Pesach - Collecting the Sparks

2:10 And look what he says: 'Lo telchun rekom. They will not go out empty-handed.' What is it referring to? It's referring to the rechush gadol. It's referring to the great wealth. That Avram Avinu was promised, and then right before Makas Bchoros again, we see it in the story. Daber na ba'az ne'aham, speak. Moshe Avinu was being told, speak into the ears of the people. V'yishalu ish me'es me'es reihu, bi'isha me'es reusa, klay kesef uklay zav. Tell the men, tell the women, go get those golden vessels. Go get that rechush gadol. Go get that great wealth. And Hakolish Baruch will make you favorable in the eyes of the Egyptians. And what are they going to do? They're going to give you all their wealth. So you see, it's like coming up over and over again. Avraham Avinu was told they're going to leave with Rechosh Gadol. Moshe Avinu is being told they're going to leave with Rechosh Gadol. Now it's Makas Bchoros. What does Hashem do? Make sure to take that Rechosh Gadol. Make sure to go get your money.

3:11 And then when it actually happens. The story culminates of Bnei Yisrael also kedvar Moshe veYishalumi Mitzrayim klakesuf klizav uSmolus Rasha Nasa Nescheinu Am bein Mitzrayim veYishalumi Nasa uSmitzrayim, and then it happened. So obviously, what do we see here, girls? The concept of Klal Yisrael leaving Mitzrayim with great wealth seems to be central to the story. Growing up, did you hear this idea that Klal Yisrael left Mitzrayim with great wealth? You heard about it. How much attention is paid to it? Very little attention. If I asked you what the story of Mitzrayim is about, surely you would tell me it's about the ten Makkos. Maybe it's about the slavery. Maybe it's about the eventual splitting of the sea and Har Sinai. Who talks about the money? We don't talk about the money, but the money seems to be integral. Avram Avinu was promised it. Moshe Avinu was told, "You better do it."

4:06 And we see in the Psukim it mentions it twice when it actually happens. Already that's strange. But look at this Gemara and Brachos, unbelievable Gemara and Brachos. Remember a moment ago by Makos Vachorus that says 'Daber Na Ba'Aznei Ha'Am,' speak no. What does 'no' mean? Please, very good. Please look at the Gemara and Brachos says "Amr Debei Rav Yannai." You have the English translation on the bottom over here. The school of Rav Yannai taught "Ei Na El Hashem Bakasha." Whenever it says "no," what is Hashem doing? He's making a request. So here we have a special request. Hashem is making a request of Moshe Rabbeinu, which is very strange. One does not expect Hashem to request from Moshe Rabbeinu. What does one expect? That Moshe Rabbeinu would tell him what would be told, what to do. He'd be commanded, right? Here Hashem comes and he says, 'I have a special request.'

5:02 What's the special request? Amalei Hakadosh Baruch Hu LeMoshe. Hashem says to Moshe Bevak Hashemimcha Please. Hashem is concerned that Avram Avinu is going to have a complaint against him. A strange Gemara, because we know what happened. Va'avdu v'inu. Some happened. They were enslaved. They were oppressed. But if they leave without the rechush gadol, if they leave without the great wealth, what's Hashem? What's Moshe? What's Avram Avinu going to say to Hashem? He's going to say, 'Hey, you only fulfilled half your promise. You tortured my kids, but you never actually gave them what you promised.' So here you have Moshe Avinu coming to. I'm sorry, you have Hashem coming to Moshe Avinu, and he's saying, 'Please, Hashem, saying please. Make sure that Avram Avinu doesn't have any tainas on him.' So now it's even stranger. Now we have a very strange thing. Up until now, it was strange that this central part of the story was something we never really paid attention to.

6:17 Leaving with great wealth. But now we see that the Gemara is saying, "No." What does "no" mean? Hashem is concerned that Avram Avinu is going to have a taina against him. You gave them the punishment. You didn't give them the money. That's wild. It's wild on two levels. One because Really, that's the way it works. Avraham Avinu has taimas on Hashem. Hashem needs to protect himself from Avraham Avinu's complaints. But even more than that Tell me, what do you think it was like at the end of the Holocaust? I imagine if you had the opportunity to run away You'd run away, right? Here we have a very strange thing. Moshe Rabbeinu is being told by Hashem to make sure to take the wealth. Evam Avram Avinu And my children have been enslaved in Mitzrayim, and Mitzrayim was a million times worse than the Holocaust. I would say, forget about the money. Just go. Who cares about the money? Since when are we a materialistic people that Avram Avinu would say no. Hey, you promised us the money. We've been enslaved for two hundred and ten years. We're not leaving without our money.

7:37 It doesn't sound like Avram Avinu. They don't care about the money. Who cares about the money? Just leave. Your children were murdered. Your wives were murdered. Your husbands were murdered. Just get out of Dodge. What do we care? Cholish Baruch is saying no, no, no. We have time. Moshe Avinu, we have to be careful because otherwise Avram Avinu is going to have tainas on us. So that's again very strange. But there's another gemara. Another Gemara makes it even stranger. So far, we have all the strangeness. We'll review it all at the end. But there's another Gemara here. Amr of Yehuda's Gemara is in Pesachim 119a. Amr of Yehuda, Amr Shmuel. Yehuda says in the name of Shmuel Kol kesev vezav shabat Olam. Yosef licked over heviel and Mitzrayim. Mitzrayim was the center of all of the wealth in the entire world. We don't understand, they talk about how America is a wealthy country and it's disproportionately wealthy to the rest of the world. No. Mitzrayim was much more than that. Remember, there was a famine in Canaan. Everywhere else, there was a famine. What did Yosef Hatsadik do? He knew that the famine was going to come. He arranged deals with all of the countries in the world, and he brought all of their wealth into Mitzrayim. So all the wealth in the world was where?

8:51 In Mitzrayim. And who brought it there? Yosef. That's very interesting. Shenemar The Yaloket Yosef is called Kesef and Imza. Yosef gathered together all the money. Ain li elosh be'aretz Mitzrayim, she be'aretz Kanan b'sharat so tzminaim tamalomar v'cholah aretz balmitzrayim. So maybe you would have thought, no, Yosef he got from Kanan. That's after all where he was from. He got from Mitzrayim. That's where he lived. How do you know that he got from the entire world? Because it says bechol in all of the lands. So step number one of this gemara is Yosef HaTzaddik gathers together from all the various lands all of their wealth, and where does he bring it to? Mitzrayim. Ukesha alu Yisrael miMitzrayim healuluhu imahun. And what happened when Klal Yisrael left Mitzrayim? They took all of it. They took all the wealth of Mitzrayim. Shenemar. Rav Asi said they made Egypt like a trap for birds.

9:47 Where they usually place the grain as bait for the birds. But here they took it all. There's no grain. And Rav Shimon said they make it, they made it like the depths of the sea in which there are no fish. Do you realize what the Gemara is saying here? Yosef HaTzaddik organized. For all the wealth in the world To be brought to Mitzrayim And then we took it all. Very strange Very strange. That here we have this theme of the wealth is like compounded. Up until now, what did we have? Let's chazar over a little bit. Avram Avinu was promised your children are going to be enslaved, but don't worry, they're going out with great wealth. Rechosh gadol. Strange. I'd rather not have the money and not have my children have to suffer immeasurably. Why in the world is this being told him by the Bris Bein Abesarim, by the Covenant? Doesn't seem like an appropriate time.

10:50 Second, what do we see over and again in the actual story of Mitzrayim? Moshe Rabbeinu was told "Go get the Ruchash Gadol by Makas B'choros." Go get the Ruchash Gadol, and then what happened? They got the Ruchash Gadol. What does the Gemara say? Hashem says to Moshe Rabbeinu, "Please Don't leave without the Ruchash Gadol; otherwise, Avram Abenu is going to have time ason. Number one, Hashem has to be concerned about the tainas of Avram Avinu. Number two What Avram Avinu would have told him: Get out of there! Forget about the money. This is not Avram Avinu. Avram Avinu doesn't care about the money. And now we see what this great wealth was. This great wealth was all the wealth in the entire world that went to Klal Yisrael. So this is like serious money that we're talking about. We're not talking about ten bucks. We're not talking about a million dollars. We're talking about all the money in all of the world was taken out by Klal Yisrael. We'll see in a moment that might not even be true.

11:47 But the Gemara contends this. We're talking about very serious money. You see this emphasis on the wealth. What in the world are we talking about here? Have we made our point? Is everyone satisfied that this seems strange? But we're not done. See, I wrote up all the questions here, so you have them all in front of you. However Something very strange happens. Something very strange happens. Klal Yisrael takes the Rochash Gadol with them. And then they go to Kriyas Yamsuf. And do you girls know that the Egyptian army that came to Yamsuf came with great wealth? Do you know that? They came with great wealth. They brought all their gold. They brought everything to go fight the Jews. Which, by the way, strange as it is And we know what happens. The pasuk says, 'Vayasa Moshe Yisrael,' that Moshe Rabbeinu had to pull Klal Yisrael away from the Yamzuf. Why?

12:47 Because there was so much wealth that was washed up on shore And they were taking all the wealth. They were taking all the money. First of all, we have two pasukos. Number one, I thought all the wealth was gone already. Now we see maybe the wealth wasn't gone. And I don't understand what Moshe Rabbeinu is doing. A minute ago, what did we just learn? That what does Hashem tell Moshe? Make sure to take all the wealth. And now, what's Moshe Rabbeinu doing? Chaver, you're too obsessed with the money. We got to go. We got to get out of here. I don't understand. Wasn't Moshe Rabbeinu told by Hashem you have to take all the wealth? And weren't we just told a minute ago that all the wealth was actually gone? So we have two more questions. A lot of questions here, right? Two more questions. Don't worry. This is going to be a beautiful answer. We have two more questions. First question is: I thought all the wealth was gone.

13:37 How did they get the wealth? Second of all, how was the wealth gone? Because when they ostensibly, by makas b'choros, they took it all, like the Gemara says. That's what they were promised, ruchosh gadol, and they got it. But now it seems that they didn't take all the wealth, and not only that, the whole time, whatever Klal Yisrael was being told, make sure to take the money, make sure to take the money. Now that Mitzrayim is actually destroyed, and there's all this wealth. By the way, it was Rashi. If you look over there, I quoted it over here, but we're not going to go look at it inside. Rashi says that the wealth that washed up on the shore After the Mitzrayim was destroyed, it was much greater than all of the wealth that they had in Mitzrayim. So it's really weird because I thought all the wealth was gone already, and now we see the wealth wasn't gone; it was there. Up until now, the attitude was grab all the ruchash gadol, and now what are we saying? Leave the money behind.

14:26 Very strange. Very strange. So far so good. It's nice when it's small. Everyone could be following. We could pay attention. Good. One last thing, which seems to be out of left field, but I promise you, it's not. Do you girls know that you're not allowed to live in Mitzrayim? It's an iser in the Torah. You're not allowed to live in Mitzrayim. It's an iser in the Torah. It's actually brought down three times. The first time is in Shmos. I brought it over here for you. It says, "Vayomer Moshe L'ham Al Tiro." It's Yatzvu R'u. It's Yeshua Hashem Asher Yasal Chama Yom. We're allowed to visit it. So we're going to talk about that in a moment. We're going to talk. All this far didn't get very nervous. Because it's like the Holocaust. If you go visit the Holocaust, I want you to know. I want you to know that there was a Pesach program years ago that they ran in Mitzrayim.

15:24 Maybe it's like look, we're experiencing Yitzhia Mitzrayim from Mitzrayim itself. Maybe it's awful. Maybe it's beautiful. I don't know. My wife doesn't like any Pesach program. Really go for vacation. I would never go back. But there is an Isser that's brought down in the Torah to live in Mitzrayim. The problem is that Jews for generations have lived in Mitzrayim. The Rambam lived in Mitzrayim. The Rabbis lived in Mitzrayim. The Rabbam lived in Mitzrayim way after Yitzhia Mitzrayim. In fact, the Gemara talks about a big shul in Alexandria, which is in Egypt, that they learned halachos from. Even though we know that the Torah says there's an iser to live in Mitzrayim, clearly the biggest rabbanim in history lived in Mitzrayim. What's going on over here? First of all, there's a bunch of answers. You have the Ritva that Rabeinu Bechaya say that it was only a temporary iser; it was only for that generation, but future generations would be allowed to live in Eretz Yisrael. Others say it's permanent. But there's only in Isser the Yerayim that goes.

16:19 My Moriel and the Mordechai say only the Isser is from traveling from Eretz Yisrael to Mitzrayim. That would be a problem. By the way, I don't know if you know this, but Israelis do that. There's like vacation spots in Egypt that are apparently stunning, and Israelis go down to Eilat and cross over into Mitzrayim. That's what I was asking if you could visit. So some say that it would specifically be Asser to come from Eretz Yisrael to visit Mitzrayim, but maybe if you're coming from Poland, it wouldn't be a problem. Some say that it's not a problem, even to come from Eretz Israel, and they say it's only a problem if you go there with intent to live there. But if you are going to be a marshal for business or to learn Torah or to teach Torah, and you are going on an impermanent basis, then that would be mutter. Others say if you go with intent to visit and you end up living there, then it's not a problem. The only problem is if you go with intent to live there.

17:11 Do Jewish people live there now? I honestly don't. I know there must be because I had a Talmudic Mavaser years ago, whose father was from Egypt. And they had a Yeshiva there. There must be some Jewish community. I've never personally been there, visited, or had anything to do with them, but there must be a Jewish community there. There are still Jewish communities in a lot of these places. Still Jewish communities in Iran. It's pretty wild stuff. We're not going to get into that right now. The obvious question is, girls What is this Isser? What's the issur? Every issur, if the Torah says that something is prohibited, there's a reason for it. Torah doesn't just say something is prohibited. Here we are, it's erev Pesach. Pesach is mamish only a couple days away. We're about to leave Mitzrayim. The Torah says, 'Don't go back.' Hey, you want to say it's permanent, temporary, visiting? We have all the different things, but we have to understand the inner nature of the issur.

18:02 But isn't it pretty obvious? Why it says why. Why not? Why is it obvious? Because it was in the shrine. But we go like she said. We go to visit the Holocaust. We go to visit Poland. Jewish people don't live inside the concentration camps. But Jewish people still live in Poland. Jewish people still live in Germany. You're not saying bad. I'm just saying it. It at least requires a bit of thought. And we'll see that there's a very super, wildly deep answer here. That's what I want to get started with you right now. Working on this concept that I'm going to teach you tonight. It's not hard, but it might be new. Sometimes when things are new, they're not so easy to understand, which is why you literally have it written up here in front of you. I could not have made it any easier. And not only is it written out, but I also tried to put it in an ordered form so you can see it's easy to follow.

18:55 Is this from the Gemara? What this concept we're about to learn? This concept that we're about to learn is from Kabbalah. Up until now, what we've been doing is Pesukim and Gemaras. A little bit of Rishonim and Halacha. Now we're going to learn a bit of Kabbalah. The office made only a handful. I apologize, but I think there's enough that we could share. And you're welcome to have mine at the end. Let's talk about the creation of the world for a second. I'm going to try to make this as easy as possible. Before the physical world that we live in, Hashem made a spiritual world. He made four spiritual worlds. Those four spiritual worlds, if anybody here is familiar with anything in Chassidus or Kabbalah, are called Atzilus, Beriah, Yetzira, and Asiya. But what I want to talk about tonight is really before the creation of the spiritual worlds Hashem created an interface of how to relate to the worlds that He was creating. And this interface is comprised of two things.

20:07 Oros Which means light And Kail, which means vessel. How to interact with which worlds? The spiritual worlds and the physical worlds. Meaning, how does Hashem interface with the worlds that He's creating? Don't worry, I'm going to explain. You don't have to. I can sense the anxiety in the room already. It's going to be okay. We'll get through it together. This is a safe space. If you don't understand, you're allowed to be vulnerable and say, "I don't understand." I value questions. You're not supposed to know. Oros are light. Kalim are vessels. Girls, has anyone here ever heard of those concepts before? Light vessels. So we'll go through it. Not together. Say that. Or means Hashem's infinite light. When we think about Hashem as no limits, we think about Hashem as one. That's called Hashem's light. Hashem is indivisible. Hashem is limitless. Kalim are the tensed viros. How Hashem chooses to express Himself in this world. I'm sure you've heard of these concepts before.

21:17 What spheres? Spheres means like. Expressions, we'll use the word expressions for this one. These are Hashem's expressions of how He interacts with the world. For example, Chochma, Bina, Daas, Chesed, Gvura, Tiferes, Netzach, Hod, Yesod, and Malchus. These are called the ten Sefiros. These are the vessels that Hashem manifests Himself within this world. Obviously, Hashem is unlimited. I'm sorry, I just said Sefiro. Hashem is unlimited. But Hashem, so to speak Can make himself understandable to us by limiting his wisdom, so that we can engage with Hashem and understand his Torah. He limits, so to speak, his love so that he can create us. Hashem himself is limitless. That's what Hashem is. What is the vessel? The vessels are the specific, limited expressions of Hashem in this world. So the kelim are the vessels.

22:23 The kelim are the vessels. The word keli means vessels. And Hashem creates us through both of these things. The limitless God goes into the limited world, the limited being. So we have an infinite, we have a finite, and this is how Hashem merges the infinite and the finite. That's how he interfaces. His infinite presence fills up the vessel, which is finite, and he can be, so to speak. Grasp not actually himself, but we can grasp his light. Through the vessels we can grasp his light, so to speak, in this world. Now we get a little bit deeper. That was the easy part. So if you had trouble with that Hang in there; it's going to be okay. There is two stages that Hashem created the world in. What's called tohu and tikkun. Tohu means chaos. Tikkun means fixing. So when Hashem first created the world, He created the world in a chaotic way.

23:32 And then He created our world, which is called the world of fixing. So there was an olam atoh, a world of chaos, and then there's a world of fixing. So far so good. Now what does this mean that Hashem creates the world through chaos? Light and vessels need to work together. Let's take as an example the light that's entering into this light bulb right now. Why is this light bulb capable of containing this light? It's in the light bulb. It's because the light bulb is appropriate for the amount of electricity that's going into that light bulb. An electrician comes along, puts in a certain level of electricity that goes into this particular area, and then there's a vessel that would be the light bulb itself that would be able to contain that electricity. But what would happen if the electricity was far, far greater, or if the light bulb was less of a container? It wouldn't hold it. Then the light would explode the vessel.

24:37 Same thing happened when it came to creation. Originally, what happened was that Hashem put His infinite light into these vessels, and the light was so intense that the vessels could not hold on to the light. So that was problem number one. It's like imagine if we were running a nuclear power reactor right into this light. Obviously, the light would not be able to handle it. The light bulb would not be able to handle it. Hashem put too much of himself into Chesed. But we're going to get to it. So first, right away, we would say yes that there was this vessel called Chesed in the Olam HaTohu. But the infinite light of Hashem came into that Chesed, and the vessel was not capable of holding that infinite light. That's step number one. Very good. And then step number two is there was also a problem with the vessels themselves.

25:36 The problem with the vessels themselves is that each vessel only existed in its own independent universe; it wasn't able to act harmoniously with other vessels. Let's just think about this for a second. If Chesed and Gvura don't merge with each other, if they don't work with each other, then what happens? Let's think about it. What's Chesed? Chesed means loving kindness. What's Gevura? Gevura is to be able to be bounded. In any relationship, Chesed and gevura need to work together. Because if you love everybody Then you love nobody, right? So imagine you got married and your husband says, "I love every woman." " That's not. It's not very nice. The nature of the relationship is it's good that you have love. Now that love requires gevura, it requires boundaries. So that it could be channeled and focused. In the Olimato there were two problems. Problem number one we said was what?

26:40 The infinite light was too much for the vessels. The problem was not only that the infinite light was too much for the vessels. The vessels themselves did not work harmoniously. They existed independently. Chesed had nothing to do with gevura. Gevura had nothing to do with Chesed. So in the Olimato it did not work And because the vessels were no good. And because the light was too intense, what happened? The vessels shattered. This is a concept called the Nitzotzos Hakadosh. Have you ever heard of this concept called the Holy Sparks? Anyone ever hear of this concept, the Holy Sparks? That a Jew's job in this world is to gather up the sparks. So for those of you that are familiar with Kabbalistic language, the mission of a Jew, as we'll soon see, is to gather up all of the sparks that came in the original explosion from Olam Atah. There were godly sparks that fell down into this world, and a Jew's job is to go wherever those godly sparks are and to collect those sparks. That's the job of a Jew.

27:50 We'll go. That's where the word Nitzotzos. That's the name of the Sefer comes from there. Very good. What was that? Without the money. We're very good. I see you're already on to us. So hold off, and you'll soon see that it's all going to tie together very beautifully. How many sparks are there? Anyone know? Two hundred eighty-eight. Very good. Must be. I didn't know. You're very good at reading, because she's looking at the sheet here, and we know what it says? Bereshis V'arochim Asa Shamayim V'Sa Aretz V'Aretz Hayso Tohu V'Vohu. What does Tohu mean? Literally, what we just spoke about. The world was chaos. V'ruach Elokim. We're going to see that word Elokim is going to be important later on. And the spirit of God Merachefes al panayamayim was hovering over the waters. What does the word Merachefes in Kabbalah mean? If you take it, look at the first letter and the last letter of Merachefes. What is it?

28:48 Mate, right? Which means dead, right? Or fallen. And what is the internal letters? Reish. Pes pe, which is two hundred and eighty-eight. So al pi kabbalah, when the vessels exploded, and the light and those shards came down into the world. How many came into the world? Two hundred and eighty-eight, so to speak, fell into our world. Our job is to collect the two hundred and eighty-eight sparks. Let's talk about it for a moment in a very practical way. I gave you an example right here. What is a practical way of collecting a spark? What does it look like when a spark that's from the Olam HaTohu comes down into this world? Let's say What's the favorite B'Er Miriam restaurant that everybody goes to? Katsefed is that like a thing that girls do here? Yeah. So let's say it's Ben Azmanim. You don't have so much time. Because I'm sure you're doing tremendous amounts of chesed, helping people clean for Pesach, and after a hard day's work, you get together and you say, "Let's all go to katzefin."

30:06 So you have what? You have an urge. You have a desire for food. Right? Does that make sense? Now the truth of the matter is that you don't really have a desire for food. You don't really have a desire for food. What you have a desire for is Hashem's light that could be found within that food. So we're looking to make brachos Or we'll see. Could be brachos. We could be looking to use that energy in a godly way. But that's really what's happening underneath. How do we experience it down here in this world? Physicality. We experience it. As a physical desire for food, it's very far removed from its original source. Meaning, in the original source of that light, down here in this world, what would it have looked like? I don't want katzefet. I want to make a bracha. I don't want katzefet. I just want to have enough energy to go daven. I want enough energy to do chesed. I want enough energy to learn Torah.

31:14 But what does it look like in this world? In this world, it looks like I want katzefet. And we think to ourselves, our desires are physical, but really, underneath all of our physical desires is what? Any time you have a physical desire for something, there's a deeper inner desire that's actually the desire Just because you can distort a desire doesn't mean that's where the desire actually is. Right? For example Sometimes. If you have kids that are not behaving appropriately, guys and girls, so they think I just have a desire to be with that person, but really, really internally, what is the real desire? To be with home. I want connection. I want connection. I want to be with somebody. Why do I want to be with somebody? Ultimately, it all comes back to our desire to connect to Hashem. It's just that in this world, because those vessels couldn't hold that light when it exploded into this world, it exploded into the physicality of the world. Our job is to grab those sparks of holiness that are now hidden inside of these shells, where their godliness is hidden.

32:26 And we're meant to use them in a godly way. We're going to talk about what that means in a moment. We're going to talk about the two hundred and eighty-eight, and we'll see what it means in a moment. How can we do that? I thought the whole thing was broken. Because that was only in the Olam HaTo, but our world was called the Olam HaTikun. What does the Olam HaTikun mean, girls? It's the world of fixing. In our world, when Hashem made the Spheros, what are the Spheros able to do? The Spheros are able to handle the light that's coming into them. Because the light has been limited, and the Spheros now are able to work together. What we want to do is gather up all of these sparks. Put them into the vessels that are currently appropriate. And we're going to gather them all together. And when we gather all the sparks together, what's going to happen? Mashiach. That's going to be when Mashiach comes and that ushers in the era of Olam Haba.

33:25 You know what that means. That means that in order for Mashiach to come, what has to happen? More mitzvot. Jews need to go wherever the sparks are to find those sparks. If you now know this idea It's a fascinating thing. Let's take a look at human history. Jewish history. Where have we been? Everywhere. Interesting, no? We're always moving from place to place: Poland, Ukraine, Russia, Iraq, Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Spain, America, South America. Is there not a place that a Jew hasn't been? Why is that? With this idea in mind, you can start to understand what Hashem did all this time. What did Hashem do? Hashem moves Klal Yisrael throughout history, all around the world, so that every time we went somewhere What we were really doing We were collecting the sparks in those places. We'll take it one step further. Now that we're in the final minutes before Mashiach coming, and we're literally in the final seconds now.

34:35 Hashem figured out a way in His infinite wisdom to shrink the entire world. For example We have I have a cup of water here. I'm drinking this cup of water in order to be able to give the shiur. Otherwise, my mouth would be parched. I made a bracha on this before you girls came in. Tell me, how many people did it take to get this water into this cup? Think about all the people that went into the making of this cup, all the companies that went into making the cup. Remember, there were trucks that took this cup here. There were plants and factories that made that cup. There were all the companies that brought the gas to the gas stations in order for the trucks to fill up, in order for you to be able to come. Actually, if you think about it, each cup is billions of dollars. It's just that we can sell so many of them that somebody makes money. So now, when a Jew makes a bracha on even one cup of water We have no idea how far back we're impacting.

35:36 Two hundred years ago, if you made a bracha on a cup of water, how many people went into making that water? There were the people that dug the well. Right. Maybe it was like maybe if you really worked hard to figure it all out, maybe it was a hundred people. Probably I think we could conservatively say that tens of thousands, not hundreds of thousands of people went into the making of this cup. An amazing thing, no? Because we're not even thinking of all the pens that were used in the offices of those companies to make sure that the forms were signed, the printers that printed everything. Everything in the world today is entirely shrunk. So when a Jew does a mitzvah today, the impact of aggregating those sparks is more than it's ever been before in the history of the world. And of course, why does that have to happen in these final moments? Because if our job is to collect all the sparks.

36:28 And maybe we haven't been everywhere. So now, what does Hashem give us the opportunity to do? Be everywhere. We can literally be everywhere. Let's now go back to Matzri. Did we get through it together? Yes. Now we understand this concept. There's Oros. There's Kalim. There was Tohu. There's Tikon. Our job is to aggregate all the sparks. Now let's bring it all together. And you had a little bit. You have to say spoiler alert. A little bit you mentioned in the very beginning. So why did Klal Yisrael go down to Mitsrayim? Because that's where all the sparks were. Does the Torah need to teach us that Yosef HaTzaddik got all the wealth of the world into Mitsrayim? Why is that important? It's from our perspective. If we were just telling a Jewish story, it wouldn't be important at all. In which two lands would it be important that Yosef had the wealth from Eretz Canaan?

37:26 And from Eretz Yisrael? From our perspective, do we care that Yosef HaTzaddik got the wealth from Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Iran? Do we care about that? We don't care about that at all. But the Gemara comes specifically to tell us, no. Yosef got all the wealth. Why do we need to know the Mitzrayim had all the wealth? Because we know Yosef HaTzaddik. First of all, what does the word Yosef even mean? Anyone know stuff to collect Yosef is a gatherer. That's what he does. He gathers together all of the sparks and he brings them to Mitzrayim. What is that? Why did he specifically put him in Mitzrayim? So he knew that Mitzrayim was going to suffer. So because remember, Hakadosh Baruch Hu made a bris between Abesarim at the very beginning with Avram Avinu, and he said, 'Your children are going to leave a land that's not theirs.' Meaning because we are godly souls, we come down into this world. We're going to go into the most physical place in the world, and what are we going to find? Those fallen sparks, right? Those two hundred and eighty-eight sparks.

38:31 Wait, so can I ask a question? That I'm jumping the gun? Not yet. Not yet. Soon you can ask a question if I don't answer. But I still don't understand. Yosef Atzali brings them into the most physical place of the world because remember these sparks—they were very godly, the infinite light of God—but they fell all the way down to where. To the physical world, what's the most physical aspect of our world? Mitzrayim is called ervas ha'aretz. It's the most physical of all the world. There's a lot of deep Torah that we're not going to get into about how the ten utterances of creation were destroyed in the flood, and they fell down into Mitzrayim, and that's why we had ten makos. And then after the ten makos, the ten utterances were rebuilt. And that's the asheres adibros that we got by Rashi. That's a good question. So Hashem planned that Ben Ezra is going to go through Mitzrayim so they can collect back the sparks.

39:17 We can get all the sparks that Yosef Hatzadik collected from the entire world. It's like Yosef made sure to take all the physicality of the world. He took all their wealth, all the sparks. He brought it into Mitzrayim. And then what was our job? We came down as slaves to collect all of those sparks, and now we can understand why. But if Yosef collected them, now we can understand why. Hang on, it's going to be okay. Now we can understand why. At a strange moment. Avram Avinu was told, and the Bris Bein Habzarim. This is the marriage. What is Avram Avinu told? Your children are going to go down and be slaves, but don't worry; they'll come out with great wealth. Up until now, that was very strange, but now it makes sense. Because what is Avram Avinu being told? Since you are the chosen nation, you're going to do what?

40:06 You're going to fulfill the purpose of creation. Your children are going to be the ones to aggregate all of the sparks. Now we understand Hashem is nervous, so to speak. What if Klal Yisrael leaves and they don't leave with these sparks? Avram Avinu is going to say to Hashem, "Wait a second!" You told me that they're going down to Mitzrayim because they're the chosen nation. They're going to be the one to collect all the sparks. If they leave without the wealth, what did they leave without? The whole purpose of going down to Mitzrayim wasn't fulfilled. Now we know. Now we know why over and over again the Torah keeps telling us about what about the Rachosh Gadol. Avram Avinu was told they're going to get the rechosh gadol. Moshe Avinu, you're the Mashiach of Eretz Yisrael. You're going to get the rechosh gadol before Makas Bchoros. You're going to get the rechosh gadol, and after Makas Bchoros, they got the rechosh gadol. Why is that the central part of the story? Because it is. The whole purpose of going down to Mitzrayim was to get not the physical wealth But the sparks of godliness that were within all of that wealth.

41:11 The Benitz will have to do anything more than just being in Mitzrayim. All the time that they were in Mitzrayim, whatever that means, they were working the land. They had godly intention. Whatever it is that they were doing, they were aggregating those sparks. Wait, I don't understand. I'll tell you what. Maybe ask me after this year, just because I want to make sure to finish this in time. I love your persistence. When we left. We emptied out Mitzrayim. Remember, the Gemara said that like a pond without any fish left. So it means we did it. We accomplished everything. So now, does that mean there wasn't any wealth left in Mitzrayim? Physical wealth, there still was. How do you know there was still physical wealth left in Mitzrayim? If you've been paying attention the entire year, you should know this easily. Because they came to the Yam Sup with all their wealth. And after they were destroyed, what happened? All their wealth washed up on shore. What does Moshe Abinu tell them?

42:16 Hevra, That wealth is not for you. You already got all of the wealth from Mitzrayim that could possibly be gotten. So leave that wealth. You see how Avram Abinu, you were promised Ruchash Gadol. You got it. After that, you're just chasing money. Don't chase money. Money has to be used for a purpose. Don't just chase money; chase purpose. Money can help you do purposeful things. So you see how the attitude changed completely. Originally, we were obsessed with the ruchosh gadol because that was the whole mission. But once we left Mitzrayim There was no more ruchosh gadol. All the money that washed up on shore, Moshe Rabbeinu said, 'This is not for us. We're done.' Anything that was in Mitzrayim, we got out. However There is, as we'll soon see A problem with this. But before we get to the problem Let's now answer another question.

43:14 Somebody, you said earlier, we can't go back to Eretz Yisrael because it's like going back to visit the site of the tragedy. But we go back to visit Poland. So now the Arizal, the Chassam Sofer, brings an Arizal who gives a very different answer. You know what he's saying? There's no point in going back to Eretz Yisrael. Because there's nothing left to collect there. You understand? You see how it all ties together now? So if you're going back to learn Torah, to teach Torah, if you're going back for business. That's collecting sparks. But you don't need to go Mitzrayim is no longer a destination for us. We've gotten from Mitzrayim what we could have gotten. There's a kasha in the heart of all this. I'm surprised nobody asked me this question. Maybe it was your question that you were going to ask. If we already aggregated all of the sparks by Mitzrayim What are we still doing here? That was your question. See, I told you, don't jump the gun. This is the highlight of the year. This is the crescendo. This is bases loaded. We're going to knock it out of the park. This is game seven. No time left on the clock. Shooting the three-pointer, and you want them to steal this moment.

44:26 I know. Sorry, Rabbi. Hashem, your eagerness and intelligence made you jump ahead. Please allow me a moment to answer your question. Remember, we said there's 288 sparks. Yeah. But Klal Yisrael left with erev Rav. What does Erev Rav mean? A mixed multitude. Some of the not so holy people came with them, but Erev means mixture. Rav Is Reish Beis. What is Reish Beis? Two hundred and two. If there's two hundred and eighty-eight sparks in Mitzrayim and Klal Yisrael left with the Erev Rav Al Pikabala, how many sparks are left? Eighty-six. Why didn't God publish Baruchu? Why didn't we aggregate those eighty-six sparks? What happened? Where did we miss those eighty-six sparks? So it goes as follows. So we already got the rest of them. We got two hundred and two in Mitzrayim. We got everything out of Mitzrayim that we could. This is like a game show.

45:32 What do you mean by that? This is like collect this here Collect this here. Where'd we miss them? I want you to know it's an excellent analogy because the truth of the matter is there is a deep Kabbalah. We're not going to get into it today. There is a deep Kabbalah on why games are so fun. And why specifically there is an idea of playing games on Shabbos. Because in a certain way, you are right. All of human history, in a certain way, is like this game. Like we have a mission. Like we're hide and go seek. We're playing hide and go seek. We're trying to find all of these. We're not going to get into it now, but it's an excellent point that you're making. It's not just a joke that you said. It's an excellent point that you made. Let's finish it up because I know she's going to get very frustrated if we don't have a good answer to her question. That Browns you have a good answer, girls. How many years were we supposed to be in Eretz Yisrael? Four hundred. How many years were we actually in Eretz Yisrael? Two ten.

46:20 If we had stayed even a moment longer, what would have happened to us? We would have reached the highest point of the lowest. I'm in the lowest point. We would have reached the lowest level, and we would have been obliterated. Hakadosh Baruch Hu took us out early. We did whatever we could do in Mitsrayim, which was to take out how many sparks? Two hundred and two. Did we finish the job? No. A hundred and ninety years we were missing. Those hundred and ninety years are played out over the rest of creation. The rest of human history are really those hundred and ninety years. All of the exiles that we suffer from are really those hundred and ninety years, just played out over thousands of years. For us to try to find the last eighty six. Eighty six sparks. What is the gematria of eighty six? Go back to the very beginning. Barachus Barlokim as Hashemayim ve'Asa'aretz, the Aretz ha'isatov vavo. Listen to this last one, the Ruach Elokim. What is Elokim be'gematria? Eighty six.

47:18 The same gematria as Hatava, the same gematria as nature. Our job is to find the remaining eighty-six sparks. Where do we find God? Nature within nature itself. How do we do that? We make brachos. We recognize that all the desires that we have are really what the desire that we have for hamburgers is not really a desire for hamburgers. It's really a desire to connect Hashem. The desire that we have for katzefet, it's just a mask. Really, it's what I desire to connect Hashem. I desire to find the infinite sparks that are within everything. So the story of Mitzrayim is ongoing. Every single day in Kriyat Shema. Twice a day. What do we remember? Mitzrayim. Remember Yosef Mitzrayim. And once a year, what do we do? We re-experience that period where we left with two hundred and two sparks, which will inspire us to find the remaining eighty six sparks, and then the Ruach Elokim. The Zohar Kadosh says that is Mashiach. When you da Mashiach. When you take, when you find Elokim, when you find the remaining eighty-six sparks that are left, then Mashiach comes. We should be zayecha to a geula shleima b'karav man. Amen. That's so sweet. We're having a.