Welcome to Daily Bitachon. Pesach is over, and we'd all like to go back to our regular lives; start eating less and whatever else. We'd like to get back to normal . But back to normal doesn't mean forgetting the lessons that we learned over the holiday. It says in Devarim 16:1, where the Torah talks about Pesach, שָׁמוֹר֙ אֶת־חֹ֣דֶשׁ הָאָבִ֔יב וְעָשִׂ֣יתָ פֶּ֔סַח לַיהֹוָ֖ה אֱלֹהֶ֑יךָ כִּ֞י בְּחֹ֣דֶשׁ הָֽאָבִ֗יב הוֹצִ֨יאֲךָ֜ יְהֹוָ֧ה אֱלֹהֶ֛יךָ מִמִּצְרַ֖יִם לָֽיְלָה׃ In the spring month, slaughter Korban Pesach, don't eat any חמץ for seven days, because Hashem took you out of Mitzrayim, and you went in a rush. And what's the purpose of the this holiday? למען תזכור את יום צאתך מארץ מצרים, so that you should remember the day you got out of Mitzrayim, כל ימי חייך, all the days of your life . Rashi says, what does למען תזכור that you should remember mean? That through the Korban Pesach and Matzah, you will remember. How will you remember? כל ימי חייך . We know from the Haggadah that ימי חייך is the days and , כל ימי חייך is the day and the night. So we have to remember Yetziat Mitzrayim in the day and night. When? When we say Keriat Shema twice a day. So the Torah is clearly telling us that the goal of the seder , and the seven days of Pesach is so that we will remember getting out of Mitzrayim all the days of our life, every day. And we do it, twice a day in Keriat Shema. This is a very important fundamental that we're recharging on Pesach, but Pesach is not the only day. I want to share a beautiful Kaf HaChaim from Rabbi Palaggi, chapter 15, Halacha1, that was shared with me by Rabbi Nathan Kairey. Rabbi Chaim Palaggi is explaining a custom brought down by one of the Mekubalim , known as the Matzat Shemurim, Rabbi Natan Shapira, that before he prays, when a person walks back the three steps, he's supposed to make a little wave to the people that are behind him out of respect. Where exactly does that come from? What's the reason for that? I was always raised on the Ben Ish Chai that tells us that when we pray, we are replicating angels with our feet standing together like angels. And since the about angels, it says נותנים רשות זה לזה, they give each other permission, we mimic the angels and we give permission, so to say, by waving to our friends as if we're asking their consent. Rav Chaim Palaggi brings that as a second reason. But the first reason he gives is his own Chiddush: that in the Keriat Shema of both Shaharit and Arbit, we talk about Keriat Yam Suf the splitting of the sea, and the miracles of Yetziat Mitzrayim. Rashi in Berachot tells us we do this because what brings Hashem close to us, so that we can pray to Him, is the recognition of His miracles of Yetziat Mitzrayim. Rashi cites a beautiful Yerushalmi Mashal that explains why it says you have to be סומך גאולה לתפילה, you can't separate between the words Ga'al Yisrael and the start of the Amidah, and you have to go straight in. It's compared to a person that went to the king's palace and knocked on his door. It takes a minute for the king to get there. Imagine if, before the king gets there, the fellow walks away and he's not there to ask the king his question! He says, similarly, when we're praying, as we mention Yetziat Mitzrayim and the miracles that happened there, we're knocking on the King's door. The King is about to come down, so you can't walk away, you have to be go right into the Amida. We see from this that what brings Hashem down is the mentioning of these miracles. And what do we say, both at night and in the morning? We quote from Az Yashir, Hashem Yimloch L'Olam Va'ed- the ultimate message of Keriat Yam Suf- that Hashem is, was and will be King forever. And therefore, he says, since the rule is that Hashem is only king upon us only when we're united (like it says ויהי בישורון מלך, בהתאסף ראשי עם /When is God king of the Jewish people? When the Jewish people are united and together) . He says, and this is the big Chiddush-since חייב אדם לראות את עצמו בכל פרט ופרט כאילו הוא יצא ממצרים, קריעת ים סוף. Every one is obligated, (not just on the night of the Seder), every day to mimic the going out of Egypt and Keriat Yam Suf. And therefore, as we prepare to begin the Amida, we want to say that right now, together, we're accepting Hashem's kingdom, the yoke of His kingdom , B'Lev Echad/ with one heart, as we go to pray to Hashem. So we give that little wave to one another as a gesture, in order to unite, in one heart, in our accepting God as a King, and then we pray. Similarly, in Minha, he says, we also have the line at the end of Ashrei , where we say, ואנחנו נברך י-ה / We are going to bless God, we together. So in two out of the three prayers, we are reminding ourselves of Yetziat Mitzrayim, and we want to make it real- to the extent that we act out the togetherness that we had at Keriat Yam Suf , by gesturing to each other. This is just an example of how we have to keep Yetziat Mitzrayim alive every single day. Therefore, B'Ezrat Hashem, we are going to continue at least until Shavuot, discussing Yetziat Mitzrayim. There is proof for this practice: The Sefer HaChinuch asks why don't we count up, "Today is the first day of the Omer, the second day of the Omer?" Normally I'd count down. If my wedding is in two months, I'd say, " 59 days to go, 58 days to go. " I wouldn't say, " One day since my engagement party, " " Two days since my engagement party.. " The engagement party is not the main event. I want to get to that end goal of the wedding. So I count down 60, 59, 58. But with the Omer , it's not just about the end goal, it's about the beginning. I am coming from Yetziat Mitzrayim. " It's one day since Yetziat Mitzrayim, two days since Yetziat Mitzrayim…." I'm not counting down, I'm counting up. And therefore I have to build on what I have already. So we definitely have full permission, as long as we're in Sefirat HaOmer and we're really taking it seriously, to continue our feeling of Yetziat Mitzrayim. The goal of Yetziat Mitzrayim was to get to Matan Torah , but not with a split. It's united. So much so that the commentaries say that just like we have the first day of Succot and we have a few days in between till שמיני Shimon Aseret, likewise on Pesach we have the first day of Pesach (the seventh day of פסח is not its own holiday, we don't say a special Shehechianu), and we go until שבועות, which is also called עצרת and it here means the eighth week . So these days are like a Chol Hamoed between the first day of Pesach and Shavuot, but instead of having seven days, we have seven weeks. So we're going to take advantage of those Chol Hamoed weeks to continue discussing the fundamentals of our faith which come out of Yetziat Mitzrayim.