AMAZING Stories For Your PeSach Seder Table (20 Minutes)

0:13So in parashat Ki Tisa, Am Yisrael, meskenim, they made a mistake. They thought that Moshe died, and they built a golden calf. They built a golden calf. How did they build this golden calf? Did you ever build a golden calf? Baruch Hashem. It takes a long time to build a golden calf. Unless you have machines. If you don't have machines, you want to build it, you have anybody in the jewelry business here? No? A bunch of Jews, no jewelry. Wow, so the first time ever in history. So anyway, a lot of Jews like the jewelry business. You ask a jeweler, you ask a jeweler, how long does it take you to make these earrings? How long does it take you to make this bracelet? How long does it take you? It takes a while. That's why, in reality, a lot of the jewelry stores, unless it's like a brand name, like a Tiffany or one of these other types of places, a lot of them buy from the public. bunch of Jews, no jewelry. Wow, the first time ever in history! So anyway, a lot of Jews like the jewelry business. You ask a jeweler, "How long does it take you to make these earrings? How long does it take you to make this bracelet? How long does it take you to..." It takes a while. That's why, in reality, a lot of the jewelry stores, unless it's a brand name like Tiffany or one of these other types of places, a lot of them buy from the public... Jewelry from the public, people who want to resell the jewelry just get cash and get something new. Usually, they don't melt it. Sometimes they melt the jewelry if it's really old or just out of fashion or something like that, but many times they take the jewelry, renew it, clean it, shine it, maybe put some diamonds on it, and resell it as if it is technically brand-new. I mean, gold doesn't get old.

1:38Gold is gold, the same gold that was here three thousand years ago. You put it today in a bracelet, it's the same thing; nothing changed. So there's no such thing as new gold or old gold. It's the same thing. But many of them don't actually melt it automatically; many of them resell it. Why do they resell it? Because it actually takes a lot of time to make the piece of jewelry, because you have to make a mold of whatever you want to make. You have to make a mold... You have to pour the gold into the mold. Making the mold takes money, takes time, takes effort. Then pour the gold. It's a process. Why would you do it if you already have something ready? You just have to renew it. So to make a golden calf, even more so, takes a long time. Even more so. It says that the golden calf, when it came out, it spoke. It spoke.

2:39so in chapter 32 it says when Moshe Rabbeinu came down and he saw everything, he tells Aharon, "What did the nation do to you that you brought on them such a big sin?" Meaning, "What did you hate them so much that you actually made them a golden calf? Right now, Hashem wants to kill all of them. Why? Because of you. You made them a golden calf. You hate them so much. They angered you that much." What did the nation do to you that you brought upon them such a big sin, meaning, do you hate them so much that you actually made them a golden calf? Right now, Hashem wants to kill all of them. Why? Because of you. You made them a golden calf. Do you hate them so much? Did they anger you that much? So Aaron says, "He says, 'You know that the people are disposed towards evil. Don't be angry at me. You know that the nation has a yetzer hara.' And then he tells him what happened. What happened? Yetzer hara, yetzer hara, what happened?" He says

4:00He says, "I asked them, 'Who has gold? Who has gold?' They removed all the gold and gave it to me. I threw it in the fire, and the calf emerged. If you throw a bunch of gold into a fire, what happens?" Nothing happens after hours and hours and hours, and really, really high fire. It's gonna melt maybe eventually at 3,000 degrees. You know how difficult it is to get a 3,000 degree fire? You have to explode the World Trade Center for 3,000 degrees of fire, which is what they say happened from the fuel, which is, by the way, not possible. But anyway, that's a conspiracy for a different day. Anyway, 3,000 degrees is what you need to melt a... Meaning, to get a fire to your little barbecue is not enough to melt gold. You can maybe make a steak burger, but you cannot melt gold with your barbecue. To make a fire so hot to melt gold requires a lot of fire. It's a hot fire. He says, "I made a fire. I asked them for some gold. They gave me some gold. I threw the gold in the fire, and the calf emerged, the bull emerged. How?"

5:26This, Rabotai, rewinds. The story starts, the Midrash in Me'am Loez says the story rewinds many, many years before. When Moshe was a little boy, he had an opportunity of a lifetime to be Moshe Rabbeinu. But to be Moshe Rabbeinu is not so easy. You have to have a lot of tests from the time that you're a little boy. So, for example, he was just born. Shem sends him into the ocean, into the river, and hopefully, somebody's going to save him. But Hashem saves him. Why? She wanted to save him, not because she actually was able to save him on her own. The Gemara says she saw it as someone crying. She says, "Oh, I wish I could save him." That's it. And she... he was just born. Shem sends him into the ocean, into the river, and hopefully, somebody is going to save him, but Hashem saves him. Why? She wanted to save him, not because she actually was able to save him on her own. The Gemara says she saw it as someone crying. She says, "Oh, I wish I could save him," that's it, and she... Put our arm out. The problem is our arm was only one ama and Moshe was 15 amot far. You don't have to know how much an ama is, which, by the way, is close to two feet. You don't need to know one is much less than 15.

6:39But she says, "I wish that I could save the boy." With whoever's crying—the baby that's crying—the fact that she wanted to save him and she put her hand out, Hashem says, "That's already enough for Me to make a miracle. You tried; I'll do the rest." And He extended her arm miraculously, and she saved the boy. She saved Moshe. So Moshe's life was on the line since day one. His life continued to be on the line when he was in the house of Paro. Later on, his life would be put on the line with Pharaoh. When he got older, Pharaoh tried to cut off his head after he found out that he killed the Egyptian. When he discovered that Hashem Yitbarach is the one who's running the world and he spoke to Hashem out of the burning bush, Hashem gave him many secrets. One of the secrets was His real name.

7:41So when he came back to Egypt to free Am Yisrael, he knew that he had a mission, not only to free Am Yisrael, but to fulfill the promise that was made to Yosef HaTzadik. Yosef HaTzadik made the 12 Shevatim, the 12 tribes, the brothers, promise him that when they leave Egypt sometime down the road, or their descendants or whoever's going to leave Egypt eventually, they would take his bones and put them there. They all promised because he knew that the Egyptians were not going to let Yosef leave Egypt because they turned him into a god. So now Moshe came... Promised him that when they leave Egypt, sometime down the road or their descendants or whoever's gonna leave Egypt eventually. "Promise me that you're going to take my bones and put them there." Let's say, "Promise me." So they all promised because Yosef knew that the Egyptians were not gonna let Yosef leave Egypt because they turned him into a god. So now Moshe came... After the plagues, a year of plagues—Dam, Tzfardea, Kinim, and so on and so forth—all the plagues happened. After the plagues, Pharaoh is begging Moshe and Aharon to leave and take everybody with them, take whatever they want. "Here's some money, here's some more money, just get out of my face. Go away. Go away." "Okay, wait a minute. We're not going to go away. We have some stuff to do." "What stuff do you have to do?" "I have to go get Yosef. Where are you going to find Yosef now in the middle of the night?"

9:00I have to go find them. What do you mean? Where are you going to find them? So you can't look. Egypt's big. So who's the only one that could possibly know? Serach bat Asher. Serach was the daughter of Asher, one of the twelve tribes that was blessed by Yaakov Avinu to live forever. And the reason why is because when they found out that Yosef was still alive, they knew that if they told the twelve tribes, and if they told Yaakov their father the truth, giving such amazing news all at once, he might have a heart attack and die. So they said, you know what? Let's get him into it, get him into a happy mood. So they asked Serach, the daughter of Asher, to sing for him and play a nice tune that would put him into a good mood. What were the lyrics? They knew that if they tell the 12 tribes, they knew if they tell Yaakov their father the truth, you give such amazing news at one time, you get a heart attack and die. So they said, you know what? Let's get him into it, get him into a happy mood. So they asked Serach, the daughter of Asher, to sing for him and play a nice tune that puts him into a good mood. What are the lyrics? Yosef is high and he's the viceroy of Egypt. I mean, she's singing in the background while Yaakov is learning Torah. He doesn't know why he's in a good mood. It's like white noise. You know, white noise is like the noise that moms put for their kids to go to sleep. It's a lot of noise, but that creates a deafening sound, meaning that it...

10:19the other noise from cars and all the other things that are out there talking and so on is like masked by this white noise. So he is listening to this music. He doesn't know why he's in a good mood all of a sudden. So then when the brothers come to him and say, "Yeah, Abba Yaakov is alive. He's the Viceroy of Egypt." Now he realized why Sarah was singing, and he blesses her, "You saved my life. May you live forever." And she must have lived forever. So she was the only one. They all went to Egypt. They lived in Egypt for a couple of hundred years. All of Am Yisrael became slaves for over 210 years. They were in Egypt and... Moshe comes 210 years later. To free Am Yisrael, he needs to find Yosef. Who's the only one that's going to know? Serach, who's still alive, who was alive at the time they buried him. What did she say to him? She says, Moshe, because they worshipped Yosef, they didn't want his body to ever leave. So they buried his body inside the Nile River. They prayed to the Nile River, and they also prayed to Yosef.

11:25You have to take the grave, the tomb, from outside of the grave, outside of the Nile. Now, it's not like today's technology where they have all these special ships and tubes that go into the ocean looking for the Titanic. So what are they gonna do? Moshe takes a mateh, a mateh is like a staff, and he puts Hashem's name on it, Hashem's real name on it, and on the other side he inscribes, he engraves, Aleh Shor Aleh. Aleh Shor Aleh means rise bull rise. Why rise bull rise? Because each one of the tribes had a symbol. Yehuda had a symbol of a lion. He had a lion symbol. Yosef had a symbol of a bull. So he wrote it, he threw it into the water, and he said, "Yosef, I'm here to fulfill the promise that your brothers made. I'm throwing the mateh. If you want, aleh. If you want, rise. You rise, you rise your own tomb. He's dead, though, for 200 years. You rise your own tomb, get out, and I'll take you to Eretz Yisrael. If not, you're going to stay here." He threw the mateh in, and Yosef's tomb came out of the water.

12:40at the same time that Yosef, that Moshe threw this mate, there was a little boy named Micha. Micha was following Moshe, and the reason why is because this Micha was one of the babies that Moshe saved. He saw that the evil Egyptians were putting babies inside the blocks and... The father didn't make his quota of building the pyramids or building something and making enough stones. Oh, you don't make enough stones? We'll put your kid there instead. So, Moshe cried to Hashem, "What did these babies do? Babies didn't have enough time to sin." Hashem says, "Don't worry. These are evil souls." What evil souls? It's a baby. Every baby is cute. he's so cute, he wants ice cream. You want to give him the ice cream truck because he's so cute, but it's a problem. You have to be a parent. Only one person in the entire place found this funny. Sleeping, sleeping, sleeping. I'm working very hard on the jokes, guys. You're not even getting it. So anyway...

13:57he's so cute, he wants ice cream. You want to give him the ice cream truck because he's so cute, but it's a problem. You have to be a parent. Only one person in the entire place found this funny. Sleeping, sleeping, sleeping... I'm working very hard on the jokes, guys. You're not even getting it. So anyway... So Moshe had a soft heart and he says, let me save one baby. Hashem says, you want to save a baby. I'm telling you it's a bad soul. It's a rasha. You want to save it? Save it. Save one. Save whatever you want. He saved it and he called it Micha. Why Micha? Because if he didn't save it, they would have crushed him. Comes from מָחוֹ (machoh), which means to crush him. He would have been crushed by the stones. So he saved his baby and named him Michah. Now this Michah followed him around for years, followed Moshe around for years. So when Moshe took out the tomb of Yosef HaTzaddik, this little Michah was hiding in the bushes. So as soon as he took the tomb, he walked away. He forgot about the mateh; he thought it was in the water. Michah jumped into the water and took the mateh. Fast forward a few months, we're at Mount Sinai.

15:13Mount Sinai, Moshe Rabbeinu is at Mount Sinai. He's late by six hours according to their calculation. Am Yisrael gets upset. They say, no, no, no. We think Moshe died. We need a new leader. We need a middleman. Make us a middleman. Make us another connection to Hashem. They didn't believe that the golden calf was God. They believed that they needed somebody to connect them to God, like Christianity. So, Aaron thought, listen, who, her in English, said no. He said no. He said, go fly a kite. They said, okay, you go first. They threw him off the mountain. They killed him. So Aaron said, if I say no also, forget about me dying. It's okay if I die, but it's a problem for them if I die. Why? They're not going to have a Kohen Gadol. No one's going to be able to be purified without me. So let me buy some time. Let me ask for the number one thing that it's very hard for people to give. What is it? Their money. If I ask you for your wife, you're going to give me your wife and the kids too. I ask you for your husband, you give me the husband and his friends. I ask you for your money, oh, too much. It's a lot. Money, I took the shoes for free. The shoes for free. So money is tough for people, miskenim.

16:41To his surprise, the Yetzer Hara was very strong. He says, "I asked them for their money, not just some of it, all of their money. They started taking off the earrings from their ears. They started throwing it at me. They filled up a mountain's worth of gold. I said, 'Okay, you know what? Even if I have all this gold, it's still going to take a while for it to melt.' Not long. Even if you have a 3,000-degree fire, it still takes a long time for it to melt. So I'll throw it in the fire. It's going to take a few days for it to burn. By then, Moshe is going to come down." Throws it into the fire, and then Micha comes, the little boy with the mateh. He throws—he doesn't have gold, meskin. He's a little boy. He doesn't have gold. What does he have? He has a little piece of metal. It says what? Aleh shor, aleh. Rise, bull, rise. He throws it into the fire. What comes out of the fire? A shor. Aleh shor. Aleh. What came out of the fire? A shor. That's what came out of the fire. A bull came out of the fire because the mate said, "So that's why Aharon HaKohen says, 'The calf emerged.' What emerged? I didn't make the calf. I was trying to buy some time. I didn't know that this Micha has this mate and he's gonna make this bull rise by itself." Meaning the gold by itself came out. He didn't make anything.

18:08Miraculously, they were put in an inn, and the gold took the form of a bowl. The bowl said, "I am God who took you out of Egypt." The bowl not only appeared, but it also started talking. Why did it have Hashem's name on it? Towards who doesn't want to take that matei if he didn't have a chance right now. I want two of them. No, no, the mateh by itself. Okay, the mateh by itself, according to the Midrash Ma'am Loez, didn't act by itself. Next question?