Chanuka And Purim - Two Sides Of The Veil

Now since we ran into Hanukkah next week, let's try to understand a theme that is fundamental to this time of year and our dear Hanukkah. And it's really a key to understanding Torah altogether. Hanukkah has been called the Festival of the Oral Law, the Yom Tev of Taur Ishabal Paid, the Festival of the Oral Law. What does that mean? So I think to understand this, we need to make a bit of a picture of Jewish history and see where Hanukkah fits and try to derive from that understanding. You know probably the most important thing in understanding Torah is understanding the Oral Law and without question the most difficult thing to understand. The most difficult thing to understand in Torah is the idea of the Oral Law. What is this process of a divine law that has human components? What does that mean? How's that possible? How can there be a Torah that's given that's transmitted through the ages and turns out to be built around in the form of the Oral Law human opinions? What does that mean? How does it work? Maybe I don't know if we'll have time to complete the subject tonight, maybe on Monday, we try to look at an overview of the history of the Oral Law. We can see exactly how it developed and what its components are. It's fundamental to understand very badly misunderstood. But let's begin by describing the historical context and hopefully from that we'll be able to go deeper. You know that, many ways you can say this. Let's put it like this. There was a famous astronomer, astrophysicist, astronomer, French, well known figure, not only well known in the scientific world, but he was very well known for popular presentation, media presentation of astronomical phenomena, very well known in his field. He was famously an atheist. For someone asking why is an atheist, after all you see the universe, you see the whole cosmic enormity, you see such incredible things. Why are you an atheist? And listen carefully to what he said because it's very instructive. He said this. The reason that I'm an atheist is because God is everywhere in the Bible and nowhere in the world. That means you look through the text of the Bible, Torah, you find God is everywhere, almost everywhere. There's one place where he's not. And that is the McGillor of Purim, the McGillor of Purim, which is one of the 24 books of the canon of Scripture. That is our whole section from beginning to end. There's no divine name at all. We have a tradition that when it says the king referring to the king of Khashvarish, then it means not only him as a king, but it means Hashem as well. But it's definitely hidden. There's no mention of Hashem's name. But I don't think Carl Sagan was referring to the book of Esther. I think he was referring to the Torah in general. And he said that the Bible God is everywhere in the Bible. And I think what he meant by that is God appears everywhere. His name is mentioned. He speaks to human beings. And miracles are a revelation of his presence throughout the Bible. The miracles take place. Normus miracles are ocean splits, ten miraculous plagues hit the Egyptians. Mana falls from heaven. For the best part of 40 years, incredible miracles occur. The Ramam actually says that a miracle requires a prophet. Miracles only occur in the presence of prophets. You need a novy. You need a prophet for a miracle to occur. Try to understand what that means. But you have the Bible full of prophets speaking in Hashem's name. You have miracles. You have Hashem appearing everywhere. And when I look at the world to see if the Bible is an accurate description of the world, I see it's not. Be honest. You look at the world. I haven't seen God no way. I hear him speak to me. I haven't met a prophet and I haven't seen the miracles. I might see coincidences. That's sort of a miracle if you want to use the word. But I don't see any revealed miracles where ocean splits and laws of nature are changing. I don't see that. Now, I think what he meant was, I think he meant more. I think he meant that, and if it didn't mean this, it lies behind his question, is that our claim is that the Torah is a perfect description of the world, or more accurately, the Torah is a blueprint from which the world is created. More accurately, we'd say, the world is a copy of Torah. The Torah is like the genetic material, and the world is an expression of the Torah. Whatever's in the genes must be in the body. If the genes come for blue eyes, then the eyes will be blue. And conversely, if the eyes are blue, the genes will be the genes for blue eyes. If you know genes, you'll look at them, and you'll know this person has blue eyes. If you know genes, you can look at the eyes, and you'll know that the genes look like a little genes for blue eyes are not blue. You have to know the genes. You have to know the Torah. When you look in Torah, you won't find images. You find a coded genetic information, which if you understand correctly, will tell you about that aspect of the world. And therefore, it's absolutely correct. Our claim is that the Torah is a description of the world. There's a one-to-one mapping of every detail in the Torah for every detail in the world. In fact, we pointed out before we shared together the idea that in Hebrew, as far as I'm aware, is the only language on earth, which the word for a word and the word for a thing on the same word. Right? Who in this room speaks a language besides English? Does anyone here speak English? In the language that you speak, are the words for word and thing the same? Yes? You speak Hebrew, probably. Other languages. In Hebrew, the word davar means a word, and it means a thing. But other languages are not in English. The word for a word is a word, and the word for a thing is a thing. Because one is a utterance that denotes a thing and the other is the thing. But in Hebrew, a word and a thing have the same word. Because one is a reflection of the other. The object in the world is nothing other than a crystallized word of a shem. How did a shem create the world originally? He spoke it into existence. It says, "Vayyomer al-Kim and a shem said." It doesn't mean he gave instructions. Much more deeply, it means that he uttered the things. His words condensed or concretized into those things. Everything in the world is a divine word. Of course, everything in the world should be speaking to you. That's the concept. And therefore, we claim very intensely and very deeply that every element in the world projects itself into an object, every word in the Torah, project itself to an object in the world. There's a one-to-one mapping. And therefore, it's perfectly legitimate to search in the world for an expression of Torah. Is this clear? The measure says that, if you know one, you know the other. For example, Abraham, Avram Avinov, who walked the earth before the Torah was given, figured out the Torah. After all, if you know what the body looks like, you can work out what the genes must be. King Solomon, who lived after the Torah was given, looked in the Torah and figured out the world. He said, "Creature to the bottom of the ocean for fetching things that he needed." How did he know where they were? He looked in the Torah. Or one measure says that he planted crops in the usual line. They don't grow there. Why? Because he knew the lines of energy that run from the usual line to every part of the earth. That it sustains the usual line being the center of the world. And on those lines, he planted the crops that grow in those distant places and they grew in the usual line. How did he know where these lines were looked in the Torah? So if you know the one, you know the other. If light shines through a film and projects itself on a screen, everything that's on the film will be on the screen. Everything that's on the screen will be in the film. Is that right? Whatever's in the software will appear on the screen. Whatever's on the computer screen must have been projected there from the software. If you're skilled at looking at the screen, you'll know what the engineering software looks like. And if you know the software, you'll know what will appear on the screen. So far so good. The Torah is the film of the genetics and the world is the expression. If you know the one, you know the other. And therefore he's claimed more that the surprises that if you look in the Torah. You see God everywhere. So if you look in the world, he should be everywhere too, and he's not, he's not. You know, one beautiful example of this. You know that the Torah, no way mentions the world to come. You know that, it's a famous, a famous issue. No way in the written Torah is the world to come, mentioned. The final, perfect, zone of human achievement when all of history is over, when the dead are resurrected. That's not mentioned. It's hinted at between the lions, but it's not mentioned explicitly. Interesting question. If there's time, we'll speak a bit more about it. So Ravaran Kotler once said that there's a very good reason, I mean there are many reasons. It's a long, long discussion. But one beautiful reason to understand why the Torah does not mention the world to come is because if the Torah mentioned it explicitly then you'd have to see it in the world. What's revealed in the Torah must be revealed in the world. What's hidden in the Torah must be hidden in the world. There are clues to another world that you can read between the lions of the world, but it's not written explicitly. If the Torah announced explicitly that there was a reward called the world to come, then the world we live in would reveal the world to come. And since that must be hidden, very good reasons why it must be hidden, it cannot be written explicitly in the Torah. The style of writing of the Torah is the style of creation of the world. The two map to each other exactly. That's why the Torah is the perfect description of the world, or as I said more deeply it's the material that projects itself into the world, and of course it describes the world accurately. Of course it describes it was written before the world. The measure said it was written 2,000 years before the world was created. That's why the world looks the way it does. If you take a person with blue eyes and you study his genes, you take a few cells from his body and you study the genes, and they turn out to be genes for blue eyes. Would you be surprised? Imagine you take a few cells from a human body. You put the cells on your microscope, you study them, you figure out that the genes are the right genes for blue eyes, and you say wow! These genes agree, you fool. Of course they agree with him. They're the reason that he has blue eyes. The Torah agrees with the world because it caused the world to be that way. The Torah came first, right? When you see a beautiful building and you go and study the architectural plans, and you notice that they exactly the same as, of course they are, that's what they built the building from. That's why the building looks that way. Now, it's much more to say about this, but that's the basic idea. If that's true, then let's take a look at this Bible of yours, and let's read it carefully and God appears everywhere. Let's see if this is a map of the world. We go and look at the world and we see God know it! He doesn't speak to us, he doesn't do miracles, he doesn't reveal any place, and therefore this Bible of yours must be false. Do we see the claim? Do we share the problem? What's the answer to this claim? Unfortunately for him, he never attended any Syriom at the J.A.L.E. This is part of a much broader phenomenon, is that scientists all the time pass opinions on religion. It's an amazing thing. In Jewish thinking, the Torah is the deepest and most complex thing that there is in the world, it's a description of the whole world. You talk about Torah authoritatively, you have to be an expert. You have to spend years and years gaining expertise. And yet people who've never, who can't even read the language, offer opinions. The same scientist who wouldn't dream of offering an opinion on a scientific field that's not his own, he'd feel like an idiot, he'd not be loved that. It makes a, gives public opinions about Torah, about Bible, about religion. Why? Because in their notion, the Bible and Torah is like a religion, it's a personal feeling. It's not an objective thing that has to be studied. You know, I can't resist, I have to say this. When you look in the modern world, you see there are many debates between science and religion. All the time you see debates, science and religion. You'll notice that both sides to the debate are always scientists. By the way, the religion they talk about is always Christianity. They don't even know what the mother religion is. And if they do, they couldn't even read the words. They don't read the language. Can you imagine a scientist pontificating on a scientific subject when he can't even read the language that the research is done in? So you have this debate. Time magazine ran a famous debate some time ago between two world famous scientists on science and religion. One was a famous atheist, a biologist, who's a famous, famously atheist, he wrote a book announcing the protein to prove that God could not exist. And the other one is a famous geneticist, who's a Christian. These two are world famous in their scientific field. One is a famous biologist, and one is a famous Nobel Prize-winning geneticist. The geneticist is arguing for religion, and the biologist is arguing for atheism. Both parties to the debate are incredibly qualified scientifically, neither knows the first thing about religion. Imagine a high level academic debate when neither side to the debate has the first clue. Can't even read the original language that the subject's written in. Isn't that interesting? Why's that doing that? Because in their mind, science you have to study that you have to know is to be an expert. That's personal, warm, fuzzy feeling. That's all. Can't talk about technically. That's not the Jewish view. The Jewish view is that if there's one subject, you really have to study in that. The Torah. The most beautiful illustration of this was a debate that once took place, which they did invite religious authorities and some of them were rabbis, to their credit. They also invited world famous atheistic scientists, and the debate went like this. The first to speak was a very famous astrophysicist, unfortunately Jewish. But a very famous man, and completely atheist. So he got up and he addressed the conference like this, conference and science and religion. He said, "Ladies and gentlemen, I don't know much about religion." Imagine starting your talk that way. You're not going to debate the subject. "Ladies and gentlemen, I don't know much about religion, but I think it can be summed up as, doing to others what you would have them do unto you." And then he began his presentation. The second to speak was Rabbi Refsim. It was a very sharp and a sombic wit. And he got up and he began his speech like this. He said, "Ladies and gentlemen, I don't know much about astrophysics, but I think it can be summed up as twinkle, twinkle, little star." So here you have this French astrophysicist speaking about religion. Why is he an atheist? Because the Bible, as far as you know, talks about God everywhere, and the world, which should be a product of the Bible, has got nowhere. And therefore the Bible's false. It purports to come a story. And when I check its story, I don't see it doesn't check out. Now here's the answer to this claim. And it's fundamental and it's the message of Hanukkah. Jewish history, world history fits into two phases. Phase one lasts until Hanukkah, or just before, and phase two lasts from then until now until the messianic age. If you like, Jewish history has a span of let's say 6,000 years, right? Creation. And then 6,000 years of human history, we are here. 5,769, we're right here. Very close to the end, late Friday afternoon. Before 1,000 years of Shabbos begins, that's where we are. We have the benefit of hindsight seeing back over the whole process. And this can be divided into two phases. Phase one lasted until about 2,000 years ago, until just after purim, and phase two begins before Hanukkah, just after purim, and phase two begins then and lasts until now. What was unique about phase one was God appeared everywhere. Miracles, prophecy, open revelation. From then on, until now, he appears no way. Put another way. This first phase of world history is called the phase of the written law, where prophets walk the earth and speak openly. Miracles occur all the time. Hashem is revealing himself openly. There's no problem of faith. To not believe in God, you'd have to be a raving psychotic. Because you saw him. The Rambaam says that when a prophet spoke, you experienced what he said, in your person telling you something. So they were miracles to be witnessed. When you went to the temple in Jerusalem for example, they were ten constant miracles appearing before your eyes. The Michelinists were what they were. You went up three times a year and you saw miraculous events. There was no problem believing in God. You saw him openly. Human or deal, similar, completely different or deal. The nature of the human or deal then was the temptation to worship others, as intermediaries between them and this God. That was phase one. And then just after purim, and just before Hanukkah, the lights went out, and the world went dark. And from then on until now, there's no revelation at all. And this is called the phase of the oral law, where Torah is not given to us openly. Where we have to create it. And Torah consists now of our opinions. There's no prophet to say if it's right or wrong. Let's study this. Let's go into this more deeply and see if we can understand. Bye bye. Before we go any further, do you see the answer to his question? He says, "I look at the Bible which purports to describe the world, it talks about God, the world does not feature God." What he didn't know was that Bible only speaks about phase one. The Bible is phase one. The Bible is a running description of the world from creation until the Bible ends. Just off the McGill of Esther, right? The characters of the McGill of Esther, Morochai and Esther, Morochai was a member of the Great Assembly, of whom Ezra was a member, "Hagai, Zachary, Malachi, the last three prophets were members." After Ezra wrote his book, just after Purim, just after the Purim story, when the McGill was written, one of the last things to be written, the last vestige of prophetic writing, which was included in Scripture in the Canon, even Scussy, exactly what that means. After that, nothing more was written. There were normal prophets to bring us down any more Torah. God was not speaking of him. He went into Hyde. "Achhein atakel misstate, where are you and God who hides?" Where are you? God who hides? Go and see. So the Bible is written from Genesis, talking about Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, etc., Egypt, the Exodus, all those experiences, moving into Israel, Joshua, all the prophets, the Shafedin, the Judges, the prophets, each prophet writes his own book until the last prophet writes. Where the last book of the prophets is written, Malachi, when that's written, no more revelation, no more prophets. From now on, there is no birth. There's no Torah written now. Now we're in the phase of the oral law, where all the wisdom we have is rabbinic creation, transmitted through the generations. And therefore, the correct perception is, the Torah speaks about God everywhere, as long as the Torah is being written. And it describes the world accurately, in that phase, the world is a world of revelation. There are miracles. There is prophecy. Here the Torah ends. Not written anymore. Not books of the Torah being written. Not prophets to bring us down anymore Torah. We now move into the phase of the oral law, where God's not speaking, and the world doesn't reflect him. Is this clear? Had he been a little more perceptive? Had he studied Bible with the same diligence that he studied astronomy? He would have realized. The Bible tells a story up to a certain point, and then it says, "You're on your own." The expression in the sage is, "You now walk through the desert of the nations." Not the desert of China. You now walk through the desert of the brutal exile of the nations, where you must find your own way. Without any prophets to lead you. What replaces prophecy is rabbinic wisdom. So let's go into this a bit more deeply. Let's look at it this way. Here in the middle of this phase, you have Purim and then Hanukkah. These are two rabbinic festivals. Right? Purim and Hanukkah are not mentioned openly in the Torah. Not like Pesah, Shua, Sukhas, those are the Torah, positive openly, commands openly. In post-biblical history, at the very end of the phase of prophecy, it's an amazing event where the Jewish people are threatened by anti-Semitic fanatic, Haman, Trasticel or the Jewish people. And they're redeemed in an incredible inversion brought about by Mordechain Esther. But here, well, what happens here is, there is revelation, there are prophets. In Mordechain Esther are prophets. There is a book written called the McGillith, which is part of Tehranah. So it's clearly in the first phase of Jewish history, where there's divine intervention, a book is being written. There are prophets, miracles are taking place, but with a major difference. The book that's written for the first time does not mention God's name. The Torah is written from here, God appears on every line. And then you get finally to the book of Esther, which means too high. The name Esther means too high, but I shouldn't begin to hide from behind the clouds, as it were. A book is written but without his name. And what is the book described, a miracle that is a naturalistic miracle? What happens in Purim? Does the ocean split? Does Man fall from heaven? Well, there's a non-Jewish king, he has a wife, he gets drunk, he has a killed, there is another girl, she happens to be Jewish, he doesn't know, he's got a friend who wants to kill Jews, happens all the time, never-generation, wants to wipe out all the Jews, that also happens in every generation. You're miraculous about that, King Kong's sleep, yeah, one night how it happens to walk in at the moment that he, all the events in the McGitter are amazing, coincidences, but there's no reason. And suddenly, amazingly on the day that the Jews are destined to be wiped out by the enemies, they overturned things and the enemies are defeated and the Jewish people survive. Where's the miracle? You have to have eyes of perception to see. The Jews are unsaved by the sea splitting and drowning Egyptians in miraculous fashion. Hail coming down from heaven with fire inside, like happening in Egypt, it's a naturalistic miracle. The greatness of the Jewish people is, they saw the miracle even though they did not have to. They had the perception to see that this is not natural, it's not natural to have a person who hates Jews that badly, and there's no other talent to or someone, it was nobody's unqualified and educated nobody. The only thing that he had going for him was he really hated Jews. So I shamed elevated him to the second most powerful man in the world. If you want a very weak echo of this one happened 60 years ago, what happened 60 years ago? You had a man who has nothing, no education, no talent, problematic psychologically, distorted, abnormal individual. But he had one thing going for him, he hated Jews very bad and I shamed raised him to power over 80 million Germans, educated, cultured, balanced, normal, kindly, scientific, sensible, Germans. Some strange going on there, you have perception, you see something very strange, but you have to have perception, it's not an open miracle. And the Jews had the perception of that generation and they saw that this is not normal. But there's no revealed miracle. So the McGill of, by the way, the word McGillar means to roll up, to close by rolling up and it also means Mugalle to reveal. But the purring story reveals through hidden events and that's why God's name is not appeared and not miracle appears. And the Talmud discusses, is it or is it not prophetic? Maybe not, maybe yes, after all God's name is not mentioned. There's no miraculous event. How do we know it's prophetic? Maybe more than just write a very beautiful description of the events that happened in them after and the Talmud concludes that it must be prophetic because there are clues in it that show us that it's prophetic for example. There's one line in the McGillar that says, "By Yermir Haman-Baliboy, and Haman said in his heart," or in English, you'd say, "and Haman said to himself, that has to be prophetic. As human beings can say what somebody thought, unless they're a prophet." So the Talmud adduces proof that the McGillar is prophetic, but it was a debate, is it? Is it not? Borderline. Yeah, it is. And therefore it's included in Scripture. But it's that part of Torah, which is prophetic and part of the written law, but introduces the phase of the oral law. Now a divine name, no reveal miracle, is this clear? That's purring. The word purring means lack of the draw. Every means lots, not even Hebrew word, it's a Persian word, meaning what is the lack of a draw, when you have a lottery and you draw no divine intervention, it's lack. That's what it appears to be. The whole concept of purring is to hide the divine. And therefore it's all lack, it's all happenstance, all coincidence. And you have to have the perception to see what's going on. Ashem is teaching us from that phase on, be prepared. You are now moving into hundreds, thousands of years of darkness where you will no longer see me. Lesson you need now is learn to see me where you're not forced to see. That's the message of purring. And what happens? The purring miracle happens, and then the world goes completely dark. Then we get to the generation of Ezra, of Khagazari, the man of the great assembly, the man of the great assembly end, and the last prophet leaves the earth forever. Forever, the only place you find prophecy now is in dogs, children, and inside individuals. Cards, broken shards of prophecy you can find in animals, children, two young to speak, and people are insane. But cogent cohesive, organized, clear prophecy, you don't find anymore. And now we move into the phase of darkness. And the next thing that happens is Khunuka. Khunuka happened in the time of the Syrian Greeks. You know that after the purring story, one of Esther's close descendants, King of Persia, allowed the Jews back to Israel through the second temple. The second temple has miracles constantly occurring in it. The Western light of the Manoeura burns miraculously every day through the night. Various miracles are taking place. Prophets are present. And finally, the last prophet leaves the earth. And the last man left alive, Shimonatsari, is the leader of the next generation. He's from the remnants of the man of the great assembly, but he's no longer a prophet. He's the priest who serves in the temple. The word Shimon, by the way, means to hear. He no longer sees. A prophet's called a seer. In English, the word for a prophet is a seer. In Hebrew is called a jazeh, jazeh means he sees. There are a law you have to hear. You no longer can see. You have to hear. Hearing happens in the darkness. Seeing happens in the light. When you see a scene, all the parts are there. There's no construction. It wasn't at all for you. In English, they say seeing is believing. In Hebrew, the word for seeing is the same as the word Raya meaning a proof. But when you cannot see anymore, you have to move into the darkness. When you have to listen. Listening is a very dark process. If you hear one sound in the next, then the next you have to construct the meaning yourself. All their at once. That's called Shimon at Sadik. He's the one who hears Torah. You know, when the Torah wants to reveal something openly, like the Zohar, for example, Kabbalistic work. Or the Talmud Yurushal, the Jerusalem Talmud. introduces discussions by saying ta khazi, come and see. The Babylonian Talmud, written deep in the face of darkness, when begins a discussion that says ta shma, come and listen. Bend your ear, and hear the words of the sages. You not only can see with clarity, and now you have to learn to hear in the darkness and construct the truth yourself. So, Shibonot Saddik is the last member he survives. He's not a prophet, but he had at least saw prophets. In his generation, there was as yet no argument, you know that? You know that, amazing. From the time the Torah was given, until the days of Shibonot Saddik, there was no halakic argument, you know what that means? Every halakic argument was resolvable. Why? There were prophets. What's the true Torah in this situation? You ask God, a prophet told you. If you needed some momentous decision, you went to the temple. The breastplate of the coin got a little up with the letters. God was speaking, there was no doubt about things. There was no argument. You meant imagine Jews without argument. Talk about a miraculous faith. And that faith continued until the days of Shibonot Saddik, no prophecy but still no argument. The next generation, the Torah leader was a man called Antignoist Ishto, Antignoist, a Greek name. This was in the face of Alexander. You know that Shibonot Saddik was the priest and the leader of the Jewish people and met Alexander the great. Alexander was a young man, you know that he conquered the world when he was like 22, 23. 11 years later he was dead. In 11 years he conquered the world. He marched against Jerusalem. He met Shibonot Saddik. They were a seditious group of civil war causing strife individuals in Israel at the time. They went to Alexander and they said the Jews are revolting against him. So he took his army and he marched against Jerusalem. And the commandant says that all night he marched towards the temple and all night Shibonot Saddik marched out to meet him. And at dawn they met on the outskirts of the temple in Jerusalem. And with his warring army he came to destroy the Jewish people in the temple. And Shibonot Saddik, in his garments of the priesthood, he went out to meet him. And Alexander was accompanied by all these people fermenting unrest who wanted to see the authentic Judaism wiped out and the people killed. And as they met at that faithful meeting instead of attacking Alexander the crown of his horse and bowed down to Shibonot Saddik. So they said to him, you bang down to this Jew. He said, the face of this man accompanies me in every dream that I had before I got a war. He leads me into battle successfully, the face of this Jew. And he turned around and marched off, leaving the Jews their independence. That was the great meeting with endopause of the discussion of the philosophical discussions with Alexander. You know it's a Jewish tradition to name boys Alexander. You never attack the Jews. But that introduced the Greek era. And two generations later when Alexander was dead and the Greek Empire split into three factions and the Syrian Greeks were ruling Israel, that's when they oppressed the Jewish people. They don't try to kill them. They try to make Greeks out of them. Now there's no war against the Jews. Well, they never destroyed the temple. They just contaminated it by putting in Greek figurines and idols and wanting the Jewish people not to keep Judaism was a religious battle. Not like Purim, you have to understand. Purim here was a physical battle. Purim was genocide against the Jews. They were the religious. There wasn't the issue. If you had a great, great, great grandparent someplace who was Jewish, just like in Germany, they wiped out a question of ideology. We just want Jews dead. The Greeks didn't want Jews dead. They just wanted Jews Greek. That's all. Stop them celebrating the Russian tradition and allowed a circumcision. Not allowed to keep Jewish mitzvahs. If you don't, if you do, that will kill you. If not we are, what happens? As long as you become Greek. Was a religious battle, not a physical battle. And in that generation, in that generation is when the story of Hanukkah took place. What happened? There was no longer prophecy. The history is that Shimonatsani was the leader. Antignos was the next generation, by the way. Antignos had a student. They had two students. They were called Sannuk and Vitus. They began two reform movements. Two Jewish reform movements, distortions. Breakaway movements from Judaism, from Torah. That Stukin began in movements called it Stukin. We call them in English the Sadducees. It Stukin and the White Tussin was the other group. And they, very interesting. How did they break away? First of all, why did it happen then? Why did the first movement to reform authentic Judaism begin then? The answer is because until then there were prophets. You couldn't distort things. Until then there was prophecy. In the days of Shimonatsani, Kiyadis had seen prophets. Nobody could come along and distort the meaning of Torah. It was open and revealed. But in the next generation, Antignos, when they were no longer prophets, so you could say what you wanted. In fact, the way it happened was very interesting. What happened was he once gave a lecture. He gave a cheer, Antignos. And in the course of his lecture, he said to the students, "I'll tell you, Cavalim, I'm a shamshamis or I'll I'll minus the Cavalpras. Do not be like servants that serve the master for reward. But be like servants who serve for no reward." So he said, don't serve God because he's going to reward you. That's not authentic. Serve God because it's right. In other words, don't serve God because there's a world to come waiting for you with reward. Forget about that. Do it because it's right. And after the lecture, after the cheer, these two students walked out and they said, you know what they're ever said? He said, there's no world to come. There's no reward. He didn't say that. He said, don't serve God for the reward. There isn't reward, but don't serve for that. They distorted these words, and they heard him say, there is no reward. And when the Jewish people around them, the fellow students said to them, what are you talking about? Judaism stands on the principle of the next world. They said, where did you get that from? Show us where it says, sir. And it doesn't say it anyway. In the written law that they refer to, as I mentioned before, it doesn't mention the world to come. So they've wasted on the Jewish people a distortion in the oral transmission, a false tradition. They didn't hear correctly what they teach us at. By the way, it's interesting. You know, having the next generation? The next generation, the Jewish leader, the Torah leader was a man called Yashir bin Prophia. His student was a founder of Christianity. Another movement of distortion away from Torah, purporting to teach Torah and how did that begin? Begin. The government says, the founder of Christianity was sitting one day with his teacher. He was sure bin Prophia. And he misunderstood what he said. Very bad, I don't want to go into the details. Very bad teacher made a comment, and he thought he was talking about a woman in a certain way. So he was sure bin Prophia heard his student who was a very high individual. He was talking about a generation of giants. He vanished. This plot is censored from the tunnel, by the way. The Christian censored took us out. I mean, took it out, you can buy it today. You can get the volume all the censored pieces. And he came back to beg forgiveness. And to correct himself, and he's very sent him away. Many, many times, from then the Ramam derives that a person who offends his Torah teacher must come back and apologize many, many times. If you offend a friend and you ask for forgiveness, a few times good enough if he rejects you, it's his problem. But your Torah teacher, if he's not forgiving you, you still need more work. And he came back again and again. And finally, he came back in contrition to correct himself, and he'd be sure bin Prophia decided to accept him. But at that moment, he happened to be saying the schma. And he gestured to his student to wait a while. And he misunderstood the gesture. He thought he was being rejected again. And he left and he began the church. The language in the sources is he erected a stone and bowed down to it. The stone that became the cornerstone of the church. This is what the Christians call Peter. I know it's a very much about Christianity. Peter, the disciple, what does Peter mean? And he has a big letter? What does Peter mean? A rock? Peter means the rock, on whom the church was founded. And he began. So how old story how Christianity began? But how did it begin? What is Christianity? It sits on Judaism and Torah. The Christians have the Old Testament. But just like that Stukim misunderstood their rebbe when he said don't serve for reward. They have thought he meant there is no reward. Christianity began by a distortion of the rebbe's teaching. He made a comment, he thought he meant something else. He came back to us forgiveness and he misunderstood the gesture of his teaching. No accident that these two movements of breakaway began by a fault in the transmission of Torah from one generation to the next from master to disciple when they were no longer prophets to set the record straight. And from that generation on, we have hundreds and hundreds of breakaway movements, each one distorting again and again and there's no one to say that they're wrong. That's what happened. So you have here Shimonatsari no distortion, no argument. Antignois, breakaway movement, dissension. You're Shimon Prakheir, breakaway again, Christianity begins. The next generation, we have in Yoseb and Yoseb and Yoseb and Yuchman, the two great leaders of the Jewish people in the time of the Syrian Greeks. And for the first time in Jewish history, halachic argument arises. For the first time, they argue about one halachic detail. How you handle the sacrifice of Kroban on Yodophth. That's all. And that argument continues for three generations until he learned the shaman. He learned the shaman argue about three things only. And in the subsequent generation of the students of he learned the shaman thousands of arguments break out. And the mission of now, the oral law, is all argument. All dissension. This one says this, that one says this. We keep our dissension, we keep our dissension, of course we understand both sides of the argument are true in Torah, both sides to an argument, even with their mutually exclusive or both true. When I've time to now, this evening, to go into how that can be. But there's dissension and argument. Of course, each one bringing out a dissenting view and a new richness, as Torah explodes into its multifaceted reality. But that is the history. So here you had complete agreement and no argument. Then you move into the phase where there's discussion argument. And later eventually, there'll be a breakdown and loss of information, which is why the oral was eventually [BLANK_AUDIO] I'm not going to go into that now. But in this phase here, after pouring, when there's something written and Then we move into the era of darkness where nothing is written and distortion begins and people begin to break away There's no prophets shortly after that Hanukkah takes place and the leader at the time of Hanukkah's a man called Matitiyah And he's a rabbinic sage. He's not a prophet. His generations after the last prophet left the earth Now that Jewish people must be led not by prophecy bringing down open messages, but by rabbinic wisdom Now we look not to a prophet or a man wearing the breastplate the the nation with letters lighting up in a divine fashion Now we go to rabbinic sage who develops his wisdom within himself and Torah now is what he says and now Allah's decisions and Torah decisions come from within the wisdom of the Torah sage and What was the first decision they made? Matitiyah was alive in the time of the Greek oppression and the Greeks began a religious war against the Jewish people So you got up one day and he said gentlemen words in this effect. I've now made a decision about how to handle the Greeks and The Jewish people said how will we handle him? He said we're gonna war against him War against the Greek Empire Rabbi you and whose army? No, this me and my boys about five sons You know we got a few old swords which we found in some olive oil jars I wanted to you to attack the Greek the Greek empire the Greek empire. This is the country just empire that war elephants There were a well-oiled military machine that had conquered the world and Who's gonna fight them? So it's me and my year shipables? They were coming. They never held the weapon before they weren't allowed to hold weapons They didn't go out to fight the degrees. They went out to die and the miracle of honor case that they won They won this handfully show a book. We didn't know which end of a sword was which? You know that presented in modern terms as who are these Khan who are these Maccabees? They were Israelis with Aussies. That's who they were much better soldiers. Not problematic in the Greek army. No problem That's not the story They were spiritual giants they weren't soldiers and It was a bit a battle that took 13 years and many died But the miraculously they won the miracle of Hanukkah wasn't the burning of the little flame The oil flame in the temple that's nothing not even mentioned on this The miracle of Hanukkah's that they beat the Greek Empire and cleansed the temple when the Greeks had enough And left But you have to understand this was a rabbinic decision. They didn't go to the temple and ask God and have the thing light up and tell them A rabbi got up and he said gentlemen, the Torah requires us to go to war to go to war He didn't say we started in you custom now. We'll have two loaves. We'll plant the colors like this or we'll smell this kind of spice will attack the Greek Empire. That was the rabbinic decision Rabbi, where did you get this from? No, I think this is the right thing to think do you have some prophetic? No, this was my opinion That was good enough That was the beginning of rabbinic leadership as it were when the decisions are made By the wisdom that in here is in the heart and mind of a Torah sage And by the way, it was a very peculiar decision Very peculiar, not just was dangerous, but it was very strange. You know the base of Aby says Beautiful classic insight consider these two rabbinic festivals first you have Purim and then you have Hanukkah Each one is an opposite threat to the Jewish people and the Jews respond in the opposite way Again Purim is when the when the Persians try to walk us out not religious battle just a physical genocide You Jewish you get killed. There's no religious debate. There's no philosophical the way. We don't want you to become persons We want you dead How did the Jews respond they don't lift the finger? They sit on the floor for pace up for three days fasting and begging God to forgive them totally spirit your response Some generations later the Greeks attack no physical battle We don't want to kill you. We just want to battle you philosophically. What are the Jews do pick up swords and got a war? Just one take it. They attack you physically and try and wipe you out. No self-defense. Just pray That's attack you spiritually no spiritual defense. You got a war. What's going on talk about opposite responses? And not only opposite completely inappropriate. They march against you to wipe you out Jews on the 13th of other we're going to kill you all what do we do put on sack? Sit on the floor fast on pace up beg plea do chibbut prepare for war. No irrelevant The Greeks march in don't try to kill any Jews. They just wonder philosophical argument the Jews go to war. What's going on? Says the base of maybe the answer is beautiful and this is what Torah wisdom is The problem it there's a principle governing Jewish history. I called me day Shamayin Hutsmi Risham Everything is the hands of heaven except fear of heaven That means nothing happens on earth That doesn't come from God is only one thing in the world. That's independent of him That's your religious spirit. That's what you have for use your free will build yourself spiritually. That's up to you He doesn't condition that again whether you'll be healthy whether you'll be wealthy Whether there be a financial collapse in the world whether the weather will be good or bad. That's all God That you controls down to the Has breath is only one thing that he doesn't control that leads up to you. That's your religious life That's what you're here for to make your own decisions. So here's the decision the Persians decide to kill the Jews kill the Jews God controls everything if you don't do and do churva and get him to change his mind you dead Forget fighting if this is to create in heaven war's not gonna help you better speak to our share to set down in the churva That's up to him whether attack us or not But then it comes to a battle with the Greeks and then the threat is not annihilation There the threat is religion. They want to fight your religion. That's our problem. Now we pick up for swords and go to war You know amazing So this was an unbelievable decision that was made by the rabbi What did he say the Greeks are gonna attack us? They want to change our religion stop us doing mitzvahs the way out we have fight to the death Why they're not trying to kill you this we fight it a bit for why because this is our response But as you can't pray for that you don't pray to God to make you spiritual you do it Just like I never pray to Hashem for a shame the world to come earn it. That's what you have for becomes spiritual Learned tired do mitzvahs you want to shame the world don't ask him for that Your spiritual life doesn't come from him it comes from you you have to ask for assistance in the wherewithal and the means and so forth, but And therefore you have to understand that's rabbinic insight That is the phase of the oral law and therefore when Chanukah goes Chanukah is deep in the phase of the oral law. There's no miracle revealed the war was a seemingly Natural phenomenon gorilla warfare nothing miraculous With perception you see it's miraculous that a band of you shiver bock him to feet down Greek empire But it's nothing openly miraculous. There's nothing written. There's no prophets. There's no Aspect of Tanakh that's written. There's no book of Chanukah added to that. There's not even a mission Chanukah has nothing written at all Never mind a written section of the Torah. There's not even a mission The only place Chanukah is written is that's woven in between the lines of discussion in the Talmud How you like the Shabbat candles is the discussion of how you like the Chanukah Completely oral nothing written no prophecy no revealed miracle all a natural Series of events in the physical world a hard one battle took years people died Nothing revealed at all. The only thing that was revealed at Chanukah was a little flame That burnt hidden in the temple for eight days when there was only enough oil for one But that was nothing like the miracles that occurred before All the miracles that occurred before that were Cosmic and great miracles the sea split the Ramams says they were cosmic They're required a prophet to be present and they were done to save the Jewish people The miracle of the flame that burned for eight days was not a cosmic event was a little flame that no one saw A bunch of priests in the temple saw behind closed doors It didn't save the Jewish people the war said the Jewish people the flame had nothing to do with it It was not a cosmic or necessary event. It was a symbol It was a final greeting a shame was saying this finally closes off the era where there's any vestige of my speaking to you This is the last time you'll see me or hear from me until we meet again at the Messianic Church And then a burn once again that Western flame that burnt miraculously every day in the temple that flicked on and off during the days of Shimon and Salik and now burnt one last time miraculously for eight days was a final loving farewell Yeah, from this phase on you're not going to see me again until we meet in the Messianic age All you're going to see from now on is what your own perception reveals I'm not going to speak. I'm not going to reveal profit no written Torah no miracles from now. It's up to you The first phase revelation. I shouldn't does it all the second phase. It's up to us now. You want to know Me study Torah you want to know what I think about things ask the sages because I'm not going to reveal myself The reason is you create Torah now Here you receive Torah comes to me you charged up you find up you understand what it is now. It's over to you This is the purpose of the world the purpose of history is to live in the darkness and be able to generate Yourself the challenge on the first phase was are you big enough to receive Torah can you be pure enough to reach prophecy? Can you become a vessel for that message? That was the challenge. There was no challenge of creating Torah What record do you have here of anybody saying anything clever or wise or deep? Nobody said anything. They just received that it repeated our shames were the prophets Yeah, any discussion of the prophets of the incredible Torah wisdom Novel ideas they said in Torah who needs them you repeat what God says now he can't do better than that And then that disappears now it's up to you now it becomes the Torah of individuals maybe a kibber says this to me Calvin says the reveal he has a sister of an Gabriel each mission announced presented with the names of the sage and each one says the Jew Then he his perception of reality and that's what Torah is faster Of course for you and me it means we have to learn Torah we have to generate it ourselves You don't open your ears or eyes and see it being given you're not going to be given it. Just to come from within the darkness of the faith of a Jewish heart. And now when you like that small candle in your window, deep in the darkness, that's around us. And amid all the distortions, it's no accident that Hanukkah is on the 25th of Kislav. In the same month that they had the 20th. Do you think these are accidents? All of that religion. Is they derivative of time? You know what's unique about the 20th of the Kislav? It's the darkest day of the year. That's when the light is lit in your window. Do you know what it is? Kabalistically. You know what is an astronomy? The 25th of Kislav is the day where the day is absentically shortest. The night is longest. And just after that the days begin to get longer. The mattress says that Adam thought he was going to die then. Adam, after he sinned. And the world got darker and darker and darker as winter got deeper. And he didn't know he was going to be a spring. And he thought that he'd killed the world. The days were getting shorter. The nights were getting longer. And inevitably the world's going to be lost in light. And on the 25th of Kislav for the first time he realized the night wasn't getting longer. And the next day the night got short and the day got longer. And he realized there was going to be a spring. It's the premonition of redemption that happens at the moment of greatest darkness. And of course that's why the Christians made it the birth of the Savior. That will end the exile. That was there. You know that they had a festival. You know they have two festivals, the 25th of December and the 1st of January. Those are eight days apart. They claim the 25th was when the Savior was born. And that his circumcision was on the 8th day on the 1st of January. You know what this one means? That's there. Which are those eight days? They're the eight days apart. That's where it comes from. And that's why they put lights on tree. I mean so. Be that as it may be. But this is the concept. The concept is that in the darkness you have to generate the correct perception. And that is the call, the phase of the Oral. So in summary what we study this evening maybe it's a show on Monday. We'll try to look at the history of the Oral Lord. What is the missioner? When was it given? Why was it not allowed to be written down? Why was it finally written? How was the allowability for that since it has to remain oral? Don't you kill it by making it written? How can you write an oral law? We'll try to look at all of that. But the history to remember for now is that there was a first phase of a written law prophetic revelation where you'd have to be blind not to see. And then there begins a phase of darkness. Hanukkah brings in that phase of darkness where the light that shines is the light that we show. When the menorah was lit for the first time, we'll finish with this. When the menorah was lit for the first time in the Mishkam in the desert. It was lit in a blaze of miracles. The gentleman says the light that shone from the menorah lit the world. You know that it was called Oragonus. The Kabbalistic expression is the hidden light. The light that shone from the menorah was the same light that shone at the moment of creation before the light was hidden. The gentleman says by the light of the menorah you saw inside a barrel. You didn't see the outside of a barrel. You know, when the Jews walked in the desert for 40 years and the menorah was lit in the Mishkam. The kind of light that shone from it showed you the inside of things, not the outside. You saw through things. The one says that the reason the temple was built were the windows narrow inside and wide outside, unlike normal buildings. Normal buildings in those days were built with narrow, the windows then in the thick walls were narrow outside and they're wide and in. You know why they were built that way. In old, you got out of the walls of Jerusalem today you still see the same thing. The windows are slits on the outside for defense. The arrows could not be fired in. But they widened on the inside so the light could come in. The Mishkam was built the other way. It was narrow inside and wide out. So it wasn't for the purpose of letting light in. It was for the purpose of shining light out. The light in the Mishkam lit the world spirit. For the purpose of lighting the world. So the menorah that was lit in the desert when the Mishkam was dedicated, Hanukkah, Samisbah, Hanukkah for the first time. There was a divine light. There was a light that revealed all in the world. You have to be blind not to see that. But that went dark. And the second time it was deep in the phase of Greek darkness where nothing miraculous was happening. And God wasn't lighting that light. This time it was a bunch of Gohanim who had defeated the Greek Empire who rededicated the temple that had only contaminated oil and they found a little pure oil. And this time they lit that perfectly small flame. Almost nothing compared to the miraculous flame that had shown originally. But this is the one that we do. Let me finish with a fantastic discussion. I mentioned this to two minutes. Unbelievable discussion that you have between Russia and the Ramban. Then I will stop with it. I think sums it up. The Torah says that when the Mishkam was built in the desert and the Hanukkah, the original Hanukkah, Hanukkah, Hanukkah, the original dedication, Hanukkah means inauguration of the sanctuary of the Mishkam, the Mishbaer, the altar. The princes of the tribes brought gifts. Each tribe had a leader of the 12 tribes. Each tribe brought his rich gifts. The next part says that God says to Aaron, Aaron, the priest, the high priest, you like the lights. You like the manoeuvre. Russia says what are these two doing next to each other? There's nothing accidental in Torah. Why does the Torah first describe the gifts brought by the princes of each tribe and then Aaron lighting the manoeuvre? Yes, because when Aaron saw them bringing in the gifts, he almost lost his mind because neither he nor his tribe had a part to play in this inauguration. Each Jewish tribe, led by its great prince, was bringing an amazing gift for the moment of dedication, and neither he nor his tribe had a part to play. When Hashem saw his incredible distress, Hashem said to him, 'Khaya khla, by your life, your share is greater than theirs, because you like the lights.' And your job is you go into the Mishkam, you like the manoeuvre, you like the lights, and then he was appeased. That's what Russia says. The rambun asks a long list of questions on the show by the time he's finished, there's nothing left. Listen to the rambun's question. Amazing. First of all, he says, why was Aaron distressed when he saw them bringing gifts? Had he forgotten that his function is entirety of the Mishkam? Why is he in peace? They're bringing gifts to begin the function of the Mishkam. He's everything in the Mishkam. He had the priests. He goes into the Holy of Holies. No other human ever does that. He brings the incense, which is the highest sacrifice imaginable, capitalistically far higher than anything else. His role, nothing moves in the Mishkam without him. He has a permanent place in the Mishkam. He goes in every day. He does everything in the Mishkam. These people are bringing a one-time gift, and he can't take it. Is the question clear? He's envious that they are now bringing a gift. Once to the Mishkam, he can't stand the thought he's not doing that. He runs the whole Mishkam here in the other priest. He goes into the Holy of Holies, and he's giving his ever now to do that. So why is he distressed and furthermore says the rambun? If that was his problem, why was he appeased by beginning the Mishkam? He already had dozens of Mishkam in the Mishkam. He was letting the Minarigan appease him and making him feel better. This is the rambun's answer. This is beyond description. He says the rambun. He was distressed not because he never fought to play. He wanted Hanukkah. Sorry, he wanted. He wanted Hanukkah since his birth. If you're not there at the moment of ignition of inauguration, you're not there at all. The moment of conception when a child is conceived as the genes of mother and father fuse, that moment conditions the whole child. At that moment he's blew eyes on the shape of his nose. It's all created then. If you're not there at the moment of conception, you know it. That moment defines all. That's called Hanukkah. Another word Hanukkah is based on the word Chinuch. Chinuch means education of a young child, inauguration of a child's spiritual intellectual journey. Hanukkah means the moment of ignition of inauguration. That's only creft. He wanted to be there at the beginning. He was tremendously distressed because anything he would do from then on in would become second. These men are bringing gifts at the moment of ignition of inauguration. That's what he creft. Hashem said to him, "Your share is greater than this. I don't mean you like the minority of the Michigan. I mean that your descendants will like the minority in the second temple. After the Greeks have defiled it, your great-great-grandchildren will come into a contaminated temple and will knight the minority again for the first time. The first time of the second phase of history. These men are witnesses and participating in the first time that this Michigan being ignited and inaugurated. They are important receivers of Hashem's life. That's their level. But that's something I'm doing. This is divine. They are witnesses. But they'll come a time in Jewish history where that's all gone. The Greeks have contaminated everything. There's no evidence for anything. You can be in atheists if you like. Nothing will be seen. And your descendants will like that light. That's infinitesimally greater than this. This light is greater in magnitude beyond measure. This second light is almost nothing. But this light that's infinites I'm doing. This is a divine thing. You just have to be a witness. The second light that's almost nothing. This tiny, almost invisible flame that burns in the Jewish window in the depth of winter. That could easily be missed. Nothing compared to the divine light by which you seek into things. But this is the one that you do. This is a declaration of your depth of faith. And therefore, your share is far greater. This light here in the first phase of history is far greater objectively. And you have to be great enough to be destroyed. That's amazing. But that's not something you do. That's something you witness. The coming phase in Jewish history where I will step back, says God, and the world will be dark, and you will have to light the light. And that light, this light of the first one, is He's incredible, but it's got a dark. The outcome of Facebook prophecy ends and this light will have gone. But the light that you light in the darkness of the Greeks, that will never die. That will last until the Messianic Age and bring the Messianic redemption. And therefore, your share is far greater than this. Okay, we'll stop there. (audience applauding)