Whenever we have a gathering on Passover,
because Passover has eight days,
one specific day is chosen,
so the rally is being held today,
the fourth day of Passover.
From this factor we learn,
that it contains a order of the day,
not only as a regular day of Passover,
but also as the fourth day of Passover.
The question arises, "How is it different?"
How is the fourth day of Passover different than all the other days?
We take a look in Torah:
Torah relates what transpired on the fourth day of the first Passover,
"in the days that you left Egypt," when the Jewish people left Egypt:
The Exodus itself took place on the 15th of Nisan,
then they journeyed through the 15th, 16th and 17th,
and when the fourth day arrived, the 18th of Nisan,
the Midrash relates that a special occurrence took place.
This is obviously an event
to be remembered each year on the eighteenth of Nisan,
along with the events we recall at the Seder,
the events of the Exodus which we must recall "all the days of your life."
So we must remind ourselves what happened on that day,
during the days of the Exodus on the eighteenth of Nisan,
and we must learn a lesson,
the order of the day for every Jew,
and especially for the Army of God.
What happened?
Torah relates, as mentioned earlier,
that when Pharaoh told the Jewish people leaving Egypt,
that it was for "three days -- we shall go in the desert,"
they were going to leave Egypt for only three days.
Yet when the fourth day arrived,
the Jews continued to proceed onward to Mount Sinai.
Traveling with them were Egyptian messengers
whom Pharaoh had sent along with them
to remind them, and hasten them to return to Egypt,
to return to their slavery, God forbid.
Those messengers called out:
"Listen up, Jews! Your three days have passed.
Now it's time for you to return to Egypt.
Go no further or closer to Mount Sinai!"
The Jewish people responded:
"We left Egypt because God redeemed us from there;
we are not at the mercy of Pharaoh's command,
nor Pharaoh's command via his messengers."
The messengers responded,
"Pharaoh will force you, and you'll have to return anyway."
But the Jewish people banished them;
they didn't even want to speak with them,
and the messengers left in great disgrace,
returning to Pharaoh to report
that the Jewish people did not want to return --
on the contrary, they were marching onward.
Moses told the Jewish people:
"It's possible that Pharaoh will assume,
when he hears the messengers' report,
that we are afraid of him,
that we are still willing to discuss it and reconsider,
and that all options are open.
We must show Pharaoh
that we are not intimidated by him nor by his messengers.
How can we show this? By halting our journey.
Instead of running away from Egypt and from Pharaoh,
we'll do the opposite: We'll go back a bit,
and we'll stop there -- but we won't return to Egypt.
Pharaoh will then see that the Jewish people are steadfast,
that we refuse to return to Egypt,
and that we aren't intimidated at all,
that he has no impact upon us whatsoever,
that we are only stopping to rest or to prepare ourselves
to march onward to receive the Torah at Mount Sinai."
That occurred on the first 18 Nissan after the Exodus from Egypt.
What is the lesson to us, the "Order of the Day"?
Even after we were rid of the Evil Inclination
during the first three days of Passover,
it foolishly fails to realize
that because it is dealing with a "Wise Son,"
it will never succeed in its attempts.
So it comes again with its foolishness,
and begins to tell a Jewish child
that Pharaoh is so strong…
The Evil Inclination uses all kinds of tricks to fool the Jewish child:
He tells him, "The food is tasty,
so go ahead and eat it;
don't waste time, you don't need to recite a blessing.
You don't need to check if it's kosher…"
And similar arguments for other mitzvot.
You should know
that it was also this way when we first left Egypt.
And how did the Jews react?
First, they expelled Pharaoh's messengers,
and forced them to return to Egypt in disgrace.
And they were not worried that Pharaoh himself would see this,
nor did they try to hide it;
on the contrary, they demonstrated to him their "outstretched arm" --
that they were completely unafraid,
so much so that they halted their journey for a while,
and even took a step back,
to show the Evil Inclination
that they feet no threat, God forbid, at all,
and that there is no chance that he'll be successful
in enticing the wise son, or even the other three sons,
to even think about Pharaoh,
and certainly not to return to Egypt.
And they did this openly, as mentioned,
they weren't ashamed
knowing that the messengers would immediately report to Pharaoh,
and Pharaoh will say, "Perhaps their stopping indicates that they are afraid."
"On the contrary," we declare, "we are not afraid at all,
that is why we have stopped."
And the proof is that when the foolish Evil Inclination comes once again
and tries to start up with a Jew,
the Jew sees to it that no trace of him remains,
and he marches onward to Mount Sinai to receive the Torah.
This is the first lesson we can learn
from the uniqueness of the 18th day of Nisan over the other days of Passover;
in addition to the general order of Passover,
this is the special order for the eighteenth day of Nisan.
This day is also connected to the Torah portion of the week,
and is also connected to the Torah portion which is read
in honor of Chol Hamoed, in honor on the festival.
They also teach us a special order of the day:
The holiday Torah portion, the reading of Chol Hamoed,
begins with the commandment,
"Lend money to the poor among you."
The passage then concludes
on the topic of the three festivals,
and the first among them is Passover.
What is this order of the day?
That the first priority a Jew must know
-- beginning with young children --
is that one must "lend money to the poor among you."
If you are aware of a child or an adult who is a pauper
and you have some extra pennies, nickels or dimes,
or even more money,
the first priority, the very beginning of the Torah reading
is that you must locate the pauper
and provide him with a loan.
And as the verse says, "the poor among you":
Because the pauper is in the same place as the Jewish child,
and together with God Himself,
you must provide him with the entire necessary sum.
This precipitates the redemption
which occurred then -- the Festival of Matzot,
and also the one that will soon arrive --
the true and complete redemption through our righteous Moshiach,
as Torah says, "Great is charity for it hastens the redemption,"
it will arrive sooner.
There is also a lesson from Tuesday's Torah portion,
the third segment of Parshat Shemini:
The passage begins,
"And the nation saw, and they praised God,
and they fell on their faces."
Torah teaches us at the very beginning of today's Torah portion,
that whenever a Jew so desires, he could see Godliness,
he could feel that "Behold, God stands over you,
and scrutinizes your inner recesses and heart."
And that will bring you to "Vayaronu"
to "praise God," as Unkelos explains;
you will thank God,
and celebrate with a joyful tune,
that God chose you
to reveal Himself to you, and to give you all the various mitzvot
-- this causes "Israel to rejoice in their Creator,
to find genuine joy.
There is also a lesson from the daily study of Maimonides.
This year, we finished the first cycle of Maimonides.
We study the mitzvah, the order of the day
as Maimonides spelled it out in the Book of Mitzvot,
and this also applies to children
-- the track in the Book of Mitzvot.
The first of today's mitzvot
tells us not to desecrate God's name.
A Jewish child must know that his behavior
impacts the sanctity of God,
because the children around him, and the nations around him
observe his behavior,
and they know that he is a Jewish child;
if he behaves inappropriately,
it's not his own mistake or his own personal thing
and nothing more --
today's mitzvah says that we must take heed not to desecrate God's name.
If a non-Jewish child will see that he said a lie, God forbid,
or he sees that he stole a penny from another child,
or he sees that he doesn't obey to his teacher, father or mother,
even though he was commanded, "Honor your father and mother" --
the non-Jewish child or adult observing him will assume,
that if a Jewish person behaves in such a manner,
that must be the nature of Judaism,
and that must be the nature of the God
who commanded the Jew to act Jewishly
-- whether or not, God forbid, he follows God's instructions.
Contemplate the fact
that if you will, God forbid, steal a penny from another child,
it's not just something between the two of you;
it's between you and God.
God "scrutinizes your inner recesses and heart to see if you serve Him properly."
When you state an untruth,
or take a penny that belongs to another child,
you are not "serving Him properly."
You are lacking in your service of God,
the Commander-in-Chief --
it shouldn't be possible for a member of God's Army
to fall through and do the opposite of a sanctification of God's name.
It's a desecration of God's name.
This is the special order of the day:
Although we are already a few days into Passover,
we might forget that we were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt,
and conduct ourselves in the ways of Egypt.
We are told, "Remember:
Your behavior can sanctify God's name,
or the opposite."
This is an order of the Commander-in-Chief
who, although He "scrutinizes your inner recesses and heart"
He also "rejoices in His creations,"
and derives joy and pleasure from every Jew,
and especially from Jewish children,
so it is obvious that when He gives an order,
He asks only within our abilities,
and we will surely be able to fulfill it.
It depends only on your own goodwill,
and the main thing is,
don't ever, God forbid, obey the Evil Inclination,
who is the representative of Pharaoh, King of Egypt
-- he is the Pharaoh of our day.
This also relates to a teaching of my father, whose birthday is today:
He explains regarding Passover,
regarding the customary wish, "A kosher and happy Passover,"
that our observance be a kosher one,
and a joyous one
-- he explains,
that kosher's acronym is "Kimotzei shalal rav--Finding great spoils."
When a Jew is careful to eat only kosher items,
and he never just assumes that the food is kosher,
rather, he first verifies its kosher status,
and in addition to food and drink,
likewise, in other aspects of a Jewish child's behavior;
before he does anything, he contemplates,
"Is this activity appropriate for God,
and for a soldier in God's Army,
or, is it not nice,
and it will give a bad name, God forbid,
to the Commander-in-Chief,
and is therefore considered 'unkosher,'"
and in that case, he is certain
that he will conduct himself only in a kosher way
-- he should know,
he hasn't merely desisted from partaking in a non-kosher candy, etc.
He has discovered "great spoils."
When an army goes to war and is victorious,
they conquer "shalal rav,"
they take the spoils of war from the enemy.
And when there is a big war, there are great spoils,
and we receive it without labor --
we won't need to wage a physical war;
we will find ready spoils,
through withstanding God's spiritual tests,
and not obeying the "Old and foolish king,"
the Evil Inclination, the fool,
and by conducting himself as a member of God's Army should,
and likewise influencing the children around him.
And we are told that we don't lose out through this conduct;
to the contrary, by living a kosher life,
and receiving these great spoils,
he will also be very joyful,
and, as you recited before, you will always be in a state
of "Israel rejoicing in their Creator,"
with a true joy.
And that hastens the arrival of "the joy of days bygone,"
with the true and complete redemption
through our righteous Moshiach.