Video: Rebbe Speaking at Lakewood Kumzitz

HaRav Michel Twerski, Hornosteipeler Rebbe of Milwaukee speaking at a kumzitz/gathering in Lakewood during Chol Hamoed Pesach 5772/2012.

 "Klal Yisroel [always] managed to sing in the worst of times, but I think we've forgotten how to sing in the best of times..." [Click "READ MORE" below for video.]

Kumzitz in Lakewood - Pesach 5772

Last night, the Rebbe feered a tish-kumzitz at the home of his nephew, Reb Heshy Twerski in Lakewood. As per one of the attendees: "It was quite awesome. Someone was playing keyboard, flute and electric guitar. The Rebbe also said a beautiful D'var Torah, of course!  It was something magnificent as there was also quite a crowd." (Pics in the "READ MORE".)

Thanks to Mordechai Ort from MOCOM MEDIA for the pictures and video to follow, iy"h.

Rebbe Quotes: A Picture of Servitude

"What does servitude look like?

My Favorite Shiur (Part 1/3)

While this shiur is for any time during the year, the Rebbe spoke about it now as it specifically relates to Pesach and offers a path to many of the themes of the upcoming Yom Tov.

We all know that Hashem is the source of all things, that He is good and that He loves us. We understand that we must follow His Torah and mitzvos, that He sees and knows all and that there is nothing more enriching than connecting with Him.

Knowing, however, is a far cry from integrating. Our heads and hearts act as total strangers in the majority of instances, completely out-of-sync. Each one is operating on its own without anything connecting them. That third gear which allows the brain and our real-time, actualized self to run congruently is the elusive missing link, holding up the works in every area of life. What if we could take those things that we know to be true about Hashem and the nature of His world, and really live with that understanding? In other words, what if we would actualize in practice what we already know intellectually?

Well, for starters, we would be awesome.

The Jewish 911 - Emergency Help Line

Written by the Rebbe, Rav Michel Twerski, shlit"a, for Pesach 1991/5751

From Turning Pages (pg. 92-93)

America's cities have, in recent years, introduced a telephone crisis line "911" whose function it is to summon the appropriate communal agency to respond to any emergency called into its switchboard. A quick "911" call, thus brings out forthwith the fire department, rescue squad, police, CIA. federal agents, one of the above, or all of the above. The logic is obvious. It is designed to simplify matters so that but one short telephone number need be committed to memory, in order to call for help.

Shabbos Chol Hamoed Pesach

A gitten moed and a gitten Erev Shabbos,

I would like to bring your attention to two pieces that appeared earlier this year for Shabbos Ki Sisa: When To Use Holy Pride and Trust In Hashem's Cheshbon. The pesukim that these two pieces are based on appear in the laining from Shabbos Chol Hamoed as well.

The following was heard from the Rebbe at Shalosh Seudos on Shabbos Chol Hamoed Pesach 5767 (2007) in Lakewood:

Minhagim: Pesach (Part 3)

Bedikas Chometz: Before the start of the search, as is brought in the name of the Ari Hakadosh, ten small (less than a k'zayis) pieces of bread are placed around the house. One must be careful to wrap them well so as not to spread crumbs around the house.

The Rebbe uses a (beeswax) candle to search for the chometz. Any chometz that is found is placed in a paper bag with the aid of a feather and a wooden spoon. Upon conclusion of the bedika, the spoon, feather and candle are all placed together with the chometz in the paper bag. The Rebbe often places the paper bag in an additional plastic bag and then wraps the entire thing in a shmatte (old shirt or other material). Sometimes the Rebbe then ties a string around the whole package.

Biur Chometz by the Rebbe, shlit"a

The Equanimity of Matzah

When it comes to matzah there is an apparent incongruence. On the one hand we eat matzah as לחם עוני—the bread of affliction that Klal Yisroel ate while in slavery. On the other, we see that it represents freedom, for the very first thing we eat as a free people is matzah. If you would have asked Klal Yisroel what will be the first thing they eat once freed, they would have probably answered that they were going to make some real food and eat like a mensch. But Hashem tells them that now that you are free, you are going to eat freeman’s bread: matzah. The message is that if they would have eaten bread and other delicacies right away -- true, they would no longer be enslaved by Egypt, but they would have become enslaved by the next thing that came along: their conveniences, comforts, appetite. If it matters to you what you have then you are a slave. It doesn’t matter if it’s a Lexus or a Chevy. If I have less gashmiyus than I wanted, it doesn’t matter. If I have more gashmiyus than I wanted, it doesn’t matter. I can taste the matzah in everything because I am not interested in my self, only the will of the Creator. The more we get out of the way, the more in touch with the infinite we are. The most formidable impediment to kedusha is self. The goal isn’t putting down the world as much as it is getting self-interest out of the way.

And so אין מפטירין אחר הפסח אפיקומן. We need to keep the taste of matzah in our mouths as long as we can.

(Shabbos Kodesh Parshas Shemini 5767/2007)

Everyone is a "One"

                In the Haggadah we mention the four sons. We say אחד חכם, ואחד רשע, אחד תם, ואחד שאינו יודע לשאול. "One is the wise son, one is the wicked, one is"…and so on. Why don’t we count the sons "the first is the wise son, the second is the wicked…"?

                It is incumbent upon every one of us to remember that each son, each person, no matter who he is, is an “echad”, a one in and of himself, and must be treated and spoken to according to his neshama, personality and his individual strengths and weaknesses.

Chometz B'Mashehu

While most forbidden substances are בטל בששים, nullifiable as one in sixty (or some other ratio), there is an extra stringency attached to chometz that it is forbidden even במשהו, the smallest amount, and cannot be nullified. Whatever chometz represents—haughtiness, desire, other bad middos, however you want it—is something so contrary to the essence of a Jew and holiness that it becomes absolutely intolerable even by the smallest amount.

The Rebbe once quoted Chazal that chometz is assur b'mashehu and explained: Thinking that one is mashehu (something) makes him "chometzdik" and hence restrained (the word assur means both restrained and forbidden) from attaching himself to kedusha. As it says regarding haughtiness that Hashem says, "He and I cannot both dwell together."

The Seder is a Seder

On Erev Pesach 5766 (2006), the Rebbe said the following:

The critical underlying cog in the story of human freedom is the concept of seder. Without it, you live as a “responder”; life becomes just a series of demands on your time, energy and gifts. As such, you are never really free. You are enslaved to whatever might be the demand of the moment, be it the demands of the physical body, our fears and ego, or demands made by society and culture. We are so busy doing things just as they come up that we have no sense of where we are going. One needs to be able to pinpoint where they want to go and what steps they need to take in order to get there.

The avodah of the Seder starts with Kadesh. Kadesh means sanctification, consecrating oneself, saying, “I am holy. I am for Hashem.” Divine service starts with a kabolas ol of kedusha, the conviction to say, "I am going toward holiness and I want to get to the ultimate result of Nirtza, that I should be מרוצה to Hashem, that I should be pleasing to Him." We would like, at the end of our service in this world, for Hashem to pronounce over our lives the word Nirtza.

The question is, how do we get there? What are all the steps in between?

During the Seder, one needs to reflect on how this particular step is useful to me in my avodas Hashem in general. What can I learn from Urchatz, Karpas, and all the other steps of the Seder Night and how can I apply it to serve Hashem? You can use information from seforim or you can invent your own original insight, but the goal is to use each one of the simanim of the Seder as a stepping stone to reach the ultimate goal of Nirtza.

(from memory, not a recording)

Lyrics for the Rebbe's Karev Yom

Below are the Yiddish lyrics for the Rebbe's Karev Yom. For a recording of the music, go to the NIGUNNIM page. [UPDATE: Thanks to BerliozViolist, we now have an English translation. See the comments below.]

Minhagim: Pesach (Part 2)

The Rebbe, shlit"a, sells chometz gamur such as bread and liquor.

Click here to read an informative article from the OK outlining the basics of selling chometz, including an explanation of the Baal Hatanya's requirement that the sale be done through an arev kablan (guarantor).

* * *

It is customary to have special dishes for Pesach and not to rely on kashering them by hagala.

However, it is permitted l'chatchila to do so if one wishes. The Rebbe Reb Yaakov Yisroel, zy"a,  had special dishes for Pesach but there were always a few dishes that he would do hagala on. Similarly, the Rebbe, shlit"a, has separate dishes and utensils for Pesach but some years he will do hagala on a few things (particularly the becher of Reb Zisha Tolmitcher).

The source for the halacha of hagalas keilim is the verse (Bamidbar, 31:22-23) which states that any material that can withstand passage through fire, namely all metals, can be made "kosher" through libun or hagala. There is also a halacha that an earthenware utensil that has absorbed a forbidden substance has no remedy, even by way of hagala or libun, as the verse explicitly tells us (Vayikra, 6:21), "and any earthenware vessel...shall be broken, and if a copper utensil...shall be scoured and rinsed in water" (a reference to hagala).

At Shalosh Seudos on Shabbos Hagadol 5767 (2007), the Rebbe pointed out that when the Torah teaches us the halacha of hagala, it lists all types of metal (gold, silver, copper, iron, and so on). In the pasuk of earthenware vessels, however, the Torah only mentions copper. Second of all, as we know from the seforim hakedoshim, the entirety of Torah is always relevant and teaches us how to live in every moment and in every situation. How can we apply the ideas behind hagala to our daily service of Hashem?

The Rebbe explained that the reason why earthenware vessels cannot be kashered through hagala is because earthenware is porous and a substance will be absorbed much more deeply, to the "point of no return". Hagala isn't strong enough to expunge the absorbed material that entered so deep into the vessel. With metals (which are not porous), while the substance is absorbed to some degree, the damage done is merely a "flesh wound" and through the appropriate process, can be remedied.

In the Mikdash there were three levels: the Kodesh Hakadoshim, the Kodesh, which is where the service was performed, and the Courtyard where all the preparations took place. The Kiyor was there; that's where they prepared the animals and all the other things that were "mundane". A curtain supported by pillars set into sockets of copper separated the Courtyard from the Kodesh.

The dividing curtain between the mundane and the holy must be held in place by copper. The word for copper is נחשת (n'choshes), which comes from the word נחושה (n'chusha), meaning strong, adamant and inflexible.

In today's tumultuous and portentous world, there is no place safe from the adverse influences of society. The very air we breathe is impure and not only from an environmental standpoint. Today, living is hazardous to one's spiritual health. Undoubtedly, our best defenses will be breached. But the question is, how far will the poison and pollution get in?

If our convictions are made of n'choshes (copper), if we are adamant and unfaltering in our commitment to drawing the line when we are presented with something antithetical to our values as authentic Torah Jews, as inflexible as copper, then even though some of the "animalistic" and the mundane will penetrate, we can be purged. There are ways to restore one's integrity.

But if we are porous like earthenware and our minds and homes are a free-for-all, we will absorb much more of the impurity. Then, the only way to purify ourselves again is by breaking and that is something we are not ready to deal with.

The first pasuk teaches us in a practical sense that all those metals are subject to hagala. When the Torah tells us that earthenware is irremediable other than by breaking, we are supposed to pay attention to the alternate example: copper. None of the other metals are mentioned. Among all the other metals, copper (נחשת) represents that which is resolute and tenacious, and that is how we must live if we have hope of being restored to uncompromised purity and sanctitude.

On Motzei Shabbos Hagadol 5768 (2008), the Rebbe told the following story:

One year when the Baal Hatanya visited the Mezritcher Maggid for Pesach, he didn't have enough money to purchase a new becher for Pesach. All he had was a glass becher that he used during the rest of the year. Technically, a glass cup wouldn't need to be kashered but the Rama says in Hilchos Pesach that the minhag is not to kasher glass. Some understand the Rama to mean that on Pesach, because of the stringent nature of chometz, we are machmir not to kasher glass. During the rest of the year, to kasher glass that was used with treif, for example, one could kasher glass. Since the Baal Hatanya had no other option, he brought his glass becher with him to the Maggid's seder and relied on the opinions that glass is generally kasherable and even on Pesach.

When the Maggid was ready to begin the seder, he raised his becher to make kidush but something seemed out of place. He put his becher down and became lost in thought. He then proceeded to raise the becher a second time and again he put it back. After a third time the talmidim began to worry. Reb Mendele Vitebsker, a particularly close talmid of the Maggid, began to make his way around the room, searching for what could have upset the Maggid's kidush. Finding nothing amiss, he reported such to the Maggid. "I don't know either," exclaimed the Magid. "But how can I proceed when the Rama is standing there looking frighteningly b'rogez (trans. in a fury)?"

The Baal Hatanya heard that and quickly removed his becher from the room.

Chometz-Free Only With Siyata Dishmaya

איתא במשנת חסידים (ניסן ג, ד): הנזהר ממשהו חמץ בפסח מובטח לו שלא יחטא כל השנה

In Mishnas Chassidim it is written: One who is careful [lit. one who is kept] from even the smallest amount of chometz on Pesach is assured that he will not sin the entire year.

The Chernobyler Maggid (quoted in Yalkut Meorei Ohr) pointed out that it should have said הזהיר (ha'zahir), meaning "one who is careful", and not הנזהר (ha'nizhar), "one who was kept", the implication of which is that he was kept from chometz by a third party. So he says that the truth is that since chometz is forbidden even as a ma'shehu (a smallest amount), it is impossible for a person to truly be sure to get rid of ALL of his chometz. Rather, after all the hishtadlus and work that we do to remove the chometz, one must ask from the Ribono shel Olam that He assist him that he should be able to be saved and kept from chometz b'mashehu. The only way to be careful from chometz entirely is by the intervention and assistance of Hashem so it is correct in saying "one who was kept from chometz".

Minhagim: Pesach (Part 1)

The custom is to use only shmura matza throughout Pesach.

* * * 

Similarly, only hand-made matza should be used. Women and children are also makpid about this.

In the "machine vs. hand-made" debate we find some of the greatest poskim on either side. The rabbanim of Galitzia were predominately opposed to the use of machine-made matzos. It is not entirely clear what the prevailing custom was among the masses in Ukraine, but in Hornostiepel they were makpid to use only hand-made matzos, as well as shmura (although the two concepts are entirely dependent of each other).

When the Rebbe speaks about this topic, he invariably mentions this story (I have heard it from the Rebbe's brother Reb Shiya as well): The Rebbe Reb Leibele appointed Rav Chaim Osterer to be the melamed of Reb Yaakov Yisroel. Once, Rav Chaim brought the young Reb Yaakov Yisroel to a matza factory that was under his supervision. Rav Chaim showed him all the machines and explained how they make matzos in the best possible way from a halachic standpoint, with all of the hidurim and chumros. Reb Yaakov Yisroel pointed to one area of the machine and asked what was inside. When they opened it up, they saw some dough that had become caught and all the matzos were brushing up against it as they moved along the conveyor-belt (rendering them all chometz). Rav Chaim said, "The absolute truth is that this is near impossible and I myself have checked this exact spot many times before and something like this never happened. It is probably because you are an eiynikel of the holy Divrei Chaim of Sanz (who was strongly opposed to machine-made matzos)."

Reb Elisha Gorlitzer, hy"d

Rav Benzion Twerski related the following: During the Holocaust, Reb Elisha Gorlitzer, a son-in-law of the Rebbe Reb Motele and grandson of the Divrei Chaim, ran to Russia and from there was sent to Siberia. It came to Pesach time and although there were machine matzos available, being a grandson of the Divrei Chaim, Reb Elisha did not want to eat them. He exclaimed, "If it has come to this, that I must eat machine-matzos on Pesach, what is my life worth?" and he wept bitterly all Erev Pesach. Reb Elisha spent Pesach in Heaven for he passed away that night (15th of Nisan) before the seder.

* * *

The Rebbe, shlit"a, is not makpid to only eat razaveh matzos.

In Ukraine, it seems that there was a common custom to use razaveh matzos (whole-wheat matzos). This minhag is mentioned quite favorably by Reb Motele in a responsa published in Emek Shaila (Orach Chaim 17) and it is referred to as a "hidur" in Perach Shoshanim (107), the kuntrus of minhagei Manistritch in the back of Erchei Yehoshua (Reb Leibele's brother-in-law, the son of Reb Yitzchok Yoel of Kantikuziv). The Hornosteipler Rebbe in Flatbush told me that he follows this minhag, along with Skver and some of the other Chernobyl branches.

* * *

Like the Baal Shem Tov and subsequently all Chassidim, the Rebbe shlit"a does not eat gebroks (also called matza sheruya, lit. soaked matza). Many are exceedingly stringent regarding gebroks and go to great lengths to ensure that no amount of matza comes in contact with any liquid. So too, no utensils should come in contact with gebroks. Others, while they do not eat gebroks, they will be more lenient about utensils or are makpid only that water shouldn't touch the matzos but other liquids or spreads may be eaten with matza.
At the Rebbe's seder, all the participants are given bags in which to keep their matzos in order to minimize the amount of loose crumbs. Many will break off a small piece of matza while it is still in the bag and proceed to eat only one small piece at a time. Also, the matzos that are on the table should be covered, lest a drop of water fall on them.
The Baal Hatanya writes clearly in his Shulchan Aruch that the stringency of gebroks applies only to matza with water but regarding fruit juice, "it is simple that there is no reason to be stringent at all". Many, including the Rebbe, however, are careful also with fruit juice (Divrei Chaim was makpid?). But one does not have to worry about milk products that do not have water mixed in. For example, I once heard the Rebbe tell someone they could eat matza with cream cheese or butter. Even though the main issue with gebroks is with liquid, such as dipping matza into liquid, he nonetheless later told someone else not to spread avocado on matza.
If crumbs of matza did fall into a utensil with water, one should not eat the food that was in the utensil. The utensil itself can be washed out well and reused.
On the last day of Yom Tov (in chutz la'aretz obviously), we have the minhag to eat gebroks. The Rebbe does not have special utensils for this rather he uses the regular Pesach utensils and uses the same utensils next year without kashering them.

This is a work in progress so please send me any other minhagim, halachos, sources, stories and other information that you may know about. As always, comments and questions are greatly appreciated.

Thirty Days Before Pesach

Yeah, I know, its really twenty-six days.

The Gemara in Megila (29b) says that one must ask about and expound upon the laws of Pesach, starting from thirty days prior to Pesach which is Purim. The inner reason, adds the Chernobyler Magid (in his Likutei Torah, Parshas Parah), is because the בהירות (clear, bright light) of Pesach starts shining from Purim. Last Shabbos (still before Purim), the Rebbe was already learning Maor Einayim (at the beginning of Parshas Tzav) about Pesach.

Here is a tidbit from Rebbe Nachum of Chernobyl (Maor Einayim, in the השמטות from Breishis): "Rosh Chodesh Nisan is from the same word as נס [commonly meaning 'miracle', but also a pole or something elevated], for in this month we are able to "elevate" our heads [and pick ourselves up]. Therefore, it is imperative to strengthen and purify oneself [in this month]."

In Parsahs Tzav, the Maor Einyaim adds that just like Klal Yisreol went from Egypt (constriction, katnus) to freedom (gadlus) in Nisan, so too every year during the month of Nisan we have the capability to leave the constricted, limited experience and primitive thinking that we find ourselves in most of the year, and to move forward to freedom and gadlus (expansive, liberated experience and connection to Hashem). This is what Chazal meant when they said (Rosh Hashana 11a): בניסן נגאלו ובניסן עתידין ליגאל, "In Nisan they were redeemed and in Nisan we will be redeemed in the future". Every year we can tap in to the light of Nisan and be redeemed from the debilitating nature of Egypt, Paroah and all that they represent.