hear the name the answer to this i heard myself from the lobster rebbe when he was explaining this rashi shabbos parshas trumatov zion that's a long time ago 1987. i was 14 years old but i still remember the explanation vividly because it was very emotional and moving and he said that by quoting this name rashi is actually explaining the reason that yaakov did this the word tanhuma comes from the word tanhuman which means comfort right like to offer solace condolences comfort in yiddish it's called treysten to trace somebody to lift somebody up in a difficult moment rashid doesn't just say pressure our teacher said this or the madrid says it or just say it and you could and will know that it's from a source or actually didn't invent stories rashi says the name because this gives insight and answers the question why would yaakov go through this entire bother of schlepping down these cedars and planting them and then telling the jewish people to schlep them out of egypt with them through the yams of all the way into the midbar when there were other opportunities to obtain the occasion why did even hashem have to say the yiku when he could have said vitnu just so that yaakov should have to do this whole thing so there should be why couldn't they just get the cedars from the forest get the cedars from from salesmen from merchants from peddlers so rasheed says as the fourth father as the patriarch of the jewish people thought about nahamah he thought about offering comfort to the jewish people jacob knows or he has a hunch that when he's living in egypt there's a lot of comfort joseph is the prime minister the jewish people are treated very well but times change and one day dies of passes away his brothers pass away the whole generation passed away their children pass away opens up a new king arises he doesn't know joseph and suddenly this people who found such graceful hospitality by the egyptians for so many years are transformed into miserable downtrodden dejected slaves subjected to slave labor and subjected to genocide they're oppressed as the terrorist says they embitter they make their lives miserable with every form of oppressive excruciatingly torturous labor and if that's not enough the male infants should be plunged into the nile river and the jewish people are suffering and they suffer for years under the tyranny of paris in egypt becomes for the jewish people a concentration camp yaakov as a father as the ultimate father as yaakov he thinks about how to offer comfort to the jewish people now the jewish people were promised they're going to go out yaakov told it to them because when yaakov was going down to egypt hashem said don't be afraid i'm coming down with you i'm coming up with you when yaakov was about to pass away he told joseph don't bury me here bury me back in marissa machpel in hebrew when joseph passed away at the end of he made his brothers and his family take an oath and he said parkour yifked him one day hashem will remember you you're going to go out take my bones with you and indeed in the beginning of partially it says joseph they did not leave egypt until martial went and fulfilled the pledge that his ancestors gave to yosef many years earlier when joseph passed away to take out his casket his coffin from israel and the deposit says joseph made them swear so there was a verbal promise and an oath that one day the jewish people are going to leave and they knew it and when martial came back to the jewish people and said hashem sent me it says the jewish people believed him even though later they couldn't listen to him because the oppression became even more intense and the pressure became even more excruciatingly difficult because paris imposed the labor on them much more and the quota became greater but ultimately the jewish people embraced the promise of and moshe can begin the mission of redemption but these were ultimately words that the jewish people embraced and believed in yaakov knew how painful and how difficult and excruciating torturous the savage suffering that his children women men youngsters elderly parents all of the jewish people in egypt will endure so yaakov avinu thinks about how i can comfort them how i can offer solace to them he knows that they'll be able to build a mishkan with ocasio wood from many different sources that's not the problem but he's thinking about tank what does he do he brings down saplings of cedars into egypt he plants them and before he passes away as these saplings just begin to grow he turns to his children and grandchildren and says one day you're going to leave this place and you're going to watch these trees grows make sure when you make sure you're going to watch these trees grow and make sure when you leave you take all this lumber with you because you're going to build a mishkan for hashem in the desert and you're going to need all of this lumber so make sure you take them with you and that's why i planted them and here the jewish people had something concrete to look on to look at and to hold on to as the years and dollars continue 100 years passed and 200 years passed 300 years past 350 years passed or whatever your calculation is 100 150 years yaakov is not here jakov's there's nobody alive anymore who remembers yaakov there's nobody who's alive that remembers joseph they have a verbal promise that is going to be gula there's going to be emancipation but yaakov gave them a greater gift every mother and every father could point to all of these cedars trees all of these cedars growing and they could point to them and see you see these these don't come from itzerayam they come from our homeland they come from maritiral they were physically transplanted here to egypt because yaakov said that these trees were going to take with us when we leave mitsuram and as the trees grew their hope grew with them and as the subjugation and enslavement and tyranny of paris perhaps became at times unbearable and so difficult to deal with the stress the anxiety the agony the suffering the sobbing the tears mothers and fathers and grandparents can embrace their kinder luck their children and grandchildren great-grandchildren and point to these trees and say listen to the whisper without too hard listen to the whisper of these trees listen to the story that these trees tell remember that yaakov could have also planted them from egyptian cedars he didn't he brought them from america's israel why not plant them in egypt from egyptian cedars he wanted to show the jewish people in a very concrete way we didn't start here we came for marriage israel we're here on a journey these trees are going to come with you when you go out of mitzrayim so throughout the long years of gulas the jewish people had this concrete embodiment of hope this was a physical link to a past and a physical link to a future outside of gulas and when they looked at those whispering trees they can see in their mind's eye the presence of yaakov their father who came down to mitsrayam and was told and told them you're going to leave and at that moment these wretched slaves can experience freedom can see themselves as free people because the greatest tragedy of a slave physically or emotionally is the loss of hope the loss of identity the loss of dignity the battered person who forgets that abuse is called abuse who makes peace with bondage who makes peace with dysfunctionality who almost feels i deserve it this is this is my fate this is my destiny this is where i always was this is where i will forever be but here you have these irasim planted by avinu that came from eritrea with a clear instruction you're going to go out and you're going to take these arosim with you so indeed they could have obtained wood from many other sources of course they could have forests and peddlers and merchants cut forests by them whatever the methods would be but pirish rabbit for all the years in gullah smithslam they should have in front of their eyes a reminder a concrete physical manifestation of the truth that they are not essentially an enslaved people they are not essentially slaves the light of redemption beaconed on them through these whispering trees it reminded them where they came from and it reminded them what their destiny is what their trajectory is what their future is what their vocation is it always whispers to them the message of gullah when they looked at these trees they can feel they can breathe an energy of vision of redemption of redemptive consciousness and indeed we can imagine then what yaakov accomplished because words are powerful but the visual we all know the visual is something exceptional especially for young people so every jewish child grew up and here was yaakov this was planted by yaakov's hands nobody else planted them from erit israel and look as they're growing he said you're going to leave this place and you're going to build a mishkan where god is going to dwell among you in the desert just gave the jewish people a sense of hope and of elevation and of inspiration that a part of them always remained above always remained connected to something deeper you know i heard a story a few years ago from a jew his name was show drawer saul drawer he lived in florida this was around three years ago right before corona he was then 95 years old and he was believe it or not a member in a band and it was called the band of holocaust survivors and he was the drummer in the band so i heard him speak he said how did he become a drummer he was in a concentration camp he lost much of his family and at night he said they would sit in the barracks for hours and he said i always had two passions in my life food and music in the camps there was no food i was starving we were all starving and when people are hungry for days and weeks or months nobody should ever understand you you lose your humanity because it's like those basic those basic necessary items for survival are gone you can't think you can't have vision you know maslow's hierarchy you first have to have food acts like a person choking you can't think about grand visions when somebody's choking when somebody's so starving anime he says but we didn't have food but i decided you know what i don't have to give up my second passion which is music but where am i gonna have music in the camp so he said we each had a spoon so i borrowed a spoon from another jew and i would start clanking with the spoons he's a secular jew he said the song he knew was havana so he says with the spoons he would start clanking every night he would make a concert with his two spoons by the way they say that it comes that this negan comes from one of the hasidic dynasties ah santa guerra madrid then it was taken but he would sing they died and he said everybody would start clapping and he did this every single night every single night and when the war ended he came out and he became a drummer and he has now this band he was 95 years old playing playing drums now real drums not spoons because so much of freedom has to do with my mindset the gemara says ain't only alabadea poverty is in the mind circumstances the jews couldn't change in mitzrayim but the eruzim of yaakov avinu reminded them that they are essentially free men free women carved in the image of hashem avada hain valaya of adam lavadam you're my servants you're servants of a free god who wants to see your full potential blossom you're not servants of slaves you're not slaves of slaves slaves of power that's why rashid quotes the name pirish rabitankuma this was so essential to the nakhamah and the rabbi then continued and he said that there's also a deeper hint the pasik says in tehillim to hillary base you could see it in your next source azadek blossoms like a palm tree que eres balavona nisga he blossoms he grows or she grows like a cedar in lebanon lebanon is known for its splendid gigantic tall magnificent cedar trees it says many communities we say this on shabbos is compared to the cedar tree so when yaakov avinu plants the cedars in egypt there was two types of cedars he planted there are the physical cedar trees he planted the arazon that the jews would physically take with them when they leave egypt and use them to build the mishkan for the reborn of shalom of azerbaijan but there was another form of cedar trees he planted if you take a look the gemara says in you um hashem saw that there are fruits he planted them shuslam shasil in hebrew is a sapling a little plant shuslan he planted them in every generation people are not planted people are born people grow up but here the word is vishuslan justland is planted them put them in the earth and the magala mukas which is a famous kabbalistic work authored by rabbi nassen shapiro the rabbi of kraka passed away in the year tough hey allah from tough 1640 on his mat saving crack how it says it was knowing that he learned tighter from the mouth of elio navi i don't know if there's such a tombstone anywhere else in the world on his tombstone they should write it you know you don't exaggerate on tombstones especially not in 1640 that he was he learned titus and magallah muchas writes in the same work is nasi the word nasi which is the term that's used for the spiritual leader of the jewish people is rasha tavis what's the definition of a nasty of a leader he is a neet sutsa shell it's an acronym a spark of yaakov why because the definition of anasi is that he's one of the plants one of the sparks one of the saplings one of the cedars that yaakov avinu planted in every generation what does this mean it means that just as the jews were in golis mitsrayam that madrid says that all the exiles are called mitzrayim because the word mitzrayim comes from the word matzah distress restrictiveness whenever a person is in a state of of of restrictiveness when a person feels contracted fetched recoiled fearful dejected that's called mitzrayim even if it's not the geographical location of egypt so just as yaakov thinks about the jews in golus mitzrayim for all future generations yaakov also brings arosim que he brings saplings of cedars with shasta and he plants them those are the sparks to do what to accomplish what to accomplish what they accomplished the first time in egypt what is the definition of a tadik what is the definition sometimes people want to know how do you know who's a manager a leader of the jewish people how do you know what an authentic rep is how do you know who's a real nasty or nasty of banay israel a leader of the jewish people what is even the meaning of it what is the purpose of it this is what rabbit is teaching us is teaching us that hashem plants and generation souls to allow a person to be able not to see their greatness but to allow a person to be able to see his or her own greatness there are certain souls that when you encounter them when you learn from them when you're inspired by them what happens you feel like a cedar tree you become an eres balavona you know sometimes you're in the presence of people and when you come out of that encounter you feel small or you feel i don't know a little queasy sometimes or you feel uncomfortable or you feel stressed or you feel nothing but yakova vino planted sadiq one is the souls that when you encounter these souls you realize that you're a free person you realize that you're a divine person you suddenly become aware of the energy the creativity the infinity the love the godliness the holiness the perfection the compassion that flows through your system you look at yourself in different ways there are people that when you meet they put up a mirror to themselves so that you should see them there are people that you meet and they put up a mirror to you they want to become your mirror so that through them you should see yourself but see your authentic self see yourself in the most powerful fashion see yourself not as a victim but as a free person not as somebody who essentially is wretched and belongs in subjugation and gullus but essentially is an ambassador of love light hope and ambassador of the divine and therefore operates on a gula redemptive consciousness so in each generation hashem plants sadiq gives them part of his sparks these are his cedar trees that he puts into the soil of galas as a shem souls that never become completely lost in the tsunami of exile they never allow themselves to become submerged in the quagmire of the anxiety of life souls that always feel that their origin comes from eritrea they're rooted in a place of gullah and souls that always point to the trajectory of redemption souls that have both of their feet etched on into the ground sula mutsavartsa because if not i can't relate to them but virus they allow me to remember who i am who i can be what is my real essence what is my real calling what is my my true depth so as the jews travel through the desert calls it the desert the wilderness that jews will traverse throughout history many nations yaakov says make sure you take these i rusen with you always hold on to such types of cedar trees be blessed to have a person in your life that when you look at this person when you encounter the person you realize that you are a cedar tree that you are a heiress that can become a mishkan for us and this is the role this is what a real manager all is and today who is not a leader among the jewish people everyone is a leader to themselves to their families to their children to their friends to their loved ones to their community every person is a little is a is is a little rabbit rabbit hole of measure bush writes he was a grandson of the balshemptiv and he says we say in ashrae i recently sent out a clip with a whole story about this but he says it's not just to let people know about hashem strength it says it's written like a mitzvah hashem gives you a mitzvah what's the mitzvah every person you meet you have to let them become aware of their own strengths every person you meet you have to make them aware of the glory and the beauty and the royalty that they embody and manifest in this world it's a mitzvah that hashem gives you the idea go out and let people know live near them every person who's a ben adam every man woman youngster youth female male every person whatever age or background let them know gurusov what type of guru what type of majesty what type of royalty what type of fortitude resilience and depth lay in their soul i can't do that for somebody else if i can't do that for myself to be able to see their cover their honor their glory their majesty their aristocracy their hadar other is their gorgeousness their splendor their shankaite malhusa and then they become ambassadors from throughout all of the worlds that's the definition of a real rabbi somebody in whose presence you feel taller you feel greater you feel deeper you feel empowered you feel competent the one who reminds me never to surrender to a life of mediocrity to a life of desperation to a life of despair to a life of of depression because i am hashem's ambassador in this world and as hazal possesses the properties of the one who sent him so therefore i and you at our core are indestructible you have that infinite light because you are the derivative of hashem's consciousness of oneness now come back with me to the haggadah and we'll see what happens here in the haggadah and it's all indicated in one word that seems to be grammatically off if you go back to the haggadah in those sources there's one night when we sit by the cedar it's called pesach now it's a straw there's one night of pesach one night not one night one night of the seder so it says here blessed be sure we're in the neighborhood and they were telling the story of mizrahim it should have said call halila all the night call oyster lila all of that night yes it was that night what would have been missing we know it was the night of pesach i don't think it was to be shot you could sit all night too bishop i tell the story of eats messiah but they would come to the neighborhood and sit or on another night of other aleph to say the story of it obviously with the night of pesach that's when jews sit and tell the story of ethiopia what's called you say halalis you say what's the difference but khazal were very meticulous in their words they didn't write extra words for no reason that night it was that night what was that night so there's a beautiful interpretation that was shared by the cloisenberger abba the cloisenberg was of blessed memory that sansa cloisenberg and elena who passed away tonight tess thomas and thomas july 94. and as you know he was a survivor from the holocaust he lost his wife her name was khan i believe rebecca and 11 children in auschwitz his wife and 10 children were gassed the first time they when they arrived 11th survived and died in the dp camps but he never even knew that his eleventh child survived i don't think he ever knew and then he remarried he had two children who are now the kluisenberger ebbas in israel and here in in brooklyn and he built the laniato hospital in netanya and he recreated his hasidic community both here and primarily in eretz israel in kiryat sans and natanya and he said that i say halilah is referring to something specific that night it doesn't just say they were telling the story all night obviously it's pesach the khazal are trying to intimate something even more nuanced they were telling the story of mathias mitsam on that night the cloisenberger ebba says you it was that night when my life was changed it was that day it was that night when nothing was the same sometimes it's not something that you can identify about one night or two nights or three nights it's accumulative but there are those experiences those relationships or lack of them those journeys that people went through in their life and that's their own oh you say halila it's not just a night it's the night it's that night that particular night maybe it was loss of a loved one at a very young age maybe it was another crisis in a relationship maybe it was a psychological or emotional or mental challenge maybe it was the breakdown of a family maybe it was dysfunction or abuse of another form maybe it was a wound that a person experienced consciously or maybe even unconsciously as a result of certain encounters of certain connections maybe later in life a relationship that gets broken a family that gets devastated alienation that happens there's always a halal a person could point to i say lila that night that particular experience that moment or moments which as a result of that i live in a withdrawn place i live in mitzrayim i live a very restricted life i can't emerge i can't be free i'm not emancipated i live in fear i live in anxiety i live in shame i live in desperation maybe i live with a lot of anger maybe i live with a lot of sadness and pain that i cannot transcend i can't get over with because of that lila oh you say lila that night i'm in chains sometimes i'm aware of those chains which is already a half agoula and sometimes those chains are so deep that i'm not even aware of those chains because i just surrender to them i don't even know of anything else like the slave who doesn't know that there's a concept of freedom i was born into slavery i will die into slavery misappropriation on that night when you go back to that night can you tell the story of ethios mitzrayim can i look at that story and say and now i want to go out of matriarch i want to use that story i want to look at that story but not to get stuck there to use that story as a springboard as a catalyst as a source of awareness to go out how could that happen comes the arakas says those sages oh sahad i say allah individually perhaps every person has their own life story but also collectively remember this is the generation of jewish leaders who witnessed with their own eyes the decimation of jerusalem the destruction of the second base amigdas and remember till the holocaust there was nothing even close to what happened at hurban by his shiny what the romans did to the jewish people after bayes region of nazar destroyed everything but 70 years later they came back and there were some jews who remained in natchez well what the romans did have to buy the shaini 420 years later after the building of the second base amitabh was such a decimation so complete that the gemara discusses in a few places will judaism even survive we'll try to ever be remembered there's even an opinion that after those days nobody should get married one of the sages suggested nobody should ever eat meat nobody should ever drink wine nobody should ever celebrate again that's how deep the wound was that's how profound the agony and suffering was nobody knew that they're going to emerge and you know 50 60 years later barca revolted in the hurban was 70. 62 years later barca for revolted against the romans rabbi akiva supported him the rambam says that rebecca thought that he may be mashiach he's meshiach and he was successful for three years he conquered jerusalem he started to rebuild the third base of he minted coins he dealt a lethal blow to the romans he wiped out two complete roman legions which was unheard of in the story of the roman empire but the revolt was crushed by adrian and a half a million jews just died then besides the corbin the price of a jewish slave went down to less than one dollar you can buy a jewish slave for life less than a dollar for life you have a slave that's how many slaves there were besides all those that were murdered this was and these were the nisei israel these were the leaders of the jewish people wasn't there was in yavin maybe he passed away already he was also one of those sages they had a noise and they needed to experience it smithsonian how do we infuse our people ourselves with hope with optimism with resilience how do we find those cedars of yaakov where how and for this the rebels know there's one person you have to go to and they go to rabbi akiva rebels wants to stay home for yomtif and rabbis want their students to come to them a student wants to go to zebra for yamcha but at this point they knew that in kabbalah it says that akiva rabbi akiva was a gilgal of yaakov avinu he was the soul of yaakov and that's why akiva is the letters jude i and kuf bays aleph avinu akiva is yakov you ate iron cove base and aleph avinu rabbaqib married rocco who was a gilgal of yaakov's wife rachel that's why their name was rocco and the name was akiva was a shepherd that rizal says and yaakov avinu was a shepherd because rabbi akiva essentially was a continuum of yaakov avino he wasn't just annas his very name is jacob avino the passage says in the villages the letters of the end of torreira the archive is called avryak of the power of yaakov so it's the letters of rabbi akiva in the presence of rabbi akiva they could find yakova venus cedars he's called sadik the pastor can tell him light is planted for the sadduce by the sadduce and for the righteous and the ones who have an upright heart if you look at the last letters the last letter is the last letter is ayan the tsa the last letter is kuf ullah israel the last letter is yud laiv the last letter is vais and simha the last letter is hey so what do you have uh he is the person that when they were traveling one day in jerusalem the gemara says at the end of marcus was going yeshua these same colleagues were going and they saw fox coming out of the holy of holies and they all started to weep they remembered the kaido shakodashim and now there's foxen running around imagine what it meant for them you know we come to the harabayas today we're used to there's a mosque we used it these are people who some of them saw the second base amiktas and they see a fox coming out of base kaisaka dasha at that point there was still a mountain after the marcoiko revolt adrian flattened when you look at arabic you don't see a mountain right you just see an elevated platform he lowered it by a thousand feet and he flattened it to completely eradicate any memory even of the mountain he also changed judea to palestine that became the name palestine you know why he wanted to add insult to injury so he named it based on the plishtim the philistines that's why it became palestine he also changed the name of jerusalem to ayala kapitalana but that didn't last but this is what the roman emperor did in order to erase every last memory so now there's fox in there so they start crying rabbi akiva starts laughing so they asked herbie akiva why are you laughing so as a good jew he says why are you crying they say how could we not cry this is the place the toyota says hazzar hakari of umass a yusrael who went in here couldn't survive and now shawalimhilhabai a fox is roaming around this place is it not a reason to sob sri akiva said that's why i'm laughing rabbi akiva said that there's two nibuas there's two prophecies there's the navuwa of urya and there's an evo then zion will be plowed like a field there's another naval a yeshus the elderly will yet roam the streets of yerushalayim and jerusalem will be rejuvenated with joy and ecstasy ruby akiva said before one prophecy was fulfilled i didn't know about the other prophecy but now that i see see you inside of the courage i see that seeing was plowed like a field i see a fox roaming around seeing like a plowed field where fox run around foxes run around so now i know yeshua's kane and mesquinas will be fulfilled every last prophecy will be fulfilled so the gemara finishes they told them these words are kiva you have comforted us twice you have comforted us the other sages didn't believe in the ghoul they needed to be akiva to tell them that odyss was kind of mosquitoes it's one of the 13 principles of faith they all believe the mashiach of course they all believed in gulliver whatever was saying was something deeper when he saw the plowing of why does he choose that passage to describe god as there are many so come to describe the quran there are hundreds of succumb unfortunately the answer is when you plow a field what do you see when somebody's plowing a field essentially they're destroying the field the kumar says mirafiara they're they're making the earth weak they're toiling they're they're turning it over they're making a corbin if you have plants in the field and somebody starts toiling it you destroy all the plants all the sap is what are you doing you're destroying my field that's only superficial but if you understand what is ploughing really about it's creating the fertility of the earth it's creating the opening it's allowing the earth to become soil that will be able to grow keres whenever akiva saw the facts he didn't just see a fox see in she saw the plowing of a field he saw in golo's ghoul that was the kiddish of rabbi rabbi akiva allowed them that in galas they should feel the flavor of goula they should see in every crisis even in darkness they should see the genesis of transformation as a door closes they should see that this is essentially another door opening in every masjber the word mashbar in hebrew means a breakdown the word mashbarian hebrew also means a birthing stool isha your sheve are there two things more remote from each other the answer is that in the maksha of yiddish bear every time something breaks essentially it's an opportunity for a new birth for a new lady is the beginning of ideas for this you needed to be a kiva you need a person a soul that never really lands and goes fully fully they're in galas to be present with the people but their soul soars above ghalos they see the yeshua's kingdom was kindness and they could celebrate that already in exile or says that whenever akiva's candle was extinguished and his chicken was killed and the donkey and everybody saw tragedy and he said called over rahman al-taw of it he had that ability to be able to take people to a place of freedom and liberty and joy even in a very difficult situation so for you for that night rebellion to be able to be with rabby akiva call i say halila to tell the story of ichis mitzrayim and then nabal azerbaija tells them finally i have the source to tell the story of itis mitsrayam at night when the sun is shining a person can tell the story of exodus the sun is shining you could talk about redemption but at night when the sun sets when there's darkness how do you remember yetis mitzrayim then now it's darkness now i just sink into the despair of darkness said he said what he told them i learned about you'd see him at night inspired by akiva's presence and from the gemarian brachus it seems that this was the first thing that was ayah taught as a leader the day he became a nasty this was his first message why is this your opening message because that's the definition of a nasi nasi isn't it but nasi literally means nasi comes on the word kisa somebody who uplifts somebody who elevates nasty from the word is nasus exaltedness exaltedness because when i'm connected to the nasty inside of me when i'm connected to a nasty a concrete nasty a nasty hashem plants in a generation what happens i become free at least for a moment and if i become free for a moment the residue the impact travels to all the moments every person every person is exposed to challenges obstacles pressures every person faces various necessities and trials and tribulations but if you could gaze at the cedar tree in your heart and at the cedar tree in your midst in your midst and in your midst you remember that you're a fragment of infinity sent into this world to transform its landscape you're on a journey from higher sinai from mitzrayim it's misrayam to goula he made says commandments you don't get afraid of that journey because you know that you transcend that journey you are an ambassador sent down to transform the landscape of planet earth that's the function of every cedar tree of every leader of every real parent of every real teacher of every real nausea manager to remind all of us that even as we are in exile individually and collectively our souls and our bodies can soar on the wings of eternity have a wonderful week this class is brought to you by the yeshiva.net please help us continue the classes make even a small contribution at triple w dot the yeshiva.net donate