Speaker 1okay so greetings everybody shalom to everyone let's begin with a couple of thank yous um first of all thank you to ariel who in cape town is manning the technical side of this to make it work and thanks for all the work you've done on the website thank you to my daughter nakama in oxford who is responsible for setting up the website originally um and thanks to all of you for your support um first of all i'd just like to say that the reason one of the main reasons i try to do these uh webinars before or during the festivals and a couple other times during the year is just to thank and acknowledge the support of people on the newsletter and the website i must say that i'm particularly appreciative of donations that people make i hope everyone knows that we've never solicited any donations the idea is to run the website as a service and to make torah available to people but of course as everyone understands it takes funding and so um i must say that we've had tremendous number of people just spontaneously making donations through the website and i greatly appreciate it and i try to give these exclusive talks to the people who signed up for that so thank you very much again um another technical piece of news is that we are migrating to a different um format or different uh host for the um newsletters so if you're going to uh get these newsletters in the future you may find them going into spam or disappearing so please just take note of that make sure you get the newsletters let us know if you're not getting there for some reason just to make sure that you registering the new system and that it's operating for you i'm sure ariel will send out a little note about that and notify us when that's going to happen and how you actually migrate to the new system um fine so let us talk a little bit about um about hanukkah let me share with you an idea that i hope you'll find useful and thought-provoking and interesting and you're welcome to put a comment or a question in the chat i hope i'll see it if not feel free to email me you all have our dedicated email address email me through the site or privately you're very welcome to do that um and and by the way greetings to some old friends whom i see from around the world um nice to see you with us and finally those of you who are appearing my screen as a black box i perfectly respect that and it's fine but it's easier to speak to human beings now as i always say i know that if you haven't had your nails painted green with silver glitter or had your eyelashes curled then you know i'm perfectly understanding of that i create take great care to curl my eyelashes before giving these talks but uh it's easy to speak to human beings and see that people are following uh or that they're awake so that's uh that helps me if you if you do that um let me share with you an idea about hanukkah and a little bit broader than hanukkah only and i hope you'll find this interesting and um you're welcome to communicate with me about it if something's not clear you want to take it further can i just ask for a wave from a couple of people just to make sure that i'm i'm okay thank you there is a famous question a famous question attributed to the base yes if we're going back now 400 years which is let me say let me tell you the question and um then i will tell you uh one particular answer that i'd like to share with you uh and use that as a format for uh building an idea that i hope you'll find i hope you find useful and important and that question is a probably the most famous question asked about hanukkah and possibly the most famous question maybe in all of judaism of this type i'm not sure it's the most difficult or the most important question but it's a very very interesting question and if you haven't heard this question about hanukkah you really haven't approached hanukkah in a i would say professional way or a uh from the perspective of the the nuance and the jargon of the yeshiva world this is something everyone ought to know and the question is as follows we know that hanukkah celebrates a miracle that is fundamental to understanding the nature of hanukkah let me just digress for half a moment to point out to you that every festival adds miracles i don't know if people are familiar with that every yom tov every hug every festival in the jewish year adds new torah and a new miracle you think about it for a moment and you're like oh it's a miracle it's a miracle it's a miracle it's a miracle for a moment pesach is miraculous shavuot is miraculous shmus sukkahs is miraculous they all celebrate a miracle they all bring a new dimension of torah to the world and they all bring a miracle to the world and the two rabbinic festivals of purim and hanukkah are no different they also celebrate miracles there's an interesting discussion about what exactly the miracle of hanukkah is everyone takes it for granted that the miracle of hanukkah is the candles the oil that burned for eight days probably more fundamental is the winning of the war against the greeks um you look when you see alana nissim you see the way we celebrate it there's no question that the more significant miracle by far the more important one in terms of jewish history is the victory uh salvation of the jews the victory over the greeks in fact the miracle of the of the oil in the base of mekdash in the temple was really only after the war was won it really was very private only the kohanim saw it it wasn't visible to the to the nation it had nothing to do with the salvation of the jewish people again it was a sign or a simon that was given to the jews after the war was won but nevertheless that's the famous miracle of hanukkah and of course we use that as a um public publicizing of the miracle what we call we use the reminiscence or the the memory if you like the celebration of that of that light by lighting similar parallel lights in our windows and that's very well known but whichever way you look at it there's no question that the celebration of hanukkah is a miracle that's very important to understand miracles are not simply just aberrations that that sort of occur from time to time miracles are the foundation of the jewish people and of the torah it's very important to understand that and it's for this reason that you found our greats like the maharal going into a long fantastic discussion of this of the order of miracles and the structure of miracles i highly recommend that to anyone who wants to look it up it's the second introduction to say for our gurus which the maharal wrote on pesach absolutely fundamental and and more than fundamental analysis of the nature and the program of miracles the the organizing principles behind historical miracles in judaism so it's very important to know that we are based on the miraculous this is a fundamental theme within judaism and as i said the the the rabbinic festivals of purim and hanukkah are no different of course they celebrate the types of miracles that are suitable and fitting in a rabbinic era purim after rabbinic was the first time that we celebrated the types of miracles in the rabbinic era purim after all celebrates a miracle that is a hidden miracle at purim no dead are revived the sea doesn't split manna doesn't fall from heaven all that happens is there's a inversion of political events in a in a hidden fashion the purim is the is the is the essential festival of hidden miracles and then of course hanukkah is also a miracle that is not revealed in the conventional sense at hanukkah again the ocean was not split manna didn't fall from heaven dead people weren't revived there was a victory of a few over many years and so on and so on and so on and so on yes it's true there was this symbolic if i had to use that word but let's call it symbolic miracle of oil burning for eight days when there was only enough for one that is true that was a wave goodbye from that dimension of miracles but the essential aspect of hanukkah is that it introduces a dimension of the oral law which is the dimension of hidden miracles but be that as it may the fact is we celebrate miracles now now the the miracle of the oil raises a fundamental problem and here comes the famous question of the bet yourself and he puts it like this we all know the story that the greeks had contaminated the temple they had taken apart and contaminated the altar and all the vessels in the temple and all the oil that was available and therefore when the hashman came into the into the temple the second temple and re cleaned it and rededicated it and they wished to fulfill the mitzvah of the menorah of lighting the seven branched menorah which was the one of the four central um calium or vessels of the of the temple there was no pure oil and therefore they would have been forced to light it with contaminated oil it's true they could have done that contaminated oil in a public mitzvah of that kind could be used but of course as a rededication a point of inauguration if you like of a historical phase of a temple obviously it is far superior to use oil that is pure despite the lacking permissibility of using oil that is not and they were desperately looking and searching hoping to find pure oil and as we all know they found one bottle or one cruise of pure oil and that was the oil they used to light the memory the problem was there was only one jar or one bottle and that was to last only for one day there was only enough oil sealed with a seal of the high priest of the coin god let's not forget that hanukkah was a battle of the high priests against the greek against the greek culture and and and and and and society and might and it was only enough oil for one day now logic will tell us that if there's oil for one day and you light the oil and miraculously it burns for eight days technically speaking there were only seven days of miracle right stay with me carefully you have to understand the question those are not familiar with the question need to register the question clearly the question is there was a enough oil for one day but it burned for eight days therefore the inescapable conclusion is that the miracle lasted only for seven days right everyone with me on that you see the logic of that there's enough oil for one day it points for eight the first day is not miraculous the first day is natural there was oil for the first day when the oil continues into the second day when strictly speaking there shouldn't have been any oil left and it burns for eight days you have one natural day and seven miraculous days now surely if you enact a festival to celebrate the days of miracle that should only be a seven-day festival there should only be a seven-day festival they're only celebrating seven days of miracle how come Hanukkah's eight days that's the famous question of the bet yourself and that is such a famous question that's a purely logical question and just to summarize one more time one natural day seven miraculous days we're celebrating miracle after all that's the basic idea of Hanukkah we should have a seven-day festival it's true we are very interested in eight days eight in Kabbalistic thinking is always the miraculous right the moral points that out time and again seven is always the number of the natural world seven days in the week seven lights or colors in the spectrum seven notes in the classical musical scale that we use seven fruits of Israel that's the natural the natural world is based on the number seven after all there are six facets to the cube and the center which binds them together which is the seventh element eight always transcends the very word shmone in Hebrew which means eight is the same word as shaman not only is shaman oil the Hanukkah oil but oil means fat fat fat or oil means which is beyond the minimum the bare lean minimum and then you have fat which goes beyond shaman means more eight means more than the natural world right anyone who knows a little Hebrew knows that the word shmone which is eight is the same letters as the word mishnah right mishnah is the is the interpretation that means the the extension of the Torah into its practical application and the same letters if you rearrange them spell neshama the soul right what better what better illustration of the fact that we're talking about something that's trans natural also circumcision is done on the eighth day because you're taking the body and giving it the ability to transcend into holiness eight is always the number of transcendence and this obviously Hanukkah needs to be eight days however the technical reason the reason that we that we um we celebrate Hanukkah is to celebrate the miracle and there were only seven miraculous days now that is the question of the bet yourself and this question has taken the interest of many many thinkers in the last 400 years since he wrote it most famous of all is a book that was written some years ago called Nair Lameah and this book I have a copy here highly recommended for those who have liked something interesting to think about on Hanukkah I don't know if this has ever been translated into English but Nair Lameah is a book containing 100 answers to that question 100 answers it's a beautiful title because Nair Lameah comes from a very beautiful Jewish expression which is Nair Lameah a light for one a candle for one is a candle for 100 meaning if you're in a dark place and you handle up you hold up a candle to light the way of one individual 100 people can benefit when you light a candle for one if there are 100 people present they can all benefit they don't take away if you have one slice of bread you can light the way of one individual 100 people only one person can eat it but one candle can be used by 100 people just as well as by one and therefore it's called Nair Lameah a candle for one is a candle for 100 which is an exquisite name for a book about this question about Hanukkah candles right and it's called Nair Lameah a light for 100 and it contains 100 answers to this this question and if you'd like something to keep you awake for the next few days of Hanukkah you can work through that book to make matters worse or better I came across this book called Nair Lameah a light for 100 and it contains 100 answers to this book recently which believe it or not contains 500 answers to the same question this book is called Yumei Shmoinei Hanukkah and this is a book containing 500 answers now many of them true are variations on a theme that is true but nevertheless there are 500 distinct answers to this question and no doubt since that book is if you can do it I can do it better next year somebody's going to publish a book with a thousand answers to this question and you know it brings to mind the secular world how many proofs are there Pythagoras's theorem how many proofs how many distinct proofs are there Pythagoras there's a famous book written about this in the last couple of maybe 60 70 years ago of over 300 beautiful proofs of Pythagoras if you're a mathematician or you're interested in geometry look it up one fantastic one from a 60 16 year old American girl came up with an original proof of Pythagoras some of them are graphic some of them are algebraic right fascinating fascinating book anyway we of course are doing better than them we have 500 answers to this question now you can spend a lot of time thinking about the answers and some of them are very famous I mean one of them one of one famous answer is that they didn't light uh all the oil on the first day and then there were seven days a miracle they used only one eighth of each day so each day was a miracle in itself because there was only an eighth of a day's worth of oil energy and they didn't light all the oil on the first day and then there was all day they are very creative answers and as I say you can work through hundreds of them I'd like to just take one of them and use it as a basis for exploring a theme in Judaism and that answer is and as Max has pointed out on on our on this particular webinar of course one answer is it was miraculous that they found even the one jar of oil that was also miraculous there are no shortage there's no shortage of answers to the question but here's one that I'd like to explore with you and that is that seven days of Hanukkah are there to celebrate the miracle and the eighth days to celebrate the fact that the natural is also miraculous hmm think about that in other words yes it's true that you have seven miraculous days but we add another day to show that the day that you think is natural when that oil burns for the first day and there's enough oil to burn for the first day you think well that's okay that's natural no oil only burns because Hashem wants it to burn and if Hashem wants And therefore, we celebrate eight days deliberately to show and specifically to show. We're not only celebrating the transcendent. That would be a mistake. That would be an error. The transcendent teaches us that the natural is also a transcendence. The classic source for this idea, of course, is not Hanukkah, but it's the famous Ramban at the end of Parsha's boy. Let me mention that. It's an absolute classic. I see Chaim is nodding his head and anybody who knows a little bit about the subject will immediately identify that as the classic source. And then the Ramban says, talking about miracles, the great Ramban, Nachmanides I'm talking about. Look it up. It's fascinating. He says something very, very extreme and stark. He says that it is very important to know that when you study the miracles in Torah, as a Jew, you need to know that the natural world is as miraculous as the miraculous. His language is, the way he puts it, he says, a Jew needs to know that there's no such thing as natural. Anything that we register as natural, his language is, there's no such thing as the natural. What we call natural comes from exactly the same place as a supernatural. And he says, you have no She in the Torah of Moshe, which means you do not qualify for a Jew, for being a Jew in this sense. If you think that there's a categorical distinction between the natural and the miraculous, you think the miraculous is done by God and the natural operates by itself. True, it was made by God. It was made by Hashem. But now it operates on its own. When God interferes, he acts directly. That's called miracle. When God doesn't interfere, the natural operates on its own. You have no She in Torah if you think that way. Look up the language of the Ramban. It's very stark, classic. It's right at the end of the Parsha. And it's probably the best known few lines that the Ramban sets up. And it's a teaching in itself. What the Ramban means here, he does not mean that there's no such thing as the natural at all. That's a gross misunderstanding. The Ramban knows as well as any. Of us, that there is a natural world out there, at least that our perception demonstrates to us a natural world. But what it's telling you is that the source of the natural is exactly the same as the source of supernatural. The Ramban's not blurring the distinction between natural and supernatural in terms of the manifestation in the world, right? The Torah itself clearly indicates that when the sea splits or dead people are revived or manna falls from the sky, that is a breaking of the rules of nature. Now, no one's denying that, but what the Ramban's teaching you is, do not think for a moment that what you call the natural is a self-sustaining, self-maintaining, self-generating system of cause and effect, right? In philosophy, that would be known as what they call the watchmaker theory. God created the world like a watchmaker. He winds it up and he lets it run. And then it runs on its own. Hashem created the world and it now runs on its own, independent of him. Sometimes he puts his hand in and he maneuvers things, then he performs a miracle. That is utterly wrong, as the first two pages of the Nefesh HaChayim explain. Hashem pours his creative energy, he pours his being into reality at all times. And if he would stop it for a moment, everything would disappear, which means he needs to pour his creative energy into the world to sustain miracles, and he needs to pour the same creative energy into the world to sustain the natural. True, the one operates the rules of the natural, and the other one operates according to the rules of the miraculous, and the Ramban's not denying that. There are two systems in the world, but the point is they both come from the same place. That's the important thing to understand. The only difference is how distant are you from that, from that source. That means when, and here comes the thing I'd like to talk about in detail, when a miracle occurs you are seeing Hashem's emanation into the world directly close to source when you operate the natural when you see the natural operating in the world you're seeing Hashem's emanation at a greater distance through more layers through more filters through more masks and veils and that is the concept what the Ramban is saying is when you see something through a veil and you see it darkly it appears to be independent the more veils are interposed that are interposed between Hashem's face and the world the more you are tempted to see things as independent and that's where Jewish belief comes in Jewish understanding comes in is that there may be more veils or interfaces between him and us that doesn't change for a moment the fact that they all come from the same place let me give you a beautiful illustration of this which I hope you'll find meaningful and I hope it'll be a key for you to open many areas of Torah that some people find challenging I heard this particular version of this theme from Rabbi Avram Lappin when a wonderful teacher from the last generation he happened to be South African he later ended up in California his sons are very very talented Torah teachers each one in his own right and I've merited to gain from the Torah of him indirectly and from his sons some directly and some indirectly but and you can listen to recordings of Avram Lappin's shirim very unusual he was a person who began a very creative method of deep Torah teaching long before the so-called modern Kiruv movement you know today we have what we call a Kiruv movement outreach Jewish outreach which means that people like myself reaching out to Jews who have less formal background in Judaism and of course there's a taste for hearing very deep and sophisticated ideas in Torah as opposed to the sort of the run in the run of the mill very ordinary I dare I say boring methods of teaching that were on the scene before this movement came along he was teaching very creatively and very very deeply long before it became popular in the general shall I say secular Jewish world and his his shirim are worth listening to uh for that alone not only that he was a gifted teacher as well but let me tell you an experience that I heard from him that really opens up a number of worlds for us he learned in tells he was sent to Europe to tells and he learned uh in the tells yeshiva and his rosh yeshiva was the tells of rosh yeshiva of block and he said on one occasion when he was a young unmarried man in the yeshiva a block used to let them ask questions I think it was Shabbos afternoon they used to sit and have free free open-ended discussions the boys would ask questions the rosh yeshiva would stimulate their thinking and and answer them and on one occasion he asked the rabbi he asked his rosh yeshiva the following question he asked him we have a very disturbing phenomenon in Torah which is that we anthropomorphize we we give human attributes to inanimate objects to animals midrashim talk about trees talking and about animals talking and about what what what better example than parakshira parakshira is an ancient source which talks about the song that all parts of the creation sing the wild animals sing a song the birds sing a song dogs sing a song there are aspects of the creation each sing their song what but bothers many people about this is a little uncomfortable talking about you know inanimate objects or non-human objects talking and singing let me give you two examples and these are examples that he put to his to his rosh yeshiva one example is this we know that um you know on on Shabbos when you make kiddish we cover the colors cover the breads why do we cover the bread the reason that's given if you look it up is not to embarrass the bread not to embarrass the color we don't want to pass that you know why because we're going to make kiddish over wine and wine should not take precedence the precedence should be given to the bread that's the central uh pillar of the meal bread is always the classic sustaining uh main aspect of the meal so we should put in the bread first the wine is an adjunct to the meal and you drink it later but on this occasion we want to use the wine first because we're making kiddish but if you're using the wine first you are adding the bread that's the wrong order of blessings and in order to embarrass the bread which is being pushed aside and not giving the correct priority we cover the colors in fact that's why we have beautiful color covers and it's a whole art my wife makes the most exquisite silk color covers people order them from her she does them to specifications and uh and I must say it's a bit of a cottage industry here she makes the silk paintings I steam them under pressure because that brings out the dyes and the colors and fixes them and perhaps sometime I'll show you some of her of her color covers but the point is yes as Max is pointing out there's another reason for that as well we cover the colors not only not to embarrass them we also cover them because the the manner the man that fell in the desert was between layers of dew and such reminiscent of that and on no doubt the others as well but the reason one reason that he's given is not to embarrass the bread and this young yeshiva boy our lap and he said to his rosh yeshiva he said you know this is bread bread doesn't have any feelings bread doesn't have feelings what do you mean to not embarrass the bread I mean you know why are we using childish childlike or childish terminology I mean bread does not get embarrassed say that it's an order of blessings problem and in order to hide the object that should be made but to talk about embarrassing the bread I mean this is Torah this is ultimate sophistication ultimate intellectual sophistication and you are using terminology that quite honestly sounds a little a little childish and Torah abounds in these things here's another example here's another example when Moshe Rabbeinu Moses caused the plagues to occur and he put out his staff or his hand and he caused in the first instance he caused the um the river to turn to blood and then he caused the the the Earth or the dust of Egypt of Mitzrayim to turn to lice those are miracles that he was instructed not to do right he was instructed instructed not to do them to turn the river to blood which is something that is not ideal right and the river was a river that saved him when he was a little baby he was put into the basket on the river and that saved his life technically it saved his knife life not only because it hit him but a deeper level of understanding is that the astrologers told Pharaoh that when Pharaoh was throwing the boys into the Nile okay the astrologers were waiting for the signal that they would receive astrologically that the Redeemer of the Jewish people had been put into the river and so indeed that's what his mother did she put him in a basket on the river so they told Pharaoh don't worry he's been put into the river astrology is never accurate but it was accurate enough for that and nevertheless however you look at it the river saved his life and there's a principle of gratitude or rather avoiding ingratitude if the river saved your life you should not be the one to turn it to blood by the way as a side point if I may point out here for thinkers what's wrong with turning the river to blood it's a miracle manifesting Hashem's greatness what's wrong with that if you were the Nile River my friends would you agree to be turned into blood to demonstrate one of the first of Hashem's plagues apparently not apparently not the fact that it's a blow to the Egyptians and reveals Hashem's greatness in the world does not change the fact that it is a distortion it's a distortion for a river that is water to be turned to blood a distortion of the natural and there's something wrong with that something wrong with it to the extent that you should not be doing such a shall we say a harmful distorting thing in the world if you were saved by the river the conclusion is unavoidable that when you turn the water to blood necessary though it may be part of the Torah that may be a revelation of Hashem's greatness as it may be it's not a good thing it's a distortion of the natural and that's not good okay that's a side point but be that as it is be that as it may Moshe was told this River saved your life you should not be the one to do that and similarly when it came to turning the dust into lice he was not allowed to do that Aaron did those two miracles why not because the the earth saved his life by hiding the body of the Egyptian whom he killed Masha Rabboni used a mystical technique to kill an Egyptian who was beating a Jew and the body of the Egyptian was buried in the earth long enough for Masha to escape and he made it out of he made it out of Egypt alive since the river saved your life since the dust saved your life you should not be the one to show the ingratitude of turning it into something that is a distortion of its natural order you leave that to someone else what do you see here that there's a question of gratitude to the river there's a question of gratitude to the sand the problem is the river doesn't have any feelings and the sand doesn't have any feelings what do you mean gratitude to a river I mean let's be real there's a statement of the sages do not throw a stone into a well from which you once drank you drank from this well don't throw a stone into don't don't muddy the waters of an of a world you once drank from why it's an ingratitude but the well has no feeling the water doesn't mind it doesn't care and therefore you are anthropomorphizing you you ascribing human emotions and human responses to inanimate objects and that is not true and Torah has to be true and it's not it it is unavoidably childish if not if not childlike childish that it seems to be the problem this is the question that he put his Russian now how would a great spiritual teacher answer a question like that of course he answered in classical form he said what do you think because that's the way you teach you don't teach by by um you don't teach um max i'm not sure what you what you're offering i don't understand your answer but anyway i'm sure it's deep but let me let me push on in this direction the um the question is the question is uh he said to him what do you think you're posing me a question why are we talking about the bread being embarrassed and the river having gratitude why are we doing that what do you think so this is what he said as a young man he said i said to my rishi shiva i said to him it's not a question of the feelings of the of the bread it's for you it's for you that means when you do something that is nominally insulting when you when you throw a stone into a well from which you once drank it's an act of ingratitude it is true that the river has no feelings it is true that the well has no feelings gratitude or ingratitude to the river has no feelings it is true that the well has no feelings gratitude or ingratitude to the river has no feelings gratitude or ingratitude to the river has no feelings gratitude or ingratitude to an inanimate object is meaningless objectively but it's you you benefited from the source you should not show ingratitude and therefore in terms of your character this is not a thing you should do please raise your head if you think that's a good answer well the rishi shiva said to him he said that doesn't solve the problem at all that does not solve the problem at all the reason is your question was you are your question was but it's what you said you said it's not true that was your problem the problem is that the river has no feelings the well has no feelings now you're telling me it's for you that doesn't solve the problem it may well be a good training exercise for your character but your problem was why are you relating to bread as if it has feelings when it does not have feelings how have you solved that problem you're telling me a very nice idea don't throw a stone into a well which you once drank before you have the refinement but your problem was this is an inanimate object there's no feelings so the fact that it's a benefit in your character in some way doesn't solve the problem that you're still using a metaphor you're using an image or a practice in the world which is not intrinsically true true it's a beautiful idea and you're using it in a poetic and metaphorical fashion and you're using it as a self-development exercise but it's not true do we see that my friends do we see the do we see the problem so he said to rishi shiva well okay what's the answer so he said to him you can't think about it you think about it in telling the answer and ramallah said he went and he thought about it all week and he was learning something during the week which gave him the the key to unlock this this issue and the next week he went back and discussed it with her shiva and this is an idea i'd like to share with you this idea depends by the way on the rosh yeshiva the tells the rosh yeshiva of block and you'll find this written in his book shirey dais shirey dais absolutely classic work i cannot recommend it highly enough right rav yosef you heard a lay block great tells a rosh yeshiva this is printed in two volumes this may have made its way into english i'm not i'm not familiar with an english edition of this but um this was uh certainly a classic in its time and it's a remarkable quite a remarkable book of torah thought again based on very deep ideas put generally speaking not in kabbalistic terminology but but in more general sort of terminology very very original extremely thought-provoking and a classic in its own right but one of the main themes he brings out in this book is the layers of reality he has some very very famous analogies there one very striking one about a person standing in a room of mirrors with one candle and how many candles does he see very very very interesting how many dimensions do you see it's a very thought-provoking work but one of its main themes is layers of reality let me try to explain what i mean because this is the key to our idea rabbi lepin said he was learning during the week at gemara the gemara is talking tiniest i think it is a gemara talking about rabbi khanina ben dosa rabbi khanina ben dosa and his wife were extremely poor we're going back to mishnah times they're extremely poor and uh famously poor the gemara says on one occasion the um the uh mrs mrs khanina ben dosa she used to um used to bake bread in an oven and she was ashamed the ladies in town they used to come to this communal oven where they baked in other words like a central fire with communal ovens around and she was embarrassed not to be able to put her dough in the oven so she went along and she sort of i don't know she participated in some way when she opened the oven there was bread okay by the way quite interesting when the gemara talks about the miracles that she experienced the miracles that he experienced it seems in some way um she was even greater than he gentlemen this is not a thing we like to admit so we'll move rapidly on but be that as it may be that as it may he and his wife were on a tremendous spiritual level they were part of that generation that could revive the dead and on one occasion shabbos was coming it was a friday there was no food so his wife said well what are we going to do so he said leave it to me and he went out into the field and he prayed he davened and in response to his prayer a hand came down from the higher world and handed him the two versions of this one was a diamond and one was a gold golden table leg leg of a table made out of gold so he took this table let's use that version for the present discussion so uh arian i think you're thinking of mrs baruch maruk for his wife here we talk about a slightly different generation but be that as it may he took the golden table leg he went into town he sold it and with the money he bought everything they needed for shabbos so he went back home and he puts all the stuff on the table then he says my wife here's the food we can eat on shabbos she said to him where did you get this so he said well i went out into the field i prayed to hashem and hashem gave me the she said take it back you know where this came from this comes from our share in the world to come if you and i eat this food now we'll enjoy shabbos when we get up to the next world we were sitting at a table missing a leg can you imagine we'll be sitting around everybody else will be sitting at their sumptuous meals and you all be sitting there holding on to the leg of the table so the table doesn't matter if you're sitting at the table it doesn't collapse you know we we don't want that this is temporary that's permanent give it back he said to look he said he said i think you're making a mistake if hashem gave it to me it's okay she said take me to your rabbi so i think the rabbi was was not mistaken i think it was rabbi i think rabbi rabban kandler i forget who it was so they went and um and he said to them what's the problem so the the woman the husband and wife she said look my husband you know you got this uh this this this miraculous gift and i'm trying to explain to him that if he anything that you get as a miracle in this world comes from your store in the world to come it's a principle by the way that's important to our principle that if hashem gives you a salvation that comes about miraculously again it's not something you and i have to worry about because we don't see open miracles but if you live on a world in a world of open miracles if you are saved in explicitly miraculous fashion it is being taken from your store where the miracles come from directly from the higher world and if you merit a miracle in this world it is paid for by your store in the world to come there are many sources for this one classic source is the fact that when hashem said to avram do not be afraid avram your reward is very great what happened was avram waded into a war against four kings right you're talking about a a multi-national empire a multinational empire the the collected armies of the world are being taken from your store where the miracles come from and that's what hashem said to avram waded into a war against four kings right you're talking about four nations and he ventured into battle with one helper or a couple hundred at most according to two different uh different versions a few hundred if you only won the war and he must have been afraid that is that is miraculous when you attack a international empire with four armies and you win with a handful of you know you know talmudic scholars you know or maybe just one assistant that is coming from another world hashem said do not be afraid i preserve your reward but the fact that you have a reward is that you have a reward that is given miraculously it comes from your from your reward in the higher world and therefore she said we don't want this we want nothing to eat on shabbos then live in a world of eternity where we are lacking so the ramah said look your husband's right it's okay no problem don't worry your husband's right eat the food she said but uh she said i don't accept that he said look mrs bendosa i promise you if we if you end up in the next world and your table is lacking a leg i promise you i'll give you mine that's what he said do what your husband says take the food eat it and if you're lacking anything in the world to come come across to me i'll give you my table leg she said ramah doesn't doesn't the talmud say that in the world to come we don't see each other we won't be seeing each other in fact the gemara says that in the world to come every righteous individual has a dwelling place of their own that's called model the fake void this needs long discussion but for one perspective we're all utterly alone or shall i say husband and wife are permanently bonded into each other as a unit i always say it's good news for some of us a little distressing for others but be that as it may be that as it may we will exist in that world and see no one else and therefore you won't be able to i won't be you won't be able to see see me to give you a table leg he thought about it he said take the food back take it back so once again the woman the woman won the argument and so what did they do that's what the rabbi said he took the food he went back to the market he sold it took the money went and bought back the golden table leg went out into the field held it up and a hand came down and took it and um uh devora i'm not sure what your question means i'll have to think about it maybe email me a more clear version excuse me time to talk in the next world husband and wife are together i think i made that clear husband and wife together in the next world we're talking about seeing others outside of that husband wife unit there is another dimension from which we'll all be together in the world to come unified in a spiritual call which is called but this is not our subject today so so um a hand came down and took the golden table leg and took it back and the government ends by saying that was a greater miracle than the first the first miracle that that this gift came down from the higher world is not that miraculous but that it gets taken back is extremely miraculous why because from the higher world they give but do not take in other words the spiritual world gives but does not take so a miracle of having shepherd bounty from the spiritual world that's understandable but to have something taken back that is extremely that's ultra miraculous anyway that's the story that's the story by the way as an aside in the story this is not our point directly but i'd just like to i'd just like to make this point think about it for a moment she was right in the end that means that she was quite right that this was something probably they would lose a share of in the world to come and therefore the rabbi made a mistake a mistake when he was given that table leg right or that diamond whatever it was that was not good he thought it was good because it gave them shabbos food but in fact it was it would have been an eternal loss and the question is why did hashem do that to him he prayed for it and hashem gave it to him but but it was a tragic outcome why would hashem do that why would hashem mislead him in that way and the answer is hashem didn't mislead him he gave him my wife he gave him a wife who could teach him the correct course of action hashem doesn't play unfair anyway that means gentlemen occasionally you need to listen to your wife very occasionally but anyway the point is that's that's what you need to do so what do we see from the story rabbi laban said when he was learning that gemara it suddenly struck him something that is absolutely essential and that is when a diamond let's say a diamond is received from the higher world or gold let's say is received what is the meaning of gold in the higher world god is useless in that world gold or diamonds is useless in that world gold is useless money whatever it is is useful in this world but if it comes down from a higher world what does it mean that gold is given from a higher world when you leave this world and you enter the world to come and you're sitting at your table right eating your food etc surely that is not material surely we're talking about a completely spiritual transcendent reality and he suddenly realized the meaning is that value in that world when it crosses the border into this world takes on the aspect of this world right that means in that world you're talking about something that we can only use metaphorical and allegorical language for you're talking about eating a meal sitting at a table made of gold these are terminologies we use to explain something completely transcendent but when that transmits itself into this world obviously it has to take on value in this world you can't sell abstract spirituality in this world you can only sell gold and he suddenly realized the principle must be that every time you cross a border you change currency let me say that one more time when you change across a border you change currency you know i see on this uh on this webinar a few south africans right i see a few south africans i'm honored and very happy to see des is with us and i can see a few other south africans as well when you when you if you bring rands right you bring south african rands into into london okay you got to change them there was a time by the way where you could get some money for the rands today i'm not sure about that but the point is you got to change the currency when you cross a border you change currency and therefore the principle must be that when you cross a border you change currency when you cross a border from a spiritual world to a material world you change the currency the value must be changed into what has value in that world and what has value in this world when you transcend into a higher world must transmute itself into what's appropriate value in that world exactly like when you cross a border you change currency into what goes and what is what is um of transactional value in that world that must be the principle and that by the way is the major principle of the shuraira does and it's a principle he uses time and again of course we're talking about tells a torah and so that tells rosh yeshiva right this is the same this is the source and in that book he gives you many fantastic examples of transmutations from one world to another in torah literature and he applies this principle very broadly and it's a masterpiece from that point of view but that's the principle you change value from one world to another and therefore he went back the next shabbos and he said to rosh yeshiva the answer to the deed can be embarrassed you know why because bread in this world is only bread but it's been projected into this world from a hand that means that when hashem performs a miracle for you when hashem performs a miracle for you he's reaching out a hand to you and doing something in this world and you see objects in this world move but it's his hand moving them when you throw a stone into a well from which you once drank you're throwing a stone into an outstretched hand a manifestation of the divine in the world and it goes all the way around the world and it goes all the way around the world and it goes all the way back to the source my friends think about this for a moment when i shake your hand that i give you a warm handshake what's happening here what's happening is that is that anatomical structures flesh and blood right are making contact but there's a meaning to this there's a transmission of that physical action into your personality and your perception and your mind and your heart right think about this for a moment how is a child conceived without going into too much detail a child is conceived by physical action we have sources that say that that are no less than absurd you're talking about physical engagement in a way that is that is that is absurd but inside the physical is a life force being transmitted right give you another example let's say you want to show love for your friend you give them a warm embrace you hug your friend what's happening is two bodies are coming but inside that physical action is transmuting itself and projecting itself into a reality in a higher world it's less material but it's more meaningful and the whole world functions that way when you speak to a human being you are using the interface of a body you're talking about looking at a at a face and a body and that's all you ever see of a human being but that's not the meaningful level that's only a method of transduction a method of transmuting or transmitting from one domain to another from one dimension to another and we do it seamlessly when you talk to someone you're making sound waves with physical organs that go into the you're talking about a physical but but but but it's you're making sound waves with physical organs that go into the you're talking about a physical but but it's and therefore you need to know that every manifestation in the material world is an outstretched hand it has meaning when someone writes you a letter expressing great love and you take that letter and you have a very very strong emotional reaction on the one hand this is a mere physical phenomenon it's a piece of paper with some ink on it on the other hand it's an extension of a human being now of course you need to have a delicate balance here if you start making a fetish out of physical objects you've taken it too far but if you ignore the physical object as being significant as somehow being detached from hashem you're making an equally great mistake and therefore the ramban's teaching is that every natural phenomenon in the world is also miraculous it comes from the same source it doesn't matter whether it comes from a source more directly and you see a you see a an unusual constellation of movement of details in the world you see something that looks more natural something something like what you are what you are more used to if you're sure i have to think about this year that you're talking about i'll need to look it up i'm not sure what the comment is that you you're sending me please if you can't enough email it to me i'll try to look it up but um ramban says what he says so even if you see a contradiction at some place at some place we'll have to we'll have to resolve it but this ramban is very very famous and very very central and therefore the message we learn and the thought i'd like to leave you with hanukkah's teaching exactly the message of the miraculous moving through into the material that's exactly the point right when when you win a war a group of guerrillas according to some opinions there were only 13 of them 13 yeshiva bachri never handled a weapon before they went out to give their lives against the greek empire with 10 000 war elephants and right so some historians say well they were guerrillas they were very effective they knew the territory they were more motivated by the time they finished it was completely natural the point is that when you see an event in the world like that right as a jew you take it back to its source true it manifests in a more natural way and true when things that are even less miraculous than that oil burning for one day not burning for the extra seven days oil burning for one day you should show it perfectly natural oil is a combustible mixture of hydrocarbons and oxygen that's a natural explanation but it's a projection of something that's not natural at all right when somebody stretches out their hand to you or they race you or they shake your hand or engage you physically in any way you have to be at a very vulgar level of human sensitivity to see only the material when you see a human being as only a body you're at a very undeveloped level of spiritual sensitivity on the other hand people are bodies and that's inseparable from the soul and you need the body and the body needs respect but the reason the body needs respect and you treat a person's bodily needs with great respect and you honor the body by clothing it with the great respect and you honor the body by clothing it with the great respect dignity and all the things we do to the body. We only do that because the body houses a soul we only do it because the body projects something deeper and therefore there's a delicate balance here you're not relating to the body as body that's idolatrous and indeed childish but when you read when you relate to the body as projection of a soul that means every interaction with this body you're aware if this body is manifesting a person and when you interact with the body and embrace it or show a kindness to the body or grasp someone's hand or embrace them you're doing that only because indeed you're engaging the body but it's because you're projecting into the inner being of the person as well and therefore when you see a river or a well or a bread whatever it is in the world you are seeing an outstretched hand with an object being given by a giver and if you take the object with no relationship to the giver you're in a very insensitive level of human awareness and when you show gratitude or you manifest something correctly in the world and you treat the world around you correctly whether it's ecologically or whether it's whatever it may be on a global level or on a personal level you deal with the world in a mature fashion so that the world itself and its objects are dealt with respect it's not because they have meaning in themselves but it's because they're a projection of a being whose oneness manifests all the way through reality to the very last details of the material anyway thank you very much oh devora is saying that her objection is that hashem doesn't have feelings either dora nothing could be further from the truth nothing could be further from the truth what kind of a parent doesn't have feelings what kind of a parent hashem's feelings of love for the world are so great that he created you and we can strengthen him we can weaken him we can give him pleasure we can cause him anguish of course we're only talking about hashem's name we're not talking about essence that's beyond our consideration we know that there's an effect there but we don't understand what that is but his name is given us in manifestation absolutely clearly as a person as a persona no question about that and therefore we are talking about hashem's love we're talking about his anguish and we have a very strong relationship with him and we have a very strong relationship with him absolutely we on the phase where that's hidden that's true and it's much more difficult from behind the veil anyway thank you very much for this opportunity to um to learn a bit together thank you to uh ariel thanks to my daughter thanks to all of you thanks for your help again and support i appreciate it greatly together it's a shame we can do more and do do good things together i have a book and it's a shame coming out soon which is about shabbos and yom tov also contains a little bit of hanukkah material but um and i hope you'd enjoy that please don't forget to uh adjust your email so that you get the newsletter so that i can stay in touch with you and let you know when we do more of these and please feel free email me through the site or my private email at any time and it'd be a pleasure to interact with you thank you very much again have a wonderful hanukkah and all the best
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