Shalom Friends;
Our Pesach vort is being sponsored by Avraham and Miriam Deutsch of Efrat dedicated Lillui Nismas for Avraham’s Father: Mordechai ben Avraham Aba and Sara, for his Mother, Sara Rotza bat Tzion bat Avraham Yaakov and Chaya Leah and dedicated for the safety of the Chayalim and the liberation of all remaining hostages as well as for the good health and security of kol Am Yisrael. To Mishpochat Deutsch, many thanks for your sponsorship, and your continued kindnesses.
You can celebrate a Simcha — a birth, a Bar/Bat Mitzvah, a Chassuna or other Simcha event in your life, or commemorate a Yahrtzeit of a loved one, or for whatever other reason by sponsoring a Parshat HaShavua.
Please forward to your relatives and friends and encourage them to subscribe, and hopefully to sponsor a Parshat HaShavua. And please be in contact with me with any questions, or for further details.
Best Regards,
Moshe Burt
olehchadash@yahoo.com
skype: mark.burt3
Subscribe to the Israel and the Sin of Expulsion blog, to ask questions or to sponsor a Parsha Vort at: olehchadash@yahoo.com
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Each year, for now thirty years, and the twenty-seventh Pesach in Eretz Yisrael, this author has emailed this rendition of Dayenu quoted from the book “Dear Brothers” by former Arutz Sheva columnist Haggai Segal, as it has become tradition with me from prior to my Aliyah.
Each year, this author tries to touch on factors, insights and lessons, learned or needing relearning, which affect the state of B’nei Yisrael — right here and right now.
This year’s Pesach vort is written as Israel approaches it’s 77th year of modern-day nationhood and as the catastrophic terrorist, barbarous invasion War of Simchat Torah — 7 October continues, whether amidst the current extension of “ceasefire” and release of some hostages — alive or deceased in exchange for hundreds of blood-stained terrorists, or return to active combat to eradicate Hamas. Our heroic Chayalim continue to stand prepared to battle the terrorists of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, their other terrorist buddies — including the so-called “innocent Gazan civilians
Freed or rescued hostages have testified that Hamas and these so-called “innocent civilians
As we approach Pesach 5785, it seems to this author that this quoted rendition of “Dayenu” is as vital now as it was in the first year that I emailed this vort out or, for that matter, as vital as when it was quoted in Segal’s compilation of the book in its copyright year 1988.
In the Book “Dear Brothers”, the story is told how Pesach 5728 (1968) was approaching when the first group of Pioneers endeavored to establish themselves in Hevron in the year following Israel’s great victories in the Six-Day War. Among this group were Rabbis Haim Druckman, Eliezer Waldman, Moshe Levinger, Shlomo Aviner and others.
We pick up the story as the participants, “Sixty people sat down to that historical first Seder…” in Hevron:
“Another participant was the author Moshe Shamir, formerly affiliated with the leftist Hashomer Hatzair (the Young Guard). As he did with each of the celebrants during the Seder, Rabbi Druckman asked Shamir to make some comments appropriate to the festival. The others braced themselves for the minor unpleasantness that was sure to result…”
But at every Seder since then; other guests have repeated the Drosh that Moshe Shamir delivered that first Passover Seder in Chevron and so I try to give it over each year to my friends and relatives on Pesach via the Internet and at the Seder:
“The fourteen verses in the song Dayenu (It would have sufficed) have drawn the attention of the commentators throughout the ages. Why should we imply that we could forgo even one of the gifts given to us by Hashem three thousand years ago? How would we have gotten along at all without every one of them? The truth is that this part of the Haggadah has only one aim: to teach us how each and every generation of Jews tends to settle for the achievements of the past, to settle for what its forefathers had accomplished — and to rest on its laurels, with no aspiration for anything not achieved thus far. We, too, right here have that same tendency to say Dayenu — ‘It would have sufficed for us.’ The State of Israel? Dayenu. Unified Jerusalem and liberated Hevron? Dayenu. Wasn’t it just last year at the Seder [before the 6-day War — MB] that we said, ‘If Hashem had given us Israel but had not given us Jerusalem and Hevron — dayenu? That’s why we’ve got to know that we’ll be facing many more ‘dayenus’ until we reach full redemption.”
The book recounts that Rabbi Druckman stood up and kissed Shamir’s forehead.
At this time in our history, we, Am Yisrael can no longer afford to, as Segal quotes from the short talk of Moshe Shamir, “settle for what its forefathers had accomplished — and to rest on its laurels,” while kicking the terrorism can down the road leaving these barbaric animals living to strike, kill and persecute more Jews.
A few years ago, the Hertz Institute for International Teacher Training, Ohr LaGolah, a division of Yeshiva Ohr Somayach established a Kollel in Ramat Beit Shemesh and published a booklet entitled “Points of Focus in the
Haggadah” containing a D’var Torah written by Rosh Kollel, Rabbi Binyamin Jacobson of Ramat Beit Shemesh. This author is excerpting from the words of Rav Jacobson:
…Hashem’s promise to Avraham moved us onto a different plane in history, where on the one hand we stand apart from all of the nations, for which reason they repeatedly try to destroy us; while on the other hand Hashem carries us through history.
Anti-Semitism is a reflection of our standing as an entity completely separate from the rest of the physical world, as something that essentially belongs in the Divine realm and cannot be tolerated by material reality. (Rabbi Jacobson citing Maharal)
…Hashem moves onto the scene. Although His Kedusha cannot tolerate the tumah of Mitzrayim [Egypt], He appears in Mitzrayim Personally, so to speak, in His full Glory, to defend His children and tear apart their enemies. And He provides the answer to Pharaoh’s question — “Who is Hashem?” He showed the world, but more importantly, His children Who their Father is.
Dam: For a full week, everything was bloody. Once they [the Mitzriyim] drank a drop, they couldn’t wash out their mouths; all foods that contained water were now saturated with blood, even the moisture in the air was thick with blood; this was all exacerbated [adjective: made worse, more severe, or more bitter; aggravated] by the terrible stench coming from the Nile with all of the dead fish it expelled. Relief could be gotten only at a very high price paid to the Jews for some water.
The messages:
1) The Nile, one of Egypt’s most trusted “gods” and the source of their sustenance, is brought to its knees in disgrace by the One about Whom Pharaoh asked, “Who is Hashem?”
2) The blood of all the Jewish babies killed in the Nile is now coming back to haunt Pharaoh and the Mitzriyim.
3)The blood of the bleeding Jewish slaves got mixed into cement, etc.; now the walls of the Egyptian homes were secreting blood. (Rabbi Jacobson’s citing largely based on Sefer Mat’amei HaShulchan)
Just as the blood of the Jewish babies murdered in the Nile River and the blood of Jewish slaves was mixed into the cement of Mitzri homes which, upon the makko of da’am (plague of blood), were oozing blood, may the wrath of Hashem, in the form of our Chayalim, bring about the eradication of Hamas and their “innocent Gazan civilian
Not withstanding the current horrendous “ceasefire” and drips and drabs of hostages in exchange for thousands of bloody-handed terrorists and regardless of the machinations of malfeasance and non-feasance by their high command to date, emerge totally victorious — eradicating from the face of the earth Hamas, their terrorist buddies and the so-called “innocent civilians” of Gaza who joined with Hamas in their murderous deeds, that the Chayalim return home whole — physically, mentally and spiritually and that the Chayalim Liberate and bring home all remaining hostages. May we see a Final and Decisive victory by our Chayalim B’Yad Hashem, mandated by a government secure in it’s foremost service of and emunah in HaKadosh Borchu, B’Ezrat Hashem! And may we see the restoration of true unity within Am Yisrael.
May we, the B’nei Yisrael be zocha that our brethren — the refugee families from Gush Katif be permanently re-settled in Gush Katif, once the IDF, by the Yad Hashem, destructs and eradicates the wild beasts of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, all other terror entities, and if necessary Iran, and that our brethren be made totally whole — be totally restituted for all that was stolen from them, that the thrice expelled families of Amona be restored to their rebuilt homes and the oft-destroyed Yeshiva buildings in Homesh be rebuilt, as well as the buildings of Yishuv Elchanan, all at total government expense. May our Chayalim return from battle unharmed — physically, mentally and spiritually and may all of the remaining hostages brutally taken by the wild beasts of Hamas be liberated and brought home to their families. Baruch Hashem that our dear brother Jonathan Pollard is now in his fifth year at home in Eretz Yisrael and continues in a new chapter in his life. May Esther Yocheved bat Yechiel Avraham have an aliyah in Shemayim and may her spirit and memory continue to lift Jonathan to at least 120 years. May the MIAs be liberated alive and returned to us in ways befitting Al Kiddush Hashem — as with the return in April, 2019, via Russia, of the remains of Zachariah Baumel, as should the remains of the two chayalim from the Gaza War of ten years ago. May we have the courage and strength to stand up and physically prevent the possibility of Chas V’Challila any future eviction of Jews from their homes and prevent Chas V’Challila the handing of Jewish land over to anyone, let alone to enemies sworn to Israel’s and Judaism’s destruction and eradication. May we see, in 5785, the REAL Jews from the Ukraine and Russia as well as the US and Canada, the real Jews via matrilineal descent, make Aliyah enmass — via thorough review by Misrad HaPanim. And may we soon and finally see the total end to the Communist Chinese Wuhan Lab corona virus pandemic and all like viruses and variants. May we fulfill Hashem’s blueprint of B’nei Yisrael as a Unique people — an Am Segula, not to be reckoned with as with “the nations” and may we be zocha to see the Moshiach, the Ge’ula Shlaima, as Dov Shurin sings; “Ki Karov Yom Hashem Al’Kol HaGoyim”, the Ultimate Redemption, bimhayrah b’yamainu — speedily, in our time”, — Achshav, Chik Chuk, Miyad, Etmol!!!
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Moshe Burt, an Oleh, is a commentator on news and events in Israel and Founder and Director of The Sefer Torah Recycling Network. He lives in Ramat Beit Shemesh.
Moshe is available for editing of English language documents, articles, manuscripts and more. Please be in contact with him at olehchadash@yahoo.com for your English language needs.
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