Pesach: Revealing Mysteries on the Haggadah - UK Halacha Workshop

[Music] and welcome everyone it is a real honor for me to have this opportunity to share with you D and I want to thank the workshop for hosting me and for having so many available classes and and especially for giving me the opportunity to feature the new ha that I had the privilege to put out published by Art scroll published in English and I would like to share with you some amazing nuggets on which is everyone's favorite sa and I hope this will really enhance and give new meaning to your understanding and appreciation for the hag there's so many hagadas out there they're all wonderful I would like to present to you some insights to gain a perspective on the structure and the outline of the let's study the word ha where does the word ha come from actually very interestingly there's an amazing SE called was was written by who wrote somewhat of a dictionary of words in lashes actually had just had the privilege to be at his Kev in Italy it's on an island off of Venice called Leo Island it's a very important sa as well as well as the prim wrote notes on this saer and he says the word ha actually comes from the most of repeated in the namely lar this is such a uh commonly quoted PK in the hag we invoke it when we speak about the Russ we invoke it for the we invoke it in the passage of as well as in we say it comes from the word actually I saw in the that this actually creates the very outline of the itself namely what is the outline of the ha we start with Manana we have we have the reasonings of the given by we have and we have well says in the name of his father the outline of the actually emanates from this very you'll tell your children that's when they ask you'll tell them to say the whole story you point to the and you explain their reason these are the rationale of and then finally is a reference to where we say so this gives insight into why we constantly invoke the of as the very structure of the comes from this and even the word as the says comes from the word just to uh share with you as a side point even the number of words in the ha are significant did you ever stop and think and maybe count how many words in the this document our handbook the night of is there a specific number of words indeed there are I have a it's called by isz and there he says he counted the number of words in from the very beginning until there are 1,000 820 words in the ha okay what are you going to do with that amazingly he says that there are also 1,820 mentions of the name of Hashem Y in what could be the connection between the number of words in the and the number of times hashem's name is mentioned in well the connection should be somewhat clear and quite compelling namely you know par believed in elim he was taught the name elim by y when par had dreams that he didn't know what the interpretation was and he asked says elim will explain and interpret your dreams and Par even said but when it came to you see represents nature denotes hashem's ability to override and transcend and overcome the forces of nature believed inim he did not believe in Hashem therefore the function of the is to establish and declare and proclaim the power of the shame Hava hence we can explain there are the same number of words in the as the number of times the shame appears in it's really remarkable now let's study the book ends of the ha we begin with the phrase we say basically at the end of ands now that's perhaps rather odd why would the begin and end that way not that there's anything wrong with always wishing but it's not like when we start the Sid in the morning we say and then we finish the and say after all there's a principle in life and in t that the way something begins and ends usually reflects on the essence of the content for example thear says the T begins with of clothing and it concludes it ends with of burying from here we see the it's entirely so applying this procedure to the would you say that the content of the is well reflected by its book ends the is not about isn't it about the Exodus it's about it's about all the events that happened 3,300 years ago but what's amazing is that if you look in the writings of R I found that he discusses this in at least six places there's a general principle and that is the manner with which Hashem took us out of Egypt is the Paradigm and the pre-enactment to how he will ultimately redeem the Jewish people in other words was the dress rehearsal the to the hence indeed everything we're saying in the ha is not about ancient history it's we're speaking about the past in order to await and yearn for the great Destiny it's not history it's Destiny we have to tell our children this is not about ancient events this is what we anticipate and we believe will happen in the future hence the book ends perfectly appropriately reflect the content of namely the content of the is all about let's come back to that beautiful word which we said the learns is rooted in the word I want to share with you a famous question a question you all know and I would like to offer three Innovative novel and yet simple answers to this well-known question this is the question of briser it's quoted in the bris in the and that is there is a Mitzvah every night of the year of what then is unique and special about theah of but perhaps even more difficult is the Begins the begins with the mitvah to relate the events nightly that is the very worst way to begin a imagine we've been preparing for months for this night and we start off the Night by saying you know what really we do this every night there's nothing special about tonight so the question is twofold what indeed is unique about seore more than the nightly Z and why begin the with the nightly Z well says the brisar in the name ofis that there are three distinctions that make Z that makes the special number one it has to be in a question and answer format number two every other night of the year it's enough just to State the fact God took us out of Egypt the night of we have to tell the whole story from beginning to end in all the Gory details and finally the night of the S it is imperative not just to say the facts we have to explain the reasons for the mitz says this is the very structure of the we start by question and answer we then move on to where we tell the whole story from beginning to end and then we conclude by saying the reason for the says the that's why we begin the really we say and remember time nightly so the implic implicit question is so what are we doing tonight different than any other night and the answer is the very structure of the namely they have question and answer and friends I would like to share with you three very simple approaches to answer this well-known question the first one I would like to share with you comes from a in Paris it says he got it that's a very similar word to the ha if we could Define the word we may arrive at a new understanding of the word indeed if you look at translates the word he as we thank you I thank you I thank you this gives insight into why the para of mik is such an integral part of the why are we saying what a farmer who goes up to to bring his first fruits why are we saying the night of the say there the way he recounts all the events of the Exodus wouldn't it make sense to expound rather about itself and why go to the you know the says because is called and the is referred to as but we are learning perhaps there's another dimension of why the is so essential to the night of the there because the word means thanks and we know the is the quintessential passage of gratitude Rashi says the Ana so you should not be an ingrade in fact I found I found that writes that the word means like theum says on the he got perhaps this would answer's question how is the Mitzvah of say they're different than any other night every other night we have to tell the story State the facts then I say there's an expression of overwhelming gratitude where does that come from it comes from the very word ha itself I want to share with you another novel and yet simple interpretation of the word hag you know tumas on the word v he translates it VI means you should show the sh in his he brings from his father the that from here we see the definition of the word hag hag doesn't mean to speak it doesn't mean to relate it doesn't mean to say it doesn't mean to declare it means to demonstrate to point meaning the night of the S there our giving over of the events of needs to be so vivid so powerful so illustrative that it's as if we're pointing and we're saying we are leaving tonight we could see the mitam chasing us we could see the sea splitting we're experiencing it we're not saying it the is not an exercise in recitation it's not like saying to him okay let me read each word carefully with every no it's not a Mitzvah of recitation it's a Mitzvah of demonstration so we've arrived at another unique feature of the night of the S there every night of the year we have to just State the facts that took us out of the night of the say there we don't say it we demonstrate it so translates ha as the thanking that's the unique feature of hag tus would translate demonstration and now for the grand finale another interpretation of the word ha and this is going to come from a very exotic Source Rashi himself rash who calls the father and the rebi and the teacher of the Jewish people I looked up rash in who talks about the and actually Rashi does not translate the word on that but on thek before says you should open up for your son with AIC teaching that draws the heart and I'll tell you you know I've seen the this Rashi many many times and the meaning didn't jump out at me until I decided you know I'm going to learn Rashi with a pen meaning I'm going to hold a pen when I learn Rashi so if I have any insights I'm going to jot it down and it revolutionized my appreciation for the words of rashi rashi is redefining the word hag you should open up for him with a teaching that pulls the heart the word aod means to draw like in the word good good for example you have a wall it doesn't go all the way up or it doesn't go all the way down there's a a tamic principle that you could extend the wall up you could draw the the wall down of drawing meaning the night of the the is not say it's not to relate it's not to recite it's not to declare it's to draw the heart of your children this would be yet a third answer to's question every other night of the year just say the fact that God took us out of Egypt the night of the say there you have to figure out how to tug and pull on the drawrings of your children's heart so we've arrived at a new definition of hag to draw who does this come from the very father and rebi of the Jewish people Rashi so according to the different and Rashi we've come to three new definitions of the word hag either gratitude demonstration certainly Rim was aware of all of these three approaches Rim was perhaps just looking for the halakic parameters of the difference and the difference is it has to be question and answer it has to be all the details and you have to explain the reason for the Mitzvah perhaps these three ways ensure that your recitation of ha is a form of gratitude a proper expression of gratitude a proper and full demonstration and a manner with which we draw the hearts of our children just to conclude I last year I got a new hag it's called and I notied by each passage of the he numbers it starting with finally arriving at the number 50 by and amazingly he says based on and the that the is mentioned 50 times in the to note that had Hashem not taken us we would have fallen to the sh and Hashem extracted us from every level of T to raise us up to bring us close to him and the night of the St there we all experience this personal G where raises us up so to speak out of the Abyss to to come close to and we hope to convey all of these important messages especially that the events of are pre-enactment for the coming of the Gula may this be an expression of true hag of gratitude to Hashem of demonstration of what happened and may we be able to draw the hearts of our children all of these thoughts uh are found in this uh beautiful new ha in English published by Art scr it's available on the Arts scroll site and in various uh better Farm Stores everywhere so I wish everyone may we all be to the thank you again to the workshop for hosting [Music] me Hal Workshop program aims to give the average person the tools and the ability to pass them for themselves many common recurring situations which arise in every home over years of answering shilas I've observed that the average person will spend a lifetime asking very similar questions but never have the courage to decide for themselves what to do when faced with a practical case but the truth is that many real life situations are very easy for you to pass and by yourself if only you would know a few Simple Rules which govern that particular area of H