The Four Questions Are Really Four Answers

the yeshiva dotnet today I'm going to focus baser Hashem on one of the great staples of the Pesach say they're known as the four questions or the Man Astana next week we're going to focus on a general theme that pervades the entire Seder but today I want to zoom in on one specific aspect of the Seder which is usually the most exciting for children and they tape a pair for days some of them weeks and some of them even months in advance at the first glance it's just a very simple ritual the terror of commands and instructs the Jewish people to tell the story to their children the gadot olivença by yo-yo ma who lamer and thus the structure of Pesach is structured around a conversation a conversation of questions and responses questions and answers and the text of the questions made it into the Haggadah so it's not just random questions although that is always not just spontaneous questions although that is always welcome but also these fixed questions known as the Man Astana in which the children ask and the adults supposedly answer the question I want to raise to you is not for questions but one question and there may be some more questions is as children that any of you ever get an answer to the four questions exactly all we do is we employ a classic Jewish method and that's called distraction and getting you so exhausted from the story that by the time we're done either you forgot your question or you're not interested in an answer to your question or you give up on ever having an answer to this question but it's really an interesting nomina your child innocently says Tata about there Fred in the fur caches or whatever language it's being communicated in I'm just doing the Egyptian language father I'm going to ask you four questions Manish Tana Lila's a McCulloch Layla's what makes this night different than all other nights and then the child the girl of the boy explores four items for particular components that make this night different than all other nights different huh goddess by the way have somewhat different versions of the Haggadah and different orders of the four questions a very common one is you start with matzah you go tomorrow you go to dipping and you go to reclining although I know some here have a different version a different order based on the Jerusalem Talmud Amma guru shall me and I result and of amram gone who have the order of dipping matzah murder and reclining but whatever the order which ordered the most of you have the first of the second the first regardless the order the message remains the same and I'll follow the first order since I assume that's the majority of people sitting here have that order so we won't get confused so the first question is bacala Leila son - come it's a matzo Lila's echo limits what makes this night different than all other nights all nights we eat comets or matzah leavened bread or unleavened bread and tonight only matzah the second question is makalah Leila son oil and Shirer cosas Lila's amar all nights we eat various vegetables tonight we have the mitzvah to eat more bitter herbs bitter vegetables comes the third question bacala Leila's ain't no Nomad Billina Philippa Marcus a Lila's Estepona all nights we don't dip usually even once tonight we dip twice we dip the vegetable the carpus as it's known whether you use a potato or an onion or celery or whatever people use as a vegetable and soul order and the second dip of the bitter herbs the martyr had been a vegetable the romaine lettuce or the horseradish or whatever people use for their bitter herbs into what we call the car Isis and the fourth question is McCauley Leila sand oil años minimus bainite Rinna Bama Subin Ally Lazar : I'm assuming did I do them well all Knights of the air had practice for many days all the nights we sit either reclined or either sitting or reclined tonight : ah miss Subin we are all reclined and in many communities the custom is the tradition is the child finishes and says Tata by dega flex for Akash's yeah it's bitter give Mira Terrace I asked of you four questions now please I'm awaiting your answer now imagine throughout the year your son comes over to your daughter come says mommy I have four questions first of all your ears will perk up and they ask for detailed questions and instead of a response which they asked for you give a sermon which goes for the next two or two-and-a-half hours so we tell the child let me tell you a story we were slaves to power in Egypt okay we're getting somewhere I've heard them how you nullified urban myths right and I sham took us out with a strong hand with a strong arm and a stretched out hand and by the way if he wouldn't have taken us out we would have still been there which also needs explanation what that exactly means okay wonderful so now we're out so why do we dip twice tell me again daddy mommy wait there's a story that happened in Bnei Brak and now we really really digress and if that's not stuff not not enough we start blessing gods for giving us the tire and if that's not enough we start talking about for children even if he didn't he wanted to know why we dip twice can you tell me why we're dipping twice why we're recline why there's no summits why there's martyr and actually we never get to answer the question the four questions I mean if you know the whole story and you know a lot of other details and you learnt it at school before and you learn after you learn a whole year you probably know the answers and the questions but there's no ordinary answer to these questions it's one of the very strange components and to say there among many other strange components say there you know why it's so strange so that you should ask questions right it's difficult to understand the truth is the whole structure of the Seder is a difficult structure which I'm going to elaborate on next week base or assembly now there I'm sure my plans are at the moment but I want to focus today on the four questions there's something else if you look at the four questions they don't really seem like four questions they seem like four answers think about the text - Donna Lila's a McCulloch Layla's what makes this night different than all other nights and then the child goes on to explain exactly what makes this night different than all other nights he tells you or she tells you a wonderful they actually give the answers maybe that's why we don't need any answers they give a wonderful exposition of what makes this night different than all other nights who said this night is different than all other nights what makes this night different they tell you exactly what it made what makes it different tonight you will not find any comments in the home we will eat only matzah tonight we will be eating the strange food called Mara tonight we will be doing these two dippings and tonight we will all be sitting in an irregular fashion all reclined so yes the trial didn't explain love on Astana Holi Lhasa why but the child did explain mohnish Donna hi Lila ma means what lumba means why medulla what makes this night different than all other nights I just told you four things so a real question of ignorance is what makes this night different than all other nights you telling me it's gonna be a special night tell me what and then you might answer what will make this night different we're gonna go here we're gonna go there we're going to this we're going to celebrate this here the very for questions they're called for questions but really there's only one question right in the opening mohnish Donna Lila's a Michael Hal Ellis and then the rest of it is really an answer of what makes this night different quite detailed it's not all of the details of the answer because as I said it doesn't say why but it still says what and we call it the four questions now one might say you don't have to get so meticulous and obsessed in the details of these four questions it's just a child asking for questions but that's not the case because this text comes from the Mishnah in other words it's a text that was created by the sages of your and therefore the text has as all their texts layers upon layers of untold significance and on different layers of interpretation as well physical and metaphysical material and spiritual practical and psychological concrete and emotional it's interesting at the time of the base on microfiche there was another question asked as the mission of brings that each night we eat various types of cooked foods or roasted foods tonight it's kool-aid sleep time of the base I'm English they had the Passover offering the Pesach sacrifice lamb or goat meat which had to be roasted with a spit on top of the fire it couldn't be baked in an oven or cooked in a pot or even a fire roast even a pot roast roasted in the pot itself by its own juices wasn't allowed it had to be literally on the fire direct contact with the fire not through a a vessel a kailia pot or even an oven so that was another component that was asked but obviously after the base image was destroyed and that component of the Seder was taken out even though it was the highlight called pacer because of the pass over the carbon base of the pace of offering so that question was eliminated and we have these four questions that we have today but these four questions have profound significance to the point that the reason rabbi yitzchak gloria rabbi isaac luria who lived in the 16th century in the 1500s in swass and is considered one of the greatest mystics and kabalists in the history of Judaism says that the four questions correspond to the four worlds there are four worlds discussed in Kabbalah that parallel our universe there is the world of us see in the world of action the world of concreteness the world that is manifested in physical images that we inhabit there are three higher worlds that we also inhabit but for that you need more subtle lenses to be able to experience the vibrations of those worlds no one has the world of each serie formation the world of Brya creation and that still is the world of oneness intimacy and he says the four questions are really a progression through these four worlds he does it in his order which is based on Tom madeira Xiaomi dipping matt samara and reclining were dipping his experience of the world of action and matzot experience of the world of formation and more the world of creation and the highest reclining the world of our Zyliss all of this to indicate the profound significance both on a literal and on a spiritual level of the structure the text and the significance of these questions so today with God's grace I want to present one aspect of it at least one aspect of this indeed our children are not only giving us questions they're also presenting us with answers and as usual in life me pile Olympian Kim you saw the toys Lavetta Melek says in tehilim chapter 8 from the mouths of infants and sucklings comes profound strength from the mouths of babes that's the expression comes from tehilim chapter s chapter 8 Psalms 8 from the mouths of the children often come the profoundest wisdom and the profoundest answers the greatest lessons in life we can often learn if we have the patience and the courage to listen to our children what they say explicitly and what they intimate between the lines and if you can listen to their silence then you can really learn a lot - Donna Shalala a semi-colon Leyla's what makes this night different than all the nights of the entire year what makes it different what sets it apart one might say well it's all young TIF it's a holiday we don't work we have new clothes we clean the house we have a Seder everything is different there our guest is excitement some people are stressed everybody's exhausted but the question is those are all the containers the Caleb but what about the light the earth the energy of the Seder one of the challenges we all have and this is a challenge whenever you institutionalize something is it could become mechanical and devoid of internal meaning and inspiration very often people become so overwhelmed by the technical details they don't have the mental space or the serenity or the emotional where with to be able to be present and experience something and it's important to understand this because when one experiences pacer how really any other young TIFF we have to allow ourselves and give ourselves the the permission not to become overwhelmed with just the responsibilities and the duties and the details but to understand that that's a preparation for an internal journey now it's easier said and done it's easier said than done knowing all the preparations that people do for pacer beginning with the cleaning which itself can become quite a stressful experience and then there's the food the preparations of the food and the shopping and the cooking and preparing the Seder in preparing the house and then when you have to buy new shoes for all of the children or the grandchildren or whatever else everybody's preparations for Pesach bisciotti vomits like us and yet you also have to be able to respect yourself and your relationship in this process people who feel that the yom tov of liberation is about them becoming slaves for everybody else to be free it doesn't really make sense it doesn't make sense that the holiday of emancipation and liberty happens at the expense of a few individuals who have to feel like these gets - mattis how do you say that in English I always get clapped our shyness that's for suckers any translation have to feel completely completely depleted of any amount of energy and vitality and stamina and joy so that people could sit like kings and recline because their kings and other people feel mama SH like slaves who are still subjugated to power in Egypt if that's our experience of pace off you have to press ctrl Alt Delete take out the old CD from the brain and revisit everything it's time to erase the hard drive and the software and recalculate everything whoo something is off if we are not allowing ourselves to enter into a yom tov which is actually about freedom it's about liberal which does come with work and thus come with hard work but it's accompanied with an internal sense of meaning and joy and purpose there's something in our Judaism that went horribly wrong and sour and people become allergic to this ultimately people who are open with their emotions and with ourselves it becomes very very difficult for them that's why it's so important to focus not just on the external details but on the internal message and remember that if something is not perfect it's perfect we sometimes become so neurotic about everything being in place that ourselves we cannot be there and that becomes very sad so the question Manas Tannehill Allah is a McCulloch Layla's is a deep question what makes this night different not just technically what makes this night different what opportunities does this night provide us with to give and create a true Nash Donna from the word she knew a true change to the better in my life what is it that's going to happen or that could happen on this night that can make things different mohnish Donna Shalala Sam McCullough Leigh Ellis it's just another night the clock moves another Pesach another Yom Tov more food more food food food food non-stop this one this type of food is from that type of food this one doesn't touch your brush this one is my hand anger Brooks this one peels everything this one is allergic to peeling this one stops doesn't touch anything they won't eat even because anything could be comments and this one is so psychologically traumatized they don't stop eating even things they won't eat a whole year ladyfingers and macaroons and all the smelling chocolates and everything they won't stop binging on a whole pay stuff just to heal themselves from the traumas of Pesach so we have to overeat in order but both both the question is near an internal energy this night what is it that makes it truly apart truly different because from a Jewish perspective that result says on the plastic in the Megillah hi I'm Emma ellen is skyrim venison behold Arvinder these days are mentioned commemorated and done in each generation says what does it mean they're commemorated I know wasn't mean done and he says that in Judaism are Yom Tov is not a commemoration rather time is considered sometimes cyclical which means every year when pacer comes the same energy that existed in the universe and their first place of again vibrates through the cosmos and if one opens their hearts they can access that energy bahama Marella and his scar him and through that vanassa they're actually reenact us even though the physical circumstances may not be here we're not living in the part of the world called egypt at least most of us and physically leaving egypt but the energy of freedom that was available that night of Zaman tyrosine was available each year each year on Pesach on this tutorial gives us four answers - Donna Lila's a McCullough Leila's he says there's four things that make this night different than all other nights the first component is McCullough Layla's Sun oil and comets I matzo a lie logically mots all night sweet comets or matzo tonight we eat only months the difference in he comments and matzah of course his comments is inflated though and matzah is deflated though it's flat it's true on a physical level matt says not kala it's also true on a chemical level that when bread is allowed to leaven by using yeast as we spoke last week about yeast sourdough or just allowing it to inflate with time the enzymes are released that actually create a chemical reaction that leavened the bread they transform the chemistry of the dough matzah doesn't allow that process to happen because it's baked prior to that process and as a result of that this is more flat its deflated which as we know represents on an emotional level or in a psychological and a spiritual level the difference between arrogance versus humility the inflated ego which is represented by hobbits and the deflated ego the humble human being represented by matzah you could see it even in the letters it's interesting the closest thing to become comets is matzah there's no rush Ashcombe it's like the crash of matzah all the fears of eating comets and Pesach don't come close to the problem of eating mats on pace on because mats essentially is on its way to become Commons rice and corn are not coming to the co-products their kidneys fruits and vegetables sugar and oil are not common to the co-products yes Jews certain communities certain families have been stringent in many many of these products and processed foods and especially would happen by the Ashkenazim with kidneys that the fields like the rice fields and other legumes were right near the wheat fields and they often got mixed up and therefore the kidney is legumes were forbidden in the Ashkenazi role for Pesach things like rice etc but the greatest concern for comets is matzah because it's about to become comets another few minutes it becomes calm and if the flour a part of the flour is not baked if there's a particle of flour that's not baked in the oven and it gets wet it could become comets which is the reason for the stringency those who are very careful with the brucks of not making matzo wet because if it's baked already it's not a problem if it becomes wet bread could become wet no no chemical reaction but if there's a particle or particles of flour that are unbaked in the matzo and sometimes unnoticeable therefore they're afraid that if it gets wet it could become common so the greatest concern for comets is matzo making maps is the greatest problem but we don't have a choice there's a myths petit math someplace so when you look at the words in Russian coitus everything is meticulous the words are very similar to each other matzah and hummus are literally almost identical matzah consists of three letters mem sadiq hey come it's also consists of three letters mem Sabich and Hesse which are the two letters that are different but they're the closest to each other in the Hebrew alphabet yes and hey raishin de la Rosa but the Casson hey are very close to each other they have a roof they both have a roof and they have two walls extending vertically right you remember the first is a horizontal roof and two walls extending vertically downwards there hey OSA has a roof with two walls coming down but the difference is the hey the left leg has space between the top of the leg in the roof where in the tests the two legs connect to the roof and there's no space whatsoever both of them have a space on the bottom there's an opening on the bottom without any blockage and there's only three lines one is completely open but the Hess the two legs are connected to the roof and the hey not so mem sadiq is exactly identical matza mem sardick Komets mem sadiq the difference is by mots are the members out there's in the beginning by combats is at the end and the next difference is the hey versus the tes comets versus matzah and hey and hares are almost identical because physically mats and helmets are almost identical they're both bread hey you left it for 26 minutes 25 minutes 19 minutes whatever the shears and here you left it for 17 minutes so the difference of 1 2 3 4 5 minutes hey you put in a little yeast here you didn't put in yeast it makes the whole difference between combats and matzah essentially physically they're identical but spiritually there is also a connection and that is in life just like in the tests and in the hey everybody everybody makes mistakes everybody falls that's why there's an opening at the bottom the Gomora says a mastectomy office in our world is an opening people for the only people that don't make mistakes are people that you don't know people sir somebody once told his wife I made a mistake only once in my life it was back in 1961 she said what he said I thought I made a mistake in life everyone there's an opening on the bottom the opening on the bottom represents that sometimes I fall that's not a question the question is what happens afterwards this is the difference in the fast and they hay the test you fall and there's nowhere to climb back in this is ways are sealed from all sides and they Hey there's an opening on the top the person could crawl back in because the question is not if I must make mistakes or I don't if I stumble or not if I fail or not there's no human being that plus success why my mother says in caelis and Ecclesiastes ain't Sadiq Bar it's actually ask the table is there's no righteous person in the world that does only good and doesn't sin and yet that doesn't only mean sin the more accurate translation of hate is as we have in the Navi about sha lamella his arching of his abilities of shooting his ability to shoot arrows Kolia alas I revel oi yeah he aimed perfectly and he never missed but Sheva tells David I'm Ella her husband volley siani you beneath Lima Couture him your son Schlemmer and I will be Italian Cataldo means sinners Catania means we will be lacking hate means a void in Hebrew which is the really the concept of sin the real translation of sin is not sin or transgression the real translation is law yet it's missing there's a void there's a cavity there's a hole when a person with the concept of a sin is a person is acting out of a void as we spoke last week I have a certain void and I want to distract myself from that void so I try to fill that void and when I do it I only create a deeper void that means a void and it starts off with the letter yes so when I lose I fall I fall I fail ain't sadiq Barrett's fellow yata people miss were imperfect even the greatest people as a result of the fact that reality is imperfect there are things that we miss so hate could mean literally sin or on a deeper more subtle level it means there's a void is a lacking what happens afterwards is the most important in the personality of hesse which is the Komets personality i fall but then i don't know how to say i'm sorry i also don't know how to take responsibility I also don't even know how to acknowledge mistakes three things some people simply cannot acknowledge that they make mistakes it's below them they'll always blame others they'll always cover-up they'll always have excuses rationalizations justifications they'll always blame the world and play victim or they don't even have to do that they'll simply live in la-la land they can't acknowledge there was any error even if they have to acknowledge there's an error they'll blame somebody else even if they can't blame anybody else they don't have the courage to be able to apologize to say I'm sorry so they remain stuck in not rising back up and coming back into the game of life like the test they fall and there's no way to climb up into matzah represents humility humility is the ability to be able to be open to all possibilities and the greatest possibility to be open to is the possibility of growth and the possibility of growth only happens by acknowledging where I am today where I was yesterday and where I could be tomorrow so the humble personality is not the personality who is smaller than the arrogant personality the humble personality is much larger than the arrogant personality the arrogant personality remains completely stuck in their own orbit they're not capable of introspection they're not capable of listening to criticism they're not capable of growth they're always defensive more defensive more defensive you can't even have a normal conversation with them because they always have to protect themselves which usually comes from a tremendous amount of insecurity and tremendous amount of inner an inner void hate which makes them feel that if they confess a mistake it's akin to death and therefore they have to defend their food sometimes very foolish foolish behaviors literally to the point of insanity with the matzoh personality I fall but I crawl right back in there's an opening for me between the left leg in the roof I come right back in I'm back in life and I fall again but I crawl right back in so a person makes mistakes the only thing you have to make sure is two things number one try not to repeat them make new mistakes not the old ones in other words learn from the old ones and the second condition is learn how to apologize learn how to say I'm sorry in life we're not perfect we're not called on to be perfect we're called on to be accountable and the difference is drastic in fact our imperfections in life are essentially what make us so wonderful human because what's the difference of pre creation and post creation pre creation there was perfection God is perfect so why did he create humans if he wanted perfection he had much of it before creation on abundance of perfection and infinite perfection why create humans because God wanted imperfection or to put it more precisely he cherished and appreciated that the journey from imperfection towards deeper growth and deeper awareness and deeper realization and deeper discovery so the next time you discover an imperfection in your life instead of whining or wallowing in the quagmire of the spear over yet another affection you should actually start singing and celebrating the fact that now you could fulfill the purpose of being human the purpose of being human is not to be perfect God is much more perfect than everybody and you were more perfect before you were born the whole purpose of life the ballot Anya writes in the closet area departures bullet he says why was the world created so he says there's many many reasons given why did the soul come down to this world in safar him there are many many reasons he says Hattie routes haamiti the ultimate the truest reason is to become a ball chuhwa the reason the soul came down to this world is to become a ball trova to become from the state of a Tzadik to the state of a Petrova what's the meaning of this sadiq represents the person who lives in a perfect Oh ASIS of divinity and spirituality and holiness the ball truly represents the profile of the person who discovers truth from failure who discovers light from darkness who discovers depth from superficiality when the soul comes into this world by definition it is transformed from at sadiq into about true but that's the ultimate purpose of why the soul comes down here which is why I find it strange that ballet silver want to fit in so much to f of bees when really the purpose is the F of bees should try to become ballet children so the first step of the banished animal allows Emma Kohala looses all Knights we come it's a matzah we vacillate between two states of consciousness sometimes we'll lead a little matzo but the primary staple is comets and even if it's not the primary staple it's allowed tonight we vanish we banish we expel the last iota of comet's comets becomes the arch enemy of the Jewish people our baser it's almost a strange phenomenon one night before everybody was eating and enjoying comets in the next night comets comes enemy number one in Jewish life as though this poor hummus try to destroy the world because in order to be able to experience the energy of pace if the first thing is cool a matzo if I can go into a state of complete openness to growth how many of us are capable of that to be able to sit down open myself up and say I am open to revisit everything I am open to absolute transformation nothing is stuck no status quo no defense mechanisms you could tell me anything and I will try not to become defendant now of course the summit's will right away want to become defensive it say who are you to tell me about this but as long as as long as I can identify it and choose to identify with the matza dimension with the matzo value in me that makes this night different than all other nights complete and absolute humility also identified as Bittle which means the nullification of any need for haughtiness pompous Ness arrogance narcissism being right being just but rather complete openness to truth without any protective gear this is the first thing you need to make sure it's happening by the Seder there's no protective gear no no response is coming from the need of developing these strong defense mechanisms that I have because I'm afraid to lose myself in this battle real humility comes from ultimate confidence will you know that you're one with the divine at your court and therefore you could be open to every type of change and transformation and you won't get hurt you won't get destroyed in the process that's the first thing your child tells you that makes this night different than any other nights and if you listen this year to your child saying it you'll actually hear this as adults it's hard to listen to children we listen to children as adults or as therapists we focus very much you know when children say they manage time and you watch them grow up and if you remember yourself you could really see that transitions from childhood to adulthood there's when you're three years old and four years old and everybody's nudging you to say the man astana and you absolutely refuse they'll ready to give you the Brooklyn Bridge and this and the Tappan Zee Bridge but the three-year-old four years old just makes like this is it come say and instead mommy says the man astana instead of little boy that stage that's that stage then there's the stage where you have the cute little angels or so excited the five or six or seven eight year olds and they stand up on the chair and with utmost seriousness and sincerity they recite the Man Astana and it's really a highlight of their year and a highlight in the lives of the parents watching it then as they get older we see the self-consciousness growing and at the age of a mitzvah a little younger a little older there's this awkwardness the awkwardness right the member of what this one is saying and that one is saying and then when you're a teenager it is the self-consciousness of oh now it's a whole experience of me saying the man astana and then when you become an adult and if you still say the man astana there is the maturity and the seriousness sometimes taking yourself too seriously and then as you grow up and you develop maybe a little more of a spiritual maturity and sensitivity you look at it in different eyes but it really it it it highlights it delineates the journey the journey of people from a very young age to an older age but when we could listen to the child on their terms not on our terms without preconceived notions without prerequisites without expectations this is the first statement they're making there's a second statement they're making what makes this night different than all night we eat all year we eat vegetables tonight we eat and we focus on one vegetable more bitter herbs what makes this night different is I'm ready to fill my mouth and experience a mouth full of bitter horseradish there's nothing like a mouth full of bitter horseradish to get your heart pounding and your tastebuds triggered what does this mean it means some of us in life shut the faucet and the reason we shut the faucet is because the water that comes out is often too painful the problem is the moment you shut the faucet or even those of us who go down to the boiler and close the water we don't allow any water to come out of our faucets you know what I'm talking about no I'll explain some of us at a certain point in life shut the faucet of our emotions we felt we had to the pain was too profound to keep the water running as children were brilliant so we go down to the boiler system of our psyche it's called the sub sub sub conscious layers in the lower stratum of your personality and you find this switch to emotions and you go boom and that's how you survive if you don't allow yourself to experience all emotions of life you won't experience so much pain you create a certain detachment we go into a robotic or mechanical state we do what we have to do we want to survive we want to function but we can't allow ourselves to experience the full gamut of life's emotions because if we do that we may not stop sobbing so we just shut the water and we find we buy bottled water in the store when we need to the problem is once I shut the faucet I shut the faucet of all the motions I don't feel pain but I can't feel joy I may not feel hate but I can't feel love I may not feel despondency but I can't feel excitement I may not feel death but I can't feel life either I may not feel the disappointments of disconnections but I can't feel the profound exhilaration of connections I may not feel the abuse of alienation and detachment but I also can't feel the vigor and power of presence and attachment I may not feel and grieve the depth of the mourning over the lost relationship and the lost expectations but they also can't celebrate anymore the sparks of love and life that exists in my life I shut my water channel I shut my faucet and when that happens the eye is not alive the eye has been hidden somewhere very very deep because the eye of the person is all about our emotions our experiences our spontaneous reactions our relationships when we become a computer we may do everything right but there's nobody there there's no presence so what makes this night different I fill my mouth with horror I fill my mouse with my mouth with horse radish to be able to feel bitterness who wants to feel bitterness why are you taking the bitter pill because in order to be able to feel the joy I have to be able to feel the bitterness now this is an extraordinary profound but it's not an easy insight to digest we dip it a little bit with her Isis but then we shake off the her Isis and the reason it's not easy to digest is because it's more murder is not easy to digest but here's the power of the if I can taste my mother I can taste my wine if I can't taste my mother I can't taste my freedom if I can't taste my mother I cannot go out of Egypt my whole life will not become more by tasting more while tasting Mara does is it gives me the courage to open my tastebuds to trigger my emotions to be able to feel and yes to be able to cry and when I'll I'm I allow myself to cry that the water becomes like a mikvah the tears become my commitment that washed me out and opened me up to all the joy that also exists in my life so some people with some people it's not so complicated on a conscious level sometimes tomorrow represents simply I'm indifferent I don't feel anything some people they're just indifferent it's like a form of cynicism you don't want to be disappointed so you just stop feeling you just become indifferent they once asked - drew what's the difference between apathy and ignorance and he said I don't know and I don't care when I don't care about things nothing bothers me sometimes here people I don't care I don't care I'm indifferent I'm some people admire them Wow nothing gets to you know nothing negative gets to but nothing positive also gets to you indifference real and different spells disaster because I'm indifferent to everything I'm indifferent to things that I should be indifferent to but I become indifferent everything else - apathy is not an option in life apathy is option for the fearful for the cowards just like cynicism cynicism sometimes sounds sophisticated people who are cynical of everybody and anything there's no innocence in their life but it's really because I don't want to get disappointed again when I have been disappointed too many times I become cynical to everybody and everything because I don't want to get back step how many times can Julius Caesar get a dagger in their chest how many times can a person experience a dagger and therefore you stop believing you stop trusting and you stop feeling you become indifferent and you're always safe the only problem is you're also dead a Jew once told me he lives in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania so he grew up in Rhode Island I believe and he told me that in Rhode Island there was an out to Eden old Jew and he was a type of Jew like an old American Jew he knew no nonsense like a middle of Davin Inc if by Hazara shots somebody was talking and he was the cousin he would turn around and tell the person to be quiet he was an interesting character so this drew his name is mr. Estrin told me that he remembered a story that happened in with him in 1927 that he shared with this Jew told it to me he was driving one of those cars you know those old Ford the Henry Ford models from the 1920s you know where those cars looked like and he was in an accident in an accident and he went into a comatose he was unconscious and he was outside of the car on the on the street this was 1927 the police came to examine him they didn't have the tools that they have today they declared him dead on sight and they shipped him off to the morgue he was unconscious in the morgue the freezers thank God were full so they kept him on a stretcher until one of the freezers would open up but they would put him into the freezer until the body would be claimed so he's on one of the beds one of the stretchers and then one of the freezers becomes vacant so as he puts it there was a holy african-american brother who was tending to the morgue big big fellow and it's time to take this body and put it into the freezer so he starts rolling his stretcher into the freezer and at that point this drew the phazon of Rhode Island wakes up he wakes up and he sticks his head out and he sees it looks like just like eilam haba he sees a huge African American holy brother standing right above him wheeling the stretcher and remember he was without his garments in this morgue just a little sheet and a morgue is cold very cold she looks up at this african-american only brother and he says I'm cold I'm cold the man looks at me says you ain't called you dead but this was a profound lesson in life coldness apathy indifference is the lack of courage to be able to live to live means to experience life in all of its the experience life and all of its fluctuations to experience life the entire spectrum of colors the entire electromagnetic force of life that encompasses the entire rainbow of a person's life that's what it is so I could love fully then I could live fully but in order to love fully I have to be able to feel my capacity to love and that means I have to be able to eat more so so eating of the more is there to shake up a person from their indifference to be able to really tune in to their experiences and their full set of emotions via amara Rossano emit serum the Egyptians made Jewish life bitter they felt the bitterness of life because they felt the bitterness of life they can yearn for liberation they can yearn for emancipation they can yearn for transformation if all I do in life as I walk around like this where as I said everything is beautifully it punch me in my face all I do there's an expression the cut score ever once said he call sarva called the vastly sakti ruin men who I shall wash em you're not the boss successor of iiquor don't offer as an offering to God so I and wash so I renew dishes Zoya take I said last week sourdough Zoya take the washes honey honey so he says khalsa overhauled wash Suzhou errand soon this louis xvi room initial a sham the ZOA dimension does this inca mention there are people are always sour and they're people who are always sweet both of them can be offered as an offering to God don't be always sour and don't be always sweet I don't mean don't be always sweet to be obnoxious and selfish sweet I mean as ah it's like a false sugary demeanor that is detached from the texture of life so of course a person should always be seen we should always be sweet and kind I didn't mean you should be tough and rough and then obnoxious and self-centered not what I was saying what I mean by sweetness is we create a false external facade that deprives us from any real relationship relationship with with ourselves now of course there is a big advantage they once did an experiment with forcing people to smile with pencils in their mouth and it showed that the physical smile actually affected their moods because our external behaviors affect our internal behaviors but that's not based that's not connected with falsehoods that's a conscious choice where my value and life is I want to be a happy person but not because I cut off and I mutilate a certain part of myself and ignore it because what that does mean that what that does is it substitutes my humanists with an artificial humanists the person has to be able to feel the pain including pain of mistakes pain of abuse pain of distortions pain of certain realities that we either did by ourselves or have been done to us and it's from that murder that I can grow the this famous writes it says in partials of Abraham says I'd say cska me Taha's civilize Mitzvah I am going to extract you from the civilize of mitzrayim the opening of the area what civilized mitzrayim so the word civilize is usually translated as paintings suffering he says a fascinating interpretation the word civilize in Hebrew comes from the word Liz ball Savola note you know what's a flaw notice patience if you go to Israel Avila notes of Leonora bebe patience of la note we have in Hebrew Liz ball this person knows how to to contain Liz Bolduc they can carry a lot come more elusive Oh a donkey knows how to carry a lot since this mass M s voice acs kimitaka civilus miss Ryan I'm going to take you out from a position in which you're tolerating Egypt because as long as you're tolerating Egypt you will make peace with Egypt Mitaka civilized not from the pain of Egypt from the Sevilla north of Egypt from the civilized lizbo the ability for you to be Sobel say it's fine put another washing machine in my head another smack come on another one another one another one I remain in Egypt and I'm not doing anybody a favor I'm not doing myself a favor I'm not doing anybody else a favor because as long as I remain stuck in Egypt people around me are also stuck in Egypt so even as a martyr I'm not doing anybody a favor for its ACS come Mitaka syphilis mitzrayim a person has to be able to get fed up with mature ayam they have to be able to say de LOI mitzrayim de Legolas no more that's for the Russian contingency the LOI means in Russian da no enough the Legolas enough subjugation when people can internally and externally scream against an injustice that's how it ceases people who tolerate injustice people who tolerate abuse people who tolerate lies and deception they're not doing anybody a favor they are accomplice to the crime because they guarantee that there's no change when people think that silence and surrender and acquiescence in the face of injustice is a righteous thing to do with the exact opposite that's what lets criminals of all types get away with their dirty work that people look and say oh yeah what sucks - I don't say oh that's what Morris and Martin Martin by tomorrow is bitter its bitter this is the second thing your child tells you the man astana if you listen carefully you'll hear it your child tells you something else all other nights we don't did even once tonight we dip twice the carpus in the salt water tomorrow and the her Isis math villain is the word dip like the word Vela which is a mikvah submerging you become submerged in something somebody's title in a mikveh what does it mean the entire body goes into it we put the carpus in the salt water like in a mikveh we put the motor in the car Isis we dipped Fela all other nights were not necessarily present kalila has a my mother for my la leche de palma tonight were present not just once twice with our bodies and with our souls one of the greatest obstacles that people have to living is the absence of presence of being fully present wherever I am and whoever I am right now and as a result of that I often forfeit the magic of all that life has to represent now let's face it there's always something to worry about we all know the text of the ancient Jewish telegram start worrying details to follow there's always a tomorrow tomorrow is because hummus tomorrow xerath paste of tomorrow's paste atomizer Bat Mitzvah has done up senator pigeon I've been a bris tomorrow is camp tomorrow is Rosh Hashana to Kippur Tomasz Hanukkah tomorrow's put it where are we now tomorrow spacer there's always a tomorrow and the day today becomes defined by the tomorrow or by yesterday what happened yesterday the ability of the free person is to be able to be fully fully present in life right here right now so we say sometimes a non-ohmic Billina Phillip amethyst ha Lila's are stay problem I'm ready to dip in what do I mean dip in completely get involved completely get submerged not allow my thoughts to take me away and to distract me from the experience that I'm experiencing right now in life now this is difficult because on our mind there's always so much going on right now you may thinking up what are you thinking about right now anybody this our minds are all over the place very often and it looks like that's the responsible way to live I'm not living in an isolated planet with nothing to do I have a life to govern I have a family to run I have a home I have a business I have a flight I have this responsibility that responsibility how can I even be here as a result of that were often nowhere we're always many of us are always somewhere else physically I may be here mentally I'm so as you ever see how a politician shakes hands with people they look at the next person when I visited Dublin Ireland many years ago I went to the Parliament so there was a Jewish parliament member in Dublin Ireland his name was Frisco something like that that I remember Oh what was his last name Briscoe bliss ah one was a mayor and his brother was a parliament member the mayor has passed away already but the Parliament member I met so when I gave him Shalom Aleichem he looked me in the eyes for a few seconds so I said I'm impressed with you mr. Briscoe most politicians they already look away so he told me that John F Kennedy President Kennedy came here a few months before he was shot or a year before John the early 60s and he shook shook as my hand and he looked at me and he didn't stop looking and he said Kennedy told me that that when you shake somebody's hand look them in the eyes he says that's what a politician has to do to gain trust so that itself was part of politics perhaps but it's true in every so many so many other areas in life the person is always somewhere else it's very hard to be completely submerged what make is this night different is stay Priya Minh I take my body my physical body but I also take my mind my soul and both of them become fully present because if I'm not fully present I could never extract what there is from life at this moment full presence means right now this is what's going on and there's absolutely nothing else via vada tomorrow we say in Korea Shima and there's the old Hasidic interpretation valve added to my hair you have to lose the sense of mahira fast fast fast get it over with just get it over with next next next the most important person in my life is the person I'm speaking to right now the most important moment in my life is the moment I'm living right now the most important experience in my life is the experience that I'm experiencing right now and the most important place in my life is the place I am right now it's in the now where man finds God where man finds life where a person finds truth because the world is recreated every single moment we say in Davin in Hama Kaddish Batu volume comedy mesabree sheis so if I'm not here present I am detaching myself from the heartbeat of life I am NOT dancing to the rhythm of the divine vibrations through the cosmos and through my own self at this very moment if I'm living in yesterday or yesteryear or tomorrow God is like hello hello I'm talking to you now come wake up be attentive to me to life to experience the opportunity right now right here at this very moment it doesn't mean I should have learned from the past it doesn't mean I shouldn't prepare for the future we're preparing for basic I'm not gonna have matzah if I don't prefer pacer I'm gonna have comets if I don't do because comets of course we prepare and we learn but we live we live in the present moment if I want to be free by Manish Donna your child says dit submerge yourself be completely completely present when a person is fully present you can achieve in three minutes when you can't achieve in three hours when you're not fully present there's a conversation you can have with a person for one minute and if you're fully present it's a life changer and when you're not you could sit seven hours and see garnished you make a very good point you make a very good point she said that she thought her whole life that these ideas are Buddhist ideas because she never heard them as Jewish ideas in Tania there's a whole section the second section of Tania the portal of unity and faith the opening chapter is the baal shem tov taught that the world is recreated every single moment a new life happens every single the heartbeat of life you can only experience in the now there's a slum of art or one of the salon ameer ever said we say in the Hagaddah Mithila of the vedas or ohio ave say no the acts of kvar Noah Malcolm Ave dosa in the beginning we were our forefathers worshiped idols and today God brought us close to his service what do we have to start gossiping about our forefathers in the Haggadah that's not so nice my father used to be a disservice and this and this ah - ah men do that with your therapist you have to tell all your kids about your father sit with your therapist tell them about your father the shot is Mithila listen to the words Mithila people who live with the philosophy of life of Mithila what was or if they avoid Azhar Ohio that's a philosophy that is not connected to God worship that's idolatry the ash of those who live in astrovan now cave on OA Malcom lava dosa that means they're in a relationship with gods serving him it ah astronomer ever the first one America Mithila is a philosophy of a disorder what was was was I'm always there and remember the good old days were always good you know that always better beautiful perfect an old man once told me said the good old days they were horrible because they were horrible [Laughter] of course you learned from the good old days you always learn from the past if we don't learn from the past we repeat that past errors the famous saying but the person who lives only in the past I'm not alive I live either with guilt or with regret or with horrible animosity and resentment or just with nostalgia somebody once told me nostalgia today is not even what it used to be looking me like the action of somebody who lives in there now kayvon oh I'm welcome la Vida say what does it mean that you're how do you know what's the litmus test that you're in a relationship with God three things we said every morning and a burning from tehilim in high do is Vasudeva Bhim Como in his space there is confidence and there's joy when you're in a space of confidence and joy you're in his space and here we learn a third component a chef when you're in the now you're in the space of the divine you're in the space with the divine is manifested when I am in right now right here because right now this purpose right now there's meaning right now there's a calling right now there's an energy to be grasped right now there are sparks to be liberated right now there's an opportunity for growth right now then now may be a challenging moment the might now may be an exhilarating moment that now may be a frustrating it's a difficult situation but there's something here right now don't run something to learn something to discover a way to go deeper into something something to realize but there's always a way forward from now there's always a way forward always ahead of of employment but action k1r Malcolm overdose that's the third statement your child tells you by the man astana what sets this night different than all other nights and then there's the fourth statement your son your son or your daughter Talia what makes this night different is all nights of the year we sit or we recline we could recline like kings like queens like princesses or we could sit like dutiful obedient people at the table Holi Lhasa cool anima super everybody is stretched out everybody is reclining everybody is a queen everybody is a king as the Gomorrah says dareth Harris everyone is emancipated what does this mean what makes this night difference is your awareness of how much you're capable of stretching of how much you're capable of reclining just as it is when it comes to physical stretching those of you who are familiar with it know that the greatest trainers in the world the best teachers are those who teach you how much you're capable of stretching which not all of us we like to crash I can't if you do this you're gonna pull my brain out if you do this I'm gonna lose my stomach my heart my kidneys you taking out my liver you're pulling off my toes those are the rigid fears that comes because our bodies become so rigid they're not flexible a good stretcher helps you realize how naturally the body is so flexible children right before they introduced all the video games they came home every evening for supper black and blue they fell off trees they climbed trees like monkeys they fell off trees like monkeys the flexibility the Alice tissa tea right the elasticity of the body is extraordinary but today in neuroscience we know about brain elasticity as well and that's the reclining we're talking about there's the physical stretch which is very very important as well it's the conduit for the spiritual stretch and there's the spiritual reclining the spiritual reclining means people don't realize how much power and flexibility and potency and prowess we have stored in our souls and in our brains so we sometimes sit as only we don't move we don't budge hi Lila is that : Amma Subin you're a free person free people recline they stretch out physically emotionally psychologically and spiritually because even the sky is not the limit when you realize that your soul is a piece of the divine and just as the divine is untouchable invincible wholesome and limitless the soul which is a hail akela Kemal is also limitless and therefore even though we tell ourselves this is who I am this is what I'm going to remain tonight Colonna miss Subin I'm stretched out I'm reclined and become free who is the one who tells us all of these four messages children why not adults the answer is very simple children not only believe what I said they live everything I just said children are humble they're all matzah they listen to everything they absorb everything like wet sponges they take in everything which is often a problem as adults we discriminate this I like this I don't like right you sit at a shear you don't like what I say you shut down if you're sitting at a she okay not mine you sit here gonna see it and you don't like what the teacher is saying what do you do no way no way I'm not taking this in boom you dismiss it you reject it you can even see the sour face that you make not you somebody else could see the sour face children take everything in sometimes they take in too much that's their that's their child that's their beauty there's an absolute humility with children they don't have defense mechanisms that we have erected to protect ourselves it all goes in that's why they remember everything it's shocking you sometimes hear you four-year-old ten years later I'll tell you what you told him when he was four that you already forgot it seven years ago you forgot the story but they absorb they remember because they listened because there's you complete openness complete openness to life complete curiosity the second thing is murder children feel emotion that's why they scream a they cry a lot they laugh a lot they feel emotion of course many of them learn pretty fast and sometimes doesn't only mean on the outside oh so on the inside so Chivas crack system you're eating monitor ready you can wait for the same but that was a good a good that was synchronized very well with where we were holding now we're doing the third one children are very present their presence they see something that attracts their attention you're in a rush you have a fastener you two and half hours late but your child saw something and that's it life stops here this is where it's at I'm busy what this good ones gonna say I'm late for this some late what late wherever you are that's where life is children are fully present it's hard for us sometimes to be as present as they are because we're in a rush but they're fully fully present so they can teach us about math billon a few years ago the Washington Post did an extraordinary experiment 2007 they took the one of the greatest violinists alive today his name Joshua Bell Joshua Bell is a Jewish kid brilliant violinist probably gets fifty or a hundred thousand dollars for a concert maybe a half maybe two hundred thousand dollars and tickets in the front row cost a few thousand dollars and they took Joshua Bell and they asked him to put on clothes of a homeless beggar a torn cat and take his Stradivarius violin and play it in the Metro in the subway station in Washington DC at eight o'clock in the morning on a lousy Friday winter day in January as lawyers doctors and entrepreneurs and accountants and professionals and all types of people students and academics parents and children are going to work going to school going wherever they have to get in DC and play a concerto in the subway and Joshua Bell agreed and he stressed with torn clothes he has a violin that's worth today probably 25 million dollars or so in the subway and he's sitting there and he's not just playing Yankee Yankee Doodle he's playing magnificent magnificent symphonies extraordinary and he has a little paper cardboard box for people to put in for people to put in donations and he sits there for close to an hour and I watched they took a secret video he played some of the most extraordinary exquisite pieces of music a night before he did a concert people were paying thousands of thousand they wanted to see the zelma Bell the same Bell the same violin the same using the same art the same genius the same creativity and it's unbelievable what they saw out of thousands and thousands of people almost nobody stopped maybe seven eight people stopped for a minute at the end he made a dollar and 32 cents or so but there was one demographic that stopped you know who children all children stopped but they were yanked away by their parents each one each child turned around and tell mommy that we gotta go you're gonna be late and they kept on turning around you know our children turn around turn around children sends that there was something unique adults are busy there was one black african-american janitor in a cafeteria a kiosk or newspaper kiosk in the subway and he made sure to clean outside the store to be able to have his eye on this they asked Bell what was the hardest part he said when I finished nobody noticed when I finished nobody noticed I went on to the next song he finished it was a masterpiece somebody a nobody noticed besides the children but they weren't in control they were yanked they were yanked away and then I discovered I think we discovered a great truth about life and that is art without a frame orphan becomes meaningless and it shows you how pathetic the sophisticated human can become if it's not advertised as art if it's not framed as art becomes meaningless very few people pick up art without a frame if it's a concert if everybody's dressed to kill if you paying 2,000 bucks who was beautiful it was buted one believable liar sighted yacht's was the best the next morning the same guy you're in a rush we love frames we love commercials we love advertisements if you tell me it's beautiful it becomes beautiful if you don't tell me it's beautiful it's nothing it's meaningless how many things in life do people lose on because there's nobody to frame it it's all the frame the frame I have to be told to appreciate if there's no frame it's worthless that's not where artists most art is frameless most art is in the present moment most art is in the most boring monotonous experiences if you just have the courage to listen and to look that's why it's the children who teach you about humility they teach you about feeling they teach you about presence presence and they teach you about the fact that they believe they can do anything sometimes they believe they can do too much and they need taught their mommy to hold them back but children naturally of course I'm gonna jump off of course I'm gonna jump two floors of course I'm gonna do this of course I'm gonna do that children have this innate drive and ability to exercise their potentials fully ad infinitum so with the child who says Monash Donohue Lila is a McCulloch Layla's what makes this night different and the four questions are both for questions and for answers and most importantly for invitations for challenges have a wonderful week this class is brought to you by the achieve Annette please help us continue the classes make even a small contribution at triple w dot they ueshiba net / donate