Why Must We Begin the Story of the Haggadah with Us at Our Lowest? (Pesach)

In this first of two episodes on the Pesach Haggadah we are going to discuss the concept of matchil b'genut u'mesayeim b'shevach, that the Haggadah starts with us at our lowest. Why does story of the Haggadah have to begin this way? Why is this the state we need to be in at the time of the Exodus? And what does that tell us about when we are at our own personal lowest? We'll get into all of that and much more in this episode!  

If you want to follow along in the text, it is Nesiovs Shalom Chelek Bet page reish nun bet (252). You can find a pdf of the piece here.

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Anonymously in the zechus of Emunah Sara bas Binyamin Shmuel, and to Rav Charnoff for giving over amazing Torah and helping people stay connected to Hashem. 

Anonymously in honor of a refuah sheleimah for Binyamin Baer ben Channah and a shidduch for Yakira bas Aviva. 

Thank you so much to our sponsors! If you would like to sponsor an episode of the podcast, please email Rabbi Charnoff at rabbicharnoff@gmail.com.

Transcript

Rabbi Charnoff: 0:05

Hello everyone. This is Rabbi Robbie Chernoff, and you are listening to the Hasidist for Life podcast, the podcast where we learn a deep Hasidic insight every single week and explore how it can lead us to a more meaningful, vibrant, and spiritually uplifted life. This week we are going to have not one but two episodes on the haha. In the first episode, we are going to discuss the concept of Mat Miss Sa V, that the Hara starts out by describing how low we are. Ends up with us at our heights. Why does the haah have to start with us in a disparaging place? Why is that the state that we need to be in at Yit and what does that tell us about when we are at our own personal lowest? We'll get into all that and so much more in this episode. If you wanna follow along inside, you can open up an to Paige and the Peace entitled, or simply go to the show notes for a link to A PDF. Feel free to just sit back, listen, and enjoy the ride most people do. These episodes on the hagada are sponsored by the following Anonymously in and tour Ofoff for giving over amazing Torah and helping people stay connected to Hashem and anonymously in honor of a Fuma for Bin Ben and Ash for Yakira. Aviva, thank you so much to our sponsors. With it being er Pesach, these episodes literally would not have been produced without your support. Remember, your sponsorships are what make this podcast happen. If you would like to sponsor an episode of the podcast, please email rabbi chernoff@gmail.com or see the show notes for more details. Alright, with that, let's jump into the navo Shalom on the Hagada. We are, we are on page on the ha We are on the first piece Mat, miss Ada starts in a way of. Expressing our lowness and then ends with, us being praised The gamara says, my GaN. What is the negative place that we start from in Haha. Av. Aar So says. That we started out as vo serving idolatry. Our forefathers were serving idolatry. Now, ha has brought us to serve him. We went from a vora to voes that's starting in a place of negativity and ending in a praiseworthy place. Schmuel says, no, Amar ra, that the negativity and the difficult place that we start in is that we were slaves in Egypt. So what's the reason why there's a desire for the haha to start in a place of disparaging us that we're in a lowly place? Why not just start immediately from us being in a good place that now has brought us close to servant? And also in the alternative option, starting in a place of negativity and a lowly place for us, is that we were slaves. Why is that disparaging to us? Why were we in retirement in the first place? Did we sin? No. We know that we didn't sin because Avra Nu was told. Your children will be strangers in AEs Strange land, meaning it was predestined that we were going to be slaves in Egypt. So how is our being enslaved by Egypt in any way disparaging to us? It was all part of God's plan. It was always going to happen. He says that the main goal of si, the main goal of telling over the story of the exodus. Is not about the signs and the wonders and the miracles BHU did for us. It's that he chose us at RA to be his people. And therefore he says that's why mat, that's why we're starting in a place where it's disparaging to us. He chose us to be his people. That's what we're emphasizing. We start in a place of loneliness to show that a Q who chose us in a place of loneliness. That's why it starts where we're in a disparaging place who chose us. It's not because we deserved to be chosen. He chose us because he loves us, he wanted us, he chose us beyond all reasons. There's no reason why you want something at its core. But if we would've become the chosen people when we deserve to be, when we were in a place of great heights in var, then it would've been an aspect of a love that's dependent on something else. Shabbat dvar, we're in such a case. If the reason goes away, then the love goes away and that love isn't eternal anymore. But if who chooses us at a time when we're in a disparaging place. We're at our lowliest point, then the fact that he chose us, that means that it's eternal. It's a very deep concept, deep that Al goes out of his way, and he specifically chooses to go through with making us as people when we are at our lowliest points. When we're in, we go down to the 49th level of spiritual impurity. We're on the lowest level of spiritual impurity that we can possibly be. Why would a Q bur who choose us then? That's what he's talking about here. Why then? So there's no way that we can say, oh, well, LA chose us because, because we served him Because we're such a special people, because we're so spiritual, because we're so lofty. Akko intentionally waits for a moment when there is no reason. So that way the genesis of who we are as a people is God chose us because he chose us because there's no reason and because there's no reason. It shows that Aakash burro whose love for us is eternal. It's not dependent on anything. And so what he's expressing here is, is this concept in the haha Haah starts in a place where we're in a disparaging place, in a negative place. We're in a lowly place. Why does the Hagada go out of its way? What is the, there's two opinions in the gamara as to what even that loneliness is, that there's such an emphasis that we have to start the HA in a lowly place. Why? Because we can only appreciate the tremendous outpouring of love from Akash Bjo that's coming out on Pesach. If we understand that we were not deserving of it, the only reason God chose us is because he loves us, and therefore, we're gonna have tremendous heights in our history where we are in fact deserving of that love. And we're gonna have tremendous lows in history. But even in those lows, it doesn't matter. KO will always love us. He's always there for us. It's part of the revelation of the light of Seder Knight and the light of Pesa. De k Bur who cares about us. He loves us. He's connected to us, and he always will be because when he chose us, it wasn't dependent upon anything. and that applies to us also, meaning every single one of us, a Kash Bku, is choosing us each individual, as part of that nation because he loves us. And that means that even if I am at my lowliest place, even if I fall, even if I make mistakes, and let's say ne. Even if I fall to the 49th level of spiritual impurity, I could think so what? KA sparkle is gonna give up on me. Why would a ka sparkle want me? It don't have anything to do with me at this point. after how far I fall after the sins I committed after the tah that I brought on myself. Why would I Sparkle wanted to do with me. He's got 600,000 other Jews to choose from. I'm out. It's done. My relationship with cottage burg was over. It means that no matter what I do, Akash Bar who says, no, I chose you because I chose you because I love you. That goes for us nationally, and that goes for each person individually, and therefore there is never anything a Jew can do to be totally thrown off for a Q. Does that Jew need to then do Chuva? Of course. is it possible that it's gonna be a long road back to repairing that relationship in a deep way with the K? Yes. But is that relationship still there? A hundred percent. Because at the moment of our birth as a nation, God says, I'm choosing you when you're at your lowest. To show you, You bottomed out. I chose you when you were bottomed out. And even then I chose you because I loved you. I once heard Rev Mosha Weinberger sleep to talk about this. He says that if a person can go and you ask them. Why do you love your wife? And you were to go and say, I'll tell you why. And he pulls out a whiteboard and he starts to make a very complicated list. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. He is got it all figured out, all mapped out each one, why it's in that number where it is. And he can tell you all the reasons why he loves his wife. It's beautiful. He clearly understands her inside out. He understands the age of the relationship. He says, that's not a marriage, that's not love. If you can put 10 reasons on a board as to why you love your spouse, that means that you love your spouse because of those things. And if those things go away, then the love and the marriage goes away. The connection goes away, right? If a person says, I love her because. She looks a certain way and because she makes certain type of food and because of how she interacts with other people and because of how she makes me feel at this time and how she and, and I got this whole list of things as to why I love this person. If you can list them out, then they can go away. If they can go away, that's not real love. That's a love that is dependent upon something else. It's a love that's selfish. What it's really saying is, I love you because of these things that you do for me. I really care about me. You ask a person who's in love with somebody else, why do you love that person? The answer is, I, I love them because I love them. I can't, I don't know. I can't give words to that. What do you want from me? I love them because, and A who says, I'm specifically picking you your lowest because I love you. Because he's saying to every single one of us individually for all time. I choose you no matter where you are in life, no matter what's going on with you Because, but I did. Doesn't matter. But what about doesn't matter. No, but after doesn't matter. I chose you because I love you. So it's a beauty of the ha gha that as we're being born as a people and individuals in that nation, that we're starting in a place of loneliness. Let's go to this paragraph. Um, so what's the nature of disparagingly? Say that we were slaves in Egypt. Again, like we said, we were always destined to be slaves in Egypt. That wasn't their fault, was only. They would serve them and that Egypt would oppress them. So he says here very deeply, what was theara of the Jewish people? That we would go down to Mitra and there we would serve another nation. But the intent was that we would serve them. Not that our very essence would be to turn into servants. We became dependent on Egypt. we allowed ourselves to become subjugated on every level of being to Egypt. the words that he uses here are. we were transformed into slaves. Not just that we served them, we were transformed into slaves. Totally subjugated to them. Like describe as that it's like a child in the mother's womb that a fetus has no reality of its own, is completely dependent upon and connected to the mother. And that's hinting to the fact, like we already talked about, that they were on the 49th level of tma. They were totally linked into the tma, the impurity of Mitra. It's not just that we were enslaved there. We became IMP purified by Egypt. We became connected to Egypt because we were slaves that were subjugated to Egypt. we're being promised that when we come out of Egypt, never again for the rest of our history, will we ever become enslaved in the same way. Can we be subjugated by other nations? Yes, we be ruled by foreign rulers in foreign lands, a hundred percent. We will never be linked in, in our essence to the nature of the host nation that we're in for the rest of time. We can be under Rome, but we don't become Roman. We can be under Greece. Some people did actually become more Greek, but we don't become Greece. We never become on an innate level, so linked into the nation that we're being subjugated by. And even though they may do tremendously horrible things to us as they have done in our history, we're not subject to them in our essence. we could be dominated in World War II by the Nazis. We could be on the brink of being lost as a people in a nation. We could be taken off to concentration camps, but people walk into the gas chamber saying, Shama Israel. You can put me as a slave, but you can't break my spirit. You can't break my ach. You can't make me UBA to you anymore. That doesn't exist. Even if we're being slaughtered, even if we're being subjugated to that level, you can't break us in the same way Again, that's never going to happen against the Ka. And through that we can answer the question that the commentators ask asks. So the commentators ask, we not taken us out of Egypt. We and our children and our children's children, we would still be enslaved to Egypt. So they asked top of the next column Ma showed, what did we gain from the fact that our forefathers were taken out of Egypt? Ro, who cares if we're slaves to Paro or we're slaves somewhere in Europe, if we're subjecting into another nation, who cares what nation it is? we just swapped out one for another for most of our history. Why does it matter? Some other nation like Persia, Madea, Greece, a Rome, but with any other nation, we were not subjugated in that way. Connected on an essential level, on a deep level like we were in meat dry. And based on what we've said, we can also understand why HA calls my firstborn child while they were still on the forma in Egypt. Gonna call us. You're my firstborn child. You're so special. Again, the emphasis being on, you're my child, you're connected to me, you're so special to me. Why not say that to us? After we leave Egypt and after we've cleansed ourselves and we get to Matan Torah and we're on the highest of the heights, then say, Bon Israel. Call us your firstborn trial. Then why are you calling us that when we're in the for try? Like we've been saying, would've waited till it was proper for him to call us. That till we purified ourselves, he raised ourselves up. That would've been a love that's dependent upon. Something else should be Tell Ava, but where the thing goes away, then love goes away. So it's only when. It would turn out from this that it would seem like only when we do a Q'S will that only when we're doing Q'S will then we deserve to be called his special chosen child. But then if we don't do his rat, then they lose that status. In Cain, that's why calls us his precious child, his firstborn child, specifically when we're our lowest place to reveal, to show us that his love for us is not dependent on anything. The will never be overturned. No matter what situation we're in, nationally or personally, were called his special child, his firstborn child, his chosen people, whether we're doing K per, we're not doing K per, we're called this children. It's emphasizing the fact that, again, in the Haga, we read the words this year. We start in a place of disparagement where the haah specifically goes out of its way to say, we were vo dara and we were slaves all the way to our essence. Why start there? That's part of the beauty of the journey. It defines the fact that Haak Bo, who loves us always nationally, we are always people. He will never switch us out. And there have been nations over the course of history that have tried to claim, no, you're no, no, no. Who chose you? And then he switched to us. No, there's no such thing. You will always be my people. There is nothing you can do to make me stop loving you. And for every single one of us, there's nothing that I can do to make Kash who stopped loving me. He could get angry at me, he could get furious at me. We could have serious issues to work out. All that could be true, but he's never, ever, ever gonna break that love because he picked us at our lowest to show. I love you because I love you. That's the only reason why. Bless us to be able to see, to understand, to internalize. The tremendous love that comes outta pe is a, holiday that's completely, completely. It's all giving. It's all love. We didn't do anything to deserve It. Comes down on his own. He comes down by himself. I'm taking you out. There's no messenger here. There's no messenger of I'm showing you that I love you through a messenger. That's not, that's not good. That's not how you show love. I sent you a text. I sent you a voice note. No, I sat down. I talked to you. I was there for you. I was with you. Who's with us on Seder night? I didn't prepare enough. I've done so many sins this year. I don't learn so much on the haha. I didn't prepare so much for peoc. I helped out in my family to clean up a little bit here. I helped out in the house to clean up a little bit there. I don't feel like I'm so connected. It's okay. We can do better, but it's okay. And KU says, I love you because I love you. That's the whole point of the Sader night. I love you because I love you. Bless us to feel nationally at KACO's love, no matter what state we're in and to personally feel that love. And in the moments when we feel that darkness and despair and we feel like we're in that place of Nu to remember, yeah, I'm in a place of Nu, I'm in a place of negativity. Still loves me and therefore I can get back to Thank you so much for tuning into this week's episode. If you enjoyed the episode, please rate the podcast and hit the follow button and join us every week for a new episode. Once again, thank you so much to our sponsors, And a reminder that you too. Yes, you can sponsor an episode of the podcast email rabbi chernoff@gmail.com for more info or to share any thoughts, comments, or feedback on this week's episode. See you in the next one. I.