Speaker 1Welcome to everyone. Can I just have an indication that people can hear me? Maybe you could like wave your hands or something. Great, great. It is nice to see you there in Florida, I believe. And nice to have you as a visitor and greetings to everyone else. I'm not going to go through everyone's names because I'll miss out someone. But this is Wednesday, middle of Hanukkah, 13th of December, I think. And this is a newsletter subscriber share that we do from time to time in appreciation of people who join the website and subscribe to the newsletter. And I'll start by thanking those who have made donations to the charity that we have, which is located on the website. And although as I've made plain many times before, I've never solicited any. donations, but I certainly express my appreciation and it keeps us going and publishing, running the website. And in and sort of as appreciation for that, I tried to do a share for the people who subscribe to that. More or less every festival, every Yom Tov, if I can. Thank you to Bina, Bina, my daughter, who's my amazing PA and sets this all up. Thanks to Ariel, who's monitoring and handling the tech side of this in Cape Town. There's a great job keeping us going and keeping our technology working. So let's talk about Hanukkah. And I'd like to share with you an idea, an amazing idea, actually, quite an astounding idea, which I haven't spoken about before. And try to elucidate that and explain it as clearly as I can, and leave you with a little mystery at the end. Okay, a little challenge. Why should I do all the work, I'll leave you a little bit of the work to do. And I will, you're welcome to send your answers or your solutions to this little challenge to the email address at the website as well. By the way, Des, I don't know if you saw the New England Journal this week had a review of electronic technology for diabetes. Oh, you got it. All right, not a very detailed or technical review, but at least a little update on technology. Okay, anyway, back to Hanukkah. So, here's an idea that we'll begin with, which is an amazing idea, and needs a lot of thought. The Gaun of Vilna, as I'm sure most of you know, the outstanding genius of Torah commentary in the last couple hundred years. The Gaun died in 1797. So you're going back to that generation. In a collection of works called the Likudim, which you'll find, by the way, with a commentary of Yitzhak Azik Chava, again, a later authority also of stupendous proportions, who wrote, again, classic, classic works that, that we use today. The Gaun says something about Hanukkah, which requires, which is, which is striking, and needs, it needs a lot of thought. And as his way doesn't explain, just says the idea. Here's what he says. He says the eight days of Hanukkah, as you know, we say Hallel, right? We say Hallel, which is the service of, of Hallel, we say the whole Hallel on Hanukkah. The Gaun says the following thing. He says the eight days of Hallel on Hanukkah are a replacement for the Hallel that we don't say on the six days of Pesach and Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. That's what he says. Now, first of all, let's clear clearly what he's saying, and see if we can think this through together. As you probably know, on a festival, there's a Torah mitzvah to say Hallel. Hallel is a praise, praise, thanks, glorification, of Hashem. By the way, for those who have a little philological interest, the word Hallel in Hebrew is closely related to the word Hiloh, which means light. Hallel means really shining a spiritual light on things. The Hebrew word would be Hiloh Nero Aleh Roshi, with the surrounding of his light around my head. By the way, the word Hiloh in Hebrew, which is the light that surrounds the head, is nothing other than the English word Halo. What I mean is the English word Halo is simply a transliteration of the Hebrew word Hilo, which means the halo of light that surrounds the head. Anyway, Hallel is related to that, phonetically related to that as well. It's a shining of a spiritual light in appreciation, glorification. That's Hallel. The Hallel that we say on the festival, we say, for example, on Sukkot, we say every day, we say Hallel. But strikingly, there's a number of days we don't say Hallel, even though it's a festival. Pesach, we say it on the first two days. But on the six days, the last six days of Pesach, or shall I say the first day, and the next six days of Pesach, we don't say it. The technical reason is that the six days of Pesach have something in common, unlike Sukkot. The six days of Sukkot, each one has a different order of sacrifice, and therefore it's considered a different day, and so the Hallel is said on Sukkot. Pesach has another reason we don't say the Hallel, but we don't say the full biblical Hallel on six days of Pesach. And similarly, on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, we don't say it. Why don't we say Hallel on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur? Well, Rosh Hashanah, the Gemara itself asks that question and answers by saying that the books of life and death are opened. Who could say Hallel? In other words, you know, Hallel, you're praising Hashem and glorification. It's ecstatic, ecstatic. By the way, we have a little echo of this every day in the Psukkot of Zimra, which is the verses or psalms, shall I say, that are part of the morning service should be said as song. They're a type of Hallel, actually. Psukkot of Zimra actually means the verses of song. So it's a singing, a resonant singing of praise. Who could do that when the books of life and death are opened on Yom Kippur? So we don't say, by rights we should, but we don't do it for that reason. Yom Kippur also, for a similar reason on Yom Kippur, which is the final closing of the din, we don't say Hallel, even though it's a festival, even though Hallel, even though Yom Kippur, by the way, should have all the celebration of a festival, true, it's life and death, but it's an incredible celebration of atonement and forgiveness. Actually, what's brought is that Yom Kippur, the three elements of Yom Kippur are spread out over three days. The day of Yom Kippur itself, which is an otherworldly experience, we celebrate on Yom Kippur. The meals of Yom Kippur, Yom Kippur, we celebrate on Purim. Let me remind you that Yom Hakipurim, which is Yom Kippur, actually means the day that is like Purim, right? Yom Hakipurim. So Purim is a day where we celebrate in tremendously jovial fashion. We celebrate the meals that we're not eating on Yom Kippur. There's other angles on that, but that's one. And the Hallel of Yom Kippur, we say on Kanaka, as we said, as the Goan says, the Hallel that we don't say on Yom Kippur, because the fear of the awe, of the din, of the judgment, we say it on Kanaka. So let's say that idea again, and then we'll try to descend into explanation. The six days, the eight days on which we should say Hallel, but don't. Six days of Pesach, we don't say Hallel. And the two days of Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur. When do we say those? When do we, when are we mashlim? When do we pay back, so to speak, the saying the Hallel? Eight days of Kanaka. Now, I mean, what does this mean? What is being said here? Hanukkah, Pesach, Hanukkah. What's the connection? Pesach, as you all know, is one of what we call the Moyadim. The Moyadim are Pesach, Shavuot, Sukkot, and Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur. Those are the Torah festivals mandated by the Torah. And then there are two rabbinic festivals, so-called post-biblical festivals that were added at the very end of the prophetic era. And after the end of the prophetic era, Purim was added by the last, the tail end of the prophets. Mordecai and Esther were borderline prophets. On the one hand, they were prophets. On the other hand, they were simply, simply divinely inspired, borderline. That's why they wrote a book which is part of the Torah. But on the other hand, it doesn't mention Hashem's name. It's a book that has a Persian name, right? Purim, which means the luck of the draw. It's a hidden book. It's borderline prophecy. It describes a miracle, but unlike the other books of the Torah, it describes a hidden miracle. No dead people being revived, no sea splitting, no manna falling from heaven. Couldn't sleep one night, he had a wife, she was Jewish. He didn't know she was Jewish. A whole series of political intrigue events which led from Jewish destruction to Jewish salvation, but borderline. And 150 years later, during the Greek era, there was the Persian era. But when the Greeks took over from the Persians and persecuted the Jews, there was already a completely post-prophetic era. Matityahu and the Hashmonaim, no prophets among them at all, deep into the darkness of a post-prophetic era. And the two post-biblical festivals, or if you like to put things in Kabbalistic terminology, the festivals that represent the legs. The legs are outside the body. The body ends, as the result tells us, where birth takes place. Where the body ends, when a woman is giving birth, the legs are irrelevant, right? She can't walk, her legs are cold, the legs are irrelevant. Where the body ends, new life begins. The legs are extraneous to that. And festivals of Purim and Hanukkah are the legs extraneous. In some sense, they carry the rest of the festivals forward through history, but they're the post-biblical, rabbinic-ordinated festivals. Now, what is the connection? between Pesach six days of Pesach that have their fulfillment in Chanukah what's a connection what were the rabbis doing in instituting a festival that pays back the halal that should have been set on Pesach and not only that but also two days not to forget for Rosh Hashanah Yom Kippur as well what is the connection between Pesach and Chanukah and for the same price what's the connection between an aspect of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur and Chanukah as well now that's what we need to try to explain to fathom to do this let's take a little tour through a classic area some of which we discussed on other occasions but let's try to clarify it and then circle back I'm warning you this needs thought this is not a simple exercise but let's try and do that together and see if we can see if we can gain a new understanding you know that you know that you know that there's a wonderful and classic discussion argument if you like between Rashi and the Ramban about a juxtaposition in the Torah this is relatively well known but I mention it as a way of circling back to understand our subject the subject is that in Parshas Nasoi which describes the rich gifts that the princes leading each tribe bring for inauguration of the Mishkan and let me remind you that inauguration in Hebrew is called Chanukah Chanukah means inauguration dedication after all Chanukah means what the Hashmonaim what the Maccabees what they did they dedicated or this in their context rededicated the altar and the service of the temple after the Greeks had defiled it as you all know finding the little flask of oil that was still pure using that to reignite the manera that had been extinguished by the Greeks contaminated and extinguished so Chanukah means dedication dedication in the sense of inauguration you probably know that the Hebrew word that's the root of the word Chanukah is Chanukah Chanukah means what we call translate loosely in English as education education means the dedication or inauguration of a child's intellectual program right that's what education is it's the introduction to the ongoing introduction to the path of of of intellectual development so Chanukah means inauguration and in the Chanukah some is back the inauguration of the Mishkan that sanctuary which was in English called the tabernacle the precursor to the temple which the Jewish people would later build in Israel that mobile sanctuary that they were traveling through the desert the princes of each tribe brought a gift as a dedication offering for the for the sanctification inauguration ignition if you like of the Michigan the next portion in the Torah immediately following that description is the Mitzvah that Aaron was given to light the menorah the great seven branched menorah that was miraculously lit the Western light always burned through the night even if there wasn't enough oil that's what the high priest or the priest would light in the in the in the Michigan and later in the besamikdash Aaron Akon the high priest Aaron was given the Mitzvah to light the menorah the obvious question is what's the sequence of events here nothing accidental in Torah why is the description of these men bringing their representative gifts inauguration of the Mishkan followed by Aaron's Mitzvah to light the menorah Rashi picks up on this question and quotes the madrash the measure says the juxtaposition is must be this when Aaron saw that these people were bringing their dedication offerings he was tremendously distressed just just to the point of distraction because neither he nor his tribe the Levim the kohanim Levim neither he nor his tribe had a part to play in that dedication and being that he was a man whose entire every fiber of his existence was given to service of Hashem here's a moment where he's not serving he's a passive bystander that that that drove him to distraction Hashem seen his distress said which is a outstanding language of so to speak God taking an oath your share is greater than theirs because you like the menorah and when Aaron heard that he was appeased he has the work of lighting the menorah in the Michigan and everything was fine so let me run it by you again the the princes of each tribe representing their tribe all of the tribes of the Jewish people are bringing the inauguration gifts iron is standing by tremendously dismayed that he has no part to play Hashem tells him don't worry you like the menorah and therefore you have a part to play he's appeased and that explains the juxtaposition that sounds like a good explanation but the Ramban attacks it mercilessly of course it's not Rashi's fault Rashi is simply quoting midrashic statements and I'll leave you this is not the mystery I want to leave you with but it is a worthwhile exercise what does Rashi mean by the time the Ramban analyzes this Rashi there's not a there's not a brick left intact I mean he demolishes Russia's explanation totally and I'll leave you to to uh just the Rashi knew what he was talking about obviously but listen to what the Ramban says the Ramban says Aaron is standing there dismayed because he has no role to play had Aaron forgotten that the whole service of the sanctuary is him what do you mean he's standing there distressed because he has no role to play the whole work of the sanctuary of the Mishkan is Aaron and his tribe they can't they do everything they offer the sacrifices from the morning sacrifice to the afternoon sacrifices the Yom Kippur sacrifices they bring the incense which is the highest kabbalistically the highest sacrifice the whole Mishkan revolves around them right on the and not only that iron representing his tribe and the Jewish people is the only human being who goes into the Holy of Holies in the sanctuaries sanctuary and he's not even regarded as human at that point I mean the whole thing is him the whole work of the of the Mishkan is the kohanim he's standing on the country these men are bringing a one-time offering and then they're out of there he's a constant daily hour to hour representative of the function of the Mishkan and he's dismayed because he's because there's a one-time event he's not participating in right I'm sure you can all hear the question and furthermore says the Ramban why was it why was he appeased by the midst of lighting the menorah so you've got one more function again you've got 55 functions in the Mishkan the whole thing is you you're doing all the sacrifices the incense the whole thing is you but you're distressed because you don't have this one-time offering so Hashem says don't worry you like the menorah now everything's fine so now you've got 56 functions what is going on right and the Ramban lists a whole list of questions and as I said by the time he's finished there's not a not a you know not a word left intact leave you to reconstruct Rashi but listen to the Ramban's answer pay attention this is a classic and important idea and what I'm going to share with you now some people have said is the most important thing they've ever heard so mark these words Ramban says I was not dismayed because he didn't have a role to play what he wanted was Hanukkah he didn't want a role to be he wanted Hanukkah Hanukkah means inauguration dedication that's the moment of ignition if you miss the word again the moment of conception is critical once conception is taking place taken place you will struggle mightily to make a change in the moment of conception when the parents genes fuse in that instant the child's future is laid down the color of his eyes in the shape of his nose and he's the whole sequence of his life in compressed Essence to be sure nothing revealed yet will take a pregnancy and will take a birth for it all to be revealed but in that moment of ignition in that precious moment of Origin that moment everything you know our Kabbalistic sources say that the world was not created in six days the world was created in one moment of ignition and conception took six days to reveal what was there in that moment just like it takes a pregnancy to start expressing what the genes have laid down in that moment of conception that's called Hanukkah Hanukkah is a moment of ignition and that's precious beyond words I don't know was not longing for a role to play he wanted Hanukkah these people were bringing a gift that switches on the gifts that they bring inauguration and that's a moment of conception that will never come again you know if you take a person and you make a cut in his body it's not too serious but you make a cut that size in a fetus while it's developing much more critical and the moment of conception you can move a molecule and have much more far-reaching consequences down the line you can never replace that moment the beginning the pure beginning of a you know some of the commentaries say listen carefully beautiful idea explicit law in Judaism that for a public function you can use impure oil you can use that's called when it's a public function like lighting the menorah which is a effort of the Jewish people represents all Jewish people you could use impure oil for that there's no law against it what was the big deal that they had to look for pure oil and the answer is amazing the answer is yeah you can use impure oil but if it's the moment of origin the moment of beginning that has to be pure if you're going to begin with something that's not 100 pure that's pretty avid okay it's allowed you've contaminated the source once the conception is contaminated you'll never get it right after that in other words yeah it's allowed it's allowed but if you're going to strive for purity that's got to be the moment of of Origin and therefore and therefore what Aaron wanted was the was to be there in the moment of ignition and Origin that's what he was craving and Hashem said to him Aaron your share is greater than theirs you have a Hanukkah and I'm not referring to your lighting of the menorah in the Mishkan I'm referring to your great grandchildren that gohanim and your tribe who will relight the menorah in a contaminated Temple they will read after the Greeks have defiled it and contaminated your grandchildren will come and they'll purify it and they'll light a menorah they'll light the menorah of Hanukkah we're not talking about the menorah in the Mishkan you know why because this will not last forever this this light in the in the Mishkan that will become a light in the temple will be wiped out wiped out by the Babylonians and wiped out later by the Romans and the Greeks and contaminated and therefore it's not going to last forever this is a light which is supernal which is miraculous in the temple but it's time bound but when they exterminate when they extinguish that light your great-grandchildren will come and institute a mitzvah of Hanukkah and that little candle will burn in Jewish windows until the Moshiach arrives your light will be nothing compared to theirs it will be a tiny light lit in the Jewish window in the darkness of winter but that light's going to last till Moshiach comes and when Aaron heard that he was appeased he wasn't appeased because he had one more function in the Mishkan he was appeased because he realized that he had a dedication greater than the dedication of this moment and why is it greater you because it's not a dedication it's a rededication of a contamination it's a phase two dedication which is nothing compared to the first but it's the one that makes it to the end now now what does this mean let's let's try and go into this a little bit and try and understand it and to do this we need to go back to the first page you know what's known as the it's time is that great Kabbalistic commentary on the Zohar and the classic central source word of Kabbalah and what's written there is that again without going into too much detail is that every light that shines shines twice the first light is infinitely powerful it blows open a space where there was no space before it's perfect and safe and perfect illumination and as soon as it's done that the light disappears it's done its work but it leaves a longing aching emptiness a darkness craving the ecstasy of the light that was there before it's done its work but it leaves a form and that longing that emptiness brings back a second light the second light is nothing compared to the first nothing it's almost in almost invisible but it's the one that lasts the one that's intended the one that remains what does this mean and here comes a message that is as I said some people have said the most important thing they ever heard more than life-saving life goes in two stages the first stage easy the first stage is in the first stage of life it's inspiring it's done for free charges the batteries illuminates you and it's perfect and in that moment of shall we say conception in that explosion of potential nothing can go wrong and it lasts long enough to convince you that it will last forever that it's taken away and then it leaves a disappointment a fear a darkness an abandonment but that's what brings the light back a second time but the second time the light comes back it's when you make it happen where you develop and you shine the light that's nothing compared to the light of perfection you never achieve in actuality what was there in potential but it's the one that's real the one that you've constructed let me give you a few examples because there's no theme more basic than this my friends if it's on the first page of the ed's home it's in the conception of that and if it's the moment of conception of an idea in Torah everything follows from this you know here's one example a national example of the Jewish people begin what's the conception of the Jewish people they're in Egypt in utter darkness and they see 10 plagues each one higher crescendo experience of miraculous plagues in Egypt no human being had ever experienced that level when they get to that 10th midnight when the firstborn are destroyed where God himself is doing it not through any agents I myself no angels no intermediaries the Jewish people experience that seven days later at the sea they experience even more than that when the sea splits a pinnacle of spiritual revelation that is beyond description and at that moment Hashem drops them in the desert he says you get the idea now you do it yourself stage two stage one it's done for you here's what Hashem says God says to the Jewish people I want to demonstrate to you how we destroy darkness how we how we peel away the layers of Egyptian contamination 10 layers of even in the world I'm going to show you how to destroy them all and one by one the plagues destroy them all and I'm going to show you how to destroy them and purify and detoxify the Egyptian toxic reality then God says the Jewish people get the idea now you do it yourself and I'll meet you at Sinai you know the first the day of Pesach the word Pesach in Hebrew means to leap over pass over Pesach means to leap over on the on the night of Pesach you leap to the 50th level for free the Jews were slaves no spiritual merits had done nothing to deserve it God took them to that level and then he said to them get the idea now you walk the steps yourself through a desert which is a place of death forces now you count the days now no leaping this is called fly now pay later you need to be inspired first you get to be lifted to that level beyond your capacity but then the world is for you to become real Hashem didn't create the world to demonstrate what he's capable of doing there's no point in that he could do anything it was created for you to demonstrate what you can do but you don't know what you can do unless you've been shown and therefore you get taken to the highest level the month of Pesach is Nissa Nissa means miracles the zodiac of the month is the sheep that's the passive animal that just follows you followed me into a desert the next month of era the difficult time of the counting of the Omer that's the bull Taurus that doesn't follow at all that develops its own willful strength opposite completely and only when you've been through those two the inspiration that you were given when you followed and then when you took the lead once you've learned you get to the third month which is Sivan which is to aim him Gemini and the perfect harmony between the two the two tablets of the law written and oral law motion are on Hashem and us all the harmonies coming together you can only enter relationship if you enter it with content if the giver is all and the receiver is nothing that's not a relationship that's a mockery and an embarrassment for the receiver a relationship is only where two parties bring their content to the relationship and therefore the first element is the giver that's Hashem does everything and now you build yourself and then we'll meet as lovers and equals at Sinai and that's the third stage of perfect harmony between the two wherever you look you'll see the same thing take an individual example the child the baby child in the womb he's taught the whole Torah the child has an angel teaches him the whole Torah is a light lit above his head whether to flee nor worn he sees from one end of the world to the other he has Cosmic wisdom he knows his future all humans at the point of birth he gets a cruel blow and he's shipped into knowing nothing and he's born as a simple baby who knows nothing why would God teach a child the whole Torah to make him forget it when he's going to need it phase one phase two locked into your subconscious is all the wisdom that you'll ever need because you had it once but it leaves an aching emptiness as searching for wisdom and that's why when you learn something spiritually true you don't feel you're learning you feel you recognize when you hear something spiritual to you say that's right how do you know it's right because it's resonating and when it's personally right it feels even more a good teacher by the way a good teacher doesn't indoctrinate a good teacher educates draws it out in the Talmud when the disciples ask the master a question he doesn't answer he says what do you think a good teacher draws it out of you it's inside it's that it's innate in deep in your consciousness is the ability to resonate because you have it within and it continues when the child's born they're also two phases this is a refracting endlessly refracting pattern when the child's born they're two phases of life there's childhood and adulthood child is a time of expanded consciousness unbelievable potential children think they're going to do everything and everything teenagers think they're going to be world's greatest everything every 18 year old young man is totally convinced that he's going to be the world's greatest everything no question about it but when he's 28 and 38 and 48 and 58 is not the world's greatest anything so most men keep right on fantasizing you know that there are the world's greatest they just didn't do it yet but you know the point is the world closes in on you called potential is phase one potential is always perfect potential is always endless but it's only potential when you wake up in the morning wow amazing blue sky you can canoe on the lake and swim in the river clown the mountain ride the horse as well not all of those so the immature phase one individual spends half the day trying to figure out which one he should do whichever one he does is convince the others would have been better the mature individual chooses one and does it the others become irrelevant disappear they're irrelevant potential always is all options the beauty of potential is infinite power the curse of potential is it's only seed energy it's only potential the beauty of achievement of bringing birth to the world the female work is that you have a life in the world but the curse is only this one all the others that could have been will never be that's how the the world always two phases phase one potential which is infinite and endless we always refer to God as male endless the world is always female all the words for the earth are feminine in Hebrew that's the word phase one and phase two and all life experiences are like that what is marriage kabbalistically husband and wife are fused at the back in the spiritual world one being that cannot see each other and then they're ripped apart and brought to the world to marry facing each other and building a relationship and creating it themselves phase two phase one is perfect it's given for free and you can't hide that the Talmud says the reason you long to marry is because you're longing for the part of yourself that you lost you can only long for something that's part of you can't for something it's got nothing to do with you why would you long for it you long for spiritual wisdom because it was part of you you long for a marriage partner because she was once or he was once part of you incidentally that's why the Talmud calls your Torah wisdom your spouse both of them are parts of the self that have been lost a complementary half of the self that's been lost and so ever you look and not only that when marriage itself begins there are two faces again there's a face called romance and a face called love what is romance it's that experience that happens before marriage what about after marriage about two and a half hours after marriage you know gone phase one and phase two it's necessary you need that you need the explosion of potential that is phase one but it doesn't last it's taken away from you but then you build love as Rodesla points out we don't even have a word for romance in Hebrew we have a word for love the word for love in Hebrew is ava that means giving and giving always is where you love and you can only love after intense giving and that's why parents always love their children more than the children love the parents parents always love their children more than the children love the parents because that's the direction of the giving you love where you invest yourself and of course you do you put yourself in and there it is you your children are an extension of yourself and therefore it's an experience of self when a child's in danger you feel it in your gut because an extension of you you feel it more intensely sometimes than if you'd be in danger and therefore and therefore phase one is romance it's necessary but it's taken away phase one is the phase two is the second light has none of the explosive potential of phase one but it's real it's after walking through the desert of life's experience the Rambam says that life is like standing on a dark plane on a stormy night you stand there beaten by the wind and lashed by the rain and hopelessly lost and at your moment of greatest despair there's a flash of lightning and by that flash you see the road clearer than by day but as you see it the light disappears and the rest of the night is walking through the storm on memory alone of a flash that you once saw he says some people see more flashes and some people see less but no one walks in the light phase one phase two phase one is the flash of light phase two is walking through the desert on the memory how does a little child learn to walk his father picks him up by the hands and he stands on his feet and what an exhilarating moment the child standing on his feet and he takes his first step and he can't fall because he's abba's holding his hands but as he feels the thrill of that moment abba lets go and then he stands there terrified and alone and abandoned by the one who put him in that situation but that's when he learns to walk and only after takes that first frightened step on his own can he rush into his father's arms and realize that when his father let go he was showing him more love than when he held his hands okay so life has two phases and it pays to know this because if you don't know it when the romance goes you think you married the wrong girl you're not the wrong girl this is phase two now history has two phases phase one prophetic that lasted until purim purim was the tail end of the prophetic experience and the miraculous experience purim borderline as we said before 150 years later chanukah seals that experience forever no prophecy no miracles chanukah was the last wave goodbye from the miraculous world these candles were built for it will burn for eight days and then you will see no more until the messianic re-ignition so it comes out like this again history two phases by the way think carefully you'll realize all torah is like this how many times were the tablets of the law given the twice the first ones shattered as always always like that adam and eve in a garden adam and chav in a garden idyllic and perfect exile put into a world of death to fight their way back all experience is first when it's done for you how did you learn to ride a bicycle your father ran along holding the saddle and it was amazing right unbelievable then you look back and you saw he wasn't holding but that's where you learn to ride and therefore and therefore phase one god is doing it for us he's revealing himself in the world there's miracles and prophecy that goes till about two thousand three hundred years ago and then he steps back and he says you get the message now you do it now you walk what the ramban calls the midbar in the desert of the nations genocidal traumatic history century after century of apparently hopeless jewish existence to get to a messianic light which is the one that we've nurtured through the darkness and therefore iron was given two lights the first light you go into the mishkan you light the menorah it will burn miraculously it will be incredibly amazing it'll be prophetic and miraculous that my friend will not last that's going to be destroyed people destroy the temple and extinguish that light but your grandchildren they'll come into a temple and they'll light a second menorah they'll light the ones that they do no miracles here jews are going to light that light in a jewish window and that's going to burn throughout the messianic darkness pre-messianic darkness and that's the one that and that that's in a piece to know that you've ignited phase two phase one is phase one you need to be pure enough to see it and hear it to admit that light into the world but phase two is the one you do and that that's why hashem made an oath yours is greater than theirs there was the appeasement and that was that was the understanding and that my friends is why chanukah was kohanim rambam says who were the ones who defeated the greek greeks the kohanim the kohanim the ones who operate in the temple and of course they're the ones who defeated the greeks the greeks were into spiritual contamination into intellect and philosophy not spirituality that transcends the intellect and that's why it had to be kohanim that defeated right and that's why it had to be the kohanim who light the lights in the menorah because the greeks represent darkness what do we say to make you forget torah that's what the greeks were not genocidal not at all they want to kill jews they just wanted to make you greek and therefore to make you forget torah and the kohanim are the ones who teach torah and they reignite that light in a greek darkness when the torah refers to darkness that's referring to greece means it's a spiritual intellectual philosophical light and spiritual darkness okay now let's go back to the gone stay with me carefully please pesach there are two times the torah was given the torah was given twice phase one phase two phase one was pesach the jewish people taken out of egypt in a blaze of miracles an escalating experience to sinai where this where the exodus experience comes to its completion and they're given torah in miraculous form the luca is coming down from the heavens with miraculous the moral says that the written and the oral law were both written on the tablets there was no oral law there's nothing to figure out and to calculate yourself was all given what could be clearer than god himself appearing to the jewish people that's given of the torah phase one but that doesn't last that will end with the ending of the prophetic era the torah will be given book after book will be given the prophets will reveal 24 books of torah and then when you get to hanukkah with the tail end at purim at the tail end of that experience you'll enter phase two where the torah is not given anymore now we enter a phase of the second phase of the torah phase two where the torah is not given now we enter a phase of the second phase of the second phase of the torah phase two where the torah is not given anymore now we enter a phase of the second phase of the torah and that's called the oral law judaism's greatness is not the written law the written law belongs the muslims have the same thing their religion is based on the same book the christians based on the same book god appeared at sinai no one denies that the whole west accepts that but where we differ is the oral law when the written laws no longer manifest there are no prophets to deliver the word anymore and now the sages step in they create their own torah and they create their own festivals that's the secret of purim and hanukkah they mirror the torah the torah creates the festivals pesach shwurs sukkahs rajasana yom kippur each one a blaze of miraculous revelation a new miracle and a new aspect of torah is received in the world and then that goes dark and then the sages step in and they make their own festivals and their own torah they write a book of esther which is their own they tell a story of hanukkah which is their own they institute festivals right and the festival of purim hanukkah and in this context we're talking about hanukkah is a is a manifestation a second revelation a second revelation of torah rav hutner calls hanukkah the yom tov of torah the festival of the oral law and the greatness of hanukkah the point about hanukkah is that it's an ignition of phase two it's where the sages create torah instead of going to the prophets or reading the miraculous on the breastplate of the coin this time they make it up themselves the genius of judaism is not the written torah that's god's genius the genius of the jewish people is the genius of the people is the mishnah and the gemara the oral torah where we figure true to the original principles absolutely nothing more than an extracting and a a a um elucidation and a bringing out and an amplification and a honing and a polishing of the lights of the written law but the greatness of the jewish people is the oral law where we created ourselves what's the relationship between our light and his almost zero his is miraculous and perfect and godly and ours is human but ours is the one that's intended the world wasn't created for god to give a torah that is torah and prove anything the world's created for human beings to take that and to run with it and create a torah that's completely true to those original principles and yet is a work of human genius you know you can see this in so many ways i'll give you one what was the first rabbinic decision ever made rabbinic decision a rabbi getting up with no prophets no divine assistance in the time of the greeks he got up and he said gentlemen ladies i've made a decision they said rabbi what's your decision we declare war on the greek empire uh rabbi you and whose arm well there's me and my sons you know there's five of us six of us we've got a few friends about 13 of us you know we can uh rabbi uh did you ask the prophet haven't had prophets for for dozens of years rabbi did you check with urim vatumim haven't seen those for decades rabbi uh the greek army 10 000 war elephants like you know against you 13 guys who've never handled a weapon yeah i think we should do it rabbi uh where did you get this idea from you know this is my rabbinic wisdom you know and they won they won you know the first rabbinic decision wasn't like you know we'll plot the colors a little differently you know we're going to smell different spices on saturday night the first rabbinic decision was war on the greek empire you know by a handful of yeshiva bochrim you know koharim that's the greatness of the oral law right where where where there's no point of reference that you can touch anymore in a higher world right and the future of the jewish people can hang on that like a war against the greeks and that is phase two so let's see it again pesach phase one amazing and pesach lacks a certain kind of hello and where's that completed in giving of the torah phase two there are two times that the jewish people leave egypt and walk through a desert the first is divinely guided pillars of cloud pillars of fire asham showing wiping out the enemies your job is to follow charge the batteries get the message and then you're going to have to get the message and that ends it ends when the persians have destroyed and the greeks have destroyed and the greeks have contaminated a temple and there's no spiritual message left and most of the jews are treacherous most of the jews have become hellenists by the way one of the most painful things we see in our generation as morally incompetent as hamas is jewish traitors jews in the public street in non-jewish countries denouncing israel that's fighting for its life how morally inept can you be how morally what's the word uh derelict can you be you want to disagree with the israeli government who agrees with the israeli government nobody agrees with them the government doesn't agree with the government go there vote motivate lobby do whatever you want but to stand in a street in london or toronto or new york denouncing your people who fighting for their lives you know anyway in hanukkah the majority of the jewish people were hellenized the majority of the jews were hiding their services they were hiding their services they were hiding their services they were hiding their services they were hiding their services they were hiding their services playing the greek games naked admiring greek philosophy there was a fight to the death which was simply a movement to give their lives of on the part of the khanim right so you don't get a darkness deeper than that it's not simply foreign philosophy trying to convince you it had drilled inward talk about the jewish people themselves had bought it and there was a re-ignition of a sanctity that transcends philosophy in that time with no proofs not prophets to relate to no divine proofs and no miracles right that's what they gave their lives for and therefore there's a element missing from pesach pesach has its hollow where we praise hashem's miracles and glory but there's an element missing where's our share that's hanukkah hanukkah is the second time the torah was received when we do it ourselves where we know what to do and we move forward into an era where we have the oral law behind us that's hanukkah what about rosh hashanah yom kippur how does that fit remember we said there are eight days of hanukkah six of those days of halal that we're expressing now from pesach pesach is phase one leaping over hashem doing it all hanukkah is phase two right first phase hashem lights the menorah it's miraculous in the mishkan phase two the hashman i am light the menorah right which is with no spiritual demonstration simply giving their lives for this and nothing miraculous about it at all except the last wave goodbye that those candles burnt more than they should have and that it continues in the mitzvah that the jewish people have been praying for for the last five years so those six days are paid back what what pesach lacks is the human element and that's what hanukkah adds what about rosh hashanah two more days rosh hashanah yom kippur well think about that for a moment what is the what is the what is the work of rosh hashanah the work of rosh hashanah is the shofar what is the work of the shofar the work of the shofar is to remember and what did the greeks come to do to make you forget you see the parallel again what is rosh hashanah rosh hashanah is zichronis what do we say in rosh hashanah the prayer of zichronis which means memory memory doesn't mean reminiscences memory means going back to the point of origin cast yourself back to the to the point one and express it now the shofar awakens right the shofar awakens the for those who know the hebrew word shofar is exactly the same word in hebrew as shpir which means amniotic membranes and liquid takes you back to the point of birth the shofar but here's my proud chauffeur's right here's one by the way for the south africans i proudly show this this is a bless book horn bless book not ideal for a chauffeur because it should be a should be from a car but anyway i proudly display this to demonstrate my south african origins bless book yeah okay anyway point is the shofar is to awaken a memory that's what it says it's zichronis that means we do zichronis we awaken so to speak the memory of the point of origin and the gemara says how do we do it with the shofar and the shofar is considered as you all know i'm sure as in the holy of holies you know the gemara is a fascinating discussion the gemara says that the coin the coin goddle on yom kippur rosh hashanah yom kippur should not wear golden vestments his gold he should not wear you know why because it reminds of the golden calf and there's a principle in spiritual law the prosecutor should not be used as the defense you shouldn't use the prosecutor as the defense i mean that's completely perverted the prosecution is gold reminiscent of the golden calf so you should take off his gold and then the gemara says but how do you blow the shofar the shofar is also from a calf it's from it's a cow it's a cow horn you must say no no that's different you know why because the shofar is considered to be in the inner sanctum and in a sanctum you can even use the negative for the positive which means that the shofar is considered to be in the inner sanctum the shofar is considered without going into that whole discussion in the talmud the shofar is considered to be internal inside in the holy of holies the shofar is because it takes you back to the point of origin right back to the moment of conception that's why the shofar is the voice before the words become articulated and differentiated shofar is simply the cry of the soul itself and it's a reawakening the ultimate memory that's called zichronos right what was chanukah chanukah was with the greeks to make you forget to torah the point of chanukah is a reawakening and a re-remembering and that's where the halal is paid the halal is not done on rosh hashanah it's too awesome when do we say the halal of rosh hashanah chanukah because chanukah is the second the second phase but of the same the same idea what about yom kippur maybe i should leave that as the mystery you want to struggle with this yourselves i'm looking for some nods or nods of the heads or shakes of the heads you know what maybe we'll leave that as a little mystery for you to think about yourself we've explained seven days six days of pesach phase one giving of the torah revelation repaid by chanukah's six days which is the expression in the oral law sense the work we do the halal that we institute that we say on the festival that we created right symbolizing and and manifesting the jewish and greatness where we forge the journey through the darkness and through the desert to be sure inspired by the voltage that charged the batteries before and absolutely true to that no question about it not wavering a hair's breadth but doing it ourselves fighting our own wars walking our own journey through the desert receiving and manifesting a torah second time inspired by the first one absolutely totally true to that but a mishnah and a gemara which is a work of jewish genius a reconstruction of torah right which is a work of jewish genius and reconstruction of torah yeah which is the jewish work and then there's one more day a seventh day and what is that that is fulfillment of the hello we didn't say on rosh hashanah because of the awe of the of the dinner of rosh hashanah but it's a it's exact fulfillment the point of rosh hashanah is is a commemoration a remembrance what do we say zikaron we say it remembering the first day of creation remembering of the sound of the shofar of the giving of the torah we say that on rosh hashanah we can't say hello then it's too fearsome but on hanukkah we do that because hanukkah is where the greeks had brought about a forgetting do darken your eyes by the way listen to this if this doesn't do it nothing will what was the greek edict against the jews something beyond imagination the greeks said to the jews kiss for lachem i'll carry on our shore listen to this this is this is bizarre beyond description the greeks said to the jewish people engrave on the horn of the ox lachem that you have no share in the god of israel what are these weird people doing the greeks say to the jews inscribe on the horn of the ox kiss for lachem right on the horn of the ox that you have no share in the god of israel what are they saying horn of the ox what the greeks are saying is divorce yourself from the spiritual world the highest point you can get to is intellectual human philosophy that's greece a incredible philosophy that swept away most of the jews of the era that has swept away jews to this day the entire western structure is greek everything in greek everything in the western western world is greek philosophy aesthetics drama politics democracy philosophy what is in greek today everything art in all its forms philosophy these are greek words democracy is a greek the whole west is greece today it swept away the jews and they remain swept away right and therefore that's what they meant right on the horn of the ox karen kabbalistically the karen is where the skull extends karen also means like a ray a ray of light it means a means something that projects beyond right karen means the capital as opposed to the derivative or the interest right and therefore the horn of the ox that's the symbol and when you blow the shofar you ascending to the point of origin that's where the greek said we want you to engrave on the horn of the ox that you have no share in god philosophy absolutely yeah philosophy intellect all the wisdoms of the world yeah but transcending that to make contact with something that's transcending that to make contact with something that's transcending that to make contact with you see there's no such thing show us where is it there was once maybe prophecy and miracles you don't see that today and all we have evidence of today is human genius and human intellect and there's nothing beyond that and that is the severance at the point of the horn and of course the deeper meaning is your shofar right that you blow to connect yourselves to a higher world it's at that point that we step in and sever that connection right on the horn of the ox that you have no share in god philosophy and the jewish people that's rosh hashanah which is blowing the horn right blowing the shofar which is exactly using that exact point to show we use this to reconnect with a point of origin and that is what the greeks were against and therefore hanukkah is exactly a halal reawakening the rosh hashanah right which is the day on which the shofar is blown i mean this is so clear when you see the when you see what and what is the god of inner telling us right all the god says is says very bland six days of yom kippur those are days we don't say halal we say them on hanukkah right but when you start to see what he's getting at you start to see the connections that is an amazing thing the eighth day we're going to leave as a little mystery how does yom kippur come into this don't forget he said there's six days pesach halal on hanukkah seventh is rosh hashanah we've explained halal on hanukkah the eighth day yom kippur we don't say also a fearsome day we don't say halal on that day yom kippur we don't say halal on that day we don't say halal on that day we don't say halal on that day and what do we know kabbalistically we know that yom kippur has three manifestations an otherworldly day which is yom kippur that's how we don't eat and drink we transcend the world the feasting of yom kippur which we don't day on yom kippur we do on purim yom haki purim and the halal of yom kippur which we don't do on yom kippur that's hanukkah so yom kippur has three manifestations an otherworldly yom kippur which we celebrate every year and a thisworldly yom kippur which is split between purim and hanukkah and the homework i leave you with as a little challenge is to figure out just like rosh hashanah manifests on hanukkah because it is the blowing of the shofar which is equaled the reminding that the greeks come to cause the forgetting but those connections are clear think to yourself what is yom kippur exactly what is the secret of yom kippur that's echoed in expression on hanukkah i'll be very pleased to hear any your suggestions as i said why should i do all the work but the connection is very clear and i'll leave that to you anyway this has been a brief look at a quite an astounding and as usual very cryptic and compressed comment in the gorn of vilna six days here another two eight days there that's hanukkah but once you understand the underlying theme right you see that's what it is so in summary in summary we've described the two phases of life experience there's the first phase the phase of the perfect light the one that is perfect and amazing admission inauguration dedication perfect experience the romance if you like of all spiritual experience but it never lasts it's taken away because after all it's illusory it's necessary but it's not real not real in terms of continuity and then that's taken away and that's where you get real when you walk through the desert of life's experience build yourself step by step all the tragedies and difficulties and darkness but it's that walking through the night on memory of the light that you once saw that will get us there in the end thank you very much for joining me a wonderful and hanukkah we should also put in special effort here with prayer and maybe a little extra activities for merit for the suffering that's going on suffering of soldiers and israelis and suffering of a what shall i say a post-truth world in which things are so confused that even jews can take the side of the enemy and look forward to a world of a small light of hanukkah reaching back to its original infinite proportions
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