Raize Guttman 03-19-17 (21 Adar 5777)

Pesach shiur. Pesach is time that we spend 7 days thanking Hashem for taking us out of bondage so that we could become a great nation. The Rabbeinu Yonah writes in Shaarei Teshuva that when a person goes through difficulty and misfortune, he should accept it in a positive way. If he does that then he strengthens himself spiritually. When that misfortune is taken away from him, he should not only thank Hashem that he was cured, but he should also thank Hashem for the pain he endured. He should trust that the difficulty was given to him with love in order for him to grow and the actual darkness was the cause of the light that came. This why on Pesach when we read the Haggadah, it starts at the beginning when things were not so good. The Jews were in spiritual decline & suffering. Only after we speak about all we went through do we speak about the miracles Hashem created, because they have to be seen as one unit. Hashem put us in Mitzrayim and had us go through all of this slavery and torture – in order to create an Am Yisrael . In order to create the Great Nation of Israel from the foundation – from scratch. Our meaning and purpose in life is to serve Hashem. We needed to do this in our identity, with our resources and through our purpose in life.