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Speech with Rabbi Akiva Zweig [Sefer Vayikra Launch Event Boca Raton, Florida]
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Transcript
Auto-generated transcript. Not time-synced to the video.
Good morning, everyone.
I'm sure we're all happy to invite Elad
to move to Florida along with everyone
else full time.
It's a privilege to be here. A very
special thank you to Elad Danino for the
incredible work that he's doing
at bolstering this very important
mitzvah.
It's also amazing to see when a Jew
takes a calling, a mission seriously,
what can be accomplished. Here we are
just a week and a half before Pesach and
everybody's spending time
to celebrate and to dedicate themselves
to this mitzvah.
And it's amazing what one Jew can
accomplish. Really, it's an incredible
feat. But it needs to be a lesson for
all of us because one thing that we all
need now is more Jews doing more great
things in order to help our nation
achieve the ultimate redemption that
we're all trying to achieve. Very
special thank you to Rabbi Goldberg and
Rabbi Moskowitz. Such an incredible not
only a shul, but BRS is a makom Torah
and that's an amazing accomplishment for
this community. I have a special hakarat
hatov for this community. Um I know
Rabbi Rabovsky for a very long time and
I don't know everyone else as well, but
uh baruch Hashem, you all know that
you're in great hands and it's a
privilege to partner with such great
community leaders for such a great
initiative. And hopefully we'll all do
more great things together.
So a couple of questions I would like to
share related to Pesach, but for that
first about shnayim mikra v'echad
targum. I don't know
if anybody's thought about it. I imagine
Elad has done a lot of thinking about
this mitzvah. Maybe he had this
question. But a question that's bothered
me all the years is why do we do twice
the pasuk and only once the translation?
Why don't we do three times the pasuk?
Why don't we do one time the pasuk? If
the idea is to be familiar with the
Torah, let's read it once or let's do it
twice, or maybe we should do the pasuk
twice and the targum twice.
It's a very interesting evolution that
we specifically do the pasuk twice
and we do the translation only once.
If we're really supposed to know it,
maybe we should do the translation
twice. Especially there's a whole
question, do you do it with English? Do
you do it in in a different language you
understand? You do it with the targum?
You do it with Rashi?
So, let's
let's maybe do three translations.
What's the idea of twice the pasuk and
once the translation? So, I know it's
doesn't seem like it relates to Pesach,
but I believe it does.
So, we call this the holiday of Pesach,
and in the Torah it's also called Hag
Hamatzot, the holidays of matzos.
Now, we know that matza is a big deal,
but it's a little bit hard to figure out
why matza is such a big deal.
Yes, we left quickly. Even that's a
little bit hard to understand. They
could have done it seemingly a little
bit of planning. We could have had more
time to prepare
bread that would rise. That's hard to
understand. But the fact that it's such
a major theme of the holiday, especially
by the way when you consider that the
only mitzvah d'oraita to eat matza that
we're obligated to eat matza according
to all opinions is only the first night.
Everything else is really about don't
eat chametz.
But the mitzvah is only the first night.
There is a shita of the Gaon that if you
eat matza the rest of the day, so you
fulfill the mitzvah of matza. But
really?
We call the whole Pesach matzot, and we
don't have the mitzvah except for the
first night. So, why is matza such an
important theme? I mean, after all
it's crackers.
What's it about?
So,
another very hard question that I think
is overlooked is that
what we read on last week when we read
Parshat Hachodesh, and what we read
about actually on the first day of
Pesach is that the Jewish people are
told to bring a korban Pesach and
they're told to pull back their hands
from doing idolatry. Don't do idolatry.
Instead, sacrifice the God of the
Egyptians, that is a lamb. It's also the
constellation of the month.
Now,
that means that the Jewish people in
Egypt at this time were doing avodah
zarah.
But, this mitzvah in the Torah comes
after the ninth plague, after choshech.
So, that means everybody seen nine
plagues where only the Egyptians are
getting obliterated.
Nothing's happening to the Jews and
they're still doing avodah zarah.
They're still worshipping idols?
And many of us are familiar with the
teaching that 4/5 of the Jews died in
the plague of darkness.
And they're still doing avodah zarah.
We're talking about the 1/5 now, right?
We're talking about the chamushim, the
1/5 that left Egypt. They're being told
erev Pesach, stop doing avodah zarah.
Slaughter the Egyptian God?
We're talking about the good Jews are
doing avodah zarah after nine plagues?
It seems very difficult to understand.
And Rashi tells us
that they needed as a special reward to
do the mitzvah of milah, circumcision,
as well as the mitzvah of the carbon
Pesach in order to have some merit to
get redeemed.
That's great that they did that mitzvah,
but why were they doing avodah zarah?
Rashi also asks one more very
interesting question and with this we'll
begin.
Rashi says that this year in Egypt was
the only time that the Jews were
commanded to prepare the Pesach by
taking
a lamb four days before Pesach came, on
the 10th of the month. And every day
they needed to look at that lamb
according to the chazal, they tied it to
the bedpost. They examined it every day
for four days.
I don't know if it was once a day, twice
a day, I don't know.
But, Rashi asks, why is this the only
Pesach in history that they needed a
4-day preparation for the animal? Every
other year, you go to the Pesach market
on the 14th of Nissan in the morning,
you buy your lamb, and you slaughter it,
then you do a carbon Pesach. That's
Rashi's question.
And the truth is, if you read Rashi, he
doesn't really answer the question. This
is the Rashi that says that they had no
merit to get redeemed, so Hashem gave
them two mitzvot.
But he really does not answer the
question why this Pesach is different,
even though he asks the question. He
doesn't actually answer the question,
but I'd like to suggest to you what I
think Rashi is answering, and it's very
interesting to me that he doesn't answer
the question, and I think it goes back
to our theme, Mishnayot Mikra.
And it is as follows.
What idolatry really means at the very
basic level is Hashem is not the creator
of the world.
There are other forces, or there are no
forces, there is no creator. That's
idolatry at the most basic level.
But there's another form of idolatry
that the Jews in Egypt were dealing
with, the Jews of today are dealing
with, and that is the idolatry that
says,
"We don't have to think about
everything. We can accept the status
quo."
Especially if society says it's true.
And we all fall victim to that. We fall
victim to thinking that sports are
important because it's such a major
industry, and the media talks about it
in every broadcast.
We all have a tendency to wonder, you
know, is it really necessary to go to
war with Iran? Because look how many
people are saying it wasn't necessary.
Hopefully, most of us know that it is
necessary.
But we fall victim to the ideologies of
the time, and we don't necessarily
examine it. Of course, technology and
smartphones, we all fall victim, and
well, this is what everybody's doing, so
I guess we need to join the crowd.
And that is a form of idolatry as well
because it interferes in pursuing what
is real truth, examining carefully
issues, knowing how to deal with
psychological issues, not what the
society tells us, but what the Torah
tells us. Knowing how to raise children,
not the way society tells us, but what
the Torah tells us.
And it's very difficult to get used to
always thinking. In fact, people like to
make fun of Jews, you know, and all the
questions that they have in the Talmud.
You know, is this what you spend all day
thinking about? And the answer is we
actually spend all day learning how to
think.
Which is why we call it learning how to
learn to read a page of the Talmud.
Learning how to think is the ultimate
rejection of idolatry. Maybe somebody
can explain to me why the countries that
have been now attacked double, triple,
quadruple the amount that Israel has
been attacked is not going to war with
Iran. Maybe somebody can explain that to
me.
What are they thinking? The answer is
they don't really want to think. They
don't want to really confront. So,
they're not willing to deal with
reality. Not dealing with reality is
exactly what idolatry really is about.
And even the Jews in Egypt were
struggling to deal with idolatry,
meaning
let's fully disengage from the Egyptian
ways of thinking. Let's not think that
in order to have the salvation that we
need, we need to think about the power
of the agriculture because the ram was
the agrarian god of the time.
It's hard not to think that the stock
market is really dictating our future.
Everybody agree?
It's hard not to think about that. We're
worried about that. We also want to know
what's going to be with the stock
market.
All these little ways that we forget to
truly look for truth and attribute that
back to Hashem is part of idolatry. Even
the Jews of Egypt were dealing with that
at that time. You know what matzah and
chametz says? Chametz says, "If you just
let the thing go,
it's going to be more delicious. It's
going to rise. It's going to taste
better.
Let me just let it go."
And most of the times in life, we're
letting it go.
We're kicking the can down the road.
Matzah says, "No, you need to intervene.
Within 18 minutes, it needs to be baked
and done."
Because you really need to get involved
in understanding what's happening in
your world. What do you let go and what
do you not let go? There are some things
to let go, but you have to at least
think of that and decide to let it go.
You don't just assume it's okay. You
have to think very deeply. Is this the
right move or is this that not the right
move? Say "Chazal" that when we guard
the matzot, what we're really doing is
guarding the mitzvot.
Because that's what a mitzvah is.
A mitzvah is our opportunity that Hashem
says, "Engage in thinking. Look at the
ingredients. Is it really kosher? Is it
really good for you?" By the way, you
might want to check for health
aspects, too.
Engage. Mitzvot are Can you do this? Can
you not do this? You have to think. And
the sign of a person that really
recognizes the existence of Hashem
is the sign of the person that knows
that thinking about life, thinking about
what is, thinking about the future
is what existence is all about. It's not
just
a ride that we're on and we let things
go and we hope things turn out well and
we try to navigate, you know, systems
and powers. That's not what
Hashem is all about.
So, we have this beautiful mitzvah
that's called "Shnayim Mikra v'Echad
Targum".
The most important thing about learning
Torah is that you need to know you have
to go back to the pasuk all the time.
You have to go back to the Rashi, too.
Rashi asks the question, "Why four days
this time and not other times?"
You know what the reason is? Because
this was getting the Jews used to
examining something. How many Jews would
say,
"Oh, no, I'll just wait till the 12th.
I'll just wait till the I'll just wait
till the 14th. Won't be a problem. I'll
get a sheep. There are plenty of sheep.
And then you wake up on the 14th, you
take the sheep and you say, "I don't
really have time to check it." And you
go slaughter it.
That's not Judaism because Jews have to
be prepared. We have to think. Whether
it's the first day, the 10th, the 11th,
the 12th, any of those days, we have to
be carefully examining.
So, Rashi's telling us that the reason
that that year they needed 4 days is
because they had to get used to
examining. They had to get used to
thinking. That's not an easy thing to
do.
So, the question I then get asked is,
"What about the future years?"
Well, that's why we have the Torah.
See, the first year we didn't have the
Torah.
After that, we have the Torah.
And the law of the Torah is read the
pasuk twice, make sure that you at least
have an understanding, but read it twice
because you have to go back to the pasuk
and see what else could it mean. What
else is the Torah teaching us?
So, we read it twice and we translate it
once not only to get familiarity with
what the pasuk is saying, but to get
used to the process of thinking,
understanding, and then re-examining.
So, I would argue that this mitzvah is
very much in line with what Pesach is
all about.
And hopefully, by engaging in this
process, we'll continue to do the
amazing things that Jews do. What's
happened in these last 6 months, in
these last
almost 3 years since October 7th, is
astonishing.
But it's not astonishing if you
understand not only that Hashem exists
and that Hashem wants the Jewish people
to exist. And Hashem will always help
the Jewish people to exist. The whole
door of a door, that's all true.
But he depends on our thinking,
on our creativity, our ingenuity, our
commitment to looking for truth, to
examining what the Torah has to say, and
and applying it.
And that's true about the cross-section
of all Jews that have the tradition of
thinking and that Hashem will unify in
what Jews do best. Thinking again about
what the Torah says, thinking again
about what can we do to innovate in
creation, thinking again about what
like
can we not only celebrate, rededicate,
and then become even greater and merit
the ultimate redemption.
Chag sameach, everyone.