Pesach class 5778

good evening and welcome to today's jaynette class on Pesach today we will discuss several aspects of let's say their Haggadah what is it that we are trying to accomplish how to say there and how do we go about doing that so by just as a short introduction I would like to point out that pace that is called there's non favor say no the time of our liberation does not cause month favors of a say no the time of our forefathers liberation but the month either saying at the time of our liberation because when we celebrate Pesach it is not only in order to remember what happened to our forefathers but it is actually an opportunity for us to relive that experience ourselves our said just tell us that when God created the world he created a date of liberation and that was when the Jews left Egypt which was the 15th of Nisan and every year when that date comes around again it is an opportunity for us to free ourselves from our own Egypt our own limitations so that is basically what we try to do it Seder the Pesach Seder to try to evaluate and understand our own personal Egypt and how to free ourselves from it so we'll discover the two of these aspects we'll talk about who these aspects of what we do what to say Leah what we say at the Seder and what how we can apply it to our daily lives today so let's begin with the basic mitzvahs that we have at the Seder meal which consists of eating Maxo we have three maxes four cups of wine we have to eat more those are that is the obligation that we have those are the culinary obligations that we have at the Seder meal Tita moxa drink wine and tea tomorrow eating matzah is biblical origin there's a biblical obligation to eat at least ACCA's iris of matzo 28 brands of matzo the first night at a sauna and the second night of Pesach as a result of that and there is a rabbinical obligation to drink four cups of wine in the course of the Seder each cup containing at least eighty six milliliters of wine and either way to remember it is it's the numerical value of the word Coast hug and which must be drunk in one time each time each cup and those at four cups represent primarily the four expressions of liberation that God uses when he talks to Moshe and tells him to go to the Pharaoh and to tell him to free the Jews from Egypt actually it's when he tells Moshe to go to the Jews and tell them that he's going to free them from Egypt so to remember these four expressions of freedom our sages instituted that we drink four cups of wine which must be drunk while we lean on our left side representing freedom leaning represents freedom the left side is because the way our throat is structured in order not to choke and then we have the murder which we eat also out the Cardinal Pesach it is not a biblical origin the biblical obligation is to get together with a carbon pace up but since we don't have the carbon pace of today it is only in the pinnacle obligation so let's explore a little bit the mattress and the wine which represents something very fascinating because we find that the three months Esther the three patriarchs and the four cups of wine represented for matriarchs the three monsters represent patriarchs are drum beats cotton taco and the four cups of wine represent the four matriarch summary squad Russell and Leia so the question is why not the other way around first of all what is the connection between marks and patriarchs and one and matriarchs why don't we have let's say three cups of wine to remember the patriarchs and for Matz's to commemorate the patriarchs so the rebel explain something very interesting here and that is that one of the basic differences between matzah and wine represents the basic difference between the paternal role in the family and the maternal role in the family the difference between matzah and wine is the matzah has no taste in other words matzo must be made out of flour and water and you cannot add anything that will give you it any taste it's called welcome only the bread of poverty and and if you add anything to it that will give a taste eggs or anything else juice then it becomes Max or Shira and then it cannot be used for the minimum of mother we need to eat at the Seder night there has to be something that has no taste added to it and it's just flour and water wine on the other hand is characterized by the taste one has very exquisite taste wine as a matter of fact if you have different types of wine at a table which were drugs during the course of the meal we have to make a special bracket for each type of wine in other words wine is distinguished because of its unique taste so here we have the difference matzah has no taste one has taste what does this have to do with father and mother because this represents two pathways or to requisites to be able to free ourselves from our own limitations the first we have the matzoh which is something that has no taste and the idea is discipline cabela's oil accepting God's a yoke without necessarily understanding or feeling or appreciating it so that is the first step for us to be able to free ourselves from ourselves in order to access ourselves in other words in order for us to be able to reach our truest potential we have to be able to free ourselves from our limited cells and that is first and foremost by discipline if we will only do that which we understand or feel then we will always be limited by that which we understand and feel if we are cognizant to the fact that our understanding and feeling is limited and therefore in order to free ourselves from the limitations inherent in our understanding of fueling we need to subscribe to a discipline that will take us beyond those limitations so then we are in the path to freedom that is Kabbalah soil accepting God's yoke accepting a discipline which is not subjected to our understanding of few but what happens is you cannot live your whole life just based on discipline I mean you have to have developed a taste for what you're doing and that is where the wine comes into the picture and that is that although we need the discipline to start a process but at one point along the line our own understanding and feeling has to kick in as well in order for us to appreciate that which we are doing independently of our understanding and feeling but nevertheless when we understand and feel what we're doing it adds a whole different enthusiasm to what we're doing and hold by technician vitality to what we're doing so that is relationship between those are the two key ingredients north to free ourselves from our own limitations to have the discipline represented by the matzoh and to have understanding and feeling represented by the one that is also why the connection between matzah and father's and wine and mothers mahalo the wisest men of all time such magnanimous our Aviva well teeters terrorism metal so the father's listened my son to the to the Musa to the the management of your father and to not abandon the teachings of your mother so basically the understanding is that a mother is one who nourishes nurtures nurtures the potential of her children whereas the father is the one who imposes discipline imposes fear not talking about it posing terror obviously we're talking about imposing fear the child is afraid to upset his father he's afraid his father will get upset and that is sometimes and love or is necessary to keep the children on the straight and narrow but they need posted to have the nurturing that the mother gives them so you need both and this is something that the Torah recognizes we find that there are two commandments that the Torah tells us regarding our relationship to our parents we must honor them and we must fear them the Torah says when the Ten Commandments copy the sylvie courvoisier foe honor your father and your mother it first mentions father and then mentions mother why so our sages explained because a person naturally honors his mother more than his father because she is sheep and present more than the father does so that is why the term has to emphasize more the honor to the father because honor to the mother comes more actually we're going to come to fear the Torah says ich emo volunteer ever but the person must fear his mother father and it first mentioned the mother than the father for the same reason because a person naturally fears his father more than it fears his mother and that is why the toriel puts more emphasis on the mother regard interfere so we see we have these two components in a relationship to our parents and each one of our parents fulfills a specific role the complementary role there with the complementary roles the nurturing in the discipline and that is represented by the moxa and the one the matzah which has no taste represents the discipline of the father which one must have in order to grow in life and the one represents the nourishing the nurturing that the mother gives to bring out one's understanding and feeling which makes the whole experience more personal and not impersonal as an imposed discipline what do so that is the the first thing also we can talk about the murder the murder is bitterness and and an important thing to stress here is when it explains them to see this the difference between depression and sadness at suicide my readers acts forces sad is depression there is bitterness and the difference is when the person is sad and my son very often might be justified he said because of something that went wrong something that is wrong something that it should cause pain and sadness but what happens this is a result of that it pushes one to fix what's wrong or to prevent that from happening again or to overcome that somehow so it becomes a positive catalyst in other words the pain move you to do something if you wouldn't have the pain in your tooth you wouldn't go to the dentist to fix it so the pain in your tooth is catalyst for fixing the situation whereas depression is the lack of feeling in other words you're numb you're totally out you're totally wrong and therefore you're not motivated to do anything so basically the idea of eating murder is the lesson behind it is that the importance of feeling pain a feeling that something is wrong because that will move you to make it right and country distinction to a situation we don't have anything totally unplugged and moving out and that won't get you anywhere so that is actually a a litmus test if your sadness is positive or negative if it is something you should pay attention to or something you should simply push out of your mind and the litmus test is is the conclusion of the feeling positive or negative is the conclusion of your pain that you must go and do something about it or is the conclusion of your pain is that nothing can be done so if the conclusion of your sadness is that you're not going to do anything because nothing can be done that is to paraphrase our sages huge shalt bring me dance giving up is a result of lack of dance maturing back understand whereas if your parent pushes you to do something to fix the situation that is a healthy pain so murder is actually one of the important elements in liberating yourself from yourself when you feel pained by your situation and it moves you to move away from that situation to a better place their pain is a very positive key an important key in yourself separation so we have the Maxell in one hand which is the discipline which is necessary for somebody to move beyond this comfort zone the wine which represents understanding a feeling which is important for a person to do whatever God tells them to with vitality and enthusiasm and then you have the murder which is there to teach us that we have to be sensitive to reality and sensitive in the way that empowers us and mobilizes as it pushes us to improve the situation rather than just to cry about it and absolve ourselves from doing anything because the situation is so horrible talking about this brings to mind the story the Torah tells us about Joseph and Benjamin when they met after decades of not having seen one another the Torah tells us that Joseph L on the neck of a young male and the tribe becoming feminine Joseph's neck incorrect so why is it important to know that they each fellow one another's neck why is that relevant to the story why is it relevant to us so Rashi explains the Rings down there at that point both of them Joseph and Benjamin foresaw the future destructions of the temples each of which would be on the other Indians territory Myshkin Sheila which would be in Joseph's territory and the base of English which would be partially built on binyamin's territory so being that they each foresaw prophetically the eventual destruction of the temple the others territory the crime was abou the neck because the base of English fulfilled the same function that a neck does the function of the neck is to connect the head with the body so to the function the base of English the connection between Hashem in the world so each one of them tried on the others neck represents the idea of crying because of the destruction of the temple which they foresaw in the others territory so the river asks a simple question being each one of them had a destruction in their own territory why would the cry for the destruction that they foresaw in their brothers territory rather than a million destruct for the destruction that they were so on their own territory obviously if the destruction in the brother's territory pained them to the point of crying the instruction in the wrong territory should have paid them even more I should have overshadowed the pain that they will have because of what they were sown in their brothers territory so the rebel analyzes is very interesting lien says that is crying a good thing or a bad thing and the answer is depends depends if you can do something about the situation or if you cannot do something about the situation if you cannot do something about the situation crying is a good thing it relieves you of the intolerable pain but if it's a situation where you can do something about it crying will only distract you it'll make you feel better and therefore you won't feel compelled to do something about the situation what is it that you can do something about the situation when it's in your own territory when you see destruction in your own life that is something that you can deal with it that is up to you to change and to address whereas when you see destruction somebody else's life it doesn't depend on you to fix it you might try to help to anybody's attention to what you can say some telling forum you can do but ultimately it doesn't depend on you so therefore crying is the natural thing to do because you're pained by something that you cannot do anything about so this is basically the that is why Joseph tried to become a become a part for Joseph because when it came to each one's destruction in his own territory Khurana wasn't the appropriate thing to do because you have to do something about it so when the pain brings you to do something that is positive when it's something that you cannot do anything about crying is the only thing you can do that is what we find that when Joseph met Yaakov it says that it didn't it didn't it doesn't match knock of crying so the zora says why wasn't it running to the back moment he said my sorrow greville explains because being that all the destructions of the temples were all in Yaakov territory of all of Israel is darkest territory it was only the violent amongst his sons but it was all all the sons were extension of him so that is why he said Schmeiser Oh so the different explanations why such - well some say that is because wanted to channel all that feeling of meaning Joseph into expressing his love for God rather than just expressing his father we love for her son but Webber explains the idea here was a Jacqueline was trying to neutralize somehow the destruction of the temple because since the function of the temple was two manifestations presence in the world the destruction of the temple implied somehow diminishing that manifestation Yaakov was a maestro's counteracting the effect of the destruction of the temple so going back to the point I was trying to say here is regarding the murder that came and sadness is positive when it brings you and motivates you to do something about the situation if you wouldn't be paying by it you wouldn't be motivated to do something but if it's a kind of pain that paralyzes you and makes you feel that you cannot do anything about it because the situation so horrible that is something that's not belonging to Seder that is not a potion of murder there's not the type of murder that belongs to the Seder because it's the type of murder which which immobilizes you and not the type that mobilizes you so therefore has no place in the process of liberation so let's move on to another element of the Seder and the very interesting thing that we find is the role that the four sons play in the Seder we start off the main one of the main parts of the sandwiches to merit to the story of slavery and Exodus we gotta totally know how to relate the story to our children to the future generations that is one of the major stages of the Seder night and it starts off with a child asking for questions and as a result of his four questions we go into the whole answer and the whole story which is a very powerful lesson in education that is more important than giving our children answers is teaching them how to ask questions because if a person has a question he will look for the answer if he doesn't have the question then he's not interested in your information of your answers so the most important crucial element in education is to provoke the curiosity of the child to provoke his interest and once he has interest in something he will already look for the answer whereas like I mentioned if he doesn't have the question then your answer will just make no difference there so that's one important lesson we learn then we find that the Haggadah talks about four sons in other words that's another important lesson and that is that we should not answer questions we should answer people in other words you can have four people coming with the same question and each one has something else in mind so the first thing that you must ascertain when somebody asks a question is what is the question behind the question in other words what is motivating him to ask that question means that famous story the growth someone came to ask in their face that she a lot of use milk instead of wine for the four cups because milk also has the capacity to make somebody sleepy so it has some kind of characteristics of wine half the wine has so the robbery I told this young woman who came to ask the questions yes you can use one milk instead of wine and then he has to secretary to go to this woman's family to her home and deliver even all the money necessary to buy food or to just deliver food packages containing water food necessary for the whole family so when his man looked at the robber was it cool look he says listen she's asking me if she can use milk instead of wine that means they have no chick and they have more meat otherwise how much I'm able to use so obviously it's not just a question about the milk but understand that if she has a question about the milk there's a much more important question behind that question and that is how we were able to celebrate the Sailor properly so when somebody comes to answer your question any question you must be sensitive to understand what's behind the question it don't just answer a question and so the person that is why they have got it teaches into four sons each one comes to the Seder each one has a different question each one has a different issue you have the awesome the wise son who is sophisticated fellow who's motivated studious he's a sage his questions are very advanced you know or new ones that he wants to understand very specific details and concept of the Seder but then you have the Russia who is the rebellious one who comes what are you guys doing what is this what are you doing and since he says you with that attitude so I've got a thousands you know teach him a lesson tell them that this is what God did for me for me and not for you because if you would have been there you wouldn't have left Egypt so at face value it doesn't really sound very pedagogic very educational I mean you know it's very not about a guy comes and says what are you guys doing and you say well such huge for us get out of here so the Rebbe explains this very beautifully and says the father this is actually the issue that the rebellious for the evil son hands says what you about to the Seder for what are you guys doing I don't understand anything I don't feel anything I don't even believe in all of this I mean like what am i doing like why do you think it's important for me to be relate to this at all so the answer to him is listen fella if you would have been in Egypt was attitude you wouldn't have left Egypt but now after Mount Sinai after God chose us to be his people now we are we belong and we are Jewish if we like it or not we understand it or not we believe it or not it doesn't depend on us to to be it depends on us to understand feeling appreciate that yes but we are Jewish because we are part of God's chosen people precisely because he chose us and that doesn't depend on us so therefore you have the connection here as much as any one of us has because you have a neshama you have a soul which is essentially I got to go to any one of a city the only difference is to what point have you discovered its relevance in your life and to what point do you understand it feel it or believe it but it doesn't change the fact that you have it in your connected so therefore it's not an invitation for him to leave this a there but quite the contrary it's a challenge for him now to try to access that essence that he has and which connects them to everybody else at the Seder so that is I think a very powerful insight into this particular exchange that if you really have a face value seems to be totally different than the way they rebel and it teaches it teaches it was not just academically but also in our approach to any Jew that we find but even though they might not see their connection it is our job to help them become aware of that condition and show them how to reach the mission of theirs and how to transform the cognitive dissonance into a cognitive consonants that what they think and feel consciously should express what they are essentially then we have another thing in the another very interesting lesson in this say there and this I will conclude and there is a story that the tactic that tells us about realism in Azaria philosophy is Authority the Bible tells us about the to the sages now we're sitting and spend the Seder night together and discussing different aspects of the exodus and every lhasa burn Azaria says I am as if I were 70 years old and I've never merited that my opinion should be accepted which is my opinion is that that we must mention exodus at night matches during the day but also at night and that was his opinion but obviously just didn't feel that it was an obligation to mention it at night having ovulation to mention it once a day but not once in the day once at night maybe Allah Sobhan Azaria said that he felt that it should be mentioned once during the day once at night until when that was able to convince anybody of his opinion and to grab the table Ben Zoma came and found the basis for the Torah because the Torah says the Mount Kisco st. is for me to try and call him a Hanukkah because the Torah says you must remember the days of your leaving Egypt all the days of your life so you may hire for the days of you might refer to the days call you may hire what is the extra word call all the days of your life cause it wouldn't say all the days if you like why we think it's anything less than all the days of your knives the world all comes to add something what can an end to all the days of your life I mean the Knights as well so that extra word comes to add something to the days of your life which is the nights of your life so therefore you must mention leaving Egypt once during the day once at night which we actually do is a Bhishma so and the lesson here is very interesting and that is because days and nights represent two different situations in the person's life day is when things are going well and he's successful so then you must mention reading Egypt because the idea there is that you must challenge yourself to go beyond your success you were successful or beyond them and being more successful but have that the Knights represent the points low points in your life want everything looks bleak and things look horrible there we must mention leaving Egypt because the less there is you can leave your situation in other words a situation but don't take it something which cannot be changed you can leave the tip that you find yourself in so either during the day we challenge ourselves to go beyond the peak we have detained and at night that is to remember leaving each other when we are in the low point in our life to remember that we can believe the situation we find us also we can ask ourselves why do we think machines will come if you didn't come in previous generations when our forefathers were around or our grandparents were much more polish than we are why do we think that will come in our times so the Rebbe explains based on this lesson from you la cibeles area since we are all recycled genres we will have been here before we have merits our accumulated that are far beyond that which we have generated in this lifetime so therefore we cannot just measure our merits based on on this life but we should also add to it the merits accumulated from previous lifetimes so the question is how do we know that in the previous life we were righteous maybe in the previous life we were sinners and therefore we don't only have the weight of the sins committed in this lifetime but we also have to add to that the sins committed the previous lifetimes so there banana sir is a very simple answer and says that the only thing that that that passes on from one lifetime to another are the myths is that we do with the positive acts that we do because they have an intrinsic value an eternal value that never expires whereas the value of with sin that we do only has a subjective value for the person at that moment but does have a real value and when we do true that erases the residual effect of those behaviors and the death itself also erases the impact of those behaviors so they do not transfer from one lifetime to the other so all we have in our account are the accumulated merits of previous lives like we see in the case reveal Isabella's area and therefore we should indeed expect Machir to come any given moment because of all the accumulated mitzvos that have been generated throughout all previous lifetimes and previous generations may this pace of me the last one in Kalos or actually the first one in EULA without being the last one Agabus she comes if you are watching this before paisa so come and take us all to her sister all where we will be able to celebrate Pesach as it was meant to be originally in the base of English together with Asha