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Zushami says the reason we drink Dalit Kosos is because of the four Loshonis of Geula. Mordechai asks the Kasha: How could it be that the Dalit Kosos are connected to the Dalit Loshonis of Geula? If that were the case, we should have four masses also connected to the Dalit Loshonis of Geula. Mordechai lives with the cash. The bavitshu Rebbe's chosyogan aleinu answers, perhaps for the Yerushalmi Says that the four l'shanos of Geula can really be broken up into three and then four. Vayitzeiti v'itzalti v'gaalti represents Yisias Mitzrayim. Vayitzeiti v'itzalti v'gaalti v'la'kachti represents Matan Torah. In other words, leaving Mitzrayim really had two parts to it. There was leaving Mitzrayim. As we know, as much as we left Mitzrayim, Chazal still say that whatever zuama was there from Mitzrayim was not really wiped out until Matan Torah. At Matan Torah, all of the zuama of Mitzrayim was gone. So the Geula Shleima did not really come until Matan Torah. There's a Remban that says that the ultimate Geulah wasn't until Vinyah HaMishka.
But certainly just leaving Mitzrayim wasn't enough. So to answer for the Mordechai To answer for the Yushami, the Mordechai's kasha. The terechs would be that the matzah is different than the Dalad Kosos. The matzah, the three matzahs, really represent vayitzayti vitzalvi vegaarti, the haenu yitzias mitzrayim. But Dovid Kosos is a whole different suga of yitzias mitzrayim. It's the bechina of the geula shleima, which includes achieving matan Torah. What's the difference between leaving mitzrayim and matan Torah? The difference is how much the mikabel is involved. The haenu up until the point of Matan Torah, we were totally passive. Be'etzem there was no schulz for us to leave, so our participation was negligible. So the whole Yitzias Mitzrayim before Matan Torah was only mitzad the Mashpiya of Hakadosh Baruch Hu coming and taking us out. Ma she'en king, when it comes to Matan Torah, we know right now we're already in the bechinah of Sfir Asaimer. Which, as we know, is the avodas atzma of going through all of the different spheres that exist within ourselves and rectifying each one of those spheres.
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That rectification process made us shyech to matan Torah. So va'itzaytzi vitzalti v'galalti is all mitzad the mashpiya. Ma'asein kein v'la'kachti v'la'kachti li'la'am. The fact that our Kadosh Baruch Hu chose us, there's an element of participation on our parts. Three and four always represent mashpia and makabel. Three avos for imahos. Gemara says that gimel daled. Every one of the oseios has a different bechina. Alef bays as alef bina. Gimel daled as goyimel dalem. So goyimel mitzad the mashpia. That's the three daled mitzad the makabel. Bechlaw in the world today, it's a very uncomfortable thing, especially when you start talking to Jews that have not been exposed to the Torah. When you tell them that you were chosen, that there was a bechina of a lakachti lila am that Hakadosh Baruch Hu bechvaydu v'atzme anivelay malach anivelay saraf came and took us out of Mitzrayim, brought us to Matan Torah, and chose us. You see, people get very nervous. What do you mean? I'm chosen? What makes you think I'm better than anyone else?
It's ironic if you talk to Goyim and you tell Goyim I'm Jewish. They go, 'Oh, chosen.' I read about that; it's in the Bible. They have no problem with that. It's a very uncomfortable thing. You talk to secular Jews or even sometimes Orthodox Jews, and they get very nervous. What does that mean? What does that mean? It's an interesting thing in Shleicha Maslo, which is already the bechina of Mashiach. In Shleigha Maslo, you see it's uncomfortable with people. Of course, it means those goyim that weren't mekabelim. But it's uncomfortable. People get uncomfortable. What do you mean? He's going after goyim. What's the difference between a Jew and a goy? So just try to give a little bit of an insight into what it means. That we were chosen by Hakadosh Baruch Hu. What does that say about everybody else? So we don't have much time. But in the short time that we have, just to try to clarify very basic things about what it means that Hakadosh Baruch Hu chose us. What does that say about Yidden? And what does that say about the world?
When Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave us the Asaras Adibros, the first one of the Asaras Adibros is Na'nei Chai Hashem Elokecha, Asher Otsaytzi Chomay Eretz Mitzrayim. Everyone asks Lakasha, is he reminding us? Wasn't that long ago? Imagine if two months later, somebody comes to you and goes, "Remember when you were enslaved for 210 years?" It's not that poor a memory that Klal Yisrael has. So why is that Kadosh Baruch Hu saying, 'Anoichi Hashem Elokecha, Hashem ha'Tzitzicha Me'Eretz Mitzrayim'? Why didn't that Kadosh Baruch Hu say something much more profound, 'Anoichi Hashem Elokecha that created all of the universe, all of the galaxies, from the tiniest little molecule to the great cosmos and beyond'? From that perspective, Mitzrayim seems a little trivial. Apichaosus It said in a very beautiful way, "You missed it." It said, "I know chi Hashem Elokecha."
He's saying, 'I'm your God. There's something about us now that's unique. There was something not by Maysa Barachis. By Maysa Barachis, I created the whole world. But by Yisias Mitzrayim, we already began a relationship which was more personal than the familial relationship that we had by Avram Avinu. It's like Kaviochal, when you meet people from Europe and you do the Jewish geography game' And you're talking to somebody seventy years ago, eighty years ago, and it comes out he's like, 'I knew your Alter Zadi in the shtetl.' That's awesome. We don't really know each other. It's great that you had a relationship with him. But you and I, what relationship do we have? Derchagav, I had a talmud in yeshiva once that on his application to yeshiva, so we asked them if they have any relatives in Eretz Israel. So he wrote he has a relative Steinman in Bnei Brak.
This is just a kid from New York, a kid from the Five Towns. Steinman and Benaybrak. So I thought he was joking. Steinman and Benaybrak. As it turns out, that Avraham Leib was first cousins with his grandfather, and they grew up together in the shtetl, and they really, really had a relationship. And he would go all the time for yichidus with Avraham Leib Steinman. It was the craziest thing. So there is chashivas to the fact that my zedi and the gadol ador were little kids playing together back in the shtetl. There is chashivas to that. But that's not the same thing as now you and I have a relationship. In other words, up until now, the relationship that Klal Yisrael had with Hakadosh Baruch Hu was we knew there was we knew that we go back. We knew, as people say, Kedamri Yenchi, Our families go back a long time. We knew that our family went back a long time. The Chiddush of Yisias Mitzrayim is not only that Hakadosh Baruch Hu has a relationship with Avraham Avinu; it's Hakadosh Baruch Hu has a relationship with us.
Anoichi Hashem alokecha, I took you out of Mitzrayim. To say it even a little bit deeper, Hakadosh Baruch Hu doesn't say ani Hashem lokecha. He says anaychi. We all know that anaychi stands for ona nafshik savas yihavas. That I wrote myself kaviyachal into the Torah. Which tells us something very special. It tells us this: I'm giving you right now. This is me. This is what I want. There's two bechinas. When you're in a relationship Of when somebody tells you something about themselves, how you can respond? Le marshal. If somebody who you're very close to comes to you and tells you, 'It's very annoying when you do this, whatever this is. Fill in the blank.' So there's two ways you can respond. You could go, "Why?" And if you say that, what are you really saying? I don't really care what you have to say. If you can prove to me that it's important, then I'm willing to participate. It's not really sick as much as it is a reflection of the nature of the relationship. So if a person, if God Kav Yachol comes and says, "I want you to put on tefillin," and in that immature, seventeen, eighteen, year old voice, if you could find it within yourself once again, you go, "Why?" You're not really asking why. You're really saying "If you show me that it's important, then I'll do it." It's the narcissism you see in today's generation.
And they say, 'I want it to be. I want to make it important to me.' It sounds good until you think about it. It's terrible. This is a terrible thing to say. What's it got to do with you? It's about the other person in the relationship. I'm asking you, if we're going to be in the relationship together, this is important to me. The other way of asking why, which is much more profound and much more meaningful, is if you ask me, Lamarchal, not to leave my socks on the floor, I'll make it relevant to the people here. Don't leave your socks on the floor. Of course, I'm not going to leave my socks on the floor. Of course, I'm going to make every effort not to leave my socks on the floor. But because you're telling me something about you, I'm curious to know what it is that you're telling me. If you tell me don't leave your socks on the floor, I want to know why. What are you telling me? I'm the type of person that likes things to be mesudar. Where does that come from? Sometimes in our human world, we don't really know the answer to these questions. But Hakadosh Baruch Hu, when he said, "I wrote myself into the Torah"
He's telling you this is stuff that's important to me. So when he says, 'Lemashal kabe desavicha ve'esi mecha,' Who is it more important to? Is it more important to us? Is it more important to our parents, or is it most important to Hakadosh Baruch Hu? It's obviously most important to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. He's saying, 'I created parents.' So if I'm telling you to be mechabit parents, I'm telling you something about me. I created something called parents, and it's important to me that you be mechabit them. If you want to know something about Hakadosh Baruch Hu, so then you ask why. So Kol and Kol, before we understand what it means v'la'kachti, we have to understand that there's something personal about our relationship with Hakadosh Baruch Hu. It's personal. It's not like Gilu and the philosophers that they talk about a first koyach. And again, I know the Rambam says it, and I know everyone dances over there that he's quoting Aristotle or Aristo. If it's the same person, if it's not the same person, but by us in Yiddishkeit, we don't just have a kaios. There's something personal about the Rebbeinu Shlom. He has desires. He has a desire. He's misaver for things. He wants things. So kolim kol anoichi Hashem Elokecha and anoichi. I'm telling you something about myself. That's number one.
Number two. Hakadosh Baruch Hu is telling us something about us. What is he telling us about us? It must be And this is already where it starts to make people uncomfortable. That not everybody is created equal. In fact, to treat everyone equally is immoral. Not everyone should be treated equally. Everyone should be treated fairly. Everyone should be treated justly. But not everyone should be treated equally. In fact, if you were to treat people equally, that's sick. I shouldn't treat my two-year-old daughter the way that I treat my thirteen-year-old daughter. They're not the same. They deserve altiashus. They deserve to be treated differently. When it comes to Hakadosh Baruch Hu's creations, not all creations are created equal. Therefore, there's something about a Jew that he's created and designed in a particular way with a particular mission. This doesn't mean better and worse. It could be if you're not careful, you could be denigrating Hakadosh Baruch Hu's creations if you say it like that.
If you say it as better and worse, people who speak in a disgusting way about the umos ha'olam are forgetting that sometimes the umos ha'olam can be called tzaddik. They can be called chassid. In fact, as a ma'aseh with Rav Moshe Feinstein, that Rav Moshe Feinstein was masped Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He was masped FDR. And when it came to the kel malei, so he changed it. He told them when they were saying it to change it, that they can't say that he's kadosh v'tahar. Because kedusha and taira are things that are held forbidden. As we'll see in a moment. So instead, Rav Moshe changed it to tzaddik v'chassid. Tzaddik v'chassid. You can have tzaddikayom asolam. You can have chassidayom asolam. So he changed it. One of the balabatim was very upset. One of the big virim, MTJ, was very upset. Said, "How could you? How could you change it?" And Rav Moshe, in his way, held strong, and he said, "No, tzaddik v'chassid. So we're not chass v'sholom saying that goyim can't be righteous. In fact, we know that's not true."
Goyim can be righteous. Not only that, we know that goyim matter a lot. The very first thing that Avram Avinu did when he was named Avraham was what he did. He went to argue with Hakadosh Baruch Hu about stone. Those were horrific people. Avram Avinu saw his role. He saw his role as very global. So we're not on any level denigrating Ga'el. But there is a unique mission that a Jew has. That means that he must be designed for that unique mission. You can't send the soldier into war without the proper ammunition, without the proper training, without the proper design. Not all soldiers are created equal. Everyone's a soldier. This one may be an A. B. Seal. This one is a Marine. This one's in the Army. They're not equal. They're very, very different. But without each one, you probably can't win the war. So when Hakadosh Baruch Hu, when we say that Hakadosh Baruch Hu chose us, what that means is we're designed for a particular mission. The design of the Jewish mission is that we are a chelak elokam imah. That means that there's something about us that's intrinsically connected to Hakadosh Baruch Hu in a more obvious way. Think about it like a flashlight.
In a dark room, a flashlight can show what something really is. If you stumbled onto something in the dark room, you might not know what it is. But a flashlight, because it's a light, has the ability to say, 'This is what that thing really is.' So, if you walked into your room and you stumbled on something, and you shine the flashlight, you see, it's a shoe. I didn't stumble on a book. As a chilek elokamimal, a yid is endowed with a special flashlight, so to speak. Which is to say that we have the ability to shine our light on the world and to recognize There's the Rebbe Anisholim. So being chosen doesn't mean you won a contest. Rebbe Anisholim doesn't choose things like that. It's not like a Kaddish Baruch who sat there and said to himself, "Well, these are okay, but I think we should go with." There was no conversation, Kav Yachol, in Shamayim of deciding.
Which one was most important? Hakadosh Baruch Hu designed it. He said, "This is the one that will go into the world and tell the world something about itself." Because of this, because we are endowed with a more obvious, more revealed sense of godliness in the world, two things come out. Number one, when Hakadosh Baruch Hu comes to us, our response is naseh and nishma. Because when somebody you love comes to you and says, "I have something for you," the response is thank you. But when somebody who you're not sure about comes to you and says, 'I have something for you,' what do you say? Slow down. What is it? I always have this in the airport. I don't know why it happens to me. But if I'm in the airport, somehow Jews all over the world think it's okay to come over to me and go, 'Can you take a package?' No, I do. I don't want to be that person. I just somebody just told me about somebody who's sitting for a decade in jail because they took innocently. They took a suitcase. It had a false bottom, and Lamaisa. They were an international drug trafficker. It's like that famous joke: my FedEx guy is a drug dealer.
And he doesn't even know it. This a this that bechina. This person, I don't want to take your bag. I don't know you. I'm sure you're a wonderful person. I don't know you. I'm not taking your bag. He gets very nervous. So when Hakadosh Baruch Hu came to the Umos Olam, and he said to them, "I have something for you." They all said, "What's in it?" It's a good thing I checked. I'm not interested. Maseh Einkim, when he came to Klal Yisrael in an obvious way, He said, "Of course, Masa v'nishma. Of course, I know that we have this relationship because I heard about it for so many years from my zaidi. You heard it from his zaidi. Going all the way back to Avram Avinu. But now I know it, and it's in me. I feel it. In other words, that which was already there from Maseb Bereshis, That special soul that is endowed in a yid, That was already there in Maseb Bereshis, Was revealed a little bit more by Avram Avinu in a familial sense."
But on a national sense, it became obvious by Yitzias Mitzrayim. That's number one. Number two, it means that a yid has a very special mission when it comes to the world. Which is that we're supposed to look at everything that happens in the world and we're supposed to respond to it as we would think God would want us to respond to it. One of my favorite ideas I think that I've ever heard in my life is how a yid responds to tragedy. So we always say in benching, "Nar hayisi gam zakanti." The loy ra'isi tzaddik ne'ezav azar mevakesh lachim. I've been young and I've been old, and I never saw a tzaddik and his children go without bread. It's not true. Go to Meisharim. I'll introduce you to a whole bunch of tzaddikim that Pesach can't put food on their table. Go to Benei Brak. I'll show you a whole bunch of people. I know guys that are collecting for them. So you'll say, "No, you see, they're not going hungry because this guy is collecting for them." It's a shvachat eretz.
So I heard once a very beautiful verse. From R' Salavitchik, he says like this: He goes, 'No, you're mistranslating 'V'lo Ra'isi. 'V'lo Ra'isi' means I was young and I was old, and I never stood by and watched as a tzaddik goes hungry and doesn't have bread to feed his children.' I responded, as I know Hakadosh Baruch Hu would want me to respond. I acted in a godly way, 'Mahu Rachamafatarahu.' So a yid is not giving charity, and he's not giving charity in order that he could. Certainly, he's not giving charity so that he could feel good about himself. You hear that, by the way. Why do you give charity? I feel so good about myself afterwards. That may be the most sick thing you'll ever hear in your entire life. This guy in Nebuchadnezzar can't put food on the table, and you gave him money for you.
It's disturbed. You gave him money because that's the way the Rebbeinu Sholom wants you to be Na'ik. The neshama wants nothing to do with giving him money. The neshama is disgusted by the entire concept of money. The entire concept of this world is disgusting to the neshama. It wants nothing more than to be with Hakadosh Baruch Hu. But because Hakadosh Baruch Hu sends it on a mission, it says, "I have to give tzedakah to this person." Other rabbi, it's a privilege and an opportunity to do something to this world. Da'ainu, I think, as the rav mentioned the other day, to elevate this world. So we're godly. Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave us the opportunity to connect with Him. And lastly, it tells us something about the world. The world is also godly, and the world is meant to be brought back to Rebbeinu Shlom, so to speak. Or to say it in another way, as Rabbi Tatz might say, it's to reveal Hakadosh Baruch Hu that's behind the world, that the world is really all within Him.
There's a famous song. I don't know if anybody here knows it. I'm venturing that maybe one or two people do. It's a famous song by John Lennon called "Imagine." Maybe somebody's heard of it here. And the whole concept was: imagine there's no country, and all the people living together. It's a beautiful song, except it's not. One of the things that he says is: imagine there was no religion. So a talmud of mine sent me something very recently. There's a show on television. The writer of the show, his name is Chuck Lorie. His real name is Chaim Levine. Kamuvan. He works in Hollywood. He writes. He must be a Jew. He's not affiliated. He's not observant. At the end of every show, he has these vanity cards that flash on the screen for a second. You can't even read them. Very small print. So everyone runs after the show to see what Chaim Levine, Chuck Lorie, wrote on these vanity cards. This is the vanity card from just a couple of weeks ago.
I don't mean to offend anyone. But God told me to write this vanity card. The following are His words. I just took dictation. So He's writing, 'Kiluas Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Dear humanity, You are all animated by Me. Like electricity lights a bulb, I light you. What you call awareness is in fact Me.' Some awareness plays soaring piano concertos. Some shoot threes from the perimeter. Some drive around little cars looking for parking violations. It's still me, just in a different guise, God dressed up. Simply put, each and every one of you is a perfect expression of my timeless, Universe-straddling ineffability. That's a big word. You are also meaningless and inconsequential. It's a paradox, I know, but only to you. Which brings me to the purpose of this vanity card. In your endless quest to forge an identity, you have lost sight of what you are. So I will say it again: when you strip away all these temporary labels—American, Iranian, Israeli, Russian, Chinese, young man, old woman, soldier, florist, rich, poor, liberal, conservative, Muslim, Christian, Hindu, or Jew—when those identities are taken away, and believe me, they eventually will be.
Then all you will be, then all that is left of you is me. Consider this the next time you feel compelled to hurt or kill someone. Look at them, see me, then act. That was the vanity card that Chuck Lorre wrote. I thought it was brilliant except for one line. He's right. It's a silly thing that I should kill you because you live on the other side, five feet away from this imaginary line that human beings decided is the line. The border, the marshal between Donald. If Donald Trump has his way, the Mexicans are going to build a wall. We're going to charge them for that wall. It's brilliant. He's got it all figured out. We're going to charge the Mexicans to build for us. Usually it's the opposite. We're going to charge them to build for us. But because of this imaginary line that we decided, if they come over, I have to kill you. There's no choice. I have to kill you.
That's right. But he's wrong on a very serious level. Because you could strip away a label like American, V'haraya, we all did, even those who have dual citizenship. You all stripped it away on some level. But you can't strip away Jew. You can't strip away Jew like you can't strip away selfs. Jew is not a label. Chosen is not a label. It's a design. If you could strip away Yid, there would be nothing. It's not the pshat that I'm saying. That you should kill someone because you're of this religion and he's of that religion. That's not what I'm saying at all. It's an easy scapegoat to blame extremism on religion. And by the way, when you go out into the world, that's what a lot of people are saying today. They're saying, take away religion and we won't have religious wars. Take away Islam, you won't have Islamic extremism. It's not true, and it misses the point.
Extremism is extremism. It has nothing to do with religion. It's exactly the opposite. The essence of religion really is the concept of oneness. Really, what Hakadosh Baruch Hu is saying is, I took you out of Mitzrayim. That means there's something about me, and there's something about you, and there's something about this world. That when we all act in harmony, that's very special. You can't strip that away. If you strip that away, you would lose the whole thing. That's the game. There is this movement today. Some of us even have chaverim that betrayed us. This concept—they ran away from religion. They moved to the most atheist country in the world to get away from religion because religion is the cause of all problems. It's just the opposite. The bastardization of religion is incredibly dangerous. The way I once heard it from one of my rebbeim is: soft core religion believes in one God. Hardcore religion believes in oneness. That all exists within the oneness of Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Which is why Yisias Mitzrayim is so critical to all of the Torah. And that's why we see it so many times. Because without Yisias Mitzrayim, there is no relationship with Hakadosh Baruch Hu. When did that come about? If there's no relationship with Hakadosh Baruch Hu, then there's no world. The whole world, every single flower.
Every single speck of dirt. Desires, if you could speak to it, it desires to come close to that Kadosh Baruch. So we want that we should be zeicher to taka. Have that relationship to be able to live in consonance with the mission. To be in touch with the oneness of this world. The oneness of everybody outside ourselves. And especially the oneness in ourselves.
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