The Hidden Depths of the Passover Haggadah - Part 9 - Rabbi Dr. David Gottlieb

[Music] just want to make one short one remark about the idea of career we tomatoey tomorrow and then we make a sandwich and we say this is a in memory of a memorial to the temple as hello did the Mitzvah this what he'll did in those times if I'm of the basis vectors of the temple he would gather together matzah and the more and eat them together to fulfill the verse that you should eat the Paschal sacrifice on or together with matzo said Morel rim that's what he understood anna says he eat it as a sandwich now my room is that's all taught this and he actually wrote it was published article there are two different concepts that we have to distinguish we are in touch with history a great deal of the Torah is reliving the history of the Jewish people and concerning the temple there are two different phrases which really describe two different categories of relating to the temple one is a killer Corbin is memory of the destruction and the others academic Tosh memory your commemoration of the temple as is the temple is destroyed you might think it's just variation in words but it isn't it's a gigantic difference thank Allah Corbin the commemoration of the destruction is a kind of morning one feels the pain of the fact that the temple is destroyed that's what happens our tissue buff that's what happens on the other the whole of the three weeks if you're Ashkenazi and if you sorry it's nine days and the other fests during the year all except perhaps one Zelda meekness is an entire different idea when the Haggadah says we are doing what hello did in the temple and it says academic dosh we are not introducing an element of mourning into the performance of the sale that's not what's going on the other half of it is that what the temple stands for its reality is not totally destroyed there is a reality of the total of the temple still with us and we do certain things out of a connection with that continuing reality and that's an is it is an as if it were here performance and that's what's going on in that in the Haggadah we're not mourning over the destruction we are doing something which we can do because there's something left of the temple to assistive relate to there are other things that we do in the same way in a certain sense as real mazaaq I established we take the how the lulav on suckers for 46 days we don't do in our shop is booked for the whole week that's very strange because the tourists Mitzvah is everywhere in the world only one day only the first day 7 days was only in the temple your own zach i instituted that zelda mcdouche that everybody everywhere should do at seven days except for shabbos that's not mourning over the destruction that's a commemoration of the reality of the temple which is still with us so that's what happen if that's what's going on here Karev is connecting to that present reality rather than thinking of it as a yes yeah oh when we wash our hands before eating bread is that to number or is that too or is that means that like morning or is that music templestowe occurs I don't think it's either i don't think that it's defined in our in our sources as economic assures a little woman that was instituted during temple times that was to remind the Kohanim that they might be tummy and shouldn't each woman and was they felt a wouldn't last if the whole it wasn't all the two of people who took or some associated with cleanliness but i don't think it's ever defined or described as as a filmmaker I shows a hellhole either one not everything we do that was done in Temple times is a memory of the temple that's the that's the general rule now shannon has always been mindful of us and he will bless us who bless the house of Israel as irony bless those who fear a Shem both small and great I must tell you that's not a literal translation though I every translation I've seen takes it that way but if the literal translation is the small together with the great timing em haga Dolan doesn't say be hard and it doesn't it doesn't save it it just says it says with and if a is with B doesn't follow the bees with a a could be probably be bees are following a here is the small together with the great and this illustrates a general idea that you you can benefit by associating with great people and there's a double benefit number one you could be elevated you can be driven to perform better because you're connected to create people and also since god favors these great people you can benefit from that favor if you're connected to that because once you're connected to them especially if they care about you so then when God calculates what he's doing with respect to you God has to make a double calculation how are you going to take it and how is this great person that you're connected to going to take it and you can thereby get protection from other things that might go wrong so I think it's very important that that it says here together with the Boston rugby or foreign of illustrating this idea I think a very beautiful and logical way so it tells us when the Jews people left Egypt before they got the Sinai there was an attack the Amalekites attacked there was a battle and Moses Lall Joshua she's an army go out to fight and modes went up on a mountain where the people could see him and he went up with our and his brother and ha brother-in-law and he he was up there on the mouth and when he raised his hands the Jewish forces were successful and when he lowered his hands the Amalekites were successful and was hard for him to hold his hands up so he took a stone he sat down a stolen the two of them stood on either one on either side iron a and the hell does that arms up until nightfall when they were succeeded in weakening the Amalekites now the Mishnah in rosh hashanah says don't think that we're talking about magic here Moses raised his hands of the victorious hands go down the other victorious know what Moses raised his hands the Jewish people dedicated themselves to God and through that dedication they were victorious and when he lowered his hands they lost that dedication and then the Amalekites are victorious so a very horowitz about derivative of her nose ask the following simple question you're talking about Jewish soldiers ok when the hands go up they dedicate themselves to God in the victorious advise a burst of the hands go down can't they figure it out they're not superstitious they don't think it's Moses hands going up and down they know it's their dedication to god that's doing it okay if that's true then even when Moses hands go down let them dedicate themselves to God me victorious what's the implication that when Moses hands go down you can't dedicate yourself to God you need the inspiration of Moses may be used to be able to do that your credit is that you're smart enough to attach yourself to Moses and that's a credit sometimes he goes two ends of the way of that it could be a struggle but without Moses inspiration they're not able to do it that's a general Jewish thing that's one thing that this acidic movement took over in great detail and there are lots of evidence for it and here i think in the extra phraseology here you definitely have that now i want to tell you a story that actually occurred and then I'll illustrate for you with the next on the next page this goes back about I guess out in 20 years 130 years in Europe whoever was the hair Rebbe that time said to his followers this is around Russia no time said whoever will say hollow on circus and had in mind what he needs I when he when we say the words please Hashem if I'll have in mind what he needs I promised him he'll get what he needs there every promised so you could imagine how that year in circus the roof was shaking several months later to the elder of a city we're talking once it they'll you know I was tremendous confession to make sure that i had idea of what I need in mind when I said please Hashem but didn't happen and the other one said I confess the same thing to happen to me either now you didn't typically go and ask the guy rubbing your question because you could get a slap in the face here was an inheritor of cuts cuts was very tough but you could go to the guy by and he might though so they went to the gap I and they said to him look the rebbe promised and didn't seem that it happens so the gap I said to them really you had in mind what what you need it when you said please Hashem just glanced at page 44 Terry bottom of the page you see this set of short lines each one begins with on Asha and please a sham so they said whatever you said have in mind plea it when you say on a sham please Hashem Hashem oceano and i should say hello said the guy by that's not the verse that the rebbe was was referencing it's not that first look back a page 42 on Hashem kiani I've deco please a sham for I am your servant that's the first at the rebbe meant what's the difference because at the end of hollow please a sham saved now please I shall make a successful now that's asking please give me their ever didn't promise if you ask God and say please give me he'll give it to you but here it says please a sham for I'm your servant which means i'm only asking for what i can use to serve you if that's the spirit of which you're asking he said that then he'll be with you and you were supposed to figure that out yourself that that's the honor hashem that i show that he meant not the one at the end a typical of gear and cuts if you have to be intelligent think it out you know go to the death of things and it is a very deep insight to the nature of prayer that the petitions that we ask for should be asking for things which enables to serve God better because that's what we ought to value that's what we want to feel is important to significant the ability to serve God nothing else is really valuable so that's what we should be asking for when you get to bottom page 44 here I'm going to tell you something which is my own idea so I can't guarantee that it's correct but I think it's very this is the high point of how right for the end and it has two verses each one is said twice please I chemin save now please ash em make us successful that question is are they equal or as one more central than the other very often you have a gifted cousin he's singing with great enthusiasm get so please ashim safe now he's at the top and these are she'll make successful hours down a step like secondary but I think it's the other way around I think that the fundamental one is the second one not the first one let's compare the ideas safely say V means I'm drowning I'm drowning I'm lost if you don't save me I'm lost what does make me successful mean means I'm working I'm functioning I'm operating but I know I can't do it alone so I'm asking you to crown my efforts was a success now what are we put in the world to do we put in the world to drown and God you save us that's not what we're put here for of course it happens it happens and it's genuine and a person should ask for salvation under those conditions that were put here for were put here to work and to recognize that we can't do it on our own and ask God for help in salvation I think on our shallots leelanau is the more important of the two it's really the high point similarly in the first blessing of this one is Ray the end of the lesson we describe God with three terms Morgaine was there Michelle again ohs air mushiya home again he helps he saves and he's a shield those are in order of increasing involvement helps means what I said before I'm doing I'm functioning I have a project I'm working on it but I can't do it alone and he helps well she means he saves me means I'm lost I'm driving saves me mugging goes even further moga means I don't even get into trouble I Morgan is a shield the the challenges or the dangers that even reach me so that's an order of increasing involvement and I think only the first is ideal first we got to describe this helper that's ideal the other two are what I need in order to survive but that's not the idea the idea that I should be functioning me helping me succeed if a sleeper now is the more important one was not the one that comes before ashira I can't it be and ascending you asked about this yesterday it'll depend lists have different have different meanings in different contexts and what doesn't presume that that they'll all be treated in the same way I'll give you an example which is really very striking there's a Midrash that says depending upon how a person behaves that's how you refer to him how he described him and how you treat him if a person behaves well then we say to him you know that people were created last that's because God wanted the whole of the creation to be prepared and when a man came on the scene everything was prepared and ready for him if he doesn't behave well then we say to the person man was created last even after the mosquitoes even after the mosquitoes they're created so that's great so is it what is it was what is best to be last of the list not be less nautilus commencement what kind of list it is there the Midrash is contrasty two different types of lists one is a list of means two ends okay so what are going to do about the problem well first I'm going to do this and I'm going to do that with those 2 i'm going to get that I get that and then I'll finally do that what's the most important item on the list the last one the last one is the one's going to solve the problem the rest of this means two ends another hand you have a list of things to do it's very common to put the most important thing first and put there in decreasing order that yeah you'll go that most as far as you get you'll get this is precisely the Rajesh is saying by the way a human being lives he can determine for him what kind of list it is was the whole of creation a means for the sake of what he can do with his life or is it a disconnected list of items and he's last on the list therefore at least important if you deserve it you say you're less and the whole world is created to be prepared for you if you don't deserve it then you say even this mosquito preceded you so the different types of lists and the different lies the list will have different types of orders in fact that in the shimano sra it goes from from our point of view the best down but they are describing a shams activity and it's going from least to most and here I'm asking I asked for the most important thing at the end because I think because the previous one is a means being saved as a means to being able to function I'll give you another example of it when I promise are go down to Egypt and I Brown realizes there's going to be dangerous so he says to Sarah please save it to my sister so that they will treat me well for your sake and I will live on account of you now there too if you thought it was a list of two separate items is asking for the order would be very very strange say my sister so they'll do they'll treat me well let's see that was one thing and then there was another thing let me let me focus on oh yes and I'll survive very funny to put survival after being treated well but if the idea is that if we say we're husband and wife they're going to kill me and take you but if we save a brother and sister then they are going to try to convince me to voluntarily agree that you should marry somebody and they're going to try to bribe me to do that they will treat me well for your say and that's how I'll stay alive then it makes perfect sense for the first one is it means to the second one I mean it's less important so it's all dependent on whether you think of its disconnected items we think of it a means to an end to means to an end so then you understand why the less important one comes first for this only means and become a page 53 to the conclusion state it's the last element in the Seder where we celebrate the fact that give thanks for the fact that we to carry out the Seder as we should and we ask that we should be able next year to perform it in Jerusalem because what we do is fractured is this afternoon one afternoon yep but this little what we said but I was just talking about it's afternoon also this is so cute part of the safe are the same we're not part of story um it's certainly considered part of the say to the Seder has 15 15 elements I think that's true [Music] you're as good as let's go to ask what happens is that the telling of the story is over when you get to the the meal and then what you do after the meal immediately is you finish how now how low after the meal branches out the first two paragraphs of how are about the exodus from Egypt really the second one is all about the exodus from Egypt after the bridge is out to God's care and salvation throughout history and our beseeching God for closeness and relationship it's the finishing of hollow but hollow itself starts with a recognition of Egypt and then branches out to a much much broader perspective and then the section from the sitter that you that we say after that is that focus particularly on Egypt at all okay so its first of all one of the Psalms hodu lashem ki Tov this is on page 45 correct it has the phraseology in Cazalas called halla ligado but it's it's not part of officially how it's a separate samet party yes as one of the Psalms we say she I was funny right just one of the one of the many times here's put in because of its praise and thanksgiving to god which is exquisite and then comes ish mass I could say on every shabbos holiday morning then after that and then you go to continuing on from this possibly would on a sharp as a holiday morning all the way up to your Starbuck and then it depends some end just by ending you Starbuck and others end by going back to the closing paragraph of Howell and put it at the end there so come to that end this is very interesting okay so you see as I said the first two paragraphs on how the first product was general the second product if it's all about Egypt then you have the whole meal then you pick up halal again however there on out is very general talks about God's salvation all times and I relatable at all times and petitions for being close to God at all times then you pick up with halle gondal which refers to Egypt and continuous and and all of them then you pick up with nish mass this bus is exalted God is the one who's the soul we forgotten all the rest then you go through what you say every shabbos inand and holiday morning all the way up to the end of you stop which all of which has nothing particular to do with Egypt now the question is how do you close so the Ashkenazi versus the clothes that way and finish so you've left Egypt behind and you've branched out into weekly holiday praises of God thus our diversion is to end with the closing paragraph of hallo which means you go back to the more local picture you don't you don't stay with it with the general picture you subsume the more great little more general picture together more at the local picture ok two different ways of doing it and then you drink the fourth cup of wine and then you come to Lisa and it's it's an expression of the fact that his birth was accepted what you have done what you have accomplished in serving him in this way now after that there are various poetical poetry which vertical I items which are son and really the way the Mitzvah is done is made the prez know who you are what you would level you're up to but the weights done by some assault of people is just to keep on with these poems and singing or and then some say all of the song of songs which we do and if you still awake then to read Russian or continue discussion until you just fall asleep that's your shame right till you just falsely you fall sleep over the activity of the haggadah no ma'am most of a sign that's strong we do actually climb it to bed at three o'clock or 330 but that's the idea the idea is to keep it going one symptom of this is what we say to the wise son which I didn't explain over there what are the column say what are these testimonies and laws and statutes that show our God commanded you and you should even tell him according to the laws of they say that you don't eat anything after the afikomen you don't eat anything after the afikomen afikoman refers to the very last item in the meal in the temple it was the Paschal sacrifice the personal sacrifice eaten al Haas ova it was the final piece of food which made you satisfied very Leslie today we don't have a personal sacrifice we eat much at the end that's our substitute further missing pastor sacrifice now what's the idea don't eat anything afterwards why 12 some bottles for me jack I've tasted Madson remain in your mouth this goes on till the morning till the morning and I think you appreciate that how it works because we do drink a cup of wine after this so so x is it really gonna rain in your mouth but if it's meat together with juices and fat dad will survived a cup of wine and you'll still taste it until the morning right what is the idea testicle morning mean it means that the whole night is part of this performance even though you finish the official Seder at theatre but the whole night is part of the performance once the morning breaks you know have a cup of coffee no problem face it so the idea of continuing the recital and the singing and the discussions and meditations until you fall asleep is a very appropriate idea and that's one of the reasons why the end of the Haggadah has attracted these extra items because of that concert okay okay now let's just take a look we count the numbers 12 13 and we describe something that the numbers refer to let's just take a look at the list one is surprise surprise the creator / 02 is the two tablets of the Covenant three is the patriarchs for is the matriarch think i mentioned at the beginning I don't know whether you were there or not with a lot of force in the Haggadah the forest say they gonna limit our reference to the bank to the patriarchs four cups for questions four sons their reference to the lecture x5 is the five books of the tour of the commish six is the Mishnah so you have the written law and the oral law seven is the days of the week fundamental unit of time a is Mila bris milah the morale says that number eight is absolutely fundamental because our world is built on 77 days of the week in several weeks and thus about in the sabbatical cycle and seven days of pesach yeah if you live a whole sorry to have eight that's because you're looking in the wrong place seven days of circus seven is the picture of our world and by the way there are three patriarchs and for matriarch that's not an accident is seven there also and in terms of Kabbalah seven is a very important number about describing how our world works what is 88 is something outside of our world which inserts itself in because above seven is 1010 as an extra three those extra three are somewhat disconnected from our world from time to time they insert themselves into have an impact that's what it is so it's very important that seven years seven days the week and eight is step beyond yeah what is opposition very interesting the reason because every time it mentions one of them giving birth it says shift class 4 hail and shift class Leia they function I only as extensions of Rahul away at art that text is quite clear about it every time and give birth lease a shiftless layin shyffilis row they did you only functioning that's how Roja one when when her shift starts giving birth could say God his judgment God has found favor with me and everything else but it means somebody else no no represents me yeah I've also heard that the four cops represented four levels of reduction yes I looked over that second she does it I also relate to their nature yes it does oh it yes I think that's right good because because I'll say the screws notion Cisco Neos a low of a cinema trying with you is because of the merit of the righteous women that we were saved from Egypt so there definitely will be a connection a nine is the months of pregnancy how that fits in here and I being told is reproduction is somehow if fundamental feature of how the world works I can't explain it but that's that's the message 10 is the 10 pronouncements at Sinai 11 is the 11 stars which 11 stars 11 stars that Joseph saw in his dream when the son of the moon and the stars bowed down to him I was his father his mother and the 11 brothers and that was actually fundamental in the in the development the Jewish people 12 the 12 tribes and 13 are the 13 me dos as we say meters of rock mean the characteristics God's characteristics of mercy even though not everybody has to face that way Rommel does not phrase that way but that's it so I think the only mystery here is the nine months of pregnancy which don't seem to be on the same level of being fundamental as the rest but that means there's a secret that's that's being hidden from us then the final one thought God yo the goat that was bought this is a series of interactions where each level out does the previous level and it gives a picture of the topsy-turvy nature of history where this is sentient mad as a Senate this succeeds for a time and it's beaten by something else and at the very end is that a coach bro who will destroy the angel of death and will read to the permanent Redemption therefore say to the children of Israel I am a showing I shall take you out under the burdens of Egypt I shall rescue you from their service I shall redeem you get a stretcher armed with great judgments I shall take you to me for people I should be a garden to you those are the four the sureness of google for languages of of redemption now the truth is verse 8 says I shall bring you to the land that could be counted by some as a fifth language and so I want to say that the kosher litleo the cup of Elijah refers to that that language now let's look at them again and try to figure out how the the contents are related again beginning verse 6 i'ma Shem and I shall take you out from under the burdens of Egypt Jose see I'll remove you take you out meet on us civil awesome sign then it says I shall rescue you from this surface dennis is a redeeming with a stretch arm with great judgments so even though I stop there what's the first one the first one was I shall take you out from under the birth of Egypt the second rescue from the service it means I'm going to take you out from under the burdens before I rescue for from the service excuse me if we're still serving them what do you mean that you've been taking out from under the burdens region right and even more striking we continue on eight I shall bring you to the land which I raised my hand to give it Abram ice cream Jacob six starts I shall take you out from the burdens I shall rescue you I shall redeem you and we asked if I taking you out from under the burdens before I rescue you what does it mean good seven I shall take your use of people I should be a god to you and you shall know that I am a shame your guy who takes you out from under the birthdays of Egypt that was number one after I do all four you'll know I did number one very very funny says deceiver Shalom number one refers to recovering an independent Jewish identity Who am I got to the point where in Egypt the vast majority of people if you ask who are you the answer would be I am an Egyptian slave I'm an Egyptian slave that's what I am none I'm a Jew essentially a servant of the Creator free by nature who temporary circumstances have caused me to have to work for this club now I'm an Egyptian slave that has to be broken that's the first step in liberation the first step of liberation is to change the person's identity so God says the first thing I to do is change your identity he'll come to find yourself differently then step by step I will break the physical bondage and I will redeem you I'll take you to myself as a people and then when you when you finally get to the point where I take this to myself as a people then that identity that I'm investing in you will be completely formed and then you'll know that it is I who took you out it wasn't chance events that broke the broke the Egyptians Egyptian economy didn't fail this reason military didn't fail but I who changed your attitude I was the one who engineered the entire process but what what the verse is emphasizing is being taken out from under them Danny well it's not might be under the birdies oh yeah under burdens Britain's aren't down six feet tall you're five feet tall under means you're you're and by the way burden burden English on you carry civil OSIS is in Egypt in in in Hebrew is really suffering but you are weighed down by the suffering you're you're crushed by side these the words we use but these words aren't I words describing the intensity the pain these are words of the psychological effect of the pain you have no real independent identity you have no link with your past you have no sense of the great exalted values that you that you that you represent just your slave by the way this is what the Nazis tried to do to the Jews in the concentration camps it wasn't enough to tell you that they killed Jews they did everything they could to break their spirit they would starve them and then throw food on the ground and if you had Jews who were lost control and they would fight over the food then the Nazis would comfort themselves you see their animals your animals so just killing animals that's how they try to solve their counter their of their consciousness that's what was lost and that's what was recovered and many Jews particular I will say this religious Jews particular resisted that there were religious Jews when they got the ration of water to drink for the day the used half of it to wash their hands and they didn't survive less because a great contribution to survival is spirit and when you use instead of drinking that every drop and licking the bottom of the of the pale and and you know looking around for otherwise anybody has the sprayer drops of water that mental attitude is a metallized to this bed for survival so that's what the Nazis tried to do and this is what the tour is telling is the very first thing that God that was to enable us to disengage ourselves from that slave mentality [Music]