Daily Bitachon

Welcome to Daily Bitachon. Today's class is dedicated le'ilui nishmat Rachel bat Jamila, Grandma Rachel Ruby A'H by her grandchildren. In our previous lesson we spoke about the words Habotchim b'shimcha be'emet/Those who rely on Hashem in truth, as we say in our Amidah. We quoted the Avudarham, who explained that "in truth" means recognizing God's name in truth —but what does that mean? Let us go back to the opening words of the Rambam in the laws of Yesodei HaTorah/The Foundations of Torah, chapter 1, halacha 1. He begins with the words: י סוד ה יסודות ו עמוד ה חכמות —the foundation of foundations and the pillar of wisdom (note that the first letters of each word spell Hashem's name) is to know that there is a מצוי ראשון , a Primary Existence —we say God is the kadmon , the First, and He is the mamtzi kol nimtza/ the One who brought everything into existence. כל נמצא וכל הנמצאים משמים וארץ ומה שביניהם לא נמצאו /And everything in the heavens and the earth and all that is in between does not exist אלא /except, -and this is the key phrase- מאמתת המצאו: / from the truth of His existence. "T ruth " here doesn't simply "true vs. false." In this context, " true " means absolute , not dependent on anything. Something that is true is real —it's reality. What does reality mean? It means it exists —it's not imaginary. When you say someone is a real person versus a fake person, you're distinguishing reality from illusion. And the only true reality is God, because everything else exists only because God wills it. If He stops willing it, it ceases to exist. So it's not really emet . Nothing else is " true ." אמת Eme t is spelled with an א alef (first letter of Alef Bet), מ (middle of the Alef Bet ( and ת tav (last)—which means Emet is means something that spans the beginning, middle, and end. That's God: Hayah, Hoveh, Veyihyeh. He is the only true existence. Rambam continues: If one could imagine the impossible—that God did not exist—then nothing else could exist either . But if everything else ceased to exist, God would still be the same. שכל הנמצאים צריכין לו והוא ברוך הוא אינו צריך להם ולא לאחד מהם לפיכך Everything depends on Him. And He doesn't need them at all. Therefore, אין אמתתו כאמתת אחד מהם: His truth is unlike the truth of anything else. This is a fundamental concept in our understanding of God—and we say it every day: Hu shehanavi omer: VaHashem Elokim Emet—God is truth . This is the source for the words in Kriat Shema: Hashem Elokeichem emet. He is the only emet— no other existence is true in the same way. That's the meaning of En od milvado—there is nothing but Him. En sham matzui emet milvado kemoto—there is no other true existence besides Him. This concept underpins the teachings of Nefesh HaChaim—God is the only real existence. He is the source of everything. He makes everything happen. He's infusing everything with energy. How could He not know what's happening in the world? That would be absurd. He is the world. People ask about hashgacha—"Does God know when a leaf falls from a tree? " There is no leaf or tree without God! Of course He knows the leaf is falling off that tree! So, going back: Habotchim b'shimcha be'emet/To rely on Hashem's name in truth means to understand the truth of His name, according to this explanation. The Hovot HaLevavot writes that the reason people lack bitachon is because they don't know who God is. This is who God is. There is nothing else but Him. Now of course, we can't truly comprehend that. The Nefesh HaChaim says that if we dwell on that idea for too long, we could lose our minds. That's why God created the concept of tzimtzum —a perceived contraction —where it seems as though the world exists independently. But we must recognize that our world is like virtual reality. Just like a hologram, it seems real—but behind it is a truer reality, which is God. This is why the term emet ke'amitato is used. There is a level of " truth " in the world, but it's not truly real —it's contingent on God. You may think, " This is deep and philosophical." Well, yes—it's the foundation of our world.. God is the Manhig hagalgal beko'ach she'ein lo ketz vetachlit/the One who moves the cosmos with infinite power. He spins the sun, the stars, the orbits. Without Him, they can't move. Hu Baruch Hu mesovev oto—He spins them, belo yad uvelo guf—without a hand, without a body. He drives everything. Understanding this is the first commandment: Anochi Hashem Elokecha—I am Hashem your God …..Who took you out of Egypt- ( because we learned it from Yetziat Mitzrayim). We paused our long stint of Yetziat Mitzrayim lessons because someone said, " How long can you talk about this? It's already Shavuot!" But sorry—we're back. Because Yetziat Mitzrayim showed us that blood isn't blood, water isn't water, the sea isn't the sea. That's Anochi Hashem Elokecha. If you think there is any other power besideGod, you're transgressing a commandment: Lo yihyeh lecha elohim acherim al panai. That's kefirah be'ikar—denying the fundamental belief. What does " denying the fundamental" mean? It means denying the principle on which everything depends. The Rambam continues onto his 13 principles of faith, all grounded in this foundation. We won't go through the entire first chapter of Yesodei HaTorah, but know this: it's fundamental. If a person doesn't know this, they're missing out. Veten sachar tov lechol habotchim b'shimcha be'emet—Give good reward to those who rely on You in truth. You can't rely on Hashem if you don't know who He is. Hashem is full of kindness. He created the world to do good because He is good and wants us to benefit. He's not an angry, vengeful God looking to punish us. He didn't have to create the world. He didn't do it so we could suffer. Hovot HaLevavot says this explicitly in Sha'ar HaBitachon, Chapter 7, when speaking about what prevents people from having bitachon. What is the primary obstacle? Hasichlut be'inyan haBorei—ignorance regarding God's nature, uv'midotav hatovot—and His good attributes. God has good middot. We are meant to emulate them: ma Hu rachum af ata rachum—just as He is merciful, so should you be. His middot are rachum ve'chanun—compassionate and gracious. If we don't understand that, if we don't understand how God watches over us, cares for us, and controls our lives—then we're like prisoners in His jail ( keshurim be'asurav) without awareness. Lo yanuach libo velo yismoch alav—how can the heart be at ease, how can you trust in Him, if you don't know who He is? How can you rely on someone you don't understand? Botchim b'shimcha be'emet—trusting in His name in truth. " Shem "—a name—represents the essence of a person. Knowing someone's name means knowing their essence. Hashem's primary name— Yud-Heh-Vav-Heh— is not His essence, but it's how He reveals Himself to us: Hayahhoveh veyihyeh mehaveh kol hahavayot , and rachamim / The One who brings all existence into being, and who is full of mercy. That name represents mercy. You must know Him, because if you don't know Him, how can you rely on Him?

Welcome to Daily Bitachon. We continue where we left off in the previous lesson on the concept of bitachon gamur b'lo safek/to have reliance on Hashem without a doubt —based on a pasuk in Yeshayah : V'nish'an al Hashem k'dosh Yisrael/They will rely on Hashem, the Holy One of Israel, b'emet, in truth . The Sefer Ikarim says there in Ma'amar 4 Perek 49 that this bitachon gamur b'lo safek strengthens a person and doesn't weaken him. He quotes a pasuk in Tehillim, and follows that up with another two pesukim to prove his point. The first one is a pasuk in Yeshayah, Perek 40 Pasuk 30-31 וְיִעֲפ֥וּ נְעָרִ֖ים וְיִגָ֑עוּ וּבַחוּרִ֖ים כָּשׁ֥וֹל יִכָּשֵֽׁלוּ׃ Youths may grow wear and tire And young men can constantly tumble. It's possible that, as strong and vibrant as the young are, they will become weary and tired.But, וְקוֹיֵ֤ יְהֹוָה֙ יַחֲלִ֣יפוּ כֹ֔חַ יַעֲל֥וּ אֵ֖בֶר כַּנְּשָׁרִ֑ים יָר֙וּצוּ֙ וְלֹ֣א יִיגָ֔עוּ יֵלְכ֖וּ וְלֹ֥א יִיעָֽפוּ׃ But those who hope in Hashem will have renewed strength, they will grow wings like eagles. They will run and not grow tired. They will walk and not grow weary. Sefer Ikarim explains this to mean that because this man hopes in Hashem, his hope gives him strength. His hope doesn't weaken him, even though he hasn't yet received what he wants. Rather, since his hope is the kind that feels guaranteed—he knows it's going to happen, he knows the sun is coming up in the morning—that gives him more strength. It's a snowball effect. Hope causes strength, and the strength causes more hope. And it goes in a cycle. He says that's what David HaMelech meant when he said kaveh el Hashem—hope to Hashem, chazak v'ya'ametz libecha v'kaveh el Hashem—strengthen your heart and be courageous, and again hope to Hashem. Most of us understand this to mean —and there's truth to it—that you hoped to Hashem and weren't answered, so what do you do? You have to go and work on yourself again to build up hope again. The Sefer Ikarim is not learning it that way. He's saying the first kaveh el Hashem already did something. You hoped to Hashem, and even though you weren't answered, you didn't walk away weak. That hope to Hashem made you stronger, because you were hoping in a way where you felt it was going to happen. And his words are: התקוה סבת החוזק והחוזק סבת התקוה / The hope causes strength, and strength causes even more hope. It's interesting to consider the context of these pesukim in Yeshayahu, which is actually the Haftara of Parashat Lech Lecha. Hashem is asking, " Why are you saying Nistrah darki me'Hashem? Why are you saying Hashem is hiding? That He's not looking at you? That He doesn't know what's going on? He says Hashem is the One who created the world: lo yi'af v'lo yiga—He doesn't get tired, He doesn't get weary. And then it says: Noten laya'ef koach—the One who gives strength to the weary, . This is an extremely relevant point, because every single morning, we say the beracha : Hanoten laya'ef koach, and this pasuk is the source for the that beracha! What a tremendous chiddush! Each morning, you can have in mind that hanoten laya'ef k'oach means kovei Hashem yachlifu ko'ach Hope to Hashem and have renewed strength Where does the ko'ach come from? The ko'ach comes from the fact that we hope in Hashem. Someone who hopes in Hashem gets more strength and more energy. What an unbelievable concept—the snowball effect of hope. But it can not be a hope that's doubtful, or a "maybe hope ," or an "I hope so" kind of hope. It has to be a guaranteed hope. The D'rashot HaRan, in D'rush 6, cites this pasuk as well, about relying on Hashem in truth. He adds that certain people do things in a doubtful way, like: im lo yo'il, lo yazik—if it won't help, at least it won't hurt. And I've heard people say, " I'll go through with it, sure…whatever. I'll give money to charity—it won't help, but it won't hurt." Im lo yo'il, lo yazik—if it doesn't help, at least it won't hurt is not the attitude we're supposed to have in our bitachon. It can't be like a vitamin B12 shot—Is it dangerous? No. It may not help, but won't hurt. Or like a vaccine—maybe it'll hurt. You want to do things that you know for sure are going to help, not just a "maybe." That is the kind of bitachon that will strengthen us.

Welcome to Daily Bitachon In the last class, we quoted an unbelievable pasuk of Bitachon cited by Rabbenu Yonah in Mishleh 3:26, which wasn't on our previous pesukim list. It's a pasuk in Yeshaya 10:20: ולא יוסיף עוד שארית ישראל ופליטת בית יעקב ל[ה]שען על מכהו No longer will the leftovers of Yisrael and those that are saved from Yaakov rely on the one that's hitting them. Rather, , ונשען על י"י קדוש ישראל באמת" the They'll rely on Hashem, K'dosh Yisrael, the Holy One of Yisrael, b'emet , in truth . We went through different explanations of b'emet , but I want to revisit Rabbenu Yonah, who asks: What does it mean b'emet ? What does it mean to rely on Hashem in truth ? We see similar wording in the pasuk Karov Hashem l'chol kor'av l'chol asher yikra'uhu b'emet —Hashem is close to all those that call out to Him -in truth . Does anyone ever call out to God as a lie ? Says Rabbenu Yonah: B'Emet means bitachon gamur b'lo safek —a complete, absolute reliance without a doubt, that the ' hitting' is not coming from the hitter . It's recognizing without a doubt that they are not the source. That is what he calls b'emet . Beautiful. Then, with Hashem's help, we stumbled on a famous Sefer HaIkkarim in Ma'amar 4 Perek 49, which the esteemed Michael Safdie quotes all the time, but I don't recall him ever connecting it to this pasuk. The Sefer HaIkkarim says: When a person hopes for something, and the person is hoping in a doubtful way—he's not sure if it will come or not—that's going to cause the person to have what he calls תטריד הנפש tatrid hanefesh . It's going to cause, actually, a tirda , preoccupation —when you're not comfortable with yourself. You're hoping, " Is it going to come?" That's one kind of hope. When you're hoping for somebody to have children, that kind of hope is very uncomfortable. That kind of hope is sometimes heartbreaking. But if a person hopes for something that he's guaranteed , he says, like hoping for the sun to come up in the morning—that hope doesn't upset you. That hope doesn't get you down. You're happy because you know it's happening, and you're waiting for it to happen. It's like you know you're getting your tax rebate from the government. You know it's coming; it's in the mail. He says that's the way we are supposed to hope to Hashem: We are hoping to Him with complete bitachon that He will fulfill what I hope for, b'li safek /without a doubt, because He's able to and there's nothing stopping Him. And I shouldn't be hoping to Hashem in a doubtful way like "maybe yes, maybe no." It's not like buying a ticket for the lottery—maybe I'll win, maybe I won't. I'm hoping to win. No . With this type of hope, the bitachon hope, strengthens your heart and makes you happy. Like it says, Chizku v'ya'ametz l'vavchem kol ham'yachalim l'Hashem / strengthen and be courageous in your heart, those that hope to Hashem. Simply, it means that you're supposed to strengthen your heart and then rely on Hashem. But he's saying no—this is a big chiddush - the reliance on Hashem creates the strength chizku v'ya'ametz l'vavchem . Because you know it's going to happen, it gives you strength. This hope, he says, doesn't weaken the heart—it strengthens the heart. And he quotes our pasuk and says it's because the person is Nishan al K'dosh Yisrael b'emet . Rabbeinu Yonah is citing this as the source for a new concept called bitachon b'emet : to rely on Hashem b'emet . And now for the earth-shattering chiddush . Every single day in our Amida we make the bracha Al hatzadikim v'al hachasidim , which is the one that invokes bitachon. It ends with mishan u'mivtach l'tzadikim /The One that the tzadikim rely and lean on. Mishan u'mivtach . Mishan is like a cane called a mish'enet . The Sefer *Avudraham asks: What is the source for this mishan u'mivtach l'tzadikim ? ( as we've said, The Anshei Knesset HaGedola sourced our tefilot from pesukim ) Nothing less than our pasuk of Vnishan al Hashem K'dosh Yisrael b'emet . That's the source—this pasuk! And what do we say in this beracha ? V'ten sachar l'chol habotchim b'shimcha b'emet . Give reward to those who rely on Your name in truth . We never knew—what does that mean, "you rely on Hashem b'emet "? According to Rabbenu Yonah and the Sefer HaIkkarim that are reading it into the pasuk, which is the source of the beracha, it means: Reward those that rely on Hashem with bitachon gamur b'lo safek . *The Avudaraham has a different explanation of v'ten sachar tov l'chol habotchim b'shimcha b'emet . He says: they know the truth of Your name . So the word emet is referrig to understanding of God's name. But we are offering a different explanation: the word b'emet is on the bitachon

Welcome to Daily Bitachon. In the previous class, we discussed that Rabbenu Yonah tells us it's important to realize that when something is going on in your life—even from a human being that you don't like—you have to continue to focus on the Source, which is ultimately Hashem. He quotes a pasuk to prove his point that, in his words: " Lo yasim libo l'fachad hamaka/Do not focus your heart on the fear of the one that's hitting you. Rather, "Yosif yirat Hashem/Add your fear of Hashem, V'tikvah v'tochelet Eilav" – and hope and anticipate toward Him. It's a pasuk in Yeshayah 10:20, which is not found in our pesukei bitachon lists of either Rav Zundel miSalant or the Maharal. וְהָיָ֣ה ׀ בַּיּ֣וֹם הַה֗וּא לֹא־יוֹסִ֨יף ע֜וֹד שְׁאָ֤ר יִשְׂרָאֵל֙ וּפְלֵיטַ֣ת בֵּֽית־יַעֲקֹ֔ב לְהִשָּׁעֵ֖ן עַל־מַכֵּ֑הוּ וְנִשְׁעַ֗ן עַל־יְהֹוָ֛ה קְד֥וֹשׁ יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל בֶּאֱמֶֽת׃ It will be on that day, that the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the house of Yaakov will no longer rely on their attacker. Rather," 'VNishan al Hashem k'dosh Yisrael be'emet/They will rely on Hashem, the Holy One of Israel, in truth. What a beautiful pasuk! The mefarshim explain that " It will be on that day" means when the Assyrian army will fall, the Jewish people will realize that they had acted foolishly in relying on foreign powers to defend them. The next pasuk says: שְׁאָ֥ר יָשׁ֖וּב שְׁאָ֣ר יַעֲקֹ֑ב אֶל־אֵ֖ל גִּבּֽוֹר׃ T he remnant will return, the remnant of Yaakov, to the Mighty God. The Radak explains that the Navi is telling us that the Jews who will have witnessed Hashem's might will return to Him with all of their heart. What does it mean that they will rely on Hashem, Kadosh Yisrael be'emet – the Holy One of Israel, in truth? Says the Radak: They're going to realize that it doesn't pay to rely on a person, because when you rely on a person, you have to serve him, you have to pay him taxes. And if you don't serve him, don't pay taxes, and don't find favor in his eyes, he will turn his back on you. (Historically, this has borne out) Rather, he says: rely on Hashem, because He doesn't ask anything from man. What does He want? Only that you rely on Him in truth, and then He'll save you from all your problems. He cites the example of Chizkiyahu HaMelech, who relied wholeheartedly on Hashem. Hashem wiped out the king of Ashur, and everyone realized the power of Hashem. What does the term Kadosh Yisrael be'emet – the Holy One of Israel in truth mean ? What does that extra word, b'emet mean? Rabbenu Yonah, in Mishleh 3,26 says: "In truth" means bitachon gamur b'lo safek – complete trust without doubt. Hashem wants those who rely on Him be'emet – in truth, with no doubts. Absolute bitachon. The Gaon of Vilna explains that Kadosh Yisrael be'emet – the Holy One of Israel in truth means we want people who rely on Hashem and sanctify His name constantly . He says bitachon is a great level, but only when it comes with righteousness. Not, he says, like the Gemara describes people during the Churban: " Resha'im hay u" – they were wicked, Ela shetalu bitchonam baKadosh Baruch Hu" – but they relied on Hashem. That's not the bitachon we want. Yes, it does say: " Afilu rasha boteach, chasdei yisovevenu/even a wicked person who trusts will be surrounded by kindness. But that's not the level we're striving for. Of course, all bitachon is good. But to quote the words of the Gra: " Ki bitachon hu ma'alah hayoter gedolah/ bitachon is at the highest level, Hainu k'shehu b'tzidkato/ when it comes with righteousness. Getting back to our pasuk- it's about realizing Hashem's power and not focusing on the one who hits you—because Hashem can take care of your enemies in ways you'd never dream of—like what Hashem did for Chizkiyahu HaMelech, when He wiped out an entire army of 180,000 soldiers. The Baal HaTurim invokes another story in our history. He quite often finds something from an early Midrash called the Masoret , where it quotes two or three words that appear throughout Tanach. The word v'nishan – to rely – shows up twice. It shows up in our pasuk: " V'nishan al Hashem k'dosh Yisrael be'emet" – to rely on Hashem, the Holy One of Israel, in truth. And it shows up in:" V'nishan ligvul Moav" – leaning against the border of Moav. The full pasuk is in Bamidbar 21:15: "Ve'eshed hanechalim asher natah leshevet Ar v'nishan ligvul Moav/The spilling of the rivers that leaned toward the settlement of Ar and leaned against the border of Moav. Rashi says this refers to the famous hidden miracle of Nachal Arnon , where the enemies were hiding in the crevices of 2 tall mountains. Their plan was that as the Jews went through the valley below, they would ambush and kill them. But God caused the mountains to lean against each other. That's what it means: " V'nishan ligvul Moav" – the mountains leaned on each other. (The word nishan can mean lean on God or lean physically , as in the mountains.) The mountains leaned on each other, the Jewish people walked through, and then they saw the miracle as God revealed it to them, when a well brought up the dead bodies. They saw what had happened, and there it says: " Az yashir Yisrael et hashirah hazot/ then Israel sang this song. They sang the song " Alei Be'er/On the well. Rashi says we can compare the miracle of Nachal Arnon, where they sang " Az yashir", to that of the splitting of the sea, which also used " Az yashir". Only one miracle was open, while the other was hidden. When they saw this miracle, says the Baal HaTurim, that's what caused them, V'nishan al Hashem k'dosh Yisrael be'emet" – to rely on Hashem, the Holy One of Israel, in truth. When they saw these miracles, they realized Hashem's power over all mortals. Therefore, when something happens, focus on the Source. .Hashem can bring mountains together. He can bring fiery powers that burned down the entire army that surrounded Chizkiyahu HaMelech. It says their bodies remained, and their souls were burnt. God can do anything, but we need the secret ingredient: " V'nishan al Hashem kadosh Yisrael B'Emet" – to rely on Hashem the holy One, in truth

Welcome to Daily Bitachon. We are now getting back to the 'meat and potatoes' of regular topic Bitachon, after our hiatus for lessons from the Hagada Shel Pesach . Rabbenu Yonah, on Mishleh chapter 3, tells us that an important facet of Bitachon is knowing that a human being has no impact on you. . No human being can help you, and no human being can harm you, Zulati yigzor Hashem / unless Hashem makes that decree . He explains that this is what Arur hagever asher yivtach ba'adam / Cursed is the one that relies on a person means ; he thinks that people can do things for him . Another pasuk in Yirmiyah says chidlu lachem min ha'adam / Refrain from people" . This means refrain from relying on people . One has to know that in truth, a human being lacks any ability to harm him . He quotes many familiar pesukim, such as one from Hallel, which says Hashem li lo ira ma ya'aseh li adam , David Hamelech is saying, " Hashem is with me, I'm not afraid what people are going to do" . When a problem comes, a person should realize that everything is in the hands of Hashem . Pnei levavo muadot el Hashem / The face of his heart should be focused on God. Whenever there's a problem, one should focus on God; not on the one that's hitting him, but on the One that is ultimately in charge . He cites a pasuk in Tehillim which has an important lesson, not just for our daily bitachon, but also for one of the most pivotal times of the year . . He quotes the pasuk , Hinei k'einei avadim el yad Adonehem / Our eyes are to You, God like a slave is to his master," and he uses this pasuk as a description of bitachon . The eyes of the slave are towards his master b ecause, as the Hovot Halevavot says in Shaar HaBitachon, a baal bitachon must feel like a servant who is controlled by his master; that no one can impact him but his master . Rabbenu Yonah explains that David Hamelech is saying, " Our eyes are on You God, like a servant is on his master. In a similar vein, the Hovot Halevavot explains why Shaar HaBitachon/Gate of Reliance on Hashem comes after Shaar Avodat Elohim/ Gate of Serving Hashem) . This is because serving Hashem is connected to bitachon, a servant has an obligation to rely on his master because only his master can take care of him . . This is the pasuk of Hinei k'einei avadim el yad Adonehem . As we've said many times, the Anshei Knesset HaGedolah, who wrote our tefillot , based the text of the tefilot on pesukim . Rav Wolbe used to say that the siddur is the Torah Sheba'al Peh/ the Oral Law. And Oral Law is always based on the Written Law. . After we blow the shofar, we say Hayom harat olam / Today is the birth of the world, Hayom ya'amid bamishpat/ Today is the day that God judges kol yetzurei olam/all the creations, And He treats them, Im kevanim im ka'avadim / either like children or like servants Im kevanim / if we're children, then, rachameinu k'rachem av al banim / have mercy, like a father on a child. - There is a level of Jewish people called, Banim atem l'Hashem Elokeichem / We act like children, He treats us like children- But what about Im ka'avadim ? What if we're like servants , which means we don't have that father-son relationship in a way that we're deserving of the mercy of God? What do we do then? The answer is, Enenu lecha teluyot / Our eyes are towards You, Ad shetechoneinu / Until You have chen on us, matnat chinam, v'totzi la'or mishpateinu / and we're going to have a judgment that is a shining judgment" And this, Im ka'avadim eineinu lecha teluyot / Our eyes are on You, comes from this pasuk in Tehillim: k'eneh avadim el yad adoneihem / Like servants are looking to their master " . This means that one of the techniques that we have to be successful in Rosh Hashanah judgment, or any judgment for that matter, is to have bitachon and realize that no matter what happens, ultimately, no one can harm us and no one can help us. We have to rely on Hashem . That is supposed to be our attitude in any trying situation . k'eneh avadim el Yad adoneihem / Like servants have their eyes on their master .

Welcome to Daily Bitachon . We continue to learn lessons from the pesukim of Yetziat Mitzrayim . The next pasuk says that Hashem took us out of Mitzrayim " B'yad chazaka ubzroa netuya/With a strong hand and an outstretched arm." The Baal Haggadah explains that " Yad chazaka," refers to dever , the plague that killed the animals, and " Zroa netuya/the outstretched arm," refers to the sword , which Rishonim say refers to the plague of Makat Bechorot , when all the firstborns died. But why are we singling out the fifth and the tenth plagues? The Vilna Gaon and others explain that a hand has five fingers, the right hand has five fingers, and the left hand has five fingers. So, kal v'yachol , if we say Hashem is using both His hand and His outstretched arm, that includes all 10 plagues. The first hand, the " yad chazaka ," refers to dever , including all four previous plagues, and culminating with dever , the plague that killed the animals. And Zroa netuya/ with the sword means the four plagues prior to that and culminates with the fifth one being the sword . What exactly is the common denominator between the two? Interestingly, the pasuk brought down by dever is " Hineh yad Hashem hoyah b'miknecha/ The hand of Hashem was on your cattle." This term, "the hand of Hashem," is not found in other plagues. There are five different cattle mentioned— susim (horses), chamorim (donkeys), gamalim (camels), bakar (cattle), and tzon (sheep) and some commentaries say the hand, with five fingers, refers to the five different species of animals that were killed. But for our purposes today, we will study the common denominator between the " yad chazaka" of the plague and the " zroa netuya" of the sword- which is that both refer to the taking of life. Dever took the life out of the animals through the plague, and Makat Bechorot took out the lives of the firstborns. This is the ultimate Hashgacha Pratit , that Hashem is the One who is memit u'mechayeh /Hashem is the One that gives life and gives death. The ultimate hashgacha pratit is that Hashem is keeping us alive at every single second. This supersedes the Hashgacha of crossing the street safely or getting the food you needed in time, etc. The ultimate Hashgacha pratit is that Hashem is giving life to our souls every single moment. As we say in Modim , "Al chayenu hamesurim b'yadecha/ Our lives are literally in Your hand . And as we just said, " yad chazaka , and " Chayeinu hamesurim b'yadecha ." Our life is in God's hand. This is not said figuratively. Of course, Hashem doesn't have a hand, but just as a person has a hand and holds on, so too, Hashem is holding on to us. The Bet HaLevi , in his commentary on Bereshit 2,2, says that when a person has complete faith that at every second Hashem Yitbarach is pumping energy into the world, and every moment it's literally, he says , yesh mei'ayin/something from nothing , If Hashem would not be doing it this second, everything would cease to exist. If a person thought like that, he says, " tipol alav Yirat v'pachad" – he would be in a sudden state of fear. Rav Wolbe once suggested going over to your little child, putting your ear to his chest, and listening to his heart beat. Thump, thump, thump . Who is responsible for that thump? Who makes it happen? And if it stops for a second, who knows what would be! The Bet HaLevi compares this to a person who falls into the ocean. Someone grabs onto his hand so that he doesn't drown. If the man lets go for a second, it's all over. He says the feeling for the man saving him is love and fear at the same time. " I love him because he's holding on to me. And I'm afraid because he might let go" . He says that's why we say, every single day in Amidah , " Al chayeinu hamesurim b'yadecha/Our life is in Your hand. Hashem is holding on to us. That's the " yad Hashem " of the dever , because God does that to animals as well. And that's the outstretched arm of Makat Bechorot . This was the realization they got through the makot , especially these last two of each unit. (There were two units of five. In the first five, Pharaoh still had freedom of choice. In the last five he didn't.) In each these plagues, we see that important lesson of " chayeinu hamesurim b'yadecha. Every one of the words of Anshei Knesset HaGedolah is sourced in pesukim . And the Avudraham says, " chayeinu hamesurim b'yadecha" comes from a pasuk in Tehillim 31:16, " b'yadcha itotai/My moments are in Your hand" Furthermore, in Modim we say " Nishmatenu Hapekudot lach/our souls have been deposited by You. This is also sourced in a pasuk- " b'yadcha afkid ruchi" – "in Your hands I deposit my soul, (Tehillim 31:6), Because every night I give God my soul as a deposit. But both of them are in God's hands . My life, " b'yadcha itotai," my moments are in Your hand. My soul, " b'yadcha afkid ruchi". Regarding these pesukim in Tehillim, " b'yadcha itotai," my moments are in your hand," and "Hatzileni miyad oyvai u'mirdofai/save me from the hands of my enemies," the Radak says that David HaMelech is saying, " I'm in Your hands, and therefore the hands of my enemies can't get me. I'm not in their hands, I'm in Your hands.

Welcome to Daily Bitachon . We're on our final pasuk of Bikurim quoted in the Haggadah shel Pesach , "ויוציאנו ה׳ ממצרים" . Finally, God took us out of Egypt . "ביד חזקה" – with a strong hand, " בזרוע נטויה" – with an outstretched arm, " במורא גדול" – with great fear, " באותות" – with signs, and " ובמופתים" – with wonders. The Ba'al Haggadah explains " ויוציאנו ה׳ ממצרים ," with a very long description before proving it. He tells us there was no other force—not an angel, not a "fiery" angel, nor a messenger. Rather, it was " הקדוש ברוך הוא בכבודו ובעצמו" – God Himself took us out of Egypt. This refers specifically to Makat Bechorot , as the pasuk says, " And I passed in the land of Mitzrayim on this night, and I hit every firstborn in Mitzrayim , from man to animal, and with all of the gods of Egypt, I judged, Ani Hashem." This pasuk definitely requires explanation and understanding, as we have to remember Yetziat Mitzrayim every single day. God took us out of Egypt at midnight on that night. Why does it say midnight? There is a discussion about when the main Yetziat Mitzrayim was. Was it at night or by day? The reason we say Kriat Shema both at night and during the day is because there was an aspect of Yetziat Mitzrayim both at night and by day. There are two important lessons based on what happened at that moment. As mentioned previously, the Egyptians worshipped the sheep. The reason they worshipped the sheep was because the sheep was called Bechor Lamazalot . It was the firstborn of all the symbols of the horoscope. Sheep, or Aries as it's referred to in Latin, is why the month of Aviv, springtime when we got out, is called Aviv. It's a contraction of two words, " אב י"ב," the father of 12. The ram symbolizes the father, the first of the 12 symbols. Therefore, the Egyptians worshipped the ram and the sheep, due to their belief that this was the mazal that was in charge of the world. Furthermore, they respected the firstborn children because they were also connected to the horoscope of the sheep. The reason for Yetziat Mitzrayim was to take the Jewish people out from under mazal and have us deal directly with Hashem. This originated with Avraham Avinu. When he didn't have any children, God said, " צא החוצה" / " Go outside". Rashi says this meant, "Go out of the horoscope". We are above the horoscope. In order to portray this concept that God is the only force in nature and all other seeming forces do not have independent power, it was God Himself that wiped out the Egyptian gods and showed the world that the Egyptian horoscope symbol had no force. The reason it happened on the 15th of the month is because that is when the moon is fullest, which is the most powerful time. And Chatzot Laila , midnight, is the "power of the power". So at the point when the sheep was most powerful in the month of Nissan, its own month, we were going to bring her to her knees. And that's what happened. We have to always remember Yetziat Mitzrayim . There is a famous Nefesh HaChaim ( Shaar Gimmel, Perek Yud-Bet ), where he cites the Gemara of a certain witch that was trying to cast a spell on Rav Chanina ben Dosa, and he said, "You're wasting your time. אין עוד מלבדו" – " There is nothing else but Him". The Gemara says, "What do you mean? Kishuf / witchcraft, is able to undo things that seemingly are against God's decree!". To which the Gemara says, Rav Chanina ben Dosa had great zechut . The Nefesh HaChaim says that doesn't mean he had a lot of mitzvot . It means he had the clarity that there's nothing else but HaKadosh Baruch Hu , and he realized that this kishuf was created from God, and nothing exists other than God, and everything here comes from God. With that, he was able to undo any kishuf powers. That's the same Rav Chanina ben Dosa who said, "No problem," when his daughter complained that they had no oil to light the candles, only vinegar. "What's the difference? The One that said oil should light, [can also say] vinegar should light". That means it wasn't a miracle for him; he didn't see a difference between oil and vinegar. It was all Hashem. There are many such stories about Rav Chanina ben Dosa. The Nefesh HaChaim applies this to us and says, "This is inyan gadol v'segulah nifla'ah " – A wondrous segulah to remove all judgments and negative wills of others against you, so that they can't affect you, won't impact you, and won't make an indent at all. If a person says in his heart, "I know Hashem is in charge, and He's the only true force, there's nothing else but Him, and everything in the world only comes from Him," and he annuls in his heart a total annulment and does not pay attention to anything else in the world but God's will, and subjugates himself and connects the purity of his thoughts to God, insofar as he does that, God will annul all those negative forces so they can't impact him at all. This is easier said than done. But the point is that this revelation of " אין עוד מלבדו" ) Ein Od Milevado ) happened at the time of Makat Bechorot . It was totally revealed later on at Har Sinai, where it says, " אתה הראת לדעת כי ה׳ הוא האלקים אין עוד מלבדו" . There they actually saw it. God , it says, split open the heavens and showed them that there's nothing in the world but God. But the beginning, so to say, of God showing us this was at Makat Bechorot at Chatzot Laila . Furthermore, the Nefesh HaChaim in Shaar Gimmel, Perek Gimmel , tells us that it says, " ה׳ הוא מקומו של עולם" – " God is the place of the world," and " ואין העולם מקומו" – " and the world doesn't hold Him". One of God's names is Makom , which means that nothing else exists without Him. He's the place ; everything is within Him. It's interesting that the term Makom is used in the Haggadah shel Pesach , possibly more than any other place, when talking about God. ברוך המקום ברוך הוא. ברוך שנתן תורה לעמו ישראל ברוך הוא". "ברוך המקום ". "ועכשיו קרבנו המקום לעבודתו" – " And now the Makom (God) brought us close to His service" . "כמה מעלות טובות למקום עלינו" – " How many great qualities is it to God," referred to as Makom . "על אחת כמה וכמה טובה כפולה ומכופלת למקום עלינו" – four times it says Makom . Because this is the night that we understood this important lesson. Rav Shimshon Pinkus, in his book Tiferet Shimshon on Devarim , in Parashat Re'eh where it says " בנים אתם לה׳", says that's why, heaven forbid, when someone passes away, the custom in many communities is to say, " המקום ינחם אתכם" / God, who is called Makom , should bring you comfort" . But why is the term Makom used here? Because of this concept that God is Mekomo shel Olam , God holds everything , there's nothing there but Him. And therefore, Lo Alenu , with a problem or without a problem, with a parent or without a parent, HaKadosh Baruch Hu is the constant in their lives, and that concept should bring nechama . May we all hear nechamot from all the tzarot that we go through, and have the ultimate revelation of Makom in the future.

Welcome to Daily Bitachon , lessons that we're learning from the psukim in Ki Tavo . Hashem saw את לחצינו / et lachatzeinu . Says the Ba'al Hagada, zeh hadachak / This is the pressure , as it says: Vegam ra'iti et halachatz , asher Mitzrayim lochatzim otam / I saw the pressure that the Mitzrim placed upon them What is that pressure referring to? Simply speaking the Kol Bo (on chapter 51), Avudarham and others say it's talking about the pressure of needing more and more bricks. So they were under tremendous pressure and Hashem saw that pressure. But the Ritva , in his commentary to the Hagada, explains that this pressure refers to when the Egyptians, seeing that they couldn't break them with physical work, started pressuring them into worshipping Avodah Zarah . And that's what Hashem saw. That was the lachatz , and it caused them to be redeemed faster, because Hashem saw they couldn't withstand the test. As we know, they were about to enter the 50th gate of tumah . They had to get out fast. As we will come to see, the Baal Hagada makes the point that the things that Paroah was doing to break us, actually got us out faster. The Sefer Chanukat HaTorah in Vayikra chapter 1, pasuk ה , tells us that Hashem saw three things: onyeinu , amalenu , lachatzeinu . Onyeinu meant the fact that the husbands and wives were separated. One of the reasons they were separated was because the men were in the fields 24 hours at a time. Amalenu refers to the children, which could mean the multitude of children that were born, whom the Mitzrim felt they had to wipe them out. And lachatzeinu was the pressure. He says there are three reasons why we got out early: One was because we worked the night shift. The second was because we had a lot of children and they did a tremendous amount of work. And the third reason was the tremendous pressure. The Ba'al Hagada explains that Hashem saw these three things that Paroah did-he made them work day and night; he felt the need to wipe out the children because there were so many of them; And he pressured them, and all of these things got us out faster. That's why the next pasuk says, Vayotzi'einu Hashem miMitzrayim , Hashem took us out of Mitzrayim. We will add a very interesting thought from the Sefer Ateret Yeshua on the Hagada shel Pesach , written by a Rebbe from the town of Dzikov (1848-1912) who was known for his gematrias. He says that these three things that Hashem saw, onyeinu , amalenu and lachatzeinu , are why we have the three mitzvot of Pesach , Matzah , and Maror - they correspond to these three sufferings. These three sufferings actually created three mitzvot - Pesach , Matzah , and Maror ! As we said, that's what got us out faster. It's an unbelievable concept, how Hashem can take all of that suffering and produce something so special with it. And he says, therefore, the numerical value of פסח מצה מרור Pesach , Matzah , Maror is דרך ארץ בנים דחק Derech eretz , as we said, was prishut derech eretz , separating them from the normal fashion of husband and wife living together. Banim is the children. And dachak is the pressure. So it's an unbelievable hint here, that what was negative actually created these three mitzvot . So the negative got us out of Egypt faster, as the Sefer Chanukat HaTorah says. But more than that, it actually created these three mitzvot . Thus far, we have the Chanukat HaTorah that points out the theme that runs through these three things is they all got us out of Mitzrayim earlier. Similarly, we have amalenu zeh habanim like we said yesterday from the Maharil Diskin , the fact that they killed the children got us out earlier because we were producing children that didn't make it, and Hashem viewed it as if those children were actually working. So everything the Egyptians did backfired. The extra work backfired. The children backfired. The night shift backfired. The attempt to make them lose their spirituality backfired. Everything backfired. The Gaon of Vilna has a different thread between these three things that Hashem saw as we're winding down from what Hashem saw. And he says these three topics of family life, husband and wife, children and pressure, pressure is because you're squeezed into a small, tight confines. These he says are the three fundamentals that a person needs to survive. He needs to have a wife, children, and a house. That's the basic household. You have a place to live with your wife and your children. They were trying to uproot these three things. And when Hashem saw that they were uprooting the very basic fiber of the Jewish household, and the Jews were at their breaking point, He could no longer allow that to happen. And as we will soon see, Vayotzi'einu Hashem miMitzrayim , Hashem will actually take us out of Mitzrayim . That is going to be the final pasuk . And as we often say, this applies in our lives today as well. Sometimes when you hit the breaking point, that's when the yeshua has to come.

Welcome to Daily Bitachon . We continue with lessons from pesukim in Ki Tavo, where it says that Hashem saw Et Amalenu / Our toil. The Ba'al Haggadah explains, Eilu habanim / This refers to the children. What does this mean? Some explain that children themselves are called toil because all of our toil is for our children. But others explain that it actually has to do with the pasuk that's being quoted: Kemo she'ne'emar , like it says, all boys born should be sent thrown into the Nile and the girls will survive . Amal means toil without an outcome. Like we say at a Siyum Masechet : Anu ameilim, v'hem ameilim . We toil, and they toil. Anu ameilim, we toil, Mekabelim schar/and get rewarded. V'hem ameilim, and they toil, v'einam mekabelim schar and don't receive reward. What does that mean? Who works without being rewarded? The Chafetz Chaim explains that in the outside world, you get paid for producing . If you go to a tailor to fix your suit, and he fixes it, you pay him. But if he says, "I tried very hard, but I couldn't fix it," then you don't pay him. We pay for accomplishing , not for toiling without accomplishment or achievement or production.That's what the definition of amal is. That's why we call learning ameilut baTorah / toil in Torah - because you don't have to produce anything. It's not about producing, it's about working hard and breaking your head to understand. And even if you never get to understand, God accepts it. That's the ultimate called ameilut baTorah . However, if you're not in the Torah or religion sector, you have to produce. If a person works his whole life, it's considered productive because he has children to leave the money to. There is l a continuation, a lineage. But if a person just toils and there are no children to bequeath that work for, that work becomes toil . Work without a purpose is toil. And because the Egyptians threw the boys into the Nile, their work now turned into amal , into just plain toil . Hashem in His mercy allows us to see the fruits of our labor, so that we can go through life not as ameilut , which is unproductive work. It's hard psychologically to live with unproductive work. We pray every day: Lema'an lo niga larik, v'lo neiled labehala / We don't want to toil for nothing and give birth to panic and confusion. The commentaries explain, and we actually say this in our Uva LeTzion prayers when we say V'chayei olam nata b'tocheinu /God gave us the Torah . Hu yiftach libeinu b'Torato . He should open our hearts in Torah so that we should have a continuation and we should not be in this world for nothing. So Hashem, in His mercy, allows us to feel like we're doing something. We go to work every day, we do our hishtadlut . Really, it should come and we should get it. But Hashem makes us feel like we're doing something. This is actually the reason why we came to this world. Why didn't Hashem just send us straight to Olam Haba ? Because there's something called nahama d'kisufa / bread of shame, if you don't work for it. But living in this world, Hashem makes us feel like we're doing something. Of course, we rely on Hashem and Hashem makes it happen, but He gives us that feeling of I'm doing something and that's important. There is a famous (unsourced) story of a man that was imprisoned in a cell, doing nothing all day, going crazy. He had no meaning or purpose in his life. The warden felt bad for him, so he installed a wheel on the wall of the cell, and told the prisoner to turn this wheel every day, because it was connected to a mill outside the prison, and so he'd be able to grind the wheat to give food to the people. The man had a new excitement in life. He was doing something! He was turning the wheel, turning the wheel, turning the wheel. After many years, when he finally got out of jail and saw that the wheel was connected to a rock and nothing else, he had a heart attack and died-Because his life was for nothing. Rav Miller applies this story to bring out a point that when we go to work every day, we're really just turning a wheel that's connected to nothing. Because Hashem is making our parnassa happen. But Hashem in His mercy (this is not Rav Miller talking, this is me using Rabbi Miller to bring this point out), makes us feel like we are doing something. And therefore, it's not just ameilut . Hashem gives us children so it's not just ameilut . But in Egypt, Hashem saw the pain of just plain amal . Children being thrown into the Nile, the psychological warfare of work without a purpose, without a future, without a legacy. So we have to appreciate that Hashem gave us the ability to toil- for purpose, And also that Hashem actually feels for somebody, as He felt for the Jewish people ,when he saw the Amal .

Welcome to Daily Bitachon , as we continue with lessons in Bitachon from Pesukim in Ki Tavo . We are now up to וירא את ענינו / Vayar et Onyenu / And God saw our pain. This was after we cried out to God, as it says, Vanitzak el Hashem Elokei Avoteinu/We cried out to God, Vayishma Hashem/ And Hashem heard our voices . And the next thing that happens is, Vayar et Onyenu/ Hashem saw our pain. What is that referring to? Zu perishut derech eretz/This refers to the fact that husbands and wives separated. Why did they separate? Many Rishonim explain that it was due to the decree that all boys had to be thrown into the Nile River, as Rashi tells us in Shemot 2:1, where it says Vayikach et Bat Lev i, Amram takes Yocheved. Amram had separated from Yocheved because of the decree of Paroah, and now he remarried her, as it says, Vayelech/And he went. He went and followed his daughter Miriam's advice, when she said, ' Your decree is worse than Paroah's. Paraoh's decree was only on the males but by not being married, your decree is on the males and the females.' We see from here that the Jewish people, on their own, made a decision to separate from their wives. Hashem saw the pain that occurred as a result. Families were being broken apart due to their decision to not bring more children into the world, if those children were just going to be drowned. So that's Vayar et Onyenu Zu perishut derech eretz . As usual, the Ba'al Haggadah brings a proof, as it says, Vayar Elohim et Bnei Yisrael/ Hashem saw what happened to Bnei Yisrael . Vayeda Elohim / And Hashem knew . Simply, Hashem saw, Vayar et Onyenu , and here it says Vayar Elohim , Hashem saw our pain and He knew. But how do we know that this has to do with them being separated? Because it says Vayeda Elohim / God knew. This was something that only God knew about. God knows that people make decisions. God knows, " I'm staying away from getting married because I'm worried about xyz." So we see from here that when Hashem's mercy is being enacted, it doesn't just work in general. Hashem looks at every detail, even the secrets hidden in a person's mind. Rashi, on the pasuk ofVayeda Elohim says, God placed His heart on them and did not allow His eyes to ignore them. This is a concept called Gilui Panim / Hashem revealing His face . The Ramban on this Rashi says that originally Hashem was Mastir panav / He was hiding His face, w hich is when we don't see Him in action. But now He went to the the level of Vayeda / He knew what was going on. Of course, He always knows what's going on, but now, He was acting on it. Rabbenu Bachya expandsa little bit more on this pasuk . He says Vayar Elohim/God saw, refers to what the Egyptians were doing outside, that people could see. Vayeda Elohim / And God knew, refers to the difficulties they were doing to them in hiding, that no one knew about it. Only God knows . The psychological pain that the Jewish people were going through was also picked up and felt by Hashem. The HaEmek Davar adds a beautiful thought. He asks, Why does it say And God saw ? He answers that, He saw what He didn't hear. He explains that there are certain things that we don't even feel comfortable sharing in our prayers. We might be a little embarrassed about sharing a certain want or need. But Hashem sees those too. Let's say a person feels he's missing out on something. He's not going to say " Hashem, I wish I had sprinkles on my ice cream ." He's thinking about that but he's not going to ask for that. But Hashem sees that too. The Maharil Diskin adds something fascinating about how Hashem's Hashgacha works. Hashem knew . What did Hashem know ? That they got separated from their wives. And he says that when Hashem calculated that they had to leave Mitzrayim early because of the extra work that they did, He took into account all of the children that had been thrown into the Nile, all of children that had been put into the bricks, and all the children that would have been born if they hadn't separated from each other, as if they had all existed and they were all doing work. That is something that only Hashem could know. Vayeda Elohim . That's how far Hashem's calculations go, when He's figuring things out. And he says, that's what it means V'gam et hagoy asher ya'avodu dan anochi /I will judge the nation that's working you, I'll judge how many you would have been, and I'll figure that out as well . Wonder of wonders, how Hashem's Hashgacha is able to work. The Ma'ayanah shel Torah says something fascinating which is a tremendous limud zechut on the Jewish people. Vayar et Onyenu , Hashem sees our suffering. And he brings a pasuk Vayar Elohim/ And God sees et Bnei Yisrael . Vayeda Elohim and Hashem knows. Now simply, this pasuk really doesn't say anything. That's why Rashi has to explain that Hashem is now paying attention to them. But the Ma'ayanah shel Torah says, You know what Hashem saw? Et Bnei Yisrael. That through all the suffering they went through, they stayed strong to their identity as Jewish people. With all the pain and all the suffering, they still remained Jewish people and that's what brought the Geula.

Welcome to Bitachon . We continue with another important lesson from the pesukim in Ki Tavo . Vanitzak el Hashem Elokei Avoteinu / We cried out to Hashem the God of our fathers, and He heard our voices. And we quote a pasuk in Shemot where it says Vayishma Elokim et Maakatam / God heard their groans. Vayizkor Elokim et Brito/and God remembered His covenant et Avraham et Yitzchak v'et Yaakov/With Abraham, Yitzhak and Yaakov. So we see clearly here that it was not enough for us to just pray. Our prayers aroused the zechut Avot . Interestingly, this is the second pasuk mentioned in the Zichronot section of Musaf of Rosh Hashanah , telling us that Hashem heard the cries of Bnei Yisrael b'Mitzrayim and remembered Avraham Yitzchak and Yaakov . So what is this combination? Why do we need both prayer and Zechut Avot? Why can't Zechut Avot work on its own? Why can't prayer on its own work? The answer is that the Jewish people, on their own at that time, and probably quite often for us as well, can not make it with our prayer alone. That's why every single prayer, that we pray three times a day starts with Elokeinu v'Elokei Avoteinu , our God, and the God of our fathers, Avraham Yitzchak v'Yaakov . The Rambam in Moreh Nevuchim , section 3, chapter 43, says something fascinating. He says that the reason why we merited to go into Eretz Yisrael was, בחסד האלוה וביעודיו לאבותינו , בעבור שהיו אנשים שלמים בדעותם ומדותם - רצוני לומר , " אברהם , יצחק ויעקב - Because of the kindness of God, and His promise to our forefathers. Why? ba'avur shehayu anashim shleimim, They were people that were perfect, b'dei'otam, in their mindsets, their cognition, u'midotam, and their character traits, This refers to Avraham Yitzchak v'Yaakov . And he says, שזה גם כן הוא ממה שהתורה תלויה עליו - רצוני לומר , שכל טוב שהיטיב האלוה לנו וייטיב - אמנם הוא ' בזכות אבות This is a fundamental that the Torah hinges on. That any goodness that God did for us in the past, and will do for us in the future, in truth is b'Zchut avot. It's in the merit of our forefathers. This is definitely something to inspire us that we don't have to necessarily have our own zechuyot . We need zechut avot . Well, if that's the case, that I need zechut avot , why pray? Why do anything? The answer that's given is, In order to have zechut avot, God has to recognize you as one of their children. If we want to use the zechut of Avraham Avinu, you have to look a little bit like Avraham. Imagine your friend's son comes to see you, but you don't know it's his son. He asks for a favor. When you see him, you say, ' Hold on. You look like so-and-so. You remind me of so-and-so. ' He says, 'Yeah, that was my father.' 'Oh, that was your father? For sure, I'm going to take care of this for you. If you're his son, I'm going to do it. ' But if someone walks in with no resemblance to his father, it's not going to ignite that feeling. The same is true with Avraham Yitzchak V'Yaakov . We're their children. We have to look like them. We have to act like them. Matai yagiu ma'asai l'ma'asei Avraham Yitzchak v'Yaakov . And this is the beautiful point- That's why we need prayer. Because when we pray, we look like Avraham Yitzchak v'Yaakov . They cried out to God, and we're crying out to God. Rashi uses a particular lashon describing the Jewish people praying at Kriat Yam Suf . In Shemot 14:10 it says, Vayitzaku . The Jewish people cried out. They cried out at Kriat Yam Suf. Rashi quotes the Mechilta, Tafsu umnut avotam/They grabbed the trade/the craft of their forefathers. Avraham prayed. Yitzchak prayed. Yaakov prayed. Says Rav Wolbe, What does it mean that they took the trade of their forefathers? He says, an uman is a craftsman . It's something that your family does. It's naturally in your blood. If your father is a carpenter, and your grandfather is a carpenter, you're a carpenter. You just naturally fall into that. Prayer is the craft of the Jewish people. Avraham Yitzchak and Yaakov did it. Imagine someone was a great violinist, and his father was a great violinist. Now the grandson starts playing the violin, not quite like his father or grandfather, but he's holding on to his family trade. You'd say, That reminds me of his father. That reminds me of his grandfather. He was a great violinist. When we start to pray, that's the one-two punch. Because when we're pray, we are taking the trade of our forefathers, and that ignites their remembrance. So it's not just that our prayers are answered because we prayed. We're doing two things when we pray. We pray, and we're also acting like the avot , which ignites the zechut avot .

Welcome to Daily Bitachon. Today we have a powerful lesson from one of the pesukim in Parashat Ki Tavo : וַנִּצְעַק אֶל־יְיָ אֱלֹהֵי אֲבֹתֵינוּ Vanitzak el Hashem Elokei Avoteinu / And we cried out to Hashem, the God of our fathers . The Baal Hagada cites Shemot 2:23, where it says the Jewish people groaned because of the workload: וַיִּזְעָ֑קוּ וַתַּ֧עַל שַׁוְעָתָ֛ם אֶל־הָאֱלֹהִ֖ים מִן־הָעֲבֹדָֽה׃ Vayizaku / (same root as the word vanitzak ) And they cried out Vataal shavatam / Their outcry went up Elokim to God, Min ha'avoda/Because of the work. There are two points to make note of. Firstly, there is no mention of prayer, just crying out . Groaning , outcry , these are terms that are not necessarily referring to prayer. Secondly, the stress is on because of the work. The Ramban on this pasuk says that they were not really fit to be answered. They were answered, in his words, Mipnei hatzaaka / Because of the outcry. Libel tefilatam b'rachamim. Their prayers were accepted with mercy. Yes, they prayed, he says, but prayer alone was not enough. What made it happen was the tzaaka / the outcry . Rabbenu Bachya adds that the reason why the words Min ha'avoda are stressed twice is to teach us a lesson: There is no more complete prayer than a prayer Mitoch hatzara vehadochak / From extreme difficulty and oppression, Sheyoter mekubelet/It is more accepted and goes up to Hashem. Interestingly, the Ramban, in Mishpatim ( Shemot 22:20), when it talks about being nice to the convert, says, The soul of the convert is humble. He groans and cries out constantly for Hashem's mercy , that He should have mercy on him. And Hashem has mercy on him because he constantly cries out, So too, Hashem had mercy on the Jewish people when they groaned, as it says in our pasuk . Not in in their merit; rather Hashem had mercy on them because of the avoda. What is it about this Tzaaka/Crying out, groaning that makes our prayers be answered? Rav Yitzchak Isaac Chaver , in his Haggadah Yad Mitzrayim, explains based on a Gemara that says anacha shoveret chatzi gufo shel adam / A groan breaks a person's body. Groaning causes a person to become humble, and because he's humbled, he is close to Hashem and his prayers are answered. As the pasuk says, Karov Hashem l'nishberei lev / Hashem is close to the brokenhearted. This is an unbelievable concept, that we've mentioned more than once- that the purpose of Galut Mitzrayim was to bring them to humility, to humble them, like we said in the pasuk, Vaya'anun u/ And he pained them. The root of the word ya'anunu / pain is anava . A pained man is humble. So we're learning an unbelievable concept here- vanitzak is not just to cry out and scream, it's it just that there's a power to screaming . It's not about the scream. A very arrogant person could say, " Okay, I'm going to scream now because I'll get what I want by screaming." The screaming that causes God to answer us is the screaming that comes from humility, that comes from brokenness, from realizing I'm not in control, I have a broken heart, I'm stuck. Help me, I don't know what to do. That feeling of humility, that outcry of humility is what causes vataal shavatam their outcry went up to Hashem min ha'avoda from the work. They were broken. The work had done its job. The job of the avoda was to break them. That's the term used, " I'm going to break you." Of course, Hashem is not doing it in a angry, mean way, but He needs our ego and arrogance to be broken, so we realize that we're not in charge, we can't do anything, and we don't know what to do- the outcry of, Hashem , I don't know what to do. I'm stuck, I just don't know how to get out of this quagmire of mud, or quicksand. It's like the current situation in Gaza. If some of the people making the decisions would say, I don't know what to do, I'm stuck. There's no way out of this, and if we'd all collectively feel that vayeianchu /that groan , vanitzak that outcry , shavatam min ha'avoda , then, vataal shavatam the outcry goes up- then the next pasuk, which we'll see tomorrow, is vayishma Hashem et koleinu . And Hashem heard our voices

Welcome to Daily Bitachon. The next words in our pasuk describe how the Mitzrim put upon them בעבודה קשה Avodah Kasha . Simply speaking, Avodah Kasha means hard work . The pasuk says, בַּעֲבֹדָ֣ה קָשָׁ֗ה בְּחֹ֙מֶר֙ וּבִלְבֵנִ֔ים וּבְכׇל־עֲבֹדָ֖ה בַּשָּׂדֶ֑ה אֵ֚ת כׇּל־עֲבֹ֣דָתָ֔ם אֲשֶׁר־עָבְד֥וּ בָהֶ֖ם בְּפָֽרֶךְ׃ Simply speaking, this means They gave them hard work with mud, bricks and all sorts of work in the field But there is an interesting Zohar in section Raya Mehemna , vol 3, page 153a, that explains the pasuk as follows: It says, - בחמר bechomer which simply means with mud refers to a kal vachomer , which is a type of approach when we want to learn something out of a pasuk , called a kal vachomer . -U'bilveinim , which simply means bricks , refers to libun halacha , clarifying the Halacha ( the root of the word is Lavan / white , as white things are clean and clear) - Avodah basadeh/Work in the field, refers to the part of the Gemara called the Braita , which means outside of the Mishnayot. -V'chol avodatam asher avdu bahem b'farech . Parech means backbreaking work , referring to Teiku , a question that has no answer - That's the backbreaking work. When the Haggadah says, Vayavdu Mitzrayim et Bnei Yisrael b'farech , that's the backbreaking work of a question without an answer. What's going on here? What does this pasuk, which is talking about hard work, have to do with these concepts of learning? In the sefer Or Gedalyahu on Parashat Shemot , Rav Gedalia Schorr explains that a either person can toil in Torah, or a person can toil in the fields or other work. The person can decide, so to say, where he wants to place his hard work. We see this in a Mishna in Avot Perek ג Mishna ה , where Rabi Nechunya ben HaKanah says, Whoever accepts accepts upon himself the yoke of Torah, the yoke of the kingdom and of physical work is removed from him . We see from here, says the Bet HaLevi , that it's up to the person:What yoke does he want? As the Gemara in Sanhedrin 99b says, Kol adam l'amal yulad . Everyone was born to toil. As the pasuk in Iyov 5:7 says, Adam l'amal yulad . Man was born to toil. But it's up to him to decide which toil he wants. Does he want to toil in areas of religion, Torah, mitzvot , etc? Or does he want to put his toil into something else? Of course it's not a question of whether you want to toil, but where you choose to do it. There's an unbelievable Yalkut Shimoni Devarim , Remez 850, in the name of Rav Bisna : En adam b'olam b'lo yissurim / There is no one in the world who doesn't have suffering. Choshesh b'shinav / If you have a toothache, ein yakhol lishon you can't sleep b 'einav , If you have an eye ache, ein yakhol lishon, you can't sleep. Yaga b'Torah , If you stay up at night learning, ein yeshan,, you're not sleeping either. Zeh er v'zeh er, they're both awake. Ashrei ha'gever asher teyasrenu Yah, u'mitoratcha telamdenu/Fortunate is the one that Hashem pains and he's learning Torah. It's a pasuk in Tehillim 94:12 and he explains it to mean that You're going to have difficulties. The question is, where? It's up to the person to decide whether to channel the difficulties into his Torah and Avodat Hashem . There's a story told of the Chofetz Chaim that occuree when he was at the Knessiah Gedolah in Vienna (the source of the famous picture resurfaced a few years ago). There was a successful working man from Germany who was putting a lot of his time into chesed. He spent half his business day working on acts of kindness, and his family was upset by this. " You can't do this, " they said. " You're neglecting your business. We want you to go to the Chafetz Chaim." When he heard the Chafetz Chaim was going to be in Vienna, which is not far from Germany, he went. He got there in the middle of Seudah Shlishit , when it's customary for people to say Mizmor L'David Hashem ro'i lo echsar , and the Chafetz Chaim was explaining the pasuk . Now this man had not yet asked his question, he was just standing in the crowd. But the Chafetz Chaim was known to prophetically give people answers, quite often, without even hearing the question. He was explaining the pasuk : Ach tov va'chesed yirdefuni kol yemei chayai / Kindness and good should chase me my whole life. He asked, What does that mean? The word rodef usually means you're being chased and hounded. If someone is a rodef , that means he's chasing you. So what does it mean that " Goodness and kindness should chase me all the days of my life?" He explained that sometimes a Jew is doing many acts of kindness, so people start chasing him. He may say to himself, What's going on? I start doing kindness and now they're hounding me, chasing me down? He says, you should know that in Shamayim , it was decreed on Rosh Hashanah that you were going to have people chasing and hounding you. But you have a choice. Would you rather have people banging on your door because they want you to do acts of chesed in the middle of the night, Or would you rather have the IRS banging on your door in the middle of the night? Therefore he says, ach tov va'chesed yirdefuni . Who should be the ones that are chasing me down and hounding me? It should be the acts of kindness and chesed ! When the man heard this, he didn't even ask his question. He went right back to his family, and told them he has the answer. This is an extremely important concept that we learn from Galut Mitzrayim . The Megaleh Amukot , Parashat Korach says something fascinating. He asks, Why is it that Shevet Levi did not have to have the yoke of Galut Mitzrayim ? Because, as we've said, Shevet Levi was learning. They chose their yissurim to be in learning. So a person can choose, or decide where he wants to place the yoke. Lastly, in Shaarei Teshuvah shaar ד Rabbeinu Yonah tells us that a person that sinned is supposed to have upon himself whatever the punishment is. So what should he do? He quotes from a Midrash Rabbah Vayikra 25:1 If the person used to learn one chapter, learn two. If he did one parashah, do two. Whatever you did, put more effort into your learning. And that way, his words are, yashit amalo baTorah b'tachovo/Place your toil and difficulty in Torah. Va'asher tidad shnato me'einav , and the fact that your eyes are being hurt from a lack of sleep, that will be your yissurim. This is not just learning in Torah , this is in any area of that person puts forth effort and really toils for Torah and mitzvot . That's the avodah kasha . You can fulfill the heavy workload in another way. What a beautiful lesson that we see from Galut Mitzrayim on what Avodah Kasha actually means.

Welcome to Daily Bitachon . We are working through the pesukim of the Bikkurim , which are pesukim of Hakarat Hatov . As we said, this pasuk is Hakarat Hatov for the difficulties. . וַיְעַנּוּנוּ , simply translates as They pained us. The Egyptians pained us. We go back to the pasuk in Shemot , וַיִתְּנוּ עָלֵינוּ עֲבֹדָה קָשָׁה וַיָּשִׂימוּ עָלָיו שָׂרֵי מִסִּים לְמַעַן עַנֹּתוֹ בְּסִבְלֹתָם, / They placed taskmasters upon them, to pain them in their load. וַיִּבֶן עָרֵי מִסְכְּנוֹת לְפַרְעֹה אֶת־פִּתֹם וְאֶת־רַעַמְסֵס. And they built treasure cities for Paroah Pitom and Raamses. What does Vayanunu mean? Literally, it means to be pained. The root of , וַיְעַנּוּנוּ VayAnunu , is Anya or Oni , which means to be pained . It's also lashon Ani/ poor and of Anava which is to be humbled . And it happens to also connect to Ve'Anita which is to announce and proclaim , which is seemingly not related. So, what's the connection between poverty , pain , and humility ? The answer is that a poor man is called poor because he's humbled. A pained man is called pained because he's broken, he's humbled. So, the Egyptians humbled us. The heavy work was there Lemaan anoto / To humble us . That was the Egyptians' goal, but it was also God's goal. As we've mentioned in the past, the Chida tells us the purpose of Galut Mitzrayim was to cause the Jewish people to become humble. We see this throughout the Haggadah. Lechem oni , Ha lachma anya , the bread of humility; Matzah symbolizes humility . Chametz symbolizes gaava / arrogance . For the seven days of Pesach , we only eat matzah . Matzah is humility . The purpose of all challenges in life is to humble us, to make us realize that we're not in charge, to make us realize that Hashem is in control and we need Him. So when we have challenges and we realize that we can't do it on our own and we turn to God, that is God's purpose in sending the challenge. The challenge is not there because God wants to, Has V'Shalom, hurt us or pain us or break us. Rather, Hashem wants us to come closer to Him. Arrogance is the opposite of connection to God. Humility is the act of connection, and that's the goal. The goal is to get us to become humble. That's why the next pasuk after this is וַנִּצְעַק אֶל־יְיָ אֱלֹהֵי אֲבֹתֵינ וּ/ We cried out to Hashem our God. Mission accomplished! Once we get the message and realize the purpose of the suffering, it goes away. Because the goal is not to suffer. There is a famous Midrash that Hashem told the Jewish people, at Kriat Yam Suf, Hashmi'eini et Kolech / I want to hear your voice. And the reason the Egyptians were chasing us after we left Egypt was that Hashem said, I don't hear your voice anymore. I don't hear you calling out to me like you called out to me in Egypt. You already feel like you're independent. This happens to everybody. While going through the tzarah , we're screaming out, " Please help us! Hashem help me, just get me out of this." But once the problem passes, that's it. We say, Thank you, God, but I don't need You anymore. That's human nature. It's the way of human beings. We want to be in charge, so we need constant reminders to humble us. And those reminders come in many different shapes, colors, and forms- All things to remind us that we are not in charge . And that's the vayanunu . That's the inui , that's the pain. David Hamelech says, א֭וֹדְךָ כִּ֣י עֲנִיתָ֑נִי וַתְּהִי־לִ֝֗י לִישׁוּעָֽה׃/ I praise You that You pained me and You were there for a salvation . David Hamelech praises Hashem for the pain . That's the Vayanunu . Rabbi Ades asks, Why do we pray? If Hashem gave us a problem, it's a problem. It's what it's supposed to be. So why are we praying ? He says, the answer is because the problem is there to humble us. And when we pray to Hashem, which is the way that we show that we're humble and that we need Him, then the problem goes away. So, as long as you don't pray, the problem is the right thing for you because it's going to push you to pray. But once you pray, the problem can go away. This answers the very philosophical question of Why pray ? If everything Hashem does is for the good, this is what I need . No, you don't need this headache. You need humility . The headache is there to get you to humility. So of course you need the headache to humble you. But once you're humble, you don't need the headache.

Welcome to Daily Bitachon . We continue with lessons from Yetziat Mitzrayim , and we're now going through the pesukim that talk about our gratitude to Hashem as we bring the bikurim . One of the things we say is וַ יָּרֵעוּ אֹתָנוּ הַמִּצְרִים /The Egyptians did evil to us . We quote a pasuk - הָ֥בָה נִֽתְחַכְּמָ֖ה ל֑וֹ פֶּן־יִרְבֶּ֗ה וְהָיָ֞ה כִּֽי־תִקְרֶ֤אנָה מִלְחָמָה֙ וְנוֹסַ֤ף גַּם־הוּא֙ עַל־שֹׂ֣נְאֵ֔ינוּ וְנִלְחַם־בָּ֖נוּ וְעָלָ֥ה מִן־הָאָֽרֶץ׃ Paroah said Let's outsmart Him (or them , meaning God) Lest they become many . When there will be a war, the Jewish people will join our enemies, etc. We see here an extremely important lesson in bitachon : You can't outsmart God. As the Bet Halevi tells us in his essay on bitachon , When a person puts forth hishtadlut without bitachon, not only is it futile, but sometimes it actually brings about the opposite result. He cites a pasuk to this effect from Yeshayah 59,5 that discusses a person who decided to collect eggs and incubate them in order that chickens should emerge from them so he should eat them. בֵּיצֵ֤י צִפְעוֹנִי֙ בִּקֵּ֔עוּ וְקוּרֵ֥י עַכָּבִ֖ישׁ יֶאֱרֹ֑גוּ הָאֹכֵ֤ל מִבֵּֽיצֵיהֶם֙ יָמ֔וּת וְהַזּוּרֶ֖ה תִּבָּקַ֥ע אֶפְעֶֽה׃ But after all of his exertion, it turned out that the eggs were from a snake or viper, and a snake came out of them to harm them. Clearly, it would have been better had he not collected all the eggs to begin with! That's what happens when you try to outsmart God. You think you're doing something to your benefit, but it backfires. He cited another pasuk in Iyov 5,13 , לֹכֵ֣ד חֲכָמִ֣ים בְּעׇרְמָ֑ם. God traps the shrewd with their own trickery. Their own shrewdness traps them. Their very efforts are used against them. The Malbim, on that pasuk, cites the story of Yosef and his brothers as an example of this concept. The brothers were, of course, righteous people, but they erred in thinking they needed to limit Yosef to prevent him from asserting his authority over them, and efforts backfired. By selling Yosef as a slave, they not only failed to prevent him from ruling over them, they facilitated it, as he became the Egyptian ruler. The Kli Yakar on Shemot 1,8 tells us something fascinating: A new king arose over Egypt who did not know Yosef . Simply this means he forgot about Yosef, or he never knew about Yosef. But the Kli Yakar explains that the new Paroah did not learn the lesson of Yosef, the lesson that one cannot outsmart Hashem. Paroah set out to prevent the emergence of the Jewish leader by decreeing that all the newborn Jewish boys should be killed. Because of this decree, Moshe's mother placed him in a basket in the river, where he was then discovered by Paroah's very own daughter, who raised Moshe in the palace! The very means by which Paroah thought he could prevent the rise of the Jewish leader resulted in the leader being raised- in the king's own palace! That is this message that we're discussing now. The Egyptians tried to do evil to us? They tried to outsmart God? Well, look what happens when you try to outsmart God. It backfires. The Ben Ish Chai, in his sefer Ben Yehoyada on Masechet Shabbat 119a, brings out this point from a famous story of a very wealthy non-Jew who was warned by astrologers that all his wealth was destined to fall into the hands of a certain Jew known as Yosef Mokir Shabbat / Yosef who honored Shabbat . In order to prevent this from happening, the man sold all his possessions and used the proceeds to buy a precious jewel, which he had sewn into a bejeweled hat, thereby ensuring that his fortune would never be lost. One day, as he crossed a bridge, a strong gust of wind blew the hat with the jewel into the river down below. The jewel was swallowed by a large fish, which was later caught by a fisherman. The fisherman tried to sell the fish in the market on Erev Shabbat , but it was too close to Shabbat . No one needed such a large and expensive fish. Finally, he was advised to offer it to Yosef Mokir Shabbat , who spared no expense for the honor of Shabbat . Sure enough, Yosef happily purchased the fish, and found the jewel and became wealthy! The Ben Ish Chai says, here we see the lesson: This man tried to outsmart Hashem and prevent the decrees from unfolding, but it backfired. His very idea of keeping his wealth away from Yosef Mokir Shabbat actually sent it to him. This is an important lesson of trying to outsmart God without connecting to God will only backfire.

Welcome to our daily Bitachon series. We continue with lessons from the Haggadah shel Pesach , even though we are in middle of Sefirat HaOmer- because as we said, we are going from Pesach until Shavuot . Shavuot is when we start our bikurim with our basket in our hands. We're coming to be full of hakarat hatov and thanks to Hashem. Today's pasuk starts with the wordsוירעו אותנ / Vayareu Otanu haMitzrim / The Egyptians did bad and evil to us. The obvious question is, We're coming to say thank you, so why is this part of the thank you? Why does the fact that the Egyptians started enslaving us deserve a thank you? This is a very important point in our hakarat hatov - We don't just thank Hashem for saving us. If that were the case, says the Bet HaLevi in Shemot 15:1, then who needs the salvation? Without the problem, I don't need the salvation. I'm back to status quo, which was that I didn't need the problem. It's like walking into a dentist and he says, "Ooh, you have a cavity-I'll fill it. You walk out of the dentist's office, back where you started from- with the regular tooth.Therefore, says the Bet HaLevi , when the Jewish people said Shira , hashirah ne'emra gam al hashibud hakadum / This song was also for the subjugation that happened beforehand, kemo hageulah, just like it was for the redemption . W ithout the subjugation, there would not have been a place for the geulah , and the geulah brought them something. That's what David HaMelech says in Tehillim Otcha ki anitani. I thank You that You pained me (some interpret that You answered me ) The Bet HaLevi says, initani is lashon inui . " I thank You that You pained me, vatehi li lishuah , and You saved me." It's like giving a thank You for the pain beforehand , because through that came the yeshua and a kiddush Shem Shamayim . But there's a slightly different explanation, which is not just that the the difficulty enabled God to save me and therefore, a kiddush Hashem came, There's another aspect- that we actually appreciate the suffering because we know that we benefited and gained from the suffering. There was a purpose to the fact that the Egyptians subjugated us. There's a story told, whether it's true or not is not important, the lesson is a powerful one:In the days of old, there was a feudal system where there were the basic landowners called feudal lords , and everyone under them was a required to pay a tax. The Jews could not own land, so they were always under these feudal lords , called a poretz in Yiddish. If you were lucky, you got a nice poretz , and if you were unlucky, you had a vicious one. One Jew had a nice friendly poretz whom he paid his rent to. The poretz once left to go overseas and had his friend take over. This friend was very ruthless. If the Jew was ever late or didn't pay the exact amount, he would whip him. Over the course of time, he got what about 40 whippings. After some time passed the original feudal lord came back. The Jew reunited with this friendly feudal lord, shared his experience and showed him his back with all the whip marks. " I can't believe it." He exclaimed. "That's what he did to you!?I'm going to take care of it." And since he was the ultimate boss of the town, he made this substitute feudal lord pay a certain amount ( let's say a silver talent) for every time he whipped him. The Jew came home with 40 silver talents and showed his wife. She said "Unbelievable, look what we have. Look at look what you got!" But the man was not happy. " I wish he would have hit me 60 times !" He said. Of course, that's a joke, true or not. The point is, in retrospect, he realized that every whipping gave him something. He appreciated the whippings and he actually was very happy for those 40 whips. So he didn't just say thank you that he got out of the problem. He actually appreciated the problem because that brought him whatever benefits he got out of it. There's another story, which is reportedly true. It's brought down in sefarim that it happened with the Chida. A man was having a lot of difficulties, a lot of tzarot , a lot of problems, so he traveled to the Chida to get a bracha . As he was sitting outside the Chida's office waiting after a long trip, he fell asleep. In his dream, he saw that they were judging him in Bet Din shel Maalah /the heavenly court. There was a huge scale. They were bringing all of his mitzvot on one side, and they put all the Averot on the other side. In his case, the Averot /sins outweighed the mitzvot . It looked like he was in trouble. He asked them to look around for some more Mitzvot, but that was it. They were all emptied out. It didn't look good, but then one of his defending angels said, "What about the yissurim/suffering ?" They said, " You're right. We forgot about the yissurim. Let's throw the yissurim on." All his suffering was then thrown onto the positive side. And slowly it tilted, until it was just about equal. They were running out of yissurim . The scale was exactly equal. The man didn't know what to do. In his dream, he screamed, " More yissurim, more suffering, more suffering!" He woke up from his dream and was back to reality. He realized, " Why am I coming here? To complain about my suffering? This suffering is exactly what I need." That's our message here. Easier said than done. In the story of Yetziat Mitzrayim , this is a lesson for us in retrospect, when we're all able to look back somehow, and appreciate and actually have hakarat hatov for vayareu otanu haMitzrim .

Welcome to Daily Bitachon. We are completing the final explanation of our first pasuk , the word ורב V'Rav /The Jewish people became many, they multiplied. The Baal Haggadah explains that they are multitudes like the grass of the fields. So the word rav means a lot. But the Sefer Shibolei HaLeket quotes Rabbenu Yeshayahu that v'rav is does not mean they became a lot. Rather, it means holech u'mitrabeh / They are constantly growing. That's why we say revavah k'tzemach hasadeh netatichech / they were multiplying like the grass of the fields. Grass of the fields just keeps on growing and growing. This pasuk actually uses three terms: gadol /great, atzum /powerful, and v'rav / many or multiply . The Maharal in his Sefer Divrei Negidim page פ tells us, these three terms correspond to the merits of our three Avot . The term gadol is in the zechut of Avraham. Like it says v'e'escha l'goy gadol / I'm going to make you into a goy gadol, a great nation. Therefore, his children became gedolim , as we explained gadol means that you're not influenced by the outside world;you are an influencer , not an influencee . Atzum , powerful, is in the merit of Yitzchak Avinu. King Avimelech told Yitzchak Lech me'imanu ki atzamta mimenu me'od / Leave us because You are much more powerful than us . That's the term atzum . Finally, the term v'rav is in the merit of Yaakov Avinu, whom Hashem told El Shaddai yevarech otcha v'yafrecha v'yarbecha , He will make you fruitful v'yarbecha/ and multiply you. So V'Rav / To multiply is ascribed to Yaakov Avinu. He had 12 children and from there everything branched out. This is a fundamental- that everything we have is zechut avot . What is this concept specifically of V'Rav ? The Sefer Maaseh Nissim asks, Is is true that we more than anybody else? The other nations are more than us. And he answers that V'Rav means they have a multiplying power but it's not that they're numerous, rather, qualitatively , they have a multiplying power. They have the potential for tremendous growth. Like a seed that grows into something else that has more seeds and continues and continues. There are trees that can become extinct. There are things that are wiped out, but grass is always there. It keeps growing and multiplying to no end. That is the potential of Jewish people- that they will be forever. We are an eternal nation. Of course, there are nations that are numerically more than us. But going back to the time of Mitzrayim , has any culture survived like us? We have that power of survival of eternity, we are the eternal nation. As we have spoken about before, in we V'Hi SheAmda , we are the eternal nation, the Jewish people. That is the blessing of V'Rav . Yaakov Avinu wrestled with the angel of Eisav Ad alot hashachar / until the morning star. The Sefer HaChinuch , in the third mitzvah, talks about the underlying reason behind gid hanasheh /the displaced sinew from the wrestling match between Yaakov and this and the angel of Esav, which is to hint to us that even though we will suffer tremendous difficulties during our exiles, in the hands of the nations, in the hands of the children of Esav, we are guaranteed betuchim shelo yovdu / that we will not become extinct. l'olam ya'amod zar'am v'shmam , forever their children will last. By constantly remembering this, they will strengthen their emunah that they will last forever. When Esav's angel fought Yaakov, he hit him on his thigh, symbolizing his seed. He was trying to eradicate the future seed. But we survived. Yaakov Avinu was limping, but the sun came out and he was healed. That is a sign for us that The sun of Mashiach will come v'yirpa'einu and heal us and redeem us. That is the seed -like aspect of revavah , that we will be there forever. The seed will never end; it is constantly replanting and restarting. Yet another lesson and Chizuk in emunah and bitachon from our Haggadah.

Welcome to Daily Bitachon . We are now taking Bitachon lessons from the Pesukim that we read at Bikurim, that are the foundation of Magid in the Haggadah . We're telling the story of Yaakov going down to Mitzrayim and the next two words that we're going to discuss are ויגר שם Vayagor Sham / And they sojourned there. The Baal Haggadah explains that Yaakov Avinu's intention was not to become entrenched in the land, just to be there temporarily. He proves it from a Pasuk in Bereshit where the brothers tell Paroah, "Lagur ba'aretz banu/We came just to be sojourners ." (The Haggadah quotes from Parashat Ki Tavo in Devarim , which is a short synopsis of the events that occurred in Bereshit, which we refer back to) Ki ein mir'eh la'tzon asher la'avadecha/ We have no grazing area for our sheep. We're shepherds. We have no grazing area. And we're here temporarily. There's a very important lesson hiding in this little story about them not having a grazing area for their sheep. We know that the Egyptians worshipped sheep, and they did not like the shepherds who, so to say, did not necessarily treat sheep with the same respect that they did. Their sheep were not sheared or used as a commodity the way the Jewish people did. Yaakov and his family, going back to his time in Lavan's house, benefitted from and used sheep for their own purses. This was not the way the Egyptians worshipped them. So in truth, they were coming down to Egypt with a profession that would cause them to be distanced from the Egyptians. So we can see two areas where Hashem was preparing the road for them, decades in advance. Avraham was a shepherd, Yitzchak was a shepherd, Yaakov was a shepherd. They were all shepherds. The great Tzadikim are all called shepherds. David was a shepherd... Rabbeinu Bachya on this pasuk, and many others, explain that this is because a shepherd has time to think and meditate and contemplate, and that was a way to connect to Hashem, in a profession that allows for it. That is why they chose that profession. That's the simple, natural explanation. But now, as Hashem is always preparing the future, there are another two great benefits. Benefit number one is, when you're dealing with sheep on a day-to-day basis, cleaning them, and getting down and dirty, so to say, with them, you lose your respect for them, so there's no way you're going to treat them as a god. You know what they are. You're not going to worship them. So benefit number two is that the Egyptians would distance themselves from us. They were forced to separate from the Egyptians because they were not in the business that the Mitzrim appreciated. Look how Hashem was preparing from generations before, to put us in a situation that was right for us. When they came to Egypt, they might have said, " Oh my gosh, this is the worst possible profession! No one, no one likes this profession here." But in hindsight it was actually a protection. It might have caused us to be distanced, and that might be why we moved to the ghetto of Goshen and did not mix with everybody else. But that's what was necessary, and that's what was good for us.

Welcome to Daily Bitachon . We continue with Bitachon lessons from the Haggadah shel Pesach . The next phrase is וַֽיְהִי־שָׁ֕ם לְג֥וֹי גָּד֖וֹל Vayehi sham l'goy /they were there for a nation ( or some texts have) l'goy gadol / to a great nation. Melamed / This teaches us she'hayu Yisrael Metzuyanim sham/The Jewish people were outstanding there. Metzuyan means different. On a test sometimes you get the mark of Metzuyan . Metzuyan doesn't mean excellent , it means outstanding . Different . It could be outstandingly good or outstandingly bad. So the Jewish people were outstanding . We see this either from the word Goy , that they were a nation , which means that they had their own culture and their own ways, or the words Goy Gadol . On the words, Shnei meorot hagdolim / The two great luminaries . Maor hagadol , Maor hakaton/the large and the small. The sun is called large and the moon is called small because the sun is Gadol . Gadol means a source of light. And the moon, the Katan , is a receiver . So an Adam Gadol , as Rav Wolbe quotes from Rav Yerucham Levovitz, is someone that's able to give to Ketanim , to people that are smaller. The Jewish people are going to be a Goy Gadol . They're not influenced by the outside, they're their own source of their way of life, an independent source, not influenced by the outside world. The opposite is va'yitarvu bagoyim v'yilmdu ma'aseihem / They mixed with the other nations and learned from their ways. But Goy or a Goy Gadol means, No, we're not mixing, we're not being influenced. This is a phenomena. In Bereishit 46:3, Hashem tells Yaakov , וַיֹּ֕אמֶר אָנֹכִ֥י הָאֵ֖ל אֱלֹהֵ֣י אָבִ֑יךָ אַל־תִּירָא֙ מֵרְדָ֣ה מִצְרַ֔יְמָה כִּֽי־לְג֥וֹי גָּד֖וֹל אֲשִֽׂימְךָ֥ שָֽׁם׃ I am Hashem the God of your fathers. Don't be afraid to go down to Mitzr ayim . Ki l'goy gadol asimcha sham/For I will make you a Goy Gadol there. When you say someone's not supposed to be afraid, that means he was afraid. He was afraid. How in the world are my children going to down there to Mitzrayim? How in the world? And Hashem said, 'Don't worry. There is where they're going to become the Goy Gadol". Somehow, in the most contaminated nations, they're going to develop their status of a Goy and a Goy Gadol at that. This history repeats itself. One of the main themes of these pesukim is that it's not just about them. We're still in Galut Mitzrayim , we're still waiting for the ultimate Geulah . A famous story is told that Rav Chaim Volozhin was once praying Shacharit , and he burst out crying bitterly, but he did explain why. One of his closest students, Rav David Tevel , the author of Nachlat David , pressed him and said, " What happened? Why were you crying so bitterly during these prayers?" Rav Chaim said, " We're currently in Europe, but the time will come (this was about 150 years before the Holocaust) when European Jewry will be uprooted and will go into another exile. We have 10 exiles. From Bavel to North Africa, to Egypt, to Italy, to Spain, to France, to Germany, to Poland, to Lithuania." "And the final exile, " he said, "is the exile of America. It's going to be a very difficult exile. Who knows how we will survive that exile? "And that's what he was crying for- the last stop. Just like Yaakov Avinu was nervous, Rav Chaim Volozhin , who saw the future, was nervous as well. What's going to be? And just like Yaakov Avinu would have been surprised when he saw the Jewish people coming out, Yotzim b'yad rama / A nation on such a high level, that such a tremendous revelation, that came out specifically from that land of contamination, Rav Chaim Volozhin, when Mashiach comes, will look and say, Wow, look what America looks like. Look at the amount of Yeshivot, look at the amount of Kollelim, look at the amount of Bais Yaakov, Look what's going on! How many Sefarim were written in America? What a overturn! After the Holocaust , Rav Mottel Katz went into a bookstore on Lower East Side looking for a Ketzot Hachoshen , a book that is learned in Yeshivot. The proprietor said, " Let me look, I think I have one left." The store owner found the book, blew off the dust, gave it to him and said, " Be careful with this book, because this is the last Ketzot Hachoshen in America. " Rav Mottel Katz told him, " More Ketzot Hachoshens will be printed or used in America than have been printed since the Ketzos Hachoshen came out." And he was right. That's the unbelievable concept of Vayehi sham l'goy / Vayehi sham l'goy gadol . There, in Mitzrayim , we will turn into a nation that's Metzuyanim / outstanding . That's what we see today. B'ezrat Hashem , there is nothing better to strengthen our Bitachon than to watch these prophecies come true.

Welcome to Daily Bitachon . We continue with the next unit in the Haggadah . במתי מעת Bimtei Me'at/In a little bit of Meteh What does Meteh mean? One year we were doing the Haggadah shel Pesach and I asked, what is Meteh ? No one around the table knew. The truth is, I didn't know either. So we stopped right there and opened up a Chumash . Rashi said bimtei me'at bishivim nefesh , with 70 souls. But that doesn't translate what metei me'at means. So we looked at the Targum , our next choice after Rashi , and it said be'am ze'ir , a small nation. So metei is being defined as nation . The Metzudot David in Shoftim 20:48 says, metim- hu shem le'enoshut / Metim means humanity , or people like anshei . The Ibn Ezra says the word Meteh , anytime you have a tzere yud , it means the "plural of". For example, שער Shaar is a gate. שערי Shaare is the gates of . It's a plural possessive. So the word Meteh means a small amount of many people. That's a little strange term. Furthermore, the Ibn Ezra says the word מת never shows up in singular form. He sends us back to Devarim 2,34 where it says we overtook the nations of Sichon and it says we took over the whole city, metim . Which means anashim , but again, in plural. So it's a term for humanity in the plural sense. So a small amount of humanity. That's a strange term. The Jewish people went down in a small amount of humanity, and as Rashi says bishivim nefesh, they went down with 70 souls. Rav Dessler, in volume 3 page 211 explains that certain numbers are significant. The number 70 has a significance. There are 70 nations in the world, broken down into 35 nations under Esav , which we'll call Western civilization , and 35 nations under Yishmael , which we call that the Arab world. Those are the 70 nations. It's not a coincidene. The number seven is a completion, like the seven days of the week. And 10 is also a full gamut. So 70 is a completeness. 70 years is a full life. So the number 70 is not a coincidental number. When the Jewish people, hit the number 70, they were a metim . They were a small humanity, a small nation . Those 70 people had inside of them the 70 forces that corresponded to all the 70 nations. This shows us that Hashem is setting us up for greatness and every detail is measured. It says in Bereishit 46:27, kol hanefesh le'beit Yaakov haba'ah Mitzrayimah shivim / All the souls that came down were 70. The commentaries point out from the Midrash Rabbah 94:9 that if you count, there weren't actually 70. Some say Yocheved was born as they were coming in (She was the mother of Moshe Rabbenu, and God was sending the refuah before the Makkah ), others say it was Serach bat Asher . Still others say it was Hakadosh Baruch Hu who ended up being the 70th one. In Ha'azinu 32:8, it says be'anchel Elyon goyim / when Hashem started to give the inheritance to the nations, be'hafrido bnei Adam, when he separated them by the Dor Haflagah into 70 nations ( that's when the 70 nations happened). It says there lemispar Bnei Yisrael . The 70 nations corresponded to the 70 Jews that went down to Mitzrayim . So God was working out 70 corresponding to the 70. Rabbeinu Bachya on that pasuk lemispar Bnei Yisrael adds that the 12 tribes correspond to the 12 months and the 12 mazalot . We're above the stars, and we're above the mazal . Getting back to our Haggadah and Bimtei me'at , we're thanking Hashem that we came into Mitzrayim not just as 39 people, or 28 people, or a random 83 people. No. It was a bimtei me'at . It was small, but it was a force of humanity of 70 . As we say, bishivim nefesh yardu avotecha Mitzrayimah / 70 souls went down . And it says Ve'ata hena samcha Hashem Elokecha ke'kochvei hashamayim larov / We're like the stars in number- referring to when they got into the desert- there were 600,000 people. So we went from 70 to 600,000! And the number 600,000 is also not a random number. The Gemara in Masechet Berachot 58a says that when you see 600,000 people, there's a special bracha called Baruch Chacham Harazim . Blessed is God, Who has the wisdom of the secrets that He knows all the secrets of these 600,000 people . That means 600,000 includes all the personality types that exist in the world. Although we can have more than 600,000, those are offshoots of the basic 600,000 personalities and types of people that exist in the world. All of the energies of humanity are in 600,000. So we went from the 3 Avot ,which correspond to the three main traits the world stands on, to 70 children of Yaakov that correspond to the 70 nations, which includes all of the United Nations- every possible country type, German, France, every country type is rooted in the Jewish people. And then we go on to the 600,000 personalities. So the Jewish people are perfectly worked in to the entire makeup of the world. This is all part of the hashgacha of Hashem Every person makes a difference. The Gemara in Masechet Bava Kamma discusses one reason one should never have a dog. It says imagine if there were 600,000 people standing ready for the Shechinah to come down, and one dog barks and causes a miscarriage. Now the Shechinah won't come down in that way that it comes down only on 600,000 people. Every individual adds something. That's the uniqueness and the perfect planning that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is doing as He brings the Jewish people down into Egypt and eventually takes them out of Egypt and continues to watch each and every one of us.

Welcome to Daily Bitachon. We continue our lessons with the four Pesukim that we read at Bikurim , which is also format of our Hagadah Shel Pesach story. The next two words are VaYered Mitzraimah / And he ( Yaakov Avinu) went down to Mitzrayim . Says the Baal Hagadah , ' Annus al pi hadibur/He was forced based on the word of God.' Anoos or Onness means forced . The Yalkut Shimoni on Bereshit chapter 39, letter 145, says on the pasuk "VaYosef hurad/Yosef was brought down , or, he brought down others, that Horid Avinu Yaakov / Yosef caused Yaakov to come down. A mashal is given- of a cow that did not want to go where it was supposed to go. What did they do? They put its calf in front of it and it followed, against its will. So too, Yaakov Avinu was supposed to go down to Egypt in chains of steel. Imagine Yaakov Avinu in steel chains! But Hashem said, Bni Bechori hu ? Yaakov is my firstborn son, V'ani morido b'bizayon / Am I going to take him down in disgrace? No. His son would go down first, and he would follow. This is an important concept. Hashem made a gezera and it had to happen. Hashem makes it happen. However, he was originally supposed to go down as a slave, but Hashem was able to change the gezera and make it happen in the best possible way. In Shmuel א , Perek יב , Pasuk ו – ח Shmuel HaNavi describes to the people their history, in short. It says there, " Listen my nation, to what Hashem did to Moshe and Aharon who took you out of Mitzrayim. And let me tell you ," he says, " all the good things that He did with you and your forefathers: Ka'asher ba Yaakov Mitzrayim / When Yaakov came to Mitzrayim, and your fathers cried out, Hashem sent Moshe and Aharon, and they and they came." The Chida , in his sefer Chomat Anach on that pasuk in Shmuel asks, What does it mean Ka'asher ba Yaakov/When Yaakov came ? He says, this is a hint to us. Ba means he came on his own. He was really supposed to go down in steel chains, but Shmuel is hinting to the fact that he came on his own. And he says that the four words, K a'asher B a Y aakov M itzrayim , כ אשר ב א י עקוב מ צרים have the Rashei Teivot of מכבי Makabi which stands for Mi Kamocha Ba'elim Hashem / Who is like You among the strong ones ? God was able to undo the Gezera in the Zechut of Yaakov, and he went down through Yosef. This is an important lesson in Hashgacha Pratit . Hashem will make things happen. How? With tremendous intermediary causes. The sefer Tzror HaMor on Bereshit 41:1 tells us in the pasuk, U'Paroh cholem / And Paroah had a dream , as well as " Vayehi miketz shnatayim yamim, U'Paroah ," that it should have said Paroh cholem / Paroah dreamed . Why does it say, And Paroah dreamed? He says it goes back to another dream. The Vav / and is mosif / adding on . What's it adding on to? It's adding on to the dreams of Yosef . Yosef had two dreams, both with the same theme, and Paroah also had two dreams with the same theme. He says this was all in order to fulfill the word of God that: Ki ger yihyeh zar'acha b'eretz lo lahem / For Your children will be sojourners in a land that's not theirs. As the Gemara in Shabbat 89b says, Yaakov should have gone down with steel chains, but Hashem brought it about that he went down b'kavod gadol/ great honor. This was all in order to fulfill the ma'amar or the dibbur . So Annus al pi hadibur / Yaakov was forced down . How? With respect, with kavod . But at the end of the day, he was forced . Everyone is forced. Sometimes we are forced in limousines , but we're all forced , because everything that happens is there to fulfill a gezera . You can be forced in a respected way, or chas v'shalom , forced in a disrespectful way. Yaakov Avinu came down through dreams, through famine, but he came b'kavod gadol. But ultimately, Vayered Mitzrayim a. He didn't go because he decided to go. He went because he had no choice. Hashem set it up that he had to go. This is an important lesson called Anoos al pi hadibur . Everything that we do happens because of Hashem . Of course, we have freedom of choice. We make our choices, but at the end of the day, Hashem is going to make it happen. To illustrate can look to Yosef- He was out looking for his brothers but couldn't find them, so he was ready to go back home. Then he saw a man on the road. Who was that man on the road? Rashi tells us, it was the angel Gavriel . Yosef was lost. He never would have found his brothers. He was going back home. But Hashem needed to get Yaakov down to Mitzrayim so He sent down an angel tour guide , so to speak, to send him where he had to go. And Paroah had dreams. Why? Well, how could we get Paroah to meet Yosef? No problem. We'll have a fly land in the cup, the Sar Hamashkim will have to go to jail and meet Yosef, and eventually Yosef will interpret the dreams. All of this falls under this rule of Anoos al pi hadibur . It's fascinating how HaKadosh Baruch Hu makes things happen in so many steps!

Welcome to Daily Bitachon . We are now up to the section of the Hagadah which talks about the story in short, with four Pesukim excerpted from Devarim 26 ,5 and on , in the context of Bikkurim which is relevant for us now, as Shavuot is the time that we bring Bikkurim . As we march from Pesach to Shavuot, we are in a time of Hakarat HaTov and appreciation. The outcome of Yetziat Mitzrayim is supposed to be Hakarat HaTov , gratitude and appreciation for God. That is why these four Pesukim , which we base our Hagadah on, were said with the baskets of fruit in hand overflowing, thanking God. The first pasuk they said was: אֲרַמִּי֙ אֹבֵ֣ד אָבִ֔י וַיֵּ֣רֶד מִצְרַ֔יְמָה Arami oved avi vayered Mitzraima . ( A man called) Lavan HaArami tried to destroy ( or destroyed) my father… Rashi says that God considered what Lavan wanted to do as if he did it. But before we proceed with the rest of the pesukim , we have to stop and ask: Why are we mentioning Lavan here? And what does this have to do with the basket of fruit? If you want to tell me we went to Mitzrayim and now we got the land, I got it. Vayevienu el hamakom hazeh , it says and He brought us to this place after the four Pesukim , we're saying God brought us here . But that was 250 years after we entered the land and way after the story of Lavan and Yaakov. The answer is, as Yaakov and Lavan were going through this story, it was not very clear what was going on. It started with Lavan swindling Yaakov , and making him work twice as long as he needed, not seven but 14 years. But if not for that swindling, he would have just walked out with Rachel. No Leah, no Bilhah or Zilpah. Who knows how many children would not have been born? Rachel gave him only two children. With the four wives he ended up with 12. Additionally, Yaakov Avinu also walked in as a man with no money, but he walked out a very wealthy man. And let's go into the story of Egypt: We grew even more due to the oppression. We left with tremendous wealth, became purified and refined, and were ready to receive the Torah . But, it only became clear after the story was over. You can't understand a book if you only read the middle chapter. One of my favorite mashals told by the Chafetz Chaim is that of a man who visited a town for the weekend. He was a Gabbai (or Misader) in his hometown shul, and gave out the Aliyot and the other honors in the shul , like who gets to open the Heichal, who gets the first Aliyah , who gets Shlishi or Shishi (which is important depending on what your customs are.) who gets Maftir and so on. So there he was in the new shul, looking around, imagining that he was back home, deciding whom he would give each Aliyah to. 'Oh, that guy looks important, I'd give him this. That guy I think looks I'd give him that….' But in the end, nothing went the way he thought it should go. A fellow that looked like he couldn't read even got the Maftir ! He couldn't understand what was going on. He approached the man in charge and asked, " Could you please explain what's going on here? I run the shul back in my hometown, and I wouldn't have done it this way." The man in charge responded, " How long have you been here?" The guest answered, " I'm here for the weekend." The gabbai then said, " Well, if you've only been here for the weekend, you can't really question what I'm doing. You weren't here last week; you don't know what's going to happen next week. The fellow that got Maftir, who looked like he couldn't read, has his father's Yahrzeit this week. The fellow that you think should have gotten an Aliyah got one last week, and the other one is getting it next week. You can't comment when you're only here for a weekend!" So too, says the Chafetz Chaim , in life, we're only here for a short period of time. We don't see the whole story, and therefore we can't question. God wanted to teach us an important, short history lesson. He knew we were going to enter into future exiles. He wanted us to read this lesson and apply it to life in general. That's why the real message of the night of the Seder is Matchil bignut umesayem beshevach . Start with the negative and end with the positive. Rabbenu Manoac h , one of the Rishonim , in his commentary on the Rambam on the laws of Chametz U'Matzah , chapter seven, Halacha 6 , says something fascinating: With this remembering, Tihiyeh yirat Hashem al panav tamid / The fear of God will be on his face continuousl y, When he sees Hashem's supervision, And you'll never forget about Hashem . With this story of Yetziat Mitzrayim, you will see Hashem is watching you. You'll be on His mind and He'll be on your mind. And even if its times are very difficult, Yiftach b'Hashem, he'll still rely on God, Mikveh Yisrael, the One the Jewish people hope to, Moshio b'eit tzara, the One that saves us in time of difficulty . And just like the difficulty of the exile of Mitzrayim, Hayta sibah l'heitiv lahem b'achritam/Was a cause to end up doing better for them in the end, Ken kol tzarot hagalut hazeh / So too with all of these difficulties in our exile, hem sibah l'Yisrael / They will be a cause for the Jewish people, l'hoshi'am t'shuat olamim, an everlasting saving- Which is the rule we call Ma'aseh Avot Siman L'banim . The actions of the father are a sign for the future. That's our opening lesson for Maggid, the story of the Hagadah shel Pesach . And as we said, it's not just for the night of Pesach , it's every day of our lives. We have to remember Yetziat Mitzrayim . This is one of the underlying messages of Yetziat Mitzrayim , says Rabbeinu Manoach , is that it ain't over 'til it's over.

Welcome to Daily Bitachon as we continue in our journey from Mitzrayim. We spoke yesterday of the Brit Ben HaBetarim , the promise that God made to Avraham Avinu about the Jews in exile that would last over 400 years. As we explained, it's been close to 4,000 years if we go count from the time of Avraham Avinu! And that because we did not finish the purifications of Mitzrayim due to the fact that we left early. Therefore, as the famous saying goes, history repeats itself . There were 4 stages of exile they went through in Mitzrayim : 1-Ger yiheyeh zaracha /Y our children will be sojourners , 2- Be'eretz lo lahem/In a land that's not theirs, 3-Va'avadum/And they will work them, 4-. Ve'inu otam/And they will persecute them, And these 4 stages continue to repeat themselves until we eventually cry out to God and are redeemed. As long as the Jew realizes that he is in exile and gets the messages of Galut , he's okay in that first stage of being a stranger or maybe being out of your land. But it may lead to being subjugated, or ultimately, even being persecuted because the Jew needs to learn the lessons of exile, one way or the other. When we say history repeats itself , there are two connotations. One is the regular secular concept that if you don't learn from history, you're condemned to repeat it , which means there are certain lessons that you can pick up and if you don't learn the lessons, you just make the same mistakes. It's like saying if people don't exercise and diet, they have heart attacks. And if you don't learn the lesson of history, then the next generation will have heart attacks too. It's just nature and if you don't follow the rules of nature, you're going to suffer the consequences. But the Jewish way of looking at it offers a deeper meaning, which is that God made us certain promises and guidelines for how to live life and if we don't follow those guidelines, then we are going to suffer the consequences. There's a beautiful Meshech Chochmah that we've quoted in the past that is prophetic ( Vayikra 26:44). The Meshech Chochmah describes how the Jewish people repeat the same cycle of Galut : He explains how the Jew is exiled from land one, and comes into a new land. In that new land, what usually happens is that first generation is not so learned, much like what happened in America. Then, as they start to settle down, a spirit of God comes upon them and they start searching for their roots. They learn, they spread Torah , and they are at a great height. Then the next generation comes along. There's nothing more for them to add so they start questioning and possibly criticizing. They get too comfortable and start forgetting their roots. They start learning the language of the land. And here he says a most prophetic line. Yachshov , Ki Berlin hu Yerushalayim / They think Berlin is Jerusalem. He was talking to the German people at that time who became extremely secularized. And then he adds, What happens then? Then a wind, a tornado comes, uproots them from their land and throws them into another land. And the cycle repeats itself. It's a prophetic statement, but the Meshech Chochmah wasn't using prophecy. He was using his Da'at Torah to look and see how the system works. And it goes back to the Brit Ben HaBetarim . Once we start getting too comfortable, again, the tornado comes. The Meshech Chochmah in that same piece beautifully explains how Yaakov Avinu was afraid of this. He was afraid that the Jew would once again fall into the trap of being too comfortable. That's why he made sure that they wouldn't change their names, their clothing, or their language- to ensure that they would stay separate. They didn't have the Torah yet, so this was his strategy to keep the Jewish people separate. Furthermore, Yaakov Avinu was afraid that if he were to be be buried in Egypt, they would forget about Eretz Yisrael entirely and consider Egypt their ancestral land. So he commanded his son, with great force, to bury him in the land of Canaan, so that they would know that the founders of the nation were in Eretz Yisrael , which created a natural bond with his children in the land of Eretz Yisrael . That brings us back to the beginning of the Pesukim , where it says that when Yaakov Avinu came down to Mitzrayim , it was Lagur sham . He did not come to be there for a long period of time. Throughout the generations, he explains, different decrees were made to protect us in Galut from forgetting that we are separate from our host nation. Whether it's the laws of Bishul Yisrael , Yayin shel goyim or others, throughout the generations, decrees were made to separate us and remind us of who we are. As we, chas veshalom , forget that, we go from stage to stage of that original promise of the Brit Ben HaBetarim . But as far as may go, we always have that promise from Hashem that He will protect us and we will remain and we will survive.

One of the things that the Baal HaHaggadah mentions that is relevant to our days, although it doesn't seem so, is the Brit Ben HaBetarim , the deal that Hashem made with Avraham Avinu, where He tells Avraham, " Your children will be sojourners in a land that's not theirs, they'll work them, they'll pain them over 400 years. I will judge that nation and they will walk out with a great wealth." Right after that, we say, Hi She'amdah Lavoteinu Velanu . That promise of the Brit Ben HaBetarim stood for our forefathers and for us . And we all know it as a song, Shelo Echad Bilvad, Amad Alenu Lechaloteinu / Not only one wanted to destroy us, rather, in every generation they try to destroy us, but HaKadosh Baruch Hu Matzilenu M'Yadam saves us from their hand All that protection is traced back to the promise that God gave Avraham. But God promised Avraham Avinu about the exile of Egypt. What does that have to do with the exile that we're in today? The rabbis explain that Avraham Avinu was told his children would be in exile for 400 years. And yes, God did calculate the end, as it says, HaKadosh Baruch Hu chishav et haketz /He worked it out to get us out early so that we wouldn't be assimilated and reach the 50th level of tumah . But we really should have been there 400 years. And although God was able to work out the legalities and get us out earlier, we really did not get the full cleansing and purification that needed to happen. That is why we went back into future exiles. The Midrashim find hints in the Brit Ben HaBetarim , Avraham is going through his vision,to the four exiles. Because it was hinted there that we're going to end up going through four exiles, and the promise that Avraham Avinu got was for all four exiles, and the protection was also for all four exiles. This is important because in order for something to be defined as a miracle it has to be predetermined, pre-announced. The Ramban explains that Moshe Rabbenu's birth, which occurred when Yocheved was 130 years old, is not called a miracle in the Torah, because it was not mentioned, whereas the birth of Yitzchak from Sarah Imenu is, because Sarah Imenu's miracle was announced beforehand by the angels. It can't be after the fact. And this Brit Ben HaBetarim , which refers to our exile as well, means that God will protect us through our exile as well, and it turns our survival into a miracle, every single day. Like Yaakov Shwekey's song, We are a miracle. Rav Yaakov Emden states in the Hakdamah to his Siddur , in the section that's called Sulam Bet El , he says, I swear that I see something that's greater than the miracles of Yetziat Mitzrayim. Greater than the miracles performed then is the fact the Jewish people have survived throughout the long and difficult Galut that we're in. That's a greater wonder. It's been more years, it's been more time. Similarly, the Chovot HaLevavot says, if you want to look for a miracle today, similar to that of Yetziat Mitzrayim , look at us; look at the survival of the Jewish people. We are a miracle .And this is not just true on the national level, but every individual has to feel that way. One of the lessons of Yetziat Mitzrayim is that from the open miracles, we see the hidden miracles. The beautiful words of Yaakov Shwekey's song, We Are a Miracle, lyrics by Sophia Franco, really make this point. A nation in the desert We started out as slaves Made it to the motherland, and then came the Crusades It's been so many years crying so many tears don't you know don't you really know? We are pushed to the ground through our faith we are found standing strong. The Spanish Inquisition wanted us to bow But our backs ain't gonna bend Never then, and never now It's been so many years crying so many tears don't you know don't you really know? We are pushed to the ground through our faith we are found standing strong. Extermination was the plan When the devil was a man Oh oh But the few who carried on Live for millions who are gone It's been so many years crying so many tears Don't you know, don't you really know? Generations have passed Only we're here to last…. Standing strong. Every day we fight a battle On the news we are the stars As history repeats itself And makes us who we are Hate is all around us But we'll be here to sing this song… CHORUS : We are a miracle We are a miracle Through it all, we remain… Who can explain? We are a miracle… And that is really the story and the message of Vehi She'amdah . It's also worthwhile to quote the from the famous essay by Mark Twain concerning the Jews: He has made a marvelous fight in this world in all the ages, and has done it with his hands tied behind him. He could be vain of himself and be excused for it. The Egyptians, the Babylonian, the Persians rose, filled the planet with sound and splendor, then faded to dream stuff and passed away. The Greek and the Roman followed, and made a vast noise, and they are gone. Other peoples have sprung up and held their torch high for a time, but it burned out and they sit in twilight now or have vanished. The Jew saw them all, beat them all, and is now what he always was, exhibiting no decadence, no infirmities of age, no weakening of his parts, no slowing of his energies, no dulling of his alert and aggressive mind. All things are mortal but the Jew. All other forces pass, but he remains. What is the secret of his mortality? Obviously, we know the answer.

Welcome to our daily Bitachon series. We're talking about living Yetziat Mitzrayim every day of our lives. As we say in Haggadah shel Pesach , Kol Yemei chayecha / All the days of your life. There was a great Ba'al Musar named Rav Yechezkel Levenstein. He was the Mashgiach of the Mirrer Yeshiva in Europe, and later of the Mirrer Yeshiva in America, and finally of the Ponevezh Yeshiva in Eretz Yisrael . He was one of the greatest Baalei Emunah of his generation, one of the greatest believers of his generation. And he based it all on constantly strengthening his belief in Yetziat Mitzrayim and living with it in a very, very real way every single day. So much so, that at his funeral, Rav Wolbe eulogized him saying, " We just lost the last person to leave Egypt." That sounds strange. We left Egypt in the year 2448. Rav Levenstein passed away in the year 5734. That's thousands of years. He wasn't a thousand years old! What Rav Wolbe meant to say is, in every generation you have to feel like you left. And Rav Levenstein was from the last of the people that really felt that way. He lived like he himself left. So at least during this time of the year, as we just marched out of Egypt and we're on our way to Har Sinai , we should still be in that state of mind. An example of this mindset is revealed in a story told about Chacham Avraham Ades, the grandfather of Chacham Yehuda Ades Shlita , Rosh Yeshiva of Kol Yaakov. He lived in Aleppo in the days when you didn't get a taxi ride, you got a donkey or camel ride through the desert. Rav Avraham was once waiting for a donkey to hire. He ended up hiring a Jewish donkey rider. But certain mafia- like Muslim donkey riders felt they owned that turf and were upset that a Jewish donkey rider was giving the rabbi a ride rather than one of them, not unlike today in different industries where people control the industry. One of these Muslim ruffians threatened the Rabbi, saying, " Wait until you get to the desert where no one's looking. Then you'll see what I'll do to you! " And what was Rabbi Ades's response Although this didn't necessarily happen during Pesach season, he replied, " God that took our forefathers through Egypt will protect me and watch over me. His outstretched hand is larger than your hand." He was full of courage and did not feel at all threatened. Sure enough, in the middle of the desert, when the Muslim driver bent down to pick something up, his donkey kicked him in the side and broke his ribs. He cried the rest of the way home, begging the rabbi for forgiveness. The lesson of the story is Rabbi Ades's immediate answer… God that took me out of Egypt. That was his feeling. Ke'ilu hu yatza / Like you got out. It's an event that happened to me . That's what's supposed to be on our minds. Who is Hashem? Hashem that took me out of Egypt. The biggest proof to this understanding is how Hashem introduced Himself to us the first time He spoke to us as a nation: " Anochi Hashem Elokecha Asher Hotzeticha Me'eretz Mitzrayim / I am Hashem your God that took you out of Egypt ." All the Rishonim ask, Why doesn't it say, "I am Hashem that created the world? Isn't that a seemingly greater feat?" We see from here that, no, creation is not enough to give us the Emunah and the understanding of Hashem. We have to have Yetziat Mitzrayim lenses on. We have to have the lens of getting out of Egypt. According to Rambam's list, Mitzvah number one, is to believe in the existence of God as is stated, Anochi Hashem Elokecha asher hotzeticha me'eretz Mitzraim / I am Hashem your God that took you out of Egypt . The more that I understand Hashem that took me out of Egypt, the more faith I have in Hashem, in His ability, in His power, in His control, in His supervision. That all came from Yetziat Mitzrayim . We have to live with that every single day of our lives. As the Rosh says in the Sefer Orchot Chaim , If you don't believe in, Asher Hotzeticha Me'eretz Mitzrayim, if you don't believe in the concept that God took us out of Egypt, with all those lessons, you don't believe in God. Because without that piece, it's not the God of the Jewish people. The Muslims believe in God, the Christians believe in God. But belief in the God of the Jews , is predicated on understanding Yetziat Mitzrayim . And as we've mentioned before, the Rabbis set it up in our daily prayers. Every Shahachrit prayer is full of Yetziat Mitzrayim . Keriat Yam Suf , Ga'al Yisrael . And as Rashi in Berachot quotes from the Yerushalmi , the way we prepare to pray every day is by bringing God down, by knocking on the door through talking about Yetziat Mitzrayim . I can't pray to God without wearing the lens of Yetziat Mitzrayim. Because Who am I asking? Who is this God? What can He do? How has He proven Himself? The credentials of God are Yetziat Mitzrayim . We read His diploma, so to say, every single day, before we ask Him. It's like when you walk into the doctor's office, and want to check out the diplomas on his wall before you ask him his opinion on a condition. That's what we do every single day. We read the diploma of Yetziat Mitzrayim, to have the proper lens and understanding of our Creator.

Welcome to Daily Bitachon. Pesach is over, and we'd all like to go back to our regular lives; start eating less and whatever else. We'd like to get back to normal . But back to normal doesn't mean forgetting the lessons that we learned over the holiday. It says in Devarim 16:1, where the Torah talks about Pesach, שָׁמוֹר֙ אֶת־חֹ֣דֶשׁ הָאָבִ֔יב וְעָשִׂ֣יתָ פֶּ֔סַח לַיהֹוָ֖ה אֱלֹהֶ֑יךָ כִּ֞י בְּחֹ֣דֶשׁ הָֽאָבִ֗יב הוֹצִ֨יאֲךָ֜ יְהֹוָ֧ה אֱלֹהֶ֛יךָ מִמִּצְרַ֖יִם לָֽיְלָה׃ In the spring month, slaughter Korban Pesach, don't eat any חמץ for seven days, because Hashem took you out of Mitzrayim, and you went in a rush. And what's the purpose of the this holiday? למען תזכור את יום צאתך מארץ מצרים, so that you should remember the day you got out of Mitzrayim, כל ימי חייך, all the days of your life . Rashi says, what does למען תזכור that you should remember mean? That through the Korban Pesach and Matzah, you will remember. How will you remember? כל ימי חייך . We know from the Haggadah that ימי חייך is the days and , כל ימי חייך is the day and the night. So we have to remember Yetziat Mitzrayim in the day and night. When? When we say Keriat Shema twice a day. So the Torah is clearly telling us that the goal of the seder , and the seven days of Pesach is so that we will remember getting out of Mitzrayim all the days of our life, every day. And we do it, twice a day in Keriat Shema. This is a very important fundamental that we're recharging on Pesach, but Pesach is not the only day. I want to share a beautiful Kaf HaChaim from Rabbi Palaggi, chapter 15, Halacha1, that was shared with me by Rabbi Nathan Kairey. Rabbi Chaim Palaggi is explaining a custom brought down by one of the Mekubalim , known as the Matzat Shemurim, Rabbi Natan Shapira, that before he prays, when a person walks back the three steps, he's supposed to make a little wave to the people that are behind him out of respect. Where exactly does that come from? What's the reason for that? I was always raised on the Ben Ish Chai that tells us that when we pray, we are replicating angels with our feet standing together like angels. And since the about angels, it says נותנים רשות זה לזה, they give each other permission, we mimic the angels and we give permission, so to say, by waving to our friends as if we're asking their consent. Rav Chaim Palaggi brings that as a second reason. But the first reason he gives is his own Chiddush: that in the Keriat Shema of both Shaharit and Arbit, we talk about Keriat Yam Suf the splitting of the sea, and the miracles of Yetziat Mitzrayim. Rashi in Berachot tells us we do this because what brings Hashem close to us, so that we can pray to Him, is the recognition of His miracles of Yetziat Mitzrayim. Rashi cites a beautiful Yerushalmi Mashal that explains why it says you have to be סומך גאולה לתפילה, you can't separate between the words Ga'al Yisrael and the start of the Amidah, and you have to go straight in. It's compared to a person that went to the king's palace and knocked on his door. It takes a minute for the king to get there. Imagine if, before the king gets there, the fellow walks away and he's not there to ask the king his question! He says, similarly, when we're praying, as we mention Yetziat Mitzrayim and the miracles that happened there, we're knocking on the King's door. The King is about to come down, so you can't walk away, you have to be go right into the Amida. We see from this that what brings Hashem down is the mentioning of these miracles. And what do we say, both at night and in the morning? We quote from Az Yashir, Hashem Yimloch L'Olam Va'ed- the ultimate message of Keriat Yam Suf- that Hashem is, was and will be King forever. And therefore, he says, since the rule is that Hashem is only king upon us only when we're united (like it says ויהי בישורון מלך, בהתאסף ראשי עם /When is God king of the Jewish people? When the Jewish people are united and together) . He says, and this is the big Chiddush-since חייב אדם לראות את עצמו בכל פרט ופרט כאילו הוא יצא ממצרים, קריעת ים סוף. Every one is obligated, (not just on the night of the Seder), every day to mimic the going out of Egypt and Keriat Yam Suf. And therefore, as we prepare to begin the Amida, we want to say that right now, together, we're accepting Hashem's kingdom, the yoke of His kingdom , B'Lev Echad/ with one heart, as we go to pray to Hashem. So we give that little wave to one another as a gesture, in order to unite, in one heart, in our accepting God as a King, and then we pray. Similarly, in Minha, he says, we also have the line at the end of Ashrei , where we say, ואנחנו נברך י-ה / We are going to bless God, we together. So in two out of the three prayers, we are reminding ourselves of Yetziat Mitzrayim, and we want to make it real- to the extent that we act out the togetherness that we had at Keriat Yam Suf , by gesturing to each other. This is just an example of how we have to keep Yetziat Mitzrayim alive every single day. Therefore, B'Ezrat Hashem, we are going to continue at least until Shavuot, discussing Yetziat Mitzrayim. There is proof for this practice: The Sefer HaChinuch asks why don't we count up, "Today is the first day of the Omer, the second day of the Omer?" Normally I'd count down. If my wedding is in two months, I'd say, " 59 days to go, 58 days to go. " I wouldn't say, " One day since my engagement party, " " Two days since my engagement party.. " The engagement party is not the main event. I want to get to that end goal of the wedding. So I count down 60, 59, 58. But with the Omer , it's not just about the end goal, it's about the beginning. I am coming from Yetziat Mitzrayim. " It's one day since Yetziat Mitzrayim, two days since Yetziat Mitzrayim…." I'm not counting down, I'm counting up. And therefore I have to build on what I have already. So we definitely have full permission, as long as we're in Sefirat HaOmer and we're really taking it seriously, to continue our feeling of Yetziat Mitzrayim. The goal of Yetziat Mitzrayim was to get to Matan Torah , but not with a split. It's united. So much so that the commentaries say that just like we have the first day of Succot and we have a few days in between till שמיני Shimon Aseret, likewise on Pesach we have the first day of Pesach (the seventh day of פסח is not its own holiday, we don't say a special Shehechianu), and we go until שבועות, which is also called עצרת and it here means the eighth week . So these days are like a Chol Hamoed between the first day of Pesach and Shavuot, but instead of having seven days, we have seven weeks. So we're going to take advantage of those Chol Hamoed weeks to continue discussing the fundamentals of our faith which come out of Yetziat Mitzrayim.

***CORRECTED TRANSCRIPT*** Welcome to a special edition of Perek Shira. In the introduction to Perek Shira , it says about David Hamelech, that when he finished sefer Tehilim , זחה דעתו עליו/ He became a little proud, and said, Hashem, is there any creature in the world that says more songs than I do? At that moment, a frog appeared, and told David, אל תזוח דעתך עליך , Don't be proud, I say more songs than you do. I'm involved in a great Mitzvah. On the edge of the river, there is a certain creature, and when he's hungry, he eats me, and that's the Mitzvah that I do. That's the basic message of Chazal. Very strange. What exactly is going on over here? The frog is greater than David Hamelech? What does that mean? The Zohar HaKadosh, in Pinchas 232B cites this story as well, but with a different response from the frog, which is, " David, don't be proud. I do more than you, because I was Moser Nefesh on the command of my Creator. When it came to the plague of frogs, I jumped into the ovens, and I was Moser Nefesh ." The frog actually does sing all day, it's croaks all day. It could be that in the merit of his Mesirut Nefesh, he's the ultimate singer. The Mabit , in his commentary, brings this down as well. The Zohar says at that moment, David Hamelech said this song in Tehilim 131,1 lה' לא גבה לבי, לא רמו עיני, My heart is not arrogant, my eyes are not lifted up . So let us understand, what is this great song of the frog? The sefer Imrei Emet on Parashat Vaera brings down from the Tanna D'veh Eliyahu , that the Hebrew word for frog צפרדע Sefardea , is a contraction of two words, ציפור, a bird , that has דעה , that has understanding . It's Bird because the frog is always flying around, but what is his דעת ? The Imrei Emet says that the ultimate level of Da'at , the highest level of intellect, is when a person is Moser Nefesh , when he jumps into the fire. Avraham Avinu was the one that recognized his Creator, and he was the first one to jump into the fire. What does that mean? The Meshech Chochma in Shemot 35,30 explains something fascinating. The chief architect of the Mishkan was Betzalel Ben Ouri, Ben Chur. And what happens to him? Hashem filled him with all knowledge in the world. Why was he zocheh to that? Says the Meshech Chochma, Mesirut Nefesh . When a person jumps into a fiery furnace, it is the ultimate shutting off of one's brain- not thinking, just trusting Hashem. Hashem says it's right, so I'm doing it. Chur was Moser Nefesh at the Chet HaEgel . He made a protest and they killed him. This is not something philosophical. Philosophically, would you say, For this one second, I'm giving up my whole life and all the things that I could do ? No . The Chasid Yaavetz says that in the times of the Spanish Inquisition, those that were tainted by philosophy did not withstand the test and became Moranos. The simpler people jumped in, because with too much philosophy, you're not going to do it. But, says the Meshech Chochma , that is the ultimate Da'at . The ultimate level of understanding is knowing, I don't understand, I'm going to dive in and do what God says . That's why Chur had a great-grandson, Betzalel , who was so full of wisdom. So, ציפור דעה, the message of the frog is, he jumps in and he is Moser Nefesh , and that's the greatest Shira . Furthermore, the sefer Shem M'Shimon quotes from a sefer Baalei Chayim by Rav Klonimus, that says that the frog did something earlier in history that caused it to merit to be the first creature in the plagues, after the blood. When Nimrod threw Avraham into the fiery furnace, the frogs jumped in and squirted water to try to cool down the fire to save Avraham. Additionally, when Chananiah, Mishael and Azariah questioned whether they should jump into the fiery furnace, they said, " If the frogs did it, surely we should do it." So the frogs are the messengers of Moser Nefesh . The chiddush here is that the song of creation is not necessarily the outward , loud song. Mesirut Nefesh, even in privacy, creates a great song. The Midrash tells us that there were two approaches (Bereshit 71,5) The approach of לאה was called פלח הודיה. She took the unit of praise, and out of her came Yehuda who praised, David Hamelech who praised, and Daniel…all of her children were praisers. Rachel, on the other hand, took the unit of being quiet. She didn't say when the signs were given over to Leah. Her child, Binyamin his stone is ישפה ,. יש פה He could have revealed the sale of Yosef, but he didn't. Esther, who comes from Shaul, and Shaul…They're quiet, undercover people. Whose Mesirut Nefesh is greater? Interestingly, when it comes to the splitting of the sea, Nachshon, who comes from Yehuda jumps in and splits the sea. But behind the scenes we know, that it says, the sea saw something and ran . What did it see? It saw the bones of Yosef. It says, the sea ran away because he ran away, and the sea split. So who split the sea? Nachshon, yes, on the outside. But behind the scenes, the quiet, self-control, Mesirut Nefesh of Yosef did it. As the Rambam in Yad Hazaka , in the laws of Yesodeh HaTorah , chapter 5, Halacha 10, says, that when a person does a sin in public, it's called Chillul Hashem B'Rabim. And he says, But קול הפורש מעבירה, someone that stays away from a sin, and does it, not out of fear, not for honor, but only because God said so, like Yosef HaSaddik, that controlled himself from the wife of his master, this is a kiddush Hashem. So there are two types of Kiddush Hashem. There's a Kiddush Hashem in public, and there's a Kiddush Hashem in private. The Mesirut Nefesh that doesn't make the big, loud noise, still does something. That's the message of the frog. Yes, there are great songs that we hear, but there are songs that we don't hear, of those people that just jump into the fiery furnace. There's a great story that is told over, of a man, Joe, who was a very successful Israeli, the son of Holocaust survivors. He rose from a childhood of poverty, in the mid-80s, and built up a huge, successful high-tech company. One day, his wife called, asking to pick up some meat on his way home from the office. He stopped at a trendy take-out place, to order what they called in, Israel Basar Lavan/white meat, which is code for חזיר, pork. As he stood in line, he began to feel uneasy. He began to remember a story he had heard from his parents. He always knew the story, but now it took on a heightened meaning. Joe's maternal grandfather was Rav Shraga Feivel of Hungary. Rav Shraga Feivel was captured by the Nazis, about a year before the war ended, and imprisoned as a slave in a slave labor camp. After a year, Rav Shraga Feivel was about to be freed. The war was over, and the Allied forces were going from camp to camp, liberating the prisoners. They could already see the smoke of the Allied forces marching their way. Freedom was mere hours away. At that moment, the head SS officer gathered the Jewish prisoners together and announced, The war has ended. In a few hours, you'll be free. All but you, he said, pointing to Rav Shraga Feivel. You must pass one more test. You must eat this piece of pig's meat. Only then will you be allowed to go free. Refuse it, and I'll shoot you in the head right here and now. The tension was so thick, you could cut it with a knife. Rav Shraga Feivel had been meticulous all through his days at the camp, not to eat unkosher meat. He didn't even eat soup, which might contain meat. Rav Shraga Feivel proclaimed, I will not eat chazir-flesh /I will not eat pork. A shot rang out, and Rav Shraga Feivel soul was returned to its creator. And now, 40 years later, Rav Shraga Feivel's grandson stood thinking to himself, I'm waiting in line to pay money to eat that which my grandfather gave his life not to consume? All he had to do was eat that one small piece of pork, and he'd be set free! He'd be allowed to return to his family, yet he wouldn't do it. I have everything. I'm free to live with my family. I have anything I want, yet I'm about to purchase this meat?Either my grandfather was crazy, or I'm crazy. And I cannot believe that he was crazy, thought Joe, as he got off the line and went to buy dinner elsewhere. When he got home, he spoke to his wife about his feelings and the emptiness he had been experiencing. They both had to acknowledge that despite all their material prosperity, a certain spiritual emptiness gnawed at him. They were missing something, but never knew exactly what. They spoke for a long time about values and what is important in life. They decided to attend an Arachim seminar. Joe was enthralled by the seminar. It penetrated the murky mysteriousness of God, Torah, and Judaism. It rocked his world and shook his soul. Who was that Joe? That Joe was well known as Yossi Wallis. He eventually became the CEO of the Arachim organization and built it to a huge movement of Baaleh Teshuva. Tens of thousands of Jews have already come back. We ask ourselves, what did this man, Rav Shraga Feivel, accomplish by dying and not living the rest of his life for that moment of Kiddush Hashem, shutting off his brain? He got a grandson full of Da'at and Chochma . And that's the Song of the Frog. *If you're interested in learning more about Yossi Wallis, there's a book written about him written by Rav Nacan Seltzer called Incredible , a bestseller by Artscroll. Have a wonderful day.

Welcome to our daily Bitachon series. We are now on the last lesson of Chol Hamoed. The pasuk in Bereshit 15,14 tells us וְאַחֲרֵי כֵן יֵצְאוּ בִּרְכֻשׁ גָּדוֹל / After that (referring to the 10 plagues ), we will leave with a great wealth which Rashi explains - בממון גדול with a lot of money, as it says in Shemot 12 וינצלו את מצרים/They emptied out Mitzrayim Of course, Rashi is giving the simple explanation. Rechush Gadol means a lot of money . But the Chida in his sefer Nachal Kedumim on Bereshit 15,14 quotes the Arizal that says it means they sifted out and took out the sparks of holiness that were in Mitzrayim. What does that mean exactly? So the Sefer Pri Etz Chaim Shaar Keriat Shema perek asks, why is it that every day, we have to remember Yetziat Mitzrayim more than any other of the Geulot . He says that whenever the Jewish people go to a certain place, their job is to take out the Kedusha from that place. I once heard from Rav Wolbe, that every nation has in it good qualities. When Adam HaRishon sinned, he caused the good and bad to be mixed. So there are good qualities in every nation. The Germans are very meticulous and exacting. That's nice when it comes to being perfect with Mitzvot and having the right shiurim and sizes, but it could go a little haywire when it comes to creating extermination camps and gas chambers and use it that way. The French are very romantic. That might be good for developing Ahavat Hashem but it could go in the wrong way if you misuse it, and so on. So there are sparks of holiness in every nation, and throughout our years of exile, our job is integrate the holiness of each of the nations into our ways and lift it up and take out that Kedushah. In general, it doesn't happen that we take everything out. Only when Mashiach comes will we be able to fully integrate all of those qualities into the Jewish people. But the spot of Kedusha of Mitzrayim , he says, was totally taken out. That's what it means Vayinatzlu Et Mitzrayim , the same pasuk that Rashi says they emptied out Egypt monetarily also means they spiritually emptied it out and took everything out with it. With the other Geulot , we did not have that full cleansing. And he says with that, we can understand a unbelievable concept. Why is it that it specifically says we're never allowed to go back to Egypt again? Why are we stricter about going back to Egypt than other any place? Because there's no need to go back to Egypt. We took everything out of it. So why go back? The sefer HaKatav V'HaKabbalah was written by Rabbi Yaakov Tzvi from Kallenberg, who lived from 1785 to 1865. One of the great rabbis of Germany, he was very famous for his sefer, and was one of the original fighters against the Reform. movement. He quotes his Yedidi, Marash Chen Tov in Bereshit 15,14 and concurs that when talking about leaving Egypt and taking everything out, it means taking out the spiritual wealth. He points out that when we use the word Rechush for general wealth, it says Rechush Rav, like in perek 13 of Bereshit , which means they had a lot of wealth. The term Rav usually indicates a quantitative concept and it's used for money, generally speaking. Here however, we see a strange terminology. It says Rechush Gadol , not a lot, but great . The word great is usually qualitative. Li Gadol Hashem, Ish Moshe Gadol… Adam Gadol doesn't mean he's large in weight , it means he's qualitatively great. So the great wealth , is not a lot of wealth, but qualitatively great, which is a spiritual wealth. So continuing with this theme of going from place to place and sucking out the Kedusha, the sefer Shem Gedolim also from the Chida, in the section on Sefarim in an appendix on the topic of Talmud , says, an unbelievable concept. He says in the city where there were many great Amoraim who set up the Talmud, there was a pillar of fire there twice a year. They were great Geonim. But in his times (the Chida lived about 300 years ago), the Torah had dwindled so much in that place that they didn't even know how to pray-not by heart and not from a siddur. Most of them only know how to say Ashrei Yoshveh Betecha and Shema Yisrael. They go to the Mikveh before they pray. They're quiet throughout the prayers. And when they get up to Ashrei, they all say Ashrei together. They say Keriat Shema until V'Ahavtah and that's it. He says, What's going on over here? He says, this is not a coincidence, because there was such a strong, powerful force of Torah in that place through the Limud HaTorah (which is one of the main ways we suck out Kedusha) that the Kedusha was taken out and therefore there's not that much left. Then he says, they went to Spain, and Torah moved to Spain, and then again the Torah was developing until they were sent out to a new spot. Because we didn't need it anymore. So as we leave a city, it rarely comes back to its greatness. The great Spanish golden era is no longer. Then they went to Turkey, then it went to France, Germany and it went to different places.. Every time we go from place to place, it's for one goal for us to be there and integrate into ourselves, into our ways, the qualities of that nation. Certain Jews might be very hospitable. They were more hospitable towns, and they took that Kedusha out. And he says דכל עניני ישראל הם בכלל ופרט וגם כשהאדם הולך מעיר לעיר הכל היא סיבה לברר ניצוצי הקדושה , . Every concept of the Jewish people, whether it's in general or specific, when a person goes from city to city, it's all because there's some holiness there. There's something you have to integrate into yourself. Jews are traveling all over the world and there's a reason for it. He says this is all from the wonders of the God Who's perfect in His ways. We don't know why we move from place to place but it's not a coincidence. Suddenly all the Sephardic Jews left the Muslim countries, the Ashkenazi Jews leave Europe. And we go basically to America and Eretz Yisrael. No Jew lived in America. It was new country and it introduced a new concept. There's a some Kedusha that's here and we have to take out. What is that Kedusha? I suggest ( it's my own humble opinion, I have no backing for this) that America is a melting pot. America is all about tolerance and being open-minded and so on. There are people from China with people from Argentina, Mexico and New Zealand all living together; possibly we have to integrate that (what I'll call) tolerance because when Mashiach comes, we're going to have all different kinds of Jews together. We never had Sephardim, Ashkenazim, Hasidim, all praying in the same shtiebl or Bet Knesset. We have get to know each other and reconcile with each other. That American trait might be what's necessary for us to integrate into our ways. The Or HaChaim HaKadosh, in Shemot 19,5 says the same concept. He says that if we would have been learning Torah more intensely in Eretz Yisrael, we'd have no need to search the globe to bring back the kedusha.Rather, it would be like a magnetic force that would suck everything out without even going there. Additionally, the Chida says in sefer Chomat Anach in Melachim 1, chapter 11, Pasuk 1, that that's why Shlomo Hamelech married all of those wives- they were princesses from countries all over the world, because he thought that way he would be able to avoid the Galut by taking out the Kedusha from each nation. The Bitachon lesson for us is that sometimes we get stuck in situations and we don't know why. Why did the plane divert to a certain place and land on a certain runway and sit there for an hour? Because there's some Kedusha on the runway in Virginia, and you had to say Birkat HaMazon there at that spot. Everything is planned. Everything has a reason. Everything is an opportunity for us to gain and grow from. The Ramchal in his commentary to Nevi'im on Micha on the pasuk אל תשמחי אויבתי לי כי נפלתי קמתי כי אשב בחושך ה ' אור לי / Enemy don't be happy that I fell, because I got up, I'm in the darkness. Hashem is my light, he says, we go down to Galut in order to take out the Kedusha . And he says, when the negative forces see that the Jewish people are going to Galut , they say, Wow, we're controlling the Jewish people. That's it. They think we're going to sink down further. But the evil forces don't know that we're coming down here for a Tikkun and that's why it says Don't be happy, my enemies, when I fell in Galut, I'll get up and come out stronger and get even more. . And that's an important rule. Sometimes we see people fall and drop, but they bounce back. Sheva yipol Sadik v'kam A Sadik falls seven times and gets up.

Welcome to our daily Bitachon class as we are continue with the Haggadah, even though we're past the Seder , with important lessons that are timely. In the piece Baruch Shomer Havtachato we quote the Brit Ben HaBetarim where Hashem tells Avraham, Your children are going to be sojourners in a land that's not theirs, work for 400 years and toil. A nd also the nation that's going to work them, Dan Anokhi, I'm going to judge them." Rabbenu Yonah quotes this pasuk with an important lesson in his commentary to Pirkei Avot , Perek 1 Mishna 15 where the Tanna tells us אמור מעט ועשה הרבה. / Say a little and do a lot Rabbenu Yonah explains, כשתבטיח את חבירך לעשות בעבורו דבר, אמור לו מעט ועשה הרבה, והוא מדרך המוסר והחסידות,. /When you guarantee your friend (we're getting in the wording of Baruch Shomer Havtachato ) to do something, say a little bit and do a lot. This is the way of Musar , it's the way of Hasidut . You don't say I'm going to give you a million dollars. Say, I'll help you out with your house, I'll give you a hundred thousand and then you give the guy the million. Where do we learn this from? ולמדנו אותו מאברהם אבינו ע"ה שאמר, "ואקחה פת לחם" (בראשית יח, ה-ח) ואחר כך, "ויקח חמאה וחלב ובן הבקר אשר עשה" We learn it form Avraham Avinu , who said, I'll get some bread, and he ended up getting butter milk, and the cow. This is a very high midah. It's learned from Hashem , as are all our great Middot . Havei Domeh Lo , We have to be like Him. Hashem has these Middot . Where do we see it? Say Chazal , in Avot d'Rabbi Natan , למדוהו מהבורא ית' שלא הבטיח אלא בשתי אותיות שנאמר (בראשית טו, יד), "דן אנכי", - וגאלם בעשרים ושבעה מלות, Hashem promised Avraham Avinu with two words, Dan Anokhi , but He he ended up redeeming them with 27 words… הנסה אלקים לבוא לקחת לו גוי מקרב …גו" או I n Devarim 4,34, He uses so many words to describe how He punished the goyim . Not just the two words, Dan Anokhi . It developed into so many more words. And Rav Saadia Gaon says something unbelievable: . אם כשהבטיח את אבותינו בשני אותיות נעשה להם כמה נסים ונפלאות, על הגאולה העתידה לבוא שנכתבו בה כמה דפין וכמה קונדריסין וכמה ספרים מהבטחות, וכמה נחמות בישעיה, ירמיה, יחזקאל, ותרי עשר, על אחת כמה וכמה כי נפלאים יהיו מעשיו ונפשינו יודעת מאד, Hashem promised our forefathers with two words (Dan Anochi), And yet how many wonders, how many miracles, which are 50, which are 250, broken down over here, from two words. So on the redemption that's going to come in the future, how many pages? How many notebooks? how many books? How many promises are there? How much consolation is there? In Yeshaya, Yirmiyah, Yehezkiel and Tre Asar? The Navi is full of promises and comforts. Imagine what that's going to be- exponentially. It's going to be wondrous. How wondrous His deeds are going to be, and we're going to know it good and well. What does that have to do with us, every day of our lives? ויש לאדם לחשוב בדבר ולתת אותו אל לבו כי שכר גדול יהיה לו מפני הבטחון/ Think about this. and to put it on your heart. You get great reward from the bitachon, great reward from relying on Hashem about these things. This is something extremely important. When you sit down and learn some Navi , and you read of the promises, say , I believe that. I know Hashem is Baruch Shomei Havtachato, He keeps it. History proves it. Look what two words did! Now imagine what we're getting in the future. That is an opportunity. Rav Yerucham Levovitz, in his sefer , Daat Chochma U'Musar , volume 3, page 2, says something unbelievable. He says there is a fundamental way that Hashem acts. First, He promises. Why does He promise? Why does He guarantee? The reason is that the one that was guaranteed this will have full faith, and feel guaranteed. And that's what brings about the fulfillment. Hashem promises, and then we earn the zechut, by relying on Him. That's what makes it come true. He says, that's the only way it happens. He says this is an important understanding of the ways of Hashem, and it's a tremendous foundation. You can't get there if you don't go through the emunah and bitachon . And in order to exercise emunah and bitachon , Hashem gives us a havtacha , He gives us a guarantee , And our job is to be batuach , to feel guaranteed in His promise. He says that's what happened with Avraham Avinu . In Bereshit 15:6 .it says וְהֶאֱמִ֖ן בַּֽיהֹוָ֑ה וַיַּחְשְׁבֶ֥הָ לּ֖וֹ צְדָקָֽה׃ / This emunah gave Avraham Sedaka , meaning it gave us righteousness . And if we'd be lacking in that, we wouldn't have the fulfillment of the promise. He says we see the same concept by Yetziyat Mitzrayim . In Shemot 6,7-9 , where it says, Vyedatem Ki Ani Hashem/ And you will know I am Hashem, the Seforno says, Your job is to think and delve that all of this is going to come true. Because if I am the All-powerful, supervising God, there's no question I'll do what I promised. I'm going to bring it upon you. And when you think about this, then you'll be fit that I bring it about. So why didn't it happen right away? Because They were enslaved in work and therefore not able to have bitachon, like Avraham Avinu who did have the bitachon . Rav Yerucham says something fascinating – It was not their fault. The Torah says clearly that it was not their fault. They couldn't have bitachon because they were so oppressed. But he says, that's the system. That's the way it works. You need to have bitachon . And if you don't have bitachon , we can't bring it about. That's Darkei Hashem Yitbarach / the way of Hashem. You can't get anything unless you first rely on Hashem. That's the way Hashem works. And if you're missing a little bitachon , it's not going to come through. Rav Yerucham continues and says, every step of Yetziat Mitzrayim worked like this. He quotes another Seforno , on the pasuk in Shemot 12,11 where it talks about how to eat the korban Pesach - With girded loins, your shoes on your feet, your stick in your hand. Why? Says the Seforno, To show their reliance, without a doubt, to Hashem. They were ready to get on the road, ready to leave the jail while in the jail! Hashem set it up. Like the Gemara in Eruvim , 22A says, Hayom la'Asotam , Today we do, Machar lekabel sachar, Tomorrow we get paid off . Why did Hashem set it up that way? Because that's our Avodah , to work hard here, not to see anything and believe it's going to happen in the future. He goes on and says, when they went out into the desert, the pasuk in Shemot 12,39 says, Sedah lo Asu lahem / They did not prepare provisions for themselves. Rashi says, This tells the praise of Jewish people. They didn't say 'How can we go out to a desert without any food?' They relied on Hashem , they went out, and that's why Hashem says, I remember the kindness of youth, when you followed Me into the deser t. He says, this level of emunah only happens if a person has bitachon , bli safek klal , with no doubt at all . He has it in actuality . It's not in theory, he has it in his pocket. That's how we went out. How do you take your family out to the desert? Because I see the food in front of me.

Welcome to Daily Bitachon We are reviewing the Haggadah shel Pesach with timely lessons We're in the Baruch Shomer Havtachato L'Yisrael And the question is, What is the greatness of Hashem that He keeps His promise? The commentaries explain that the word Shomer has more than one meaning( they are actually related). The common meaning of Shomer is a watchman or, to guard something But Shomer also means to wait. We see this when the Torah, in Bereshit 37,11 describes that the brothers were jealous of Yosef. And it says, וְאָבִ֖יו שָׁמַ֥ר אֶת־הַדָּבָֽר What does that mean? Rashi says Shamar et ha-davar means hayah mamtin/he's waiting, umtzapeh/ looking forward, matay yavo/when is it going to happen? Rashi then brings other cases where the word Shomer in Tanach means to wait. The Sefer Ikarim , in the 4th essay chapter 47, explains that the root of the word שמר Shomer / watchman or guard , really comes from waiting , because a watchman is waiting for his watch to be over. It's probably the most boring job in the world So he's called a Shomer because he's waiting נַפְשִׁ֥י לַאדֹנָ֑י מִשֹּׁמְרִ֥ים לַ֝בֹּ֗קֶר שֹׁמְרִ֥ים לַבֹּֽקֶר׃ David HaMelech in Tehillim 130,6 Nafshi l'Hashem , My soul is to God, Mi shomrim la-boker , from those watchmen that are waiting for the morning, shomrim la-boker, they can't wait for the morning to come In Shemot , Perek 12 , Pasuk 42 , it says that the night of the Seder is called Lel Shimurim , which most people understand means the night that we are guarded, but that's not what Rashi says. He says it's called the night of waiting because Hashem was waiting, looking forward, L'kayim Havtachatoh , to fulfill His guarantee and promise. So now we have a new understanding, Baruch Shomer Havatachatoh Yisrael , means Blessed is the One, Hashem, that was looking forward to keep His promise - not that he kept His promise- He was looking forward to it This commentary is brought down by Rabbi Yitzchak Meltzen in his Haggadah shel Pesach , Siach Yitzchak , and many others bring it down as well. Additionally, the Seforno, on the pasuk of Lel Shimurim L'Hashem says Hashem was looking forward to save them. And he asks, Why didn't He just save them earlier? Why is He waiting? The answer is, They weren't yet ready or fit for the Ge'ulah . Hashem was waiting for the right time, Ki Chafetz Chesed Hu He wants to do it, and that's what it means, HaKadosh Baruch Hu Chishev Et Haketz He figured out a way to make it happen, at the right time. These explanations are all related, because Hashem wanted the Jewish people to survive, and He knew if He waited any longer, we'd disintegrate. He had to work out a way to get us out at that time This is all part of Hashem's waiting and looking forward, but He couldn't wait anymore, He had to let us out early. And this explanation is relevant to us as well, every day of the year. We're responsible every single day of the year to look forward to Mashiach That is one of the 13 principles of faith. We must not just know he's coming, we have to be Mechakeh , we have to look forward , we have to wait for him to come. We wait, and Hashem waits at the same time. The Shibbole HaLeket says an unbelievable line- that Hashem is always working this out, and saying matai yavo haketz, when is the time, when is the end going to come for this Galut? When is the Geulah going to come? This was not just a one-time thing at Yetziat Mitzrayim. Hashem is always waiting, and not just for Klal Yisrael at large, but He's also waiting for every individual to come back home already. Rav Chaim Palagi, in his sefer Moed L'Kol Chai , siman 15, quotes the Tanna D'Vei Eliyahu perek 31- where Eliyahu HaNavi says, God is waiting for them to come, more than a father waiting for a son, or a woman waiting for a husband, that we should do Teshuvah, so that He can redeem us and build the Bet HaMikdash. Rav Chaim Palagi writes, I honestly say that whenever I read this Tanna Devi Eliyahu, I cry. How could it be that the Melech HaKavod, the Honorable King, G-d and King of the world, is waiting for us to do Teshuvah? Why? To do unbelievable goodness for us, and we are not paying attention! He says, Imagine, someone has a dear child, and it's 11 o'clock at night, he's not back, (I'll add that he's calling his cell phone, and he's answering). He's an hour late. The father starts peeking through the windows, worrying, Where's my son? When's he coming home? Or it's like a lady that's waiting for her husband to come back from an overseas trip, and now his flight is delayed. How much pain does it cause? That's the pain of Hashem . Look how much pain He's taking. Come on, He says. He ends with a prayer Hashem Elohim , Hashem our G-d, Ten b'lev Amecha Yisrael, Put into the heart of the Jewish people, do Teshuvah. L'olano Hashem, not for us, ki l'shimcha ten kavod but to give You honor. That's Baruch Shomei Havtachato Yisrael , He's still waiting, to this day, He wants us to get out of this. This goes all the way back to Yetziat Mitzrayim , but as we see, we still didn't get out of it. We're still in the same Galut , and Hashem is waiting for it to come to an end. The pasuk says, לֵ֣יל שִׁמֻּרִ֥ים הוּא֙ לַֽיהֹוָ֔ה לְהוֹצִיאָ֖ם מֵאֶ֣רֶץ מִצְרָ֑יִם הֽוּא־הַלַּ֤יְלָה הַזֶּה֙ לַֽיהֹוָ֔ה שִׁמֻּרִ֛ים לְכׇל־בְּנֵ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל לְדֹרֹתָֽם׃ {פ} It's a day that Hashem is waiting for, It's Shimurim L'chol B'nei Yisrael . Rashi says it's a term of protection here in the end of the Pasuk . But the Balai Tosafot s ays Shimurim L'chol B'nei Yisrael , Gam Yisrael Mitzra'im L'zeh Laylah , we're also looking forward to this night. And the night of Ge'ulah , not just then, but even now. We should be looking forward on this night. That's why on this night, we say This year we are here in Chutz L'aretz, next year we'll be in Eretz Yisrael. This year we're slaves, next year we in freedom. That's the term, Tzipita L'Yishua , we're looking forward. Every single day, we say in Et Tzmach David , that we're looking forward, we're waiting for that great day to come. And that's one of the questions they ask after 120 years, Tzipita L'Yishua , Did you look forward to 's Hashem's salvation? Hashem is waiting and we are waiting. Bezrat Hashem it will be fulfilled soon.

Welcome to Daily Bitachon. We are now in Chol Hamoed Pesach , if you're up to date, and we're still going through the Haggadah . Haggadah is not just a one-night event. We're at the point of בָּרוּךְ שׁוֹמֵר הַבְטָחָתוֹ לְיִשְׂרָאֵל, בָּרוּךְ הוּא. Baruch Shomer Havtachato L'Yisrael Baruch Hu . Blessed is He who keeps His promises to Israel, Blessed is He Hashem keeps His promises Again the question is, what are you telling me? Isn't that obvious? And the Bet HaLevi has a beautiful explanation in Parashat Bo , where he tells us, which many of us might know, that if HaKadosh Baruch Hu didn't take us out of Mitzrayim , we would have mixed with the Egyptians, entered the 50th level of Tumah , and we would have lost our yichus , we would have lost our lineage , our connection to our forefathers. Therefore, we would no longer be the seed of Abraham . The Abraham inside of us would have disintegrated. That's what it means that if Hashem didn't take us out of Mitzrayim , we would still be there, because the promise was to the seed of Abraham . And once we lose our Yichus and we're no longer recognizable as the seed of Abraham , it's all over. Just like Esav and Yishmael are no longer a seed. The same thing could have happened to us. And that's what it means, Baruch Shomer Havtachato L'Yisrael . God kept His promise to Yisrael . If Hashem hadn't worked it out, there would be no Yisrael left to keep the promise to. This concept shows up very much in the Sfat Emet , where he talks about the concept of Magen Abraham . The Sfat Emet in Likutim Parashat Vayigash says the following, in the name of the Chidushei Harim : Magen Abraham means, Hevtichoh Hashem Yitbarach , Hashem guaranteed him (Interesting, it's the same word as Shomer havtahato L'Yisrael ) Lhiyot nish'ar nikudah achat tamid . There will always be a little dot, which we call the Nikudah HaYehudi , that little dot. In Yiddish they say the pintelle yid , the point of the Jew that will never be destroyed. Rvery Jew has in him a little bit of that Abraham Avinu DNA, which is never lost. The Sfat Emet in Bereshit Parashat Lech Lecha tells us that that's what it means when we say a person is chayav to say matai yagil ma'asai le ma'asai avotai ? When will I reach the levels of my forefathers? How in the world could we ever discuss that? Could we ever reach the levels of Abraham , Yitzchak and Yaakov . And the answer is we have that little bit of them inside of us. And he says that special spot helps every Jew to reach the levels that he needs to reach. The Sfat Emet again in Parashat Lech Lecha says that this drop inside of us, this spirit inside of us, can never be extinguished. And every Jew has that connection and that love. And that's what it means. Mayim rabim lo yuchlu lechabot et aAhava . All the oceans and waters of the world will not extinguish that love. The Sfat Emet in Devarim Parashat Vayelech says that the terms in Shir Hashirim that refer to the Jewish people, such as Gan na'ul/A sealed garden and Mayan chatum/ A sealed wellspring indicate certain areas that are sealed, where no danger, or negativity can impact. It's always protected and saved, and that's Magen Abraham, because Hashem is always looking out to make sure that we don't get lost, that we don't get tainted. There's always something left behind. This concept goes back all the way to the beginning of creation. There's a certain part of our body called the Luz bone that will never be destroyed. At the time of Techiat HaMetim / Resurrection of the dead comes, it's going to start from that Luz bone that will never be destroyed. So even when a person is buried, there is still something left, that bit that was never impacted by negativity, and from which we will be reborn. How does that work? The commentaries explain that Hashem built a safety system into creation. When Adam HaRishon ate from the Etz Hadaat , the decree was, if you eat from it, you will die. What was the safety plan? There's a part of us that only benefits from what we eat on Motzei Shabbat on Saturday night, and that's the Luz bone. And therefore, when Adam HaRishon ate on Friday from the tree, that bone wasn't impacted, so that bone did not get the decree of death on it, because it only benefits from food eaten on Motzei Shabbat . That's why it's so important to eat Seuda Reviit , the Seuda of Motzei Shabbat , which is also called Seudat David HaMelech . The three meals correspond to Avraham , Yitzhak , and Yaakov . And David HaMelech is the fourth meal, which symbolizes Mashiach . We're going to survive because of that Luz bone that Hashem put into creation, that we will never be destroyed, because there's always a spot that remains clean inside of us. And that's the safety plan. The Ramchal , in one of his sefarim , says something fascinating. He says, everything shows up in time, place, and person. There's a Luz in the person, that's their Luz bone. There's a Luz in time, and there's a Luz in place. The Luz bone in place is the Kotel HaMaravi , that will never be destroyed. That's a spot that always has in it the Shechina , and from there, everything will be reborn. That's why every Jew who goes to the Kotel HaMaravi , feels that special connection, because that spot hasn't been tainted. The Luz bone in time is Yom Kippur . That's the day that wasn't tainted. That's the day we can come back and rebuild from, because we rebuild from health. You have to have healthy skin. You have to have a healthy spot. There's always that healthy spot. That's the Magen Avraham . Hashem protects that healthy spot inside of us that will never be destroyed. It's interesting that the final prayer of Yom Kippur is called Ne'ilah / sealed , like Gan Na'ul . It's the part of the Jew that was sealed and was never tainted or affected by sin. When that is revealed, we can rebuild. And that's what happens by Ne'ilah . And everything goes back to Yetziyat Mitzrayim . Everything is Zecher L'Yetziyat Mitzrayim . Is was at Yetziyat Mitzrayim that Hashem first revealed to us how He is Shomer Havtachatol Yisrael , how He protects the Jewish people. And at the last moment, when He realized that if we didn't get out now, we would never get out, He made sure to guard that Nekudah , that spot, that Magen Avraham , so that the Jewish people wouldn't get disintegrated and get lost. That's why, to this day, there are some Jews that only keep the Seder or Yom Kippur , because these are the times where that Nekudah , that Pintele Yid comes out and is revealed. The Seder night is one of those nights. And that's Baruch Shomer Havtachatol Yisrael . And even though the Seder is over, if you listen to this after the Seder , it's not too late. Because we say Magen Avraham every single day, three times a day. Magen Avraham / God protects Avraham, doesn't only mean He protects Avraham . Of course, it means that too, He protects the Avraham of old. But it also means He protects the Avraham inside of you. There's a little dot called Avraham inside of you. And that inner Avraham is always protected and will never be destroyed.

Welcome to our daily Bitachon Haggadah series. We're now in the piece of בָּרוּךְ שׁוֹמֵר הַבְטָחָתוֹ לְיִשְׂרָאֵל, בָּרוּךְ הוּא. Baruch Shomer Havtachato L'Yisrael Baruch Hu . Blessed is He who keeps His promises to Israel, Blessed is He This a difficult thing to understand, because of course Hashem is going to fulfill his promises! The Tashbetz tells us we have to thank Hashem who is Mavtiach Ve'oseh . We have to recognize He guarantees and He fulfills his guarantee. He guaranteed Avraham Avinu Ve'ezcha L'goy Gadol and He fulfilled it. And this is an important concept that we see throughout. In Shemot Perek ו Pasuk ג Hashem speaks to Moshe and says, " בְּאֵ֣ל שַׁדָּ֑י וּשְׁמִ֣י יְהֹוָ֔ה לֹ֥א נוֹדַ֖עְתִּי לָהֶֽם׃ I appeared to the Avot and I used the name El Shaddai says Rashi, I made a lot of promises but וּשְׁמִ֣י יְהֹוָ֔ה לֹ֥א נוֹדַ֖עְתִּי לָהֶֽם׃ I didn't make known to them My name of Hashem. What does that mean? Lo Nikati Lahem . I wasn't recognized by them B' Midat Amitit Sheli . In the trait of truth (which is expressed in the name of ה י-ה-ו- ) He says that name means " I am loyal and trustworthy to bring to truth," which means to bring to actuality , what I say. But the Avot didn't se e it. 'I guaranteed them and I didn't fulfill it yet.' Then n Perek ו Pasuk ו the Pasuk says אֱמֹ֥ר לִבְנֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵל֮ אֲנִ֣י יְהֹוָה ֒ Tell the Jewish people Ani Hashem . I am Hashem . What does that mean? Ha Ne'eman B'havtachati / I am loyal with My guarantee and I'll take them out as I guaranteed . The word בטחון Bitachon has same root as להבטח Lahavtiach . God guarantees and we rely on that guarantee because God is reliable . That's what Ne'eman means .. He's reliable . That's part of the lesson here. Of course, we know that God is going to keep His word, but we want to show you throughout history that God guarantees, and sometimes it takes hundreds or thousands of years until the guarantee comes true. But as we said, Bitachon is being Batuach - feeling guaranteed . I can take it to the bank. In modern Hebrew, insurance is called Bituach . You're guaranteed. If your car has Bituach , you don't worry about the wreckage because it will be paid for. If you have health insurance (and with a good health insurance, they even cover out-of-pocket expenses) you're not worried about the financial impact of your health care. You have everything covered. Life is about I have Bituach . I have a guarantee, I have insurance from God. And God told me I'm going to take care of you. This shows up throughout the Chumash, to tell us this historical lesson. In Bereshit Perek ד Pasuk יט , when it talks about the story of Lemech and his two wives and how Kayin gets killed after seven generations. Rasji says it's V' L'amdeinu to teach us Shekiyei Ma Kadosh Baruch Hu Haftachato that God fulfilled his guarantee that after seven generations Kayin would be killed, and he was. In Bereshit, Perek 9 Pasuk 26 it says בָּר֥וּךְ יְהֹוָ֖ה אֱלֹ֣הֵי שֵׁ֑ם / Blessed is Hashem the God of Shem. What is the blessing? Rashi says, Sh'atid L'shmo Havtachato . He's going to fulfill His guarantee. L'zarot to his children. L'hateit Lahem Et Eretz K'naan. To give them the land of Canaan. This is part of the lesson of the night. God promises and He will fulfill . It might take time. Bereshit Perek 12 Pasuk 2 . Where it says God tells Avraham וְאֶֽעֶשְׂךָ֙ לְג֣וֹי גָּד֔וֹל וַאֲבָ֣רֶכְךָ֔ וַאֲגַדְּלָ֖ה שְׁמֶ֑ךָ וֶהְיֵ֖ה בְּרָכָֽה׃ I will make you a great nation and I will bless you I will make your name great and you shall be a blessing This is exactly the promise that that the Tashbetz said He fulfilled. And why was this promised? Because traveling causes three things to be limited: Procreation, money, and fame. So God promised Avraham, that he was going to have children, money, and fame, even though he was going on the road. And Avraham was so taken with that guarantee that in Perek יד Pasuk כג when he defeated Sedom , he said I'm not taking anything from you. וְלֹ֣א תֹאמַ֔ר אֲנִ֖י הֶעֱשַׁ֥רְתִּי אֶת־אַבְרָֽם׃ / Don't say that you made Avraham Avinu wealthy. God guaranteed my wealth. As it says, וַאֲבָ֣רֶכְךָ֔ He's going to bless me with wealth. I don't want to take money from someone that's going to act like he did it. I'll pass on your money because I know I'm going to get it in a way that I don't have to have someone that's going to take credit. On the Brit Ben HaBetarim ( Bereshit 15,10) Rashi asks What is the purpose of this deal ? He made a deal with him to keep His promise His his guarantee, to give him the land. In Bereshit 21, 7 where it says מִ֤י מִלֵּל֙ לְאַבְרָהָ֔ם Who is it that spoke about this to Avraham ? Rashi says this is a term of praise . What's the praise? Who is great like Hashem, that He kept His guarantee to Avraham, that you're going to have children. It's going to take time. You'll be 100 years old, but you're going to have children. In Vayikra Perek 19, pasuk 25 After it talks about Matanot L'aniyim , giving the food to the poor, it says, Ani Hashem / I am Hashem. Give to the poor, Ani Hashem. Rashi says this Ani Hashem means I'm guaranteeing you. I'm loyal. I'll fulfill it. Rashi says, in the name of Rabbi Akiva , that this is talking to the Yetzer Hara. Someone might say, I'm working so hard. What's in it for me? Why am I giving all this money away? And Hashem says, I guarantee it. I'm loyal. I keep My promises. This is something we have to constantly reiterate and strengthen in ourselves. When Hashem gives a Havtachah, it comes true. In Devarim 31,21 Where it says, כִּ֛י לֹ֥א תִשָּׁכַ֖ח מִפִּ֣י זַרְע֑וֹ / Torah will not be forgotten from the seed of the Jewish people, Rashi says, This is a promise. The Torah will never totally be forgotten from the Jewish people. And we see it live today. And now, being that it's Erev Pesach , this is our final push for Lev Chana/Lev Zechariah. Hashem tells us before the holidays, If you take care of mine, I'll take care of yours. That's a guarantee from God. If You make my children happy. I'll make your children happy. You still have a chance. The easiest thing is just Zelle it to, Rabbisutton@gmail.com and give some money towards clothing for needy families for the holidays. Hashem guarantees and He comes through.

Welcome to our daily Bitachon series. We're now in Haggadah shel Pesach in the unit of Metichila Ovdeh Avodah Zarah , going through the history of how we came from weak spiritual beginnings and ended up at the great levels that we reached. It started with Avraham who went through his Nisyonot , and then Hashem gave him Yitzchak . We're now in a pasuk in Yehoshua : וָאֶתֵּ֣ן לְיִצְחָ֔ק אֶֽת־יַעֲקֹ֖ב וְאֶת־עֵשָׂ֑ו וָֽאֶתֵּ֨ן לְעֵשָׂ֜ו אֶת־הַ֤ר שֵׂעִיר֙ לָרֶ֣שֶׁת אוֹת֔וֹ וְיַעֲקֹ֥ב וּבָנָ֖יו יָרְד֥וּ מִצְרָֽיִם׃ I gave Yitzchak two children. And I gave Eisav Mount Seir. And Yaakov and his children went down to Mitzrayim. Based on the reading, it sounds like somehow this connects our story from the beginning, M'tichila , and in the end He brought us close and then we talk about going down to Mitzrayim . How exactly does that connect? In Bereshit 36 pasuk 7 , the pasuk tells us that Eisav took his wives and his sons and his daughters and everyone in his household and his cattle and his assets and he went M'pne Yaakov achiv away from Yaakov his brother. Seemingly, M'pne Yaakov Achiv he went away from Yaakov because he didn't want to hang out with him. But Rashi quotes a different explanation from the Midrash . M'pne Yaakov achiv . M'pne sh'tar chov . It was because there was a contract of debt. What contract of debt? The gezera ki ger yeh zaracha . The B'rit B'nei B'tarim debt. There was a debt that Your children are going to be sojourners , which was placed on Zaroh shel Yitzchak / the seed of Yitzchak . Abraham Avinu was told that Hashem was going to create a nation from him that's going to be connected to God. Abraham then went through his test, and had Yitzchak . Now Yitzchak has Yaakov and Eisav and Eisav decides to abdicate and get out of it. He says, Eylech mi kan. Ein Li chelek I don't want to get the gift.. And I don't want to have to pay off this debt. I'm not interested. So now we can make sense of what's going on in this pasuk . This pasuk of Yehoshua is telling us that in order to reach greatness, we're going to have to go through trials and tribulations. Abraham Avinu started with Va'Arbe . Hashem gave him many of tests and challenges. Then Yitzchak had a child, Yaakov , and in order for him to be successful, he had to go down to Mitzrayim. It was in order to purify him; in order to make him great- because that's the way to reach greatness. We reach greatness through tests. The Ramchal in his Sefer Derech Hashem , Unit 4, Chapter 4, says that the purpose of Galut Mitzrayim was to make the Jewish people special forever. After Adam HaRishon sinned, the world was in a state of ruination, and evil was overcoming good. There was no real, strong, good spot until Avraham Avinu came about, and now he was going to be separate along with his children. But it still wasn't enough to create a nation , a nation that should reach the level to be crowned in greatness, because of the evil that was in the world. To quote the Ramchal 's words, They had to be exiled to Egypt. Yishtavdu sham, to be enslaved there. Votoh hashibur hagadol, through that great enslavement, y'tzuful, you'll become purified, kezahav, like gold betoch hakor, like you smelt the gold in a smelting pot. That's what was happening to the Jewish people. This is an important fundamental- that Galut is here to purify us and make us great. The Chida says something unbelievable. In sefer Chomot Anah , on Yeshayah 54,11, he says that the reason for Galut Mitzrayim was that the Torah is spiritual and cannot land on, or be held by a person who has improper thoughts, specifically arrogance. So in order to humble the Jewish people, we had to go to Mitzrayim , and that way could receive the Torah . In his sefer Yosef Tehillot , on Tehillim 119,72, he says, that's why the Galut we're going through today is so long. Why? Listen to these words, only the Chida could say this: Ki Zot ha-Torah , The Torah we have today, he hevel , is like hot air, lefnei torato shel Mashiach , compared to the Torah of Mashiach . In Mashiach's times, shigalet talumot v'sodot ha-Torah , It will be revealed, the hidden secrets of the Torah, in order to receive that level of depth of the Torah. The Torah is not going to change, rather, we're going to have a deeper understanding. Sarich ha-Achna'ah gedolah , we need tremendous levels of humility . That's why the Galut today is so difficult. This is an important rule- any time we are going through difficulties and challenges, we have to know Hashem is preparing us for things that are even greater. That's what we're being told here, in this Metchila Uvdeh Avodah Zarah Avoteno piece. It's talking about the spiritual greatness that we're going to reach. We started off with weak spiritual beginnings, but we're going to have an unbelievably happy ending. In order to get there, we have to go through trials and tribulations and challenges. That is the lesson of this unit. It's not just Avraham , it's not the Jewish people of Mitzrayim , it's every single individual in their lives. Furthermore, in Yosef Tehilot , again in 119.72, he says, that's why we see that people who learn Torah have financial struggles and difficulties. And he asks, What's going on? Doesn't Hashem want that the people that are learning Torah should be financially stable and have everything good? He says, No. Since Torah is spiritual, and those that learn have to be humble, they have to have certain challenges and difficulties. This is an eternal approach that G-d has. Bnei Yisaschar, in his Mamarim of Chodesh Nisan , essay number nine, brings down this concept. And pasuk actually says (Shemot 1,11), לְמַ֥עַן עַנֹּת֖וֹ בְּסִבְלֹתָ֑ם In order to pain or humble them in their hard work. He says that this was G-d's way of making us better. He adds that when a sick person is being treated by a doctor, quite often the treatment is very difficult and very painful. But after he goes through the treatment, the patient is going to hug the doctor and thank him for healing him. That is what is going on for us now, and it's an important Emunah lesson, that we learned from the Haggadah , specifically, from this unit of Metchila Ovdeh Avodah Zarah Hayu Avotenu .

Welcome to our Daily Bitachon class. We are now on the Haggadah shel Pesach series, in the unit of Mitechila, Ovdei Avodah Zarah, Hayu Avoteinu. Originally our forefathers were idol worshipers, and Hashem brought us close to him. We quote a pasuk in Yehoshua ויאמר יהושע אל כל העם Yehoshua tells the people that going back in history,, , כה אמר יי אלהי ישראל: בעבר הנהר ישבו אבותיכם מעולם, תרח אבי אברהם ואבי נחור, ויעבדו אלהים אחרים. ואקח את אביכם את אברהם מעבר הנהר, ואולך אותו בכל ארץ כנען. J את זרעו ואתן לו את יצחק. Our forefathers lived on the other side of the river, Terach the father of Abraham and Nachor worshipped other gods, " And I took your father, Abraham, and I took him throughout the land of Canaan." V'arbe et Zaro , and I increased his seed, V'eten et Yitzchak, and gave him Yitzchak . V'Ekach/ Hashem took Abraham Avinu, throughout the land. It sounds like He was holding his hand, walking him through the land, but that's not really what happened. There were trials and tribulations. It was a lot more than just He took him, so to say, and brought him. Rav Yehezkiel Levenstein says that in life, there are many events that make things happen, whether it's a famine, or a wife being kidnapped, or a war with four kings and five kings, but what is really is going on is Ve'ekach / Hashem is taking us by the hand and bringing us step by step. V'arbe et Zaro . Now simply, V'arbe means to make many. Hashem made him have many children. But Rashi on this pasuk in Yehoshua ( 24,3) says that the word וארב V'arbe is spelled without a ה hey , and therefore could be read as V'arev , which means merivah , fights. Kama merivot v'nisyonot asiti imo . There were a lot of fights, a lot of tests, until I gave him children. So we see that Hashem is telling us a very important concept through Yehoshua. Look back at history. Look at the trials and tribulations and the tests that Abraham went through before he got Yitzhak . Why was that? Rav David Cohen quotes Rav Chaim Volozhin who tells us, in his commentary, Ruach Haim on Perkei Avot , Perel 5 Mishna 3 , that Asara Nisyonot nitnaseh Avraham Avinu / Avraham, our forefather, received ten tests. The Nefesh HaChayim asks, Why does it say Avinu here about Avraham, whereas in a previous Mishnah, when it talks about the ten generations from Noah to Avraham , he's not called Avraham Avinu ? Rav Chaim Volozhin tells us an important principle, which is that when a tzaddik toils and works on a certain middah , that Middah becomes natural for his children-with just a little bit of work, they'll get there. He says, Avraham Avinu's tests gave us a certain spiritual DNA. He says, for example, that it's natural for a Jewish person to die Al kiddush Hashem . We see that simple people have given up theirs lives, Al kiddush Hashem . Why? Because Avraham Avinu was ready to jump into the fiery furnace. Additionally, Avraham Avinu picked up and moved to Eretz Yisrael . That test, of Lech Lecha became inherited. The fact that we Jewish people say Kol Ma D'avid Rachmana L'Tav Avid/Everything that Hashem does is for the good, is because Avraham Avinu didn't question God when he had to leave the land after the famine. So we see an unbelievable concept- that Hashem purposely made Avraham Avinu go through these tests so that his spiritual genetics would be stronger, and he'd be able to pass that inheritance down to the Jewish people. This is not only true of Avraham Avinu. The Ruach Haim quotes a pasuk in Mishlei 20,7, מִתְהַלֵּ֣ךְ בְּתֻמּ֣וֹ צַדִּ֑יק אַשְׁרֵ֖י בָנָ֣יו אַחֲרָֽיו׃ / The Sadik goes in his simplicity . Fortunate are his children afterwards . According to this Nefesh HaChaim , this is a huge hiddush , that it's not just a zechut that the Sadik does something when he's 70 and it's going to help his children. That also might be true. But the Hodesh is the concept that you're bequeathing your accomplishments to your children. So, if a man gets married at 24 and went through a lot of tests before that and then has a child when he's 30 or 33 or 40, or if it's child number 8 that's born into old age, that child has in him all of the tests that the father and mother overcame. It's now built into him. So sometimes we have all kinds of tests and trials and tribulations. We don't realize what it's doing for us, and what is going into our spiritual makeup that we're going to pass down to our children. Everything Hashem does is measured. Avraham Avinu had to wait until he was 99 years old to have a child. Why did he have to wait so long? So one answer is that Hashem wants to hear the Tefilot of Sadikim . Another answer that is brought down in early sources, is that Avraham Avinu was Mekarev people, but he couldn't have a child until he had a brit milah , because he had to be perfect in that way first. And once he had a brit milah , he was somewhat separated from the rest of the world. So therefore, Hashem pushed it off as late as possible. There are all kinds of answers, but now we're hearing a new answer. Avraham Avinu had to be of that age because he went through so many tests, and then he was ready to give that spiritual DNA over to his future children, and future generations.

Welcome to our Daily Bitachon series. We are now in the Haggadah shel Pesach, in the unit of: מתחילה עובדי עבודה זרה היו אבותינו. Originally, our forefathers were idol worshippers. This part of the Haggadah is extremely important. One of the fundamentals of the night of the seder is מתחילין בגנות ומסיימין בשבח. You have to start with a negative and end with a positive. There's an argument in the Gemara in Masechet Pesachim 116a about What exactly is the negative and what's the positive? Rav says the negative is that originally we were idol worshippers. Shemuel says the negative is originally we were slaves to Paroah. According to most opinions, they both agree. That's why we mention both. The question is, what is the main point and what do we start with? Is the main point the physical subjugation or is it the spiritual subjugation? To explain in a very simple way that they both agree, the Rambam says that the most fundamental way to explain the story is to say, See the housekeeper or slave working in the kitchen We could have been like that. But that's for the simple child that doesn't understand any real depth. The deeper concept, that we were idol worshippers and Hashem took us out of because we became idol worshippers once again in Mitzrayim, is something that's a little more complex. That's not something that the average child might understand. So they're both true. And I'll add, with the poetic license, that the more advanced student is still awake and participating at the point of Mitechila .. The child who asked Ma Nishtana and got his Avadim Hayinu answer may not still be with us at this point in the Seder, at the time to start getting a little deeper. The Rambam describes the seder in the laws of Chametz and Matzah chapter 7, Halacha 4, and says so beautifully, Children, originally we were Kofrim, we were deniers. We were mistakenly after hot air and nonsense,, chasing after idol worship. That's the beginning. And we end with Discussing the true religion, that God brought us close to that, and separated us from those that strayed, and brought us close to the understanding of His Oneness. That's the piece we are discussing now. We have to understand that there is more to the story than just physical slavery and physical redemption. There is a spiritual component as well. So here we go: מתחילה עובדי עבודה זרה היו אבותינ We were strayers, we were lost. And now, says Rav Wolbe is a powerful word. ועכשיו קרבנו המקום ברוך הוא לעבודתו And now , here, right now at the Seder, God brings us closer, every single year, to Avodat Hashem. Now is the time to pause and talk about the word that's used to describe Hashem, especially at the seder: Makom מקום . Why this term of Makom ? The Nefesh HaChaim, in Shaar 3, perek 1, tells us that the concept of Makom is a place, something that holds and enables something to stand. A table is a place for a glass. If you take away the table, the glass comes crashing down. So too, Hashem is the true Place for everything. He's holding everything. If Hashem takes away His energy for even for a moment, then there's no longer a space for anything and everything will just disintegrate. As it says, You, God give life to everything. The Rambam says in the beginning of his sefer, that this is the foundation of our Emunah. If, for a moment, Hashem would stop energizing the world, the world would cease to exist. The same Nefesh HaChaim in Shaar 1, perek 16 says If the whole world, from one end to the other, would be empty for one second from people toiling in Torah, the entire world, all the world, would turn back into nothingness. He says it again in Shaar 4, perek 10, and he adds the word, Mamash / literally, I'm not exaggerating. And in Shaar 4 perek 25, he says It's enough if just one Jew is learning Torah, the world will continue. That's the power of Torah. In other words, Hashem connected us to this concept of Makom . God is the Makom of the world, but He entrusted us, and empowered us to keep that energy going. That happened with Yetziat Mitzrayim, and with Matan Torah. We became the chosen nation and we were empowered. That's ועכשיו קרבנו המקום ברוך הוא לעבודתו God connected us in this aspect of Makom . We are now empowered with keeping the world going. It's not a simple task. No wonder Hashem is constantly making sure that we're in proper shape, and doing what we're supposed to be doing-Because we are necessary! As it says (and this is a hard concept to say) תנו עז לאלהים/Give strength to God. Kal v'yachol , Hashem set up the world after He gave us to Torah, that we are giving energy and power, so to say, to God, through our Torah learning.

Welcome to our Daily Bitachon. We're now in the Haggadah shel Pesach, in the unit of יכול מראש חודש. We are finally at the punchline that the time to say the Haggadah shel Pesach is on the night of the 15th, because it says, והגדת לבנך, Tell your son ביום On that day, but that day means the night of that day , בעבור זה , Ba'Avur Zeh / Because of this / Zeh - pointing to something- referring to the Matzah and Marror that's in front of you. So tell your son, God took us out of Mirzrayim because of the Matzah and the Marror. The obvious question, asked by Rabbi Yerucham Levovitz and others is, God didn't take us out because of Matzah and Marror…isn't it the opposite? That because we ate Matzah and Marror in Mitzrayim, we commemorate the holiday of Pesach with Matzah and Marror? Did He take us out just so we could eat Matzah and Marror? And the answer is, yes He did. The Torah came before the world, and the fact that we eat Matzah, or do the Mitzvah of Marror, has nothing to do with the fact that we got out of Mitzrayim. The proof is that Avraham Avinu ate Matzah before we got out of Mitzrayim! The Avot kept the Torah before Mitzrayim. So there's something about eating Matzah on the 15th of Nissan that does something . God could have told us, it's a Chok like Para Adumah , and we don't know why we do this. But some things God decided to make a Chok , that you don't understand, and some things He decided to make it a Edut / testimony that's testifying. But we don't eat Matzah and Marror because we got out of Mitzrayim. In fact, it's the opposite:in order for us to eat Matzah and Marror, and have a sense behind it, God took us out of Mitzrayim, and we had the story of Matzah and Marror. But the goal of Yetziat Mitzrayim was to get to Matzah and Marror. That was the goal. The Torah came before the world. Like Rav Yerucham Levovitz said in a beautiful way, human beings really could have grown from the ground, or be hatched from eggs, could have come off of trees. Why did Hashem make it that human beings have a father and a mother? Because of the Mitzvah of Kivud Av V'Em , and without a father and mother you couldn't perform the Mitzvah of Kivud Av V'Em. What came first, the chicken or the egg? What came first is the Torah. And what comes afterwards-history, is there to create the stage for the Torah to be relevant, so to say. And in order for Matzah and Marror to have a sense to it, we had to get out of Mitzrayim. So we got out of Mitzrayim to create Matzah and Marror. This is a huge paradigm shift in how we look at the world. The world and all its events are really happening for the Torah, not the opposite. A mashal that I like to use to bring this out, is to imagine a top cardiologist is dating a girl, and he notices from the way she walks and talks that she has a heart murmur or something like that. He doesn't want to scare her, but he knows that she needs to take an aspirin every single day. How is he going to get her to take an aspirin every single day? He comes up with a proposal plan. Some people arrange a plane flying by with a sign saying, " Will you marry me?" This cardiologist is a dry guy, and he comes up with the following idea. He tells her that he was always interested in visiting an aspirin factory. " Let's go to the Bayer Aspirin factory," he tells her. He prepares an aspirin that has Bayer stamped on one side,and, Will you marry me? on the other side. After the whole tour, they give out complimentary aspirins. (Of course, after such a boring trip, you need to take an aspirin). He gives his future fiancé the little packet. She opens it up and sees, Will you marry me? Beautiful. How romantic. And then he tells her, "I would like you to remember this very special, this very sentimental day. So every day, I'd like you to take an aspirin and think about how I proposed to you." She goes along with it and takes an aspirin every single day, thinking that the reason she's taking the aspirin is to remember that her husband proposed to her in the aspirin factory. They live a nice long life together. When they're 80 years old, he finally tells her , "I want to to tell you a secret. The secret is that you have a heart murmur. Baruch Hashem, everything's fine. You took an aspirin every single day. You're doing great. And you know what? I took you to the aspirin factory just to get you to take the aspirin. So you are not taking the aspirin to remember what happened at the aspirin factory." That's exactly what God did for us. He didn't tell us to eat Matzah and Marror because we got out of Mitzrayim. The opposite. He made Yetziat Mitzrayim happen, He made the history happen, in order to give us a reason to eat the Matzah and Marror. But ultimately, we eat the Matzah and Marror because that's what we're supposed to do. It's not just Matzah and Marror, it's life . Everything that happens is just happening to fulfill Hashem's will in the world. What comes first is His will, is His Gezera , like the Bet Halevi says, when it comes to ויהי מקץ שנתים ימים פרעה חולם. After two years Paroah has a dream and Yosef gets out. Yosef didn't get out because Paroah had a dream. The opposite. Because Yosef had to get out, Hashem made it that Paroah had a dream. I call it the upside down theory. What comes first and what comes second? What caused what? We think, "Oh, I have a problem, so I'll pray to get rid of the problem." No, God wants your prayers, so He gives you a problem. Quite often in life we don't see what's causing what. What's the cause and what's the effect? What comes first and what comes second? What's the chicken and what's the egg? That's the lesson of Ba'Avur Zeh.

Welcome to our Bitachon class. We now discussing the Haggadah of Pesach. We're in the stanza of Yechol Rosh Hodesh, that we might have thought that the right time for the Seder is Rosh Hodesh. And the pasuk says, ב יום ההוא, B'Yom HaHu/on that day. Well, that day , may mean during the day . And as we said last class, anytime we have a thought, there has to be a basis for it. We don't just say maybe. The fact that we even thought that the Seder should be on Rosh Hodesh Nissan means there's a strong reason to think so. And the fact that we thought that the time to do it is during the day and not the nighttime means there's a strong reason to think that as well. So what happened during the day of the 14 th of Nissan that would warrant saying the Hagaddah of Pesach during the day ? The answer is, that's the day when they slaughtered the Korban Pesach. What was the ultimate revelation that caused the need to do the Haggadah? You might have thought it was the Korban Pesach. So exactly what does the Korban Pesach symbolize and teach us? This is very important information-The Egyptians worshipped the sheep. That's why it was considered an abomination to be a shepherd in Egypt, as is clearly stated in the pesukim. Furthermore, Moshe told Paroah that they could not slaughter the sheep in the local town of Egypt; they'd have to go out to the desert, because they'd be stoned if they were seen slaughtering sheep, the Egyptian god. Why did the Egyptians worship the sheep? It wasn't random. There are 12 symbols in the horoscope. These 12 symbols are not just for palm readers or the newspaper horoscope column. These are real concepts rooted in our Torah literature. The Ramban, for example, tells us that the symbol of Tishre, Libra is a scale , which he says is a sign in the heavens that we're being judged that month. And the Mazal of Adar is a fish, or Pisces, as fish are above the Ayin Hara.. The Mazal of Elul אלול אני לדודי ודודי לי, I am to my beloved, and my beloved to me is Virgo, which is a young maiden. All of these symbols are real and have to do with specific times. The sheep is the head of all 12 Mazalot . That's why Rabbenu Bachye says this month is called Aviv/ אביב is a contraction of אב י"ב, the father (or chief) of the other 12. Therefore, the Egyptians worshipped the sheep as the so- called Bechor , or first born of the Mazalot . (After the sheep comes the ox, the Taurus. One of the commentaries say the reason why the Jewish people worshipped the golden calf was because they said Now that we brought down the sheep, we have to go on to the next symbol, which is the ox. ) So the Egyptians worshipped the sheep and felt it had a power in the heavens and when we slaughtered the sheep, our actions down here were impacting the mazal of the sheep in heaven. We were going to overcome the mazal , based on the principle of אין מזל לישראל/ We Jewish people are not impacted by the horoscope. We're not impacted by any of these signs. As Hashem told Avraham, Go outside. Says Rashi , this means leave your soothsayers, leave all of that stuff. We the Jewish people are above all that. God tells Avraham, Go in front of Me and you will be perfect. And that's the Brit Milah. And there's another Mitzvah later on, which is תמים תהיה,Tamim Tihyeh be perfect with Hashem and go away from all the soothsayers and stargazers. So the Brit , the deal that we made with Hashem was to be Tamim , to be complete with Him , to rely on Him and to be above all that nonsense. We're above nature, we don't follow nature. Today we'll call mazal nature . So that was the symbolism. We slaughtered the sheep down here and the mazal of the sheep in the heavens comes down and everything falls with it. Additionally, the Jewish people tied the Korban to the bedposts on the 10th of Nissan, which was Shabbat HaGadol. It was a miracle, it says, that the Egyptians did not kill them when they did that. The midrash says further, quoted by Tosafot, that the pasuk in Tehilim lומכה מצרים בבכוריהם / Hashem hit the Egyptians with their firstborn. Shouldn't it be, He hit the firstborn Egyptians ? Tosafot explains that when Moshe announced that we'd be slaughtering the sheep, a civil war broke out among the Egyptians. The Egyptian first- borns all said, Let them out already! What are you doing , and there was a civil war between the firstborn and the rest of Egypt, about whether they should let them out before the 14th, before they slaughter the sheep. Why were the firstborn so concerned? The Maharsha says, because there was a connection between them, almost like the concept of a voodoo doll , a little doll that is supposed to resemble a particular person and if you stuck pins in the doll's ankle, suddenly that guy would get a pain in his ankle. Likewise, the firstborn sheep was like a voodoo doll of the First born Egyptians. How so? When you slaughter the sheep down here, it impacts the mazal in the heavens of the firstborn, and the firstborn would die. That's why slaughtering the sheep was actually the impetus of Makat Bechorot . That's why the firstborn said, Don't let them slaughter the sheep! It's going to bring us down. And that was what the war was about. So Korban Pesach illustrated, in a very vivid way, the power of the Hashem over the mazal, but En Mazal L'Yisrael. We ignore Mazalot . The Ramban, in many places, discusses the important rule of תמים תהיה. In Bereshit 17,1, he quotes the pasuk in Devarim 18,13, and says that This is one and the same, which is, יאמין בלבו, believe in your heart. כי הקדוש ברוך הוא לבדו, הוא בעל היכולת בתחילה ובסוף,. הוא יכול לעשות, לבטל. Only God is in charge. He can do or annul. And therefore, when you hear any soothsayer or any predictor, לא יאמין שיבואו דברים על כל פנים, don't say it has to happen. When you hear predictions, financial, health or otherwise, you should say in your heart, הכל ביד עליון, עליונים. It's all in the power of God. And he says, וכפי שיתהלך אדם לפניו, and the more I connect to Him, מפרוטות, I will undo these signs , and he says that's what it means when Hashem told Avraham Avinu, in Shabbat 156a, Leave the soothsayers. He repeats this in Devarim 18,13, where he says, When you hear what they say (tariffs or anything else), you know what your response should be? הכל בידי שמים, it's up to God. הוא אלוהי אלוהים, He's the God above all, עליון על הכל. And believe, שכל הבלות תהיינה, everything that happens to me is כפי יתקרב אדם לבדו תול, the more I connect to God in His service. This is an important rule, and this is the message of the Korban Pesach. And lastly, he says this in his השגות on the Sefer Mitzvot , Mitzvat Aseh 8, where he discusses things that he believes should be on the list, that the Rambam left out, and he believes that תמים תהיה was one of the 613. We have to believe that He alone does everything, He knows what's going to happen in the future, and if we have a problem, we look to Him. He says, שכל הכל תהיינה, We have to believe that all forces happen, as we connect to Him. And this is why we might have thought, מבעוד יום, " The message of the Korban Pesach? wow, we should make the סדר right then and there!"

Welcome to our Daily Bitachon class. Today's piece is about figuring out the right date and the right time for the seder. One might think it's from Rosh Hodesh because that was the first Mitzvah the Jewish people were told. החדש הזה לכם. This month is the month of the Jewish people, ראש חודש Rosh Hodesh Nissan. ראשון הוא לכל חודש השנה, the first interaction with God. And there is also the message of the moon, which is a powerful and important lesson of Bitachon. There is a famous story about Rav Chaim Shmulevitz. He once met a Holocaust survivor and asked, " How did you survive in the camps? What kept you connected to God? You had no siddur, you had no Tefilin….What did you have? " The survivor said, " There was one religious item that the Germans could not take away from us- the moon. We kept count of the days so knew when Rosh Hodesh was coming and we were able to say the blessing on the moon every single month. We looked up to the moon and we saw the moon get larger and smaller, but the moon remained. " That symbolizes the Jewish people, it waxes and wanes, but never disappears. We count to the moon, we don't count to the sun. The moon is all about Hodesh , which is Hadash/new and renewal . The Jewish people are resilient. They constantly renew themselves, just like some businesses that are successful for generations because they know how to renew themselves. Kodak didn't renew. Blackberry, Research in Motion, didn't renew. It seems that Apple is renewing itself. Samsung is having some struggles with AI. But the bottom line is, you need to have that ability called התחדשות and that's the Jewish ability. We are constantly renewing ourselves. We're still here. The goyim count to the sun. The sun's year is called שנה /Shana/year which is לשון שונה , which means to repeat something. ראשון, שני, the second time- it's just repetitious. The sun goes up, the sun goes down. You don't see any changes in the sun. It's the same basic cycle, whereas the moon renews itself. It gets bigger, and smaller, but it's always there. I once heard from Rav Moshe Shapiro that if you got up in the morning and the sun wasn't there, you'd know the world is over because the sun isn't there. If it's not there, it's over, because it doesn't have the ability to go up and go down. It's the same with the nations of the world that count by the sun. When they drop out, the Greeks, the Aztecs, the Romans, they don't come back again. But the Jewish people are like the moon. When the moon disappears, you don't say, " Oh no, the moon is gone!" No, it's coming back. It might have a little bit of a dip, or a little low, but it's going to come back strong. We saw that post Holocaust. People wondered what was going to be with the Jewish people. But we came back with a vengeance. The same thing happened with the Sephardic world in Israel. When they originally came, due to various challenges and struggles a lot of them lost their religion, but they came back with a vengeance. There are dozens or hundreds of Sephardic Yeshivot and Kollelim. They came back. Like the famous line of Hacham Ovadia, who wanted to Return the crown to its old ways. And they came back. The Jewish people don't disappear. And the power of Rosh Hodesh is such an important lesson that one might have thought the right time to say the whole Seder is not on the 15th of Nissan, but on Rosh Hodesh Nissan. Interestingly, it says, HaHodesh Ha zeh Lachem/ this month is yours. And in the Haggadah, it says Baavur Zeh / because of this, (which actually refers to Matzah and Maror something we can point to). Furthermore, the Mekubalim say that זה/this indicating something to point to, refers to the Shechina. Like it says, זה אלי ואנוהו, This is my God, and I will beautify Him. בעבור זה So when we point to the Matzah and Marror, at the Seder, the Shechina is there. And the same thing is true on Rosh Hodesh. We say in our blessing of the moon, that if the Jewish people only received the Shechina once a month, it would be enough. We say the blessing on the moon standing, because when you bless the moon, you see the Shechina. You see God's hand in nature. The moon gets bigger, and the moon gets smaller and that's the power of זה . החדש ה זה לכם, זה אלי ואנוהו . So one might have thought that this is the זה we're trying to get to- the revelation of the Shechina, the זה , that happens on Rosh Hodesh. But we're going to see from the pesukim that no. We are talking about the revelation of the זה / zeh / this that happens with the Matzah and the Marror, that the Shechina revealed itself on the night of Yetziat Mitzrayim , like the Hagaddah says, that God revealed Himself. It says, ובמורא גדול , we're going to say later on, with the great revelatio n, זו גילוי שכינה , We say in the piece of Matzah Zu לא הספיק בצקם של אבותינו להחמיץ, Their dough did not have the chance to rise, עד שנגלה עליהם, until it was revealed upon them, מלך מלכי המלכים, the great King Hashem . So there's a revelation on the night of the Seder. There's a revelation at Keriat Yam Suf, and there's a revelation that happens every single Rosh Hodesh. There is also a זה revelation in Shir HaShirim 2,8, where it says, הנה זה עומד אחר כתלנו, Behold this stands behind our walls, משגיח מן החלונות , supervising from the windows, מציץ , squinting , looking through, מנחרכים, the cracks . In the Midrash Raba Shir Hashirim 2,26, it says, What does it mean Hashem is standing behind the wall? Behind the Kotel HaMaravo of the Bet Hamikdash, that God swore would never be destroyed. The Midrash continues with an interesting line. The next pasuk says, ענה דודי ואמר לי, My beloved responded to me and said somethin g. And the same Midrash says, מה אמר לי, What did God say to me? החדש הזה לכם ראש/He said to me HaHodesh Ha zeh . It's quite clear from this midrash, there's a connection between הנה זה , the Shechina is still standing by the Kotel Hamaaravi , and HaHodesh Hazeh Lachem the month is still yours . Even in the Galut, even in the darkness, we still have the moon, that is telling us the Shechina is with us. And that's why we would have thought that יכול מראש חדש the Seder might have been on Rosh Hodesh

Welcome to our Bitachon class. We're now discussing Hagaddah. The unit that we're up to now is , the Four Sons. We're not going to go into the intricacies of four sons because that's really not the message of the Night of the Seder. I want to give some background of where the concept of the sons come from. The source is actually a Mishna in Masechet Pesachim116a, where it says, וכאן הבן שואל אביו. And here (at the point where we pour the second glass), the son asks the question. And אין דעת בבן, if the son doesn't have the knowledge, אביו מלמדו, the father, teaches him what to say . The Gemara is hinting at the concept that some children have more knowledge than others. The Rambam on the laws of Hametz UMatzah perek 7, clearly describes the baseline of knowledge of the children. He says, לפי דעתו של בן אביו מלמדו, depending on the knowledge of the son, the father teaches him , and he gives an example. אם היה קטן, If it's a young lad, אומר לו, you say to the child, בני, my son, כולנו היינו עבדים, we were all slaves, כמו שבחזו, like this maidservant, וכמו עבד זה,or like this slave And you point to the kitchen to indicate the people working in the house, and not sitting around the table- they're workers. In the times of the Rambam, a slave or a servant was not what we'd call our common domestic help. They were indentured slaves, as existed hundreds of years ago. So he was actually showing the child and saying, " This could have been you , ובלילה הזה, And on this night, פדה אותנו הקדוש ברוך הוא, God redeemed us, הוציאנו לחירות, and took us out of freedom . That's the baseline for the most simple of sons. The point being, and this is why the Hagaddah spends the time of telling us about the four different sons, that the obligation of the night is to teach the fundamental beliefs to our children, and every child is different. And he continues on, that if the son is older and wiser, then it's not enough just to say, We got out. We need to provide some details, and say what happened? And if he's older, and he can start understanding miracles, tell him about the miracles, all according to the child's understanding. Further, he goes on, that it's important to understand, what the message of the night is. And the Rambam, in his Sefer Mitzvot, positive commandment number 157, explains the messages that we're supposed to impart to our children. He says, Number one, To increase and make great what Hashem did for us. Hashem did great things for us. Forget about the punishments to the Egyptians, God did great things for us. Next, we have to discuss the acts of destruction, iniquity, and improper behavior that the did Egyptians did to us, such as slaughtering the babies, etc…. But that's not the end. We have to discuss how God took vengeance on them, to show that God is treating us like the father protecting his son from the bully. He's not just going to sit back and watch. He's not just going to save his son. It's not enough that he takes his son out of the bully's hands and buys him ice cream. No, he also beats up the bully. Number 3, after we've done that, we have to train our children to thank Hashem for all the things that He did . The more you can do that, the better. That's what it means that The more you tell about it, the more praiseworthy you are. That's what והגדת לבנך is all about. We have to understand our children, and know what capacity of understanding they have regarding these important concepts. How much do they understand how much Hashem did for us? Spiritually, physically, He gave us booty…. And we have to impart exactly what the Egyptians did to us. Can they understand the עבודת פרך, the back-breaking work? Can they understand how the Mitzrim interfered with our family life? Can they understand the pressure? That also has to be explained to your child. But again, you have to know your child. There are things that they can understand and handle and process, and things that they can't. It's not one size fits all. That's really the message of this unit of the four sons- To understand that you have to tailor it to their understanding. Can they understand the concept that God protects us like a father protects the son from the bully? And again, for a young child, explain what that means. And so on and so forth. It's important to understand who your audience is. That's really the unit of the Four Sons- Who is your audience and how do you prepare to reach them on their level? People use all kinds of props, and whatever it may be. Even the custom we have of putting the Matzah on our shoulders, or any of the other many customs are in order to make it understandabl e for all ages .

Welcome to our daily bitachon class. As our community is reeling from the tragedies that occurred on Shabbat , I'd like to leave our Haggadah discussion for the day. There's a story that's told over that a skit or a play about a certain tragic event during the times of the Holocaust was shown, and people were extremely moved. They all cried and were very jarred from the play. Somebody asked the Brisker Rav , why it was that when people heard about the Holocaust, and how six million Jews died, they were not bawling and crying, but they were bawling and crying from this small skit of what happened. Rav Brisker answered that if you have a very large piano that you're trying to get it into the house, as much you turn and twist, the piano won't get in. But if you have something smaller, you can get it in. This is similar to our brains, which are made in such a way that it has a certain capacity to hold things, and certain things, it just can't hold. Something of with the magnitude of the Holocaust can't be held, but when a smaller snip of a larger tragedy comes by a person, they're able to hold it and process it and that causes the emotions to flow. And when a tragedy of the magnitude where a mother and two children are killed in such a sudden way, the term is used Alah Mavet beChaloneinu/Death has come through our window. The Rabbanim explain that when someone comes into a house, they usually knock on the door. That's the regular way of doing things. Coming through the window means you snuck in. So Alah mavet bechaloneinu/Death came through the window means there was no warning. There was no sickness. Someone was taking a walk on a Shabbat afternoon with their family, and this came out nowhere, and something like that is just too big to process. It's too big to figure out, especially in the early stages, when people are looking for answers. But there really is no answer. It's really just a time for emotion and crying. The Mishnah in Pirkei Avot , Perek 4 , Mishnah 18 tells us Rav Shimon ben Elazar says וְאַל תְּנַחֲמֶ נּוּ בְּשָׁעָה שֶׁמֵּתוֹ מֻטָּל לְפָנָיו / Al tenachamenu B'shaah shemeto mutal lefanav / Do not comfort someone when the dead is still lying there. Rabbenu Yonah explains that because at this point in time, trying to comfort the person is just going to cause anger, and cause the person to say things he doesn't want to say. The Sefer Midrash Shemuel says more than that, B'vadai yimna milhitnachem . He will for sure refuse to be comforted, to accept the will of God. If anything, the person might say improper statements. Nechama means comfort . But as we've said in the past, nechama also means to have a different look at things . Rashi says vayeinachem means God looked at it differently. Nachum Ish Gamzu , said Gamzu l'tova , and the root of his name is Nachum , which we call a reframe , But there are times when there's no place for a reframe. It's too raw and too big for a reframe, and at those times, there is nothing to be said. That's why, quite often Rabbis are put in the position to answer the question, What's going on here ? In other words, Rabbi , reframe this for me. And the answer is, Right now is not a time for that. It's not a time for looking for answers. It's a time to cry. It's a time to stay with this shock and the emotion of what happened and process it and see if it can somehow get inside of you. A lot of times when we're looking for those answers, we're trying to get rid of that uncomfortable feeling of sadness, of confusion, because it's too hard to deal with. So answer it for me. But it's not the time. The sefer Mili DeAvot on that same Mishnah in Pirkei Avot brings a proof from Hashem. He quoted the Yalkut Shimoni in Yeshayah , where it says in Yeshayah 22:12, Hashem calls out to the angels to cry, to bemoan that the Bet HaMikdash was destroyed. And it says Bikshu malachim l'nachamo , the angels wanted to comfort God, V'lo ratza lehitnachem / And God did not want to be comforted. And it goes on to say, Al ta'itzu l'nachameni / Do not try, don't push yourselves not to give Me comfort . It's not the time. That's my little thought for today. I don't feel it's the right time for people to start looking for answers or reframes or comfort. It's too early. It's too raw. It's a time to sit with that emotion of sadness. And although it may sound like it, I'm not coming from a therapeutic approach. This is a Mishnah in Pirkei Avot based on Rishonim . Now, if it sounds like it rings from the world of therapy, that's because Torah was here before therapy, and there's a time for mourning and there's a time for crying. And as uncomfortable it may be to sit with these emotions of sadness and questions, and whatever it may be, that's really what one is supposed to be doing right now. We don't like to cry, but it's a time to cry.

Welcome to our Pesach Bitachon series. We continue with another thought on the portion of Maaseh B'BRibi Eliezer Bribi Yehoshua…. discussing how they spent the whole night talking about Yetzyat Mitzrayim . The Sefer Ateret Yeshua says that these Hachamim taught us that even in the exile, (which is compared to night), we have Yetziat Mitzrayim , because Mitzrayim refers to the Yetzer Hara which is always out to ambush a person. And every time we overcome our Yetzer Hara , that's a Yetziat Mitzrayim . That's what it means that they were telling the story of Yetziat Mitzrayim that whole night. So even at night, which is the Galut , the entire night, we have a responsibility to uproot the Mitzrayim inside of us. That's why we have a commandment to get rid of the Chametz before Pesach - because the Chametz refers to the Yetzer Hara . That is why the students came and said the time of Shacharit has come. The ultimate goal of Keriat Shema shel Shaharit is to gain the clarity of Hashem Echad and overcome the Yetzer Hara . He says something unbelievable, that the pasuk Shema Yisrael Hashem Elokenu Hashem Echad has the same numerical value as Srefat Chametz (I didn't add it up). So when it says we reached Kriyat Shema shel Shacharit , it means that we've reached the point, through telling the story of the night, that we've gotten rid of the Yetzer Hara . That's the goal of the night of the seder -to reach the concept of Hashem Echad . That's why the sefarim say that at the end of the Seder , we say Echad Mi Yodea / Who knows One? Hashem is One . The goal of the night is to get that clarity, which we call Yechudo Yitbarach , the Oneness of God. As long as there are other forces, God is, so to say, not One. But in the future, Hashem Echad U'shmo Echad . The goal of the Yetziat Mitzrayim is to reach Hashem Echad U'shmo Echad , which was the level of Adam HaRishon before the sin, and it's the level that the Jewish people reached at Matan Torah , if not for the sin of the golden calf, which eradicated it. The point is to realize the power of telling the story that night; it rids us of our Yetzer Hara , because although we thimk of the Yetzer Hara as out to do evil (and all the other things, which is true) the fundamental point of the Yetzer Hara is denying God's Oneness. That's why the snake said, " God ate from the tree, so can you eat from the tree. " It's denying God's Oneness. Kriyat Shema shel Shachrit , is God's Oneness. Kriyat Shema throughout the year is actually a continuation of the message of Yetziat Mitzrayim . It's not a coincidence that we talk about Yetziat Mitzrayim in our Kriyat Shema . The end of Kriyat Shema talks about Anochi Hashem Elokecha Asher Hotzeticha M'Eretz Mitzrayim . We talk all about the Geula , and all about Mitzrayim every single night in connection with Kriyat Shema . It's not just a side point. Yetziat Mitzrayim is the source for Hashem Elokenu Hashem Echad . The Ramban says that when we say Hashem Elokenu , how do we know He's our God? We know He's our God from Yetziat Mitzrayim . This was not just a haphazard, random wake up call for the rabbis, telling them it was time for Kriyat Shema shel Shachrit , as if they were saying the rooster is crowing or something like that. No. Reaching Kriyat Shema shel Shachrit means we've reached that revelation, that clarity, which is the goal of the night. The sefer Imrei Emet says a similar thought: that Kriyat Shema shel Shachrit symbolizes the Geula of the future- LeHagid Ba'boker Chasdecha . Ba'boker Chasdecha is the Kriyat Shema of the morning, which is light and Geula . We're currently in the era of Kriyat Shema shel Arbit , which is Emunatcha Ba'lelot . Throughout the night, we need to have Emunah . The ultimate is the time of Kriyat Shema shel Shachrit , when, as the Gemara says, Misheyakir Ben T'chelet Lavan , you can differentiate between T'chelet and Lavan . T'chelet symbolizes the heavens and brings us up to the Kisei HaKavod , up to God. So the Kriyat Shema shel Shachrit , the morning Kriyat Shema is said when there is clarity, when there is light. Many of the mefarashim say the word Sipur is fr the lashon of Safir , which means sapphire . The Or HaChaim HaKadosh says this on Sefirat HaOmer , that when you count the Omer , it causes the person to shine. Similarly, the Imre Emet says, they were Misaprim B'Yetzyat Mitzrayim , and the Safir is the shining ; that through the telling of the story of Yetziat Mitzrayim , we're turning the lights on, lighting up the night, and that clarity comes by telling over the stories and the Nissim . Getting back to where we started, although we're in Galut now, even in Galut you can bring the light in- the light of clarity that can give us the ability to survive the Galut , and this is what happens on the night of the Seder . We have to appreciate what these great rabbis were doing, spending the entire night on all these details of the miracle. The Chida, in his sefer Simchat HaRegel points out that these rabbis knew Kol HaTorah Kula , and yet they spent the entire night staying up, not sleeping. We should get Chizuk from this, that we also have to strengthen ourselves and put all our energy in giving over this message and gain the clarity that we can attain on this one night a year. Bezrat Hashem , we will all be successful.

Welcome to our daily bitachon Haggadah Shel Pesach series . We're up to the piece of Maaseh , which lists many great Tanaim , Rebbe Eliezer , Rebbe Yehoshua , Rebbe Elazar ben Azariah Rebbe Akiva and Rebbe Tarfon who were all together in Bnei Brak one Pesach , and spent the whole night talking about Yetziyat Mitzrayim. Rebbe Yechiel Michel Epstein , better known as the Aruch HaShulchan, writes in his commentary on the Haggadah , that he's bothered by a few questions. Firstly,Rebbe Eliezer lived in a town called Lod , Rebbe Yehoshua lived in a town called Peki'in and Rebbe Akiva lived in Bnei Brak , as the Gemara in Sanhedrin 32a tells us. ( Rebbe Eliezer and Rebbe Yehoshua were teachers of Rebbe Akiva .) Why were they all by Rabbi Akiva for the holiday? Especially Rebbe Eliezer , as he is the one that holds (see Sukkah 27b), that one is supposed to stay home for the holiday. So why was he leaving his home on Pesach to go to his student, Rebbe Akiva ? He answers based on a Gemara in Mesechet Makkot 25b, that Raban Gamliel , Rebbe Elazar ben Azariah , Rebbe Yehoshua and Rebbe Akiva were all on the road, and heard a tremendous ruckus of partying coming from Rome. They started to cry, and Rabbi Akiva started to laugh. Rabbi Akiva asked, " Why are you crying ?" And they said, "They're sitting in serenity and confidence. They destroyed the Bet HaMikdash, and here we are. " They asked why he was laughing, and he said, "That's why I'm laughing. If this is what happens to those that go against God's will, imagine what's going to happen to those that fulfill God's will!" And he explains that Rabbi Akiva was telling them an important principle, that after someone goes through Midat HaDin , after there's justice on someone, the chesed that comes out is tremendous. Rabbi Akiva was trying to tell them was that if the Babylonians, who had no judgment on them, and thus no purification on them, merited so much kindness from Hashem , because Hashem's kindness is never-ending, imagine how much we, who went through (and are going through) this tremendous justice and judgment and purification by God, are going to be enveloped in God's tremendous kindness. Because of Rabbi Akiva's chizuk , and new way of looking at things, says the Aruch HaShulchan , they felt indebted to him. He strengthened their hope in the Jewish people, at a point in history, after the Chorban when they were suffering through so much. So they all came to his house, in his city (except for Rabban Gamliel , who was the Nasi , and didn't come), to spend the night with Rabbi Akiva, talking about Yetziyat Mitzrayim . Because Yetziyat Mitzrayim is the time that we get clear on the Nitzchiyut , the everlasting state of the Jewish people, that no one could destroy them. Rabbi Akiva was the expert on this, so they spent the night working on this concept of Nitzchiyut Yisrael , the eternal state of the Jewish people . That, he says, is the purpose of the night of Yetziyat Mitzrayim . Because Bechol Dor Vador , Omdim Alenu .. In every generation, they try to destroy us. Therefore, they felt the best way to gain this clarity, in the post-destruction era that they were in, was to go to Rebbe Akiva , who had this understanding. So they went firstly, as a token of appreciation and respect Rabbi Akiva , for what he did for them, and also for the chizuk that they would get from being at his seder . He doesn't say this, but Rabbi Akiva is known as the one who, while they're tearing his skin off, was saying My whole life I've been preparing for this. Rabbi Akiva was was able to go through tremendously challenging situations and stick with the attitude of Kol ma d'avid Rachmana latav , whatever God does is for the good . He was a student of Nachum Ish Gamzu, who said Gamzu L'Tovah , and the Yerushalmi cites a fascinating discussion between between them. Nachum Ish Gamzu, after not taking care of a poor man fast enough, asked God to give him a severe punishment. When Rebbe Akiva saw his Rebbe like that, he said, "Oy li / Woe onto me that I see you like this!" And Nachum told Rabbi Akiva , " Oy li, Woe onto me if I don't see you like this!" Rabbi Akiva said, Are you cursing me? And Nachum Ish Gamzu said, " No, I'm not cursing you." He saw what Rabbi Akiva would go through at the hand of the Romans in the future, and how it would bring him to his greatness. Rabbi Akiva is the quintessential picture of resilience. 24,000 of his students died, and he picked himself up, found five new students, and all the Torah Sh'beAl/all the oral law that we have, came from him. The Aruch Hashulchan says that they spent the whole night on this concept, until their students came and said, our Rabbotenu / Our Rabbis , the time of Kriyat Shema Shel Shachrit has come. Kriyat Shema Shel Shachrit symbolizes the upbeat attitude, as we say, Magen U'Moshiach , God is a shield and a protection, , bechol dor vador , in every generation. Kriyat Shema is our promise from Hashem that we're going to last forever. Shema Yisrael Hashem Elokenu Hashem Echad . Interestingly enough, Rabbotenu , Higiya HaZman Kriyat Shema Shel Shachrit , were the final of Rebbe Akiva , as it said, fortunate is Akiva , that his soul departed, as he was saying, Echad . So this was the place, and this was the night, to get that chizuk from Rabbi Akiva .

Welcome to our Haggadah/Bitachon series. We're now up to the unit of Avadim Hayeenu . The Ritva writes that this is the beginning of the Haggadah - the answer to the son's question. And as the Gemara says, we start with the negative and end with the positive. And the reason is , says the Ritva in his beautiful words, לתת שבח והודאת לה׳ יתברך המאשפות ירים אביון To praise and thank Hashem Yitbarach , that H e lifts up the destitute from the dumps. This is an important part of our theme- we're not just telling the story, we're supposed to be feeling Hakarat HaTov and say Thank You to Hashem for what He has done for us. The Rambam, in his sefer Moreh Nebuchim section 3, chapter 43, when going through certain mitzvot , says that holidays of Sukkot and Pesach teach us De'ot and Middot . De'ot are the proper mindsets, and Middot are the proper character traits. The De'ot / mindsets of Pesach is to mention the miracles of Mitzrayim and realize hatmadatah l'dorot (this is an important line) that it's not enough to say that miracles happen, but rather that miracles continue to happen. (We see that in the V'hi She'amda , which we'll get to later on). So the Rambam , in his very succinct way, encapsulates the cognitive message of Pesach - הזכרת אותות מצרים / Remembering, mentioning the miracles, the signs, and התמדה לדורות /its continuation for generations. And what is the midah one should have? That a person should remember the bad days during the good days. We're in the good days now, so remember the bad days. Why? בעבור שירבה להודות לה׳ so that you will increase your thanks to God. And, what's the purpose of the thanks? V'shalumad midat anava v'shiflut , to teach you the trait of humility. As we mentioned in Ha Lachma Anya , anya is humility . The Rambam is telling us the purpose is to remember. Avadim Hayeenu -We have to remember the bad times in the good, and thank Him, and ultimately come to the anava v'shiflut . And we eat the matzah and maror to remember what happened to us. Remember what he says, the chesed Elohah , the kindness of God and the promise He made to our forefathers because they were Anashim shleimim b'deotam u'midotam . They were men full of De'ot and Middot Who are those forefathers? Avraham , Yitzhak , and Yaakov . He says this is one of the fundamentals of Torah Tiluyah Alav , that the Torah depends on. שכל טוב שהטיב ה׳ לנו / All of the goodness is that God ever did to us , ויטיב / and will do good for us , is in the merit of the Avot . That's why he talked about the Brit Ben HaBe'tarim , it's all about Avraham Avinu; and it says Yaakov Avinu goes down, Yitzhak Avinu is also mentioned in the Haggadah , when it says, I chose Yitzhak . This is where the humility comes in as well, to realize that it's in the merit of our forefathers that we're here, not because of what we did. Thanks, praise, humility, remembering where we came from- that is the beginnings of Avadim Hayeenu . The Avudarham says that's why we say in Avadim Hayeenu , ' Kulanu Zekeinim , even if we're old men,' and we heard this for years already and we know everything, we still have to say it, because you have to arouse your happiness and your thanks. This is not a cognitive experience; it's not just to tell me something that I don't know. No. I have to get myself to thank Hashem and be happy for what He has done for us to drive in the Hakarat HaTov . If HaKadosh Baruch Hu did not take us out, we would not be out! That's a fact. Nothing else could have gotten us out. He quotes the Midrash that says that it's like an embryo that's stuck inside its mother's womb. It's stuck there and it can't get out. It has to be pulled it out. Likewise, we would still be there, and we would have become entangled in the Egyptian culture and mindset. Therefore, God took us out and created a whole new existence. A new birth. So we thank Him for that fact on this night. We became a whole new nation- and that never would have happened. It's impossible. Even in the greatest dreams, it's could not happen. Only God can make it happen. In a mashal , in the sefer Zevach Pesach , he says, Maybe 600,000 people could not have been let out, but what if it had been just us and our children, and our grandchildren? Who knows, could we have gotten out? No. He says, Can millions of sheep fight off a lion ? No. Millions of sheep can't fight off a lion. There are certain things that just can't happen. Therefore, he says, there's only one way out of this, Yecholet Eloki Urtzonot / The ability of God and the will of God . He says the purpose of this is not to make you feel like you got out. We'll talk about that later in the Haggadah . The purpose now is to tell us Gevurat Hashem Yitbarach V'chasdoh , God's strength, His power, and the kindness that He did , to humble ourselves to the One that saved us, and only He could have saved us. No one else. It's like the patient that there was only one doctor in the world that could perform this life-saving operation and no one can else do it. That's the feeling that we're supposed have on the night of the Seder .

Welcome to our class on Bitachon . Today we continue our Haggadah series and we are up to Ma Nishtana . The Sefer Shibbolei HaLeket , one of the Rishonim , quotes his brother, Rabi Binyamin , who explains that the Ma Nishtana question is based on the pasuk of Vehiggadatah lebincha . Ve higgada tah is the source for the term Haggadah / tell your child . And in that statement, it says, ba'avur zeh / because of this , which means I'm pointing to something as I say this . What am I pointing to? I'm pointing to the matzah and maror that's in front of me. So the son asks a question about the maror . Why do we eat maror instead of other things? He also asks about the matzah - Why are we eating matzah and not chametz? In the times of the Bet HaMikdash , the son would ask Why are we eating the korban Pesach, roasted , different than all the rest of the year? Now we don't ask that question, we ask about the leaning, and we only respond to the question of leaning, which is Avadim Hayinu / We were slaves, we got out, and that's why we're leaning tonight. So we lean as free men because we were freed tonight. But where is the answer to the rest of the questions? Those come only at the end of the Haggadah , when Rabban Gamaliel says that we have to discuss these three things- Pesach , matzah , and maror , and that's really the answer to the boy's questions. A question is asked- Why did the Baal HaHaggadah /the author of the Haggadah , set it up that we ask the questions at the beginning of the meal, but not answer them until way later? One of the answers, given by the Chatam Sofer , is that it's to show us that we need to have patience. The reason the night of the Seder is so dragged out (Come on, let's finish already), is because we are in Galut , and we need to wait. We're not always going to have the answers right away. We're not always going to get out of the difficulty right away. We have to wait. There's a Yiddish saying that I learned when I was in Mir Yeshiva High School. When you're learning Gemara and you have a question and there's no answer, the line that my teacher in high school used to say was is Fun a kasha shtarbt men nisht , which means you don't die from a question. In other words, don't worry, you're not going to die because you have a question. You'll survive. You learn a Gemara and you have a question, and go further and keep the question in your mind. You don't die from the question. So we start off the night of the Haggadah with a question. What's the answer? I don't know the answer necessarily, so I'll be patient and the answer will come- in a year or two or three or five or ten, but we can continue with the questions. We can live with questions. That's one of the lessons built into the Haggadah - that you're not going to have all the answers right away. You have to learn patience and wait for the answers. There's a story they tell about a man who lived a long life. They asked him, What was your secret for a long life ? The Gemara talks about how when people lived a long life, they used to ask them, What did you do? And this man said, Well, a lot of people have questions. And God says, 'Oh you have questions? Okay, come up. I'll give you the answers.' I don't have any questions, or better yet, I'm patient and I'll wait for my answers. It's okay. I'll wait. I have patience. I don't need the answers right away, Hashem, I could live a life that has a lot of questions. Moshe Rabbeinu would question, Tzaddik v'Ra Lo, Rasha v'Tov lo- Why do bad things happen to good people and vice versa ? What's the answer? Hashem didn't really give an answer. Why? Because we don't always have the answers. That's an important lesson. Another point, many years ago in the Deal Synagogue in Deal, New Jersey, Rabbi Ezrachi was there, and he was walking by our room while we were in the middle of a difficult Gemara . We had a question, so we shared it him. He really liked the question. And he said over the question in his powerful, booming voice, Rav Baruch Mordechai Ezrachi, and we didn't have an answer, and he didn't have an answer. And he said, " You don't need an answer. Enjoy the question." Relish the question. The main thing is the question.The answer is secondary. Live with the question. Chew on the question. Enjoy the question. Delve into the question. That is our opening lesson. It's a night of Chinuch. It's a night of lessons. "Father, I have questions." And we say, " Sonny boy, you're not going to get all the answers. You're going to have to wait." And eventually, the answers will come.

Welcome to our new Haggada series. We started with Ha Lachma Ania and the second stanza is כל דכפין ייתי ויכול, כל דצריך ייתי ויפסח let all those who are hungry come and eat, all those who are in need, come and partake That's a strange statement. We're inviting everyone in to eat. It's a nice, open house, if someone gets stuck last minute. But, how real is this? How honest and sincere are we? If someone were to actually knock at your door, would you let them in? If a family comes, will you let them in? The sefer Hochmat Shlomo by Rav Shlomo Kluger, in his commentary on Shulchan Aruch, siman 429, discusses Minhag L'K'not Hitim / the custom of buying wheat to distribute to the poor for Pesach . It's called kimcha D'Pischa , which literally means kemach/flour for Pesach, flour for the Matzot on Pesach. Why is this more relevant to Pesach than Shavuot or Succot? Succot is an expensive holiday. What's special about this holiday? Rav Shlomo Kluger says that on the night of the Seder, we are going to say Ha Lachma Ania, and we're going to invite in all those who are poor, and say anyone that wants to come in can come in, but will we really take them in? If not, it's like we're lying in front of God. Therefore, he says, the rabbis established to give out Maot Hittim. That way, if someone knocks at the door, you say can " Look, I said anyone that's hungry, anyone that's needy, but you shouldn't be hungry and needy. We have a community pot. If you were aware of it, and we gave you the money, and you spent it, then technically you caused it. I'm ready to take in anybody that didn't do it themselves, " so to say. We want to make sure that we're clean, so we give Kimcha D'Pischa so that the statement shouldn't be a false statement, but we have to go a step further. Why don't we make the same statement on Succot and invite everyone into our Succahs? And if we did that, we'd have to say Ha Lachma then as well. So we shifted the question a little further. We have Kimcha D'Pischa , we're raising funds for the wheat because we don't want to make a false statement when we invite the guests. Well, why don't we invite the guests on Succot also? The answer goes a little further. We go to the שער Shaar Hatziyun, also known as the Mishna Berurah Chafetz Chaim, in the same chapter in letter 10. He says, Pesach is special in that is we call it Zman Herut/ A time of freedom . And everybody sits by their table, הוא וביתו ברוב שמחה, he's there with his household full of happiness. אין זה כבוד לה׳, it's a lack of respect to God that His children, the poor, are hungry and thirsty. And therefore we give them flour, not just day by day, but for the כל ימי פסח, all the days of Pesach , enough to last them through the holiday, that he can also tell the story of Yetziat Mitzrayim B'Simcha. This is important. Not only do I want to be happy at the Seder , but it's my responsibility to make others happy as well. It's interesting that the concept of giving the Kimcha D'Pischa/wheat or flour for the poor, is not necessarily a Sedaka concept. It's not about charity, but it has to do with your responsibility to make people happy. And the Rambam in the laws of Yom Tov , chapter 6, Halacha 18, tells us that when you're eating and happy on the holiday, you also have to make the convert, the widow and the orphan happy along with other poor, unprivileged people. He says that if a person doesn't do that, then his simcha is not truly the simcha of a holiday. It's a simcha of his own stomach. So it ends up that in order for your holiday simcha to be a proper simcha , you have to make the poor people happy as well. Thhat's why the Rambam doesn't mention this in the laws of charity. It's in the laws of the holiday. To properly fulfill your holiday and have the true Simchat Chag, you have to make other people happy. That's why the sefer Mishneh Yaavetz says, an explanation why, if you look at Mishna Berurah, letter 6 this concept of קמחא Kimcha D'Pischa, says that even someone that's exempt from other types of charities has to give this charity . Because this is not a charity law, it's a happiness law. Literally one of the first laws, if you go through volume 5 of Mishna Berurah one of the first laws is this law of making sure to give קמחא דפסחא Kimcha D'Pischa. How does one fulfill this? There are different customs. Kemach means flour . Why flour? Why not money? Why not give them actual Matzot ? I saw an explanation once that it's because in those days it was considered normal and respectable to go to the Matzah bakery, like today you have חבורה מצה. Getting a box of finished matzot was not the way respectable people acted. We want to give him his provisions in a respectable fashion and let him go like everyone else (not stand out) and be able to actually bake his own I matzot . Fascinating. With this, we go a step further. What do we fulfill this mitzva with? Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach in sefer Arichat Shlomo Letter 2 in the laws of Nissan says that it's not only food. He says, כל צרכי החג, all needs, including clothing. Why? Because that's what he needs. And again, דרך חרות, if everyone is sitting around the table with their new clothing, shouldn't he also have new clothing? So when it says anything you need , that doesn't just mean, as we said, whoever's hungry, come and eat. כל דצריך, means whoever has needs , Rav Dovid Feinstein ztl says it means, any Pesach need. That means if you need clothing, come now. But what if I don't have any clothing to give? You can give out clothing cards before the holiday? And with that, we switch gears into our annual Lev Chana appeal. We do this every single year at this time of the year, where we reach out to you to give out clothing cards for families in need. The families receive a card that works like a gift card for multiple stores, so they can shop like everybody else. Not, " Oh, we're going to send you some clothing and see if it fits your children." They can be a person and walk into a clothing store like anybody else, shop in dignity and be happy. And as always, we end off with powerful words of רש״י in Parashat Re'eh , where Hashem says, , אם אתה משמח את שלי, אני משמח את שלך/ If you make My children happy, I'll make your children happy. And that's what we're doing. We're selling happiness insurance. If you want to be insured that you're going to have happiness over the holiday. Rav Chaim Pilaggi says he knows many people who spent a lot of money and the house is full of arguments and contention, because they didn't follow this Rashi. So we're giving you that opportunity to buy happiness insurance. It's very easy. You can: Send an email to Rabbisutton@gmail.com with a pledge and I'll bill you, or send a donation via Zelle to Rabbisutton@gmail.com , or go to https://www.rayze.it/levchanazm/ If you're a JCF person, search CON506. Lastly, if you're a person that likes to write checks, you can send a check to Rabbi David Sutton 1059 East 10th Street, Brooklyn, New York, 11230 and make the check out to Lev Chana Tizke Lemitzvot

Welcome to our Daily Bitachon lesson. We are starting a new, pre-Pesach Hagadah series. We're going to start with Ha Lachma Anya, which is divided into three units. Unit number one is, הא לחמא עניא דיאכלו אבהתנא בארעא דמצרים/ This is the bread of of affliction that our forefathers ate and lay on the land of Mitzrayim . Unit number two is כל דכפין ייתי ויכול. Anyone that's hungry should come and eat. כל דצריך. Anyone that has any other Passover needs. ייתי ויפסח should come and fulfill his Passover needs. Unit three, השתא הכא. השתא, This year. לשנה הבאה בארעא דישראל. Next year we're going to be in ארץ ישראל. השתא עבדי, this year we are slaves. לשנה הבאה בני חורין, next year we're going to be free. Unit number one is about humility. הא לחמא עניא. Ha Lachma Anya i s the Lashon of Anava. The goal of Galut Mitzrayim , was to make us humbled. We spoke about this at length when we spoke about humility. The goal of the Galut is to humble ourselves. Matzah represents humility . Chametz , which grows and is bloated, represents Arrogance . Therefore the first step we need to make towards our ultimate redemption is to become humble. There is a famous midrash that says, ענוים ענוים, הגיע זמן גאולתכם. Humble ones, oh humble ones, the time of redemption has come. The redemption will come when we are humble. The Mashiach is referred to as Ani, a poor or humble man that's riding on a donkey. Humility is a prerequisite for the Geula . The Chida speaks about this at length and tells us that in order to receive the Torah we have to be humble. Har Sinai is low and humble. He says that the level of Torah that's going to be revealed in the time of Mashiach is so great that we have to go through these centuries of Galut to further humble ourselves in preparation or that great revelation of the times of Mashiach. That's unit one- humility. Unit two is אהבת ישראל. כל דכפין, ייתי ויכול. Anyone that's hungry, come in and eat. כל דכפין, anyone that's needy, come and get your meal. It's not enough for us just to be humble. We also have to be giving and take care of our fellow man. Of course, humility will bring one to get along with other people but we have to take the humility to the next stage. Humility brings about two things. Number one is, getting along with people. But that's not enough. We also need to have Bitachon. We have to rely on Hashem. When a person is humble, he realizes he's not in charge. The person who's a Baal Ga'ava cannot rely on Hashem, because he's relying on himself. He thinks he can do everything. He thinks he doesn't need any help. But the humble man can rely on Hashem. Therefore, after this unit on the bread of affliction, it branches off into two roads. Firstly, humility brings us to Ahavat Yisrael . We're able to invite in those that are needy. Additionally, humility brings us to rely on Hashem and have Bitachon and say This year we are here, this year we are servants. Next year we'll be in Eretz Yisrael. Next year we'll be free. That's Bitachon , because we realize we're not in charge, and that was the whole message of the Matzah . The reason we have Matzah, and the reason everything is centered around the Matzah is that we didn't have a chance for the bread to rise. We rushed out. When you rush out, it's because you're not in control. When you're in control, you plan. But we rushed out because we were not in control of anything. Hashem did it all. And so too, with the final Geula ,. The Navi uses the phrase Pit'om Yavo / It will come suddenly. It's going to happen with speed because we're not in charge. The Rambam starts off his Hagaddah with the words בבהילו / In a rush. We rushed out. And we're going to rush out of this Galut as well. That is the opening paragraph. We're setting the stage. It's a stage of humility. And out of humility is born Ahavat Yisrael and Bitachon . And for all those Bet Halevi enthusiasts, you know that he wrote three essays. One of them was on Bitachon , one of them was on Ahavat Yisrael , and one of them is on Anava - and that's because these three points are all interrelated. And they're all necessary for the Geula. Rav Yaakov Hillel shlita says that these essays were hiding until our generation, the final generation, to help us get us ready for the Geula -with these three fundamental points: Bitachon , Ahavat Yisrael and Anava - and those are the three fundamental points that the Haggadah of Pesach starts with.

To reflect on what we've spoken about, we have a problem. We are bothered by the dog singing a song, and yet not by the snake singing a song. In truth, both the dog and the snake represent Amalek. So why is the dog a bigger question for Rav Yeshaya than the snake? We see that the snake represents Amalek from a pasuk in Yeshaya that says, מִשֹּׁ֤רֶשׁ נָחָשׁ֙ יֵ֣צֵא צֶ֔פַע/ From the roots of the snake came out a viper. The Mekubalim say that the / צפע viper , is has same numerical value as עמלק /Amalek , which means that Amalek is a continuation, or manifestation of the snake. Thus, Haman, who came from Amalek, is also rooted in the snake. And Haman המן / is Rasheh Tevot/ an acronym for ה וא מ שרש נ חש / He is from the root of the snake . So we have an Amalek/Haman source in the snake . We also have a source that Amalek is represented by the dog , as we said, that God puts the Jewish people down, and the dog, who's Amalek, comes to bite. Furthermore, when Esther Hamalka is praying to be saved, she says (Tehilim 22) מִיַּד־כֶּ֝֗לֶב יְחִידָתִֽי׃ /from the clutches of the dog. And we said, the dog is Haman, and the dog is Amalek. So is the Amalek the dog, or is it the snake? And why are we okay with a song from the snake but we're not okay with the song of the dog? And we have another question. As we said in our lesson on the snake, the snake says, Somech Hashem L'Kol Noflim/God will pick up those that fall down, which refers to the snake, whose legs were cut off. We were bothered by this. Isn't there no hope for the snake? The snake is Amalek, and it says that eventually he's going to be totally wiped out. The answer we said was that there were two punishments that happened to the snake. One of them was that his legs were cut off, and he's now flat on his face, because he refused to bow to God, and recognize His Hashgacha Pratit, which is the opposite of Modim. The other punishment was that he eats the dust of the earth, which was because of his sin of speaking Lashon Hara against God. One of these sins will be fixed in the future, and he will no longer be bent over. The sin of not recognizing God's Hashgacha will be fixed, and he will stand up straight. He will bow and recognize God. That's the snake-like aspect of Amalek. The dog-like aspect of Amalek is the fact that Amalek barks and speaks Lashon Hara. And that is where Rabi Yeshaya had the question. We can understand that the aspect of Amalek, that he doesn't believe in Hashgacha Pratit was fixed. But the fact of his Lashon Hara, barking like the dog, the brazenness, the עזות דטומאה, Azut D'Tumah/the brazenness of contamination that Amalek had, שמעו עמים ירגזון, when the whole world was petrified, and Amalek just jumped into the boiling bath and cooled it off, that is called an Azut of Tumah/, brazenness of Tumah , that he doesn't bend and doesn't give in. That Azut can't be fixed. That ttrait of Azut is unfixable. That's why it says say, עז פנים לגיהנום. The Brazen- faced goes to Gehinom. So there was an aspect of Amalek that could be fixed. We could fix the fact that he denies God's presence. That's fixable. The kofer/the heretic , we can fix him. That is the snake-like aspect of Amalek. But the dog-like, the barking, there's no hope for that. And that's what Rabi Yeshaya was questioning. How could it be that the brazenness was being fixed? Interestingly, as we have said, the Germans represent Amalek, as it says in the Gemara , in Masechet Megillah, that Yaakov Avinu prayed, Hold back the desires of Esav , referring to a part of Esav called Garmamiah , which Rabbi Yaakov Emden says is is Germania ,. The Germans were from Amalek. The Germans were that aspect that wanted out to wipe out the Jewish people. And part of the German sadism was using barking dogs. That brazenness will never be fixed. It's interesting that Guard your tongue is the end of that Rav Yeshaya piece, where he says, Now that you asked, go back and don't ask about it again. Don't ask any more about the dogs or Amalek . As it says, One who guards his mouth and tongue, protects himself from any evil. So we see that this final discussion of the dog connects back to Lashon Hara That is the trait of the snake that can't be fixed. He spoke Lashon Hara against God. He told us that God doesn't want to do good for you. God doesn't want you to enjoy this world. God doesn't want you to eat from the tree, because He ate from the tree. That's the Lashon Hara of the snake. And we also have Lashon Hara from Haman. It says, in Masechet Megila, No one knew how to speak Lashon Hara better than Haman, He claimed, " The Jews are not worth keeping. Every day is a holiday by them..." That's the trait of Haman. As we said, the dog's song is, בֹּאוּ נִשְׁתַּחֲוֶה וְנִכְרָעָה נִבְרְכָה לִפְנֵי יְיָ עֹשֵׂנוּ: (תהילים צה ו) The dog song is all about bowing , which means Amalek says, OK, I'm bowing, I'm good. And we tell him, You're bowing? That's not enough. Yes, you fixed the fact that you realize God's in charge of the world. That's fine. But your brazenness, the עזות הטומאה, the brazenness that you don't want to change, that, we can't fix. That's why Yeshaya was so bothered. And it's only due to once in their history, when the dogs didn't bark as Bnei Yisrael left Mitzrayim, that dogs have the zechut to do even a little bit of praising. So what exactly is this concept of Azut D'Tumah/ brazenness that can't be fixed? Rav Wolbe discusses the concept of Azut D'Kedusha- Jewish people are brazen in a positive way . We don't give up, we keep on doing the right thing. But Amalek is Azut D'Tumah. They're brazen in the fact that they won't give up on Tumah/impurity So even though there might be a momentary blip, where the dog doesn't bark, as happened at Yetziat Mitzrayim, they always come back to their regular trait of Azut/brazenness . That is the negativity of Amalek. That's why it says when we come to fight against Amalek, it's מחר , Machar/ tomorrow . Why tomorrow ? Because we know that maybe for a second they're going to be good, but by tomorrow it's gone. It says that similarly about Izevel, when she fought against Eliyahu, Eliyahu HaNavi had this great revelation and surge, but she said, let's wait until tomorrow and see what's going to happen tomorrow . Amalek has an Azut . They might be momentarily impacted, but they keep their Azut going, and that can't be fixed.

"Welcome to our final class on Pirkei Shira . The student of Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa, Rabbi Yeshaya, fasted 85 times because of a profound question: Dogs, described as 'brazen of spirit' and 'insatiable,' are granted the merit to recite shira (song). How could dogs, of all creatures, deserve the zechut (merit) to sing a song, especially the final song in Pirkei Shira ? An angel appeared to Rabbi Yeshaya and said, 'Yeshaya, how much longer will you fast over this matter? I swear that since this was revealed to the prophet Chavakuk, it has not been revealed to anyone else. I am telling you now because you are a student of a great man, Chanina ben Dosa. I have been sent from Heaven to reveal the answer.' The answer is: Dogs are granted this merit because they did not bark when the Jewish people left Egypt. Furthermore, they are rewarded by having their excrement used in tanning hides, which are essential for writing Sefer Torah scrolls. This explanation seems cryptic. Why are dogs considered worse than other animals? Many unkosher animals sing songs in Pirkei Shira . What is so problematic about the dog? Rav David Cohen, the Rosh Yeshiva of Chevron, explains in his book Mizmor LeDavid (page 201) that shira is fundamentally an act of praise and Hallel (glorification) to Hashem. Brazenness is the antithesis of praise, as praise inherently involves hoda'ah (acknowledgment), which means admitting that someone else is greater than you. The opposite of modeh (one who admits) is me'eiz panav (one who is brazen). The Gemara in Bava Metzia 3a states that denying a debt is an act of brazenness. Someone who borrows money and denies it is the opposite of someone who admits their debt, whether fully or partially. Therefore, dogs, known for their ultimate brazenness, seem incompatible with the concept of shira . However, there is a deeper understanding. The Zohar (volume 2, 61a) states that the dog represents Amalek. This is echoed by Rashi, who, in his commentary on Shemot, connects Amalek's attack to the Jewish people's doubt about God's presence. Rashi uses the analogy of a father carrying his son, who then questions the father's whereabouts, leading to a dog biting him. Similarly, when the Jewish people questioned God's presence after leaving Egypt, Amalek attacked. Amalek is the dog, representing fundamental evil. The question remains: how can these brazen dogs sing a song? It seems contradictory. Interestingly, this class is being recorded on Ta'anit Esther, when we recite Psalm 22, Lamnatzeach al Ayelet Hashachar , which speaks of Esther's prayers and challenges. In Psalm 22:21, Esther prays to be saved from the dog, which the Sefer Toldot Yaakov Yosef identifies as Amalek. The incredible revelation is that the dogs did not bark on the night of Yetziat Mitzrayim (the Exodus from Egypt) because the revelation of God was so immense. We recite Hallel Hagadol (the full Hallel) on this night, which is the antithesis of Amalek. The profound revelation silenced Amalek. The dog could not bark. This was the one positive action Amalek performed. However, this silence was fleeting. Rav David Cohen explains that in Az Yashir , it says, ' Azi v'zimrat Yah ' (My strength and song come from God), using only a partial name of Hashem. He explains that Amalek's existence prevents the full manifestation of God's name, as stated in Shemot, ' Ki yad al kes Yah ' (God's hand is on His throne), where 'kes' is spelled out as 'kisei' (throne), representing an incomplete name. This is particularly relevant in Az Yashir because Amalek opposes shira , attempting to undermine it. Only for a brief moment in history was Amalek silent, allowing the dog to not bark. The Chatam Sofer, in his Drashot , adds that contentment leads to praise and gratitude, while spiritual growth requires continuous seeking. We say Modim (thanks) without asking for more, but we strive for more in avodat Hashem (divine service). The dog, known for its insatiability, sings shira only for the one moment when it was silenced by divine revelation. It celebrates this single instance of restraint. This insight is particularly relevant to a student of Chanina ben Dosa, who was content with little. The student struggled to understand how the dog, the antithesis of his rebbe's contentment, could sing shira . This reveals the paradox: the dog celebrates the one moment it mirrored Chanina ben Dosa's contentment. This concludes our study of Pirkei Shira . The dog represents the antithesis of praise, while our goal is to praise Hashem. In physicality, we should be content, but in spirituality, we should always strive for more. The Zohar, quoted by Rav Chaim Palagi, notes that on Rosh Hashanah, some people only ask for material blessings, exhibiting the brazenness of dogs. Instead, they should humble themselves before Hashem. This is the essence of Pirkei Shira : to reach the level of bowing in humility, which the dog fails to do. Finally, Chanina ben Dosa was also the antithesis of Amalek, who was powerful in black magic ( kishuf ). When Yehoshua fought Amalek, he brought those who could undo kishuf . Chanina ben Dosa, however, demonstrated that ' ein od milvado ' (there is none besides Him), as even witches could not cast spells on him. This is the final message of Pirkei Shira and the dogs. It connects beautifully to Purim, where we overcome the brazenness of Haman, who represents Amalek, with hoda'ah (acknowledgment and gratitude)."

Welcome to our class on Perek Shira. We're now up to the song of the ant. There are two versions on what the pasuk of the ant is. One says it's Mishlei , 6,6, which is quite apropos. Shlomo HaMelech tells the lazy man, לֵֽךְ־אֶל־נְמָלָ֥ה עָצֵ֑ל רְאֵ֖ה דְרָכֶ֣יהָ וַחֲכָֽם Lech el nemalah atzel. Go (look at) the ant. Re'ei deracheha/ look at its ways, v'chacham/and you will become wise. There's another version that says the ant says a pasuk in Tehillim 136:25. נֹתֵ֣ן לֶ֭חֶם לְכׇל־בָּשָׂ֑ר כִּ֖י לְעוֹלָ֣ם חַסְדּֽוֹ׃ The Mabit says that, " Lechol basar " refers to creatures that have only flesh and no bones , one of them being the ant , and that's why, as we'll see, the ant doesn't live such a long time. The sefer Knaf Renanim says that both versions are true. We learn 2 lessons from the ant. One is not to be lazy, and we also see how careful they are not to steal. The Midrash Rabbah in Devarim 5:2, tells us that the ant builds three stories in his dwelling. He doesn't store his wheat in the top story because of the dripping of the rain, and he doesn't put it in the bottom because it could get too moist. He puts in the middle. And he only lives for six months because he has no bones and he has no sinews. He hardly eats in that amount of time, and yet he keeps storing and storing food. Why? Because he thinks maybe Hashem will give him life and he'll have a little bit more time. Rav Shimon Bar Yochai says he once went to a certain ant colony and found 300 kur (a large amount) of wheat! Furthermore, Re'ei deracheha/ look at its ways, v'chacham/and you will become wise- the rabbis say the ant has Derech Eretz, it stays away from thievery. They describe how an ant once dropped a wheat kernel. The other ants passed by and smelled that it wasn't theirs and so they stayed away. These are the two major lessons we learned from the ants, and therefore both pesukim are apropos. The Gaon of Vilna analyzes the pesukim . There are actually three things he says: One is, Lech el nemalah atzel. If you're lazy from doing mitzvot and ma'asim tovim, look at how fast and zariz the ant is. It gathers and gathers, even though it only needs a little, That's a lesson for us. We should be gathering for Olam Haba. Regarding Re'ei deracheha, see his ways, the word Derech refers to Middot . V'halakhta bidrachav, means It goes in G-d's ways, and follows His Middot. So what's its Midah ? We just said it has good Middot , it doesn't steal. It's careful to follow the Derech Eretz. V'chacham means he's wise – he knows how to properly store his wheat. The second pasuk, Noten lechem lechol basar, ki le'olam chasdo is saying the ant understands that G -d is the One that provides and therefore I don't have to grab, I'll get what's mine. The whole Perek Shira is about the lessons we learned from the animal kingdom, but the Malbim says we learn specifically from this pasuk, in which Shlomo HaMelech actually says, Go to the ant and learn from it. That's the ant song. The ant is there to teach us. And as we've said in the past about all the animal traits, Na'aseh Adam , G-d said to all of creation Let's make man. So we all have those traits inside of us. We just have to channel them or unleash them. That's why עַז כַּנָּמֵר, וְקַל כַּנֶּשֶׁר, וְרָץ כַּצְּבִי, וְגִבּוֹר כָּאֲרִי, לַעֲשׂוֹת רְצוֹן אָבִיךָ שֶׁבַּשָּׁמָיִם We have to be brazen like a leopard, strong like a lion, run like a deer. How could you ask that from me? The answer is, you have that ability. And therefore Shlomo HaMelech is saying look at that ant, look how fast he is, look what he can do- and you can do it too!

Today's Perek Shira is the Song of the Snail. It's a pasuk in Tehillim 59,9 , where David HaMelech is cursing the wicked, and he says כְּמוֹ שַׁבְּלוּל תֶּמֶס יַהֲלֹךְ נֵפֶל אֵשֶׁת בַּל חָזוּ שָׁמֶשׁ: / Like the snail that melts and slithers away. the stillborn of a mole, that never saw the sun. So, the mole (which we're not going to talk about) and the snail have in common that the sun is not good for them. And , now lets explain the pasuk : What does it mean that the snail that melts and slithers away ? Simply, it means that it dies when it leaves its shell, so it slithers away. But the Seforno says that a snail has a certain mucus, and it creates a slimy trail that makes it appear like it's melting away. So David HaMelech is saying that the wicked should continually melt away and disappear in a similar fashion. The Midrash adds a point that just like the snail disappears but leaves behind a visible trail, so too with evil slander, long after the actual sound of the words vanish, the damage they cause remains. So, that's the pasuk. What is the snail's message about not seeing the sun? The sefer Kanaf Rananim explains that the wicked are compared to the snail, because just like the snail is always in his shell, hiding himself from the sun, so too, the wicked don't want to see the sun and light of the Torah. They avoid the light and stay in their shells. That's one explanation. The sefer Yismach Yehuda explains beautifully that the Gemara in Nidarim 8b tells us that there's no difference between Gehinom and Olam HaBa . The sun is really not at full force presently, but when Hashem takes the sun out of its sheath, the righteous are healed and the wicked are judged. And not only the righteous are healed , but they enjoy it. They're dancing and the wicked are melting away. That's why the wicked are like the snail, that can't come in contact with the sun. This is an important lesson- the snail symbolizes the inability to deal with the Torah. So the Resha'im avoid the sun, the light of Torah and Godliness in this world, and therefore, they can't handle it in the next world. Basically, this world is, like the Mesilat Yesharim tells us, A place to delight in God. Not just the next world, but this world. And with that enjoyment and delight that we develop in this world for spirituality, we'll continue in the world to come. That's an important concept. Just like when it comes to drinking scotch, you have to develop a taste, you have to develop a taste for spirituality. Somebody that has no appreciation for spirituality will not enjoy it at all. In fact, it's the opposite-it will be painful for them.So, the wicked, snail-like people who avoid the sun, will not be able to ever enjoy the sun. Our job in this world is to develop that taste. A certain rabbi once said jokingly (although there's more than a grain of truth in this humorous remark), that Gan Eden and Gehinom are really the same thing. It's a huge Bet Midrash with bookshelves lining the walls from one end to the other, and people have nowhere else to go- forever. For the righteous person, this is Gan Eden . What more could you ask for? But for the person with no connection to Torah, this is Gehinom - like sitting through a boring speech for eternity. Rav Wolbe said that the time in our lives that we're supposed to develop this taste for spirituality is Shabbat. That's the litmus test. How much do you appreciate Shabbat? Shabbat is Me'en Olam Haba/ a microcosm of Olam Haba. Shabbat is created for Oneg , Oneg Shabbat . Like the Pele Yoetz writes on the topic of Rosh Hashanah, that there are many levels of Oneg . Enjoying your piece of chicken is not the ultimate . That's where it starts. You might say, Oh wow, this is what chicken tastes like, so imagine what Olam Haba tastes like! But the ultimate goal is to get to a spiritual flavor and appreciation. Rav Shach once commented that Gan Eden is the experience of a long Friday night in the winter, learning Gemara by candlelight. You have a long candle, and you sit there with the Gemara and you're great. And you know what Gehinom is? It's the feeling one experiences when the candle is suddenly extinguished and one can no longer study! A more modern example that has happened to me more than once is when you have a 45- minute free Zoom account, and you're in the middle of an exciting shiur . Then suddenly, bing, the 45 minute mark comes and that's it. That's Gehinom if you're in the middle of the class. The experience of Gan Eden and Gehinom depends on one's connection to Torah learning- something that we develop here. And that's the message of the snail: Do not be of those creatures that avoid the sun. Develop a taste for the sun and you will enjoy Olam HaBa.

Welcome to Perek Shirah. Today we're up to the song of the Akrav / scorpion . The Akrav says טוֹב יְיָ לַכֹּל וְרַחֲמָיו עַל כָּל מַעֲשָׂיו: / God is good to all and has mercy on all His creations. The Akrav/scorpion is an extremely dangerous predator. In fact, the sefer Misaprim Tehilot L'Hashem says the word עקרב Akrav is a contraction of עק Ak which means pain in Aramaic, and רב Rav, which means he's a great pain , and therefore we want to stamp him out. Interestingly, scorpions procreate at a very rapid rate. As we mentioned previously, the Midrash Rabba in Shemot 1,8 tells us on the word V'yishritsu , that in Mitzrayim , some say the women had 60 babies at a times (and don't be amazed because scorpions have large amounts like that)! Modern day scorpions have an average closer to 25 offspring at a time, so perhaps the Egyptian scorpions were different, or nature has changed. Regardless, scorpions procreate at a rapid rate and they survive , because Hashem in His mercy, doesn't want to wipe them out. They serve a purpose. Hashem is Tov lakol, V'rachamav al kol Ma'asav, good to all, and merciful on all His creations- even on this low, seemingly dangerous being. That's number one. Hashem is Tov lakol even for scorpions. And V'rachamav al kol ma'asav, we can't really hate the scorpion because Hashem has mercy and He doesn't let the scorpion bite whoever it wants. The scorpion only bites who God sends them to bite. Furthermore, V'rachamav al kol ma'asav, it says the scorpion itself is a healing for the scorpion bite. In ancient times, they would take a dead scorpion, soak it in olive oil and rub it on the wound and it would heal. There are other medicinal treatments that come from the scorpion. So on one hand, Hashem takes care of the scorpion and on the other hand, Hashem takes care of the world at large. Now let's delve a bit into the scorpions as a messenger , and the goodness of the scorpion. The Zohar (vol 3, page 107a) on the pasuk in Bereshit where it says וַיַּ֤רְא אֱלֹהִים֙ אֶת־כׇּל־אֲשֶׁ֣ר עָשָׂ֔ה וְהִנֵּה־ט֖וֹב מְאֹ֑ד God saw everything He did. V'hinei tov me'od and it was very good says this refers to the crawling creatures, specifically, the scorpion . And even though you see them and they're destructive, they are all here as God's servants. People don't know what they're doing. In the words of the Zohar, Every one of them is there on a mission and therefore, Don't treat anything improperly. And it quotes the pasuk, Tov Hashem L'Kol/ God is good to all. So wonders of wonders! The Zohar is quoting the exact same pasuk as Perek Shirah for our scorpion as the epitome of the concept that Hashem saw everything that He did was very good. Further, Reshit Chochma in the Gate of Fear of Hashem , (11th chapter), says that God has many messengers that He uses to bring about the judgment. He quotes a Midrash that when listing the different things that God uses, it says, God has many scorpions. Additionally, the Gemara in Nedarim 41A tells the story of how Shmuel saw a scorpion on the back of a turtle. The turtle carried the scorpion on his back across a river to where a man was lying down, and the scorpion bit him! This is an example, it says, of how Hashem uses creations as His messengers. The scorpion is one of God's messengers. He has what to do. So don't look at the scorpion as a fiend. He's not a fiend. He's God's messenger. He has a job to do. And on the topic of Rachamav al Kol Maasav, Hashem's mercy, the Mishna in Masechet Berachot says that when a person is praying and he hears a snake hissing, he should continue praying because snakes, by and large, do not attack unless provoked, but if you see a scorpion, stop your prayers and leave. So God has mercy on a person and says, You're praying to me? Do something to protect yourself from the scorpion. God cares about protecting us from scorpions. I saw an unbelievable thought from Rabbi Eliyahu of Izmir, in his sefer Shevet Musar . (perek יא ). He says that God used the scorpion as a messenger for Brit Milah. He quotes the Midrash Tanchuma in Parashat Lech Lecha, that when God told Abraham to do a Brit Milah, Abraham didn't know where exactly he was supposed to do it. It doesn't say where. So Hashem sent a scorpion and the scorpion bit him on that spot. Some understand that the scorpion did the Milah because the Lashon of the Midrash is, ועקצו עקרב ונמצא מהול God used the surgery of the scorpion. And he quotes Rav Abraham Hichini, a student of the Maharit and a very early source, who cites a proof from a pasuk that says, בעצם היום הזה On that very day, Be'etzem stands for ב נשיכת ע"קרב צ"דיק מ"ל ע"כ: With the biting of the scorpion, the righteous man was circumcised. So not only is the scorpion the messenger of destruction, he's also the messenger of a Brit Milah. The Shevet Musar adds that God used the scorpion in the future, when Bnei Yisrael would procreate like the scorpion, maybe 60 at a time, and produce a tremendous abundance of children- all in the merit of Abraham Avinu's Brit Milah! So, the scorpion is the messenger for Abraham Avinu's Brit Milah. Wonder of wonders! Therefore the scorpion is the one that sings the song, Tov Hashem L'Kol God is good to everybody. Finally, a story: Many years ago when I was in Israel I heard about a man who moved into a new apartment that had scorpions all over the place. He called the exterminators but they wouldn't go away. He went to Rav Chaim Pinchas Sheinberg, who said, "Let's look in the Perek Shirah," and he found the pasuk of Tov HaShem LaKol. So he said, Maybe you weren't doing Tov HaShem LaKol, The man thought about it and realized that there had been a poor man who always came to his house in the old neighborhood. But since he moved apartments, he hadn't had him over. So he tracked him down, and started inviting him again, and the scorpions went away. Wonder of wonders.