Pesach: Reliving the Exodus - Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz

[Music] obviously the Seder is one of the mitzvos that are most beloved in CLA Isel even Jews that are very very far from M do feel a need to to make a Seder uh may not be totally and the like but but the fact that people want to make a Seder shows that the of and the sense of's uh rede redeeming us is something that is still very much in the heart and soul of virtually every every Jew now we know just let me start with the that we know that the technical Mitzvah the the text of the everybody understands is not a biblically mandated text the Tyra does not say specifically that we have to say the words that we say the ha most of it was put together by the anaga and of course the songs at the end of the ha were added later they're not really even a mandatory part of the ha but there is a mitvah that night we are to be to narrate the story of and ideally it would be in our own words and according to Moston the M of the Mitzvah of is the p got you shall tell your child on that day which is interpreted to mean the night because of all that Hashem did to me we are celebrating and the gar has AIA that even though logically this PK might only apply if I have a son that I'm saying it to but we Daran even if you're by yourself you have to go through this so collectively this Mitzvah is based on the which is why the book that we use to do the mitzvah called The Book of narration because it is derived from on the other hand for reasons that are not entirely clear to me uh the way that most reim refer to the Mitzvah is they call the Mitzvah even though it's derived from V it is called SE now we know at the same time that there is a daily Mitzvah a Mitzvah of in every day and every night we Pas in that we have to at least mention the Exodus and this is based this is called the Mitzvah of Z and Z does not just mean mentally remembering but you have to verbalize it this is why both in the morning and at night the par of ctis when we say the art scroll directs you to have specific kavana to fulfill the Mitzvah called and that is derived from a different now even if there wouldn't have been a Mitzvah of there would have been a Mitzvah the night of the 15th of Nissan there is a Mitzvah too so used to explain so what exactly is the T adding by that you don't already have by now of course you can't just answer what I got to say the hag because the Terra doesn't require hag right so what does the Tyra require with seore that is not already picked up with in fact I actually saw an email somebody sent me an email uh it was a joke but actually it wasn't it wasn't uh bad in terms of uh the one minute ha and the person like wrot you know uh we were slaves and it was bad and God brought the you know it was like a one minute maret and the truth of the matter is I looked at it in all probability you would be y with the one minute marget you got everything in the 10 plages Etc so the question becomes what is the Torah telling me that's not already subsumed in Z so would be ma bear that there are four actually Rim gave three and the bris grov gave a fourth one that so the two father and son they said collectively there are four in yonim in seore that are superimposed on the number one and the is based on incorporating these fouras number one that the Tyra requires that The Narrative of seore come through a question and an answer that's the Manana but even if there's no son you have to ask the shus yourself question and answer z does not require sha now I'll say for shabas I'll talk about exactly why why the ter says this is that the the of the mitvah of has to be I remember when I was very young uh my family was we were a guest at somebody's seder I still remember this because even then it struck me as very funny I think I started laughing that uh there was one of the sons of the family was asking his father a whole bunch of questions about the Seder and the father wanted to go further with a and he felt he was like so he says will you stop asking questions we have to go with go on with the Seder missing the whole point sh you know even the Manana the Manana the gamar says is like you know notes or Cliff Notes you know you don't you don't have a question so we we'll give you some questions to ask and and Al like but one should come up with questions things to think about so that's Shu Chua the second is what is called the whole year I just talk about Redemption PES night I got to begin with the shame and the degradation now the mishna says these words there's a in the gor what is the G the bad thing that we have to talk about according to one opinion it's we were slaves according to the other opinion it's hu that our forefathers were Idol worshippers before a and the gamorra says since we have a mlo and it's an unresolved mlo we combine both passages in ourada both the paragraph ofu and the paragraph of which actually means according to the simple meaning of the gamorra AR is a blending it's interesting we don't have like original version a and original version B arag is a blending of two story lines one was a storyline that emphasiz the spiritual shame of idolatry culminating in spiritual Redemption and the other emphasize the physical slavery culminating into Freedom right there was the journey idolatry to monotheism or is the journey Slavery to Freedom AR has both the malim asks a very very strong Kasha the ma asks but it's masma that the only reason we have both is because we're uncertain which opinion we P can like but like the one that says he only did that and the one that says only did that that's a Pella are you telling me that P night the night of the M says didn't say a paragraph of that's impossible how can you possibly say that you didn't talk about the of Egypt uh P so the malim actually learns a different but he has to but he follows that of a different gar the that there is no what you said everybody said and everybody said there is no what you say it is simply a mlo in pish that when the mishna says G what paragraph in the is a fulfillment of is it theu paragraph or is it the paragraph in other words what what part is the mishna calling G but there is no that you did say both according to that the Mal says you would not be gorus which means because we're uncertain we say both the Mal actually learns again there are many like the Mal that you said both and the reason we say both is not because of this m this m is just identifying what is GNA Okay the third element said again what do we what are we answering the difference between and Z the third element said is the statement of ran Gamel again it's in the mishna ra Gamel says call me sh anyone that does not explain three of mat has not fulfilled his Mitzvah what Mitzvah hasn't he fulfilled so the all the say it doesn't mean he hasn't fulfilled P mat I can fulfill P mat without talking about it just like I can conf fulfill chauffeur lul and Suka without talking about it it doesn't mean I don't fulfill but it means I don't fulfill where the that is part of the narration I talk about these mitz in fact some learn even if NE you're not able to fulfill those Mitzvah let's say you you don't have matah literally but so you're not you're you're not you're still as part of the SE to explain the significance of the PES just like we do PES P mat and and now the four now this is unique to this has nothing to do with is not to and the fourth element is all from the bris and the brisar once said used to say that this is the hardest mitzvah of PES now if if you would ask a brisker what is the hardest Mitzvah of PES and you'd have to imagine what a brisker would say certainly what the brisar would say you would have to say it's getting rid of the and baking mat because if you knew the and the sh that the brisar Rev had uh and the digus and the worry and the fear in fact I I remember they even pointed out a picture they pointed out a there photographs of the brisar coming into bake matah and the picture beforehand was so worrisome and so you know anxious and so afraid that things won't be right and they then they show him after the mat baking and like such and and the light so one would have expected that the brisar would have said but no he said the hardest Mitzvah is the statement that every person must regard himself as if they themselves were taken out of mitzan in other words this is not simply remembering the whole year it is remembering pesak night it is experiencing the brisker of said that's very very difficult to remember I can remember to be grateful I can be grateful but to M feel that Hashem is liberating me that Hashem is giving me a New Freedom and again as the bat adds in a in a deeper way MIT also means boundaries and limitations and constrictions and every single year the kak of comes and can liberate us from all of the limitations in our aod hasem our inner MIT our egotism our GAA our arrogance our laziness our anger that's writes every person must regard himself as if they have their own mitam for which they were taken out now I don't know if the brisar learned that way or not but be it as it may the brisar did say that the to actually feel that you're being redeemed that is considered to be the hardest of all again the whole year is is right so the is therefore based on these four ideas actually there three right there and this differentiates from SE now there is uh a question that one could ask and again maybe you discuss this question at the beginning of the ha by the way I want to point out a little thing that uh one should know you know uh the beginning parts of the ha get much more coverage so to speak than the middle and and towards the end and part of it is you know number one you haven't had your two cups of uh wine yet uh number two it's still earlier you're not tired you're not so hungry Etc uh and our attention wains that's always the case but the truth of the matter is you have to know that a lot of the beginning part of the maged is really introductory to the Mitzvah of the maged itself it is actually not a fulfillment of the MIT for example the four Sons which might be one of the most beloved portions of the ha where everybody has gazillions of interpretations who are the four sons and I'm not I'm not going to add to them because uh with Alat you don't have four Sons you have 500 Sons you know so I'm not going to add to that but the four Sons is not the maget at all the four Sons is is a is to us to know that when you communicate the story of seore rlp Darko you must tailor the seore towards the type of person that you're addressing and the like so really it's a get of aak uh the Pari which many people skip or don't have a lot of things to talk about that that is the ier that is actually the ior of the of the uh of the maget that one should specifically pay a lot of attention to but as one of the preliminary so it's not part of one of the preliminary stories is we have the story of the famous s of RAB AA and and bazari Etc that they were learning they were learning they were having a ha the whole night until it was time for the kashma of the morning and then the ha goes on and quotes which is really a mish Bros RAB Alazar says behold I am like a person that is 70 years old and I did not Merit now it either means I did not Merit myself or I did not Merit to convince the had to learn that you have to mention the Exodus at night until Ben made a where it says you have to remember the ex call all the days of your life so we have aasia if it would have said the days of your life that just would have meant the days all the days of your life even means the night and then I was able to convince people that you have to do it at night the Mish is very because if he means to say I've now convinced people the next line of the Mish says and that call is for mashia which means they didn't accept that drasa so what exactly did he accomplish by that drasa if the whole point was to convince people so the other way of learning is he himself didn't know this until Ben Z made AIA D all of you know the gar in bras why does he say I am like a person that is 70 because in fact he was only 18 and after Rabin Gamel was removed from the nus temporarily RAB aarya became the Nasi and but since he was so young people would not respect him so his beard turns miraculously gray some want to say his beard turned gray because of the responsibility of being a Nazi it causes premature gray my my wife uh likes to remind me that um our friends who did not go into raban still have darker beards uh you know so things can happen about getting gray and and and the like uh but the Aral says a fascinating point the Aral says RAB Alazar bazaria was a gilgal a Reincarnation of Shu hanavi Shu hanavi died at the age of 52 very very tragically young so alaz aarya was born with a AA that already spent 52 years in this world so when he was 18 his soul had spent 70 years in this world that's sh 52 plus plus 18 but the question I want to raise is which is a very important question is why is this mishna in the hag what does it prove what does it contribute because some people might say well right if you just ask a person who didn't learn this thoroughly he might say well we're making a Seder at night so obviously we have to establish that you make a Seder at night so I bring in Rab Alazar B aarya that you have to mention the Exodus at night that's what a person might say but that's totally wrong the and is the whole year when there's a mitvah RAR says day and night which is how we and the say only day when we left and not at night but even like the the S of P has to be at night and that's not even derived from the that's derived from something else in the because you say pointing to the mat the and what do we Dar so if it's the case that everybody says the Seder has to be at night and the home and that's P the is about then why do I need to bring that in so some say like this some say that the only reason it's brought in is because this was the in other words the paragraph right before we talked about this great seder they were going all night so some are goes meaning to say it's not a separate thing that were bringing this was a conversation at the Seder itself meaning it's just a h it shouldn't even be two paragraphs it's just they're talking but the NV now the NV actually you know the Sal married the nv's granddaughter and they both were in the greatest years ofan they were the K rash Yesa was the senior rashash was the younger rashash uh so the NV gives a beautiful terce which fits Rim perfectly although he doesn't use terminology the says the following the wants to establish that the Mitzvah of is not just minimal you don't you don't just be and say a short little thing but rather you're to be in now explained structurally the particular are but the doesn't break it down that way but we could take Ra's categories now now here's the point how do we know you have to be M maybe whatever you say is good enough one line so here is the point since according to RAB Alazar the one line you'd have to do anyway because that would be the Mitzvah of Z so if the Tyra is only requiring a minimal seore it would be a Superfluous Mitzvah because it already would be included under and since is b b the must be a longer more detailed SE says like the you actually don't have aah because maybe like the what the Tyra says you got to do at night is what you normally do the rest of the year in the day and not at night even at night so maybe according to the one could be y say with a very Abridged SE so that's why the balag wants to show no since RAR Says Z is even at night so what is SE adding it must be adding a long and therefore it's really a proof to call exactly a proof call because you have to do anyway which means interesting according to you don't have according to according to that but okay all right but be it as it may um now there is one paragraph of the hag that is an Aramaic and that is really the first paragraph of the mag this is the bread of Affliction that our forefathers ate in m and uh I I'm sure you talked about this the ha gives us really the Kish gives It ultimately two different reasons for matah matah has two opposite understandings there is the matah that commemorates slavery and affliction the Egyptians would feed our forefathers matah the Ezra's mayad that when he went to India he was a world traveler he saw maharajas whatever it is give their slaves matah because it stayed in their stomach a long time you don't have to eat that much so that's the Le of slavery and affliction and then at the end of the maged we remember the matah as the matah of redemption and GAA that AES took us out in such a hurry and then the Egyptians were driving us out that we didn't have time to let our dough rise even the 18 minutes and the Aral says alala that it was not just pyro kicking us out but we had to leave that second because we're in the 49th level of Tuma had we stayed another minute we would have disappeared spiritually so it's important to understand that in the mid which is the Journey of a the matah itself acquires a different meaning we start with the matah of abdas and we end with the matah of gula but the question is why is that first paragraph in Aramaic part of it might be Aramaic might be a remes to the Gus itself in fact we say now we are here and even if we're to be in the land of Israel but in the full Holiness of Eric Isel we don't yet have but I saw from aaji YF a very very beautiful and instead of Simply reminding us of Gus it actually is a great great comfort to us and he says the following the says inab that when you're misp for a you should not be misp in Aramaic because because normally we need somehow the assistance of malim to carry our prayers and are not Mak the Aramaic language now some say it's only Aramaic they Mak English and French which are more but they're Aramaic but because it confuses that it's too close to Hebrew so when you need to be you don't do it in AR but there are two exceptions when you DAV with a minion the sh is directly with you so you could have an aric kades is Aramaic right other words can be said in Aramaic because then I don't need hasem understands Aramaic too and the other is when you pray for a in the presence of the you can pray in Aramaic because the is the is in the bed of the there's even different rules how you sit when you're with a not to you know not to like sit where the is ETC so it turns out that Aramaic is not available to us when we need malim but when AES with us we say Aramaic is the night of Hashem redeems us with no Angels no emissaries no we begin the to beish the fact that this is the night when Hashem is directly with us he doesn't explain why why don't you say the that I I don't know uh but again most of the is not most of the is narrative and if aric is not our language then we don't use bka but but here the Remis of the beginning of the is that even though we're in Gus and even though we're slaves and even though we're persecuted the is with us and you know later on in the when the makes Thea that Mak was done by so it actually makes three Dres right so some of the say that Mal and not sh the first letter of those three words spells out MOS that you know one of the famous in the ha is that the ha does not mention Moshe Renu except once in the middle of the p and some say that was not part of the original M by it says right so that's kind of a test if you have a younger children say okay when moshe's mentioned you know Etc um but but but again the reason simple why we don't mention is that because of M renu's greatness as the and because he was the one that was given the people might interpret Godlike qualities to MOS and they might look at him as Divine and to be that comes from we deemphasize Moser renu's Ro now it's interesting the ram in the mishna Torah says how Al we're supposed to talk about talk about what did for I me it's interesting that we don't put in what the rambam says we're supposed to have but the R's own doesn't doesn't have doesn't have it in the ha itself so that would be during the meal or that would be after the Seder to talk about all the great things that M raenu did but in the Magid we deemphasize that is why in the verses Ari which are four verses about uh about the Exodus that a person brings when he brings the four the first fruits now one would one would wonder why did choose the text of to build the around I mean logically is in shamos why don't we read the PUK of shos as opposed to you have these four verses and then each every fragment is then interpreted by a verse in shamos or by a verse in dorim why don't we read sa foros so one answer actually is well two answers the simple answer is well as long as people might think the maget is if You' reach it would be a lot longer because the around 14 so this way K identified four verses which get you the main point so this concept of getting the to a a shorter uh amount of time was already in but some give a different reason some say Kaz didn't want to use saos because if they wanted to emphasize MOS renu's rules it would be in role it would be impossible to read the PUK of shamos and kind of skip anytime you mention mosh raenu I mean M was mentioned in every single PK virtually so they had to look for a narrative in the T that taka doesn't mention now a the fifth mik we have four verses the fifth P already mentioned and cut it off after four after four and looked for a narrative that did not mention so that's the idea of the now uh yeah again there there again there's so much to say the ha you know there are more Ma on the hag people say I haven't counted than there kind of kind of unbelievable but you know every single year you go into to a bookstore going to a swarm store every single year you know there around 25 to 30 new hagadas that come out how do you keep track I per probably reads every one of them but you know it's uh it's G to be it gets harder and harder and harder to do so it's really I just want to mention a practical matter though that uh you know just as the Magid begins with the idea of the four sons and that Darko that the nature of the narrative has to be something that everybody can appreciate so uh one of Theus of a Benta sometimes Benta might be filled with many many beautiful insights in the hag uh but not not everything is suitable for everybody and uh number one when there are younger children you have to be sure that they have what interests them and when there are older people who might have limited background one also has to think about what is suitable for example you might find in a technical matter that a very fascinating makus the r and the rid or Rashi and toas about how to fulfill the Mitzvah of kpas might be an extraordinarily interesting thing but it may not be something that would be so helpful to uh to your audience I mean I I know this from my own uh bitter experiences uh in the past that one has to be one has to give some thought as to what is appropriate and even after the Seder is over there is still a mitzah to continue to talk about as well as and therefore you know one can can save a lot of the longer more involved Torah for afterwards for those who are able to uh able to uh stay up and are interested in in staying up so one has to be a little bit of a here is to see the pro probable effect of of their words and and and the like but I just want to mention two two very quick thoughts that I think think are kind of uh General thoughts that that can be helpful and that is uh the uh after we talk about hashem's Covenant with Abraham and the prophecies that they will be slaves in a land that is not theirs and Hashem will judge the nation that enslaved them and they will leave the Jewish people will leave with great wealth both material wealth and ultimately the wealth of Matan Torah so we then have the uh very uh meaningful paragraph f and this has stood by us that in every generation it is not only one that tries to destroy us but in every generation there are those that try to destroy us Andes saves us from their hands and the maim have a little bit of a problem the he and this is what is standing by what is the this referring to the barbanel says but it's only that is a rash uh the V are the six orders of the mishna the are the T the Y are the and the AL is the one God for he that has kept us is is again puts in a beautiful thought when it says so most of us interpret that to mean it is not only one that tries to destroy us he says he ret translates it it is only the fact that we are not one it is our disunity our but all of these are are the question though is what is the going on so some learn that 's promise that no matter who tries to afflict you you will go out with that is a promise that is eternal it's going on the r but the says he has a problem with that a little bit because we don't find that that's automatically true that the was a specific that was made for that door and we don't have any type of guarantee that will have a all the time so then says that the he is actually going on what comes afterwards that it's the fact that people are trying to destroy us has kept us alive has kept us going what's theat he says that Jews have a natural desire to assimilate to become part of a host culture to adopt values and what happens anti-Semitism as bad as it is as tragic as it is as devastating as it is is a mechanism that a KES allows to remind us that as much as we want to forget that we're Jews the umos are going to remind us and through the persecutions of the umos we realize we have to turn back to Hashem we have to do chuva we have to reclaim what we really are and that is and the says that is the meaning of the then says love be right Lan is worse than parro because parro only wanted to kill the men the boys throw the boys into the river Lan wanted to be wanted to destroy everybody shenar then that begins the beim verses Ari the Arian wanted to destroy my my father my father went down to MIT so that says a very similar idea that where do you find that love unwanted to destroy now again the the weine and bring different verses but but you don't find explicitly that love un wanted to physically kill Yakov buter and later than it if say that laan wanted to destroy yakov's spirit spiritually Lan in fact the reason why Lan always refers to yakob as my brother and Rashi says you're my brother in cheating right you know how to cheat I know how to cheat we can work together we can be friends and that was very very dangerous that would have destroyed yov in fact theer says look at the PK the PK is a nonse laon wanted to destroy my father and my father went down to MIT that's not the sequence it's not Yakov didn't leave lovan's house to go to mitan Yakov left love na he returned to erel and when Yosef was 17 you know then many many years later after that yov goes down to because of what is the of the destroyed my father or would have destroyed my father and my father went down to mitzan historically the two events are not connected so says the s in reality they are connected and the reason that is so is because when Hashem told Abraham your children will be in a land that is not theirs he didn't say it had to be MIT he didn't say it had to so once there Lan's house let Hashem fulfill the gazer there why does he bring yov back to erel then have a then get him to MIT says the we could have Ser we did survive 210 years in MIT we couldn't have survived 400 but we Sur 20 we wouldn't have survived in love themselves Lan would have destroyed us spiritually parro persecuted us physically and although we did lose many spiritual madas but in many many ways we did better with persecution then with assimilation and that's the because La would have destroyed us and that is why Hashem had to bring us to MIT for the Fulfillment of that gazer that's an amazing thing BB used to say and he knew it from both places it was easier to be a Jew in Siberia than Suburbia Siberia persecution persecution but at least you know you're Jewish you know you're Jewish you know that although a Jew is supposed to be a law-abiding citizen a Jew is supposed to contribute to his Society no question but a Jew also has to know that they're an outsider the Jew has to know that he is different that he has a mission he has a purpose he has a Tas and when we start losing a sense of who we are then there'll be plenty of people from the negative side who will be there to remind us and this is the pattern of Jewish history over and over and over again and indeed it seems to be very very harsh and very very difficult but it is one of the mechanisms that Ash prus has used to make us understand the uniqueness of our lives and the specialness of our mission that is theii that laan would have destroyed yakob Lam so the gas many many years later had to be in MIT that's why they say again this what said actually goes back to the balat the balat was lived in Russia at the time of Napoleonic Wars when Napoleon invaded Russia and there was a m among the gum of of Russia should we pray for the victory of Napoleon or for the Zar now zaris Russia was awful then mamish mamish awful oppressive poverty-stricken persecution Napoleon promised emancipation and indeed he did emancipate uh the ghettos collapsed Jews had political and civil rights they could own property they could attend universities R right so should we stay under this persecution or should we pray for the gift of political Freedom the botan said let's pray for the Zar as bad as it is the Rus will will remain under the Zar more than it will remain under Napoleon and the truth of matter is it may sound very harsh but the truth matters Napoleon of course as we know was defeated in Russia he did not uh he was not Victorious but in the countries that Napoleon had kind of liberated uh you had the reform movement and and and all sorts of secularism and and tasala indeed Freedom has been a very very mixed blessing for us and we have to be very very careful how we use it this is the remes of laan B and may it be again as the uh this fares tell us each person must identify their own MIT their own slavery and the is a cyclical you understand this sacred time in Judaism is not commemorative it's not just remembering it is reoccurring that is whyo the same Kos the same spiritual powers that were there then come back every single year it's like a circle it comes back and we have the ability to tap into the Kos of Yas M and become liberated from our own and to achieve a gases and that GES if it occurs uh in a in enough of a critical mass now brings the gulas mashia the was the month of can come every single day of course but the month of Nissan is the most propitious time for that so may all of us [Music]