The Haggadah (5) - A Simple and Deep Understanding of the Mah Nishtana

Today's lemud is and we have the hashem holding at the fifth shean mikos. So we began with an introduction, a brief history of the Jewish people. From there we talked a little bit high level about the mitzvah of specifically that it's divided into two components or shall we say two. a mitzvah to recount the incredible miracles that took place to be and a mitzvah to give for the incredible miracles that he performed on our behalf. Additionally, we talked about the sim that every yid begins his seder with then we got into it a little bit. Kadesh or Karpas Yakat and then yesterday we began perhaps the entree of the seder and that is mag that's when we're those two that's when we're the mitzvah of mitz and we mentioned that even though it feels a little bit like mag starts with the manana of but if you look at all the old and it's from the mag really begins with the words but that was the topic of yesterday's share. Today's shar is going to focus on the questions. Today's shar is going to focus on the manana. But before the kind at the sedar recite the manana, if you look carefully at your m you're told to do two things or if you look at other The idea is the same. Number one, you remove the matis on some level. Number two, you pour the second cup of wine. So why are we doing this? Now it sounds like this is the prelude to the manana. It sounds like this is the intermission between the first two paragraphs of magna. We started mag. We're about to get into it. But before we do that, there's two critical things we must do. Make sure you remove the mats. Number two, make sure you pour a second cup of wine. Just to complicate the situation a little bit more. If you look back at your right after you finish the man before the ter is oral. So really we just removed the matis for the it almost has nohat. The truth is the to both of these men is uh and the reason for both of these things is one and the same. You know what the reason is? I think at this point we know the gist already. It's makes absolutely no sense. And that's exactly why we do it because we're trying as hard as we possibly can to get the kid on his own to be inspired to say I'm completely confused. And just to visualize it a little bit. So the family gets together and you're about to start a suda or at least that's what it looks like. There's a kah that has all bunch of different appetizers on it and you have the the matzah which is the bread that's the focal point of the meal. the way it was once upon a time and you're literally about to start the meal and then all of a sudden the mash come and they remove the we take the food away and that is supposed to really trigger a question. What in the world is going on over here? Can you imagine that? You come on Friday night, you sit down, you sing, you sing, you make kesh and everything is set beautifully. You have dips and you have fashid and the different fishes and you have sourdoughs and you have everything going on and then you're literally about to start the meal and all of a sudden they start taking away your plates and your bowls and all of a sudden you connect your you have nothing. I think you would probably say is everything okay? Right. That's what I would say. So, I mean, less than left of wine, maybe we'd be fine. But the point is already holding by the second guys, but regardless, that's probably the emotion and the question that it would elicit. And that's exactly the point is the same thing. You're pouring a a cup of wine and you're not even going to drink it, right? I think one of the challenges, one of the practical challenges of the lease is taking that second cup of wine during ma during all the flying across the table and to make sure that it doesn't get all over your k all over your flying every right that's one of the big a that's included in that it's to make sure that second and I think again subconsciously we've all wondered over the years why are we pouring this cup now it's going to sit there for 2 hours it's just going to make such a mess just wait until it's time to drink the poret. It's a wonderful question and that is the reason we do it. So you should be bothered with this question and that's exactly what's going on. So really these two things of a and b are there simply to get the child to ask the question and that's why this is done right before the man because this is the time to ask the question. So, almost like a lastditch effort, we're going to try to bulldoze this child with weird things to get him to on his own be inspired to ask. As a matter of fact, if you do a little bit of a recap of where we're up to now, think about the things that we've gone through that we're done. Again, family sitting together. We're supposed to start a meal. Usually, we wash and we eat bread and that's the way the meal goes. And now, we're going to eat a little bit of a vegetable p It comes with what you do do, you don't do. And then you take that and you dip it into you dip it into something which nobody ever does. Then we remove the table or even before that we steal the which says we remove the table. We pour a second cup of wine. As a matter of fact, if you look at the Rambam and the Rambam's the says another thing they used to do is they used to start handing out they would give Nash the proverbial lollipops to all the little children and start giving them things. I mean at this point this kid is completely bewildered, right? He's very very taken back. And the idea over here is to try to get the child to ask. What happens if the child doesn't know what to ask, right? Let's say he doesn't know. Say he saw karpas. Noo-Noo or this kid's in his own world. He's not impressed. You steal the I always fight with my brothers. I'm not sure what the over here is. They remove the table. They'll probably bring it back. My father's an alcoholic. I've seen this before. Right. Yeah. Okay. Listen, this is the pantry is open in my house. So you know nothing's impressing him so far. If that's the case I'm quoting from a mission. So the child is going to ask of then we have no choice. So then the kid has to go to yeshiva and we have to give him sheets and we have to explain to him how to do it in 11 languages. So like this the child at the s is going to be able to ask the questions. So really if you think about this in a perfect world the child would be inspired on his own to ask whatever needs to be asked it's only if the child doesn't know what to ask of we teach him and we tell him the four questions if you look in and you go through it properly in the it's very very mashma that in the event the child would ask on his own in that instance in that instance we would never tell him to ask the four questions because he asked already manana. He was inspired to ask it from the karpas or the orat or the or from the fact that we removed the table and we report the second k or maybe from the nach that we gave and we tried everything. We pulled out all the stops. So we tried as hard as we can and if he was inspired to ask the question on his own well then we're going to be good to go. That's fine. It's only if the child doesn't know how to ask Dr. Vishno in the event that that's the case then of then we have the pre prescribed four questions and that is the man so again this is the place right here where the child is going to ask the questions that need to be asked if he was inspired on his own and if not we teach him the questions that are supposed to be taught if you look at the Mishna when the Mishna mentions the manishana so The lion of the is that over here the child asks his father. You look at the show specifically the rash he very much what does it mean here as opposed to somewhere else. So yeah you know this is the part of the seder where you know we built up to try to get the qual to ask and again And then the father's going to teach him. But is not so happy with it. He doesn't love the word Khan. He's not sure where it fits in. In fact, he brings that he heard from his za rashi who heard from his rebi the rebar who said that he believes the propag is not but it's and it's a play on words. The Pik says and over there means MS again it's a little bit unclear that's not typically but this word or mystified already the what exactly it means if you take a look at Rabu Margolas says he says something fascinating he says that we know from Gimarus that once upon a time there was a certain surah of How the am used to learn in B mash specifically the way a class would start is a Talmud would ask a question a question that he was taught to ask and that would create a shakar a massive and then ultimately the would be and they would ask him exactly how this is supposed to work. Just to bring out the point with two very short garis a very My nephew, I want you to ask the following question tomorrow. We're not going to explain this kasha. This is but the point is gave bar a question. He literally handed it to him and he said that tomorrow I want you to go ahead. I want you to ask this question. Another gimmar and this is a classic and this is the garra says when these were the came into the got up and he asked the question and then there was a whole and that's where tells the story with that's which by the way has a real theme We're getting ahead of ourselves but either way there was a surah once upon a time of how learning was done and that is the sh would ask a question he was a talid and then there was a massive am there was a shakay and then ultimately there was a so really this idea of discussing an Indian and doing it there you see this was the way that they used to do everything it wasn't just a din in based on a But this was the surah of the way was always done. But ordinarily who is the sh the sh was a and who is the m the mv was a says mar is tonight at the seder we're going to follow the same exact surah it's not the tal that asked the question it's the ben that asked the question and vik it's not the that's going to be the m but it's of it's the father that's going to go ahead and teach him he that the Khan is not this part of the seda versus the other part of the seda. The kh is by the seder itself. You want to know who the sh is? It's the ban as opposed to the talmet. Again, this is what we call classic marles very much. But either way, so what is what is the manana? What are the four questions? So we know what they are, but we have to go through the words. is. So the first question is that every night you sit down, you have dinner, eat there's no all there is is usually have salad this type, that type. Tonight it's usually who does but tonight we do twice, right? ordinarily but tonight all we eat is mum. So what are the four questions? Number one, why matzah? And also why not? Number two, why? Number three, why are we doing? And number four, why is it that we're sitting but ordinarily we don't sit? Now the mak to these four questions is the stating that if you look at the Mishna the Mishna over there has four questions like we have but in the mentions a different question and that is we eat it could be roast roasted. It could be cooked. It could be fried. You can prepare however you want to prepare it. Tonight we only eat roasted. So four questions like we have three of them are the same. We have a shil related to and in the Mishna they had a shil related to the carbon pes. Now the reason we don't have a shil related to the carbon pes is easy. It's because we don't have a carbon pes. Why in the Mishna did they have a question about the carbon pes? So they had the current P but why did they not have a Mishna related to right there was a mitzvah of so how come you don't have that question so it's that the said and by the way it's in the he said that the reason is because once upon a time the when people got together they used to sit and it was people were there really wasn't such aesh that because this is the way it always was and it's for that reason it wasn't a question. So the sha between the questions of the Mishna and the questions that we have today is that it's four questions. It was four questions then and it's four questions now. Stating that stating that the questions are not entirely the same. We have a question regarding matzah, a question regarding m a question regarding and a question regarding but in the Mishna you have the first three questions but in we they replaced the question of but that wasn't a question back in the day instead there was a question related to the there was a question that was related to the carbon pes now I don't want to get ahead of myself But the next part of the hag is in the terret is right. The next part of the is what is the terret to the to the four questions. Now somebody asks you okay so these are the four questions and now I mean we pretty much uh did the questions what is the teri we were slaves and we were taken out of slavery. It's a fantastic story and we know that sort of uh underpins everything that we're doing tonight, but how exactly does it answer these questions? And again, I know we're getting ahead of ourselves, but how exactly does it answer the four questions, right? We should know the answer to this. What is the terret to the four? We were slaves and therefore what? Therefore, we eat matzah. We were slaves. This that and the other thing. Okay, so you have to tell me. So the truth is that says that we're going to say at the end of that why did say it's because THAT'S THE ANSWER TO THE QUESTION WHAT ARE THE QUESTIONS? So again, we have to go back to the wheels. So what's the question? Why do we eat matzah? We're preparing said we're getting out of here. We're going and they went so fast there was no time for the dough to rise. And as a result to the we go ahead and we eat matzah. So the ter is and that's why you have to say it cuz if you don't say it you never answer the question. That's the of the next question. Why do we eat murder? Because what's the next question? Why we eating the carbon pes? What's going on over here? This is very I know. Usually eat whatever you want to eat. There's a whole menu tonight. My mother didn't give me a menu tonight. This is what you're eating. And if you don't want to eat it, go to sleep hungry, right? This is the only option. What's that's why said culturally it's because those three things are the answer to that. Now we didn't answer the fourth. How do you answer the where we have the says in his he thinks it's because it's that the reason we're and it's that the reason we're being is because the was to eat and as a result that doesn't really require an answer. It requires an answer but it's That's all included in the narrative of the only questions you never addressed in the narrative of the is why and it's for that reason it's for that reason you have to say it but I saw in the pes that's the the briska they bring that so we don't know who this infamous is but he gets quoted a lot in the brisk that somebody asked this question says I understand we make such a big deal about the kid goes he asks the questions and the TA DOESN'T ANSWER THE question he doesn't answer now it says we do but even then two or four questions we didn't really answer but this is the question that the infamous asked he says I don't understand really answer the question aldus and it's alus in the manana and that's why we didn't wait until to speak this out I felt like it needed to be spoken out right now said the kid asks four questions he asks four questions right but really it's one question he's really asking one question the question is what's going on I this night is a diff what exactly is going down Now, how does the kid that something's different? There's four rias. There's four that something's a little bit off. Number one, but these are all JUST RIOTS THAT TONIGHT IS DIFFERENT. BUT THE REAL CASH is not why do we eat matzah. The kid's not holding by why do we eat matzah. It's not why do we eat m? Why? He's not getting into the weeds of the the of all the different we have that night. HE'S JUST TRYING TO FIGURE OUT TONIGHT IS OBVIOUSLY SPECIAL. IT'S THERE. BUT WHAT'S GOING ON? What is going on tonight? And on that one said, you want to know what the is and the took us out of. And it HAPPENED ON THIS NIGHT 3,338 years ago. And that's why tonight's a different night. It's one question and that's the answer. Theos of what the riots are that tonight's a different night. Don't get caught up in the details. The is tonight is different. And that's the point you have to bring out. It's all good. The is tonight's a different night. It's one question. And the ter is that's the only question the father has to answer. The father's number to answer because that's not really the question, right? You have to know what the question is. Sometimes the question is not so much that tonight is a different night. Oh, but the question is not so much why are we that wasn't the question. The question was number one, it's different. He didn't say why we eating matzah. He said so brisk. The question is he didn't say why do we eat. He said his right that it's different is because tonight we eat usually we EAT SOMETHING GREEN. THE question was never why are we? It's the same kasha. It's one kasha that repeats itself four times. He's just saying I see that usually we don't do this today we do that. That's what's going on over here. And on the question the is what we always thought it was. It's that's a terash and say is like this just to I think bring out what's posit even better is because we mentioned a minute ago say that if the child would have asked the question on the carpass and if he would have asked it on the and if he would have asked it on if he would have asked it on or if it's brings if that would have triggered him to ask the question he would have been WITH THAT HE WOULD HAVE NEVER EVEN asked this question. What do you mean? So now the father has a to talk about there's the father's is not to talk about it's not it's not to talk about how many we do it's not talk about just like it's not to talk about it's to talk about if we don't do that we miss the whole point. It's one question. That's a question of man. Either way, as it relates to Rey, just to end with one, and that is the Vagyian in his Pesak, he says a very novel interpretation of We have mitzvah mangarama. We have mitzvah that are done during certain times. Those mitzvah are always done by day. They're not done by night. So we blow the rash by day. And we take and we do it by day. Mitzvah for the most part are by day. You do it by day. You put on fill in by day. It's always be when it comes to the lease the big event that we have the one day of the one week of the year that is so heavily concentrated on remembering happens at night. It doesn't happen by day and said the guy that that's the guy said that in dict grammar it should have said why is this why is this why does it feel like day what's going on over here usually usually Avoid this. The mitzvah are done by day. Yet now all of a sudden we're doing it at night which means we're almost treating the night like day. What exactly is the reason for this? Why is of wouldn't it be more appropriate if it was done during the day? If you look about 10 pages later in the of the and this is already it's in that paragraph the Goyan comes back and he explains what the is why is it that the is when we have all the mitzvah when ordinarily the mitzvah would have been done during the day and the answer is because the Pik says It's because the Tory described this night as now how do you know when it says that it's referring to the maybe it's referring today because it says so we know and we know the current that was all done that's and when You have that and the says so the just called this soy that you want to know why it's that you would have all these mitzvah even though ordinarily the mitzvah would BE IT'S BECAUSE THIS IS really that's what the said it's BECAUSE it's not it's It's night but really says the guy the is the described as that's always when you're supposed to have the mitzvah and it's for that reason precisely says the guy and we do everything but because it might look dark outside but you should know there's no at all this is really day now the guy doesn't explain like what's the shot in there Why would it be that the night of the seder which is really but the is based onesh says that that night that he says that night there was such in the world it was literally like it was like the way the sun is out in the middle of a summer day and the world was able to see the way was punishing the says that when the left there was an incredible meaning even though really and everything started happening at night but on that night and that's what meant when he said it was it was a credible literally but the point is being that when the left on that first of it was so it's for that reason we treat it like and it goes down as being it's not treated as as anymore on the says that part and parcel of the mitzvah of you have to tell your child that it was day that's part of the mitzvah that every single father has to teach his child. You have to tell the story of you have to talk about all the but in addition to all that you also have to say you also have to bring out this you have to let him know that it was tell that even though it was technically but it was because it was an that's included in the mid and the way the is learning That's the man. The man is the im of the man is what's going on over here in the ter is going to say the same thing. It's part and parcel of the of but the question is what's the pvious of this right? What's the takeaway that it's so important? You have to let him know that it was that somehow on that night. Why is this important? That this is part of what we need to transmit when we give over the we give over the to our children at the but I think the the ishet and that is represents darkness. It is darkness. It represents when things are difficult. It represents it represents. It represents ambiguity. It represents why is what's happening happening or y that represents light. It represents it represents clarity. It represents I understand everything. Everything makes perfect sense throughout in Tan invo referring to the gulos and yo as referring to the gula. The yidden had just experienced terrible tarsus. They were in concentration camps. They were in the lagger literally for a century. They experienced such such credible tarsus. But now all of a sudden they started singing. And when they started singu, they cut something incredible. They realized that everything that they had gone through was a prelude. It was something that was necessary in order for them to come to the point where they would become an where they would have this incredible where ultimately they would become the they would become the and whereas up until this point they had been living in a world of darkness suddenly they realized NOT JUST WOW IT'S behind us and we're going to move on but the itself was they realized that everything that they went through was a necessary evil in order for them to be able to come to the Madregas that they came to. You know when the Yidden came to the Yamsu. So they sang Shir they went ahead and they sang Shir and they began the Shir with the word. The med says when went to par for the first time in the end of parish after he was told by go to par you're going to see par is going to let the in and out. So what happened? Didn't let them out. It backfired. He saidu goes running andu tells Hashem from the time from us from when I WENT TO PAR. HE MADE things worse. He didn't make it better. WHAT'S GOING ON OVER here said that I was with the word O. I'm going to be it with singing with the word O. And it's that the he said it's in he says what's the of this same word it's what exactly did he mean he said it was who said that when I saw all the sars of I thought it was bad and that when par made it worse I said what's going on over here but now that I see what cameu through all the now that I see and right now that was able to see with such incredible clarity. What I realize is that everything we went through was so he went that he was WHAT I THOUGHT WAS bad is good. So wasn't just singing now on the he was singing now on everything that had happened in the past. We said hallelu this morning says to that when a person ishua he sings on when a person ishua and he looks back at his life in hindsight he realizes I had this in the you know what it made me stronger I had that in the but look at what I became or I developed again sometimes sometimes not but the point is is that there's an idea of that's the of was singing with the word he was singing and now on the bus I think that's the of that itself was that on that night they realized that all the that they had experienced all The lil they had experienced was it was never a it was never a was never it was hard. No one said it was easy. It was very very hard. They're meant to be hard but at the same time it wasn't it was and this is one of the messages that we teach our children at the is part and parcel of what it means to be aid. Part of being a Yid is knowing Part of being a Yid is knowing that we're the Part of being a Yid is understanding that when sends us it's for our good. It's to make us stronger. Sometimes we see it, sometimes we don't see it. But sometimes we see it and we definitely saw it on that night 3,338 years ago cuz on that night we saw that and this is this is part of the it's part of our it's part of what it means to be a year to be this is part of the DNA of the Jew and it's so critical to impart this message at the lease but just to be Messiah I saw in Rua Margolas's Hagas on Zora So Rolus wrote hash style pish on the it's called and on this right here in parishes boy he says take a look at the zakario in pericidion. So the said about it was one of the last are considered the three last that we had and he said no about the end of days said about nowadays that's what he was prophesizing about this is what he said about and in one of his he says there's going to be one day who it's going to be it's known to And on that day, and at that time, when the sun's going to set and you're gonna expect to look outside and see darkness, you're not going to see. What you're going to see is our said that when the you're going to see So he says one comment on this zy that just like the zy says that when the left that's why the said that we're going to be to this that it's going to be dark outside but you're going to look outside and you're gonna see our this inion of once again experiencing that all the all the of the gulos is this is a message that we were taught 3,338 years ago. But we're going to get to tell a new story and we're going to see this again. It's going to be part of that new story. It's going to be again where we're going to realize that everything the trials and tribulations that they've had to go through was all done. It's true for as a it's true for every y and every single as a proud. This is part and parcel of the should. But I was just thinking, you know, they're looking outside every single night now and literally they see a firework show. That's what they see. You look outside and you see missiles that are coming and all of a sudden there's this incredible of the way who set up the system for us to be protected against the 70 wolves that are surrounding us and that want to kill us. And really on some level the night is starting to be lit up on a nightly basis in Israel. But that's just a little bit of spark here and a flash there. We should be to see to internalize this message that it's really really nothing. later. It's going to be one big y, one big r.