Rabbi Benjamin Yudin Discusses the Pesach Seder (5786)

Good morning, mate. Good air of shabis, everybody. Oh, first goodto. Whoa. I hope you'll be able to hear some excitement in my voice because as we are now er there is an incredible excitement in the air in Erit Israel and even here we do our best to make it a very special yonto. All the hard work that women and men have been putting into the preparation for the Pesak Seder, we should please God take all that energy and enjoy enjoy the mitzvah, enjoy the seder, enjoy the company. Okay. The first thing is this Yongtove because we go from Friday, second day of Yongtove and to there to Shabas, we need to make an af tapillin tomorrow before Yomto. You're going to take a matzah and a cooked food. Be it a hard-boiled egg, be it a piece of fish, be it a piece of meat, and you're going to put it aside, designate it for the ear of tabin, make a bra alit, and recite in both. Well, make sure you understand what you're saying in both the Aramaic and in English that you are with this av you are beginning your preparation for Shabas. Save the matzah. Save the whatever it is that you've cooked food. Save that for shabas. Many eat it for shalos. But the idea is that we've begun the preparations for Shabas already before the Yomto and we're going to continue the preparation for Shabas on Friday afternoon. Okay. I'd like to in the short time that I have to the best of my ability go through this seder with you as a quick review. If you have any questions, call your Rev. And if he doesn't answer, call Rabbi Uden. All right, here we go. 2011 9063731. We begin the 15 steps of the Hagoda with Kadesh. Now, let's understand something. There's so much that you have to know in the background, which really is the pesak. We don't have it yet, but it dominates so much of what we do. So many listeners throughout the world took in Shabas early this past Friday afternoon. Others took in Shabas with sundown 18 minutes before. When it comes to the Pesak Seder, you have to wait until it's definitively night. Why is that? Because the Torah says, "You are to eat the pesak." So don't yell at me and say, "Wait a minute. We don't yet have it." But we live as if we do. As I'll point out several different things to you. So it's very very important that we understand that you in the New York area, you really should not be starting your seder till at least 8:00. How do I get that number? Because take a look sundown right is approximately 7:20 and 40 minutes later is 8:00 which is Lila. So really one should not start their seder till at least 8:00. Now next what is kdesh? Kdish is like in any other yom to the difference that any of the yom to you don't have to drink. In the suka you don't have to drink from kdesh on the night of rashana you don't have to drink even on Friday night you get to drink that's wonderful you heard kdish the person who recited kdish drank that is sufficient that's called shamea kun the one who heard it is like the one who recited it the same applies this tonight and tomorrow night except that everyone must Drink. Whoa. Again, everyone must drink. We're talking about men, women, children. Now, how much? Very important. And what are you drinking? So, I'm telling you right now, there's all different kind. How much of wine she have to how much do you have to have in the cup? The cup should hold, if you ask me, no more than 4 ounces. Whoa. Now, it's not so easy even to get a 4 oz cup because then you only have to drink, according to our rabbis, roast, which is a little bit more than half. There are all kinds of wines. Somehow drinking the four cups scares many people. They don't realize that you don't have to take an alcohol of wine of 12%. You can take of 3.5 very little and mix that with grape juice. Whoa. So, how much do you have to begin with? Up to 4 ounces in the cup. How much are you drinking? Half. You're only drinking 2 ounces. Within those two ounces, there is almost half grape juice and half wine. And the half wine is very uh low alcohol. So, don't be afraid of the four cups. very important because it's a yes rabbitic mitzvah but it clearly is a tribute to the Jewish women that because they too o were included in the miracle of the um our leaving Egypt because of their amuna because of their faith that we would get out and we will have children etc. So, women too are obligated to drink. Okay. The custom is that men should drink leaning to the left. If women can, fine. But the most important thing is don't be afraid. Understand that the kdish is the first of the four cups. And the four cups are not random. In other words, I come to your ped, you give me the first cup and I say, "Oh, this is delicious. Can I please have a second and a third and a fourth? Did I drink four cups?" Yes. Everybody saw me drink four cups. Did I get the mitzvah of drinking four cups? No. The answer is these four cups are strategically placed in the seder to elevate four mitzvah. The first cup is to elevate the mitzvah of kdesh and therefore all year long it's enough to hear it from one person. Tonight we all drink. Second of all how much you have to drink is like we mentioned a majority of a 4 cup. Okay. If you find a 3 and 12 ounce cup it's also good but nothing less than that. Okay. And understand that in the kdesh we have the braha of shehanu. We thank hashem. Wow that we are privileged to come to this yomov of pesak. And included in this shehanu are all the other mitzvah that we are doing. The mitzvah of telling the story. The mitzvah of eating morar. The mitzvah of eating matzah. Our shehu goes, "Thank you, Hashem, for the opportunity to perform these mitzvah." Okay. Secondly, or after we've made kesh, wash your hands without a blessing. And the purpose of this washing our hands without a blessing is twofold. Number one, it is for the purpose of arousing the curiosity of the young and people at the seder. And second of all, it fits in that tonight on the night of the seder, many people, the leading the seder wear a kettle. The explains that the kit, the white garment is worn when we ate again the meat of sacrifice. tonight. While we don't yet have the pesak and we will have it very very soon that's been promised to us and God keeps his word. So tonight we in areas of holiness are very strict and since you are going to take a piece of vegetable for the carpass which comes next and you're going to make a bra a borma on the carpass and you're going to keep in mind that that bor praadma is going for the moor later on but this karpass is we dip it with our fingers our fing fingers might have a certain degree of impurity which if we put our fingers in the water which we do to dip the carpass, we're going to transfer impurity from our hands to the vegetable. For this reason, we wash our hands before we eat the karpass to show that we're on that higher standard as if we had a base hamik. Interestingly, the first dipping because as we say in the manishana hallay, we dip two times. The first dipping is the karpass in the salt water. The second dipping is the mor in the karosas. Okay. Now, what's going on here? So, the one answer, my friends, is very important. Speak this out. We are uniting tonight with Jewish history. The first dipping reminds us of the brothers who took Yoseph's coat and dipped it in the blood of a sheep. Why? Because our rabbis tell us that the blood of a sheep resembles that of a human. And we begin this seder by reminding us that it was our breakdown of man to man that brought us into mitzim in the first place. We left as a unified people from mitzim togetherness. And the second dipping of the mor into the karu says according to our rabbis is to remind us of our dipping of the blood of the carbon pesak onto the door of our homes demonstrating that we have rejected the idol worship of Egypt. They worship the lamb. We take their god and we slaughter it today in the afternoon the 14th of Nissan and we eat it tonight roasted. Now once we mention that word just know their different customs Ashkanaz and Sar as to what to eat tonight which is you know the meal but basically understand that Ashkanaz do not eat roasted meat because we don't yet have andardim do eat roasted meat to remind us that tonight is so you really can't go from one to the other and say this year I like this reason This here I like the other reason but understand that we're all on the same page and hashem we're all going to eat from the pesak we take the middle matzah we start tonight with three matzos usually every shabas and everyonto we have twoishna tonight we have three we take the middle matzah and we break it and we're breaking it really because a beautiful reason there are two different identities to the matzah. I'm not saying the matzah is schizophrenic, but he has two identities. What does that mean? We're going to begin the mid section by saying holy this is the bread that we ate in Egypt. What does that mean? For 210 years, what did they serve us when we were slaves in Egypt? They served us matzah. Why? Because matzah is cheap. Matzah is filling. And that's what the Egyptians gave us. Haha. This is the bread that we ate actually in Mitzim a right before we eat we say the very famous Mishna of Rebl who said you have to recite the reasons for pesak matzah and morar and there matzah is given a different reason there matzah is given this is the bread that we ate on the way out and the Egyptians didn't give us time to bake our bread so is matzah the bread of affliction is matzah the bed of freedom. And what's the answer everybody? Both. And it's not a contradiction. Hashem is the one who put us in there. Hashem is the one who took us out. Whoa. That's very important. And keep in mind that the bigger half of that yakas is going to the aikoma which is the sign of the uh the bread of freedom. and the bigger one representing what's going to be in the future. This is a night of thank you. Thank you, Hashem, for what you did in the past. Thank you, Hashem, for what you do for us every moment in the present. Missiles flying in between the houses. And finally, most important, we are celebrating the future redemption. Unbelievable. Past, present, future. There's so much to talk about. I hope I'm not confusing you. Any questions, ask your local rabbi. Here we go. We're on to the mid. MG is one of the two biblical mitzvos that are unique to tonight. Every night we say at the end of the schma of the end of third paragraph, I am your God who took you out of Egypt. That's it. That's called remembering. Tonight there's a mitzvah of telling the story. Now the Gmorrah says the bigger mitzvah is if you have children at your seder are fine. If you have guests at your seder, fine. If it's you and your spouse, you tell your wife. And if a person for whatever the reason shouldn't happen, but they're by themselves, they have to say it to themselves. You have to not just know this in your mind. You have to articulate that there is tonight is the night of wo our liberation. Now what does that mean our liberation? So really there's a debate between Rav and Shuel as to what is the essence of the hagod. According to it's the first one that we say which means literally we were slaves to parro in Egypt. Okay physical and God took us out from there. Now I'm going to tell you a beautiful thought in the name of the beer Yoseph. In that paragraph, we say that had God not taken us out of Egypt, you ready? We would still be slaves to parro in Egypt. That doesn't make sense. We know that there have been so many revolutions throughout the world. At some point, a kind beneficent parro would have freed us or we would have rebelled against Egypt like so many others. So, how could we say at the Haga that if God wouldn't have taken us out, we'd still be slaves in Egypt? The answer is, says the Bayer Yoseph, if we'd still be indebted to parro. In other words, we'd say, "Thank you, parro, for freeing us out of Egypt." The answer is now tonight is one night we focus on one and only. Thank you, Hashem. Hashem took us out. Ah, that's the idea that we are so thankful tonight for this incredible divine wink that God showed the Jewish people. And to keep this thought going, the safer mitzvah says that the first of the ten commandments, which is I am your God who took you out of Egypt, don't think that that's the completion of what it means. what the rest of the verse means. Just as I took you out of Egypt, then so too will I take you out of Egypt, please God, in the future. So I want you to realize and share this with everybody at your seder that really at the seder we have past, present, future. Past, thank you for what you did for us then. Present, thank you for what you do for us now. missiles falling between the houses and all the other miracles that we see in front of us. And the future is we are singing praise to Hashem that which he's going to do like we say at the end of the halm all the nations because they know what they wanted to do to us and they know how Hashem thwarted their intentions. So we have two hagos that we say hag of which is a mo and the hag of ra which is hu abus. Our ancestors worshiped idols and hashem took us out. Remember the Egyptians worshiped the lamb. We designated it for four days telling the Egyptians, "We're going to slaughter your god." They couldn't do anything to us. We slaughtered their god this afternoon on the 14th of Nissan. That's why it's called by the Torah in part the 14th today is called because of the pes and tonight already is called kaga matzos because tonight we eat the matzah ideally in the future with the kban pesak and it's going to come I promise you because all the prophets promised us that this will happen we should be excited about it We wear a kit according to the nits to remind us that when they ate kchim sacrifices in the bikdash we wore a kit. Guess what? We're going to wear it again. That's it. We relive the past. Not just remember it to the best of our ability. We relive it. Okay. The ideal is to say the entire mag section which is thanking Hashem for all that he's done for us in the past. However, just in case there's someone who cannot, a soldier who only has 40 minutes to make a seder, uh someone in the hospital, whatever the situation is, it's important to know that not every page of the Hagada is essential. Some are more important than others. So just to let you know the first paragraph of mid reminding us that this was the matzah that we ate in is one the four questions are are important because it's a night of question and answer. Encourage all your guests to um uh ask as many questions as possible. The first paragraph of is very important like I told you and so to the next one. is important. We pick up the cup. Now wait a second. The should be recited over the smaller piece of matzah that you broke. The bigger piece is put away for the and the smaller piece is recited over it bread of which much is recited. Interestingly, we cover the matzah bya. The he the cup itself. First of all, the he is God's promise in the past has kept us going and it keeps us going for the future. That's number one. But secondly, the rabbis say very sharply for he this cup namely wine has preserved Jewish identity. Because remember what do we say in this paragraph in every generation they try to annihilate us physically and culturally. What does that mean? That unfortunately too many Jewish boys, too many Jewish girls in secular colleges meet a very nice individual, however not yet Jewish. So the rabbis tried to wedge and keep a distance between them on a social level by saying that number one if she touches the wine you can't drink from that bottle of wine. Whoa. Wine which was such an important social drink was a wedge between us and preventing us from intermarriage. Just know that the same idea that if a non-Jew buys a new pot and all the food is coming from a kosher uh store, everything is kosher. The pot is new and they cook the meal. So I have everything kosher in the pot. A Jew cannot eat that meal. You have to know this very important. Once again, the rabbis put a wedge that there should not be this kind of social contact between Jew and non-Jew. As we start in the Kdish, Hashem chose us. We are different. Everything about us is different. And that's the Pesak Seder. Pesak Seder is look what he did for us. Look how pronounced it is. that Hashem himself, not any kind of an agent, took us out of Egypt. Okay, we have the 10 plagues, which people have a custom of taking either a little spilling of it or with your finger, whatever your custom is, it's the idea that the 10 plagues stop and talk about it or educational. And they were punitive. They were a punishment to Mitim for all that they did for us. and educational for the Jewish people cuz only their blood turned to uh only their water turned to blood. Only they were affected by the frocks etc. So this is exceedingly important that people remember what Hashem did for us at this time in Egypt. Okay. I want to call the 10 makos 10 divine winks. God was winking at the Jewish people um in order for us to be able to realize according to the rabbis each plague took a month. So we're talking over 10 months we had this time to begin to recuperate physically but more than that educationally to realize oh there is a God and how much love he has for the Jewish people. Now finally is lovely. It says wow thank you Hashem. That's it. It's saying whatever you did would have been sufficient. Look how much you've done and finally you brought us you gave us the Torah. You brought us into Israel and you gave us a mdash. Whoa. And guess what? It's all going to happen again. Now most important towards the very end of midl whoever does not say and explain articulate these three you have not satisfied your obligation. This is a must for everybody including the women make sure they're here. The idea behind it is that number one, what is the barebone minimum I have to speak about telling the story? That's a biblical mitzvah. And that is explaining the mitzvos. And the mitzvah are not just something that please God, we will eat in the future, but and now. But the answer is we have to know why we are doing it. So pes we don't eat it. We we look at the shank bone on the seder plate. It reminds us of that which we had in Egypt and that which we did in the bas for almost a thousand years. And that is what we will be doing in the future. And matzah what's this matzah all about? Like we said before, the matzah we had at the beginning of the meala, the bread of affliction. This is the bread of freedom when we were pushed out of Egypt. And morar is the um bitter herbs bas basically we'll talk about it in a moment but of the chew is better to use Rome main lettuce and then if you need to for old lang zy for your grandparents who used uh horseradish cuz they didn't have that's the point they didn't have romaine lettuce so you're not breaking a family tradition If you don't have the uh horseradish, you're welcome to have the horseradish after the romaine lettuce. The next few power paragraphs are most important for everybody that in every generation, each person to look upon himself as if he left Egypt. And this is the most difficult mitzvah of the night. Okay, we have regardless of where we are. I was to be in Israel. I am in Israel. makes no difference where I am. I am where Hashem wanted me. But wherever I am, I am proclaiming that thank you Hashem for taking me out of Misat. So many levels of understanding this. Everybody has their peckle. Everybody has their personal problems. Okay? And guess what? Hashem remembers all of us. Remember that. We're all included in this redemption process. Then come the first two paragraphs of the hal. Okay. And finally the blessing over the second cup of wine which was poured at the beginning of the meal beginning of uh the of the magit section and we praise Hashem for that which he has done to Hashem. Blessed are you God Al is not only the past but he is the one in the present and in the future is going to redeem us. We drink the second cup of wine. Same rules drinking to the left. We wash our hands because we're about to eat a yung meal. We recite mozi because that's the blessing that we do for every meal which kala or matzah and matzah ideally you should could have it's available barashem in local supermarkets. Try to use matzah. If you can't use matzah, use regular matzah. But whether it's the hand shura matzah, whether it's the machine matzah or regular matzah. Okay, listen carefully. We make two blessings. When I say we, there are two ways of doing this. Either everybody does it together. We all recite. We don't take a bite yet. And then we recite the second to eat matzah or one person says these two blessings and if we answer to each of the blessings we are satisfying our obligation as long as we then eat. Now the question is how much? So there is an opinion of the mir the author of the that one should eat two zim two kazay one for the meal of a yong to and the other one specifically for matzah if that is difficult at least one but meaning that you're not to take a small piece of matzah you have to take if it's a sh machine matzah at least a half of a machine matzah and if it's a hand matzah a Third, now there's no question that this is a night of matzah. And I eat more matzah, more mitzvah. Keep that in mind. Don't take a small piece of matzah. All your work and all our preparation has been for a healthy piece of matzah. And when you eat the matzah, keep in mind this is a biblical mitzvah. The only one we have. We put on fillin every day. We eat matzah one night a year in Erit Israel. Outside of Erit Israel, we'll get it right and we eat two nights a year. But the idea very powerfully is while this is a biblical mitzvah, don't talk if it's hot or cold in the room. Don't talk if it's raining or not or how the Yankees are doing, who everybody's doing well. But the idea, my friends, is enjoy and communicate with the mata. Some people, you don't have to do this in front of everybody, but right before they put the matzah in their mouth, they give it a kiss because wow, this is not just a piece of cardboard. No, this is something which Hashem has told me to eat. And we do and we will. Wow. Okay. After that we take mor for the moor once again. Ideally use the stalks or the leaf. Clean it well. Make sure no bugs of romaine lettuce. It's available now. If you want to just continue the practice of horseradish, I would suggest first take several stalks or one large leaf of the romaine lettuce and then afterwards take a piece of the horseradish. Okay, here we go. Kor, we have a sandwich of the matzah and the morar. Okay. And the reason why we eat it together is once again to remind us that the best is yet to come. What's that? The pesak. And that's what we say. This is what hil did when we had a ban. He would make a sandwich of pesak matzah and mor. Okay, we don't have the pesak yet, but we will to remind us that the Torah says the pes was eaten with matzah mor the meal itself. Interestingly, who's right? Both are right. Theardim and the Ashkanazimardim eat roasted meat because after all the pesak was roasted. Ashkanazim don't eat roasted meat. We don't want to give the impression that this is the carbon. Both of us are saying the same idea how to remember a night of roasting which is what it is and therefore follow your family custom. If you don't have a family custom, consult your RV and ask him what he suggests you do. Sun at the end of the meal we take the aikoma which is the larger piece of the matzah that was broken before. Now that one piece should not be divided among 10 people. You're going to have very very little. You need for the afikoma at least a kazayas of matzah. In other words, a nice big piece. Why? Because according to Rashi and his grandson, this is the fulfillment of the biblical mitzvah of matzah to have it at the end of the meal as the pesak was eaten at the end of the meal. I told you the pesak even though we don't have it yet plays such a major role in our pesak seder. Okay. Try to finish the afikcom by 12:59 before mid the night. Why? Because it was only at midnight that Hashem killed all the firstborn in Egypt. And we celebrate by eating it and showing that even before it happened. We celebrate to show our amuna, our it's a night of amuna. I have amuna that this is what Hashem did for us. He broke all the rules of nature in order to show us that he is our savior that he is our creator and he will redeem us in the future. And this is exceedingly important that we have a nice large piece of matzah for quote dessert that a term a taste of matzah should be in our mouths. We then have the reciting of the basabon over which we recite the third cup of wine. And then finally we drink the third cup of wine and we then move to which is our saying that in the future the world is going to change. Listen, Israel, right now, Hashem, who is our God, in the future, Hashem, meaning the entire world will know, as we're going to say in the hal in a moment, the entire world will recognize and praise Hashem. And therefore, those that are ready to come on board, wonderful. And those that are not, we stand up and we open the door. Tio why Elio Hanavi is the one that will proclaim and let us know hey guys he is on his way. Msiach is coming. We fill the number one we pour the cup for yahu a symbol that there's going to be a future redemption. We recite the hal after which we say not just mit of the paragraphs after starting with but we have we can't stop praising hashem once we start you can't really stop okay and we conclude with the recitation of And finally drinking the fourth cup of wine. After that comes the and what does mean? N means Hashem please accept our service as if we brought the carbon. We did the best we can. We wish we could take the lamb today. We wish we could slaughter it. We wish we could eat it tonight roasted. We will. We will. We have such belief in this and that's what we say. So just as we have been privileged to prepare the seder and to go through every step with the seda we thank you Hashem may we be privileged to do so in the future namely with the third base amikdash. We end the evening with and by singing praises of what took place in the past and what will take place God in the future. I just want to end with what's this whole idea of what's going on here. One is this and two is that basically I heard beautifully that the pesa should transform us. What does that mean? Should transform us? It means that my identity is tied with the Jewish people. You show me the number one. Who knows one? Oh, one is the one is a god who took us out of Egypt. What's two? who knows two two other luhos. In other words, two is not a number of a baseball or basketball player who might be well known for their whatever they do in baseball and basketball. We know that two is the we know that seven is the days of the week culminating with Shabas. The Jewish identity is is formulated through the eka. I take this opportunity of asking everyone for a wonderful yongd to enjoy that's the key word enjoy the mitzvos enjoy the seder enjoy the going through Jewish history reliving the past celebrating the present and also celebrating the special future in ter in terms for the Jewish people I take this opportunity to wish everybody a a wonderful and we should all be privileged. you and your family and mates and all listeners who are so thankful for this positive shot of Jewish identity which nahim gives us every day. May we be strengthened by the pesak seder to please God readily, anxiously, joyously await the coming of Moshiach every single day. Kachumto and good chabis to all.