Revolutionary Ideas on Pesach - Talkline With Zev Brenner

Buckline Network Radio, America's longestr running Jewish broadcast network, the voice of the Jewish community. Welcome to the podcast. You are now tuned in to this episode of our podcast. Today we are going to interview some of the greatest and most influential minds in our field. And now, please welcome your host. You're listening to talk line with Zev Brener. America's premier Jewish broadcast on the air since 1981. And we're back. It's always a treat to have Rabbi Daniel J. Glading with us. He's the RV of Kahal of Mahon Magakia in the five towns, but he's a prolific writer. And in fact, we his book came out a year ago of Daniel Glass, revolutionary insights into the Exodus and the final redemption. And it's now available in Spanish and French. Except for those that speak Spanish and French, but it doesn't mean you have to speak in Spanish tonight, Rabbi Gladstein. Muchas, gracias. Thank you. Shane and Don, as we say in French. Yeah. So, this is extraordinary year. It's next time we're going to have error of Pesak come out on Shabas will be in 20 years from now. So, it's very unique that we have this. So, any special insights as to what this means, you know, from a religious theological perspective? Absolutely. I mean, you wouldn't believe this. You know, there there's an opinion that God created the world in Nissan. So, that's generally understood. He created man onesh and he said six days earlier, let there be light. But there are sources that when we say God created the world in Nissan, it means he created it on the eighth day of Nissan, which means man was created on the 13th day of Nissan. And the medish pirar teaches that Adam told his two kids cen and he pes is coming. You need to bring a carbon. So cayenne and he on the day after they were born they brought a carbon ar that fell out on chabas. So this takes us back to the beginning of creation. This is the opinion of you know there's a whole discussion in the talmud. Could you bring the carbon pes on Shabas? If Arab Pesak comes out on Shabas, do you bring the carbon pes? And there's a discussion, can we learn out from the offerings of Cayenne and He that indeed that you can bring the carbon. Moreover, Aris teaches that Jacob Ainu married Leia on Arab Pes that came out on Chabas. So the most anticipated uh marriage in history came out at this time which shows that that the proper observ observance of Pesak when Araf Pesak comes out on Shabas can rectify uh creation and taking us back to the root. So that's some of it. Wow. Amazing. I knew there had to be some theological connection to Shaba. It happens so rarely and next time will happen in 20 years. So, uh, we're 2045, believe it or not. Wow. So, there's so much to talk about and you have some interesting ideas and novel ideas. So, one of the things that I picked up this year was the relationship of dogs to see Mr. Ram to the Exodus of Egypt. Let's look at that. Oh, the dogs. Well, firstly, you know what? There's a story that one of the Samy uh family asked him what what's the reason to steal the Afi Kimman? You know there's custom of stealing the some say this is not a legit legitimate practice. So theam didn't want to say in the beginning of the sed by the end of the sedar he said you know the garra says that don't live in a city without dogs because if there are no dogs there is a lot of robbery. So we know the night of the seda the dogs didn't bark. So if dogs weren't barking there must have been a lot of robberies. So to commemorate the robberies the night of Pesak, we steal the Aikima because you know there there were the dogs weren't barking so there was a lot of Geneva. So we sort of replicate that. But the idea is the dogs represent the forces of impurity and they were all silenced. They were all silenced the night of Pes you know the night the night of the sedar all for forces of evil are vanquished which is one of the reasons why Mori told Esther you better go into now remember it was Pesak because on this day and this night all the forces of evil are at their lowest point they're about to dissipate if you don't take advantage of this time then we're done you know that's that was the rush you know what why was Why was Amorai pressuring Esther? This is the reason because on this day the dogs are silenced meaning the the forces of impurity are completely destroyed. Actually it began it began on Purim began when we begin to eradicate amorim and it's a 30-day process and by burning the reflects the forces of evil. when we burn the pes all the forces of impurity are completely silenced. So that that's symbolized by the the uh the dogs being silenced uh the night of PES. Now you you mentioned by the way about the connection to PM. I think I heard from Rabbi Melman A Melman congregation over Manhattan that the word vakar is is a important word in the migill and if you take the word vayikra and you take out the olive it's your car too. So he said the happiness of adar extends to vikra or close to pesa really. Oh that's nice. That was an interesting thought. But here's something which intrigued me and I think this is the famous mid in Israel. Rabbi Yakov Golinsky writes that if you look at what happened the word mutsanum they used the word that the the Jews in Egypt were were distinct but he also said in modern Hebrews distinguished he said they were distinguish but the fact is they worshiped idols. They were in the lowest level of impurity. They didn't circumcise their kids. They worship idols. The only thing they had going for them is that they wore Jewish dress and they spoke the Hebrew language. And he said on that basis, he said, "Can you imagine somebody who dresses like aid but is doing all kinds of terrible things. Is that pleasing to God?" And he said, "The answer is yes. That's what had happened to our ancestors in Egypt." I thought it was an interesting concept. Yeah. Because they maintained their Jewish identity even though they didn't have anything but saying, "I'm Jewish." Basically speaking, they spoke the Hebrew language. They dressed like Jews, but everything else they were like the Egyptians. Yeah. So they they remained distinct. Yeah. And distinguished. Yeah. But it's interesting that Raosha Feinstein has a chuva about this where he was asked about whether a Jew needs to have a Jewish name. And some wanted to say, well, obviously they have to have a Jewish name. that was one of the reasons we were redeemed. So Raosha says no Mosha said that was before we had Tyra mitzvah. So we had nothing going for us. So then it was important that at least we had these so to speak externalities but now that we have Tara mitzvah you can't the the primacy is given to the you know the meat and potatoes and Ramosa says those other things dress and and names so to speak uh loses their significance. That was that's the opinion of Raasha. You know, you mentioned you mentioned the word vikar, right? Vikar, you know, there's a small alf on that word. Alf zer alf the the kabalisam teach alf zer has a numerical value of 399 which is rebaka rebiaka. There's a very amazing and interesting opinion that Rebi Yaka authored the Hagada is the author of the Hagada. Now like what basis is there for that? You know if you think about which sedar all the the historic sedar of Rabaza Rabishua they all go to Raaka Sedar you know like why are they going to his sedar he was their student Rabik was a student of Rabishu why are they going to him but if he's the author of the Hagada so he's the expert he's the expert on the exodus he's expert on mim what what's very interesting is that the zoyar teaches God took us out of Egypt with the 50th gate of wisdom. Now Mosher Rabenu didn't have the 50th gate of wisdom. That's the only gate Mosha didn't have access to. But we know Rabbi Aaka was the only one who had access to the 50th gate of wisdom. The says what was revealed to Rebika was not revealed to Moshe. It's very interesting if you say Rabbi wrote the Hagada. If you examine the number of paragraphs in the makes a count there are 50 paragraphs from until moreover you know the main body of the we expand on these in you know by we expand upon these four which is very unusual why would we expand upon in Deuteronomy We should expand upon theim in Exodus that speaks about you know right behind how does love get into into that you're like where did he come in exactly now now says it says in the the exodus 50 times it says 50 times 50 times God took us out with the 50 expressions of mimosa wolfson points out the 50th times is mentioned are in the kis in reference to so since the the so to speak this the spiritual source of the exodus comes from those verses we focus on those verses now is the 50th para in the so there 50 chapters in the hagada there 50 there are 50 um we expound upon the 50th time is mentioned from The 50th para by the way the the words those words that we choose to expand upon in there they're 50 words amazing and by the way in the discussion how many makos were inim 10 40 no raika says 50 in the hagada says 50 yeah amazing those are just tuning in our guest is Rabbi Daniel Gladstein on the Hag Well, he's written the book on the Hagada, revolutionary insights into Hagada, the Exodus and the final redemption. It's now translated in Spanish and French available through art scroll. I want to get back to something you said before and I know that you said that Moshe, you quoted him stating that since God gave the Torah to the Jewish people, we no longer have the same latitude to have just the Jewish dress and the Jewish speaking the Jewish language is enough to sustain us. We have to do more than that. However, Rabay Yakov Galinsky addresses that with a very interesting story from the which I want to share with you in the audience. I want to get your feedback on it. And he said that there was a baker that the encountered that encountered before World War I. And he was complaining. He says, "I can't make a living. I can't make a parnasa. The women come in and this bread is not round enough. This bread is burnt. This bread is deformed. And I'm trouble selling the bread. I can't make a living. Sees him during middle of World War I and the baker is all smiles. He goes, "What happened?" He goes, "Pasa is so great. My business is great because of the war, the they take whatever they want. It's burnt. It's deformed. They whatever comes out of the oven." So said basically is that in times gone by when we had so much spirituality and more people learning involved in Torah. So God could be more picky and in order to be accepted, you had to do all these things perfectly. But in today's day and age there's a deficit of spirituality. So God is happy if we just do obviously we should be doing more but the fact that we're doing something is still pleasing to God. Just an interesting thought from Bianca had brought down. I wanted to get your perspective. I understood what you said Mosha but this is another interesting perspective I think. Yeah. Yeah. And I don't think it's contradictory there. There's a there is a um very similar parable in Vital basically about a princess who people try to please her because she always had the king's air and no matter what they brought her, they can never find favor in her in her eyes. They would bring her jewelry, they would bring her money, but she had everything. She didn't need anything. And then one time somebody badmouthed her and the king banished her and put her in a dungeon and some people brought her some stale bread and water and when she was ultimately freed she never forgot the stale bread and water that the people gave her in her time of need. So similarly when the B mikda stood boy did you have to do a great mitzvah to find favor in eyes of Hashem. But now that theina is in the gulos even a small mitzvah finds great favor in his eyes. So there's definitely that idea is true but but I would say it has to be a mitzvah. So the the name the Jewish name and the clothing would Ram Mosha says is not in the realm of uh not in the realm of an actual mitzvah but but let's say you would learn Torah even if it would be a few minutes and even if it would be now with the greatest concentration or if you would pray or you do an act of kindness even maybe in generations gone by people did much greater deeds in our generation it it could be much more powerful. No, very well said. You know, you write about the fifth son and I was intrigued because Bababa Cherebby said that the Hagad is really referring to the four sons American kids. The first generation, they came in from Europe. They were religious. They spoke Yiddish. They did everything. Then second generation rebelled. Oh, it's oldfashioned and they were they considered the Russia. Then you had the next generation where it's just, you know, simple. They just were confused between the grandfather who was religious, their father who was anti-religious. They were confused. And finally the next generation doesn't even know how to ask anything. He's never saw his religious great-grandfather. He's in a different kind of league. And then you have the fifth son which is not mentioned. But you write about the let's look at the fifth son. Yeah. So actually I took a little bit of a different approach. you know the affforementioned uh Reb uh identified that the fifth son is the assimilated son the son who's so far gone he doesn't even come to the sedar and uh I took a little bit of a different approach because there are a number of missing fifths in the hagada we don't have the fifth cup of wine really for Ilio we don't really have the fifth language of redemption that God brings us into Israel we don't have the fifth question of the manana why don't we eat uh why Do we only eat roasted meat? You know, all the other fifths are things that we aspire to levels that we're trying to reach. So I prefer instead of saying the fifth son is the assimilated son to take it the other direction with a very simple question. You know, we have all these sons at the table. Why is there no son who's a sadic? You know, you have a wise son, but why don't you have a righteous son? And the answer is every parent knows that you no kid is born righteous. They could be smart or they could be wicked, but they're not born righteous. And the objective is to take all four children and to transform them and elevate them to become righteous. There's even a famous gumatria. If you take the word Russia, which is 570, and you subtract Shinov, which is 366, you get you get um 204, you know, you get um you get sadic. You get sadic. So the objective is the the missing son. I would say is the righteous son. And the reason he's missing is that's our job. The job of parents is to elevate all of one's children to become righteous. No, it's certainly a challenge that that we have. And the truth is is that these the Russia as bad as he is, he's still at the seder. Yeah. Yeah. But but you say something very very interesting is there is it's not exactly a contrast of the and the Russia like you said should be the saddic and the Russia and I know the many different answers as to why that is and you gave any other answers that you want to share with our audience. You know I I you know this approach resonates with me that that you know you can't be born righteous. Righteousness is something that you you learn, you develop, you you you accustom yourself. But if it's just instinctual, you know, is it really righteousness? So, you know, the the I think the job is to all these four kids have the potential to be uh to become righteous. Was it the RV who said that all the four kids are really the same person? Yeah. Well, you know, you know the famous joke about the guy who went to Warsaw. He said it's amaz He went from Minsk to Warsa. He he comes back. He says, you know, Warso is amazing. I saw over there I saw Sadikim. I saw wicked people. I saw heretics. I saw socialists, bundas, Yiddishists, Bolsheviks. So the guy said, "What's the big deal? We have all of that in Minsk." So he said, "No, it was the same guy. It was the same guy." Yeah. So that's really what what he got at least according to I think it's the Rob right who said that it's really the same person struggling with our streaks you know so you've written some other insights into the so what intrigues you the most is there any particular thought that you'd like to share with our audience that you find the most interesting the most intriguing well and revolutionary revolutionary well I want you to Yes, I'm going to I'm going to um take the liberty just to convey something uh simple and we know that you know if you want to get an idea about what a book is all about you turn to the beginning you turn to the end and usually that captures the main theme if you do that to the it begins this year we're here next year in Israel it ends which is you know a beautiful prayer but doesn't seem to be connected to the main theme of the hagada theme of the hagada is the story of the exodus but the answer is that the exodus was the pre-enactment was the paradigm was what we call to the final redemption all the events of were the pre-enactment were the dress rehearsal of sorts of the final redemption you know there's a language we say in the that more so benefit benefit that was doubled and and folded over which indicates that all the miracles are double. Why are they double? One for then and one for the future. So we have to tell our children, you know, they say we we said the story last year again. We're reading the history. This is not history, it's destiny. It's not about what happened. It's about how these events will create the future future attractions to the Jewish people. We have to tell our children this is what we have to look forward to. It's we're not looking back at we're looking ahead to that's why the is bookended. Beautiful thoughts. And by the way, maybe you can comment on the fact of why do we have to open the door for Eliohanovi Elijah the prophet. He can we can open the door for him ahead of bris. He knows how to get there even without opening the door. Why do we open the door for him? Yeah. Okay. There you know there are different answers. One one uh beautiful idea is that the opening of the door is symbolic that the night of the sedar so to speak God opens all the doors for us. All the doorways of heaven are open and and levels that perhaps we couldn't achieve at other times of the year are now being open to us even if we're undeserving. You know there's the idea the night of the sedar that God gives us the opportunity to leap forward into sanctity even before we've cleansed oursel from our sin. Usually we say the rule is you know turn away from evil and then do good. The night of the say there we we advance we we run through the door even before we cleanse oursel from sin. Wonderful thought that's gives us an opening for our closing. So anyway, thank you for sharing some insights. I recommend it's a fascinating book and safer on the Hagad. It's called Daniel Glading on the revolutionary insights into the exodus and the final redemption. What's your new book or I know you're always working on something new the next one is the Yeshua awaiting the coming of Msiah. So a translation and and essays about the subject of yearning for the final redemption. Will that be in French and English too? with God's help. Yeah. Uh we're start starting in English. All right. Daniel Gladstein, thank you for being with us. Thank you for sharing some great insights into the you and your family. Thank you for your time. Thanks for having me. And I wish you uh happy and healthy. Thank you for tuning into Talk Line with Zev Brener, America's premier Jewish broadcast, the pulse speed of the Jewish community. For continuous Jewish programs, talketwork.com or our 24-hour aday listenline at 641-741389. For past shows, you can find us on iTunes, Spotify, Amazon, YouTube, Instagram, and all major podcast platforms or jewishodcast.org. Thanks for listening to the chalkline.com. Thank you very much. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagrams. Thank you for another riveting conversation. Oh, thank you so much. Thanks.