10. Eliyahu Hanavi's Cup

00:16 Here is a story for Pesach. Many years ago, about 500 years ago, in the country of Spain... Have you heard of Spain? Spain was a real pain, a pain in the neck because they did bad things to the Jewish people. So the country of Spain had a king and queen. They were very mean. They were very mean to the Jewish people. They made a law that all the Jewish people must leave the country right away and go find themselves a new place to live. They have to leave all their houses and all their belongings and all their money. They can't take anything with them. They have to leave like poor people with nothing. Just the clothes that they wear, they can take that with them. They don't have to go out naked, but they can wear clothes, but that's all. No money, no jewelry, no horses, no nothing. They have to leave everything behind, and the king is gonna take everything away for himself. Unless the Jews agree to become like the Goyim. They start worshiping the idols of the Goyim, and then they go to the church, and they do everything the Goyim do, then you can stay, but if not, you have to leave. And of course, the Jewish people never would worship idols and decided to leave the country very, very, very poor, starving, having no food, not knowing where they're gonna go, which country they'll be able to go and find a house. But there was one Jew in Spain, his

01:59 name was Don Yitzchak Abarbanel. Can you say that? Don. Don actually means mister. It's a special title given to a very respected person. He was a great Rav. His name was Yitzchak Abarbanel. Can you say that? Abarbanel. Don Yitzchak Abarbanel. He was a great Rav, wrote many Seferim. He was very smart, very big Hakham and a Tzadik, but he was also a special advisor to the King of Spain. He advised the king about money and how the king can make a lot of money. He was very smart in this way, and so the king loved him. And so the king turned to Don Yitzchak Abarbanel and said to him, "Listen, you may stay. All the Jews have to leave if they don't wanna become like us, but you, I make an exception because you are my advisor and I love you, so I let you stay." But Don Yitzchak Abarbanel said, "No, thanks. I don't need any favors. If you kick out all my brothers and sisters," which is all the Jewish people, "you're gonna kick everybody else out, I'm going with them. Yes, that means I'm gonna have to leave all my money behind, my house. I have to leave everything." Because Yitzchak Abarbanel was a very rich man. He was advisor to the king. He got paid a lot of money. But he said, "I'm gonna leave everything behind, I'm gonna become a poor man and leave to a country I don't even know where I'm going. But with all my Jewish people,

03:44 I will go together with them. I'm not gonna save my life and stay here while everybody else is kicked out." He was a great leader. A great leader means someone who says, "I'm not gonna go save myself. Wherever my people go, I'll go with them." That's Mesirus Nefesh, isn't that? Mesirus Nefesh. With Don Yitzchak Abarbanel, he was a great man, a great Tzadik. And so everybody left the country. They left Spain and Jews settled in different places. Some settled in Holland, some people went to Russia even, some people went to Italy. Don Yitzchak Abarbanel moved to Italy in a city called Napoli. And there he settled, and he became very well-known, famous because first he was a big Rav, he wrote many Seferim, and everybody knew about him. But he-- also the King of Napoli heard a lot about, uh, Abarbanel and how smart he was and that he was advisor to the King of Spain, and so he wanted him, too, to be his advisor. And so Don Yitzchak Abarbanel agreed. But then Don Yitzchak Abarbanel passed away. He died. And then his son, he had a son by the name Yehuda Abarbanel. Yehuda Abarbanel was also a great rabbi. Now, when Yitzchak Abarbanel left Spain, he wasn't able to take any money with him. Nothing. Nothing. Only the clothes that he was wearing. That's the only thing he could take with him. No jewelry, no money, no, no, no wagons, no, no horses, no animals, nothing. He became a poor man. But he

05:37 smuggled out one thing that was very special to him. You know what that is? It was a special cup, a Becher. You know, like a Kiddush cup. But this wasn't quite a Kiddush cup. He used that Becher not for Kiddush. He only used it once a year. You know for what? You know when? Pesach, for the Seder. And you know for what purpose? For the cup of Eliyahu Hanavi. This was the cup he only used once or twice a year for the two Sdarim when he- they poured the cup of Eliyahu Hanavi. This was Eliyahu Hanavi's cup. That cup was so beautiful and so expensive. It was made from gold and silver and diamonds. It was so beautiful, very expensive, and Yehuda Abarbanel said, "I'm not going to leave that behind. This is too special. This is for Eliyahu Hanavi. I'm not gonna leave it, uh, for the people of Spain, the goyim of Spain who are kicking out all the Jews. No, they shouldn't have that. I'm gonna s- sneak it out." But it's dangerous because they wouldn't-- the police wouldn't let you take out anything. If you were Jewish, you had to leave the country with nothing. You had to leave everything behind, especially something so expensive like a cup like this. The king, of course, would have loved to have it. But Yehuda Abarbanel managed to smuggle it and hide it in his bag, and they didn't find it, and he took it with him to Italy, and this he used again

07:08 in Italy every Pesach for the Seder. And when Yehuda Abarbanel died, he left that cup for his son, Yehuda. One day, a very important official from the government, from the king's officials and ministers, came to the house of Yehuda Abarbanel. And when he was in the house, he sees in the living room in a closet behind the gla- a glass door, this incredibly beautiful cup that was so expensive, gold, silver, diamonds, amazing. He says to Yehuda, "What's this?" He says, "Oh, that's a special cup I g- I got from my father. This is the cup of Eliyahu Hanavi." Now, this official, this guy, was not very pleased with seeing Yehuda having such an expensive cup, and he thought to himself, "You know who should have that cup? The King of Napoli, of Italy." And so when he went back to the palace, he told the king about this special cup Yehuda has, and he says to the king, "I think you should have it. You're the king. You should have such a beautiful and, and amazing cup." So the king sent a message to Yehuda Abarbanel and said to him, "Listen, Yehuda, I'm ready to buy that cup from you for any money you want." So Yehuda says, "Your Majesty, I would give it to you for free if I could, but this is not my cup. This is Eliyahu Hanavi's cup. I can't give it away. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I can't sell it. It doesn't matter how much money you pay me, I

08:47 cannot sell it. This is Eliyahu Hanavi's cup. I only use it for the Seder when Eliyahu Hanavi comes to every house, and he's gonna come to my house too, and I want him to have a special nice cup, and that's all. I can't give it away." The king got very upset, and he decided he's gonna steal it away from Yehuda. He's gonna force him. He's gonna send the soldiers, go to the house and steal it from him, take it away from him. Yehuda knew the danger that the king is gonna send soldiers to grab the cup. What did he do? He put the cup in a very special box made out of steel and metal, very hard, and he put a lock on it, and he took the key from the lock and threw it away somewhere where nobody could find it. So when the soldiers came to the house and they wanted to see, oh, they can't find the key. So the king said to the soldiers, "Go and break the box. I want that cup." They went, and they broke the box, and guess what happened? Uh-oh, uh-oh, uh-oh. Everybody was shocked. Everybody's mouth was hanging open in total sh- shock. Where's the cup? Where is it? There's no cup. The box was empty. Even Yehuda was very surprised. He knows he put the cup in that box, but the cup disappeared. The king got very mad, and he said, "You know what? I'm going to kick out all the Jewish people from

10:28 my country too, from Italy, after Pesach. After Pesach, I'll kick all the Jews out because they don't like me. They don't respect me. Look at Yehuda. I want his cup, and he doesn't give it to me." That Erev Pesach, Yehuda walked around very sad. This is the first Pesach he's not gonna have that special cup. That cup disappeared. And so his wife says to him, "Yehuda, don't worry. If you can't get the cup, can't have that special cup for Eliyahu Hanavi, go at least outside and find a special guest for our Seder, so we can invite another Jew, a poor man, to our Seder." So he said, "Okay, I'll go outside," and he looks for a poor man. He finds a poor man in the market, and he says to him, "Come. It's-- the Seder is almost now. Why don't you come with me to my house? We're gonna have the Seder together." It's a big mitzvah to have a guest at the Seder, right? If especially a poor person that doesn't have what to eat. So you bring him into your house, and you give him matzah and, and wine and everything. It's a big mitzvah. Maybe Hashem likes this better than the cup of Eliyahu Hanavi. So he brought the poor man with him to the house, and as they walked into the house, uh, Yehuda Abarbanel walked in first, and then the poor man walked in. They closed the door, and then suddenly Yehuda and his wife look around and see that

12:00 the poor man disappeared. He didn't open the door. The door stayed closed. The door stayed shut. He just disappeared, and they were so shocked. What happened? Where is he? They wanted to start the Seder, but they wanted to bring a poor man to the house, but he disappeared. They realized that this poor man was none other than Eliyahu HaNavi himself. Eliyahu HaNavi came to honor them to visit their home, but he disappeared. So they were very excited. Eliyahu HaNavi came and paid a visit to their home. So he sat down for the Seder, and with great joy, he and his wife and his-- they were celebrating Pesach and eating matzah. When they came to Shfoicham Mascha, when we opened the door for Eliyahu HaNavi, guess what happened? Eliyahu HaNavi was right there, and he came into the house, and he said to Yehuda, "I want to reveal to you, tell you what's happening in Shamayim. Your father, Don Yitzchak Abarbanel, who's now in Gan Eden, had seen the terrible things that the King of Italy wants to do to the Jewish people. He wants to kick them out of Italy after Pesach. It's enough that the Jews went through in Spain. Now they have to get kicked out again." So what he did is he came to the dream to the King of Italy, and he beat him, and he said, "If you don't change your mind and cancel this decree and decide that the Jews can stay, I'm gonna beat you until I'm gonna

13:32 kill you." And the king changed his mind. He had no choice. So Eliyahu HaNavi said, "Your father did the same thing to the King of Spain. He went to him in his dream, and he beat him up, and he said, 'You must change this law, terrible law against the Jews, and let the Jews stay in your country.' And he also defi- finally decided to change his mind and let the Jews stay in Spain or let them come back to Spain because the Jews had left. So he let them come back. And Eliyahu HaNavi said to him, "You can go. You don't have to be afraid of the king anymore. You can go to him. He'll be nice to you because he realizes now how great Hashem is and how great the Jewish people are and that he cannot do what he wants. Hashem is in charge." And so after Pesach, uh, Yehuda Abarbanel went to see the King of Italy, and when the king saw him, he said, "Oh, come on in. I'm so sorry. I'll never do this again. I saw your father in my dreams, and he was, like, very, very, he's very, very harsh. He wanted to hurt me, and he said that if you don't ch-- if I don't change my mind to let the Jews stay, then he'll, he'll make it very hard for me. He'll beat me up so hard that, that I'll, I'll, I'll die. And so I had to change my mind. And now the Jewish people

15:14 could stay, and you could stay, and you could keep your Becher. I know this Becher very important." And indeed, Don Yehuda Abarbanel found the Becher eventually. Becher came back to him, and every Pesach by the Seder, he put out that cup for Eliyahu HaNavi, poured it, filled it up with wine, and was so happy.