J crew, it's Leo, and it's almost Shabbat and not just any Shabbat. This Shabbat is Shabbat Hagadol, the great big Shabbat, the last Shabat before Lillecadir before Passover Eve.

And traditionally at least in Ashkenazi communities, this was a kind of mystical, magical chabot dedicated to reading portions of the Hagata,

reading poems, and contemplating all these amazing themes that we read about in the Hagata,

like freedom, liberation, and faith.

And so we wanted to send you off into the weekend with a few meditations on Shabbat and a few thoughts about Passover that would help you see this holiday in a somewhat

different light because you know this is going to be a somewhat different Passover for most of us. And so to help us understand the true meaning of Passover. Here is our dear friend

Rabbi Dr. Stu Halper. Welcome, Rabbi Dr. Stuart Halper.

Thank you so much for having me.

You are the senior

advisor to the provost of Yushiva University and a senior program

officer at the Strauss Center for Torah and Western Thought. Correct. About that

character who we never read about but really kind of belongs in the

Hagata, could it be Satan? So if you read the Hagata, you see that it's protesting too much about Satan not being at the

Satan.

In a certain part where it's quoting biblical verses about God passing over the houses of the Jews in Egypt, it says as follows, I will pass through the land of Egypt.

This is a biblical verse. The Agara then adds and explains what God means to say.

I will pass through the land of Egypt. I am not an angel. And I will smite every first born in the land of Egypt. I am not an angel and I will smite every first born in the land of Egypt

says the Hagata quoting a biblical verse and then it adds I and not a seraph some sort of

angelic figure and then it continues quoting another verse and I will carry out judgments

against all the gods of Egypt. I and not a messenger adds the Hagara. I the Lord

quotes in a final biblical verse. It is I and none other, adds the Hagata. It is protesting too much about

satan the Satan not being at the Satan. Yeah, at some point you just want to say, okay, we get it. It it was God himself it wasn't some kind of

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