Seder Night: Soar Like an Eagle by Rabbi Aba Wagensberg

thank you all for coming thank you uh zamira for reaching out to me inviting me here today to speak and address this audience and thank you to the OU Center for all the uh teaching the education the programming strengthening our Jewish Community have a very special honor and privilege today that the schedules worked out and uh my dear wife is here as well Laura thank you Laura for being here and all that you do okay just a reminder if you can keep the cell phones off minds and hearts on and open we'll take all questions and comments at the end we have less than an hour to get through a lot of material so toward the end of the Mitzvah ofas MIT the Mitzvah of telling the story about our Exodus from Egypt we have a popular paragraph which we sing to popular tune and that paragraph begins with the words kosu how many favors do we owe thanks to the everpresent referring to Hashem and then this paragraph goes on to list 15 favors that Hashem had performed for us and by now you probably guessed that we are talking about the paragraph which is affectionately referred to as the you got it the Dau paragraph so let us mention those 15 favors that hasem performed for us and which are listed in that paragraph here we go number one he God brought us out of Egypt number two he exe executed judgments upon them number three he destroyed their gods number four he had slain their first born number five he gave us their wealth number six he divided the sea number seven he led us through it on dry land number eight he drowned our oppressors in it number nine that's the one you have to get in one breath he provided for our needs in the wilderness for 40 years number 10 he fed us the Mana 11 he gave us a Sabbath number 12 he brought us before Mount Si number 13 He gave us the Torah 14 he led us into the land of Israel and finally number 15U he built a temple for us comes along the jbi you got to love these names that the towns were called back in the old country the Jer DJ Jer rebi who was the Jer rebi Rabbi mayor harowitz it's a place in Poland he lived from 1819 to 1877 in his saare in his book called IM noan he says according to the fact that we have 15 favors listed in this paragraph Dao there for our sages of blessed memory who wrote the Passover ha God I'll pause there for a moment does anyone know who wrote the Passover ha that's a good question huh yes so there were those that say many say as you just pointed out that the Ana the men of the great assembly were responsible for putting the Passover ha together however a lot of things thaten later excellent excellent point and there the there are those those who maintain Ana will admit that there were some paragraphs that maybe were added later on over the years there are found inic sources there's another school of thought that maintains that not the authors but the author of the Passover ha is none other than the one who visits us every L there none other than eliahu the Elijah the prophet and they can both be right maybe eliahu together together with the but any getting back says the chbi that now that we have these 15 favors enumerated in the Dau paragraph therefore the sages whomever they are who put the Passover ha together they decided to have in the Passover ha 15 you could call them signs or maybe better yet stages of Le because the 15th stage of Passover night correspond to the 15 favors that God had performed for us you might be wondering what 15 what are the 15 signs what are the 15 stages well this happens at the very beginning of a Passover seder we're standing around or we're sitting around and we all love to sing that song Kad or let's go through what are those 15 many people count they they argue no there are only 14 let's count This Together number one Kadesh recite the KES over the feast day number two orat wash hands in preparation for number three carpass eating a vegetable dipped in salt water number four Yak break the middle matah the smaller half serving as the bread of Affliction over which we recite number five the mid that is the hag that is the story number six R wash hands in preparation for number seven Moi the customary blessing over bread in this case over the matah and number eight is matah a special blessing over the matah and then we eat the matah in other words Moi and matah are two separate stages not one stage number nine maror a special blessing is said over the which is eaten after it is dipped into the Yum Yum number 10 k a combination of mat and mor is eaten number 11 my favorite stage eat the festive meal ending with number 12 eating the a by the way what did the teddy bear say when he was or the afikoman no thanks I'm stuffed that's how I feel very often at the yafi stage in any case that was 12 number 13 which is the blessing after the meal number 14 is Hal these are Psalms and praises and Declarations of our faith in hasem are recited and finally Stage 15 near sa the Seder is complete with our prayers that our service be accepted by Hashem and that Messiah comes speedily again says the IMO the I repeat he repeat that these 15 these 15 stages of Passover night correspond to the 15 favors listed in the Dau paragraph at this point there is another set or two of 15 worth mentioning comes along the Mahar in his saer chapter 59 and he says that these 15 favors mentioned in the correspond to something else also they correspond to the 15 stairs which existed in the base mikash in the temple stretching from the ezas Nim the women's Courtyard going up to the ezas Israel the men's Courtyard and the source which tells us that indeed there were 15 stairs in the B of mikdash is found in a mishna in MOS it's in chapter 2 mishna 5 by the way you know the name of that chapter chapter 2 it's called harab very interesting in any case what does the mishna say there there were 15 stairs that ascended from it from the ezas the women's Courtyard is to the men's Courtyard that's another 15 but the Miss goes on to say Ked those 15 stairs correspond to they correspond to the 15 songs of ascent that are mentioned in the Book of Psalms we call them the sheres and if you look in the Book of Psalms from chapter 120 to chapter 134 including chapter 120 and including chapter 134 you will find 15 songs of ascent says the mishna the Levites would stand on those 15 stairs in the basa mikdash and they would sing these 15 songs of ascent and they did it in the following way they stood on the first step and they sang the first song sh they would send to the second step and sing the second song and so on and so forth huh I guess as many as could I don't know exactly I don't know it's good question what happens if there are tons and tons of L I don't know how that worked out but yes go ahead oh that's a good I don't know that's another good question it's the only one that begins with a lamid the others begin with hey what's that repeat the question oh yes the question was uh why does the second song of ascent say she with Aid before the word ma as opposed to the other she with a he that's a very good question I haven't found an answer yet if you hear anything please let me know there was another question on the floor and that was uh what if there are lots of different Levites and maybe there are who knows how many there were would they all be able to fit on one step I don't know was there a miracle that happened where many people were able to fit into a small place like often occurred in the temple that's also a good thought well worth contemplating in any case we have enough information at this point to ask ourselves two questions question number one what is the deeper meaning behind the 15 favors that I did for us from from The Exodus from Egypt which is the first favor mentioned to the building of the B mikdash building of the temple which is the 15th favor question number two is what is the deeper connection between these 15 favors that Hashem did for us to Passover night some of them connect to Passover night but many of the events listed there are not necessarily connected to Passover night what is the deeper connection between all 15 stages all 15 favors to which means Passover night so which means friends in order to address these questions let us share some more 15s comes along the RV in his commentary on the Passover ha and he says well the 15 stairs in the temple and the 15 15 favors mentioned in theu paragraph they correspond to a name of God which name of God a name of God that we will pronounce c although I pronounced it C it's not spelled c with the k and a he it's spelled yud and he I just pronounce it as C that name of God yud he is numerically 15 the yud is numerically 10 the he is numerically five and in higher mathematics that brings us to the number 15 and says the we find re Yehuda says in track on 29b that hasem used this name of his in order to create two worlds Hashem used the Y of his name to create Haba that's the world above and as used the hay of his name to create which is this world and that's what it means when it says in Isaiah in 26-4 for with what's yud and he for with yud and he Hashem Hashem fashioned the worlds in the plural which Two Worlds like we said before these words are familiar right where do we say these words at least weekly Friday night and that song cites this verse in Isaiah in any case we see from here that Hashem used this name of his to create the Two Worlds and by the way before I continue I want to share yet another 15 right now the Abu dram Rabbi D abam 14th century Sage from Spain he says you know in addition to the 15 stairs in the temple in addition to the 15 favors that are mentioned in the Dau paragraph in the Passover hag in addition to the 15 songs of ascent there are there's another 15 and they are the 15 Expressions that we mention after the morning recitation of shma you know we recite shma at least twice a day in the morning and in the evening but in both times the shama Isel is kind of sandwich between blessings beforehand and blessings afterwards in the morning shama if you look at the blessing right after the recitation of sh after you say the words of sh then you start a new paragraph the so let's go through very briefly what are the 15 Expressions right after the shama and as I mention these words and translate them keep in mind what are we doing we're basically describing how we feel about the words of shama that we just recited so right after shama what is it number one and certain number two V and established number three and enduring number four V and upright number five and faithful number six and beloved number seven and number eight and delightful number nine V and pleasant number 10 V and awesome number 11 and Powerful number 12 uman and correct number 13 umal and accepted number 14 vov and good and fin number 15 the are and beautiful so after we say the shama we say what we just said it was beautiful and it was good and it's accepted and is correct etc etc and let me just point out each one of these 15 Expressions all begin with the same Hebrew letter did you pick up on that which letter was that yes the letter V every single expression of the 15 start with the letter VV now the letter VV is numerically six but since there are there are 15 vves that allows us to multiply 6 by 15 and when you multiply six by 15 what do you get you get n very good you get 90 and 90 just so Happ happens to be the same numerical value as another letter in the Hebrew alphabet known as the theadi now some people refer to theadi letter as sadik I think one reason why they do that because when you say the alphabet in order it's K the K comes after theadi and they kind of get bunched together and it sounds like sadik okay but there are those that still even just mentioning the name of the letter technically it's aadi but some refer to it as a sadic and perhaps this comes to teach us that one who lives up to the expectation of 15 will then become a sadic we just have to find out and explore the significance of the 15s as we proceed right now in order to understand what does it mean to live up to their expectation what does that even mean and we'll see as we move on how whatever it means living up to the expectation will automatically make us into sikim or into even greater sikim so at this point we are going to see that these 15 Steps represent something in a way that's going to direct us in AAS has we're going to learn right now the the number 15 is going to help us uh connect to the Divine service of God in a very special way says the Mahar so far on the table we have five sets of 15 let's just review them number one 15 favors in theu number two 15 or stages of Passover night number three 15 Steps in the bdash in the temple number four 15 songs of ascent number five 15 expressions in the blessing after the recitation of the morning crias shama the morning shama and as we mentioned before this number 15 which is found in all five of these items they can trace themselves back to the name of God C which is numerically 15 and the name k as we said created Hashem used those letters to create this world and the next World and this teaches us the f following lesson already right now already there is a lesson to be gleaned from this and it goes like this just like by the 15 Steps in the basa mdash in the temple each step was higher than the one that came before it so too are there 15 levels of spirituality in this world each level slightly higher than the Lev level that preceded it how do we know there were 15 levels cuz God used his name car to create the world and K is numerically 15 which tells us it teaches us that there are 15 Steps of spirituality 15 Steps to Greatness and we are being asked we are being requested by Hashem to try to climb from even the lowest spiritual level until we reach the highest spiritual level so at this point I think we may have already addressed an answer to question number one the deeper meaning what's the deeper meaning behind the 15 favors of the Dau well let's say it like this those 15 favors correspond to the 15 stairs in the basa mikdash the 15 favors as we said correspond to the 15 songs of ascent and so the 15 favors of the Dau are supposed to make us feel indeed to God after all he did these 15 amazing favors for us therefore we are supposed to feel like we owe Hashem after all look at all the things that Hashem did for us and the way in which we can pay God back so to speak would be to do what God wants well what does God want well Hashem is communicating with us through these 15 favors that he wants the following things number one he wants us to thank him that's number one hak of gratitude which we do every time we recite the 15 songs of ascent which we do every time we say you're sing theu paragraph and he also wants all of us to grow spiritually by climbing these 15 levels of spirituality represented by the 15 stairs in the basa mikdash because when we do climb these 15 stairs it's like going from the impurity of mitzraim which again is the first favor listed that would be the lowest level climbing to the highest and holiest level of the B mikdash which is the highest and 15th level mentioned in the in theu and when we do this we wind up connecting with we wind up connecting with God whose name is k which is numerically 15 but we must point out that this whole process of growth climbing the 15 levels of spiritual success it really all begins on leer it begins on Passover night at this point I want to share with you to to embellish this point a teaching from the benar in his teachings on the month of Nissan 4-3 he cites the Aral the great cabalist in the 16th century ofat from the shos and he says like this typically the process of spiritual growth is gradual slowly moving from one level to the other but on ler on Passover night Hashem lifts all of us in a most unusual way because says the AR on Hashem lifts us even if we happen to be on the lowest spiritual level Hashem lifts all of us from the lowest of the 15 to the highest of the 15 spiritual levels in one shot this is why we sing the Dau paragraph on Passover night it is because this paragraph conveys to us that on Leeder on Passover night we soar from even the lowest level to the highest level in just one night yes could we say that and that we travel that way through the night of absolutely as a matter of fact the IM noan the job says just that he says that one of the one of the ways or one of the ways how we achieve this this climbing is by going through the 15 stages of Leeder they help us they assist us in climbing this spiritual staircase of success if you will now you know what this means in other words it means we're talking about the number 15 but we can kind of convert that if we wanted to in other words it means that on Passover night we go even from the 49th level of impurity to the 49th level of Holiness in one night we jump incredibly says the arizal and uh this jumping on Passover by the way that could be why in Hebrew the holiday is called PES what does PES even mean so there's a Rashi in parb in 12-11 that says one of the translations Rashi offers to you know be mat to translate the word p is doog which means jumping so what does that mean so in the in the story line it means that God so to speak jumped over the Jewish homes and so to speak Came Crashing Down on the Egyptian homes and the slaying of the firstborn that's one understanding the Aral says you know what the name PES also teaches us that on the night of passover there's a lot of doog a lot of jumping we jump from even if we happen to be anyone on the lowest of the levels we get to jump to the highest of levels on the night of passover and that is a Divine gift from God even if we didn't work on ourselves even if we and that's why I think Hashem arranges Passover the the laws in such a way that this whole thing with humates and you have to get rid in the house and the car and the office and so much so by the time we well how much time do people really have to do what we're doing right now to spend this is also preparing for Passover in a different way there's cleaning and there's cooking and there's baking and there's shopping but this is also how many people get a chance you know when it gets as it gets closer and closer people get so wrapped up in the cleaning by the time you Walts in to pass overnight I don't know about you but I could say sometimes I feel like like aat like rung out I got this black stuff under my fingernails I just want to go to sleep maybe that's an advantage of having a second Sater at least I can stay up for the you know but I but somehow in ER Israel we seem to get by because of this extra kadha the extra voltage and the energy in any case why does it work that way because even even if we weren't working on ourselves spiritually to achieve this level it happens magically on its own Hashem it's a Divine gift from God that Hashem lifts us from whatever levels spiritual levels we are on Hashem lifts us to the highest of levels but then says the ARA what happens that's on the first night of passover by the time you get to the second night of Passover this is really good for ER Israel we keep one day says the arel second night of passover we go right back down to whatever spiritual level we were holding before Passover night and you might be asking the question well so what was the point in that what's the purpose of you go to the highest and then will you fall right back down so what was the point in going to the highest if I'm right back where I started from the answer to that question is twofold number one the ice has been broken we reached that level for a short period of time the path has been paved it's always easier to retrace our steps it's always easier to walk on a path that has already been trotten so that's Advantage number one the ice has been broken the path has been paved Advantage number two of soaring to these Heights on Passover night is we get a chance to taste what greatness really means oh you like that s there you have the F fellow conducting the Seder very often he's wearing a k he's like what's when's the last time we have someone wearing white clothing oh yeah the high priest on Yom Kor would enter the holy of holies only in big day love and the white clothing oh you like that Hashem says you like being like a high priest going into the holy of all you like Godless greatness you like what it means to be a sadic it tastes good yeah so now although we go back the next night to wherever we were before but I like what I tasted on leer now I'm hungry now I'm thirsty and now I want to strive to reobtain those levels you put these two reasons together it is a recipe for Success because the path has been paved the ice has been broken we can do it again and we're hungry to do it again and that's why says the on the second night of passover we come crashing down to whatever level we were holding on before the first night of Passover there's a new Mitzvah kicks in what's that Mitzvah counting the OM and what do we count how many days 49 days H 49 days why because now on the second night of passover Hashem says I want you Hashem wants all of us to reach the 49th level of Holiness Again by the end of counting the Omare but this time we're going to get there on our own Passover night is kind of a freebie Passover night Hashem does it for us magically then Hashem says now that you've been there and you've tasted you like it you're hungry now get there on your own and that's what we do during the OM till the point till we get to the 50th day which is uh the day of shavuos and we are then deserving to reaccept the Torah upon ourselves and says thear based on this wholeo will have a way of fulfilling there's a there's an aspect there are many mitzvos Passover night I mean that's there's no night that's got as many Mitzvah as pass overnight he got dores Torah lawsan RAB laws haveh all these Customs the hardest one what would you say what's the hardest Mitzvah to fulfill what's the hardest one well this Mission I'm going to share with you in a moment the mishna taken from track dat it's found on page 116b it's chapter mishna 5 it's also quoted in the Passover listen to what it says in every generation every person has an obligation to see himself as if he himself or she came out of mitam all right I got to ask you raise of hands how many of you have been to Egypt okay one person one person and the rest of us who have never been there and even if the whole room raised their hands so what omma like they say in here so what you mean I've been to Egypt yeah so back in 1990 whatever yeah I went with my family to Egypt a little whatever so I'm supposed to be able to see myself as coming out of mitam do I think for a moment I can compare myself to our ancestors of 3,300 years ago we were never slaves for hundred of years we we never went through their experiences like which festar hotel tell did you guys you know crash in in in in Cairo I mean I'm going to appear my oh now now I really got it now I know what it's like how can we how can we be oh supposed to fool myself what does it mean I should see myself and it's an obligation it's a it's it's not something which is worthy a good thing it's an obligation on every single person how can you make every single person obligated to how can we ever achieve this level says what an incredible answer he says that you and I we all can mamish literally reach the same spiritual levels that our ancestors reached when they came out of mitzraim on their Passover night what happened to our ancestors they went from -49 to + 49 in one night guess what that repeats itself every single year we can also go even fromus 49 to Plus 49 in one night and therefore yes every person can see himself as experiencing the same thing they experienced what are we supposed to feel we're supposed to feel think feel how we're being taken lifted by Hashem to the highest levels just as they were by the way we just answered question number two what was question number two question number two was what is the connection between the 15 favors that Hashem did for us and Passover night and I think one answer could be to teach us that on Passover night Hashem lifts us to the 15 highest of levels 15 favors 15 Steps 15 spiritual levels and Hashem is teaching us you know what he wants from us he wants us afterwards to work on those levels on our own on the second night of passover already when we go back to where we were before has wants us to work on that now this whole approach will really fit in so beautifully with a miraculous event which happened to the Jews in mitam in Egypt on the eve of Passover Hashem did an amazing thing this what I'm going to share right now is what they call in Hebrew a buba this is a bomb of AOS it's an eyebrow razor now what did Hashem do for us go back the our ancestors the Jews in Egypt on the E Eve of Passover listen to this on the eve of Passover Hashem took the entirety of the Jewish people and transported them from Egypt to ER Israel not just to the land of Israel but to the holy city of yusim that we're sitting in right now and not just to Yim he transported the entire nation to what would be the future sight of the B mikdash of of the temple why did God do that because on the eve of Passover they were charged to do the carbon PES the Pas L where is the pass Lam supposed to be slaughtered mikash the place of the bigdash so the Jews would be able to slaughter their lambs P the Pas Lambs right there in the place the mom the place of the B mikdash and Hashem only brought the Jews back to Egypt after Nightfall why after why not bring them back you know on the on the eve of Passover God waited till after Nightfall so what to enable the Jews to then do what to eat their kazas a certain measurement of Flesh from the Pas lamb where are we supposed to eat the Flesh of A Pas lamb right there the side of the B mikdash you might be wondering uh wagenburg who says this what does it say that that's wild well it's right there in in the portion of in 19-4 the verse says God says you have seen what I did to Egypt and here come the key words God says to the Jews you saw how I carried you on wings of eagles and that I brought you to me H wings of Eagles Eagles think of it Eagles any Eagles going on there in the uh Passover story Eagle One Eagle two what's go what what Eagles says tar son now that's attributed to one of our Tano sages T I want to read it to you says Taran this is the Aramaic uh translation commentary to the verse what does he say you have seen what I did to the Egyptians watch what he says God that I carried you on clouds of Glory Just Like an Eagle would carry her Young on her wings when the verse says that God carried us On Eagle's Wings it doesn't mean there has to be an actual eagle with actual it means that just like eagles carry their young on their wings so I Hashem said carried my children on my so to speak Wings which were the Clouds Of Glory and where did God carry us from he goes on to sayin from the Metropolis in Egypt ramsy and I brought you to which place the place of the temple so that you all can do there at the site of the temple you can do your Pas and it was that night I returned you all back to the Metropolis ramsy then the next morning was The Exodus and then you marched out of the country we had The Parting of the waters you marched to Sinai and that's where I gave you my Torah according to yonas Ben what an amazing what a what a novel idea what was Hashem doing why did Hashem do that says the pin beautifully says what did Hashem do for our ancestors Hashem that night that the eve of Passover to the night of passover Hashem took the Jews from where MIT that's the first favor mentioned in theu God took us out of Egypt and where did God bring us to the site of the temple well that's the 15th favor mentioned in the danu that's the highest so if God did that for our ancestors on the night of passover that was a precursor Hashem Was preparing the Way Paving the path every single year on the night of passover Hashem does the same thing Hashem brings all of us transports us from even if we happen to be experiencing the impurity of MIT in our modern day Hashem brings us to from that level to the highest of levels to the basa MD we all get transported to the bash or you could say it this way as the rebi of redsk says that every Jew becomes like a b mikdash every Jew becomes so holy that we have the status the Holiness of the temple itself and therefore I could be sitting anywhere in the world and yet it's like we just reach to the temple each person becomes the Holiness of of that Temple so at this point at this point point we are going to share yet another 15 says the maharal besides all the 15s we have on the table there's a number six 15 number six we have five so far on the table here comes number six says the Mahar there are also 15 days fromes everybody have a good month right 15 days from Roes Nissan the first day of the month of Nissan until Passover night which is on the 15th day of Nissan so what does that come to teach us it comes to teach us that these 15 days we've just begun 15 days what are we supposed to do during these 15 days we are supposed to be preparing ourselves 15 days to get ourselves in shape to train ourselves to be able to handle the most incredible journey that we're going to take on Passover night because on Passover night we're we're going to be doing a lot of jumping from even like 0er to 100 like they say we're going from e no matter where we're holding so in order to be able to with stand in order to be able to to to to balance our we need to kind of like you know was it the marathon or the triathlon or what I like to do every year the Iron Man I'm just kidding okay so uh we need you got to jog you got to run you got to cycle you so prepared because when it actually comes you have to be in shape these 15 days are meant to help us prepare prepare ourselves spiritually speaking so that when it comes there and God lifts us from no matter where we are to the highest of the 15 will be ready in order to to handle that type of of elevation I don't want to spend too much time okay uh time is of the essence okay let's just mention like this um go right I may just have 15 minutes left I don't know yeah something or maybe 15 seconds okay so um and the as you mentioned earlier that uh the 15 stages of they help us that's what helps us by going through the 15 stages they help us lift ourselves to these 15 levels and not only that the claims when we sit around or stand around we begin the Passover night and we start singing you know what that is you know what that is says the this is our bakha it is our request it's our prayer to God God As we sing the song please God help assist me help me move Help Me Grow help me taste the highest of levels on this very night uh Poland oh wow amazing wow all right we have what is it uh f six seven 8 minutes left maybe I got to jump to this Kar the klear says like this um let's get back to the 15 Steps in the B mikdash they went from theas nashim to theas right the women's Courtyard to the men's Courtyard asks the K Noah why were there 15 Steps in the B mdash why why 15 so he says like I'll tell you why 15 it's because of the following gamarra and this is a gamarra that gets quoted like every single like if you don't quote this gar you're not I'm just kidding okay the the gar is found in so 17A it's a teaching from R what doesa say if a husband and wife are meritorious the divine presence will rest between the two famous Rashi on that Rashi goes on to say where do we find the divine presence resting between the two so Rashi says God split his name which name of God did God split the name c h how do you like that God takes the name c you andem caused those letters to dwell in the husband and the wife where do you find the letters dwelling in husband and wife so Rashi says God took the Y of his name and placed it in the man where do you see that because the Hebrew word for man is ish and in the word ish there is a yud so the yud of is in the ish and God took the ha of his name and placed it in the woman where do you see that cuz the Hebrew word for woman is ISA and there's a hay in that name and there hasem took the Y and the hay and put them into the ish and the Isha and when God does that or did that or does that then there's according TOA there's going to be there's going to be divine presence dwelling between the two so what do we see from the kakar we see that the name k yes doesn't you got it you got H now we see from here that the name of God is a name which represents and is connected to sh the divine presence which is why the Malala adds if you take the word which means divine presence if you rearrange the letters and break them into two parts it spells the resting of yud and ha sh what is sh what is divine presence it is Shan when God dwells what what the Y the Y dwells and then so the CRA goes on to say watch this the clear what an amazing cleoc he says okay we've got 15 watch this I'll say it slow 15 stairs in the B mikdash from the women's ezas the women's Courtyard to ezas Isel the men's Courtyard how many stairs 15 oh 15 that's K that's the name of God you is numerically 15 and that name of God really connects an is and Anisha a husband and a wife H do you know what represents the wife that's the ezas Nim the women's courty represents the wife and what represents the man that's the Ezra Israel the men's Courtyard and so we have wife and husband women's men's but he goes on to say the ezas the women Courtyard representing the woman who is the woman that it represents it represents the Jewish people because we are considered to be the bride in this Divine relationship we have with God and the ezas Isel the men's Court represents which man so to speak hasem is God is a man or a master of War it represents God God is the god is the groom in this relationship and the 15 Steps between the Yashin and the is they are connected to the name the name representing a divine presence teach us there will be divine presence resting between the Jews and and yes you got it you got it 100% shash is a romantic love story between a a man and a woman but that representing the men so to speak Hashem the women so to speak the Jewish people and that is exactly why we read it if those can stay up and they read and then we actually according to the r we actually read from a parchment if we have we read from Song of Songs to represent this beautiful love that's going on between Hashem and the Jewish people let's see if I have here okay I think I have until 5 after it's like 1 after the hour four more minutes four more more we're good to go four more I got to end with this because you're going to love it here we go all this connects everything we just said today connects with and is because of the righteous women of Israel the gar says in sa on 11b says it was in the Merit of the righteous women who were alive in that generation that's why the Jews were redeemed from Egypt and the gar goes on I won't read I'll just say briefly The Men Jewish men came home after a very hard day in the field being clubbed and whipped and they were spent and they collapsed on the fields and so their wives they went to the body of water and they took their buckets and they filled up the buckets with water Hashem caused little fish to gather so the bucket had half fish half water the women went home and they poured the water to one pot and the fish into the other pot and they heated it up and they walked out to the fields and they they they knelt next to their husbands and they and they started to take from the water warm water and they were washing the dirt off of their husbands and then they started tending to the wounds maybe some of the fish juice to shmear on the wounds and then they began to give their husbands some nice good fish and then some water and and as they were doing that so it aroused the husbands they were together and when the women were impregnated then it says they went home so what does that mean to say so the says the righteousness of the Jewish women there's another midash that says you know what Merit the Jewish people had as to why we deserved so to speak to come out to be liberated from Egypt you don't find any cases of assimilation in Egypt we don't find Jewish men going off with Egyptian women so how did that happen so says I'll tell you how it happened because the Jewish women saw to it to keep their husband's attention on them so that they would not be distracted by any other women out there and therefore if you tell me that the men did not commit the crime of immorality but who who were the ones that strengthened the men to prevent immorality it was the women so therefore that's what it means in this in the merits of the righteous wom that generation we were redeemed now watch this this will help us understand why in Paras Pinas when we name all the Jewish families we still have two minutes all the Jewish families right what now the names of the families they're not mentioned like that they're named what these strange strange names so Rashi cites the midash and says God took his name here we go again and God put the name K and surrounded each Jewish Family a he at the beginning and a yud at the end so Ru became har he at the beginning at the end the name to testify when these Jews Trace their ancestry that we have uh you know we have lineage on the on on the on the fathers they go after theat the nations of the world said you got to be kidding what are you boasting you come from ruen you come from Yakov if the Egyptians had power over you they certainly had power over your women so maybe your father and they were Egyptians so Hashem took his own name and surrounded each family to testify these Jews are solid they can trace their ancestry there's no bad Egyptian blood mixed in that's why the verses in Psalms the the tribes of Israel get they get testified by the name of C so I'll end with this one question a very brief answer that's it the uh question is why did God put the letter hey at the beginning of each family and the yud at the end isn't the name y first and he second so instead of calling the name Hari maybe it should be called y i just just switch it around why does it have to be backwards says the Mas you want to know why God switched it around because the hey from the name is found in Isha woman the Y of C found in is who were the ones responsible giving us the Merit to be redeemed the women we give them credit they go first the hey before the Y har it was all because of the righteous women and then last V ends off in all the 15 stages of Le 15 you can split them five and 10 the first five signs or stages connect with the first two cups of wine Kadesh and then mid that's the first two cups and the other 10 stages are connected to the last two cups of wine so if you look at it that way what just happened what just happened we have five stages then 10 stages five is numerically hey 10 is numerically y why is it five before 10 why not 10 before five again hey belongs to Isha y belongs to ish and we put the women first because it was them that we credit with the entire of MIT so it means of a practical application may I suggest that Passover night we sit around the table and we say before kades just say everyone before we sing Let's us remind ourselves these 15 stages are going to lift us to the 15th level let's just remember it's a prayer to God that Hashem should assist us in reaching the highest of levels May we all be z may we all Merit to reach those highest of levels and be Z to have in the month of Nissan the coming of Messiah building the B mikdash to hear the Levites once again singing their songs on the 15 stairs of the Bas of MD