Pesach: Reliving the Magic - Rabbi Yitzchak Botton

[Music] behind every good picture is an even better story so I'd like you guys to picture this for a second imagine a beautiful Seder table with all the delicacies and of course that terrible you know crane and whatever else you're eating for them for that part and if you start to look at the people there so you see each person is like a walking story a beautiful sight to see somewhat beautiful but each one a beautiful sight to see so you have grandpa zadie at the end one end with the Strymon and the caputo with the lineup a is twirly you know and then of course his son maybe a little bit more modern clean shaven the business suit dignified proper man you know you you you started at first you don't know you don't realize it's his son and then you look closer and you see oh I see it in the in the eyes I see it in the mannerisms of course that supposed to be his son a generation later you know the grandson you start to look and be like wait a minute he doesn't look like either of them where the earrings come from with the spiked hair the tattoos what's going on over here he doesn't look like anybody but if you look closer you see that's that's the grandson what a wonderful sight to see generations come together at the Seder table but there's a deeper story here that we have to get into how is it that in a few generations we go from the rabbi of the year to People magazine's coolest man of the year how do we get there in a few generations so I'd like to say like this the point of Seder night is much deeper than we realize imagine the first Seder night Jews were in Egypt dealing with the the struggles of Gullit with Ryan power and a wicked people and all of the things they were going through that night was very me for the special to them because that was their life that was on the front page in every page of their newspaper that day imagine the next Pacer in the desert they celebrated another pizza again Jewish people with Hashem surrounding them every second celebrating their Redemption from Egypt that was also very special and very current and everybody participated and everybody had what to appreciate in that Pesach Seder thousands of years later how do we keep that fire alive so unfortunately when the heart and soul of the Pesach Seder in the pace of experience dwindles so we see this transformation from rabbi Friedman to John Frieda's or John whatever and that's what I want to speak about the rabbi's tell us and we even read it in the Haggadah that high of Adam or that at smoky Lew who yet some he meets Ryan a person is obligated to see it as if he himself went out of Egypt now that's interesting imagine the Holocaust says it you have to see yourself as you went out of Egypt you know I would respond or someone might respond don't tell me what to do but then I they're not telling you you better do this or else I think there's something deeper here what they're saying is if you want the Pesach experience to work to the fullest then you need to see it as if you yourself cannot reach it you have to put yourself in the living experience of the Pesach Seder otherwise it becomes just a body without a soul becomes things to do when should I stand one should I sit when should I then when took when do I get up to leave and make my phone call and if you know what I'm really doing tonight for fun well the Seder that is not fun and it's not part of you then something is missing and you see the generations the window so the idea here and the wonderful advice that the rabbi's are giving us is to see you as if you yourself are going out of Egypt realize how to make that story that pace our story our story relevant to you now and relevant to you tomorrow if it becomes a story about you that's relevant then then everything changes meaning so how do we do that how do we make the story relevant to me so we think that MIT's Ryan and the concept of going out of its rhyme is something that happened once a long time ago that's not so going out of Egypt is something that has to happen right now let me tell you most kids today grow up they don't realize they're in Egypt they are in Egypt Egypt is happening right now we Jewish people all right Egypt most people will say what do you mean gonna need your time I'm very happy where I am that's that's part of the problem you go to LA New York that's really me trying France England that's another miss Ryan Jewish people well they're not where they belong with that in their home that's miss Ryan and then people have to realize that that where they are is not their home you know there's an interesting idea that the rabbi's tell us about actual actual going out of Egypt you might think that Hashem came to save the day and all the Jews were saved and all the Jews left and went to that you know they've happened they never after that's not so do you know that only one-fifth of the Jews in Egypt actually left Egypt forfeits most of the Jews didn't even make it out they ended up fortunately dying in Egypt and the question is how come if I Shan came and saved the day why did it although the Jews leave Egypt you might think well maybe those forfeits were very terrible then they didn't deserve to leave but that's also not so because they were all all the Jews at that time were guilty of of sins the angels in heaven accused those that did leave at create jiangsu for the splitting of the sea and said how come you're gonna save them they were worshipping idols so even the one-fifth that left Egypt were guilty worth-ship an idol so why did it Dayton what was so special about them and they got to leave and the other far are the forfeits didn't get to leave what was so special so the sad answer is simple they didn't want to leave that one-fifth said we want to leave and they got up and they left in haste trusting in our Shem and running into a desert the other 4/5 didn't want to leave didn't want to leave so they didn't dad excuses reasons what different ideas now you hear such a story you say how could it be that forfeits didn't follow my shame into the desert how could that be well let me ask you how different are we today how different are we today imagine mushiya is finally here unbelievable loose he knocks on the door beautiful mansion with a couple of cars open the door how you doing mushiya great we're waiting for you for thousands of years what what can I do for you Michelle says well it's time to leave it's time to go back to Israel it's time for the redemption time to go out of the material that we're all in today so you think for meeting me like that's unbelievable no but this is the problem I'm a little bit you know I'm my house is for sale right now and I'm in the middle of negotiating the deal when it's it's very important a lot of money that I'm about to make and also there's a few business deals that I'm in the middle of and let's not forget my son it's it's the middle of football season you know he's so excited he's finally getting the hang of you know how it goes he's he's the quarterback you know so it's possible Michelle maybe you could come back in about maybe six months a year oh I'm sure by then I'll be ready to leave now maybe we won't only answer that way that might be an exaggeration but let's ask ourselves how many of us are really ready to up and leave how many of us are ready to leave them it's time that were in so that's really what I think is the the heart of the problem is that we detached from who and what we really are and therefore we see the generation after generation the Seder night becomes less meaningful and the solution to this problem is to become reattach to who and what we really are there's a heart and soul to the Seder night and as a heart and soul to each one of us and when they connect then the magic is back I'll explain the Jewish people in Egypt those that married it to leave kept three unique things about them and it was in the merit or partially in the middle of those three things that they actually got out we're taught that they didn't change their name that didn't change their dress and they didn't change their language now when you picture it so you can imagine a Jew that walked around in Egypt was distinctly and overtly Jewish I could tell he's familiar oh and he's not but that's just one level of the story that's a simple idea and of course we know that we can remain Jewish externally but that's only one level what does it really mean to keep our names and our dress and our language so let's start with a Jewish name how many people today have detached themselves from the real Jewish identity that is their heritage and how many people would rather walk around you know with heritage of someone else you know it's funny being involved in the kirov people walk by and you can't help but judge what you see so when you when you think for sure that guy's not Jewish he surprises you and walks by and says hey rabbi shabbat shalom oh how are you come here what beautiful earrings you have I'm glad you decided to be symmetrical with - some people go with one you went with two so it's sunny the external tells also a story when you are connected with the real Jewish identity that's been passed down from generation generation then you're connected and it goes very deep when things that our Jewish can make you excited you're happy about it you're interested in them well there's no interest in the book that God wrote but there's interest in Facebook and Google and everything else and all the nonsense every movie that's made up so where is your heart where is your soul let's talk about language what does it mean not to change your language what is the language of a Jew well when Hashem spoke to the Jewish people they understood God's language God spoke to us and we perceived that we understood that and that became the guidelines and the direction that we lived our life by the Torah is a living taurah the word Torah itself means instruction there's a heart and soul in the Torah as well how many of us have connected with that heart and soul in the Torah the Torah is a story of old stories of lap all people that means nothing to me today but that's far from the truth the tour is a living Torah the Torah is Hashem talking to you and I share those in every generation what message we need to receive and if you look into the Torah the language the language of the Torah the Jewish language you can keep your language you'll understand that message from a shim-sham it's constantly talking it to us you have to open our ears and our eyes and our hearts and see and feel understand what a sham is telling us and if we can do that we might get on the track what's the third thing the dress what does it mean to have a Jewish dress does that mean to go find the Jewish designer that's on the that's clothing is in GQ magazine and then if we call a Jewish you know sorry but Tommy Darby ani Jewish what's a Jewish dress we have to understand that the life and purpose of a person of all people ultimately it's not to go for the external materialism superficial pleasure that comes and goes we all have a soul all people have a souls especially we've been given a job to light up the world in to light up people's souls if we go for the external to dress the simple nice cute outfit in life then we're missing out on the real life uniqueness and beauty is not what's what you saw outside the real beauty of a person is within the real uniqueness of each of us is to express our ideas and our feelings and ultimately our soul so ultimately if we can connect to these three things properly if we can get back our Jewish identity the name gets hug Avraham Moshe you know are we are we American first and Jewish on Sunday afternoon when we go to a class or are we proud that we are descendants of holy holy people that stood the test of time and we're still here but are we really here always sleeping if we can get back our clothing the old fashioned clothing which is really the essence of who we are inside the penny mute not to go for the external but to let that external be an expression of the internal that our souls should speak through our actions and what we do and we shouldn't fall for the quick fix of the pleasure materialism and the excitement of the bright lights and of course last of all the language Shems language the language of Torah the language of the Jewish people to understand and be in line in that direction following Hashem to that finish line the Seder night is a eternal relay race starting from the days of Egypt the real days of Egypt and its continuing and that's our job to continue the next lap and till the final lap I have a happy and meaningful look pasted up [Music] you