Tzav-Pesach 5785: : Are you proud to be a Yid? (Part 2)

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Shiur given in 5778

Pesach: Are you proud to be a Yid? (Part 2) (5778)

Pesach Represents Emunah and Hoda’ah

In part one of this shiur, we spoke of what the Yom Tovof Pesach is supposed to give us. We learned the Ramban (ibid), who says that Hashem’s only desire from the tachtonim is emunah and hoda’ah. We spoke about how both of those factors, emunah and hoda’ah, are represented by the Yom Tovof Pesach. Pesach was the leidah, birth, of Klal Yisrael, when Hashem chose Klal Yisrael and expressed His cheifetz, His desire, for us. The Ramban tells us that all Hashem chose us for and all he wants from us is: שנאמין בו ונודה לקל שבראנו, that we should believe in Him and acknowledge that He created us. Yesterday, we spoke about how Pesach represents the aspect of emunah. Today, we’re going to speak about how Pesach represents the aspect of hoda’ah.

Bikurim is the Mitzvah of Gratitude

In the mishnah in Pesachim (10:4)it says that the mitzvah of sipur yetzias Mitzrayim, which is the central theme of the Haggadah, is based upon expounding the parshah of Ki Savo, ארמי אבד אבי. You’re supposed to expound on the pessukim of parshas bikurim in order to fulfill this mitzvah. What’s so special about this particular parshah of bikurim? The answer is that this parshah of mikra bikurim represents the mitzvah of hakaras hatov. When you bring the bikurim, you say to the kohen: הגדתי היום. When you bring bikurim there is a mitzvah of haggadah. What’s the mitzvah? What are you maggid? Rashi says שאינך כפוי טובה, you say that you’re not a kofoy tovah, you are not an ingrate. The yesod hadin of krias parshas bikurim is to say to Hakadosh Baruch Hu that I’m not a kofoy tovah and I’m thankful to Hashem for all the tovah and all the chessed that He did with me from way back when. And you start from the fact that ארמי אבד אבי until Hashem brought you to this place. Now we can understand why we expound on the parshah of mikra bikurim – since sipur yetzias Mitzrayim is the mitzvah to express hakaras hatov, to give hoda’ah to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, so therefore we do it with these pesukim.

The Maharal, in the beginning of his sefer Gevuros Hashem (1:3), asks a kasha: How in the world does the Torah command us to be mesaper yetzias Mitzrayim? Lechorah,it’s a problem to do that because the gemara says in Brachos (33b) that if you want to say the praises of Hashem, you’re not able to. It says מי ימלל גבורות ה’ ישמיע כל תהילתו, “who can tell the mighty acts of Hashem and proclaim all His praise?” (Tehillim 106:2). It says here that you don’t go out of your way to be mehallel Hashem because you’ll never finish. You’ll never do it properly. So the Maharal asks, how in the world is there a mitzvah of sipur yetzias Mitzrayim? How could it be that כל המרבה לספר הרי זה משובח. Why isn’t there a problem of מי ימלל?^[i]

 Show Gratitude for All Hashem’s Tovos

And the Maharal answers the question. I remember my father alav hashalom always used to say over this Maharal. The Maharal explains that when you want to come and relate the praises of Hashem, thenwe say ‘מי ימלל גבורות ה. But what we are mainly obligated to do on the night of yetzias Mitzrayim is not to offer up the praises of Hashem, but rather express that we’re not kefuyei tovah, that we appreciate all the greatness that Hakadosh Baruch Hu did for us and that we’re modeh to Him for it. So if we have to express our hoda’ah to Hashem, are we not mechuyav then to speak about those tovos He did with us?! Even if I am not able to be mesaper all of the shevach of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, so because of that I shouldn’t even express my thanks to Hashem in a minimalistic way, so that I’m not a kofoy tovah?!

I once had a person who came to me and said, “You should know, the reason why I didn’t tell you thank you is not because I don’t have gratitude. It’s because I don’t know how to express gratitude to somebody who gave me life. I am makir that I was a meis and you turned me into a chai.”I told him, “That’s very nice and I appreciate what you say, but you have to know that one of the yesodos of Klal Yisrael is to express thanks. You have to do it. You have to say I’m not a kafoy tov. Even if you can’t do it properly, it does not exempt you from expressing yourself.” That is the mitzvah of sipur yetzias Mitzrayim. When you’re sitting there talking about Avraham Avinu, you have to be thinking to yourself, “Hashem, I’m being modeh to You for the yetziah, for taking out my grandfather, taking out all my grandfathers. I am thankful to You for taking me out of Mitzrayim.” A person has to understand that this is a very important avodah.

The Rambam in Sefer Hamitzvos (מצוה קנז) says regarding the mitzvah l’saper b’yetzias Mitzrayim וכל מי שיוסיף במאמר ויאריך הדברים בהגדלת מה שעשה לנו ה’ ומה שעשו לנו המצרים מעול וחמס ואיך לקח ה’ נקמתנו מהם ולהודות לו יתעלה על כל הטוב שגמלנו יהיה יותר טוב, whoever is mesaper more about the great nissim that Hashem did for us, about the how the Mitzrim afflicted us, and how Hashem took revenge for us, and expresses hoda’ah to Hashem for all the good that he bestowed upon us- is much better, as it says כל המרבה לספר ביציאת מצרים הרי זה משובח. Do you hear that? What we are doing is offering our hoda’ah to Hashem Yisbarach על מה שגמלנו, for all the good that he did for us. And the more you that, you’re yoser tov. Like it says כל המרבה לספר ביציאת מצרים הרי זה משובח. The Sefer Hachinuch (מצוה כא)says everybody has to be מהלל ומשבח ה’ יתברך על כל הנסים שנעשה לנו, that was done to us, that Hashem did to us. It says itin the gemara, andin the Rishonim so you have to understand this a very big yesod. This is a whole new aspect. After the seder or when Pesach comes, do people feel any more gratitude to Hashem? And the answer for many people, is “no.” They either feel tired or they feel indigestion or that it was boring or not boring. People have all kinds of feelings that they feel. You have to feel hoda’ah to Hashem. When Hakadosh Baruch Hu tells us to be doresh the parshah of mikra bikurim,  He is demanding that we work on our hoda’ah to Hakadosh Baruch Hu.

Gratitude for Being Chosen to Be a Yid

Now it is a tall order to actually feel gratitude to Hashem. When Hashem says, “I have no desire from man other than that he should be ma’amin bi and be modeh leShmi,” He doesn’t mean for us to offer lip service. He doesn’t mean בפיו ובשפתיו כבדוני ולבו רחק ממני, “he honored Me with its lips, but has kept its heart far from Me” (Yeshaya 29:13). That’s not what Hashem means. What He means is: do you understand and appreciate the fact that Hakadosh Baruch Hu chose you to be a Jew.

Now, I believe that many people have difficulty with this. I remember when I was a young boy, I felt very unhappy about the fact that I didn’t appreciate the tefillah of Aleinu L’shabeiach. A very great tefilah by very great authors. A person should feel the shevach, the thanks to Hashem that He didn’t make him a goy. Everybody knows that a goy is chafshi from the mitzvos. He has no shibudim, obligations. I remember going to my Zeida and telling him, “You know, I’m embarrassed. I hope you’re not angry at me. I want you to understand that l’ma’aseh I’m not happy to be a Jew. To me it seems that a goy is having much more fun.” A goy is chafshi from the mitzvos. Rav Yerucham mentions in the parshah of bikurim that a goy is chafshi min hamitzvos. He sees a goy take a big sandwich and the guy walks in the street, a fresser. Hedoesn’t have to worry about netilas yadayaim. He doesn’t have to worry about tolaim. He doesn’t have to worry about a brachah achronah, a makom keviyus. He doesn’t have to worry about anything. Nothing! Kevias makom isa big problem. A fellow came to my rebbi once. He was eating something. My rebbi asked him,“Where did you make that brachah? So you know what he said? “I made it in my house.” He said, “So how can you still eat it? Shinui makom.” The fellow said, “But it’s a candy.” My rebbi said, “So what? That brachah doesn’t work for here.” So if a goy eats a sandwich, there is no difference for him. But for a Yid it says, האוכל בשוק דומה לכלב (Kiddushin 40b). If a goy is ochel bashuk he’s a cool guy.

You know how hard it is to feel gratitude? When Hashem says, “I want you to be modeh to Me,” it means “I want you to have hoda’ah and be thankful that I chose you to be a Yid.” You know what kind of hachanah you have to make for that? You think anybody could just come and say to Hashem on Pesach night, “I’m happy to be a Jew?” You have to work on that for months before Pesach. And the first year you’ll get to a little bit of hoda’ah. The main thing is that a person has to reach a madreiga where he’s modeh to Hashem. He appreciates being a Jew.

Now the hoda’ah to Hashem on the leil haseder is not simply hoda’ah to Hashem על חיינו המסורים בידך ועל נשמותינו הפקודות לך, that we’re alive, that’s not the hoda’ah we’re talking about here. The hoda’ah we’re talking about on leil seder is, like the gemara (Pesachim 116a) says אמר ליה רב נחמן לדרו עבדיה עבדא דמפיק ליה מריה לחירות ויהיב ליה כספא ודהבא מאי בעי למימר ליה, a slave whose master set him free and gave him silver and gold, what does he need to say to his master? אמר ליה בעי לאודויי ולשבוחי, he needs to thank him and praise him. You hear what it says over here? The yesod is to be modeh to Hakadosh Baruch Hu that He took us out of Mitzrayim and that He took care of our enemies. That’s a very tall order and a difficult avodah. But if your libo is rachok mimenu and you don’t have any hoda’ah to Hashem, Hashem says, “I have no chafetz in you, no desire for you.” Can you imagine a melech basar ve’dam who wants to be mekarev somebody to himself, and he goes to that person and says, “I’m going to shower you with kol tov. I’m going to make you a prince. But I’m making you a prince for one reason, because I want you to have a bondwith me. I want you to be kashur with me.” The person says, “I’m happy to take everything from you, but I’m not sure if I’m ready to have a kesher with you. I appreciate everything you do for me. I’ll say ‘thank you.’ But I have a life. I’m not looking to commit my life to you.” Do you know how many Yidden there are who are not ready to commit their lives to Hashem? They have their families. They have their businesses. They have their houses. They have their cars. They have their jobs. They have their real estate. They have their vacations. They have everything. But they’re not ready to commit to Hashem. Hashem took us out from  Mitzrayim for a reason. Everybody thinks this is a massive chiddush from the Ramban. We say it every morning in davening. Where do we say this? In Ahavah Rabah we speak about the groise ahavah. We say to Hakadosh Baruch Hu: וקרבתנו לשמך הגדול, You took us out and brought us near to You, להודות לך וליחדך באהבה. L’hodos lecha means to offer hoda’ah to You, and l’yachedcha is to be m’yached You and to single You out, to acknowledge there is nothing else but You, be’ahavah, with love, not bal korchacha, without being forced to do so.

This Gives Us Zechus Kiyum

If a person does this, he’s fulfilling the ratzon of Hashem, and that gives him a kiyum. What gives you a zechus kiyum? If ever your situation, your kiyum, seems to be in question, what you should do is be modeh to Hashem and be meyached Hashem. That’s the whole purpose. If you look in the gemara (Sotah 40a) you’ll see that the main nusach of the Modim that we say during chazaras hashatz is מודים אנחנו לך על שאנו מודים לך. That’s the ikar girsa in the gemara! We’re modeh to Hashem על שאנו מודים לך. You know what that means? Have you ever heard of such a thing?! We’re saying a whole tefillah to thank Hashem that we can thank Him. We have a mitzvah to thank You. We want to thank You. I thank Hashem for giving me the ability to thank Him. You know why? Because that’s my ticket to live. Hashem says if you are going to thank Me, if you are going to offer Me a hoda’ah, then that’s going to be a zechus hakiyum. Noradik! That’s what a person has to understand.

Now the hoda’ah that Hashem is chafetz banu includes all kinds of hoda’os. The leil sipur yetzias Mitzrayim hoda’ah is not only for the fact that He took us out. We’re thanking Hashem for making us become Klal Yisrael. Rabbosai, this is something that needs training. You have to train yourself to be’emes come to appreciate what it means to be a Yisrael, and what it means to be part of Am Yisrael.

Yidden Have Greater Responsibility

Now, there are people who think that the main difference  between Am Yisrael and the umos haolam is in the future worlds. That in olam haba, we have a chelek in olam haba. That’s a very major chiluk. We are definitely nitzchi. But the chiluk has to be nikar in this velt,too! You have to look at a goy and you have to say to yourself, “I was created with a much greater tafkid, a much greater purpose. I have a tremendous responsibility and that responsibility defines my greatness.”

A goy once asked me this question, “Do you think you’re better than me?” I said, “I’m greater than you.” That’s what I said. He said, “What does that mean?” I said, “Let me explain it to you. My job is not to walk around and put you down. We’re not looking to destroy anybody. What I mean is that my responsibilities are greater than yours.” The Germans yemach shemam vezichram professed that they were the Aryan Nation. The reason why they hated the Jews was because when they looked at all the other goyim in the world and told the other goyim that they were better than them, the goyim agreed. The Germans were tall. They were blonde, with blue eyes, cultured, and educated, but when they looked at the Jew, the Jew always reminded them that this bent-over Jew with the twinkle in his eyes without his university was smarter, more educated, and more cultured than this cursed German nation was. They were the lowest of the low. Hashem demonstrated through them that you could have a shpitz cultured nation that is so shafel, so lowly, so lacking basic humanity, human decency. Animals are better than them. They’re worse than animals, worse than snakes.

So a Yid has to feel that he has a greater responsibility than the nicest, most important goy. I have mitzvos. I have a culture. My actions have tremendous meanings. I’m connected to all the olamos. Every one of my actions has an effect and hashpa’ah. And the actions of the umos haolam? No. Does that mean I want to get rid of them? No. I want them to stay around forever. Who’s going to drive my buses? I don’t need people from Skver driving my buses. They should sit in the beis medrash and say Tehillim and do avodas Hashem. Let the umos haolam drive buses. Who is going to make my clothes? I don’t need chassidim from Williamsburg importing clothes from China. I’m happy to have the O’Malleys and O’Connors and all the people in the world do it. The same thing for all my needs. I’m very happy to have the whole world provide them. And we’re thankful. I’m being makir tov for that. The fact that I’m greater than him makes me more responsible and holds me to a higher standard. To get that appreciation is a lifetime of avodah, rabbosai. If a person is not happy to be here, it’s like Hashem chose the am hanivchar and He did it b’ahavah, the greatest act of love and what does the Yid say? “No, thank you!”

Sipur Yetzias Mitzrayim Includes Hoda’ah

Many years ago, we answered afamous question with this yesod. Rav Chaim Halevi Soloveitchik explained the Rambam that b’zman Moshiach, the mitzvah of zechiras yetzias Mitzrayim that we do all year long is going to be nullified, null and void. According to Ben Zoma, the mitzvah of zechiras yetzias Mitzrayim is only noheg in this world until yemos haMoshiach. That’s why the Rambam does not write down the mitzvah of zechiras yetzias Mitzrayim as one of the 613 mitzvos. The Rambam says: I only put down mitzvos that are going to be noheg l’asid lavo. But if you look at the mitzvah of sipur yetzias Mitzrayim, the Rambam does write it down! Why does he include it? If zechiras yetzias Mitzrayim is not going to be noheg beyemos haMoshiach, why is sipur yetzias Mitzrayim going to be different? And the answer is because the mitzvah of sipur yetzias Mitzrayim has an addition. The addition is the hoda’ah aspect. The mitzvah of zechiras yetzias Mitzrayim daily is not for hoda’ah. It’s only for emunah. It’s only for the conclusion of the Shema Yisrael, where we’re mekabel upon ourselves the ol malchus Shamayim and we acknowledge Hashem is echad, we say that it began when Hashem took us out of Mitzrayim, להיות לכם לאלקים. However, the mitzvah of sipur yetzias Mitzrayim has an aspect of hoda’ah. It says that when Moshiach will come, there’s going to be miracles even greater than those of yetzias Mitzrayim. So if we need to have a ra’ayah of emunah in Hashem, you’re not going to have to come to yetzias Mitzrayim. You’re going to have greater miracles when Hashem brings the Moshiach. If you have a bigger ra’ayah, you don’t bring the smaller ra’ayah. But what happens if a person does tovos for you, small tovos and big tovos, do we say because he does big tovos that you don’t have to be grateful for the smaller things?! Of course you have to be grateful for those as well. So le’asid lavo you’re going to be grateful to Hashem for this. That’s what a person has to know.

It’s Great to Be a Yid

I’ll give a suggestion for you this Erev Pesach: before Pesach, in addition to being mechazek yourself in the emunah of Hashem and in matters of emunah, try to think about reasons that you can convince yourself or explain to yourself why you’re lucky to be a Yid. I once heard of  a good ma’areh makom in English, from a very chashuve yungerman,way back in the day, a Brisker who came from a very yeshivishe home and yeshivah. He asked me, ”Did you ever read your Zeida’s sefarim?” I said, “Yeah, a little bit. I looked at them.” He said, “You got anything out of it?” I said, “They’re pretty boring.” He said, “Let me suggest that you look at them again.” I said, “Why?” He said, “I want to tell you something. I think I’m starting to realize how lucky I am to serve Hashem, to be an oved Hashem.” I said, “How is that?” He said, “I read your Zeida’s sefer.” I said, “How did you come to it?” This person was a serious ben Torah. He said, “I’ll tell you the truth. My wife was sick. She was having a baby. She was laid up. I had to buy her stuff to read. So I went out and I bought a whole bunch of things to be mechazek her. One of the things I bought her is this sefer. She opened it up and told me it’s boring. So I decided I would read it. And I read it.” He said, “I became so full of simchah of being a Yid.” I said, “Are you sure?” The guy said, “You have to read the whole thing.” The first part talks about evolution, about narishkeit, how narish the goyishe shitos are. I never got to the end. I wasn’t mature when I read it. I was very young. So I decided I would read it again and I sat down and I read that sefer and I pashut felt אשרינו מה טוב חלקנו ומה נעים גורלנו. My Zeida doesn’t mention anything about the next world. My Zeida was very practical. He lived in this world. But he was so ecstatic that Hashem chose him to be a Yid. When he made that brachah ברוך אתה ה’ אלקינו מלך העולם שלא עשני גוי, he told me he used to think in his mind of the most important goyim around. And then think, “I’m happy You didn’t make me one of them.” There are many tidbits, insights, and food for thought in that book to help a person realize how fortunate we are to have been created as Yidden.

How Wonderful It Is to Be a Torah Yid

Now there are a lot of things you have to get out of our system just because we’re lazy. A lot of times, if something is hard for me and I have to push myself, I automatically think that it’s not fun. But that’s shtus. For all the good things in life, you have to push yourself. You have to overcome some difficulties, and then you get a sense of accomplishment for having done them. For things that are easy, there’s no sense of accomplishment. There’s no joy in them. Joy is when a person develops himself and breaks himself, and then he realizes the gadlus of Hashem and how puny he is, and he realizes that Hakadosh Baruch Hu chose him to perform His will. He chose me out of all the nations in the world. Ruba deruba of the world are not Klal Yisrael. And then you appreciate it even amongst Klal Yisrael. Most people in Klal Yisrael are not following the derech of Hashem. You could offer up lip service to this, and not feel it. A lot of people are walking around and inside they’re thinking, “I’m not so sure what is so great, what this Yiddishkeit thing is all chuggedup about.” Of course, you get exciting things. You get run-a-thons. You run for Judaism. You get bike-a-thons. That’s exciting. You get yourself in the paper. You get exercise. I just read about a guy who was riding through Lakewood and he drove up to the mountains. It’s a lot of fun, biking or driving for Yiddishkeit. But I’m talking about just appreciating what a mitzvah is, what you create with a mitzvah, what you accomplish with a mitzvah.

I told you this many times: People don’t begin to think about what they’re accomplishing when they do a mitzvah. It’s not just like taking a drink of water. It’s not just like filling up a glass of water. It’s not like just scratching your head because you got an itch. Doing a mitzvah is such an accomplishment. You’re creating malachim. You’re changing worlds. You’re being meitiv with others through simple mitzvah. You’re giving Hashem nachas. And on top of all these benefits, Hashem wants you to do the mitzvos. Then you get a feeling: I’m thankful Hashem, very thankful for one more Pesach. Hashem, thank You for granting me so many chances. Like the famous kasha everybody asks, the narishkeit they ask. It says אפילו כולנו חכמים כולנו נבונים כולנו יודעים את התורה, you still have to do Pesach again. So they ask, what for? The guy knows all the Torah from last year. He knows all the stories from last year. All the medrashim from the last fifty years. What does he need it for? Do you know what the answer is? This is the answer: To feel hoda’ah, to feel hoda’ah b’ahavah, to grow in your love for Hashem and your appreciation for Hakadosh Baruch Hu.

I don’t care how big you are. A lot of big people have expressed, “Oy is shver tzu zein a Yid, oy being a Jew, nothing comes easy.” They don’t appreciate it. It shows a lack of appreciation. This is where it comes from. We must be mechazek ourselves, and be meichin ourselves.

When people sit by the seder, they start thinking to themselves how they can buy themselves a simple box of matzahs. I say ‘simple’ because there’s nothing in the matzah. No salt, no sugar, no taste, just flour and water. You could pay $37, $47 for a pound of matzah. A guy told me last year: $70 a box of matzah. I was thinking to myself, “$70 a box of matzah? $50 a box of matzah? $35 a box of matzah? What is this, gold?” It’s just simple matzah. A minute after Pesach it’s worth very little. On Pesach do you know what it is? A mitzvah. Another guy said to me, “I’ll take the Manischewitz stuff. It’s only $3.50 and you have this soft egg matzah,” and some kind of nonsense over there. That’s how people are. Amaratzim. Pesach has no value to them. If you don’t appreciate Pesach, it has zero value. It means you’re not even sitting by a seder. You’re being mevazeh yourself and mevazeh Hashem and mevazeh everything.

Explaining the Beauty of Yiddishkeit

I remember the first time that I had to convince somebody as to the beauty of Yiddishkeit. I remember being petrified with a pit in my stomach. I remember the guy getting ready, trying to figure out all the questions he was going to ask me. I’ll never forget that. He gave me a very hard time and I told him, “Don’t you understand that the only purpose you came to this world is to get close to Hashem?” I’ll never forget. He got all upset. He said, “No, absolutely not! What about family? What about raising kids? What about having a good marriage? What about friends?” I said, “Uuhhh, good point.” Then I told him, “There’s only one tovah,” I told him. “Kirvas Elokim.” He started laughing at me in his unusual laughter that he has. He said, “Come on! You’re not going to sell me that.” I remember sweating and I went home and I called my grandfather. It’s a good thing to have a grandfather to call.

I remember the first guy asked me, “Explain to me, what exactly is beautiful about Judaism? The white shirts? What exactly is the attraction here? The fact that you could study all day long? Is that the attraction? Where’s the attraction here?” But you’re not sure what to tell a person. There are plenty of Yidden that walk around, who have no idea why they’re Jewish. They have no idea what beauty is. They were in the world their entire lifetime and they never once showed gratitude to Hashem. A lot of them have this approach: “Well, I’m Jewish, but I didn’t choose it. I’m stuck with it. Okay, you want me to do a good job? Okay.” You know you have kids that they put in school. I remember I disliked school. My mother said, “You have no choice. You go to school. You’ve got to follow the rules.” I said, “You follow the rules if you want to be in the school. If I don’t want to be in school, why should I follow the rules?” That’s how it’s done. I understand people don’t want to do that. But this is appreciating. Do you appreciate it? How do you tell somebody how to appreciate  the value in education?

Build Your Pride in Who You Are

A person must be mechazek himself in this area. This is incumbent upon every single individual. Go out and get a book, go out and look at sefarim. You’ve got to find some kind of sefer that’s going to explain to you what is great about being Jewish, to understand in your own terms, in your layman pashute terms when you’re surrounded with all kind of nonsense who are ba’alei olam hazeh to the max and they’re doing what they want, how they want, where they want and when they want. You’re going to view them that they’re gornisht.

My Zeida once told me. “Don’t ever be mekarev nebachs. You want to mekarev Jews? Go to the most successful people.” I remember asking my Zeida, “What am I going to sell them?” He said, “They have no Yiddishkeit.” I said, “Yeah, but they have everything else in the world that their hearts desire.” A guy who doesn’t have a job, a guy who doesn’t have a wife, a guy that doesn’t have hatzlachah, he’s easier to get. “That’s אהבה התלויה בדבר,” he told me. “That’s not real Yiddishkeit. Sell Yiddishkeit to the guy who thinks he’s got everything.” And I remember when I got to the point where I felt I understood it and could give it over. It was amazing! At that point, I remember a wealthy and very high, very famous and powerful guy, who came to me and said, “Now what in the world do you think you have to offer me?” I said, “I’m going to let you in on a little secret. You’ve got zero. That’s what you have. I know everything that you have and you don’t begin to dream an iota about or understand what I have. You can’t say about what I have that it’s nothing. I can say that about what you have. I know what a nice car is. I know what a nice house is. I know what trips are. I know what hotels are. What don’t I know? So you eat in every restaurant in the world? But what do you have?” The guy was shocked. He said, “You really believe you have something that I don’t have?” I said, “You have nothing. I’m going to give you an example. Can you imagine going to the jungle. We go to the jungle and we see a guy with a loin cloth. He’s got a piece of cloth in the front and a piece of cloth in the back. And you turn around to me and you say, ‘Look at this guy. Who is this guy?’ I say, ‘This guy is the head of the tribe. He’s got paint across his cheeks on this side. He’s got a really funny haircut.’ And you say, ‘The guy looks like he’s a jungle man. The guy looks like he’s a barbarian. He probably eats people, human beings, for breakfast.’ I say, ‘Probably.’ Do you want to know something? That’s what I think of you. That’s exactly what I think of you. You are to me a jungle person, uneducated, unknowledgeable, clueless to what your existence is. You’re exactly like the guy who has a head on his shoulder and he goes and asks somebody, ‘Do you have any idea why G-d made this pimple on my shoulders?’ At that point you know, without a shadow of a doubt, that the guy is retarded. You say, ‘Do you think it’s a pimple appendage on your shoulders?’” Koach hare’iyah, koach hashmiyah, koach ha’achilah, koach hareiach, koach haseichel. What is he hocking a tshaynik? A meshugene. That’s how you are,” I told him. “You have no idea what seichel is.”

I used to say like this: “Tell me, do you know how to tie your shoes?” They would say, “What?” They thought it was the craziest question. I would repeat my question, “Do you know how to tie your shoes? Which shoe do you put on first?” “What difference does it make?” Oh, that’s like the guy in the Congo. What difference does it make if I have pants or underpants? Who cares? You understand? You understand there’s a difference. You’re sitting on dirt. You’re going to get sick. It’s not exactly a healthy situation.  I used to make jokes with them, make leitzanus. I used to say to them, “Okay, do you know how to put on your pants? I said, “Does somebody put on your pants for you?” I used to say this every time. “No.” I said, “Tell me, how do you put your pants on? Which leg do you put in first?” “What difference does it make?” “Oooh, that’s too hard. That’s too difficult for you. Shirts. How about shirts?” “What shirt?” I said, “You take a shower. What do you wash first?” They didn’t know. I didn’t say, “Do you know the Torah tells me all of this? Do you know when you’re supposed to wash your face and when it’s a mitzvah? Do you understand what a Jew’s knowledge is? Do you understand that when a Jew walks down the street, you think you’re seeing somebody, a mirror image of you. You’re not. That’s what an animal thinks. An animal thinks here goes a two-legged animal. But we understand that’s a human being and this is an animal. You have to feel that. You have to get that into you. As my Zeida used to say דע מה שתשיב. You have to know what to answer yourself. Your own questions. You have to feel something special about it. And if you feel something special then you’ll have hoda’ah toHashem. Otherwise, you’ll never have hoda’ah.

Everybody is thankful. Every guy gets up by a simchah and says, “I want to thank my wife for all the effort she put in and made the bar mitzvah happen and made the wedding happen. It wouldn’t have happened without her.” Baruch Hashem shehechianu. You mean baruch Hashem my foot. You don’t do anything for Hashem. You don’t feel anything for Hashem. You don’t feel more gratitude to Hashem. You don’t feel any obligation to Hashem. You don’t feel any closeness to Hashem.

Gratitude Brings Closeness

That’s what hoda’ah does, my friend. I feel close to people who I’m grateful to. We’re going to get to that, too. It’s a very big avodah. You know how embarrassing it was in the beginning when I started getting into the program of thanking Hashem. I mamash felt funny. I felt weird. I thought it was corny. And I can’t tell how many yungerleit told me that their wives told them, “Could you stop with all this thanking to Hashem business? It sounds corny.” I said, “I know exactly what she means.” I can’t blame her. She’s being honest. She doesn’t have an appreciation for it. And you don’t either. It’s like the guy who comes home, he just became frum and when he sits down by his meal of treife food, he puts his hand in his pocket and he pulls out one of those plastic yarmulkes and he pulls it over his ears and he tries to place it so it won’t fall off. His wife says, “You look silly. What are you doing that for?” He says, “Oh, it’s a rule. You’ve got to put this beanie on.” She says, “I understand if you want to put on a bib so you don’t get stains on your shirt. But why are you putting something on your head? Are you starting to eat with your head? You’re rolling your head in the food? What do you need that thing on your head for?” The guy has no idea, and it feels corny. It does feel corny if you can’t answer this question with a real conviction and passion. It looks weird. But if you stop doing it, then you remain a goy. And if you push yourself and get awareness and you start to appreciate what you’re doing, you appreciate that you’re really living, you appreciate everything, do you know what you feel like? Like a million dollars. You can make leitzanusa deavodah zarah. You look at somebody who is frei and you don’t think, “I’m jealous of him.” Instead, you think,“What a nebach! What a nebach!”

Hakadosh Baruch Hu should help us have a wonderful Yom Tov. A Yom Tov of aliyah, a Yom Tov in which we taka fulfill the mitzvos of Hashem k’retzon Hashem, and mechazek ourselves in our emunah and in our hoda’ah to Hashem.

This is going to be the last shiur for this zman. I’m sorry to say the zman is over now. The last afternoon. We hope to meet you on the other side of the Pesach bridge. We hope to see you on the other side a little stronger, a little more grateful, a little closer to Hashem, a little prouder to be a Yid and a little stronger in your commitment to mitzvos. Chag kasher vesameach.

^[i] “מי ימלל גבורות ה’ ישמיע כל תהלתו” (תהלים קו, ב). רצונו לומר כי ספור שבחו של הקב”ה אי אפשר משני פנים; האחד, מצד שלא נוכל לעמוד על הגבורה בעצמה כמה גדול גבורת מעשיו. והשני, מצד שהם רב ברבוי אין תכלית להם. ולפיכך ספור שבחו אי אפשר מצד האיכות ומצד הכמות; אם מצד האיכות, שאי אפשר לעמוד על איכות גבורת מעשיו. וגם מצד הכמות אי אפשר. וכנגד הראשון אמר “מי ימלל גבורות ה'”, שהרצון בזה מי יוכל לדבר הגבורה ולרדת עד תכלית. ולפיכך אמר לשון “מלל”, כי לשון זה בא על דבר חדוש, כמו (בראשית כא, ז) “מי מלל לאברהם היניקה בנים שרה”. וכנגד רבוי הכמות שהם בלי קץ ותכלית, אמר “ישמיע כל תהלתו”, אמר כאן לשון “כל תהלתו”, שרצונו על הכמות. ובפרק אין עומדין (ברכות לג:), ההוא דנחית קמיה דרבי חנינא, אמר “האל הגדול הגבור והנורא האדיר והאמיץ והעזוז והאמתי והיראוי וכו'”, אמר ליה, סיימתנהו לכולהו שבחיה דמרך, השתא הנהו שלשה אי לאו דאמרינהו משה באורייתא ואנשי כנסת הגדולה תקנינהו בתפלה לא הוי אמרינן להו, ואת אמרת ואזלת כולי האי. משל למה הדבר דומה, למלך בשר ודם שהיו לו אלף אלפי אלפים דינרי זהב, והיו מקלסין אותו בשל כסף וכו’, עד כאן. ופירוש הרמב”ם ז”ל (מו”נ ח”א פנ”ט) כי אין לספר שבחו מצד האיכות, שאין לעמוד על שבחו עד היכן מגיע השבח ההוא שמספר. וגם מצד הכמות גם כן, שאין לגמור שבחו מצד הרבוי, ששבחו הם בלי תכלית וקץ. ולפיכך אמר שהוא משל וכו’, כי אם מקלסין אותו בשל כסף, הרי חלוף יש בין הכסף ובין הזהב מצד האיכות. ומה שיש לו אלף אלפי אלפים דינרי זהב, ומשבחים אותו באלף, הרי חלוף זה מצד הכמות. ומפני זה יש לשאול, איך אנו מצווים לספר נפלאותיו של הקב”ה בליל היציאה, ולמה לא נאמר בזה גם כן “מי ימלל גבורות ה’ וגו'”. אבל תירוץ קושיא זאת, שודאי כשבא לספר שבחו של מקום, בודאי בזה שייך לומר “מי ימלל גבורות ה'”. אבל מה שאנו מצווין לספר בליל היציאה נפלאותיו, אין זה בשביל להגיד שבחו, רק שאנו מספרים שבחו שלא נהיה כפויי טובה, שעשה הקב”ה לנו נסים ונפלאות, ואין אנו מודים לו עליהם. וכי אין אנו מחויבים לספר מה שהטיב עמנו, אף על פי שאי אפשר לספר כל הטוב שעשה עמנו, ואף מקצת נפלאותיו, מכל מקום בשביל זה אין לומר שלא לספר מקצת מהן, לומר שאין אנו כפויי טובה, ואפילו בשביל מקצת טובו שעשה עמנו יש לנו להודות לו. והכי מוכח שכל מקום שאין כוונתו לספר בשבחו שאין אסור, דהא קאמר (ברכות לג:) “השתא הני תלת אי לאו דאמרינהו משה וכו'”, והשתא יקשה*, כיון שאסור לספר בשבחו של מקום, תקשה לך למה אמר משה שבחו של מקום (דברים י, יז) “האל הגדול הגבור והנורא”, והרי אסור לספר בשבחו. אבל משה לא היה כוונתו לספר בשבחו, רק היה כוונתו לומר לישראל שיהיו יראים מפני השם יתברך, כי הוא “אל הגדול הגבור וגו'”, ובשביל אלו השלשה דברים “הגדול הגבור והנורא” יש להם להיות יראים מפניו, כל שכן שיש לו כל השבחים, ולפיכך הותר למשה לספר שבחים אלו. ובשביל זה היה מותר לאנשי כנסת [הגדולה] לתקן אותם בתפלה, שעתה אין נראה שבא לגמור שבחו של הקב”ה, אף על גב דבתפלה בא להזכיר שבחו, מכל מקום אין נראה לומר שבא לספר כולם, כיון דנקט בתפלה לישנא דקרא. והוצרך לומר גם כן “ואתו אנשי כנסת הגדולה ותקנו בתפלה”, דאם לא כן, אף על גב דאמרינהו משה, לא היה רשאי לאמרם, בשביל שהיה נראה כאילו בא לספר שבחו של מקום. שלא היה נראה שנקט לישנא דקרא, רק שהיה בא לספר שבחו. אבל השתא דתקנום אנשי כנסת הגדולה בתפלה, מוכח שאין אנו באים לספר בשבחו של מקום, רק להתפלל בתפלה הקבוע לנו מאנשי כנסת הגדולה, שתקנו אותה לפי ענין הכתוב שהזכיר משה “האל הגדול הגבור והנורא” יתברך הוא.