Rav Shlomo Katz and the chevra of Shirat David learn the shocking Midrash from Parshat Yitro that says Am Yisrael were sleeping the night before receiving the Torah.

But Reb Shlomo Carlebach reveals something much deeper: it wasn’t laziness. It was small anava. The feeling of “Who am I to stand by Har Sinai?”

And Moshe Rabbeinu comes tent-to-tent with one last message before Torah can be given:

If you still see yourself as limited — if you’re still living inside “Beit Avadim,” the mindset of measuring and calculating what you think you’re capable of — don’t bother coming to Sinai.

Freedom isn’t “I do what I want.” Freedom is: I stop measuring. I stop disqualifying myself. I learn to believe that if Hashem is asking it from me, He believes in me.

This is the Torah of the night before Sinai: the moment we become people who can say Naaseh v’Nishma — not because we’re naïve, but because we’re finally free.
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For more Shuirim and Music from Rav Shlomo Katz, visit: https://ravshlomokatz.com
Join Rav Shlomo Katz's WhatsApp Community: https://chat.whatsapp.com/KHKOhhPaeHx5Kb74WL9L9a?mode=ems_copy_t

Chapters
00:00 Opening + sponsorships / setting the tone
02:40 Introducing Today’s Powerful Parshas Yisro Lesson
06:28 Analyzing the Key Word “Vayotze” in the Pasuk
08:40 Moshe’s Personal Mission: Visiting Every Tent
09:50 Alexander Rebbe on Becoming Moshe’s Students
13:04 Moshe’s First Argument with God over Leadership
16:16 Why Moshe No Longer Argues at Sinai
18:13 Identifying the First Sign of a Slave
23:05 Defining True Freedom versus Slavery
26:29 Doing It Even When You Doubt Your Ability
27:46 Marriage Prep: Overthinking Before the Commitment
29:33 From Beit Avadim to Freedom: First Pasuk Insight
30:58 Naaseh V’Nishma: Commitment Without…
34:34 Moshe’s Speech Impediment and the…
35:51 The Mitzvah to Tell Our Children About Exodus
39:29 Bas Mitzvah Story: Learning Through a Young Woman
41:05 Moshe’s Final Lesson Before Receiving the Torah

Parshas Bo is not just the story of leaving Egypt. It’s the inner blueprint of freedom.

Rav Shlomo Katz and the chevra of Shirat David opens an Even Shlomo that sounds “insane” at first: why does the Torah say “וישאלו איש מאת רעהו” — “ask from your friend” — when it’s describing Egyptians who enslaved us? Why call them re’ehu at all?

Because the night of Yetzias Mitzrayim wasn’t only an exit from suffering. It was a flash of Mashiach reality: a moment where Hashem’s light was so clear that no human being could be anyone’s master. Not Pharoah over Egypt. Not fear over your heart. Not people, not pressure, not addiction, not the invisible “dominions” that run our moods and reactions.

From the Alter Rebbe fainting at his Seder table, to what freedom looked like in the tunnels of Gaza, to what it means to carry da’as Hashem until it spreads outward, this shiur reframes geulah as the deepest kind of relationship: Hashem shining into us, and us shining back.

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For more Shuirim and Music from Rav Shlomo Katz, visit: https://ravshlomokatz.com
Join Rav Shlomo Katz's WhatsApp Community: https://chat.whatsapp.com/KHKOhhPaeHx5Kb74WL9L9a?mode=ems_copy_t

Chapters
00:00 Intro and Sponsor Shoutouts
01:31 Choosing a Torah Topic for Parshas Bo
03:26 Who Is the “Re’ehu” in the Commandment?
04:40 Lenny Solomon Story and Cultural References
07:14 Flipping the Traditional Pshat
08:37 The Alter Rebbe’s Leil Seder
12:51 Modern Freedom and the Possibility of Geula
20:45 Egyptians’ View of the Night of Exodus
24:17 Moshiach and the Filling of Daas
25:59 Daas of Hashem Required for Global Peace
27:40 Egyptians Recognized Hashem as Their Master
28:42 Understanding “Re’ehu” — Asking an Equal
30:55 One Night of Moshiach-Like Equality
32:28 Breslover Chassid’s Tears and Dance
36:24 Filling Ourselves with Daas to Bring Redemption

This week in Even Shlomo on Parshat Va’era, Rav Shlomo Katz and the chevra of Shirat David go straight into the cry so many of us are holding: “Ribono Shel Olam… for what? Haven’t we been through enough?” Moshe Rabbeinu asks it too — and the answer isn’t a slogan, it’s a demand: Geulah is not “back to normal.”

Reb Shlomo teaches that the world’s “unnatural” situation can’t last forever — but the real question is what happens to us while we’re waiting. Do we settle for healthy, functional, status quo… or do we move into above nature: the place of an Eved Hashem, where Yiddishkeit isn’t routine, relationships aren’t “fine,” and a shul isn’t just a place to daven — it’s a center for dreaming Geulah.

Through a piercing story of Reb Shlomo saving a life, and then meeting a lifeguard who saved 26 and didn’t shine at all, we learn the difference between doing something because it’s your job… and doing it with your pnimiyus. And we end with the charge that builds everything: accountability, patience, chaverus, and a Ruach Se’arah — a stormy spirit inside keilim — to carry this community (and our lives) beyond “normal.”

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For more Shuirim and Music from Rav Shlomo Katz, visit: https://ravshlomokatz.com
Join Rav Shlomo Katz's WhatsApp Community: https://chat.whatsapp.com/KHKOhhPaeHx5Kb74WL9L9a?mode=ems_copy_t

Chapters

0:00 Opening dedication and sponsors
1:17 Why does suffering continue?
2:45 Moshe’s dialogue with Hashem
4:36 Maharal: the unnatural has a limit
7:43 Natural vs. normal (and “status quo”)
13:12 Eved vs. Oved Hashem (Tanya)
24:07 The nature of true revelation
25:16 Moshe’s imagined dialogue with Pharaoh
26:19 Moshe’s question: “For what?”
27:58 Imagining a miracle in Iran
29:09 Why continue suffering? Moshe’s inquiry
30:54 Moshe seeks the nature of future redemption
32:49 Call for deeper commitment
35:55 Lifeguard story: “26 lives saved”
37:00 Service as job vs. spiritual involvement
45:18 Understanding Avodah Zarah (the “zarah to you” definition)
46:34 Avoiding spiritual estrangement (not a stranger to God)
48:19 Taking responsibility + helping the hungry
49:29 Exodus vs. returning to Eretz Yisrael
50:50 House of Love & Prayer vision
52:39 Removing Avodah Zarah from our kehillah
54:17 Ruach Se’arah (Rav Weinberger)
55:36 Inner pulse of chevra for redemption