Rav Yitzchak Breitowitz: 4 Expressions of Redemption Parallel 4 Evil Decrees

[music] [singing] [music] [music and singing] [singing] >> Okay, how are you everybody? Hope you're well. I'm uh I am very, very impressed uh that you had the mysterious nefesh to uh to come to a sheer with the weather as it is. I don't know if um you experienced this connected to the parsha that this morning uh there was a very brief hail storm for around 10 minutes, but mama share it was fair fairly heavy, so uh we experienced the barad at least uh or the other hopefully not the other makos. And uh today's sheer we're praying for the lasting unity of the people of Israel, which will lead to victory and for all of those whose health has been affected by terror uh refuah shleima for Chaya Nachama Malka bas Rivka Miriam and Nachama Reitza bas Chaya Sara may they should have a refuah shleima besoch cholei Yisrael and Yisrael ben Adina by Randy and Jeffrey Getzow's uh again a good friend of mine, a good friend of E Banay and may all of the cholei have a refuah shleima. Amen. Uh in indeed Zev and Chani Juravel dedicate the sheer leilui nishmas both sets of our parents aleihem hashalom as well as the hope of yeshuos and refuos for all in need. Again, as I mentioned before, Chani Juravel grew up in my own community of Hartford, Connecticut and her parents in particular aleihem hashalom were very, very instrumental, very important influence on my life and the lives of how do you say it again? Hartford, Connecticut. Chani Juravel. No, Chani grew up in Hartford, Connecticut. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And uh as a result uh her parents uh Rabbi and Mrs. Finkelstein uh were very, very uh important influences on the lives of many. They were doing kiruv before kiruv was a thing and uh they should have a neshama. I'm not talking to know Reb Zev's parents, but I'm sure that uh a very similar story can be said. Uh in memory of Binyamin ben Moshe Halevi, father of Daniel Goldstein, whose yahrzeit is on the 28th of Teves. Also sponsored by Sam Lazarovich leilui nishmas his father Eliezer ben Aaron Shmuel and this is still during the shloshim period. Uh Mr. Laser Lazarovich was a survivor of the death camps in the Shoah and then went on to volunteer and fight in the Haganah in the 1948 Israel War of Independence. Yehi zichro baruch. An anonymous contribution was made for nitzachon of all of our chayalim and Hashem's protection for all of klal Yisrael for the geulah shleima soon and then I just received from Tirza uh that her brother is not is is ill. This is Ruvein ben Chaya Sara should have a refuah shleima betoch sh'ar cholei Yisrael. Uh this morning at the OU uh someone dedicated the sheer leilui nishmas all of the neshamos that were born from Adam Harishon until the present It's a very that's a very ambitious dedication, but again, I'm willing to incorporate that as well that all the neshamos that need aliyahs uh should have uh should have aliyahs. Again, uh thank you, thank you for coming and uh we are still of course in the story of yetzias Mitzrayim and in the end of parshas Shmos, the end of last week's parsha something very, very unsettling happens to Moshe Rabbeinu and that is Moshe Rabbeinu is at the burning bush and Hashem is giving him this mission and [snorts] Moshe comes up with every excuse in the book not to take on the responsibility. I'm not good enough, they're not good enough, I stutter, I'm not a good speaker, Paroh's not going to listen to me, the Jewish people aren't going to listen to me, I don't want to go, find somebody else who's better, find somebody else who's more suitable. And and Moshe argues with Hashem for a whole week, a whole week he's arguing with Hakadosh Baruchu over assuming this shlichus. Finally, at the end he finally breaks down. God says you're going whether you like it or not. So he goes to Paroh and he says Hashem says let my people go. Of course, that's a whole other story, which I'm not necessarily going to talk about. Initially, he does not say let my people go. He says give them a three-day furlough in the desert. That's a bit of a mysterious part of the story because sometimes Moshe puts it that way and sometimes not. It's not it's not even a consistent lie. Uh every once in a while he pulls out the three days, other times he says let them go. But whatever it is and Paroh in a very mocking way looks at his list of idols, officially approved deities and says "Mi Hashem?" "Asher eshma beqolo?" Who is this God you're talking about that I should listen to him? He's not on my approved list and he doesn't mean anything to me. And he says "You guys, you Jews have too much time on your hands, so you're thinking of political freedom and the like. You guys are too lazy." So Paroh made it worse. Uh there was a quota of bricks that they had to manufacture every day. Apparently, they needed straw to mix into the bricks and uh they had been given the straw and Paroh now says from now on they got to get their own straw and they still have to make the same quota of bricks. Now again, we don't really know how much extra time that this added to their day, but you see from the Chumash itself that this was a major, major imposition on a people that were already oppressed with slavery. And when Moshe walks out of Paroh's palace and people are look the Jewish people are looking at him. They're kind of saying who needed you? You made things even worse than they were. We need people like that? And this is one of the points in the Torah, one of the points where Moshe Rabbeinu kind of breaks down from a human standpoint in which he says to God "I didn't want to do this in the first place. I didn't want to do this." "Lama hareisa li ya mizeh?" "Why did you make it worse?" "Why did you send me?" Again, the frustration of a person that they try to do good and what they do seems to make it worse than it was. And frankly, this is one of the one of the places where Moshe Rabbeinu kind of breaks down a little bit. And Hashem says to him and now we're we're at the beginning of our parsha that you know, I appeared to Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov and I did not show them my name of mercy, my attribute of mercy. I made many promises to them which were not kept in their lifetimes by Eretz Yisrael and the like. But they had faith in me and when things didn't go well and when there were nisyonos they accepted that. But you are lacking that faith. >> [snorts] >> And Hakadosh Baruchu tells Moshe there will be a redemption, there will be a geulah. And Moshe Rabbeinu has to go back. Now now the truth of the matter is Hashem already told him even at the burning bush, even at the burning bush Hashem told him that I know that Paroh is not going to let the people go. So people ask the question, so why is Moshe Rabbeinu so shocked when Paroh says no if Hashem said ahead of time Paroh was going to say no. But the answer is I think the pashut pshat is that Moshe didn't think things would get worse. Yeah, he knew Paroh was going to say no and there would have to be a process, but he never imagined that chas v'shalom things would get worse before they get better, but kacha havei this was the the ratzon of Hakadosh Baruchu. So there are so many ideas about the makos. Obviously just simple pshat, no nothing, nothing fancy here. The purpose of the makos was not to force Paroh to release the Jewish people from slavery. Number one, if that would be the case, it would make no sense for Hashem to then harden Paroh's heart so he wouldn't release the Jews from slavery. And number two, if Hashem just wants to take them out, he'll just take them out. He doesn't have to force Paroh to acquiesce in letting the Jewish people go. Just take them out. So it's a davar pashut meod that the tachlis of the makos was not to force Paroh to let the Jewish people go but it was to demonstrate Hakadosh Baruchu's mastery over the universe, over the natural forces of the universe and ultimately even over human free will. And if this of course gives rise to one of the most famous questions in theology that the Rambam addresses, other commentaries address and that is the idea that God hardened Paroh's heart. All of us know that bechira chofshis, free will is a very fundamental principle in Judaism. Uh Chazal say "Hakol biyedei Shamayim." Everything is in the hands of heaven, rich, poor, successful, failure >> [cough] >> good health, illness this comes from God. We don't control that. "Chutz mi yiras Shamayim." Except for the decision to serve Hashem. That's not up to God, that's up to you. Thing I mentioned before my Rosh Yeshiva zichrono livracha Rav Ruderman would ask us at the beginning of every zman "Are we going to learn well this zman?" And we would give the firm answer "Im yirtzeh Hashem, if God wills, we will learn well." And he would always tell us, "That's the wrong answer. God certainly wants you to learn well. But it's not up to God, it's up to you. So, you should say, 'If you're Hashem, I'll learn well, because it's totally on me.'" This itself is an extraordinary idea that God, so to speak, abdicated his total control of the universe to give me the capacity to rebel against him. That's extraordinary. Fact, philosophically, one of the objections to free will is it is a contradiction to God's omnipotence. Meaning, how could it be that I have the power to do something God I mean, does God want me to violate Shabbos? Does God want me to eat treif? Does God want me to hurt people? The answer is, "No." But I have the power to do things that God doesn't want. How can that be? Is that Is that not a contradiction to divine omnipotence? And the Rambam's answer is, "Well, it all depends how you define God's will." God does not want me to violate Shabbos, but God wants me to have the capacity to violate Shabbos. And therefore, in a sense, God's abdication to enable me to rebel against him is part of God's plan. Now, why Why would it be part of God's plan? Why does God create a world where I can choose to do evil? The answer is, because goodness is truly good only when it's chosen, and not when it's automatic. So, in a sense, if God wants to create a universe where the potential for good is optimalized, that has to coexist with the ability to choose evil. Because if I didn't have the choice, there would be nothing good in my goodness, it would simply be mechanical. I would also add uh Victor Frankl's perspective that sometimes it is our confrontation with evil that brings out qualities of goodness, resilience, and heroism that would otherwise not be brought out. So, I need the evil, so to speak, to bring out the qualities of of good. Be it as it may, this is free will. Free will is fundamental. Now, the Rambam then asks the question, "Well, the Rambam says, 'Any reward or or punishment system is predicated on free will, because if I don't have a choice, how could I be punished for doing things wrong? And why do I Why do I deserve reward if I do things right? So, if the Torah creates a reward and punishment mechanism, either this world, the world to come, that makes no difference, that presupposes free will.' So, the Rambam then asks on himself, and he does this both in the Mishneh Torah and in his introduction to Pirkei Avot, called the Shmona Prakim, the eight chapters, which was written many, many years before the Mishneh Torah, but the Rambam is quite consistent uh there, and that is, how do we understand the narrative that God hardened Pharaoh's heart? That seemingly suggests that Pharaoh, on his own, would have been broken by the makkos. He would have let the Jewish people go, but God wanted to show him up. And God kind of overpowered his natural inclination or Pharaoh's natural inclination to let the Jews go, so Pharaoh literally could not choose the other way. Uh so, how could Pharaoh and the Egyptians be punished for whatever evil they were forced to do? So, the Rambam's very well-known answer, that itself needs a lot of explanation, is [snorts] that he points out that the phrase "God hardened Pharaoh's heart" only appears in the second five makkos. In the first five makkos, it says uh Pharaoh hardened his own heart and didn't set forth the people. So, the Rambam develops the idea that just as in a divine system of reward and punishment, God can choose many, many punishments. There can be death, there can be poverty, there can be illness, there can be olam haba gehennom punishments. There can be loss of function. So, the Rambam says, "One of the punishments in God's arsenal is that if a person is habitually making evil choices on his own, the punishment might be he loses the capacity to correct himself by doing teshuvah." So, the Rambam suggests, "If God hardened Pharaoh's heart in the second five, Pharaoh was not being punished for anything he did beyond that point. But Hashem wanted Pharaoh to be punished and the Egyptians uh all of these punishments for their prior evil choices. And therefore, he was monea, he withheld the darkhei teshuvah, the path of repentance, until they had received all of the punishment that was decreed. So, the point the Rambam is making is the last five makkos are not punishments for Pharaoh's refusal to let them go, they are for rather for for Hashem hardening Pharaoh's heart, they are punishments for the first five makkos and the slavery, and Hakadosh Baruch Hu was monea teshuvah from these resha'im so that they would get the full measure of their punishment. Uh alternatively, one might give a psychological interpretation that God hardening Pharaoh's heart refers to the addictive effect of repetitive sin, and that as a person sins and sins and sins at a point in their life when they had free will, at some point it becomes so habitual that they can't disengage, but they're still going to be responsible because that habituation came from the volitional choices that they made. That's Some people say that that's what the Rambam is saying. It seems that the Rambam is making a different point, but both points are going to be are going to be valid. Maharal offers a third approach. He said, "God hardening Pharaoh's heart did not mean that God overrode his free will. Rather, God made Pharaoh impervious to externalized pressures. In fact, Pharaoh was the freest agent in the world. Most people are affected by external circumstances. God took away Pharaoh being affected by external circumstances. So, he had a genuine capacity to choose good or evil, and Pharaoh chose evil. So, it's not that God overrode his choice. God said, 'I'm going to make you a free agent where none of these pressures are going to affect you.' That itself is a punishment, because part of the chesed Hashem is we can be affected positively by negative experiences. He took that gift away from Pharaoh. And Pharaoh's decision was his own volitional decision. This is what the what the Maharal says. By the way, I I noticed on YouTube that um they have a computer-generated face. You can actually see what Pharaoh Pharaoh looked like based on mummies and the like. Uh handsome guy, actually. Okay, but >> [laughter] >> But that, of course, could create the arrogance of thinking that he could defeat God. Uh which, of course, um is a very common mistake, but it never work never works out never works out uh well uh for the person who tries to defy uh defy Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Okay. So, if we go back to the beginning of the parsha, though, and the beginning of the parsha, once again, is a continuation of Shemot, the end of Shemot, where Moshe is expressing his bitterness, his sadness, because he loves the Jewish people so much. How could I be an instrument to bring bad upon my people? How can it be? I didn't want to go, and you made me go. Again, why didn't Moshe understand the bigger picture on his own? Again, it's an interesting question, but I think the pashut peshat is that you have to look at it from a human standpoint, frankly. The Bnei Yisrael are so beloved to Moshe, >> [snorts] >> and the fact that he was an instrument that brought them more pain can break him. Meaning, interestingly enough, whatever happens to Moshe, Moshe could take. But what happens to Am Yisrael, that he can't take. Remember by the eigel, we're going to read in a few weeks, Hashem says, "I'm going to wipe out this rebellious people, and I will make a covenant with you, and you will be the new nation with whom I will have a relationship." And Moshe said, "If you get rid of them, get rid of me. I don't want a private deal." He says, "I only want to be part of the Jewish people. If there's no other Jewish people, then don't even keep me around." And that attitude he's exhibiting at the very beginning. But when Hashem rebukes Moshe and gives him mussar, he tells them, "Lachen emor el Bnei Yisrael, tell Bnei Yisrael, go back to them, and say, 'Ani Hashem.' >> [cough] >> Ani Hashem, meaning I am the middah of rachamim, whose word is dependable and trustworthy." And then we have the famous four leshonot of geulah. Hotze'ti et'chem, I will take them out from the burdens of Mitzrayim. I will save them from their labor. I will redeem them with an outstretched arm and with wonders. I will take them unto me for a nation. Right? These are called the four terms of geulah. V'hotze'ti, v'hitzal'ti, v'ga'al'ti, u'lakahti. Now, there is a fifth term in the next pasuk, "And I will bring them." Va'heve'ti et'chem el ha'aretz. We'll come back to that in a moment. But as all of you know, based [clears throat] on these four leshonot of geulah, the chachamim enacted Pesach night at leil seder that we have four cups of wine. It's midrabannan, it's not d'oraita. Dalet cosos is midrabannan. But it's keneged the four leshonos of Geulah. Now, I want to point out something that people don't realize. This is a very well-known reason, and you know, even uh your children in fourth or fifth grade or earlier will know this reason that the dalet cosos are keneged the four leshonos of Geulah. Interestingly enough, >> [snorts] >> this opinion does not appear in the Babylonian Talmud whatsoever. The Babylonian Talmud gives a different reason for four cosos, I'll get to in a minute. Uh the makor that the dalet cosos are keneged the four leshonos of Geulah is from the Talmud Yerushalmi. And this is a an interesting example. Talmud Yerushalmi is not learned as much, uh but it's an interesting example of a teaching that really has entered mainstream, not in the Bavli, but from the Yerushalmi. Derech agav, I'll give you another example of a halacha that is only from the Yerushalmi, not the Bavli. You know, the halacha in Shulchan Aruch is you're not allowed to eat matzah from Erev Pesach in the morning even before chametz. You can eat chametz early in the morning, cannot eat matzah from Erev Pesach in the morning. Now, many people have been hogging that go way beyond that. They stop Rosh Chodesh Nisan, some even stop from Purim. Yeah, those are minhagim, but the halacha is Erev Pesach >> [laughter] >> in the morning. And the reason is we don't want to ruin your appetite for the matzah you're going to eat at night, so you'll want to have a little bit of a a break. And the Talmud Yerushalmi and uh the statement is anyone who eats matzah on Erev Pesach is like having intercourse with their betrothed before the time of the marriage comes, meaning to say it'll be mutar eventually and even a mitzvah, but you're jumping the gun. Interestingly enough, this is an interesting example of a halacha that is not in the Babylonian Talmud at all. As far as our Gemara is concerned, there is no prohibition, and it's totally based on the Yerushalmi. Uh this raises an interesting method methodological question which I I'm not going to go into, and that is given the fact that when there's a machlokes between the Bavli and the Yerushalmi, the klalim of psak are that we follow the Bavli, so shouldn't it stand to reason if a prohibition is in the Yerushalmi and there is no such prohibition in the Bavli, shouldn't that lead to the halacha that there's no prohibition? Because if the Bavli doesn't tell you it's prohibited, the assumption is that would be the same as telling you it's permitted. Right? That would be the the assumption. So, I'll leave that as a question, uh but I I bring it up because once again, two interesting examples of the Yerushalmi entering the mainstream are both from Pesach. One is not a halachic difference, but it is the significance of the four cups of wine. And the other is the prohibition of eating matzah on Erev Pesach. Now, the Bavli's reason for the four cosos is really a very pragmatic reason. That there are four mitzvos of the seder that you need to do over a cup of wine. You got to recite kiddush over a cup of wine. You got to recite maggid, the Haggadah, over a cup of wine. You got to recite benching over a cup of wine. You got to recite hallel over a cup of wine. So, it's not because of the four leshonos of Geulah according to the Bavli, it is simply because there are four mitzvos of leil seder that need to be done with a joyous wine. That's why, by the way, according to the Bavli, it is extremely important that you recite it. If people wonder sometimes, you know, when you look at the Haggadah, so the Haggadah says right before right before Manishtana, fill up the second kos. Now, you may wonder, why do I have to fill up the second kos now? Why can't I fill up the second kos when it's time to drink it? Because you have to understand, the mitzvah of dalet cosos is not only drinking the wine, it's reciting the mitzvah over a cup of wine. So, the second kos is you recite Haggadah over a cup of wine. So, it's not enough that right before it's time to drink, you pour yourself a cup of wine, you must have a recitation over the cup of of wine. Ad ken deka, that Brisker's have a chumra, interestingly enough, that if your if your wine spills, let's say in the middle of the maggid, you have to refill you have to start the maggid again because you have to say the whole maggid over the cup of wine that you recited the maggid over. I I can't recite the maggid over this cup and drink that cup. It has to be the same cup. So, mamila, if I have to refill the cup, I got to recite all of the maggid until that point. Now, that's a Brisker chumra, but uh it actually makes sense. Okay. But nevertheless, in spite of the fact that the Bavli gives this other reason, >> [snorts] >> the Yerushalmi it's very very well-known that the four cups of wine are keneged the four leshonos of Geulah. And arba leshonos Geulah, what about the fifth language, veheveisi? So, the truth of the matter is there actually is an amora de'amora in the Gemara that you should have five cups of wine, Rabbi Tarfon. And he says because of veheveisi bringing us to Eretz Yisrael. And lahalacha, there are many rishonim that consider the fifth cup optional, but actually preferable. The Maharal actually considers the fifth cup to be ideal, although it's not required. But most of the uh Jewish world does not have a fifth cup because we consider veheveisi not referring to the short term of coming to Eretz Yisrael, but the ultimate Messianic redemption. And that has not been fulfilled yet. And indeed, when Mashiach comes, we will have a fifth cup. That is why the Ashkenazic minhag that some Sefardim have taken over of kos shel Eliyahu, which we don't drink, is said to be keneged the fifth kos. And it's keneged to Eliyahu because Eliyahu has not He is going to announce the coming of Mashiach. Therefore, this is Eliyahu's cup, which will be drunk when Mashiach comes and Klal Yisrael will brought back to Eretz Yisrael without any without any galus uh ever to follow uh to follow again. Um By the way, it's a little aside, I just want to not not not even relevant to what I'm talking about, the uh what looks like uh the the fall of Iran, and you know, who knows, uh once again, is actually one of the signs of Mashiach. There's absolutely no question. The Maharal 500 years ago talked about Paras uh attacking Am Yisrael and falling uh as a sign of the Geulah Sheleima. So, these things are a little scary at the same time, but uh it is it is very much connected to the Messianic process, the fall of Paras. Okay. Now, the question becomes, if we go with the Yerushalmi that the four cosos are keneged the arba leshonos of Geulah, the question is why are there four leshonos of Geulah? Why why I mean, Yitziat Mitzrayim was a unitary event. We were taken out of Mitzrayim. Why do we have four leshonos of Geulah? >> [snorts] >> So, the first answer I'm going to give you is from the Netziv, who offers a very very carefully constructed psak readings of the psukim. Rabbi Yaakov ben Netziv, uh it's for people who may not know, he was Rav Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin. He was the great rosh yeshiva of the great Volozhin Yeshiva that was forcibly closed down by the Russians in the 1890s. The Netziv died of heartbreak shortly thereafter. Uh and the Netziv was one of the great great gedolei hador, but he was also the rav of Volozhin as in addition to the rosh yeshiva of the Volozhin Yeshiva. And every morning he would go to the regular shul. He would leave the Yeshiva, and he would teach a shiur in Chumash and Rashi that he would augment with his own explanations that then became incorporated in the great set of Chumashim known as the Ha'amek Davar. Uh and the Netziv says as as somebody compared him to another gaon hador, Rabbi Yitzchak Elchanan. He said, "Well, Yitzchak Elchanan, you know, he'll give a shiur on Ketzos Hachoshen, the very complicated Talmudic commentaries. He says, 'I'm a simpler person. I just want to give a shiur uh in Chumash in Chumash and Rashi.'" But uh anyone who learns the Ha'amek Davar sees it's really an exceptionally uh interesting peirush because he reads the psukim very very closely. And the Netziv demonstrates through a very close textual analysis, and without PowerPoint, it's it would be hard for me to flesh it out totally, that Yitziat Mitzrayim actually occurred in four different stages. And that's why there are four leshonos of Geulah. Uh stage one was that during the makos, things happened during the plagues, was that Paroh relieved them from avodas perech. I mean, avodas perech means back-breaking and humiliating labor. So, stage one is they were released from avodas perech, >> [snorts] >> but they still were avadim. Stage two is they were no longer avadim, they were benei chorin, but they were not allowed to leave the country. Stage three is yetziat Mitzrayim itself when after makat bechorot they left and stage four was the ultimate freedom of being given a mission in life which is matan Torah. So then it's And again, then it save beautifully shows that that's why some of the makot it says he didn't send the nation and other times he didn't send benei Yisrael implying nation is an inferior status benei Yisrael is they're benei chorin but they can't leave. So according again then it save the four leshonot of geulah are the four shelavim of independence. Lashon number one is freedom from [snorts] backbreaking labor but you're still a slave. Lashon number two is liberation from slavery but you're still a captive in the country. Lashon number three which is geulah is literally being able to leave. And lashon number four taking me to taking I'm taking you you to me as a nation is matan Torah which all many meforshim say that actually the velokachti eschem leam is matan Torah and it's very important that matan Torah is one of the freedom signs meaning it's not that we were taken out of Mitzrayim and then we get the Torah but the gemar of yetziat Mitzrayim is matan Torah. That's why when people put up the sign in during the 1970s when there was a lot of political action to free Soviet Jews Jews from the Soviet Union they would always quote the pasuk "Let my people go." But that's that's that's not a complete completely accurate translation. Shelach ami "Send forth my people." But they always left out the last word vayavduni so they will serve me. Yetziat Mitzrayim was not a an end in itself. It was to enable us to to receive the Torah and serve Hashem. All right, so this is the Netziv's understanding of the four leshonot of geulah. But I want to share with you a bit of a more mystical understanding of the four leshonot of geulah that comes from the Chidushei Harim Reb Yitzchak Meir Alter who was the founder of Ger Chassidus. He was the first Rebbe of Ger. Right, his son was the Sfas Emes and then from then on you have the Ger dynasties. Uh Ger was If any of you have parents or grandparents from Europe Ger Ger Gor Gor as they say Gor was the largest Chassidus in Poland. Very very very very very large. Um And of course they tell the story about the Ger Rebbe which is I will tell you ahead of time it's almost certainly not true but I but I'm going to say it because it's a it's a an interesting story that when the Ger Rebbe was smuggled out of Europe which he which he was indeed Reb Reb Imrei Emes that was the grandson of the Chidushei Harim. So he was brought to London for a brief time and Winston Churchill wanted to meet him because he heard this was the great great leader of the Jewish people. And this is during the Battle of Britain when the Nazis are bombing London you know, every night. And Churchill says to the Ger Rebbe like what you're a man of God you know, can you give us help in our struggle against the evil Nazi empire? So the Chidushei So the Ger So the Ger Rebbe the Imrei Emes said according to the story "Well do you want help by natural means or supernatural means?" So Churchill said "Well, let's first talk about natural means." So the Ger Rebbe said "Well, the natural way you'll get salvation is take out your Bible and say Psalms and say Tehillim and pray to God and naturally that's going to bring you yeshua." What's the supernatural way? With your army defeating the Nazis that would be a miracle. He says "If you get saved by Tehillim that's going to be normal. To think that your army can defeat Hitler that would be miraculous." So this is the story they tell. Again my I'm pretty sure it's not a true story but it makes a good point uh that one should remember. Um as Rabbi Wine used to say when he would tell stories that may not be true he said "You know, all my stories are true but some of them haven't happened yet." You know, but they're still they're still true. Okay. Uh but going back to the Chidushei Harim Reb Avraham Reb Yitzchak Meir Alter the first Ger Rebbe he draws an interesting correlation. The Midrash Rabbah on Shemot has two different midrashim about the significance of the four leshonot of geulah. One is connected to the four decrees of Paroh. Paroh himself decreed different persecutions on the Jewish people. And they add up to four and God is redeeming us from all of those persecutions. Gezeirah number one is slavery. Gezeirah number two is when he instructed the meyaldos to Shifrah and Puah to kill the males. Gezeirah number three is because Shifrah and Puah didn't do it the soldiers were told to throw the males in the water. And gezeirah number four is kash they have to get their own straw. So the Midrash Rabbah says the four leshonot of geulah are connected the four gezeirot of Paroh. Even though the chareira some of those gezeirot were already nullified the gezeirah of throwing the babies in the water was no longer there but Hashem took us out of a situation where we faced that gezeirah. That's midrash number one. The four leshonot of geulah correspond to the four gezeirot of Paroh. Then there's midrash number two that says the four leshonot of geulah are God's promises with respect to the four kingdoms that are going to enslave us after Mitzrayim. Right, the famous four kingdoms that are so prominent in the sefer Daniel and in the song Maoz Tzur of Chanukah we talk about them. There is the exile of Babylon that is followed by the exile of Persia and the exile of Greece followed by the last galus that we're still in the exile of Rome. All the midrashim do bring in Yishmael there as well but the basic four are Bavel Paras Yavan and Edom and we are in the Edomite exile. So the midrash says when Hashem gives Moshe the four leshonot of geulah Hashem is not only talking about yetziat Mitzrayim but Hashem is telling Moshe that there will be many many different exiles and I will eventually take the Jewish people out of each and every one of those exiles. So keep in mind therefore we have two midrashim. Midrash number one connects the four leshonot of geulah to the four decrees of Paroh. Midrash number two connects the four leshonot of geulah to the four malchiyot of Bavel Paras Yavan and Edom the Roman exile that we're still suffering under. The Chidushei Harim and this is his chiddush wants to connect he wants to link the two midrashim. Because he says the reason why we need to go through the four galuyot is because the four gezeirot of Paroh were never allowed to run their course. And here's his point. Hashem initially decreed that we would be enslaved for 400 years. And had we gone through the 400 years of exile that could have purified us and we would have been ready for Mashiach right then. But Hakadosh Baruchu could not allow those 400 years to be completed because even after 200 years we were on the 420 10 years we were on the 49th [clears throat] level of tumah. The analogy is like cancer. A person has cancer rachmana litzlan. So a person has to undergo chemotherapy. But chemotherapy can be so toxic and so powerful that it may kill the patient. So you have to discontinue the chemo because the chemo will kill the patient. But when you discontinue the chemo the problem is some of the cancer is still there. And that cancer may grow and grow and grow and at some point may require more radical treatments than even the chemo that you had to discontinue. >> [cough] [clears throat] >> The Chidushei Harim does not use this example but this example illustrates perfectly his point. Had we been able to complete the 400 years the cancerous bad midot to whatever would have been gone. No need for galus. We just have to hold out for another 190 years. But we couldn't because we were on the 49th level of impurity. That would have been it. Even the amount of time it takes for the matzah to become chametz 18 minutes. Couldn't wait. Hashem had to take us out. So that's good. Baruch Hashem we left 190 years early. But we left with all sorts of imperfections and defects that require thousands of years of galus to truly eradicate. That's very, very disheartening. Had we been able to wait it out for another 190 years, there wouldn't have been any need for a subsequent galus. There wouldn't have been a korban Beis Hamikdash. Mashiach would have come right then. How he would coordinate with Moshiach is an interesting question, but there would have been a Mashiach. So therefore, the Chidushei HaRim says, it's precisely because the four gezeiros of Paroh did not run their full course, which is Medrash number one, which is why we have the four galuyos, the four malchiyos, which is Medrash number two. So based on this, the Chidushei HaRim offers a very interesting thesis, in which he says, he wants to match up each gezeirah of Paroh with one of the exiles. The first gezeirah corresponds to what Bavel did. The second gezeirah is Persia. The third gezeirah is Yavan. The fourth gezeirah is Edom. So you have to have two lists in your mind. And let's see how it matches up. Gezeirah number one of Paroh was simply the gezeirah of servitude. The Jewish people were enslaved. Now that didn't run its full course. So as a result, we have the Babylonian exile. The truth of the matter is, it was Bavel that first enslaved us. If you think about this, Persia, Greece, Rome were already occupying a subordinated people. It was Bavel that took an independent Jewish state and conquered it. We lost our sovereignty with Bavel. So Bavel represents the galus of subjugation, enslavement, uh and uh being subordinated. Now it's true, by the way, I want to point out that between Greece and Rome, there in fact was an independent Jewish state for 103 years. And that is, of course, the Hasmonean kingdom in the aftermath of the Chanukah story. But it's interesting that Chazal do not regard the Hasmonean as a separate, even though politically it was a Jewish state. But given the fact that they themselves became Hellenist in orientation, it is considered to be a continuity of Yavan, meaning Malchus Hasmonean is regarded as a hemshech of Malchus Yavan. Even though technically there was a revolt against the Yavan. Okay. >> [snorts] >> So, gezeirah number one is avdus. That translated into Bavel, which enslaved us, persecuted us, subjugated us. Okay. Now gezeirah number two was initially genocide. Shifra and Puah were ordered, they were the midwives. Actually, Chazal say Shifra and Puah are none other than Yocheved and Miriam. And uh they were given a job because Paroh had some vision or his astrologers had a vision that there would be a savior uh born from the Jewish boys. And therefore, Paroh ordered that uh they kill the babies as they're born. Shifra and Puah did not do it, etc. So it was an attempt at a genocide that was unsuccessful. This was actually the story in Persia. During the Persian domination is the story of Purim. Haman attempted to wipe out the Jewish people. And he too, baruch Hashem, was unsuccessful. In fact, I heard Netanyahu uh referring to the Purim story as he's talking about the fall of Persia and the fall of Haman. And he says, "You know, we celebrate that every year, you know, etc. And uh we will celebrate the fall of Iran uh in the same in the same way." Um and the like. So you see what's going on. Gezeirah number one is slavery. That corresponds to galus Bavel. Gezeirah number two is attempted genocide, which did not carry out. That corresponds to Persia. Now, gezeirah number three is a bit more symbolic and abstract. This too seems to be genocide. This is where the soldiers were ordered, because Shifra and Puah weren't doing their job. They made up some excuse that uh the Jewish people are like wild animals, as soon as they give birth, the kid the baby runs away, etc. Okay, whatever, but they didn't they didn't do their their job. Uh so the soldiers were told to enter the homes and kill the babies, throw them into the Nile. So this corresponds to Yavan. Now, why is that Yavan? So this is a bit more abstract. But says the Chidushei HaRim, the point is to examine the symbolic meaning of drowning. Drowning is very critical here. Water, on one hand, is absolutely necessary for life. One cannot live without water. And yet water can be a vehicle of death through suffocation, drowning, and the like. Now we know that water is also a symbol for chachma, wisdom. Primarily the chachma of Torah. But even secular chachma, if it's used in the right way, can be compared to life-giving water. As Chazal say, if someone tells you that [snorts] the the nations of the world, have chachma, you should believe them. Torah they don't have, but chachma they have. Now as we talked about with Chanukah, Greek culture, now we tend to look, you know, sometimes when you think about the Chanukah story, you think of the Greeks as fruit brutal primitive barbarians. Well, that wasn't the case at all. Uh Greece, and Antiochus was a successor to that Grecian culture, had the most advanced culture in the world. It essentially is the foundation of Western civilization. Whether it's literature, philosophy, mathematics, poetry, um anything to do with beauty and understanding. So Greek chachma was a beautiful thing in many, many ways. But if you use it in opposition to God, the life-giving water that it potentially is will drown you. So this is a metaphorical point. If the third gezeirah was the Jewish babies would be drowned in the water, symbolically that is what happened with Yavan, in which so many Jews became Hellenist, not because of persecution. One has to remember this. They became Hellenist because they were so attracted to Greek culture, which in many ways could have been life-giving water. But instead, by using it to reject God, it became something that drowned them and destroyed them spiritually. So that's a symbolic connection between the third gezeirah of Paroh, which is drowning, and the challenge that the Jewish people faced in dealing uh with Antiochus. Again, I I I want to make a point that although Antiochus certainly persecuted the Jewish people, but the problem of Hellenization was actually independent of the persecution. Uh it was an assimilation process that many, many Jews were going through at the time. Just as today, many Jews, unfortunately, go through this. Antiochus was trying to artificially rush a process that tragically was happening anyway. Right? You had the the Maccabees, you had a few, a very small number of people who were bucking that trend and willing to risk their lives for Torah. Most of the Jewish people were going along with Antiochus on on this. Okay. So now we come to the fourth exile. And the the fourth gezeirah is the gezeirah of straw. You got to get your own straw. And the Chidushei HaRim says, "We're going to correlate that to the galus of Edom, the one that we're still in." And here, it's a little difficult exactly to make make the connection. But again, the Chidushei HaRim offers a a symbolic meaning that I think is very, very relevant. The characteristic of the galus of not the galus, the gezeirah of the straw is described as pizur. You got to scatter, meaning when you were given your straw, you stayed in your place and you made your bricks. But now you got to look for the straw. You got to wander around. You got to wander around. So kash is connected to pizur, being scattered. And the Chidushei HaRim says, the element of pizur is a characteristic of galus Edom in a number of ways, ranging from the superficial to more deeply meanings. Superficially, this is a galus where the Jewish people are scattered geographically more than they've ever been. The galus of Bavel, most of the Jews were in Bavel. The galus of Persia, most Jews were in Persia. The notion that there are Jews everywhere in the world is a characteristic of the galus of Edom, P'zur. We're scattered all over the place. Now, the Maiseh of the Medrash gives a positive spin on this. Why are Jews exiled everywhere in the world? So that non-Jews will be exposed to Judaism and become gayrim. Now, we don't proselytize. But it's important that somebody in Timbuktu see a Jew because maybe that's a neshama that's supposed to be part of Klal Yisrael. Uh but there are Jews everywhere. Right? The anti-Semite's right. Jews are everywhere. Um there are Jews in Antarctica. I know this. You know, I have a friend who's a a very popular teacher, lecturer, Rabbi Yisrael France. Maybe you've come across his name. Very, very good uh uh maggid shiur. And uh when they give advertisements for his tape library, so it says, "Rabbi France has listeners in every continent in the world, including Antarctica." So apparently there's some army person who listens to Rabbi France shiur. So geographically we're very dispersed. But also we're dispersed in terms of breakups of family, family dispersion. You know, in the Middle Ages in particular, and even, you know, even until modern times, families stayed together in one community for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years. You know, if you were in Frankfurt, you know, that's where you were. You stayed in Frankfurt. And that's why there was a concept of minhagim that were so strong because your your your family was rooted in a certain location for hundreds of years. Today there's really no concept of location. People move around, right? So families are broken up. But psychologically, P'zur is deeper than that. P'zur can also refer to a certain inner confusion in which there are so many options in life that one doesn't know where to turn. One is confused with the abundance of information and inputs that hit them from every corner. I remember seeing an ad when I lived [snorts] in uh the DC area by a certain delicatessen. And they say, "We sell over 300 brands of mustard." I I don't know if it's kosher or not kosher. I don't know. But it was an ad. So I'm thinking to myself, you know, what's going to happen? You know, uh my wife tells me uh right before Shabbos, you know, "Go into a store, get me some mustard." And I walk into a store and I'm bombarded with 300 types of mustard. What am I going to choose? Right? Uh choice can overwhelm you. Right? That's why, you know, the old uh little makola says, you know, one jar of mustard, okay, you know, there's something uh positive about that, you know, you don't have the agony of choice. But going beyond mustard, the point is we're torn in so many directions. You want to get a dvar Torah on the parsha from the internet. So type in parshas Vayeira, you'll get whatever it is, 100,000 hits. What do you do? But in a more deeper way, this P'zur, being pulled in so many directions, creates confusion in our hashkafa, confusion in morality, confusion in direction. Even if I'm committed to a Torah life, there are so many issues which have different views and different opinions. And how am I supposed to sort it out? Where am I going to get clarity? I'm scattered. I'm scattered geographically. I'm scattered from my family. I should also answer the estrangement of husband and wife. Lack of shalom bayis is a scattering. The estrangement of parents from children and grandchildren is a scattering. It's not just physical. We're talking about emotional distancing. The confusion of choice is a scattering. The lack of clarity as to what is my approach to life is scattering. I'm scattered. And finally, a sense of internal disjunction within ourselves. >> [snorts] >> Rebbe Nachman of Breslov said, "The greatest distance that exists in the world is the distance between the head and the heart." My head may know a lot of things, but emotionally I'm not able to integrate my thought with my heart and with my feeling. And that creates a a lack of authenticity, a lack of true connection to Hashem. And all of that emanates symbolically from the kash, which is scattering. I should also answer answer as well that part of scattering is the competition that is so characteristic of life. Because remember, when everybody got straw and they had to make their quota of bricks, uh this did not require competition, meaning I didn't have to hurt you in any way. I got my straw, you got your straw. But when we have to get our own straw, then essentially every time I pick something up, I'm taking something away from you. And that creates the cutthroat competition that is so characteristic of modern life. And I'm not only talking about the business world. I'm even talking about the Yeshiva world. I I don't want to get into different stories, but some of you might have heard over the years. It's been a long time. But a machlokes that's been almost 25 years in the Ponevezh Yeshiva. A state of civil war. And I mean that literally, including, you know, weapons and the like between two factions that are fighting over who is in charge of the Yeshiva. They literally had different sides of the Beis Medrash. And if you accidentally stepped over the line, you'd get beaten up. I'm not sure how that worked with sefarim. Did they have duplicates of the sefarim? Let's assume I have to get a Rambam and it's over on the other side. I'm not sure how that worked. It only made sense if they would have two different libraries with the same with the same sefarim. Uh it just got resolved like a very short while ago because they they went to an arbitrator. Actually a secular judge as an arbitrator. And he paskens, he ruled that one side wins and the other side has to vacate. Are they going to listen? I really don't know. Okay, but we'll have to wait and see. But the point I'm making is just a larger point that this notion of competition and hatred and rivalry and machlokes is also a form of scattering, scattering. And all of that is a characteristic of the gezeirah of kash. Okay? So even though superficially there may may appear to be no connection between gathering straw and the Galus of Eisav and Edom that we're still in, but on a symbolic level, all of these are manifestations of the scatteringness. >> [snorts] >> And every once in a while, I say this almost every week already, uh Hashem brings experiences into our lives >> [snorts] >> that are designed to bring us together. And sometimes those experiences are very tragic and difficult experiences, such as war. October 7th brought Am Yisrael together. But you know, like uh repelling uh magnets, you know, repel, unfortunately sinas chinam is so taruah in our personalities in this Galus that even the powerful experiences that bring us together at some point dissipate and we assume our natural positions of machlokes and rivalry and denigration and coldness and indifference, all of which are symbolically connected to the straw, the scattering of the straw. So this is the Sifsei Chachamim's unique interpretation linking the four gezeiros of Paroh with the four galios. But there is good news. The good news is that God is promising us redemption from them. Right now there's God is giving us four leshonos of redemption from these four galios. Indeed, the redemption should come. We don't know when, as I indicated, uh the different things we're going through are simanim that we are in the Messianic Age. But again, the Messianic Age is a very amorphous term. That could be a that itself could be a long time. But at least we're in the age, so to speak. So uh may all of us be zocheh to see the Geulah of Hashem, the shalom al Yisrael, the nachamah of his nation, and the bridging of the polarization and the hatred, the negativity, and the rivalry that really poison us in so many ways. And may we as well see the reconciliation of families that are torn asunder. And this is what the pasuk says, the very end of uh the Nevi'im. Hashem will send before the day of God. Veheishiv lev avos al banim. He will return the hearts of the fathers to their children. For labor name Allah was some. And the heart of the children to the parents. Again, there are many explanations, but you know, I think the positive shot is very adequate here as well. That the lobby is telling us that there'll be such separation among families. And when the Google comes, those separations are going to be healed. May May all of us be so good to have. Thank you. Amen. Amen. >> [music] [music and singing]