Pesach: "Guard Those Matzos" - The Greatest Danger in the World

okay good morning friend to the Monday afternoon National Shear we have a very important Shear today I'm preparing for the of P I'm very excited to uh let you know that this coming Wednesday is the shear of the century we're going to or at least the shear of Wednesday um we're going to be discussing the upcoming eclipse and the meaning of it and the symbolism of it so that will be Wednesday evening at 8:30 so be there you don't want the Shar to Eclipse you you get it okay so um we have some very exciting in the C the is I would say 50% submitted 65% edited and hopefully uh we'll be able to finish up even before P so that could come out right after okay so if anybody would like to be in that or in the upcoming uh the opportunity is all yours so today we're going to speak about matah it's already we're approaching this shab is very exciting and aside from the fact that we are commanded to eat a Kaz of mat the night of the SAR we are also commanded to guard the matah we have a mitzah of guarding the matah by the way this uh the name of this she is the greatest danger and it appears in our humble saer P which uh you could get in local stores or afim is showing you his personal copy um and we this is my merest in the saer um the Torah commands us to guard also has it very good the Torah also the Torah commands us to guard the matah and what is exactly doesn't mean to guard the matah Rashi explains to guard it that it doesn't become from here we learn that if the oh very good R is uh is uh conducting a a free commercial for the uh English ha thank you very much I'll get you your your regular uh royalty afterwards um Rashi tells us that the Mitzvah of guarding the matah is we have to make sure it doesn't become so if it starts to swell you rinse it off with cold water so we have to be careful the the MIT of is to guard that it doesn't become but it's interesting if the Mitzvah of guarding the matah of mat is to make sure that it's not then why fundamentally are we only required to have the of the that's and this is the question of the that if there's a then we should have to fulfill it the whole P because if you're guarding the mat that it doesn't become well we're not to have for the entirety of P so why then is the the mitvah of only reserved for the another interesting thing rash tells us from that just like you're not supposed to let the become we should not allow the to become the question though is what exactly is this what is the comparison between allowing mat to become and allowing a Mitzvah to become if a mat becomes it's not mat anymore but rather it's but if we allow a Mitzvah to become even if we delay it but nevertheless it will be fulfilled in other words how could you compare not allowing mat to become and not letting a mitzah become mat will become and that's a big problem it's no longer matah but a Mitzvah so what if you play it at the end of the day we'll still do it is that really a legitimate comparison now the Torah says you know why you have to guard the this implies that the fact that God took us out of on that very day that's the reason why we have to guard the Mitzvah the question is what's the comparison between the fact that hasem took us out of on that very day and the to guard the mat okay there's a that we rely on certain halic principles namely Ro and kazaka for example we follow a you know it if how do we know that somebody's father is their father thear says we follow AR we follow Kaka and yet interestingly when it comes to the performance of mitv we do not necessarily rely onak the Mish Mish says that we know there's a Mitzvah to check M let's say we check twice every seven years and if it's a public mza twice every 50 years because we don't want to be muchim and the seems to say that one is required to check theirin annually the it from the Y that it has to be checked um from year to year now most will tell you today that you do not have to checkin annually in fact many s will tell you you do not have to checkin period uh for the simple reason that opening up Fillin is is one of the uh most distressing things you could do to the Because by opening up the par which are sometimes folded very tightly it could cause the letters to crack on the other hand because the safos can be um questionable if it's not done through the proper expert and God-fearing cyer one should check his Thon to make sure they're kosher but once that's been determined then speak to your uh expert cyer what the requirements are I will will tell you you have to be very careful not to let your Tain get wet or that it should not be in a hot car should never leave your T in a car but nowadays if your Fain are cared for properly they would not require regular checking although you should check your RSU I've seen many God-fearing people they're still wearing the RSU that they got from their Bar Mitzvah or um and very often the ru they pull by the not I know people get very nostalgic about Fillin I humbly recommend do not be nostalgic about Fillin better to have kosher nin than non kosher that your the your Ela Ela Z the rebba war when he crossed the yams so even though I know you're very attached to the pule fill in your great-grandfather War when heed the m a double portion on Fridays nevertheless it's better to have have kosher then holy pin uh other examples especially in the place of the knot sometimes the Fillin gets too narrow or sometimes the paint begins to chip away so you want to make sure your Ru are in working order and for 150 bucks it's worthwhile to have brand new RSU and this way you don't have to worry about them um but in terms of the paracho once the parach were checked then uh likely they don't have to continuously be checked that's how we hold however there is a that seems to say that not only do M require regular checking Fillin also requires regular checking and the question that the mishak deals with is why would you have to continually check check your but why don't we rely on kazaka kazaka says they were good origin so they're presumed to remain to be ker until you know otherwise why do you need to check why are we not on and even if perhaps you would consider this a likely that something ruined it nevertheless even in such a scenario we would typically rely on Kaka why according to M do we not rely onaka for and M now we come to a very interesting question um many people they get very nervous if you go into a cemetery and your Tsar are sticking out that's a big no no you shouldn't do it because thear says it's you're mocking the poor because the people in their grave they can't put on situs you know the famous story of the V that on his deathbed he said for a few dollars here in this world you could be m the m of tius and then in the next World you can't be M anymore and by the way for this reason the gar says that on the bodm of MIM you put onus because to put on a four cornered bed without situs it's you're mocking them that they don't have tius the question though is the garid says that what do you do with a garment of Clum of shess don't sell it to a guy don't use it as a saddle for a donkey cuz you might sit on it but you could use it as a burial shroud even to bury a mess in clim why goes according to his reason says that once a person dies he no longer it has an obligation to do mitv he doesn't have to go to Yesa dinners he doesn't have to go to second cousin's parlor meetings and he doesn't have to do so points out that there's a a stero there's a contradiction over here on the one hand we know that you're not you're supposed to put situs on a mess otherwise you're mocking the mess that he can't be m in the midst of tius or as we know you should not we sit have your ti sticking out in the cemetery or you don't learn Tyra in a cemetery because mocking the Mason hey I could do Mitzvah you can't well in that case then why are you allowed to put shess on a mess isn't that mocking the mess hi I have to put that uh shess label on my suit and you're allowed to wear shess why is it when it comes to a la there's no problem of there's no problem that you're mocking The Mess by there's no problem that you're mocking The Mess by wearing shess putting shess on the mess and there is a problem of L Lush that you're required to put situs on him what's the difference between an A and A why does it seem that when it comes to the performance of an aay you have to be sensitive to mocking the mess and when it comes to the perform to violating alas you do not have to be sensitive okay another interesting de there's a famous line in the talks about the importance of zus he talks about zus before you perform an act and afterwards the says before you perform an act you don't want to let a Mitzvah grow stale when the man comes when the opportunity comes When the Thought comes you should hasten to perform the Mitzvah and grab it and don't allow any time to elapse why's Immortal words there is no greater danger in this world than when you have the opportunity to perform a Mitzvah and you uh you don't capital I on it why because every moment that arises a new impediment could arise and the question on the m is he's saying the greatest danger in the world is when a person has the opportunity to perform a Mitzvah if he delays it why friends is that the greatest danger in the world I could think of a similar grave danger when theara Pres presents a person with the challenge of doing an AA we're here says do this eat this say that think that isn't that a big danger well what if you do the AA the same way when you have the opportunity to do the Mitzvah it's a very grave danger because you might not get around to doing the Mitzvah isn't it an equally grave danger when you have the opportunity to do an AA that you might to come and do the AA why does only consider the great danger when you have the opportunity to perform a Mitzvah we recently read talks about someone who violated a sin and he it talks about different categories of Sinners it talks about a it talks about the community and it talks about the king the Nasi when it talks about the it says if the when it talks about the community it says when it talks about the king it says the king will sin Rashi Dar aser is a of Ash fortunate is the nation whose leader admits to his sin but that's the medish but the in the PK is masma that somehow it's inevitable that the king will sin that the king will sin now here's here's an astonishing gar the the says four people never sinned four people never sinned who are they Benyamin the son of Yakov amam the father of Misha yesai the father of David kov the son of David that which we know they never sinned it's a tradition except for yesi the father of David the pcess and I personally heard rev Miller say wait a second these are the four people who never sinned Benyamin the son of Yakov friends who's greater Benyamin or Yakov I would have thought Yakov but Yakov apparently did Sin and Benyamin didn't sin who's greater amam or mha MAA Misha was the greatest man who ever lived but how is it his father never sinned and he did who's greater ye shall or David presumably David David's on the marava David author to Hill him who's greater David or his son kilov David but kilov never sinned and David did that's and appar you would think that's why Benyamin is identified as Benyamin Ben Yakov because Yakov was greater that's why yes is identified yesid or kavid so how do we understand understand that the father or the son never sinned but the son or the father was greater how do we understand David's father and son never sinned but David was greater than both of them comes the and the MMA tells us a stirring principle a life altering principle a a principle we cannot forget for our entire lives says the there's a very big difference between mocking a dead person that he's cannot be m in the midst of tius so we put tius on him and we don't wear titas in a cemetery and on the other hand we are allowed to put shess on him and that's not considered a Maki and this also explains why we're to check tius I'm sorry check Fillin and this will explain why we have to guard the mat and M says the following principle hey Mr Dead Guy ha you're wearing shess so Mr dead guy says back I'm wearing shess I'm not commanded not to wear shess yeah but you're still wearing shess okay I have a hard time taking it off right now by the way scientists have discovered that dead people have a very hard time removing shess from them it's you know it's very hard to take shess off once you're dead not easy it's very challenging it's one of the challenging things about being dead that you can't take off shus so it's not mocking him you say hi you're wearing shus he says I'm an O first of all I'm exempt I'm allow to shus and even if it's not I'm an but if we were going to wear situs in a cemetery or a learn Tire in a cemetery and we say Mr dead man I'm learning and you're not so what's he going to say back yeah I don't have to learn or I'm exempt it's true he doesn't have to learn it's true he's exempt but still he's losing out eternally from the great opportunity of achieving and accomplishing and elevating himself through Tamra and that is embarrassing to him it's mocking him I it's true you're excused yeah you have a good excuse we don't have any ESS on you you're not you're not lacking you are lacking though it is embarrassing because you do not have the great opportunity of of being masim your nees you don't have the great opportunity to achieve and therefore it is mocking you doing an AO when you're excused is understandable but not having the opportunity to be a Mitzvah to do a mitzvah it's true you're excused but you're still not doing the Mitzvah and that's the reason why there's an obligation to check your MOS and youran periodically MOS twice every seven years according to the maybe annually again we mentioned that practically we don't check thein annually you know why you you're required to check MIT because let's say we tell the guy hey mister you know should really check youran so the guy will say well I don't have to I'm not I'm allowed to make a we say well but if you're our you made a he say no it's not I relied on if we say pal if you didn't wearin you're going to get punished he said I'm not going to get punished I'm anus I'm allowed to rely but then we say pal if your are not Ker you're losing out eternally from the great achievement and accomplishment and elevation of wearing Fillin and even though you're excused excuses will excuse you from punishment but it will not make it like you were Fillin at the end of the day you lost you didn't put on Fillin you didn't have a muuza an excuse is only going to carry you so far it will only ra justify that you didn't do a wrongdoing but it won't make it that you accomplish the Mitzvah of and the Mitzvah of M therefore says the rest of P you don't have to have what do you mean but isn't you're guarding it that it's not says yeah is your guarding it that it's yeah but but don't then you have to have the whole p no yeah but maybe it will bees what do you mean I I hopefully it won't be hopefully it won't and guess what and if it is I'm an oess I'm an oess I baked it properly so it wasn't guarded with you know B so what and if it's it's not my fault I tried my best it's not the end of the world if I tried not to have and it was because Hashem will understand because it's an extend circumstance it's true if it's maybe I'll be an O and I won't be punished but it's not matah and I'll lose that on the mitvah mat and every justification and rationalization and excuse in the world maybe may be may be able to get me out of punishment but it won't make it that I ate matah the rest of P where I only have to be careful not to have so I try my best but I'm not required to go so far to have shur but the night of the S there it's not enough not to eat you have to positively eat matah and if my matah is then I lost out eternally the great achievement of eating of eating matah by the way the maral says a very similar idea you know there's a question on the a the a were they M the T before it was given sure the a were M the T before it was given so the question is how did Yakov marry two sisters ra and Le and the maral famously says you're making a mistake the a only fulfilled positive Mitzvah they were not careful to violate so ask theal in the what's the difference why would the other only be careful to fulfill positive Commandments and not not be concerned not to violate Lavin and um the maral says as follows he says before the Torah was given so what yakob married two sisters there's nothing wrong God never told him he's not allowed to so God never told him he's not allowed to so why shouldn't he why shouldn't he marry two sisters they were both very worthy candidates to marry both ra and Leia were good I later on hasm would command not to do it okay later on but there before but a positive command is a Kenyon in one's nees is an achievement is an accomplishment so even though Hashem didn't command yet the other were scared to lose out on that achievement you see there's a difference between a and a n a is a wrongdoing provided that God said not to do it if he didn't say not to do it then it's not a wrongdoing but a mitzvah say is a positive accomplishment it's a Kenyon in one's it's of one's so even though they weren't obligated to fulfill those deeds nevertheless they didn't want to miss out on that achievement and now we're going we're coming to the great bombshell friends you have two people one of them commits adultery or one one of them serves Idols or one of them is a right that's one guy he does terrible a and the other guy and I guess you have to understand what I'm saying in context the other guy would never violate any of the cardinal sins what is the other guy do he spends his day twiddling his thumbs he wastes time but he doesn't commit any sin he just wastes time for example he sits on his phone and he Scrolls the whole day he goes like that what's he looking at nothing nothing changed since 10 minutes ago what is considered a more fundamental lack lacking a sin or a lack of positive achievement and the is says there is a grave error that people make many people think that the destruction of the soul is only in sin that's with action and the and there is no destruction of soul to someone who is pure from actively sinning and he doesn't go on the but he doesn't fulfill positive Commandments says it's a big mistake we are obligated to make it known to those whose Notions his opin those whose opinions are have sted from what is correct that teach us God would sooner Overlook idolatry adultery and murder and he would not Overlook not learning and just like the reward for learning Tyra is greater than all mitzvah the punishment for not learning is greater than any sin now this means that the sin one of the three cardinal sins is not as great as someone who is able to learn T and he wastes his time wasting time is worse than any sin and the question is what since when why would that be so I remember I once heard R Miller explain this so powerfully and he gave the following analogy he told the story about a guy who went to Los Angeles and uh he comes back he say hey how is La says great wa really tell me about it you wouldn't believe what I yeah I didn't get any parking tickets and I didn't get any expired meter tickets and I didn't get any speeding tickets and my inspection was up to date so I didn't get any inspection tickets it was unbelievable trip yeah pal what do you see there what' you do there do I didn't do anything there yeah but I didn't get any tickets uh say pal but we you know what do you accomplish nothing you have another guy what do you do in what do you do in Los Angeles La I went to Disneyland or world I don't remember where's which one is which and I went to I went to San Diego I went to SeaWorld and boy did I see the sights really how'd you accomplish so much well you know I really I really packed it in it's a you know know it's a shame I I was going a little bit over the speed limit I did get a park I did get a speeding ticket and I and and I uh had an expired meter which guy had a better trip in Los Angeles S Miller again this is an oversimplified mush but it's bringing out a point and that is if a person comes down to this world and we say you know pal what do you do here in this world what did I do I didn't wear shinas okay what else um I didn't eat TR okay what else did you do I didn't eat yeah okay did you do anything positive no so pal you blew it God put you down in this world to do big things for example performing mitv to acquire merely refraining from sin now I don't want to oversimplify this because not sinning is also in a way a positive achievement but still relative to a say it's not as significant of an achievement perhaps as the Fulfillment of an aay and this EXP explains why God is willing to okay this explains why Hashem is willing to overlook but not R Miller explained like this God's not overlooking anything but imagine somebody committed a grave sin okay it's not the end of the world what it's not the end of the world yeah it's not the end of the world he could do chuva so he'll learn sh Chua he'll regret what he did he'll stop doing it he'll do and he'll do all the 20 ingredients of Chua and he'll cry and he'll wh and he'll fast and he'll get kapara and you know what if he didn't do a sufficient Chua it's not the end of the world he could still go to geham and God will turn up the self-cleaning oven and ultimately he'll have kapara but if someone had the opportunity to do a Mitzvah and he didn't do the mitzvah it's there's no way ever to make up for that mitvah there's no way ever to get that Mitzvah back and therefore God could Overlook for sin provided that you do your part but if a person had the opportunity to learn T to do a Mitzvah to do a and out of laziness or carelessness they lost the opportunity then there's no way to bring it back friends now we understand of course DAV was greater than yes what do you mean but yesai never sinned okay that's great that's a extremely high level that he never sinned but he also didn't accomplish like David accomplished David rode safer to Hill him David built y David put together the money for the B the positive achievements of David elevated David more than his father yesai who never sinned more than his son K sinned but he was greater than bam because the purpose of life is not to sin the purpose of life is to actively achieve rev Miller would say this is taught in the very beginning of barus R Miller would interpret AER God created man to do to do Man was created to accomplish to do I remember this is on one of rev Miller's tapes he had a thousand shim and then after a thousand he had the E Series E1 E2 E3 in the E series one of the shum was called created to do man was aim Man was created to do Riv Miller explained this is the L of the m we asked why is the biggest danger in the world when somebody has the opportunity to perform a Mitzvah isn't it also an equally great danger when someone is presented with the chance to do an AA and R Miller would say well that's not the biggest danger in the world because hopefully he won't do the A and even if he does he could do chuva and even if he doesn't do chuva he could go to geh and I'm not downplaying gam but at least there's a way to rectify but if someone has the opportunity to do Mitzvah if if the sh comes you better say that sha right away cuz if you forget to say the shama then there's no way ever to make up that shama you could feel bad about it and maybe you could do chuva and if do Chua you won't be punished the gar Yuma says but there's still never a way to bring back the positive accomplishment of the recitation of the sh and therefore when you have the opportunity to do a Mitzvah the purpose of life is positive achievement Ru was greater than his father amam even though amam never sinned because mha took us Adam and he gave us the m and he he gave us the Tyra and you know what R Miller would say sometimes when a person is involved in positive achievement they are more likely to sin in a way it's almost inevitable than someone who's just so careful never to sin but is not actively involved in accomplishing the he would give a a simplified Mash you have three people sitting at a KES and Ru says to shim and to Ley pass the chant so Ley is afraid to pass the chant he might spill the some chant on ruen he might spill the grape juice shim jumps he wants to do the but sometimes Shimon might mishandle that chilling and the chant is going to end up on the guy's lap but it's almost inevitable if you're a cholen passer occasionally you also might be a chillen Spiller like wise somebody could hide in a closet and never speak lashara and certainly that's very great but Hashem would rather somebody be involved in positive achievement even though under the circumstances he may it might be Miller would say it's almost inevitable but the purpose of life is not not getting parking tickets the purpose purpose of life is accomplishing and achieving in his igar in his his letters in igar wrote a frighteningly powerful letter regarding the night of the SAR rer wrote the night of P you should Accord yourself with kadus with Y and rejoice in doing the was you in the Mitzvah ofes theah says you better make sure to eat enough matah don't eat exactly the shear because you might be lacking what if you eat exactly the shear and you ate an a Iota a crumb less than the shear you lost the Mitzvah says in my opinion if someone has a brain in their skull believes in the gave us how could you not take pity on your soul and not be scared that this great Mitzvah of mat that you only have opportunity to once a year you better make sure to do it properly cuz says you're going to have to wait a whole year to get that Mitzvah again and who knows if you'll be around to be m in that Mitzvah again you see the great sh of RAR but usually we talk about being afraid of doing an A but in the world of reer look at his yay being afraid not to be M Mitzvah a person has to have more about a Mitzvah than about not doing an a cuz in a so if you did the AA okay you'll do chuva you'll fast maybe you'll have to fast for 84 days but there's a way to rectify it but if you didn't do the mitah matah if you didn't lean when you're eating the mat if you didn't eat enough matah it's going to be a whole another year till you could do the Mitzvah again says a this is the guard the matah meaning guard the Mitzvah don't delay doing a Mitzvah don't delay even a moment doing the Mitzvah you know why cuz if you delay doing a Mitzvah maybe the Mitzvah will become so we said well you know I'll ultimately get around to it the says remember when God took you out he took you out on that very day what if God would have said you know I'm not really in the mood of taking them out now first let me go on a lunch break I'll take them out in an hour we have a tradition that had not taking us at at that moment we were on the brink of falling to the point of no return the 50th level of T had Hashem not taken said at that moment then we would have fallen and it would have been irreparable he never would have been able to take us out we would have been stuck inim forever says remember when hasem took us adim do you remember that from there we learn that when you delay doing something you never know if you delay a moment you may lose the opportunity forever and if you say well you know what's the difference between now and later just remember how Hashem took us out of had he taken us out a millisecond later we would have fallen to the point of no return and there would have been no going back so from there we learn the importance of timing that when you have the opportunity to do something you better capitalize don't delay doing the Mitzvah because you never know if you delay doing the Mitzvah something will come up you'll forget about it or you may not even be around and that's why riller would teach the tells us the greatest danger in the world is when you have the opportunity to do a Mitzvah when you have such an opportunity you want to grab it and do it as soon as we can because there is no greater danger in the whole world the purpose of our existence they were great men like amam like yesai like kav like bam but even greater than them were y David and so this is an important liod as we prepare for the of P do we need to have you need to have it for the well aren't we guarding from and we're now eat yeah you're now e but if you did you tried your best and maybe will consider you an but if you didn't have for the mitvah mat and it was maybe you won't be punished for eating KES but you also won't accomplish the great achievement of a mat so this is a important presentation to keep in mind as we prepare for the of p i want to invite everyone Wednesday night at 8:30 we have an amazing sheer on the upcoming solar eclipse and I wish everybody a wonderful day record