A Shmuess Delivered By HaRav Shlomo Brevda on Chol Hamoed Pesach 5753 At Beis Haknesses "Tiferes Shlomo", Har-Nof, Yerushalayim. We first published it the same year, and it was reviewed by HaRav Brevda zt"l.
For Part 2 of this series click here.
Part III
The first two parts discussed tefillah and how it requires having the attitude of a poor person, and the essential requirement of anava in order to be able to daven properly.
So, Rabbenu Yonah has made it hard for us to get to tefillah. The Rambam, also quoting chazal, like Rabbenu Yonah, has made it hard for us to get to Toras emes. Again the key is anava. Once more I have the feeling that the tsibur is shaken and dispirited. Let us therefore see how the Torah hakedoshah can help us out.
The Torah hakedoshah has given us various mitzvos to fulfill on leil haseder. On the one hand we set out on the table any gold or silver vessels that are in the house as a sign of cherus. We also have to eat leaning, in the manner of bnei chorin. The Ba'al habayis shouldn't pour for himself. He is a ben chorin, an oshir, so others pour for him. We drink a lot of wine because, says the Rambam, this is the custom of wealthy, free men. So there we sit, in wealth and well-being.
On the other hand, there is the matzo, the lechem oni, over which we are "onim devorim harbei." We speak of many things.
The Gra brings four of chazal's droshos on the words "lechem oni." First, the word "oni" precludes dough that has been kneaded with wine, oil or honey. It has to be just water and flour. Very poor, rosh, dal.
Second, just as the custom of an oni all year round is that he lights the oven and his wife bakes, here too, with matzo, each man should go to the trouble of baking his matzos himself.
Third, just as the custom of an oni is to eat broken bread, here also, the most important matzo on leil Pesach isn't the whole one but the broken one, oni fashion.
Finally, "lechem she'onin olov devorim harbei." We repeat the entire Haggadah. The Gra says that it is also the custom of a poor man to be "oneh devorim harbei."
To explain how matzo represents these four aspects of aniyus, he gives the following example.
If an oshir wants someone to make a table for him, he will buy the most expensive wood. For workers, he will hire the greatest experts. As to the design, his table will have all kinds of decorations and beautiful adornments. The purpose his table will serve is to eat many good meals from it. So, when he commissions his table, he takes into account the material, the workers, the design and the purpose (chomer, po'alim, tzura vetachlis).
When an oni wants a table, his material is the cheapest wood, and he himself does the work for he has no money to hire workers. The design is as simple as possible for he is no craftsman. The purpose? He has nothing to eat and will sit by his table groaning and telling stories about his life. Halevai he had something to put on it!
A man who sits at a table (and this is an important principle) does not keep his mouth still. Either he's putting something in or taking something out. When someone talks a lot, says the Gra, it is a sign that he has not enough to eat. So even the drosho of "onim olov devorim harbei" is also a sign of an oni.
The material from which the matzo is made, says the Gaon, is simple. The workers, the man himself, the design (broken—not whole) and the purpose for telling stories, are all signs of poverty.
So when we sit reclining at the seder amid signs of wealth, drinking a lot of wine, pouring for others, while all the time we are looking at four aspects of oni, we don't know what to think. Are we aniyim or are we ashirim?
Now, what did we say at the beginning? What is a man in this world? An oni. A man has nothing of his own. All he has is what he is given, every moment, from shomayim. Klal Yisroel have nothing, just what they are given and what is guarded so it doesn't get lost. During the whole year, it's very hard to reach this level.
An oni and an onov are one and the same thing. Just as the gemora greatly praises the man who fixes a place for his tefillah because he is working on midas anava, so too, the Zohar HaKodosh, in many many places, praises midas oni, for an oni doesn't need to make a special effort to be a mechaven, like an oni at the door. An oni already feels that he lacks everything, that he has nothing. He already davens properly, he doesn't need to work on midas anava—"tachanunim yedaber rosh."
What? Should he speak azus? He knows how lowly his situation is.
On leil Pesach, the Torah hakedoshah and chazal hakedoshim hope to bring every member of Klal Yisroel to a true feeling of oni, midas anava: "les lei migarmei klum."
All night long we look at silver and gold, wine and riches. At the very same time, we eat the matzo, broken, poor, the perfect symbol of poverty in its material, manufacture, design and purpose. All of this comes to help us remember that although today we have all this osher, our true situation is one of oni.
And how do we have everything? He is the One who gives us strength to amass riches. It's not by our own power and the strength of our hands; we have neither strength nor wisdom, neither money nor property, only what HaKodosh Boruch Hu gives us every moment and saves from going to waste. This is what we want a Jew to feel on this night.
The mitzvos of the day all bring a man to this realization. The hope is that he has already gotten rid of the chometz in his guf which defiles and blocks up the heart, especially during Pesach. That he has no chometz left in his gvul, his boundaries, either. He has eaten matzo which represents the ultimate oni and which can bring a man to the awareness of midas anava, as do all the other mitzva foods which purify and sanctify a person's body. Hopefully, he achieves this awareness through sipur yetzias Mitzrayim.
We spend the night describing to the Ribono Shel Olam how we were at the lowest level, the tachlis ha'oni. We had no power at all. We didn't turn the water into blood. You did. We couldn't do anything. We didn't bring millions of frogs, we didn't bring kinim, orov, dever, nothing. We didn't plan makas bechoros.
We sat with folded hands, without any power in the world and You did it all. Do you know how hard it is for a man to say things like that? I didn't do anything. You did it all Ribono Shel Olam.
We dwelt in the desert. In the morning, a wife would repeat the Communists' words to her husband. (There is still Communism in the world—in the kibbutzim of Hashomer Hatzair!) I'll quote their slogan: "He who does not work, doesn't eat."—"Go to work!"
And what did her husband reply? "No. I will sit with folded hands."
So they sat, and mann descended from heaven like snow. They could taste it in any taste they wanted to. This proves that everything comes from shomayim. For water, there was the well of Miriam, the slav provided meat, the clouds of glory pressed everyone's clothes daily.
Whoever merited to be one of the yotzei Mitzrayim and entered the land forty years later, was wearing the same clothes as he had on at yetzias Mitzrayim. You could say to him "Tischadesh!" "Your feet didn't swell, your clothes didn't wear out," says the posuk. What did we do towards all this? Nothing.
After saying things like these all night, a man comes to the realization that he truly has no independent power and that everything is given to him from shomayim. He doesn't eat chometz. He purifies his body not only through speaking but through eating pure food, through lechem oni which brings a man to the awareness of oni and anava. The hope is that at the end of sipur yetzias Mitzrayim, as the Rambam says at the end of Sefer Hamitzvos, aseh 157, we are inspired to sing Hallel vehoda'a.
Sipur yetzias Mitzrayim, says the Rambam, includes the story of the injustice and violence that the Mitzrim inflicted upon us, Hashem's vengeance against them through the plagues, the good that Hashem did to us and our thanks to Him yisborach shemo, praising and glorifying Him. According to this Rambam therefore, all of the Hallel and hoda'a is part of sipur yetzias Mitzrayim, the end of which is Hallel Hagodol and Nishmas Kol Chai.
Part IV: Glorify Hashem
The ultimate stage of sipur yetzias Mitzrayim, the finale of the whole of leil Haseder and all its mitzvos, is the great, holy tefillah of Nishmas Kol Chai. In what spiritual state should a person reach Nishmas at the end of the seder?
I saw in the meforshim, who were writing for all members of Beis Yisroel, who say that on reaching Nishmas, one must be close to hispashtus hagashmius, the shedding of physical existence.
Forty-two years ago, one of my teachers told me how he merited, on leil Pesach, to sit at the table of Reb Yeruchom, the mashgiach of Mir. There among the guests sat a young child, around two years old. When Reb Yeruchom reached Nishmas, my teacher remembers, he looked at Reb Yeruchom and it looked like hispashtus hagashmius. Suddenly, the child pointed to the door and cried out to Reb Yeruchom, "See who is coming in!"
And Reb Yeruchom motioned to him like this: "Be quiet!"
Now, I never tell stories like this—one of my teachers told it to me. I remember when I heard it I went out thinking: "Nishmas Kol Chai? I say it with closed eyes every Shabbos and Yom Tov morning! What is it in Nishmas that brought Reb Yeruchom to hispashtus?
I will close with the following look at the tefillah of Nishmas: See what a favor the Torah hakedoshah has done us, bringing us to midas anava, during these weeks. In one night, the Torah has lifted all of us towards oni and anava, so that we will merit Toras emes. These are the feelings that a Jew expresses after all these mitzvos and sipur yetzias Mitzrayim.
"Ribono Shel Olam, I hope that Nishmas Kol Chai will bless your name, Hashem Elokeinu and the spirit of all flesh will glorify and uplift Your mention always."
This is the secret of our earlier discussion. The neshamah is always at tachlis anava—"cheilek Eloka mima'al." It knows the truth. What then, opposes anava? The guf. What part of the guf mainly? The bones. Why the bones? Because they feel they have power—"kochi ve'otszem yodi". It's mine, it's mine...independent power.
On leil Pesach the hope is that not just the neshamah but also the guf achieves anava. Even the atzamos will feel that we have no koach atzmi, no independent power, that everything comes to us min haShomayim, every moment, and that without siyata deShmaya, we are nothing — we collapse completely.
So we start: "Nishmas col chai ... veruach kol bosor..." The physical part of a person, the unity of guf and neshamah, —- will glorify Hashem. That is the hope on leil Pesach. So we've spoken (dibbur) for the part of the neshamah) and we have eaten pure and holy food to purify the guf.
"Min ha'olam ve'ad ha'olam ato Keil umibladecha ein lonu melech go'el umoshie'a...bechol eis tzara vetzuka ein..." We declare the foundations of emunah, that there is only You, and no other power in world besides You.
"Hamenaheig...Who leads his world with kindness and his creations with mercy." What does this mean?
That He is betachlis anava. That HaKadosh Boruch Hu isn't obliged to anyone. Every hanhogoh of His, is chesed and rachamim. Only an anav can speak like that.
An oshir answers with azus. "I gave such and such a donation. I learned so much gemora. I did such chesed. Ribono shel olam, what do I deserve such a tzoroh for?" So we say here that everything is chesed verachamim.
"Hashem lo yonum velo yishan." Explanation: there is no moment or second in a person's life that Hashem is not awake to bestow his needs upon him i.e. that every moment Hashem gives and gives and gives. He doesn't slumber and doesn't sleep.
What is a person really? "Hashem wakes sleepers, makes the dumb talk, unties those who are bound, supports those who fall."
What does this mean? It's not just praise of Hashem, it's a survey of a person's true situation. We announce that by nature, man sleeps, is dumb, and is bound, falling, bent. So how is it that we are awake? Or straight? Or speaking? HaKodosh Boruch Hu gives us these powers every moment!
This is the tefillah which is the siyum, the finale, of all the mitzvos of leil Pesach and of all sipur yetzias Mitzrayim. We reach tachlis hakoras ha'oni, the ultimate recognition of our own powerlessness." We thank You alone.
And how much are we obliged to Hashem for all these favors? "If our mouths would be as full of song as the sea ..." This means that if every one of us would be as great as the whole world. Then we'd open our mouths and our song would be as great as all the waves of the seas. Also our outstretched hands would be like nishrei shomayim and our eyes would be light like the sun. Do you know what praises these would be?
Even so, "We wouldn't do enough thanking for even one thousandth thousandth part of the favors You did for our fathers and for us."
You know what we're doing? We're making a declaration of hakoras hatov that says that if a man was as great as the whole world and praised and thanked and blessed, he wouldn't fulfill even a billionth of his obligation to praise HaKodosh Boruch Hu. Who speaks like this? Only an anav, who feels that at every moment he is receiving every breath of life from Hashem.
"From Mitzrayim you have redeemed us, Hashem." The mashgiach of Mir and Ponovezh, Reb Chatzkel zt'l, used to say in the name of the Alter of Kelm, that for all the thousands of favors that Hashem did for us at yetzias Mitzrayim alone, when will we finish thanking Him?"
Now we go a step further. It's fearful and awesome, it breaks all a person's ga'ava.
"Ad heino... Until now Your mercies have helped us and Your kindnesses have not forsaken us." This, says the Gra is what we're saying: through all the generations that HaKodosh Boruch Hu helped us, generations of tzadikim and kedoshim, He didn't do it because of "din." He wasn't obliged to do anything, even for the greatest tzadikim.
"Ad heinah azorunu rachamecha..." "Your mercies have helped us thus far." Thus far, says the Gra, it's just mercies. "And Your kindnesses haven't forsaken us." Thus far, it is just kindness. Do you hear what a statement this is? "Don't leave us Hashem, ever."
We can have hope that Hashem will not leave us. If what Hashem did for earlier generations was "bedin," if they deserved it, then, since we are zero compared to them, we have no hope, chas vesholom. Since though, what was done for them was all chesed verachamim, then we too, can receive chesed. Chesedis given even to one who isn't deserving.
This thought is the meaning of the posuk in Eichah, "zos oshiv el libi, al kein ochil, so I have hope for the future. Chasdei Hashem ki lo somnu ki lo cholu rachamov." If not for Hashem's kindness, I have no hope. What do we do, now that we realize that we lack everything and that every moment we depend wholly on Hashem yisborach's rachamim?
"The limbs you have given us"—what will they do? "They will thank and bless and praise and glorify" as much as possible. We hope that "every mouth will thank You...every tongue...every knee will bend etc. etc."
Now we reach the climax: "Every kerev ukloyos... What is kerev ukloyos? The most dirty and physical place in a person's body. On leil Pesach we hope that even the kerev ukloyos will sing to Hashem's name. This is man's purpose. This is onov, chossid. The guf has made peace with the neshamah.
And who says these things? "Kadovor shekosuv." Listen: "Kol atzmosai tomarno Hashem mi komocha?" The bones, the source of ga'ava, says Dovid Hamelech, all the bones together, what a great power. They will say, "Who is like You Hashem?"
And what else? "He saves the oni from one stronger than him and oni ve'evyon from the one who steals from him." The bones have reached the awareness that a man, on the strength of his own power, is tachlis oni, evyon gamur, zero.
If, for a single moment, Hashem would not save man from the troubles of the world, there wouldn't be anything left of him. This is the ultimate oni, the true realization, this is anava.
"Who compares to You? Who equals You?" Before the seder, who knows what state a person is in? He says "Who is like me? Who equals me?" Now he has arrived at "Who equals You?"
"We will thank You, praise You." Ko'omoor leDovid borchi nafshi.."—that is, the spiritual part—"vechol krovai.."—that is, the physical part—"..es Shem kodsho." When a man makes true peace between the neshamah and the guf then both of them together recognize the true lowliness of man, who is tachlis oni and receives everything. Then a man has reached the tachlis of leil Pesach and sipur yetzias Mitzrayim.
The hope is that once a man who has said things like this as a result of sipur yetzias Mitzrayim and all the other mitzvos, he will then start to count sefira, the shiva neki'im, one night after, for the purpose of kabolas Toras emes yih'ye befihu.
Only an onov merits Toras emes. Only an onov merits tefillah bekavana. May HaKodosh Boruch Hu inspire us to strengthen hasmodas haTorah, to work on midas anava and to fight kapdonus. May HaKodosh Boruch Hu make us successful, truly successful, and able to receive the Torah on Shavuos!
