Beshalach: The Mon, Bitachon in Daily Parnassah, and Recognizing Hashem’s Chesed

Transcript

This Torah class is brought to you by TorahAnytime.com. Universal groups get together, Parshas Beshalach, to read Parshas Haman, and they go right away to the banks to look at the bank account to see, oh, direct result, Parshas Haman. It's true that it is a segulah for parnassah, and it's true, and it's right to have such a feeling to Parshas Haman, that if you read it and you believe in it, of course it is a segulah for parnassah. I'm not trying to undermine that, but the truth is it's a lot deeper than just a segulah for parnassah. And for a person, a yarei Shamayim, someone who's looking to be a true Jew, should actually see deeper in Parshas Haman than just a segulah for parnassah. I would say he should see it in a segulah for yiras Shamayim. Mimeila you'll have parnassah. Mimeila, as a result of that, you will have bracha and hatzlacha. But the idea of Parshas Haman isn't, as they say, A plus B equals C. Parshas Haman, if I read it, I get parnassah. Parshas Haman, if I have it in my tefillin bag, I'm going to get a bigger paycheck. The A plus B equals C should be Parshas Haman. If I learn it and internalize it, I will have yiras Shamayim. So, b'A plus b equals c, the entire equation means overall I will have bracha and hatzlacha. But it's not the reading of the parshas Haman directly, that the words have some magical power to it. There's some tremendous koach, strength behind these words. I can tell you that if you don't take out the lesson of Parshas Haman, and you don't take out the yesod, the foundation of the idea of Parshas Haman, you could read Parshas Haman from today till tomorrow. Your bank account might get less, not even more. I hope it gets more. I'm not coming to... and maybe, in the simple zechus, maybe the Eibishter will send you a few dollars, you know, as a bonus prize. But the true Parshas Haman is about internalizing Parshas Haman, understanding Parshas Haman, and then taking out not money from the bank, but yiras Shamayim from the Torah, from the Parshas Haman, emunah and bitachon from the Parshas Haman, which overall is good for your entire financial and spiritual and emotional and overall well-being. So it's not only for the money, but it's for the entire person, for your entire well-being. As we're going to explain right now. What is man? What is the idea behind the man? Why did the Eibishter feed us man? What are we supposed to learn from the man? So, rabosai, let me begin to discuss something interesting. The man, the Gemara tells us in Yuma daf ayin hei, amud aleph to ayin hei amud beis, came with a slew of nisim, of miracles. There were many, many, many mofsim, many miracles, open nisim v'niflaos with the man. The pesukim seem to say some of them; the Gemara adds a few more. In the pesukim, we see clearly that they got the man once a day straight from Shamayim. There was no work involved. Today, if you tell somebody he'll make money with no work whatsoever, he would laugh at you and say, What are you talking about? This is chalomos, chalomos, chalomos, dreams upon dreams upon dreams. At the end of the day, that's what happened in the midbar.

They put no effort, no work, and straight from Shamayim it came down. We also know that it was a tremendous, a tremendous bracha. It was a tremendous blessing in the mon itself. They ate it. They ate it, you hear? And what happened? It was misbarer b'meihem. It became digested. It became blessed in their intestines, in their innards. The pasuk calls it lechem abirim. Chazal explain, why is it called lechem abirim? Because it was lechem shemalachei hashares ochlim. This was heavenly bread, and it didn't, mistama, make you gain any weight. You didn't gain any weight, mistama. It was pure. It went straight into the intestines, where it's supposed to be mazin. It's supposed to give you the sustenance, spiritual, unbelievable bread. Something, asher lo yad'u avoseichem. The pasuk says no one knew what it was. Man hu. They didn't even know what it was. They couldn't even figure it out. Could you imagine all the rocket scientists of the time were trying to take it apart? They can't figure it out. Couldn't figure it out. They couldn't even come up with a theory. Today, even if they don't know the answer to the solution, at least they have a theory. A theory. They come up and they write in the Journal of Medicine and the Journal of Science, a theory. Here the pasuk says, asher lo yad'u avoseichem, man hu. They had to admit, because there was no explanation whatsoever. Think that they know what it's all about, this mon. Mon who? They had to give it a name. We don't know what it is. Beyond comprehension. What is the ingredient? We don't know. Ingredient? I don't know. How does it... I don't know. Lo yadu. There's no way. The pasuk says clearly they couldn't figure it out. And normally when you can't figure it out, there are a bunch of people that will come up and say, I have an idea. I have a hunch, because you can't look, as they say in English, stupid, clueless, right? Here the Torah is telling us clearly that they had to admit, and everybody, even the greatest chachamim, wise people, there's no explanation to what this is all about. Miracles of miracles, yeah. As a matter of fact, even the way it came was all miracles. The reshaim, they had to walk further to get it. The tzaddikim, it came straight to their door, maybe even into their living room, into the pot where they were. They put out a bowl, and all of a sudden mon came into the bowl. Like hungry, came right into them. It came to them. Isaiah Zatzal used to say pshat. It says in the pasuk, Vayancha vayarivecha. I afflicted you, and I made you hungry, and I fed you the mon. This is a pasuk in Devarim, perek ches, pasuk gimmel. What do you mean hungry? I thought the mon was delicious. What do you mean? Why were you hungry? Why would you be hungry? Vayancha, He made you hungry. Vayanchecha, he afflicted you and made you hungry, and he fed you the man. So either it means that till he fed you the man, which means he made you hungry, you were hungry. So the Eibishter said, Ah, don't be hungry, I'll give you the man. But it's interesting, the word vayanchecha means that it was affliction. So some talk about the fact that the man did not have a taste. It had taste, but not physical taste, and therefore you had to come and think. You had to come and be mechaven, which means that the man, it looked plain. You know, a blind person doesn't enjoy his food. Why not? Because part of the enjoyment is what it looks like. It's psychological. So the psychological chelek in the man they didn't have, we're going to talk about this a little bit later in the shiur, which is maybe what its good part was. You see, what we think that the chisaron in the man was, what we think the problem, what we think was the issue with the man was actually its ma'alos, its attribute. The fact that it was only if you had in your head.

A thought of what you wanted it to be, and instead of it coming to you and saying, you know, it's delicious, look what it looks like, it wasn't appetizing to the eye externally. We're going to discuss this might be the maila, the attribute of the month. But al kol panim, that some say is the vayancha. At the end of the day, you like something that looks good. You know, when you go to a restaurant, you pay extra money. My zaidy used to tell me that Rav Avtali Trup used to give a shmooze, a sicha in the yeshiva, that why do you pay extra money for a restaurant? In the house, I'm sure your wife can make the same food. Now, I don't know, I'm not going to get into this argument, restaurant food, home food. I'm going to be humble and say I enjoy my wife's cooking just as much as any other restaurant. To me, it's all just as good, okay? And if you want, you can tell my wife, and she'll be very happy I gave her this compliment. It's on tape, okay. The point being, rabosai, so why would someone go, Oh, we're going out tonight to a restaurant, pay extra money. What are you paying extra money for? So Rav Avtali Trup, zichrono livracha, the Radziner Rosh Yeshiva, he was the Rosh Yeshiva in the time of the Chofetz Chaim, in the yeshiva of the Chofetz Chaim, he said, You're not paying for the food, because the food is the same cooking as your bubby used to cook, the delicious chicken soup and knaidel and whatever they used to feed over there in Radin, okay? What you're paying for is for the folded napkin, and for the fork on the right side and the spoon on the left side. That's what you're paying for. Okay. You're paying for the external polish. Potatoes. You don't make potatoes regular. You have to make it with like a whip. It has to come up like a whip. It's the same potato. Mashed potatoes are mashed potatoes. Yeah, but this is fancy, with a fancy style. A pastry. What's pastry? It's cake with a little pstry, ps. Look at that ps. Wow. Okay, you understand the point. The man didn't have this beautiful ps. You looked at it, hmm. Manhu, it didn't have much of a structure. Had it had some kind of structure, they would have come up with a nice name for it. Mondi la mono. They would have came up with some kind of fancy, beautiful, you know, French name for the cuisine, you know. Manhu, it was plain. Delicious, don't get me wrong, but plain as plain could be, externally plain. Like I said, for some, that was tremendous hunger. It was pain. They needed that fancy dessert. They needed that fancy with all the toppings on the side. For others, didn't need it. Could be. That could be one pshat in vayancha vayarivecha, and later we'll discuss that was gufa. That itself was the maila. That itself was the attribute of the man. But my zeide's zatzal said a different pshat. You know, like I just told you, the Gemara says that tzaddikim used to get the man. By the door, there were reshaim, used to get it far away. They had to walk for it. Now, let's say a case where a person was a tzaddik. But then, after a few days, he was slipping a little bit. You know, he wasn't keeping, you know, with such tznius. He wasn't shmiras halashon so well, you know. So all of a sudden, starts getting far away his mon, you hear? So what's he gonna do? Start walking out to get his mon? Look, all the neighbors are gonna see. All the neighbors are gonna... Hey, look at that tzaddik. All of a sudden he has to go get his mon from far away. So what did he do? He skipped the meals. He skipped. He didn't go get it. Vayancha, vayarivecha. He made you hungry. Some people went hungry because they were afraid to take the mon. It looked very bad for them if they had the one day thought go out to get the mon. So many, many skipped, as they say in English, skipped a few meals. They went hungry for a few days sometimes. That's how my zeide's atzal used to say, a charifus, a pshat, a vertel, a vertel, and what it means, vayancha, vayarivecha, vaya'achilcha es haman. But point being that the Ribono Shel Olam gave us mon.

Externally, you saw nothing, but its taste and its nutrient content was unbelievable. It was unbelievable, yeah. And the way it came down, miraculous. Not only that, we know that it came down in a special sandwich, so to speak. It was tal and dew on top, and then there was a layer on the bottom, and that's why we have lechem mishnah, and the Mishnah Berurah brings down the pashtida, right? There's a special kugel that you're supposed to... bottom, and it came down in this very special way. It also came down on Friday double portion, so you shouldn't have to go pick it on Shabbos. The Gemara tells us over there in Yuma, Ayin Hey amud beis, that actually the whole world saw the mon. Why? It was like this big tree that rose to the sky, the mon. The Gemara says that the mon was something which we can't even describe. Nisim, miracles upon miracles upon miracles upon miracles. So let's say someone would read this in a book, he would say, Wow, unbelievable. Hashem, the Ribono Shel Olam, wow, it's so evident that there's a God in the world, right? Take a look. The Ribono Shel Olam went and gave us mon. I told you the pasuk, we just quoted it above, and we said the pasuk tells us, Vayancha, vayarivecha, vayachilcha es hamon. I made you hungry. I afflicted you, and then I gave you the man. Why? So the pasuk says, L'maan hodiacha, in order you should know, ki lo al halechem levado yichyeh adam, that a person doesn't live only on bread, ki al kol motza פי Hashem yichyeh adam, that a person lives according to the mouth and word of Hashem. Hashem says to live, he lives. The mefarshim explain that it is Hashem who put, with His dibur, with His word, the koach, the strength within food to sustain. Good. I have a question. I have a question. If Hashem wanted to make us hungry, if Hashem wanted to afflict us, we would still know, L'maan hodiacha, that through the miracles of the man we would have noticed Hashem is great, and that Hashem is the one that sustains. Why did we need to first be hungry? Why did Hashem need to afflict, starve us, so to speak, as the pasuk uses the words, Vaya'anchecha vayarivecha, and then He gave us the man? In order we should know. Give us the man and we would know that it's from You, Hashem. Why the prerequisite? Why is it important that first we were hungry, then Hashem gave us the man, and then we'll know that Hashem is the one that sustains the person? You know what I think, rabosai, the pashut pshat is, and I think it's a tremendous lesson in life: miracles are everywhere. Every day there's miracles. Everywhere there's miracles. You know when we communicate with those miracles, you know when it becomes a part of us. You know when we become a—we learn from those miracles? When we were first hungry, and we realized that Hashem did us chesed, that Hashem did a tremendous chesed with us, and He gave us to eat. A person could see lots of miracles. He doesn't connect with those miracles. You know when you connect? When it's personal. You were hungry, and you were so in pain, and then Hashem came there to save you through the manna. Then I know Hashem is great. That's what the pasuk is saying: Vayancha, vayarivecha. The chesed of Hashem's miracles is what influences the person, what the person connects to. Just that Hashem is great, that He does tremendous—it's true. Maybe tzaddikim, maybe learned people, they could sit there and contemplate Hashem's greatness. That's why there's a whole thing to know Hashem through mechkar, leida, to know Hashem's greatness. But that's not enough. Have we spoken about this in the past.

The way to connect with Hashem and His hand of greatness, of miracles, is by recognition of the chesed in those miracles. Once you recognize the chesed in the miracles, then you'll internalize Hashem's greatness through those miracles. What is Hashem's greatness? The chesed that He feeds us? Is that what it is, that we live because of Him and His food that He gives us to sustain us? Or is the chesed of Hashem, as we will continue to explain, not so much the actual food, but it's the security that the Ribono Shel Olam gives us, that He's there to feed us. You know, rabosai, we say in the first bracha, Birchas Hamazon, right? Hazan es ha'olam kulo b'tuvo. He zan, b'tuvo, v'chein, b'chesed uv'rachamim. So we stress this point, that it's not just Hashem is great, that He's zan, but He's zan, right, b'chein, b'chesed, v'rachamim. Because like we're explaining, it's not just to bring out how great Hashem is, but how much chesed. Again, ki l'olam chasdo. Right. Ravush meagadol, ki hu... u'mechin, ki hu kelzon, u'mefarnes lakol, u'mechin mazon l'chol briosav. What does it mean, mechin mazon? Like you just said, you just said nosein, you just said he gives. First he prepares and then he gives, not he first he gives and then he prepares. Hu nosei lechem u'chvasa, right? Then we say, u'mechin mazon l'chol briosav asher bara. Baruch atah Hashem, hazan es hakol. So the mechin should have been in the beginning. First of all, hazanas ha'olam kulo. Why? Hu mechin, and then he's hu nosein. Why do we talk about the mechin after the... It's an unbelievable question. You ever think about it? You know, it's funny, a person could bench sometimes three times a day, depending on the type of bagels they have in the store. Sometimes I could see guys there three times a day, you know, right? On a good day. Do you ever think of what you're saying? Hey, אתה... got a siddur. Now let's learn siddur. Don't be embarrassed. There's nothing wrong if you learn a little siddur. They're gonna come and say, Why'd you learn by your... yeshiva today? We learned siddur. All right, let's see, what does it say? Yeah. Ki hu... Oh, you have a different lashon, maybe. Oh, that could be, that could be. Ki hu elzon, u'vishulchano aruch lakol. Hiskin mich—it's the same thing. Hiskin, hiskin is to prepare. Mechin, mazon. Mechin and hiskin is the same. Ashkenaz has mechin, and Sefardim say hiskin. So you just said you're giving us, so what's hiskin? What's the answer? Haboisai, let me tell you the answer. There's two parts to feeding somebody. There's one part, the actual eating. Then there's another part. It's called the security that the food will be there for you to eat. I'll give you a good example that anybody sitting in this room could relate to. You know, when the parents go away for a weekend, so you have the house for yourself. So there's two types of parents. There's one parent that leaves you a credit card with a few dollars and says, If you need this and that, you'll go out to the store and you'll buy it. Then there's another parent that says, You know, I'll leave you a full fridge of food. Which do you feel better with? You feel more comfortable with the full fridge of food, right? Why? Because it's prepared, ready for you to eat. There's a certain security in a full fridge of food. You know, I'll tell you, I noticed—

This week, with the snowstorms, the stores are full. They're jam-packed. They're jam-packed. They announce a snowstorm. Tell me, how long can a snowstorm last for already? 24 hours? What's the big deal? You go every day to buy milk in the store. You buy milk and eggs every day in the store. Watch the Teretz. Psychologically, ah, I'm ready. I'm prepared. Security. Part of mazoi is the security that goes behind the mazoi, you hear? Good? Clear? Okay. Vechein mazoi lachavriosav. Not only does Hashem give, which is maybe the greater part of the chesed, Hashem feeds me. He also says, vechein mazoi. What does vechein mazoi mean? He gives you also the preparation of the food, the security. Shouldn't it still be first? No, because not first. The first thing is nosein lechem. Feed me. Why if I didn't have that? Also, there's a kindness that how He gives it to you. He doesn't put you down a check on the table and says, Go buy it. Vechein. He gives you that it's prepared and ready to go. Just got to come pick it up. Just got to come and get it, but it's there. It's all ready. Security. I believe that the greatness of Parshas Haman wasn't the actual feeding, but it was the security that it came. And I'll explain to you what I mean. If a person has to go every day to buy his food, is that a good thing or a bad thing? Every day, and it's there. You walk into the store, and it's there. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? So I want everybody to please turn to Parshas Ki Savo, perek lamed, okay, towards the end, the last pasuk, I think it's samech hei or samech vav, in Devarim. Devarim, Parshas Ki Savo, V'haya chayecha תלויים לך מנגד. Your life will be hanging, so to speak, in front of you. And what would you say? What was that klalah? It says clearly the klalah. In the morning you'll say, Who gives me night? In the night you'll say, Who gives me morning? Sound familiar? בבוקר תאמר מי יתן ערב. It's a klalah, right? Rashi explains from the name of Chazal, what is that talking about? That's talking about a person who has to go every day to the store, and in the morning he has to say, You know what? The night I'll go to the store to buy the food. At night I have to go tomorrow morning to buy from the store, which means he doesn't have a refrigerator full of food. Security, he doesn't have. He has to say, I'll worry about the next meal. Doesn't mean he's not going to have it, but the fact that he has to think, I have to go and get it, this is already a chelek of the klalah. The klalah is—okay, everybody look at the end of Parshas Ki Savo, pasuk samech hei and pasuk samech vav. Right before key. Okay, read pasuk samech hei, please. Go ahead, read, no? Read. You're not gonna have any rest, yeah? Go ahead. That's samech hei? Yeah. What's samech vav? Excuse me, I was off by one pasuk. You gotta forgive me by one pasuk. It's all by heart. Okay. Your life will be hanging, so to speak, in front of you. Continue. And you'll be afraid of the night, yeah? And you won't have security, tamim emunah in your life. You won't feel secure, yeah? In the morning you'll say, Mi yitein erev, who'll give me the evening? Uva'erev, in the evening you'll say, Who'll give me morning? Says Rashi, this is halokeach pas palter min hanachtom, that he has to go to the store and buy bread. And in the morning he has to go at night, which means he doesn't have enough to save up. He has to keep on worrying for the next meal. That's what it says, right? It doesn't say he doesn't have; he just has to worry, and he'll get it. He'll go to the store, he'll get it.

Question: Wasn't that what happened by the mon? And I'll explain to you what I mean. The Gemara in Yuma, daf samech vav, has a question: Why did HaKadosh Baruch Hu not do even a bigger miracle? He could have made the mon fall once a year, let them eat once a year, and let it last the entire year. Hey, you want miracles? I'll make it like that already. That's the Gemara. The Gemara asks this question. You know what? Read you the Gemara. Says the Gemara, question. Says the Gemara, question. Do I have it here? No. You know, if you bring me a Gemara... What? You bring me a Gemara Yuma, we can see it inside. Bring me Gemara Yuma. Bring me Gemara Yuma. Okay. Oh, here it is. I have it, I have it, I have it. Okay, I wrote it over here. Sha'alu es Reb Shimon ben Yochai, Yuma yud-vav amud aleph: Mipnei mah lo yarad lahem mon pa'am achas bashanah? Why didn't the mon fall once a year? That's it. It could have made a bigger miracle. Amar lahem, he says to them, I'll tell you why it had to fall every day. Emshol lachem mashal, through a mashal, through a parable. L'mah ha-davar domeh? To what is this compared to? L'melech basar va-dam, a king, flesh and blood, sheyesh lo ben echad, that he has one son. Pasuk, lo mezaynoisa pam achas bashanah. He tells him, I'll give you food once a year. I'm sorry, ela pam achas bashanah. Amar lo, pasuk mezaynoisa b'chol yom. So he came to his father only once a year. So the father felt very bad. So what does he do? He says, you know what, I'll start giving you every day, like this I could see you every single day. Av Yisrael, mi sheyesh lo arba v'chamisha banim, hu yadoag v'omer. And, gadol, I have a question on this Gemara. I thought they had shisha b'kereis echad. Why is it only four or five children? The Gemara says a person had four or five. Why four or five? Forty-five. Why four or five? Okay. Hu yadoag v'omer, shema lo yered machar. He was afraid for the month tomorrow, v'nimtze'u kulam meisim b'rov, they'll all die. Nimtze'u kulam mechamtzim l'haviam shebaShamayim. So like this, every day they pray, they pray with a full heart to the Ribono Shel Olam that they should have, what, the mon, mon. But I thought that was the klalah. Isn't that the case where klalah, where you don't have security? It's a tremendous question. The way the Gemara describes mon, that the reason why you have to fall daily so you shouldn't have security, so you should come on to Hashem constantly, is itself not a brachah but a klalah, the way the pasuk tells us. I thought the brachah is to have security, and here we're saying the brachah is not to have security. So how do you explain it? And the answer, rabboisai, is very simple. Without bitachon, the lack of security is extremely painful. With bitachon, a lack of security is extremely, extremely healthy. I'll say it again. A person who has to worry about the next meal and he doesn't have bitachon, ki ein Hashem elokai b'kirbi, the tochachah is when you don't feel Hashem's hand and love and warmth and connection. Oh, that's terrible, that I have to worry about the next meal is excruciating curse. But where I have Hashem's hand, where I feel Hashem is with me, and I worry about the next meal, but I have who to turn to. Then the fact that I have to turn to Him, the fact that I don't have and the fact that I'm missing, that is not only not a klalah, but is the biggest brachah. It's the biggest, biggest blessing, the biggest ashirus, wealth that a person could have. You hear the difference? The man was ki lo al halechem levado. It came with a special blessing, and that is that the man knew Hashem is giving it. Oh, then I'm so happy that I don't have it. The opposite. I look forward to get from Hashem my next meal.

I turn to Hashem, I know I'm going to get it. Then it turns into a bracha. But where I don't feel Hashem, and I have to worry about the next meal, then it's a klalah. It's tremendous. That's the difference. So it's not so much what Hashem gave, but it's the bracha, the security of bitachon that it came with, which is what man was so special for. The man itself wasn't that special because it was without security in the fridge. You weren't able to keep it for the next day. How many times you see a woman say, Oh, I stocked up my freezer. You know, she goes, The freezer's full. I stocked up, you know, and they feel very good about it. That you didn't have in the man. So that could have been a klalah. That could have been a very big—oh, what am I going to do? You ever see women, the way they start hyperventilating when they don't know if they have enough for the next seudah, for the next meal? They start hyperventilating. That. That Hashem is going to give you, so they're not having. The point that we're trying to bring out: Parshas Haman. You're right, it's a segulah for parnassah. It's true. But Parshas Haman maybe even is a bigger segulah for bitachon, which is possibly even a greater wealth than actual parnassah. They say over that the Brisker Rav, when he read Chovos HaLevavos, how the Chovos HaLevavos describes bitachon, he said that the greatest wealth that a person could have is the bitachon itself. It's not the money; it's the bitachon in Hashem. And I saw this this week. This past week, I had to pick up for a family member of mine an X-ray. In this radiology where they take the X-rays, the radiological doctor's office, unfortunately they take, you know, radiology, they take tests for all the different types of cancers and, rachmana litzlan, all the horrible diseases of the world. There was a room full of people. Not one person took his eyes away from the till. It was a room full of frum Yidden.

Men, ladies, young, old, the Tehillim. I tried to make a little conversation with one of them. I couldn't break him away from the Tehillim. He was attached. I was trying to, you know, ask him how he, you know, how's he feeling, what's wrong, you know, to make it easier for him. I saw that he was going for a test and it was going to be difficult, and I realized that he doesn't need anything. The only thing he needs at this moment is his Tehillim. Sometimes the greatest matanah is the security of having the Ribono Shel Olam there with you. I realized that that's the point. And I'll explain to you now how this is relevant in our times when we understand well what money is, okay? You know, it's an interesting thing, shirah. We had the shirah before the parashah of mon. What was the shirah? The shirah was that Klal Yisrael saw the tremendous miracle of Hashem, the Kriyas Yam Suf, and they said shirah. The Gemara tells us that the malachim also wanted to say shirah when they saw Kriyas Yam Suf. The Ribono Shel Olam gets upset, so to speak, and says, What? You're going to say shirah? Ma'aseh Yadayi tovin ba'yam, v'atem omrim shirah? How could you say shirah? These are my creations, the Mitzriim. They were not allowed to say shirah. Yet, Klal Yisrael did say shirah. So it's a famous question. I mean, if the malachim are not allowed, why are the Klal Yisrael allowed? Another question that's famous that's asked: Pesach, the first two days, we say Hallel, complete. The last days of Pesach, we don't say Hallel. Half. We say half the Hallel. Sukkos, we say full Hallel. Why do we say full Hallel? It's a Yom Tov, it's a holiday. The Gemara really discusses the chilukim between Sukkos. It's a Gemara in Erchin. So the Shibolei HaLeket says, you know why Sukkos we say the entire Sukkos Hallel? It's a holiday. Why Pesach not? Because ma'asei Yadai tovim bayam, v'atem omrim shirah. How could you come and say full Hallel? Look, the Mitzriim—Pesach was about the Mitzriim, how we conquered and then the Mitzriim got destroyed. Ma'asei Yadai tovim bayam, you shouldn't say shirah. That's why we don't say full Hallel on Pesach. So everybody asks the question, good, so why do we say Hallel the first two days? Why does it end by the first two days of Pesach we say Hallel? Then, no, no, you can't say Hallel, the Mitzriim died. Yeah, but what about the first two days? They also died. Why don't we say Hallel? So the truth is, there's many ways that we could tackle this question. You could come and say like this, that the first two days is yetzias Mitzrayim. The last days of Pesach is Kriyas Yam Suf. So by Kriyas Yam Suf, maybe it's more of an issue of ma'asei Yadai tovim bayam v'atem omrim shirah. But the first two days, notice that we don't even mention Kriyas Yam Suf in the Haggadah. Haggadah, we don't mention Kriyas Yam Suf at all. In dayeinu we mention, in dayeinu we mention, which is interesting. You know, if you notice, we say in dayeinu, Ilu sipek tzorkeinu bamidbar v'lo nasan lanu es haman, dayeinu. So, l'choira the question could be asked: sipek tzorkeinu bamidbar is the man. I don't say it's the same thing, no? If Hashem would have given us what we needed in the midbar, oh, that would have been great, even if He didn't give us the man, well, we would have died from hunger. I mean, what do you mean? Huh? What's the answer to the question? If only Hashem would have sipek tzorkeinu bamidbar, oh, that would have been enough, even if He didn't give us the man. Security. He didn't give you the security. The answer is the way we spoke, it's very good. Sipek tzorkeinu was the security. But after the security, He gave us man, which had miracles in it also. So it was twofold. The way I explained to you, the man came with a double package. It was the security of how it was given, and also the man had in it miracles. So, ilu sipek tzorkeinu, He would have taken care of our needs, security, that would have been enough. But also He gave us the man, the miracles. This is very much the way we spoke, okay. But notice that we mention only—

Only in Pesach, dayeinu, we mention Kriyas Yam Suf. The Rambam's Haggadah—Rav Avraham, the son of the Rambam, says the Rambam didn't have this in his Haggadah. Even though the Rambam, in his Rambam that we have, the Rambam brings this in the Haggadah, the Kriyas Yam Suf and the dayeinu. But Rav Avraham ben haRambam says that actually his father didn't put in Kriyas Yam Suf in the dayeinu. And the reason is, the first two days I'm not to do Kriyas Yam Suf. Kriyas Yam Suf is the Yom Tov of what? Of the later days. So maybe that's why the first two days we do say full Hallel, while the last days not. But the problem with that is, why Chol Hamoed then? You know, what we should have done, we should have had during Chol Hamoed also full Hallel, and only the last days not to say. So it doesn't really answer the question. So the terutz that we could say, and others maybe have said it before us, the first two days of Pesach we say—it's as if we left Mitzrayim. Harei anu, vaneinu, v'nei vaneinu meshubadim; chayav adam liros es atzmo k'ilu hu yatza. When the miracle happens to you, you could say Hallel. That's why the Jewish people on Yam Suf had no problem saying Hallel. I asked you, why are the malachim not allowed, the Jews are allowed? Because it happened to them. So since it happened to them, they're allowed to say. And since the first two days of Pesach, it's liros es atzmo k'ilu that it happened to me, happened personally to me, therefore I can say what? I can say Hallel. Okay. Now, I have a question. I've asked many this question. Why every day do we choose to say Hodu l'Hashem? Az Yashir is supposed to be shira. In Pesukei D'Zimra, we choose Az Yashir to be a shira, a praise to Hashem. Why on a regular day are we praising Hashem for what He did to the Mitzriim? Why don't we have the problem of ma'aseh Yadei tovim bayam, v'atem omrim shira? Az Yashir. Why today, in the morning, are you sitting and saying Az Yashir, a praise to Hashem, a shira? Why are we praising Hashem? And I point this out: you know what Az Yashir really is? How Hashem smashed the Mitzriim. They were floating up and down and banging in the— Take it easy, all the gory details. Hashem says, Ma'aseh Yadei tovim bayam, v'atem— You're right, it's in the Torah now. I agree with you. But if you want to say shira, why don't you take out perek shira? Why don't you take out what all the animals, they say praise to Hashem, all the tremendous shiros v'sishbachos they say to HaKadosh Baruch Hu? Let that be the pesukim. So I'm raising a question. I thought you just said Hashem doesn't like to hear how His creations drowned. So every day, Az Yashir Moshe u'vnei Yisrael... So it's funny, a guy came over to me and he says to me, It's not a problem, Rav. You know why? People come late to shul, they don't say it anyway, so don't worry about it. Oh. That may be one teretz. Let's think of another one. For some reason, I didn't find that in the Rishonim. The guy came over, he says to me, Rav... He says to me, Rav, don't worry. The reason is because for those already who come at the time and say it, okay, so one of the few people say it already. All right. Point being, we do say it. And why do we say? We should say Perek Shirah. Let's say Perek Shirah instead of speaking about how the Mitzriyim drowned in the ocean. The answer may be as follows, Rabosai. The Gemara tells us, one in Sotah, the other ones in Midrashim, that Kriyas Yam Suf is unique, that the miracles that happen to the person on a daily basis can also be referred to as Kriyas Yam Suf. The Gemara tells us that when the Ribono Shel Olam puts together a zivug, a husband and a wife, it's like Kriyas Yam Suf. It's kasheh, it's as difficult as Kriyas Yam Suf. The question, of course, is: kasheh? Difficult? There's nothing difficult for Hashem. Hashem can do whatever He wants. So kasheh obviously doesn't mean, as far as Hashem's capabilities, it's difficult, but it is a miracle. It's difficult because it's not a simple thing, and therefore it's compared to Kriyas Yam Suf. The second thing the Gemara compares to Kriyas Yam Suf is parnassah. Kasheh mezonosav shel adam k'Kriyas Yam Suf.

I believe, rabosai, oz yashir Moshe. We're not saying shira for the Mitzriim. We're saying shira for the kriyas Yam Suf that the Ribono Shel Olam does for us every single day. Man, through his life, personal, family, parnassah, job, is going through kriyas Yam Suf. You hear? Yeah. A person could view kriyas Yam Suf every day. We're blind. We don't see it. Hashem made once kriyas Yam Suf. It's not a thing of the past. V'anisim gedolim ha-ba l'hakir, the Nesim Ketanim, the Ramban says, the miracles of great are supposed to open up our eyes, that we should look and see in the smaller miracles Hashem's greatness. We could see kriyas Yam Suf on a daily basis. And the Oz Yashir that we say is not so much Oz Yashir, praise to Hashem for the past that He killed the Mitzriim, but it's a praise that happens to me daily through the kriyas Yam Suf that I go through every day of my life. At home, shidduch. The pasuk says, Moshe, beis yechidim, that the house puts together two elements, a husband and a wife are from different worlds. That's the pasuk that the Gemara brings. Why is it like kriyas Yam Suf? It's like kriyas Yam Suf because Moshe, yechidim beisa. Which means he puts together. So that's not what he just wants. People think that the Kriyas Yam Suf is to make the shirah. It's to keep the shirah going is the Kriyas Yam Suf. People think, oh, it's Kriyas Yam Suf l'zavgam to make the shirah. The Shatchnim, he himself can make Kriyas Yam Suf, the shadchan. Believe me, but they mix up, you know. Believe me, they can make a real good, you know, up and down, sus merochvo, rama vayam. They can make a whole worldwide storm of Kriyas Yam Suf. The idea is to keep it together, to keep it together. That's what it means, Moshe v'Yisrael chim, to put it together is like Kriyas Yam Suf. That's daily. That's every day that a person in his home, in his private life. Mizayn oyses shel adam is daily. There's a Kriyas Yam Suf, and there's a chesed of Hashem in that Kriyas Yam Suf. And that's why we say, Az yashir Moshe uvnei Yisrael es hashirah hazos laHashem. Because you have to see it. You have to recognize. What do I mean? The pasuk says, Vayar Yisrael es hayad hagedolah asher asah Hashem bMitzrayim, vayiru haam es Hashem, Moshe avdo. If you notice, I'll tell you an interesting vort. It says in the pasuk, Vayaz Yoshi. Vayosha Hashem es Yisrael miyad Mitzrayim. Hashem saved us, right? Did we say shirah? Still not. Still didn't say shirah. Vayosha Hashem, Hashem saved us. Still didn't say shira. Vayar Yisrael es Mitzrayim meis al sfas hayam. Still didn't say shira. Vayar Yisrael es hayad hagdolah asher asah Hashem b'Mitzrayim. Vayiru ha'am es Hashem, vayaminu baHashem uv'Moshe avdo; az yashir Moshe uvnei Yisrael. Why didn't they say shira in Mitzrayim? I don't understand. They should have said shira the moment... Why all of a sudden? So the pasuk tells us. You know why? Because vayar Yisrael es hayad hagdolah, vayiru ha'am es... vayaminu baHashem. They saw Hashem's hand. Here, Rashi: es hagevurah hagdolah she'asah Yado shel Kadosh Baruch Hu. They saw Hashem's great hand. A person could recognize Hashem's great hand throughout the day. That's az yashir Moshe. That's when shira bursts forth. The idea of az yashir is when we see Hashem's great hand in our own lives. That's when we say shira. That's the idea of the man. The man was not so much what we got, but it came from yad hagdolah. It came from the fact that Hashem showed us His big hand. There's a very famous pasuk.

And a Rashi that I'd like to share with you, which opens up even greater. Moshe Rabbeinu wants to go into Eretz Yisrael, and he begs Hashem, Atah hachilosa l'haros es avdecha es godlecha v'es yadcha hachazakah. You began to show me Your greatness and Your strong hand. This is in Veschanan, the beginning of Parshas Veschanan, right? Beginning of Parshas Veschanan. Es godlecha, Your greatness, and Your strong yadcha hachazakah. So therefore let me continue to go into Israel. Let me go and see the continuation of this greatness. What is the greatness he's referring to? Does anybody know? What is the yadcha hachazakah that he's referring to? Rashi says, Godlecha, zu midas tuvcha. This is Your goodness. Hashem, You began to show me Your goodness. The yad hachazakah that Klal Yisrael saw on Yam Suf was Hashem's goodness to them. And I want to give you another explanation into this whole idea of them saying shirah while the malachim didn't say shirah. Now there's a very famous question: malachim, why can't you say shirah? Ba'vod resha'im rinah, it says in the pasuk, that when the resha'im get destroyed, rinah! It's a cause of singing. They should have made a whole tape, a Mordechai ben David song tape, you hear? The Mitzrayim's downfall. Yeah, they should have had the goodim. B'Mitzrayim, they were drowned in the ocean. That should be one song. And the next song should have been, Talu kaf orez b'mayim adirim, and there should have been, Sus v'rochvo, sus v'rochvo. They should have had a whole slew of the goodim. You know what? It says in the pasuk, Vavoy, rishayim, rinah. When the rishayim get destroyed, rinah. It's a cause of song, rinah, song. So how could you have a taina, a complaint against the malachim? They shouldn't sing, Maaseh Yaday... So what does the pasuk mean by Vavoy, rishayim, rinah? It's a complicated sugya. Many Acharonim spend many pages of discussion to try to explain the different pesukim. On one hand, we find, Maaseh Yaday... you're not allowed to say shirah when a rasha dies. On another pasuk it says, B'nafol oyivcha al tismach. Don't be happy when your enemy falls. And then we have another pasuk says, Vavoy, rishayim, rinah. You should sing when the rishayim get killed. Lately, over Shabbos, I got many times this question: what, a person shouldn't be happy that Saddam Hussein was hung? A person shouldn't say praises to Hashem, Givaldik, you killed Hitler? This is the question that I got over Shabbos. It's a legitimate question. You heard this question, right? How do you reconcile all these Chazal? You know what the answer may be? Maybe, maybe, maybe. It depends what's making me happy and on what am I praising Hashem. If I praise Hashem on a personal note, what He did for me, that's okay. If I praise Hashem because I'm happy that the evil left the world, that's also fine. But if I praise Hashem that the evil got what they deserve, they got what they're coming, that's not allowed. Again, to come and say, Hashem, what You did for me, I'm very happy. To come and say, I'm even happy that the evil was taken away from this world, that's also okay. That's b'avodah sheloyim rina. But to come and be happy that the rasha got what he deserves, that's no good. The malachim were happy. You know what they were happy? Hashem's greatness. Ki goy gadol, they saw Hashem's greatness, so they wanted to say shira. They never said shira in Mitzrayim. They didn't say shira in Mitzrayim, and that's what I point out. Klal Yisrael didn't say shira in Mitzrayim. When did they say shira? When they saw the yad hagedolah that Hashem did. Hashem's greatness, Hashem's kindness, and we'll soon...

Kriyas Yam Suf was done in a way that was so much chesed to Klal Yisroel. Do you know that the Mitzriim were spit out? Chazal tell us, why did Hashem make the Mitzriim get spit out? Because Klal Yisroel shouldn't be nervous that the Mitzriim are still coming. So He made it in a way that they should be spit out. I'll tell you even more. I never understood why did they have to be spit out? And then there's such a thing called bizas Mitzrayim. You know what bizas Mitzrayim was? That they took the gold and the jewelry off the people, off the soldiers of the Mitzriim after they were drowned, okay? And I want you to know it wasn't only after they drowned. It's a whole shaila in the Rishonim if they were mefarches, meaning they were still alive, jumping up and down, or they were actually dead. And I'll explain to you what I mean. The pasuk says, Lo sosifun liro'osam od ad olam. You shouldn't see them ever again. The Mitzriim, you'll never see them again. You see the Mitzriim, you're afraid of them, don't worry, you'll never see them again. Did they see them again? Yeah. After the water drowned them, they spit them out, so they did see them. It's a famous question. So, but it says you won't see them. So many mefarshim say, there's a noidah b'Yehuda about it, that to see a person when he's dead, that's not called seeing him anymore. And therefore, if a person makes a neder, makes a promise, I'll never see you ever again, he's allowed to identify his body. Yeah, not seeing him. Seeing him dead. Lo sosifun means you're not going to see them alive. Others argue and say, No. That's also called seeing them. Seeing them. Veisasifu, you're seeing them. So how could it be, lo yosifu liroisam od ad olam? How could there be such a pasuk, yeah? You're seeing them. So if you look at the Targum Yerushalmi, the Targum Yerushalmi says—you know what, let's start with the Targum Yerushalmi. The Targum Yerushalmi says they were actually not dead. They were not dead. No, the pasuk says that they saw them dead. We know that when a person is half dead, when he's goises, when he's moving around like a chicken that's just moving around, not literally dead, and therefore they saw them dead. That's what the Targum Yerushalmi says. And that's why it's a question that many ask: so how could it be that you say that you'll never see them again? What's your answer? They were dead. Who says they were dead? The Targum Yerushalmi says they weren't dead. That's one question. So I have a question. If let's say they were half dead, does it make sense on a half-dead person to go and rip off his jewelry? Is that what a Yid is supposed to be all about? I remember years ago reading a documentary that was made by American soldiers, and they were trying to sue the American government to say, How could the American government turn them into monsters during the Vietnam War? The American government made that the soldiers should become a monster, and they were saying different stories of evil that the American soldiers were doing to the Vietnamese. Pashut from during war, sadistic things. And one of the things I read there was that there was a soldier who saw that a Vietnamese had a gold tooth, and he wasn't dead, but he was, you know, bein hachayim uvein hamaves, half dead, half alive. He was ripping out his teeth. The poor guy was not dead; he was just ripping out. Wait. So the soldier, the American soldier, he was so nimaas, he got so disgusted from it that first he shot the Vietnamese guy because he was in pain, he was dying, so he shot him. And then he shot his friend. Hayitachen? How could you be such a sadistic person to take the gold and the jewelry out of his mouth while the guy's dying? He's dying! And he shot his friend. And there was a whole question if they should take him as a court martial, if they should give him punishment for doing that, or maybe because we drove him to be so crazy that he became crazy during war and he shot his friend. It was a whole documentary. What's the point being? Definitely not for a Yiddishe person to go over to a mitzri while he's half dead and rip his gold and silver off from his clothing. I mean, what is that all about? Well, how could there be such a thing? Huh? That is half the problem, but it's still a problem. But what happened bizas Mitzrayim? How do you explain bizas Mitzrayim?

Amalek is one thing, because first of all, Amalek, it doesn't say anywhere we should take the jewelry from Amalek. Second of all, Amalek is much, much killing, because you have to sometimes kill somebody. Over here, you're talking about we're not treating them like Amalek. Mitzrayim is supposed to treat properly. It says, lo sisnai Mitzri, you can't hate a Mitzri. So what was the mitzvah, to take off his dying body his jewelry? It's a little bit interesting thing. But point being, according to the Talmud Yerushalmi, the Talmud Yerushalmi says, lo sisaifu lirosam od ad olam, we don't mean you're not going to see them alive or dead. That's not even the point. You're not going to see them in the same state of mind that you saw them till now. What does that mean? There's an interesting Eben Ezra. The Eben Ezra says, why did the Jews fight back on Kriyas Yam Suf? You know, if every Jew would turn around, one, turn around and just take out one Mitzri, you would have been able to conquer the whole Mitzrayim. You know, the numbers, the numbers. There were so many more Jews than there were Mitzriyim. Turn around, fight back. So there's a very famous rule. We know this by the Nazis, the same question: how could they never fought back? And the answer is, katzon latevach. Sometimes Jews, they become so low by themselves, fear that they can't do anything. Katzon latevach yuva. Katzon latevach yuva. I happen to have seen this with my own eyes. One of the kahal over here in Queens, they wanted to teach shechita, so they brought a lamb and they shechted the lamb. It doesn't move. It just lets you do it. It's an interesting... it just lets you, and it knows it's getting... it doesn't do anything. It's interesting that Klal Yisrael is like tzon kodesh, ketzon latevach yuval. I read over Shabbos, very interesting, and I'll share it with you. I know, rabosai, I say a lot, but there's a lot in here that I want to say, so you just bear with me a little bit. I read over Shabbos a testimonial that, I think his name was Rabbi Horowitz, he, you know, was during the concentration camps, and later on he became an advocate to commemorate the Holocaust. And he says he remembers that they chose ten Yidden to get hung on Shavuos, because they claimed that Shavuos is when the Torah was given, and because of the Torah they think that the Am HaNivchar, and because of the Am HaNivchar, the chosen nation, they do all these terrible things to the German people, and therefore they have to get hung on Shavuos. Ten. So they chose ten people, and one of them was a very chashuve rosh hakahal. He was the head of the community in Lodz. So it says over there that the night before, the day before, he was saying slichos. He was Shavuos, but they were saying slichos because they knew they were going to die. So he stopped them in the middle of the slicha, Kel na alilah. There's a slicha, Kel na alilah, by Neilah. He stopped them in that slicha of Kel na alilah. I'm sorry, I said slichos, I meant they davened in the Yom Kippur davening, forgive me. They were davening Yom Kippur davening, so he was saying Kel na alilah, and he said, We'll stop over here. And as they were being marched to get hung, they continued the Kel na alilah. They continued that paragraph. So when they came to the hanging, so there were cheers. So this Rabbi Horowitz took his neck and he put it into the— and he smiled at the Nazi and he showed him, Okay, come on, let's go. And the guy was like, What do you mean? You're not— No, no, come on, let's go. The guy couldn't figure out, he couldn't understand that it's a hamishpacha mehagazin of this week. It's something interesting to read. This whole— it's in this week's hamishpacha, yeah. So it's something to read. It's something interesting. So he brings down over there that the way he put his neck in there, he was showing the guy that the only way to avenge you is by showing you that I'm a Yid. That's the only thing, that's the only way I can— because he brings down that one of the ten gave a scream, Yidden, Jews, avenge our blood. So he asks, as a child, he never— how do you expect us to avenge our blood? What do you think we're gonna do? So he explains that the person meant by being a Jew, by being a true Yid, that itself is how you avenge our dam. So katzoyn latevach might be that Klal Yisroel is tzon. What is tzon? Tzon, I was thinking, is the Klal Yisroel. We're called tzon Marisai. So if you go like tzon Marisai to—

The death, that itself is avenging the death itself. And that's what it means, katzon latevach yuvo. Klal Yisrael goes like a tzon, like a sheep. What does that mean, like a Klal Yisrael? That's what it means, katzon latevach yuvo. Here, rabosai, I'm thinking very, very profound pshat. I was thinking about it over Shabbos when I read this article. Katzon latevach yuvo means that as a tzon, as a tzon kodesh, as a Jew, who's called tzon Mar'isai, if you go to the death as tzon, that itself is how you avenge your own death from the person who's perpetrating death. Getting back to the point, so lo yosifu liro'osam od ad olam, says the Targum Yerushalmi, you know how you won't see them again? As a slave. They went to Kriyas Yam Suf as slaves, like the Ibn Ezra says. They couldn't even fight back. You know what Hashem wanted in Kriyas Yam Suf? That they should undo their psychological problem, that they were considered slaves, and now they have a whole different persona. Their inner self changed from being a slave to being a free person. That itself, that in their minds they had the psychology of a slave, they had the emotional restrictiveness of being a slave, that also went away in Kriyas Yam Suf. Hashem took care of that, and how did He do that? By having the Mitzrim get spit out, and that the Jews should take their gold and their silver. That itself was the chesed. That itself was the chesed. of Kriyas Yam Suf. Klal Yisroel saw in Kriyas Yam Suf, not only does Hashem at the same time punish, but that's not enough to say shira to Hashem. But He sees the Yad HaChazakah, He punishes the rasha, but at the same time it's actually chesed of Hashem to the Bnei Yisroel. This is Hashem's greatness. It's not enough to see Hashem create miracles from within the miracles, and even when Hashem punishes the rasha, you see the tremendous chesed to Klal Yisroel, the tremendous chesed to the individual. That's what brings out shira. That is mon. Mon is to be able to recognize, to recognize the tremendous chesed. And when you recognize the tremendous chesed in the mon, the mon is a tremendous bracha, tremendous. And that's a segulah. That is a segulah for parnassah. You hear? So all in all, what we're saying, rabosai, is refocus, refocus, refocus. Mon is supposed to give you a reality check, a reality check. And I'm going to give you one more les vart, and then I'm going to send you on your way because we've said a lot. And I give you a good piece of advice: you should go over the tape, shechazer, try to see what I was trying. There's a lot hidden with what I said. I couldn't speak out everything that I want, but it's more or less there. I'm going to tell you something very interesting. You know what shira means? What is shira? I'll tell you what shira is. Oz Yashir. You know what Oz Yashir means? Oz means then. You know, Moshe Rabbeinu complained with the word oz. He said, Mi'az basi el Paro, from when I came to Paro, it was no good. And that's why Hashem said, You'll say Oz Yashir with the word oz. Okay, what does that mean? I'll tell you simply, and I don't have time to go into great detail, but the idea will be there enough that you should understand. You know when you start to realize that Hashem maybe made bad in the beginning, it's not really bad. When the result comes, when the final chapter is written, and then you start looking back and you realize, hey, wait a minute, it's actually all good. There was a chesed in all this. You're right. Hashem made suffering for Klal Yisrael. Moshe Rabbeinu says, What are they suffering? You'll see. Wait. Hashem says, Wait and you'll see. That's what He answered, right? Wait and you'll see what I'm going to do to Paro. When it came to Kriyas Yam Suf, everything made sense. That's why Oz Yashir Moshe. He looks back. That's shirah. You know what shirah is? Shirah is to see deeper. Shirah is to see, oh, now I understand. Now I get it. Okay. You know what the man? The man, I told you, didn't look very pleasant. But when you thought, and you thought the man is from Hashem, the man is...

Oh, it's delicious. It's delicious. It's all about focus, to see what's behind it, what it really stands for. Was the man the most best looking? If you went into the store and you saw all the cakes and mun, you'd pass by and go, What is this? You know something? I used to tell my kids all that. You know, that's why it was called mun. Mun was an explanation. What is this? Imagine a guy comes in and says, I have a chasunah to make. Could you give me delicious pastries? So they give him, and then they give him a blob of mud. You know what the wife is going to go? What is this? What are you talking about? Mun. Externally, ah. Once you understood, the Chofetz Chaim's zichrona livracha used to say, zech tzaddik livracha, the mun only had taste with the thought you had. What happens if a person didn't think anything when he ate the mun? What taste did it have? Nothing. Says the Chofetz Chaim, nevelach, nevelach. So a guy ate the mun and he had no thought at all. Nothing. That's the... It says the Chofetz Chaim, it tasted like tzapichis bidvash. If you mechaven to eat mun. If I go and I say, I want to have the taste of mun. If I say, I want to have the taste of mun, then the mun had a taste of tzapichis bidvash. By the way, you know what tzapichis bidvash is? What is the one thing in the pasuk that, which is interesting, because I was going to bring it up a little bit later, but I'm trying to cut it short. What is the one thing in the Torah—I'm sorry, I just gave away the answer—what's the one thing that's compared to tzapichis bidvash, honey? Torah. That's, k'sapi, the man had a taste of Torah. He took apart delicious Torah, delicious, wonderful, myridik. But if you have no thought, says Menachem Chofetz Chaim, it tasted like nothing. It's junk it tasted, because you don't think. I mean, there are certain things that externally have no taste, but its internal taste is unbelievable. Now I'm going to explain to you why the Torah is called a shirah. You know, it says by Yehoshua that the malach came before I, before he went to war, to kill him. Why did the malach come to kill him? V'charbo shelufah b'yado. Why? Ata basi. He asked the malach, What are you coming to kill me for? Why? Ata basi. What does ata mean? Says the Gemara in Brachos—excuse me, in Megillah—ata means, v'ata kisvu lachem es ha'shirah hazos. You'll write this song, meaning Torah. It's referring to v'ata, v'ata kisvu lachem, write this song, and since you weren't learning, right, therefore I'm coming to kill you, because it was bittul Torah. So miyad, says the Gemara, right away, what did he do? He corrected it and he sat down and he learned. So the mefarshim speak, why did he bring this pasuk? You want to tell him Torah, tell him Torah. What do you have to have v'ata kisvu, a whole speech? V'ata, if ata means kisvu lachem es ha'shirah hazos, just tell him Torah and finish. Why do you have a whole story about v'ata kisvu lachem es... So the mefarshim—Rav used to say it over all the time—is to try to teach Yehoshua, you're in a matzav of a sakana. So you're right, maybe, maybe, maybe. You have an excuse. You have an excuse, you can't learn. But if Torah is shira, Torah is a song, which means it's the song of chayim, the shira, the song of life, so you should have done it even if you're in a matzav of a situation where it's difficult and you're in danger and you can't concentrate. That's why here he uses the pasuk, V'ata kisvu lachem es ha'shirah, this song. I have to add a little bit. I think it needs a little bit more salt and pepper, as they say, to explain it. You know what shira is? Shira is to recognize Hashem in a difficult situation, that His hand of chesed is there. Shirah is when we start to realize Yad hachazak, the presence of Hashem. You thought it was one thing, and then all of a sudden it becomes recognized, oh, it's a whole different... The mon, the mon, was a tremendous thing, that what? That they recognized, if you paid attention, the chesed of Hashem. Kriyas Yam Suf was shira. They recognized the tremendous chesed of Hashem.

The Torah. It's also a tremendous shirah, just like the man. You know, when you learn Torah, it might not taste that very good, and it might not be so appetizing to the eye. It's difficult. It's hard. The lifestyle is difficult. A different lifestyle may be more appetizing. But when you understand the security of Hashem in the Torah, which means you recognize that Hashem, it shines through in the Torah, then it becomes a shirah of life has a whole different meaning. The life of Torah, that the Torah dictates, gives a person shirah when he recognizes. So Yeshua, I believe, was in a matzav of fear. Sounds familiar? Man, fear, insecurity. Says the Malach to him, the greatest security is, in the words of the Torah, the comfort of the Torah. And then you'll have what? Shirah, when you recognize Hashem is there to comfort you. Torah is a shirah. How is Torah a shirah? The security that you have that Hashem is there with you. You know, a melech, I was thinking about it last night, a melech, when he goes to war, what did he used to take with him? Do you know what the melech used to carry with him? Mishnah Torah, his Torah. He used to have a Torah that would go, a special Torah that would go out to war with him. What's the pshat? I was thinking about it. The security of Hashem imo, Hashem is with him. And when you have that security, that's called shirah. Az yashir Moshe, they saw by Yam Suf, when you start to see Hashem in war. Becomes a shirah, v'atah kisvu lachem es ha'shirah hazos. Write this shirah. We're talking about the shirah that, Yehoshua, you were in matzav of danger. You should have turned to the learning of the Torah to give you warmth, to give you protection, to give you consolation, and that would be the shirah of the Torah. This, rabosai, is Parshas HaMan. Parshas HaMan isn't blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, the words, or even to go to the store and buy it and put it into your tefillin bag. You're supposed to put it, v'hayah l'os al yadcha, u'letotafos bein einecha, one inside the heart and one inside the head. That's where Parshas HaMan belongs, not in the tefillin bag. Good, you want to put it in your tefillin bag, it's also good, but you got to, like the tefillin, the one that's shel yad keneged the leg and the one that's shel rosh keneged the rosh. Put it in your heart and your mind that the Man, the Ribono Shel Olam, is there to secure, and that's a shirah, that's console, that's shirah, that's praise to HaKadosh Baruch Hu when you see His yad hachazakah, that He's there every day, every day to make you a Krias Yam Suf and to help you and support you and to give you emotional support. Krias Yam Suf was an emotional support for Klal Yisrael. They became ois avadim, like the Yerushalmi says. They were avadim till they came there, and Hashem made it that the Mitzrayim should die in a way that they should feel that they're not avadim anymore, that the Mitzrim are junk and they're the adonim, they're the masters. That's yad hagdolah asher asah Hashem b'Mitzrayim, the great hand of chesed that Hashem did in Mitzrayim. Tachas b'zois, feel Hashem's hand, loving hand, His kindness, His guidance. Daily life throughout the week, throughout the year, and with this, to say shira, oz, la'asid lavo, oz, shira to the Ribbono Shel Olam. You've just experienced another Torah class, brought to you by TorahAnytime.com.