Torah Wisdom and Jewish Ethics - Pesach And The Illusion Of Freedom

0:00 SPEAKER_00: A man was walking through a supermarket with a screaming toddler in his trolley.

0:05 SPEAKER_00: The kid was throwing cereal, kicking the sides, and howling at the top of his lungs.

0:11 SPEAKER_00: The man kept a perfectly calm voice, repeating Keep it together, Moshe.

0:16 SPEAKER_00: Just two more ay's Moshe.

0:18 SPEAKER_00: Don't lose your call, Moshe.

0:20 SPEAKER_00: A woman watching him was so impressed by his patience that she stopped him at the checkout.

0:26 SPEAKER_00: Sir, I just wanted to say how amazing you are.

0:29 SPEAKER_00: You're such a gentle father to little Moshe.

0:33 SPEAKER_00: The man looked at her and said The kid's name is Shmuel.

0:36 SPEAKER_00: I'm Moshe.

0:39 SPEAKER_00: Our lives are a little like that.

0:41 SPEAKER_00: Externally many of us look as if we're in control and have got it together.

0:46 SPEAKER_00: But we haven't.

0:48 SPEAKER_00: Right at the beginning of the Seda we say Avadim Hainu, we were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt.

0:53 SPEAKER_00: And if Hashem had not brought us out, we would still be slaves to Pharaoh.

0:57 SPEAKER_00: The inference, of course, is that we're now free.

1:02 SPEAKER_00: The question is, are we?

1:05 SPEAKER_00: Hashem brought us out of Egypt to serve him.

1:07 SPEAKER_00: This is true freedom because we are primarily spiritual beings, not physical.

1:13 SPEAKER_00: When we serve Hashem, we're actualizing our essence, the spiritual us.

1:18 SPEAKER_00: We are being ourselves.

1:21 SPEAKER_00: However, if we're honest, we can very easily fall into the trap of serving other things.

1:28 SPEAKER_00: There are people who are slave to drugs, to drink, to cigarettes, or to food.

1:32 SPEAKER_00: We live in a social media world where people are slaves to likes, popularity and the whim of the crowd.

1:39 SPEAKER_00: People are slaves to their phones, others to money, wealth, and power.

1:44 SPEAKER_00: Like Pharaoh, all of these are tyrannical dictators that can control a person.

1:49 SPEAKER_00: On Shabbat Hagadol, the Shabbat before Pesach, let's explore a stark reality.

1:57 SPEAKER_00: As human beings, we are not free from servitude.

2:01 SPEAKER_00: We are free only to choose what we serve.

2:06 SPEAKER_00: From the Gemaratin Shabbat in 87 Ahmed Bet, we know that Shabbat Hagadol was the 10th of Nisan, and then the night of Machos Bahorus was Wednesday night, the 15th of Nisan, and we came out of Egypt on the Thursday during the day.

2:21 SPEAKER_00: What's interesting, of course, this year it marries it exactly.

2:25 SPEAKER_00: So this year Shabbat Hagadol is the 10th of Nisan, and we'll have Seda on the 15th, and the uh coming out of Egypt will be on that Thursday daytime, like it was on the actual year.

2:39 SPEAKER_00: So Shabbat Hagadol was when we took the lambs ready for Korban Pesach.

2:43 SPEAKER_00: And the Mishnah in Mechilta de Rabbi Ishmael says that B'Nay Yeshrael had no mitzvot which would enable their redemption.

2:51 SPEAKER_00: So Hashem gave them two mitzvot, Corban Pesach and Britmilah.

2:58 SPEAKER_00: This is incredibly important because freedom doesn't begin with belief, it begins with action.

3:05 SPEAKER_00: Bene Ishwael had seen the might of Hashem through the nine plagues that had already been unleashed on Egypt.

3:11 SPEAKER_00: They knew how powerful Hashem was.

3:14 SPEAKER_00: But they had to do something.

3:17 SPEAKER_00: The world says spirituality is what you feel.

3:21 SPEAKER_00: Judaism says spirituality is what you do.

3:26 SPEAKER_00: Consequently, we have a lot of mitzvot that we are supposed to do.

3:30 SPEAKER_00: To those that don't understand, you know, putting on to filling, making sure there's a mezuzah on the door, organizing a kosher kitchen where it sits and preparing for Shabbat, etc., seem far less spiritual than say meditating under a tree somewhere.

3:47 SPEAKER_00: However, we know from psychology, thought doesn't necessarily lead to action.

3:53 SPEAKER_00: We all know people that have talked about giving up smoking or losing weight or getting fit, and although they've talked about it for many times and then obviously thought about it therefore, they haven't done anything about it.

4:06 SPEAKER_00: But action always leads to thought.

4:10 SPEAKER_00: Therefore, we can contemplate freedom for years and not be free.

4:15 SPEAKER_00: But taking action, Korban Pesach, Britmilah, changes us.

4:21 SPEAKER_00: This has an implication for our lives today.

4:24 SPEAKER_00: We can say we are free and that we serve Hashem.

4:28 SPEAKER_00: But if we can't sit for ten minutes without checking our phone, or believe we have to work in human hours to make money, or can't resist the temptation to snack on junk food even when we're not hungry, then these are no longer tools.

4:43 SPEAKER_00: They're masters.

4:46 SPEAKER_00: Hashem gave us two mitzfot.

4:48 SPEAKER_00: Firstly Korbam Pesach.

4:50 SPEAKER_00: Korbam Pesach was the rejection of idolatry.

4:53 SPEAKER_00: Bene Ishwael were required to take an Egyptian god, tie it to the bedpost, shacked it, roast it, and eat it.

5:01 SPEAKER_00: It was the total rejection of the Egyptian way of life.

5:05 SPEAKER_00: Of course, it was unbelievably scary for slaves to take this action in a totalitarian regime.

5:11 SPEAKER_00: It demonstrated real emuna.

5:14 SPEAKER_00: The lesson here is that freedom requires rejection of whatever you're a slave to.

5:21 SPEAKER_00: Today the situation is different, but the principle is the same.

5:25 SPEAKER_00: For someone who doesn't think they can earn enough without working ridiculous hours, or validates their life by always wearing the latest fashions, or takes their self-worth from how many likes they receive, rejection of this is required, and it's scary for the person trying to rid themselves of this master when it has become a real part of their identity.

5:48 SPEAKER_00: As taking the Korbran Pesak was a rejection of the tyranny of Pharaoh's rule, so too rejection of whatever controls us, in defiance of our physical urges, is vital.

6:01 SPEAKER_00: Freedom doesn't just come, however, from rejection of the negative.

6:06 SPEAKER_00: We must also bind ourselves to something higher.

6:10 SPEAKER_00: That was why Hashem also told us to perform Brit Milav.

6:14 SPEAKER_00: The lesson is I will give up the ridiculous working hours and replace some of them with Torah study.

6:22 SPEAKER_00: I will stop validating myself by social media likes and work on myself by signing up to a Musa class.

6:30 SPEAKER_00: I will stop checking my phone every five minutes and use some of that time to volunteer with real interaction instead of via a screen.

6:39 SPEAKER_00: I can give up what is enslaving me, but I also have to enter the domain of Kaducia, of holiness.

6:46 SPEAKER_00: That means that the time we make a correction, we bind ourselves to something higher.

6:51 SPEAKER_00: So not just Korban Pesak, rejection of idolatry, but also Britmilah, binding ourselves to Hashem.

7:00 SPEAKER_00: Of course, these two ideas, rejection of the negative and binding ourselves to something higher, are inextricably linked.

7:08 SPEAKER_00: On the 10th of Nisan, Banay Ishrael took the lamb and tied it to their bedposts.

7:13 SPEAKER_00: This is rejection of the negative, idolatry in the Egyptian way of life.

7:17 SPEAKER_00: But then between the 10th and 14th of Nisan, Britmilah was carried out.

7:22 SPEAKER_00: The Jewish people bound themselves to something higher.

7:25 SPEAKER_00: Therefore, when Kal Ishrael actually at the Corban Pesach, it was no longer just rejection of the negative, but also a sign of the Brit of the covenant, something higher between them and Hashem.

7:38 SPEAKER_00: This is why in the Midrash in Shemot Rabbah it talks about the mixing of the blood.

7:44 SPEAKER_00: It's both the rejection of the negative and binding it to something higher that gives both mitzvot their meaning and completeness.

7:52 SPEAKER_00: We can take from this that freedom always has two steps.

7:56 SPEAKER_00: Step one, you remove the slave master.

8:00 SPEAKER_00: Step two, you attach yourself to something higher.

8:05 SPEAKER_00: So we understand the challenge.

8:07 SPEAKER_00: We live in a physical, materialistic world.

8:10 SPEAKER_00: It is a competitive world where we all struggle for economic survival.

8:15 SPEAKER_00: How do we exempt ourselves from its values?

8:19 SPEAKER_00: How do we live a life of Torah in a world that is so out of line with many of its ethics and standards?

8:26 SPEAKER_00: The answer is Yetsiat Mitzraim.

8:30 SPEAKER_00: At Pesach, starting on Shabbat Gadol, when we took the lambs for Korban Pesach, the Jewish people responded to the call of Hashem and rejected the values of Egypt, becoming Hashem's chosen people.

8:43 SPEAKER_00: The Mishnah in Pesachim tells us that in each and every generation a person must view himself as though he personally left Egypt.

8:52 SPEAKER_00: And it quotes in the Pasuk from Pashabar when it says, And you shall tell your son on that day, saying, It is because of this which Hashem did for me when I came forth out of Egypt.

9:04 SPEAKER_00: The word leave for me, not for my ancestors, but for me.

9:09 SPEAKER_00: From here, Chazal understands, you must experience it see at Mitsraim as personally happening to you.

9:17 SPEAKER_00: Moreover, we have the famous Gomorrah in Brachot in Twelve Ahmad Bet that we actually say in the Haggadah every year that when it says in Pasha Rah in Seifa Devarim that we should remember the days you went out of Egypt, all the days of your life.

9:31 SPEAKER_00: And Benzoma famously explains, days of your life refers to days.

9:36 SPEAKER_00: All the days of your life comes to add nights as well.

9:39 SPEAKER_00: And from here we get a mitzvah to remember Yitziatz Mitzraim every single day and night.

9:45 SPEAKER_00: Because the Torah does not just give us memory, it turns it into identity.

9:51 SPEAKER_00: Yetziat mitzhraim is not something that happened, but something that is happening to me.

9:57 SPEAKER_00: Every day a Jew must see themselves as being liberated from Egypt.

10:02 SPEAKER_00: The implication is that winning freedom is not a one-time occurrence.

10:06 SPEAKER_00: It requires constant guarding.

10:08 SPEAKER_00: Every day and every environment carries its own equivalent of Egypt, a power to undermine the freedom of the Jew and the spiritual mission to serve Hashem.

10:18 SPEAKER_00: One of the most potent threats, of course, comes from within ourselves.

10:22 SPEAKER_00: We limit our own potential, our own ability to connect with Hashem.

10:27 SPEAKER_00: We trap ourselves in the material, in artificial constructs, we imprison ourselves with the physical illusions of this world.

10:35 SPEAKER_00: Pesak is the ongoing process of liberation, to create the spiritual freedom to carry out our Jewish vocation, our tough kid.

10:45 SPEAKER_00: Of course, Hashem could have taken us out of Egypt without Corban Pesak and Brit Miller.

10:49 SPEAKER_00: Similarly, Hashem could ensure that we stay focused on the spiritual mission and don't have the struggles and challenges.

10:56 SPEAKER_00: So why make it this way?

10:58 SPEAKER_00: In most years, as this year, Pashad Sav is read on Shabbat Hagadol, the Shabbat before we go into Pesach.

11:06 SPEAKER_00: We read in the Pasha, a permanent fire shall remain aflame on the Mizbayak.

11:12 SPEAKER_00: And it tells us that Koanim shall be responsible for lighting the fire.

11:17 SPEAKER_00: So Rashi, the Midrash in Sifra, and the Gomorrah in Yomad 21 Ahmed Bet and in Erevun 63 Ahmed Alif all point out there was already a fire that descended from Shemayim, which we learn in Shemini, the inauguration of the Mishkan, a fire came down from Shemayim.

11:35 SPEAKER_00: So even so, there was still a mitzvah for the Kohenim to bring fire.

11:41 SPEAKER_00: But if the fire descended from Shemim from heaven and is already on the Mizbayach, why must the Kohenim light a fire themselves?

11:49 SPEAKER_00: And we have similar ideas throughout Torah.

11:51 SPEAKER_00: In Pasha Pakuday they brought the Mishkanta Moshe to put up, and the Midrash in Tanchumah tells us it was not possible for one human being to set it up.

12:00 SPEAKER_00: Hashem tells Moshe to attempt it, which he does, and with that essentially did it itself.

12:06 SPEAKER_00: Of course, Hashem could have just erected it, but he required Moshe to make an effort.

12:12 SPEAKER_00: We are not robots.

12:14 SPEAKER_00: Hashem made us but Selem Elokim in his image, which means that we have free will.

12:20 SPEAKER_00: Therefore, we have to show willing.

12:22 SPEAKER_00: We have to do something, we have to take action before Hashem will do the same.

12:27 SPEAKER_00: Ultimately, everything's from Hashem.

12:29 SPEAKER_00: It's only because of Hashem that we are successful in anything that we do.

12:34 SPEAKER_00: However, we're partners with Hashem in this world.

12:37 SPEAKER_00: If we don't make an effort, Hashem will not do the job for us.

12:41 SPEAKER_00: If we want to achieve our spiritual mission and overcome Egypt, the physical and material, we have to make the effort.

12:48 SPEAKER_00: Hashem will bring the fire, but we have to strike the match.

12:53 SPEAKER_00: So where do we start the process of liberation?

12:56 SPEAKER_00: What is unbelievable about the overthrowing of tyranny at Pesach is that it starts in the home.

13:02 SPEAKER_00: Hashem tells Bene Israel to take the Korb on Pesach for each household, and no one shall leave their homes until morning.

13:11 SPEAKER_00: Every revolution in history starts on the streets.

13:15 SPEAKER_00: The revolution of Pesach happens in the living room.

13:20 SPEAKER_00: Hashem teaches us that the Jewish home is the cornerstone of Jewish values, morality, and identity.

13:26 SPEAKER_00: This is where our faith and service of Hashem begins.

13:30 SPEAKER_00: It is the most powerful of lessons, which gives us enormous responsibility as parents, grandparents, and extended family.

13:37 SPEAKER_00: Freedom and our service of Hashem doesn't start with grand gestures.

13:41 SPEAKER_00: Its foundation is not in public places or cultivated by strangers.

13:46 SPEAKER_00: Freedom and our service of Hashem starts in the home, within the most private of spaces, with the most intimate of relationships, husband and wife, parents and children, brothers and sisters.

13:58 SPEAKER_00: It is the home which is the starting point of learning what it is to be a Jew and the values and responsibility that come with being the koenim of the world.

14:07 SPEAKER_00: So the Jewish home is where it starts.

14:10 SPEAKER_00: But another foundational construct is Shabbat.

14:13 SPEAKER_00: There is some debate among the Mefarshim as to how Shabbat Hagadol got its name.

14:18 SPEAKER_00: In Parsha Yitro, in the first recounting of the Yserat Adibroth, the Ten Commandments, we're told to keep Shabbat because Hashem created the world in six days and rested on the seventh.

14:28 SPEAKER_00: Our keeping Shabbat, therefore, is testimony to Hashem as creator of the world.

14:33 SPEAKER_00: However, in Seif Devorim and Parsha Va'et Hanan, we are told to keep Shabbat because Hashem took us out of Egypt.

14:40 SPEAKER_00: There's no mention of Hashem creating the world.

14:43 SPEAKER_00: The Svat Emmet brings down that the term Shabbat Hagdol resulted from Shabbat taking on new significance.

14:50 SPEAKER_00: When Bene Israel took the lambs on Shabbat, that was the first sign of redemption.

14:56 SPEAKER_00: We rejected Egyptian society.

14:58 SPEAKER_00: Therefore, it was the first time Shabbat was kept for both its stated reasons, as both as testimony to Hashem creating the world and yet Siatz Mitz right.

15:09 SPEAKER_00: It is no accident that redemption started to be realized on Shabbat.

15:13 SPEAKER_00: Shabbat is the training ground for freedom.

15:16 SPEAKER_00: It is a reminder based on action.

15:18 SPEAKER_00: We light candles, we make kiddish, we refrain from Malakot, that Hashem is creator of the world, that everything is from him.

15:26 SPEAKER_00: It is also a reminder of our tough kid, our duty to serve Hashem because he took us out of Egypt.

15:32 SPEAKER_00: Shabbat frees us from the trains, the chains of everyday life.

15:36 SPEAKER_00: It enables us to recalibrate and remember our mission.

15:40 SPEAKER_00: Even if we have been consumed with the physical the other six days of the week, it reminds us what is important.

15:46 SPEAKER_00: Shabbat itself is a day of freedom.

15:50 SPEAKER_00: So are we free?

15:52 SPEAKER_00: Well Hashem brought us out of Egypt to be the Kohenim of the world and to serve him.

15:57 SPEAKER_00: The freedom to be spiritual is the freedom to actualize our potential and be the best versions of ourselves that we can be, because we're primarily spiritual beings.

16:06 SPEAKER_00: However, we live in a physical materialistic world that's values often clashes with the ethics and morality of Torah.

16:14 SPEAKER_00: It is so easy to lose our way and create our own Egypt with our own Pharaoh.

16:18 SPEAKER_00: People are slave to their work, to social media, to fashion, to cigarettes, drugs or food, and many other temptations that can absorb us and make us lose focus on what really matters.

16:29 SPEAKER_00: Therefore, every Jew must remember Yitsiat Mitzraim in every morning and evening.

16:34 SPEAKER_00: Maintaining spiritual freedom is not a one-time occurrence, it is a constant battle.

16:39 SPEAKER_00: It requires action, both the Korban Pesa to reject Egypt in whatever guise it takes, and Brit Millar to bind ourselves to something higher.

16:48 SPEAKER_00: Shabbat and the Jewish home are foundational in providing us with a private space, an intimate time with our Shem, when we remember what is important, get perspective, and ensure we stay on the right path.

17:01 SPEAKER_00: As we mark Shabbat Hagadol and our rejection of Egypt, and as we look forward to celebrating Pesach, we are reminded of our constant battle for spiritual freedom.

17:11 SPEAKER_00: Pesach is not simply the story of people becoming free, it's the story of people changing what they serve.

17:19 SPEAKER_00: Because freedom is not the absence of servitude, it is choosing the right master.

17:25 SPEAKER_00: In the final analysis, as human beings, we will ultimately live a life of servitude.

17:32 SPEAKER_00: We will all serve something.

17:35 SPEAKER_00: The only question is what?