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Teachings
and Writings of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach
Shlomo
on Passover
House of Love and Prayer San Francisco,
5733
THE
FOUR CUPS
Why do we drink four cups of wine? G-d said to Moshe the four
words of redemption: Vehozaisi, I shall take you out; Veyitzalti,
I shall save you; VeGoalti, I shall redeem you; velakakhti,
I shall take you. According to my holy ancestor, the Maharal
(Rabbi Judah Loeb of Prague), and other mekubalim, holy mystics,
there is a fifth cup, viheveisi, I shall bring you to the
Holy Land. The first four cups are for the Exodus and Redemption
from Egypt, Babylon, Persia and Edom (Rome). The fifth cup
is for a redemption which has yet to come. But most people,
simple folks like us, only drink four cups.
In
this world wine makes us drunk, and us forget. When Messiah
comes there will also be wine, but le that will it us up to
the highest levels, because wine really could lift us up.
It is only because the world is so low that wine drags us
down more. If the world would be as it should be then every
drop of wine would lift us to the highest levels. Pesach night
is alittle bit like the world to come, so the four cups of
wine lift us to the highest joy in the world. Suddenly we
really understand that everything is right. When Mossiach
is coming there will be a new song, but in order to hear this
song you have to be drunk on a high level. Therefore, we really
only start singing after the third cup of wine, which is when
we say Hallel. By the third cup we are already drunk enough
to hear the song of the world to come. As much as all the
gates of Heaven are open th first part of the night, they
are not completely open. After the third cup door we open
the door for Elijah the prophet, because everything is open
then. Nothing is in the way anymore!
THE
FOUR SONS
Reb Zvi Elimelekh of Dinov (a grand nephew of Reb Elimelech
of Liszensk)'s custom was to visit someone's house on the
first night of Passover in order to see how he was making
the seder. So he stopped in front of one Yiddele's house and
Iistened to the Yiddele read from the Haggadah. He was chanting,
"In regards to four sons the Torah speaks: One who is
wise, one who is wicked,. ." and every time he would
readthe word "one" he would shout out in a loud
voice "O-N-E" as if he were saying the Sherna.
Afterward,
Reb Zvi Elimelech recounted his experience, saying that this
little Yiddele was making such a holy prayer from the "four
sons" - by the way he was saying "O- N - E-"
that Reb Zvi realized that even the wicked son knew the Oneness
of haShem.
MOROR
AND HAROSES
To make haroses you have to grind together a lot of apples,
figs, and nuts and put in a little bit of wine, and cinnamon.
This is to remind us of the mortar we put between the bricks
when we were slaves in Egypt. At the seder we take the moror,
the bitter herb, and dip it into the sweet haroses. Even in
your greatest pain G-d makes the pain wide enough for you
to go through. Meaning to say, even when G-d gave us all the
maror in the world, all the bitterness, there was always just
one little sweet spot.
MATZA
Reb Nachman talks about some thing called Noam Elyon, a kind
of holy sweetness which flows down from Heaven. This sweetness
is so whole, that if your mind isn't whole, and if your emotions
aren't whole then you can't taste it. You don't have the plate
in whch G-d can give you the taste of holy sweetness. Matza
is the simplest bread in the world, just flour and water.
No salt, no pepper. Reb Nachman says that on Yom Tov the Noam
Elyon flows from Heaven in simplicity. If you are not whole
you cannot receive it. The matza we eat gives over to us its
simplicity, wholeness. Matza tastes so good because it is
a piece of the sweetness of Noam Elyon.
What
makes us so perverted? We put so much work into our little
piece of bread. What do people do for the few rubles they
make? They put their whole heart and soul into it, and each
time they do, they become more and more slaves. The matza
we eat on Pesach doesn't take much time to make. We put the
least amount of time into our food, and the rest of the time
we have is for doing great things, to be free.
When
you eat the matza you really have to be with it, you can't
talk or joke. The piece has to be really big, and you sit
and mamash eat matza. Once a year there is a mitzvah to eat,
we are commanded to eat matza. Okay. It is also a mitzvah
to eat on Shabbos, but it is not on the same level. On Shabbos
we have to be happy, oneg Shabbos, so we make ourselves happy
by eating. On Seder night we fulfill the biggest mitzvah in
the world when we are eating matza. The holy Sanzer would
sit after the seder, and put his hands on his stomach, and
say "Ay! Tonight my stomach did so many mitzvos!"
The
afikomen, the last piece of matza is realty not from this
world. We put it away, we hide it, and then we eat it. It
is coming from a completely hidden world. When we eat the
aftkomen all our prayers are answered in that moment.
On
Pesach we celebrate freedom, which means that G-d in Heaven
opens the gates of freedom. This world is just a vessel for
higher worlds, so something is happening in Heaven on Pesach
night, and actually the whole month of Nisan, the month of
freedom. We see all of nature becoming free. All the little
seeds who were sitting under the earth and crying are now
coming out, becoming free. Everything begins to grow.
There
is a voice in the universe which says, "Let there be
man", and there is another voice which says, "Let
there not be man". These two voices struggle inside every
person. The voice which says, "Let there not be man"
wants to destroy man, says that he is worthless, he's no good.
What we don't know is that we don't really hate man - we try
to hold back life itself when we say "He'sno good".
It is the voice inside us which doesn't want man to be. The
Ishbitzer says this is why winter comes to the world.
The
voicewhich wants to stop life becomes too strong for a time.
Then the voice which says "Let there be man" becomes
strong again, and we have springtime, Pesach.
Why
do we have to eat every day, over and over agan? Naturedoesn't
really trust , because she knows that we have something insideourselves
which wants to destroy life. So nature gives its life - an
apple,or some grain we can make into bread, but only enough
for a few hoursor a few days, because the earth doesn't completely
trust man to listento the voice which does say "Let there
be man".
On
Pesach we celebrate the power of giving life. The Zohar callsmatza
"nahama dmehemenusa", bread of faith. It is the
fruit of the Tree ofLife, before Adam sinned. One fruit is
enough to give you life completelyso you don't have to eat
over and over again. If man would only really
have
faith, one piece of rnatza would be enough to last him for
his whole life.
This
is also why the last meal on the last day of Pesach iscalled
Messiach 's seuda, the feast of the Messiach. When the Mossiach
comesone piece of matza will again be enough to give life
to a person, because the earth will be able to trust man agan.
ELIJAH'S
CUP SHAFOKH HAMOSKHA -- POUR OUT THY WRATH
The Baal Shem Tov says that before Moshiach comes everythng
will become more clean. The word for "man" in Hebrew
is "adam" -- alef, dalet, mem. Now "mo'od"
in
Hebrew -- mem, alef, dalet means "very". Everything
that comes from the same letters comes from the same root.
So before Moshiach comes, a good man will be very good and
an evil man will become very evil.
When
we open the door for Elijah the Prophet during the second
part of the sederwe say words which sound horrible. First
we say holy words of love and peace, and then we say, "Pour
out your anger at the world." The world needs a little
cleaning out. We are begging G-d, "Would you please do
the cleaning?"
When
we open the door for Elijah, who will come to announce the
Meshiah, we are on the level of saying we don't want to do
the cleaning. There are a lot of people who are so eager in
fighting evil, it's the greatest thing in their lives. At
the seder we say to "If there has to be some wiping of
evil, please, You do it."
Copyright
© by the Shlomo Carlebach Foundation
Teachings
and Writings of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach
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