According to our holy rabbis it is the time when babies wake up and want to be nursed, the time when husband and wife wake up and want to be so close to each other. It is the time when the light of the Messiah is shining. It is a time when everyone dreams that today is the day of their redemption. Anybody who has ever been up all night has tasted the awesome depth and sweetness of davening at dawn. Have you ever prayed by the Holy Wall at dawn?

So Purim in the beginning of our redemption. We’re waking up and being drunk with the joy of being Jewish. Dawn is still too dark; we don’t really see each other. We only see with the eyes of our soul and my soul sees only G-d. On Purim I send out gifts but not face to face, This is how I let you know I see you with the eyes of my soul. That is why I love you so much.

Then, for thirty days we prepare ourselves. The way I prepare myself is by realizing that I don’t have vessels for redemption, What I must do is get rid of the old dirty vessels.

We are living in a crazy world, Everything is out of proportion, everything is inflated. The matzoh is just water and flour, the way it really is. Chometz is being blown up beyond proportion. On Pesach we change our dishes, everything is new. New light for new vessels. We realize we were only slaves because we did not receive G-d’s light with the right vessels. This is also true between other people and ourselves. On Pesach we have new vessels for each other’s love. The awakening is on Purim. But Purim is just one day, one minute. Light beyond vessels. Drunk. On Pesach I have new vessels.

Is there anything greater than the love of children for their parents or parents for their children? Is there anything sweeter than the questions of children? Seder night begins with children asking us the deepest questions. And we don’t really answer them, we just make the questions deeper; we are just telling children that we have the same questions all our lives.

The most terrible thing is that we keep pretending to our children that we do know the answers. On Seder night we admit we don’t know. But when Elijah the Prophet comes he will answer all the questions, no, he will not answer all the questions, but suddenly, in his presence, the questions will disappear.

We have no vessels to feel the pain of homeless people. That is why we are afraid to let them into our house. There is no peace in the world because we don’t have vessels for it. Yet on Pesach, the night of redemption, I have vessels for the homeless and I invite them to my house. On Seder night, hopefully, I have vessels to be one with my children. Let it be this year that we will have vessels to be one with the world.

There, is a matzoh of this world and there is a matzoh from heaven. The matzoh we eat at the beginning of the seder is matzoh from this world, matzoh of the earth. But at the end of the seder, when our children bring us a piece of matzoh, this is the matzoh from heaven. The matzoh which reaches so deep in us and makes us all into vessels to receive the light of Elijah, the light of redemption.

Some of us don’t even have vessels for our own souls. Do you know why we eat blown up bread? Why our lives are so blown up? It is because we cannot the sadness of the poverty of the bread in our lives. So we need to blow it up.

Our children steal the matzoh from us and bring it back to us later on. They am telling us, gevalt, are you holy. Parents, do you know what you could be to your children? Each time we console our children, when we take care of them, we become their Elijah the Prophet. Each time we kiss our children we are bringing the world closer to the Messiah. Seder night we are giving over our Yiddishkeit to our children. Please be so careful to give over the best to our children. We so often don’t teach our children because our Yiddishkeit has become blown up. So many people don’t believe in Israel anymore because they found the blown up Israel. On Seder night we give over Yiddishkeit the way it really is. On Seder night we fix our poor children who are turned off by blown up Yiddishkeit. What a night, what a night of all nights!

I wish you, brothers and sisters, the most glorious, divine seder.

Reprinted from Kehilat Jacob News New York, 5752

Let me tell you one more story right now. The heilege (holy) Zeditchover had so many grandchildren. But, one particular year, he said, “My grandson Bereshel should ask Mah Nishtana.” Bereshel was then five years old; later on he became Rav Bereshel of Donina, a very great Rabbi. Comes time for Mah Nishtana and Bereshel isn’t there. They started looking for him high and low. He’s not there. Here, I interrupt myself with another story about Bereshel.

Bereshel was the favorite of his grandfather, because in that year one of the other grandchildren got very sick. Very, very sick. The mother of the child was begging the Zeditshuver to please pray for him. Nothing happened. One night, the boy’s condition worsened. It seemed he was going to leave the world. The Zeditshuver, from 12:30 A.M. until three in the morning, did not want to be disturbed. He was writing his commentaries on the Zohar and did not want to be disturbed. But, someone had to tell him. They decided to wake up Bereshel and he will tell the zaide. Bereshel was five years old. They tell him, tell zaide that if he doesn’t pray now, it will be too late.

Bereshel walks up to the higher floor, to his grandfather. He knocks on the door. His grandfather asks, “Who’s there?” “Bereshel.” “Why aren’t you asleep?” Bereshel said, “Zaide, I came to bring you the most unbelievable good news. I want you to know that Moishele is getting better every second. But, zaide, please pray for him. Please, zaide, pray for him.”

The holy Zeditshuver prayed for him. He got well. The Zeditshuver called in all his children and grandchildren. He said, “Do you know why I couldn’t pray for Moishele the whole time? Because the way you asked me to pray for him was with so much sadness, so much brokenness. I felt so broken. I douldn’t pray. But, you know who is a Rebbe? Bereshel. Did you hear how he asked me to pray? He said, ‘I bring you good news, Moishele is getting better, but I want you to pray.’ Didn’t I understand what was going on? When Bereshel is sent up in the middle of the night to tell me. But, the way he said it, with so much hope. I want you to know, Bereshel is a Rebbe.” And, the truth is, Bereshel really became the successor of his grandfather later on.

Back to Seder night. Everyone is looking for Bereshel and, suddenly, he comes in. Water is running down from his payos (sidecurls). He just came from the mikva. Before asking his grandfather Mah Nishtana, he wanted to go to the mikva. His mother yelled at him, “What chutzpahl” But his grandfather said, “Let him alone. Bereshel is a Rebbe.”

This is a Torah from Rav Nachman. Sometimes our children ask us, and we can take our time in answering. Sometimes if we take our time, we will lose them. Rav Nachman says, if our children ask us, is there one G-d and we say, let’s talk it over – we’ve lost them. If they ask for advice, what should they do, what career they should have, we can say, let’s talk about it. If they ask, are you a Jew, if you have to think about it, that’s not good. He said, Seder night is when our children ask, is there one G-d? And, our answer has to be right away. Don’t take any time.

I remember once reading a book written by one of the outstanding Jewish leaders of the other religions. This outstanding leader writes in the forward to his book that when he was a little boy he once asked a rabbi if there is one G-d. The rabbi said, let’s discuss it. Come to my house and we’ll discuss it. He quoted from here, he quoted from there. The boy said, I’m just asking one question, is there one G-d or not? He couldn’t get an answer out of him. The next week, he met a swami and asked him, is there one G-d? The swami said, yes, there is.

Seder night is when I tell my children, there is one G-d. There is one Torah. There is Eretz Yisroel. I have no time. It has to be fast.

When somebody is drowning, imagine if I would say, let me call a Rabbi and ask if I should save this person, because I heard that last year this person ate ham on Yom Kippur. I call one rabbi, the line is busy, so I call somebody else. All these things are cute. In the meantime, the person is drowning.

You know the problem with us Yidden, you know why Mashiach didn’t come yet? Because we waited, wegaited so long. How did Moshe Rabbenu get us out of Egypt? Right now is the time – “Bachatzot halayla” in the middle of the night – right now, don’t think. This is “mochin megadlus” a high mind. It is not, not, thinking. It is clearer than thinking. It is clear to me. It is on such a high consciousness level, a deep level.

When I see somebody drowning, where do they grasp me? Do they reach for my head? They reach for somewhere else; they have to touch the deepest depths of my understanding, that triggers something so holy.

So, Seder night, everything is fast, but it’s so clear, and it’s so good. “This I do not say other than when matza and maror are placed in front of me.” Everything is clear. I can tell my child this ismatza, this is maror, I am a Jew, there is one G-d.

You know friends, we are living in a world where the devil would like so much to take advantage of the great moments which we have. Seder night, every Jew wants to have a Seder. So, what does the devil do – brings chicken soup, and kneidlach. Sometimes I ask people, how was the Seder? They say, Oh, the food was unbelievable. When you ask about the Seder, they are not thinking about the Hgggadah, they are thinking about the food.

I was in India three years ago. I asked one boy, he was a yogi who didn’t want to come back. I asked him what he knew about Yiddishkeit. He said, “Once a year my family got together for a Seder. The spokesman of the Seder was my uncle who told over all the dirty jokes he heard all year. One night, I got up and said, I don’t think this is what the Seder is all about. My uncle said to me, ‘Look who’s talking. You haven’t even finished Hebrew school yet. What do you know?’ So, I thought that if all Yiddishkeit can offer me is a night with dirty jokes and chicken soup, who needs it, who wants it?”

When my daughters’ teeth hurt, I send for the best dentist. When my children are sick, I call for the best doctor. When it comes to Yiddishkeit, the soul of the soul, the eternity of all eternities of my children, would I subject them to the lowest people in the world, who don’t know anything?

This is a Torah from Rav Nachman. He says that, basically, the downfall and the ultimate slavery in Egypt were brought about because we ate from the Tree of Knowledge. Eating from the Tree of Knowledge causes you to eat your bread with sadness. The beginning of the Seder is that we eat karpas, we eat a little vegetable and, a few moments later, we are on the level of eating bread with simcha, with joy. Matza is on the level of eating bread with joy. From the beginning of the Seder, to the matza, we are fixing everything from the Tree of Knowledge. And, it goes so fast, so fast.

Chametz is that everything takes a long time. This is the downfall of mankind. The world says, we have to wait for peace. It takes time until it comes. Always waiting, waiting. Matza is the first admission in the service of G-d; today is a great moment – don’t wait.

Brooklyn, 5745

Edited from Connections Magazine Vol 1 No 2

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 Afikomen 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’s no 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 voice which 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 again? Nature doesn’t really trust, because she knows that we have something inside ourselves 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 hours or a few days, because the earth doesn’t completely trust man to listen to the voice which does say “Let there be man”.

On Pesach we celebrate the power of giving life. The Zohar calls Matza “nahama dmehemenusa”, bread of faith. It is the fruit of the Tree of Life, before Adam sinned. One fruit is enough to give you life completely so you don’t have to eat over and over again. If man would only really have faith, one piece of Matzah would be enough to last him for his whole life.

This is also why the last meal on the last day of Pesach is called Mashiach’s seuda, the feast of the Mashiach. When the Mossiach comes one piece of Matza will again be enough to give life to a person, because the earth will be able to trust man again.

House of Love and Prayer San Francisco, 5733