Emuna Beams Lazer Brody

Why all the chaos in the world and in each of our lives? The Gemara teaches us an amazing lesson: before enhanced abundance and joy, there's chaos, both physical and emotional. We are taken out of our comfort zone in order to accustom us to a new and better reality. That's the key to understanding current events. It's also proof that Moshiach is imminent. Here's how:

During the Omer, Rebbe Akiva's 24,000 students died because they didn't properly respect one another. We still mourn them, almost 2,000 later, because we haven't yet corrected their sin. We're all still guilty of intramural hate. Do you know why? Let me explain, with an amazing story from over sixty years ago, about my father, of blessed memory...

The 210 years of exile and 116 years of slavery in Egypt ended with on the eve of the 15th of Nissan, 2448 in the Hebrew calendar. This was the year 1312 BCE. Hashem gave a most difficult command to the Israelites. Each family had to slaughter a lamb, which the Egyptians held sacred as their prime deity. This was an act of total dedication to the Almighty, where emuna had to prevail over logic and fear. Such dedication triggered the final exodus from Egypt, in a remarkable chain of events that we learn in todays lesson.

When Moses relayed Hashem's message of "Let My people go" to Pharaoh, the Egyptian monarch snarled back, "Who is Hashem that I should listen to Him? Besides, I've never heard of Hashem before" (Exodus 5:2). With such unprecedented insolence, Pharaoh was begging for punishment. The punishment came quickly. There were ten different plagues. Each one was a precise measure-for-measure response to the suffering that Pharaoh and the Egyptians meted out to the Israelites, as we see in today's lesson.

How did a fierce, proud and independent people like the Israelites fall into slavery in Egypt? Why did they have to suffer unspeakable atrocities? Here, in first of our 3-Part "Story of Passover," we gain a deeper appreciation of the Passover holiday and of true freedom. 

The Passover Seder night is not an evening of reminiscing about what happen to our nation 3,336 years ago. Like everything else that's Divinely inspired, it's timeless. The Haggadah is about us - today - and much more relevant than the daily news. Our future is where our past is; without our past, we can't make sense of the present.