SHABBAT HAGADOL 5785

Half a Matzah

Making Pesach can be so costly. And since tonight is the 1^st Seder, I’d like to speak about an interesting Seder custom that doesn’t cost any money but does give us a great insight to life. One of the 1^st things we do at the Seder—even before we begin the Haggadah and even before the Ma Nishtanah—is Yachatz. We break the middle of the 3 matzahs on the Seder plate. The larger part is put away for the Afikoman (to keep the attention of the children) and the smaller part remains between the 2 whole matzahs throughout most of the Seder—until we eat.  

This broken matzah is true lechem oni—the bread of affliction. Not only is this matzah, plain, pure flour and water with no flavoring whatsoever—just a flat, tasteless wafer—but on top of that, it’s now broken as well. Bad enough the Jewish slaves were forced to eat a matzah, but now we’re eating broken matzah! As Rabbi Shlomo Riskin points out, since we brake the matzah before we begin to recite the Haggadah, we wind up reciting most of the Haggadah over ½ a matzah!

The point is, aren’t our lives like that?! One can live most of one’s life over ½ a matzah. There’s always something eluding us. For some it may be health, or wealth, or nachas from our kids, or just general happiness. Somehow, as much as we achieve in life, there is always something that remains elusive—that somehow keeps slipping out of our grasp. It’s so true … our whole life is but ½ a matzah!

Our Sages (Kohelet Rabba 1:32-4) taught, Eyn adam meyt v’chatzi taavoto b’yado (No person dies having achieved even ½ of his ambitions and desires). Really? You may ask. Aren’t there the few super-successful people out there who have everything?

               Of course. But as soon as they achieve one ambition, they broaden their horizons with another. It could be in finance, politics, sports, art, our personal hobbies … with each success our ambitions grow.

               Bill Gates is one of the world’s richest men—rich enough to provide for his great, great, great grandchildren and their great grandchildren as well! So he needed a new challenge. Now he works to eradicate poverty in Africa and Asia. 

The Sages (ibid.) put it very simply: Mi Sheyesh lo mana rotzeh matayim (If a man has $100 he wants $200). And if he gets $200, he then wants $400. Take the Lottery. When we fantasizing about winning, we’re prepared to give a big percentage of our winnings away to the shul, to family and friends. But, Gd willing you do win, suddenly it’s not that easy to part with.

You know the old story of the guy who won the lottery. His wife—who had checked the tickets after the drawing knew he had won. She was worried how to break the news to him because of his heart condition. So she went to the Rabbi and asked him to tell her husband. She warned him to be very gentle—to talk about the weather and sports, and then gradually to the lottery.

               So, the Rabbi talked to him about sports, about the weather. And then he said: “Tell me, Jake, I hear that you play the lottery? Is that true?”

               “Yep, every single week,” said the Jake.

               “Tell me, Jake, what would you do if you won $50 million dollars?”

               “Well, I’d give it all to the shul,” said Jake.

               And the Rabbi had a heart attack!

I want you to know that my cardiologist has informed me that my heart is fully recovered from my heart attack and can now withstand such a shock!

It’s easy to be generous when you don’t have it. But when you do, it’s not so easy. The truth is that we go through life with only ½ a matzah. While some of our dreams and aspirations do materialize to one extent or another, there’s always something that remains elusive. But just because we can’t have it all, should we stop trying?  

The Kotzker Rebbe asked his students: “What’s the enemy of Good [not the opposite, but the enemy]?” One said, “The enemy of Good is Bad.” Another suggested Evil must be the enemy of Good. But the Rebbe said, “No, the enemy of Good is Excellence.”

               How could excellence is the enemy of Good? He explained. Many strive for excellence, but because they couldn’t achieve it, they stopped trying altogether.

How many of us never achieved complete success because “conditions weren’t suitable.” Or, “I’m a perfectionist so, if I can’t do it right, I’d rather not do it at all.” So what happens? Nothing. While we wait for the perfect opportunity, every other opportunity passes us by—and we’re left with nothing. “All or Nothing” isn’t very practical. 

Tonight’s Seder reminds us that if the whole Haggada can be recited over a broken matzah, then there’s nothing wrong with ½ a matzah! One guy says to me, “Rabbi, I’m never going to become fully Shomer Shabbat, so why should I bother making Kiddush and having a Shabbat dinner?” Or, “Rabbi, I should come to your Torah classes? Me? I’ll never amount to any kind of Torah scholar? Never in a million years! It’s a waste of time to even try.”

All studies now show that fewer and fewer young people are getting married. So many singles are still looking for Mr. Right or Miss Perfect. I’m not saying people should settle for mediocrity, but we have to be realistic. In my 20’s I remember bachelors waiting to find a Marilyn Monroe with brains. Let me tell you, they’re still bachelors!

A few years ago I went to visit a colleague who was ill. We got to talking about his son who was approaching 40 and still single. I asked him, “So what’s he looking for?” He laughed. I asked, “Why are you laughing?’

               “You don’t know my son. My son wants everything in a wife. She should be beautiful, a successful professional and religious. You know what he’s looking for? He’s looking for Pamela Anderson with a Shaytel! 

We can spend a lifetime waiting to excel and acquire the best of everything. In the end it never happens. If “½ a loaf is better than no loaf,” than ½ a matzah is better than no matzah! Yes, says the Kotzker, the greatest enemy of good is not evil but the unrealistic demand for excellence or nothing.

So, my friends, take the ½ a matzah that life hands you. It doesn’t have to be the end. It can be a beginning. Say Kiddush on Friday nights. Put on Tefillin every morning. Even if you won’t become a Rabbi, come and learn Torah. Do the deal—even if it isn’t the mother of all deals. What Gd gives you in your life is usually what you need. So get married! Even if she isn’t the fulfillment of your every fantasy, she just might be really perfect for you. Amen!

PESACH 1^st DAY 5785

The Jew and the Egg … It’s Worth the Price

Did you have any unusual foods at your Seder aside from the usual Seder foods? In the past few years, I often found myself talking about foods that we now can eat on Pesach that our forefathers never could have imagined like: Kosher l’Pesach pizza … that I can understand. I assumed it was to celebrate the exodus of the Jews from Sicily. I’ve heard of caterers making Kosher l’Pesach sushi with quinoa instead of rice. We live in the age of Kosher l’Pesach Crispy O’s, Frosty Flakes, griddle cakes, potato chips, Bazooka bubblegum and pina colada macaroons! What a country!

But this year I can’t help but focus on one food for Pesach that we’ve always had available—a food that in some ways has always been available since the dawn of creation. And yet, this year everyone’s talking about it because it’s so expensive. Of course I’m talking about eggs!

Can you believe that America is now importing eggs from Turkey and South Korea? It’s because eggs are so expensive and hard to get. In Atlanta a dozen eggs can be about $5 and in California as much as $11! But we must have them for the Seder. An Egg is on the Seder plate, and we eat eggs in salt water right before dinner without any pomp and circumstances. Why do we eat an egg?

All sorts of explanations are given. The most basic one is mentioned in the Mishna—almost 2,000 years ago. In addition to the Korbon Pesach—the pascal lamb offering that was brought for Pesach—there was an offering called the Korbon Chagigah—the festival sacrifice. The shank bone symbolizes the Pascal lamb, the egg, the festival sacrifice.

Over the generations, other explanations have been added. Some say the egg and shank bone correspond to Gd’s 2 messengers—Moses and Aaron. Others say the word “egg” in Aramaic is called beya, which also means “pray” or “please” … so an egg is a form of prayer.

Still others point out the egg is traditional food for mourning because of its rounded shape which can then symbolize the cycle of life—and expressing our mourning over the devastation of the Holy Temple. A symbol of mourning the Temple is appropriate since the night of the 1^st Seder always falls on the same night of the week as Tisha B’av—the day of mourning for Holy Temples.

Nevertheless, I believe that a case can be made that this year when we look at the egg at our Seders there’s something unique about it that’s so relevant today. Aside from its taste, what makes an egg unique? What makes it different from a potato or pasta or most other foods? Just this: you boil a potato or pasta and it becomes soft. But the longer you boil an egg the harder it becomes!

Since October 7^th 2023, the people of Israel have shown the world that all your assaults, all your protests, all your resolutions, all your boycotts, and all your rockets will not soften us. Rabbi Doron Perez, the head of World Mizrachi, reminds us that the former leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, famously wrote his spider web theory: Israel looks like a strong society, just like a spiderweb looks strong with all of its intricate webs. But it’s not strong at all … a spiderweb is transient and with one swish of the hand you can destroy it. And so, the people of Israel, they look strong, but are divided from within and weak.

Was Nasrallah wrong? Of course! We are not like the spiderweb. The people of Israel are like an egg—the hotter things get, the stronger and harder to defeat she becomes. Look at what Israel has gone through. As someone put it: Israel is the only country in the world whose citizens can be subjected to daily attacks from hostile forces who live right next to you. You think it’s normal to drive a car and consider that someone might shoot you, stone you or toss a Molotov cocktail in your way? Is it normal to stand on a street corner and wonder if a vehicle will ram you? Is it normal to walk on the sidewalk and speculate whether someone will stab you? Is it normal to sit in a cafe or on a bus and contemplate whether someone has placed a bomb there? And is it normal to be the recipients of enemy rockets and missiles on a regular basis?

There are no words to fully describe what Israel has been through since Oct. 7^th. I don’t know how they do it. One day you can be working in an office and the next day you’re in a uniform in Gaza! One day your father sleeps at home, the next day he’s gone and you’re not sure if or when he’s coming back! One day all is normal, the next day it’s your grandmother who’s taking care of you because your parents have been called up. Can you imagine living like this? Remarkable!

In Israel, this generation, Generation Z, has often been criticized for being superficial, shallow, misinformed, and social media obsessed. In Israel people doubted they had the same warrior spirit of Israel’s founders and builders. After Oct. 7^th we learned they were wrong. Israel’s young soldiers have proven willing and able to fight a tough war … and have shown that they are true heroes that we can count on to protect us. This is a generation that lost friends, evacuated the wounded, paid shiva calls, but never lost hope, and pressed on.

And you know what else? They kept having babies! While the birth rate is down in most every civilized country, Israel is the only developed country with a growing population. Unbelievable! They’re bringing more Jewish children into this crazy mixed-up world. How do you explain that?

Or try this: last year 30,000 new immigrants moved to Israel—this while a war is raging! And if that’s not enough, you know what else? In last month’s Gallup World Happiness Report, despite a 1½ years of war, Israel was ranked as the world’s 8^th happiest country. What a country! What a people!

We no longer go to our slaughter like sheep. We now roar back like the lion of Judah. We must think about all this at the Seder. And if you need a reminder, just look at the egg. The hotter it gets the harder it gets. Hashem oz l’amo yiteyn, Hashem y’varech et amo bashalom, “Hashem has given strength to his people, may He now bless us with peace,” with the return of our hostages, and with a truly joyous Pesach. Amen!