Pesach: Rising from the Ashes - Rabbi Avraham Reisman

[Music] the Jewish people are called um olam which literally means that they have been around forever and they have a special power of existing for all the generations for hundreds thousands of years and they are an integral part of the very world itself and this is used to explain why other nations have come and gone and the Jewish people have existed two three thousand years four thousand years depending on how you count it and they constantly rejuvenate themselves and they constantly get difficult situations overcome them and have rebirth now this personally for me is a very important concept because my parents went through the Holocaust they had a life before the war this life was totally destroyed they went to the States and they rebuilt themselves and created a wonderful family and prosperity and happiness even though they had such difficult times so one could say good a lot of people have gone through difficult times and have accomplished the ability to rebuild themselves but what I want to contend is that this is an integral part of the very essence of the Jewish people there's a myth about the Phoenix the Phoenix is a bird that recreates itself from its ashes the Jewish people are an eternal nation because they can constantly recreate themselves and we have the holidays which we have at this time as an example of how we recreate ourselves every year we're coming up now to what is called the Passover and the Passover first starts off with a commandment which it says how high dish has their luckam this month is for you no question is what does it mean this month is for you so there are many explanations and different levels but the deep understanding of this is that now you're starting time you're starting anew the Jewish people every year renew themselves and since every year they renew themselves they ingest themselves to that renewal and by adjusting themselves to renewal they get a power to be able to deal with the situation as it is and not be stuck with the situation as it was once what do I mean by this what's the concept of raising yourself from the ashes so we have two rituals which ashes are used are very important and we'll see this concept expressed in these two rituals before we come to the Passover holiday we have four different parts of the Torah which are red and each represents a different concept the first partial which we read is called partial sculling which means the partial of giving each person has to give a half of a shekel what is the idea of a half of a second the idea is that each individual contributes to the whole and the whole is not complete without each individual so the first thing we have to do is recognize the power which we have within ourselves what are care characteristics what are our capabilities that is partials condom in order to continue to rejuvenate ourselves we have to go a step further the next step is called Pasha's of suhoor Pasha's the indicates that there are negative powers in this world and as long as we are held back by these negative powers we're never going to accomplish what we have to accomplish so what do we read partials Ahura remember listen be careful even though you're great you're wonderful you have great powers but you have to be full of the negativity which exists in everybody once we're aware of our capabilities and aware of the negative which we have then comes parsha spoarer parshas Paul is literally rejuvenation rebirth the Torah tells us if someone dies that's a negative thing how do we overcome death we take a red calf we burn it take the ashes of this red calf and we mix it together with my time the water of life and with a small tree and a large tree we mix them together and sprinkle themselves on us what does this mean this means we have to destroy all the negativity which we had until now mix this negativity with positive things with mime time and realize we're small and were large we have great capabilities we have difficulties and we can overcome all of them by rejuvenating ourselves then the next part of the next thing which we need is partial a whole dish a whole dish has a lock em you can start life anew you can start life with a new approach to everything and all the negative which you had until now does not exist you start with a new existence I have a friend of mine who load together with me in the Shiva and at the age of 15 I called him up and asked him let's go back to you but together we were at the same be Shiva so he said listen rabbi I was in rabbi I've run out of this business I cannot go to yeshiva I've had enough of Judaism and the food of all these laws forget it so I was very upset that he didn't come but all right I started my life and at that time I realized something that the direction that I'm going is a direction which constantly can give me a new perspective so until now I was very friendly with them without it my new friends okay this guy went and he was non-religious did every Easter in the hilum and the only girls who hang around hang out with Dan Jewish girls and by accidentally married a Jewish girl then he had his first son when he had his first son he thought himself what type of heritage am I going to give to this son of mine and he said ok as they like to say well let's we have to make math Lumia - we have to reorganize our life in our direction and at that time he decided he's starting anew from the beginning and he created a tremendous family and he created tremendous accomplishments in his community that is what we can do every year we can rejuvenate ourselves every year when we come to the Passover Seder the Passover Seder is to take all these ideas which we've accumulated and to concentrate them into one evening to renew ourselves our relationship with the family and our relationship with everything which we have around us and then it's possible to start anew if you are starting anew every year so you don't live 50 years 60 years every year is a new year and since every year is a new year you have a special power for that year the rabbi's today 95 years old 100 years old 103 years old how do they live so long the answer is that if they were still living with the same concepts when they were 30 then that when they're 95 they would be impact it would be impossible with them to continue the ability for them to continue is that every year they renew themselves and there is a mission in office that tells us that every 10 years we have to re-establish what the major direction is that we want to go the Gomora the Mishna says we'll start off from when a person is 18 years old he starts studying Talmud excuse me at 15 years old he start studying Talmud 18 it gets me at 20 he has tremendous ability to accomplish things at 30 he becomes more knowledgeable at 40 he becomes somebody to understand things and each of these stages are different ways to relate to life and to use the power of that period of time and if we learn how to use the power of that period of time we are constantly renewing ourselves we are constantly growing out of the ashes and if we grow out of the ashes each time we continue with new strength and that gives us the ability to live to 90 to 100 hundred and forty versus a sham so we have to use this period of time to re-establish our direction and when we do that we get a powerful powerful new life when I bless people I always say to them you should have or if you're me the shunning you should have long days and years what does it mean long days in long years longer days means you should be for a long time long years you should be for a long time know that each day should be with a tremendous amount of content and when each day has a tremendous amount of content that gives you the ability to live for many years I wish you all the ability to learn and understand and have a recess yumin to renew this yourselves [Music] you