ArtScroll's "The Bitachon Haggadah" Featured w/ Rabbi David Sutton on Today's JM

JM in the AM. And we've got Rabbi David Sutton with us live via telephone, one of our favorite guests. He's out with a brand new book. It's entitled The Beton Hagada with a daily dose of preparation, finding peace and serenity in the story of Yias Matri. And we'll explain why we're doing this conversation so early, meaning so far in advance of Pesak. essentially uh really starting pur time this haga becomes very very relevant. It's relevant all year, but you get my point. And we'll explore that with my son here at JM the AM. My son, a pleasure to welcome you back to JM in the AM. >> Thank you. Good morning. Always a pleasure to be here. >> I appreciate that. And uh how about a how about helping me give a tremendous Yasha to those who were able to get to Minion on Monday morning? I I was shocked, frankly, when I saw and heard how many people actually made it to Shaw with all the snow and ice in the New York, New Jersey area. And I would assume you as a rabbi were also pleasantly surprised by the number of people who showed up. >> Yes, there elim. We will go to the house of God with rugges, like reggish with emotion. But the mafaram say reges stands for ru shell will go to the house of god whether there's wind whether there's uh wind whether there's rain or whether there's snow. So that is the ruggish that's the people that are passionate and emotion about prayer will overcome all elements to get there. >> Amazing. Absolutely amazing. And again a big yes to everybody. It made it made an impression on a lot of families and on a lot of communities. uh Rabbi Sutton, it's a brand new Hagada. We're having this conversation before Purim. Many people might find that unusual. Usually Hagada conversation will be closer to Pesak, but as I said, this Hagada is extremely relevant starting around now, starting around Purum time. Explain the format of this brand new Hagada. >> Okay. Well, first of all, it's shouldn't be such a surprise. The first is 30 days before the holiday we start preparing. You need 30 days. There's something in the air for those 30 days before him. The grandfather says something's already happening in the higher spheres during these 30 days. And therefore, we thought it would be a good idea to start getting prepared not just by cleaning your house, but getting prepared by getting prepared for the day night. It's not something you could just, you know, wing and roll right into. This is the greatest presentation you're going to make of the year. When people have presentations, they're selling products. Let's say they want to make a presentation to Walmart or Target and they have their products, they don't just roll into the meeting. They put a lot of time and effort to get ready for that meeting. You're now going to be teaching your four sons. You're going to be ready for this important educational night. You better prepare your lessons and have lesson plans. And that's really what it's all about. My father-in-law by Nusen Sherman, the general editor of Art Scroll. I was merited to be many of his sedar and he has post-it notes throughout his that he prepares for although he's been doing this for decades. You can't just roll into the into the sed. That's what we're trying to do. Besides, it's really a twoin one. Besides the actual commentary on which starts in the middle of this book, the first 30 lessons are lessons you could do a daily dose for 30 days or you could wake up two weeks before, but there are lessons on the on on the we'll get into a moment what specifically we dedicated these 30 lessons towards. And it's interesting because uh and and you're so right that the opportunity sader night is gargantuan and our brothers and sisters in Israel only have half the opportunity that we have inclar because they have one seder. Um but it is a it's a big responsibility and that's well uh certainly well taken. The 30 days beforehand we always think of as you said the cleaning and preparation. you know, got to make sure to figure out when to do the car, got to make sure to get the matzas, etc., etc. But then on top of that, of course, the 30 days also uh has always meant to us going over the going over the actual laws, the rules of pesak and the seder and everything you need to do before y this is unique in that uh it's about it's about faith. It's about making sure our belief and our uh how invested we are in the one above and how invested he is in us does not wain during this time of year. In fact, I would argue uh Rabbi Sutton that many people really do spend too much time and I say that in quotation marks cleaning and preparing and don't always remember the spiritual aspect of this holiday. Agreed or not? >> 100%. 100%. And used to say something similar when it comes to yam the holiday season where people like to do things. He said we want to look for our essa but something that's more spiritual like chuva that's not really where we put our focus >> 100%. Um I've never looked at Pesak as the centerpiece of a larger calendar. Again the relationship with Purim for us uh those of us who went to yeshiva was limited to the fact that after Purim you start learning about Pesak but here you speak about the month of Nissan the 30 days of Pesak preparation Haganda of course and seder night and then you even go ahead and talk about spirasa omare and is kag and and it it's sort of as if pesak is a centerpiece to this entire time of the year and just looking if you will allow me just looking at the second entry. This would be on day number two if somebody was following the oh excuse me the first entry just looking at the first entry of Arami Ovi right we talk about those who are from love who are from a malik who wanted to destroy Judaism uh the the the point that you make and it is the second one it's on Malik's wish I apologize it's a malik's wish it's the second entry the point that you make the takeaway there's a takeaway in every every one of these uh briefs about Uh the takeaway you have is such an important one. You write on this special night cuz what's the point? The point is that Mullik tries to destroy us and tries to veer us and tries to distract us every time something good is happening. You have a million good examples of that on this special night. A night filled with opportunities for growth. Don't allow the eight sahara right symbolized by a mullik to take you down. Even if the children don't behave, the cousins don't all get along. The wine spills on the new clothes. the soup boils over or you run out of murr, take a deep breath and move on. Don't let a mullik catch you on the way. And what a lesson. I mean, I'm so glad you you applied it to the seder, but what a lesson it is for every single day of the year. >> Yes, it's uh there are many lessons and like I told you, you mentioned Army Obi, right? Many people don't realize this and this is a very important piece that I heard many times from a vulva. We look at the hagada as an opportunity for some nice dorah. We'll spend time on the aban contrasting the question of to the question of Russia. We'll say you know you can't go through a seda without saying har and you could shim sh and say that live till 52 and 52 and 18. Right. Well you can't get a s without that. Right. But that's not the that's not the job of the night. >> The job of the night is to tell the story. And when you finally get to the story of Ramy, we check out you know we're in a rush it's getting late we got to make a that's a mistake because the Rambam writes and it's based on a Mishna you have to tell the story and the Torah shortest version of the story is those four of and the decided rather than making you read the entire we'll find the cliffotes which are foren in paras in the story of Burim that we come every year with our basket in our hand and we go through our history and that's what the balag shows as the minimal amount of information to fulfill your obligation to tell your children the story of mine and like I said since people blow through that I felt that would be a good opportunity for 30 days before to get yourself very fluent in these four sukim because it's not just for sukim we break them down the yogam Stop. Let's go back to when the came into parro and he says we're only here. There's many there's many many many uh lucidations that are going on in these four book. I mean that's when you really have to be fluent in and proficious in when you get to the night of the seda. >> Oh that's just brilliant. Rabbi Sutton is with us. The brand new Hagada is entitled to be takon Hagada with a daily dose of preparation. And one of the things you and and this is a theme throughout the entire book throughout the entire um one of the things you emphasize is that our father in heaven takes care of us takes care of each and every one of us. We are born on born B o r ne on his shoulders. Even when we don't see him or understand him we are still being carried always. And I think that that I mean this is a theme that you continue to emphasize throughout this entire hagada. I don't think we really view Pesak as the vehicle for that message. Yet you point out how important it is to remember that this is such an important message of this upcoming holiday. Um sometimes we forget that you know even we're saying Visha and we forget the how we're on the cusp of annihilation. He saves us every time and how no matter what is going on in our own personal lives he is there and always uh and always watching over us. And I think that this is one of the main themes here. And and again um am I right? Do did you think going into this that there was a not not enough emphasis of be when it comes to the story of the uh of Pesak? >> Well, that that's that's really a good point that a lot of times we get involved in things and we lose the uh the forest from the trees. you know, we don't really, you know, see the general overarching picture like what are we doing here? There's so many things going on. You know, what are we supposed to be walking out of at the end of the seder? And it's really it's it's very interesting. Um, one of the things that we talk about in the Sed night is we talk about, you know, it's the days, the nights, >> right? And the problem is what does that do with the seder night? You know, we're not talking about the z which we do 365 days a year twice a day in our keshma. We're talking about the story on the night of the seda. So what are you bringing into the story? And one of these simple answers is that the goal of the sed is not just to have a one night event. It's to strengthen our belief for every day of the year. And therefore we're saying the purpose of the state tonight is that tomorrow your crema is me better. And that's a litmous test like did I did I get anything out of the state tonight? Has my keshma changed? Says man I'm going to be talking change. If that didn't happen then you're really missing out a little bit on the goal of what the state night was. >> Wow. Amazing. Uh there's another thing that caught my eye. Uh in one of the entries you talk about as we prepare for PES and again this is going to start next week once Purim ends. As we prepare for PES and scrub our home, think of ways in which we could scrub our mindset. In what ways do you feel that the non-Jewish culture has permeated your life and your worldview? In what ways do you feel you need to seclude yourself in Genan? I mean, Rabbi Sutton, this must be one of the I mean, for a rabbitic leader must be one of the greatest challenges of today is dealing with a congregation, our our you know, Jewish population that, you know, unfortunately we know about the assimilation. And I'm not I'm not talking about, you know, actual assimilation where people are living a a non-Jewish life, but assimilation where so many of the concepts and ideas and practical things that are going on seep into our existence. Is it is there some practical rebbitic advice to give people when they try? I shouldn't say when they try, when they're wishing that they're able to, you know, eliminate some of that mindset. Well, what's important is really the whole story of shrine started with the land was filled with them which simply means they they procreated in in a large number but the explained but tim means the land was filled with them they were found everywhere they were found in the theaters they were found in the circuses they left goen and that's a rule we learn one has to learn from history otherwise it repeats it which is that when you start assimilating and again Like you said, it similarly doesn't mean literally assimilating but assimilating your culture. Then the next thing that happens that's the change in gears from one to two what starts the tim and that again history does repeat itself that we see anytime the Jewish people start assimilating there will be reminders and the fact that there's a surge of anti-semitism across the world is because as a Jew assimilates and as a Jew forgets his culture there are reminders when that student's on college and he opens his lock on his swap are there that's really a nice kind reminder from God of saying hey you don't belong here you belong in goan this is not your place so antise-semitism although we don't like it it's really an ancient ancient gift going back to Jacob and as the the mafarian say that the reason why Hashem set it up why Hashem set it up that Jacob has to get the bro in a roundabout way it was his he bought the bakar and the answer is because we want as to hate YaKob why we Because we don't want to assimilate we want to mix and that's one of the reasons says you know what was how love was destroying us because he came and said my your sons are my sons your daughters are my daughters everything is mine love one looked like he liked us that's the real locker as I call when we start feeling very comfortable and beloved by our host nation that's where the trouble really starts >> do you know how do you know how comfortable we feel right now in this area of the world Well, >> even with all the anti-semitism, do you know how comfortable we feel right now in this part of the world? >> I mean, you go to any public event, any major uh uh any major thing going on and you know, you see a lot of people from our community there who are fitting right in and participating and and I'm not condemning that. I get, you know, we we could sit and debate from today till tomorrow about, you know, whe whether it's, you know, important or not to to have outlets to go ahead and do things, but I I think any observer would say that we've seeped into regular society to a great degree. And then on top of that, you know, the examples you just gave, the anti-semitism for instance, you know, yes, it does do a good job separating us. But when the entire world culture is on our phones and we don't have to go anywhere or do anything to actually be part of that whole system, you're facing a much much bigger challenge. >> For sure. >> Yes, absolutely. Challenge. And it's >> Yeah. I can't leave this conversation without going over a couple of things from the Hagada. You have a uh we always talk about the the four sons. You alluded to them just a moment ago. Um and we're not quite sure how to react to the the the ones that don't exactly fit in. And you have a you have a um a title to one of your segments here uh when it comes to the arba bun that says know your audience. So what is the lesson Rabbi Sutton? How does one deal with those who are not exactly the way they'd prefer them to be? >> Well there there are different you know levels of that. Um you know the most extreme is Haka. Uh we we we hope that we don't have any of those people at our seder to that extreme that we actually have to knock their teeth out. But like we said, know your audience means that sometimes you need a soft to touch. You have to know where it's coming from. Um one of the things they talk about the Russia is the Russia doesn't say asked, he says. Because the Russia is not really interested in an answer. He's just there to taunt. He's there just to to attack. He's not looking for the answer. And a lot of times you have to understand like what is really the question. What's really bothering the person when you ask that question? >> Quite often it's not what they say. There's something lying under there. And you have to really, you know, peel away what what's bothering them with these questions. And quite often it's something that doesn't uh doesn't seem like what's on the surface. There's something deeper than that. And you have to try to find what's the root of the problem, which again is uh not an easy job. But the the the the important on this is that on the night of the seder, every father has a special godendowed power that he can turn his children around by speaking amuna. And that's one of the reasons it says after the story of the Russia in the Torah, he says they bow down on Bura Saban, they bow down. Hold on. He just told me out of a Russia. And one of the ways they saying this is there's a Torah for every one of the four sons. And yes, you can on the SA night lift them all up and pick them up and find, you know, what's the what's the uh good inside of them and what's what's the bad inside of them. >> Amazing. And then theisha, you start that segment by saying we are a miracle. And sometimes people forget this as much as we say and know that in every generation there are those who are trying to destroy us. You don't have to go past the, you know, the news of the day to understand that. I actually heard the prime minister of Israel say this yesterday. He said it in one of his press conferences that we have to acknowledge the fact that it is miraculous that a people like us who is so often again on the cusp of annihilation is able to survive each time and obviously uh you know the credit goes to the one above. Um what are your thoughts about Visha during an era like this? Well, it's it's pretty obvious like you said this, we don't need uh we don't need a Visha. One of the reasons why the is says go out and learn from love and like I said before is that we don't realize who's out to get us and we don't say go look at as because of was obvious lavan was the so to say he's the father-in-law you know even he is out to get you and that's so when you say visha you think okay you know who's the visha it's Iran it's Iraq you know the the the friendly ones are you know I'm okay with them they're good but part is to realize that really we're alone. We're one nation among 70 wolves and the only thing that's saving us is the god haroa. We have a great shepherd. It doesn't say well some of those sheeps are really nice. No, it's like they say, you know, a wolf in lamb's clothing. They might look like, oh, there's some lambs coming around here, but they're really 70 wolves. There are there's no lambs in there. >> Oh, such an important point. The Hagada is called to be tak with a daily dose of preparation. It really begins now right after Purim to follow along each day. It's written by David Sutton. Finding peace and serenity in the story of Mitra and one of the takeaways you write Pesak is inching closer and the pressure is on. No matter what is taking place in your life, remind yourself Hashem runs the world. And this is to me the the the thread throughout this entire Hagada. uh Rabbi Sutton that we must keep in mind that every single step of the way he is running the world and we must put all of our faith uh all of our anticipation in his hands. Uh Kavay and um and and and understand that he's in control of everything. >> That's the lesson you got just you know it's it's a daily daily lesson. It's really the content daily dose is really our whole lives. You know, every single day, you know, yesterday doesn't help for today. Every single day I need to get another dose of it. The reason is because the whole world is against that. Remember many years ago I was uh I lived in Eric S. I lived across street from Marshall Math. This goes back um 40 years ago. I live across the street from Marshall Math. I once had a guest um that was in the advertising industry and I always had a question that bothered me you know how come Coke and you know keeps on advertising like you know who doesn't know about Coca-Cola what do you have to keep advertising for and he gave me three reasons said one reason is because Pepsi is advertising on the other side so if you don't advertise the the competition is going to overdo you >> the second reason was that there's always an emerging market of new people there and you have to you know we have to get And the third reason is people are fickle and they forget. So you have to keep reminding them and I always those to me was three very important reasons that you can apply as well in our lives because we're really advertisers. They said a beautiful shot. It's really a shot on Shabas and Kdesh but actually Kdish is also reminds us of says whoever keeps Shabas is a partner with God in creation. Because you want to partner with God in creation. Creation was, you know, thousands of years ago. You can't say, "Hey, I want to become a partner with Bill Gates and Microsoft. It's too late. You know, the company took off already." And he answers with Marshall of three brothers have a business. One of them is in development. He goes to China and gets makes the products. The other one's in sales. He goes around selling the product. The third one he's in advertising. And they start off the company small. They're making money. They're making money. And everyone's splitting it three ways. Finally, they're very successful. $30 million a year. We're splitting in $10 million each and the two brothers say one day, "Hey, I'm flying to China making the product. You're selling the product. What's our third brother doing? He's not doing anything. We got to cut his salary." They cut his salary. He still gets he becomes disgruntled. He does less of a job. And sure enough, the sales starts dropping. They realize, "Hey, we need advertising." And to that says that Hashem has a wonderful business running. He's development. He's got he's got sales. He doesn't add advertising. We're in charge of advertising. And every Friday night, we say kittish, we're advertising. He created the world. He is supervising the world as we know from the Tus time. And therefore, we become a partner. We're part of it. And that's that's what we have to do. We have to constantly advertise because the forces in the world are constantly going the other way. So, it's a constant job every single day because there's Pepsi's advertising out there and if you don't come back with Coke, you're going to lose the market. Phenomenal. Phenomenal. Did you enjoy writing the Hagada? You and I have spoken in the past about the projects and how, you know, you have to immerse yourself in it and I always joke about, you know, the one who writes about a, you know, how even during Purim, they're focused on, you know, the mikash because of the work they're doing. It there there seems to be a very positive and and uh satisfying aspect to this. Did you enjoy writing it? >> For sure. It was it the challenge really was to me is you know I've learned the seda in the past right >> but to try to find a uh lens on every single piece on every message on it was a job and it was a nice challenge I was able to find the connection to be talking throughout everything every one of the 15 have a connections and besides the commentary on the we also have the and Next them will be popping as well, >> right? Amazing. Well, the one above was obviously uh a great help to you, I'm sure. >> You can't you can't deny that if you just wrote to he definitely helped you along. I take this opportunity or my son to wish you a uh a purim and of course a with all the upcoming holidays and I'm sure that everyone's uh and nissan and then their seder will be enhanced by your new hagada. Thank you so much for joining us. >> Well, before I say goodbye, I always have to have a shout out to my neighbor Judy Landing who's actually recovering from a surgery. We wish her a foolish layman. She should come back to herself and once again be a guest at our shabas table. >> Amazed. Thank you so much for that. She's the best. Thank you so much for that. Rabbi David Sutton. Everybody go get the book. Don't have to go anywhere. You can do it from your computer. Go to artscroll.com. Make sure to use promo code radio. Rabbi Sutton's Hagada is entitled Hagada with a daily dose of preparation. Rabbi David Sutton. Go to artscroll.com. Make sure to use promo code radio. More coming up. It is a Wednesday morning edition of JM in the AM.