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!

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Okay, ladies and gentlemen, here we go. This is a big honor, a big treat to call Rabbi Yonah Sklair into the Motivation Congregation studios. Rabbi Sklair, you're the first person inside of the dungeon here of the Motivation Congregation. 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.

Speaker 2: 0:27

to kick things off, well, it's something to be in a yeshivish studio along with a golden EIB. That makes for a very nice synthesis, and I guess you have Michal meeting you. That's a synthesis which you're proud of.

Speaker 1: 0:39

I am proud. 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. Maybe tell the audience a little bit about your background.

Speaker 2: 0:50

Sure, I am very much a Baltimore native. I grew up in Baltimore, I'm an alumnus of Nari Yisrael and presently I'm Marbet's tyrant in Baltimore. I'm both a Rosh Chol in Baltimore. 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. I am based in Baltimore, so, baruch Hashem, baltimore has been a lush environment and I'm happy to give something back.

Speaker 1: 1:25

Wow, wow we called you in today because the uh. I thought the audience would also love to hear about this book that you wrote inside of this book. I just want to give it a a quick little introduction here, rabbi sclair. Rabbi sklar, with an e, authored a book called the breathtaking panorama. It is a sweeping thematic approach to Yetzirah's Mitzrayim. I heard it was a doozy and absolute tour de force, and it's refreshing. It really is, and I want to discuss a couple of different points that you bring up in the book. 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. I'm wondering why you chose this. Maybe you didn't choose to write a book about this. Where's your passion, yetzirah Mitzrayim, and where did it all begin?

Speaker 2: 2:23

Well, what is the number one thing people are looking for today? Meaning Baruch Hashem. All of the concrete aspects of from life are thriving. The infrastructure of from life is functioning. What people are looking for is meaning to breathe life into it.

Speaker 2: 2:46

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. Now there have been certain responses to cater to an element that, as you said, wants inspiration. Now, I don't mean to say cheap inspiration, but think of the thank you Hashem element. Beautiful what it's doing for call yeah, but a Bentaira, an intellectual, someone who to light their fire. It takes a little more substance. They need inspiration too, but their inspiration needs to be grounded. They can't just embrace. Judaism is beautiful, tefillin is beautiful, shabbos is beautiful. Show me, don't tell me. Show me that Shabbos is beautiful and the cute, fluffy stuff is not going to do it for me. I want to see that Shabbos is beautiful. I want to see that Tefillin is beautiful.

Speaker 2: 3:45

With my adult, mature intellect and my adult, mature heart, there's a thirst. The earnest Jew is thirsting for meaning, and yet I'm going to contend, there is a fundamental conflict. To contend, there is a fundamental conflict which certainly the intellectually inclined Ayyubid Hashem finds in their quest for meaning. The inherent conflict is as follows the intellectual, the Bentaira, has high standards, high intellectual standards. He needs something rigorously developed before he embraces it. The fluffy vart which is more imposing on the text than developing the text from within is deplorable to him or her. It just doesn't develop organically from the text. It's very nice. On the other hand, if you say let's stick to pshat, let's stick to that which is rigid Pshat kishmakeno. Pshat is posh, pshat is simple. Pshat kishma keno. Pshat is pashat, pshat is simple. Pshat is not addressing our need to find deeper meaning. That's an audacious claim.

Speaker 2: 4:54

I'm a pshat yid. The word pshat means pashat. 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.

Speaker 1: 5:08

Are you getting to drush Drush? You're getting to drush Drush or drash?

Speaker 2: 5:11

Yes Drash, yes Drash is the most adulterated, abused and misunderstood part of Torah.

Speaker 1: 5:20

Why is that?

Speaker 2: 5:20

People think drash means a sermon, what the rabbi says on the pulpit.

Speaker 1: 5:26

A drasha.

Speaker 2: 5:27

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. Basic meanings, not luxuries. Basic meanings emerge from drash, because what does the word drash actually mean?

Speaker 1: 5:53

To expound, to dig darash, to seek Dershu Hashem.

Speaker 2: 5:57

To seek. What does it mean to seek?

Speaker 1: 5:59

To look for something.

Speaker 2: 6:01

Do you need to seek pshat? Do you need to seek what's obvious, the simple meaning of the text? Do you need to seek it or it's staring right out at you?

Speaker 1: 6:09

I would say the second one.

Speaker 2: 6:10

Ah, drush seeking means anytime something is not blatantly apparent, anytime something requires some mining of the text and some mining of self. That is the realm of drush or drash. It is not fluffy stuff at all. 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. Let's start in halacha, the shofar you blow on Rosh Hashanah, or heard on Rosh Hashanah. Does the Torah ever say on Rosh Hashanah to blow a Shifer? No, what does it say regarding Rosh Hashanah? Remembering a true sound, a crying sound, a day of crying sound, and from that develops what.

Speaker 2: 7:02

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. This is true in halacha and I believe this is no less true in Makhshava and Hashkafa. In that warning is drash in Halacha and in Makhshava, in all aspects of Yiddishkeit. If we're going to dig deep and do something meaningful, it's the realm of drash. This is a frequently misunderstood point. So how did you?

Speaker 1: 7:39

how do you come to this Meaning? Were you upset with just inspirational ideas that didn't fit in the text? And there you develop this philosophy. Where did this philosophy of that?

Speaker 1: 7:49

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. 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? How would what I just said agree with your philosophy?

Speaker 2: 8:49

The term which Mikubolim use is that Torah Shabbat is the body and Torah Shabbat is the neshama. It's the soul, it's what's deeper, but that which needs a physical body to contain it. A neshama cannot interact with this world without a physical body to contain it. Anishinaabemowin cannot interact with this world without a physical body to contain it. So all the penins of Torah, on all its levels of Ramasod and Drash, need a physical body, concrete succumb, to contain it. 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. I don't want to go back to high school here. I want to talk about a dynamic learning experience. When the Rebbeinu She'olam gave us Torah Shebeksav, as Chazal portrayed, he told Misha I am giving you, klal Yisrael, a methodology. A mahalich called midosha, toron edreshes beha. 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. 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. 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.

Speaker 2: 10:43

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. I know that that's true, but once I go into the deeper dimension it's, by definition, not so well defined. So how do I know it's true anymore? Take anything in Torah. 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. I'm going to have to dig deeper than the Pshat, but it's not going. Issues of anything I'm going to have to dig deeper than the pshat, but it's not going to be right there.

Speaker 2: 11:28

It's going to have to be below the surface.

Speaker 1: 11:29

So what do you do? So let's say, how does one go about it? So I'm using the Breathing Panorama Rabbi Sklar's Mahalach in Life. So now I open up a chumash and I read the pasuk of last week's parasha Eilat pekudei ha-mishkan, mishkan ha-edos. How do I, what do I do now? So it's a very straightforward possek, I think pekudei, I guess pokat is like a recalling of sorts, or I don't even. I don't exactly even know off the top of my head. But how do you connect drash? What does one do? How does it change one's learning philosophy? What does it mean to dig deeper into the text?

Speaker 2: 12:04

It begins with asking questions and seeing points that don't resonate. But I want to elaborate this a little more. 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. 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. 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.

Speaker 2: 12:47

That's an inherent tension, because once you move beyond the shot, it's not so well-defined. Is it what they call do-it-yourself?

Speaker 1: 12:53

midrash Say whatever you want, so how do you have authoritative Good?

Speaker 2: 12:57

So I would like to use the following muscle. I always use this muscle. I would like to describe criminology, solving a crime, a sleuth solving a crime. If you know that John killed Gary, are you a detective?

Speaker 1: 13:17

Probably not.

Speaker 2: 13:17

No, what are you? You're an aide, you're an arresting officer and you place the handcuffs right on him. You saw it, that's shot. You saw it, that's shot. You saw it. There's no mystery here. It doesn't require a detective. You saw it. Okay, drash is, by definition, a mystery. I'm seeking to find that deeper dimension. That's there, right, but it's not staring right at me. It's elusive. How do I find it? So I'm going to suggest, in response to your question, let's think back to Sherlock Holmes. Let's think back to any detective and how they solve a mystery. It might be a crime scene in my hometown, in East Baltimore. Plenty of those. 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.

Speaker 1: 14:06

You got to go down to Norfolk, virginia, and that's where you pack heat. You keep yourself protected. No one comes near you.

Speaker 2: 14:12

I mean, you got to fight for your right. There you go and you have the Navy installation right there, you don't?

Speaker 1: 14:18

mess with you. You could mess with me, but it's not going to end well for you. That's what we say down south.

Speaker 2: 14:22

I hear you, I hear you Sorry.

Speaker 1: 14:26

Josh, we are detectives, we're detectives.

Speaker 2: 14:29

So how does a detective solve a mystery?

Speaker 1: 14:32

Clues.

Speaker 2: 14:34

Let's examine clues. The detective looks at the crime scene and they don't have any proof. If they would have proof who murdered, they'd be the arresting officer. What do they do? They note strange anomalies. Huh, why is there a glove in the blood? Why is there a blue van? And did I ever see a blue van before with?

Speaker 2: 15:02

this on this license plates. They notice anomalies, things which seem out of sync, and then they start to pick up connections. Oh, blue van, blue van, and they have. They begin with clues and then they start to amass clues and then a little bit of symmetry patterns, symmetry, yeah, in the clues.

Speaker 2: 15:25

Now, at the onset of this process, it's not clear what they're doing. Huh, how is that glove going to help you figure out who murdered Gary Right? And this is in the classic Sherlock Holmes scene. What happens in this conversation between Watson and Sherlock Holmes Right? Watson's all frustrated. What's Sherlock doing?

Speaker 1: 15:47

Why does he care about something that's so random?

Speaker 2: 15:49

Patience, my dear Watson. You see, drush requires patience, Right? Okay, I noticed there's a strange word.

Speaker 1: 15:59

Good, so that's what we're doing, so strange things. What's the word Picude? Is that where one begins? Or the ale doing so strange things? What's the word picude? Is that where one begins, or the a let? I think it's like there's a vub. How does it differ? I'm still not there. What do I do? I notice clues, and then what?

Speaker 2: 16:12

so for this process to be authentic, right, we have to learn carefully, with no preconceived notions. Just work it through as though it's a piece of pshat, but have open eyes when the anomalies will stare out at us. Right, you want to notice an anomaly in this week's parasha. What is the final pashak in this week's parasha? The final pashak of Shemos?

Speaker 1: 16:37

I know it. I know it. I know it, it's my bar mitzvah, parasha. I know it, let me go. 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. I'm not going to know it.

Speaker 2: 16:56

Viewed by Kol.

Speaker 1: 16:58

Kol Yisrael, I don't.

Speaker 2: 16:59

Base Yisrael Correct.

Speaker 1: 17:02

I know that you're correct, but now it's bothering me. 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. Make sure that this works out. We don't start up with moms.

Speaker 2: 17:19

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. All of them have the word Yisrael in the final Pasek. Look it up.

Speaker 1: 17:35

Which is significant Very. All of them have the word Yisrael in the final Pesach. Look it up, cool Right, which is significant, very significant Right.

Speaker 2: 17:40

Appropriately, some of them will have the word Yisrael Right Chumash ends the. Enei kol Yisrael Right. 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.

Speaker 1: 17:57

Yisrael or Yisrael. I said not Baratheos.

Speaker 2: 18:02

Baratheos is pre the nation Yisrael.

Speaker 1: 18:04

I said all the four final.

Speaker 2: 18:06

Svarb Got it. They all have Yisrael, either Yisrael or B'nai Yisrael. There's only one that has a base Yisrael.

Speaker 1: 18:12

Okay.

Speaker 2: 18:13

And that is Shmos Interesting.

Speaker 1: 18:15

Is that?

Speaker 2: 18:16

significant.

Speaker 1: 18:17

Sounds cool.

Speaker 2: 18:19

Maybe, maybe not, so let's put that on the side, okay, but hold on. Let's go back now to the first Pasek in Sefer Shmos. Okay, because this is the bookend. 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. Well, I want you to go back to the first Pasuk and Pasuk and Shemos. What is the first?

Speaker 1: 18:42

Pasuk and Pasuk. And Shemos Ve'eleh, shemel sp'nei Yisrael, aboyim mitraimah esh ubeisu ba'u.

Speaker 2: 18:51

Man and his house. So is that significant that the Sefer opens with bias and closes with bias, or is it maybe just a coincidence? Answer that question honestly, or are you unsure?

Speaker 1: 19:03

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.

Speaker 2: 19:13

You're a little.

Speaker 1: 19:14

I know the original bias is big, the whole transformation from Bratish to Shemos. That issue based on Bo Rabbi Hirsch has a big piece about. Judaism is only as good as their families and issue based on Bo, that's where all the spirituality happens, at the home. I can imagine that that may find its completion when it comes to the end of Shemos, maybe something having to do with homes. Find its completion when it comes to the end of Shamos, maybe something having to do with Holmes. But yes, I would say that it is not a coincidence that bias and bias plays a significant role here.

Speaker 2: 19:46

And I'm going to prove the point further. You see, I tell my students at this stage in the game notice an anomaly, it's a clue. One clue, it ends with bias. One clue, it begins with bias. What do I make of that? How significant is that?

Speaker 1: 19:54

I don't know.

Speaker 2: 19:56

But let's notice something else this opening Pasek HaSefer Shemos Eilash Mos B'nai Yisrael. Does it appear anywhere else that same Pasek? Almost exactly, almost cut and paste.

Speaker 1: 20:06

Eilash Mos B'nai Yisrael.

Speaker 2: 20:10

Parak Mamvav, pasek Chas describing the settlement of Mitzrayim. It's the same story which Parashat Shemos is describing. These are the names of those who settled in Mitzrayim. Listen to the overlooked Shemos Pasek in Parashat, vayigash Ve'eila, shemos b'nei, yisrael haba Mitzrayimah. Do you see? Same words, almost to a T. Once you realize it, it's a clear cut and paste. Yeah, but here it doesn't say Base, issue base.

Speaker 1: 20:41

What does it say B'Ele Sh'mos? B'nei, yisrael Ha'aboyim, yitzhar Me'yakov?

Speaker 2: 20:45

It speaks about individuals.

Speaker 1: 20:47

Hold on.

Speaker 2: 20:48

Here we see two symmetrical Eile, sh'mos B'sukim, both describing the same story the settlement of Mitzrayim. These are the names of the settlers in Mitzrayim. 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. Now, this is, of course, only a beginning In the book and thus far we've had more of a technical discussion. 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?

Speaker 2: 21:59

but it has to be developed compellingly right. We already have a framework in place. 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.

Speaker 2: 22:29

He immediately told impatient watson what did he say? Patience, my dear watson. But the end, once the pattern of clues develops, what does he tell him? Elementary, my dear Watson, because once the pattern of clues becomes apparent, now everything comes together. Now it's elementary. 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?

Speaker 2: 22:59

You picked up on anomalies, you picked up on clues. Strange expression used here, language which has emotional, evocative tones to it, whatever it is. And this echoes of another story, a sister passage, as I call it, in Chumash.

Speaker 1: 23:13

I don't know yeah.

Speaker 2: 23:14

Right Tracing, sister patterns, patterns. When you do this, you never have proofs. Proofs is how you reach conclusions. In the realm of Pshat, drash is more sensitive. Drash is not concrete, but Drash is not willy-nilly at all. 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.

Speaker 1: 24:04

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. And now let's get back to the question that we began with. We're looking for meaning. 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. Is that what we're getting at?

Speaker 2: 24:42

Yes, and I'm suggesting, I'm suggesting what you invest will determine what you reap.

Speaker 1: 24:50

Drash is all about investing, digging deeper when you dig deeper and what sperm do I use's the farm do I use? What's farm do I use if I want to do drash?

Speaker 2: 24:59

so you know, this is a very funny thing. I oftentimes get the question from my talmidim, but most often from my seminary talmidos, okay, and they ask me the following question.

Speaker 1: 25:07

You're saying I asked a seminary question.

Speaker 2: 25:09

That's right well, no, no, insults some no, no, no some of the most halogen asham who.

Speaker 2: 25:15

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? In the notion that I have tools to develop something for myself not something for myself which departs from chazal and the mepharshim? Oh no, chazal and the mepharshim are themselves laden with clues to add to our study. Right, but we become stakeholders in the ongoing Torah's chayim.

Speaker 1: 25:57

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? Is that what you're getting at?

Speaker 2: 26:07

Yes, but let's not even talk about giving shiurim. This is l'shma. This is my own relationship to Torah. This is my own relationship to Hashem. Even if my idea will not resonate with anyone else, it resonates with me. This is my relationship to Torah. This is my own relationship to Hashem. Even if my idea will not resonate with anyone else, it resonates with me. This is my relationship to Hashem. Now, creativity is a very scary thing. It takes a lot of courage. But, when one understands that there's a methodology, there's an approach.

Speaker 1: 26:33

I'm suggesting the tracing of clues.

Speaker 2: 26:37

We're not in outer space anymore. If we are, we're at least tethered back to the space shuttle. I would like to express the following as well. And that is when one learns this way, with creativity and engagement Torah is fun, torah is enthralled. As David HaMelech says in Tehillim, torah is my plaything. Think of the way a child plays, think of children playing in the sand. They finger the sand, they knead the sand, they turn it over this way, that way. 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. We are as though kneading dough or kneading clay. It's fun, it's engaging, it keeps us young. So where does this all?

Speaker 1: 27:40

fall in? Where does this all fall into? I think the approach is inspiring. I want to start taking up Drush and expounding my verses and following the structure. Where does it come back into the sweeping thematic approach to Yitzchak Mitzrayim? The book is very much focused on Zechel Yitzchak Mitzrayim. The book is very much focused on Zechel Yitzchak Mitzrayim. Where does that come into Drush?

Speaker 2: 28:00

So the truth is, this is my approach, this is my contribution to Klal Yisrael in all areas of. Torah. 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. Learning in terms of my main contribution to the broader world and claudius role. It is this approach to drash. I could have written this book on any area in total and in my head there are more to come.

Speaker 2: 28:34

as a sh, I could have written a B'tochen book, developing B'tochen from the perspective of Drash. I could have written a Shavuos book.

Speaker 2: 28:42

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. It's the beginning of kol Yisrael. It defines who we are and I believe people have number one, the deepest angst to find that meaning. I was discussing before. I discussed before. We all want meaning. We all think we're so well-informed in Yiddishkeit right, I knew it since I was this tall right. But as we grow older, the known becomes stale. The known always becomes stale and boring as whiskers on it, growing on it already as far as sprouts, sprouts, whiskers.

Speaker 2: 29:37

As far as I'm concerned, yitzhia smitzrayim. I'm supposed to sit down to a seder and talk about this story with engagement. What does it mean to be free? What does it mean? Mitchil ovdeh avodazar ha'ayu avoseinu? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've known this since I'm a little kid. 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. 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. Everything you fought is going gonna fall by the wayside. Should I use one very simple example. Yes, what is the basis of paro's slavery? Why did paro enslave the jewish people?

Speaker 2: 30:25

he wants money slavery occurred throughout human history. You mentioned you're a southerner right so before the civil war was thought.

Speaker 2: 30:33

Or, as you southerners, cheap labor war of northern aggression, cheap labor right Down south. Eli Whitney's cotton gin created a whole industry and they wanted to develop textiles, cheap labor. 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. And I suggest, before you hit, go when you read the Chumash carefully and develop it according to the panoramic approach. An entirely different slave story emerges.

Speaker 2: 31:04

Paru was not seeking economic benefit at all. It's in the pshat, but even more in the drash. When we look at it carefully, what does it say? Paru saw B'nai Yisrael were what. What does it say? Paru saw B'nai Yisrael were what. Paru Vayishritsu were growing by leaps and bounds and hence he says Havan eschak malo, I need to control this population. They are so multitudinous they might join the enemy. There'll be a fifth column, the enemy from within, and it is to solve the problem of overpopulation that he imposes slavery. Interesting Explain the Rishainen, the Ritvan, the Haggadah, the Balhaturam Paro believed that an enslaved people would be rendered physically impotent. Somehow the slavery would wear them down, that physically they'd be less potent. I believe it was not only physically but even deeper, emotionally, struggling to survive right Wrung out like a sponge.

Speaker 2: 32:08

You know the Yiddish expression that I love azaivi anaisgeklapta haishana l'ket, haishana right. Many Yiddish and I mean and I are walking around you know he's geklap to haishana right. They're not going to have the drive, the commitment to spouse, the engagement and intimacy, anything which it will take, right. 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. They are the saviors of the story Because, you see, paro's entire slavery is all about. It's a crude form of population control by inhibiting family life.

Speaker 2: 32:51

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. Have you ever heard this? Does anyone know this? I'm suggesting it's a whole different story. It's a story about a battle for family life. The Jewish people from time immemorial were not fighting with spears and harpoons, an enemy on a battlefield. You know what we were fighting with. We were fighting with the power of love, the power of the mirrors. We all know the Chazal about the mirrors that the Nashem Tzikani has used to draw their husbands near. That was their tool. Have you ever thought of it that way that the entire Yetzirah Mitzrayim, sheba Mitzrayim, it's all a battle for family? No, that sounds out of left field.

Speaker 1: 33:32

no, A lot of this is very, very new out of my field. No, a lot of this is very, very new. It's interesting to hear there's more to the story. It definitely opens up so many different windows and vistas of Chachma, and creativity and making Torah meaningful there's. 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? Is it something they could use at their Seder? Is it something that's that practical or is it more of a safer that one would learn in the base Medrash?

Speaker 2: 34:09

The answer is all the above. I recently received an email from one of the most intelligent Jews alive. His name is Reb Yitzchak Breidowitz. I take it you've heard of him.

Speaker 1: 34:18

I have heard of him.

Speaker 2: 34:19

Reb Yitzchak Breidowitz.

Speaker 1: 34:20

Brilliant. Follow the podcast. Like subscribe and a very great man.

Speaker 2: 34:24

I know many brilliant people who are not loving people. I know many loving people who are not brilliant. 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? In the modern day, we see children as a burden. Children are imposing on me you know, Issues like that.

Speaker 2: 34:54

I am dealing with issues like in the me generation when I don't do something from a sense of obligation. You know it used to be. Jews would go to shul and read every line in the Seder, the Machzer and all those piyutim from a sense of duty. That was a motivator. Apparently I cannot understand it. In the 21st century we don't think that way. Before I was discussing with Regis before. Regis is British, so he looks a bit askance at us Americans, a self-centered and so on. But that's who we are. No one is being nice or nefesh for Yiddishkeit unless it's bringing them personal fulfillment. I don't believe that, certainly not in America in the 21st century.

Speaker 2: 35:28

So I discuss the very audacious claim in this book that Judaism makes me feel free. 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. Am I going to see getting up in the morning for davening? Am I going to see the burden of child rearing? Am I going to see it as a burden or somehow be able to personalize that? This is bringing my vision, my personal dream of what I want in life greatest expression. I address issues like that in the book. 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? I believe the Haggadah is addressing that very issue of do we see children as a burden or do we embrace the?

Speaker 1: 36:25

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.

Speaker 2: 36:37

Is that something that you Well, I discuss that extensively in the book meaning I develop a very you know what. I will take your lead here. 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. 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?

Speaker 1: 37:05

Cruel slave masters. What is their notion of an authority figure?

Speaker 2: 37:07

Cruel slave master Right, someone on top of you who seeks to oppose himself.

Speaker 2: 37:11

Suddenly comes L'al Pesach and a father wants to listen to his son's question. Ki y'shal chabimcha manashtan. Would a slave master ever listen to his subject's question? Do what I say. He barks. The notion of listening to a question is anathema to a slave master. Why, as parents, do we listen to our children's questions? Shut your mouth and do what I say. Why do we listen to our children's questions? The answer is because, as a parent, I'm really not here to impose myself upon my child. It's really not about me. It's about them and nurturing their growth. I am an authority figure. They're not yet, because they need me to forge, to nurture in them good decision-making and an ashamah. So I am that authority figure, but I am that authority figure who's here for them. 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.

Speaker 1: 38:23

And that's what freedom, that's what is all about it's, so I wanted it's. 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. I I read the book and I was blown away by the how refreshed I was. It was refreshing, that was the first thing that I. 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. That's the first thing. It's refreshing, it's new. It's wait a second, a new door opened. I'm a pshat, yid. What does Rashi say? And that's what we go. The most pshat I have is if the Rambam differs a little bit. That's the extent of my pshatness. But this is beautiful and you really address in the book, just so the listeners should know.

Speaker 1: 39:23

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. You put it in a serious place in climbing the ladder towards Akadosh Baruch Hu. It's F, f and F family, faith and freedom. In conclusion, I really like to ask it's your, kiddush, this is your? You're championing the idea that people should of course they should read the book. 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. Is it for men? Is it for women? Just so we can conclude with this, so we have something that's a real practical takeaway.

Speaker 2: 40:25

Well, in terms of this mode of learning, I believe it's open to every jew on their level. There is a price of admission, however price the book no, the price of admission is amelos.

Speaker 2: 40:33

You need to give it your all deeper meanings. 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. There's a famous line from a great German poet, I believe it was Schiller. He said something to the effect you have a heritage from your father, own it. 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.

Speaker 2: 41:40

You need to personalize the Torah. 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. 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. So we have the most glorious heritage.

Speaker 1: 42:03

This makes meaning. It means own it. Own it, it's beautiful.

Speaker 2: 42:08

And the answers are different. Adar, a generation ago they had other mahalchim in Torah. This is Torah's chai.

Speaker 1: 42:13

It's new, it's refreshing, it can become addicting, it's fun, it's creative. 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. You get eternity, you can. You start to learn not only about different things, but you learn a little bit how to learn drash. 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. 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. It makes it meaningful and I'm sure the children, like you just spoke about, will also really enjoy it. So I thank you for your time.

Speaker 2: 43:01

Thank you, the pleasure was mine. May you welcome many other guests behind your golden EIB mic. It's not golden, but the content is golden. Here in a yeshiva office. May we all be zaycha to grow together in this journey, amen.