Everyday Judaism · Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe

00:01 - Intro (Announcement)
You are listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe of Torch in Houston, Texas. This is the Living Jewishly podcast.

00:09 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
All right, welcome back everybody to the Everyday Judaism podcast. It is so wonderful to be here this beautiful Sunday morning.

00:17
We are today going to learn the first half of chapter 119 in the Kitzah Shulchan Aruch in the abridged Shulchan Aruch, the code of Jewish law, where we're going to talk about the Seder night, the Seder of Pesach night. Okay, what is the Seder? We all know we sit with our family, we eat matzo, we drink four cups of wine. There are many laws that are applicable to these customs, to this evening, and we're going to go through the halachas of the laws about this. So, before we begin, we have to know that in the diaspora, we observe two nights of the Seder. This year, 2025, it's going to be Saturday night the first Seder, sunday night, the second Seder. However, in Israel, they only observe one day of holiday and therefore it's only going to be Saturday night and Sunday. Sunday night they're already not having a Seder. Second Seder we are in the diaspora, all of diaspora, any place out of Israel, you observe two nights of the Seder. Now, what are we obligated? We're obligated the biblical command to tell the story of the Exodus. That's the biblical command To tell the story, even someone who's sitting alone. You're obligated to tell the story of what happened to the Jewish people in our exodus from Egypt. Now we have the great gift of having something called a Haggadah. The Haggadah is the story of the Jewish people. My recommendation is that everybody should get one of these Haggadahs, these beautiful Haggadahs from Arts Girl. I know it looks like a child Haggadah. It's actually called the, these Haggadahs, these beautiful Haggadahs from Arts Girl. I know it looks like a child Haggadah, it's actually called the youth Haggadah, but it is fabulous because it illustrates, it explains, it gives insights to every part of the Seder and, like this, no matter if someone's scholarly a little bit more or a little bit less, someone's scholarly a little bit more or a little bit less, you can learn something which is relevant, which is something we're able to connect to in a real way. So I recommend that everyone get themselves a Haggadah. If you don't have one, please let me know and I'll make sure to get you one. Okay, along with the biblical command to talk about the exodus from Egypt, there are two other biblical commands, and that is to eat matzah and to eat marah. Marah is the bitter herbs. And, of course, we know the drinking of the four cups of wine to give praise to Hashem. The drinking of the four cups of wine to give praise to Hashem. And we're going to talk a lot in the coming episode, and next episode as well, about the customs of the Seder. Now, the Seder literally means order and is traditionally arranged as a progression of 15 steps, summarized poetically as follows okay, and is traditionally arranged as a progression of 15 steps, summarized poetically as follows okay, kadesh, the recitation of the Kiddush.

03:31
Urchatz, washing the hands before eating karpas, and karpas is eating a vegetable dipped in salt water. Yachatz, breaking the middle. Matzah Magit, relating the story of the exodus. Rachzah, washing the hands prior to the meal. Motzi, reciting the hamotzi blessing. Matzah, reciting the special additional blessing and eating the matzah. Maror, reciting the blessing and eating the bitter herbs. Korech, eating matzah and bitter herbs together. Shulchanorech, eating a festive meal. Tzafun, eating the afikoman Again, we're going to explain each one of these. Barech, reciting the birkas and mosim the grace after meals. Halel, singing the praise to the Almighty, the halel service and then nirtzo, concluding the Seder with prayers that Hashem accept our observance and bring the final redemption.

04:29
So the basic requirements that must be fulfilled on this night, such as drinking the four cups of wine and eating the matzah and marah, are governed by halachic guidelines. In addition, the Seder ceremony is rich with customs. In addition, the Seder ceremony is rich with customs and therefore you may be observing a certain custom. You may be at someone else's house and they observe a different custom. All the customs as long as they're rooted in halacha are acceptable and are perfectly fine. The fact that one does it like this and one does it like that, again, as long as it's within the confines of halacha, it is very, very special and very beautiful for each one to observe the Seder night in their own custom. Different communities have different customs, had different customs. Today, different cities, different communities as well, have varying different customs. Today, different cities, different communities as well, have varying different customs. There's nothing wrong if someone has a different custom. Again, as long as it abides with the guidelines of halacha, that's fine. Some people lean like this, some people lean like that, that's fine. We all lean right. You understand what I'm saying. It's like, as long as we're within the parameters of halacha.

05:48
Okay, we'll begin now with the first part of the seder, which is Kadesh. Now we have to know we're on page 229 in the Art School edition of the Kitzer Shochon Orch, in the fourth book of the Kitzer Set. Now the halacha tells us that when the father comes home from synagogue, when we come home from synagogue, we immediately go straight into the meal. We don't schmooze around, we're not. Hey, let's sit around. And you know how's everyone? Yeah, we do that as well. We have all the niceties and we have all the socializing, but there is a special urgency to begin the Seder as quickly as possible. Why? Because the mitzvah of the night is to talk to our children and our children will fall asleep. So we want to do this before the children fall asleep.

06:44
Now why are we so concerned that your children are going to fall asleep? Because Pesach is very different than all of the other holidays, all the other holidays and Shabbos as well. It is encouraged for one to add to the holiday, to the Shabbos, and to take in Shabbos early. So, for example, now that we changed our clocks here in Houston, texas, we're in March 2025. So, being that we already changed the clock, sunset is at about tonight. It's going to be at 7.39 pm. So Shabbos candle lighting will be at 7.21,. If it were tonight, many people will accept Shabbos at lighting will be at 721,. If it were tonight, many people will accept Shabbos at six o'clock, at 630. Why? Because they want to add to their Shabbos. They want to add to their Shabbos If it could be another hour, another hour and a half.

07:39
It's a mitzvah to add to your holiday and to your Shabbos, always, except for Pesach. Pesach, you don't begin the Seder till nightfall. Pesach, you do not begin the Seder early. I want to add to my Pesach. No, you cannot. Pesach, the mitzvah of eating matzah is at night. The mitzvah of drinking the wine is at night. As the Torah commands us V'ochlu esabasar, ba'laylo hazeh, specifically, at night, we observe these parts of the Seder and therefore, thank you so much. What a prince, thank you. Therefore, it is important for us to remember that, although we're excited and we want to add to our holiday, we want to add to our festivities on Shavuos, there's a proper time for it and that's at night. So now, if we begin Pesach at 739, which is going to be a little later already, by the time we get to Pesach in two weeks it's probably going to be about 7.49. And then, by then, we begin the evening service at synagogue and then we get home at about 8.30. It's already late for the kids. So therefore, no wasting time, we go right into it.

09:04
Okay, so the Seder starts with the recitation of Kiddush. Although we recite the Kiddush at the start of every Yom Tov night meal, the Kiddush on Pesach is unique since it is recited upon the first of the obligatory four cups of wine that each person must drink on Pesach night. So what we do is, at the Seder, everybody around the table has a glass of wine or grape juice and what you do is you, every person, recites the Kiddush together. It's an obligation, not only for oh, I'm just here at the table, I'm going to fulfill my obligation with the leader of the table, with the head of the household. No, every person, including the children, should have their own glass of wine. Now, when I refer to wine, I'm not referring specifically to alcoholic wine. You can fulfill the mitzvah of the four cups of wine with grape juice as well. So if anybody is in the recovery process, if anybody's challenged with alcohol, this is not a temptation that one should fall to saying hey, I'm fulfilling a commandment and therefore I should do it. No, if someone is challenged with this, they should not drink wine, they should drink grape juice, and that is perfectly legitimate.

10:25
Even though on Erev Shabbos and Yom Tov one may recite Kiddush and eat while it is still day, meaning before nightfall, to add time that is part of the weekday to the holy day on Pesach. This is not to be done, for the mitzvah of eating matzvah applies specifically at night, just as the mitzvah of eating the Pesach. This is not to be done, for the mitzvah of eating matzvah applies specifically at night, just as the mitzvah of eating the Pesach offering applies specifically at night and as the verse states in Exodus 12, verse 8. Likewise, the mitzvah of drinking the four cups of wine applies specifically at night, and since the cup over which Kiddush is recited is also one of the four cups. Therefore, we do not recite Kiddush until it is definitely night.

11:12
Now we mentioned, and we learned this previously in Halacha 118, halacha number 10, in Simeon 118, halacha number 10, is that we wear a kittel. What is a kittel? A kittel is like a white overcoat. Okay, so the custom over there Halacha number 10, says that we wear this traditional white robe for the Seder, and this, too, one should prepare before Yom Tov. But one who is a mourner and may the merciful one save us from this a mourner does not wear it, but he is still obligated to recline. Okay, someone who is within the seven days of the passing of a loved one. They should ask regarding the laws of leaning at the Seder. Okay, so we wear this white kittel.

12:08
There's actually many customs my son asked me, as he's in his first year of marriage, and there are many who have a custom that during the first year of marriage you do not wear a kittel. Very interesting customs, many, many different customs about this. Whether it be only on Yom Kippur that you don't wear it, or by the Pesach Seder you don't wear it. The bottom line is that the custom comes from a concern that the new bride may think uh-oh, my husband, my new husband, is going to die soon because he's wearing this white robe and you know it can be very concerning to her to see her husband wearing that white robe. Today there are many who have that custom, indeed, that during the first year of marriage, that the groom not wear the white kittel robe, the groom not wear the white kittel robe. Some have the custom to wear it anyway and some have the custom not to. Some have custom not to wear it only onyam kippur.

13:17
Again, everyone should seek counsel from their local bona fide Torah observant rabbi. Okay, one should don the kittel and sit down at his seat ready to conduct the Seder. It is a meritorious practice to distribute to the children almonds, walnuts and the like candies that was the olden day candies so that they should see a difference from the usual practice and ask questions about it, thus be inspired to ask more questions throughout the night regarding why we eat matzah and myrrh and why we recline, why we do things differently on this night. It's very interesting. Again, the obligation, the biblical obligation of the night of Pesach is to ask questions. That's the biblical obligation to bring out from our children the questions of the things that are different. Why should they ask the questions? So that we can give them the answers. What is the answer? Because God saved us and took us out of Egypt, from slavery. We were slaves in Egypt and God took us out.

14:31
On Shabbos and on other festivals, only the one who recites Kiddush for the household is obligated to drink the wine, although it is proper for the others to partake of it as well. However, the Kiddush on Seder night is recited upon one of the obligatory four cups of wine and each person must drink. Therefore, each person must have a cup before him for Kiddush. Now, the Halacha previously stated that this should all be prepared before the holiday. Okay, it should all be prepared before the holiday. Okay, it should all be prepared before. Meaning okay, this is important.

15:11
This Shabbos this year it's going to fall on Shabbos. That's going to be prior to You're not allowed to prepare on Shabbos for what's going to happen after Shabbos. So if you're going to prepare the Pesach Seder, you should do it before Shabbos. Already. I remember my birthday always falls out the Shabbos before Pesach, and it was always a little depressing. It was always a little depressing because we never ate in the dining room. We always ate on Shabbos in the kitchen, because it was the Shabbos right before Pesach and the whole house is Pesach decorated, everything is already all clean and now we're going to eat in the kitchen. I don't know. It was always depressing. Either way, we try to change that a little Either way.

16:02
So a person has to be careful. A person has to be careful not to prepare for the Pesach Seder on Shabbos, because the Pesach Seder is going to be Saturday night. Therefore, because the halacha tells us we're not allowed to prepare on Shabbos for something that's going to come after Shabbos, a person should be careful not to prepare for the Seder which will be after Shabbos on Shabbos. Instead, to fulfill the halacha to be prepared for the Seder already before the Seder comes about should do it before Shabbos if it's possible. But again, if you have children who are going to run around eating their pita bread, you don't want it to go on your Pesach dishes. Therefore, everyone should calculate for themselves what is best.

16:45
Tinok v'tinokis, a young boy or girl who have reached the age of education, which is again a question of what that age is probably already today 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 years old, depending on the development of the child, meaning when they are mature enough to have an awareness of the holiness of the holiday and understands what is being related about the exodus from Egypt. We also give them a cup of wine to drink. For the four cups, it is customary to fill one cup more than is needed for the participants, for those reclining, and we call it the koshelel yahu, the cup of Elijah the prophet. So let me just explain this, okay. First is, by the way, in my house, one of the things I try to tell the people around my table is not to fill the cup up or the goblet up all the way to the top. Why? Because you're going to spill your wine up or the goblet up all the way to the top. Why? Because you're going to spill your wine all over the place, so leave a teeny little drop before it gets to the rim of your cup. Now that's specifically during the Maggid, which is the longest part of the Haggadah, where we're going to read the whole story of the Exodus, and that's a long time where you're going to raise up the cup, put it back down. Raise it up, put it back down. There's an entire process, as most Haggadahs will tell you at this point raise up the cup. At this point you can put it down, reveal the matzah, et cetera, et cetera. All of this going on and you'll have a lot of wine spilled all over the place. It gets all over your clothes. It becomes sometimes can be very annoying on your fresh new clothes that you have wine stains, and some people it disturbs their entire Seder. Therefore, I recommend that you not fill it up all the way to the top. Again, the halacha says that when you at least when you recite the blessing, then it should be filled to the top. So fill it up a little, drop more right before the blessing, and that is fine.

18:59
The attendant of the one conducting the Seder or one of his household members should fill the cups. You should not fill your own cup. Why? Because at the Seder night we're all like kings and queens, princes and princesses, and therefore we have it filled for us, so the person next to you could fill it up for you. You can tell them what type of wine or grape juice you enjoy and they will fill it up for you. Also, another thing is that everyone should see to it to purchase the wine that they enjoy for Pesach. Before Pesach, make sure you have it ready. Make sure that everything is ready to go. This is a holiday of a lot of preparation, not to think about it like, oh, an hour before I forgot to pick up my grape juice or wine. Do it in advance. Make sure you have it. It's all ready, it's all beautiful. Okay, likewise, each time that we fill them, others should fill the cup for us, and not the leader themselves, not the person themselves, so as to demonstrate the matter of freedom.

20:01
One should caution the members of his household that they must drink from each cup, of the first three cups, at least most of the cup. So it doesn't have to be a very big cup. The actual amount is shown here at the end of the simmon is not a lot. We don't have to have a very big cup. The wine cup should be between 2.9 fluid ounces and 4.4 fluid ounces that's on page 249, which is not a lot of wine. Okay, it does not have to be a tremendous amount of wine. Again, 2.9 to 4.4 ounces of wine. So you know, you can get a smaller glass, particularly for children, so that they not end up drunk and drink. You know, an eight-ounce glass of wine could have a negative effect on them. Okay, therefore, so a person needs to remember to drink most of the cup at one time and for the fourth cup they must drink a revius. A revius is so it's called a melolugma, which is like the filling of your cheek of the wine and or grape juice.

21:19
Okay, the drinking of the wine is a rabbinic command in nature, but it's a mitzvah Nonetheless. It's a mitzvah and a person should have in mind I'm fulfilling a mitzvah of drinking the four cups of wine, the same thing with saying the tale of the Jewish people and our exodus from Egypt. We should have in mind that we're fulfilling a mitzvah of telling the tale of our exodus from Egypt, same with eating matzah and eating the morar. A person should have in mind that they're doing this mitzvah with intention. As well as the women, women should also. They're fully obligated. Male and female members of the household are obligated in these mitzvahs and therefore should have the proper intention. It is not customary for women to eat and drink while reclining in the same way, but they are permitted to. Everyone should recite the Kiddush as it is written in the Haggadah, and you should lean to your left when recline to your left when drinking the wine.

22:37
If possible, it is proper to follow the opinion of the authorities, who maintain that one should drink the entire contents of the cup for every one of the four cups. Again, if someone isn't able to so, then you drink, like we said, the minimum amount between 2.4 and 4.7 ounces. That is the minimum, but not more than that if a person can't. If a person can, they should drink the entire cup. That would be the appropriate thing to do. You drink your entire cup of wine.

23:10
Okay, now we go to halacha, number three in Simeon 119, and we talk about urchatz. What is urchatz? We wash our hands. What do we wash our hands for? Not for the bread. We wash our hands for eating a vegetable.

23:23
Now, before eating any dipped vegetable, any item dipped into certain liquids, there is a requirement to wash your hands, but one does not recite a blessing upon this washing. Since we dip a vegetable into salt water for karpas, which is the following step of the Seder, we first wash our hands without a blessing, as per this requirement. In fact, even those who usually do not follow this practice of washing before dipping throughout the year, we are to wash on Pesach night, why you have to get used to this, the answer to all of the questions at the Pesach Seder. So that the childrenesach Seder okay. So that the children should ask the question why are you doing this? So why do we wash our hands before eating these vegetables that are dipped in salt water? So that the children should ask why is this night different than all the other nights? He says, after reciting Kiddush and drinking the first of the four cups, one washes his hands and does not recite the blessing over the mitzvah of washing them and you dry them well, okay, so that's the second part of the Seder. Is the first part Kaddish? We recite Kiddush over the first of the four cups of wine, and then the second step is we wash our hands. For what? For eating the vegetables. Why do we do this? So that the children should ask Very good, now it's very interesting.

25:00
I have always had this question. Okay, so my children go to school and in school they learn about all of these customs, they learn about the whole haggadah. They go through it and they learn it, and then they're told all the reasons. So like, why are we telling our children? I would like my children to come home and be surprised. I would like my children to come home and be surprised. And they come home and I'm wearing the white kittel robe and they're like what's going on here? Oh, that's a great question. That's a great question. Guess what? We were slaves in Egypt and we're going to come and we're going to drink a glass of wine, right, and then we're going to wash our hands.

25:44
We're not going to say the Al-Nitilat Yadayim, like we normally do, because we're not eating bread now, we're not eating matzah now, we are instead going to dip vegetables in salt water. They're going to ask what's going on, why are you doing this? And I'm going to say well, great question. Because the Jews were slaves in Egypt and the salt water represents the tears, the tears of the suffering, the bitter, bitter suffering that we experienced for 210 years as slaves in Egypt. That's a great question, child. But instead they come home from school and they open up their notebooks and they share. And this is why, to me, I don't understand. It's counterintuitive, but that is the custom of the Jewish people and because that's the custom of the Jewish people, that's what we do. We teach our children.

26:31
Okay, so step number three of the Seder is Karpas, and that's the dipping of the vegetables. Dipped vegetables are usually eaten during the course of a meal, not before it. On Pesach night, however, we eat dipped vegetables before the meal begins, to arouse the curiosity of the children to ask about the uniqueness of this night. Okay, we then cut pieces of the karpas vegetable. Karpas vegetable can be a variety of different things that people use. Some people eat, some people eat no, not horseradish, yet this is not the horseradish. Some people have potatoes. Some people will have what are they celery, so they'll have different types of vegetables that can be dipped into the, into the karpas. My family, our custom was we always had potatoes. My wife's family is celery, so we at our seder do both of them and people can choose which they want. If someone wants a potato, they can dip the potato in salt water. If someone wants the celery, they can dip the celery. But that is something additionally that is prepared before the holiday.

27:50
We shouldn't be busy the whole Seder night preparing at the Seder. At the Seder we need to be sitting there enjoying, talking and conversing about the story of our exodus, the salt water as well. The Halacha says the salt water should be prepared before the Seder night, again, now that we are having Seder in 2025, saturday night, so we can't prepare it on Shabbos. We should prepare it. The proper thing to do would be to prepare it before Shabbos already. So we have them all, all the pieces, pre-cut for himself and for the members of his household, a piece that is less than a keziahs for each person. A keziahs is a small portion, more than is satiating for one's hunger, less than is satiating for one's hunger, okay.

28:50
And then we take this little piece of potato or this little piece of celery and we dip it into salt water and we recite the blessing Baruch Atah Hashem Elokeinu Melech HaOlam Borei Priya Adama, bless to you Hashem, our God, king of the Universe, who creates the fruit of the ground. U'mechavnim lifdor babrocho zu games ha'morah. And we should have in mind to exempt the obligation, the possible obligation, of reciting a blessing for the morrow that we're going to eat later, the karpas. When we eat the karpas, we eat it while reclining to our left. Okay, and that is the third part of the haggadah, which is karpas. We eat the vegetable, we dip it in salt water Again, we wash our hands without a blessing, we eat the food with a blessing and we have in mind for the possible obligation for the morrow that's going excuse me, that's going to be eaten later, after the maged, the telling of the tale of the haggadah. Now we go to yachatz.

30:04
The Torah calls matzah lechem oni, the bread of affliction, matzah, with which we fulfill the mitzvah. To eat matzah on Pesach night is broken because of the way of a poor man, because it is the way of a poor man to have access only to pieces of bread, not whole loaves of bread. Okay, so now, after we finish step three and we ate the vegetable that was dipped in salt water, what do we do? We take out the middle matzah. Now, as something we did not mention previously, we have a Seder plate.

30:54
Okay, the Seder plate should also be prepared before the holiday. Here's an illustration of how the Seder plate should look. So if you see that's a Seder plate, if you look here, you'll see three matzahs the top one represents the Kohen, the second one represents the Levi, the Levite, and the third represents the Yisrael, the regular Israelites. We'll see what that means later, but we have the six different foods that are placed on our Seder plate. There's reasons for each of them, which we will hopefully explain a little bit later why we have each of these foods and what they commemorate and what their role is in the Seder.

31:38
Okay, so now we break. We said we were talking about breaking the middle matzah. So we're going to take the middle matzah of the three matzos that are in front of us and divide it into two parts and you place the larger part as afikoman, and it is customary to wrap it in a piece of cloth to commemorate that which is written misharosam tsururos Besimlosam, their leftovers bound up in their garments on their shoulders, which is referring to the Jewish people when they left Egypt. But what we're going to do here, v'yesh Mesimimot Sokach Al Shichmam. There's some who place it on their shoulder. Again, that's not my family's custom, we don't do that, but there are many who do, who will put that matzah on their shoulder.

32:31
Zei chalit siyat misraim to commemorate the exodus from Egypt. V'lefishe hafei komon hu b'mkom hapesach. And since the hafei komon is eaten in place of the Pesach offering, it is therefore of greater importance and should be the greater portion of the broken matzah. The smaller piece of matzah gets put right back into the Seder plate and the larger one is the afikoman. Now what is the custom of the afikoman? There's a custom that we hide that as part of the end of the Seder where we eat the Tzafon, which is going to be the eating of the Afikoman, which is that larger piece of that middle matzah that was hidden. Now we hide it and what do we do? We hide it from the children. The children look for it. The children are very busy looking for that afikoman. It's a very, very big highlight in a Jewish child's life to look and find, search and find that afikoman.

33:41
Many parents reward their children. It's a whole negotiation. You know, if you want your afikoman as the head of the household, you got to be willing to pay for it. You don't just get it back for free. So there's a negotiation.

33:56
I remember we as children we negotiated. We got a record. Okay, you remember those vinyl records. We got a record as a gift. That was a gift that we got for our afikoman For one year. We got a set of Judaica, of books that we were able to use for many, many years. But every child I remember my children negotiated for rollerblades. That's the gift they wanted as a recompense for giving back the afikoman. Now some children have big ideas like fly me to Mexico and give me a six-day vacation, but either way, you have to negotiate and be realistic.

34:44
But why do we do this? Why do we have this custom? What's the answer? So that the children should ask, that the children should be engaged, that the children should be involved. That's why Okay, now we get to the longest, busiest, most important part of the Seder.

35:03
That is the actual command in the Torah to tell the tale of our exodus, to tell the story, and this is relating the story of the exodus. It is a biblical command on Pesach night to speak about the miracles and wonders that Hashem performed for our forefathers when he took them out of Egypt. We fulfill this mitzvah with the recitation of the Haggadah. That's the bulk of the Haggadah. That's the bulk of the Haggadah is telling the story of the Jewish people when we left Egypt. When Megalik tzassas ha-matzos, the leader of the Seder, partially uncovers the matzos and lifts up the Seder plate and he says holach ma'anya, we begin the magid part of the Seder by saying this bread of affliction that our forefathers ate, and he reads it next year we will be free men. Halacha, number four. After we recite this first paragraph of Halacha Ma'anya, this bread of affliction. We fill up the second goblet, the second cup of wine which we're not going to drink till the end of Magna, till we finish telling the tale. Now again, throughout these four, this whole long process, we're going to lift up the cup and put it down, open up the matzah.

36:26
We don't do them at the same time. Generally speaking, we're doing one or the other, either revealing the matzah or holding the goblet of wine. All right, one or the other, we don't do them both. We know this from the laws of Hamotzi. On Shabbos, when we recite Kiddush, we cover the bread. Why do we do that? Because it would be a shame to the bread that we're busy dealing with the wine. Right, you always start a meal with me and now you're starting the meal with the grape juice or the wine. That would be an embarrassment to the bread and or the matzah. So when we're holding the wine, we cover the matzah. When we put down the wine, then we uncover. That's generally. We're doing one or the other, okay, so you'll see throughout, if you look throughout your maagid, it will say it'll talk about you fill up the cup, you hold the cup, you uncover the matzah. You put down the cup, you uncover the matzah. You cover the matzah, you raise up the glass again.

37:37
It's one or the other constantly throughout the reading of Magid and if you take the time to look into it, you'll see the exact reasons and the meaning behind it. It's really, really special. There's more books about the Haggadah and than probably on any single topic in the entire planet. Every year there's about 50 to 100, maybe even more Haggadahs that are published, brand new Haggadahs that are with new stories and illustrations and examples and understandings and meanings and Divrei Torah, ideas and thoughts that are really incredible and I would recommend for everyone to find. Go to the Judaica store here in Houston or wherever you are and find a Haggadah that speaks to you. Don't use the same one you used as a child. Find a new one. Read something new, get inspired with another story, with another, something that will bring your Seder to life.

38:43
Okay, now, after reciting the Halach Mani, we pour the second cup and the young children ask the four questions of the Manashtana. The Manashtana is what is this night different than all the other nights of the year? We ask four questions. On all the other nights, we eat matzah, if we'd like to, and chametz. Why on this night do we only eat matzah? On all the other nights we eat bitter herbs. We eat any vegetables. On this night, we eat only bitter herbs. On all the other nights we dip food. We sometimes dip foods right here. We're dipping foods twice. Once is the karpas in salt water and the other is maror when we dip it in harosas, as we'll see soon. And in all the other nights of the year we can either sit or recline, but now we only eat, reclining, we drink, reclining.

39:37
What's going on over here? Again, what's the reason for these questions? The reclining, we drink, reclining. What's going on over here? And again, what's the reason for these questions? The children ask. That's the idea. We're encouraging our children to ask questions. That's what we want.

39:50
Ask questions Because when you ask, you usually open up to answers. Sometimes people ask questions as an answer, but most children at least are asking questions because they're intrigued. What is going on over here? What are we doing here? Why is this night different than all of the other nights of the year? If there's no young child at the Seder, another older person should ask. That's fine. Or the daughter should ask my, or the wife should ask. Someone should ask the questions what is going on over here? Okay, it is customary by us at our Seder. We have everyone who wants to is welcome to, both male, female, adult, child, whoever wants.

40:36
We start from the youngest and work our way up, and we've had customs where we had people around the table who spoke different languages and we had it asked in multiple different languages. It really is special, it's enjoyable, it's fun, but, the most important part, ask the questions and the children should ask what's going on over here, why is it different? The questions and the children should ask what's going on over here, why is it different? Okay, after this, we say avadim ayinu, we were slaves, and we go into explaining the exact details of how our bondage, how our slavery experience was.

41:14
And the proper practice is for the leader to explain the Haggadah to his household members in a language that they understand. That's where the custom of saying it in multiple languages. People read it in English, that's fine. You don't have to read it in the Hebrew. Read it in French, read it in Spanish, read it whatever language that you understand. And if he himself also does not understand the Hebrew text of the Haggadah, he should recite it reading from a Haggadah. That includes either a Yiddish translation, an English translation, whatever, and after concluding each passage in Hebrew, he should recite it in the language that people understand, and certainly Hamamar, rabi Gamliel, hayah Omer.

41:55
When one recites the paragraph of Rabi Gamliel that Rebbe Gamliel would say, in which the basic obligation of the night is explained, which is Pesach, matzah and Marah, which is towards the end of Maggid, rebbe Gamliel used to say anyone who has not explained these three things on Pesach has not fulfilled the mitzvah of the Seder. The three things are Pesach, matzah, morrow. Pesach is the offering, the Pesach offering. Matzah is the matzah we eat and morrow is the bitter herbs that we eat. And this is all explained in our Haggadah.

42:40
So in any Haggadah that you'll have today, we have a plethora of Haggadahs that explain in beautiful, beautiful, simple English. It's not complicated, it's not in the all thou thee though terminology of the early 1900s. It is plain, simple, beautiful English or any other language. It is worthwhile for someone. Again, I encourage all of our viewers and listeners get a Haggadah, get a new Haggadah, keep it clean, keep it clean so you want to look at it before Pesach. Make sure you don't eat crunchier chocolate chip cookie while you're looking over your Haggadah, because that would be chametz and you would not want those crumbs on your Pesach plate. Exactly Not while you're eating your lunch at lunch break at work, and certainly okay. So we said that, okay, shel Pesach, matzah o'mar, the mitzvahs of Pesach offering, the matzvahs of Pesach offering the matzah and the mar, those are to be explained as stated in that passage.

43:47
One who does not explain the reasons behind these mitzvahs has not fulfilled the obligation of relating the story of the Exodus Keshemagiel v'hishamda. When one reaches the passage of v'hishamda and it is this that stood by us for all of our generations, which is really an incredibly powerful, powerful paragraph, and it goes as follows it is that promise to Abraham that protected our fathers and us, because more than one nation has tried to destroy us. In every generation they try to destroy us, but God always saves us from them. This is a very, very powerful paragraph and when we read that, one should cover the matzahs and raise up his glass, and notel, on the Sukkot, take up the glass of wine and raise up his glass, and notalosokos take up the glass of wine, benotalosokos, b'yedem, and everyone, all the participants, should raise up their glasses of wine and recite the V'hishamda till miyadam, that God saves us from their hands. And then you cover the matzah, sorry. You uncover the matzah and you put down your cup of wine.

45:02
When you get to the paragraph of this matzah, what do you do? You take the half matzah that we cracked before and you lift it up and you say matzah zu this matzah, you show it. And when it gets to marr, you take from your seder plate, you raise up the marr, which is the bitter herbs, and you say this mora moro zeh. And the same thing with Pesach. You take the shank bone and you show it and you declare this Pesach, shuhu zeh halar. Pesach, because it is a commemoration of the Pesach offering, offering so that it should not appear as though, sorry, you should not sorry, you should not raise it up, so it should not appear as if you brought a Pesach offering which we don't have today, in our days, sadly, we pray and ask every day for the restoration of our temple. Our third temple will hopefully, will hopefully, be speedily rebuilt in our days, amen.

46:05
When we get to the paragraph of Lefichach, and therefore you cover the matzah and you raise up your glass and then you recite the rest of the Haggadah till you get to the blessing of Gal Yisrael, and then we recite the blessing on the Haggadah till you get to the blessing of Gal Yisroel, and then we recite the blessing on the glass of wine and we drink that second glass of wine leaning on our left Very good. Then we have halacha number five, which is rachza, washing our hands, but this time is different than washing our hands before. What did we do last time when we washed our hands? Did we say a blessing? We did not. Now we will recite a blessing. Why? Because we're washing for the bread and we recite the blessing of Al-Nitilat Yadayim, and then we have Motzi. We recite the blessing of Hamotzi and then we say Matzah, which is the special blessing on the matzah. So we don't talk between the two. So we wash our hands, we come to the table, we recite the blessing on the hamotsi which we would do on bread as well and then we recite another blessing on the matzah, and that is the motzi and the matzah, and that is the motzi and the matzah.

47:21
Two blessings are recited before eating the matzah. The first is the standard blessing of ha-motzi and the second is the blessing recited prior to fulfilling the mitzvah, of eating matzah on Pesach night, and the Kitzer describes exactly how this blessing should be recited Mevorach ha-motzi ala matzos, over the matzos. Now, since on Yom Tov one is required to break bread because it's a festival and that's part on two loaves of bread, v'akhilas matzah, and one is also obligated to eat matzah, over which one recites the ala khilas matzah, and one is also obligated to eat matzah over which one recites the Al-Akhilas matzah, blessing Heman ha-Prusa. It is fulfilled by eating from the broken matzah, lefisha ha-matzah, nikreis lechem oni, because the matzah is called bread of the poor, vidako shel oni be-prusa, and it is the common place for a poor person to not have a whole loaf of bread, only a partial loaf, a broken loaf, al-qayn. Therefore, when someone recites, when we recite the blessing of Hamotzi, you hold the two matzahs that are whole in that tray. So we have three matzahs, right. You hold two of them in your hands with the broken matzah between them, so all two and a half matzahs, and you recite the blessing of Hamotzi. Then you release the bottom matzah, so now you're holding one and a half matzahs and you recite the blessing for al-akhilas matzah, for eating the matzah, and then you break the portion of the upper matzah and from the middle matzah and everyone eats a kezias. You eat the qualified amount of matzah and that is 7 inches by 6.25 inches of matzah. So that's about okay. If you're eating a hand matzah, about a half a size of a hand matzah Hand matzah is usually the round matzahs. About a half of that would be the appropriate amount of matzah that's eaten for this part of mozzi matzah and you eat them together.

49:41
How do you eat it? Leaning to your left, very good, ve'im kashalol ochlam b'pamachas. If it's difficult for someone to eat them at the same time, it's difficult either because someone has gastro issues which is not allowing them to eat matzah. It's not always easy on one's stomach. You should eat from the hamotzi part, from the full one, and v'acharka hakezai z'men aprusa. You can eat a little piece of the broken matzah from that part. V'acharka hakezai z'men aprusa. Rak shelo yishe b'nei emklal. But a person should not talk during eating that matzah. You should make sure to eat them both while reclining.

50:32
There are people from different countries who have different customs that on Leil Pesach, that they do not dip the matzah in salt like we do throughout the year. Not of the hamotzi and not of the matzah Of neither of them. They don't dip it in salt. That's a very common custom that we don't dip it in salt, even though we do that for bread throughout the year, we don't do. Many people have the custom not to do that during the Seder night. Halacha number six Mishayinu Yocho Lil'os Matzah.

51:05
Someone who cannot chew the matzah, muter L'sherosa B'mayim V'Larakcha. They may soak it in water to soften it. Now why are we saying that? It's okay? What's the big deal Like? Let them just soak in the water.

51:21
Remember what we talked about last week About that the matzah cannot be, that the flour cannot be mixed with water for more than 18 minutes till it's complete and ready. Now, if you're going to add water to it, it can add fermentation to it, and there are many people who do not have water mixed with their matzah at all throughout Pesach till the last days of Pesach, and they won't have any products that are made that way. So it's a common custom. It's not my custom, but it's a common custom, and many people will not soak the matzah in any water or any broth at all. Okay, u'bevad shelot tehei nimcheh legamre, as long as it does not become completely disintegrated or come into little little crumbs.

52:16
If someone is old or ill and is unable to eat it, even when it is soaked in water, they may soak it in wine or in other beverages.

52:25
When soaking the matzah in order to fulfill the mitzvah, the matzah obligation with it, care must be taken not to soak it for a 24-hour period, for by then, after the 24-hour period, it is considered as if it is cooked for a 24-hour period, for by then, after the 24-hour period, nech sheves, kemevushel it is considered as if it is cooked and one cannot fulfill the matzah obligation with it.

52:49
One must also take care with regard to other particulars that must be considered when soaking matzah, in order to ensure that the matzah does not lose its halacha classification as bread. Okay, and this concludes halacha number six. God willing, next week we will continue from the part of the seder, which is the morrow part, and we will get all the way through to the end of the seder. So, my dear friends, this concludes today's episode of the Everyday Judaism podcast, today's episode of the Everyday Judaism podcast. I look forward to resuming today's class with the Ask Away session number eight. My dear friends, have a great week. I look forward to next week concluding Semen 119 together with all y'all, have a magnificent week.

53:37 - Intro (Announcement)
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