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Rabbi Moshe Elefant - Seder B'Seder
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Rabbi Moshe Elefant, COO of OU Kosher on making a Seder alone and Pesach during the Holocaust
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Auto-generated transcript. Not time-synced to the video.
hello my name is Mikey elephant I am the
chief operating officer of our culture
and the maggot here of one of the Deaf
you I wish you were on the only all deaf
program and I'm happy to join you to
share with you my thoughts as we prepare
for this year say Sidora
teen than its own for weeks but I called
them to hear how he's doing he told me I
want to tell you that a 1944 I was at
the Seder of the night or of the night
to rob was the robbed of the city nitro
in Hungary Czechoslovakia he had one of
the largest if not the largest deceiveth
in Hungary and it was actually the last
is Shiva to close was the list she was
still to operate in Europe during World
War two he told me in 44 and there was a
seder in the yeshiva being led by the
nitro roof was approximately 80 people
he said some of the people at that Seder
were people who were there illegally in
the town of Nitra and they had under the
table after that Seder a trapdoor to
lead to a tunnel that should the Nazis
come in during the Seder and try to peek
capture people and deport people who
were there illegally they could escape
through a tunnel and indeed he said
during the Seder the Nazis arrived
obviously the terror that everyone in
that moon felt cannot be described he
says but even the Nazis they were
shortened your maximum as they walked
into the room and they saw had a nitro
rod was sitting at the head of the table
with his family and his Tom Needham that
sight even they could not withstand and
instead of starting to round up people
and started acting in their normal
barbaric sadistic way they said you
could continue we only ask you that
since there are bombs going on outside
please cover the windows because they
are light inside the room the same
there is a time we are called Sparkle
the Mazyck the Nazis cannot attack us
and if the Nazis can't attack us
neither can cove it and then I saw
another story which I think is most
appropriate to think about as we
approach this year say them
it's a story there are by loud the chief
rabbi of Tel Aviv the former chief rabbi
Verity Cyril said recently he said it's
a story that he doesn't repeat often but
he feels that this year it's a year to
say it he says exactly 75 years ago
Pesach fell the same way it falls this
year Wednesday was there a Pesach and it
was not long before the liberation of
booked involved the concentration camp
the infamous concentration came he said
he was in that concentration camp his
brother was in that concentration camp
and there was a father and son who are
in that concentration camp as well the
mother of that family had passed away on
the way to book about and the father was
dying and he indeed died on Chavez how
godly and he left over he left over a
son who was with him at the
concentration camp who was 13 years old
in the concentration camps if somebody
died the rules were very strict that the
body was to be transported immediately
to the crematoria for cremation this
young boy who just lost his father had
already lost his mother asked the people
before we notify the officials and they
transport my father's body I'd like to
say Kaddish so they said ok say Kaddish
but he says I don't know Kaddish and
there was no siddur obviously a sinner
was about as illegal as you could get
but they said that there was a Jew who
came from Germany who had been in the
concentration camp for years already he
was the manager of the laundry and rumor
had it that he had a sitter maybe you
could go to him and he'll give you a
sitter that you could say Kaddish for
your father and he went to the laundry
and he found that you and that you were
initially denied having a sitter but
seeing this young Ostrom this young
orphan who cannot have rock mono spoken
and a pity and he says yes I have a
sitter and you could say the Kaddish for
your father but not as a new issue it
was just this young boy and this Jew who
was the manager of the laundry we know
to say Kaddish we need 10 people where
are you gonna have a minyan for the
Kaddish nobody's gonna come from the
barracks and take that risk of coming to
the laundry so the boy turned around and
looked at the room and in the room they
were hanging the pajamas that was the
uniform we've all seen pictures that
Jews wore in the concentration camps and
he said these uniforms that you just
washed these pajamas in those pajamas
yesterday they were living Jews they
were burnt a kiddush Hashem Dennis
Thomas remain in in those pajamas let's
take eight pairs of these pajamas with
the neshamah stand in those pajamas and
there'll be our minyan with you and i
and this young boy said Kaddish for his
father we're going to be also alone had
to Seder
we're gonna be alone we're not gonna
have the groups that we always have at
the storeroom but at you was never alone
but you always has a share with him and
that you always has those nice honest
then the summers that he's connected to
whether those measurements are still
alive
for Hashem or those measurements are not
alive anymore but maybe this you knows
miss Thomas will be our real guest at
the Seder and it'll be a chance for us
to reconnect with those Michalis
there'll be a chance for us to say to
those neshama so we want to learn from
your lives we want to learn from the
lives that you led when you lived a
kiddush Hashem many of those in some
start a tradition the many of those
Lewis Thomas lived our condition and we
want to connect to that life I remember
many years ago I was a man to you once
and I was visiting the touch level and
the torture ever was a very great Sabich
and when I was visiting him and I asked
him a question I asked him what should a
Jew
try to work on what should a Jew try to
achieve he says what did you was
supposed to work on a seder to be
organized to think about priorities in
life what's important what's not
important and he said to me what's the
proof that I am right he says look at
the holiest night of the year you know
we in the world of Costas know that it
used to be that even Jews who weren't so
religious but they kept or Shoshanna Yom
Kippur now they say the Jews who are at
that religious may not even necessarily
go to shore or show him Kippur but they
keep a seder I guess it's easier to eat
than to fast and he said the Seder why's
it called Seder because the world the
word say there is a Hebrew word that
means order organized a Jew has to have
his life organized and as I think about
his words
holy words and as I think about this
year Seder I think what we need to learn
from this situation that we're all
experiencing is to get our priorities
right to think about what's important
and to think about what's not important
in life and if we could think about that
then we will have a different experience
in our Seder and we hopefully will have
a different experience to our lives as I
conclude I just want to say two more
things there's a vote that I say every
year because of art that I say every
year at the center to my family this
year obviously I'm just gonna say it to
my wife the Gemara that we say in the
Haggadah my suburban kid horrible Osman
II she was the press are you sure show
him a super good neighbor act they were
sitting in Bnei Brak
but in soccer bit serious with Ryan they
were sneaky but it sees me crying
Carlos AHA Lyla that entire evening at
she guilt on medium until their students
came normal ahem rebus a new there tell
me them the students came and told him
he is mad at Roy and the question is the
question is these Tammy them these
tsadikim needed somebody to remind them
of the midst of Krishna chakras again
referring back to the Deaf yayi we not
long ago finished massage the process
that speaks over and over again about
the first mitzvah that chaste decides to
delve into is the midst of Krishna
Krishna Sharma is a mission every
evening
Krishna chakras st. Christmas every
morning so that a question is these
great rabbis needed to be reminded of
that Mitzvah
so I want for a beautiful part the gamma
Raschi and hummus teaches us that when
Joseph and Yakov his father were united
after 22 years of being separated so
Rashi Homer says that Joseph fell on his
father's neck and cried who we don't
find that Yakama be who did that Arashi
how much tells us cuz Yahoo was saying
Krishna at that point and the question
is obvious if it's the time to say
Krishna why wasn't Youssef also saying
Krishna and if it's not the time to say
Krishna say yeah Keith who had been
separated and distanced from his son who
he loved so much for 22 years now is the
time that you decide to say Krishna
so the finishes firm saying that a Jew
is supposed to take every emotion and
every strength and every talent that he
has and use it for avoid accession so
Yaakov who felt at that moment when he
saw yourself after that separation love
that we can't even imagine love that we
can't even describe
so Jakob said you know what I need to do
with that love I need to take that love
and use it first shed to say Krrish
Marshall chakras so when we sit by the
Seder the talmidim of those Rab ornament
Bnei Brak said ready
you've come to such a high my draeger to
such a high level of love emotion you
know what you need to do with that loss
say Krrish Marshall chakras use it to
show and express our love of a son so
when the Seder comes wherever you'll be
with whomever you shall be you should
use those moments to think that
not alone no Jew is ever alone to think
that we were - em to think that now is
an evening that we correct noise that we
need to be better and that if we will be
better that a Shem will accept our
Chili's XM will accept our tree Weiss
for everybody Hashem will accept the
treeless of all of these holiness Thomas
that I've left us in these last weeks
under this terrible terrible mathworld I
would be remiss if I didn't mention that
just now the northern Minsk rebel was
Nestor we had this course of being
having a connection with him a brilliant
time a costume a leader of Cairo but
every time I spoke to him he didn't
believe in division he believed that we
were all Hashem children and that even
if we had different ways of serving a
sham we used to tell me I'm not really
sure if I understand all the rabbis who
are rabbis of communities not like the
community that I listed and I need to
understand their challenges but I need
to feel for their challenges and we need
to work together in the challenges that
we enquire or face so as I'm sure he is
now standing in front of the Keisei high
coverage he's standing now in front of
the casaya coverage and saying to our
Shem and daven attach them for all of
Chloe's role that all of us should
already have he is sure it's very
interesting if you think about Pesach
and the mixes that are attached to the
yonk of a Pesach there's a very unique
characteristic to those mitzvahs that
you don't find by any other mistress all
of the mitzvahs are done typically by
day we a Jew puts on tefillin by day
someone can't be warm by night most
Mitzvah
my day Pesach is a young TIFF with a
mistress are done by night
we start with ridiculous comments the
Gemara master Sock'em teaches us the
bedico summits must be done specifically
at night not by day the Seder was only
done by night da Walker doesn't allow to
say that to be done during the day and
on the second night of Pesach we're
going to begin the midst of Shira Siler
for 49 days for 49 consecutive days
would account desirous homer and the
midst rest account by night if you
didn't count by night even if you're
going to count by day not to have mr.
day you're only good you're not gonna be
able to make a brothel on the midstream
why because the lesson of this young is
that when it's dark when it's dark and
you have no sunlight that's where her
color Sparkle looks at us and that's
when I color Sparkle joins us he joins
us when we do the bit because comets to
examine ourselves who are we what are we
he joins us where we do the mistress of
the Seder again the only time during the
year where we could do a mitzvah madrasa
a biblical mitzvah by eating is by the
seder there's a midst of the Raisa to
eat matzah and then we're gonna cap this
fira for 49 consecutive nights because
in the night in the night of goddess and
in the night of Taurus I could aspire
who is with us and that's why the night
of the Seder is called the Lael she
moving fast at Farish lima it should be
called leia you will actually call al
Hamish summer the night of the Seder we
know that we're protected says that
Farish lima that the shimmer in the
shimira
that every Jew in every home obtain
by the night of the Seder doesn't just
remain for that one night she mu him it
remains with us for all of the nights of
the year so now when we all need a
shamira will we need heavenly protection
that we should all be healthy and should
we all be safe and that this terrible my
gaiter should end we tak a hope that the
Lael shimmering should bring a shimira
to all of us and that by the Seder when
we go out to greet Eliyahu Hanavi it
shouldn't be Delhi our Navi that we go
out to breathe but we don't see that you
mean le our Navi that should be able to
reveal himself as he said last week and
after er the Haitian wave of a
subordinate delay Barnum L avoid some
children should be able to reconnect
with their parents parents should be
able to reconnect with their children
whether they are or aren't Lea are
aren't physically together and together
all of the generations of car you throw
should be able to go out and read
Beshear said Cato comparable baby thank
you