Bo - The Restoration of Hope

2:34 Question is, what is the meaning of this bowing down? What is it? Not every single time that we get a commandment Does Klal Yisrael bow down? Yes. That's a good question. Because they bowed down, they did something. What does that mean? Imagine it's not like every time in the Torah, right? Hashem says, 'Here's a mitzvah,' and then Klal Yisrael bows down. They prostrate themselves on the floor. What are they doing here? What is this? Who are they? Who are they doing it to? What does it mean? So I want to share with you two answers to this question, and we'll see that even though these two answers appear to be very different, these two answers are really one. So the first answer is the answer of the Chizkuni. The Chizkuni says as follows: But what does it mean that they bowed down and they prostrated themselves? The Chizkuni says this is a very simple thing.

3:39 It was their accepting of what Hashem said. He said, 'This is the way it goes. If somebody used to give you a command, if a king gave you a command, so the way that you accepted the command was like today. What do we do if somebody says, 'will you do this for me?' We nod our heads. So the Chizkuni says that's what it was like. They nodded their head, but what's like a full nod of your head? A full nod of your head is bowing down. So it was like a complete acceptance of the mitzvah of carbon Pesach. And that when your children will ask you what the Karban Pesach is, you'll tell them the story of what happened on this night. So that's the simple answer. VeYikodan veYistachavu means that Klal Yisrael accepted upon themselves the mitzvah. The question we have is Not by every mitzvah do we see this notion of bowing down and accepting upon ourselves the mitzvah. We have a question on the Chizkuni, but the Chizkuni gives a reasonable answer.

4:39 That's answer number one. Rashi gives a different answer. And I want to share with you Rashi's answer because Rashi's answer here is also a little perplexing. Rashi says, "Vayikod ha'am" Vayikod ha'am. Rashi says, "I apologize." Al besuras ha'geula The people bow down because they just found out that they were being redeemed. Ubi asa aretz. And coming into the land of Israel, they're coming into Eretz Yisrael. Ubesuras habanim sheyulahem And they just found out that they were going to have children. Rashi says three very specific things here. Rashi says number one, they're going to be redeemed. Number two, they're going to come into the land. Number three, they're going to have children. These are the three things that they just found out. So why do they bow down? Rashi explains. It's like a submission, like a hoda. You guys know what hoda means. They're expressing their gratitude to Hashem.

5:49 Wow, we're going to be redeemed. We're going to get to go to Eretz Yisrael. We're going to have children. Thank you so much. We're so incredibly grateful, and therefore they all bow down. Rashi's answer answers the question that we asked on the cheskuun. What was the question we asked on the Chizkuni? The question was: Not every time you get a mitzvah, do you bow down? According to Rashi, why did they bow down here? Not because. Listen carefully, girls. There, this is an important move. Not because they got a mitzvah. If that was the case, they bowed down all the time. But something unique happened in these pesukim. What did Hashem say? Hashem said You're going to be redeemed. You're going to go to Eretz Yisrael. You're going to have children, and one day those children are going to say, 'Ma avoda azos lachem?' What is this service that you're doing, bringing this carbon pastel?

6:43 And you're going to tell them the story. So far, so good. So Rashi's answer seems to be better than the Chizkuni's answer because it answered that question. Any questions on Rashi? If you're thinking, you should have a question on Rashi too here. Girls, they just found out that they're being redeemed. When did Chalysrael know that they were being redeemed? When did they find that out? Way before that. When Avram Avinu spoke to Hashem in the Bris Bein Ab Sarem, what did Avram Avinu do? What was Avram Avinu told? One day your children are going to be strangers in a strange land. But I'm going to take them out And they're going to leave with great wealth. Isn't that the promise that Hashem made to Avram Avinu? Who did Avram tell? Yitzchak. Who did Yitzchak tell? Yaakov. Who did Yaakov tell? His children. Who did his children tell? Their children.

7:40 Klal Yisrael always knew that they were going out. Of course, they knew that they were going out. And girls, where were they going? Where were they told they were going? Wasn't avram avinu promised to Eretz Yisrael? Wasn't Avram Avinu promised that he was going to have children and children more numerous than the sand and the stars? So we have a question on Rashi here too. So you say they just found out. Fine, maybe that's a good answer. Maybe the answer is we just found out that we're going to be the generation that leaves. But it was always going to happen. It's almost like, is it so shocking? You kind of knew the end of the story, but there seems to be some sort of very dramatic bowing down, getting all the way down on the floor. It's like it's so big for them. Why is it so big? They knew it.

8:28 They knew it now. Now it's going to be okay. Cool, we're the generation. It was always going to be the end of the story. So we, even though Rashi's question answers the Chizkuni We still have a question on Rashi. So we're not out of the woods yet. So far, so good. Still with me? I want to share with you something amazing, something that's relevant to every one of us, and I want to show you that this Chizkuni and this Rashi really go together. Once you know Rashi, you understand the Chizkuni. Once you understand the Chizkuni, you really know Rashi. Even though it appears like it's a machlokas, it's really two sides of the same coin. I want you to imagine the following situation, and it's not difficult for us to imagine. I want you to imagine what it's like for these people being released from Gaza.

9:21 They spent a year and a half in Gaza. And these are the lucky ones. These are the ones that survived. Imagine what it was like. I read that one of the women who came out of Gaza She's speaking fluent Arabic now. Because the people that were holding her hostage, the people that were holding her as a captive Didn't speak any English or any Hebrew. They only spoke Arabic. She was the leader of her group. She was like the one leading her. I don't want to call it a machaka, but that group of women, she was the self-appointed leader. So she spent time listening to them and learning their language so that she'd be able to communicate with them. And now that she's out She finds herself naturally using Arabic words because that's what she's been speaking for the last year and a half. Could you imagine?

10:17 Could you imagine? Imagine if you went to a country to visit. You spend six months there. You learn the language. When you come back, it stays with you a bit, no? Imagine if you went to Australia. For six months you're speaking in Australian. So you come back to America, you got the Australian accent? It stays with you. Here's a young woman who was in captivity and under the most horrendous conditions. What did she do? She learned how to survive. How did she learn how to survive? By adapting to her surroundings. That's how people survive. They become their surroundings because not being able to communicate with your captors must have been very scary. So that was like a way of being able to negotiate her situation. I don't want to be able. I don't want to say the word control, but she said the best way for me to survive is to learn the language. Makes sense? No.

11:15 But now she's out. Why is she still speaking the language? Why is it still coming up for her? The answer is because it stays with you. Stays with you. Just because you leave somewhere doesn't mean you left. It's in your bones. It becomes a part of your person. I just told you a funny story. There was a guy my age, a little bit younger than me, who's in my neighborhood. The guy is a very big bentayra. He's a serious bentayra, like a real tamu chacham, a lamden. He works. He learns. He's a very special person. He went to a yeshiva called Ner Yaakov. Ever hear this yeshiva called Ner Yaakov? Many, many years ago in Yerushalayim Yerakodesh, there was a yeshiva called Ner Yaakov. Ner Yaakov was for the most—how should we say this nicely? The most lebedik guys, the craziest of the crazy guys—all went to this yeshiva called Ner Yaakov, and they were an unbelievable yeshiva. And the rosh yeshiva there, his name is Rabbi Lif. He's still around today. And Rabbi Lif worked magic with these guys. He took these crazy, lunatic boys, and he baruch Hashem built beautiful bnei Torah. So many talmidei chachamim, people that live in this neighborhood went to Ner Yaakov.

12:23 This one guy, Shlomi. Let's say his name is Shlomi. I'm making it up, but his name is actually Shlomi. This guy who lives in my neighborhood, whose name is definitely not Shlomi. He spent two years in the yeshiva, and then he wanted to stay in the yeshiva for a third year, so they made him a madrich in the yeshiva. You have programs like that where girls stay on as a third year. They had it for this yeshiva also. There was there's a seminary in the neighborhood. Doesn't matter which seminary. Doesn't matter which seminary. So the boys decided to raid a random seminary in the neighborhood, and they and this madrich, whose name is definitely not Shlaimi, went with the boys, and they egg the seminary. They threw eggs at the seminary, not the appropriate thing to do. So the seminary. When they wake up in the morning, or like the girls reported that night, oh my God, the Ner Yachad boys—they're raiding our seminary and they're throwing eggs. So they called Rabbi Lif

13:24 And Rabbi Lif found out what happened. He found out that this guy, who had become such a big bentayra over the first two years, and now he was a madrich and he was in a position of responsibility, so he called this guy in. And Rabbi Lif is a very warm, very gentle man. He knows exactly how to play the guys. So this boy walks in, and he's feeling, oh man, I messed up. I was supposed to be a madrich. I'm supposed to be working with these guys, instead I did this, and for sure I'm going to get in trouble. So he sits down in Rabbi Lif's office, and Rabbi Lif is looking. He's sitting across from him, and he looks up. And Rabbi Lif just looks at him and he goes, You could take the kid out of Brooklyn, but you can't take Brooklyn out of the kid. You could take Klal Yisrael out of Mitzrayim. But it's hard to take Mitzrayim out of the Yid.

14:14 It's not an easy thing. Just because you leave somewhere doesn't mean you left. And that's in a good case. But a year and a half in captivity Even though she's back home, she's with us. What language is she speaking? She's speaking Arabic. You could take the kid out of Gaza. Doesn't mean you could take Gaza out of the kid. Girls That's a year and a half. Imagine what it was like to be a Jew in Mitzrayim. For 210 years. For 210 years, I want you to do some math here. 210 years means that your great grandparents probably were born as slaves. Your grandparents were born as slaves. Your parents were born as slaves. So what did you have? You had a story that you were told that Zediyah Avraham back in the day spoke to Hashem, and Hashem said, 'You should know, I'm predicting this is going to happen.'

15:11 Your kids are going to be strangers in a strange land. But don't worry, they're going to go free. And Avram told Zaidi Yitzchak. Zaidi Yitzchak told Zaidi Yaakov. Zaidi Yaakov told Zaidi Shvatim. And I come from that shaveh, and my grandparents were told by their parents, who told my parents, who told me that one day this is going to be all over. But girls Understand that the worst day of the Holocaust did not touch the toes of the best day in Mitzrayim. The torture of Mitzrayim. If you read the midrashim The torture of Mitzrayim is something that we cannot possibly imagine. Imagine what it was like. Again, just taking one midrash To see children being baked into bricks. That's what one of the midrashim describes. The children, babies, were being made into bricks, and you were using those bricks to build cities on quicksand that you would just see all of your work being destroyed in front of your eyes. None of us can imagine not only the physical brutality of living in Mitzrayim, but the psychological and emotional torture of living as an Egyptian slave, which was beyond anything we could possibly compare it to. We have no idea. And if girls, if we had to go through Mitzrayim for six months None of us could survive. A year, ten years, two hundred and ten years. Chazal say that nobody ever escaped Mitzrayim.

16:37 Nobody ever escaped. No Jew ever escaped. No slave ever escaped. Why is that? Because the Egyptian army was so powerful. Because they had a wall, and the Jews built it for us, free of charge. It was like the border of Mexico. Para was just Trump saying, "Build a bigger wall." There was no wall surrounding Eretz Yisrael. How come nobody left? You know what the answer is? They were so psychologically tormented. That it didn't occur to them that they could leave. They didn't believe about themselves that they could leave. That's when there's something called Stockholm syndrome. Stockholm syndrome is when you're a captive, and you start to identify with your captors. It's a real psychological syndrome. To be a Jew in Eretz Yisrael meant you couldn't leave. If you think about it, if you listen to the stories in Chumash, what do we hear all these years? That they're in the desert after Har Sinai. Any time something bad happens, what does Chal Yisrael say? Let's go back to Mitzrayim. It happens over and over again. And what are they describing in Mitzrayim? In Mitzrayim they were well fed. In Mitzrayim they were well taken care of. In Mitzrayim you were slaves.

17:48 Nobody begs to become a slave again unless what? Unless you are a slave. You don't even know how to stop being a slave. Anybody can emancipate the slaves, and by the way, historically this was true in America also. Even after Lincoln freed the slaves, not all the slaves left because some people didn't know how to build a life for themselves. You could take the Jew out of Mitzrayim, but you can't necessarily take Mitzrayim out of the Jew. It's called, and every one of us has probably tasted this on some level. You ready for it? It's called the death of hope. The most painful feeling you can have in your life is the death of hope. Where it's just like, why should I even bother? There's nothing here in this life for me. I will be born a slave. I will live a slave. I will die a slave.

18:41 That is my life. Nothing more. I will never be anything. That's a level of psychological torment that we don't understand. There are people that go through this in their lives. There are people that get married, they're stuck in bad marriages, and they give up hope. There are kids. Aenu, can you imagine? There are kids today that are suffering, that are in tenth and eleventh grade, and they give up hope on themselves. I will never be able to win in this system. I will never be able. I remember I had a friend. He was an awesome guy. Hashem did not bless this guy with the highest IQ. He's smart, but. In terms of IQ, smart in life, but just because you're smart in life doesn't mean you're smart in school. And by the way, just because you're smart in school doesn't mean you're smart in life. But this kid was not blessed with brains for school. He was blessed with brains for other things, but he was not blessed with brains for school. I remember once he cried in front of the entire class because he failed a test.

19:34 And he said in front of everybody he was so broken. He goes, the teacher was saying how if you just did the homeworks, then you passed the test. And he cried in front of everybody. It was like a really embarrassing moment for him. He's like, I did all the homework. He was crying. He's like, but I did all the homework. And I still didn't pass the test. I did my best, and he knew right away, which is why he gave up. There's no way that I could possibly win in this system. Once you have this experience of the death of hope, it's over. It's over. You check out. There's no way to win at that game. Girls, you remember when you were playing a game that your friends were playing, and you realized you're never going to be good at this, so you just put the ball down. That's what all little kids do. Boys, for sure, when they're playing basketball. You ever watch little kids trying to play basketball? It's the cutest thing in the world because the ball is too heavy for them to shoot. So if you ever see a little kid play basketball, what does he do? He puts his whole body under the basketball, and he jumps with all his might, and it barely reaches the net. I'll give you the equivalent in Machanayim. That's the only game I know that girls play.

20:39 And you like to do that machanayim throw. There are girls that won't play machanayim because they realize I just don't have the strength to play this game. I'm not interested. I'm going to go do an art project. It's something I could do. Every one of us gives up on things we realize there's no hope to win this game. Comes along Rashi and says an unbelievable tirade. Klal Yisrael was told something they of course knew. They grew up hearing the story. One day there's going to be a Mashiach, and the Mashiach is going to come and he's going to rescue you. But you know what their attitude was? Okay, It's a good story. I'm sure one day it'll happen. I have faith it'll happen. But that was a faith that was a surrounding influence. Was it a deep faith that when it happened they knew it was going to happen? Because they were slaves.

21:36 Girls, this story takes place when Not by dam, not by tzvardeya, not by kinim. How long was the process of the makos? It was a long time. This didn't happen. It wasn't like we grow up when we're little. We think like ten makos, ten days. They left ten days later. This took a very long time. They had already seen nine of the makos. They had already been post makas koshchach. And Moshe Rabbeinu comes to them and he says, "This carbon pesach" You're going to do it. Your children are going to ask. Your children will ask when you go to the land of Israel. Your children are going to say, 'What is this to you?' " And you know what you're going to say back? "When we were slaves in Egypt, Hashem passed over our house." You know what it said to them for the first time in their lives? You know what just occurred to them? I am not actually a slave.

22:24 Of course they knew it. Of course they had faith that Hashem was going to take them out. But just because you have faith that Hashem is going to take you out doesn't mean that you believe that Hashem is going to take you out. You might know it. But you don't know it. You ever have something that you know but you don't know? Yes. And then Hashem came and said three things: You'll be redeemed. It was a chinis to them. You'll be redeemed. You'll have a land of your own, and you'll have children. They said, 'Us, we're slaves. We're going to have children.' What was their natural response? It had never been done before. They got down on the ground. Who did they? You asked me the question earlier. You asked me the question. Who did they prostrate themselves to? You asked me. Who did they bow themselves? Who did they bow down to? The answer is, they bowed down out of a sense of gratitude. They said We can't believe that we've actually arrived at this moment.

23:17 We grew up with the story, girls. That's what's going to be like for us when Mashiach comes. Every one of us has a moon that Mashiach is going to come. Every one of us. Not even a shayla. Every one of us knows that Mashiach is going to come. Of course, we know it with emuna, with tremendous emuna. But how many of us know it here? Mashiach is going to come in your head, but do you know Mashiach is going to come in your heart? Do you feel it? It's very hard to feel. So when Mashiach comes, we're going to be like "Oh, it's unbelievable! We're going to get down on the ground. We're going to bow down to Hashem. We're going to say, 'That's incredible.' But you want to know how I know this is true? Because here we are in this land In Yerushalayim. We're in Yerushalayim, Merkadosh. After thousands of years Girls, what's the proof that you can take the Jew out of Galus, but you can't necessarily take Galus out of the Jew?

24:08 Because we're in this land, and how many of us are going? Yeah, but I don't know if I want to live here. This is not Disneyland. This is not a tourist attraction. The Kotel is not Cinderella's castle. Cherona is not the teacups, or it's a small world after all. This is your home. That's an unbelievable thing. This is not a place that you come visit. And by the way, if it is a place that you come visit What an incredible tragedy! If a person has to live in Chutzpah, or outside of Eretz Yisrael, when Hashem gave us the most unbelievable blessing and opportunity to live here, if you have to for whatever halachic reasons, which are of course appropriate, then be safe there. But that's like that should kill you, that should pain you That you are living in the days where you can have the opportunity to live in this country, and it's like Israelis can be tough.

25:07 It's your home. It's not obvious that somebody's going to come to you and say, 'Here's an opportunity, and you're going to get down on the ground and bow down. You're going to be like, "That's incredible."' Every one of us should be walking around the streets of Yerushalayim, bowing down, proverbially. I don't mean you should actually do that. For sure, it's not going to go over well in Ramat Shkoll. If there's a problem that Sharfman's girls are now bowing down all over Yamsuf, I'm sure I'm going to get a phone call from Rabbi Sharfman and Mrs. Fold. What in the world did you do? I know, as a mother, you probably do not want just bowing down all over the country. But girls We should feel that way because they were told they're gonna leave the land, and we actually have it. So the first thing you have to know is anyone can take the Jew out of Mitzrayim But it's a process to take the Mitzrayim out of the Jew.

26:01 That's step number one. But that's not the reason I gave the She'er tonight. The reason I gave the She'er tonight is that I want to go back to the Chizkuni. What did Chizkuni say? The Chizkuni said something unbelievable. The Chizkuni said they got a command. And they were told "Okay, we're going to do it." So they bowed down. Not every time you get a mitzvah, do you bow down? But now we know why this mitzvah was different. Why was this mitzvah different? Because this wasn't just a regular mitzvah. It was a mitzvah that promised them hope. It was a mitzvah that promised them a future. Sometimes I want to go back in time. Not that friend, the one that said I did all my homework But a different friend. We were all very good friends. A different friend who also could not pass a test to save his life.

26:52 Somebody just reminded me last year that this guy had a deal in the school that if he passed the math test Everyone in our class got Carvel ice cream flying saucers. Carvel flying. That's the best, right? That's like. Did you ever get it twice in four years? So this guy, I was with this guy, an old friend of mine from high school. He said, "Do you remember that we had a deal that we would get flying saucers every time this guy passed the test?" I said, "Oh my god, I totally forgot about that." He said, "Do you remember how many times we got it?" I said, "Did we ever get it?" He said, "Yeah, we got it twice." Do you realize what it was like for him to go to school? That's a miserable feeling, girls. I have a class. Baruch Hashem, almost everybody in my class is very financially successful.

27:39 There's a couple of us that went into cheder, but the rest of us, Baruch Hashem, are very financially successful. And when I say very financially successful, I mean one of my boys already retired. I'm 44; he retired at 41. That's pretty good. I have another friend who told me he's two years away from retirement. That means they make enough money to be able to live off the interest for the rest of their lives. And this guy, I think, is the third wealthiest guy in my class. We got flying saucers twice. And this guy is the third wealthiest guy in my class. I don't want to tell you what he does because I'm pretty sure that if I told you, somebody in the room would know him for sure, or you would at least know his business. I don't want to give it away. I don't say lashon hara. Certainly not about Shlomi. I want to go back in time and I want to say to him I know high school is awful for you But just hang on. There's unbelievable hope coming.

28:39 This is not really you. Success in school is not an indicator of success in life. Because the things that you weren't good at in school, you didn't need for life. I know they tell you in school you're probably going to need to know how to do. In life, you're not going to need to. I hate to say it, for most of you, you're not going to need to know Pythagoras' theorem in order to be a successful person in life. You're not going to need to know that the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell. You're not going to need to know Sokotoa. I wish I could go back to this guy and say to him There is an avodah for you. There will be a time where you said, 'Hashem cared about me' And He skipped over my house. I was worth something, and there was hope for me in my life.

29:38 I want to go back in time to say that to him, because if I did, he'd be able to rise to the occasion. And he'd be able to say, "Oh" If I'm going to be a success, I could be a success now. Girls, you know that's how it works. You know that people, when they're successful, success breeds success. So now we know an unbelievable thing: this mitzvah is different than every other mitzvah. Even though the Chizkuni doesn't say the Peshat and Rashi, it's because he knew the Peshat and Rashi. The Chizkuni says it was kapalas hamitzvah. That's the way of the world. Somebody tells you something, you accept it. You say yes. You nod. So why here did they nod with their entire person? Because they said we can do this mitzvah because we have hope. A generation, a nation that doesn't have hope. They can't perform a mitzvah. Girls, kids don't wake up in the morning to daven.

30:34 Because they don't believe their davening is meaningful. It's not because they don't know what the words of davening mean. It's because they don't know that their davening is important. People don't learn. It's not because learning is hard. It's because they say, "Am I really worthy of learning Hashem's Torah? Am I really worthy of davening?" They beat themselves up over and over again. And if we could just restore hope. Then we could restore service. That's why it's so dangerous. When somebody sees a kid and they're not davening, and they go over and they discipline the kid, they say, 'You got to daven.' Of course, he has to daven. But why is he not davening? He's not davening because it's not because he doesn't know the halacha that he's supposed to daven. I remember when I was in high school, I did a very chutzpahdik thing. I wasn't davening, and my rebbe came over to me. I was talking in the middle of davening, and he was trying to be a good rebbe. I did a very chutzpahdik thing. He came over and he said, 'I just want to show you that the halacha is that right now you're not supposed to talk during davening.'

31:29 So I looked at him very chutzpahically and I said to him, 'You know what the problem is? The problem is you think I'm talking during davening because I don't know the halacha. You should ask me why I'm not davening.' Let's talk about that. Don't show me the halacha. I know the halacha. It's the middle of Shmona Esther. Of course I'm not supposed to talk. But ask yourself why. Why am I not davening? Maybe it's because I don't care about davening. Why don't you care about davening? Maybe I don't care about davening because I don't think it's worth it for me to daven. Because does it really matter if I daven? Does Hashem really care if I daven? So there's no hope. There's no hope for me. I don't perform. Only a person who has hope for their lives actually performs, and that's why Rabbi Nachman said, "Ein yish ba olam klal." A person can never give up hope. You give up hope, that's the end of everything. The mitzvah of Karban Pesach. The lesson that we have to take in this week's parsha is there is always hope. For redemption. For a land that you can call your own, and for children that the Ezel Hashem will continue on the Mitzvah that we began so many thousands of years ago. Girls have a beautiful Shabbos.