Max Anteby - Leaving Egypt

thank you for joining us i'd like to thank project inspire and torah any time to invite me to speak this evening on the topic of leaving egypt many people nowadays are all caught up with uh what's going on outside of course with uh with the corona virus and many people being sick i'm not going to be addressing that tonight as rabbi olavsky once said says i'm not a doctor i'm not a postdoc so whatever you feel is appropriate whatever you need whatever you got to do you can do that this is not for what we're going through tonight it's for what we went through 3 300 years ago so let's keep a light approach let's make the big happy possibly we can forget about some of our problems so many of you are probably familiar with the expression that has been used many many times what is the summary of every jewish history they tried to kill us we won let's eat so i have a question i have a question about passover if that's the goal is let's eat why is it that it takes hours until we finally get to the meal we left egypt probably in less time than it took us to do the whole seder i don't understand now some of you may not be familiar totally with the story of how we're going out of egypt so let's just go over that just very briefly for those of you not familiar basic history jacob his 12 sons the brothers fight against the son joseph joseph they sell him into slavery he goes down to egypt he goes to jail eventually he gets out becomes a vicerate to pharaoh there's famine in the land and the other sons of jacob go down to the land of egypt to try and get food for their family they get food they go back joseph tricks them he makes them bring their brother benjamin benjamin comes down he greets all of them he tells them who he is that he is their brother joseph jacob comes down with all his family there are 70 souls that wind up going down into the land of egypt after many many years of the jewish people living by themselves in the land of goshen protected by the viceroy of egypt their brother joseph a new pharaoh comes to rule the land of egypt who doesn't know about joseph and thus begins 210 years of slavery 86 years of bitter bondage the jews cry out to god god sends moses as his emissary to redeem the jewish people he goes to pharaoh and he says we want to go and serve our god for three days in the desert and pharaoh says you have nothing else to think about except going out and serving your god that's it no straw no you got to keep up with the same quarters bitter bondage 86 years god brings one plague after another after another blood frogs lice locusts hail darkness and after every plague pharaoh says okay you can go no you can't go no you can go no you can't go okay you can go but you have to leave the leaves behind and then you can go but you can't go and he changes might every time finally comes the night of passover and the killing of the firstborn and as we say in my community kish get out go leave the land of egypt and that's what we did over 3 300 years ago so now i have a lot of questions i have a lot of problems so here is the jewish people coming and basically revolting against pharaoh now let me ask you a question take it here in america can you start a revolt who do you get who's most likely to start a revolution here young college kids idealistic you get a charismatic leader someone who's an inspirational speaker someone who's a natural leader rallies everybody behind them who did god choose he took people to respect two people from the old age home moses is 80. his brother aaron is 83 one of them can't even speak who's gonna follow these two old men into the desert what are the chances the jewish people are gonna rally behind moses and agree to leave the land of egypt zero percent now i'm not looking to start an age discrimination case over here because i sort of qualify for that too but there's so many things about passover and leaving egypt that just don't make sense to me let's for example let's look at the sata itself what do we do what do we do with the sata there's some crazy things we start off by saying we were slaves how do we celebrate passover we buy the finest clothes we sit like kings until we're slaves no we're kings we drink four cups of wine and we eat the bread of affliction doesn't make sense we eat bitter herbs to remember the terrible time we had a land of egypt and we have a six-course meal after that sooner or later my biggest problem is the whole idea of the seder is to encourage our children to ask questions okay michael you can go first no no no i want to go first okay sorry you can go after michael no no no no how are you gonna go one after the other each one says much now do all the scratches ask the questions problem is we ever give them an answer we will never give you an answer dad why do we dip twice or because we were slaves in egypt oh now i understand i don't know the biggest question so there's another thing that puzzles me greatly we had as i said 86 years of bitter slavery very very difficult work working for pharaoh and yet the bible tells us that of all the ancient nations if a jew marries into the egyptians we have to accept him why because they took care of us because we were strangers in a strange land and the egyptians took care of us for 210 years we have to be good to the egyptians three reasons first reason they gave us a jewish king after all joseph was a viceroy to pharaoh he ruled according to rabbi victor miller more years than any other jewish king he was our king for 80 years he gave us our own land he gave us draft deferments he gave us our own food they always made sure we taken care of he was more powerful than moses himself how many times the jewish people rebelled against moses they never once rebelled against joseph number two i don't know if any of you have ever served in the army arms in the army many many years ago vietnam war korean war afghanistan iraq libya cuba i once had a fight with a customer in the bronx it was just like another war thankfully we have a government here in america we have a national guard and we protect that protects our citizens egypt at the time was the most powerful nation in the world how many times were they attacked by the outside nations the hixos came and attacked us in there it's in the history books we don't read anywhere that the jewish people had to serve in the army we were there for 210 years we started off with 70 souls and when we left we were in the millions and for that we have to be thankful but there's another reason a very deep reason sages tell us the reason we have to be thankful to the egyptians is because they made us worthy to receive the torah really how does that work think about 200 years ago when your ancestors my ancestors they left eastern europe they left the middle east they came here to america they never saw electricity before they never saw a trolley indoor plumbing forget about it they marveled at what new york was like it was so easy to get lost in society and many did most did when we went down to egypt egypt was one of the most depraved idol worshipping immoral countries that were in the entire area we didn't want to be part of that society we kept our name we kept our language and we kept the way we dressed because we didn't want to be part of them and through that we were able we were worthy to receive the torah god bless america we live here in freedom we have untold progress that we've had here in america unlike anything we had possibly since the beginning of the spanish golden age of spain in the 13th 1400s but it's so easy to get lost here there's so many opportunities so many avenues for success it's easy for us to get lost god promised the jewish people i promise abraham he says when you leave egypt you will leave with great wealth person who lives here in america and he can stay faithful to the jewish faith and believing in god and holding on to our religion and our heritage that's the real wealth person could leave with that that is but that was then now we look at ourselves we're free we look at passover pesach the time of our freedom how do other people look at that how do they look at us well i mean we know what's going on here in america throughout europe certainly in the middle east they don't like it so much about 10 15 years ago the prime minister of malaysia was retiring he got up in front of all the cameras of the world and he says beware of the jewish people because the jews control the world obviously an anti-semitic statement what did the world say yeah that's right that's true they do that's what they said then question is since we have left egypt how do we look at ourselves how do we look at us as a jewish nation i want to share a story with you not a true story but it has a great moral to it once upon a time there was a king not that he represents god like every other king's story who's a king nice nice king rules his country very benevolent he keeps getting older and he realized it was time to turn over the reigns to the prince he has one son and he realizes he needs time to to train him and show him how to run organ to run the country so it goes over to his minister of defense and he says joe i needed to teach my son how to run a country he says oh your majesty i would love to but i got wars on the east coast and on the west coast i just don't have time i'm so busy with the army i would love to do it it's a great honor but i don't have the time he says okay i understand that's your priority no problem he goes over to his mr finance and he says harry i want you to teach my son what it means to run a country and he says all your honor actually please it's tax season you know everybody's filing the taxes and uh i just don't have the time i could possibly do that millions of tax returns says okay country needs taxes to run okay goes up to his chief of staff he says tony i want you to teach my son how to run a country he says oh your majesty i would love to do that but the peasants are are uprising they want higher wages i'm so involved in putting down skirmishes and revolts throughout the in the kingdom i just don't have time to do that what does it mean to do he went up with his three closest friends and he doesn't have anybody who's gonna be able to teach his son so what he's gonna do he puts an ad up at the local uh watering hole not not the pub or the bar i mean like a real watering hole and if you've ever advertised on indeed.com you know you get resumes from absolutely everybody he got security guards he got tellers he got therapists he got retired nurses everybody was trying to become the advice to the king he gets one resume that really intrigued him calls the guy in and he says uh tell me about yourself he says well i'm an expert in horses and your son is going to need a horse to ride throughout the kingdom i'm an expert in diamonds but he's going to need a diamond in order to sign all the proclamations and put his signature on it and an excellent judge of character king says you know what i think he'd be good for the job he hires him starts the next morning introduces the prince says prince here's your advisor want to spend some time with him he's going to teach you how to run the country okay they get together so that's all right first thing we're going to do is we're going to go out with a buy you a horse princess all excited they go right into town they go from one stable to another that's selling horses finally the prince sees one horse he says i want that horse i want that horse wow look at it the advisor says can't have it what we're talking about look at it it's magnificent the color the stature the muscles on that horse is magnificent i can see myself riding through the kingdom on that he says no can't have that horse listen i'm the prince i'm telling you i want that horse advisor says that horse will kill you so yeah show me they call over the stable master they say uh sir the prince is interested in buying that horse could you you know demonstrate for us ride him around let's see what he's all about okay gets on the horse he starts prancing around he says let's see how he gallops starts galloping throws off the rider stomps on him and kills him the prince looks at the advice he says wow you saved my life you were right he would kill me thank you readers into his pocket takes out a ruble and gives it to the advisor okay enough excitement for one day let's go back to the palace next morning they go out time to buy him a diamond okay they go back to the marketplace and they go from one jewelry stand to another jewelry stand [Music] the prince sees one diamond it says wow i gotta have that diamond it's beautiful it's probably the biggest diamond in the entire kingdom says can't have it just why look at it look how it shines like how big it is i never saw a diamond so big in my life you can't have it so listen i'm the prince i want that diamond mister how much is that that diamond he says ten thousand rubles says i want the diamond the advisor says no this is yes okay sir let me see the diamond tries to takes it throws on before stamps on it and it cracks like glass said you see that's not a diamond that was glass prince he says wow he saves me a fortune puts out his hand and shanks and shakes the hand of the advice and says thank you okay enough excitement for today let's go back to the palace next morning the advisor comes reports to work the prince says my father tells me that you're an excellent judge of character tell me about me says no says tell me about me i want to see i know myself i want to know how good a judge a character you are now the obvious answer he gives a jury cheap no good for nothing it's not what he tells him is you sure you want to know says yeah i want to know he says you are not the son of the king what how dare you how dare you say that i'm taking you to my father he drags the advisor they go back to the king and he says father he has the nerve to say that i am not your son i want this man ex-community i wanted uh executed in the town square i want everybody to see how you don't fool with the fact their family king looks at your advisor looks at the sun he says you're not my son what you're not my son your mother and i were married for many many years and we could never have children and one day we're riding through the kingdom and we saw you lying on the side of the world and we said look what a beautiful little baby this is we took you into the palace and we raised you as if you are our own son but nobody knows and don't worry you will still inherit the kingdom the advisor and the son go out for a walk the kid is devastated he said how did you know how did you know that it wasn't my father he said when i saved your life what did you do you gave me a ruble he says if you were royalty if you had blue blood flowing through your veins you would have brought me a panelist you would give him an island if you had a sister you'd give me the princess for me to marry you gave me a ruble when i saved you a fortune you shook my hand he says if you were royalty you wouldn't treat a person that way there's a certain way that you have to act when you're a king and you don't act like that you treated me like any poor guy broke growing up in the street like a pooper ladies and gentlemen we are the sons and daughters of kings abraham isaac and jacob and we are the children of the king of kings and we have to behave a certain way we look at ourselves we look at the jewish nation how do we see ourselves we represent goodness to the world how do you know because they hold us to a higher standard if we do something wrong that someone that any other people could do they say how could the jewish people do that they should know better they know that we represent goodness since we left egypt what have we done for mankind let's take a look about 80 years ago there was a man named winston churchill probably the premier statesman of the world here's what he says he said some people like the jews and some do not but no thoughtful man can deny the fact that they are beyond any question the most formidable race that ever appeared in the world that's us we're formidable what have we done if we look at the last 3 300 years since we left egypt what have we accomplished we have given religion to three quarters of the globe yes the christians they believe in mount sinai they know that we were the children people children chosen people god changed his mind and they accepted and appointed a new a new messenger but they know who we were and the god that they worship is our god islam when muhammad wrote his horse barack up baraka i know that name literally know that name from when he wrote his horse up into the heavens to meet with the jewish angel gabriel who told him that he is the new messenger of god he met with our god the muslims worship our god they are the children of abraham same as us but abraham had two children they are the children of ishmael and we are the children of isaac but they believe in our god so we have given religion to three quarters of the globe not only that but if you look in the torah portion called mishpatim in schmos right after the portion of the ten commandments you read there all of the laws all the business laws on how mankind is supposed to treat his fellow man if you look at viacrum chapter 19 accounted once 31 different laws of man-to-man a very famous law of love your neighbor as yourself comes to the jewish bible we establish a court system we establish democracy as you probably have heard many many times all the morals all the values that have been adopted by every modern western democracy in the world has come from the jewish people is that true tommy cahill wrote a book called the gifts of the jews and this is what he writes he says without the jews we would see the world with different eyes here with different ears filled with different feelings and we would set a different course for mankind mankind today would be different it was not for the jews think about it think about some of the old ideologies of the world communism socialism radical islam the idea of world conquest from the romans from the greeks from the mongols from the crusades from the nazis as we know the jews saw them all and beat them all and we're still here but imagine if the world lived by those ideologies if there was no judaism how did we do it we the most powerful nation in the world thousands of years ago no we left egypt we brought the torah into our culture we formed our our country in the land of israel we lived there just over a thousand years and after the exile guarded his wisdom sent us into exile to all four corners of the world and we continue to influence every country every state every society how do we do it avraham our forefather he proved through the power of an idea that there is a god who runs the world he's loving caring and involved with us and what resources did he have mohammed had his army joshua had paul the greatest madison avenue promoter in all history buddha as well today 1.3 billion people jewish people we lived in exile and poverty for over 2000 years whatever we accomplished he did with one hand tied behind our backs but we have a will to live and a will to improve the world that's what we've done we're not the only ones who have noticed sir isaac newton you might know me as the guy who walks around in the fields and you know sitting down under the tree and the apple falls on his head sir isaac newton probably changed the world of science more than any other man besides albert einstein when that apple fell on his head and he proposed the law of gravity that there was a force throughout the universe that exerted itself in every piece of matter one against the other when he discovered that light was not one color but was made up of an entire rainbow he changed the way that science looked at the world he was a scientist per excellence but not only that he was a deeply religious man who had tremendous respect for the jewish people look what he says he says the private preservation of the jew is really one of the most single and illustrious acts of divine providence davoni providence a scientist how could he say that scientists can't prove that there's a god scientists don't believe generally that there is a creator but newton looked at the world and he looked at the jewish people and he looked what we've accomplished and he says that there must be a supernatural power he says who but a supernatural how could have preserved them in such a manner as no other nation has been preserved it's true wherever we go wherever we are we rise to the top of society there's no question about it but look what he adds to that [Applause] something that history has proven time and time again his is no less remarkable it's a destruction of their enemies let us serve as a warning to all those who at any time or occasion are raising a clamor or persecution against them has anyone raised their hands against that's what the list goes on forever it starts with the egyptians and then goes to the amalekites and the philistines and the babylonians and the persians the greeks the romans the early christians the inquisition the muslims the poles the russians the nazis the kkk the skinheads beat the bbs syria and isis the world the world just keeps going on looking at us differently how do we look at ourselves well long before we exited from the land of egypt god was filtering us out and he's looking at who is the best in the cream of the crop those will be my children abraham had a brother his name was lot god chose abraham because abraham chose god he says i choose you and your descendants after you with an eternal covenant to be the god and the god of your children abraham had two sons ishmael and isaac and he chose isaac isaac had two sons jacob and asap jason and jacob followed in the way of god and asap did not those who chose to become great in the land of egypt those are the ones who left not everybody left egypt that's why it's so important when we leave egypt we have to think about ourselves who are we who are we as individuals not just as a nation but who are we really i'd like to give you another story there's a personal story possibly about you about me not just about the jewish nation there's a custom some of you may have it the night of the seder after we have our luxurious meal keep coming back to the meal because that's really the main part of any jewish holiday not really after we have our meal we pour the third cup we're ready to make the blessing over the third cup and we pour another cup of wine we put in the center of the table that is called coast eliahu it is a cup for elijah the prophet eleanor navy and what do we do we tell the kids kids kids go hurry up open up the door el yaro navi is coming and the kids run to the front of the house and they open the door and they look up where's eliano v haven't seen him and what we used to do in my house is when the kids which used to be me running to the front of the house my father would shake the table just to drop and the wine would spill off the side of the cup and we'd come in and say dad we didn't see elvia he goes oh my gosh he was here look he drank from the cup you just missed him i can't believe it you do that in your house it's a great custom try it who is elijah the navy it says is going to greet us the day before the coming of the mashiach everyone is speaking about myself today don't know can't make a promise once upon a time true story acidic tale rich businessman in europe he wanted to see el ya navi he went over to the baal shem tov and he says great rabbi he says i do so much for the community i help so much i help everyone help all the poor people i want to see elia navi the prophet really yes i want to see him so polish tells him okay this is the eve of passover this is what i want you to do is i want you to take your wine and your matzah and your food and your dishes and load up your wagon i want you to ride through the forest and right before you come to the edge of the forest on the right you will see a very small cabin go into that cabin and tonight you will see elya navi rich man is astounded he is excited beyond everything he goes home to his wife and his children they pack up all his stuff they put it in the wagon he waves goodbye to his children he gets into his wagon he drives through the forest writing and writing writing he's getting towards the end of the forest and sure enough right before he gets the end of the forest on the right is a small cabin that's where he lives gets off his he parks his wagon and his horse outside the house he knocks on the door and he expects the prophet sage to come and greet him knocks on the door again opens to a little boy as a standing there no shoes ragged clothing scraggly hair he says um excuse me um is your father home said papa tati tati they call the father regular men regular tonight must be he's going to see him when they pour the cup of wine he says listen i need a place to stay said is it okay if i stay here with you tonight poor man turns around and he says i don't have much to offer you he says don't worry i plenty of provisions he goes back to the wagon and he brings in the wine and the mozza and the food and the dishes and the desserts and everything people with the kids are looking they never saw such things he unloads his whole package and he prepares for the seder goes gets all dressed up therapy is holiday best they go they sit their children ask the questions they make the blessing on the wine they the wife brings out all the delicious food that this man brought to them they finish their meal they pour the third cup they pour the course el yahoo and they're ready to open the door elijah richmond says no no i'll do it so from his plate gets up goes to the door he opens the door and outside the door is his horse and wagon okay okay oh i understand because this is the first night so possibly he's gonna come the second night because if he comes the first night there are other things he has to go and plays he has to be so he's coming tomorrow night okay they go back finish the seder goes to his straw bed sleeps on the strawberry wakes up the next morning they do what they do they pass the day next night comes comes the time of the seder they sit down he gets dressed up they bring the food they have them say to them drink the wine it's time now to pour the cup this time he's trembling because he knows he has a promise from the baal shem tov that elijah khan navy is going to be at the door he gets up he opens the door and outside the door is his horse and waking he is as miffed as you can be no question about it okay they pass the next day as soon as the holiday is over he packs up his stuff gets on his wagon drives back to town goes directly to the bombshell wakes him up at one o'clock in the morning he says what did you do to me you made me leave my family you made me spend the holiday sleeping on a straw bed i've never done that before in my life you promised me i was going to say eliaq nothing i should do that to me after all we've been through together how could you do that to me he says he wasn't there he says you know he wasn't there tells him this is what i want you to do i want to get back on your wagon back on your horse i want you to go back to that cabin i want you to get there exactly at dawn and there you will see eliano hanavi yes i promise now the man is really excited now he doesn't know what to do he can't control himself from two o'clock in the morning until the one the next morning biting his time he finally gets close to the cabin just as the sun is rising marks his wagon far away and he starts walking towards the house and in the window he sees the husband and wife sitting at the table and he hears them and the husband says sarula could you believe it could you believe the miracle that god made for us of all the places in the world this rich businessman comes and he spends the holiday with us did we ever see such food that we ever had such a beautiful wonderful glorious holiday what a miracle how how but how grateful we are to have chef that he sent us this man sauron looks at him says what's that with you that was not a man that was el yahoo navi the businessman heard what she said [Music] he thought about himself he realized the impact that he had on other people back at his horse and rode into town ladies and gentlemen we are a great nation as we've heard we've accomplished so many things to change the world for the better that's us as a jewish nation what about us as individuals we've left egypt we are physically out of that land we are here in america and god bless america but we have so many influences so the goyish influence on us is so powerful it causes many of us to lose sight of what's really important and to forget about our own potential each one of us has a potential to change the life of others we need to look at ourselves and say i am part of this glorious nation what am i doing to make this world a better place the purpose of the haggadah and the night of the seder is to transfer this tradition from off from father to son from mother to daughter from rabbi to student they had gon talibate it over to your children we celebrate pesach and they're going out and leaving of egypt because that's when we were formed as a nation which we gained our freedom we brought torah to the world we have the ability to change the world to change our friends to change our family and to become better people ourselves this one's as winston churchill said we are the most formidable nation ever to appear in the world my wish for you is that we have a healthy happy safe holiday a passover and that we unite as one nation under thank you very much