Drink the Four Cups of Salvation Dream Interpretations are Solutions with Rabbi Aaron Dovid Poston

everybody [Music] Shalom alaikum everybody Welcome to the event of eight midrash welcome home to Torah very warm welcome back to Torah okay so what we do here is we use the Clear Car I encourage you to go into the links below number one you'll see the Hebrew sheets the original Hebrew sheets we're going to be working from uh I encourage you to learn Hebrew to follow along and there's a link that goes to a page that goes to a page and you'll eventually find the right one and you can download them and print them off or use them on the computer now interestingly enough this is parchat which partially the era right chapter six in in in Exodus in shmos I want to preface this with a few ideas number one in the Clear Car in this week's Parsha the era he brings up a very important point and that's the point we're going to discuss tonight first of all in chapter 6 verses 6 and 7 there are four La shall not expressions of freedom of redemption and those are the hose and what I'm going to do is go back we're going to discuss very little I'm going to try to sum up Rabbi breitowitz's class that you just gave Thursday in about five minutes sum it up which is a big feat but then we're going to go back in time to Joseph when he was in prison and the saramashkin the uh the head bartender for Pharaoh had a dream and Joseph interpreted the dream and there were four times four times that the word Coast which means the cup was mentioned and the reason I'm bringing it up because in this week's bar show everyone speaks about it that these four expressions of redemption is the reason why we drink the four cups at the Passover Seder so like I said the first few minutes we're going to discuss this week's Parsha through some hints that Rabbi brightwoods brought up but the rest of the class we're going to talk about the dream and what it meant and how it relates to the four cups of wine so I'm going to put down below at previous classes that I have given on this week's Parsha so you can be up to date in the era and um also just go back to Rabbi Brighton's class which is the the class right before this one if I'm not mistaken it's called I remembered I have I have remembered my Covenant that is the title of Rabbi Brighton's class so what we're going to do is we're going to go back to parshot the VA shave that's in Genesis chapter 40. verses 11 and 13 but you should understand the context that Joseph is already in prison and these two gentlemen if I can call them that one is a Baker and the other is a bartender but these are high officials in the house let's call them the butler in the household of pharaoh and in the English you notice there's three times the word cup is used in verse 11 chapter 40. and Pharaoh's cup was in my hand he's describing his dream to Joseph and I took the grapes and squeezed them into Pharaoh's cup second time cup is used and I placed a cup on Pharaoh's Palm okay so the Hebrew is actually beautiful we're going to be dealing with the first few words at least the way the clear card brings it down the coast power the coast para biyadi and then he says Paro will attain at her cause alcavaro simple okay then verse 13 in another three days Pharaoh will number you with the other officers in other words he's going to restore you to your position and you will place Pharaoh's cup into his hand the fourth time cup is mentioned according to your previous custom when you were his cup Bearer when we say cup bear we're talking about the head bartender and we'll call him the butler it's going to return him back to his position and you're going to place uh the cup into Pharaoh's hands like like it was before the previous custom just like you were his head uh Butler okay now the clear card begins with quoting a medrish so the measures in Brazil what do they say it's from here oh you know what I actually need to do I forgot I want to tell you first few minutes of Rabbi um Rabbi bino it's a sheer so let me give it to you as succinctly as I can so we have the four languages of redemption right as we mentioned already I just want to make sure we really are aware of what these words are number one I took you out the hotel okay now it's really future tense because of the love and I'm going to take you out from hatsala from I'm going to save you Vega Alti I'm going to redeem you Villa cocte and I'm going to take you to be mine now what the um what about bridowitz does first he mentions the nazive and he says basically there was a gradual um easing up of the of the of the servitude number one the first thing was the releasing from the hard labor but we were still servants the second stage was that we were released from the absolute servitude and number three we were allowed to leave but we didn't until and actually so in other words number two is we release in servitude but we hadn't left yet number three is you may leave and the fourth one is actually getting the Torah which is the ultimate the ultimate um Redemption okay now that all took place over a year and it was gradual and that makes sense however the message goes into some really complicated ideas using those four languages so he basically brings up there were four merits that we the Jewish people did in order to be taken out of Egypt we have a spiritual concept called an Awakening from below elicits a response from above and therefore we had um we had done certain things number one we were faithful we were gadar gudur Min arayat we did not intermarry we were faithful to our partners number two we didn't speak latinhara number three that we didn't change our names and number four we didn't change our language we continued to speak our language he mentioned there are four dangers the meaning the message there are four dangers involved in servitude or or when you're in prison so to speak there's a spiritual Danger there's a physical Danger there's a lent a a a loss of your sense of History if you're captive and you are you know like he gave an example of the movie Roots uh what happened to African-American Africans who were sold on this on the slave trade and how the movie Roots explains if you ever saw that movie the the intense uh love maybe maybe many of them came from royalty at least in the in the movie whether it was true or not is irrelevant the point is that when you're in captivity you lose a sense of history and you you lose all that you lose all um hope you certainly have a lack of Hope so if we we think about it there are we hold the cup four times in our in our in our pesach seder remember the whole idea is in this week's bar show those four expressions of of Liberation are parallel or we drink four cups of wine now during the during the Seder itself the first one we mentioned spiritual danger and therefore what elicited hashem's responses we were loyal to our our spouses and therefore we make it on kidush the word which is match Holi means holy that's the the word used during the marriage ceremony you're also separating yourselves from the weekday when you make kiddish and you're separating yourselves from the Nations and in this case you're separating yourselves from other men or from other women so that's called kadushan making something holy or let's just do it even separate so that's the spiritual danger and that's the rectification and therefore we're celebrating that we were ghidor mayorayas we were faithful in our marriage bonds and we mentioned not in the correct order but it doesn't matter a loss of a sense of History so the Magi is The Narrative of the entire story starting from the time that we were either worshipers until we received the Torah and whatnot and even Beyond so that's Magics that's a sense of history and that would parallel what we mentioned um already about so let me just talk there's so much to say here so the next thing is um benching during birkata Mazon when we're finished the meal uh we hold the cup uh for and that represents the idea of not speaking Russian heart why because the whole idea of not speaking R is really feeling a bond between you and your your fellow that's called unity and it's only through Unity that you can really get a sense of um well let's call it gratitude it's only when you're looking at the positive and you feel grateful for your for your for your for your friend you're not going to speak Russian harder so benching the birkat Amazon is called Grace after meals it's all about thanking Hashem and the last thing we the last time we hold the cup we we drink the cup is the second part of Halal which is about the future events and this would parallel the idea of lack losing hope in the opposite keeping and speaking the same language the idea of speaking the same language is that there's a future otherwise you know like Latin just goes by the wayside if there's no reason to hold the language because there's no hope of ever getting back in a communal or Society function like that I just want to mention because I should have the word hot seiti I shall take you out is related to the spiritual danger Hashem would take aside from the spiritual Danger The Salty I will save you that's from the physical danger the ulti I'm going to redeem you that is in terms of our past making sure we have a sense of the past and not changing our names and I'm going to take you that was related to a sense of Hope and keeping the language alive okay so now let's begin I started to read already in Genesis chapter 40 verses 11 and 13 we already saw the word cup is used four times okay now let's open the clear car and begin so the first thing he mentions is as I already said in Middles now the truth is the the Bryce uh this I'm sorry the medrish actually mentions more than one reason okay one of them the reason we hold the four cups then the first reason is because of what we just said because of the four languages the four expressions of redemption but the second reason brought down is because of what it says here in verse 11 in chapter 40 of of Genesis because of the four times the word Coast cup is used so he says now that is the madrish comes the clear card he says it's like an amazing thing meaning it's really a wonderment it's it's confusing he has two very good questions it's very nice that the four cups that the rabbis established that we do till this very day even the most secular Jew who does any kind of pesacher drinks four cups of wine so what was it in this dream that was conveyed to the saramashkin to the bartender to the chief officer of the drinks what was the message conveyed to him next because that's what you know if you're going to interpret a dream if you're getting in a Dream It's a message to you that doesn't mean it's only to you but it's at least minimally you would think to him how does that benefit him and what exactly is the sheikhas what is this concept of four cups relating to the dream of the bartender why is poor cups mentioned at all and what's the connection to Passover now those are the two questions we're going to Hash them out now if they don't bother you they should but in the end of the day it could be because I didn't explain it fully and correctly but this these are the two questions that the clear card is asking and now through his answer hopefully we can actually refine and understand the question better again I'm going to just repeat the two questions what exactly was the message being conveyed to the one who dreamed of the dream and what is the connection exactly how is there any connection at all to the four cups on Passover that were related in the dream I hope that's clear the near low line the clear card begins to answer he had do it it's well known well let's say when we about after he says it you're going to say that makes sense just the concept of drinking a cup happens to be of wine but drinking a cup and it could have been beer like we'll talk about here here what he's to say Sarah that the actual drinking of this cup or any cup is regarding somehow teaching reflecting Illuminating this idea of Salvation from some kind of trouble right imagine someone getting out of jail what is the first thing they run to okay it's true maybe they run to a brothel I don't know but they usually go to a bar right they haven't had something to parch their lips in a long time and one of the things they do is to go to a bar it's different by us we're going to see this is a very holy concept it's not a degrading or going to get you in more trouble listen to what he says foreign so I actually brought in two verses even though he brings in 1 16 13 I want to also bring in Psalms 116 verse 17. there's very similar words number one in verse 13. Coast yeshua's Essa the cup of Salvation I shall raise will be shame and in the name of God I call out okay so the cup of salvation now this is King David speaking he Rashi says what does it mean I shall lift up my cup of Salvation I will bring the libations for the Thanksgiving offerings that I vowed when one has a reason to give thanks actually the Gomorrah and discusses the different types of situations in which one would bring a Thanksgiving offering so um if one fits in that category they would bring now along with that was like 40 loaves of bread well some of them were matzah but 40 loaves of bread let's say meaning somewhere unleavened and wine a certain amount of wine which is almost like equivalent to 40 bottles it's it's a it's a Biblical measurement many lugine but nevertheless Rashi says as it says to you I slaughter a Thanksgiving offering on that cup I shall call out the Salvation as I mentioned that when you bring the Thanksgiving offering you have to bring wine as well so it takes us to the next verse 17 where it says to you shall I slaughter a Thanksgiving offering and the same thing at the end is Hashem and Rashi says their sacrifices of Thanksgiving for the Miracles that you perform for me so there is this idea of libation libation is wine it's not anything else the libation offering on the temple is with wine okay even though this is a um a communal the reason you have to bring so much Bread and Wine is you have to finish it in a very short period of time you only have like a day and a half guess what you have to finish it by the end of that day and you have to invite as many people as you can if you look if you think about it if you brought this is what God prescribes to bring a lot of bread and a lot of wine and you have to finish it it's not just for one person you want to share this with your community bring your family your friends and this is like parsame nice right person by proclaiming the miracle that happened to you and sharing the good news so to speak right and you're really in delighting you're celebrating with your closest friends and families and you may not have enough you might have to invite strangers off the street just to finish it off so that's the word that's the verse the clear card brings down and then he says the arbokosa shall passage that the concept that we just described that when you get through a hard time and now you're a miracle happened to you you want to share that with others these are what the four cups represent on Passover is okay we're going to now go to the save the book of Jeremiah and we're going to explain when the Lord Shiva means captivity so all captivities they either come with they encapsulate four very hard negative categories of troubles okay so this is in Jeremiah chapter 15 verse 2. now the truth is it actually mentions in verse 3 and I will point over them four families meaning like four categories but Let's do let's do Jeremiah 15 verse 2. and it shall be that if they say to you where shall we go you shall say to them so said the Lord such as are for death to death and such as are for the sword to the sword and such as are for famine to famine that's already like the third category of troubles and such as are for captivity for captivity so that's the fourth category you had death sword famine and finally ended with captivity and the next verse begins and I will point over them these four families so the clear car is explaining this verse will first see Rashi and then we'll see the good morning okay so Rashi says on that verse to Jeremiah that why do you have like we said death sword famine captivity because captivity okay let's start like this that each one is more severe or difficult than the next Rashi says each Calamity mentioned later in the verse is harsher than the one preceding it the sword is hard sugar to death because Death By The Sword you're is defacing I mean the body is uh decapitated and and ruined whereas death in bed is not the facing so it's it's an um a harsher order now there are verses there are verses to prove it and the hogamura which we'll read about master is saying you know what you could learn it from a verse or you can learn it through logic and each one is logical and each one has a verse as well but that's for another time the Rashi goes on famine is harsher than the sword for one is agonizing and the other one is not agonizing right one's instant death in the other one can be very painful in the stomach but the Gamora ends I'm sorry Rashi Ends by saying that captivity all sorts of death are in it in other words it encapsulates the other three horrific um experiences so in Gamora Baba bastra really goes through exactly the same thing how each one is worse and it uses a verse and it says what you learn through logic so in other words if you can learn it through logic you wouldn't need a verse allegedly supposedly but at the very end it says that um based on Lamentations no sorry captivity is worse than all of them as it includes all of them meaning famine sword and death so captivity is what Joseph was in when he was in prison but we we were in Egypt the word mitchryan means a very tight constricted place like like a prison okay so that's what Miss rhyme represents so I'll just read in Hebrew and some of the terramek the gemara and Baba Basra amarab yokana and kolam that every terminology used later on in the verse is harsher than the previous one mentioned until the end where it says Chevy that the idea of being in captivity includes the other three harsh experiences because the captur has the ability it's within his hand even if he doesn't exercise it the fear of these things are hanging over your head he has the ability to afflict you with a sword to cause death or to cause famine or starvation or to afflict you with whatever prison life is like so it comes out that anytime one is put in solitary confinement or in a place they can't leave like like a pit anyone who's held captive like that because she yo say me base when they finally get out and they're freed from their prison dinu The Logical outcome is HTA arbokoso Yeshua that they will drink the four cups of salvation since after the fact that this concept of captivity includes all these other like we said death sword and famine him Cain be it seato Misha sohar so therefore when you get out when you are released from the prison you are freed you are saved from these four things okay therefore niskar basar Hamas the clean car is answering the question what was being related to this cup bear in his dream it was the the the cup bear himself mentions four times the word Coast because God showed to him in his dream she Yates amen he's going to get out of the pit he's going to get out of the dungeon and that he would be saved from these four uh tragic experiences Yeshua and it will be fitting for him right the first place he'll run to is the bar well he's the bartender so what do you expect but it would be fitting and be certainly fitting for him to drink for celebratory because for each one of the things that he was safe from the incame now the clear cards explaining that when the rabbis and the majors explained that the four cups come from Yosef obviously it also comes from the four expressions of Liberation there's no question about it it's reiterated it's khazara it's repetition something you can learn new from each thing but let's go back to the source we're always interested in going back to the source so he says that it's very well how the rabbis learned it from here that on Passover each person is obligated to drink these four cups because not only was Joseph in prison who eventually got freed we're talking about the Tsar the bartender who was in prison eventually got free but the Jewish people were in Egypt we were in captivity and yes we were freed the Chevy that as captives we experienced all and all of the above were included as we so much reiterated so far alkane did you therefore logic dictates she used to arbokoso Yeshua that we're going to drink these four cups of Salvation parallel to those four things that we were saved from foreign we're 3 300 years after the Exodus but it wasn't only our forefathers who were saved rhyme the guy redeemed and saved from egyptanu we were actually redeemed with them now obviously on Passover we were supposed to experience as if we ourselves were redeemed personally so that's a big kabbalistic explanation I'm not going to get into it now but basically the way Jewish time works is not um like a timeline where you're just remembering something in the past but we are actually on a metaphysical level re-experiencing but let's just take on a practical level we were either in the thoughts of our great great grandparents that's one idea we were also within the seed of the seed of the seed of the seed of our great grandparents but in the in the gut itself says if they didn't get out we would still be there so in a sense in a real sense there's no question that we left with them that we left and we were redeemed therefore we hold these four cups as if not only as if but I'm like expressed like really as if that we were free from Egypt and that's a parish your car this is how the clear card ends many of his explanations that this is a very cherished and dear explanation now the clear card continues to say Joseph that Joseph from here Joseph made some kind of a judgment within his intellect that he said that the sarham mashka Yates me base of al-kano that this cup Bearer will eventually he's going to leave he will leave from this prison and he will be returned back to his place of prominence it's by the the cup Bearer now remember they both shared their dreams with him there was nothing Redemptive at all in the baker's dream however he says the uh the officer the chief Baker there was nothing that he was shown remember we the question we asked what was so interesting what was so important that the the bartender saw this in his dream and the other guy didn't because he he wasn't redeemed how dreams are interpreted Hashem is the ultimate interpreter of the dreams however we people can interpret dreams so it's how the dream is interpreted whether it's positive or negative it's going to have a major impact on the outcome of the dream that's like number one I want to just talk about the word pitronaut the word says in the Torah the great Joseph says God is The Interpreter of the dreams the word Pietro notes doesn't just mean interpret it means solution the solution to the puzzle is up to the interpretation same word the same concept there was no redeeming factor that he heard within the uh the baker's dream it's interesting I saw a comment on the medrish that mentions this is why we drink the four cups specifically the four cups because they do relate to this Redemption whereas the the chief Baker which usually and especially bread was very well known in Egypt we don't eat bread on pesach okay we eat matzah but this is a uh there was no Redemption through the bread only through the unleavened bread anyway I thought that was very interesting let's go on the last paragraph perhaps this is the the reason behind the rabbis when they darkened out when they expounded a certain Concept in our chapter here in the in the in the Asia um in parakeet in Russia in other words it's in Hulen page 92a so over there based on which verse it's chapter 40 in Genesis basically it's verse 9 and 10. um it's really ten but I think it's a good idea to read nine so the chief cup Bearer that's the sorry mashkin he related his dream to Joseph so part of the dream remember we dealt with verse 11 and 13 where it says close four times but before that so the part of the narrative says that he related the dream to Joseph and he said to Joseph in my dream Behold a Vine which is going to prove very um together you know part of the story here and on the vine and on this Geffen was shlosha now sarug it couldn't like it could be more than uh but here it means branches just like uh Windows have sir regime they're the um the metal bars right so you look at Rashi oh let me just finish the verse and on the vine were these three I don't know the tendril is that's an English word but I'm assuming based on Rashi we're talking about these um branches and it seemed to be blossoming which is a very nice interesting idea beautiful dream and its buds came out and then it's clusters ripened into grapes so this is a very positive dream so Rashi says what are these tendrils regain long branches uh Vine shoots now the pusek said it seemed to be blossoming so that's the word blossoming meaning it resembled blossoming it seemed to me in my dream as if we're blossoming and then after the blossom buds came up and they became tiny grapes just as we see happening in real life and afterwards they ripened now and it was as if blossoming it brought it brought forth blossoms so interior the target for parachat is nates nates also means blossoming it denotes a certain stage of the grapes and that's larger than the blossom as is written there's a verse in Isaiah and the buds Nitza turned into ripening grapes it's also written there had Blossom the yotsa uh it had put forth a bud the atsat seats hey I wanted to share with you um that in Gamora hulin 92 a that they're actually quite a few reasons why there are these three branches I don't want to go through all of them although I think they're very interesting um okay let's go through at least most of them said that Ralph says that these three branches refer to refer to the three proud princes who emerged from the Jewish people in every generation okay there's always going to be a a handful of very um proud princes now apparently there are either two in Babylon in one area of Israel or two inertia and one in Babylon meaning um okay then there's another explanation says these three branches are three ministering Angels appointed to oversee the Gentiles who plead in favor of the Jewish people in each and every generation that is actually one of the opinions the clear card brings down as well as the next opinion just the beginning of the next opinion but I think we should read the whole thing what does the word Vine mean these are a reference to this world whereas the three branches refer to Abraham Isaac and Jacob now that's where the clear card ends I'll just read the rest of the the good morning Julian because the verse does say and it was budding it's blossoms shot forth these are the imaho these are the the holy mothers and when it says the Clusters brought forth ripe grapes that's talking about the 12 tribes the sons of yaakov um there's another opinion that the word Vine is referring to the Torah and the three branches are and Moses are in a Miriam and it was budding and it's Blossom shot forth these are members of the Sanhedrin its clusters brought forth fourth right ripe grapes these are the Righteous people who live in each and every generation okay so we only saw that the clear card brings down two opinions that these are the three I guess angels that oversee the Nations and report back positive news about the Jewish people or perhaps it's Abraham Isaac and it's an Abraham Yitzhak and yaakov now ready this is where the clear card begins explaining this idea because this was shown to whom this dream was shown to the saramashkin but it was interpreted by Joseph in others he actually went and shared this message to Joseph so was the message for this non-jewish and you know bartender that was in prison or was it really for Joseph or let's just say was it really for both so here's where the clear card says upon him that we saw in that Russia in in Hulen there's several ways to explain the ultimate success of the Jewish people whether it was Abraham yaakov Miriam Moses Saint hedrin the righteous all kinds of good stuff even the angels that are going to um bring good news for the Jews remember the original question what was shown or why was it shown what message was being conveyed to this cup bear so ready for this drum roll please [Music] that all of these are the reasons for the Redemption of Israel getting out of captivity and the Redemption meaning the first Redemption happens to Joseph he was like a um they always say Simon avos I'm sorry Masa similar bunny what happens to our forefathers is a foreshadowing of what's yet to happen to us he was the first one and he was redeemed through the message it affected him and affected all and each and every one of us through the four cups so the original Redemption Gula rishona were the first Redemption where the seeds of redemption it all started with Joseph through the interpretation of the dream or what was given over to the son and through this Joseph merited to all of what we're going to call like a destination like the topless the purpose all of the details came out to be started right here so even though in our Parsha right portions of the era we're hearing about the four lashanot of the hotel and eventually Hashem is going to bring us into the land and that's an unbelievable concept that it all starts that's why we should learn the Torah that's why we should learn back to Genesis the mice savos right safer yashar how to work on your character how to become a better human being how to have a how to have a connection a real intimate relationship with the country Barnacle with the Holy One Blessed Be he and of course how to relate to our fellow man that's where it all starts and Biz right to Shem right we'll continue to learn toilet together we'll continue to grow together continue to build community together and through that well misrata sham bring the mashiach and of course everything that comes with it all the value of zamana mashiach right there won't be any more war certainly right that's something we all aspire to and according to many other opinions no more sickness No More Death there's a whole new world coming and we all look forward to that and we anticipate it every day and it All Began seemingly in with Joseph in prison and his own personal Redemption and it leads to all of our redemptions so with that God bless you have a great week in the show at Shalom and a great life Hashem see you next week foreign [Music] foreign