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Rabbi Aaron - V’hi She’amda [Getting Ready for the Seder] · In the Beis at Yeshivat Orayta

• 0:02
  Rabbi David Aaron: This is David Aaron. I want to share with you a few words about Vehi Shalamda. There's two ways of understanding it. One is what is stood up for us, what has kept us going, sadly, that in every generation somebody's tried to destroy us, and isn't that so very true? And how did that if everybody's trying to destroy us, how did that keep us going?
• 0:39
  Well, you know, the famous understanding that antisemitism has been a pretty good preservative to Jewish identity, that in times of history where the Jewish people were most assimilated, and we would have thought would have been most welcome and included in the non Jewish world, we were most excluded and hated, and and somehow it works. I remember I had a student who was living in Germany, and he was very much embarrassed of his Judaism before he got to Israelite. And he said it was the weirdest thing. He so tried to hide his Judaism, and yet, constantly, people would ask him, are you Jewish? Are you Jewish?
• 1:27
  And he didn't particularly look Jewish. I mean, maybe the Jewish star gave it away. I'm just joking. No Jewish star. But so that's one way of understanding Vihishe Amda.
• 1:41
  But the other way to understand it, which I think really is Morfshat, Is what it says right before it. Blessed is Hashem who has guarded his promise and talks about Hashem made a promise, and that promise has kept us going. And and and what is that promise? So there's a beautiful teaching from Rav Solovecic that you can find in Man of Faith in the Modern World, volume two, chapter two. I'm sorry, volume two, chapter seven, page 70.
• 2:30
  And this is what Rav Soloveczyk teaches. The patriotic covenant introduced a new concept in history, while universal non Jewish history is governed by causality, by what preceded it. Covenantal Jewish history is shaped by destiny, by a goal set in the future. So we have a very different understanding of history. The the the Brit avot is something that changed the very nature of how Jewish history unfolds, and this is how he continues to explain it.
• 3:06
  Covenantal Jewish history, by contrast, is teleological. What that means is that it is propelled by a purpose. What happens to Jews emanates from a divine promise foretold about the future rather than events impelling from the past. Jewish history is pulled as by a magnet towards a glorious destiny. It's not pushed by the past.
• 3:31
  This is the meaning of the Brit Avot. It is a goal projected, purpose pursued, a destination to be reached. There's a future. There's a promise. And that promise is pulling us, and that is going to keep us going no matter what situation is, no matter how much we deserve it or how much we really don't deserve the future, the future's a done deal.
• 3:55
  It's already written. It's signed, sealed, and delivered, and it is drawing us. And and if need be, if we go off track, Hashem will do a miracle. He'll get us back on track. But this is one of the beautiful things about Shahid Hishamda, that what has kept us going is not just the antisemitism that we've had to cope with in every generation, but also what's keeping us going is the promise.
• 4:22
  We are a people that have a promise and Hashem doesn't simply fulfill his promise. It says he's. Meaning, filling a promise means you keep your deal, I'll keep my deal. I promised you this if you do that. But that's a fulfilling of a promise.
• 4:38
  But guarding a promise means I will make sure that whatever you need to do for my promise to get fulfilled, I'm gonna make sure. I'm not only gonna fulfill my promise, I'm gonna guard and make sure it gets done. So you should have a great miss you guys and all the best. Shalom.