Powerful Message for Your Seder

i'm delighted to introduce and welcome her by ephraim goldberg the senior rabbi of brs of boca raton synagogue brookham her boy and welcome the harvard goddard thank you so much for celebrating for hosting for organizing for collaborating for your friendship for your leadership it's a great skills to be able to collaborate and do this together and rabbi schechter i thought about forfeiting my slot i could have listened to you for another 20 minutes and 20 hours thank you for your passion and thank you for your insights i really want to build on not the same theme but i want to build on the notion of the meta theme to me the seder knight it's so critically important that we not lose ourselves in the minutia and the micro and the gematrias and the arts and crafts projects which have a place a child's lunch they have a place for us to review and take in and appreciate but they're not the meta themes that are meant to be the foundational conversation pieces of the seder if satan knight transforms us the same suffers inside that we make the bracha on maggit at the end because just like the convert can't make a bracha over allah and we too are to be transformed by the experience of setting ourselves free and being set free so the bracha is that the end then the themes that we talk about have to not be the divrei torah that are trying to impress or that are highfalutin or that are complicated or that are drawing from the width and breadth of torah but meta themes that get us talking about what is freedom and what is slavery and what does it mean in our own lives and how is it part of our family narrative and story and how does it craft and how does it shape my destiny and that was what rabbishekr so beautifully discussed one meta theme and i want to share with you another one that resonates a lot for me in our time i think that people are speaking it's hard to be alive today and not be exposed and aware to these conversations the notion of cancel culture the notion of a world that's monitoring our speech and trying to limit it filter it hold people accountable and i'm not weighing in politically on the whole movement of a canceled culture certainly not on dr seuss or mr potato head or anybody else i don't want to talk about other companies or other icons i want to talk about us what does speech and the power of speech something so fundamental to the freedoms of this country that we are blessed to live in how does it connect to our ideas and ideals of what freedom is really all about it's very interesting that ghazal generally regularly discourage us from being too talkative and vasa say little and do much we all know there are two types of people the talkers and the doers there are a lot of people who talk a lot and do little but say be the opposite and speak very little [Applause] if you're loquacious if you just unfiltered speak on and on and you let everything come maybe hate you're going to make mistakes you're going to sabotage your relationships your happiness your success so generally speaking the jew is cautioned not on speaking but on silence points out that we teach a child how to speak and we celebrate they said the first word they said zeda they said abba mommy we get so excited we applaud them we encourage them but do we ever teach them to stop speaking do we ever encourage do we ever reward silence or once they stop talking they never start stop so generally speaking a murmur but pesach pesach is the exception to the rule pesach is all about talking kumar tells us there's a specific mitzvoth to tell tell a story speak and don't don't be succinct take as long as you want go all night don't stop speaking dwell on the story and elaborate on the story and delve into the story so what is it about pesach that we have an entirely different attitude our mode changes what we admire what we aspire for shifts so radically from an attitude of listening twice as much as we speak to an attitude of don't stop speaking don't stop sharing victor frankel in his man's search for meaning describes what happened after they were liberated and shabbos ago i like many other rabbis around the world spoke about the notion of the chabura of being together as a group and why that's so intrinsically connected to freedom the willingness and the ability to share a slave scrounges a slave selfishly only is caring about their own success their own continuity their own survival an expression of freedom is an ability and a willingness to share and that's what is all about and we saw an entry from primo levi and from another holocaust diary about that transition from the holocaust to right after the willingness to share but viktor frankl also sees an enormous transition upon liberation not in the willingness to share food but a willingness to share something even more personal he writes the body has fewer inhibitions than the mind it made good use of the new freedom from a moment on it began to eat ravenously for hours and days even half the night it is amazing what quantities one could eat and when one of the prisoners was invited out by a friendly farmer in the neighborhood he ate nate and drink coffee which loosens his tongue and then he began to talk often for hours the pressure which had been on his mind for years was released at last listen to his words victor frankel hearing him talk one got the impression that he had to talk that his desire to speak was irresistible i have known people who have been under heavy pressure only for a short time to have similar reactions many days passed until not only the tongue was loosened but something within oneself as well then feeling suddenly broke through the strange fetters which had restrained it he describes a person who's imprisoned a person is in a concentration camp a person is in servitude in egypt a person is in the captivity of their body or even of their own mind fails to find expression there's an existential loneliness there's the consequence of speaking freely person has these restraints and these filters they're unable and the affirmation that one is free the indication that one has been liberated is now this desire to speak reverend salvation is a book the logic of the heart logic of the mind writes upon delivery from mitzrayim the jewish people regain their self-expression as long as they were subjected to egyptian bondage their self-expression was stifled and suppressed but at that moment of itself the jewish people regain speech slaves can't express or assert themselves properly they cannot realize their potential only the free man is capable of doing so the eager decal on partial bashal points out though when the jewish people cry out to hashem from the oppression the persecution the suffering the pain they can't even find words they can't formulate or articulate they are israel it's a groan it's a moan it's a cracks it's a scream it's a yell it's an ouch because the kawakadibur was in gulas they were unable when you were enslaved physically or spiritually or psychologically or emotionally and you're in a dark place or a lost place when you are unable when you're stifled when you're unable to express then all you can do at best is correct the best you can do is issue a groan long before ivar and salvation the arizal and spirits and pericdol and saw the connection between freedom the ability to be set free and the ability to speak freely and he saw that in the very name of the yantaf pesach says the arizona famously comes from a mouth that speaks because the mouth was in golus the power of speech was in gulles it was in exile a person is at work is afraid to speak up a person in a certain social circle because their concern for the consequence stifles and silences their own words that's not freedom freedom is the ability to communicate to converse to articulate part of our very affirmation of our freedom on pesach is affirming the awesome responsibility that comes with freedom of speech and that's part of what makes this great country an exceptional country israel celebrated its biannual uh seemingly event today of yet another election democracy the one we live in the one please god soon we will merit to live in these democracies the first amendment in america promises free speech free speech means we have the ability to protest or advocate or object we can speak our minds we can speak our minds but the torah's view of free speech is very different than what american liberty provides for us because even though we have a freedom reflected by our ability to speak we're not allowed to use that speech to incite or to libel you can't use it for obscenity or to plagiarize someone else's words there are rules and regulations around how we express how we use that power of speech as fundamental as it is to freedom yaha does torah judaism also believes in the freedom of speech and sees the capacity to speak as one of the greatest expressions of our freedom american law tolerates speech which is negative which is insensitive which is tactless that's what we're seeing right now who should have a right bernie sanders today agreed with donald trump something that probably hasn't happened it won't happen again in a long time when he said he believes that the past president should be have the right to be back on twitter one of the fundamental freedoms of this country again i'm not weighing in politically i'm afraid to even mention names today that's how unfree we are to even the assumptions that will be made about us but they understand that there's a freedom and america gives that freedom even when it's negative or insensitive or tactless when justice lewin brandeis affirmed the freedom of speech in a supreme court decision in 1927 he acknowledged that such liberty made possible what he calls quote the dissemination of noxious doctrine not just doctrine we don't believe in that we and this is what i want to communicate that the yount of the passage this great freedom this great privilege this great responsibility this great opportunity to have that power of speech what differentiates us from animals doesn't give us a freedom of speech of noxious doctrine paro says the more of a shemesh paro is obsessed he's the sitra para is when you use the power of speech to be a despot a dictator to make others suffer to torture to oppress it's the power of speech in its worst form to hurt and to undermine to destroy to marginalize to judge to make feel lonely and apart torah in contrast our torah has no patience for noxious doctrine not only are we prohibited from washing hara whether it's true or untrue right everybody it's true i'd say it in front of the person the rules and regulations for how we use this gift is freedom we are enjoined we have to be mindful in our choice of words our speech can't be noxious we measure the acceptability of speech by a very different metric whether it's washington nokia mazda to those who made to see him i'm sorry from the very beginning the gemara talks about alasha nikiya the importance behind tahora our speech has to be clean and proper and concise and elevating can't use speech that hurts or profanity that degrades the viagra bin usher the author of the tour provides a method to understand the jewish calendar called bash aleph goes with soft base with shin and so on and he notes that the aleph which represents the first day of pesach is always the same day of the week as the tough when tish above occurs so if you want to set your calendar you don't have access to maze manum if you know what night of the week pay stuff starts now you know when tisha above is going to fall the base the second day of pesach is the same day of the week as the shin is and the gimbal the third day of the week of passover is the same day of the week as duresh as rosh hashanah and parenthetically it's been pointing out though the tour obviously doesn't go this far but the seventh day seventh day of pesach always falls the same day of the week is the ayan which is yo matsumu the fifth of the year whatever connection there is between krita samsuf and that miraculous day so pesach and tish above are always the same day of the week and they share this close association which seemingly is much more than just coincidental and some suggest that on pesach when we are denied and deprived the ability to bring a carbon passage we should be acutely aware and remember the loss of the samehurban and not only that it's not there but how we got there so we eat an egg the symbol of morning and we remember how hillary used to eat the sandwich of the month of the morning together when the base of makeda stood but the growth of vilnigan was very opposed to seeing morning as having any part of say tonight say tonight is regal it's royal it's being free we're not invoking images of mourning and of grieving and of sadness so why would pessah be the same night of the week what is the connection suggests that we open the haggadah by saying yes whoever hungry it is the most disingenuous invitation of all time and this year maybe it's a little bit more authentic but if you recall last year everyone's door was locked everyone's window was hermetically sealed no one was allowed within 50 feet of our home or we thought we could die on the spot there is not a more disingenuous invitation than pronouncing everyone's welcome there's plenty of room please come join while the doors are closed and the windows are sealed you want to be such aggressive sadiq a week before pesach post online stand up and clap at the end of shul and announce whoever should come so why are we saying whoever hungry come and eat what is really going on so says i'm sure call anybody and everybody you're all invited to my seder not literally and not formally because i know it's not an invitation you can take me up on but i'm communicating more about myself we begin our seder by recognizing the power of speech and how we want to use it we start to say to says sure not by saying this one's puzzle and this one's no good and this one's too firm this one's not from enough and this is the shulai davanat and the shoelace never stepped foot in we do the opposite we begin saturn night by using the power of speech to pronounce coal everybody and anybody the right of me the left of me more religious less religious those who voted the same who voted differently than i we're all going to sit together kodak everybody we are misakin we correct and repair the damage of tishbo destruction results from abusing that power of speech and google or redemption only happens when i use the power of speech to build bridges and to create connections and to repair the world that i'm in it's what differentiates us as human beings from animals because this is also true on saturday night when we were in the triumph we couldn't daven we couldn't find the words we didn't have the time and we didn't have the self-awareness or the margin the space the mindfulness to connect to our creator to the almighty we were suffering we didn't even believe kotze we had so little faculty of vision we couldn't even believe or dream of a better future pesach is the ability to speak also means not only to one another and how we speak to one another but it's pointed out admiration is given this power of speech is what differentiates them from the animal kingdom and yet there's no one to speak with there are no other human beings yet this androgynous figure has not yet been divided so to whom was he meant to speak why was he given his faculty and his power if there was no one to share it with and the answer is there was the rebona shalom the core and essential purpose of the power of speech is to talk to hashem oh it also happens to come in handy to talk to your spouse or your children or your friend or at work but the primary and central purpose for the power of speech is hashem that power was in godless when we were in mitzrayim we couldn't find the words and we didn't have the energy but we have the ability to speak to take advantage of that which differentiates us to renew the promise to use speech not in a way which results in a tish above in destruction but a cold death in everybody i love all jews aphasia come around my seder table not literally i'm not inviting you i am just displaying and demonstrating at the very beginning of the seder how i use my power of speech the kava yoshi writes imperative one must recite the haggadah deliberately and joyfully he says he can't say the like it's a burden you can't be forbissing and you can't be flying through it you can't be mumbling it he writes that the word maggot has a ring similar to the word meged which means that something sweet it's pleasurable like rashi and varmlamid gimmel we have to be our speech should be pleasing and it should sweeten other people's lives maggots should be said with meghad not flying through it using and utilizing the power of speech speech is who we are it defines that freedom how we use it you can't turn power of speech into hulen into something profane into some people are secular it should be something which is kodesh which is holy too many around us are filling our world with their noxious doctrine with their caustic and bombastic tone too many people are filling the world with hate and judgment they are destroying it they're bringing khurban the haggadah reminds us it's not just what we say but the way we say it it's not just saying maagid but saying it with megid with sweetness before pesach this week we are rushing to finish cleaning our homes but on pesach we clean our speech and we remember that the freedom that we enjoy and that we're blessed with comes with the responsibility for allah that on pesach sitting around that cedar night it's only not only important what goes in our mouth but equally important is what comes out of our mouth and how it comes out of our mouth it defines us and particularly as these issues are being debated and defined in our day let us remember that we have a tradition and a legacy that offers us its own definition of what it means the power of speech we should be zoha on this pesach for our past sach to return to its fila that is sincere and authentic genuine and real to use that power of speech to build bridges as i feel so privileged to share tonight with my dear colleagues and to unite would be boca and chicago i thank you for this opportunity and wish everyone in kosher vs