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The mitzvah of Magid begins with Holach Ma'anyu. This Holach Ma'anyu, the Achla of a son of the Arab of Mitzrayim. This is the bread of affliction that our forefathers ate in the land of Egypt. Called Dechven Yesevi Yechol, anyone who wants can come and eat. Called Ditzrich, anyone who needs Yesevi Yisach can come and celebrate Pesach with us. Hashata Hachal Shana Babb'arad Yisro. Now we are here. Next year we'll be in the land of Israel. Hashata avade avde. Now we are slaves. Lashana habab neichor. So there's two Three questions to start off with, just on halachma. The first question is We didn't eat. We didn't eat matzah in Mitzrayim. Says halach ma'anyo, this is the bread of affliction, referring to the matzah that our forefathers ate in arad the mitsrayim in the land of Egypt. That's not true. When did we eat matzah? When we left Egypt.
So it's not accurate. It's the first question. The second question is called dichven yesei v'yechal. Anyone who's hungry, let him come and eat. Called ditzrich. Anyone who needs yesei v'yifshach can come and celebrate Pesach with us. So what's the difference between called dechven, anyone who's hungry And called ditzurch, anyone who needs? Sounds like if you're hungry, we'll give you food. If you need So then you can come and celebrate Pesach with us. What's the difference between dechven That you're hungry, and ditzurch, that you need? Why is what's one connection to the other? Of course, the famous question is that we ask, we have this invitation where. In the privacy of our own homes When the door is closed That's not a. It's not much of an invitation. There was an episode of Seinfeld many years ago. Where someone was getting married in India And they were sending invitations to people in New York. It was a famous episode. It was called Invitations.
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Sometimes an invitation is not an invitation. So if we had a minig to get up in shul, we don't even have an elio a navi minig. We don't even open the door. It's a good invitation. Now we're here. Anyone who's here is here. Anyone who needs can come. What do you mean? Anyone who needs? Who's around to hear that invitation? It's not a real invitation. So who? Who is this for? What is it for? Those are the three questions on Halach Manna. We're going to skip a little bit. Hagada says, 'Amr of Elazar and Azariah. Elazar and Azariah said, 'Harei ani keven shivim shana. I'm like a man of seventy.' And I never in my life was zeicher to say Yitzias Mitzrayim at night. Ad shadarsha Ben Zoma until Ben Zoma came along, and he darshan the following pasuk: Shenamar l'mantiskor as yungseischa meiris Mitzrayim kol yemei chayecha That you should remember the day that you left Mitzrayim, kol yemei chayecha.
Yemei chayecha. If it would only have said the word Yemei chayecha and not call Yemei chayecha, what would we have thought? So then we would have said Yemei chayecha hayamim. Then we would have said When do you have a mitzvah of zchiras itziyas mitzrayim? You have that mitzvah only during the day. The fact that it says 'call Yemei chayecha all the days of your life' indicates not only during the day but also when Also at night. And then the chachamim disagree and they say no, Yemei Chayecha hayolam azeh. Yemei Chayecha means this world. Kol Yemei Chayecha means La Hav Yomos Mashiach, and includes the time when Mashiach comes. So we have the following question: First of all, what does it mean that Ben? What does it mean that Revelazir and Azariah never said Yitsias Mitzrayim at night? That by itself is a very strange thing. What does that mean? He never said Yitsias Mitzrayim at night.
And then we have these dueling Joshus. Ben Zoma says it's referring to daytime and nighttime. And chachamim say it's referring to El Mazen Al Mavah. Lastly, what does any of this have to do with Rav Elazar Ben Azaria? This is a machlokas between Ben Zoma and the chachamim. What does it have to do with Rav Elazar Ben Azaria? In order to understand this, we need to take a look at Rav Elazar Ben Azaria, who he was And then to step back a little bit and appreciate. What was Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah coming to do with his life? Elazar ben Azariah says he was kiben shivim shana. He was like a man of seventy. Everybody knows. We all heard growing up at our seder. What was he really? How old was he really? He was eighteen. So what happened? There was a nasi in Kallah Yisrael whose name was Rabbi Gamliel.
Rabbi Amliel was a very specific type of personality. He was a tremendous tzaddik. Rabbi Amliel, after the Churban Abayus, after the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash, he was the nasi of Klal Yisrael. And Rabbi Amliel was concerned that there should not be any machlokas in Klal Yisrael. What did he do? He made sure that everybody went by one opinion. Rabbi Amliel had. Another one of the great sages at the time who didn't necessarily agree with him was Rav Yoshua. Yoshua was an amazing Amazing tzaddik as well. And Rav Amliel was very machbid that Rav Yoshua should follow him. For example A Talmud came to Rav Yoshua and he asked, 'Is davening ma'iriv a rishus or a chayva? Is it obligatory? Or is it just a rishus? So he said, "It's a rishus." Rav Gamliel held differently. Rav Gamliel said it's a chayva. Today we pass on Rav Gamliel.
So Rav Gamliel heard about this from someone. And he made Rav Yeshua come to him And he cross-examined him. And he made Rav Yeshua stand up while he was cross-examining him. And then he started to give shear. And Rav Yosho had to stand through the entire she'ar, so you could get the sense that what Rav Gamliel was doing a little bit was only, of course, l'shem Shamayim. But he was putting Rav Yosho in his place. I'm the nasi of Klal Yisrael. After the Churban Abayis, it's important that we have no machleikus. It's important that we have no dissenting opinions. So you are going to humble your opinion before mine. That was one example. Another example was Rav Yosho and Rav Gamliel had machleikus. Exactly when Yom Kippur was Rabbi Gamliel said it was one day. Rabbi Yosheua said it was another. Rabbi Yosheua intended to keep Yom Kippur b'tzina on his day, meaning Rabbi Yosheua said, "For me, I know Yom Kippur is on this day" So he intended to quietly keep Yom Kippur in his house. Rabbi Gamliel got wind of it.
And he made Rabbi Yosheua come to him on Yom Kippur with his money purse and his walking stick, meaning violating the halachas of Yom Kippur. To show publicly that he stood with Rabbi Gamliel. And at some point, the people had enough. And they said We don't like the way that Rabbi Gamliel is acting. We don't like this mahalch of his, too. And he was How do we say this nicely? He was removed from his position of nasius. Who was his mamali makom? So it couldn't be of Yehoshua, because that would have looked bad. Because that was the one that Rambamliel was arguing. So they said, "Let it be of Vakiva." Vakiva is clearly the greatest sage of his time. The problem was, Rvakiva didn't have any yichus. He didn't come from a noble family, and people there was a concern that people would say, "Rvakiva can't be a real leader because where does he come from?"
So they decided to appoint the eighteen-year-old of Elazar ben Azariah to be the nasi of Klal Yisrael. This was a problem. Not because he wasn't a tremendous talmudacher. Rav Eliezer Ben Azayir could have easily answered all the questions. The problem was that he was eighteen. Girls Imagine you are eighteen. I am saying, I am not saying you, but maybe you know eighteen-year-old boys. Not you, but you, the royal you, maybe, the conceptual you, maybe you know an eighteen-year-old boy. Even if that eighteen-year-old boy is the best, best, best boy, he's still eighteen. Could Klal Yisrael be makabel somebody who's an eighteen year old prepubescent? Like Yeshiva Bacher, as great a Talmud Chacham as he is, to be the Nasi of Klal Yisrael? You read the Zadars. It used to be that an eighteen year old could lead Yisrael. Even that. Even that. I'll say that. He was older than that. He was older than that for sure. No But eighteen is still very young. Hakadosh Baruch Hu made a nasi and made it like he was seventy.
But that's only really half the story. Really And by the way, that's what it means. Harayani keben shivim shana. The Gemarsha of keben is seventy. So what is it? The Gemarsha of keben is the chaf and the ben is the he's keben ben. We'll see in a moment. It is fifty two. Where does it come from? So Elazar ben Azai is a Gilgal of Shmuel. Who is Shmuel? Shmuel was, of course, the great prophet of Eretz Yisrael, who died at the age of fifty-two. And Shmuel, in his life, what's important for you to know is he went around his whole life was given to walking around Eretz Yisrael, walking around and helping Jews. That was Shmuel. And he was very against the notion of kingship. Even though later in his life he anointed David Hamelch to be king, if you've read Shmuel, you know that he was very against the idea of malchus.
Rav Elazar ben Azaria, the fifty-two years of Shmuel The eighteen years of Rav Elazar ben Azaria's life—that's how he became seventy years old. So he was a Gilgal of Shmuel. Rav Elazar ben Azaria was also a tenth-generation descendant of Ezra Asover. Ezra Asover, of course Brought Klal Yisrael back from Bavel for the rebuilding of the second base of Mikdash. So he was a tenth-generation descendant. So Rav Elazar ben Azaria was appointed to be the Nasi of Klal Yisrael. And then what happens? Unbelievable thing. He has a policy change. He changes the entire way that Klal Yisrael has been behaving up until then. What did he change? Rav Amliel had guards posted at the. Rav Amliel had guards posted. If you don't mind, just turn it off. He had guards posted at the door of the beis medrash. Who was able to come to the beis medrash?
Only the elite of Kallah Yisrael were able to come to the Beit Midrash. Could you imagine such a thing today, girls? We have it a little bit. Who gets into yeshiva? Who gets into seminary? But this is different. They literally had guards standing at the entrance of the Beit Midrash. Who's allowed in? Only those that are tocho kebaro. Only those that are a hundred percent authentic. Imagine what it would have been like in Talmud Torah. Imagine Mrs. Lifman standing with a sword. A spear of some sort In the front of the beis medrash. Who is able to get in? Sort of Wenglin's shear. Who is able to get in To Rabbi Fix's shear? If you're not completely authentic, if your insides don't match your outsides, you can't come in. That was the elite of Klal Yisrael. That was the way Ram Lili ran the beis medrash. We'll soon discuss why.
Rabbi Elazar ben Azaria. First thing that he does, he removes the guards. It's machlokas. How many benches did he add? Either four hundred or seven hundred benches that day. That day. And an amazing thing happened. Klal Yisrael came running to the beis medrash. Either four hundred new benches or seven hundred new benches. That means thousands of people came to the beis medrash. On that day, any time you see in the Gemara, any times you see the word bo byom, it means the halachas that they pasquined that day. On that day, many halachas were pasquined. In fact, there's an entire Masechta of things that were taught on that day. It was a very, very big day. The Gemara continues and tells us that Rambamliel saw that what he did wasn't right. So he went to Rav Yosheu to beg forgiveness. Rav Yeshua, when he came to his house, he said, "I see the walls of your house are all black."
You must be something about all the phones here. Said, "You must be working with a blacksmith, something that makes the walls all dirty." And Rav Yeshua said to him on the meal, 'You don't even know where your people are holding. You don't even know the struggle that I've had to support myself while I'm teaching Torah to Klal Yisrael. You're so detached from the struggle that I've gone through.' Amliel says, "Be meichel me." Yehushua says, "No." He says, "Be meichel me and the schuss of my father. Yehushua says, "Fine, I'm meichel." And then they had a problem. Obviously, R' Amliel was humbled. What do we do now? R' Amliel, they made him give Shir a cup. They couldn't remove R' Elazar Ben Azariah from his position because myelam be kodesh ve'imoridem. But Rambamliel was Rambamliel, so they ended up having a system where Rambamliel gave shea for a couple of weeks, and Rav Lazar ben Azari gave shea for a week. They were a co-rasha yeshiva.
This ends the gemara. But the truth is, we don't see Rambamliel at this point of the seder. When do we see Rambamliel? Anyone remember in the Hadassah where we see Rambamliel? Isn't he one of the people telling the word? He's specifically not one of the people there. It's very interesting because he should have been at that seder. He's specifically excluded because they excluded him. That seder was all the people we just mentioned: R. Yisrael Azor, R. Yosher, R. Ben Azayir, R. Kiva, R. Tarfon. But not R. Amliel. We don't find R. Amliel until the very, very end of the Hagada, until the very end of Magid. Where R. Amliel says, "If you don't say Pesach, Masa, and Mor, then you're not yotzei Sipur Yisus Mitzrayim." That's also a funny thing. Why do we only bring R. Amliel at the very, very end? And what is it? And you're not Yotzei unless you say these three things. What's going on here? What's the big deal?
In order to understand this, let's go back to a very important Yisod. What does it mean to be in a relationship? What does it mean? We all grew up. Hava is from the lashon of Hav, which means to give. To be in a relationship means to give. How many times have you heard that shmos? A couple of times. Too many times already. I'll tell you, it's of course. I don't mean to make fun of it, but there is something that's missing about it. There are two things that a person requires to be in a relationship. The first is the obvious one: dedication, devotion. That's the obvious one. What we do for each other. But that is not the foundation of a relationship. That's one aspect of a relationship. The second thing is the most primary thing. When Hakadosh Baruch Hu created the world. From a theological perspective, there's a problem. If Hakadosh Baruch Hu is everywhere, where are we?
Where are we? So there's a process in Kabbalah called Simson. Exactly what Simson means is subject to some level of machlokas between the Hasidim and the Misnagdim, or the Lithuanian Yeshiva world. Everyone agrees that to whatever extent this means Hakadosh Baruch Hu pulled himself back to create space for another. So there was a place that was devoid of Hashem. Obviously, nothing could ever be devoid of Hashem. But there was a place where Hakadosh Baruch Hu pulled himself back to allow for the existence of another. Which means that when we say Eilam Chesed Yibaneh, that Hakadosh Baruch Hu created the world with Chesed. What does it mean? Love. What does Chesed mean? Chesed means love. What does it mean to give to another? What does that word mean? It means to create a space for somebody else to exist. So you always have this tension in every relationship.
On the one hand, you have people that participate in relationships by creating space for another. What does that look like? What does it mean to create space for another? Do I allow you to be you? Are you worthy of being here as you are, not as what I need you to be Not as something else? Are you okay as you are? Is this a place for you? That's one way of being in a relationship, and obviously that's very important. Because if a person you can imagine if you play it out, if a person comes into a relationship right And they're in a relationship with somebody else, and they keep telling the other person no. That's not okay the way you are. You have to do this. What then? Who are they in a relationship with? Are they in a relationship with you? Imagine somebody, you're not okay the way you are. You need to be this. So who are they in a relationship with?
They're in a relationship with. With I wouldn't even see potential you. I would say with the you that they want you to be But definitely not you Because being in a relationship with you means I value you, all of you, even the imperfections. On the other hand It's not okay just to be you in a relationship, because you, in order to participate in the relationship, need to do X, Y, and Z to participate in the relationship. That's the devotion and the dedication. So imagine a husband who says to you, 'You don't accept me' You don't love me for me. If you really did, you would allow me to cheat on you. There are rules and boundaries and guidelines. There's a level of devotion and dedication. That's what it means to participate in a relationship. Both are true. So listen to what Rambam Liel's hashkafa was.
Rambam Liel's hashkafa was, "We just lost the base of mikdash." Let's take a second to appreciate what that means. What would Yiddishkeit look like today if you had a base on Mikdash? If you came to Torma Devora for the year What would it look like? Imagine that you got on the bus and you went to your shulayim or your yeshivah. You went to the old city. Where would you go? Would you go to the Kotel? In fact, if you went to the base on Mikdash, how would you look at the Kotel? What would your perspective be? Was that? It was such a beautiful place that for so many years, Klal Yisrael davened. Baruch Hashem, now we don't have to daven by a supporting wall. We could actually
Be you could walk in. Imagine you could throw open the doors of the Beis Hamikdash. You could see the Kohanim running around doing their avoda, bringing their karbonos. You see people really doing tshuva. A person standing in front of a behema, he just did an avera, and they're bringing a carbon chatos, and they're thinking to themselves like the Rebbein said. Really, I have to draw myself close to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, and I allowed my animal self to take control of my person, and now I'm destroying that animal self so I could be all godly and connect with Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Really, the visceral nature of that experience, you could touch it. Be such a special thing. Imagine being on Yom Kippur and seeing all the Kohanim running around wearing white. The Kohen Gadol comes out and he's holding the string, and Baruch Hashem, Hakadosh Baruch Hu forgave us. You could see it. So this was right after the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash. There's a fundamental question. If you were a Jew at that time, if you were leadership in Klal Yisrael at that time, what's the question you would be asking?
How are we going to survive? Is that not a fair question? How are we going to survive? Imagine you lost the person closest to you in your life. You ask yourself, what now? Where do I go? This was the problem that was confronting Klal Yisrael. So Amram Lila had a good answer. What's the answer? We're going to create exceptional levels of devotion to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. We're going to create the next group of leaders who will be in the beis medrash, the best of the best. I'm going to build leaders. I have to focus my energy on the few. I have to make sure that I'm building the next Rav Chaim Kaniefsky, the next Rav Leib Stein, the next Rav Gershon Edelstein. I have to build the next Gedali Torah to lead Klal Yisrael for generations to come. And what's our job? Follow. Everyone follow the same person. Everyone, let's go. We're all going to be on the same page. Devotion, dedication—that's what we need.
To the extent that Rav Yosheua, if he had a dissenting opinion or Mengamliel felt l'shem shamayim, what did he have to do? He had to put him in his place. Because if we're gonna start to have, I'm a Rav Yosheua Jew, I'm a Rav Mengamliel Jew, I'm a Rav Akiva Jew, what's gonna happen to the community? Community's gonna splinter apart. But the people said, we can't handle Rav Mengamliel's approach. So they point to Rav Elazar ben Azaria. Rav Elazar ben Azaria, in his tizikus, in his youth, he comes along with a revolutionary idea, which we all owe tremendous hakaras hatov to Rav Elazar ben Azaria for this idea. What does Rav Elazar ben Azaria say? He says it's not necessarily about dedication and devotion. The first thing we need to do is create space for Klal Yisrael to feel safe, because they're in the midst. They just lost their Beis Hamikdash. They feel disconnected. What are we going to do to make sure that Klal Yisrael feels loved and cherished, appreciated for who they are as they go through this dark exile? That's the question that's bothering Avlezer Ben Azaria.
So listen what he does. This is an unbelievable art. He opens up the beis medrash and he puts in. You remember how many benches it was? Either four hundred or seven hundred benches. Now who speaks that way? If you are a president of your local Orthodox synagogue, you know what you say. I'm proud to announce that this year, with the expansion of the shul, we've had to add twenty new benches to accommodate new membership. You say seats. They say seats because we don't have benches. Let's say they would say seats. But real leadership doesn't speak about seats. Real leadership would speak about people. Real leadership would say, I'm proud to announce that we have 50 new members who have joined our shul, and Baruch Hashem, we've had to expand to accommodate our new people. Only a president of a local Orthodox synagogue would speak about the expansion of the physical place.
So why does the Gemara say here, on that day, that unbelievable day where they had, where they were mechadesh so many things, they taught so many new things, they passed all the halachos. Come on, on that day we added 400 seats, maybe even 700 seats. The pshat is there was a problem. You were speaking about a disenfranchised Klal Yisrael. They lost their Beis Hamikdash. R' Menahem Leib closed the doors to the Beis Medrash. So you know what they said? You only want the elite. You're only interested in building Gedali Tiro. What about us? You're not interested in us. Line. We're not interested in you. That's who R' Elazar Ben Azaryah was coming to bring back into the fold. He was the ultimate revolutionary. He was saying, I'm not only interested in the elite. Of course, I'm interested in the elite. But who am I really interested in? Every single Jew needs to be part of this process. All opinions need to be part of this process.
So he says, 'I got to get these Jews back in the base. How do I get them back in the base, Madrash? How do I invite these Jews back in? What do you tell a Jew who's been told, "Sorry, you're not elite enough to be part of us"? What do you tell a Jew like that?' There's a seat for you. There's a seat for you. It's not a small thing. There was a It was a boy that I was talking to a couple weeks ago. It was a real, really sad situation. It was a very sad situation. He had applied to different yeshivas. He didn't get into any yeshiva. Get into any yeshiva. Can you imagine? Get into any yeshiva. I heard about this boy And I decided we're gonna take this boy into Mivasaret. So I went to his high school. I met with him, and as I got there, I saw who he was. I was like, I know you. I knew the kid. He was in my shir, Nancy Szykola.
I said, "I'm so excited now that I know that it's you. I just want to tell you, we are so lucky to have you in yeshiva next year." We're the luckiest place in the world that you're going to come to our yeshiva. We're the luckiest people in the world. You're going to strike tremendously next year. And I'm not sure if he's coming in the end, because Baruch Hashem, in the end, two places took him, which is great. But you know how hard it is for a boy to feel like there's no place for me. These girls that don't get into any seminary." You know all the girls they talk about. What seminary did you get into? What seminary did you get into? What about the girls that don't get into any seminary? Now we do our best. We try to make sure that everybody gets in everywhere. But there's always a couple, right? There's always those five, ten, fifteen girls, guys that don't get into any yeshiva. You know what it's like for them when everybody else is running around going, 'I'm going here next year. I'm going there next year.' Or even if they finally do get into a yeshiva or seminary and they actually show up on day one, what's their feeling? What do they have in their head?
Really, I was one of those girls that didn't get in anywhere. But they had Rachmanes, and this place took me, and another place took them. I'm bottom of the barrel. I'm a bottom of the barrel person. There's no place for me. I'll tell you a miser. This is a true story. My daughters know who this is. Boy, today Baruch Hashem is a tremendous entire. Boy came to Mevaser And a couple months into the year, I noticed this kid is hitting the beis medrash like nice. He's in the beis medrash yaimu v'leila. This was a boy who went to Petach. Petach is a program for boys with severe learning disabilities. He joked around. He was in Maysir. He joked. He used to say, "I said, where did you go to high school?" He said, "I went to the other side of the hall." Because they have the regular school, and on the other side of the hall is the Pitach class.
Now he's all of a sudden sitting in base matrush. I said, "What's up, Shat? That you're sitting in the base matrush? What's up, Shat? That you're standing like this?" He goes, 'Nobody ever told me that I could before.' Nobody ever told me that I have a place in the base matrush. I came to the bazaar, and I feel like now I have a place. He stayed in Mevaser for two years, then he went to a different yeshiva. After that, for two years, then he went to Nair Yisrael. Unfortunately, his father passed away, so he has to be in New York. And now he's shi'ing a velt in Shira Yashuv. He was never supposed to be in Petach. In fact, I just talked to the mashgiach in Shira Yashuv and I said, 'You know, this boy Eli.' I want you to know, this boy Eli He was in Petach. Rabbi Samuel looks at me and says, "What are you talking about? He was not in Petach." I said, "Rabbi, I'm telling you, he was a Petach boy for all of high school." " He goes. He's he's one of the top boys in the shir that he's in. He's he's in the base manager. Shemun velaila. How's that possible?
He was just a boy. Everyone told him your whole life you're a petach boy. He wasn't. They were wrong. They missed it. All he needed was somebody to come and tell him you have a place. Once somebody came and told him you have a place, he flew. He's a tremendous bentaira. This was where Velazer Ben Azaria came and said there's a place for you. Ramanamliel was doing the right thing. He said a relationship. Dedication, devotion. We have to build the next leadership. We have to have one opinion. Everybody has to be doing it. Do. If you're not doing, sorry. If you're not tochah gabaro, you can't be here. If your insides don't match your outsides, if you're not perfect, that's what r'malamliyil required. You required perfection. And there's a place for that. There is a place to be able to say at the end of the day in the relationship, if you're not following the rules, if you're not obedient on some level, are you really participating in the relationship? The answer is of course r'malamliyil is right.
But not first. That's not the first thing in a relationship. The first thing in a relationship is you. I'm pulling myself back to create space for you. You are loved and cherished, appreciated, honored. This is a place where you come to be you. That's the beginning. Now you want to talk about what makes up the relationship. We could talk about it, but we can't talk about it until we've decided that we're here together, that we're in this together. That was the mistake that Rabbi Ammiel made, and Rabbi Ammiel went to the house of Rabbi Yeshua, begged forgiveness. Rabbi Yeshua said to him, "You're so disconnected from me. You were even disconnected from me." I'm Rav Yeshua. I'm not one of the people. You didn't know that I was struggling this whole time. Rambamliel said, "You're right. I'm sorry." Rav Yeshua couldn't forgive him right away until he said, "Forgive me in the schuz of my father." Rav Yeshua said, "Okay, say that And then they reinstated Rambamliel because he was a different Rambamliel at that point. When a person does tshuva, they're not the same person. That's why the Rambam says there was a minig to take on yourself a new name when you did tshuva. You're a new person.
Rambamliel did tshuva. He was a new person. What do we have in the beginning of the Haggadah? We have Reuven, Elazar, and Azariah. When do we see Rambam Liel again? At the end, after a person feels safe to be themselves, then what does Rambam Liel say? You're not Yosi the Mitzvah unless you say Pesach Matzamar. Unless you do those three things, you're not Yosi. Isn't that classic Rambam Liel? This is what you have to do. He's right. He's right. You have people who come and say, "I'm very close to God." I mean, I don't keep Shabbos, but I'm very close to God. Who decided? You just because you feel close to God doesn't mean you're close to God. The story with Rav Naich Weinberg. Rav Naich Weinberg was the founder of Eishat Torah. A guy came to Eishat Torah. He said to Rav Naich, "I'm tight with God."
Rav Naich said to him, "How do you know?" "He goes, 'I was driving my motorcycle. I was going around the mountain here in Israel. A truck came running towards me. I had to swerve to get out of the way. I went over the cliff. My motorcycle went crashing down. I grabbed out.' There was a tree growing out of the side of the mountain, and I was able to hang on to that tree. Otherwise, I would have died. Me and God are tight. Sirvnaich looks at him and he goes, "Yeah, but who do you think sent the truck" You have this all the time. Me and God are good. Who says? This is always my struggle with the Israeli taxi drivers. The spartan Israeli taxi driver who doesn't wear a yarmulke Doesn't keep Shabbos, but he's talking about Hashem the entire time. I'm also talking about Hashem, but that's because I'm saying to him in the back while he's swerving around trucks. It's like a complete. That's my own anxieties.
But there are people that I'm very close to. I feel very close to Hashem. That's awesome. But you don't keep Shabbos. That's like the guy who says, 'Yeah, I'm very close with my wife.' I mean, I have three other families. One in Canada, one in Mexico, one in Florida that they don't know about. But I'm very close. You're not. You're not following the rules. The Rambam says you have to follow the rules. R' Elazar Ben Azayyeh says, 'Of course, you have to follow the rules, but that's not the beginning of the relationship.' The beginning of the relationship is you're invited to be here. That's the important part. We have this a lot today, right? The struggle. It's very relevant to our times. It's very relevant to every single person, right? Because none of us around this table are perfect Jews. What do you do when a girl shows up to Talmud Torah in the beginning of the year? When a guy shows up to Mevaser in the beginning of the year? And you know who they are, right? Don't take this the wrong way, but like the people who teach in Torah Devor, we're not foolish. We don't We're not unaware. I'm aware of certain places that exist in Yerushalayim. I don't know if you're aware of these places, but I'm aware of these places. I'm saying I don't know if you know. There's a shuk.
It's like a thing called Beer Bazaar. You're probably not familiar with any of these places. There's a forest. You know the forest. You know the park. Up the block. I'm not saying any of you girls went to the park. I'm not saying that you were there and saw things that happened. I'm just saying. So what do you do? Can you let the girls know right away that you're not going to the park? Obviously you have to say that right. But what happens? Now a girl starts to get into a defensive position. You can only be in a relationship with the school if you're going to follow rules X, Y, and Z. What happens if you don't? Now you're in a confrontational place. So there's an art. And the art is first to let the girls know We're here for you. If you're struggling with something, tell us. We want to work with you. You can talk to us. These are the rules of the game.
And that's a very hard thing to do. It's a struggle that we have with all of our children. Every parent wants their. Every parent says this. I know I have my daughter in the audience, but every parent says this. My kids can really talk to me about anything. Nice smile, right? They can and they can't, right? Just like you didn't talk to your parents about everything, I'm sure you spoke to your parents about everything. But most people, why was it like that? Because your parents were also the ones that are going to say to you, "Hey, that's not okay." " So how do you How do you live with that tension? Of saying these are the rules of engagement, but also this is a safe place. It's a very hard thing to do. But one thing for sure Ramanamliel's approach of only the elite, only those that are tochal kibarot, demanding perfection. That's not an approach that could work for Klal Yisrael. Certainly not in times of Choshech. And with this in mind, we can understand what Rabbi Elazar ben Azaria really meant. Rabbi Elazar ben Azaria said as follows: My entire life, I never said Sefer Yisrael Mitzrayim at night.
What does that mean? I never said Sefer Yisrael Mitzrayim at night. In those dark times of my life, when everything was not going so well Was I able to recall redemption in that moment? That's a hard thing. For a person to be able to say, when everything in my life is falling apart I have no idea where I'm going. I have no idea what it looks like to be successful here. Can I hold on to redemption in that moment? Can I say Yitzias Metzrayim when everything around me seems so cloudy? When I'm unsure, when I'm in some of the most difficult moments of Yissh? I'm about to give up on everything. Can I hold on to the notion of redemption? Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah was saying this. Not that many years after the destruction of the Beit Hamikdash. Remember, girls, these were the same people that they were able to walk up those steps from the Ezra's Nashim to the Ezra's Yisrael. They saw the Leviim singing the Shir Amalech that were composed by David Amalech. They saw it. They saw with their own eyes. They saw the miracles. They saw the Ktirus. They saw the Karbanos.
They saw Yom Kippur. And they see Klal Yisrael being destroyed. They're under Roman persecution. Do you think these people were able to have clarity? Do you think they were able to experience joy? These people were decimated. R' Elazar ben Azaryah said, 'How do you hold on to Yitzias Mitzrayim in that moment? How do you say redemption will come again?' That's what Ben Zoma said to him. Kol Yemei Chayecha You can say it at night, and then the Chachamim come, and they're in addition to that. It's not a machlokus. It's a different side of the same coin. If you can hold on to Yitzias Mitzrayim in your life when everything is going badly. That's how you bring Mashiach. It's easy. When it's shining, when the sun is shining outside, it's easy to be happy. It's easy to be clear. Everything in my life is good. Can you have that same level of faith when everything in your life is bad?
It's like there are some people for whom Shlochem just goes very easy, right? And so they never get disenchanted. They never get frustrated with the system. Can you stay engaged when you're? For whatever reason, you're the last girl in your class to get engaged. Or when you're getting read a shirach One or two times a year Can you still have that same level of faith in the nighttime of your life? It's not an easy thing to do. But those are the redemptive moments. Those that say itziyas mitzrayim when it's nighttime outside. Those people that can hold on to faith in the darkness. Those are the ones that really They bring Mashiach. That was the secret of Elazar Ben Azariah. Elazar Ben Azariah said, "If we create a safe place for people, then people will be able. If they can self-accept, if we can say this, we love you as you are, then those people will have the gift that, in the most difficult times of their life, they'll be able to say, 'I'm okay.' But that's not an easy thing. To be able to give us, give ourselves that level of acceptance, that's not a simple thing at all."
With this in mind, I think we can go back to Halach Manna. And we can explain something very beautiful. Halach Manna is not an invitation; it's an invitation. Halach Manna is not to other people. If it was clear, if it was for other people, who when would we do? We would do it in Shul. So clearly, it's not an invitation for other people. Who is it an invitation for? It's an invitation for those that are. I thought he was crying. Also, my son. My son smashed his chin. And I had to bring him to get stitches. No. So Baruch Hashem. That's I. When I heard that, I was like, "Oh, here we go again." Here we go again. ". It's an invitation to ourselves. It's an invitation to everyone who's sitting around. But listen to the lesson. Let's go back. Halach ma'anya. We're all sitting here. It's funny the way we speak about matzah. Matzah has like a dual personality.
Is it the zayar kadosh says? It's michled the mehemnusa. It's the bread of faith. It's the bread of healing. In the zayar, the matzah is given like it's a person who's sick. If they eat matzah, kavir rafuah for them. A person gives a person faith. A person's lacking in amuna. Eat matzah. Like physically, it changes a person. But we don't talk about it that way. It's like this: a poor man's bread. This is what we ate in Mitzrayim, so it has a dual personality. The emesses we didn't eat matzah in Mitzrayim. There are those that say we did, but the truth is, Maral says stark, we did not eat matzah in Mitzrayim. But right now, in front of us, at the beginning of the seder, that matzah that we're looking at, what does it say to us? We're poor men. We're in the middle of that darkness. That's where we stand in the beginning of Magid. And we're not okay.
And it's okay not to be okay. It's okay not to be okay. And we look at what we say. Call Dachvan if you are hungry. We have food for you. Those people we're going to take care of. But what if you are called Ditzrich? What if you are needy? What's the difference between needy and hungry? Needy here doesn't mean poor. You know what it means? Means lonely. That's what it says. If you are lonely, come celebrate Pesach with us. If you are feeling like where do I turn now? If you're feeling hopeless That's the condition that we're in the beginning of the seder. It's the beginning of the redemption. We haven't even experienced it yet. So we're sitting there saying, 'Are you okay?' It's okay for you to look around at the seder and say, 'No, I'm not okay.' I'm not okay. Things in my life are not going well.
I'm I'm a needy person." And we're inviting you. We're creating a safe place, and we're saying to you If you're hungry, this is a place we'll feed you. Nourishment happens here. If you're not doing okay in your life, if you're needy, if you're in a place where you're feeling alone and hopeless This is a place where rejuvenation occurs. Come celebrate Pesach with us. We can redeem. It'll be a redemptive experience together. And then Right now we're here, but soon we'll be in Eretz Yisrael. Right now we're slaves, but there's hope. Soon we're going to be free people. But it only begins with safety. It only begins if we let people know that this is a place where you're allowed to be enslaved. You're allowed to be needy. You're allowed to be hungry. Sometimes you come to somebody, you come to a rebbe, you come to a mechaneches, you come to a teacher, and you say, "I'm not doing well." They go, "No, you're fine. You can do this." They give you some sort of pump-up speech. Does it help?
Not really, right? It's nice to hear. For a little bit. It's like a, but then right back, you're five minutes later, whatever it is, a day later, three days later, a week later, whatever it is, you're back in the same position. You don't really do it. The hard work of being able to say, I'm not okay And for somebody to look at you and say I see that. This is a place where you're allowed to be not okay. Not a tremendous gift that you could be giving to others, that others could be giving to you Because you'll find your way out. If people say to you, I see that you're not okay. And you go, I'm really not, and then you're allowed to be as you are in that moment, you'll find your way out. You're resourceful. You trust in yourself. There's hope, right? But you have to find that hope from within you. That's where real change occurs. Real change occurs at the bottom.
That's why Balagoda says, "When did Hakadosh Baruch Hu come to get us? When we screamed When we screamed at Hakadosh Baruch Hu, we said we couldn't take this anymore. Then Hakadosh Baruch Hu came to get us. There's hope. There's redemption. But you have to be allowed to be yourself. That's not a small gift. Do we even do that for ourselves? Do we try to convince ourselves that we're okay when we're not okay? Lots of times we do that. No. I'm fine. Why do you have to be fine? I don't want to be one of those girls. That's not fine. I don't want to be one of those girls. It's okay for you not to be okay. Because you'll be okay. So it's okay for you not to be okay. It's a gift that we have to give to ourselves. This is how we begin, Magid. Dr. Pelka would said many years ago. It's one of my favorite lines, ever. If you want to be yotze itzias mitzrayim, you have to be yotze the mitzvah of magid. If you want to leave your own personal Egypt, to leave the constrictions of your life, you have to tell your story.
It's like narrative therapy. You have to be willing to say, okay, this is what I am going through. The beginning of magid is an invitation to be not okay. It's an invitation to be in a group of people that we're all not okay together. It's an invitation to be imperfect. And right away, in the beginning, of Elazar ben Azariah says to you, "There is a safe place. Don't worry. There is a place for a malal." There's a place for those Lithvaks. They're like, okay, but what's the halacha? I got to dive into it. There's a place for them. I'm at the end of Magid. After you've had a Tipheri Tzias Mitzrayim, at the end, we could tell. At the end, we could say, but now you got to do. And they're right. They're a hundred percent right. But it's not the beginning. Somebody says to you in the beginning that you got to do. First, you have to b. Then you could do. And then bezer Hashem together as a group, because the only way to leave Mitzrayim is together as a nation.
Bezer Hashem, when you have a group of people, they sit down together and they say, "Halachma anya." " Right now, it's right now. It's not mechel of the memnos. Right now, it's not bread of healing. It's not bread of faith. Right now, it's just we're looking at it and we're impoverished. A group of people that are willing to admit to their own imperfections. A group of people that are willing to get together and say, 'I'm not doing so well.' Those people, by Ezer Hashem, will be able to say Hashda Hacha L'shana Haba Bara De'Israel. Girls Good.
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