Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz: The Exodus of Egypt as a paradigm for spiritual liberation

[Music] we are still in the Parsee Otzi Ozma tryam and I want to continue the theme a little bit we know that every single day there is a mitzvah to remind yourselves about the Exodus in fact in the third paragraph of the schmock we recite the passage a niushan the location I am the Lord your God a Cheryl says from merits with rhyme we took you out of the land of Egypt Lee Oklahoman Kim to be for you the attorney of God and that is actually a positive commandment in the Torah that one should be consciously aware of yet see at Smith's ryeom twice a day in the morning and in the evening and this mitzvah is called sexy rot yet see azmuth i am the remembrance of the exodus of egypt but it is not just a mental remembrance it must be articulated in words now we also know there is an annual mitzvah that we do once a year Wael Seder the night of the Seder and that is a different Mitzvah that is derived from a different verse that is called Seaport in CS Mitzrayim the narration of the exodus and that is based on the pisaq we gather to live in LA you shall speak to your child to your son on the day the anniversary of the events that God did all of these miracles for us by the way if you read the plastic very literally there would only be a Mitzvah if you have a child that is asking you something or at least there's a child that's there but the how God has address that and that's not gonna the Gemara answered Russia then even if not you if you're by yourself you have to narrate the story now in the reciprocal Cedars they say a very beautiful point you know modern psychology likes to talk about being connected to your inner child but in truth this is an old caseta thoughts began until dementia you shall tell your child tell your sons that means speak to the child's within yourself what does that mean what exactly would judaism mean by the cept of the inner child so there's actually a teaching from a lady it's lookin pretty tough The Grates casita master that there are three things we have to learn from children one is when you're hurting you cry the child has no shame to cry when the child hurts we should have no shame to cry out to God when we're hurting emotionally or physically don't be ashamed express yourself to a shame the second thing about a child that's very notable is when a child falls down they pick themselves up again it's quite amazing those of you that may remember when you were babies or have the babies of your own if you ever watch a baby learn to walk it is really one of the most remarkable things it is so difficult and the child's fall some plops down that even learning to crawl this hard when a showers to crawl like dragging his body I remember watching my son crawl and it was so hard I got tired watching TV and I think to myself take a break you know you can rest you don't have to do this no you can do it later but there's something in the human personality we're hardwired to keep on going to accomplish what we need to accompany and no matter how many times the kid falls down they will pick themselves up again as adults or even older and older kids we sometimes lose that we often lose that we're defeated by life we feel we failed so many times on something why bother to pursue it the radicular says learn from the child that when you fall pick yourself up again don't get discouraged don't wanna Melek writes in the book of Proverbs Sheva episodic become the SAVAK also Falls many times but he gets up again the difference between the SAVAK and the people who are not so think it was not that tsadikim have no problems they have problems of serving God they Group the same difficulties that we go through they may have unique difficulties that are especially appropriate to their situation but they have this faith in God and faith in themselves if they get up again though they're not defeated that's the second thing we learned from children right the first is when it hurts you cry the second is when you fall you get up again and the third which may not apply to modern kids so much is you never get bored you look at the world as a place of wonder and excitement and you see a joy in life even in the simplest things of life it's been pointed eyes I've seen a lot of child psychologists say that's the idea that kids are bored is really a modern phenomena kids are bored because you know we need to have this instant gratification every single second you know what the olden days and now when I used to walk 50 miles to school in the snow you know remember those times we were never bored you know if there was nothing good to do we would you know catch fireflies in a jar or something and the point basically is though that a Jew should look at life with a sense of wonder and appreciation for all of the goodness that I shed so the Prudential percent the Navajo Shia in a remarkable story and I'll talk about that story in a moment though there's a little peripheral to our topic but the wlj a quote second is Berkeley was saying Kinari Israel who vo Hebei oh I love the Jewish people because they are perpetually youthful I love them because of their youthful qualities and the Brigid sugar is explaining to us what are the qualities of youth that God loves so much he loves the idea of expressing emotion the idea of resilience in the idea of looking at life as something exciting and joyous and filled with opportunity and that those are the qualities that God loves in the Jewish people those are the qualities we try to emulate and those qualities of speaking to your inner child speaking gotta tell live in huh you shall tell your son tell your child but your Maho lingua okay so the thing I think that's a general point now since I mentioned toh Shia I am going to digress a little bit because it is such an interesting story Oh Shia not to be confused with yahushua it's not Joshua this is Hosea Oh Shia was a prophets to the ten tribes of Israel and this is prior to the destruction of the ten tribes so this is more than a hundred years before the destruction of the base of victims this is much earlier and Hosea was a prophet who was giving massage to a sinful nation but at one point in the narrative God gives him a very unusual command God commands that he marry a prostitutes a very well known prostitute and he's a Navi he's a prophet but he marries this prostitute and even after he marries her she continues to practice her trade she continues to be unfaithful but Hosea cannot divorce her because he's become so attached her he loves her and he can't get rid of her even though she doesn't deserve really to be his life to either wife with such a righteous man now there's a big big argument among the commentators how to understand this story there are some commentators that basically say this was a dream this was not an event that happened but this is a prophetic dream in which he dreams a certain storyline others say it actually happened but either way what's the point of the dream or what's the point of the events so the Talmud gives us a very important backstory which explains why this bizarre events took place and that is at some point Hosea actually says to God why do you keep your covenant with the Jewish people they are perpetually unfaithful they have strayed from you why don't you get rid of them and make it confident with a new people of course this is exactly the opposite of Moshe a pagan after the sin of the golden calf when dad says to Moshe Rabbeinu I will destroy this rebellious nation and I will make a covenant with you Moshe Rabbeinu said I'm either with them or nothing meaning if you reject them erase me from your book I don't want a private deal that's what Moshe or Boehner said now Hosea was not asking for his own private deal he didn't say would have to be with him but our share was besties saying to God you know God why don't you get rid of the Jewish people so God wanted Hosea to understand what God's dilemma is God wants to have a particular and that is the Jewish people are like God's spouse that's how they're described and we are an unfaithful wife with idolatry that's considered to be adultery promiscuity so he gives some Shia a wife that is equally unfaithful and then tells her she'll get rid of her and Oh Shia says I love her too much I can't get rid of her God says now you know my problem now you understand that God so love for the Jewish people is deeper than rationality it does not have a justification that can automatically be expressed in normal human terms it is above rationality and therefore he wanted the Navi to internalize the message of loving somebody in such a deep way that even when they are undeserving that love remains unabated so this is a remarkable story in which the Navi has to act out in his life or at least experience in a dream exactly as it were what God is going through in his struggles was the unfaithful life Israel the unfaithful wife of the ten tribes who deserve to be divorced but God cannot bear to do that and that's see what effective my Ralph says a fascinating point you know we got let's go back to you know the first Jew we commonly called out for I'm the first Jew although that's a bit of a misleading title and God appears to have around when he's 75 years old out of the blue seemingly and says to him leave your land leave your parents leave your family and go to the lands that I will show you and if we ask ourselves a question just reading the clemency why did God choose a friend why did God appear to us who is suffering that he deserves this special calling now if I just ask you read the Commish and tell me why there actually is no reason that's given later there's a reference to a from teaching his children to follow the path of justice and mercy but initially when God appears to him there is no prior event in our arms life that is recorded that justifies God entering into a special relationship now it is true we have Midrash M that give us a whole bunch of great things on he broked right he was in charge of tariffs idols and he broke all the idols and indeed he was thrown into a fiery furnace and he was willing to die for his faith in Hashem and God made a miracle so there's a lot of events that Avram was engaged in that shows his faith but none of them are recorded in Atonement bergna homily poet sees to tell the story that there are some aggression that we're so familiar with that we could swear they're actually in the hamish and they're not and she was giving a lecture to high olam and she mentioned she meant he mentioned this point when she said for example everyone knows the story of Abraham breaking the idols and being thrown into the fiery furnace even though it's not in the Commission she's making a point that some Midrash him are so familiar to us we read them into the text so there was a gruff Israeli general who was not religious but he had learned Cornish as a child and he says to mahatma he says what do you mean my victims I love Pokemon that pushes a become ash I remember it in the collage so she gave him a collage said find me where the story is you know he knows Hebrew so he's leaping through it here turning the pages there in there the story is nowhere to be found so he says to Mohammed says I don't want to Keats or I don't want to summary give me the whole cumin give me the other bridge rubbish but the point is it is true the story is not in the company why not so listen towards of my round sense this is a tremendous beautiful third of them around the morale says if the tyrant would have given a reason why God chose our frown I chose a frown because he's righteous I chose a crown because he broke the idols I chose a crown because he was willing to die to sanctify my name that would have implied that God's love for every man his seat was because of specific factors specific rational reasons and that could mean therefore when those reasons no longer apply we are idolatrous we're faithful God could drop us so the morale said God certainly had reasons but God wanted the relationship to be super super irrational above rationality so that even if the reasons don't apply the relationship remains intact in the Morrow's language is that if Hashem would have given the reasons that would have been called Ahava shed Tolu you big of our love that depends on a factor and Pirkei avos tells us but glad devar when your love depends on a certain factor when that factor gets nullified but lapa the love gets nullified but by not giving a reason it becomes ha Shana to live it's over unconditional love and then but what the bar no matter what is nullified the offer remains and that's the story of kosher but again that's a little bit of an aside I just burned in Hosea simply because Hashem makes a reference that Hashem loves the eternal youthfulness of the Jewish people and that's connected to the inner child Odessa but be the sat-nav of Haim salivates a curator of crime solve a check raised interesting question we have a daily Mitzvah called Saphira remembering the exodus and we have an annual mitzvah at the Seder called Seaport more extensive narration but the tyrant does not require the whole other now God is a rabbinic text so the Taira allows you to make up your own not to make up but Cyril allows you to save the story in your own words so the question becomes what is the Taira obligating you to do the night of Pesach that goes beyond what you're obligated to do every night of the year because of the people and you can't simply answer well well pacify have to read the Haggadah because that's not a total requirement per se so in a sense what is the upgrade what is see poor structurally adding beyond the minimum it's webstie rap because even if there wouldn't be support I would have to do so Kira so what is C poor making me though I don't mean be eating missus s of course different but I mean the narration mitzvah sir of kind said there are four structural differences between C poor and zafira and the Haggadah is a text that is structured to incorporate those four basic elements and first I'm going to enumerate them and then try to explain the spiritual significance of them element number one is the whole year we just have to say that God took us out of Egypt well Pesa it has to be done in question and answer form this is a field it has to be done Derek Shayla woo teshuva and that is not only if somebody's asking you the questions but even if you're by yourself you gotta have questions that of course is the role of the Mohnish time' but if you learn the Gemara it seems that the Mohnish time' is like a crib sheet it's cheating for people who can't come up with their own questions ideally you should have your own questions or your children or whatever i still remember this i was a little child but it struck me even then as very humorous we were once my family were once guest singer and the kids of the host family were very curious kids and they were asking a whole bunch of questions and at some point the father says no stop asking questions we have to run the Seder now of course you understand why that's a little in congress because the purpose of the Seder is to invite questions i'll come back in and then talk about why that's so important but i just want to give you a list so element number 1 is che la lu teshuva which is unique for the annual mitzvah of support it does not apply of course in the daily mitzvah of Cecilia element number 2 is something that is called must still be ignored miss Ayane bespeak the whole year I just talked about the redemption well Pesa it is not enough to talk about the redemption I gotta start with the slavery and the degradation and the shame and the humiliation you got to start with the bad part of the story you can't just skip to the good part again I'll come back and explain why element number three is the statement of robbing Gamliel anyone that does not explain the significance of three Commandments the eating of the Corbin Pesa the Paschal Lamb the matzah and the Marlin has not fulfilled his mitzvot now let's let's pay close attention to that statement what mitzvah do you not fulfill if you don't explain petja matzah and Marlin there we shown him tell us you certainly fulfill the Mitzvah of matzah even if you don't explain it because the mitzvah of matzah is to eat it same thing with the carbon peso and the same thing with the mower so when it says anyone that does not explain tessa matzah Marlar has not fulfilled his mitzvot it means he has not fulfilled the midst of sheep or yet she adds mitts right he has fulfilled Pesa matzah Marlar which are eating Commandments but he has not fulfilled Cypriot CS with Ryan which means the narration has to be connected with a an explanation of the significance of pessimist Omar obviously this is only a component of the Mitzvah of C poor lil seder it is not a component of the midst of the theorem okay so so far I mentioned three differentiations between C poor and Sapphira one is she loved chuva the other is Moscow begin nurse the third is the need to explain Pesa matzah Marler and now we come to the fourth which is tap on last week in the week before and this is the statement in Moraga each person must regard themselves as if they themselves were personally liberated from Egypt so here the Prashad is the following the whole year i remember and i commemorate what God did in the past well Pesa i am supposed to experience an actual redemption again i'll try to explain that in the moment but that is the hardest missile of all i'm not just recounting i'm not just remembering i'm not just commemorating but optimally i am supposed to be experiencing something and that once again is unique to see poor and not superior these four elements are in the name of a crime salivation and the Haggadah is essentially in elaboration and amplification of these four themes in the Haggadah itself but what is the significance of it why why are these four ideas so important get'em in effect of giving you a pre Pesach share but about you but but since we're in the party or sub you'd see it miss Ryan there's going to be something very relevant so here I want to start with the fourth element cuz I believe I already shared with you and forgive me for repeating this the beautiful powerful thoughts of the Bala Tanya the bhava Tanya at the altar Evan explains what does it mean each person has to regard themselves as if they were in Australia that's simply not true I mean I was never in Egypt and I certainly was not a slave in Egypt so are we talking about method acting I know imagine you know as if you were there I mean why would the Torah obligate me to engage in a life so the altar he says the following the word mitzrayim has a double meaning mitzrayim is Egypt the ancient empire of Egypt that enslaved us no longer around it's extinct that the ancient Egyptians are extinct indeed but mitzrayim also comes from the word myths of him boundaries constrictions blockages when david another praise to action for redemption from the narrow constricting predicaments that he finds himself what is he saying how though min ha mates are karate car I called out to God from the narrow confines that strangle me so says the ballot Anya if you understand that miss Ryan both has a geographical reference but a spiritual reference as well then every one of us has an inner mitzrayim we are enslaved by forces within ourselves and choke us and constrict us and limit us a person may have a myth ryeom of anger or egotism or arrogance or selfishness or depression the lack of healthy self-esteem or hedonism that's a miss Ryan so here's what the bubble Tonya says when Hashem took the Jews out of mitzrayim he put into the world a spiritual power that enables each and every one of us to leave the myths ryeom's that enslave us so now that verse in Vergara is so powerful each actually submission each person must regard themselves as if they emerged from its Ryan miss Ryan doesn't mean Egypt there I don't pretend I was in Egypt but each person I dead finds their mitzrayim and then by connecting to the power of its Ian Smith Ryan Hashem will liberate from everything that enslaves me everything that stops me from going forward and that's you know this idea that people discuss in an Orthodox circles whether the C estimates ryeom is a metaphor or historical event and they want to argue if they they want to argue that never was an exodus out of Egypt etc and there's no historical evidence obviously we believe that person who believes in the Torah believes that you'd see a Smith Ryan was a historical event but the fact that it's a historical event doesn't negate its metaphorical meaning meaning in the Torah history itself is metaphor in the Torah events are not just events they represent spiritual forces that continue to operate so the dichotomy that people say well is it history or metaphor the answer is it is history as metaphor because all of the historical events in the Torah our prototypes and symbols of spiritual powers that exist in the world this is what Kabbalah does all families like this is what causality was in because I'll always try to show a cosmic significance and that is why mitzrayim is both Egypt and the more general construction limitation now if I could quote a very very unlikely source there was and I think there still is a black entertainer because by then mr. t this is nickname and big black guy the thing was a wrestler or a bouncer or something and his signature lavash his signature dress is he wears a lot of gold jewelry gold chains all the time so mr. t once said something that I thought was profound but maybe unintentionally profound sure but maybe I'll give him credit he said something somebody asked him why he always wears jewelry listen to what he said he said my ancestors came to America wearing chains so I want to connect to my ancestor were slaves slaves from Africa I want to connect to my ancestors by wearing chains their chains were ironed on their leg and my chains are gold around my neck so what is mr. t teaching us here it is mr. t is teaching us that the chain of gold can be every bit as enslaving as the chamber tire hmm the chain of iron represents another person trying to make me a slave but the gold the materialism the he denies the success that's also enslaving but that's an enslavement that's within you and the old saying goes it's easier to take the jewel of mitzrayim than it is to take miss Roy about of the children physical slavery and oppression is only one form of slavery the greatest slavery is the slavery we have to our own Yeats our artists our own typist our own desires our own angers all of the Meadows rose that prevent us from becoming the people we're supposed to become so that fourth element is a very very important element according to the Bible Tanya it's not just the make-believe experience I was a slave in Egypt but it's understanding that you'd see estimates ryeom is a paradigm of a spiritual power that I shouldn't in the world that we can grab onto and still grow from and benefit from now in light of that fourth element the other three elements fall into a beautiful symmetrical place because that means when you read that a brother and again I apologize if I can't paste up so early but we are in the parsha if so I think the lessons will apply even now you're reading the Haggadah with a double meaning on one hand there is the historical communal meaning that we were in Egypt and God took us out of Egypt through the plagues of the splitting of the Red Sea and we became a nation that's our national story and lovingly we recount that story every year in long-form and every day in short form and the once a year certainly to the children intergenerational that's our historical story but in addition to the historical story which exists on the general level there's an idiosyncratic personal private message in the exodus narrative that pertains to my struggles - ramse my difficulties my constrictions there's a double meaning here there's an open meaning and there's a hidden meaning there's a public meaning which we share in common with every Jew that's reading the narrative and even the Jews that don't read the narrative we share it in common and then there's a private in a of Socratic meaning and therefore every stage of that gutta can be analyzed both in terms of a general message and in terms of a private individual message so now let's go through the different lists so that fourth element we talked about let's go backwards to the first three elements questions and answers if we understand that the Seder experience is designed to help me my own spiritual journey away from my arm is right then we can see why questions are is so important there's somebody once asked you know if you ever listen to a typical to buy tote every twice over every director or almost always begins with questions you know I have a question and somebody actually asked you know why did why did you bark tourists have to begin with questions if you if you have a point you want to make just make a point right he asked a question on why did Ray Tora begin with questions and you know I can't I just get up and give a thoughts why are there always questions and that is a good question actually why we always have questions but part of it is that a question creates a certain tension and maybe it's a micro tension there's something I don't understand and that creates a receptivity for an answer in other words if somebody would simply get up and start talking about their thoughts about God you know I don't have a particular motivation to listen you just told me your thought but when you ask me a question even if it's a small thing why you share that word there why is that extra limited then at that point it's the hook you got me there's something that's perplexing and then when you start talking you're filling a need within me because once there's a question there's like something open that's got a hole in my head then I got a film that's the psychology of why you know learning proceeds through a process of question otherwise some guy just gets up and makes a speech you know I'm not giving particularly gonna you know gotta pay attention even with questions we don't always have people paying attention but ok so what does a question signify a question signifies I am a seeker of wisdom I want to learn and the first step towards spiritual liberation is I'm not complacent I want to find out something and we all know that one of the great characteristics of Judaism is that we do or we should at least encourage honest questions now there are some questions that have question marks and there are some questions that are the exclamation points sometimes a question is a hostile statement so when the Russia says in the Haggadah why are you doing this that's not a question with a question mark that's a question with an exclamation point statements well you got to be humble you have to sincerely want to learn since surely want to know and then you make your choices but if your questions are honest if your questions are genuine desires to know then in theory there's really nothing that is off-limits in practice not every school that every Shiva will be totally receptive but in theory honest questions are welcome and in fact the very name for a great person who is great in Torah knowledge a very interesting name he is called a calm mid now Tommy's become quite literally means well you can translate in actually two ways it either means a wise students or a student of the wise but either way you're calling like the greatest rabbis you're calling them students why are you calling them students that's students they've been teachers firfer for 80 years some of them the answer is because the true sign of wisdom is you're still a person that's trying to grow trying to learn I remember a conversation with a very very famous American legal academic in which he kind of just told me for the first 20 years of my life I had to listen and since then people listen to me meaning I'm not here to listen anymore I'm here to talk well tell mr. Condon's exactly as an idea to be open to receive to be open to learn to be open to grow it's not just a matter of cognate cognitive learning to be open to grow many of you may have heard of the famous Jewish German philosopher Fran's Rosen spike and Rose the spike grew up in an assimilated German family German Jewish family he was a brilliant brilliant student of philosophy and in those days this was the end of the 19th century beginning of the 20th century in order to get an academic position you have to be an official member of the Lutheran Church that was the state church in Russia or in Germany you didn't have to believe anything they really didn't care but you have to officially sign a card and tens of thousands of Jews did it not because they didn't necessarily walk into the church were they you know they didn't keep Judaism they you know if they signed the paper they get a good job so they signed the paper rosensweig was a person of greater integrity and he said I'm not going to officially declare myself a Christian until I walk into a synagogue at least once in my life and then I'll reject it so I'd be announced and the day he happened to choose was Yom Kippur but she had never heard of he had not read the Bible and unbeknownst to him the synagogue he chose seemingly at random was the only Hassidic synagogue in Berlin so the prayer service was very fervent so he walks in he figured it would be like a church in an orderly pews and or the German penchant for order and he sees everybody dressed in white the men are wearing Kittles even the women are wearing all white and they're praying and they're crying in their there they're pleading to God and he was overwhelmed with a spiritual power that he never thought existed in the world at all he decided at that moment to rip up the carnage Lutheran he became a Jew I he died relatively young of multiple sclerosis so I can't say he became a fully Orthodox Jew but he was well on the way to be a very traditional Jim he and Martin Buber you know translated the whole Jewish Bible oltona into German and I am told I don't read to him but I am told by scholars that it is a very very excellent translation and he devoted a lot of his time British and he managed to get him a good academic appointment but he was very very committed to Jewish learning and even organized learning groups in Berlin and other cities and he was willing to change his life as uncomfortable as initially it would be as difficult doesn't it be and indeed all of his friends thought he was primitive they thought he was crazy how could such a brilliant student of philosophy go back to medieval customs of the Dark Ages and one of them mocked him by saying I bet you even where it's fillin as if that was the ultimate insult and roses Frank responded not yet and has been pointed out that not yet is a very different answer than no he could have said no he was not wearing filling at that stage in his life yet but what's the point of not yet not yet means as the t-shirt saying goes life is a journey not a destination not yet says I'm still traveling I'm still moving I'm still growing I'm still exploring what I am today doesn't have to mean that's what I'll read tomorrow but I was yesterday doesn't have to me that's what I am today and that by the way is a great equalizer because Jews of all sorts of levels can have that in common the person who mastered the babylonian talmud can say i haven't done that you show me yet not yet the guy that drives and shabbat can say i still haven't done that yet me there's always a not yet in our lives because we're still growing we're still moving and that is the importance of the notion of a question and answer because a question says i'm not happy where I am I want to go I want to move I want to explore I want to be the Talmud you know they tell a funny story about the great rabbi I mentioned in last week in a different context Rebbe Eliezer silver of Cincinnati and legend has it he was a rabbi in Cincinnati for many years and before that Harrisburg but before that his very first position in the 1920s was in a New England community I will not mention it because the story is a little bit of Western era and the legend has it that he lost his job they fired him he was a great great Thomas Holcomb they fired him because they complained he was using too much electricity at night he used to learn in the show at night and they fired him for wasting electricity so when he protested in his defense but I'm learning Torah so the president said that's the point we thought we hired a rabbi who finished his education you're still studying those books that means you are an undereducated grad like you don't deserve the job anyone who understands you see the greatest rabbis or over 100 years old and they've been learning since they were no 10 or five and they're still learning you want haven't they gotten their education yet what's going on maybe something wrong with our cthulhu I mean why do I need a guy who's 90 years old he still hasn't gotten in yet but obviously in the opera's the case you grow you grow and growing is in learning growing as an asset growing as in Meadows growing as in loving and caring all of these things are a journey that we're going on and that's encapsulated in the idea of the question the quest the search then we go on to the next element you got to begin with the bat and culminate with the good you can't just not do any good now why is that so so I'll give you a simple reason but I'll give you a deeper reason the simple reason is it's a performing after type of problem meaning it's the nature of human beings that we don't appreciate blessing until we think about how bad things were before the blessing often is the case for example 30 person does not appreciate the blessings of health until god forbid there is illness and then you appreciate health those people who came from persecuted environments whether it was refugees from Nazi Germany of the Holocaust or people who came from the former Soviet Union when they come to a land of freedom whether it's America whether it's Israel they appreciate the gifts of just freedom in ways that a native-born person doesn't write so the Holocaust survivor in New York may be likely to be a bigger Patriot than his sub who was born in New York you know he doesn't really make a big deal of the 4th of July so one simple explanation is if I Shem wants us to have gratitude for the Exodus we have to really go over how bad the slavery was but I would like to suggest a deeper reason and that is the deeper reason is not simply a performant after but rather to understand that the darkness of slavery was part of the redemptive process itself it's not that it was bad and now it's good but rather the slavery itself was a gift of sorts in what way so I'll mention two particular ways one way was it gave us the sense of cohesiveness as a nation when we saw that no matter what we do the Emoto alum are not going to accept us and they persecute us it actually gave us a sense of unity right what do cause I'll say because I'll say that the Jewish people in Israel they kept their language they kept their Jewish names they wore their Jewish own the commentaries explained that that was a result of the slavery the slavery taught us a very bitter lesson that we have to care for each other because others are not gonna care for us we have to be one harm we have to have artists we have deaf community we have to have love for each other because when we depend on others we will often be let down again this is a a a lesson that has a lot of contemporary resonance so that's one thing we got we didn't get that from the accessories right and we got that from the Goldsmith right and there's something deeper the Torah tells us you shall love the stranger love the Gann because you were strangers in Eretz myths right the tour is telling us when you meet people that are poor powerless dispossessed weak ineffectual and they're not in a position to do anything for you you have care and love and compassion for them because you remember that you were once them you were once a slave you were once a nobody draw on that collective memory as a source of empathy and compassion for the downtrend and the idea that the Jewish people are we competitive people derives from two fundamental sources one is opera music in yakko particularly harem and sorrow and the other is the collective memory of each see a Smithsonian so the point is you begin with the bad and culminating the good not simply the creative performing after but to recognize that in the object of mitzrayim mmm was itself a hidden good the sower has an expression I think I've quoted before the light that is in the blackness there is something that so are calls the black lights this is not the light at the end of the tunnel this is the light within the darkness of the tunnel itself what's the lesson the lesson of Moscow and big nose if say Lord Shiva is be a seeker of wisdom the lesson of matzah bigness is to see even in the adversity of life the redemptive potentials that can bring out powers and capacities that you thought you never had so it's not just a mystery it was it's a lesson of how we deal with failure how we deal with struggle how we deal with that person any of you are familiar with Victor Frankel's work man's search for meaning arising out of his own experiences in the Holocaust that we have very little control over what happens to but the one choice we have is how we choose to respond do I choose the pathway of bitterness and hate or do I use the adversity to bring out qualities of goodness in me that otherwise wouldn't exist you know I have a friend friends my buddy Seth and Cheri Mendel you may know them or heard of them and around 12 years ago they lost the son together with his classmate who was tragically murdered brutally murdered outside of the coop they were exploring the caves and some courageous Eric freedom fighters took sharp rocks and just banged on their skulls till their brains oozed out they died horrible horrible deaths and one could imagine everyone cannot imagine and one should never ever ever have to experience anything near this but the Mandel's were so devastated and devastated is two miles of war that although they did have other children they literally did not know how their life could go on they didn't know it wasn't a question of crying one day it was different it was like a deadening you were you were dead inside you were a walking corpse you didn't know what to do though the life was over and how do we go on but eventually what they said what they decided to do was they decided to create a foundation and memory of their sons called a COPI Mendel foundation and this is a foundation that provides services to families that have been victimized by terrorism which unfortunately in Israel we have more than a few and they have helped over the past ten years they have helped thousands of people financially with the therapy with retreats with all sorts of services and all of this was something they would not have done at all except for the fact that this tragedy pushed them to find some meaning some purpose some light in the blackness of this darkness that would honor their son and his classmate as well and would give some meaning to their son's life in terms of a contribution that was made to the world this is finding the light in the greatest darkness I don't want to trivialize with another t-shirt saying when life gives you lemons you make lemonade okay that's a light quip but it actually expresses a fairly profound truth and therefore the assault of MAS Calvados Messiah Misrata is to understand that the adversities of life are in themselves redemptive experiences they are redemptive we have to extract a meaning from the most difficult experiences let me end with the story now I still have to do pesto class tomorrow I think I'll hold it over to the next week episode because that's a whole long thing but I want to finish the muscular bigness Messiaen be struck with a very organic very markable story there's many of you might have seen a biography of a rabbi yaakov Yosef Hermann written by his daughter both all for the boss this is reverence infer from the shame who wrote about her father she is no longer alive but her father was also the father-in-law of Sheinberg the Rebbetzin Sheinberg and were some ashamed our sisters and she tells us that her father was an unusual timing he came to America at a time when there were very few shomer Shabbos and he was exemplary in his seharris and mitzvahs just unbelievable but she tells the following story that I guess her father told her her father came with his parents to the United States around 1918 or 1919 and he was only a child of 12 or 13 not even Bar Mitzvah and his parents could not make it in America so they decided to go back and they set him up that he would work in those days there were no child labor laws kids worked and they set him up that he would pay five dollars a week or a month for a room and that was within the budget of what he would be making as soon as his parents went on the boat the landlord raised a rented $10 double the ransom this little boy did not have the means to pay that rent he was evicted Friday afternoon twelve-year-old boy evicted he spent Shabbos in Central Park having that's where he slept having nothing more than two rolls with him and one could really imagine how frightened he was was all alone no family it's not just the fright of the particular night what's he gonna do after shadows will how will he get a job where will he live you know who will take care of him is nobody to take care of him what's going to happen what is his future here and in the course of the night he eventually realized that Hashem will take care of him he had a Munna he had beat up that he'll get a job they'll make up Renault so one day he'll get married and I'll have a family but he then asked a sham for one thing he said to our Kurdish bar I know I should you will take care of me but my prayer to you is I should never forget my feelings this night I should never forget what it's like to be lonely to be scared to be alone that even when I'm successful I want to remember this so when I meet people who are lonely scared frightened I will know what their feelings and I will have empathy we know in the English language empathy and sympathy are actually two different words although they're related sympathy is the feeling that you have for somebody that's inferior to you like I can have sympathy for a dog I can have sympathy for you know the person that's a member you know on a higher level sympathy is I'm here and you're there empathy is I'm with you because I know what you're going through I've been there so if you know the rest of the book you know that eventually Yakko gets cut yeah kudos a brother became a successful businessman although he lost it in the depression and came to Israel but he was quite successful for a number of years and he and his Asia smile he got married to a very very righteous woman in her own right they would they created a home in which you had hundreds of people there for Shabbos and during the week and although he had his share of gaedola Wendy toliman Herbert Bayer Simmons God came to America he was the only person they would eat at they trusted him but he also had many people as guests that we would not like necessarily at our Shabbos tables he had people who were homeless people who were mentally disturbed people who if they didn't like the food that they got they had no hesitation with taking a hot tureen of children and dumping it over his head and these were not just Shabbos guests some of these people hung around for six months they just stayed in the house and when people would ask I got to feel safe how can you tolerate how can you stand these crazy people all over here all over here all the time and he said he knows what they're feeling because he remembers that night he remembers what it's like to feel helpless and hopeless and he says and when you have those feelings you no longer are angry in people you only can have where there are mothers of empathy so what this story again shows is that out of the crucible of the suffering that we have in our lives can come strengths and realizations that otherwise wouldn't exist so in retrospect this was the awful gift of God I am using awful not in the modern English sense but in the older English sense awful did not mean bad awful that awesome something that's very very powerful and something that has a cost to it obviously pain is not cost-free by definition an adversity costs tremendously but along with that cost there are potential gifts if we open our heart to see and absorb the light that exists even in the darkness and therefore the point I'm making is that in so I've identified the first two elements Shayla and Chava be a seeker of wisdom not feel bigness see the redemptive potential even in adversity all of this are the guide guideposts that help us navigate our own personalized you see us with right now I still have to finish all the whole segment for next week how Pesa I'm not saying Maura which is the next element how they help us and you know that'll be kind of the end of ours you'd see its mitzrayim series so have a good audition [Music]