ANSWER:
If we practice up on a Mezuzah - now this is for people who want to live successfully as Jews. It's a tragedy, we have Mezuzahs and sometimes expensive ones, and sometimes we remember enough to kiss theMezuzah, but that's such a minor achievement in comparison to what the Mezuzah actually must do. There's no question that the purpose is to make us think of the contents of the Mezuzah. To think Hashem echod as you pass by a Mezuzah, every time in and out.
Here's a man coming back from work and his nerves are ragged. Inside the house his wife has been dealing with little children all day long, and her nerves are jangled, and in one minute they're going to have an encounter. So he stops at the Mezuzah, and he stops for a moment and thinks, Hashem echod; think about Me, Hakadosh Baruch Hu says, that's what the Mezuzah is for. And he walks inside with the Mezuzah still in his mind, and he saves the evening.
Now let's say his wife as she's going to open the door for him, she passes by the Mezuzah too, there's a Mezuzah in the kitchen, and she looks at it too, both of them are armed. They have the weapons for this great battle, milchomo chazoko, it's a great battle. The battle of living properly in a house is a milchomo chazoko, and that's the way that idealistic Jews could live.
You should know, that if you put in efforts into the Mezuzah, the Mezuzah is going to give you surprisingrewards, it'll pay you back with interest. Adam mekadeish es atzmo me'at, mekadshim oso harbei, you put in a little effort and you're going to get out a great deal of results.
Good Shabbos & Chag Kasher V'Sameach To All
Questions from previous years
Question #130
QUESTION:
Why was Matzoh chosen to be the symbol of chipazon?
ANSWER:
Matzoh is the food, bread is the mainstay of a person’s nutrition. Bread is called the mashein lechem, the staff of life. The most important nutrition of a person is his mind. Because as we said before, the purpose of the whole story of Mitzraim was to createsiechel in us; deiah, emunah, understanding. That's what Mitzraim is for. We were in Mitzraim, and all the nissim were lamaan teidah, you should know. And just like bread is the most important item of our menu, so we have to know that the most important thing that we have to get out of life is emunah.
And therefore the Matzoh is the vehicle that brings us this lesson. So as you eat the Matzoh, chew the Matzoh and swallow it, and think of the lesson of chipazon the lesson ofmamleches kohanim. You're a kohain eating a korban minchah. Also by the way, Matzoh tastes good, too. As you enjoy the Matzoh and you say mechalkail chaim b'chesed, You’re feeding the living with kindliness; it's for a purpose, too. Bread as you eat it and you enjoy it, it gives you nourishment. It’s what the purpose is of you enjoying the bread: Ba'avur shmo hagadol, for the sake of His Great Name, ki hu kail zun umefarneis lakol, that He is the one that feeds everyone.
So as you’re eating the bread and it causes you to thank Hashem, bread has to give you emunah. If you eat bread without getting emunah, so the bread is wasted. It says openly: Hazon es haolam kulo, what's the purpose? Ba'avur shmo hagadol, for the sake of His Great Name. It means that we should recognize His Great Name and speak about Him. So the purpose of the bread is, to arouse within us a recognition of the wonders that Hashem performs when He creates bread.
Where does bread come from? Bread is nothing but carbon dioxide that comes from the air, mixed with some sunlight, and some water, and a small amount of materials from the earth; that's bread. And now it becomes a life giving substance called bread, that's Hashem. So when you eat bread it's supposed to give youemunah. So besides Matzoh which gives you all these lessons, Matzoh is also hamotzi lechem min ha'aretz. So you can enjoy the Matzoh, too, and think how good the Matzoh tastes. It's a pleasure to eat Matzohs, certainly, it's a good change from eating bread all the time. And as you're enjoying the Matzohs you're enjoying all the lessons that Matzoh and bread give you.
Question #177
QUESTION:
Ein maftirin achar haPesach afikoman, after eating the Korban Pesach you can not conclude with eating desert. Now today, we don't have the Korban Pesach so we eat a piece of matzoh called afikoman.Which means that after that piece of matzah we can't eat anything. Why?
ANSWER:
The reason is given as follows: When you eat the korban pesach, it was the end of the seudah. Pesach ne'echal al hasova, it was eaten at the end of the seudah. Pesach night first they ate everything else, and then they ate that kezayis, the piece of the Korban Pesach, broiled meat. They wanted that, that taste should remain in their mouth's as long as possible. The taste of the mitzvah should not be washed away by other things.
That's what the father says, when the chochom says, muh ha'aidos v'hachukim, tell us my father, something about Korban Pesach. The father says my son, I'm going to teach you things about Korban Pesach, about the Torah, about Hashem, but one thing I want you to know, what I tell you should remain in your mouth forever. The taste should not depart. Sometimes in the beginning the child is interested, but later on as he gets older, he's sophisticated, no! The taste should always be in your mouth. And so the Korban Pesach should remain as long as possible, even when you wake up in the morning after Pesach night, you still have the taste of the Korban Pesach in your mouth.
And that's a remez, that when you learned the great ideals that Hashem wants us to learn in our youth, ein maftirin, don't let anything wash it out of your head. Literature, business, whatever else there is in the world, watch out! Nothing should wipe out the lessons that you imbibed when you were idealistic, when you learned them in your youth.
This is transcribed from questions that were posed to Harav Miller by the audience at the Thursday night lectures.
To listen to the audio of this Q & A please dial: 201-676-3210
Important Numbers
