 Okay, so good evening everybody. I just want to point out. I do not necessarily know all your backgrounds I don't know what you know what you don't know don't know what kind of pace up city You do have or don't have I don't know what kind of people are gonna be at your sader don't know what your backgrounds are So I'm just gonna do my thing and if it's like two elementary, you know, okay, I'm not dumb I know that I'm sorry and it says I don't know what you're talking about. I apologize and we'll try to put it together Okay, that's the plan that's the official apology of saying that I've no idea who I'm really talking to which is always a little Tricky the official opening story of any Presentation about pay so has to be the following and if you've heard me on Russia's shodium keeper in the past couple of years I have used this story before absolutely 100% true story This is one of those stories of do not do what I just did right do not do what this is right That is you should not follow my example. Okay, but this is what happened It was before pay sox and my wife sends me shopping to the no frills on Wilson and Bathurst right that is a good thing because if you know anything about cleaning for pay sox the safest thing you can do is to get the Heck out of the house and just go shopping So I joined the ranks of all these men who have never been in no frills before in their lives Looking at their list and at their phones. That's why trying to find out where the heck stuff is because we don't know Where the aisles are anyways, we are all walking as absolutely slowly as humanly possible Because we don't want to go home because going up is just gonna be bad anyways So we're gonna we're shopping and we're taking our time and I'm taking stuff here and my shopping guys filling up in the lines It's like before a pay sox. It's the no frills over here God say this lines like and we're standing a line from a jabbering and talking and talking about Passover recipes and There's a lady in front of me and with her shopping cart So they have a lot of stuff in there, but she is clearly she's just yapping with everybody who can and I just have a headache I was gonna stand quietly and I'm dressed, you know approximately like this and she has in her shopping cart in front of me She has a big five pound box of madder chevrolet's moxa And she has this nice big ham sitting there in the shopping cart All right, and I'm just saying to myself lady, please just do not talk to me and she's talking to the Talking to everybody on people who check on she's talking to everybody then unfortunately Right for the Jewish people at large the person in front of her is checking out and not talking to her and she Clearly got standing line just quiet for more than two minutes. So she turns around just talking. Don't you just love Passover I Said Passover you celebrate Passover Well, I mean like you celebrate Passover, right? Like you eat my son pass. You don't have any months in your car I said not so You eat my son Passover She goes. Yeah, you you don't eat my son Passover. I Said my son Passover like why would anybody eat my son Passover? Well, it says so in the Bible, right? The Bible like the Jews they eat moxa and in Egypt and it says so in the Bible Bible I said you believe what it says in the Bible And she looks to me and says I mean Yeah, I mean you don't believe what it says in the Bible. I said If we leave what it says in the Bible lady, you wouldn't be eating ham That was the wrong thing to say, okay But you just got under my skin At that point she stopped talking and she checked out and I said you have a nice day What bothered me so much about that so she's eating monster and she's eating ham the official title of the Class was high holidays So if the high holidays are high holidays, what does they make Passover like a low holiday? What's a high holiday? What's a non high holiday? Because it's interesting the two most celebrated holidays among the Jewish people across the board left right and center are these high holidays and a Passover say people just get together and they make a Passover say and High holiday. They don't synagogue. They just sit there. Whatever they're going to buy tickets and they they did you go It's high holidays, and you just you just go But they're two very opposite holidays my friends Russianium kipper is A concept It's not celebrating anything particularly Historical we're not celebrating the creation of the world. It doesn't really appear in the liturgy. It's a day of judgment reflection and It's very universal Rosh Hashan is not just for the Jewish people The whole world is being judged. Oh well comes before the throne of God and all the nations Yes, that's all all the prayers talk about It's a universal concept of the whole world taking stock of where we're going and what we're doing It's very Understandable and can relate to anybody anywhere no matter what you think or what you believe the concept of taking stock And we're judged we're judged by God. We're judged by universal morality. We're judged by some kind of standards Everybody there's a concept of am I doing the right thing? Am I going the right way? You got to stop and reflect and it resonates with everybody Hey, saw We're celebrating a historical reality and we celebrated by telling a story and That historical reality either it happened or it didn't and If it did it did and if it didn't Then It did it and there's no holiday Passover is not a universal concept It's racist And it's Jewish It's exclusionary. That's what Passover is Good Lord introduced himself at Mount Sinai Good Lord says hi everybody I know hey, I said look at her. I am the Lord your God And Jews people said oh, yeah, and God said oh, yeah And you feel said well, who are you anyways? And the good Lord said don't get some of the cacha. I am the Lord your God Who took you out of Egypt and they said really wow that was amazing Well, can we do for you God and God said six or thirteen commandments and we said we're sorry we have That's how the good Lord introduced himself Asked us say for a cruisey why don't the good Lord say hi everybody I know he has some a little kept on the Lord your God who created heaven and earth. Oh, we do believe I created heaven and earth Why didn't God say hi? Don't you say I'm a little kept on the good Lord who created heaven and earth don't have other gods Don't commit adultery don't steal out of your parents. Why did he start with on the Lord? You got a cookie out of Egypt Because God was creating a very unique covenant with the Jewish people as his chosen people That's how the story gets introduced you will be a I'm Segula God's treasured people out of all other nations and That started with because I took you guys out of Egypt and all the people that never were in Egypt and therefore never got Taken out of Egypt. We don't have the same relationship. They're nice people keep the seven go to heaven Absolutely, seven know what high the law is universal morality. That's really great and and and go for it and that's great But you guys that were in Egypt You guys are in Egypt and nobody else I did ten plays to get you guys out of Egypt I split the sea to save your next from Pharaoh and Because of that we have a deal going and you're gonna be my chosen people and you got a mission to the world And you don't do seven commandments You got to do 613 because you've got a mission you got to spread light to the world You're my special chosen people and you've got a special mission and it all started with story in Egypt Abraham Isaac Jacob Jacob 12 sons goes out to Egypt. They become slaves life states God says Moses burning bush ten plagues and we're out of there and We have a special status Passover is a Jewish holiday Celebrating the birth of Jewish people and it's the foundation of why we have a unique relationship with the good Lord who nobody else has Now it's not racist because anybody can become Jewish. You can't become Indian if you're not native Indian, right? And you can't be any if you're not Caucasian you're not Caucasian, right? But anybody give me Jewish you gotta join you want to join you can join cost 613 commandment But you do get reborn with a new special soul and you get a Jewish soul which has certain amount of Elevated sanctity to it which gives you the ability to connect to the divine more than anybody else who doesn't have that soul and it creates a unique Relationship with God, but you are there for responsible to live a life of greater morality and higher Spiritual sensitivity than anybody else, but you're welcome to join anybody wants to join welcome to join if you pay the price You can join and you'll get the incumbent rewards if it ain't worth it and ain't worth it So that's okay. No, but those who were born Jewish you were born Jewish. I Start my great time. I run a girl's high school. I Start my great 10 Jewish philosophy class with the following question I told you okay, take out a piece of paper. It takes on a piece of paper Don't put your name on the piece of paper. It's not got a piece of paper I want you to imagine the following you're a 15 year old girl who'd been in Jewish day schools all your life I want you imagine you woke up one morning and your mother tells you You're not Jewish Your brother's a Jewish your sisters are Jewish your mother's Jewish your father's Jewish or everybody's Jewish, but you're not You have to use your imagination. That's impossible, but just use your imagination. You're not Jewish How would you react and? Would you convert or not? Yes or no and why? Now as a total aside the funny thing is I used to teach the boys high school Right and and the funny thing is a different entity between the girls and the boys are but it happens all the time We're doing this for like 35 years. It never never fails The girl the boys say what's their first reaction first? I go buy cheeseburger then we discuss it, right? The girls say what did my brother tell me earlier? I said okay get over with your mother and let's discuss the the philosophical concept. Okay, of Course one of most kids right so most kids right well I convert because all my friends are Jewish and my family's Jewish And that's what I know And I've been Jewish all my life and not I don't know what else to do and where else when I go to school So, you know, I would convert the smart ones, right? I wouldn't convert but I wouldn't tell anybody and So I would continue doing all the Jewish stuff that I like but I've ever did anything wrong And I won't have to worry or feel guilty because I'm not really Jewish anyway That's what the smart ones, right? nobody writes I Would convert because it's a historical reality that God chose the Jewish people after he took them out of Egypt They have a special covenant. They have a special unique spiritual soul and ability to connect to the good Lord a Beautiful mission to the world, which is why we are still here and nobody else is because God needs us here Doesn't need the holy Roman Empire when they finished being useful They were gone and you know Greece was down and the Ottoman Empire most kids today won't even know what that is Right and so never said something great British Empire, right is gone But the Jews are still here because we're to have a special mission want to be your see want to be part of eternity You got to join right nobody says I would join because that would be a great mission And that's a great idea and that's very rewarding And I would really like to be part of this because they're 15 year old girls and I don't respect them to write that And that's the opening of our grade 10 Jewish philosophy course in which I go on to prove how do we know that it's really? Historical reality how do we know the Jews are really in Egypt? How do you know the 10 place really happened how do we know the sea really split and God really spoke about sign? I how do we know it's a historical reality would see they have thousand years ago Who'd act those what happens three and a half thousand years ago? Aren't we just guessing which we're not which is not the point But pay suck is dramatically different my friends Pay suck is a historical reality. It's a story If the story is true, it's true. That's what bugged me about the lady with the ham You want to celebrate the high holidays because you want to change you want to make yourself a better person? You got to reflect over the new year. I buy it but you're eating match on pay suck and Telling over a story to your children Do you are you telling a true story? Are you not telling a true story? somebody once commented that The Passover Seder is the Santa Claus of Judaism So I said what do you mean this Passover Seder is the Santa Claus of Judaism? He said well all adults like they know Santa Claus is not true And you don't want your life based on Santa Claus is really checking a list But you'll take your kids to the mall and have them sit on Santa's lap and take a picture Because you have warm fuzzy memories of you doing that as a little kid when you sort of thought Santa might be real And you know the heart to tell your kid is not because they're in such a good time while they're little thinking There's a Santa Claus and when they find out it's not true It won't be true but why do you take them to sit on a lap and tell them a story which you know is not true because it evokes this warm fuzzy like Nice kind of memory and what harm could it do believing something which is not really true But when they're older why do they need to know the truth yet? Let them enjoy their childhood He says for some people that's Passover. They don't really believe it's true They don't really believe it happened, but they had this fuzzy Passover satyr Jewish feel good connection family Yeah, da da da da. So let's do it for the kids Until they grow up and realize they actually never really happened. So it's really silly That's the problem of Passover I have a whole bunch of kids and they're very different one son This story took place when he was in in in high school. He's about 16 years old. He was my Difficult kid, you know the one kid that like all the siblings Hayden he was the one he was sharp. He was argumentative He was just quick on the tongue. He would just pick your words apart He could just he could turn any chabbos meal within three minutes He can add everybody screaming and shouting my wife would be crying the whole place would be a shambles and they all hated him Right and he does I have such and if everybody felt and it was people love doing that too Very difficult kid to argue with because he was smart smarter than me. It was brilliant. It was quick One chavis So there was a couple who we were who had come to them classes that I'd given and they went to a discovery seminar They were sort of moving along and they said join us for Shabbat meals and they came one Friday night for meal From whether they probably drove there right but they came from meal and they're sitting down at the Shabbat's table They announced you know what I'm saying about we went to a discovery seminar and we my wife were sitting and talking and last night We said it just ain't all this is the end of the Bible. It's true. The Bible is not true It's either it's true or it's not true if it's not true It's not true. So don't worry about it and if it is too like you know I got something I kept with the program so and we thought about it You know we gotta make a decision we went through the sources and we read through we went through all these classes We decide you know the Bible we decide the Bible is true Awesome, it's a big step. That's huge. That's unbelievable So my son turned to them He says well if you decided the Bible is true, so then Why did you drive here with Shabbat not allowed to do that? So I was like So no no no the young man asked a very good question. Let me answer it I said I'd be so happy if you could answer it go ahead and let's see this So he turns into my son. He said you believe in the Bible. Absolutely believe in the Ten Commandments Absolutely, one of the Ten Commandments is on to your father and your mother Do you always honor your father and your mother and our whole table was Right and all my all my other kids that say good They finally got them and I would say they finally got him. It was a good answer, right? My son thinks for a second. He goes That's a good point but When I don't honor my parents, I know I'm doing something wrong and I feel guilty So granted you drove here, but at least you feel guilty that you did And at that point my wife say that he may say we have chocolate cake for dessert We have lemon pie for dessert and we just saved the subject So it was really inappropriate what he did and it was really not right But his point was Historical realities a historical reality His fault was of course is that it takes time to grow into doing and I can know something's true I know it's true that I shouldn't eat chocolate cake, but it doesn't mean that I always eat the right thing I go to a wedding. I don't always go for the fruit. I go for the chocolate cake. Why do I do that? I'm not an idiot. I don't need a PhD nutrition to know chocolate cakes are gonna kill me I want to live to see that my you know all my grandchildren's weddings I should know hit the fruit and drop the cake So which I do sometimes and sometimes I don't and that's a different topic But Pesach forces us to step back and say do we accept the fact that we are part of this great mission and The start of the mission was a concept of freedom freedom freedom Right, I go in the 60s freedom. I do the game freedom marches home, Alabama freedom Right Passover's freedom Which is pretty funny because in fact as most OCD holiday began Right the people go around like cleaning the refrigerators of like with you know with toothpicks and toothbrushes right scrubbing the floor and switch a cabin It's getting all new dishes and buying all pass over food and put the whole house upside down for freedom It's freedom. So what is freedom? The freedom is so crucial if the foundation of the Jewish people the first thing God taught us the first value That you are a unique nation. You are different than the rest of the world You have a unique mission to the world and the basis of it is Manchero say new Passover is a holiday of freedom. What does that mean besides just the physical fact that we left Egypt? There's more to it than that clearly. So what is freedom anyway? Oh So for that we need the same as one plus one is not three principal One plus one is not three principal So the story goes the desires looking for an accountant and everyone's sort of like lined up looking for the job And one guy goes in they wake they wait the way to come down says I didn't get the job He said well what happened? He said well he asked me how much one and one is I said to we threw me up Next guy goes in everyone waits comes out and says I don't get the job. He said what happened Well, he asked me how much one and one is so I said sweet any through me up next guys a little Jewish guy Goes in wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait probably comes. I said you could all go home Now I got the job He said well what happened said well Well, he asked me how much it's one plus one. And I looked at him and said, how much would you like it to be? One plus one is two. The world is flat or the world is round. You can believe anything you want. It's a free country. But just because someone has the right to have an opinion doesn't mean that I have to believe their opinion is right. You are allowed to believe the world is flat, but you can't force to believe how you use as my travel agent. You can believe one and one is three if you'd like. Because you're free country, you can have any opinion you want. As long as you're unhurt and harming anybody, what I want is free. The world is flat, the world is round. People did land on the moon. They did land on the moon. It's OK. Whatever you net, but the flame was moving. The flame wasn't moving. And the conspiracy theories that John F. Cater was such a person, but that one, the CIA, the KGB, that they're still alive. It was never dead. You can believe anything you want, right? Because you have a right to have an opinion. But just because someone has the right to have an opinion doesn't mean that it's right. So what's real freedom? Listen to the following two stories, my friends. I want you to contrast two different people and tell me which one was free. Two true stories. About 30 years ago, we were still living in a nursing cell. My wife and I lived in a nursing cell. My kids, except for my baby, who's six foot two and like 200 pounds, and has a baby. Right? But except for my baby boy, right? Everybody else was born in New Zealand. And I had a friend of mine who came over to me. And he said I was teaching. And I was running a Yashiva for people with limited Jewish background. And a friend of mine came over to me and said, would you like to go to the Soviet Union? This was when it was still the Soviet Union, right? Communist Russia, KGB, the bad old days, right? Would you like to go to the Soviet Union to teach the refugees, to teach the Jewish studies and stuff, to look for people? They need like Americans, right? People who have US passports because Israel had no political, had no relations with the Soviet Union at the time, obviously, right? And they need someone with a passport who can get there and do it. I said, well, but a grand deal. I'm going to talk to my wife. So I told her, well, I think I want to go to this. You're not going without me, okay? I said, well, we'll check it out. So we were being sent by the Foreign Ministry. Two-star, we sent by the Foreign Ministry of the State of Israel, unbeknownst to most people. The Foreign Ministry, the Missoula Hoots of the State of Israel was sending people to the Soviet Union, sort of underground, teaching Hebrew, teaching Jewish studies, teaching about Israel, just keeping a connection with all the refugees trying to supply them with money because they were starving, because once you applied for a visa to move to Israel, you lost your job. You were thrown out of your university, as you know, if you remember back then, right? And so they were looking for people to go. So we went for an appointment, went to Tel Aviv, to the Kyriac, and we had a meeting with the people from the Missoula Hoots from the Foreign Ministry and I went in my life and they said, wow, we've never sent a lady before. But they keep on asking, they would like the lady to come. There's like, ladies, they would like to talk to the Jewish ladies. They were sort of like religious lady. So we're happy to have you come. But as you understand, it's dangerous. So we had to sign a whole bunch of forms. That's to understand what the world was like then. We had a sign of form that said that the state of Israel will deny that they had anything to do with it. Don't bother to say if they catch you. Don't bother to say you live in Israel. Don't say the government sent you. We'll deny it, we'll say it's not true. They will never be able to find out that you ever lived here, we'll destroy all your records and they'll never know that you exist. So don't bother to say to stick with your story, that you're from Brooklyn. And don't bother to say anything else. It's gonna make no difference. They signed a paper they gave us the name of all the people who are responsible for our kids and they laid out exactly but the financial obligations the state of Israel, the government will have if we never make it back. They'll tear off our children, pay for their education, da, da, da, da, da. We get names, bank accounts. We had to give a whole thing assuming that we'll never make it back alive. Right? That's what we had to work under that assumption. We got a false ticket and looked up your food from New York. We kidded a whole false idea. I mean, our real names, but we got clean passwords that didn't have Israel stamped and then we flew to London, met a foreign minister agent in our hotel in London. He gave us a bunch of things. We memorized it, burnt it, flushed it down the toilet. We got in a plane, we landed in the Soviet Union. We each went through a different line because even though I wasn't wearing my yarmulke, but okay, so I wore one of these caps but you know, let's give it up now like it didn't look like some, like a boy from New York. Right? So we went in different lines and it still doesn't try different lines because maybe one will get through one moment. You never know. My wife took actually books in Hebrew to see if they could get it through. They said, but let's do it, let's do it. It doesn't, it doesn't. I took Judaica in English, right? And so we're going through lines. So my wife went through one line and I'm going through another and the way it was is it's like metal table with a pole with like a red light, a green light and with a red light, yellow light and green light. It's like a traffic light standing there. Right? So they open up my suitcase and the guy punches a button and the green light says flashing and two more people come over. Then they like pick up my suitcase and like dump it all out, right? And they see my fillet and he touches it and I look at him like he touched that. Yeah, he just, he just puts it to the side. It's another button. The yellow light, now there's more people coming over. He starts shaking out all the stuff. He finds I brought five pairs of jeans with me because they could get a lot of money for jeans at the time in the black market and they needed money. And he looked at the jeans and he looked at me and he like, you know, where are these jeans, bud? Like, let's be honest with ourselves. And I was going to say, hey, they're yours, man. Like, you know, we can make a deal. And he's just, now they got the red light flashing. There's about six people standing around, opening up everything, going to my suitcase, going to all the stuff. And then I get this, come with me, right? And it's like a grade B movie. Going to this room, there's this goon standing there with a girl like, I'm going to do something. There's a guy on the phone, I swear he's talking to nobody. Right, there's a bunch of papers on the desk. There's some other clown sitting in a chair, smoking a cigarette. It's moments, I was going to say, wow, this is like Hollywood but I kept my stupid mouth shut, right? And they said, who sent you? I'm from Brooklyn and I said, shut up. I said, okay, right? And that's just, he said, just play Stupid American Tourist. I said, oh, I can do that. I can play Stupid American. They said, just talk, you're a stupid New York tourist and just do that. So, I can do that really well. Right, and that's how they took out, they knew, by the way, how do we know the phone numbers of the people to call? We wrote them in, I took a checkbook and we made a code for everybody's name and the numbers, the amount of the check was really their phone numbers and a code but we made sure to edit it all up because they said sometimes they'll check and see and they'll see if the numbers don't add, they know the whole thing's baloney. And he took out a checkbook, he looks at it and I'm thinking, ha, I don't know if I figured it out. Right, and he said, who sent you? Are you coming? I'm trying to see if I get it. I said, shut up. And about three times he did it, he probably, I just kept on talking so I said, shut up. I said, I'm so sorry. Right, and he said, okay, get out of here. And I said, bye. Right, and off I went and we went. We spent the Shabbat, we spent, took a three hour walk from a hotel and we did a clandestine minion on Shabbat with a bunch of refuse nicks and it was a whole bunch of story. We met at someone's house, we walked to an empty apartment and a safe of tour about this size, wrapped up in a rug on the top of a closet. Right, they took it out and I said, who's landing this? And they said, well, you're the rabbi. Of course, they were reading the stories. I didn't really prepare. They said, it's okay, you're all we got. And I said, it was partially spent because I still remember. Right, Tuesday, we're giving a class somewhere and we finish and we take out our map and say, you know what? We're right near where we spent Shabbat. We're right near the Karevonov. Irena and Michal Karevonov is where we ate Shabbat lunch. So I bet you we can find their apartment. Let's see if we can figure it out. So we followed our map and we're looking at the street signs and we're figuring it out and I said, oh, right in here and we walked about 15 minutes and here we are, oh, we did it, we found it. This is, let's go say hello. Let's surprise them and let's go say hello. So we march up the stairs and we knock on the door thinking, what a nice thing. We're gonna say hello to the Karevonov and we open up the door and Irena Karevonov, the wife opens up the door. She goes pale and she goes and she closes the door quietly, walks us right down the steps, down the street into an empty apartment which is her grandmother's apartment. And all we know is is that we did something very bad but we didn't know what it was. So she gets to the apartment, we said, we guess we did something wrong, what we do wrong. She said, oh no, it's not your fault. My mother was visiting me, she was in my apartment. She would have seen me bring foreigners into the apartment. She's a member of the Communist Party. She would have reported me to the KGB. I would have been sent to Siberia. So I couldn't let her know you were there. Is she, was she free or was she not? Fast forward 30 years later, 28 years later. March of the Living. You know what March of the Living is? March of the Living is when they take a whole bunch of high school kids, right? Who are, a lot of them, some a little more backward, a little less backward and they take them to Auschwitz and they take them to Maidanek and they send them to the death camps and they tour and see what was going on. And then they go off to Israel. They land there for a few months when it's really Independence Day. Right, and they go on buses, they sit and they write journals. Watch, listen to the following story. Tell it to me if I remember again, Glenn Black, CEO of NCSY. And we were talking about kids and he said, I've gone on to Marshall Living quite a few years. He said, 20 years ago I went to the March of the Living my first time. Kids got off the bus, but get off at Auschwitz. They're all quiet. They all have little books to write and they take out their journals. They sit on the ground and they're writing. No one's talking to each other. We said, we gotta go and everyone wants to wait a few more minutes. They huddle in groups and start sharing thoughts. And they get on the bus and everyone's talking what it meant to them, what they saw, what they were thinking, what they were feeling. He said, that was my first March of the Living. He said, I went to another March of the Living about two years ago. Kids are on the bus. Every single solitary kid on the bus has his earphones or her earphones in and they're all watching movies on their phone or on their iPads. We get to Auschwitz, we're in Auschwitz, hello's and what, we're here. They all hit pause. They put it down. They go out. They take pictures with their phones. They say nothing to each other. They get on the bus before we tell them the time is up and by the time I got back on the bus, they're all with their earphones back in their ears and they just hit the play button and they're watching their movies. Who's more free? Iretta Kharivanov's mother was gonna report to the KGB but understood what was values or these kids of two years ago who had access to information that was unimaginable. They had the ability to discover things that no one then kind of hardly ever knew who had more money than their greatly in parents knew what to do with and get to Auschwitz, hit pause, take a picture on their phone and go back and watch their movie. What is freedom, my friends? So said from Matthew Hurst the following. Tom will tell us. Ha mechthav mechthav alokimhu kharut alha luchot. The luchos, the tablets, the pinnacle of the end of the Pesach story. We march through the desert, the whole point was to become God's nation. The deal is 10 commandments and the Torah that comes from it. It says the writing on the luchos were mechthav alokimhu, they were God's writing, kharut inscribed, chiseled in to the tablets. The way the letters work is they were thick stone tablets, squares really, no offense to McDonald's, but it was squares, right? And the letters were chiseled right through. If you're standing like you see the olive in the bay, you can look right through and see the people standing on the other side, from one end to the other. And it says the writing was mechthav alokimhu, was God's writing, chiseled in on the luchos. And the Gomorrah says, altikrah harus, don't read the word kharut, read it as if it's the word heirut freedom. The greatest freedom is comes from the study of Torah. Asim Aral, what does it mean, the greatest freedom comes from the study of Torah? What's the rule, the more classes you go to, the more things you find out you can't do? What's the greatest freedom? When you write the study of Torah, the greatest freedom. It says, Asim Aral, what does it mean there was a handwriting of God? How do you know that the writing on the luchos were the writing of God? How could the Jewish people tell that that was God who wrote it? Maybe Moses just took a hammer, chiseled it through. It says that they saw the luchos and you can tell it was God's handwriting. What does God's handwriting look like? I don't know what God's handwriting looks like. My students, I don't know who's handwriting is who. Right, how does that say it was God's handwriting? Talmud tells us there were two miracles in the writing of the luchos. One is they were chiseled all the way through. So imagine this, you've got Hebrew. So I'm on this side, right? So Hebrew goes from right to left. Oh, no, he, Hashem, Elo, kechah. Now if I said, okay, no, he, Hashem, I got it and I run around to the other side. So I shouldn't be able to read it. Because if it's chiseled all the way through, it's going the wrong way. But it wasn't. I go up to the other side, it goes, ah, no, he, Hashem, hey, wait a minute. Go to the other side, ah, no, hey, wait a minute. How'd that happen? If you keep it going around and around and around, every side you're on, you're on one side, there's a luchos, you're on the other side, there's a luchos, you're on the other side, there's a luchakah. It's a miracle. It says, my Lord, what was the purpose of that miracle? To teach you that no matter where you are, the Torah is applicable. You're on this side, you're on that side. You're in the Soviet Union, you're in the United States of America, you're in Canada, you're in the year 2017, you're in 1938, you're in May of Sharim in the 1500s, you're in Turkey in the 1200s, you're anywhere you are. You're an optician, you're a rabbi, you're a pathologist, you're in Antarctica, you're in Alaska, you're 90 years old, you're nine years old, you're a genius, you're a learning disabled, you're a man, you're a woman, you're a child, you grew up in God knows where or who knows. It makes no difference. The Torah's applicable everywhere you go. Everywhere Jews go, the values are all the same. We all wear the same fillings, we eat the same matzah, Shabbat's does, we all like to candles Friday night and we all celebrate in Shabbat. And it's true everywhere, it fits everywhere, and honesty is the same enumerary, whatever business you're in, honesty still applies. No matter what your family situation is, we honor our parents, and no matter where you live, we take care of the environment. It fits everywhere. Torah is freedom, because it gives you the ability to realize that no matter where you are, you can stick with your core. And one more miracle, one of the letters is Samach. A letter Samach looks like an O, same thing as an O. Now if you chisel an O through stone all the way through, well that middle part you like to fall out, right? It rolls through to that middle part you go all the way around, what's the middle part gonna do? It falls, there's nothing holding it. But it's floated right there. Why? To teach you that we can be in any society we are and stay completely disattached from their value system and keep our own independent value system. That's the power of Torah of freedom. That's why the Jewish people are eternal. Cause no matter what century, no matter what country, no matter what other values were going around, no matter what was politically correct or not, no matter what sociologists decided is the right and moral thing to do and it changes, used to change every 50, 100 years, now it changes every five, 10 years, we are independent. We have our own unique system and we live based on our own morals and it fits no matter where you are. No matter where you are, you can have that moral system and you can be a light into the nations and you can show the world what it means to run a business based on Torah and have a family based on Torah and take care of elderly based on Torah and run a country based on Torah and have an army based on Torah and have an economy based on Torah and have an environment based on Torah and a postal system based on Torah. You can add anything no matter where we are, no matter what century, what it is, it's applicable everywhere and we have the ability to remain unaffected. And that's our mission to the world and that gives us eternity, which is why we haven't been assimilated out and programmed out and holocausted out and blood libeled out and the United Nations can still make as many resolutions as they want, we are still here. And they can vote whatever the heck they want about what went in or did not go on to the Temple Mount. Their decisions of what historical reality is are completely irrelevant to my moral system. I think I do whatever they want but we float and we're independent. And how do we celebrate this? No movies. We don't take pictures and post it. We don't make comments. We don't make multimedia extravaganza. We do things. We eat something bitter. We eat mozza, we bring four cups of wine. We break the mozza, we dip things because education goes nowhere if you're sitting passively and watching. And the Satan knows that. And that's why as we reach the end of days, his goal is to destroy education by turning education into a spectator sport. You might have seen the article in Toronto Star about addicted to technology and social media, right? The psychiatrists who wrote a couple of books are resistible from other books. Famous, he quoted the famous concept in the Bay Area, Silicon Valley. There's a high school, 75% of the kids there are all children of people in the tech industry and no tech is allowed in the school. They do not use iPads, they don't allow phones in the building, they don't allow anything. You have to think by yourself, you gotta learn how to get around without your GPS, you gotta know how to add some crack without doing it for you, otherwise your brain turns to mush. You wanna celebrate it, don't sit back and watch an amazing, that was amazing, that was so inspiring. That's such a cute little poem, that's so good, I'm gonna send it to everybody and I know, add next. Oh, that's it, I'm gonna post a funny comment next. Like a picture of my standing table, that's beautiful. Look at my kids, they're all color coordinated in their outfits, add next. Look, everyone thinks I'm happy because I posted a picture that looks like I'm happy. I'm not, but along with everybody thinks I'm good, they're all happy. I know they're happy, they're just as unhappy as you are. Not according to the picture, well, not according to your picture, but I know I'm lying, but they'll be there live. Doesn't make a difference. We eat, we do. Same is safe for Hachino. I want you to watch this. It says it's safe for Hachino like this. There's a law that says that they weren't allowed to break any bones of the Passover sacrifice. What a funny law. Why couldn't they break any bones of the Passover sacrifice? We need, I'm sorry, it's all the people I'm bringing in. Okay, so I'm saying just give those objects to everybody. Safe for Hachino, so Safe for Hachino is an interesting book. It goes to all of 613 Commandments and explains what the rationale behind them was. There he is. So, is there enough? You got it? I mean, I got tons, but need a few more? We're good? Two more? Three more. Take as many as you want. There you go. Thank you. So, Commandment Number 16, if your Passover Seder's really boring, you can throw this out as a Jewish Snapple fact. Okay? Anybody know what Commandment Number 16 is? Yeah, sure it is, man. It's you should not break any bones of the Passover offering. As a Seder at Slamalotishburu, you can't break a bone. Why couldn't you break a bone when you're reading the Paschal Sacrifice? Like, who the heck cares? What a picky-yoon, typical Jewish type of controlling OCD thing, which is why Judaism is not relevant because it makes dumb little ideas. We're talking about freedom and the world and all God works for us. Don't break us if we're bound. How old-fashioned? Says Safe for Hachino. At the root of the pre-supply is the purpose of us remember the miracles of Egypt, as written of the other Commandments regarding Passover. This is also a branch or a corollary of the above-root purpose, for it is not a way of honor for royal princes and counselors of the land to scrape the bones and break them like dogs. This is fit only for the hungry people, the hungry poor of the people to do, therefore at the beginning of our emergence to become the treasured choice of all the nations, a kingdom of Kohanim and a holy nation. And again, every year at the same time it is fitting for us to perform deeds which reflect the great degree of excellence to which we rose at that hour. Through the action and symbol that we perform, we set this matter in our souls permanently. You act like a royal prince, but we don't have many left today. But the Queen of England, if she was eating a lamb chop, I'd just somehow can't picture her trumping a crackling and I'd just picture her sort of thankfully, she's a Queen of England. You don't just like some guy in a bar wolfing down a lamb chop and some football party in a parking lot. We're royalties, so we have to eat like that. Because if you act like royalty, you become royalty. Okay. Now, do not think my son to seize upon my words and ask, but why should the eternal Lord bless and be he command us to do all these things in order to commemorate that miracle? Eat moxa, eat more, why do we gotta do all this stuff? Would the matter not have entered our consciousness through one commemoration? Does not be forgotten from the mouth of our descendants for not out of wisdom when you pounce on me about this. But rather childish thinking would move you to speak so. Now my son, if you have understanding, hear this. Incline your heart, I will teach you of the Torah and the precepts for your benefit. Know that a man is influenced in accordion with his actions. And his famous line go down to the next underlining. Achre apulot nim shachim hal vavo. For one's acts is drawn. For one, after one's acts is the heart drawn. The heart follows the action. You act a certain way, you feel it. Eat the moxa, you eat moror, you break a moxa in half, you dip it into the mud of the mortar, of the churroses, you take your hand and you dip out 10 little drops of wine for the 10 plagues and this blood. Right, and you think about that, you do these things, you app these things, you do it. That's what makes you feel. You act a certain way, if you're gonna sit that and wait till the epiphany strikes you, you'll never get anywhere. Passover is the holiday of education. And we educate not by watching videos. We educate not by just listening to an inspiring speech. That can get you going, that can get you started, that can get you thinking. But the power of the chosen people is 613 commandments. Cause you gotta do it. We don't talk honesty, we have a whole quarter of our code of Jewish law that talks about business and thinking and how you treat people. We don't talk environment, we have laws that tell you to do fruit trees, can't you tell me, can't you tell me how tall it has to be, what it has to be, do it. We don't talk it. That's the power of the Jewish people, that's the eternity, that's the power of education. And the purpose of the Seder is to inculcate in ourselves the historical reality that we have a mission to the world and we are unique and we are special and that's our responsibility. Being chosen is a responsibility and a responsibility gets carried out in action. I wanna share with you just three quick words, three things that you can share at your Seder that help carry through this idea. Watch, and once again, we're gonna ask some misrepresentable distributes so you can see the words assuming you don't know how to go to my heart. I don't know how to go to my heart, by the way. So don't feel bad if you don't know how to go to my heart. Here you go, that's more than enough. Here we go. Watch. Number one, we're starting with a page that says from the beginning our ancestors were idol worshipers, see on the right side of the page, Mithchilo Deavot Azari Avotena. Can I don't know if you know the Hebrew or the English, I apologize, so we have both. All right, Mithchilo Deavot Azari Avotena, the beginning, for the beginning our ancestors were idol worshipers and now, the good Lord has brought us close to his worship as it says, Yeshua told the whole people. Right. V'yama yashil kolam kormashim okis re'al b'yav na yashim wo techim yolam. Right. Your forefathers used to live on the other side of the river, over the river. Terach, who was the father of Avram and the father of Nakhar, and they worshiped foreign gods. That guy has a vehicle in his Avram, and I chose your father Abraham because of whatever reason God chose Abraham. And I made him walk in the land of Canaan, and I increased his seat and I gave him Yitzchak. And I gave to Yitzchak two children, Yaakov and Esau. And I gave to Esau of Mount Sayyar in order that he will inherit it, whereas Yaakov and his sons, he went down to Egypt. Baruch shomra fachatol yisrael. Blessed is the one who keeps his promise to Israel, blessed he. Since all of them are blessed, he can't even get an exile to do as he says. You should know, you'll be a stranger in a land that is not yours and will enslave them and afflict them for 100 years, and also a nation for which they shall toil, I will judge, and then they're gonna go out with much property. Thank you God for keeping your promise. Blessed one who kept his promise. He promised we'd go down to Egypt and we'd come out with miracles with great wealth and get the land of Canaan, and he God kept his promise. Question, we're thanking God for keeping his promise. Baruch shomra fachatol yisrael. Blessed is the one who keeps his promise to Israel. Blessed is the one who keeps his promise to Israel. Promise is a promise, of course, you have to give up to thank someone for keeping your promise. He promised, he promised. We didn't ask him for the promise. He came over and made a promise. Oh, thank you for keeping it. I mean, you're God, don't promise. If you're not gonna keep it, don't promise. If you promise, I have to thank someone for keeping their promise. I have to thank God for keeping his promise. Gee, thanks God, really appreciate that. There's nothing, don't thank me, it's going all right. There's a promise, of course, he has to keep his promise. But the sentence makes no sense. What do we mean by thanking God for keeping his promise? Same as question. Best answer I ever heard was the following. We're not thanking God for keeping his promise. God made a promise, he made a promise. Who did God make the promise to? God made the promise to Abraham. What was the promise to Abraham? Second line down in the Hebrew or second in the English. We are not going to know. Don't take that, you should know. Okay, get it. Yes, I work, I'll bear it, so I'll let him. Your seed, your descendants will be strangers of the land which is not theirs. They're gonna be enslaved. They're gonna be afflicted. And then I'm gonna take them out. I'm giving great wealth and the verses continue. I'll give them the land of Israel. God promised to Abraham his descendants would have this mission to the world. Was Isaac Abraham's descendant? Yes, he was. How many grandchildren did Abraham have? Two. Yaakov and Asa, Jacob and Asa. Did God ever tell Abraham which of those two grandchildren would be chosen for this? No, he said your descendant. God could have done it to Asa. God could have chosen Asa. God could have said, okay, Isaac, you have two children. Jacob, he'll go to the land of Isaiah and he'll live there. And Asa, I'm gonna send to Egypt. I'm gonna do miracles. I'm gonna take Asa out and he's gonna be my chosen nation and he's gonna have great wealth and he's gonna have the land of Canaan. He's gonna have eternity. He's gonna have that promise. God could have done it to Asa, but he didn't. He chose Yaakov. What was the other name for Yaakov? Yaakov had two names. Israel, B'nai Israel, 12 sons of Jacob called B'nai Israel. Baruch Shomer Haftachatou Le Yisrael. Thank you God for keeping the promise that you made to Abraham. Thanks for choosing Yisrael and not Asa because we're thrilled that we have this mission. It's not, oh well, thanks for keeping, I mean if you want to chose an Asa, my life would be so much better. But you did it, so it's okay. I'll eat my son and let's get this over with. Thank you God that you chose Yisrael and as a descendant of one of the 12 tribes of Yisrael, I get to send in a Passover Seder and I get to have 613 opportunities to get close to you. And I have a mission to the world. I have a soul which has sensitivities that others don't have. Thanks, I appreciate it. I'm so thrilled to be at this Passover Seder and I'm still here and no one else is. The others are gone, Ottomans and the Turks and the Roman Empire, the Greek Empire and the names that we don't even hear about anymore and we're still here, we're on the same fill and eat in the same matzah, doing the same Shabbat, we're still here. Thanks, that's the power of the Seder. That's what we want to unculcate in our children. Number one, number two, a very technical word but it's a cute one just to show how you gotta think about things to make sure things make sense. You gotta make things make sense. Flip the page over, why do we eat matzah? Everybody knows why do we eat matzah? We say it in the Passover Seder, why do we eat matzah? Whoa, he called and showed his feet for saying he was on the day of the Ahmids, right? So remember, the fact that our ancestors' dough was not able to rise before the King of Kings on Blessed Me revealed Himself to them and redeemed them, says they baked the dough which they brought out of Egypt. Pharaoh got up as the children's song goes. Pharaoh got up in the middle of the night, little kid's song goes. My grandson, this Purim, he dressed up and he says, Zeddy, what do you think I am? Right, that's terrible when your grandkids does this with their Purim costume, you have no idea what's going on. Right, he's wearing pajamas and he's wearing a crowd. He's wearing pajamas and a crowd, right? And I said, you're Pharaoh in pajamas in the middle of the night, he goes, right! Famous kid's song. Pharaoh in pajamas in the middle of the night, he woke up in the middle of the night, he chased the Jews out. So he chased the Jews out, they took their dough with them, right? Cause they were baking their matzah for the Passover Seder and he threw them out in the middle of the night and they baked the dough which they brought out of Egypt when they got to their first stop and it came matzah cakes. How come they baked them to matzah cakes? Why was it in a bread? It didn't rise. Why didn't it rise? It doesn't take long for bread to rise. They were expelled from Egypt and couldn't carry. They went so fast and that's why we matzah to show how quickly we got out of Egypt. Then we took our dough, went to the first stop which was really quite far away. We know that it only takes 18 minutes for matzah to rise, they take their dough, they went, oh my God, look at that! Didn't rise, we got a really fast wheat matzah that's compared to the fact that no didn't rise. Right, everybody's willing to do this, we're all good? Why doesn't that make any sense? When was the command to eat matzah given to the Jewish people? After they got to their first stop and they saw the dough did not rise and they said, oh geez, look, the dough didn't rise, man. And God said, yeah, miracle, oh, you like that? Okay, let's eat matzah for the rest of our lives. No? They were given the command to eat matzah way before back in Egypt. God said, right, you're gonna take a lamb, you're gonna slaughter the lamb, you're gonna make a Passover Seder, you're gonna make a Paschal sacrifice and you gotta eat the Paschal sacrifice with matzah. The command to eat matzah was given before this miracle ever happened. So what do you mean matzah to commemorate the miracle? God told them to eat matzah before the miracle even ever happened. They were eating matzah already in Egypt at their Seder. They didn't get a chance to bake at all, they had to run out. So what do you mean? God created the midst of matzah to commemorate a miracle which happened after he already paid the command. You hear the problem? You hear the problem? The volunteer. Says he about to know like this, and the alchemy lawyer says the same thing, listen to a great void. Says like this. God knew he was gonna take him out really fast. He knew that they were gonna be tossed out of Egypt in the middle of the night and they were gonna travel what really should have taken quite a few hours or a couple of days and they're gonna travel it on wings of eagles. You know, configuratively, on wings of eagles, that's where the phrase comes from, on wings of eagles they're never gonna get there like five, 10 minutes flat. But the problem is how would they know about that miracle? They didn't have watches. Can't anybody get out? Hey, man, look, I was like one, 10 in the morning. Right, let's get out, let's get out, let's get out. And off they go and they, okay, we can unpack. We got to our first stops to go, that's great. What time is it? Hey, it's only 1.15. Wow, it only took five minutes. They didn't have watches. How are they supposed to know that it only took less than 18 minutes and not three, four hours? How would they have known that miracle? So God said, I'm gonna create a way for them to know about the miracle. I'm gonna command everybody, you gotta eat matcha. And if the dough rises, you gotta throw it out and this is the first command, they're gonna do it, right? Okay, we got people, man. What's their first command? We can do it, okay? You gotta slaughter or lamb and eat lamb chops. I can do that, what? Okay, what's next? You gotta eat matcha, what's matcha? Oh, no, water can't let it rise. 18 minutes, once it sits 18 minutes, you gotta throw it out. You gotta sit over and out. Okay, you wanna, I don't wanna burn the hell just for my first commandment, man. All right, we're picking our matcha, we're rolling somebody, you gotta get it. We can't go, it's gonna rise in 18 minutes. I'm gonna burn the hell if like if it rises. You gotta, no, everybody out, out, out, out, out, out. No, no, no, take the dough and go, take the dough and go, oh my God, it's gonna rise. We're off the grid. They put it in their backs, they're carrying on it. They just, what the, we're carrying this dough. Can you imagine, you've got like a challah on your shoulder, like on your way to the saner. Who does this think of challah when you're crazy, right? And they get to, they say, well, let's take it out. She didn't rise. We're just so big matcha. That means we got her in under 18 minutes. Wow, that's a miracle. That's what I know, I was gonna do that. God created the midst of matcha to act as the stopwatch so that people would appreciate how quickly they got up. Brawl to your barbina. So says your barbina. And number three, my friends. And the most important one. And we end with this. Of course, a little story got in with the stories. Baruch HaMakom Baruch Hu Baruch Shana Tantar Ali Ammoh Yisrael, blessed is the place. HaMakom, God. Blessed is he to give the church to the Jewish people. Can again Abba, but in Divertah are the most famous part of the, the church talks about four sons. One is the wise son. One's the evil son. One's the simple son. Then what is the one who doesn't know how to ask? Says Rav Schwab. Yes, of course, there's four different sons at our Pesach Seder. There's four different sons in our own families. He said, but what the Haggadah is really telling us is there's four different sons within ourselves, my friends. We go through different stages of life. Whether as we grow or as things go out through the year, sometimes we're wise and we wanna know and we care. And sometimes we just feel like God screwed us over and we say the hell with it and we do really stupid stuff. And sometimes we just, we just don't get it. And sometimes we're so lost, we don't even know what to ask. And it happens to all of us throughout the year. Can again Abba, but in Divertah are all those four sons. And the Torah has an answer for all of them. No matter what you're going through, no matter what's happening in your life, look to Torah, it'll give you an answer. And why is it referred to HaMakom? Unfortunately, the word HaMakom is one of the most famous names for God because it's one of the statements that most Jews unfortunately know. Jews are into death. Death goes over by Judaism. We do York sites, we say Kadesh, we do Yizgur. We're into death, right? Life is hard, but death we go, we're into, right? What do you say when someone's sitting shiva? HaMakom yennachem etchem. May the Begad comfort you. But we don't use the word Hashem or Rukim. We say HaMakom. The word HaMakom, that name for God, you'll always find when dealing with difficulty or pain or trouble, why and why here? Because HaMakom refers to the fact that the good Lord is everywhere. The world is in God, God's not in the world. God is everywhere. Up, up, down, down, left, right, all around like the children's song goes. FSU, I told you there's nothing else but the good Lord's existence. We sort of see tables and chairs and stuff, but God is really everywhere. God's holding our hands and all our ups and all our downs. HaMakom, God is in all places, whether he's at your birthday party of your grandchild, or God forbid at the funeral of a loved one. He's there when you sign to buy a house. He's there when you sign your bankruptcy papers, right? He's there at the birth of your great-granddaughter, which I had a few months ago, and he's there at God forbid in St. Mike's and other places that we don't want to be. The good Lord is everywhere. Borch HaMakom, Boruch Hu. There's four children at our Seder. We eat by families. It's the only midst of the Torah that has to be done by family. Mishpahotehem, the commandment in the Torah to eat the pastoral sacrifice and have the Seder. It's said the Mishpahotehem, they had to eat it by family. It's been entrenched in Jewish tradition. Isn't it funny? We have a family Passover Seder and we hate it. No one gets along with their family. The politics are intense. We hate it. What are you talking about? Right? My daughter, Mary's daughter and son-in-law came from Gateshead, came from England. They came last week because my grandson was just by Mitzvah last Shabbos. So they came in from Pesaw so they came early with their five children. And today they drove off to New York to see his side of the family. And myself and my wife and my daughter who lives at home said, they're gone for a week. They're only here for five days so far but then they're coming back. Every family has politics. You think, right? Five of mom's family doesn't have politics. My son's coming in from Jacksonville. I got a son from Rockaway. Right, this one is, everyone's, he's over. Also religious one. He's the not religious one enough. He's the modern one. He's the this one. He's the righteous one. He's a cool one. He has opinions. He makes everyone cry. No one likes that one. Everyone talks about each other. Right, these two siblings talk about the other one and then they talk about this one. There's so many different what's-up groups in the family. There's the sisters what's-up groups and the brothers what's-up groups and the siblings what's-up groups. There's only one what's-up group which we are allowed on. And everyone's right because otherwise they're talking about like what old age home they're gonna put us in. Right? They don't get mad and God knows what's going on there. But it has to be done by family. It's difficult. It's painful sometimes family. Baruch hamukkom baruchu when we introduced the four sons, we use the word hamukkom. God can relate to all children even if they're difficult. God can relate to all of our lives, part of our lives. Even if sometimes our lives are the Russia or our lives are the Tom. He can relate to all of them. We just have to be authentic and real. Many years ago, Ken Beisbergen came to town to speak. Programming's running unique lives and experiences. Right? It was run by a fellow named Bob Benny you might be familiar with. Jewish guy, Orthodox guy. He told me the following story. See, brought her in. Ken Beisbergen did her thing. Right? Spoke. Afterward shows over. He says, you hungry? She says, yeah, I'd like something to eat if somebody wants. I'm Chinese. I go, okay. To make some phone calls. It's two in the morning. They go down town, China town. They get a restaurant. They go and come to them all the security guards and the whole shebang. They take over a couple of tables and go in. She orders, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah. He says, hey, Bob, what are you going to add? He said, I'll have a tomato. Oh, we have this. A plain tomato. I can don't cut it. Right? They said, so she says, Bob, you don't like Chinese? He goes, well, I'm Jewish and I'm Orthodox and I only eat kosher. She said, you know what, Bob? I work in Hollywood. I work with Jews all the time. You're the first authentic Jew I think I've ever met. When we're proud of being the chosen people, we will be respected by everybody else. Sam, we're still here. I have a great granddaughter, my friend. She's about three, four months old. Hi, she's going to be at my Passover Seder. You know why she's going to be at my Passover Seder? Well, she'll be at the second Seder. First Seder, everyone's on their own. Second Seder is one big, huge, 40-person pandemonium, all right? Why is she going to be, you know how much she's going to be at my Seder? Because about 100 years ago, in 1920, my father, who grew up with no Jewish education in Cleveland, Ohio because there wasn't any Jewish education, went to public school. At the end of the day, his father brought our Rebbe to sit at the table and all the boys sat around the table and they learned how to read. His one sister, of course, was excluded because those girls didn't do that then. She, of course, she listened into the kitchen and grew up and ended up becoming a Hebrew teacher, hilarious, all right? But that was the extent of his education. He was in Ohio State University. And the exams were on Saturday. It was 1920. And his friends, he said, what are we going to do? The exams are on Saturday. And his friends said, it's the fire vow. It's the 1920s. You gotta get one of the programs. Just write the exam. It'll be out. We don't make, they don't like Jews here. This is Columbus, Ohio. You should be happy they let us in to Ohio State University. Just duck, stay low, and don't make waves. So my father, who was noisier than I am, didn't understand the concept of duck and don't make waves, right? That's why he was a demolitionist in the World War II, right? He wrote his congressman, wrote his senator, petitioned the president of university. All the exams were changed. All exams on Saturday, Ohio State University. He made a decision in 1920 to be proud of who he was. And that's why his children, his grandchildren, his great-grandchildren, his great-great-grandchildren, that's how they're gonna be at a Seder in a week and a half. Cause he made the decision way back 100 years ago. He had no clue. He was a single guy. He didn't know he was gonna get married. He didn't know he was gonna have me. He didn't know that I was gonna have a bunch of kids. And he didn't know that I was gonna have grandchildren. And he didn't know that one of my grandchildren, his great-grandchildren, was gonna have a child, which is his great-great-great, he didn't know that. He moved us up against a wall and decided to be proud of who he was. We carry that on and we make the right decisions now. And Mirza Shannon, everybody in this room, will have a great-great-grandchild who will be at a Passover Seder. Have a wonderful young to thank you very much.