Special From Rabbi Winston Shlit”a – Haggadah In Crisis

This Shabbos is Chol HaMoed, b”H. The video link for the material below (the notes I used) is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5qgabzX_vw. video below

Chag Kasher v’Samayach, and good health to everyone.

Part One: Torah Backdrop 

The crisis is new and unexpected. We knew it might come at some point, but not when it did. Its timing though is uncanny, right before Pesach, because the message it is compelling is very similar to the one that Yetzias Mitzrayim emphasizes: Poor people are free people.

It has to do with a Jew’s attitude towards materialism. It is supposed to be a physical means to a spiritual end, and the physical pleasure has to be a by-product, not the goal. 

This is what it means when it says “freedom was engraved on the luchos.” The Torah approach to life is the path to true and eternal freedom, because freedom is control over the yetzer hara.

Part Two: The Current Crisis

The current Corona pandemic has had many effects, but one of the more obvious ones has been the limiting of the yetzer hara’s world. As the gemora says, the handing over of Achashveros’s ring to Haman was more mussar than the the warnings of 48 prophets and seven prophetesses. Pachad maves—fear of death—halts, or at least limits the yetzer hara the fastest and most completely.

This is a precondition of redemption; humble people get redeemed. There might be meaning in the name as well. “Corona” is very similar to the word “keren,” which is the symbol of redemption. 

The last 2,000 years of history, “Ikvesa d’Mashicha” cor-responds to “with all your possessions.” If this is the end of history as we know it, then this is to be one of the main tests.

Part Three: Shlaimus, Humility & Redemption

The gematria of “geulah” is equal to that of “Adam,” because they are one and the same idea. The shlaimus of one is the shlaimus of the other. 

“Adam” is a combination of “Aleph” and “Dalet-Mem,” the former representing the soul of a person, and the latter, the body. When both are in balance, then a person is completed and achieves spiritual redemption. Physical redemption follows after this.

This was the reason for the 10 Plagues. ONE plague would have sufficed to destroy Egypt and the free the Jewish people. God performed TEN plagues to spiritually heal the Aleph of the Jewish nation which had sunken to the 49th level of spiritual impurity. Each plague became increasingly more of a revelation of the light of God, which increased their belief in God, building the Aleph. 

It is rather obvious how materialistic our society has be-come, a modern-day Mitzrayim, and perhaps worse. It has been very much a yetzer hara’s world, with the Dalet-Mem of mankind, even the Torah world, being very much serviced. 

The situation has affect people differently, as it did also in Egypt. There were basically four groups, each of the first three joining Moshe Rabbeinu at different stages of the redemption process. The last group, four-fifths of the Jewish population held out too long, and died in the Plague of Darkness.

We do not know where the world is going next, as it continues to deal with the virus. But the question a Jew should ask themself now, and especially at the Seder is, “To which group do I belong? How much must I first see before I get with the program?

Part Four: The Seder

The Seder is the complete program to build the Aleph and achieve freedom. In fact, “seder” is the key word here, which is why we first go over the order of the evening. God brought order to chaos, and as the Talmud states, that is the responsibility of the Jewish people as well.

Kadesh: One of the points of the plagues was the separation of the Jewish people from the nations of the world. It affected the Egyptians, but avoided the Jewish people. It is called “Passover” because God passed over the homes of the Jews to inflict the Egyptians. Such separation, the Talmud says, is a function of “Da’as,” necessary for and a result of building the Aleph. 

Urchatz: Spiritual purification is essential for redemption, if only because it helps divest a person of too strong a connection to the physical world . The redemption begins on Pesach but ends on Shavuos. Hence, the Jewish people purified themselves in advance of Torah.

Karpas: The karpas reminds us how we had been on the verge of both spiritual and physical extinction. The net effect? Humility, because little stands in the way of Aleph-based growth more than unwarranted pride.

Yachatz: The matzah already represents a reduction of the yetzer hara, but it is yachatz that actually makes it into poor man’s bread. We have to “break” our pride to become humble and capable of repairing out Aleph.

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