3 + 4 = FREEDOM

Dear Family,

Hope everyone is well.

Mazal Tov to Sarah on her engagement. What amazing news BH. Word gets around quicker these days on Facebook than it does by mouth! So we knew about it before Reuven could tell us. Wishing you all much happiness.

Mazal Tov to Shlomo on his upcoming birthday on second night Seder. Wishing you a wonderful year Shlomo.

For the past few weeks we have been very philosophical in discussing Emunah, but now we want to bring it down to practicality and see its link to MATZAH and Pesach (the matzah we eat on first night Pesach is called the Matzah of our Emunah)

I heard a very powerful shiur about this from Rabbi Wolf basically explaining a sicha from the Rebbe.

2 main points came out ie

1. What is the connection between Emunah, Matzah and Pesach
2. HOW WE CAN EACH ATTAIN FREEDOM FROM OUR OWN PERSONAL RESTRICTIONS THROUGH THE MESSAGE OF MATZAH AND WINE ON PESACH.

The lesson was intricate but I will try and summarise.

At Pesach Seder we have 3 Matzos and 4 Kos (cups) of Wine.

The 3 matzos are instructed direct from Torah, whereas the 4 kos are instructions from our Sages (which one would think is a lower level)

The 4 kos represent the 4 promises of Redemption mentioned in Torah.

One of the questions which therefore arises is why is our Redemption on Pesach represented by the 4 kos of wine (from the Sages) and not the 3 Matzas (instruction direct from Torah), on the night celebrating our Freedom from slavery??

The Rebbe explains as follows:

Of the 4 Expressions of Redemption, the first 3 (hotzeisi, hitzalti and gaalti) all occurred on the first night when we left Mitzraim 15th Nissan).

The 4th Expression (velakachti) only occurred 49 days later on Har Sinai, when Hashem took us to Himself as a People.

Therefore the MATZOS represent only the Redemption physically on the First night (15th Nissan) as represented by 3, where Hashem Himself intervened and took us out of Egypt.

That night Bnei Yisrael only wanted Hashem, with all their heart and mind.

However, even although the First night Redemption was highly dramatic and inspirational, and we were now physically out of Egypt, there was still 210 years of Egyptian culture engrained within us - we were still steeped in the impurity of their society, as was evident with the subsequent complainings of Am Yisrael in the desert. Also the Egyptians still pursued us again to the Red Sea, and even after they were drowned we were still deeply scarred by Egyptian culture.

After 15th Nissan there were 49 days where we now started using our own mind to internalise what had happened to us over the past 210 years, Hashems intervention to set us free, and to start purifying ourselves from the impurities we had suffered, and which was now clear to us through our soul searching (as represented by the 49 days of Sefira)

By Har Sinai we became cleansed of our deep emotional scars from Egypt (Gemorra Shabbos)

THE 4TH EXPRESSION OF REDEMPTION THEREFORE REFERS TO OUR HARD WORK OF REFINING AND LIBERATING OURSELF FROM OUR INNER PRISON - EGYPT WHEN WE REACHED HAR SINAI.

Practically for us, this means as follows:

Every year on Pesach our Neshamos will relive that flash of inspiration from the original 15th of Nissan. And we probably will not be very aware of this.

Thereafter we need to realise that this inspiration is short lived, and the only way we are going to set ourselves free from our own personal problems and inhibitions, is through our own hard work to identify our problem (which arise from our animal side) and then work hard with thoughtfulness and force to remove these barriers.

This will allow us to own our freedom and it will be internalised and permanent.

Ie 3 matzos (representing Hashems input on ourselves) + 4 kos of wine (our efforts thereafter) = Freedom

To show how this all adds up in such a beautiful way, I have attached additional explanations from the shiur.

Gut Shabbos to all, and a Pesach of inspiration plus hard work.