The Four Structural Elements of the Passover Seder Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz

the uh the E Nishmata. Thank you. So, uh today we're departing a little bit from our format. Uh normally we try to cover the uh Haftorah and connect it to the parsha. Uh today, in light of the upcoming uh chag that I'm sure everybody is aware of, uh the holiday called Pesach, so I want to talk in a more general way about the holiday of Pesach. And we know that uh there are many many mitzvahs that Pesach has, the mitzvah of eating matzah and maror and rabbinic commandments like the four cups of wine and reclining. Uh but we know that the centerpiece of the Seder is of course the Haggadah. And the Haggadah is the text through which we fulfill a biblical commandment that is called sippur yetziat Mitzrayim that the Torah requires that once a year we narrate the story of God taking us out of Egypt. And this is derived from the verse v'higadeta l'vincha bayom hahu lemor, you shall tell your child on the day of the Exodus. And Chazal have a drasha that that really means the night before, the starting of the day. Ba'avur zeh, because of all that God has done for me b'tzeitzi'enu Mitzrayim, that is why I'm telling the story. And hence, the book of the story is called Haggadah because it is a fulfillment of the mitzvah v'higadeta l'vincha. In other words, the title is exactly mirror- mirroring the source of the mitzvah itself. And even though, if you read v'higadeta l'vincha, you might assume that maybe there is only such a mitzvah if I have a child to whom I am recounting, again, the oral law has various drashos and various ribuyim, various uh terms of inclusion to teach me that even if a person is by themselves, even if a person's all by themselves, as I know that some people who celebrate a second Seder in Israel will indeed be making a second Seder by themselves, but even the first Seder, uh one is mechuyav. In fact, in the Chassidic books, they give a little bit of a twist. V'higadeta l'vincha, if you're all by yourself, you have to speak to the inner child within you. So, it actually is a Chassidic thought that a person needs to be perpetually young in their curiosity, in their desire to discover, in their enthusiasm. So, if you don't have a physical flesh and blood uh child at your Pesach table, you speak to the child within you. The Navi Hoshea says, ki na'ar Yisrael v'a'ohavehu, quoting the Almighty, because the Jewish people are is are perpetually young, therefore I love them. Right? They have a deep perpetual youth in a positive in a positive way. Of course, this calls to mind uh George Bernard Shaw's uh famous famous aphorism, "It is such a pity that youth is wasted on the young. They don't know how to use it." When you get a little older, you really appreciate uh what youth is able to to accomplish uh in so many in so many ways. So, that's the mitzvah of Haggadah. So, I want to make a bit of a curmudgeonly uh little comment about the the Haggadah. And that is, much of the first part of the Haggadah, which people are most interested in because you're most awake and the commentaries even tend to be more, such as the four sons and all of that, is not really the fulfillment of the narrative. That is really an introductory section of the Haggadah that is explaining that the mitzvah should be geared towards the different personalities of each of your children. And there's a lot of things about how do we know the timing, meaning, how do we know when you do the mitzvah, etc. That is not the actual fulfillment of the mitzvah. That is an introductory chapter to describing the mitzvah that we're about to fulfill. So, the actual mitzvah gets fulfilled with the part of the Haggadah that many people tune out for or actually consider relatively boring, but that is the guts of the Haggadah. And that is four verses in Deuteronomy, four verses in the book of Devarim, that a person recites when they bring the first fruits. And it is a mini encapsulation of the Exodus in four verses. We went down to Mitzrayim, verse one essentially, we were enslaved, verse two, we prayed and cried out to God, verse three, God took us out, verse four. That's it. Each verse literally says that. And what the Haggadah then does is, it takes fragments of each of those verses and it elucidates them by citing other verses in the primarily in the book of Shemot. Right? So, really, I hope you have a Haggadah with the proper typeface and the proper uh fonts, that you have four verses, big verses, and each verse is then subdivided with what we call drashos. So, in reality, one might uh say that this is a funny way to say that to recount the story of the Exodus. Since the story of the Exodus is in the book of Exodus, the book of Shemot, why do I use the four verses of bikurim, which I then elucidate by reference to psukim in Shemot? I ought to go and just read the psukim in Shemot, read the whole story. So, just b'kitzur, just al derech pshat, just in terms of simple pshat, I want to give you four reasons why Chazal chose the four verses of bikurim as the structure for the story of the Exodus. Reason number one is brevity. If you have to go back and read the story of yetziat Mitzrayim from the book of Exodus, you will have to read 12 chapters of the Chumash. Uh now, Maggid is long enough as it is anyway, especially if you're supposed to eat the afikoman before midnight. So, consequently, Chazal picked what is called derech kitzarah. Now, again, many people will say, "I can't believe it. Are you telling me the Haggadah is derech kitzarah?" The answer is it is, because the narrative in Exodus is a much much longer narrative with a lot more detail. So, reason number one is derech kitzarah. Reason number two is the methodology of gezeirah shavah. Gezeirah shavah is Chazal would compare two different areas of halacha based on a common word between them. And that is, the mitzvah of sippur yetziat Mitzrayim is introduced by the term v'higadeta l'vincha. And when a person brings the first fruits and he declares this mini history in gratitude to the Almighty, it says higadeti hayom lashem elokecha. I am declaring today to Hashem. So, through the gezeirah shavah, Haggadah Haggadah, higadeti and v'higadeta, Chazal saw that bikurim was the appropriate text for the Haggadah. Reason number three is the essence of the recitation when a person brings the first fruits is one of gratitude to the Almighty for the kindnesses that he has given us. Now, consequently, Chazal understood that the narrative of the Exodus is exactly the same theme. Gratitude to Hashem for geulah, for freedom, for opportunity to be able to serve him. And consequently, they saw the mitzvah of bikurim as the appropriate paradigm for the way we fulfill the mitzvah of sippur yetziat Mitzrayim. Reason number four is maybe the most interesting reason of all. One of the points that has been observed over and over and over again is the virtual, it's not 100%, it's but it's 99.9% absence of Moshe Rabbeinu's name in the Haggadah. You wouldn't even know that Moshe Rabbeinu existed, that there was such a person. We make reference to the staff, but we don't say the staff of Moshe. And even the reference to the staff of Moshe is not mentioned. Now, Moshe is mentioned exactly once in the Haggadah. And if you want to keep your kids up, if you have younger children, you might want to say anyone that, you know, gets it will get an extra prize besides the afikoman prize. And that is when it discusses the famous passage uh how many plagues were in Egypt and how many plagues were on the Red Sea. And there's a certain correlation because the plagues in Egypt are called the finger of God and the plagues on the Red Sea are called the hands of God. So, consequently, whatever was in Mitzrayim was five times more in the Red Sea. So, one opinion says, 10 in Mitzrayim, 50 in the Red Sea. The other says, every makah in Mitzrayim had four components, so 40 in Mitzrayim, 200 on the Red Sea. And Rabbi Akiva says, every plague in Egypt had uh five components, so that's 50 in Mitzrayim and 250 in the Red Sea. Now, again, I've never seen a list. I have seen a list of trying to enumerate the 50 plagues in the Red Sea. I never saw anything going with the 200 and the 250. But whatever that means, in the middle of that discussion, when he tries to show that the makot are called the finger of Hashem, etzba Elokim, and the Red Sea is the yad of Hashem, it quotes the verse, "Vayar Yisrael es hayad hagadol they saw the great hand asher asah Hashem b'Mitzrayim that God did in Egypt vayiru es Hashem and they revered God v'ya'aminu b'Hashem they believed in God uv'Moshe avdo." Bingo, that is the only reference of Moshe Rabbenu in the entire Haggadah. And the reason why Moshe Rabbenu is de- emphasized so much is because there was always this issue that Moshe Rabbenu did so many miracles, he was so great, he was so above a typical human being, beyond what we could even comprehend, that there was always a risk that the Torah was cognizant of that Moshe might be deified or seen to be a god-like figure. In fact, the Drasha says, "That is why Moshe had to be a stutterer, so people would be aware of his human imperfections. That is why lo yada ish et kvurato, nobody knows where Moshe Rabbenu was buried, so that shouldn't become a shrine or a place of of of idolatry. And consequently, this Pesach Seder, which is the celebration of God redeeming us from Egypt, we want to de-emphasize the human actor. Now, think about it this way. If you were to use Sefer Shemot as your text of the Haggadah, you couldn't escape Moshe Rabbenu. He is mentioned in every single verse. So, Chazal were looking, desperately looking, for a portion in the Torah that describes the Exodus without making any mention of Moshe Rabbenu. That's not easy to find. It happens to be in these four verses of Bikkurim, it does not mention Moshe Rabbenu's name. So, that's a fourth reason to kind of continue the idea of the de-emphasis of Moshe Rabbenu. Uh there's a nice drash when the Haggadah emphasizes that it was God that killed the firstborn of Egypt and no angel. So, it says three statements, "Ani, I, v'lo malach, and not an angel." Then it says again, "Ani, it was I, v'lo saraf." Saraf is also a burning angel. And then it says, "Ani, it was I, v'lo hashaliach, and not the emissary." Now, hashaliach is a little bit of an unusual form. Normally, it would be an evil lo shaliach, what's hashaliach? So, in the Chassidic sphere, they say a nice drasha that if you take the first letter of those three words, malach, ani, and not a malach, mem, ani v'lo saraf, which is the letter shin, ani v'lo hashaliach, it spells out Moshe. That Hashem is saying, "Yeah, Moshe did a lot for me. Moshe was a faithful emissary, but he was not the one that took you out. It was God Almighty that took you out." So, it's interesting, I you know, as they say, a lot of people tune out for this portion of the Haggadah simply because I would suggest even cuz structurally they don't understand what's going on. But essentially, the structure is fairly simple. We are taking four verses from the mitzvah of reading the Bikkurim, and then we are simply subdividing phrases within those verses and elucidating them by bringing in further detail primarily from the book of Shemot. And this is actually standard Midrash. And in fact, this portion of the Haggadah is lifted verbatim essentially from the Mechilta, from the Midrash Halacha on Shemot. It's simply in the Mechilta itself, and the Mesadrei the Haggadah simply simply put it in. But okay. Now, this mitzvah, as I said, is called the mitzvah of Sipur Yetziat Mitzrayim. But in addition to the annual mitzvah of Sipur, there is a daily mitzvah to remember the Exodus. And this is a mitzvah in the Torah as well. And when we say remember, zechira, that doesn't just mean in your mind, but zechira requires verbalization. And they are derived from two different verses. Uh the verse of Sipur is v'higadeta l'vincha bayom hahu lemor, you shall tell your son uh on that day, and that's only on that day, the leil Pesach. But the mitzvah of zechira is another verse, l'ma'an tiskor, you shall remember yom tzeit'cha me'eretz the day that you were taken out of Egypt, kol y'mei chayyecha, all the days of your life. And the this these this mitzvah is given a different name. The mitzvah of leil Pesach is Sipur. The mitzvah of kol hashana is zechira. Now, how do we fulfill the mitzvah of zechira kol y'mot hashana? Well, you can fulfill it any way you want, but the way that is standard is that in the third paragraph of Shema, which is the parsha of the tzitzis, there is a verse that says, "Ani Hashem Eloheichem, I am the Lord your God, asher hotze'si et'chem me'eretz Mitzrayim, who took you out of Egypt liyos lachem le'Elohim, to be for you a God." And if you have an ArtScroll Seder or the like, there's actually a little note in the Seder that says, "One should have intention when reciting this verse to fulfill the positive commandment in the Torah to remember the Exodus of Egypt." Now, here is a simple question I'm going to uh share with you. And again, I'm not sure if I'm fully going to answer it, but it's something to think about structurally. And that is the following. There is a machlokes in the Mishnah on Maseches Berachos. If the mitzvah of remembering the Exodus is only in the daytime because that's when we left, or is it even at night? It's certainly in the daytime, but is it even at night? If you remember, the Haggadah itself quotes Rabbi Elazar ben Azarya, amar Rabbi Elazar ben Azarya, "Harei ani k'ven shiv'im shana, behold, I am like a person that is 70 years old." If you remember the famous story, and the story is not that relevant to our topic, but the story was that Rabban Gamliel was the head of the Sanhedrin, and he was deposed in a palace revolt, so to speak, because he mistreated Rabbi Yehoshua, and they were not sure who they should appoint in his place. They thought to appoint Rabbi Yehoshua would rub salt in Rabban Gamliel's wounds, so they settled on a compromise candidate, you might call him a dark horse, and that was the Rabbi Elazar ben Azarya, who was very learned, very righteous, he was wealthy, so he could deal politically with the Roman powers. He was related to Ezra, so we had yichus and sechut avot. But chaval, he was only 18 years old. Quite amazing, 18 years old. And uh there was a fear that people would not respect him. So, miraculously, it is recorded that his beard turned white overnight, and that is the meaning of the statement, "Behold, I am like a person 70 years old." Uh my wife suggested a more rational interpretation. Uh she says that perhaps his beard turned prematurely white from the responsibility that he had. That could scare a person, and she reminds me that uh So, maybe there's something to that interpretation as well. The Arizal offers a kabbalistic interpretation. This is this is the amazing interpretation. He says that Rabbi Elazar ben Azarya was a reincarnation, a gilgul, of the prophet Shmuel. Shmuel died tragically young at the age of 52. So, when Rabbi Elazar ben Azarya was born, he was given a soul that has already spent 52 years on Earth. So, when he was 18 years old, his soul had 70 years of earthly existence. Thus, he could say, "Behold, I am like a man of 70 years old." The question is why do we Yeah. We understand from this verse that there's some special mystical significance to the number 70? And why shouldn't he have said, "Behold, I'm like a man of 75 or 65?" Yeah, well, um I I don't know, you know, that's a that's a good question. It seems that 70 is identified in the Torah itself as the old age that you honor honor the elderly and the like. So, so 70 is given that that that that zman. They say ba' tachkum, ba' da'at pnei zaken. The zaken is 70. 70 is zikna. And it may be connected. It may be connected to comparing decades of life to the days of creation in which when you enter when you've completed seven decades, you've completed the cycle of life in its completion, and everything else is new, new life after that. I know some people have a minhag in Sefrou even that when they're 83 years old, they have a new bar mitzvah because they consider themselves born at 70, and they continue a new life. Every year after that is a new gift of life that Hashem has has given. But, putting aside the reference on the 70, what does that got to say? And I was not aware or I was not I did not merit to know that you have to mention the Exodus at night until Ben Zoma preferred an interpretation that since it says you must remember the Exodus all the days of of of your life, if it would have said the days, that would have meant the days. All the days includes the night. Now, here's the question. That Mishnah is not talking about the annual mitzvah of Sipur. The annual mitzvah of Sipur, there is no dispute. Not only do you do it at night, you only do it at night. That debate is about the daily mitzvah of Zechirah, in which some rabbis say only in the day and not at night. And Ben Zoma says in the day and also at night. So, a very simple question, what is the relevance of Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah's discussion to anything we're doing Pesach night? That discussion is about the whole year. It has nothing to do with Pesach night. You see, if if you wouldn't have this background, you might make the mistake, well, I need to establish there's a mitzvah at night because that allows me to proceed with the Seder. But, that's erroneous. There is no debate about Leil Seder. Leil Seder corresponds to the eating of the Korban Pesach, which is certainly at night. So, a very very simple question is the whole discussion of Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah and Ben Zoma and the fact that all the the days of your life mean the days and all the days of your life mean the night, that has no shichus, that has no relevance to Leil Seder. So, to to answer this question, let's go back in a more general point, and that is Rav Chaim Soloveitchik, the great Rav Chaim of Brisk, at the beginning of every Seder, he would always introduce the Seder with the following question. The Torah commands us that on the night of the Exodus, we must tell a story. But, the Torah does not command us to use the Haggadah. The Haggadah is a rabbinic text. D'Oraisa, you could tell the story in your own words. Now, Rav Chaim has the kasha, since every single night anyway, there's a mitzvah of Zechirah, so even if the Torah wouldn't have given me the special mitzvah of Sipur, I would have to mention the Exodus. What is the Torah telling me to do on this night that I wouldn't already have to do because of the norm the general mitzvah of Zechirah? And you can't Say again? What? In other words, to have another person to tell it to? Okay, if there is another person, okay, that that's true. In fact, that that might be an answer. And and that the special chiddush of Leil Pesach is the obligation to interact with another if you have that. That's that's true. On the other hand, let me point out that even if you are by yourself and you're not interacting, you still have a mitzvah. And then the question is what is it adding? So, Rav Chaim said bechech rech, Sipur is telling you to do more than Zechirah. One aspect might be the interaction, but he also identified four structural elements that Sipur has that Zechirah does not have. And the Haggadah incorporates the structure of the Haggadah is based on it is a a textual incorporation of these four elements. Element number one is called She'eilah u'Tshuvah. That the Exodus story must be recounted through a question and answer process. It is not enough to just say God took me out of Egypt. There must be questions and answers. Now, of course, the Mah Nishtanah is the explicit question, but really all questions are good. And even if you're by yourself, you have to ask questions. Like I remember even years ago as a little little child, but it struck me even then as as funny. Uh we were invited Seder somebody's house, and uh the ba'al habayit I was anxious to get going. It was late. And uh his kids kept kept on asking him questions about the Seder. And they were good questions. Uh so, the father finally got so annoyed, said, "Stop asking questions. We have to go run the Seder." Which is kind of, you know, little bit the opposite opposite of the point. In fact, Chazal even enacted doing certain rituals only so the kid will ask the questions. For example, at the beginning of the Maggid, the matzah is moved to the end of the table, so the child will ask, "Why did you move the matzah?" And then you're in a you really have a quandary because the answer is, "Oh, I moved the matzah so you would ask me why I moved the matzah." So, why did you move the matzah? SO YOU'D ASKED. OKAY, you got to figure out how to avoid the infinite loop in those types of in those types of answers. But, be that as it may, now I'll I'll come to why this is important. I want I want to enumerate them first, then I'll go back and show why they're important. So, element number one that is unique to Sipur that does not apply to Zechirah is question and answer. Element number two is what the Mishnah calls Maskhil b'Gnus u'Mesayem b'Shvach. The whole year, I just have to talk about God took me out of Egypt or took us out of out of Egypt. Leil Pesach, I got to begin with the negative. I can't just talk about the redemption. I got I got to talk about the denigration, the degradation, the suffering, the slavery. Now, there is a machlokes in the Gemara actually. What is the negative that you emphasize? According to one opinion, it is the slavery and the servitude. According to the other opinion, it was the paganism and the idolatry. And that is why the Haggadah incorporates two different stories that have been melded together. There is the story of the journey from slavery to freedom, and there is the story of the journey from paganism to monotheism. And both of those stories are combined together, but you got to start with the so-called bad. You can't just go to the good. Again, I'll come back to this, too. Element three that differentiates Sipur from Zechirah, and that is Rabban Gamliel's statement that unless you explain the significance of the Korban Pesach, the matzah, and the maror, not just eat them, explain them, you have not fulfilled your mitzvah. What mitzvah haven't you fulfilled? You have not fulfilled the mitzvah of Haggadah. Haggadah requires that you explain the significance of Pesach, matzah, maror, which of course is not true for Zechirah the rest of the rest of the year. By the way, this is an important thing for people to be aware of because the Rabban Gamliel paragraphs are towards the end of the Maggid, shortly before the second cup. So, whoever is handling the food, usually it's the woman of the house, but it could you know, could be the men as well, they go into the kitchen and they may start setting up. Now, if you're going to skip something in the Haggadah, the Rabban Gamliel paragraphs are specifically the ones you better not skip. Uh because if those paragraphs are not said in Hebrew or English, English is perfectly fine, uh you are literally not yotzei the mitzvah. So, whoever is getting up to go into the kitchen needs to either go ahead and say those paragraphs before they get up or uh come back and say them before they drink the second cup. So that by the time they drink the second cup, they've done it. There are portions of the Haggadah that can be skipped. In other words, if you walked out for the four sons, but nobody likes that cuz that's the like fun fun part of the Haggadah. Or if you fell asleep for Chad Gadya or the like, you know, you're you are okay. Uh there too, you need you need to be awake. You need to Avdi and Rabban Gamliel are essential parts of of the No, cuz I included that because in the in the Maskhil b'Gnus u'Mesayem b'Shvach, we talk about Avdi that we were with love and etc. That's part of the That's That's included in Maskhil b'Gnus. Yeah. Yeah. Um what if your state of Pesach Seder and the person who is like running the Seder says says it and you're listening to him? That's good. So, we do pasken uh just like by Kiddush and by other things, shomei'a k'oneh, that if I listen to a recitation, I get the credit for saying it. So, that applies to the Haggadah itself as a general rule. Uh many people have a minhag they say the Haggadah along with the person conducting the Seder, but but if you are listening, even if you don't verbalize, uh you are going to be yotzei under the principle of shomei'a k'oneh. So, that's going to be okay. But, you do have to either hear it or say it and the like. Right. Now, again, I'll come back to it. Now, the fourth element is really the most difficult. And that is this is the passage in the Haggadah that says Chayav Adam liros es atzmo ke'ilu hu person must regard themselves as if they personally were liberated from and this is a fundamental difference in orientation between Seder and the whole year Seder the whole year is simply remembering what God did for our forefathers. We are to experience as if we were literally there. The used to say son used to say that this was the hardest of all of because we weren't there. How do I experience being there? Then I will go back and explain these things now, but I just want to bring out the point that says teaches us that there are four distinctions between Seder and and the is predicated on these four distinctions. Questions and answers beginning with the negative which is either slavery or paganism number three explaining number four personally experiencing liberation. And I think I would add yours as a fifth the idea that when you when it is possible to interact and share the story with your children you are obligated to do so which is not true for the rest of the year the rest of the year is what I do myself. I don't have to interact or communicate. So now let's put this in a broader framework and let's start with the fourth element which is really the most important here and that is each person must regard themselves as if they themselves were liberated from question is what does that mean? I was not in I certainly was not a slave in what does it mean I must regard myself as if I was liberated. Now the first point is don't confuse this with a somewhat similar idea that's expressed at the beginning of the Seder which if God would not have taken us out of Egypt we our children our children would still be enslaved in one way or the other. That's simply saying I'm grateful for God liberating my ancestors because had he not liberated my ancestors. I might be suffering in one way or the other, but that's not the same thing as saying God liberated me later I got to make a more much more radical claim. I myself experienced or must feel that I experienced so let me give you two explanations. Explanation number one is the and I think we we talked about this a few weeks ago in fact in the beginning of the says it is the creative use of imagination to feel the emotional intensity of an experience which means it's frankly make-believe, but it's make-believe for a good purpose. I wasn't a slave, but in order for me to appreciate what the almighty did for I have to imagine myself as a slave. Meaning to say I got to know if you're familiar with method acting Strasberg Marlon Brando all of that I have to put myself in the moment. What was it like to be tortured to be beaten to be humiliated to carry loads that were beyond my strength not to have adequate food and shelter and you imagine yourself. You use the power of imagination to put yourself in that moment. So Lee Strasberg taught us that in order to feel it you have to draw on past experience. So if you're acting anguish at a at a parent you have to feel the experience that you went through. What you're suggesting is not that you're suggesting is something that comes out of nowhere. Well, that's very very much harder. It might be hard. Yeah. But the truth of the matter is let me let me point out let me point out that through most of Jewish history. I think you could apply the Strasberg model almost exactly because Jewish people generally lived in persecuting environments like there there were aspects of slavery enslavement persecution suffering and discrimination that Jews would be able to it'll be harder granted. It'll be harder. It'll be harder. Well, I don't know if it's impossible, but but nevertheless the suggests the use of imagination to relive not to relive but to experience something you never experienced and that is the notion of slavery. So according to the and again we can call it make-believe again. I don't mean that negatively or pejoratively, but basically in order to feel gratitude to the almighty. You have to try to relive it in some way. The second explanation is that that's offered by the and this is a an explanation that's very very beautiful and and very popular in and that is the word has a double meaning of course means the ancient Empire of Egypt and of course we do believe that the Egyptian slavery was a historical fact and the Exodus was a historical fact, but also comes from the word which has limitation boundary constriction blockage says in from the narrow constricting places. I call out to God answer me with expansiveness and based on this the writes every single person has their own inner my what blocks me from connecting to from becoming the person I I'm able to become I should be able to become a person can have a arrogance anger lack of self-esteem in which they think they're worthless and ineffectual laziness hedonism whatever it would be those are my those are blocking me. They're stopping me from moving forward and here's what the says. You know, we're used to at least if you're not an Einsteinian physicist, but if you're just a regular person perceiving time. We tend to perceive time generally the simple conception of time is a linear progression. There's past present future there's a river of time. It only moves in one direction can't go backwards can only go forward and therefore anything in the past is can only be commemorated and remembered. It is not relived per se and yet in mystical terms time is not linear time is cyclical and that is when we say is it is not just it is not just the same date that is reoccurring. It is the same moment in time that has come back and in that moment in time there is a spiritual power when God liberated the Jewish people on that day God put a power into the world that enables every person to be liberated from the that enslaves them. You piggyback if I can use such a phrase on to become liberated from your own inner and therefore the meaning of the sentence each person must regard themselves as if they were liberated from does not mean each person must make believe that they were a slave in Egypt from which they were liberated, but each person must identify their and believe that God has given them the power to be liberated from the that enslaves them. Oh, no, no, no, this is the I think this is the explanation. I mean I'm elaborating a little bit so you might not see everything that I'm saying, but it's based on the certainly based on the now we know at the same time. This is also a major theme in burning is often described as puffed up arrogant burning the is described as destroying the arrogance within me. The is called the leavening agent in the dough in fact, you know, I think the largest Seder in the world is probably still is is in Kathmandu in Nepal and of course runs a Seder for 2000 or 3000 people even a little bigger than my this year and you never know you never know you never know maybe you know especially certainly should have the biggest Seder in in in the world, but and of course most of the people that are there are Israelis and many Israelis after their army service like to tour and they go up there and even though most of them are not religious at all, but you know, Pesach Seder, they want to be connected to something from home and they go to the Pesach Seder. But because the audience are not, you know, largely Orthodox, they do things a little avant-garde. So they actually have a custom on Erev Pesach in which as they make a big bonfire that they burn the bread, every person writes something on a piece of paper, some negative character traits that they want to destroy and they throw it into the fire that it should be burned away with the chametz. Now, you know, a religious person hears that and says, "Oh, that's another new age spiritual stuff, you know, that type of thing." But the truth of the matter is, this is very, very close to the actual spirit of what biur chametz does represent. Because on one hand, Pesach cleaning, you can't get away with it. There's certainly a lot of hard physical work uh that you have to do. In fact, you know, perennially, you know, people always put out these guides, you know, Pesach cleaning made easy. You know, they try to do this. And whatever they say, you know, I never get anything out of those guides because they they start off with one page, "Oh, Pesach cleaning is easy." And then they just make it as hard as everybody else, you know. They never give you some magic bullet because there really is no magic bullet other than the general statement that Pesach cleaning doesn't have to be general spring cleaning. You know, that that happens to be true. In terms of chametz, you know, you're kind of stuck. But we have to be aware that in addition to the physical chametz, there is the chametz of the heart. So whether you describe that as chametz or whether as the Baal HaTanya describes Mitzrayim, Leil Pesach is that great Yetzias Mitzrayim break down the boundaries, the constrictions, the blockages that limit you. They tell a beautiful story about a Chassidic Rebbe who spent many, many hours in searching for chametz with his talmidim. And they did a really, really good job and they were pretty happy with themselves. But at the end of the whole ceremony, the Rebbe started crying. The Rebbe said, "We got all the chametz in the house." Then he pointed to his chest, "What about all the chametz in here? How are we going to search for the chametz in here?" So the talmidim gave him a beautiful answer. Rebbe, the first Mishnah in Pesachim says, "A place that you don't bring in chametz, you don't have to search." So they said, "Rebbe, your heart is a place that no chametz ever goes in." Well, that's a good answer for the Rebbe, but you know, uh for for many of us, you know, maybe we need to do a bedikas chametz there as as as as well. So this is the inner meaning of each person must regard themselves as if they themselves were taken out of Mitzrayim. Now, based on this idea, it turns out that the Haggadah is really two different stories in one. It is on one level the national story of the Jewish people, how we became a nation, how we were chosen by God, how God liberated us through miracles and he demonstrated his love and his providence over and over again. And this is the story that a parent lovingly communicates to their children generation to generation. And as you know, even people that are very, very far from traditional Judaism on some level or the other gravitate towards the Seder. So we'll call that the national story, which of course is the main story. But in addition to that national story, the Baal HaTanya is saying there's also a private idiosyncratic story that is as a person identifies their own Mitzrayims and how the Koach Yetzias Mitzrayim can liberate me from that which enslaves me in so many ways. So if you understand level the fourth level that Rebbe Nachman talks about, the personal liberation, I'm explaining Rebbe Nachman essentially I'm saying Rebbe Nachman in light of the Baal HaTanya, we can now look at the other three elements in the same way. Because we can look at the Seder as not only a recounting of the historical Exodus, but as a step-by-step guide to achieving my own spiritual liberation from that which enslaves me. So let's take the elements one by one. Element number one that differentiates Sippur from Segulah is derech she'eilah u'teshuvah. You know, if you ever listen to any divrei Torah, if you said a divrei Torah, you know that all of them almost all divrei Torah begin with questions that have to be answered. In fact, a student in Or Sameach asked me once, "Do you have to begin every divrei Torah with a question?" So I think I said, "Why not?" Question again. You know, uh but there is a good point here because what is a question? A question essentially says, "I'm reaching out to understand something I don't understand." Meaning a question is a receptivity to grow, a willingness to move to another level. You see, when I don't have questions, I just have answers, I'm not moving anywhere. I'm simply declaring what is within me already. A question is the open desire to continue to go further in life. That is why in Lashon HaKodesh, we call a great scholar of Torah by the appellation talmid chacham. Now, talmid chacham literally means a student of the wise. So why would you call Rav Ovadia Yosef, Rav Elyashiv, you know, you call them they are great talmidei chachamim. They're students? That That's what you call them, great students? The answer is yes because true greatness is a perpetual desire to grow, to continue to learn. You know, they tell an old story. This was actually a true story. That Rabbi Eliezer Silver was one of the great, great rabbis. He was a gadol from Europe who came to the United States in the 1920s and really was one of the gedolei hador in Cincinnati. But his first position was in New England and legend has it, I'm not sure if it's 100% true, that he was fired from his first synagogue because they didn't like the fact that he was wasting electricity by learning at night in the shul. This is the 1920s. And when he said, "But I'm learning Torah," they said, "That's even worse. We hired a rabbi who finished his education." And if you didn't finish your education, then you defrauded us, etc. Now, we know how ridiculous that is. So she'eilah u'teshuvah is the imperative to continue to want to grow, not to simply say, "This is what I am." You know, Franz Rosenzweig, who a very, very eminent uh Jewish German philosopher, uh gradually became more and more observant. Uh as he grew older, he died relatively young because of multiple sclerosis. Uh but he was asked, you know, some of his Jewish German colleagues who were much more assimilated than him made fun of him. And uh they actually said, "Oh, I bet you you're even wearing tefillin." As if that's the biggest insult you could give. And his response was, "Not yet." And it's been pointed out that not yet is a very different type of response than no. He could have just said, "No, I'm not." Not yet says, "I'm on a journey and I don't know where I will be. But I I want to move. I want to grow. I don't want to close myself off. What I am today does not dictate what I can be tomorrow. What I was yesterday doesn't have to define what I am today. So she'eilah u'teshuvah as it relates to the spiritual liberation idea is the willingness to be open and receptive to go beyond your comfort zone, to expand your horizons. And by the way, this is not only a challenge for a not yet religious person. I mean, this is a challenge for everybody, all of us, all of us, to be able to adopt new ways of looking at things, to adopt a broader consciousness of things, to be willing to explore, to be willing to think, not to simply live on automatic pilot. So that's she'eilah u'teshuvah. Now, second level, begin with the negative. Why is it so important to begin with the negative? Why can't I just talk about the good stuff? Why do I have to talk about the bad stuff? So there again, there are different reasons. One might be I only appreciate the blessings of God when I contemplate the what life was like without them. The person appreciates health much more uh after they were ill or even while they're ill than they may have had when they were not ill. So it might be a before and after type of comparison. But there's actually a much deeper idea. And that is when we contemplate the Exodus, we are not just grateful for the Exodus, but we recognize that the slavery itself gave us certain characteristics that we otherwise would not have. The Torah says, for example, "You shall love the ger." Convert, but literally ger means stranger. Love the stranger. "For you were strangers in the land of Egypt." This is a fundamental point of Jewish ethics. When you look around and you see the poor, the downtrodden, the dispossessed, the so-called insignificant people without power, and you're sitting high and mighty in your land, don't ignore them. Draw on your collective memory of what it was like to be oppressed. What it was like to suffer. And use the negative dark experiences in your past as a source of vibrant compassion. This is why it is virtually in the spiritual DNA of the Jewish people to have compassion. Sometimes the compassion may be inappropriately expressed, but whether it's the civil rights movement in the United States or South Africa, uh whether it's the fact that Israel to this very day is a first responder in virtually any catastrophe that occurs throughout the world, even to people who at a at a moment would be happy to destroy uh the state of Israel. This is why, rightly or wrongly, because sometimes we have to get our priorities, we open our country to refugees from all sorts of environments. This is why Jews were historically liberal, whether that was a correct political decision or not. This is why so many Jews were communists. You know, if a Jew became a communist, it was not for the same reason as maybe other people. Jews did not become communists for power grabs. Jews became communists out of compassion. They thought They thought Obviously, it was a wrong turn in history, but they thought this was a way of alleviating the misery and sufferings of others. And this is even why, again, I uh not a correct response in light of everything else, that Jews gravitate uh towards our friends in East Jerusalem and the like. Jews feel the pain of others, even when others don't feel either their own pain or the pain of the Jews. And this is a precious gift in many, many ways, the gift of empathy, the gift of compassion. But we acquired it not through the Exodus. We acquired it through the shared experience of slavery and suffering. So, the deeper meaning of why we have to emphasize the slavery is not to simply create a before and after context, but to understand that even in the adversity of life, there are hidden blessings. Here are those of you that are familiar with uh Victor Frankl's work, Man's Search for Meaning, really a nice a very, very magnificent book and overall really a magnificent philosophy. And that is the idea that the human being has very little control over what life puts in our way. Things happen. Sometimes devastating things happen. And why God allows it to happen or does God dictate it to happen, that's the book of Job, and there's so much we don't understand at the end of the day. But Victor Frankl said the last freedom of man is how they choose to respond to the hand that they're dealt. You can choose to respond with bitterness and anger and hate. And you can choose to respond with resilience and compassion and love. And that is the true measure of a human being. And therefore, the inner meaning of beginning with the bad, culminating in the good, is to recognize the redemptive potential of even the adversities and challenges of life in which a person, Rabbi Nachman of Breslov says, a person cannot always pray that they will not have sorrows. Doesn't always work. But a person could pray to Hashem Yeah, a person cannot always pray that they will not have sorrows, not have adversity. But a person should pray that they be able to grow from the adversities that they have. That they become transformed. And that is lesson number two. Lesson number one, questions and answers, open yourself up to move. Number two, understand that every experience in life is a teacher. And sometimes we can grow more from our failings and our failures than our successes. And adversities can enable us to to discover within us powers and abilities and capacities that we never knew existed. Again, Victor Frankl talks about this. I mean, it's interesting. I quote Victor Frankl I mean, I cite Victor Frankl, and again, there's not a single Torah resource in this book. I mean, he was a Jew without Jewish education, but as a deeply spiritual, intuitive person, uh he more or less came up with what Judaism teaches on these very, very topics. So, I think it's almost uh he's an honorary safer. He is he's admitted in the pantheon of Jewish books simply because what he states is so consistent with uh with Jewish values. Uh now, we then come to Rabban Gamaliel. Pesach, matzah, maror. That's really three in one, but let me just talk about those three. And that is Let's start with maror first. Maror is tasting the bitterness of slavery. How does that connect to personal liberation? In order to be liberated from that which enslaves you, you have to be honest enough to yourself to acknowledge there's a slavery. As long as one doesn't even acknowledge it. As long as long as one lives in a state of denial. As long until the slave recognizes he's a slave, he can make he can make no movement towards being liberated. So, maror says, "Be honest. Be real. Be authentic. If somebody has an anger problem, recognize it. If someone has a relationship problem, recognize it. Take steps to fix it or disengage from it. Don't remain in slavery. Take the next step." That's maror. So, maror is Well, maror is to be honest in identifying slavery. And I take next steps to be matzah. Now, matzah is take action. Because here's the thing, the maror points out, in addition to the idea of matzah being arrogant, it's puffed up, maror makes another point. I'm sorry, chametz, chametz, chametz. Maror makes another point in chametz and matzah, and that is chametz represents inertia and stagnation. Why is that so? Because if water hits flour, you don't need to do anything to make it chametz. You don't have to add yeast. You don't have to add leavening. Halachically, it will become chametz automatically if the water is remains on the flour for 18 minutes or so. So, chametz is what occurs with inertia. Matzah requires the affirmative action of baking. So, the relationship of maror and matzah is the following. Maror is the honesty to recognize my inner slavery, but matzah is the courage to take action to deal with it. You know, there are people who may go to psycho-Freudian psychoanalysis or whatever, neo-psychoanalysis, and they may be they may be in analysis for many, many years, decades, decades. And they know every problem, every trauma that they have going back to birth and pre-prebirth trauma and the pregnancy trauma and preconception trauma, if there's such a thing, going all the way back, right? But the question then becomes, what do you do about it? You know, a person can become wedded to their problems and never want to change it. It happens. A person becomes connected. You know, I know that in the abuses is a very sensitive topic, and I I maybe I don't I don't want to hurt any feelings, because whenever this is brought up, it's always a very, very sensitive point. But you know, there are many, many victims in society. There are victims of the Holocaust. They're dying out, but baruch Hashem, we still have some with us. There are victims of sexual abuse, victims of emotional abuse, victims of physical abuse. Victims, victims of terrorism. But a person's goal in life is not to be a victim. A person's goal in life has to be to be a survivor. To take all of that pain, but go beyond it, to rebuild, to recreate. Look at how so many survivors of the Holocaust who lost so much in the most brutal conditions that one could possibly imagine. Hearts that were so broken. Bodies and souls that were so shattered came and created families, built businesses, built the state of Israel more or less as well. And they're no longer victims. They're people that survive and transcend victimization. And therefore, maror is the honesty to understand my slavery. Don't deny it. Matzah is do something about it constructively. Move forward. Don't be a victim. Don't define yourself by victimhood. But take it and move it in a constructive way. Now, the last thing is the korban Pesach. Now, the korban Pesach, of course, is a mitzvah is the one mitzvah we're not able to do today because we don't have a base of mikdash. But one of the halachas of korban Pesach is a very interesting halacha. That is you're not allowed to bring the korban Pesach as an isolated individual. Meaning even if I have a big appetite and even if I have a little lamb and I could finish the whole thing myself, I must join with other people. I either bring it with my family or if I don't have my family, I connect to another family. Or if a bunch of people don't have a family, they create their own chavurah, it's called. That's what it's called, their own group. And we bring the korban Pesach. And what's the lesson here for spiritual liberation? That in order to be liberated, you can't really make the journey alone. You need to connect to others who share that journey, who share that priority. Now, Pirkei Avot talks about k'neh l'cha chaver, buy for yourself or acquire for yourself a chaver, a friend. And the Rambam says, there are three reasons. Actually, it's actually taken from Aristotle, interestingly enough. But but the Rambam uh says, there are three reasons why friendship is important. Well, why do you need a friend? One is, we'll use modern terms, one is utilitarian. That, you know, it's it's like having a friend is like a life insurance policy. You know, I I What if I lose my keys, my car keys? Or what if I'm stranded? What if I don't have money? Who do I call? If you have no friends, like who do you call? So, in that sense, it's simply utilitarian. I better have a friend because in case something happens, I need somebody to call. That's utilitarian, practical. The second is social. You know, we get lonely and it's good to have people you can talk to. And a man is a as Aristotle says, man is a social being. Even if you're an introvert, so an introvert doesn't like a crowd. But usually, you know, one person, whatever it is, somebody that they can talk to. But the Rambam says, all of that is important. But that's not the most important idea of friendship. The deepest level of friendship is what we might call spiritual fellowship. We in which each person helps the other person become a better person than they would be by themselves. Whether it's in the context of marriage, husband and wife, which is why friendship is so important. People sometimes think, oh, in the Sheva Brachot, we describe husbands and wives as beloved friends. Re'im ahuvim. Some people say, oh, that's all it is? What about romance? What about, you know, friends? That's what they are? That's because we don't appreciate friends. We think friends is, oh, go out for a cup of coffee and schmooze a little bit. A friend in the deepest level is someone that helps me be a better person, who cares enough about me that if I'm faltering in some spiritual way, they will help build me up as I will do for them. Those types of friendships, by the way, are sometimes not easy. They are challenging. They sometimes require honesty and frankness. But when it comes from love and care, you know, you can take it. You can you can learn from that. So, how do we allow the seder alone? Huh? Say again? How do we allow Well, well, well, well, let me put it this way. I mean, I'll be against everything that you've been saying in the last 5 minutes. Yeah, 100% correct. Ideally, of course, a seder should not be alone, 100%. But but nevertheless, oh, okay. Now, you're asking why is it different than the korban Pesach itself. I mean, That's That's That's You're right. In other words, technically, what would happen is this. It's a strange situation. In the time of the base of mikdash, if you had a seder alone, you wouldn't have the korban Pesach. That's That's actually right. Uh but nevertheless, there were enough other elements that you do the best you can. You know, if a person does have to live alone, they still have to make No, they have a responsibility to make their life as good as they can make it. But it's certainly not an optimal condition. So, b'kitzur, what I want to say is I'm What I did tonight was I drew maybe an uneasy bridge between Rav Chaim of Brisk and the world of Chassidus. I hope in the world of truth, Rav Chaim and the Chassidim get along. And that is Rav Chaim enumerated four structural elements that differentiate sippur from zachira. One is she'eilah u'tshuvah, mat'chil b'ginut u'mesayeim b'shevach, Pesach matzah u'maror, which you counted as one but they're really three, and the fourth one is each person must regard themselves as if they were taken out of Mitzrayim. We then drew on the Baal HaTanya that the fourth element means each person must identify their own Mitzrayims and understand that the koach of yetziat Mitzrayim is to liberate them from their their enslavements. In light of that insight, we now understand the other three ideas. That that's part of the process. Be open to explore, question and answer. Understand that even in the setbacks and adversities of life, there is great redemptive potential. Maror, be honest in acknowledging your slavery. Matzah, but take action not to be mired down in victimization. And Pesach, find other people in your world that will go on that journey with you. And in that way, we can achieve a liberation from that which enslaves us. So, I I wish everybody to have a chag kasher v'sameach, a truly liberating Pesach. And uh may the month of Nissan be the month of geulah both in terms of our individual uh predicaments and for all of Klal Yisrael and for all of the world. Thank you. Amen. Yitzei'u b'nei b'nei Yisrael b'nei Yitzei'u b'nei Yisrael b'nei Yitzei'u b'nei Yisrael b'nei Yitzei'u b'nei Yisrael b'nei Yitzei'u b'nei Yisrael u'venotav