The Hidden Depths of the Passover Haggadah - Part 2 - Rabbi Dr. David Gottlieb

we got halfway through the second half of the paragraph is a repetition of the first step with certain changes i'm not going to go through that long long story I'm going to cut go to the closing of the of the paragraph it ends not usually when it's not Chavez it ends baraha Tasha Moqaddas robbaz bombing that sanctifies the Jewish people and the holidays here the single word for holidays is the times as you know if it were an ordinary showers which is not a holiday then it would just say makati Josh shabbos sanctify the Chavez now that this year it's going to be both shabbos and the holiday you have the full ending makadi SH a shabbos you throw last money the obvious question is why do we have Israel only on the harveys why don't we have Israel on shabbos also i mean that's right and then if you're going to have somehow shabbos and smiling together and you going to put the both in which that seems reasonable who dictated the order yeah it wasn't the colonel nothing wrong but wasn't shabbos like one of the first i shall create javis like right after he created man like so that was way before any hobbies is waiting for Israel so in correlation okay so if you want to think about it historically makes perfect tense first came shabbos movie independently of the Jewish people and other holidays came after the Jewish people were established so you could say it's just chronological I think you could say that yeah ok that's the deeper point here the point here is absolutely fundamental difference between Chavez and holidays shabbos comes in every week period people keep it don't keep it forget it remember it get mixed up since the day it was absolutely no difference we have no input into when shabbos occurs all the holidays are dates of the calendar sort of shavuos is a little different but all the holidays are dates of the calendar who controls the calendar we do and we do in a very dramatic way people are aware that our months begin according to the cycle of the moon but strictly speaking that's not correct because the rabbis who declared beginning of the month are not strictly dependent upon the moon what you should happen is that witnesses who saw new moon will come to the court in Jerusalem and they would testify that they saw the moon they were beat cross-examined by the rabbi's a new astronomy I knew that if it had appeared at all you went would appear in exactly where it would appear and if they're testing windows acceptance okay so today is the first of the next month but the truth is that if the rabbi's want to or need to they can override the witness is whether they come or not so let's say we need the month to start on Tuesday but Monday afternoon witnesses come and say they saw the moon last night and you cross-examine then that would make monday the beginning the next month the rabbi's can say to the witnesses thank you for coming we appreciate it it will reward you we're not starting till tomorrow anyway we don't care whether the moon was there and you saw the moon we're not starting till tomorrow anyway and vice versa they needed to start on Monday nobody shows up they could say well nobody showed up but we're starting here on eyewitnesses they have the power to declare the month independently of witnesses all together and that being the case when we say the beginning of the month it's because the court declared it as such we made it as such so if we make monday the beginning of the month let's say me son which is the month of which basically is two weeks later on Monday it's going to be pacer if we make tuesday the beginning of the month two weeks later on Tuesday it's going to be pace off which means which 24 hour period of history is pacer is determined by us we make it happen that's utterly different from shabbos where we didn't do anything shabbos is because of the original weekday calendar they've got set up and then rolling on since then without any input from us whatsoever so this is what's reflected by the phraseology on shouted she said she was ricotta cheese shop is period I'm holiday as you said Sheamus makati she's royal and through be makati she's real as my name that's how it's come afterwards because we are the ones who make the holidays occur when they do and finally when it comes out on both like it is this year so you said the Kaddish I shabbos you swab Osmani which is the natural waiting for mining even what I told you but there's another deeper level here that just as he sanctified us and we sanctify the holidays so he sanctified Chavis and shabbos sanctifies us and then we sanctify the holidays it is a chain when you close the blessing as we will do this year yeah question I don't want me to get deep into the pocket you just discussing we are some usually the judges were able to manipulate when you like would start now I know it was probably whole calculation online or where did they come to save it you know we're we decide by month well I'm not what motivates them to start the month one way or another way i like it i shall i'll tell you one of the big determinant is that rashanna should not come out on the first day of the week the fourth day of the week or the sixth day of the week 10 avoid that for a different holiday no no rosh hashanah rosh hashanah but not respond especially shauna wright should not come out on sunday or wednesday or friday those three days you talked about why because let's make a little sock calculation if Russia gentle going on Wednesday then you Kimber will come out on friday if I shutting us out on Friday capable out of sunday in both of those cases you will have shabbos and you keep it together either friday as you keep our son is your keeper shabbos and you keep or share all the same restrictions in terms of the things you can't do and one of the things you can't do on either shabbos Orion Cooper is bury the dead so imagine you have this 48-hour period together and someone dies let's say in Cooper's friday and thursday evening radisson kipper started somebody dies it's going to be 48 hours until you're able to bury him that's terrible so the first thing that I've I said is no rosh hashanah on wednesday or friday is that you're going to end up with 48 hours where you can't bury people that knocks out to what happens if Regina comes out on Sunday well let's see so our shuttles out on sunday then sukis which is the 15th a visa of Tishrei will start on something right to hit two weeks later the seventh day of circus will be shabbos careful 127 will be shadows now there is a very important crucial minik that the prophets established that on the seventh day of circus you bring willow branches and you bring them into the temple and you go around the the altar with the willow branches and you can't do that on Chavez so in order to preserve that min hug has out said rosh hashanah should never come out on sunday is that it did it would kill that minute so if the witnesses come Sunday afternoon I say we saw the moon last night said okay I hear you but too bad because we can't do it on sunday we're going to wait for monday and if it's Thursday and they if it's sorry it's yes Thursday and they don't show up I wait till tomorrow to make it through beginning of the month that's gonna be on Friday I can't tolerate that so we're gonna make a Thursday even if they don't show up that's the prerogative that they have to use their power to avoid those things from happening so with this calculation there is no minimum or maximum a stick again oh that's right well you can't move it more than one day so you can't you can't make it more than one day extra now this is a one month so the whole year no no no no no no no they can do it any month they want I'm just illustrating one of the reasons why they might do that nothing really other reasons as well as so now we have a fixed calendar now you can imagine what kind of a calculation it was they had to calculate a cycle in which this will never occur yeah now you're talking about lunar months which make a total 354 days a year against a solar year which is 365 and I mean to adjust that the lunar and the solar shouldn't get out of whack which is a 19-year cycle of inter collisions of a month a 7 out of 19 and make sure that you never have come out on sunday wednesday or friday so and it has been lasting this this cat account that has been lasting for more than 2,000 years my old roommate used to make those towels used to try to exploit to betray very very complicated and if you compare it with secular calendars there they go bust I mean around in the 1700s they had to take 11 days out of the calendar because it was getting out a way out of whack wasn't correctly correctly that that's when they start putting the leap here like this year then the 29th of every and even that's not right so every hundred years you have to skip the 29th because that's wrong well so it's fine tuning it right I've been working fine for two thousands okay that's why it says shabbos Israel and then obvious is the holidays are in the sense don't each other's thing you go see you that's right this is acting okay very good now then this work hudson car person very Otomo I'm not gonna comment on those then we come to Mackay was and in mind some page eight now this first paragraph is very unique in aramaic whereas the whole text of the hug girl is a Hebrew and some of it was not said now in the evening when the sailor was taking place as I'll show you so this is a preservation of things people used to say at various times in preparing for the Seder setting it here is not the way it was originally done so first it says haha lokmanya this is the bread of poverty or deprivation the hell of a son by of them asylum that our ancestors ate and land of Egypt now this is certainly true I don't have ever seen matzo made if you go go with them and they bake Matt's us now you can see it it's a fascinating process people talk about the 18-minute matters that's really speaking not true the amount of time it takes time the water hits the flour until comes out of the oven is about 12 minutes right over 18 minutes we have a cycle they do one dough after another and when the oven has been used for 18 minutes you call the end of the cycle but the actual time it takes from the time minute the water hits the flour until it comes out is about 12 minutes you talk about slaves slaves are people who don't have time let's say the baked challah I mean leave a card the women tell me you mix it and then you punch it down and then it starts to blow up and you punch it down again and we got a half hour can you bake it slowly and you know this is a two hour process to bake how well you're exhausted you want to eat period so here you make a dough and I've seen this we have a sort of your in bukhari I think it still does it they make a dough and then they slap it on the side of the oven and and it and it bakes on the side of the oven it takes two or three minutes that's the whole thing preparing the dog takes four or five minutes and it takes and by the way that's fired him their mats us I night crackers their mats as a flexible like something like what you call a pita we are very careful like that they shouldn't let him and not like ashkenazi event so anyway so here you pointed it and you say this is the poor bread that are instances aid in Egypt now I don't point something out to you with your musician would we'll get to somewhat later in the middle of the Haggadah there's a section where we describe the symbolism of the things that we eat now my text is on page 25 and here the I gotta give an explanation why we eat matza why do we eat it because of the fact that when our ancestors were leaving Egypt their dough didn't have time to rise until a Cornish bro who appeared to them and took them out this doesn't sound like the bread of affliction the sound of the brother of freedom and it's true and that means that the matter has a double symbolism and the double system will be very important to us very important to us there has outcall matter welcome the turquoise that like I'm only let them only me can mean relative deprivation from like the word only which means a poor person has Al Russian lack of your own evil of drawer amarte the food the bread or food over which you mentioned many things and the reason for it is that the three symbols that we have that we eat on the night of seder which we ate on the temple was standing the moro the bitter herbs symbolized the slavery and the pessac symbolizes the freedom that's when I could row who saved us when the firstborn were killed and not to symbolizes both so therefore there are many things set with respect to the matter right it's a two-dimensional symbol rather than one division like the other two and here you're getting one dimension with the beginning of the stator all this lab is just symptoms of a much deeper okay why why would that be the reason plate he had a hard time sitting to eat matza a small understand well think about the bitter herbs it's the same thing right they had a hard time so we're eating various yeah it looks like the concept of a like is this a holiday of a member answer is this a holiday for us to be there okay you're asking all the important questions yes all the important we'll get there and we'll organize them but these are the kinds of questions we'll get to is going to have a little more information under our belt but these are the right questions these are right questions ok the next statement is the one part is what I referred to before coldest clean yes a vehicle anybody who's impoverished it's having trouble raising food for the for the meal come with us and join with us cold did three whoever is in need yeasay visa let him come and join the Paschal sacrifice with us here's the sticker you can't eat the past or sacrifice unless you are appointed to the sacrifice before it's slaughtered yeah called me noe you have to be appointed to the group is going to eat this this special that would be for its slaughtered that's hours ago that's in the afternoon I can't go out in the evening of pesach after we dive in the shul and Itzhak outsides head of it well anybody who needs to join a passel sacrifice come to my house and happy to have you it won't work it's not valid it must have happened in the air that's what I said this is a combination of things that people said it various different times in preparation for PESA they're not all they weren't said in an evening like we save them we don't have the temple all together we're not sacrifice all together so we are recording the things that people said but that's all they said that so anyways you're coming they fight it they said anybody who's in need has not already been assigned to a passel sacrifice come with us we're happy to have you as part of our group of course before they sacrifice it otherwise you couldn't do it after so this first first second half water we're making a mattress in the second sentence after before doing I don't know that but you make me a nice point because that would make it more in order would make it more in order it could be it could be I don't know it's a nice thought now here's a little bit of logic I shot the hawk hawk the Shadow Ball by Rd soil this year we are here next year we should be in the Land of Israel tell me something do we say that here yeah yeah look so my brother yeah we just say but what could we possibly eat we are you we r is done galoot who's we Rab honey who's we I'm sitting here jawline thank you very much we don't have sit outside and it doesn't say galoot so you can stick in a spiritual interpretation we're lost we haven't got the tip of it says here versus in the Land of Israel I think it means up everybody in oh good we is we my particular nuclear family or my client or my neighborhood we use the Jewish people on speaking on behalf of the Jewish people and we are not here that's good now the next one here also we need a piece of piece of logic they relate the two of them a shot off day bhishan high Borbon a hurry this year we are slaves next year we should be free slavery here can be a relative term when I'm free to do as we please those who live in America are bound by American law which means that there are various things which they can't do where's the tour would happen to do and even here and that's the first important point it doesn't split up the way the other one splits up it's not as if in New York your slave and here you're free we're not free here either because the secular Israeli government doesn't enable us to do all the things we need to do so these are two separate statements one is I want to be in the Land of Israel even if being in the Land of Israel I'm not going to be totally free and vice versa I want to be free even if i'm not in the Land of Israel because the more free i am outside learn visual the more i can keep the thorough so these are two independent thought okay now we come to the four questions here it's going to be a work of translation but let me just tell you there are a lot of force right is for for questions and what else short clubs for cups and what else what makes you are oh no that's not here written in the text what else you have written effects for languages of salvation which are in the Torah and which are some which are brought here what else to have here in the text Oh four sons nope no nope poor sons okay so the goal of illness says number four here symbolizes the matriarch ah because there were four of them only three men before women huh the goner villain says this and he I don't remember if he brings about there's a famous statement of huzzah the screws notion said correos de gallo Abu Salem is ryan with a merit of the righteous women we were saved from Egypt a number of features that the women contributed that the men did not at a certain point the slavery and the oppression became so bitter the men simply gave up they gave up at one point I'm rom who was to become Moses father buzz wasn't born yet wasn't conceived yet divorced his wife because he said if they're going to kill all the new born males it's not worth continuing and the men following on roms example also divorce their wives and that meant they're just giving up on the project you know let it end Miriam I runs daughter tomorrow says came to him and engage in an argument with him one of the things she said to him is your decree is worse than that of pharaoh pharaoh decreed only only that the newborn male shall be drowned your decrees does you never no more chill nobody was children at all she gave him if I remember correctly for arguments so forth or five and she changed his mind he took back his wife you have it the men followed suit took back their wives and that's what Moses was born so he cause of Miriam that's that breach was repaired at another point in the oppression the men simply were weary and without hope and they refused to have relations with their wives and the Talmud says the women who worked a full day also met their husbands after the day was over with two pots of water and two fish one part of water they enabled the husband to wash his body the other they cooked up some fish they had to fish and they roughly what we would call seduced her husband's they said you gave up but we didn't give up and you can't deny us that we should give birth to a new generation will take responsibility for it they come out of Egypt when you come out of Egypt and across the sea and on the other side and see the Egyptians drown there's a ecstatic poetry that they recite the men do and the women do sorry I was just sheer motion and with the women it says the women accompanied their recycle with drums and mahalos now some people are under the impression that mahalos means dancing and there is such an idea the word Mahal can also mean a musical instrument look at the 150th Psalm the last time the word my whole there means the definitely musical instrument so the major asks where the woman get drums from war musical instance what are they getting from answer they took the ferry gypped if they took the reason why did the man take the from Egypt because the women had more emunah they had more trust that God would say that they were preparing all ready for the salvation and they were leaving Egypt of the men the men were in preparing they weren't prepared they weren't on such a highland if you say that they danced and I'm a whole using me as a dance in a circle one of the Hasidic commentary says circle is symptom of the world to come there's a assistant world to come will all make a circle around the colors Broncos roughly in the center so they and their dance were already projecting the ultimate future you have a picture of the of the level on which the women were and that being the case as I said I remember the if the gunner Berlin says all this but his idea that the fours in agoura symbolized the matriarch is a very very powerful idea I wanted to ask how this before women relate to these percussion no I don't think it's one by one I don't think it's one big one just a number for whatever you're doing and alerted via right no it's because the number four is the same number the number four is the same number okay it's not as if sorrow relates to one of the questions and rifka relates to a different but it's not it's not paired up that way you have four questions you have four sons you have for coastal sub so on before we know what's special how is it related to him because women the foundation of a lead I'm leaving Egypt oh this is where they came from all the characters a woman came from up in the bedroom I measure now this little paragraph of the four questions is very very difficult boys and girls if we take the translation that everybody's familiar with it reads like this how is this night different from all the nights that are all the night sweet hamsa matzah tonight only matson all other nights we'd other vegetables tonight eat bitter vigils and all the nights we own the dip our vegetables in some kind of sauce even once at tonight twice and all other nights we eat either sitting up and chairs or reclining on banqueting couches then I everybody's reclining is that for questions that's like it's one question with for answers how is this night different mother night i'll tell you how it's different it's different in all four of these ways translates why should i rise even so even so it'll be why is it different and it tells you four reasons why it's difficult for before four reasons why are all these four things that we are doing why are you doing okay so that's that's a way in other words that the the first scent is like introduction and it's to make you put a question mark after the other for that could be that could be but although it could be in logic that your remark is a very logical remark it isn't right in hebrew manish donna is not a question and he boo it's not a question I'll tell you what it's like Jacob has a dream she's a ladder anxious going up and down the ladder and he's got over the ladder and he was God speak when he wakes up he says MA Nora a mahkum has it noram he's awesome this place what's the math de ma is not how awesome is this place ? meaning how many awesomeness points shall i gift place 76 104 you know what awesomeness rady does it get that's not what he's saying what he's saying is how awesome this place is ! is that a merit or it's not a question in all its exclamation how awesome this place is not even question correctly oh how different these nights are that we dip reversals twice correct that's the correct translation so as I said his remark before was logical but now you have to work with what it really says okay it's an exclamation with four applications how different this night is from all other nights look this this distance fine when I was over no we're not right we're in a fog let me increase the fog who's asking these questions by the way you can say this at the Seder you'll get points because it's not all very well known who's asking these questions shall we imagine we have a five-year-old now he went through the Passover Seder last year it was for how much did you remember not a lot and she sees things happening and he's wondering why are these things happen and he's asking about these things to get exploit exclamation is that who's asking these questions says they barbell it can't be that's impossible why is it impossible it's not small enough no look at the content of those questions and tell me why that can't be a correct way to say I'm you know you know me I'm much tougher than that I don't know what speculations and and you know psychological dilly-dallying I if you look at the content the questions it cannot be a child who's observing things happening and asking about them because he wants understand cuz he's asking me before everything happened first of all he's asking about things that haven't happened yet all other nights we don't dip our vegetables tonight we dip twice excuse me if you only did once the second tip is coming hours from now tonight we need only matzah who told you who told you all year long you eat matzah and comment who told you're not going to bring out a birthday cake at the end so that's one reason the other reason is he has already seen some very peculiar goings on he's not asking about them father made kiddush ok that's like every holiday and every shabbos they brought him water to wash his hands good every shabbos every holiday and then here's a piece of celery and he goes on doing something else right that's crazy after you wash you make on the theater dime and then you eat bread why didn't he ask about that so says the apartment I'll go to the bar Briana Rabon on says that's not what's going on going on here is to ask the question that you asked before now we're coming up to it we have anniversaries during the year these anniversaries have a certain quality some of them are commemorations of great successes great joyful events like Hanukkah like Purim like she was received the Torah like circus when coach bro who gave us the clouds of glory and protected us and we have commemorations of tragedies like ninth of of when we commemorate the destruction of Temple of the fast days during the year the author like other is asking what is going on here what are we commemorating true the spirit the period of time in Egypt was terrible slavery by the way some people are making mistake how long were we in you take a 210 years how much was slavery about 90 years not buy these because until I told you until all of the brothers died there was no slavery so about about nineteen ninety seven light years how come true always because that generation was the generation that was you know they were Joseph's brothers and Joseph saved the land and made the valiant Richard so they had a certain certain status at any rate the bow ligado is saying look at the symbols that we use tonight and you'll notice the two of them are symbols of slavery and two of them as symbols of freedom and I want to know what's going on every other day in the Jewish calendar has one dimension either it commemorates some great success and joy or commemorate some disaster tonight it seems like you have a hybrid because matzo at this point as I told you as a bread of affliction or poverty there eight its slaves and the next one's moral the bitter herbs those are two of slavery and dipping listen we know these vegetables we dip our vegetables have to have a nice sauce you know that's obviously someone who's wealthy and it was and who's aristocrat right and we eat on rock reclining couches we're banqueting so the author of the God is asking it's a four-fold question that's what really is it's a four-fold question a question with four parts now having said all of that let's just look at the next sentence and see if you can formulate what the answer is the next step that says this ought to be an answer the question right I've bought in vain to the five of us Ryan by his angel Academy shot we were slaves to Pharaoh of Egypt and a share my god took us out from there in one word what do we commemorate II exes okay Exodus is nice word at a more descriptive word Hebrew would be trained and English would be transitioned where we're commemorating the transition from slavery to freedom we have one leg on each side of the border and we're shifting weight from the leg on the slavery side the leg that's on the freedom side that's why you have two symbols of slavery into symbols of freedom because you're making the transition from one to view that's the barbell chart there's a beautiful shot you know you know me if it works out logically i would have thought you got that same shopping somewhere else like when before the before lady died even though all the jews are having a good time in Egypt they still felt as if they were slaves because we wanted the last example even though they enjoying themselves and now laughter that some people were slaves would understand four-fifths didn't leave because even though they were sleep they were still enjoying themselves and the things that are happening in Egypt so in both times there was a hint of slavery and even though that's it that's right I see what you mean di here just saying but remember we called the holidays one of the words holidays was mine smile means on this date something particular took place so it's not as if we are symbolizing something that went on for 90 years it's it's with symbolizing something into place on the fifteenth of Nissan so it's not going to right it's not right if it's not gonna be the whole picture and that's why the gotta ask this question the fourfold questions because our commemorations have a certain a certain style certain status and and then he gets the inspiration yeah I didn't understand the part about where you said that this cannot be a child asking these four questions what was the answer to why it can't be a child no I understand that so who's asking you to transfer the author that God is formulating a sophisticated question it's not a question for a five-year-old the question is since we have two symbols of slavery two symbols of freedom what is the nature of this holiday all the other holidays or all the other days that are special have one theme either the theme is rejoicing over a salvation or some great success or is the theme of REM rating a disaster and being unhappy and sad and depressed so we don't say for children's discussions no no certainly not for children certainly not for children this is the question that the haggadah puts as its introduction introduction what are we doing tonight are we commemorating the slavery or commemorating the freedom and the answer is worth remembering the transition from one to the other and questions how are these four questions you said that consists of munster nominee it's just like a statement not a question well so now I must tell you I'm dealing now with a title which doesn't appear anywhere in the in how good this is the way it's called by the Jewish people that's very strong that's very important but it's not you know got itself it's called the fear Cassius with our Baku she owed and Hebrew or an earner and in Yiddish and you could translate that as the four questions if it's the four questions then you have a problem we're ending up now with it's a single question with four parts tues symbols of slavery two symbols of freedom how does it work together and I want you to know that in Hebrew there are two words that are used for questions one that is using this expression this version kusja the other with shayla they're not the same at all touches our difficulty correct who she has a difficulty shayla's just request for information and that that works very well here according to the bar bunnell you have two against two with a contradiction so at least kusja plays that plays are all here shayla would be impossible yeah it's just and as you know me I like all the words to work out for khushi oak is a little hard because it's really a single difficulty with four parts so for Part kusja okay that about I can't answer yeah I just yeah I think that works well with whom said about before another full mix yards that before is not four seconds one unit of four it's not for seven things so that's the number four right person that's right that's interesting the four languages of salvation definitely work that way because the progression for co souls is a very interesting very into the question they were or asks feel a big goblet with força and you take them all down at once and then when I said a half of it you satisfied this cosa satisfied but hey Luce freedom you didn't satisfy so maybe that goes together tonight so before the Astra all right that's an awesome song that I came and that's definitely progression nice though very nice thought okay I'm just gonna raise for your questions a lot just like four inches yes because he didn't want four sides okay that's that's be feted by geography okay there's one more thing to say here and then we'll we'll pick it up again tomorrow there are two sentences here when I just read for you and then the next one to read them carefully and precisely they contradict one another the census we just read was we were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt and Shama guy took us out from there with a strong hand and a stretch our that's what next sentence if Hashem had not taken our ancestors out of Egypt and we and our children our children children would have been subjugated to Egypt and subjugated to Pharaoh in Egypt what's the contradiction what we were going to die out now you're asking a question about the second one question I'm asking contradiction listen again the first sentence says we were slaves to Pharaoh Egypt and a sham Oh God took us out from there with its strong hand and I searched our second sentence if Hashem had not taken across Grove had not taken our ancestors out of Egypt then we and our children our children children would have been subject to Pharaoh in Egypt what's the contradiction well your college education doesn't teach you how to with precision no such trainings a tragedy now who left Egypt who actually left Egypt we were the first sense that says we did who's we well there are seven of us in this room everyone about seven you know walk down a region what are the second sentence a our ancestors left Egypt not we if i should have not taken our ancestors out we would have been no subject to it but he did think our ancestors are the fact is he did and therefore we weren't and aren't there won't be so contradiction because we though the whole thing about smog now every year this day of the year we leave Egypt we can say we and if our ancestors so Starla conscious sanguine we will take we'll get to that we'll get to that but there's a simpler answer even here there's a simple answer maybe you'll think of it by tomorrow