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Dear
Naaleh
Friend,
This week we have featured a class from Rabbi Hershel Reichman's
Naaleh.com Pesach series,
Galut Mitzrayim: Lessons for Today. The Egyptian Exile and Redemption are a prototype for all future exiles and redemptions. Rabbi Hershel Reichman weaves together ideas from both Chassidic and Lithuanian masters of philosophy, shedding light on our current struggles, and providing insight on how we can use the galut experience to actualize the final purpose of the Jewish People and the world.
Watch this first class from the series, Four Stages of Exile by clicking on the image below:
This week's Torat Imecha Parsha Newsletter on Parshat Tazria is available now below.
Click here for the printer friendly version, to share at your Shabbat table. Be sure to visit the homepage as well, for many more inspiring Torah classes!
Shabbat Shalom!
-Ashley Klapper and the Naaleh Crew
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Pesach: Focusing Forward
Based on a Naaleh.com series by Mrs. Shira Smiles
Every year with the approach of Pesach we begin frantic preparations for the holiday. We check every nook and cranny of our homes, and make multiple grocery shopping trips, each time carefully checking ingredients and rabbinic supervision of products. There is no other time of year when attention to detail is so prevalent. The central symbol of Pesach is
matzah
, the "bread" of flour and water. The entire baking processing must take no more than eighteen minutes otherwise it becomes unfit for use. And so the Torah warns us, "Guard the
matzot
" lest they become
chametz
, fermented and leavened.
The sages explain this further. Instead of reading the word
matzot
, you can read it "You must guard the
mitzvot
." Do the
mitzvot
with alacrity so they do not become stale and unpleasant. Just as there is a miniscule change in time from a kosher
matzah
to one that is not kosher, so too can delaying a
mitzvah
for even a moment make it invalid. Further, even in writing, only a tiny dot changes the Hebrew letters of
m
a
tz
ah
to
ch
a
m
e
tz
. Rav Reiss notes that the questions of the wise son and the wicked son are also almost identical, yet the minor differences between their wordings renders one son wise and the other evil. These seemingly slight variances are in truth worlds apart.
The
Siftei Chaim
points out that the miracles of Pesach are the foundation of faith for every generation. The purpose of the redemption, as Hashem told Moshe, was so that Bnei Yisroel would serve Hashem at the mountain. It is a faith that has sustained us throughout the generations. When we read the Haggadah again each year, we reinforce that faith. Therefore, says Rav Dessler, we are not only commemorating a historical event at the
seder
. We are turning the holiday into an present reality that should alert us to fight for our spiritual freedom. This freedom can only be achieved by ridding ourselves of our
yetzer hara
and accepting the yoke of Heaven.
The
Siftei Chaim
explains
that our challenge is to serve God on His terms, not on ours. The Pesach preparations, writes Rabbi Pincus, serve as the paradigm to achieve this goal, for here we focus on the details and we work hard, beyond our natural inclinations, to fulfill Hashem's command.
Rav Reiss points out that we begin Hallel with the words, "Praise, you servants of Hashem." Likewise, Moshe is referred to in the Haggadah as
"
Moshe, His servant." Just as Moshe's entire life and mindset were devoted to Hashem, we must also devote our lives to Hashem. We must strive to achieve the mindset of a true servant, who pays attention to detail and whose only will is to do the will of his master. And so we eat
matzah
, the food of slaves, says Rabbi Gamliel in
Tiv Hamoadim
, to remind us that we are still "slaves" to the work of our Master. The goal of the Seder, then, is to transform us each year to become true servants of Hashem.
That doesn't mean we are serving Him out of coercion writes the
Mishchat Shemen
. If we consider our service a privilege and a joy, we will invest our entire beings and we will be moved to sing
Hallel
for the privilege of being
avdei Hashem
. Once I accept doing something because it is God's will, says the
Netivot Shalom
, I can access the joy in the performance of His will. While our service may begin with accepting the "yoke of Heaven" it should end in joy.
On that first Pesach in Egypt, Hashem came down personally to redeem us, Rabbi Pincus reminds us. We merited this privilege because of our faith. During the Pesach Seder, we must rekindle that faith through the observance of the rituals of the Seder in every detail with love, faith, and joy.
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Shir Hashirim Perek 1: The Banished Bride -Part II
Based on a Naaleh.com shiur by Rebbetzin Tziporah Heller
"
Pull me after you and we will run. The king brought me to his chamber. We will be glad and rejoice in you. We remember your love more than aged wine, unrestrainedly do they love you." We ask Hashem to draw us close. We don't have the ability to do so on our own. Then we will run towards Him. When Hashem brings us to his chamber, the
Beit Hamikdash
, the nations who cannot access spirituality on their own will share our joy.
We beg Hashem to draw us to Him, but it is hard for us to maintain that closeness. "I'm black but comely...sullied like the tents of the desert..." The blackness is our sins. The nations magnify our smallest flaws, expecting us to be morally perfect. Externally, our perfection might not be visible. But in essence we are beautiful. The strength of our forefathers gives us the capacity to maintain a relationship with the King, although our outer reality might make it difficult.
Oholei kedar
are the nomadic tents made of the skin of black goats or blackened by the sun. The sun signifies the forces of nature.
Our senses tell us that nature is reality. We tend to lock out anything bigger than ourselves and this affects our
middot
and deeds. The more degraded we are, the more similar we become to the other nations. Goats are the symbol of desire. We tell Hashem, you might see our failures, how we gave in to our base urges. But at the same time, see our extraordinary beauty, our acts of nobility and self-sacrifice to do Your will.
Hashem tells us, "Follow in the foot prints of the sheep and pasteurize your own young sheep in the dwelling place of the shepherds." Hashem sees our hidden beauty more than we see it ourselves. Our forefathers followed Hashem with trust, like sheep after a shepherd. We learned kindness from Avraham, self-discipline and courage from Yitzchak, and truth from Yaakov. We inherited a sense of eternity from Moshe and the ability to reveal Hashem's glory in physicality from Aharon. We can have absolutely loyalty to Hashem in the face of temptation like Yosef and follow Hashem like David even when we're broken by circumstances.
"
With my mighty horses who fought Pharaoh's riders I revealed that you are my beloved." Hashem compares us to the mares of Pharaoh's chariot. Although they saw the waters closing in on them they kept going forward into the sea. So too, Hashem says, you're capable of doing anything to follow me. "Your eyes are like a dove..." A dove only mates once. Hashem says, your eyes that see all the colors which the divine light takes on, is not distracted by other forces. You don't want external reality but rather things that are internal and real. You want meaning not surface. You only see me.
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Based on a Naaleh.com shiur by Rebbetzin Leah Kohn
There is a deep association between the holiday of Pesach and the season of the year it falls in. In Shemot the Torah says, "
Hayom atem yotzim b'chodesh ha'aviv." (Today you are going out in the month of spring.) We have an obligation to celebrate Pesach in the spring, and we set occasional leap years to ensure that Pesach will always fall out in spring.
Rav Hirsh describes spring in a poetic way. As nature comes to life, people rejoice. They stroll through the forest enjoying the sound of the wind as it whistles through the trees, inhaling the fragrant scent of flowers and listening to the chirping of the birds. But how pathetic would our faith be if our heart would delight in the song of spring while forgetting the connection to the revelation of the Divine. If we live spring in the physical domain and forget its spiritual aspect, the end is death. Spring, although very beautiful, is always short and fleeting.
How do we define spring on a symbolic level? Is there a way to make it everlasting? When we think of the ideal state of mankind we define it as spring, a state of peace, prosperity, and good relationships. There may be idyllic short periods of time but they don't last. Somehow mankind can't find the formula to achieve it. In contrast, the Jewish spring comes on its own. Pesach comes upon us every year regardless of our situation. Rav Hirsh quotes from Tehilim, "Seu shearim rosheichem." In spring the gates open to welcome the King of glory. Spring is the revelation of the divine, when Hashem comes into our homes and hearts.
Hashem himself redeemed us on the night of Pesach as the Hagada says, "Ani v'lo acher." All of us, regardless of our circumstances, recite the paragraph of the four expressions of redemption at the Seder which ends with, "I took you out and I took you to me you to became one with me." At the end of Magid we bless Hashem for taking us out, "From slavery to freedom, from sadness to happiness, from darkness to great light, from slavery to redemption." That is spring. It's an everlasting idyllic state that repeats itself every year wherever we may be.
The Torah says in Shemot, "Haleila hazeh shimurim l'kol Bnei Yisrael l'dorotam." This night is a night of protection to all of the Jewish people for all generations. Rav Hirsh explains that leil shimurim connotes that Hashem continues to protect the world moment by moment. He created this world for a purpose and He enables us to bring it to its destiny. When the Jews were oppressed in Egypt, it seemed as if the great vision of the Jewish nation had been decimated. But in truth they were only going through the stage of winter. Winter is a time when nature prepares for spring, although it isn't visible. Without this prior groundwork, it would be impossible for a tree that was completely bare to suddenly burst into full bloom. No matter how low we might fall, Hashem is sustaining us. He observes and collects every good choice we make and puts it in his treasure house. This ensures that eventually the world will come to its purpose.
Rav Hirsh writes, "The sparks of light increased in the darkness of exile." In times of difficulty, our spiritual potential is revealed. We were purified seven fold in the smelting pots of Egypt. The Jewish people are described in Shir Hashirim as gan na'ul, a locked garden. They remained separate from the Egyptian nation, preserving their morality. They didn't change their names, language, or clothes. The women had incredible faith. Hashem watched and accumulated their merits until those who wanted to destroy them collapsed. At the time of the exodus, the Jewish people began a journey that would bring all of mankind to spring.
We begin the Hagada with "Ha lachma anya." This is the bread of the poor. Attaining a state of spring has nothing to do with what we have or don't have. It has to do with what's inside us. If we create a dwelling place for Hashem within us, we can create an everlasting spring regardless of our circumstances. In terms of what the nations would define as the idyllic stage, it may be spring for the moment, but if Hashem is not there it won't last. May we merit to tap into the joyous aura of spring and Pesach and may its spirit of everlasting redemption accompany us throughout the year.
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History of the Haggadah
Mrs. Chana Prero |
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