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Pesum B'Chavir Chasanya. Once again, we find ourselves in Muncy. Pesach This Wingate who takes care of so much, and the Seratskins again for opening up their home. It's like the third time in my life I'm in Muncy. I think I came here for Chasanos maybe when I was a bachelor, but it's very good to be here. It's very beautiful in the daytime. Last time I was here was at night. I wasn't able to see as much. It's a very beautiful place. You weren't lying. So just to talk a little bit about the seder As a lack of shloshim yom kedum lachag, a person has to prepare themselves. Think my wife says over from Rav Orloik. She says spontaneous emotion requires a tremendous amount of preparation. So if we want to have a seder night, we want to have a feeling of Yitzias Mitzrayim. So keday to prepare so that we can Have something perhaps a little bit deeper than just the same neginim that we grew up with, but to try to have some sort of experience that could take us somewhere in an amistik way.
Chazal say, 'So far not, but chilaso.' The end of something is always buried; it's always found in the very beginning, like the DNA of a child contains the entire child. So if we go to the very beginning of Magid Which is of course the main part. The Seder night is the mitzvah of Magid. We have a mitzvah not only of Zeicher Yisys Mitzrayim, but of Sipur Yisys Mitzrayim. So the very beginning of Magid, we have a very strange—I don't even know what to call it—paragraph. What do we call Halach Ma'anya? I saw somebody described. I think it's a poor description. They described Halach Ma'anya as a declaration. An invitation and a prayer. It's like it's hard to even know what it is. It's three disparate parts that seem not to go together at all. So let's see if we can get something a little bit deeper here, something that we could take with us into the Seder night.
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So the words are we all know the words, but just to repeat: Halach Ma'anya Da'ach lo Avasana Ba'arid Mitzrayim. This is the bread of affliction. That our forefathers ate in the land of Mitzrayim called Dikv and Yesev Yechol. Anyone who is hungry, let them come and eat. Called Ditzrich Yesev Yisach. Anyone who is needy, let them come and join us. I don't even know how to translate Yisach. It's hard to know what that word means. Yisach, the carbon Pesach, the Pesach Seder. Come join us for Pesach. Hashda Hachol Loshana Haba Be'Arad Eretz Yisrael. Now we're here. Next year when we be in Eretz Yisrael, Hashda Avdin Loshana Bamei Chayre. Now we're slaves. Next year, may we be free people. So there are many questions Many questions. I think I have here one, two, three Four, five, six, seven, eight, nine questions. There are nine questions that you could ask just on this couple of lines. So let's go through. The first thing is that we know that the entire Hagada is written in Mishnah Kodesh.
With the exception of Halach Ma'anya, which is written in Aramaic. And at the very end, if it's your minig to say it, not everybody has a minig to say it. We have a minig to say it in my family. Chad Gadya is also written in Aramaic, but the rest of the seder is said in Lashanah Kodesh. So obviously, there's something different about Halach Ma'anyah that it's written in Aramaic. That's our first question. The second question is: This doesn't seem to be related in any way to Sipur Yisias Mitzrayim. So what's it doing in Magid? The fact that the Balagoda put it as the beginning of Magid. Even though it was probably added later on, the minig that it became part of the mitzvah of magid, it seems to have nothing to do with magid. Magid is the story of Yitzias Mitzrayim. Here we're pointing to the matzah halach ma'anya de'achlo avasana ba'ar the Mitzrayim. It has no place in the mitzvah of magid.
Another question, and this is already a very serious question Is this not the bread that our forefathers ate in the land of Mitzrayim? When did they eat matzah? They ate matzah when they were leaving Mitzrayim. Why do they eat matzah when they were leaving Mitzrayim? We all know. We grew up. This is one of the things we know growing up. They didn't have time for the bread to bake. So it should have said, "This is the lechem, this is the bread that they ate in Yisias Mitzrayim." This is not the bread that they ate in Mitzrayim. Because of this, there are those that suggest Very serious commentators that suggest that. Matzah was the bread of slaves. It was indeed eaten in Mitzrayim, but the Maral is very upset by this. The Maral says it goes against everything that we know. We find no mention of the fact that there was any notion of eating matzah in Mitzrayim itself.
And so we're back to our original question: What does it mean? Halach ma'anyadach lo avasana ba'arad Mitzrayim? This is not the bread that they ate in the land of Mitzrayim. This is the bread that they ate when they left Mitzrayim. Another question. This is based on the Magen Avram. Some have the minhag like this. What words should you say? Halach ma'anya. This is the bread that they ate in the land of Mitzrayim. Magen Avram says it's like the bread. So the Magen Avram suggests that it's probably preferable to say khalach ma'anya Or ha khalach ma'anya, like it's the bread. But the Magen Avram says lo hifsed. If you leave it as halach ma'anyo, you haven't lost out. Now this is very strange Because if it's really only like the bread that we ate in the land of Mitzrayim So then we should say that. Why does the Magen Avram seem to go with our nosach? And he says, Lo hifsted. If you say it like this, you haven't lost out at all.
And by the way, if you look in many haggadahs, I don't know which haggadahs you grew up on. Everyone has their haggadahs. I grew up in my house. I have very, very, very warm memories of the Pesach Seder. My parents are very Very wonderful people. They're both balei chovah. And so the Seder at our house was the time when all of our relatives came to do their Jewish thing for the year. It's like Chanukah, we came to give gifts, but Pesach Seder was like the most beautiful time when everyone got together, and we had the yellow Maxwell House haggadahs. Everyone has their haggadah. I know this year everyone went out and got their Rav Meilch Biderman Hagada, and everyone's posting pictures on their status with their Rav Meilch hands. I grew up on very simple Maxwell House Hagadas. In my Hagadas, it said Halach Ma'anyu, but today the fancy new Hagadas that they have bring down the Nusach of the Magen Avram.
Ki halach ma'anyu or ki lach ma'anyu. Magen Avram seems to say that you can go with the regular Minig of Halach Ma'anyu, and it's no problem. It's the same thing. Why, if the Magen Avram is correct, then the Girsu is incorrect. A famous question, another question, where there's many, many questions on this. A famous question that we ask is This is not an invitation. We say, 'Called Dikven Yesevi Yechal, called Ditz Rach Yesevi Yisach.' Anyone who's hungry, let them come and eat. Anyone who's needy, let them come and join us for the Pesach Seder for the Karben Pesach, as we'll soon see. An invitation like that would have to be proffered in Shul. Well before. The seder starts. At the very least, if we're going to make an invitation in our homes, it should have some sort of Eliyahu Anavi vibe to it. We should go to the door and open up the door. There should be some sort of beautiful minig for Jews to go screaming in the streets of Muncie. You can imagine it would be like a really beautiful thing. Open the door, and everyone would join. Anyone who doesn't have a place to go, we don't see anything like that. Not only that, but we know that this invitation comes at the beginning of Ma'arid, which means that we already had Kiddush.
Which means that we were already yotzei the first cup So it's a very strange time to say anyone who's hungry, let them come and eat. You're home, you're in your house, and you've already been yotzei the mitzvah of the first cup. So why now do we say anyone who's hungry, let them come and eat? Anyone who's needy, let them come and join us. And there's another question. It says hashda hachal shana Haba be'arad yisro. Now we're here. Next year, may we be in Eretz Yisrael. Hashda'abden. Now we're slaves. Next year, may we be bnei chayrin. What's exactly the difference between Eretz Yisrael and bnei chayrin? When we speak about Eretz Yisrael, we don't just speak about the geography of Eretz Yisrael. Of course, we can have the amazing privilege of living in Eretz Yisrael today. But even that is not Yerushalayim habnuyah. It's not exactly what it should be yet. We're a badirch. We're on our way, but we have not yet achieved what we're looking to achieve.
So ostensibly, when we say Loshana Habavah, Ahad Yisrael, we don't just mean geographically may we be in the land of Israel. We mean may we be zayechet a great Mashiach. So if that's the case, what's the difference between Ahad Yisrael and Bnei Chayim? It seems to be the same thing. When Mashiach comes, we'll all be free. And finally, the last question. Which is perhaps the most important question is what is the flow of all of these things? Seems to be so many disparate things. Halach Ma'anya, called Ditzrich Yeseviyehchal Hashdaacha. All these three things seem to be three totally individual movements. How do we put these three things together? So to answer all of these questions in one fell swoop, you have to know a basic yisod. This fundamental idea is not just for the night of the Seder. This fundamental idea carries us through everything that we need to know for the entire year.
There's a question that every one of us has. It's a bitter question. It's a painful question. It's not something that we readily acknowledge. It's not something that we run towards. But there's a reality that we must pay attention to. We are not free. We're not. We're not free. The night of the Seder is a painful night for those that are paying attention. Because we're acting like we're free. We're leaning, we're drinking dal al kosos. There's a As the Rashiv of Mevaser put it last week, there's a regal bearing to the night. There's a feeling of royalty, a majesty that we're supposed to have. But we're not free. We're not free. We look in the world today and we see that we're not free. And it's difficult for us to understand how that could be. We know, for example, that Moshe Rabbeinu was not zayecha to enter into Eretz Yisrael and to build the base of the mikdash. And one of the reasons that's given, the Chazal tell us, is because Moshe Rabbeinu was so perfect, so complete that anything that Moshe Rabbeinu did had absolute kiyum. It was eternal; it was sustained forever.
Moshe Rabbeinu gave the Torah, and because it was Moshe Rabbeinu that gave the Torah, it will be unchanging. And had Moshe Rabbeinu come into Eretz Yisrael. And had Moshe Rabbeinu built the Beis Hamikdash. Then there would have been no possibility of destroying the Beis Hamikdash, because anything that Moshe Rabbeinu did was eternal, and therefore Moshe Rabbeinu could not come into Eretz Yisrael. If that's the case of Moshe Rabbeinu, then it's certainly the case of Hakadosh Baruch Hu. We know that the Hagada tells us, "Ani velo malach, ani velo saraf" Elohu bechvaydei v'atzme Hakadosh Baruch Hu took us out Himself from Mitzrayim. So if that's the case. If Hakadosh Baruch Hu Himself took us out of Mitzrayim, how is it that the geula that we experienced wasn't complete? How is it that we have, for example, a ben Rasha? How could anyone be a ben Rasha?
Where would a Rasha have come from? All the Rishonim died in Makas Chayshch. How was? How is it that the redemption didn't allow for only perfect righteous children to come out of Klal Yisroel? How is it that we left with great wealth, like Avram Avinu was promised in the Brisker and Besarim? And yet today we see that there are poor people. How is it that there's still tragedy and death in the world? How is there terrorism? How is Klal Yisrael still under attack? How do these things exist? If Hakadosh Baruch Hu took us out of Mitzrayim, then none of these things should exist. So in order to understand this, we need to go back to a medrash. The medrash is found in several places, but it's a yeshaydistic medrash. It's a fundamental medrash. If you don't know this medrash, you're missing. Massive parts of Yiddishkeit.
Medrash says that Hakadosh Baruch Hu came to Avram Avinu by Bris Bein Abesarim, and He gave him a choice: Klal Yisrael can go to Gehinnom. Or Klal Yisrael can go to Galus. And Avram Avinu chose Galus, and that's how he ended up in Mitzrayim. So the question is, what does this Medrash mean? In order to understand this, we need to go back to the very purpose of Yiddishkeit to begin with. Other Mir Yisroel sinned. Up until the point of Adam Harishon's sin Hakadosh Baruch Hu's Shechina was found in this world. In other words There was a level of transparent godliness that existed before Adam Harishon sinned. For example When we look at something in this world It does not proclaim to us, it does not say, it does not scream to us that I am a godly creation. We look at a table. We look at a stender. We look at chairs. We see these things as physical objects.
For us to be able to recognize that these are objects that are here because Hakadosh Baruch Hu wills them to be here, it's very difficult for us to understand. It's not natural. Person has to say, "I have a table. What am I supposed to use the table for? What do I want? What does Hakadosh Baruch Hu want from me with this table?" But it's not something that's natural. When you look at the table, it's possible to use the table inappropriately because Transparent godliness that ought to be in this table cannot be found. It's covered up. That's what happened when Adam Harishon sinned. Before Adam Harishon sinned, everything was transparent godliness. Now you'll ask the question, which is a good question: If Adam Harishon had total transparent godliness in his life, how in the world did he come to sin? That's a very deep question. It's not for now.
It could very well be that Adam Harishon understood that there was a dimension to his avera that was godly and necessary and important. But that's a topic for a different time. Let's understand for a moment that when Adam HaRishon sinned, there was a sila kashrina in the world. And then after Adam HaRishon sinned, it gave way for six more aviras to occur. We don't have to go through each avera right now. There were six more aviras that occurred, and each avera removed Hakadosh Baruch Hu one step more until the shchina was found in the seventh level of the raqia, which means that by the time the seventh avirah had occurred. Hakadosh Baruch Hu's presence in this world was completely removed. Rambam Derech Hashem explains that Avram Avinu did something that up until that point anybody could have done. What did Avram Avinu do? He was the first person to move Hakadosh Baruch Hu back down one level.
In other words, Avram Avinu took on the mission of other marishal. The job of Adam Harishon was to bring Hakadosh Baruch Hu down into this world. For all of the generations after Adam Harishon's sin, nobody had ever done that. There were righteous people for sure, Noach, Moshe Shalach. There were righteous people. But there was nobody in the world that was mekabel on themselves the mission to bring Hakadosh Baruch Hu down into the world to rectify the sin of Adam Harishon. Nobody had ever done that before. When Avram Avinu did that, it was a revolution. From now on, all of his children, their only job in this world, is to bridge the gap between Shamayim va'Aretz. That's the job of a Jew. Somebody asks you, 'What does it mean to be a Jew?' Today, you hear very many answers to this question. I'm a Jew because my mother was a Jew, because her mother was a Jew, because I'm part of a thousand-year-old, three thousand-year-old tradition. Because I watched Fiddler on the Roof when I was growing up. Because I live in Eretz Israel. A million different answers to this question.
The real answer to this question is that to be a Jew means to accept upon yourself the mission of Avram Avinu to bridge the gap between Shamayim and Va'aretz. That's the job of a Jew to rectify the sin of Adam Harish. Now there are different levels of how we do this. The obvious way that a Jew brings Hakadosh Baruch Hu down into this world is by doing a mitzvah. That's the easiest one. Hakadosh Baruch Hu tells you to do something, you do it. And in so doing, you invite Hakadosh Baruch Hu into your life. It's like if your husband says to you "This is what's important to me," and then you do what's important to him, you're participating in the relationship. It's right there. It's easy. It's the low hanging fruit. There's a deeper level. A deeper level is bringing Hakadosh Baruch Hu into your averus.
That's called tshuva. It means Am I willing with Hakadosh Baruch Hu because I know I'm not going to be perfect? So the areas, the elements in my life that are local kachtof Do I have the ability to bring those to Hakadosh Baruch Hu and be honest and say I'm working on myself? That's already a much more difficult thing to do. But even that's not the deepest level of bringing a Kadosh Baruch Hu into our lives. The deepest level of bringing a Kadosh Baruch Hu into our lives is when we're in terrible pain. I was listening to a podcast, and again, I say this with no tainus whatsoever. I don't want anyone to mishear what I'm saying. Someone was interviewing this couple. And the. The wife is observant and the husband is an agnostic, and he's no longer observant. They're talking about what it's like for them to be a couple where she is observant. In fact, she's a teacher.
And she's very passionate about her Judaism, and he doesn't believe in Judaism anymore. And he talks about what he describes as shallow, though of course it's not shallow. He talks about how. In a very short amount of time, he lost a grandson, then a child, and then another grandson. And he speaks very raw, very powerfully. I was very moved by it. He speaks about how he had a choice to either believe in a God who could do this And that was way too painful for him Or to. Leave the concept of God altogether, which is the way that he chose. And again, he's very honest about it. He called it shallow, but then the interviewer said, 'That's not shallow at all. It's understandable. I think every one of us could understand that when faced with the reality of a God who could be cruel versus no God at all, it makes sense to us that people would choose someone who I don't believe in God at all. Why would I want to believe in a cruel God? I can understand where he's coming from.
The most difficult thing in the world, but of course, the greatest expression of bringing a Kadosh Baruch Hu into the world is when we find Hakadosh Baruch Hu in our pain. When we cry out to Hakadosh Baruch Hu Because there's nowhere else to turn, we have been in so much pain that the only answer is to turn towards Hakadosh Baruch Hu. We see this in many different areas in life. We see it with people that are sick. People that can't have shaduchim People that lose their jobs. This terrible tragedy in the world. In Yiddishkeit, we don't deny tragedy. In fact, the Medrash tells us that Avram Avinu how did he find Hakadosh Baruch Hu? He was walking down the road. This is allegorical. He was walking down the road and he saw a bira dolekas. He saw a palace on fire. And he said, "Who's the bal habira? Who's the owner of this palace?"
And the king stuck his head out of the palace and said, "I'm the owner of this palace." And of course, that meant Hakadosh Baruch Hu. That Avram Avinu looked at the chaos of this world. He saw all the pain and all the suffering. And he was asking the question, "Where is Hakadosh Baruch Hu?" What type of owner of a palace would not be working to put the palace out? Why would they not want to put the fire out? And in that moment, Avraham Avinu discovers Hakadosh Baruch Hu from within the chaos of the world, from within the fire of the world. That's a very deep thing to be able to give our pain over to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, even when there's a part of us that believes that it's Hakadosh Baruch Hu that's causing our pain. It's the greatest expression of being in a relationship, of bringing a kedush baruch hu into this world. Avram Avinu is faced with the choice: should your children go to Gehennom, and in this way there's a purification process of this world Or should your children experience gullus?
Avram Avinu didn't choose gullus because gullus is easier than Gehennom. Avram Avinu chose gullus because gullus is more meaningful than Gehennom. Whereas Gehenna is a purification process, it burns away all of the impurities. There's something more precious about exile than there is about Gehenna. What's more precious? Why is it more precious? So the answer is as follows. What does exile mean? Exile means I'm not where I belong. It means that on a geographical level More importantly, it means that on a psychological level. For example First we'll talk about it on a spiritual level, and then we'll bring it down into a physical level. Our godly soul, in a certain sense, is an exile in our body. It's not natural for the godly soul to be where it is. It doesn't feel right. If you ask a godly soul, 'What are you doing in this world?' the godly soul says, 'I have no idea what I'm doing in this world.'
It doesn't feel right to me. It's not interested. The godly soul is not interested in the materialism of this world. It's interested in being in the Olam HaNeshamos. It's interested in being where it came from. That's why what is so painful to a godly soul if a godly soul spends 120 years down in this world And then it returns to the Olam HaNeshamos, but it doesn't feel like a godly soul anymore That's what we call Gehennom Because it is a godly soul, but it has lost its sense of self. And so now it's in Olam HaNeshamos, and it doesn't feel right. It's like you remember when you came home from seminary and you came back to your house. And it felt so right and so wrong at the same time. It's like that's my bed. It's exactly where I'm supposed to be. I'm back home.
Except my mother still wants to know when I'm coming home, and I haven't had to tell anyone when I'm coming home for a while. Remember, I'm here for those of you that are sharing your knowing smiles. By the way, I just want to take a moment to recognize and appreciate you. My daughter came home from seminary, and it was like You're not really back. You have your bedroom, you have the place where you grew up. It's not really back. And that's the way it's supposed to be. You're supposed to move on at a certain point. But there's a feeling of not belonging. Of course, the tragedy is when a person is in a relationship and they feel like they don't belong. You have couples that are married for ten, fifteen, twenty, thirty, or forty years. And they don't feel like they can be themselves. They feel like they're in a place where they're being judged.
Where they're being looked at in a negative way. But Zaris Ayin There are people that walk in the doors of their own homes. And there's a sense of dread. They don't know what they're walking into. It's not a comfortable place. And that's of course an exceptionally painful thing. How do you test the reality of that relationship? Because even though this couple Is so disconnected from one another. Even disconnected is not the right word. This couple is so So hurt by each other. There's no space for me. But they don't leave. They don't leave each other. And it's not because of the kids. And it's not because of any stigma. Somehow, this couple has a deep sense of intuition that there's something here worth fighting for. Most days they don't see it. And on many days they go to sleep and they're looking the other way from each other and they're not really connected and they're not really talking even, but they don't leave because there's a part of them that is yearning deeply for that connection.
That yearning That constant coming back to each other is the greatest revelation of the essence of that relationship, because if the relationship wasn't real, they would have left years ago. The fact that there's so much pain and they choose to stay with each other is the greatest expression of how beautiful this relationship is. Even though on the outside you look at this relationship and you go, they're constantly fighting, they're not communicating well, they can't figure out how to make a decision. The hula. You look on the outside and you'll say it doesn't look good and it isn't good. But on another level, the fact that they continue to claw their way back to each other is so exceptionally beautiful. This is what Avraham Avinu says to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. It's true, Gehennom would purify the world. If the Jews would be willing to go through Gehennom, it would purify the entire world. But what will we have proven?
But if you'll take my children into Galus And you'll put them in an Egyptian environment. And you'll see how they're tortured and tormented psychologically, physically, and spiritually. And you'll see, Abister, that in their pain they'll cry out to you. Which is exactly what happened. That's the moment of geula, right? When Hakadosh Baruch Hu hears our cries. It's the revelation of the loyalty, the essence that can't be broken. That's the greatest way of introducing Hakadosh Baruch Hu back into this world, of bringing the Shechina back into this world, of creating that transparent godliness. That's what was meant to happen in Mitzrayim. The problem is that we were shakua and memtashsharitoma. After 210 years, we literally couldn't take it anymore. To the degree that had we been there even one more moment All would have been lost. Hakadosh Baruch Hu had no choice, so to speak. Hakadosh Baruch Hu takes us out. What do we say? Biyad Chazaka. What does it mean that Hakadosh Baruch Hu took us out with a strong hand?
It means that Hakadosh Baruch Hu knew that, in terms of midas hadin, Klal Yisrael needed to be there for 190 more years. 190 more years of tormenting, suffering, and pain. That's what was supposed to happen. Had we been able to last 190 more years in Eretz Yisrael, there would be no more exiles. There'd be no more suffering in the world. But Hakadosh Baruch Hu saw that we were not going to be able to last even one more moment. So He took us out byad chazaka. He went against what He knew to be best because He understood that we couldn't take it anymore. And so what he did is he began a process of geula, and that's the key. The key to understanding the Pesach Seder is that we are not celebrating redemption. What we are celebrating is the beginning of a process of redemption that would now unfold over the course of thousands upon thousands of years.
But we're not celebrating cheras. So you remember in the very beginning we asked the question that there's a problem at the heart of every seder. Klal Yisrael as free people today—it's true. That was the question that we asked. The answer is yes. We're not free. Why aren't we free? We're not free because we couldn't take it in the time of Yitzhak Mitzrayim. Hakadosh Baruch Hu had to take us out. Had He left us in, we would have been destroyed. Had we been able to make it for 400 years, all exiles would have been finished. In other words. Every single moment of suffering, every single gullus that happens throughout the rest of history, is really just an expression of what happened in Mitzrayim. It's finishing up the process of us being in gullus, of us being in exile, and remaining loyal to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. So then you'll ask, if that's the case, what did we gain?
Two hundred and ten years in gullus in Mitzrayim, what did we gain? So the maral tells us as follows: Up until that point It was possible for a person to be enslaved to the degree that they could lose their essence. Once Yitzchias Mitzrayim occurred, once Hakadosh Baruch Hu bechvaydu vaatzmae came down and took us out, something changed in the world. What changed? It's no longer possible for a Jew to be enslaved in their essence. It's possible for us to be in a Holocaust. It's possible for us to get caught up in the Crusades, to be murdered, to be tortured, to live under foreign dominion. It's possible for all of those things to happen, but in our essence, a Jew remains a Jew no matter what. And we see that this is true. I heard a maseh. From Rav Avram Shor Shlitah He said that in Belz in Europe The Belzer Rebbe was walking by the Beis Medrash And it was very late at night. It was like twelve o'clock in the morning.
And the Belzer Rebbe heard someone sitting and learning in the Beis Medrash. And the Belzer Rebbe stopped in the Beis Medrash to see who it was, and it was a Jew that he had never seen before. And so he went over to this Jew and he said, "Who are you?" So he said, "As a young man, I was conscripted into the army. They used to take these yidden against their will." He said, "And I have a furlough of 24 hours. Belz was the closest beis medrash And so I didn't want to waste any time. I'm sitting here and learning all night in the beis medrash, chapping every minute of learning because I can't learn when I'm in the army. I'm chapping every single minute of learning that I possibly can. Rebbe, is it okay if I stay in the basement and learn? The Belzov Rebbe said to him You should know that you are stopping Mashiach from coming.
Because Hakadosh Baruch Hu gets such nachas from you that he won't get in the times of Mashiach, in the times of Eilem Abba. Because in the times of Eilem Abba, there'll be no more suffering, there'll be no more friction. And if there's no friction, there's no opportunity for greatness. There's something called rising to the occasion. Rising to the occasion is not just a simple thing. You see, sometimes in yeshiva there are boys. They have big sheeves, they have big souls, they have big hearts. And they'll give you a big shmuhs and they mean it, Rabbi. Tomorrow you're going to see how Mam is going to be a new person. Tomorrow I'm not going to miss shachris mincha or myrev. I'm going to be in the beis medrash. It's going to be amazing. The next day, they sheepishly walk into the beis medrash at nine thirty in the morning, and they go, "Rebbe, I don't know what happened. I woke up. I just... " It's called rising to the occasion.
Rising to the occasion only happens when there's friction. It only happens when things can go wrong. There can only be heroism and courage and bravery when there's fear, when there's strife, when there's friction. A Jew can no longer be enslaved means that no matter what happens, we have it within us to remain free under the most dire of circumstances. That we're conscripted into the czar's army, but if there's a 24-hour furlough, we run for it. We run for the bais medrash. We run for our shuls. They say a ma'isa. From Rav Palms, the echatzadik levracha. This ma'isa, if I believe this ma'isa to be a hundred percent true It's still a wild ma'isa though. Rav Palms, I'm sure many of you know, was very involved in Russian Jewry. He started an organization called Shuvu. Have you heard of Shuvu? Is it still a thing? Was a big thing back in the '80s when Russian Jews were coming over to America.
So the Rav Palms was the head And he was one of the gadol yador. He was very involved in making sure that Russian Jews who came to America had an education. Somebody with a tremendous amount of chutzpah asked Rav Pam, and it's not a sensitive question. By the way, you should know people are still asking these types of questions today, so you have to make sure that you don't ask these types of questions. The Rav Pam Rabbi, the chances of these Russian Jews coming to America, the chances of these kids becoming frum It's not so high. So to spend the dollar. On these kids, as opposed to our own kids and our own beis yachivs and our own yeshivas, the kids that are growing up in the system, that dollar can go a much longer way. It's a terrible question to ask. It's an understandable question. It appears to be logical, but it's not a sensitive question. By the way, we're saying this again today.
People are asking this question now: Is it kedai for us to put our money into kiryuv? We pour millions of dollars into NCSY. How many kids are actually going to become from? As if the goal of NCSY is to become from, and the barometer of success or failure is whether or not a kid keeps Shabbos Chassvah Shalom. To think that way We pour our money into these people because they're our brothers and our sisters. And we don't look at success or failure that way. But it's an insensitive question. Listen to Rav Palm's answer. Rav Palm said, after the Holocaust, there was an explosion. Explosion of Yiddishkeit in America in an unusual way. So it didn't make any sense. The rebuilding of Klal Yisrael happened so fast and so successfully. I think sometimes you and I, growing up in this generation, don't necessarily have the sensitivity to understand what it was like for the leaders of Klal Yisrael to rebuild Klal Yisrael in the 60s, the 70s, and the 80s. Today we have palaces.
I'm going to Chasen Lakewood this afternoon. I was in Lakewood. In October for another wedding, and I was driving in Lakewood, and every one of these yeshivas and beis yachovs is massive and beautiful, and every one of them has a wedding hall so that they could afford to be massive and beautiful. That's how they make their money. And it's like we have palaces today. I grew up; you girls are a little younger than me. I grew up in the eighties in trailers. Darche Torah wasn't today. Darche Torah is like an airport. But back in the day, it was in trailers on Seeger Boulevard. And when you walked in the morning, you didn't know if your textbooks would still be there because at night they would come in and steal the textbooks. I'm not sure why they would steal our textbooks. Didn't seem like the type of chaver that was interested in learning social studies. But I guess maybe there was a black market in Farakaway for selling textbooks.
I remember the year they hired Everett Fortune and his security. Some of you probably know Everett from the Thank You Hashem videos. He's the security guard in Darche who lo alenu has cancer. But he's very—he's a big believer in Hashem, and he walks around all day talking about like the doctors told him he's gonna—he's not—he maybe not feel well, and he's like, "You're not Hashem. Don't tell me how I'm gonna feel." So I remember when they hired Everett, and then all of a sudden the security, like our textbooks weren't stolen anymore because anyone who broke into our campus to steal our social studies books Everett crushed them like bugs. He was a very big man, Everett. I have no idea how I got here at this moment. I have no idea what I'm saying right now. I'm just saying I landed at seven o'clock this morning. Lachaim. Our yeshivas are palaces.
How did it come to be? How did we have such an explosion? So Rav Palm said it was from the tears of Jewish Russian mothers who weren't able to give their kids an education. And they cried when they were lighting Friday night candles. And those tears, Rav Palm said, those tears They had to go somewhere. The Rebbeinu Shlom had to make sure that those beautiful tefillos of those precious women went somewhere. So they came to America those tefillos And we built American Jewry, Rav Palm said, on the tears of Russian women that were holding on for dear life to their Yiddishkeit. He said this to Balabas. We're paying back the money we owe them. Shuvu. Every Russian child that comes and needs an education, you should know your kids are only frum because of the tefillas of those mothers. How many Yidden in Russia couldn't hold on? They were persecuted for their belief in Yiddishkeit, and how many of them held on anyway? It's incredible what Klal Yisrael does throughout history.
Have we not proven our loyalty to Hakadosh Baruch Hu over and over again? On a national level, on an individual level Today, if they're suffering in Klal Yisrael, how many Chesed organizations do we have? If you get sick in our community, if something goes wrong in our community How many incredible organizations are at your service? For goodness' sakes, if you break down on the side of the road, you have a bunch of Chesedish guys from Chavirim that come all the time. It's like everyone's a mechanic. Where do we get these skills from? There's nothing. If you're suffering, a Yid steps up and says, "We're here for you." It's the greatest revelation of our Kadosh Baruch Hu's presence in this world. We are loyal. We are loyal to our Kadosh Baruch Hu in the midst of all of our suffering. So let's go back. Halach Ma'anyo is a three-step process of bringing Geula into the world.
Step one. Step one is called facing the music. A recognition of the truth. It's the hardest thing in the world to look at the truth and say, "I'm not going to blink and I'm not going to look away." Most of us don't want to face the truth. Most of us don't want to say this is a problem. Listen to the words of Halach Ma'aneh, not Ki Halach Ma'aneh Halach Ma'aneh. This bread This bread, this exact bread, not like this bread. This bread. Is what our forefathers ate, not as they were leaving Mitzrayim, because we've never truly left. We've never truly left. We can't say the words halach ma'anya da'achlu avasana b'yitzias Mitzrayim, because there was no yitzias Mitzrayim. Yitzias Mitzrayim is a process that is ongoing until today. We have not left. We are still, in a certain sense, in Mitzrayim itself. Halach ma'anya da'achlu avasana ba'arad Mitzrayim. This bread.
This exact bread, the same matzah that we ate then, we're eating that same matzah today. Nothing has changed. We're still in the middle of the process. That is the most painful thing in the world for us to say, but it's true. With all that we have in the world, with all of the things that are right, with all the beautiful yeshivas and bais yakhovs and homes and cards and everything that we have today, we are still in Eretz Yisrael. It's a very painful thing for us to say, but if we can't say it If we can't honestly look at ourselves and say it's not okay, then we never get to be okay. And it's like sometimes we ask ourselves Do we really want Mashiach? I had this year a girl in seminary ask this question. She said, I don't want Mashiach. I have things I want to do still.
Of course, we feel that way because we don't feel the pain of gullus. The pain of gullus is so bitter to feel that it's easier not to feel it at all. And so we convince ourselves that we're fine But we're not fine. The Rebbe Nishma's presence is not felt in our lives. There's still pain. There's still suffering. All of these things need to be eradicated from the world. So the first step of the three-step process of Halach Ma'anya is a reckoning. This is the truth. We have not yet left Eretz Yisrael. Now we know where we stand. Step two. Step two is how we leave Mitzrayim. If step one tells us that we're in Mitzrayim, step two tells us out. And it happens on two levels. The first level is the recognition that we are not an island. We grow up thinking I'm a Jew right here by myself But it's not true.
There's no such thing as a Jew alone. Judaism means to be Jewish means that you're part of a living organism. That every single one of us are not just brothers and sisters, but like the Gemara in Yerushalmi says, we're guf echad. Some Jews are the hands, some Jews are the feet, some Jews are the legs, some Jews are the torso, some Jews are the head. Everybody has their own role to play, but each and every one of us is linked, and there is no breaking away from that link. Like the Gemara says, afal pishachot o Yisraelu The healing. Redemption cannot occur until every one of us recognizes that we're part of something larger than ourselves. So this is not an invitation. We don't open the door. It doesn't happen in shul. It happens after the first koh has already been drunk. It's not an invitation to somebody out there.
It's a declaration inside of ourselves. There are needy Jews that don't have food to eat. That's not Yenim. That's somebody else. That's me. I don't have food to eat. If that Jew doesn't have food to eat, I don't have food to eat. If that Jew is in pain, I'm in pain. There's no such thing as ignoring somebody else and saying I'm fine. If they're not fine, you're not fine. I know today you can't say that because it sounds like codependency, and you're supposed to be okay even if somebody else is not okay. But with all of the psychological hacks that exist in the world today, you should know that for thousands of years Jews have said about each other: If Yehem is in pain, I'm in pain. Growing up in Darchei, I can't tell you how many times I heard this word from Rabbi Bender.
That on the day Sarimenu gave birth, everybody gave birth. All of the women who couldn't have children had babies on that day. And so the simple explanation is because Sarimenu was able to have children, bringing shefa into the world, and everybody was able to have children. But Rabbi Bender used to say that's not the pshat. He said the pshat is that Sarimenu could not be joyful for her own. Miraculous birth. If other women were still in pain That's the way a yid lives. If somebody else is in pain, I'm in pain with them. Of course, I'm okay But I'm not okay if they're not okay. Of course, I'm okay, but I'm not okay if they're not okay. That's level number one. But let's unpack what the words are. The words are as follows: Kol Dikvinyeseviyehu. If you're hungry, come and eat. Called Ditzrich Yesei veYifsech Come and join us. What does that mean?
So listen to what Rav Salavetchik says—an unbelievable word Life-changing word. First, there's the physical ailments. We have to take care of a person's physical ailments first. A couple years ago, there was a young man that came to me, suffering terribly. And it was clear that he needed psychological counseling, and I set him up with a chaver of mine, a very successful psychologist. And I finally was able to convince the boy to go to therapy. And after a couple sessions, the psychologist dropped him as a client. He said to me, Mordechai, he can't go to therapy now. I said, Why? Why can't he go to therapy? I understand that. You know how hard I worked to get him into therapy. He said, Imagine you're in World War II. And there's bombs flying over your head. And you're sitting in the bunker, and people around you are blowing up, Lo'olino.
It's not the time to be sitting with a therapist and unpacking what that experience is like for you. That's not the time. Counseling can't happen when you're in the bunker. He said, "This boy, he wasn't in our yeshiva. He was in a different yeshiva. He said this boy needs to be out of his yeshiva. He's in a terrible place right now, and there are mamish bombs flying all around him. First, we need to get him up, set up, and the suddar in his life. Get a job, have a sense of responsibility, put some money in his pocket. The bombs need to stop falling, and then afterwards we could unpack." And that's by the way exactly what happened. And Baruch Hashem, today he's somewhere badarech. He's definitely further along, Baruch Hashem, than he was, even though there's still a ways to go. But first we have to take care of the bombs that are flying over your head.
The person in law, Aleinu, doesn't have food to eat. We have a responsibility to take care of them. Somebody once called me up on an Arab Shabbos And she said My neighbor just called me And they don't have food for Shabbos. It was actually a beautiful story. Because there was a person in the neighborhood that gave birth And they said that they were going to help provide food for Shabbos for this couple. There was a miscommunication between the husband and the wife, and the husband gave all of their food for Shabbos to this family. So now it's an hour before Shabbos, and this family realizes they don't have any food for Shabbos. She put out on the email list if anybody has extra kugel or extra pieces of chicken. We don't have food for Shabbos. It's beautiful because you know in our community, if somebody puts an email like that out, they're gonna have like the best Shabbos of their life. Everybody's gonna come because a Jewish mother doesn't know how to make just enough food. We have to make food for ledeirah diros every single Shabbos.
My mother, when the kids come over, is like at least three or four mains. This is the way of our community. So this woman calls me up and she says, I'm really working on being a boundary person. So I don't know, should I give them my food? What does that mean? Somebody doesn't have food for Shabbos, and this is the time for you to be working on your boundaries? Do you have food? She said, I have more than enough. I said, so give your. What are you talking about? This is an amazing opportunity for chessed. Somebody needs, give if you have, and somebody needs. That's what we call tzedakah. It's exactly what's meant to happen. Call anyone who's hungry. Call dikh v'yesav v'yechol. But that's not enough. Something else called ditzrich. There are people that don't need food. They just need. They're not hungry. They're needy.
Needy doesn't mean like a child is needy. Pay attention to me. Needy means there are people in the world that feel terribly alone. And we say to them, "Come join us." It can't be to join us for the carbon Pesach. Obviously, it can't be. They wouldn't be counted in the carbon Pesach. In order to be participating in somebody's carbon Pesach, you need to be part of that chaburah before the shkita happens. What does it mean, "Kol Ditzrich Yesevi Yisach"? It means If you need Come to us. Come join us for Pesach. Come be part of our seder. Come be part of our lives. Come be part of our redemptive process. Redemption can't happen alone. Kol Ditzrich. And I'll tell you something amazing. When you know that there's someone out there who needs you. It does something to you. It's like today we make everything so easy, and we lose something very precious by making something so easy. Kids today don't grow up knowing that they're needed. What am I needed for?
You know the ma'aseh of the Alter Rebbe. Somebody came to the Alter Rebbe and they gave a whole list of things that they needed from Hakadosh Baruch Hu, and they said, "I need rufu, and I need money, and I need children, and I need to have nachas from my children," and he gave all this whole list. And the Alter Rebbe just stood there listening the entire time. And when he was finally done with his list of things that he needed from Santa Claus, the Alter Rebbe looks at him and he says, "Now I know what you need, but I haven't heard what you're needed for." A Jew needs to know that they're needed in the world. That if we're going to go through a redemptive process, if we're going to be moshlim the geula that began in Mitzrayim, we need to know you're necessary. There are people out there that don't have. There are people out there that are lonely, and they're waiting for you. Not me. They're waiting for you. They're waiting. You'll say, "But who am I?" No, other Rebbe.
Who are you not? Who are you to say that I'm not needed in this world? It's a tremendously empowering thing. We don't talk about this enough. We talk about the geshmack of Yiddishkeit. The beauty of Yiddishkeit. And what a meaningful life Yiddishkeit is. We don't tell people very simply you're needed. We don't raise kids to be balei chesed. I even heard recently that there are seminaries that are no longer doing chesed hours because it's just abusive to the girls. It's just taking advantage of the girls. So we don't do chesed hours anymore. Even that we corrupted? Even can't have chesed hours anymore without making it a thing. You're just taking advantage of these girls. My wife's whole year in seminary was the chesed hours that she did by her aunt. She got so close to her aunt. She learned so much from being a part of somebody's home.
And from contributing. We see it in yeshiva all the time. We give these boys in yeshiva everything. We give them three meals a day. We give them dorms. We give them amazing rebbeim, and we say, just sit and learn Torah. And when it comes time for a boy to learn with a weaker bacher, what does the rebbe say? This is your year to be selfish. What a terrible thing to teach a bachelor As if growth and selfishness could happen together. This is a normal way of talking. Could you imagine? We say these words as if they're normal. This is your year, perhaps, to be inwardly focused. This is your time to take advantage of certain opportunities. But you have the opportunity to learn with a weaker bachelor. You have the opportunity to help somebody else. And your response is, "This is my time to be selfish and to think that that's a growth-oriented thing to do." And then we wonder why we're raising a generation of selfish people. The kid grew up in a chinuch where he was being told selfish is good.
Can't blame these kids. It's a terrible thing. Again, when I was growing up, maybe it was different in the '80s. I bought into '80s Judaism, but I remember that my bender would give a shmuza. If you have the opportunity to learn with a weaker bachur, grab the opportunity. And he was right. It made something of us. On Sundays, I didn't go to yeshiva. I was in darche, but I wasn't in shir. There was a special needs boy that used to come to darche on Sundays, and it was my job to take care of him. He came to shir for a little bit, and we ran around in the fields for a little bit. It wasn't called bittel tire; it was called chinuch back then. Rabbi Bender chose me specifically because I was the kid that couldn't sit still in class. He figured out a great pshara. He figured out how to take a six day a week yeshiva and make it into five days a week. I ran around with the special needs kid. I want you to know I gained more than the actual kid. That kid got to come and be a part of the yeshiva.
I got to get out of class. I was so happy. But really, really, I know what Rabbi Bender was doing. It was a way of telling me you're needed in this world. Damas says I wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for those Sundays. Called Ditzrich, Yesa veYesach. You're needed. You need, you're needed. Somebody needs you, and you're there. You're needed. What an empowering thing to teach a person. And then we finish off and we say now we know where we're holding. We're in Gullus. We know how to get out of Gullus. But where are we going? So there's two parts to this, and it follows the same exact pattern. Hashda Hacha. Now we're here. But here is no good. When we're under foreign dominion When we're subjugated by rulers that are not our own When David Malkhesh and Mashiach is not sitting on the throne of Eretz Yisrael, we can't be free. It doesn't matter how free we are.
The first thing we need is a geographical move. The same way that we need food, bombs are falling on our head. We need to take care of our physical existence first. A yid needs to know that as long as we are not in Eretz Yisrael, we are not complete. And with all Baruch Hashem of the amazing things that are happening here in America, it pales in comparison to what it will be like in Eretz Yisrael in the times of Dovid Malchus Moshiach. I don't know if the houses will be as beautiful. We have a little bit less space in Eretz Yisrael. Especially in Ramat Pe'chamish. They seem to only be building buildings these days, right on top of each other. It's quite a spectacle to behold. But we're not supposed to be here And a Jew has to remember that this is not the destination.
It wasn't the destination in Germany. It wasn't the destination in Russia. It wasn't the destination in Spain. It wasn't the destination in France. The destination is Eretz Yisrael. That's where we're going. We have to be in our own land. That's a fundamental part of being free. If we want to have belonging in our lives, we need to have a land that we can call our own. That's Hashem's land; we belong to Him there. If exile is a lack of belonging, the first stage is geography. And the second stage is hashda'aften. It's true. We're still avodim inside of ourselves, even though we're free. But inside, many of us are still slaves. We're slaves to our own addictions. We're slaves to our own inner negative beliefs. We're slaves to systems that are trying to be nice. But I'm going to say the truth. Some of us feel like we're slaves to systems that have nothing to do with the Rebbeinu Shalom, that are built on Gaiva.
That are built on hashkafas that have nothing to do with the Rebbeinu Shalom. Some of us feel at the mercy of shadchanim and other insanities that are happening in the world today. You have shadchanim that are charging ten thousand dollars for a shiduch. Somebody told me recently. I always understood that Klal Yisrael does Chesed for each other. That we try to find people. I know somebody. Let's put it together. I didn't know that it could become a business. We're at the mercy of certain sick systems. And we feel Hashda'avin. But there's a goal. You have to know where you're driving to. I'm driving to Lakewood. I have to put it into words. You have to know the destination. Here's where we're going. Hashda'avin. Shana habav nechirin. We have to be free. We have to release ourselves from all of the insanities that exist in the world today and we have to embrace the Rabbanu Shlalom.
And in that way, we can truly be free. So that's the whole seder. So far, notes betchilaso halach ma'anyu. These three things—it's one map. It's how we leave Mitzrayim. We haven't left Mitzrayim yet. It's how we leave Mitzrayim. It's a recognition that we haven't left yet. Number two We leave only as a community. And number three The destination has to be both geographical and essential. It's not enough just to be in our own land; we have to belong to the Eibshte. Time is running out; only a couple more minutes into that before Mashiach comes. These last final moments are the most precious moments. Of course, Hakadosh Baruch Hu only sends His most capable soldiers into the most heavy of the fights, and right now, as we look in the world We're in a very heavy battle. But Baruch Hashem We are standing up to the test and more. And Be'ez Hashem, we should be zei'cha. This manah geulah should be the culmination of the geulah that began in Mitzrayim. We should all see each other in Eretz Yisrael very soon.
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