This Shabbos Yaki spoke about the meaning of Pesach. We are commanded to recount our story of being enslaved and later set free. However, the meaning of Pesach is more than remembering what happened. We also need to be grateful for everything Hashem has given us. On Pesach, we are reminded to be grateful for what we have today, as well as the freedom from slavery in Egypt that we were given.
We discussed how in the Torah, Abraham was told that we would later become slaves for 400 years. Why was Abraham willing to accept this without any question or attempts at negotiation? Yaki talked about how it was part of Hashem’s plan for us to go to Egypt, and that Abraham was aware of this fact. Going to Egypt, helped make us the strong and successful people we are today. In our own personal lives, we can all take a look back at the “bad” things that happen to us and maybe see at least one good point from having gone through the experience.
Yaki also spoke about the Garden of Eden. The sin was not that Adam did not listen. The sin was a lack of gratitude. The lesson for us is to be grateful for all that we have, and to show this gratitude with our actions and not just our thoughts and words. On Pesach, by recounting our story, we show gratitude, as well as remembrance.
We discussed some of the “bad” things that have happened to us through out history, and how these "bad" things may have at least 1 good thing about them . Brett brought up the Holocaust. Although it is hard to see anything good about this, it can be argued it led to the creation of the state of Israel. Howard mentioned that we have reached the point where most of the world’s Jews live in Israel. This is a major milestone that has been met. David S has talked in the past about what his father termed the "virtuous response to suffering".
In the messianic era will it still be necessary for “bad” thing to happen, in order to lead to something “good”? This is a question we may take up at future learnins. Yaki spoke about how everything that comes from Hashem is good, no matter what it is.
Harold Katz, a regular reader of these notes, pointed out that in the messianic era we may worship hashem differently. Our worship would be focused on giving thanks, rather than seeking forgiveness for our sins.
Finally, Rabbi Joel Finkelstein spoke about the importance of doing chessed this time of year. We should remember the mitzvah of visiting the sick and helping the poor. We should think of broad definitions of sick and poor. For example, “sick” includes those who are not well spiritually and/or mentally, and “poor” includes those who do not have a lot of family and friends.
This is a summary of what we discussed. No Halachic rulings are intended or should be inferred.
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