The Yesod of the Haggadah: Learning Arami Oved Avi and Teaching Yetzias Mitzrayim Through Pesukim

Transcript

Hashem, Haggadah shel Pesach, yesod, theme, the ikar of the Haggadah. What is it? What is the Haggadah? We know that the Haggadah plays a pivotal part of the night of Pesach. Very important, Haggadah shel Pesach. I don't believe there's a Jew in the world that doesn't read the Haggadah. I don't know if he eats the kezaytim lahalachah. Not everybody eats the chazonish shiurim of the Pesach, of the matzot, but everybody says the Haggadah in one way or another, in one form or another, Haggadah shel Pesach. Today, I want that we should become from just the readers to go to the next level, the understanders, to understand the Haggadah: the point, the concept, the ikar, the yesod of the Haggadah. What is it? Why do we say it? What is it for us? What are we to learn and to understand in it? If you take a look at the Haggadah, very interesting, the text of the Haggadah. In what sense? Say lamad. The Haggadah tells us, say lamad, go out, and then I want you to know that this, in many homes, becomes the boring part of the Haggadah. I don't know if you know that. Haggadah, very nice, the beginning, the questions, the children, ... Then it comes drashot after drashot after drashot. It becomes like the boring part. Probably in most homes, you just speed right through it. This is the part, right? This is the part they say quickly, you know, time to move. When? When it comes to tzei u'mat. Come, let's be doresh. Doresh. What do we doresh? That Lavan was bikesh la'akor et hakol. This is a drasha. Where is it a drasha? Because it says, Arami oved avi. Okay, this, I understand, needs to be nidrash, needs to be learned from the pasuk, because we don't really know how and why, and it's not so clear in the Torah that what, that Lavan was bikesh la'akor et hakol, but the pasuk tells it to us, so we doresh, Arami oved avi, and we doresh it from the pasuk. Then it says, Vayehi, that he went down to Mitzrayim, anus al pi hadibur. So we come, so Yaakov wasn't there lishtakea, to long term, but to come rather as a guest, lagur, to come as a, quickly and to leave. Didn't come as a lishtakea, but rather lagur, as a ger. And again, that's nidrash from the fact that he tells Paro, Lagur ba'aretz banu. Okay, also drash. Okay. But as you start to see the drashot, you start to realize they're not even drashot; they're open pesukim. Here, it says that there were many, and so on and so forth, and then it says like this, Vayere'u otanu haMitzrim, vayanunu, vayitnu aleinu avodah kashah. Tell me, is there anything not clear about that? It's a simple thing. They did us bad. They afflicted on us, and they put on us avodah kasha. Oh, says the pasuk, says the ..., Va'gadol, come, let's be doresh this. Are you ...? It says, Hom nischakma lo, pen yirbeh, ... v'nilchamah. My anunu, like it says, they made us ... b'sivlosam, vayitenu avodah kasha, like it says, ... Mitzrayim b'farech, va'nitzak el Hashem, like it says, we cried to Hashem, va'yishma Hashem, like it says, va'yishma Hashem. These are all open pesukim. What's the ... like it says, like it says, like it says? What's the big ...? He put on us hard work, like it says they put on us hard work. He afflicted pain on us, like it says they afflicted pain on us. We cried to Hashem, like it says we cried to Hashem. There's not much to be doresh. It's not big chidushim. Why does it have to be, this is the story and this is where it's learned from. This is the story and this is where it says it. This is the story and this is where it says it. Why do you need that? The drash. Like I say, that's why it becomes the boring part of the Haggadah.

Not saying much. We know the story. Now we're saying, you know what? It was difficult work. Like it says it was difficult work. They made us suffer like it says they made us suffer. We cried to Hashem like it says we cried to Hashem. What's the point of bringing it out from the pesukim the way the pasuk brings it clearly? Another thing I want you to pay attention to, that it's almost as if we ignore the story and we're busy darshening the pesukim. Do you know that the actual story is not even in the Haggadah? Tell me, do we talk about in the Haggadah, ... right? They became many. Does it say that they had six children at one time? Does it say that in the Haggadah? Well, we're just saying the pasuk says they were many, like the pasuk says they were many. Tell me the medrash behind it. Tell me the story behind the pasuk. Here, Hashem went and took the children and put them under the trees, tachas ha-tapuach or articha, and He fed them. It's not in the Haggadah. Tell me, in the Haggadah does it speak about the hard labor that men had to do women's work and women had to do men's work? No. He put on us hard labor like it says in the pasuk, they put on us hard labor. Don't you think we would have been better off bringing the midrashim? Instead of saying they put on us hard labor like it says in the pasuk, they put on us hard labor, tell us the midrash, the story. Isn't that sipur yetzias Mitzrayim, the story? A person could read the Haggadah and walk away not knowing the story. Don't you, you pay attention to it? I mean, look, read the Haggadah, and it's no chiddush why we have hundreds of Haggadahs. Explain the Haggadah, the text of the Haggadah, you know why? Because so much happened over there that's not written in the Haggadah. He goes through the Medrash, 90% of the story is not in the Haggadah. What, that we were in Mitzrayim? Like it says we were in Mitzrayim? That's what I mean. I need that we should say in the Haggadah we were in Mitzrayim, kemo shene'emar, like we were in Mitzrayim. He put on us hard labor like he told us to build Pithom and Ramses. That's all that happened there. Unbelievable things happened in Mitzrayim. You know they used to take the babies and slaughter them? See, he should have the birth for his saras. Is that mentioned in the Haggadah? Is that mentioned in the Haggadah? No. What? The suffering of our children. What children? It doesn't say what, when, children here. Here. Amaleinu, these are the children. What children? When children? Explain the story of the children. What are you saying? Yeah, it says, it says in the pasuk, amaleinu. It seems like we're being doresh the words of the pasuk. We're not magdish the story. We're not magdish the story. The story behind the diyukim in the pasuk is not in the Haggadah. Why? Why is it that way? The miracles of the makkos. There's so much miracles. Dam, the blood was only for the Mitzriim, it wasn't for us. Story with the cup, right? If you filled up a cup, it would be for a Jew water, and then if you gave it to the guy, it turned into blood. Did I mention that Hagadah? And I can go on and on and on, because you all know the stories of Mitzrayim are unbelievable stories. No mention Hagadah, no mention. But facts. We were in Mitzrayim. You would think—I was hoping Errol would be here, I'd tell him—you'd think this is like a lawyer's court. You were in Mitzrayim? Prove it. Okay, it says in the pasuk we were in Mitzrayim. What? Prove it, because it says that we worked hard in Mitzrayim. Details. Don't give any details. It's taught by a lawyer. Just answer the question. Don't give any—don't give any explanations. You were here? Prove it. Okay, I was here. You sat? Okay, you sat. Why you sat? Don't say that. Don't bring that out. What's pshat in Hagadah? Unbelievable, unbelievable thing. Ikar hasipur is not in here. The truth is, I want to show you, and it is true what we're saying, that the ikar of the Hagadah is not to say so much the story, but the ikar of the Hagadah...

I think there's no mitzvah to say the story. Don't get me wrong. Avadah is a mitzvah to say the story, but that's not the Haggadah. What is the Haggadah? The drashot of the pasuk, the drash, the learning of the pesukim, which we do Rambam. Vetzarich lehaschil bignus ulesayem bishvach. You have to start with genus, things which are not nice, things which are degradation to Klal Yisrael. Then you speak about the good part, the good times, the shevach. How? Keitzad? He starts, Bitechilah hayu avoseinu ovdei avodah zarah. In the beginning it was bad for us, we were ovdei avodah zarah. Kofrim, to'im. Umesayem bdaas ha'emes, says the Rambam, we finish off that Hashem took us close to Him and He made us Am Yisrael, we believe in Hashem. Okay. Continues the Rambam: Vchein maschil umodia she'avadim hayinu. We discuss that we were avadim and all the bad things that happened, umesayem bnisim unefla'os. V'hu, how do we bring out the bad that happened to us and then the good that came after? V'hu sheyidrosh me'Arami oved avi ad sheyigmor kol haparshah, till he finishes the entire parshah. You take the parshah. What is this parshah? This is the parshah of Bikurim. This is the entire parshah. When you come to give Bikurim, you say this Haggadah. This Haggadah is Bikurim. You know where the word Haggadah comes from? Higadti hayom laShem Elokecha ki basi. The Yisrael tells the Kohen, Higadti hayom. And he says this parsha. This is like a Haggadah. This is a telling of the facts of the history of Klal Yisrael. Haggadah. Higadti hayom, and that's why the Haggadah is called Haggadah. That's where it comes from. What's the word Haggadah? Some word comes from higadto levincha, higadto levincha, and some say it's because the ikar of Haggadah is this parsha of Higadti hayom laShem Elokecha, bikurim. Do you understand that what you read Pesach night is what the Yisrael tells the Kohen when he brings bikurim? That's the parsha of Arami oved avi. That's that parsha. Says the Mishnah that he's doresh that parsha. That's Pesach night Haggadah, to be doresh that parsha. Rambam in Peirush Mishnayos tells us, hadrash yeduah. These are Chazal who came and was doresh the parsha of bikurim, and that's what we say, Pesach night. The text of our Haggadah, the text of our Haggadah, is the bikurim, the Haggadah, the witness, the testimony that he says, just that we're doresh it. Here, he comes and says the Rambam, vadrash yeduah means the Gemara is the Chazal. Not only that, I want to show you a big chiddush of the Rambam. We speak about kol hamarbeh lesaper b'yetzias Mitzrayim. Re'eh zeh meshubach, says the Rambam. What is that referring to? Says the Rambam, V'chol hamosif u'maarich b'drash parshah zu — hear, Rambam? — kol hamosif u'maarich b'drash parshah zu, harei zeh meshubach. Kol ha'marbeh lesaper b'yetzias Mitzrayim, the Rambam learns it as what? As halacha in drash of parshah zu. It's unbelievable. Hear how the Rambam learns? You think it means to sit there and talk about the great miracles of Hashem, right? The Rambam learns, kol ha'marbeh lesaper b'yetzias Mitzrayim, meaning he should take the text of the Chumash, parshas Bikurim, and midrash it, and emphasize, and elaborate, and be more mosif u'maarich on the drash of this parshah. Is it necessary? All right, quickly, quickly, quickly. I told you it's not a stirah. If you listen carefully, here I answered that question.

There is a separate inyan. There's a separate importance to speak about the nisim and niflaos. But the Haggadah, the text of it, is the drash of this parsha. Then you, on your own, should discuss the story, the way you understand with your midrashim and so on and so forth. But the core text of what you must say is the drash of this parsha. It has to be lidrosh haparshah shel Arami oved avi. And Kol hamarbeh lesaper is this. Yes, what's your question from before? Tannaim. This is braisos. These are braisos. Now, the question is why? Why? Why is the Haggadah? You see, that's why the difference between, like I say, separates the boys from the men. The boys come home and talk about the frogs. The men come home and learn the Haggadah. See the difference? The boys come home and they have gematriot about how Hashem is gematria makkas and makkas is gematria Mitzrayim, and Mitzrayim is gematria... But that's not what you should go out of that. It's time to go out of it. It's time to learn what it says. You come home on the night of Pesach and you see clearly that the text that you must say is actually not the story. It's the pesukim from Bikkurim that you have to be doresh. And you see that the mareh mekomos is what? Like the Rambam tells us, bidrash parshah zu. The Mishnah says you doresh it; that's what the Mishnah says. That's the Haggadah. You doresh a Mishnah; you doresh this parshah. Rambam, Peirush Mishnayos, says, Vadrash yedua. It's famous. It's famous drashos, Chazal, these drashos. And the mareh mekomos, the Rambam in halachah, he refers to this. Elaborate the pesukim, the pesukim. Why? Why? Why is the no inyan to read the story, but rather to be doresh the parshah? Tzei ulemad. What does the word mean, tzei ulemad? What does it mean, tzei ulemad? Go out and learn. Go out. I'm not referring to you. I'd rather you came in and learned. Tzei ulemad. What does tzei ulemad mean? So the truth is the Gra has a very interesting pshat, and he says the Arami oved avi is not clear in the pesukim. You have to go out and try to get to the bottom of why it is that way. How do we know that it is that way? Because the pasuk says, Arami oved avi. But if not for the pasuk, we wouldn't know it. So it's the pasuk that tells us that these are the facts, and we have to elaborate to understand those facts. This is the haschalah of the entire Haggadah, says the Gra. The Haggadah is telling us that these are the facts. To understand the facts, say ulamad. Say ulamad. What do I have to describe here? Say ulamad says the Gra is an introduction to the drashos of the parsha. Why? Say ulamad, haRam Yoived Aviya. Where do you know what, where? Torah setso. Torah setso. Now go in and understand why the Torah setso. Drashes throughout the parsha is the same thing. The drashes throughout the parsha, the Torah setso. Now understand why the Torah setso. Soon we'll see the significance, the significance of this Gra. Again, the Gra is telling us that say ulamad is an introduction to the Haggadah, because the Haggadah is—these are the facts. Now understand the facts. And this is from HaRam Yoived Avi. Because the Torah tells us HaRam Yoived Avi, Lavan tried—where did you see Lavan? You saw Lavan try to destroy everything. Where do you see it from? Ah, so we have to sit down and we have to analyze and understand how and why, and HaRam—how. Let me tell you another piece of information. You know the Gemara, whenever it takes a drash, it starts with tashma, tashma, tashma.

You know, Toshma. That's how a Gemara starts, Toshma. I wanted to tell you that in many places, which I rather wrote down three, but I know it's in many more places, Sanhedrin daf pei-vav amud aleph, Chulin samech-gimmel amud aleph, Chulin kuf tez-vav amud beis. Whenever the Gemara wants to learn a drash from yud-gimmel midos, it says, Sei u'lamad. Every time the Gemara discusses a drash based on yud-gimmel midos shehaTorah nidreshet bahem, Rabbi Yishmael omer, you say every day, Rabbi Yishmael omer, the yud-gimmel midos shehaTorah nidreshet bahem, the Gemara uses the lashon, Sei u'lamad, the yud-gimmel midos, that this is the halacha. Notice here too, what are we saying? Sei u'lamad. Sei u'lamad, doresh, drash, yud-gimmel midos shehaTorah nidreshet bahem. Understand that the night of Pesach, your Haggadah isn't story, but your Haggadah is Gemara. It's text, it's limud, it's drashus, like you would learn Bava Kama, Bava Metzia, Bava Basra. Sei u'lamad. This is Toshma. This is a Gemara. This is the way the Gemara speaks about drashos of yud-gimmel midos shehaTorah nidreshet bahem. Sei u'lamad. Toshma. Now you want to know why is this ta come and here is sei u'lamad? I don't know. I don't know. Stam a Joe would know this, because I see already he's going into the upper worlds, the olam ha'atzilut. I don't know. I don't know. I never claim to know everything. I just know that I know what it says, and I work well on what it says, and I get down to the bottom of things that it says. What I see here is the Gra telling me that the drashos are drashos, and the rest is for us to understand. And I also see that Sefer Lamad is used in place of Tashma in many places, where we use drashos in the Gemara. Again, I'm showing you that the idea of the Haggadah is drash of pesukim, drash of pesukim. It is not sitting there telling fascinating stories about Yetzias Mitzrayim. It's to sit there and be doresh the pesukim. And if the pesukim tell us, Vayorei otanu haMitzrim, we'll be doresh, Vayorei otanu haMitzrim. If the pesukim tell us, Vayanunu, kemo shene'emar, Vayitkolel avodah kashah. If it's supposed to tell, Vanitzak el Hashem, kemo shene'emar, Vanitzak el Hashem. That's our job, to be doresh the pesukim, to be doresh the parshah of Arami oved avi. That's Haggadah. Tashma. Come and learn, like you learn in the Gemara. Why? What's wrong if we tell the story? What's so bad? We sit down and say, Come, let me tell you a beautiful geshmakke maaseh. You know, today the rabbi learned, sadly enough, maybe too much, that the way to teach is to give stories. You want to teach somebody, you give a story. Give him a story. At the kach that today you have to search for the learning in the story. It's 99% story, and somewhere they stick in a Gemara, Chazal here, like I found in the Gemara. Oh, it's a very nice shiur; you can found it in the Gemara. But the yesod is the story. The yesod is the story. Here we do it the opposite. That's why some people can't swallow our shiurim, because we do it the other way around. We bring 99.9% Gemara, and 1% sometimes we bring you in the story. Works the other way around over here. Al kol panim, Pesach night, notice it's not story; it's drash. It's learning. We're sitting and learning the Gemara, the pesukim, the iyun of it, and that's why people are bored. Why do people are bored? People get bored by this ... Again, ... What do you want? But that's the yesod. The yesod of the Haggadah is to be doyresh. Why? Why? Haboisai, stories go in one ear, come right out the other. You should know that. They have an effect for a while, for a while.

But the yesod of sefor has to be based on learning. You want to get the story across, it has to come to be doresh the parsha. Now I'll show you where I got this from. In our history, we know that there was a very famous father-in-law. Famous father-in-law. Who was he? Yitro. Yitro was the father-in-law of Moshe. It says in the parsha, Vayishma Yisro. Yisro heard everything that happened to Klal Yisroel, everything that Hashem did, right? Es kol asher asah Hashem Elokim l'Yisrael. He heard everything, unbelievable. Rashi tells us he heard Kriyas Yam Suf, milchemes Amalek. Ah, gevaldig. Later on, it says in the pasuk, Vayesaper Moshe l'chosno. Finally he comes. You know, bring the pasuk, I want to show them inside. Vayesaper Moshe l'chosno. When he finally greets him, Moshe tells his father-in-law, here, he came. What'd he hear? Everything Hashem did l'Moshe l'Yisrael, beautiful. Later on in pasuk ches, when he finally comes, it says, Vayesaper Moshe l'chosno, es kol asher asah Hashem l'Paroh u'l'Mitzrayim, al odos Yisrael, es kol hatlaah asher metzaasam baderech, vayatzileim Hashem. He said over. Rashi says, Why is Vayisaper Moshe lechosno? Limshoch es libo likarevo laTorah. The point was to get him close to Torah. Now, lekudah, there's a kasha over here. He heard him. Vayishma Yisro, kohen Midyan. He heard. This is all heard. What's the point of repeating what the Rebbe says also? The Rebbe's saying. So the question—you hear the question? What's the point of repeating it if he heard everything, right? Today, today, today, if I have to repeat something I said yesterday, they'll say, I heard it already yesterday. I heard it, I heard it already. Why are you repeating? But was already heard the day before. So the truth is, if you want to be an honest learner, you would see that the Vayishma Yisro and the Vayisaper Moshe is two different things. Here is, Es kol asher asah Elokim lMoshe ulYisrael amo, that Hashem took them out of Mitzrayim. And Rashi explains that's Kriyas Yam Suf, and milchemes Amalek, and that Hashem took them out. It's a little different. What is Moshe telling him? Es kol asher asah Hashem lParoh ulMitzrayim. The makkos. Could be it's different discussions. Yisro heard the big things. Yisro heard Kriyas Yam Suf. Ooh, the world turned upside down by Kriyas Yam Suf, milchemes Amalek, right? That was all in all the papers. But who says that he heard the details of Mitzrayim, the makos, and everything that went on in Mitzrayim? So you could say, Vayisaper Moshe l'chosno. That's what Moshe was giving over to him, his father-in-law, things that he didn't hear. He heard everything, meaning, and Rashi explains what's everything: Kriyas Yam Suf, u'milchemes Amalek. So what he's telling over to Yisro is maybe what happened to Paroh in Mitzrayim, the makos, and the history leading up to Kriyas Yam Suf, u'milchemes Amalek. Or we could say, also simple pshat, that ein a dayma — there is no comparison — hearing it in the streets of Midyan than to hearing it firsthand from Moshe Rabbeinu. Also true. It's very possible that Yisro heard everything, but he heard it all in the streets of Midyan. L'maaseh, you can't come and say that it's the same thing like Moshe, who was there firsthand, who saw it firsthand, who knew how to explain it, like a Moshe Rabbeinu giving it over to Yisro. So maybe that's what was added and what was not spoken to Yisro from before.

Also a nice pshat, correct? Yisro heard, but from who? It's not a pshat. So that's what he added. He heard it from where? He heard it from Moshe, which was more. The Brisker Rav learns a very interesting yesod, that it's possible the saying over of the story by Moshe Rabbeinu was not so much to inform Yisro of things he didn't know, but it's rather a halacha of sipur kol nifla'osav, which means a person that has a miracle must repeat it, must say it over, must talk about it as a praise, as a form of praise and thankfulness about the miracle that happened. Hashem does you a miracle, talk about it, talk about it. When you don't appreciate, you don't talk about it. When you appreciate, yeah, you heard, you saw. Problem is, Moshe didn't have who to say it to. You know why? Because it happened to everybody. So who, to who will he be able to be mekayem the mitzvah of sipur kol nifla'osav? Speak His greatness, speak His miracles that He did. So as soon as Yisro came, he was the person to say it to. It's not so much to inform the facts, which maybe Yisro heard, but it's the halacha of the person having to repeat and discuss and elaborate and mefaresem the nes. So you can't do it to somebody who the nes happened to you as well as him. For example, if there's four people that were saved in a car accident, so the four people have to find people that were not in that car to repeat over the nes to them. It doesn't mean that they didn't hear about it. They could have heard about the nes. But when you repeat it, it's what? It's being halacha, being mesaper, and it flies the wonders of Hashem. So he needed Yisro, who wasn't there. So learns the Briskerov. Now, I believe if you look at the targum, if you look at the targum, you could say a different pshat. Yisro heard what? The miracles. Through what? Through the newspapers. Vayisaper Moshe l'choisno was different. If you look at the previous pasuk, the last words, Vayavo'u ohelah, they came into the tent. What tent are they referring to? What tent did Yisro come to, to Moshe? Says the targum, l'beis ulfana, on a beis ulfana, l'mishkan beis ulfana, the yeshiva. It took him into the beis medrash. Vayavo'u ohelah, says the targum, they came to what? They came to ulfana, mishkan beis ulfana, to the yeshiva. It's possible that that's the pshat, Vayisaper Moshe l'choisno. To hear it as a news is one thing. To hear it in the context of limud haTorah, it's something else. Something else. Moshe told him the story of Yetzias Mitzrayim through the Torah. Through limud. He told them the Chazalim. He told them the drashes, Beis Ulfana, Mishkan Beis Ulfana. They came, Vayavo'u ha'ohelah, says the next pasuk. Vayisaper Moshe lechosno, es kol asher asah Hashem... l'Paroh u'lMitzrayim. It's a different discussing. There's one thing discussing as a story. There's another thing discussing as a limud haTorah. When you discuss it as a learning, that's called Vayisaper Moshe lechosno. He needed to add that to Yisro's yediah. It wasn't enough for him to know it as a story, as a history. He had to know it through Beis Ulfana, through learning. With this, I think we can explain a lot of nice yesodos in the Haggadah itself. In the Haggadah we say, Keneged arba bonim dibrah Torah. The Torah spoke about four children, four types of children: chacham, rasha, tam, she'eino yodea lishol. We all know the Haggadah. Now, l'choorah, rabosai, are there only four types? Tell me, anybody dealt with chinuch ever? Anybody was ever a teacher? You're going to tell me you could break up a classroom...

Of ten children into four groups. There's many more levels. There's different levels of chacham, there's different levels of rasha, there's different levels of tam, there's different levels of she'eino yodea lishol. There's different types of chacham. There's a chacham that catches quickly, but he forgets. There's a chacham that what? That has a tremendous memory, but takes the most hard to understand in the beginning. There's different types of levels. Why is it that we discuss k'neged arba banim dibrah Torah? And I'll tell you even more the question. What's the big deal about it? It's so special that the Torah spoke about four different children? I mean, what do you want? I mean, you don't expect to put the chacham with the tam and explain them the same thing, right? I want to tell you that actually the Mishnah, the Mishnah already breaks up that the chinuch has to be according to the child. Our Haggadah breaks it up into four categories. That's not what the Mishnah says. The Mishnah says, l'fi da'ato shel ben, aviv melamdo. It says clearly in the Mishnah, it all depends on how smart the kid is. There is not four straight answers. The Haggadah seems to make it that four straight answers. Not true. It all depends on how smart the child is. And the Mishnah tells us, l'fi da'ato shel ben, that's a Mishnah, Kuf tezayin amud aleph, and the Rambam brings it down in perek zayin, halacha beis. He brings down the halacha, l'fi da'ato shel ben, according to the understanding of the child. So let me ask you, it all depends on how smart your kid is, right? Or it's no. There's four answers: take it or leave it. It's mashma from the Haggadah, there's a take it or leave it. Either you understood the chacham, if not, forget it. Tam, this is your answer. Finished. Four categories. Even in your categories, there's levels. So then there's no categories then. That's what you're saying, basically. If there are levels, there are no categories. And I want you to think even further. I want you to think even further. The keneged daled banim dibrah Torah, each one gets a pasuk worth. What's—what is it? Each one gets one pasuk, right? How much does each one get? The chacham, right? Ma edos v'hachukim. The tam, this is a pasuk worth, right? Lisa, how much each one got here? She'eino yodea lishol, he got the l'vincha bayom hahu, one pasuk. Tell me, that's enough? That's called teaching your kid? Hey, Daddy, could you tell me about Hilchos Shabbos? Yeah, you have to keep the lamed-tes melachos. Bye, next, okay? Let's start reading the Haggadah. Tell me, that's called teaching your son? Keneged daled banim dibrah Torah. You hear? The Torah spoke about four children. Why? Because there's four pesukim. But that's what you're teaching your kid, four pesukim? That's what it is? You know what the difference, again, if you pay attention to this shiur, you know what you'll realize? I'm learning with you. I'm trying to understand the Haggadah literal, literal. There's something wrong over here. Zeh teshuva. A ben shoel, vatano ten lo teshuva b'mishpat echad, with one sentence, that's your answer, finished, that's it? And what, because the Torah gave one sentence? Oh, you see that the Torah broke it up into four different children. Where do you see that? Where do you see that that's answers to four different people? That's an answer to four different people. And I'll tell you more. And like I said, k'neged dal banim dibra Torah. Actually, it all depends on how smart the child is. So it's not four levels and that's it. You see that there's levels, there's layers. And if there's levels and layers, so what's the Haggadah referring to? Here, the kasha, no? Pshat, pshat, what's that? Here, there's a pasuk that says, V'higadta l'vincha bayom hahu leimor. That's the answer to the tam. That's how you talk to a tam. Could you imagine a teacher comes into class, he has a bunch of dummies in his class. Okay, here, tam, tam, here, tam, here, let's see what you... Here. B'chozek yad hotzianu Hashem Mitzrayim. Oh, now he understands. Now it's good. Now he understands what's going on. She'eino yodea lishol.

What do you do? Bavur zeh asah Hashem li b'tzeisi miMitzrayim. Ooh, it's good stuff. Good, good. I tell you, the teacher, you don't need a workbook. You don't need any textbook. Come in there. Here, what'd you teach this year? Look how I taught so much. Take a look. I taught this sentence. Come here. There's a sentence over here: B'chozek yad hotzianu Hashem miMitzrayim. Wow, that's too— you really taught too much. I think you should minimize it. Huh? Better. ... One is maybe learns with a story. I don't know if there's ... Yeah, but he doesn't say it. The logical way, but that's not good. The ... אבל doesn't say it. I wish it would say that. I wish the Haggadah would tell me. I wish the Haggadah would tell me. A tam— tam, he's a dummy. So you know what you do? Take out the Chayes picture book and show him the pictures and show him the Chayes frogs. ... Come, psychologically. What? This is ... Bavur zeh asah Hashem li— what's this? That's tam, she'eino yodea lishol. What's the keneged arba banim in the Torah? What is it? Where do we see in the pesukim keneged arba banim in the Torah? I'll tell you even more. The Brisker Rav learns pshat in the keneged. Shloimele, you with me? Hear what I want? I'm trying to understand. The Torah brings four different pesukim. So all of a sudden that became, you hear? Four different children got four different answers. So you see that the Torah broke it up into four different categories. I mean, what are the categories? B'chozek yad hotzianu Hashem miMitzrayim, ba'avur zeh— why could that not be for the she'eino yodea lishol? I mean, what does it say? I don't want the whole Haggadah. Bavur zeh asah Hashem li b'tzeisi miMitzrayim, so you can't tell that to the tam. I mean, what— Why are this not—this can't be for the tam; this can be the she'eino delo lishlosh. What are you saying already? Tell me, why can't the she'eino delo lishlosh pasuk be for the tam here? Okay. שנאמר: ויגדת לבנך ביום ההוא לאמר, בעבור זה עשה ה' לי. So you're saying, pshat, lo means what? Just you're supposed to start it off and you don't have to tell him. Meaning, it doesn't say in the pasuk you have to tell him. What about the tam? It's hard to explain. Some learn by example, some learn by stories, some learn by halachah. It's a different way of learning. So the way you explain it, it's not explained because he doesn't understand it. Yeah, but how do you know when the pasuk says, בחוזק יד הוציאנו ה' ממצרים, how do you know that has to do with the tam? Where do you see that has to do with the tam? מה זאת? ואמרת אליו, you tell him this pasuk, בחוזק יד הוציאנו ה'... Yeah, I'm saying we're putting it together. I'll tell you even more. You take a look, the Brisker Rav learns. And you know what the chiddush of כנגד ארבע בנים דיברה תורה? This is a very nice yesod. It says like this: when you have different levels, so the levels don't learn the same thing. For example, let's say you're coming, you're teaching advanced science. It's not the same thing you're going to teach a child that doesn't know anything. Him, you have to teach reading. But it's not the same text. מה שאין כן by the Torah, it's the same pasuk. The same pasuk, that pasuk is for levels of tam, she'eino yodea lishol, chacham. Which means that the entire psukim are actually for everybody. That's what it means. K'neged daled bonim dibrah Torah. The Torah is written in a way, says the Brisker Rav, that every pasuk is for the level of every person, from the smallest child to the biggest gadol, they learn the same pasuk. But it's all the same pasuk. The chiddush is, k'neged daled bonim dibrah Torah, says the Brisker Rav. It doesn't mean there's four separate answers for four different children. That's not what it means. That the same text is the text for everybody. It's the text for the grown-up, it's the text for the child, it's the text for the chacham, it's the text for the rasha. It's all the same text. There's different ways and methods and derachim on how to interpret the text depending on who the person is. But the text is the same. You hear the difference? Pshat, k'neged arba bonim, there's different answers to different children. Each pasuk is interpreted differently. It's interpreted specifically to a specific person.

What's the chiddush of this pasuk? I'll tell you pshat like this. Byesod of Sippur Yetzias Mitzrayim is the text. That's what he means to say. You want to know about Sippur Yetzias Mitzrayim? Sippur Yetzias Mitzrayim is to read the pesukim. It's to be doresh the parsha. It's to say when it says, bavor zeh, to say chozek yad. In those pesukim, there's levels and levels and levels, but the base of it is all the same. That's keneged arba bonim, dibrah Torah, Torah. From the pesukim, you teach the Sippur Yetzias Mitzrayim. Understand that the biggest talmud chacham, maaseh b'Rabban Gamliel shehayu yoshvin, they were sitting and learning, to the smallest child who's a she'eino yodea lishol, are learning the same pesukim. That's what it means. You hear what the Haggadah is telling us? Maaseh b'Rabban Gamliel shehayu yoshvin, they were sitting, the greatest giants are sitting and learning. What are they learning? The same pesukim, the chozek yad and bavor zeh, that you're teaching the child. Only thing is, on a different level, more iyun, more omek, deeper, but it's the same text. Keneged arba bonim, dibrah Torah. The pesukim, they themselves are spoken to different children and different levels, but the text remains the same. Sippur Yetzias Mitzrayim, rabosai, isn't the story. It's the pesukim. That's what you see from this pshat in Brisker Rav. That's what you see in the pshat in the taam l'shinidei lishol. All pesukim, all pesukim. The entire Haggadah, the entire Haggadah is one big drash of the pasuk, drash of the pasuk, drash of the pasuk, כנגד ארבע בנים דיברה תורה. With this, I think we can understand a very big yesod in Haggadah. Before we start with the כנגד ארבע בנים דיברה תורה, we say, Baruch Hamakom, Baruch Hu, Baruch shenasan Torah l'amo Yisrael, right? Thank you, Hashem, that You gave us Torah. What is this? What is this Baruch Hamakom, Baruch Hu? So if you look at the Rishonim, I'll just take out one of them because they all pretty much say the same. This is birchas haTorah. This Baruch Hamakom, Baruch Hu, this is birchas haTorah. Why are we saying birchas haTorah here? Tzarich levarech al hadrashah sherotzah lomar. From here on in, we're being darshening the pesukim. You must say birchas haTorah on the drash of the pesukim. And he brings a Gemara, k'degarsinan, like we learned, הוה מגני ומקרא. He would wash his hands, u'mevarech, and he would make a bracha, u'masilan pirkin, he would say over the shiur. Washes hands, make a bracha. Joe's asking, I'm sure I see already on his hand motions, but he said Birchas HaTorah in the morning. That's the kasha. That's the kasha of the Gemara over there. He already said Birchas HaTorah in the morning. What's zimnas hagaon? Many times you would make a bracha. What is this? So, bottom, in the Haggadah, Torah Chaim, very nice pshat. I held the same way, but I didn't have a raya for it, but I see he says it also. Pani de-mesayem li, I guess, toimah shtayim v'echad. I see somebody else says it. I'm feel secure to say it. You know, we also say Birchas HaTorah before Krias HaTorah, even though you said Birchas HaTorah in the morning. Before you read, you make Birchas HaTorah. Why? But you already said Birchas HaTorah. The answer is, where there's a chovas kriah, where you're responsible to read, where there's an obligation to read from the pesukim, the Torah, there's a chiyuv Birchas HaTorah. True, you said Birchas HaTorah in the morning. The Haggadah is like Krias HaTorah. Same way we have to read from the Chumash, from the Torah, and make a bracha on that.

The night of the Pesach, we have to read the pesukim of Arami oved avi, the parsha, and b'doyresh it. So you're mechuyiv to make a birchas haTorah. I read it to you; it's very nice. It goes like this: V'tzarich lomar shehi takanah meyuchedes k'ein birchas haTorah, shemevorchim al hakriah baTorah, af shekvar berchu birchas haTorah b'boker. V'eino bracha mamash, lachein tiknu b'lo shem u'malchus. The thing is, it's not mamash a bracha, so therefore, ein m'saknin b'lo shem u'malchus. Okay, and this we can say yes or no in Hakaras haTorah hashem malchus. Al kol panim, the yesod of it here, it's not just that we're learning. The chiyuv, the requirement, is to read the pesukim of Yetzias Mitzrayim. It's like a type of krias haTorah on the night of Pesach. The night of Pesach, you sit and read the pesukim. You don't have to read from a Sefer Torah; not every time you'll be with a minyan, but whatever it is, the pesukim have to be read. Birchas haTorah has to be said. Like Rav, who was doresh, what's the chiyuv? The chiyuv is to read, to read, and therefore you say Baruch Hamakom. That's why it says Baruch Hamakom, Baruch Hu. That's why it says Baruch Hamakom, Baruch Hu. Abosai, what am I showing you? This yesod: Haggadah is the reading of Yetzias Mitzrayim from the pesukim. That's what it is. It's not only the story, but it's the reading of the kriah, the reading, the reading. Reading of the pesukim, like you read Krias HaTorah on Shevii shel Pesach about Kriyas Yam Suf, you read from the Chumash the pesukim the night of Pesach about Sippur Yetzias Mitzrayim, the pesukim. And the drash is the drash on the pesukim, and that makes up the Haggadah. It'll get more interesting soon. No, another few more minutes. It'll get more interesting. Now, with this, I want to show you an interesting Rashba. The Rashba says the same yesod that we just said from the Pirush Kadmon and other Rishonim as well, the Shibolei HaLeket, Avudraham, they all talk like this. He says an interesting yesod. Pay attention. If you take a look, we actually spoke Sippur Yetzias Mitzrayim. Avadim hayinu l'Paroh b'Mitzrayim, says the Rashba, that was Sippur Yetzias Mitzrayim. Now that we stop, and we start with the Mah Nishtanah, and we continue with the drash of Arami oved avi, that's a different level, a different avenue, a different nekudah in Sippur Yetzias Mitzrayim. What's that? That is the sippur through the drash, through the learning of Sippur Yetzias Mitzrayim. You know what the Rashba learns? The beginning was Avadim hayinu, the story of it. That stops. That finishes. Then all of a sudden we begin with the pesukim, limud. Limud, Baruch Hamakom, Baruch Hu, says the Rashba. We have to make a birchas haTorah. The Haggadah is broken up, Avodim hayinu l'Paro b'Mitzrayim. That's the story of it. It stops. You know what continues? It continues with the drash. The drash needs birchas haTorah, Baruch Atah ... Baruch Hu. Kiryas Kadmon with a little bit what? Salt and pepper, with a little bit of flavor. With this, I think we can explain many things in the Haggadah, and we will learn a little bit of Haggadah now. If you take a look, it says in the Haggadah, Kolanu chachamim, kulanu nevonim, kulanu zekeinim, kulanu yod'im es haTorah. Pretty much like what the people think they are over here. Everybody here thinks, kulanu chachamim, kulanu nevonim, kulanu zekeinim, yod'im es haTorah. Now, let me ask you a kasha. Would it not be enough to say, Kulanu yod'im es haTorah, and then we know the story? What's the chachamim and the nevonim and the zekeinim? What is that all about? Kulanu yod'im es haTorah. So the Rishonim ask this for a kasha. The Rishonim don't understand, what's the chachamim, nevonim, what's all this buildup?

Says the פירוש קדמון, he writes, it's lav davka, it doesn't mean anything. It doesn't mean more than kulanu yodim es haTorah. Why does it say chachamim, nevonim, and the...? You don't need all this, says the פירוש קדמון. Ella lashon hapasuk. It's based on a pasuk. It's a nice lashon based on a pasuk, and the pasuk says, Havu lachem anashim, chachamim, nevonim, v'yeduim. Yisro said that by the shoftim, by the judges, bring me anashim, chachamim, nevonim. These are people who know how to learn, different levels and different names for them. So we borrowed that, and we said, afilu kulanu chachamim, nevonim... Okay. Just one thing, I don't mind, maybe, I guess you can ask, what happened to the seinim in that pasuk? Anashim, chachamim, nevonim, yeduim, but what about seinim? If you're borrowing the lashon of the pasuk there, there the pasuk doesn't say seinim. It says anashim, chachamim, nevonim, v'yeduim. So chachamim, nevonim, and yodim, but what's with seinim? All right, you like it, good; you don't like it, it's also good, I don't mind. This is the פירוש קדמון. Okay. If you take a look, the Rashbatz. The Rashbatz explains very nicely. He says like this: What's the chiddush, afilu kulanu chachamim, kulanu nevonim, kulanu yodim es haTorah? Shelo tomar, you shouldn't say, she'ein zois hamitzvah ella al hatinokos. You shouldn't say that this mitzvah is only for children, like, Diyam, mashma yadu. Aval mi sheyodea ze ein tzarich hagadah zois. But somebody who knows doesn't need the Haggadah. Al kein omrim, therefore we say, she'afilu kulanu chachamim. Even if we're all chachamim, now pay attention. What do you call chachamim? Sheshamanu ze me'avoseinu, that we heard it already from our fathers. Kulanu nevonim, lahavin davar mitoch davar, that we can understand one thing from another. Afilu kulanu zekeinim, sheyadanu ze shanim rabos, that we know it for many years. Zekeinim means we're old, so we've been around for many years, so we heard it year after year. It doesn't mean zekeinim knowledgeable. Zekeinim means we've been around hearing it year after year. Afilu kulanu yod'im es haTorah. What does that mean? Uvchol yom anu hogin baTorah. We learn Torah with great ameilut, umitoch krias haTorah, and through the reading of the Torah, mesaprim b'yetzias Mitzrayim, we discuss yetzias Mitzrayim. Im kol ze, hagadah ze hi mechuyeves balaylah hazeh al halechem hazeh. So again, pay attention. So Rashbatz is telling me, afilu kulanu chachamim, meaning we heard it from our fathers. Kulanu nevonim, that we understand from what we heard, we understand the story. Kulanu zekeinim, that we heard it year after year. That's pshat zekeinim, we're old and we heard it year after year. Kulanu yod'im es haTorah, we already read it. From the parshiyos, from the Chumash already, as they read the parshiyos of the Torah, as we learn the Torah. Aboisai, what's wrong with learning simply chachamim? We know, we're knowledgeable. What's wrong with learning Neviim, wisdom, Zekeinim, wisdom, yod'im es haTorah, wisdom? Why does he have to learn it specific, chachamim, from our fathers? Yod'im es haTorah, because we read it in the krias haTorah from the Chumash. What's wrong? Yod'im es... we know the story, we know it. I understand, but why these? Why do I have to specifically find these reasons? What's wrong with being chachamim? Because I'm knowledgeable. You heard the story from your father, but maybe you have to learn a little bit more, so you said now you have knowledge. You really understand the... No, but I'm asking a different question. What's wrong, afilu kulanu chachamim? We're all smart. Forget about what I heard from my father. I'm just smart and I know it. Kulanu yod'im es haTorah, I know it all. What do I have to say? I read it in the parshiyos during the week. What are you talking about? You learn from the Torah, you learn it much, much deeper. You learn it from pesukim and Midrash.

So what are you saying? You're saying what I'm saying. You're saying exactly what I'm trying to teach you for the past hour. Let me just give you a little bit of introduction. You'll see the entire scope of this Rashba. Gideon was a shofet. Gideon was a shofet. A malach comes to Gideon. So we, if we saw a malach, the first thing we'd do is run to the streets and tell everybody how great we are. But we'd ask for brachah of parnassah. Gideon's first reaction, says the Shoftim, perek vav, pesukim aleph through yud-gimmel, that he confronts the malach, and he tells him, Ayeh niflo'osav? Where are the miracles? Where are the miracles? Hashem does miracles for Klal Yisrael. Look how bad the matzav for Klal Yisrael is. Ayeh kol niflo'osav? Asher sipru lanu avoseinu, that our fathers told us about. Where are the miracles that my father told me that Hashem does? Where are they? I want to see them. Oh, says the malach, Ooh, you're such a good lawyer for Klal Yisrael. Be a shofet. He made him a shofet. That's how Gideon became a shofet. Ayeh kol niflo'osav, says Rashi, because last night was Pesach. My father read to us the Hallel, and in the Hallel it says, B'tzeis Yisrael miMitzrayim. So I want to know, where are all the miracles? My father read to me last night the Hallel, and he said the Hallel b'tzeis Yisrael Mimitzrayim, miracles? Where are they? Hashem says He does miracles. I want to see them. asks Rabbi Yerucham. He doesn't understand this Rashi. What, Gidon himself doesn't know that Sipur Yetzias Mitzrayim took place? He doesn't know there's such a thing? Well, my father read for me the Hallel, you hear? And if not, your father didn't read the Hallel, if it wasn't Pesach night, you wouldn't know about it. Just say it. Hallel knows, you know that there's a story of Mitzrayim. Where is ... so where are the miracles? What miracle? Well, my father read for me Hallel, says Rabbi Yerucham. You see, from here you saw, sipur Yetzias Mitzrayim becomes fact when the father reads it for you. Rashba's kulanu chachamim, not chacham on our own, says the Rashba, chachamim sheshamanu zeh me'avoseinu. Huh? Where's Rashi? You heard it from our father. That's Rabbi Yerucham, and that we're adding to Rabbi Yerucham. You see that the Rashba learns like that. Kulanu chachamim means not that we're wise. Yiddish expression is, tayg of kapores, who cares that you're wise? It doesn't make a difference. That makes no difference. But if you heard it from your father, then you're wise. That's called learning sipur Yetzias Mitzrayim. That's called getting emunah from sipur Yetzias Mitzrayim. This is Rabbi Yerucham. I want to ask you even another question, added to this Rabbi Yerucham. So why do you need Avoseinu sipru through the Hallel? What's wrong with Avoseinu sipru? He told us over the story the night of... You're right, you need the father. Rabbi Yeruchim says, you see clearly from the Rashi, from Gidon, that you need the father. But where do you know, and why is it that you need that he read to me the Hallel, and in the Hallel it says, B'tzeis Yisrael miMitzrayim? And the answer, Joe, is, come on, tell me, let's go. And the answer is because the sefer has to come from the pasuk. The sefer is not that my father told me stories, because stories I could tell you many more stories, and then I could write more books about the stories, and more stories bring more stories, and then you become a lecturer and you can make money on it. That's not the point. The point is, Avoseinu sipru lanu. How is that? Emes hikranu. We read the Hallel, we read the pesukim that it says in the pasuk. It says, Yisrael miMitzrayim. Rabbi Yeruchim doesn't point this out, but this is an added nekudah to what he's saying. A, it's not enough to just say a story; it has to come from the father, says Rabbi Yeruchim. And we're explaining, and not just what a story from the father, but it has to be what? Hallel. It has to be from the pasuk, from the text. Why couldn't he just say, My father told me, yes, about Yetzias Mitzrayim?

I'm sure that Gidon had many Haggados in his house. I'm sure Gidon's father had the latest Artscroll Haggadah, I'm sure. The Torah Treasury and the Gedolim Haggadah Treasury, and this treasury and the Sefardic Haggadah Treasury. Every treasury Haggadah he had in his house, right? So why couldn't he say that my father said over fifty pshatim yesterday about dam tzfardea, kinim, and makkos? Why did he have to say, Yesterday my father read to me the Hallel, and in the Hallel it says the words, B'tzeis Yisrael miMitzrayim? Mah pshat shlo? B'diuk kemo shedibarnu. The yesod comes from the pasuk. The pasuk says, B'tzeis Yisrael miMitzrayim. Then it's what? Beis Yaakov me'am loez. That's Yetzias Mitzrayim, the pasuk. The pasuk, the pasuk, the pasuk. And how do we learn the pesukim? We're doresh the pesukim. So you'll ask me a kasha: so what's the pshat in the Rashba? The Rashba is saying gevaldik. The Rashba is saying we don't know the Torah, meaning we know the story, but rather what shall we know the Torah? U'mitoch krias haTorah, anu mesaprim b'Yetzias Mitzrayim. He says it clearly, no? It's not just that we know the story because we know Chazal, but we know the story because we read in the Torah, kriah. U'vechol yom anu hogin baTorah, u'mitoch krias haTorah, by reading the Torah, anu mesaprim Yetzias Mitzrayim. No? Daniel. First, pshat. Lobshat, kulanu yodim, we know the story. That's nothing. Kulanu yodim es haTorah means we learn Torah, and from the learning we got the story. That's pshat. Emes, hikranu. Yesterday my father read B'tzeis Yisrael miMitzrayim, the pasuk, and the pasuk taught me what? B'tzeis Yisrael miMitzrayim. Me? I don't know nothing. I know what the pasuk says. I, I was taught the pasuk. The pasuk told me, B'tzeis Yisrael miMitzrayim. Vayeichal niflaos, malach were all the miracles. This is this pshat. So then you'll ask me a kashya: What, what, what, what, what? My father read for me, Halel, the pasuk, B'tzeis... where are the miracles? Huh? Where? Hashem. How come there's no miracles for Klal Yisrael? Yeah, he says Hashem. Hashem makes miracles. Why didn't He do it today? Yeah, so where is He? I want to know where Hashem is. You're a lawyer for Klal Yisrael. Go become a shofet. This, rabosai, is the pshat in the Rashbatz. What the yesod I just told you: the Haggadah has to be, has to be, the text of the pasuk. And the Haggadah revolves around drush, the text of the pasuk. Now you'll ask me, if you already know it, so why takkeh do you have to say the night of Pesach? If we're saying, Kulanu yodim es haTorah, that you know it. So this I'll tell you: if you look at the Rishonim, there's three different answers, and I'll just say quickly because it's a side point to our shiur. The first thing I will tell you is because lo hodia la'acherim. If you look at the Rishonim, Rishonim say, V'chol she... Rashbam and many other Rishonim, v'kol shekein sheyesh lanu l'hodia l'mi she'einam yodim. You have to say it over for those that don't know. Not everybody knows. So for those that don't know, that's pshat. Kulam yodim es haTorah. Still, you must say it over for others. You might know, but not everybody knows. I'm telling you, that's not how the Rashbam learns. I'm just saying the Rashbam is learning that therefore, you know it. That doesn't mean you should talk about it, because at least others could learn from it also, something like that. That's how the Rashbam learns. Rashbam, Rishonim. I can't help it. That's not my problem. I agree with you. I'm telling you, all I'm telling you is that even though you know it all, so then why should you say it on the night of Pesach? So the Rashbam says, v'kol shekein sheyesh lanu l'hodia l'mi she'einam yodim. Forget it to know for other people. You have to know. Okay, I'm just telling you Rishonim. You're right. All I'm telling you is the Rishonim. Either it's to get others to know also, or many Rishonim say it's because it's not so much as hallel v'hoda'ah also. You have to praise Hashem. It's not only the knowing of it, but it's also the praising of it. You have to praise Hashem. So shevach v'hoda'ah.

You have to repeat it. You have to know, because the way we're learning, the whole din of the drash was to learn the yesod, and the yesod comes from the drash. If it's all about shevach v'hoda'ah, then why does it have to be from the pesukim? If you're saying that it's all about the shevach v'hoda'ah, so you have to know. But the truth is, I noticed that all Tehillims and shevach v'hoda'ah we spoke about, this became Torah afterwards. Ninety percent of our tefillah, our hallel, is Torah. We don't just make shira v'shishbachos; we say over pesukim. So you see that there's a kesher between shevach v'hoda'ah and Torah. And we spoke, because only through Torah you can get close to Hashem. We spoke about this in the past. I don't want to get—I'm just trying to explain to you why. Why should it be, afilu kulanu yod'im es haTorah, and you know it all, still the halachah is what? You should go and read it over. So either you can learn, A, because others, like the Rishonim, talk about it, or you come and say, Al shevach v'hoda'ah. You're right, you know the story. I know the story of the Hallel, but I say it anyway to praise Hashem. Why does that have to be pesukim then, according to the way we're learning it's pesukim? You see that pesukim have to— that's the way you praise Hashem. You praise from the pesukim. Hallel and tefillah, pesukim d'zimra, pesukim. It's Tehillim. Pesukim are to praise Hashem. Okay. There's one other mahalach that the Rishonim discuss, and I'll tell it to you over quickly. The Rambam, in Chagigah, perek gimmel, halachah vav, speaks by hakhel, that everybody comes together to hear devarim. Yeah, but the talmid chacham and the Gaon knows it, so the Rambam asks this over there. The Rambam says even the biggest Gaon has to go. Ah, he knows it. He should anyway listen to it and pay attention to it, because it's l'chazek es hadaas, to strengthen the emunah, to strengthen the emunah. So they say over that this is the same thing. You could know and know and know, but if you repeat it and you say it over b'kavana, it strengthens the emunah. The night of Pesach, we're trying to strengthen the emunah. So just like by Hakel, the Rambam writes that if you paid attention, no matter how great you are in learning, it'll be l'chazek es haemunah. The Rambam in Chagigah, perek gimmel, halacha vav. So too here. So we have three different reasons from the Rishonim. Either the reason from the Rishonim is just because you know doesn't mean that others won't gain from your talking about it. Second reason is because of halavai da, because even if you know, you have to say it over as a praise. The Ritva learns like this, the Avudraham learns like this. Or based on the Rambam by Chagigah, we could say that because by Chagigah the pshat is, even though Hakel, that they come together and they read parshas Devarim, what's the Chacham have from it? He doesn't know the pesukim; he knows the pesukim. What does he have from the reading over the Hakel? Says the Rambam, he has because l'maaseh it's l'chazek es haemunah. I guess the Mesillas Yesharim writes that just because you know it doesn't mean that by learning it, it won't strengthen you. Mesillas Yesharim's hakdamah is that even though I'm writing things that everybody knows, but if you read it over and you say it over, there's a whole yesod of mussar that we don't know of today, unfortunately, became lost with the churban of the mussar movement, so to speak. What is it? Musar b'hispailus. Musar b'hispailus. To read the mussar and to say it b'hispailus, but b'hitpa'alut. Did you say it with emotion? That itself—no, no, it's emotion—that itself, that itself is me'orer in the person in Yomim of teshuvah. That itself is me'orer a person in Yomim Mussar. You can say the simplest piece of mussar, you know it. I mean, what don't you know? You don't know what Mesillas Yesharim says, chovat ha'adam b'olamo? It's me'orer. It's me'orer the person. Mussar b'hispailus. That was one of the yesodos of mussar from the mussar movement. Sad that not only we don't have mussar b'hispailus, we don't have the mussar at all. So first you have to have the mussar, then you have to have—then you can get to the mussar b'hispailus. Unfortunately today it became yarud. It became very deteriorated, this inyan of mussar. I remember hearing a tape once from Reb Elia Lopian, zicher tzaddik v'kadosh livrachah. They say Reb Elia Lopian had a giluy Eliyahu. In the hakdamah of the sefer they say clearly, Reb Elia Lopian had giluy Eliyahu. I see all—

Hold on to the story, I'll say it over. Reb Eliyah Lopian's wife was sick. His wife was sick. The doctor said there was no hope. So he went out of his house from yeiush. He didn't want to be there when she died. Somebody comes over to him and says to him, Reb Eliyah, you look like something's bothering you. What's bothering you? He says, They say my wife is going to die from this machlah that she has. So the person said, Don't pay attention to the doctor. You know in the field over there, behind the houses over there, there's this herb. Take the herb, you cook it up, and everything will be okay. Before he had a chance to move, the guy was gone. The guy was gone. Just this, the guy was gone. He took the herb, he cooked it, he gave it to his wife. Wife lived for many years after that, many, many years after that. Years later, how do people know of this story? Years later, the son of Reb Eliyah Lopian came to the Ger Rebbe. He told the Ger Rebbe that he wants a bracha for something. I think for Reb Eliyah, Reb Eliyah Lopian wasn't feeling well. So the Ger Rebbe told him, Someone who had giluy Eliyahu doesn't need my brachos. So Rav Shlomo Shadron used to say over, unbelievable thing. How did the Ger Rebbe know that he had giluy Eliyahu, that Reb Eliyah Lopian had giluy Eliyahu? He says that to him is not a chidush. That's not such a big chidush, Reb Eliyah Lopian should have giluy Eliyahu. Someone should come and tell him. The question is how the Ger Rebbe knew about it. That to Rav Shlomo Shadron was a big chidush, you know. Al kol panim, Reb Eliyah, I heard a tape, Reb Eliyah Lopian, he was saying the beginning of the Mesillas Yesharim, just saying the words of the beginning of the Mesillas Yesharim, yeah? Just saying it. Ma chovas ha'adam b'olamo. And he was, all of a sudden he begins to cry and he tells everyone, Let's take out a Tehillim and let's say Tehillim in the middle. I remember my whole, together everybody screaming Tehillim. Why? He just read over the Chayei Olamus. But we read that, that he musar b'spailus. Sometimes when you say over the words and you mechaven, it has a tremendous roishem, tremendous effect on the person. So, afilu kol anu chachamim, kol anu yodim es haTorah, l'maaseh what? It has a tremendous effect, a tremendous effect on the person. So these are three terutzim to the kasha: kol anu yodim es haTorah, why do you have to do it? So either because, like it says, kol shekein l'hodia l'mi she'eino yodea. So talk about it like this, others will have from it. And you see the Rishonim, a lot of Rishonim work around this inyan of speaking for others. A second pshat is, because Hashem yodea, it's a praise. So it's to praise Hashem. So it could be you know it. So I know it, I know it says in Hallel, but I say it anyway, it's a praise. Only question is, so why does it have to be with the drush of the pesukim like we spoke? And the answer to that is because what? The drush, the pesukim, that's the correct Hallel. The way to praise Hashem is from the pasuk. Like we have Hallel, the pesukim, pesukei d'zimra, the pesukim. We even spoke about, that's why Dovid HaMelech asked, and we spoke about this one Friday, that that's why Dovid HaMelech asked that his Tehillim should be k'negin vaHallel, it should be like learning, because the yesod of shirah has to be from Torah. Everything has to be from Torah. Our shirah has to be Torah itself. We take the words of the Torah and we sing to Hashem. Okay. Mekor for this, the Rambam Chagigah that says that l'chazek es hadaas, everybody had to come and hear the hakhel. Okay. With this, I think we can understand another part of the aggadah as well. Don't worry, by the time Pesach comes, we'll be finished. Ad shedarash ben Zoma. Till ben Zoma came, Reb Eliezer never said what? Yetzias Mitzrayim. Lo zachisi shete'omar Yetzias Mitzrayim baleilos. So there's a machlokes Rishonim what that means, that he didn't say it at all, lo zachisi shete'omar, meaning he just didn't say it. So the Rishonim say, yeah, but Kriyas Shema... they skipped it. Say the Rishonim, mitaken and say it. They did not say Kriyas Shema till ben Zoma came along. Till ben Zoma came along, they did not say parshas Yetzias Mitzrayim by Kriyas Shema. They didn't say it. U'man tiskas yom... they didn't say it. They didn't say it. They skipped it. Parshas Tzitzis is only nogea b'yom, not balayla. They didn't do it. So they did not say, they did not say parshas Tzitzis. They didn't say it. That's how many Rishonim learn. Other Rishonim learn that Reb Eliezer himself said it, but the Chachamim didn't accept it. Lo zachisi, I wasn't zocheh that they should accept my words, because...

There's only a das yachid, and therefore a das yachid wasn't accepted l'fi das rabim. Many Rishonim learn like that, but he himself said it. He himself said it. I was thinking maybe the way we're learning, you could say another pshat also. He didn't say the Yetzias Mitzrayim part. He didn't say the third parsha. I'm thinking maybe we could say that be'emes, Reb Eliezer held that had to be said, but Ben Zoma came and added, and I saw a lashon also in the Rishonim like this. It didn't have a makor from the pasuk. Ben Zoma didn't—Ben Zoma was just mechadesh that there's a pasuk that tells me that this zechirah has to be bayom. I even found a lashon like this. It says in the Rishonim, Lo zachisi sheta'omer, say the Rishonim, here. Oh, here. Lo zachisi sheta'omer says like this, here. Lo zachisi, rebent yoker, lo nitzachti b'koach Gemara v'Talmud. Other Rishonim say, I wasn't—I didn't find it here, the Rashba. I didn't find the remez in the Torah. So I'm thinking the pshat's like this: the whole zechirah is not that we decide to be mesaper b'Yetzias Mitzrayim. It has to come from the Torah. The schirah and the sipur has to be the Torah. The Torah tells me how to do Schiras Yetzias Mitzrayim. So Ben Zoma is saying that I found the makor in the Torah for it. Says Reb Eliezer, till the makor from the Torah, it's not to be done. It has to be done the way the... it has to come from the pasuk. And I think that's why it's here in the sugya. L'choira, this is not nogea to the Haggadah. This that he was doresh that you should say every night Sippur Yetzias Mitzrayim has nothing to do with the Haggadah. The Haggadah is about the night of Pesach. But what's Reb Eliezer doing over here? Reb Eliezer says, V'lo matziskas... kol yemei chayecha, it has no connection to the Haggadah. It's not talking about the night of Pesach. It's talking about all year round. Why is it here? Why is it in the Haggadah? Only little question. The Brisker Rav asks this question. He says it has nothing to do with the night of Pesach. It wasn't the night of Pesach. But let's say all year you have to eat Shabbos a meal, right? Pesach you have to eat a meal. So on Pesach you have to discuss that Shabbos you have to eat a meal? And what's it nogea to the night of Pesach? Why are we arguing about how you're supposed to say Yetzias Mitzrayim throughout the year? It's not nogea to the night of Pesach. No, no, in other words like this. But different reason. It's a different thing. It has nothing to do with now. This that we read the Haggadah, this that we read the Haggadah, Sippur Yetzias Mitzrayim, that's because the night of Pesach we have to discuss the story of the Yetziah. This that all year round also you might have to do it is not a shaylah for Pesach night to discuss. That's not what I'm answering you. You know what, Joe, I'll tell you what you have, Joe. You have an unbelievable knack that you understand my answer so well that you don't even hear my questions. You don't understand why I'm asking. That's what I'm trying to answer. That's what I'm trying to answer you. I'm trying to explain to you that the reason why it's here in the Haggadah, because the Haggadah is not discussing what we feel, but rather what the pasuk teaches us, S'chiras Yetzias Mitzrayim is. So we learn out from there that all year has to be also. That's the pasuk. The idea is that we are darshening the pesukim of Sippur Yetzias Mitzrayim. One of the drashos is that all year it has to be done also. That's it. Now you got it. The common denominator. Wake him up! Wake him up! You think I'm going to sit here and suffer while you're sleeping and having a good time? Don't get nothing personal. I love you. If I didn't like you, I wouldn't wake you up. I'd let you sleep.

You have a question? Oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. He has— you should know, I bring a raya from you. I bring a very nice raya. The Gemara says that by the night of the Seder, misnamnem. There's something called the misnamnem. What's a misnamnem? He's up and he's not up, but you ask him, he can answer right away. This is this person. He can answer right away. You know, they say over that Rav Chaim Brisker's best talmid was a guy who used to sleep in the shiur. Seriously. You know who it was? It was the what's-called ilui, the meitcheshe ilui. He used to sleep. Rav Chaim used to have a question. He'd say, Wake him up. He'd wake him up and go, What's the answer? He'd tell him the answer. Good. That was the best. He was such a big ilui. He was a tremendous meitcheshe ilui. Wake him up, wake him up. He'd get up, Oh, that's it. He got the answer. Wake him up. Al kol panim, rabosai, you hear? So let's go vayter. You hear? Vekitzer, the question of the Brisker Rav is, why in the Haggadah do we discuss Sippur Yetzias Mitzrayim of all year? It's not nogea to the night of Pesach. And the answer is, you have to understand the night of Pesach. The night of Pesach is to learn the pesukim, is to be doresh the pesukim. One of the pesukim that we're being doresh all year, you have to say zechiras yetzias Mitzrayim. This is the sugya, the sugya, the sugya of Sippur Yetzias Mitzrayim. We're learning it. We're being doresh it. And one of the derashos is that all year you have to say Sippur Yetzias Mitzrayim. Now it makes sense. Now it's good. You understand, Joe? You know why you understand it? Because this is what we're trying to bring out. The sefer Yetzias Mitzrayim is the learning of the parsha, the learning of the pesukim. Okay. With this, I'm going to come to answer you another thing. All those that can't take anymore, they can leave. I have no problem. All those that want to hear beautiful and more beautiful stuff, let them stay, especially at the end. We're going to wrap it up explaining why it has to be that way. Why does it have to be that we're just being doresh the pesukim? Why does it have to be that the whole sefer Yetzias Mitzrayim comes from the reading of the pesukim? Why? Why? Okay, so let's begin with the following. Are women mechuyav in sefer Yetzias Mitzrayim? Are women, women, women mechuyav, or they should be busy in the kitchen preparing the rice, the chametz that you guys eat on Pesach? Just kidding. Now, now, if you take a look, the Chinuch in mitzvah chaf aleph says clearly that there's a mitzvah for women to speak sefer Yetzias Mitzrayim, so they cannot sit there and prepare your lavish catered meal; they have to sit by the Haggadah and read it. Now, comes along the Minchas Chinuch and he asks, Mitzvas aseh shehazman grama, mitzvas aseh shehazman grama, mitzvas aseh shehazman grama — special time for it, mitzvas aseh shehazman grama. So how can they be mechuyav in sefer Yetzias Mitzrayim? Okay. Then he goes along and he says, Al pru u'rvu, I'm right, says the Minchas Chinuch, because the Rambam, perek vav, tells us that women are mechuyav in matzah. Notice that he said matzah, not Haggadah. There is no Rambam that says that women are mechuyav in Haggadah. Doesn't say it anywhere. As a matter of fact, when the Rambam in Hilchos Akum, perek yud-beis, halacha gimmel, is moneh all the mitzvahs that a woman is mechuyav, very famous Rambam, Hilchos Akum, perek yud-beis, halacha gimmel, sipritias Mitzrayim is not in there. Says the Minchas Chinuch, so you see clearly women are not mechuyav, not mechuyav. Now let's analyze this, because this is a very big problem. The Tur in siman tof ayin beis writes that all the mitzvos of the night women are mechuyav. Now he doesn't speak about Haggadah, but he says in general, general rule. Comes along the Beis Yosef, Maran, and he says, Where is the makor? Where do we know that women are mechuyav in all the mitzvos? So he says very simple: af hein hayu b'oso hanes. The Gemara tells us that since they were directly nogea to the miracle, so therefore they have to what? Come here, any of these tapes things going or they're all dead? What is this? They're all...

That's why they're mechuyav in matzah, no? Why are women mechuyav in matzah? So the Gemara really gives a different reason. The Gemara says because they have a nisachan mitzvah, whether it's a nisachan mitzvah or a matzah. It's a long talk in the Rishonim and Acharonim, the Gemaras. Bottom line, af hein hayu b'oso hanes. That's the Beis Yosef, that they're mechuyav in all the mitzvos. So let me ask you, why are they not mechuyav in Haggadah? If af hein hayu b'oso hanes, so why is it that they're not mechuyav in Haggadah? Why should we be able to divide and say matzah, yeah; maror, yeah; charoses, daled kosos, yeah, yeah, yeah; Haggadah not. Haggadah not. Haggadah not. The answer is, rabosai, it's Talmud Torah. That's the answer. It's not for women to learn Gemara. It's as simple as that. Since the Haggadah is Gemara, it's as פשוט. What, what, what, what didn't you understand? What's so difficult to understand? Since the whole yesod of Haggadah is, say u'lemad, since the whole Haggadah is drashos of the pesukim, I'm mechuyav to say it. I'm mechuyav to say it. That's not for women to sit there and darshen pesukim. No? Pashut pshat, pashut pshat. Very shayach that women are not mechuyav, even af hein hayu b'oso hanes, they don't have to sit and learn Gemara. That's what I'm trying to tell you. Since the text is the Gemara, and the yesod of the text is to learn the drash of the pesukim and to learn the Rishonim on the drash of the pesukim, that's it. I see already 11:30, all the mice come out. That's it. You keep on, let the shiur move along. So what happens? Since it's the drash of the Gemara with the Rishonim, they don't have first Seder. Women are not mechuyav in first Seder on the night of the Seder. First Seder, you got it? Play on words. First Seder. First Seder is in the yeshivas, they have first seder, and then they have the seder, the night, the Seder night. So it's a play on words. They're not mechuyiv in first seder, and they're not mechuyiv in second seder either. Okay, now, with this, okay, you want a shtikel raya? I'll tell you quickly. There's some guys here sitting, the big lamdanim over here, some of them want a raya. I'll tell you a very simple raya. By Hakhel, the Gemara tells us in Chagigah daf gimmel that women are not mechuyiv in Hakhel. Women are not mechuyiv in Hakhel. The Gemara says, then why do they have to come? Says the Gemara, anashim to learn, nashim lishmoa, and taf, children, is to bring schar to the ones that bring them. Tosafos over there learns clearly, why does the Gemara say women are not mechuyiv in Hakhel, just mechuyiv to come to listen? Says the Tosafos that goes like the shita of the Yerushalmi, d'loi k'Ben Azzai, that Ben Azzai says women are mechuyiv to learn Torah. We don't hold women are mechuyiv to learn Torah. Since women are not mechuyiv to learn Torah, so they're not mechuyiv in Hakhel. Not mechuyiv in Hakhel. Now, Hakhel, b'etzem, they should have been mechuyiv because the pasuk says, right, even though it's mitzvah shehazman grama, but it says clearly in the pasuk, Come to Hakhel, come, come for parshas Devarim. And still the Gemara says they're not mechuyiv. Why are they not mechuyiv? Because it's Torah, and women are not mechuyiv to listen to parshas Devarim. They're not mechuyiv. There's no chiyuvim for a woman to sit down and read parshas Devarim. Later, later. And since there's no chiyuv to learn parshas Devarim... Therefore, in Hakel, in Hakel, there's no halacha of what? There's no halacha of nashim, only lishmaya. The lishmaya the Rishonim say is because they're the mitzvahs that they could get from it also, but b'etzem Hakel, then patur. Okay, so this is l'choira a mefurasha raya. Again, the Gemara says by Chagigah daf gimmel, the Gemara says, what about Hakel? It says in the pasuk clearly, Hakel es ha'am, es ha'nashim, es ha'taf, so women. Says the Gemara, women is only lishmaya. Says Tosafos, why? Because we pasken like Yerushalmi, not like Ben Azzai, that women don't learn Torah. And if women don't learn Torah, so what are they doing reading parshas Devarim? Same thing here too. Since the Haggadah is all about Torah, it's about Torah, it's about darshening pesukim, it's not for women. Okay, with this, we're just about ready to wrap up, we can understand the ta'ina of the chacham. The chacham, what do we tell the chacham? Ma ha'eidus v'hachukim v'hamishpatim? This is what he asks, and we answer him, Ein maftirin achar haPesach afikoman. So what does he ask? Ma ha'eidus? The eidus. Chukim, mishpatim. Now chukim, mishpatim I understand. What is he asking? What are the laws? Chukim, mishpatim, we spoke last week that Korban Pesach is a chok. What are the chukim?

In this, Koren Pesach. Koren Pesach is a chukah. We spoke about it last week. Why Koren Pesach is a chok. Al kol panim, it's referring to the halachos, and we can tell him, ein maftirin achar Pesach afikoman. Fine. Question is, what's eidus? Eidus. What does the word eidus mean? What does the chacham ask? Mah ha'eidus? Eidus what? What's it referring to? So if you take a look, the Pirush Kadmon explains, eidus hi haTorah. He's asking about the Torah. Shenichtav al luchos ha'eidus. The Torah is based on the luchos. The luchos are called luchos ha'eidus. So it's a very vague answer. Eidus, the Torah. He wants to know, tell me the Torah that's going on over here. I want to know what this is all about, the Torah, the chukim and mishpatim. Eidus, eidus means Torah. So tell me the Torah, the chukim and the mishpatim. Why is it called eidus? Because luchos ha'eidus. If you take a look at the Rebbe Yaakar, just about ready. Joe, just about ready to finish. What's called eidus? Says the Rebbe Yaakar, kilomar, eidus hi Torah. Eidus refers to Torah. Why? So we just said, open the Pirush Kadmon, because luchos ha'eidus. Here it says a little bit different. Davar sheyesh lo smarah. This refers to something which has a smarah. Kegon im tziva le'echol matzah, haTorah peiresh hataam. The Torah gave the reason. Ki bechipazon yatzanu miMitzrayim. Bechipazon we left from Mitzrayim. So that's why it's called luchos ha'eidus. What does he mean? That the reason why it's referring to Torah, because Torah is called eidus. Why is it called eidus? Because the Torah gives us reasons for what we do. So how is that eidus? So I saw on the bottom over here, the Torah Chaim HaGadol, he explains, eidus, shehi me'id al davar mah kemo achilas matzah, shehi me'idah al yetziah. Each thing is to take... ki bechipazon yetzanu miMitzrayim. That's how he explains the pshat of the Ri ben Yakar. You see again, the chacham asks, Mah ha'eidus? What do we tell him? Eidus refers to what? Torah. Eidus Torah. Chuk u'mishpat, I understand what he's asking. What's the eidus Torah? Says the peirush Kadmon, because eidus is eidus of Torah, luchos eidus. It's a funny lashon. Eidus is Torah because luchos eidus. Okay, comes along the Ri ben Yakar and he says, No, no, no. It's called eidus Torah. You know why? Because it's me'id. It bears testimony on the chipazon yetziat Mitzrayim. I think there's something deeper over here, rabosai. I think there's something deeper. If you take a look, the Rambam learns differently than you would have thought in the chacham's question and answer. The chacham asks, Mah ha'eidus? and we answer him, Ein maftirin achar haPesach afikoman. The Rambam learns clearly that even to the chacham you discuss with him the nissim and nifla'os. From our Haggadah's mashma that we only tell him the halachos, Ein maftirin achar haPesach afikoman. As a matter of fact, the Brisker Rav has a whole shaila. It says, Ad ein maftirin achar haPesach afikoman, which means not only this halacha of ein maftirin, but even what? Everything till there. Asks the Brisker Rav, what about orlah, basar, beitzim, chametz? Do you have to start teaching him about bedikas chametz? And do we have to start teaching him about biur chametz? And do we have to start teaching him about tashbisu? He says he doesn't know. Maybe, because maybe ad means till, including the beginning of the masechta also. I don't know, because maybe it's not do tzipis yeshua mitzrayim, the night. I mean, it's not particular for the night of Pesach. That's for the chametz. Maybe he's clarifying the ... I don't know. Maybe in teaching of halachos, you got to teach him everything in halacha, starting from what? From sho'el u'doresh b'hilchos hachag, maybe even thirty days before Yom Tov you have to speak about the what, the Yom Tov. Start teaching him from the beginning of Shulchan Aruch. That's how the Brisker Rav says pshat in the Haggadah. But if you look at the Rambam, the Rambam says both. You have to teach him the halachos and also the nisim v'niflaos. And now I want to explain to you, v'fi zeh, what it means, eidus, eidus. Mah ha'eidus? Pshat in eidus, I can tell you like this. The Brisker Rav says, why is the Torah called eidus? He says a gevaldige vort: Pesi yam...

Lechol davar. It's a pasuk. A fool believes everything. A fool believes everything that you tell him. Peti yamin lechol davar. A fool believes anything you tell him. Peti, peti, yamin lechol davar. Edus Hashem ne'emanah, machkimas peti. So what makes the peti, the fool, smart? The Torah. Edus Hashem. Why Edus Hashem? Edus. Edus Hashem ne'emanah, machkimas peti. Peti yamin lechol davar. Pshat, because the Torah is the true source of truth. A fool believes nonsense. The Torah is called edus because that becomes truth. It's a testimony of truth. Edus. Truth. Edus. Truth. Yeah? Again, Torah, we see more edus refers to the Torah. How is edus referring to the Torah? Because if you look at the pesukim, says the Brisker Rav, it says that a peti yamin lechol davar, and it says, Edus Hashem ne'emanah, machkimas peti, because the Torah is the truth, the testimony of truth on anything. And if it's not from Torah, who said? Who said? Meicha teisi? Who said it's true? The Torah is the truth. Edus. So the chacham is coming and asking, mah ha'edus? So then we tell him the story of Sippur Yetzias Mitzrayim, because the story of Sippur Yetzias Mitzrayim that comes from the Torah, that's edus. That's edus. You hear the Brisker Rav? You listening? Na, rabosai, let's go to the next step, and everything is meyushav. Everything is meyushav. Everything makes sense over here. The Chacham asks, Ma eidut? So we have to tell him a story. What's the story we tell him? We tell him the story, the Torah. I'll tell you over a beautiful, beautiful thing. With this you'll understand it even better. When the Brisker Rav was niftar, Reb Zalman Sorotzkin was maspid—Reb Zalman, the Oznaim LaTorah—was maspid the Brisker Rav. He said an unbelievable thing. He said like this: Shivrei luchot munachim ba'aron. They took the broken luchot and they put it—where? They put it in the Aron HaKodesh. What do you need it for? It's shivrei luchos. It's broken luchos. I once gave a whole shiur on this, and I don't want to elaborate right now on it. The shivrei luchos weren't pasul. That was their kosher. They were kosher as broken. Pashut, you learn they were broken and pasul, like a ripped Sefer Torah, and you keep it there in the Aron HaKodesh anyway. There's rayos from the Rishonim—we spoke about it many times—that that was the kosher luchos. The luchos were kosher as broken. Why? Because we learned lessons from it. What did we learn? Asher shibarta. Asher shibarta—that we learned from the broken luchos that you were supposed to break the luchos. Moshe saw that they weren't fit for the luchos; they had to go and break it. Asher shibarta—thank you that you broke it. The fact that they were broken didn't mean they were pasul. They were kosher kacha shavur. That's how they were kosher. Says Reb Zalman Sorotzkin, why do we need it for? Why do we need kosher broken luchos? What's wrong with having kosher full ones? The broken ones, get rid of. He says an unbelievable yesod, because those were the original luchos. If one day a person will come and try to change anything, you always have the original luchos to prove him that it's wrong. The ultimate testimony for the amitius, the authenticity of the luchos, was the original, the original luchos. So therefore, luchos, shvuros munachos ba'aron, in case one day somebody's gonna come and try to divert, to make diversions. Luchos, luchos, and that's why it's called luchos ha'eidus. Testimony, authenticity. The authenticity of the luchos were the original luchos that were broken. That's the way it was, that's the way it was given, that's the way it has to be forever. He said about the Brisker Rav very nice. He said that the Brisker Rav was these luchos ha'eidus. Why? He said a very nice story. There was a bunch of maskilim that came to Reb Chaim Ozer, came to Reb Chaim Ozer. Vilna gaon, the world trembled from him. So when they came to Reb Chaim Ozer...

He let them in. He let them in, and he spoke to them. So while they were talking, they complained and they said, You know, look at you. You let us in. Can you explain to us why the Brisker Rav wouldn't even open the door for us? He came to the door and he saw us. He just turned around. He made believe he weren't there. He says, Why is it you're able to, and he wasn't able to take us in? Everybody okay with what I'm saying? Why was it that he didn't take you in? Rav Chaim Ozer said to him, Listen, if remained in this world one corner of emes, you want to ruin that also? The Brisker Rav is that little corner of emes that we always know that this is what it's supposed to look like. This is what it's supposed to be. You want to ruin that too? You want to destroy that also? All right, I'll listen to you, but don't expect him to compromise in any way. Leave the luchos. Let it be. Let it be the way it is, because he's the proof of the authenticity, the emes. That's what he said, the hesped on the Brisker Rav. Shivrei luchos munachim בארון. Let it remain in the aron. Let it remain there, that we should always know that in case we move a little bit, there's someone there that will scream, Al pi emes, that you're wrong. We have to already, you know, with the tzibur and get along with everybody. Okay. Luchos, luchos ha'eidus. Pshat: the Torah is the yesod of emes. Yesod. Why? Because you have to understand a lot of things, and I want to tell you this to you because I heard it many times this week when they discussed the reporters from Iraq. What do they say? That the reporters aren't reporting to you the truth. So there's shrain chai v'kayam. That's not true. We're telling you exactly what we saw. So what does the State Department answer back? But you only see one sliver of the whole thing. You only see one angle, one incident within the entire picture of it. So you can't give what? An emes account of the whole thing. You're saying this happened here. Yeah, but you have to see it in the broader context of things. You got to see it in the picture of the entire story. That's what the State Department keeps on screaming back against the reporters. You don't understand that you're not giving an emesa picture. And he's screaming, What are you talking about? I'm telling you exactly what I saw. What do they say back? Yeah, I know. I'm not telling you you're not saying what you saw. What you saw was one detail in an entire picture, entire story. You see the difference? The Torah, the Torah is the entire picture, the entire story, from all the details, from the haya, hoveh, v'hiyah, from everything that was and will be and is. The Torah wrote down Sippur Yetzias Mitzrayim in the Torah. That's why it's so important to read the Sippur Yetzias Mitzrayim from where? From the text, from the pasuk. That's the difference. Sippur, you might elaborate more on one thing and leave out this detail. You leave out one detail, you miss the entire picture. Pesukim is the entire text, what you're supposed to know for Sippur, and on this you're supposed to be doresh, you're supposed to be me'arech. But you have to understand, eidut Hashem. Machkimat peti. You want to know? It's through Torah. It's only through the Torah. Our knowledge, our chochma comes from the Torah. Many times I told you this Gemara. The Gemara tells us that when they came to conquer Yerushalayim, so I don't remember again which Tanna it was. You always remind me the Tanna. I keep forgetting. What? Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai came out and he said, You're a melech. You're a melech. So he said, You're chayav misa, because I'm not the melech. The melech is still in Rome. So he said, No, it says in the pasuk that Yerushalayim will fall in the hands of a melech. So you're a melech. And they're coming out that a telegram came that the emperor died and he became the melech, this general. Pshat, toyju. Reality is what the Torah says. If the Torah says he's a melech, then he's a melech. Aye, he's not a melech. One day we'll see why the Torah called him a melech. We'll understand with our own eyes why it was that way. But if the Torah called him a melech, he's a melech. Sippur yetzias Mitzrayim is, Avoseinu sipru lanu, that it says in the Haggadah, it says in the Hallel, it says in the pasuk, Betzeis Yisrael miMitzrayim, beis Yaakov me'am loez. True, there's many midrashim. It's all...

All true, but you risk the sakana, the danger of elaborating maybe more on these Chazal and than on those Chazal, and then you don't have the clear picture that you need to teach Yetzias Mitzrayim. It is only if you do it through the context of the parshah of Arami oved avi, if you do it through the Torah, you do it through the text, and you doresh the pesukim like it's a Gemara, like you're learning Gemara with Rishonim, then you have Sippur Yetzias Mitzrayim. It has to come from the eyes of the pasuk, and that's the pshat in Sippur Yetzias Mitzrayim. That's the Haggadah. Haggadah, rabosai, is a learning. You should know this. Don't think you're sitting down to hearing nice stories about Yetzias Mitzrayim. Like I say, it's first seder and second seder. Just like there's first seder yeshiva and second seder yeshiva, you have the first seder the night of Pesach and you have the second seder the night of Pesach. It's to learn. It's to learn the pesukim. Don't go to sleep by this. Don't doze off, so to speak, and lazy off when it comes to Tzeil u'mad, ma bikesh, and run through it. That's the yesod of the mitzvah. The mitzvah is to take the pasuk, and that's why, Vayishma Hashem es koleinu, shene'emar, Vayishma Hashem es koleinu. Va'nitzak el Hashem, like it says in the pasuk, Va'nitzak el Hashem. It's about the pasuk. Everything is the shene'emar, shene'emar, shene'emar. This, rabosai, is what the Gra means, Tzei u'mad. Tzei u'mad. Understand that the pasuk is the reality, and it's your job after the pasuk to be doresh what the pasuk means. The same way by lovon bikesh la'akor es hakol, we wouldn't know it. The pasuk tells us, Lovon bikesh la'akor es hakol, Arami oved avi, and now we have to understand why. The text remains. It is our job to understand the text. It's our job to understand the pasuk. The story was given to us, how to read it, the Haggadah, Arami oved avi, the parshah of Arami oved avi. It's our job to be mefaresh it, to be masbir it with the Rishonim, al pi darkei halimud, al pi darkei halimud. The same way you learn a Gemara with Rashi, you learn the Haggadah with Rashi, with Rishonim, and that's how you'll get to see Yetzias Mitzrayim. This is what I want to teach you. Haggadah is Gemara. That's what it is. It's Gemara. It's limud. It's pesukim. It's drashos. Story? That's also a nice thing to do. That's a very nice thing. But it's about limud. It's about learning. It's about learning. It's about reading the pesukim and darshening the pesukim. Read them. Don't skip the words. Understand the words. Understand the drashos. And if you're capable, learn the Rishonim on the drashos, because that's how you'll have Sippur Yetzias Mitzrayim. It has to come from eidus Hashem ne'emanah, machkimat pesi. It has to come from the Torah. L'hakir bizos. Chasal sidur Pesach k'hilchaso, chol mishpachah u'kehilah, kasher, seder. The same way we mesader, Kein nizkeh b'mitzvas Hashem la'asos l'ma'alah u'lekayem nisdarim. Learning. Remember, Pesach is not bein hazmanim not to learn. Anything Pesach is what? The time to learn. The opposite. It's the time to learn. Not a time for vacations. Anything, it's kavua for limud, to learn, to learn, to learn. To learn about Yetzias Mitzrayim, to learn Hilchos Pesach, to learn Hilchos Korban Pesach. And the truth is, I brought you this from the halacha. Shulchan Aruch, Maran tells us a person is chayav to be osek all night in Hilchos HaPesach. Learning. It's about learning, rabosai. Learn. Learn the sugya of Yetzias Mitzrayim.