Welcome to our Bitachon class. We now discussing the Haggadah of Pesach. We're in the stanza of Yechol Rosh Hodesh, that we might have thought that the right time for the Seder is Rosh Hodesh. And the pasuk says, ב יום ההוא, B'Yom HaHu/on that day. Well, that day , may mean during the day . And as we said last class, anytime we have a thought, there has to be a basis for it. We don't just say maybe. The fact that we even thought that the Seder should be on Rosh Hodesh Nissan means there's a strong reason to think so. And the fact that we thought that the time to do it is during the day and not the nighttime means there's a strong reason to think that as well. So what happened during the day of the 14 th of Nissan that would warrant saying the Hagaddah of Pesach during the day ? The answer is, that's the day when they slaughtered the Korban Pesach. What was the ultimate revelation that caused the need to do the Haggadah? You might have thought it was the Korban Pesach. So exactly what does the Korban Pesach symbolize and teach us? This is very important information-The Egyptians worshipped the sheep. That's why it was considered an abomination to be a shepherd in Egypt, as is clearly stated in the pesukim. Furthermore, Moshe told Paroah that they could not slaughter the sheep in the local town of Egypt; they'd have to go out to the desert, because they'd be stoned if they were seen slaughtering sheep, the Egyptian god. Why did the Egyptians worship the sheep? It wasn't random. There are 12 symbols in the horoscope. These 12 symbols are not just for palm readers or the newspaper horoscope column. These are real concepts rooted in our Torah literature. The Ramban, for example, tells us that the symbol of Tishre, Libra is a scale , which he says is a sign in the heavens that we're being judged that month. And the Mazal of Adar is a fish, or Pisces, as fish are above the Ayin Hara.. The Mazal of Elul אלול אני לדודי ודודי לי, I am to my beloved, and my beloved to me is Virgo, which is a young maiden. All of these symbols are real and have to do with specific times. The sheep is the head of all 12 Mazalot . That's why Rabbenu Bachye says this month is called Aviv/ אביב is a contraction of אב י"ב, the father (or chief) of the other 12. Therefore, the Egyptians worshipped the sheep as the so- called Bechor , or first born of the Mazalot . (After the sheep comes the ox, the Taurus. One of the commentaries say the reason why the Jewish people worshipped the golden calf was because they said Now that we brought down the sheep, we have to go on to the next symbol, which is the ox. ) So the Egyptians worshipped the sheep and felt it had a power in the heavens and when we slaughtered the sheep, our actions down here were impacting the mazal of the sheep in heaven. We were going to overcome the mazal , based on the principle of אין מזל לישראל/ We Jewish people are not impacted by the horoscope. We're not impacted by any of these signs. As Hashem told Avraham, Go outside. Says Rashi , this means leave your soothsayers, leave all of that stuff. We the Jewish people are above all that. God tells Avraham, Go in front of Me and you will be perfect. And that's the Brit Milah. And there's another Mitzvah later on, which is תמים תהיה,Tamim Tihyeh be perfect with Hashem and go away from all the soothsayers and stargazers. So the Brit , the deal that we made with Hashem was to be Tamim , to be complete with Him , to rely on Him and to be above all that nonsense. We're above nature, we don't follow nature. Today we'll call mazal nature . So that was the symbolism. We slaughtered the sheep down here and the mazal of the sheep in the heavens comes down and everything falls with it. Additionally, the Jewish people tied the Korban to the bedposts on the 10th of Nissan, which was Shabbat HaGadol. It was a miracle, it says, that the Egyptians did not kill them when they did that. The midrash says further, quoted by Tosafot, that the pasuk in Tehilim lומכה מצרים בבכוריהם / Hashem hit the Egyptians with their firstborn. Shouldn't it be, He hit the firstborn Egyptians ? Tosafot explains that when Moshe announced that we'd be slaughtering the sheep, a civil war broke out among the Egyptians. The Egyptian first- borns all said, Let them out already! What are you doing , and there was a civil war between the firstborn and the rest of Egypt, about whether they should let them out before the 14th, before they slaughter the sheep. Why were the firstborn so concerned? The Maharsha says, because there was a connection between them, almost like the concept of a voodoo doll , a little doll that is supposed to resemble a particular person and if you stuck pins in the doll's ankle, suddenly that guy would get a pain in his ankle. Likewise, the firstborn sheep was like a voodoo doll of the First born Egyptians. How so? When you slaughter the sheep down here, it impacts the mazal in the heavens of the firstborn, and the firstborn would die. That's why slaughtering the sheep was actually the impetus of Makat Bechorot . That's why the firstborn said, Don't let them slaughter the sheep! It's going to bring us down. And that was what the war was about. So Korban Pesach illustrated, in a very vivid way, the power of the Hashem over the mazal, but En Mazal L'Yisrael. We ignore Mazalot . The Ramban, in many places, discusses the important rule of תמים תהיה. In Bereshit 17,1, he quotes the pasuk in Devarim 18,13, and says that This is one and the same, which is, יאמין בלבו, believe in your heart. כי הקדוש ברוך הוא לבדו, הוא בעל היכולת בתחילה ובסוף,. הוא יכול לעשות, לבטל. Only God is in charge. He can do or annul. And therefore, when you hear any soothsayer or any predictor, לא יאמין שיבואו דברים על כל פנים, don't say it has to happen. When you hear predictions, financial, health or otherwise, you should say in your heart, הכל ביד עליון, עליונים. It's all in the power of God. And he says, וכפי שיתהלך אדם לפניו, and the more I connect to Him, מפרוטות, I will undo these signs , and he says that's what it means when Hashem told Avraham Avinu, in Shabbat 156a, Leave the soothsayers. He repeats this in Devarim 18,13, where he says, When you hear what they say (tariffs or anything else), you know what your response should be? הכל בידי שמים, it's up to God. הוא אלוהי אלוהים, He's the God above all, עליון על הכל. And believe, שכל הבלות תהיינה, everything that happens to me is כפי יתקרב אדם לבדו תול, the more I connect to God in His service. This is an important rule, and this is the message of the Korban Pesach. And lastly, he says this in his השגות on the Sefer Mitzvot , Mitzvat Aseh 8, where he discusses things that he believes should be on the list, that the Rambam left out, and he believes that תמים תהיה was one of the 613. We have to believe that He alone does everything, He knows what's going to happen in the future, and if we have a problem, we look to Him. He says, שכל הכל תהיינה, We have to believe that all forces happen, as we connect to Him. And this is why we might have thought, מבעוד יום, " The message of the Korban Pesach? wow, we should make the סדר right then and there!"