Passover Seder Secrets: Deep Mystical Insights - Part 2 - Rabbi Eli Deutsch

Karpas. Now, a lot of people have questions about Karpas. What is Karpas doing here? We're going to eat some vegetable or we're going to eat a green vegetable. Some people have a a potato from the Russian days. Um what is Karpas doing in the Seder and what particularly is doing here at the beginning of the Seder? So, for a very long time I was searching for an answer to that that satisfied me and uh eventually I did come upon an answer and I want to share that with you guys. Right, and that is like this, that the word Karpas actually has dual meaning. Karpas has the biblical meaning of fine linen. Actually, it's brought this way in Megillat Esther uh that it means fine linen. However, at the Seder we have grown familiar with an additional meaning of the word Karpas and that is a green vegetable. And so, the question is what is the connection between the fine linen Karpas and the vegetable Karpas? And what is Karpas what is the Karpas vegetable uh doing here at the Seder and in this particular part of the Seder? And so, Rashi gives us a connection. He connects the two by explaining that the special coat that Yosef was given was made with Karpas. Was made with that linen. And so, interestingly enough, if we think about it, who was the first Jew to be in slavery in Egypt? We find that Yosef was sold by his brothers down to Egypt and in particular in particular it was because of a jealousy that the brothers had. Right? Because there supposed there were some kind of favoritism it would seem that Yakov had towards Yosef and ultimately the brothers they take the coat of of Yosef and they dip it into blood of an animal and they bring it to their father and they say that Yosef was killed by an animal. Ultimately, Yosef was sold down into slavery by the brothers and the idea is that here we are about to have a night dedicated to how the Jewish people got out of Egypt. And it's a celebration. And so, before we get into that discussion about how the Jewish people got out, we hint a little bit in the Passover Seder. Hold on a second, how did the Jewish people really get into Egypt in the first place? There was a certain level of disunity of discontent as we're going to speak about and this is a night of educating kids as well. So, how are we dealing with kids? Are we being Are we being playing favorites from time to time? We have to be very careful about that. And so, in particular before we talk about the story of how the Jewish people get out of Egypt, we hint to how the Jewish people at first got into Egypt by giving over Karpas the vegetable hinting to Karpas the fabric the linen that the coat of Joseph was made out of. In Yachatz, we take a matzah and we break it in half and we hide the bigger half away to be eaten later for Afikoman in the section called Tzafun. Says the Sfas Emes, what what Yachatz is all about on one level is that our bigger potential, this higher side of ourselves, is hidden away from us. And what the process of the Seder is all about is about getting out of not just obviously remembering the Mitzrayim of the past, the national Mitzrayim and the national redemption, also our own personal Mitzrayim and personal redemption. And so, this is the process of the Seder and ultimately we come to a place where hopefully at the end we bring out that bigger piece of matzah, we bring out that bigger piece of ourselves, we unveil, we reveal the bigger aspect of ourselves that wasn't even known to us originally. At the beginning, it's our higher self, our bigger potential is constrained by our personal Mitzrayim, our personal constraints, that which is holding us back, which is what Mitzrayim Mitzrayim means. But as we break out of our personal exile, we reveal our true potential which is beyond our imagination. And the truth is, every year, hopefully, as we go from Pesach to Pesach or from Rosh Hashanah to Rosh Hashanah, hopefully we're able to look back on our previous Pesach, the previous Rosh Hashanah and recognize the growth that we've had, recognize that now we're a different person, we're a more upgraded person, more developed person than the previous Pesach and the previous Rosh Hashanah. Okay, now we get up to Maggid. What's Maggid all about? If we look at the word for Maggid, we find firstly the Haggadah. The Haggadah itself that we're using in the Passover Seder is from the word Maggid, right? So, this is a main part and main focus of the Seder rooted in the teaching in the Torah, the verse in the Torah "Veheegadeta levincha" that you should tell over the story to your child. That this is the night of transmitting Judaism to the next generation. The truth is, what is Maggid? What does Maggid mean? Maggid means to tell over. But there many words for speaking in Judaism. You have Omer, you have Dibur, you have Lisaper. What are these What are these What is the difference between all of these different words? So, Omer implies a soft-spoken kind of speech. Dibur is a more stern speech like we say the Aseret Hadibrot means the Ten Commandments, "Thou shalt this, thou shalt not that." Sippur or Lisaper is to tell over telling over a story like story time, which we have a little bit of that at Seder night as well. But in particular, the verse in the Torah says "Veheegadeta levincha." You should Lehagid to your child. What does Lehagid mean? So, one idea is that what we're talking about here. What is the word "gid" in Hebrew? Gid is a vein or sinew. What is What does a vein do? A vein transmits, transfers blood from one area of the body to the other. So, when we're talking about communicating in a way of Lehagid, it's about transmitting your lifeblood, transmitting what life is all about. When we're telling over our kid the story of the Jewish people in Egypt, when we're telling over to our child the story of how the Jewish people have survived and what that's been like, we're not just telling them some random story. We're not just speaking softly either. We're giving over this is what life's all about. This is about who I am. This is about really we're implying this is who you are. This is your essence. This is your destiny. This is really what life is all about. So, it's not some happenstance story. I'm not just "Oh, I'm just going to tell over Jewish history." No, no, no. This is life. This is alive. And the truth is, one of the great Hasidic masters, the Bnei Yissachar, says that ultimately the goal is to turn that child into a teacher of this information as well. So, we should be blessed to be able to do that. Should be blessed to be able to accomplish that mission. And ultimately, it's it's not just about your your child, it can also be about anyone who you have ability to influence, including yourself. Including yourself. As a matter of fact, the Hasidic texts talk about one layer of understanding Judaism, one layer of understanding Torah, if we internalize it is that our children are our attributes. And to the extent we can put this meaningfulness and put this message onto the lower sides of ourselves or to all sides of ourselves in order to infuse it with this mission and with this passion. So, the section of Halachma Anya Halachma Anya means Halachma Anya refers to matzah as poor man's bread or the bread of affliction. Now, I could have sworn that also it's the bread of freedom. It's the bread that the Jewish people had as they were leaving Egypt. So, which is this? Is this the bread of poverty or is this the bread of freedom? Says the Maharal, they're two sides of one coin. Why? Because if you were to take a snapshot of a person who is poor and of course in Judaism we're not looking and we're not idolizing poverty, certainly not. Ideally in Judaism we want to be we want to have money and use it for good purposes. But if we can take a snapshot of the person who has nothing, so to a certain extent there's a certain freedom there because they're detached from all sorts of other things that require their concern. Like we say in Pirkei Avot, Ethics of the Fathers, "Marbeh nechasim, marbeh de'agim." That the more stuff you have, the more property you have, the more possessions you have, "Marbeh de'agim." The more concerns you have, the more worries you have. Or like you say in the modern secular culture, "Mo money, mo problems." And so, what this means then is that there's a there's a certain freedom in not having anything. And the point there is that one of the messages of matzah is to be able to be independent, is to be able to be free of other things that are concerning us, other things that are pulling us. Similarly, we find that this is a theme in the night of Passover. It's happening in the first month. It's happening uh that the Jewish people left in a hurry. All of this stuff has to do with not happening in time, not consumed with time, which is a theme in Judaism as well. If you look at the beginning of Shulchan Aruch, at the beginning of the codified book of Jewish laws, you find the first thing it says is "Hitgaber ka'ari." Wake up like a lion. Right? What does it mean to say? It means to say, don't uh hit the snooze button, right? Some of us uh can That's something that we can all uh work on and achieve. And in Jewish law, similarly, it says ideally to wake up the morning instead of the morning waking you up. So, it has to do with us getting beyond ourselves and freeing ourselves from ourselves to a certain extent. And I have a little story about this. One time my my wife was with a couple of our kids in uh Lion's Park in Las Vegas. And there, she was excited to see how the lions were. And she She's walking around and she's seeing all of these lions, they're just lying around. She's like, they seem incredibly lazy. They're just lying around. So, she she was bothered by this cuz of course she knows the Jewish sources and she walked up to uh one of the people there who run the place and she said, "What's the deal with these lions? They're all lazy. Don't I We know a teaching that just that uh there's a Jew is supposed to wake up in the morning and and like a lion. It sounds pretty lazy." And so, the person, the attendant there, said, "Well, you should know that when a lion when he has a purpose, he gets up and runs straight towards that purpose. He is full of enthusiasm to get to that purpose. Nothing's going to stand in his or her way." And so, my wife was like, "Ah, okay. Now we understand. So, this is how the Jew is supposed to wake up. The Jew is supposed to wake up with purpose. The Jew is supposed to wake up with a passion, not being bogged down by the different things that are pulling the Jew down. Stand up and override that and overcome it. This is also the message as well uh that there's an idea in Pesach to wear white. Uh married men a lot of times will wear a kittel, um but really for everyone, there's an idea to wear white, which implies that it's not mixed in with any other color. There's nothing mixed in here. The section Avadim Hayinu. Avadim Hayinu, we talk about how the Jewish people were in servitude. So, a good This is a good time uh to think about, as well as during the time of maror, uh a good time to think about, well, why are the Jewish people often kicked around? Why are the Jewish people slaves? Why are they constantly kicked around? So, uh the Maharal of Prague explains that there's a teaching in the Jewish sources that every nation has a ministering angel that's kind of uh running running the show for them a little bit as some kind of messenger of of Hashem. However, the Jewish people, they don't have They don't have this ministering angel. They have a direct connection with Hashem. So, therefore, if the Jewish people are doing really what they're supposed to do and they're aligned with Hashem, there's no way other nations can touch us. However, if God forbid, the Jewish people are not doing what they're supposed to be doing, if they sort of speak have kicked away from Hashem, so then, what are they left with? What are they left with? Of course, ultimately, Hashem is there for them, but there's a certain level where they've kicked away from Hashem. So, then what are they left with? Then, the angel is higher than than the nothing that the Jewish people are left with. And so, then other nations have the opportunity to take hold over the Jewish people. At the beginning of Maggid, there's a story about a bunch of rabbis that get together to have their Passover seder. And it goes on for quite a while until in the morning a bunch of students come to tell the rabbis that had higi'a zman shel kri'at Shema, that the time for kri'at Shema, meaning to say a certain time in the morning, has arrived. And this story happens in a city of Bnei Brak. And so, I once heard that this actually is telling over the story of the first Passover after the destruction of the Temple. And if you think about it, the Passover we have now, the experience of it is completely different. Back then, you're talking about all of the Jewish people coming to Jerusalem and it's surrounding One of the main things is the Pascal lamb, the carbon Pesach. And so, the situation we have in exile, um it must have been what their experience of Passover must have been extremely painful, extremely empty. Of course, we all want to work on ourselves that we're supposed to be happy in that situation. Sure, but that must have been quite a struggle. And so, it comes out that what I heard once is that what was going on there is that all these rabbis got together in particular with Rabbi Akiva. And Rabbi Akiva was kind of the host. And this makes a lot of sense because if you think about it, there's a story about how when Rabbi Akiva and and his students were walking around after the destruction of the Temple, after the destruction of the Beit Hamikdash, and many of the people around were crying, but Rabbi Akiva was laughing. And why was he laughing after the destruction? Because Rabbi Akiva said, "Listen, the same Tanakh, the same verses that talk about the destruction of the Beit Hamikdash, the destruction of the Temple, they also talk about the rebuilding of it as well." That's the person you want to be with in that situation. That's the person you want to be You want to have hosting your Passover seder in such a situation. And perhaps this is also why it's being hosted in Bnei Brak. Bnei Brak, the word barak in Hebrew is lightning, that even in the darkness, even in that darkest of time, they're able to see a flash of light. Even in that darkest of time, they're able to see Shema Yisrael Hashem Elokeinu Hashem Echad, to be able to see the one Hashem and to be able to say, "Okay, what does Hashem want from me in this moment?" And to serve Hashem from the place that they find themselves in. And so, too, may it be with us as well, my friends. Whatever our situation is, if we're going through a dark time, if we're going through a difficult moment, whether nationally or personally, the avodah is the personal work is to go ahead and to find Hashem in that moment, to find Hashem in our situation, to be able to push forward with simcha in the moment simply because it's Pesach. And we should be blessed to be able to see much light.