April 4, 2024

The Breathtaking Panorama: A Sweeping Thematic Approach to Yetzias Mitzrayim with Rabbi Yonah Sklare

Embark on a transformative exploration of Torah study with Rabbi Yonah Sklare, whose wisdom transcends the pages of his book "The Breathtaking Panorama" to captivate your mind and spirit. Uncover the depths of Yetzias Mitzrayim, not merely as an ancient tale but as a present-day compass for meaningful living. Rabbi Sklare, with roots deeply planted in Baltimore's Jewish soil, shares an intellectual and heartfelt narrative that breathes new life into our understanding of the sacred texts. Feel the tension between rigorous scholarship and the pursuit of personal interpretations as we navigate through the layers of Pshat and Drash, revealing the essence of a living, breathing Torah.

Join us as we don the detective's hat, teasing out the subtleties and anomalies nestled within Biblical stories. With Rabbi Yonah Sklare as our guide, we learn to appreciate the clues hidden in plain sight, each a gateway to a richer comprehension of the Torah. The discussion illuminates the art of creative Drash, where every learner is an empowered participant in the conversation with the divine. This method isn't just about imparting wisdom to others; it's about crafting a personal bond with Hashem, an endeavor as thrilling as it is sacred, especially when approached through the theme of Yetzias Mitzrayim.

Our conversation with Rabbi  Sklare culminates in a call to personalize our Jewish heritage, making it a vibrant and relevant part of our daily lives. We discuss the indispensable role of Camelot and the intense effort in Torah study, which leads to personal growth and enriched faith. Discover how this investment reinvigorates conventional practices, transforming them into impassioned expressions of belief. Rabbi Sklair's insights inspire us to approach our Seder and every facet of Jewish tradition with a sense of discovery and personal connection, affirming the profound impact of engaging with our faith on a deeply personal level.

This episode was dedicated by the talmidim of Rabbi Sklare with Hakras Hatov.

Click here to purchase Rabbi Sklare's book!

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Questions or Comments? Please email me @ michaelbrooke97@gmail.com



Chapters

00:00 - Deepening Meaning in Torah Study

12:11 - Analyzing Clues in Biblical Texts

23:22 - Exploring Torah Through Creative Drash

30:16 - Reframing Exodus

40:25 - Personalizing Torah

Transcript
WEBVTT

00:00:00.360 --> 00:00:02.484
Okay, ladies and gentlemen, here we go.

00:00:02.484 --> 00:00:12.246
This is a big honor, a big treat to call Rabbi Yonah Sklair into the Motivation Congregation studios.

00:00:12.246 --> 00:00:19.065
Rabbi Sklair, you're the first person inside of the dungeon here of the Motivation Congregation.

00:00:19.065 --> 00:00:26.896
I would like to ask you what your thoughts are of what it looks like here in this room, to kick things off, to ask you what your thoughts are of what it looks like here in this room.

00:00:27.015 --> 00:00:35.627
to kick things off, well, it's something to be in a yeshivish studio along with a golden EIB.

00:00:35.627 --> 00:00:37.194
That makes for a very nice synthesis, and I guess you have Michal meeting you.

00:00:37.194 --> 00:00:38.399
That's a synthesis which you're proud of.

00:00:39.220 --> 00:00:39.902
I am proud.

00:00:39.902 --> 00:00:47.789
Rabbi Sklar, before we actually get into the nitty gritty details of things, I would love if the audience knew a little bit about you.

00:00:47.789 --> 00:00:50.326
Maybe tell the audience a little bit about your background.

00:00:50.668 --> 00:00:53.628
Sure, I am very much a Baltimore native.

00:00:53.628 --> 00:00:59.380
I grew up in Baltimore, I'm an alumnus of Nari Yisrael and presently I'm Marbet's tyrant in Baltimore.

00:00:59.380 --> 00:01:01.188
I'm both a Rosh Chol in Baltimore.

00:01:01.188 --> 00:01:13.084
I'm the resident maga chair of Shomri Amuna, which is the large, diverse show in Baltimore, and as much as now, I have more of an out-of-town profile my online cheer, my scholars in residence and the like.

00:01:13.084 --> 00:01:25.010
I am based in Baltimore, so, baruch Hashem, baltimore has been a lush environment and I'm happy to give something back.

00:01:25.331 --> 00:01:30.001
Wow, wow we called you in today because the uh.

00:01:30.001 --> 00:01:36.054
I thought the audience would also love to hear about this book that you wrote inside of this book.

00:01:36.054 --> 00:01:39.888
I just want to give it a a quick little introduction here, rabbi sclair.

00:01:39.888 --> 00:01:44.146
Rabbi sklar, with an e, authored a book called the breathtaking panorama.

00:01:44.146 --> 00:01:47.412
It is a sweeping thematic approach to Yetzirah's Mitzrayim.

00:01:47.412 --> 00:01:53.484
I heard it was a doozy and absolute tour de force, and it's refreshing.

00:01:53.484 --> 00:01:58.370
It really is, and I want to discuss a couple of different points that you bring up in the book.

00:01:58.370 --> 00:02:13.156
To begin, the book is really facing and discussing about Yetzirah Mitzrayim, and you start to pick Judaism apart and bring the beauty out of it with an approach that all comes from the Exodus from Egypt.

00:02:13.156 --> 00:02:16.810
I'm wondering why you chose this.

00:02:16.810 --> 00:02:19.147
Maybe you didn't choose to write a book about this.

00:02:19.147 --> 00:02:22.370
Where's your passion, yetzirah Mitzrayim, and where did it all begin?

00:02:23.080 --> 00:02:28.030
Well, what is the number one thing people are looking for today?

00:02:28.030 --> 00:02:32.042
Meaning Baruch Hashem.

00:02:32.042 --> 00:02:38.014
All of the concrete aspects of from life are thriving.

00:02:38.014 --> 00:02:41.450
The infrastructure of from life is functioning.

00:02:41.450 --> 00:02:45.950
What people are looking for is meaning to breathe life into it.

00:02:46.010 --> 00:02:57.973
There were certain answers, which were appropriate answers a generation ago and as we age, as we mature, as a Kaleoserol and as individuals, we age, there are new responses in our quest for meaning.

00:02:57.973 --> 00:03:04.353
Now there have been certain responses to cater to an element that, as you said, wants inspiration.

00:03:04.353 --> 00:03:08.748
Now, I don't mean to say cheap inspiration, but think of the thank you Hashem element.

00:03:08.748 --> 00:03:17.693
Beautiful what it's doing for call yeah, but a Bentaira, an intellectual, someone who to light their fire.

00:03:17.693 --> 00:03:20.008
It takes a little more substance.

00:03:20.008 --> 00:03:25.569
They need inspiration too, but their inspiration needs to be grounded.

00:03:25.569 --> 00:03:28.054
They can't just embrace.

00:03:28.054 --> 00:03:32.229
Judaism is beautiful, tefillin is beautiful, shabbos is beautiful.

00:03:32.229 --> 00:03:34.432
Show me, don't tell me.

00:03:34.432 --> 00:03:39.951
Show me that Shabbos is beautiful and the cute, fluffy stuff is not going to do it for me.

00:03:39.951 --> 00:03:43.163
I want to see that Shabbos is beautiful.

00:03:43.163 --> 00:03:45.567
I want to see that Tefillin is beautiful.

00:03:45.888 --> 00:03:53.966
With my adult, mature intellect and my adult, mature heart, there's a thirst.

00:03:53.966 --> 00:04:04.355
The earnest Jew is thirsting for meaning, and yet I'm going to contend, there is a fundamental conflict.

00:04:04.355 --> 00:04:10.987
To contend, there is a fundamental conflict which certainly the intellectually inclined Ayyubid Hashem finds in their quest for meaning.

00:04:10.987 --> 00:04:18.713
The inherent conflict is as follows the intellectual, the Bentaira, has high standards, high intellectual standards.

00:04:18.713 --> 00:04:23.024
He needs something rigorously developed before he embraces it.

00:04:23.024 --> 00:04:30.338
The fluffy vart which is more imposing on the text than developing the text from within is deplorable to him or her.

00:04:30.338 --> 00:04:33.968
It just doesn't develop organically from the text.

00:04:33.968 --> 00:04:34.872
It's very nice.

00:04:34.872 --> 00:04:43.586
On the other hand, if you say let's stick to pshat, let's stick to that which is rigid Pshat kishmakeno.

00:04:43.586 --> 00:04:44.591
Pshat is posh, pshat is simple.

00:04:44.591 --> 00:04:44.994
Pshat kishma keno.

00:04:44.994 --> 00:04:46.040
Pshat is pashat, pshat is simple.

00:04:46.040 --> 00:04:51.545
Pshat is not addressing our need to find deeper meaning.

00:04:51.545 --> 00:04:53.425
That's an audacious claim.

00:04:54.482 --> 00:04:55.706
I'm a pshat yid.

00:04:55.706 --> 00:04:58.088
The word pshat means pashat.

00:04:58.088 --> 00:05:07.483
Anytime we dig deeper, there is a mode of Torah study for digging deeper, and that is inherent in the very name of that mode of Torah study for digging deeper, and that is inherent in the very name of that mode of Torah study.

00:05:08.507 --> 00:05:09.990
Are you getting to drush Drush?

00:05:09.990 --> 00:05:11.632
You're getting to drush Drush or drash?

00:05:11.759 --> 00:05:20.254
Yes Drash, yes Drash is the most adulterated, abused and misunderstood part of Torah.

00:05:20.293 --> 00:05:20.839
Why is that?

00:05:20.860 --> 00:05:26.072
People think drash means a sermon, what the rabbi says on the pulpit.

00:05:26.151 --> 00:05:26.713
A drasha.

00:05:27.220 --> 00:05:43.728
A People think it means playing with the text, adulterating the text to reach an end, when in fact drash is actually from the most authoritative aspects of Torah Shabalpah.

00:05:43.728 --> 00:05:45.992
Basic meanings, not luxuries.

00:05:45.992 --> 00:05:52.569
Basic meanings emerge from drash, because what does the word drash actually mean?

00:05:53.742 --> 00:05:57.766
To expound, to dig darash, to seek Dershu Hashem.

00:05:57.920 --> 00:05:58.141
To seek.

00:05:58.141 --> 00:05:59.105
What does it mean to seek?

00:05:59.819 --> 00:06:01.005
To look for something.

00:06:01.781 --> 00:06:03.286
Do you need to seek pshat?

00:06:03.286 --> 00:06:07.362
Do you need to seek what's obvious, the simple meaning of the text?

00:06:07.362 --> 00:06:09.329
Do you need to seek it or it's staring right out at you?

00:06:09.608 --> 00:06:10.581
I would say the second one.

00:06:10.862 --> 00:06:21.086
Ah, drush seeking means anytime something is not blatantly apparent, anytime something requires some mining of the text and some mining of self.

00:06:21.086 --> 00:06:24.410
That is the realm of drush or drash.

00:06:24.410 --> 00:06:27.314
It is not fluffy stuff at all.

00:06:27.314 --> 00:06:38.471
It is the deeper dimensions of Torah which will give mitzvahs meaning, which will give Torah meaning, which will give us meaning, if we only have the courage to dig deep.

00:06:38.471 --> 00:06:43.211
Let's start in halacha, the shofar you blow on Rosh Hashanah, or heard on Rosh Hashanah.

00:06:43.211 --> 00:06:47.108
Does the Torah ever say on Rosh Hashanah to blow a Shifer?

00:06:47.108 --> 00:06:50.146
No, what does it say regarding Rosh Hashanah?

00:06:50.146 --> 00:07:01.387
Remembering a true sound, a crying sound, a day of crying sound, and from that develops what.

00:07:02.920 --> 00:07:16.434
The entire mitzvah of Shai P'ar, as we know, specifically of Shai P'ar, and with P'shutam Afonah, p'shutam Me'al Chorah, the entire halakhic system as we know it, emerges from drash.

00:07:16.434 --> 00:07:23.387
This is true in halacha and I believe this is no less true in Makhshava and Hashkafa.

00:07:23.387 --> 00:07:30.836
In that warning is drash in Halacha and in Makhshava, in all aspects of Yiddishkeit.

00:07:30.836 --> 00:07:36.031
If we're going to dig deep and do something meaningful, it's the realm of drash.

00:07:36.031 --> 00:07:39.189
This is a frequently misunderstood point.

00:07:39.189 --> 00:07:39.882
So how did you?

00:07:39.922 --> 00:07:41.141
how do you come to this Meaning?

00:07:41.141 --> 00:07:44.971
Were you upset with just inspirational ideas that didn't fit in the text?

00:07:44.971 --> 00:07:47.206
And there you develop this philosophy.

00:07:47.206 --> 00:07:49.444
Where did this philosophy of that?

00:07:49.925 --> 00:08:31.137
Just because, just to take it back to the basics before we dig a little bit deeper, my understanding is what happened on the 6th of Sivan a couple thousand years ago, that God came and revealed himself, prophesied to Moshe we all watched it and it was a big public speech delivered and that Moshe got all of the Torah and he taught the entire public speech, all of it Shevim, zakenim and Yehoshua, and then the cliff notes the short text is the Teresh HaBer Chassav that it allows us to kind of remind ourselves, like if somebody knows the speech and he's writing notes during it, you can go back into the Torah Shebech Sav, but it all it wasn't created by the Torah Shebech Sav.

00:08:31.137 --> 00:08:44.452
I always thought that there was Torah Sheba Al Peh and that Torah Shebech Sav is there as kind of the bones, which is Torah Sheba Al Peh, is more of the guf and you're suggesting the stat, or are you playing into that?

00:08:44.452 --> 00:08:47.791
How would what I just said agree with your philosophy?

00:08:49.721 --> 00:08:57.961
The term which Mikubolim use is that Torah Shabbat is the body and Torah Shabbat is the neshama.

00:08:57.961 --> 00:09:03.493
It's the soul, it's what's deeper, but that which needs a physical body to contain it.

00:09:03.493 --> 00:09:05.668
A neshama cannot interact with this world without a physical body to contain it.

00:09:05.668 --> 00:09:08.159
Anishinaabemowin cannot interact with this world without a physical body to contain it.

00:09:08.159 --> 00:09:15.533
So all the penins of Torah, on all its levels of Ramasod and Drash, need a physical body, concrete succumb, to contain it.

00:09:15.533 --> 00:09:25.590
But I think what's more helpful and more germane to our discussion is to think about the following I don't want to talk about cliff notes and a sterile book.

00:09:25.590 --> 00:09:27.527
I don't want to go back to high school here.

00:09:27.527 --> 00:09:31.431
I want to talk about a dynamic learning experience.

00:09:31.431 --> 00:09:42.789
When the Rebbeinu She'olam gave us Torah Shebeksav, as Chazal portrayed, he told Misha I am giving you, klal Yisrael, a methodology.

00:09:42.789 --> 00:09:46.186
A mahalich called midosha, toron edreshes beha.

00:09:46.186 --> 00:10:00.453
And, as the medrash gloriously portrays, he told Moshe I am not telling you the conclusions he showed him 49 directions in this direction on this side of the arguments and 49 arguments on this side.

00:10:00.453 --> 00:10:18.292
And he told him you, jewish people, using the rules of drash which I, the Rebbe, am giving Moshe, you learn, you develop, you internalize through drash and your gemara and the madrash chazal on their level.

00:10:18.292 --> 00:10:42.488
But that is true in the Torah and the ongoing endeavor of Torah Shabbat until this very day, one cannot find a deep Judaism which is, on one hand, authentic within Torah itself but, on the other hand, deep and beyond Pashut.

00:10:43.028 --> 00:11:02.568
Without drash and herein lies the tension Authoritative drash can almost seem like an oxymoron, you see, because the pshad is so tethered, the pshad is so concrete.

00:11:02.568 --> 00:11:10.625
I know that that's true, but once I go into the deeper dimension it's, by definition, not so well defined.

00:11:10.625 --> 00:11:13.230
So how do I know it's true anymore?

00:11:13.230 --> 00:11:14.634
Take anything in Torah.

00:11:14.634 --> 00:11:23.476
Right, if I'm going to take the story about the Pinoch Slav Chod and somehow develop that it's speaking to issues which you and I face issues of resentment, issues of anything.

00:11:23.476 --> 00:11:24.542
I'm going to have to dig deeper than the Pshat, but it's not going.

00:11:24.542 --> 00:11:27.988
Issues of anything I'm going to have to dig deeper than the pshat, but it's not going to be right there.

00:11:28.159 --> 00:11:29.765
It's going to have to be below the surface.

00:11:29.807 --> 00:11:30.207
So what do you do?

00:11:30.207 --> 00:11:31.586
So let's say, how does one go about it?

00:11:31.586 --> 00:11:36.144
So I'm using the Breathing Panorama Rabbi Sklar's Mahalach in Life.

00:11:36.144 --> 00:11:44.053
So now I open up a chumash and I read the pasuk of last week's parasha Eilat pekudei ha-mishkan, mishkan ha-edos.

00:11:44.053 --> 00:11:46.716
How do I, what do I do now?

00:11:46.716 --> 00:11:53.639
So it's a very straightforward possek, I think pekudei, I guess pokat is like a recalling of sorts, or I don't even.

00:11:53.639 --> 00:11:55.706
I don't exactly even know off the top of my head.

00:11:55.706 --> 00:11:57.826
But how do you connect drash?

00:11:57.826 --> 00:11:59.065
What does one do?

00:11:59.065 --> 00:12:01.466
How does it change one's learning philosophy?

00:12:01.466 --> 00:12:03.668
What does it mean to dig deeper into the text?

00:12:04.669 --> 00:12:09.373
It begins with asking questions and seeing points that don't resonate.

00:12:09.373 --> 00:12:11.475
But I want to elaborate this a little more.

00:12:11.475 --> 00:12:20.841
I'm going to use an analogy which I use in the book when I describe my approach the panoramic approach to Tyra, as in a panorama, a big picture.

00:12:20.841 --> 00:12:36.181
Let me explain exactly what I mean the tension which I am trying to portray today that the earnest ayvat Hashem, who wants meaning on one hand, is not satisfied with simply the pshat.

00:12:36.181 --> 00:12:47.393
That which is pashat, that which is simple, needs more on one hand, but, on the other hand, needs something which is authoritative, not airy-fairy musings.

00:12:47.500 --> 00:12:50.811
That's an inherent tension, because once you move beyond the shot, it's not so well-defined.

00:12:50.811 --> 00:12:53.046
Is it what they call do-it-yourself?

00:12:53.086 --> 00:12:56.028
midrash Say whatever you want, so how do you have authoritative Good?

00:12:57.000 --> 00:12:58.807
So I would like to use the following muscle.

00:12:58.807 --> 00:12:59.809
I always use this muscle.

00:12:59.809 --> 00:13:07.548
I would like to describe criminology, solving a crime, a sleuth solving a crime.

00:13:07.548 --> 00:13:15.850
If you know that John killed Gary, are you a detective?

00:13:17.052 --> 00:13:17.753
Probably not.

00:13:17.974 --> 00:13:18.634
No, what are you?

00:13:18.634 --> 00:13:23.089
You're an aide, you're an arresting officer and you place the handcuffs right on him.

00:13:23.089 --> 00:13:24.904
You saw it, that's shot.

00:13:24.904 --> 00:13:25.714
You saw it, that's shot.

00:13:25.714 --> 00:13:26.421
You saw it.

00:13:26.421 --> 00:13:27.923
There's no mystery here.

00:13:27.923 --> 00:13:29.708
It doesn't require a detective.

00:13:29.708 --> 00:13:30.630
You saw it.

00:13:30.630 --> 00:13:35.361
Okay, drash is, by definition, a mystery.

00:13:35.361 --> 00:13:38.828
I'm seeking to find that deeper dimension.

00:13:38.828 --> 00:13:42.821
That's there, right, but it's not staring right at me.

00:13:42.821 --> 00:13:43.541
It's elusive.

00:13:43.541 --> 00:13:45.263
How do I find it?

00:13:45.263 --> 00:13:50.706
So I'm going to suggest, in response to your question, let's think back to Sherlock Holmes.

00:13:50.706 --> 00:13:54.669
Let's think back to any detective and how they solve a mystery.

00:13:54.669 --> 00:13:58.673
It might be a crime scene in my hometown, in East Baltimore.

00:13:58.673 --> 00:13:59.413
Plenty of those.

00:13:59.413 --> 00:14:05.477
Baltimore is called the murder capital of America, but I would say up here, things are not so pretty either, above the Mason-Dixon line.

00:14:06.061 --> 00:14:09.124
You got to go down to Norfolk, virginia, and that's where you pack heat.

00:14:09.124 --> 00:14:10.227
You keep yourself protected.

00:14:10.227 --> 00:14:11.090
No one comes near you.

00:14:12.201 --> 00:14:13.546
I mean, you got to fight for your right.

00:14:13.546 --> 00:14:18.067
There you go and you have the Navy installation right there, you don't?

00:14:18.086 --> 00:14:18.509
mess with you.

00:14:18.509 --> 00:14:21.147
You could mess with me, but it's not going to end well for you.

00:14:21.147 --> 00:14:22.208
That's what we say down south.

00:14:22.308 --> 00:14:24.912
I hear you, I hear you Sorry.

00:14:26.333 --> 00:14:28.336
Josh, we are detectives, we're detectives.

00:14:29.602 --> 00:14:31.850
So how does a detective solve a mystery?

00:14:32.230 --> 00:14:32.510
Clues.

00:14:34.841 --> 00:14:35.565
Let's examine clues.

00:14:35.565 --> 00:14:42.292
The detective looks at the crime scene and they don't have any proof.

00:14:42.292 --> 00:14:45.710
If they would have proof who murdered, they'd be the arresting officer.

00:14:45.710 --> 00:14:47.465
What do they do?

00:14:47.465 --> 00:14:51.389
They note strange anomalies.

00:14:51.389 --> 00:14:57.373
Huh, why is there a glove in the blood?

00:14:57.373 --> 00:15:00.448
Why is there a blue van?

00:15:00.448 --> 00:15:02.900
And did I ever see a blue van before with?

00:15:02.921 --> 00:15:04.105
this on this license plates.

00:15:04.105 --> 00:15:09.908
They notice anomalies, things which seem out of sync, and then they start to pick up connections.

00:15:09.908 --> 00:15:13.302
Oh, blue van, blue van, and they have.

00:15:13.302 --> 00:15:24.282
They begin with clues and then they start to amass clues and then a little bit of symmetry patterns, symmetry, yeah, in the clues.

00:15:25.763 --> 00:15:30.184
Now, at the onset of this process, it's not clear what they're doing.

00:15:30.184 --> 00:15:35.827
Huh, how is that glove going to help you figure out who murdered Gary Right?

00:15:35.827 --> 00:15:38.849
And this is in the classic Sherlock Holmes scene.

00:15:38.849 --> 00:15:44.471
What happens in this conversation between Watson and Sherlock Holmes Right?

00:15:44.471 --> 00:15:45.972
Watson's all frustrated.

00:15:45.972 --> 00:15:47.013
What's Sherlock doing?

00:15:47.052 --> 00:15:49.434
Why does he care about something that's so random?

00:15:49.534 --> 00:15:51.416
Patience, my dear Watson.

00:15:51.416 --> 00:15:54.817
You see, drush requires patience, Right?

00:15:54.817 --> 00:15:56.977
Okay, I noticed there's a strange word.

00:15:59.524 --> 00:16:01.509
Good, so that's what we're doing, so strange things.

00:16:01.509 --> 00:16:03.173
What's the word Picude?

00:16:03.173 --> 00:16:04.365
Is that where one begins?

00:16:04.365 --> 00:16:05.461
Or the ale doing so strange things?

00:16:05.461 --> 00:16:05.881
What's the word picude?

00:16:05.881 --> 00:16:06.681
Is that where one begins, or the a let?

00:16:06.681 --> 00:16:07.542
I think it's like there's a vub.

00:16:07.542 --> 00:16:09.105
How does it differ?

00:16:09.105 --> 00:16:09.967
I'm still not there.

00:16:09.967 --> 00:16:10.710
What do I do?

00:16:10.710 --> 00:16:12.360
I notice clues, and then what?

00:16:12.841 --> 00:16:21.780
so for this process to be authentic, right, we have to learn carefully, with no preconceived notions.

00:16:21.780 --> 00:16:30.073
Just work it through as though it's a piece of pshat, but have open eyes when the anomalies will stare out at us.

00:16:30.073 --> 00:16:33.427
Right, you want to notice an anomaly in this week's parasha.

00:16:33.427 --> 00:16:36.288
What is the final pashak in this week's parasha?

00:16:36.288 --> 00:16:37.683
The final pashak of Shemos?

00:16:37.764 --> 00:16:38.065
I know it.

00:16:38.065 --> 00:16:38.405
I know it.

00:16:38.405 --> 00:16:39.590
I know it, it's my bar mitzvah, parasha.

00:16:39.590 --> 00:16:46.841
I know it, let me go.

00:16:46.841 --> 00:16:52.903
It was like I think it was maybe 10 years ago, a little bit more 13 years ago, the cloud came in and it descended upon the Mishkan, and the Shekhinah was there.

00:16:52.903 --> 00:16:55.932
I'm not going to know it.

00:16:56.139 --> 00:16:57.423
Viewed by Kol.

00:16:58.144 --> 00:16:59.027
Kol Yisrael, I don't.

00:16:59.388 --> 00:17:01.712
Base Yisrael Correct.

00:17:02.260 --> 00:17:03.807
I know that you're correct, but now it's bothering me.

00:17:03.807 --> 00:17:10.564
Now I need to know the Pesach, okay, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, because my mom's going to listen to the podcast and you know she paid for my bar mitzvah lessons.

00:17:10.564 --> 00:17:12.650
Make sure that this works out.

00:17:12.650 --> 00:17:19.553
We don't start up with moms.

00:17:19.573 --> 00:17:30.708
We don't start up with moms Now the final four Sfarim in Chumash Shmos, vayikra, b'midbert, sfarim, all the Sfarim that deal with the Jewish nation, post-avos, bereshit deals with the Avos.

00:17:30.708 --> 00:17:34.704
All of them have the word Yisrael in the final Pasek.

00:17:34.704 --> 00:17:35.567
Look it up.

00:17:35.586 --> 00:17:36.248
Which is significant Very.

00:17:36.248 --> 00:17:37.951
All of them have the word Yisrael in the final Pesach.

00:17:37.951 --> 00:17:40.155
Look it up, cool Right, which is significant, very significant Right.

00:17:40.196 --> 00:17:47.704
Appropriately, some of them will have the word Yisrael Right Chumash ends the.

00:17:47.704 --> 00:17:49.509
Enei kol Yisrael Right.

00:17:49.509 --> 00:17:57.461
Some of them will have B'nai Yisrael L'kin v'yikra b'mid bar t'varm, all three end with a classic either mentioning B'nai.

00:17:57.501 --> 00:18:00.903
Yisrael or Yisrael.

00:18:00.903 --> 00:18:02.703
I said not Baratheos.

00:18:02.763 --> 00:18:04.463
Baratheos is pre the nation Yisrael.

00:18:04.483 --> 00:18:06.105
I said all the four final.

00:18:06.144 --> 00:18:06.904
Svarb Got it.

00:18:06.904 --> 00:18:09.885
They all have Yisrael, either Yisrael or B'nai Yisrael.

00:18:09.885 --> 00:18:12.307
There's only one that has a base Yisrael.

00:18:12.346 --> 00:18:12.666
Okay.

00:18:13.227 --> 00:18:15.788
And that is Shmos Interesting.

00:18:15.847 --> 00:18:16.127
Is that?

00:18:16.147 --> 00:18:16.768
significant.

00:18:17.888 --> 00:18:18.328
Sounds cool.

00:18:19.169 --> 00:18:23.190
Maybe, maybe not, so let's put that on the side, okay, but hold on.

00:18:23.190 --> 00:18:26.411
Let's go back now to the first Pasek in Sefer Shmos.

00:18:26.411 --> 00:18:28.791
Okay, because this is the bookend.

00:18:28.791 --> 00:18:39.035
We want to take every Sefer in Chumash and compare the opening bookend the final book and we noticed the word bias glaring out in the final Pasuk and Shemos.

00:18:39.035 --> 00:18:41.635
Well, I want you to go back to the first Pasuk and Pasuk and Shemos.

00:18:41.635 --> 00:18:42.916
What is the first?

00:18:42.936 --> 00:18:43.497
Pasuk and Pasuk.

00:18:43.497 --> 00:18:50.118
And Shemos Ve'eleh, shemel sp'nei Yisrael, aboyim mitraimah esh ubeisu ba'u.

00:18:51.839 --> 00:18:52.201
Man and his house.

00:18:52.201 --> 00:18:59.228
So is that significant that the Sefer opens with bias and closes with bias, or is it maybe just a coincidence?

00:18:59.228 --> 00:19:02.170
Answer that question honestly, or are you unsure?

00:19:03.643 --> 00:19:13.622
I don't believe that there are such coincidences in the Bible, but I would say that there's something cool about that there's something cool about it, but how much we're going to make of it.

00:19:13.663 --> 00:19:14.167
You're a little.

00:19:14.269 --> 00:19:19.463
I know the original bias is big, the whole transformation from Bratish to Shemos.

00:19:19.463 --> 00:19:22.869
That issue based on Bo Rabbi Hirsch has a big piece about.

00:19:22.869 --> 00:19:29.099
Judaism is only as good as their families and issue based on Bo, that's where all the spirituality happens, at the home.

00:19:29.099 --> 00:19:35.287
I can imagine that that may find its completion when it comes to the end of Shemos, maybe something having to do with homes.

00:19:35.287 --> 00:19:37.369
Find its completion when it comes to the end of Shamos, maybe something having to do with Holmes.

00:19:37.369 --> 00:19:42.155
But yes, I would say that it is not a coincidence that bias and bias plays a significant role here.

00:19:46.259 --> 00:19:47.122
And I'm going to prove the point further.

00:19:47.122 --> 00:19:49.247
You see, I tell my students at this stage in the game notice an anomaly, it's a clue.

00:19:49.247 --> 00:19:50.490
One clue, it ends with bias.

00:19:50.490 --> 00:19:51.792
One clue, it begins with bias.

00:19:51.792 --> 00:19:53.443
What do I make of that?

00:19:53.443 --> 00:19:54.828
How significant is that?

00:19:54.848 --> 00:19:55.712
I don't know.

00:19:56.797 --> 00:20:01.548
But let's notice something else this opening Pasek HaSefer Shemos Eilash Mos B'nai Yisrael.

00:20:01.548 --> 00:20:04.301
Does it appear anywhere else that same Pasek?

00:20:04.301 --> 00:20:06.507
Almost exactly, almost cut and paste.

00:20:06.949 --> 00:20:08.772
Eilash Mos B'nai Yisrael.

00:20:10.420 --> 00:20:14.167
Parak Mamvav, pasek Chas describing the settlement of Mitzrayim.

00:20:14.167 --> 00:20:16.913
It's the same story which Parashat Shemos is describing.

00:20:16.913 --> 00:20:18.954
These are the names of those who settled in Mitzrayim.

00:20:18.954 --> 00:20:28.988
Listen to the overlooked Shemos Pasek in Parashat, vayigash Ve'eila, shemos b'nei, yisrael haba Mitzrayimah.

00:20:28.988 --> 00:20:30.101
Do you see?

00:20:30.101 --> 00:20:32.664
Same words, almost to a T.

00:20:32.664 --> 00:20:35.067
Once you realize it, it's a clear cut and paste.

00:20:35.067 --> 00:20:39.394
Yeah, but here it doesn't say Base, issue base.

00:20:41.280 --> 00:20:42.782
What does it say B'Ele Sh'mos?

00:20:42.782 --> 00:20:44.506
B'nei, yisrael Ha'aboyim, yitzhar Me'yakov?

00:20:45.146 --> 00:20:46.508
It speaks about individuals.

00:20:47.169 --> 00:20:47.990
Hold on.

00:20:48.471 --> 00:20:55.520
Here we see two symmetrical Eile, sh'mos B'sukim, both describing the same story the settlement of Mitzrayim.

00:20:55.520 --> 00:20:57.842
These are the names of the settlers in Mitzrayim.

00:20:57.842 --> 00:21:21.655
However, sefer Shmos, in an abrupt shift, describes them not as individuals but as heads of homes, which I suggest indicates that from the very beginning of Sefer Shmos it showcases its protagonist, which is not the individual but the Jewish whole, bearing in mind that it's going to end with bias.

00:21:21.655 --> 00:21:33.246
Now, this is, of course, only a beginning In the book and thus far we've had more of a technical discussion.

00:21:33.246 --> 00:21:58.742
In the book I show hundreds of references to bias throughout Shemos and how the entire story of Yitzhak Mitzrayim, matan, torah and Mishkan contained in this Sefer HaGa'ula is all about couples, spouses, learning the art of intimacy with each other, the difficulties of child-rearing and children as burdens all of the very compelling issues and bias until this very day right right here in schmoes good but?

00:21:59.064 --> 00:22:02.470
but it has to be developed compellingly right.

00:22:02.470 --> 00:22:04.740
We already have a framework in place.

00:22:04.740 --> 00:22:28.569
I'm just giving you a dogma no, right right do you see how, before we say any vart, we need the pieces in place and the but what we've mentioned thus far are just clues and patterns good but like this detective who begins to amass the clues and then trace the patterns, it's brilliant it's what happens what let's go back to, to sherlock holmes and watson.

00:22:29.553 --> 00:22:33.183
He immediately told impatient watson what did he say?

00:22:33.183 --> 00:22:34.788
Patience, my dear watson.

00:22:34.788 --> 00:22:39.221
But the end, once the pattern of clues develops, what does he tell him?

00:22:39.221 --> 00:22:48.484
Elementary, my dear Watson, because once the pattern of clues becomes apparent, now everything comes together.

00:22:48.484 --> 00:22:49.385
Now it's elementary.

00:22:49.385 --> 00:22:59.133
Now, when you do, when you engage in the panoramic approach, as I call it, and it's a panorama, you need this big picture perspective, right?

00:22:59.380 --> 00:23:02.125
You picked up on anomalies, you picked up on clues.

00:23:02.125 --> 00:23:09.270
Strange expression used here, language which has emotional, evocative tones to it, whatever it is.

00:23:09.270 --> 00:23:12.969
And this echoes of another story, a sister passage, as I call it, in Chumash.

00:23:13.028 --> 00:23:13.931
I don't know yeah.

00:23:14.132 --> 00:23:16.102
Right Tracing, sister patterns, patterns.

00:23:16.102 --> 00:23:19.385
When you do this, you never have proofs.

00:23:19.385 --> 00:23:22.229
Proofs is how you reach conclusions.

00:23:22.229 --> 00:23:25.653
In the realm of Pshat, drash is more sensitive.

00:23:25.653 --> 00:23:31.561
Drash is not concrete, but Drash is not willy-nilly at all.

00:23:31.561 --> 00:24:04.198
For Drash to operate authentically, it needs to be based on clues and patterns of clues, and that's why it takes so much patience which are not willy-nilly but command gravitas and respect because they resound and echo from the text itself Beautiful.

00:24:04.681 --> 00:24:14.848
So drash, here it is, and we're definitely calling it drash, not drush, because drash, we're seeking something, we're picking up on something, I'm imagining that has something to do with it, drash.

00:24:14.848 --> 00:24:18.210
And now let's get back to the question that we began with.

00:24:18.210 --> 00:24:20.036
We're looking for meaning.

00:24:20.036 --> 00:24:41.248
Let's say that's how we began, and now the simple, inspirational ideas that aren't bound to the text may not bring it home for everyone, so is this, this is what you're proposing, though that if somebody learns and follows more of the approach of drash, then they will find their meaning.

00:24:41.248 --> 00:24:42.403
Is that what we're getting at?

00:24:42.805 --> 00:24:49.684
Yes, and I'm suggesting, I'm suggesting what you invest will determine what you reap.

00:24:50.270 --> 00:24:57.458
Drash is all about investing, digging deeper when you dig deeper and what sperm do I use's the farm do I use?

00:24:57.458 --> 00:24:59.263
What's farm do I use if I want to do drash?

00:24:59.565 --> 00:25:00.847
so you know, this is a very funny thing.

00:25:00.847 --> 00:25:07.800
I oftentimes get the question from my talmidim, but most often from my seminary talmidos, okay, and they ask me the following question.

00:25:07.820 --> 00:25:09.365
You're saying I asked a seminary question.

00:25:09.425 --> 00:25:14.326
That's right well, no, no, insults some no, no, no some of the most halogen asham who.

00:25:15.387 --> 00:25:34.461
I'm with are my seminary students, but based on the way we are Mechanic girls with good reason good reason they generally tell me that we were raised to believe that Torah is a question of which commentary did you see it?

00:25:34.461 --> 00:25:44.449
In the notion that I have tools to develop something for myself not something for myself which departs from chazal and the mepharshim?

00:25:44.449 --> 00:25:51.644
Oh no, chazal and the mepharshim are themselves laden with clues to add to our study.

00:25:51.644 --> 00:25:57.332
Right, but we become stakeholders in the ongoing Torah's chayim.

00:25:57.554 --> 00:26:05.183
when we have the courage to do this, we can be creative and we can develop and we can play us or become really magidei shiurim right?

00:26:05.183 --> 00:26:06.867
Is that what you're getting at?

00:26:07.189 --> 00:26:09.242
Yes, but let's not even talk about giving shiurim.

00:26:09.242 --> 00:26:10.126
This is l'shma.

00:26:10.126 --> 00:26:12.135
This is my own relationship to Torah.

00:26:12.135 --> 00:26:13.434
This is my own relationship to Hashem.

00:26:13.434 --> 00:26:15.258
Even if my idea will not resonate with anyone else, it resonates with me.

00:26:15.258 --> 00:26:15.643
This is my relationship to Torah.

00:26:15.643 --> 00:26:16.464
This is my own relationship to Hashem.

00:26:16.464 --> 00:26:17.385
Even if my idea will not resonate with anyone else, it resonates with me.

00:26:17.385 --> 00:26:18.905
This is my relationship to Hashem.

00:26:18.905 --> 00:26:24.729
Now, creativity is a very scary thing.

00:26:24.729 --> 00:26:26.506
It takes a lot of courage.

00:26:26.506 --> 00:26:33.128
But, when one understands that there's a methodology, there's an approach.

00:26:33.589 --> 00:26:35.231
I'm suggesting the tracing of clues.

00:26:37.960 --> 00:26:40.498
We're not in outer space anymore.

00:26:40.498 --> 00:26:45.432
If we are, we're at least tethered back to the space shuttle.

00:26:45.432 --> 00:26:50.307
I would like to express the following as well.

00:26:50.307 --> 00:27:01.266
And that is when one learns this way, with creativity and engagement Torah is fun, torah is enthralled.

00:27:01.266 --> 00:27:12.231
As David HaMelech says in Tehillim, torah is my plaything.

00:27:12.231 --> 00:27:16.787
Think of the way a child plays, think of children playing in the sand.

00:27:16.787 --> 00:27:22.146
They finger the sand, they knead the sand, they turn it over this way, that way.

00:27:22.146 --> 00:27:31.567
You see, when we learn this way, we take a POSSEC, we compare it to another POSSEC, we float around with ideas, we question the ideas, we seek to develop the ideas.

00:27:31.567 --> 00:27:36.231
We are as though kneading dough or kneading clay.

00:27:36.231 --> 00:27:39.369
It's fun, it's engaging, it keeps us young.

00:27:39.369 --> 00:27:40.372
So where does this all?

00:27:40.392 --> 00:27:40.759
fall in?

00:27:40.759 --> 00:27:42.205
Where does this all fall into?

00:27:42.205 --> 00:27:45.189
I think the approach is inspiring.

00:27:45.189 --> 00:27:50.532
I want to start taking up Drush and expounding my verses and following the structure.

00:27:50.532 --> 00:27:55.271
Where does it come back into the sweeping thematic approach to Yitzchak Mitzrayim?

00:27:55.271 --> 00:27:56.664
The book is very much focused on Zechel Yitzchak Mitzrayim.

00:27:56.664 --> 00:27:58.162
The book is very much focused on Zechel Yitzchak Mitzrayim.

00:27:58.162 --> 00:27:59.746
Where does that come into Drush?

00:28:00.307 --> 00:28:07.810
So the truth is, this is my approach, this is my contribution to Klal Yisrael in all areas of.

00:28:07.810 --> 00:28:08.251
Torah.

00:28:08.251 --> 00:28:18.839
This is what I lecture in beyond my Kailalim, where I give Shiurim and Metapal with the Olam in a standard havais or of a standard yeshiva style.

00:28:18.839 --> 00:28:23.069
Learning in terms of my main contribution to the broader world and claudius role.

00:28:23.069 --> 00:28:25.502
It is this approach to drash.

00:28:25.502 --> 00:28:34.902
I could have written this book on any area in total and in my head there are more to come.

00:28:34.942 --> 00:28:39.928
as a sh, I could have written a B'tochen book, developing B'tochen from the perspective of Drash.

00:28:39.928 --> 00:28:42.060
I could have written a Shavuos book.

00:28:42.762 --> 00:28:55.971
I chose Yitzhias Mitzrayim as my first model in print as the specimen of this approach in life, in flesh, simply because Yitzhias Mitzrayim is the beginning.

00:28:55.971 --> 00:28:58.394
It's the beginning of kol Yisrael.

00:28:58.394 --> 00:29:08.933
It defines who we are and I believe people have number one, the deepest angst to find that meaning.

00:29:08.933 --> 00:29:09.934
I was discussing before.

00:29:09.934 --> 00:29:10.682
I discussed before.

00:29:10.682 --> 00:29:11.527
We all want meaning.

00:29:11.527 --> 00:29:17.083
We all think we're so well-informed in Yiddishkeit right, I knew it since I was this tall right.

00:29:17.083 --> 00:29:21.528
But as we grow older, the known becomes stale.

00:29:21.528 --> 00:29:37.243
The known always becomes stale and boring as whiskers on it, growing on it already as far as sprouts, sprouts, whiskers.

00:29:37.263 --> 00:29:38.286
As far as I'm concerned, yitzhia smitzrayim.

00:29:38.286 --> 00:29:42.601
I'm supposed to sit down to a seder and talk about this story with engagement.

00:29:42.601 --> 00:29:43.944
What does it mean to be free?

00:29:43.944 --> 00:29:45.288
What does it mean?

00:29:45.288 --> 00:29:47.532
Mitchil ovdeh avodazar ha'ayu avoseinu?

00:29:47.532 --> 00:29:48.480
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:29:48.480 --> 00:29:49.962
I've known this since I'm a little kid.

00:29:49.962 --> 00:30:03.912
The story which is most familiar runs the greatest risk of I will coin the adage here familiarity breeds, if not contempt, familiarity breeds dispassion.

00:30:03.912 --> 00:30:12.785
I want to take the story that everyone believes they know so well and, as I suggest in the beginning of the book, a new Yitzchia Mitzrayim is going to emerge here.

00:30:12.785 --> 00:30:15.675
Everything you fought is going gonna fall by the wayside.

00:30:15.675 --> 00:30:17.461
Should I use one very simple example.

00:30:17.461 --> 00:30:22.470
Yes, what is the basis of paro's slavery?

00:30:22.470 --> 00:30:25.101
Why did paro enslave the jewish people?

00:30:25.761 --> 00:30:29.410
he wants money slavery occurred throughout human history.

00:30:29.410 --> 00:30:33.009
You mentioned you're a southerner right so before the civil war was thought.

00:30:33.049 --> 00:30:37.821
Or, as you southerners, cheap labor war of northern aggression, cheap labor right Down south.

00:30:37.821 --> 00:30:42.452
Eli Whitney's cotton gin created a whole industry and they wanted to develop textiles, cheap labor.

00:30:42.452 --> 00:30:53.151
So we all subliminally assume, of course, paro-slavery was the same thing and therefore our mind is already primed to study the story like any other slavery story.

00:30:53.151 --> 00:31:00.150
And I suggest, before you hit, go when you read the Chumash carefully and develop it according to the panoramic approach.

00:31:00.150 --> 00:31:03.863
An entirely different slave story emerges.

00:31:04.203 --> 00:31:06.711
Paru was not seeking economic benefit at all.

00:31:06.711 --> 00:31:09.883
It's in the pshat, but even more in the drash.

00:31:09.883 --> 00:31:12.109
When we look at it carefully, what does it say?

00:31:12.109 --> 00:31:14.519
Paru saw B'nai Yisrael were what.

00:31:14.519 --> 00:31:14.859
What does it say?

00:31:14.859 --> 00:31:17.973
Paru saw B'nai Yisrael were what.

00:31:17.973 --> 00:31:27.849
Paru Vayishritsu were growing by leaps and bounds and hence he says Havan eschak malo, I need to control this population.

00:31:27.849 --> 00:31:31.153
They are so multitudinous they might join the enemy.

00:31:31.153 --> 00:31:40.106
There'll be a fifth column, the enemy from within, and it is to solve the problem of overpopulation that he imposes slavery.

00:31:40.106 --> 00:31:51.919
Interesting Explain the Rishainen, the Ritvan, the Haggadah, the Balhaturam Paro believed that an enslaved people would be rendered physically impotent.

00:31:51.919 --> 00:31:56.571
Somehow the slavery would wear them down, that physically they'd be less potent.

00:31:56.571 --> 00:32:08.854
I believe it was not only physically but even deeper, emotionally, struggling to survive right Wrung out like a sponge.

00:32:08.874 --> 00:32:13.707
You know the Yiddish expression that I love azaivi anaisgeklapta haishana l'ket, haishana right.

00:32:13.707 --> 00:32:17.013
Many Yiddish and I mean and I are walking around you know he's geklap to haishana right.

00:32:17.013 --> 00:32:25.867
They're not going to have the drive, the commitment to spouse, the engagement and intimacy, anything which it will take, right.

00:32:25.867 --> 00:32:37.835
And this is why but I'm getting ahead of myself, this is why it took the nashim tzikaniyot women who, as Hazal say, engage their husbands and lord them to connection and to be interested in them.

00:32:37.835 --> 00:32:43.369
They are the saviors of the story Because, you see, paro's entire slavery is all about.

00:32:43.369 --> 00:32:50.369
It's a crude form of population control by inhibiting family life.

00:32:51.059 --> 00:32:57.865
Now I bring hundreds of proofs of this in the book, beginning with the Pshutoshal Mekra, but let's stop already there, before I go further.

00:32:57.865 --> 00:32:59.269
Have you ever heard this?

00:32:59.269 --> 00:33:00.051
Does anyone know this?

00:33:00.051 --> 00:33:01.906
I'm suggesting it's a whole different story.

00:33:01.906 --> 00:33:04.667
It's a story about a battle for family life.

00:33:04.667 --> 00:33:11.252
The Jewish people from time immemorial were not fighting with spears and harpoons, an enemy on a battlefield.

00:33:11.252 --> 00:33:12.441
You know what we were fighting with.

00:33:12.441 --> 00:33:16.845
We were fighting with the power of love, the power of the mirrors.

00:33:16.845 --> 00:33:21.709
We all know the Chazal about the mirrors that the Nashem Tzikani has used to draw their husbands near.

00:33:21.709 --> 00:33:23.310
That was their tool.

00:33:23.310 --> 00:33:30.317
Have you ever thought of it that way that the entire Yetzirah Mitzrayim, sheba Mitzrayim, it's all a battle for family?

00:33:30.317 --> 00:33:31.944
No, that sounds out of left field.

00:33:32.045 --> 00:33:35.311
no, A lot of this is very, very new out of my field.

00:33:35.311 --> 00:33:37.259
No, a lot of this is very, very new.

00:33:37.259 --> 00:33:38.618
It's interesting to hear there's more to the story.

00:33:38.618 --> 00:33:48.541
It definitely opens up so many different windows and vistas of Chachma, and creativity and making Torah meaningful there's.

00:33:48.541 --> 00:34:02.377
I want to try to get more towards concrete areas, like to a way that people can even they would buy this book, and besides for just bringing towards a more meaningful life, will this book perhaps enable somebody?

00:34:02.377 --> 00:34:04.122
Is it something they could use at their Seder?

00:34:04.122 --> 00:34:09.119
Is it something that's that practical or is it more of a safer that one would learn in the base Medrash?

00:34:09.429 --> 00:34:10.635
The answer is all the above.

00:34:10.635 --> 00:34:15.282
I recently received an email from one of the most intelligent Jews alive.

00:34:15.282 --> 00:34:17.572
His name is Reb Yitzchak Breidowitz.

00:34:17.572 --> 00:34:18.512
I take it you've heard of him.

00:34:18.813 --> 00:34:19.414
I have heard of him.

00:34:19.634 --> 00:34:20.474
Reb Yitzchak Breidowitz.

00:34:20.494 --> 00:34:20.916
Brilliant.

00:34:20.916 --> 00:34:22.217
Follow the podcast.

00:34:22.217 --> 00:34:23.918
Like subscribe and a very great man.

00:34:24.219 --> 00:34:26.722
I know many brilliant people who are not loving people.

00:34:26.722 --> 00:34:28.505
I know many loving people who are not brilliant.

00:34:28.505 --> 00:34:47.072
He's both loving and brilliant, but anyway, he wrote to me that the synthesis of this Sefer of so much brilliance and creativity, coupled in his words with so much practicality because I'm dealing with issues like your children Do you see your children as a burden?

00:34:47.072 --> 00:34:49.757
In the modern day, we see children as a burden.

00:34:49.757 --> 00:34:53.673
Children are imposing on me you know, Issues like that.

00:34:54.315 --> 00:35:00.157
I am dealing with issues like in the me generation when I don't do something from a sense of obligation.

00:35:00.157 --> 00:35:01.161
You know it used to be.

00:35:01.161 --> 00:35:07.284
Jews would go to shul and read every line in the Seder, the Machzer and all those piyutim from a sense of duty.

00:35:07.284 --> 00:35:08.867
That was a motivator.

00:35:08.867 --> 00:35:10.313
Apparently I cannot understand it.

00:35:10.313 --> 00:35:12.463
In the 21st century we don't think that way.

00:35:12.463 --> 00:35:14.170
Before I was discussing with Regis before.

00:35:14.170 --> 00:35:19.237
Regis is British, so he looks a bit askance at us Americans, a self-centered and so on.

00:35:19.237 --> 00:35:20.219
But that's who we are.

00:35:20.219 --> 00:35:24.724
No one is being nice or nefesh for Yiddishkeit unless it's bringing them personal fulfillment.

00:35:24.724 --> 00:35:27.797
I don't believe that, certainly not in America in the 21st century.

00:35:28.530 --> 00:35:33.021
So I discuss the very audacious claim in this book that Judaism makes me feel free.

00:35:33.021 --> 00:35:43.460
Pesach is man che ruseno, and yet religion is imposing restrictions on me and I develop that very relevant idea which is going to affect every aspect of my life.

00:35:43.460 --> 00:35:45.344
Am I going to see getting up in the morning for davening?

00:35:45.344 --> 00:35:49.135
Am I going to see the burden of child rearing?

00:35:49.135 --> 00:35:53.268
Am I going to see it as a burden or somehow be able to personalize that?

00:35:53.268 --> 00:35:58.041
This is bringing my vision, my personal dream of what I want in life greatest expression.

00:35:58.041 --> 00:36:01.972
I address issues like that in the book.

00:36:01.972 --> 00:36:13.197
Wow, you want to hear one nugget on a piece of the Haggadah, one short nugget regarding the issue of are children seen as a burden?

00:36:13.197 --> 00:36:24.603
I believe the Haggadah is addressing that very issue of do we see children as a burden or do we embrace the?

00:36:25.625 --> 00:36:31.927
I would imagine it has to do with the four children, the four sons, and the way that one should respond to all their different questions.

00:36:37.230 --> 00:36:42.402
Is that something that you Well, I discuss that extensively in the book meaning I develop a very you know what.

00:36:42.402 --> 00:36:44.746
I will take your lead here.

00:36:44.746 --> 00:36:54.394
In the book I suggest that the notion of the book, I suggest that the notion of speaking to each child on their level and really entering their mind is a very deep, resonant one.

00:36:54.394 --> 00:37:03.697
When we think about freedom and Zmanchei Roussaino, think about a people who until now knew cruel slave masters, what is their notion of an authority figure?

00:37:05.849 --> 00:37:06.413
Cruel slave masters.

00:37:06.413 --> 00:37:07.338
What is their notion of an authority figure?

00:37:07.228 --> 00:37:10.465
Cruel slave master Right, someone on top of you who seeks to oppose himself.

00:37:11.449 --> 00:37:19.344
Suddenly comes L'al Pesach and a father wants to listen to his son's question.

00:37:19.344 --> 00:37:21.336
Ki y'shal chabimcha manashtan.

00:37:21.336 --> 00:37:25.420
Would a slave master ever listen to his subject's question?

00:37:25.420 --> 00:37:28.675
Do what I say.

00:37:28.675 --> 00:37:29.657
He barks.

00:37:29.657 --> 00:37:34.702
The notion of listening to a question is anathema to a slave master.

00:37:34.702 --> 00:37:39.320
Why, as parents, do we listen to our children's questions?

00:37:39.320 --> 00:37:41.577
Shut your mouth and do what I say.

00:37:41.577 --> 00:37:44.097
Why do we listen to our children's questions?

00:37:44.097 --> 00:37:49.201
The answer is because, as a parent, I'm really not here to impose myself upon my child.

00:37:49.201 --> 00:37:50.795
It's really not about me.

00:37:50.795 --> 00:37:53.617
It's about them and nurturing their growth.

00:37:53.617 --> 00:37:56.036
I am an authority figure.

00:37:56.036 --> 00:38:05.204
They're not yet, because they need me to forge, to nurture in them good decision-making and an ashamah.

00:38:05.204 --> 00:38:10.101
So I am that authority figure, but I am that authority figure who's here for them.

00:38:10.101 --> 00:38:23.423
So the notion of asking questions at the Seder and, moreover, hearing each child's different type of question and entering their world, is a recasting of the entire notion of authority figures.

00:38:23.789 --> 00:38:28.416
And that's what freedom, that's what is all about it's, so I wanted it's.

00:38:28.416 --> 00:38:38.360
There's so much that is addressed in the book and I kind of want to summarize what we've discussed here and and get a sort of conclusion here.

00:38:38.360 --> 00:38:44.440
I I read the book and I was blown away by the how refreshed I was.

00:38:44.440 --> 00:38:46.713
It was refreshing, that was the first thing that I.

00:38:46.713 --> 00:39:01.150
It was different, it was new and really I actually I love when a Rav, someone who's well-educated and has fear of heaven, and then they have they're passionate about a topic, it comes through in your work.

00:39:01.150 --> 00:39:02.052
That's the first thing.

00:39:02.052 --> 00:39:03.152
It's refreshing, it's new.

00:39:03.152 --> 00:39:06.016
It's wait a second, a new door opened.

00:39:06.016 --> 00:39:07.117
I'm a pshat, yid.

00:39:07.117 --> 00:39:09.099
What does Rashi say?

00:39:09.099 --> 00:39:11.260
And that's what we go.

00:39:11.260 --> 00:39:14.123
The most pshat I have is if the Rambam differs a little bit.

00:39:14.123 --> 00:39:16.226
That's the extent of my pshatness.

00:39:16.226 --> 00:39:22.643
But this is beautiful and you really address in the book, just so the listeners should know.

00:39:23.144 --> 00:39:43.652
You go into the topic, like you already discussed, about building happy family life, connecting with your spouse, parenting, mindfulness is mentioned and mental health, and you have a real nice piece on knowledge of self, which is beyond important.

00:39:43.652 --> 00:39:49.583
You put it in a serious place in climbing the ladder towards Akadosh Baruch Hu.

00:39:49.583 --> 00:39:54.960
It's F, f and F family, faith and freedom.

00:39:54.960 --> 00:40:02.313
In conclusion, I really like to ask it's your, kiddush, this is your?

00:40:02.313 --> 00:40:07.021
You're championing the idea that people should of course they should read the book.

00:40:07.021 --> 00:40:15.686
They'll get a feeling for it that they should take on a deeper level of Torah and it will bring more meaning, or that they should add it to their regular studies.

00:40:15.686 --> 00:40:16.648
Is it for men?

00:40:16.648 --> 00:40:17.309
Is it for women?

00:40:17.309 --> 00:40:20.940
Just so we can conclude with this, so we have something that's a real practical takeaway.

00:40:25.630 --> 00:40:27.815
Well, in terms of this mode of learning, I believe it's open to every jew on their level.

00:40:27.815 --> 00:40:33.594
There is a price of admission, however price the book no, the price of admission is amelos.

00:40:33.974 --> 00:40:37.081
You need to give it your all deeper meanings.

00:40:37.081 --> 00:41:12.440
Do not come without wrestling with the text, without humbling ourselves to hazalal and the Mepharshim and developing things in the framework that they have laid out for us, each of us on our level, each of us personalizing it our way to make it a Torah's Chaim that we can own for ourselves.

00:41:12.440 --> 00:41:17.713
There's a famous line from a great German poet, I believe it was Schiller.

00:41:17.713 --> 00:41:24.101
He said something to the effect you have a heritage from your father, own it.

00:41:24.101 --> 00:41:39.958
Well, I say, if Schiller, a German Protestant, said that in a Yiddish kite which is Masorah-based, I need to say with all the more fervor we have a glorious Masorah from our parents, but own it.

00:41:40.740 --> 00:41:42.483
You need to personalize the Torah.

00:41:42.483 --> 00:41:52.465
You know, when I put on tefillin each morning, I would not be able to put it on passionately if I never worked on and reached a deeper appreciation of how tefillin is talking to me and my personal struggles.

00:41:52.465 --> 00:42:00.804
I would not be able to go through a Shabbos, go through another challah, another shalach, if I did not develop how onuk Shabbos is talking to me and my needs.

00:42:00.804 --> 00:42:03.193
So we have the most glorious heritage.

00:42:03.213 --> 00:42:03.815
This makes meaning.

00:42:03.815 --> 00:42:04.677
It means own it.

00:42:04.677 --> 00:42:05.740
Own it, it's beautiful.

00:42:08.070 --> 00:42:09.454
And the answers are different.

00:42:09.454 --> 00:42:11.777
Adar, a generation ago they had other mahalchim in Torah.

00:42:11.777 --> 00:42:13.221
This is Torah's chai.

00:42:13.240 --> 00:42:18.559
It's new, it's refreshing, it can become addicting, it's fun, it's creative.

00:42:18.559 --> 00:42:26.842
I think the takeaway just to summarize and you correct me if I'm wrong but first of all, the book is well worth the price.

00:42:26.842 --> 00:42:36.114
You get eternity, you can.

00:42:36.114 --> 00:42:38.989
You start to learn not only about different things, but you learn a little bit how to learn drash.

00:42:38.989 --> 00:42:49.494
Rabbi Sklar, I would like to thank you for taking the time and coming up here to visit us in Lakewood and to come and do this interview.

00:42:49.494 --> 00:42:54.500
I reckon I'm going to keep this next to me during the Seder because it's engaging and it opens up a deeper level.

00:42:54.500 --> 00:42:59.364
It makes it meaningful and I'm sure the children, like you just spoke about, will also really enjoy it.

00:42:59.364 --> 00:43:01.266
So I thank you for your time.

00:43:01.766 --> 00:43:03.614
Thank you, the pleasure was mine.

00:43:03.614 --> 00:43:08.523
May you welcome many other guests behind your golden EIB mic.

00:43:08.523 --> 00:43:12.293
It's not golden, but the content is golden.

00:43:12.293 --> 00:43:14.978
Here in a yeshiva office.

00:43:14.978 --> 00:43:19.244
May we all be zaycha to grow together in this journey, amen.