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The Yanuka’s own words in this shiur, translated into English by Lehallel · 3,828 words · 17:40. Press a time to hear it said.
0:00 At every time and festival that the Holy One, blessed be He, made for the Jewish people — notice the difference between the Shabbosos and the Yamim Tovim. The Shabbosos are a remembrance of the work of Creation, that the Holy One, blessed be He, rested from all His work that He had made. And the Yamim Tovim are a remembrance of the love and affection the Omnipresent has for us, and how much the Holy One, blessed be He, loves the Jewish people. On Sukkos, which gives the remembrance of the Clouds of Glory; Pesach, when He took us out of Egypt, the miracles and the wonders that He did; on Shavuos, the Giving of the Torah, He gave us this wonderful gift, the holy Torah.
0:36 And the Holy One, blessed be He, waited 974 generations before He gave the Torah. In Tractate Shabbos, page 10b, the Gemara says: 'One who gives bread must inform the child's mother.' You don't just give bread like that. And from here they learned about giving a gift, a great thing, especially such a thing: 'Shabbos is its name; go and inform them.' He gave us such a great gift, the holy Shabbos. So, the holy Shabbos is a remembrance of the work of Creation, of the true purpose for which the world was created: that we rest on Shabbos and rejoice on Shabbos. Midrash Tanchuma, Parshas Bereishis, section 3: 'The honor of Shabbos is greater than a thousand fasts' — that we rejoice on the holy Shabbos.
1:11 But the greatness of Pesach — Pesach shows the revelation of the love and affection of the Holy One, blessed be He, for us, more than all the festivals. Why? 'As in the days of your going out from the land of Egypt, I will show him wonders.' The miracles and wonders that the Holy One, blessed be He, did for the Jewish people on Pesach — the overturning of nature, that He subdued nature and shattered everything that had been made. Although the Chacham Tzvi, in his responsa, section 18, writes that there is no such thing as nature; it is all imagination.
1:40 There is no such thing as nature; it is all illusion. Everything is a revelation of G-dliness, everything is Hashem, blessed be He. If Hashem, blessed be He, wants, all the water in the world is blood — just like that, if He wants — and blood will be water. If Hashem, blessed be He, wants, the whole body will have water, no blood, and blood will be what we drink. That is how the Holy One, blessed be He, wants it. He can make the sun shine right now — it would have to break out over the whole world. If rain and snow came down now, it would be hot; people would sweat.
2:09 If Hashem, blessed be He, wants — by His will, blessed be He. So writes the Chacham Tzvi. This is to teach you, that this is how you should see the greatness of the Holy One, blessed be He, what He can do. But what did the Holy One, blessed be He, show us at the Exodus from Egypt, on Pesach? The Holy One, blessed be He, showed us the miracles and the wonders that He did, the whole overturning of nature, how He rules the entire world, all of Creation, and everything is by His will, blessed be He. And we see the love and the affection of the Holy One, blessed be He, for us — what a revelation of love, face to face.
2:36 And so this is the only night in the entire year when the Holy One, blessed be He, comes down Himself to the table and listens to everything we tell and recount in the Haggadah, this Haggadah. I once gave a shiur on this, for whoever remembers. Please — he can also tell it over, I don't know. Check it; there are more discourses from several years back. That is, there are several parts to Pesach; this is just one more part of it. There are more wonderful things here, novel insights.
Read the whole shiur in English (28 more parts)
3:05 So we — 'And you shall tell your son' — we tell it to the children. But the Holy One, blessed be He, also has to fulfill the Torah, and the Holy One, blessed be He, also has to tell us the Haggadah. So for this the Holy One, blessed be He, comes down from Heaven to us and is with us at the table. There is a mitzvah to have an abundance of wonderful vessels, with beauty and splendor, to adorn the table, because of the Shechinah that rests in the home. And so the best and most exalted thing is to be, specifically on Pesach, in one's own home. Why? The Shechinah comes to your home and the Holy One, blessed be He, comes to your table, so it is not worth trading that for another table or another home.
3:41 It is worth making it specifically at home, and making it at the table, because of 'And he said to me: This is the table that is before Hashem' — so that the Shechinah will rest specifically on this table. And Pesach — the mouth reveals G-dliness, with a full mouth, a revelation of G-dliness. A person's whole mouth must reveal His G-dliness, blessed be He, in the whole world — that we speak of it — and the whole world saw the miracles and the wonders that the Holy One, blessed be He, did with us. And so Pesach shows the Omnipresent's affection for us, how much the Holy One, blessed be He, has mercy on us, and the level of the kedushah of the Jewish people is the very highest, in that He chose us from all the nations.
4:14 And notice right away that immediately after the Jewish people leave Egypt, the great thing they merit is to receive the great light of the Torah. Right away — the preparation of the Exodus from Egypt was for the revelation of the Giving of the Torah. All those times, everything that was the preparation of the Exodus from Egypt — that is, the purpose of all the miracles, the signs and the wonders was to give them the greatest miracle, the greatest gift, the holy Torah, which is our greatest vessel for the revelation of His G-dliness, blessed be He. When a person does not learn Torah, he cannot see the Hashgachah of Hashem; in practice he is inside physicality, and inside denial and heresy; he does not merit to see the true revelation of Hashem. Only through the Torah does a person merit to shatter all the iron walls,
4:58 all the obstacles, all the blockages, and to see a revelation of G-dliness. Notice that the Holy One, blessed be He, gave us, for example — each time He gave us the appointed times, and at each time the prohibition is revealed: a time that is drawn more toward Gevuros, and a time that is drawn more toward Chassadim. In that we have to separate from a prohibition — for example, like the prohibition of eating on Yom Kippur, the prohibition of eating chametz on Pesach — there is a separation from the forbidden.
5:27 On Sukkos, for example, we don't have that separation from a prohibition; it is not that we are forbidden to eat chametz, but we have a different prohibition: eating outside the sukkah. That is, this is already on the prohibition, not on the person — a prohibition on the object; a prohibition of the object, 'cheftza,' and a prohibition of the person, 'gavra' — that is the dispute, as with the immersion of vessels. So from here you see something very, very wonderful: at a time when the Holy One, blessed be He, fences in the prohibitions and separates the person himself — when the prohibition falls on the person himself, eating chametz on Pesach is a prohibition on the person, and he is forbidden to have any dealings with it; he has to clear the chametz out of his home, so that he has no connection at all with the chametz —
6:05 the more fences, separations and safeguards there are that the Torah forbids, the more the levels of kedushah rise, and we reach the very highest levels. On Yom Kippur, for example, we are forbidden to eat at all, and then in fact we rise and are elevated and reach the highest place there is. The more we rise in the level of kedushah, the higher we go.
6:30 On the eve of the holy Shabbos we do not set a meal — Tractate Gittin, page 38 — we refrain from eating a meal before Shabbos, so that a person will eat his meal with appetite. We hold back from setting a meal on Erev Shabbos, and the closer we get to Shabbos, we are forbidden even to drink water. When you get closer to Kiddush, it is forbidden to taste anything before Kiddush — Pesachim, page 105, and also in the Beis Yosef.
6:54 So here we see — though one may be lenient — that according to our master the Tur, and the Beis Yosef, who ruled like the Tur and the Rashba, it is forbidden to drink even water; even that is forbidden. According to our master the Rambam and the Rav HaMaggid, who permit drinking water, one may of course be lenient in this. But from here we see — not for someone weak like that, a person who is weak, and so on — so it is clear that as we rise higher in the level of kedushah, rising and being elevated to a higher level, so we separate from eating and separate from drinking.
7:23 And when the Jewish people received the Torah, they separated from their wives, and rose and were elevated to the highest place. And Moshe Rabbeinu, when he ascended on high, for forty days did not eat or drink. He became like an angel — in Midrash Shocher Tov, 90:5 — half of him like an angel, half of him like a man. We see the holy and exalted level that Moshe Rabbeinu reached. And the more we rise and rise in level, the more there is a revelation of G-dliness that holds a person back from belonging to this world, it cuts him off. That is really the filth of the Serpent, which lets a person touch this world.
7:56 And the more safeguards, fences and separations there are, that is a person's disconnection from this world. So on Pesach, on one hand there is a revelation of love beyond measure — the Holy One, blessed be He, reveals His love and affection for us through signs and wonders, miracles and marvels — and on the other hand, the Holy One, blessed be He, disconnects us from coarseness and physicality, which is the... all the swelling, all the pride. Just as honey is not offered on the altar, so too the chametz, which keeps swelling and lifts itself up high — the Holy One, blessed be He, says to a person: It is impossible to do miracles and wonders with pride.
8:29 A person cannot both be full of pride and also want Me to do everything for you. So a person has to be like matzah — thin. He has to be utterly nullified before the Holy One, blessed be He. Not to swell up, not to be proud, not to be in haughtiness, at a level a person credits to himself. Because then the Holy One, blessed be He, says: 'He and I cannot dwell together,' and then there are none of the miracles of Egypt. This is a person who is lowly and of no account and nullifies himself before the Holy One, blessed be He — matzah.
8:56 He is nothing; he is nullified to the light of Hashem, blessed be He. He does not prevent the revelation of Hashem's G-dliness from being revealed in the world. For all chametz, everything that swells and rises upward, that is proud — all this haughtiness and pride that exists in the world prevents the Holy One, blessed be He, from redeeming Israel. This is 'The son of David does not come' — Shabbos, page 139 — 'until the evil judges and officers cease from Israel,' who credit themselves with the power, the thinking, the wisdom — that they are the ones who know, they are the ones who understand, they have a law — but it is all the opposite of the Torah; it is all against the view of Hashem, against the holy Torah.
9:27 And may the view of the holy Torah always be on top, with ever greater force and strength, above everything. And that is the most, most important thing in the world. And that is the secret of Pesach: Pesach sets all right understanding in order. After all, it is called Leil HaSeder; we once gave an explanation. Why is it called Leil HaSeder, the Night of Order? Because it is the only night in the year when all the stars and all the watches of the angels, the constellations and everything stand in the firmament in the same order as when the Jewish people went out of Egypt.
9:56 That is the reason it is named Leil HaSeder, for whoever does not know. That is the reason it is called Leil HaSeder. Why Leil HaSeder? At all other times everything is a mess, mixed up, every day... Now, someone who looks at the sky on Erev Pesach, on Seder night, and looks at the firmament, and he understands the wisdom of the stars and constellations — the Baraisa d'Mazalos, there is an explanation of this too — and for the constellations there is the Baraisa d'Mazalos — and one looks, with the wisdom of the stars, to understand every connection between star and star, and each and every constellation, all of it — a person would see that everything is arranged in the firmament like the order in which the Jewish people went out of Egypt, in that same order. That is why it is called Leil HaSeder.
10:33 When in fact on this night there is the biggest mess: until we eat — oh-ho, how much work there is! It is not orderly at all on this night; we don't eat and dine right away. There is so much order by which we ascend. There is a level of kedushah, so there is abstaining from eating, and we rise and rise and rise and rise, and remember what was done for our forefathers; we make the signs, and recall everything that was done for our forefathers, until we rise and rise and are elevated — only then are we permitted the meal.
11:00 So notice: this is the meaning of Pesach, that it is the only night in the whole year — right with the saying of Hallel, in our recalling the miracles and wonders of Hashem, with joy, with unity, with setting aside eating, with the nullification of chametz; with setting aside eating — we also do not eat or drink until we do the Seder and the matzah. And right afterward, since the taste of the afikoman must stay in the mouth — again, abstaining from eating. Because this shows that on this night, despite its holy and awesome level, there is still a separation from eating, so that a person — what is engraved in his mind and what is engraved in his body should be the light of Hashem, blessed be He, the great revelation of G-dliness that is inside the matzah. If we could see what this matzah is —
11:44 it is all the healings and all the salvations, the blessings, the understanding and the revelation of G-dliness; it is all in the matzah, so that a person will understand the closeness of the Holy One, blessed be He. And so a person merits to see the light hidden within him. And everyone has a light that can bring the geulah. Everyone in the Jewish people has within him his part in the coming of Mashiach. There is no such thing as a Jew who is alone and not connected to the geulah.
12:08 The Holy One, blessed be He, speaks of each and every one, and loves him like an only son, and He wants him to reveal everything hidden within him, and to bring all his vessels from potential into actuality. And where do we see the proof of this? From the Exodus from Egypt. When the Holy One, blessed be He, took the Jewish people out of Egypt, He did not choose to take out only Moshe Rabbeinu alone — even though He said to him, at the sin of the Calf: 'Let Me be, and I will destroy them, and I will make you into a great nation.' But in any case, in the end, in the plague of darkness, all those who did not believe Moshe Rabbeinu died.
12:36 They did not merit — now, it was not merely as revenge or as a death; they were simply in the plague of darkness, because they did not believe that the great light was hidden within them. Moshe Rabbeinu taught them, the Jewish people: a great light is hidden within you. You have to... He teaches us. Every day Moshe Rabbeinu teaches us that there is a great and mighty light within us. We must believe in ourselves. And it begins with the morning blessings, where we see 'Who has not made me a non-Jew' and 'Who chose us from all the nations,' and we already begin to mention this great and mighty distinction, that we are the chosen ones out of every people, and that we — 'Blessed is our G-d, Who created us for His glory and separated us from those who stray' —
13:12 and we merit great heights. And then this joy must never stop. Like Rabbi Moshe Leib of Sassov — he would dance with his whole being, and they asked him: Where do you start your joy from? He said: From the morning. When I say 'Who has not made me a non-Jew,' I am happy. Oh, how happy he was. So it starts from here, and then this light keeps breaking through and growing stronger. And so the Satan — all he wants is to ambush a person and confuse him, so that he will not merit to discover, to understand what is hidden within him and what is in his power; to break him and make him despair — 'a slave when he becomes king, and a maidservant when she inherits her mistress.'
13:42 That is the secret of the whole exile, all of our being in Egypt, all the exiles, every one. And Rabbi Shlomo of Karlin says: the most severe sin is when a Jew forgets that he is the son of a King. And so when Pesach arrives, the mouth begins to reveal G-dliness, and we recount the Pesach out loud. We say the Pesach out loud; this rectifies the sin of the blemish of the covenant. But when a person, Heaven forbid, is blemished in the drops of his mind, he cannot draw close to the truth. So one must always, all the time, pray for the real truth.
14:09 Pray to Hashem. Why? Because a person cannot say that he has arrived, because he can always be enticed and brought down. So one must always pray to Hashem to draw ever closer to Hashem, blessed be He; because each time, raging waters and evil spirits want to confuse a person, to hold him back, to cast him into the depths of despair, into a blemish in emunah, a blemish in faith in the Sages, a blemish in the Torah, a blemish in religion; to bring him down — with surging waves of water they try to catch him. The moment he prays to Hashem, he merits to walk always in lowliness and humility, to lift his eyes to Heaven and to flee from all the noise in the world and to draw close to Hashem; then he merits to return to his true purpose:
14:42 to reveal the light of Hashem, blessed be He, in truth. And so this is the secret of Pesach: for in fact, of the Jewish people, whoever believed in Moshe Rabbeinu went out — everyone who believed in the light that was hidden within them — and the miracles and the wonders were with them. The rest did not merit this. So we must always strengthen ourselves and rejoice, and understand our strength and our greatness, and close our eyes to the sights of this world, and not listen to any bad voices that break us. And this is the rule and the main thing a person must always remember: whoever weakens you, whoever breaks you — run away from him.
15:13 Whatever strengthens you and brings you closer to Him, blessed be He — run to it. So be strong, be joyful, and do not be broken by anything. And that is the secret of Pesach, with Hashem's help. Now, will you give us a blessing, and... How are you, our dear and beloved tzaddik — we love you and marvel at you, a wondrous soul, dear and beloved and cherished by all.
15:39 I want to give a blessing here, first of all to the Rav, to the holy Rav, that he should merit to lead Klal Yisrael for many years, long years, with Hashem's help, with no one to hinder or accuse, and that always, always he should be able to bestow joy, kedushah and fear of Heaven upon the Jewish people.
16:06 And may all the Rav's wishes be fulfilled for good. And all this holy congregation — whoever needs a livelihood, may he have a livelihood. Whoever needs a match, may he have a match. Shidduchim — whoever needs, may he have shidduchim. And good homes for whoever needs. And may there always be only joy, wealth, wealth, health, and may there always be much success for everyone.
16:49 Amen. We read earlier, in Parshas Parah, about purification, and that we should merit to immerse in a mikveh of purity, that we should merit to immerse in a mikveh of purity. It is about a real-life matter. Do you go to the mikveh yourself? Yes. Once... he wanted to do you good, but because you look so well, ...to go home. You should learn Tractate Mikvaos — Tractate Mikvaos, and it is like a mikveh.
17:25 Tractate Mikvaos — you learn the ten chapters of the Mishnah; Tractate Mikvaos has ten chapters. Learn them all, each chapter with intent. It is like a mikveh; you will feel just like a mikveh, the same thing. Thank you.
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