Bedikah, Biur, and Bitul Chametz: Searching Within and Uprooting the Yetzer Hara

Transcript

This Torah class is brought to you by TorahAnytime.com. Ach, is the zman of bedikas biur of chametz. Actually, this zman started 30 days before the time that Chacham said that if you leave your house, you already have to be bodek. So we see it's chal, inyanim of bedikah and biur chametz already 30 days before Pesach. Vas teyt zach in al haheizer, even work so hard to be meva'er the chametz, to get rid of the chametz. And we find different mitzvahs in the din of chametz. There's a din bedikah, there's a din biur, there's a din bitul, there's a din schreifah. Many, many halachos nogea to chametz and avodah. It's all not to be over the issur, bal yera'eh, bal yimatzei. But if you look a little deeper, you look in the Rishonim and the Acharonim, there's deeper inyanim in bedikas chametz, biur chametz, bitul chametz. And the first to really talk about it b'arichus was the Radbaz. The Radbaz in the teshuvos, teshuva taf-kuf ayin vav, addresses the shailah: what's the pshat that chametz, different than all other issurim... We find such strict halachos. We find that it's asur b'mashu, taroves. We find the din bedikah, biur, sreifah, mamash, with all the halachos. Why are there so many chumros, the way he calls it, chumros on Pesach when it comes to this issur? We don't have it not by chazer; we don't have it by other issurim that are asur b'achilah. So there's already a Tosafos in Pesachim that discusses this she'eilah, maybe because lo badil inshi, the whole year a person eats chametz, so therefore we have to put extra chumros. He's used to eating it. Mashenkein chazer, a person knows he stays away all year. So already you see in the Rishonim, Tosafos, the ha'arah: why is there such a chomer to chametz u'matzah? Avada those that learned in yeshivos spent time on that Tosafos when they learned that Tosafos. But the Radbaz goes through a ganze sugya of chametz b'mashu, and at the end he comes out that there's only one explanation to it all. Avada if this was a halachah shiur, I would go through the beginning of the Radbaz. But the Radbaz comes out l'maskanah and he says that it has to be, v'al kein ani somech al mah she'amru Chazal b'midrashes, that I'm somech on what the Chazal say in the Midrashim. Ki chametz b'Pesach remez l'yetzer hara. Azoi zogt the Radbaz, that there's no other explanation. He went through all the inyanim, why, why, why such a chumrah on Pesach? And he says it's got to be because there's a deeper meaning to chametz on Pesach, and that is yetzer hara. V'hu se'or sheb'isach, and that's the leaven, the se'or. V'lachein, goreish, yigareish es ha'adam me'alav, v'yachapes alav kechol meva'eser machshavosav. That learning an inyan of biur, it's not only the physical biur, but there's a biur in your entire mind, in all the corners of your being, azoi zogt the Radbaz. You got to search. Afilu kol shehu lo batel, harei ze emes v'nachon. Shailos u'teshuvos Radbaz, siman taf-kuf. V'zeh, yihyeh lashon, harei ze emes v'nachon. That there is no other way, because if you want to be mevatel, you could come out that there's not such an explanation to all the chumros of Pesach. It's interesting, my father always showed me, there's a lashon of the Rosh, chumras hanash...

B'Pesach. Ein lo keitz. It has no mamish. It's to such an extent. There's a whole kreiz in the Yidden that have such chumras, are not even brought down in Shulchan Aruch. An efshar, a maybe, a maybe, can zayn it touched, and everything. And the answer is this Radbaz. Says the Radbaz it's because of the yetzer hara. So if you look at the Chida in his Haggadah, Simchas HaRegel, he says exactly the way I've spoke out the Radbaz. He says if you look, the Radbaz found no other way to explain chametz on Pesach, and hutzrach lismoch atzmo al haremez, ki hachametz remez l'yetzer hara. Therefore there's so many different chumras what's nogea to it. Then the Chida says something interesting. So therefore we find an inyan of sreifah, the sreifah of chametz. Ein biur chametz ela sreifah. Why? What's wrong with zeira mefarer l'ruach? What's wrong? And the Radach is meforesh in Mishnayos and Gemaras. I'm not coming to not speak out the Gemaras, but vos ligt in dem, zogt the Chida, k'loimar ein lo takanah l'yetzer hara ela l'sorfo b'esh haTorah. Azoi zogt the Chida, that when you go and you burn the chametz, it has a shaychus to burning it through Torah, which we'll im yirtzeh Hashem discuss a little bit further in the shiur, the role that Torah plays. In the inyan of emunah of the night of Pesach, and the biur chametz, we speak about it more b'arichus, b'al kol panim, we see that the yesod, the objective is to get rid of the yetzer hara. It's brought down in the Arizal, it's yadua. The Arizal said, whoever is nizar mi'mashu chametz on Pesach, muftach lo shelo yechta kol hashanah. It's interesting, muftach lo shelo yechta kol hashanah. Pshat, because avada, like we're speaking over from the Radbaz, that brings from Midrashim, that it's the yetzer hara. So if someone cleans out the yetzer hara, he is dafka. Mimeila, muftach lo, he has havtachah shelo yechta kol hashanah. Now how is the chametz a remez for the yetzer hara? We speak about se'or sheb'isa. So there's many different pshatim. The Baal HaMusar speak a lot about it, Reb Yerucham, the Alter from Kelm. So we do with the kitzur, so we don't have to go through all the mareh mekomos. But the chametz rises. It rises, has gaivah, gasas haruach. Challah is not a matzah. You look at a challah, a challah hotn zich, rose. And it's interesting, Baalei Mussar speak out, it rises with what? Mostly air. It's mostly ruach. It's not—there's no toichen in it. Atah daas zeh, daas zeh, the yetzer hara, gasas haruach, it's gaivah, mit ruach. Also they speak about, Baalei Mussar, the inyan of pesurah. It's interesting, you know, food, depending on what it looks like, that's what it tastes. In the midbar, we ate the mon, and the Olam said clearly they couldn't take it. When it shteit in pasuk, Vayancha, Vayarivecha, Vayachilcha es hamon, ... hungerig. A vos hot men geven hungerig? Mitchalts gehat in dem mon. Everything was there. And the teretz is, a person needs to see it. A person needs to see it. The way it looks, that gives the taam. The yetzer hara is the zelbe zach. It can be empty. ... you know, it's glustitzach to the oyg. And b'emes we find this in the Yetzer Daas, Nechmad l'einayim, inyan of chemdas einayim, the puts, the glance. My zeide zichrono livracha once told me that Rav Avtali, Rav Avtali Tropp, ... a tzaddik ... said a gantze shmues of der inyan. But it's interesting, Rav Avtali, from what I understand, I know the Olam comes, they like to hear history also a little bit. I was zoche from my zeide to hear a lot of the history of Radin and Chofetz Chaim. He told me that whenever things happened in life, Rav Avtali made a shmues out of it.

Everything he saw became a shmuyes. That was the shmuyes. That was the sichas mussar of the week. We spoke Rosh Hashanah time that there was a different incident that caused Rav Naftali Tzvi Yehoshua shmuz about chet and cleaning of chet. It's not for now, but Rav Naftali once said a shmuyes how nechmad lei nayim played a big, a big role in the yetzer hara's arbit. Once went to a restaurant. I don't know where and when the restaurant was. Maybe it was a chaseneh, ich veis vos, a restaurant. And they put out napkins. It was Rosh Hashanah, it was farputzt. Rav Naftali sat down. He started eating the food, and he couldn't. He said it wasn't very appetizing. He said his wife cooks better than this. Es favos ale leif in a restaurant? And the teretz is, baldi goplach. Tzei takeh zogt. The couple is hungry, mashu, a rechten zayt, and dos auf linken zayt, mit a napkin under the plate, but dos leigt men in a restaurant. Aber deressen is de zalbe, when efsher besser in shtub. And he said a whole shmuz about it, how a person is glanzach. I think everyone's smiling, what today, the restaurant, the wife. I don't want to get involved in that. Don't get me involved in that. My wife's food is better than the restaurant, what should I tell you? At least that's what I have to say in public. Al kol panim, this aveirah became a gantze shmuyes to Rav Naftali, all right? So what's the taych? Der glanz, der sheine chale, svakh, sheine chale, and a matzaleh. Das is se'ir sheb'isa. I saw in the Bnei Yissaschar, rabosai, a tiefe gedank. It's a very tiefe gedank. He says that we eat the matzah, and the reason for the matzah is, Ki b'etzem hayom hazeh hotzeisi es tzivoseichem. So that's not really what the nekudah of the matzah is. The nekudah of the matzah is, Ki gorshu miMitzrayim, lo yachlu l'hismahmeah, to remind us that it was a matzah, yeah? Zogt er, why would the Torah be madgish the hotzeisi? Where do you see the hotzeisi in the matzah? So, it's aroundabout, yeah, okay, good, it's not the exact direct reason. Zogt the Bnei Yissaschar a peledike zach, pele mamash a peledike zach. He says, when you have a matzah, what you put into it, that's what it is: flour and water, and it comes out the way it comes out. Remember baking matzos by Russian Yidden. They didn't know how to bake the matzah. Today everything is with a mahalach; it's a beautiful round matzah. You should see what the matzos looked like, quarters, halves. It had no tzurah whatsoever, because that's how they needed the dough. That's how it was. What you put into the matzah, das is der matzah. Mashenkein by chametz, it rises on its own. It's not what you put into it that it remains. Zogt the Bnei Yissaschar, me'iredike zach. When Klal Yisrael left Mitzrayim, we were taught emunah, and that is asidah ba'al ha-bos. Un der baal ha-bos vos er zogt un vos er tut, azoy vert es zayn. All the kleh, the mazalos, the koiches of Mitzrayim, the superpower of Mitzrayim, a gornisht geholfen. Farvos? Val der balaboste azoi gevolt. A meirike gedank, rabosai. Matzah is, it is what it is. That's what it is. There is nothing that could rise it or make it that it should have extra external. And as I mentioned, lechem is the zelbe zach. Me'ein tevet hoben, he'll have something unique, mazel, get lucky. Az der Eibishter vil, zol zayn azoi, vet es zayn azoi. And dos is der yetzer hara. Der yetzer hara redt ayn der mentsh, nitzu hoben der amunah bitochon in balabos. Azoi zogt der Bnei Yissaschar. A tiefe gedank, rabosai, ba'al kol panim, what do we see from all this? Der inyan fun der chametz, un lehepech der matzah, so we're going to speak from the goyim, is this nekudah, rabosai, the nekudah of, the pinpoint, der yetzer hara. And so we'll say interesting from the goyim. Do you know the chiluk between the matzah and the chametz? It's a one-letter difference, and not even a full letter. It's just a ches and a hei. The goyim speaks about it.

Difference between chametz and matzah. Same letters. It's just a ches. Break the ches a little bit, zakt der Gaon, you got a hei for chametz v'matzah. And we'll speak a little bit later about this. So the idea of the chametz in dales se'or sheb'isa is a very fine point. It's a very small nafkamina. Im yirtzeh Hashem, we'll talk from the Rishonim, Acharonim, what this nafkamina is. I saw a chidah in his Haggadah Simchas HaRegel says that, oyb azoi, when you say kol chamira v'chamira d'ika birshusi, daf mitkachten not only the chamira, the chametz, but you have to also be mechaven the yetzer hara's, the aveiros, as he says there. And he has it in the nusach of the actual kol chamira. He says like this: Kol chamira... gam kein habittul se'or sheb'isa hu satan hu yetzer hara. Kol min se'or v'daas hayetzer hara d'ika birshusi. I want to be mevatel all the types of se'or, all the types of yetzer haras that I have inside me, bein haba machmas hachomer, asher chotasi b'gilgul zeh v'gilgulim acheirim, chidah k'darko. You never know, you have maybe past debts from different gilgulim also, and you can't even reach them because you don't even know how to get to them. V'nishar haroshim shel hasitra achra shekoylel b'guf, b'kitzur, b'chazitei... That I felt it, that I know. And sometimes it's the loy chazitei. A lot of the times, the yetzer hara, you don't even know. You don't even realize yourself it's the yetzer hara. The yetzer hara is the chazak kuntzmacher, that he convinces a person, a mols, to dress the chametz b'emes is matzah, so that's a mitzvah d'Oraisa. Many times we've spoken over from the Kotzker, that the Kotzker says over that Pnina was niskaven l'shem Shamayim when she hurt Chana. She used to be metza'er her. Zogt the Gemara, Pnina afilu l'shem Shamayim niskavnah. She was... what's the kavanah l'shem Shamayim? L'shem Shamayim was she should daven. Like this she'll be hurt, and if she's hurt she'll daven, and she'll have her children. Zogt der Kotzker from many sefarim, efsher nisht. From many sefarim, asi geven l'shem Shamayim. Now the emes, a badis, Chazal know, and it's... it's not a shaylah on the drashah, but... zogt der Kotzker, what's the pshat? Upton. Hazach, it can only be az mit chachtasi l'shem Shamayim. L'shem Shamayim, says the Kotzker, a man can upton. He could hurt his friend in such a way, vos er etze chayin l'shem Shamayim, heerat a maaseh. And what were the oynish for Pnina? Gefelech oynshim she had Pnina. Chazal tell us what her oynshim afterwards were. This is, rabosai, the chazitei. We live a life where people are confused. People are confused. They never know what's called yetzer hara and what's called yetzer tov. You know, rabosai, I just want to show you over—I say over this story a lot, and I want to repeat it. You know, even the Pesach, rabosai, ken man a yetzer hara echad. Ken man a yetzer hara. The Pesach could become that we use the Pesach to hurt other people, to bother other people, machen problems. Vos, der Pesach. Amolos afilu de mitzvahs from the Pesach. You can make such a lachatz. I want to tell you a maaseh from Reb Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, zecher tzaddik livrachah. Heyleger Reb Shlomo Zalman. It's brought down in his halichos Shlomo, in his sefer halachah, so therefore I know it's an emes maaseh. Someone once came to Reb Shlomo Zalman, and he asked about bedikas chametz that he has to do in his mother's house. This, here, there, is he mechuyav? Reb Shlomo Zalman looked at him and said, You make bedikas chametz not more than twenty minutes in your mother's house. That's it. Gich. You don't have to make bedikas chametz there. You don't have to do it here.

I cooked the fem. Why not? Don't forget, that's Yisrael and the Bnei Brak. People do bedikas chametz for hours and hours and hours. Zogt er, You're doing bedikas chametz by your mother. Why? Her husband passed away. She's an almanah. So you're coming to do bedikas chametz there. Zogt the heilige Reb Shlomo Zalman, ... When you do bedikas chametz, she reminds herself how her husband did bedikas chametz. It's not fair to her. So just do bedikas chametz, gich, gich, gich, move on. Here, rabosai, das is, the place is for an adam gadol. The place is for an adam gadol. You know, rabosai, there's another thing. Birchas ilanos, another maaseh from Reb Shlomo Zalman, it's brought down in the sefarim. It's an inyan to have birchas ilanos on two, minei ilanos. Reb Shlomo Zalman used to do it on one. In the front of a yard of a house, he used to do it on one. So one of the talmidim walked over to him and said, Rebbe, ס'וועט געבראכט, lechatchilah you should have two. Down the block there's two trees that you could do the birchas ilanos on. You should have two. He said, No, I'm doing it here. Why? He says, Look through the window. See that lady there? She's an almanah. She has such hana'ah that I come to do birchas ilanos on her tree, so I do it. On her tree. I go every year. Trust me, I know I could do it on other trees in there's other places. He says, I know every tree, every yard in Beit Vagan, he says, I know. But זה התחנופות. This, rabosai, is when you understand the chiluk between yetzer tov and yetzer hara, the chazitei u'd'lo chazitei. Mimeila, what do I ask the Eibishter? U'd'lo bi'arti, adayin lo shavti b'teshuva. Let's say something which I was not mevarer, I didn't do the teshuva yet. Liftol v'lehevik, asher lo yasiv b'lachiteini. I ask the Eibishter to help me, says the chidda. Ribbono Shel Olam, you help me in the avodah against this yetzer hara. It's not an easy thing to fight the yetzer hara. It's niskapasht a zach. When I'm always, what's the yetzer hara and what's not the yetzer hara? Says the Chidda, better the Ribbono Shel Olam, v'lehavei batel, liftol v'lehevik ka'afra d'ar'a. Vesfregt a kasha, rabosai: if chametz is so bad and chametz is yetzer hara, so why is it mutar all year? Let's take the chametz and let's get rid of it all year round, chametz. In the Beis Hamikdash, taka chametz is asur all year. We don't make chametz, we don't make menachos from chametz. Why, if chametz, the way the Rishonim are telling us, is a she'eilah of yetzer hara, so let it be asur all year. You know who asked this kasha? Chazal in the Zohar. There's a Zohar in Parshas Tetzaveh. Zogt the Zohar. It's a mashal. Someone, a king who has a bas yechidah, and she's not well, and she needs to get a refuah. So she doesn't have to consistently take the refuah. She takes seven days of antibiotics, and yeroiskehelt far gantze yahr, zogt er, zoy ha, azei iz der zelbe zach of Pesach. Pesach, ziben teg. It's a small period of time. Helftn zach op. We heal ourselves from the chametz. Azei zogt der Zohar. You don't need all year round to fight. Once, we call it in English, the antibodies. Once you have the antibodies to fight the chametz, to fight the yetzer hara, arbet a safa gantze yahr, un dos hot geven der Arizal. That's what the Arizal meant when he said, when he said, klal, that if a person is nizhar a chametz on Pesach, lo yechta kol hashanah, because he built up the koiches to fight the yetzer hara. Interesting, many people, they'll do a lot of bedikas chametz, and at the same time, they're not going to be bodek themselves. So l'choira, you're missing the whole point. Mishnah Berurah always writes.

That many times people fast and they don't do teshuvah. So tafsu ha-tafel v'henichu es ha'ikar. How much more so if a person checks the chametz and chametz and chametz and chametz, and bizeh af ha... mit ha-mashu chametz, laganze pesach mit ha-mashu chametz, and he never once thought of all these inyanim vas vet gebrakht klor in the midrashim. He wasn't bodek himself, so. Maiseh, once I was asked by someone about an esrog. He asked him about an esrog. I'm saying the person came to ask him, and here the esrog, Maizeh said it's kosher, and he shows him, here the esrog, Maizeh said it's kosher, here it's all kosher. Maizeh got annoyed a little bit. He says to him, ... ich vil eich freg: zichalein bis oich bodek azoi gut? Are you bodek yourself so well? You know, it's brought down in the Zohar that the lev, the esrog is keneged the lev, so dafn doch bodek zayn dem lev, dafn doch bodek zayn. So here too, rabosai, we must ask ourselves: you do so well in bedikas chametz, biur chametz, and sreifas chametz. Are we so nizhar takeh to be bodek zich, chalein, to check out what issurim we have, what chametz do we have? Chazal are telling us, these are midrashim, these are Rishonim rabosai, that this is one of the ikrim of the issur of chametz and the din of bedikah and bittul. I do want to point out. Something interesting. For years, I've said over a vort from my zeide, and I never got a good response for it because it's mechudashdik. A zeide flegt iberzogen a vort fun Chassidishe Rebbes: Baydik at makom sheyado makas, ashar mevatloi b'liboi. What does mevatloi b'liboi mean? It's like the zeide iberzogen, b'liboi means mit harts. You know, you get rid of the chametz with such vengeance, b'liboi, mit a visel harts. And he would say to him, mit a slabotke kneitch — the zeide was from Slabodka — it's like the zog in iber hakaras hatov. Where is your hakaras hatov to the chametz that all year round you had from the chametz? All of a sudden, mit a chaptus fun shtub, you want to get rid of the sone. That's it. That's the mitzvah, and that's what we're supposed to do, and it's asur b'mashahu, and dos is gefehrlach. So over the years, I searched to find the mekor. I found the mekor of the vort. It's a vort from Reb Aharon Lestoliner, also based on an interesting... But I found the real mekor from Kadmonim. There's a sefer called Seder Hayom. It was written 420 years ago from a kadmon. Itamri, I think, is the last name of the kadmon. It's a kadmon. It's a sefer. It was written the same time as the Shevet Sofer. It's the Shevet Musar. It's that kufa. It's a tadmoynim. I'm going to quote you word for word what he says. Why do we say Kol Chamira b'lashon Arami? So of course the pashut pshat is because the ladies have to understand, and then the children have to understand, and they used to speak Aramaic, and then a Chanami. Today the poskim say you should repeat it in English, and then the Artscroll, like this, you know, you're clear, good. That's the halachah, maskim. But he says there's a taam behind it. What's the reason behind it? Oid. Besides for the reason of the pashut, the reason that you want everyone to understand, oid, there's another reason. Lefi shehalechem hu chiyus ha'adam b'meitzei pi Hashem. The bread is a chashivah zach, see, from the Rabbeinu shel olam. V'chol hashanah anu tzrichim lo, v'ein raui l'adam l'zalzel b'kavod hatzarich lo. It's a kadmon, rabosai, heya ta'maaseh. U'baz l'Dovid yechaveloi. And we find that if you have bizayon for something, that thing won't help you, like Dovid HaMelech with the clothing. He brings Dovid HaMelech as a proof, vayechasehhu b'begadim v'lo yicham, because he was mezalzel in the begadim. V'ilo haya omer b'lashon hakodesh, hu lashon shehakol mevinim bo, even the...

People would understand it, and they would come and be mekatrig, Rabbeinu Shleilam. That's how they treat the lechem? You have to maiseh, the hakdamah. I knew the Zeidah had a mekor for it. He said it over; they had to have a mekor. You got to know, it's complicated. On one hand, the lechem, you have to have a kares hatov for the lechem. On the other hand, medafes sfatayim, you have to get rid of it as if it would be a big issur. Al teireh zokt azei. What are you hergeshing when you do it? Al teireh tazei gezogt. See how much the Torah is foddert in every mitzvah. It's a mitzvah from Birchas Hamitz, that the Yid should have such different hergeshim. Not get rid of it; get rid of it in a certain way, with hakaras hatov, un gedenken as Yetzias Mitzrayim, un gedenken as haskaras from the nissim and niflo'os from the Ribono Shel Olam b'Mitzrayim. There's so much that goes into every mitzvah, how much different emotions and cheshbonos that the Torah wants from us. Al kol panim, we see clearly, and again, like I look at the clock, I'm going to have to soon end, that the inyonim of chametz u'matzah are avodas in getting rid of the yetzer hara. So let's begin by pointing and enumerating a few of the nekudos of the hilchos chametz u'matzah, and with this we'll be mekayem, taka, the biur of the yetzer hara. One of the things of the chametz u'matzah is ta'aroves chametz, even b'mashahu. You know, Rabbi Yisrael, Rashi quotes Remeisha Darshan. Does anybody know what Remeisha Darshan is? Anybody know? Okay. So you're going to learn what Remeisha... Remeisha Darshan wrote a sefer. He was melaket midrashim, and he adds a few sheinah yesodos as a darshan onto the aggados Chazal. And Rashi had that sefer, Remeisha Darshan, that's where. And Baruch Hashem, today we have Remeisha Darshan. It's a sefer, you could get it. Very few people know about it. But in Remeisha Darshan's sefer, he says the reason why ta'aroves chametz is no good, ... because all it takes is a kleincheke shtikeler yetzer hara, and it grows and it grows and it grows, and it takes over the whole person. It begins with a mashu. Remeisha Darshan. Rashi quotes. Zogt der Remeisha Darshan, ta mitzvah zu lo yedia kama tzarich lisrachek mehadvarim hamachmitzim uhamachtiim, sheafilu bta'aroves me'at, hahezek merubeh. Even a little bit, the hezek is merubeh, sheyesh bo koach lhatos laadam laasher yachpotz. You know, a kleincheke kinahle, a kleincheke taivahle. It's just a mashu. It starts with a mashu. It could take a person in a completely different direction. And I found in the Chasam Sofer, ... ba'ar chametz umatzah. Remember I asked you, what is the difference between chametz and matzah? A small little ches to a hei. So the Goyen speaks about it, and the Goyen says... Because in Mitzrayim, we know hei is about teshuva. Because hei means you're able to go through, right, put down in all the Rishonim. Hei is the pesach of teshuva. It opens up the door. You're able to find the door in for teshuva. In Mitzrayim, zogt der Gaon in Ateres Eliyahu, it was ches and not hei. It was famachted teshuva. They were stuck. They couldn't do teshuva. So what do we do? We take from the chametz, the ches, and we open the door and we make into it a hei. Azoi zogt der Gaon. ... that we take the ches and the ches turns into a hei. On mimeila, we have over here a Pesach for teshuva, and it's a zman of teshuva, through the matzah we can do teshuva, v'chulei v'chulei v'chulei v'chulei, in Ateres Eliyahu. Nu, the Ari brings from the Zohar already that the chiluk tzvishen der ches and der hei is der pintelah hei, der yud. There's a small little yud in the hei. Der chiluk tzvishen the chametz and the matzah is the yud, the yud. Azoi zogt er, shein, shein a teirah, good. Zogt der Chasam Sofer that be'emes the numerical value between chametz and matzah is a difference of three. The ches and the hei, five to eight, is a difference of three.

The remez that the chiluk between chametz and matzah is the gimel zachin that are gorim for a mensch to do aveiros: hakinah, v'hataivah, v'hakavod. So, the chiluk between the chametz and the matzah is the hakinah, v'hataivah, v'hakavod, motziin es ha'adam min ha'olam. What does that mean? I think it all means what we just spoke. It just takes from a meisha darshens di yesod, a klein shikke, a klein shikke kinah leh, a klein shikke taivah leh, kenemim fun a sheinem matz, un machn fun dem a greiser chametz. Now I just want to point out one more, or two more, if you give me a chance, chavers. I know the time is late. One more, one more, two more. One of the yesodos is bedikah. Bedikah means you got to be bodek the chametz. And we spoke, bedikah fun zich alein doesn't happen by itself. Sar sheb'isa needs a person should be me'ayein, ba'limud, to speak the inyan of bedikah, yefashfesh b'ma'asav; otherwise there is no teshuvah. A person could live his whole life in choshech if he's not mefashfesh b'ma'asav. But I want to go back to the ohr haner. The inyan of ohr haner is an inyan of Torah. I want you to know this is also in the Kabbalah. If you take a look, the Shevet HaMusar, which was written about 400 years ago, Shevet HaMusar writes that the yesod of bedikas chametz is le'or haner, because it has to be done through Torah. Im paga b'chametz navul, mashcheihu l'beis hamedrash, d'ohr haTorah. And that's the derch chidah that we spoke. And with this I think we could say a meiridike pshat. What were the maaseh by Reb Eliezer, Reb Shimon? What were they doing at Bnei Brak? Sippur Yetzias Mitzrayim kol halayla. You look at the Tosefta. The Tosefta says they were learning Hilchos Korban Pesach. It's a Tosefta, famous Brisker rav on it. You see from here that through Hilchos Korban Pesach, you could be mekayem mitzvas Sippur Yetzias Mitzrayim. They were learning Hilchos Korban Pesach; they weren't learning Sippur Yetzias Mitzrayim. So you see you could be yotzei with it. Efsher kemin zoger, Rabosai, hasheinah dehar. We know the Korban Pesach is here to uproot avodah zarah. That's the inyan of the Korban Pesach. They ate the Korban Pesach the night it's supposed to be to uproot avodah zarah, shehei klon Moshe darshin, the Rishonim, and it's to bring emunah. What better way to do it when there's no Korban Pesach? Through ohr haTorah, through the light of the Torah. Emunah Rabosai can only come through ohr haTorah. And with this we can understand something very interesting. If you look at the Haggadah, we darshen every part of the braisa, Vayanunu kemo shekasuv, like it says, Vayanun. Okay, it says it, kemo shekasuv. You're saying it happened. Just say over that it happened. And the teretz is, is muzkamin through Torah, emunah is through Torah. The Ramban always tells us all the nisim and niflaos, it didn't help. They left right away Mitzrayim and they went right back. When did they start believing? Either by Kriyas Yam Suf, and the Rambam says even more, by Yamin ha'am by Matan Torah. Famous Rambam, lo he'eminu boi, they didn't believe Him till Matan Torah, and the pshat is because when it came to Matan Torah, through Torah, hatmin, ongefangen in bleib. You see we're late, so I'm just going to steal one more minute of your time, rabosai. We know that there's an inyan of kibulei kach pealtei, which means how do you get rid of chametz and all issurim? Kibulei. The way it came in, that's the way you got to get rid of it. The Rambam says clearly, be'oseh isha, be'oseh makom. We know this, it's brach that the way we bake our matzos, our tikunim for the aveiros that we ran to do things we shouldn't have been doing with hislabshus, kibulei kach pealtei. And the final and last thing, because of time, because we don't have that much time, the inyan of bittul chametz. Bittul. What's bittul chametz, rabosai? And I'll tell you what I heard from Zaiden zichrono livracha, b'shem the Chofetz Chaim, את המעשה. Bittul, rabosai, is bittul avodah zarah, bittul of yetzer hara. How do you mevatel the yetzer hara? And the answer is—

You start to realize, instead of being mevatel your friends and talmidei chachamim, go be mevatel your yetzer hara. Say, you know, I do yetzer hara. ... The inyan of bittul: kol tzinus asurah, levad mi-tznius avodah zarah, vafas. ... And that's why in Mitzrayim we find that the Ribono Shel Olam made what? Litzanus, meloheihem. It's stated clearly in pasuk that the Ribono Shel Olam went and He said, Es shvatim hisalalti b'Mitzrayim. He made litzanus. Vafos darf machen litzanus. V'ven es kumt avodah zarah, v'kumt yetzer hara, darf men mevatel zayn unachtacha datzeilen a maaseh. You know, the world knows that Reb Elchonon never really laughed, smiled. And they say because of Az Yashir Pinu, he was very serious. Only when Moshiach comes. Reb Shmuel Birnbaum, a tzaddik livrachah, yeshiva zatzal, Reb Shmuel once told me, who was—don't forget—a big talmid of Reb Shmuel, of Reb Elchonon. Reb Shmuel even named one of his children Chani, Elchonon after Reb Elchonon, a big talmid of Reb Elchonon. He said, Es geblazt a kalter vintl eben Reb Elchonon. That's what he said. It's cold. Reb Elchonon was cold. Near Reb Elchonon was cold. Even once he asked Reb Elchonon, why, if a talmid of the Chofetz Chaim... Chofetz Chaim was born, and he spoke, and he could stop speaking, while you don't talk that much, and you're serious, and you hardly converse with people. So I heard this in the zeidah, maybe it's already brought down in the sefarim. Hot ge'empt, der Rebbe, et veis vos tu reden. He was secure that if he speaks, only good things are going to come. Now, the chacham nishtel haftachah, I'm not so secure about it. Mimeila, I'm very careful. I'm a chacham meired. ... chacham. Okay. So they say that Reb Elchonon once smiled, laughed, he gave a chuckle. They say it was on Purim, in the yeshiva, they put on a play. Branovich. What was the play? What a milchemes Yisrael looks like. What a milchamah looks like by Klal Yisrael. So they had thirty bachurim on stage over there, and two people get up, and one of them gives a drashah, and he says, Whoever just was boinah bayis, hey, go home. Okay, ten guys left. Whoever just got married, another ten guys left. Whoever is afraid should go home. Everybody left. Only two people were left, the two alter Yidden who were supposed to be one with Reb Elchonon and the other one with the Chofetz Chaim, with canes, and they went to war, and they win. That was the play that they put on in Branovich. It's a big difference today, the plays that they put on on Purim. But this is what they put on, a play in Branovich. ... Okay, this, you'll find in all the sefarim. My zeide told me that. Like, nose kluger, Belchanan smiled one other time he laughed. One other time. Mendel Belchanan laughed. Mit dem datzeilt a mashal from the Chofetz Chaim. Yeah, a mashal that the Chofetz Chaim said over the following mashal. He said that there was once a farmer, a yeshuvnik, that was on his way to the big city. He's on the train, and there were a few leitzim over there, chevra from the big city that wanted to have some fun on the expense of the yeshuvnik, the Yiddish-speaking, the yeshuvnik. So they tell him, This is how you're going to the big city? You're gonna look like a clown. You're wearing overalls like a farmer. What's wrong with you, with that papayezin? What, what, what? He said, Oh yeah, really, I didn't know. We have for you an extra pair of pants, mit a jacket, mit a shnips. We have it for you. These are leitzim. You hear what they're gonna do. You see what they're... Okay, they must have done this a few times. Problem is there were no restrooms on the trains in those days. So how is he gonna...? So he tells them, I can't change my clothing. There's no place. He says, Don't worry. You see, the train is going into a tunnel, and it's pitch black.

So you know when the train goes into the tunnel, and they knew that the tunnel was a one-second tunnel. They knew this. This was the trick they played on all the... Chofetz Chaim... Yeah, at that maaseh, kids, and emtar up the heisen. Dark. Two seconds later, he comes out of the other end, and they're stayed up, and they're... and everyone's laughing his head off. Yeah? You heard this maaseh before? You ever heard it? You didn't hear. Zeide told it to me. My zeide sat by Reb Elchanan, by Reb Chofetz Chaim, every word. He drank up every single word. By him it was... It's interesting, people don't realize that in every picture of the Chofetz Chaim, my zeide's in it. And even by the petirah, by the levayah, with the famous... the Chofetz Chaim and the sefarim, the zeide's standing right there. Didn't miss a second of the Chofetz Chaim, okay? My zeide was there when the Chofetz Chaim, when Reb Elchanan said... Chofetz Chaim said a shmooze. People don't realize. People heard the Chofetz Chaim's Torah over again and over again. They got bored of it after. At the end, the Chofetz Chaim, the oilam didn't want to go. So someone once remarked, Hey, he said the same shmooze last year. Reb Elchanan said, Nishdames elf verter, eleven words that were different last year than this year. Zeide was there. He heard. I heard it from the zeide, okay? Kitzel, he's coming out of the other end, and the heisen are up. Tzogt the Chofetz Chaim, Ot a dos iz der lebn fun dem mensch. Person thinks he has plenty of time. Don't get caught with your pants down. Zei a Chofetz Chaim, gezogt. Kemen muz visn. Don't get caught with your pants down. Reb Elchanan laughed, laughed. So my zeide said, What's the pshat? Aven iz kumt zich eytzer hara, darf men farshteyn, darf loysen oyslach. Look how he fools you. Look how silly it sounds. Look how stupid it is. Dos iz bitul yetzer hara. To be mevatel the yetzer hara. It's not the greise chochmah, eretz Yisrael narishkeiten. Imagine a person comes and he sits there in Eretz Yisrael to buy the Brooklyn Bridge. What are you going to say to him? Eh, right? Eh. Iz elbe zacht afn zogn dem yetzer hara, You're selling me the Brooklyn Bridge. Eh. Dos iz bitul chametz. Dos iz der yesoides fun der mitzvah fun bitul biur, bedikah, fun kabbalas kach. You've just experienced another Torah class, brought to you by TorahAnytime.com.