The Rebbes Haggadah. 28 Questions & Answers. By: Rabbi Yitzchok Minkowicz. Happy Passover.

welcome to this great class in honor of pesak we're doing something unique and special we're going to be studying the Reb at the Reb himself authored 78 years ago and we're going to do this in honor of the re birthday which is coming up niss and that will allow us to give the Reb a beautiful birthday gift learning and spreading his teaching of his a and also have an opportunity to learn the hag the re's ideas and that will give us an opportunity to have an amazing beautiful s and that will uplift our whole experience on PES um what I did was since PES is all about asking questions and answers so this 28 which numerically is is which is power this 28 questions and answers so question number one what should you meditate and pray at the S so the re told us the rebba rashab told the previous rebba that he should pray to be aen what does that mean amen focus on spiritual things not on materialistic things and especially when the door is open for Elijah towards the end of the say next question what does ha mean ha means from the verse that he got to tell your child but also comes from to praise to be grateful so there's two components one is we're telling the story and being being grateful for all the Miracles that hasem gave us next question why the three mat number one is because we know that when a the Angels Came to Abraham so he told Sarah to make those cookies and he told to get three measures of flour and we know that that that took place on pesak that's one reason another reason why three because three is to honor and and and and recognize our three Patriarchs Abraham Isaac and Jacob next question are there 15 or 16 signs in the S where it says kades Etc so if you count on one hand there's 16 but we know there's 15 and explains there are 15 the last one technically is Hal but n is not that's not our job to do every one of the the 15 signs that's what we do and N means that comes as a gift is at the end we do a good job will accept us our s now the 15 signs of the S so 15 we know is UD is 10 and hey is five that's total of 15 what is y is and hey is B but the question is isn't say they're all about faith and the answer is that teaches us that our intellect as great as it is has to realize that the ultimate greatness comes fromal all accepting an the idea of Faith next question why four cups of wine and here there's multiple answers answer number one is that the four verses in the Torah that speak about the Redemption that responds to the four decrees that Pari made on the Jewish people next answer to break the four Cleo there Four Strong Cleo we have to break those Cleo next answer it corresponds in the story where the Butler that was imprisoned in Genesis from Paro and he told Joseph the dream and Joseph uh interpreted the dream there me there's mentioned cup four times there another reason it corresponds to the four kingdoms another reason is that it corresponds to the four cups of Wrath that hasm is going to pour on the nations of the world that are trying to destroy the Jewish people and the four cups of comfort that Hashem is going to give to the Jewish people another reason last reason it corresponds to the four letters in hashem's name the ud the he and the V and the he okay next question how do we break the afon one and why so first we break it in half and the bigger one we put away for AF but before we put it away we take that big half of the AF and we break it into five parts why is that because the middle matah is connected to Y of the Patriarchs and we know is is severity so what we do is we have to sweeten that the way we sweeten it we break it into five parts because five is connected to different five different levels of kindness and that's how we go ahead and we sweeten their judgments okay next question why do we uncover the matah when we recite the and the answer is because is the poor man's bread so one leral translation it's the bread of a poor person but means most from saying things so we uncover the matah because now we're going to say a lot of things to the matah okay next question we know that you have to remember going out of Egypt every day so what's so unique about PES and here the re gives multiple answers answer number one is all year round when you remember going out of Egypt enough if you do in your heart but on PES you have to do with your mouth with speech like it says Tell your child another answer is all year you just remember going out of Egypt but on pesak you actually not only speak it you actually say a story another reason is PES has to be done going out of Egypt remembering it by question and answer that's one of the reasons why we have over here all the questions and the answers another reason pesak is listed as one of the 613 Commandments remember going out of Egypt another reason PES is also going to apply remember going out of Egypt mhia comes as well and the last reason that pesak the mitvah talking about going out of Egypt is a whole night okay next question why don't we make a blessing on the ha and explains because the ha itself is a blessing just like for example the grace after meals you don't make a blessing you're going to make the grace after meals the grace after meals is the blessing so you don't need to make a blessing on top of a blessing okay next question the cohain the priest the levite and the converts they weren't enslaved in Egypt so are they obligated in saying the hag and the answer is yes because in hag where it speaks about different rabbis that gathered so one Rabbi was was a Coen a priest one of the rabbis was a levite and one was a son of a convert so you see clearly that all those three even though they weren't there they still have to um recite the okay how many times in the Tor doesn't mention going out of Egypt and the answer is 50 times even though we left Egypt once but NE but unfortunately we're so sunk into the Egypt mentality and We Know It took 50 days from PES till to to get Egypt out of us okay so says go and learn what do we have to learn we have to learn that the old the nations want to destroy us and is the one that saved us as we know La wanted to wipe us out totally and if not who saved us Hashem is the one that saved us okay how do we stand out as a Jewish nation in Egypt and the answer is we didn't change our names we didn't change our language we didn't change our religion and we didn't change our dress code okay what ISU what does that mean spiritually so Dau numerically doll is for UD is 10 and because it's a dgos there's an emphasis of a double yud it's another 10 n is 50 and V is six so numerically you have its total of 80 and that's the same numerical value as the SPH of your is 10 s is 60 V is six and dollar is four is a total of 80 um okay qu next question why don't we stand when we say we're saying Hal every time we say Hal we get up and we stand Why Don't We Stand and the answer is because everything that we do in the SED is done in a way of freedom and that's why we sit because we're free people okay next question why do we say we we were redeemed before saying our forefathers were redeemed in the blessing of redemption why we why we shouldn't we give respect to our forefathers first because remember explains beautifully the fact is if God didn't take us out of Egypt we would have been in Egypt we would have been slaves so there was so Redemption is personal so we're talking about our personal Redemption yes we were redeemed and we also heard that our ancestors were redeemed but this is something not about something in the past and someone else this is literally our Redemption okay next question why do we recite four different blessings on the wine and only one blessing after all them at the end of the S and the answer is because every single glass of wine is its own mid and its own unique expression of Freedom so you need to have four different blessings for it but on the other when it comes to Grace of the meals you do one at the end of a whole meal okay next question matah the highlight of the say we're eating the matah why do we eat it and what do we meditate when we eat it so first of all mat is a Biblical commandment spiritually mat is called food of faith and food of healing and it actually strength we know we have intellect we have the part that allows us to apply our intellect it actually strength strengthens the idea of Das now the Reb explains that the first night is all about faith it's it helps us in our faith the second night is the healing and when you have faith that comes first and then you have healing comes afterwards what does that mean that you're not even sick to begin with okay next question what's this whole idea of the Hill sandwich so we the explains in the temple times Hill said you had to eat the sandwich pesak the carbon pesak with the mat and the M now we don't have the carbon PES so you have to eat matah alone we like we ate alone but the problem is you need to eat the M with the matah so therefore we have now the mar and the matah together okay next question why do we eat the egg you know the hardboiled egg in the beginning of the meal and the reason why we eat the egg in the beginning of the meal it's a sign of mourning for the destruction of Temple because if we had the temple we would had the pasal lamb and everything else it's a sign of mourning next question when do you pour Elijah the prophet's cup and why do you do it then so the re explains there's a big debate you do before Grace after meals and after Grace after meals our customers report before the grace after meals and that's Point number one and B you pour it before you pour your own cup why is that because anything to bring the Redemption first so therefore you do it before the gra s meals and you do it before you pour your own cup also as we know that Elijah is here to testify that we were circumcised and that's a prerequisite to the Passover sat that's why we pour Elijah's cup okay now why do we pour next question why do we pour the fourth cup before we say the prayer we ask God to to to to leash out his wrath on the nations of the world so the fact is the four cups as we already learned before correspond to the four cups of Wrath that God's going to pour out over the nations of the world now so therefore we're completing we we're completing this m by pouring the cup beforeand and now we're asking hem okay now Hashem we pour the fourth cup which represents you pouring your wrath out now do it do your job that's Point number one also the four cups like we learned before is correspond to the four kingdoms so so the fourth cup it represents the Last Exile that we're in and the Final Redemption so we pour it now that God should bring the Final Redemption okay next question why do we open the door so explains because to because the night of PES is the night where hasem watches over us so we have no fear We're Not Afraid and we keep the door open and the Merit of our faith messia the Messiah will be revealed also we have to let the the Elijah Prophet come in to tell us about the Redemption next question what is the power of Hal so we know that when Hal Hal is said when they established time to say Hal it's a time of and I'll say in Hebrew that Ms the truth of hasem is revealed so we're saying we're revealing the essence of hasem okay next question why is why is it called the Big Hal three answers number one is that what does it say in that is providing food to everybody that's huge Hashem is providing food to the whole world that's why it's called a big next reason is it has actually 26 Praises for Hashem and 26 we know is the numerical value of hashem's infinite name of and the third reason is that the holy pra the Holy Angels praise Hashem with these and the next question is what is the meditation that we say when we say so we learned before there are 26 Praises so when we say the first 10 Praises we meditate on the letter yud which numerically is 10 and that's the first letter in hashem's name when we say the next five Praises we meditate on the letter hey which is numerically five that's second letter of hashem's name and then when we say the next six Praises we meditate in the letter V which numerically is six which is the third letter in hashem's name and the last five Praises we meditate on the letter hey which is numerically five which the last letter is hashem's name so you have a total of 26 and you have the meditation again the first 10 on yud next five on he next six on V and the last five on the letter he now next question why don't we say the P we finished the Passover service and explains beautifully he says the energy of pce continues a whole year even though all festivals the energy continues a whole year but PES energy is the most P the most powerful so let's hope and pray that by learning theb and connecting to the rebba and we have a great powerful meaningful PES a beautiful seder and let's hope that next year in Jerusalem which means um by the time next year comes around we already have been in Jerusalem have a great and happy pace p