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BEGIN WITH A GRIN

A teacher comes to the principal with complaints.

“Every time I turn to the board, the students throw plastic cups at me.”

“How long has this been going on?” the principal asks in shock.

“Since the beginning of the year…” the teacher answers.

“So why are you only coming now?!” the principal wonders.

“Because only now have they started hitting their target…”

WHAT’S IN A DRINK?

The majority of parshas Emor is called, in the language of halacha and the poskim, “parshas ha’moados.” This is the reading we most often read on Yomim Tovim, and it includes all the holidays of the year and the special mitzvos done on them.

Since we are currently between Pesach Sheini – which falls this year on Friday – and Lag B’Omer, which falls this year on the coming Monday, we will focus on a Kabbalistic explanation from the holy Zohar, the book of Rabi Shimon bar Yochai, which relates to the holiday of Pesach as read in the parsha. We will add to this a Chassidic dimension, based on the words of Rabbi Levi Yitzchok – the father of the Lubavitcher Rebbe – and a practical, relevant, and contemporary explanation from the teachings of the Rebbe ((from a sicha of motzoei Shabbos Emor 5738, printed in brief in Tiferes Levi Yitzchok, Vayikra, p. 209).

In the Zohar on our parsha it states (Emor 95b): “Rabi Yosi asked: Those four cups of that night (the Seder night) – why were they instituted? Rabi Abba answered: ‘The holy companions (the disciples of Rashbi) have taught us that they correspond to the four expressions of Geula!’”

Rabbi Levi Yitzchok explains that Rabi Yosi’s question about the four cups stemmed from his inner essence. “Yosi in gematria equals kos (cup)… and therefore the cups of Pesach are personally relevant to him, and he asked why there are four cups.” He goes on to explain that the sefira of Malchus (Kingship) is also called “cup,” from the verse “I will lift the cup of salvation” – a cup of redemption. He then explains why the answer came specifically from Rabi Abba, and how Rabi Abba’s spiritual root helps and contributes to Geula.

The Rebbe addressed Rabbi Levi Yitzchok’s explanation twice, each time from a different angle. On one occasion, the Rebbe asked one simple, pointed question: What is the novelty in the Zohar’s words here compared to what is already explained in the Gemara and the Medrashim of Chazal? After all, the Talmud Yerushalmi (Pesachim 10:1) already states that the four cups correspond to the four expressions of Geula! Moreover, this is stated explicitly multiple times in various Medrashic sources – so what did Rabi Yosi and Rabi Abba come to teach us?

The Rebbe prefaces his answer by noting that in the four cups we see something and its opposite. On one hand, each cup is its own thing and its own mitzva, which is why we recite “borei pri hagafen” over each cup separately. On the other hand, the final blessing after the four cups is recited only once, at the conclusion of the Seder – which teaches that all four cups are connected to one another. For if each cup were a completely separate thing, we would be expected to recite a bracha acharona after each one individually.

I’LL DRINK TO THAT…

Similarly, the four “Geulas” to which the cups allude are also something and its opposite. On one hand, each of the four Geulas has a different character and purpose. The Exodus from Egypt took place through open miracles – “with signs and wonders” (Devarim 4:34), “and with great awe – this refers to the revelation of the Shechina” (from the Haggada). By contrast, the Geulas of Chanuka and Purim came through miracles clothed in nature, to the extent that the miracle was not apparent at all. The future Geula will involve wonders even beyond the level of the Exodus. From all this it is clear that each of the four Geulas is very different from the others – so much so that each is its own distinct matter. Yet at the same time, they share something in common: they are all called “Geula” – one name that encompasses everything.

This means that the four cups and the four Geulas come to teach us that even though each is unique and individual, they all join together, complement one another, and are united in one central point.

This is the novelty hinted at in the words of Rabi Yosi: that all the Geulos – even the future Geula – are connected to and included within the Exodus from Egypt. The Rebbe demonstrates this based on the words of the great Mekubal Rabbi Moshe Cordovero, known as the “Ramak,” in his commentary on the Zohar called Or HaChama. There he explains how all the Geulos are included in the sefira of Malchus, which (as mentioned above in the name of Rabbi Levi Yitzchok) is the sefira that represents the essence of Rabi Yosi himself. That is, in his question of why Chazal instituted four cups, Rabi Yosi is in essence asking: what is the connection between these four cups – what unites them, if each one represents something separate? Rabi Yosi expects Rabi Abba’s answer to explain that just as the four Geulas are all included in one central point – the sefira of Malchus – so too the cups, despite their differences, are one central unified matter.

What do we take from this? What is the practical, contemporary message?

Although on Pesach, at the Seder, we emphasize the story of the Exodus from Egypt – we recount what happened in the past – that redemption from Egypt is what gives us the strength to continue forward toward the future Geula. It gives us the power to be redeemed anew from our personal “Egypt” each and every day, because all the Geulas are connected to one another and draw strength from one another.

The same applies to Pesach Sheini; although it relates to the past, to the Exodus from Egypt, and to rectifying what we missed at the proper time, that redemption from Egypt not only gives us strength for our personal, daily Geula – as the Alter Rebbe wrote (Tanya, ch. 47): “Every… day a person is obligated to see himself as if he personally left Egypt today” – but it also connects us, with complete and confidence, directly to the true and complete Geula.

TO CONLUDE WITH A STORY

We will end with a story about the Baal Shem Tov – and a cup, but not of wine, rather of milk.

Once, a simple guest came to the Baal Shem Tov for Shabbos. As was his holy custom, the Baal Shem Tov asked each of his students to share words of Torah. The last of those seated was the guest who had come for Shabbos. He was a simple Jew and was not able to offer Torah insights, so he asked if he could tell a story that had happened to him. The Baal Shem Tov agreed.

“For a full year I was imprisoned in a pit. While I was there, I constantly heard voices emerging from the ground. I thought perhaps they were demons. Once I gathered my courage and asked: ‘Who and what are you – human beings or demons?’

“‘Demons,’ they replied.

“‘And why do you weep all the days of the week, but when Friday night arrives you laugh?’

“‘We are demons who derive our vitality from the sins of a particular Chassid – a big tzaddik who fasts all the weekdays, and only when Shabbos arrives does he break his fast. He recites Kiddush over the wine, and immediately afterward his wife brings him a cup of milk. Every time his wife brings him the cup, we try to spill a little of the milk – so that the couple will come to quarrel, and from that we live. All week long we worry that we may not succeed in spilling the milk. But when Friday night comes and the argument begins, we rejoice in our success.

“‘This past week we were very worried, because the Chassid decided to do teshuva and stop quarreling with his wife. He decided to prepare the cup of milk himself, so there would be no reason to be angry at his wife. And indeed, that is what he did.

“‘But in the middle of preparing for Shabbos, his wife opened the cabinet where the milk was kept, and by accident the milk spilled and the cup broke. When Shabbos came, the Chassid happily went to the cabinet to take his cup of milk – and the cup of milk was gone. Naturally, the argument that Shabbos was even greater than usual, and so we laughed and laughed, for we had succeeded in our mission to live and survive.’”

Suddenly, one of the students sitting beside the Baal Shem Tov fainted. It turned out that he was the very Chassid and tzaddik the guest had told the story about.

Because from quarrels and shouting – no Geula will ever come!

Good Shabbos!

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