After the Bondi Beach Tragedy: the Fragility of Life and the True Light of Chanukah

Heat. Heat. [music] [singing] [music] [singing] >> [music and singing] [music and singing] >> Welcome. Welcome. Today is the first uh candle of Khan, first day of Kaneka. We're going to dedicate our sheer to the very very profoundly um tragic events in Bandi Beach in Sydney where 15 I think at least 15 people including two Kabad. So this was like a direct attack on on Kaduca Khaneka itself. That was what they were trying to do. spread the orhan to people in a very uh how should I say a beach setting which is would seem to be you know about as far as you can go down in the dal in in the uh below. We know we like the Khaneka manora all the way down into the risharabim into the to the common place the where the common people live and I guess the beach is the greatest example of that and they were that was the endeavor at that moment uh instead of that great oraneka a great kosh and misa came through despicable uh cowardly terrorists and um how do we process the this in light of the of the aura of Kaneka? Seems that you know people say wow how can I be joyous on Kaneka on such a day with with this terrible tragedy. So I would like to address that point and say I think we have to look and be on honestly look through the lens of Kaneka at the events and and and really understand that Kaneka is a lot more is a lot more profound than uh than joyous gifts giftgiving and uh you know yummy lotkas and and a game of and chocolate coins. In other words, there is a depth of Kaneka that is shockingly um not what we think it is. And we're going to describe Hanukkah in its true context and then think of think of these um martyrs in in that way. So we have to begin. We're going to begin and going to touch different to build a picture of Hanukkah that you might not really really have been encountered. You've probably encountered bits and pieces of it, but I'm going to look to do is construct a um a a a big picture of what Khan's significance is from facts that we all know, but by putting it together, it's like kind of like a puzzle. You can see the puzzle but when you put all the puzzle pieces together wow then all of a sudden you get the revelations of a picture. So let's begin just from historical facts. Um the facts are that the the era that we are talking about with of the Kaneka miracle was of course second bias second Basam Mikdash after the restoration of the Basa Mikdash originally primed by the Persian Empire which had conquered the the Babylonian EMP empire who had been the destroyers of the Bamed. So we were passed from Bavl uh over to Mai and Paras. Then occurred the events of the of of the Pum story. But the Pum story you should realize takes place after the initial permission to build rebuild by Sheni has been given by none other than Cyrus the great coesh. So let's really understand that both pum and kaneka really occurred at the point in which the ba the second basdash was actually becoming a reality in the world. the declaration of Cyrus the great Melikoresh who had inherited the empire from the Bkhanzar who was a world ruler and then he became himself as he self-declares and we have this in our own Tanakh okay I'm going to talk about three figures that were prominent in that transition so really perm sets the table for Kaneka used to say that the entire um rabbitic structure of the mitzvah of Kaneka which includes saying hallel which include all the laws and dem of lighting the manora whether at home or in the betesset the various um additions to the burka zone right and to the daily doining all of that was an innovation because it certainly uh seemed to be something that didn't exist prior but says no we don't really understand he said it is on the strong shoulders of in the era of Persia, we were still replete with Niveim. In fact, the beginning of the aneus sagdullah, the transitional figure of the greatest 120 figures within Judaism, over 80 of whom were considered legitimate prophets. that transitions and hands off into the period of Kaneka in which we have the ending of Nvoua in rapid succession. In other words, um although when Korees declared time to go back, there was still a goodly number of Nvim by the time we get past that. I'm going to give you um the little chronology here because it's important to know what this what this is really all about. Okay? Okay. And again, we'll dedicate it in memory of those who who have who have fallen and also for for Shalma for the sum I I think it's about uh three three dozen there of between 36 and maybe more up to 45 who were victims in this shooting. And we really really need to learn a little bit in depth to get a to get an understanding of why these carbonos uh Hashem allowed this to happen on Kaneka and ultimately there was a withdrawal of divine protection and and ultimately we'll understand that this is something that is one of the themes of Kaneka that we must address. Okay. So if you want to look at the uh at at the uh a the historical issues. So then this is how it goes. All right. When the king the king uh the king dares he is the one who declares the Jews may begin with the permission of the Persian Empire to return. Okay. So that that event that event is considered the beginning of the Bay Cheney period. Okay. And this is basal where they give a detailed framework of the history of the of the second bas. First of all, the basa mikdash stood for years, but it's broken into five time periods. The first time period, 34 years in total, was the time when it was still the prophetic era. In other words, the the permission that was granted by Koresh was stopped almost immediately by Han Harasha. This is unbelievable to understand what's really going on. The world agrees. This is in 371 before the common era or the Hebrew year 3390. In 371 of before the common era, Koresh becomes king and he tells Jews go back to the second base build by second base of mikdash and 42,360 Jews. I don't think can imagine you know how many Jews are there kinhar and b sheish alone you know we're we're top the top the 100 thousand mark in harara k yu binhara and so on you know that's more than we we have more than double maybe triple heading towards triple the amount of Jews that came back in one city in one city and this was all the Jews that returned to the many many many uh malut of Yehuda which was a vassal state of Persia very humble beginnings wasn't even a state now shortly thereafter let's say in the year 37 one year later can you imagine this is the equivalent of if if laavil a million dollars maybe not the United Nations would have a meeting and would declare in New York that we the United Nations endorse the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem Okay. And then one year later they would get up and say permission cancelled. That's exactly what happened. One year maybe a year and a half. The distance between the r the the the um kingdom of Akash who sadly and tragically follows Koresh is a total of three years. Somewhere in that threeyear period. Come on. Got a hold of Koresh. And as we know, as we know there the our own Tanakh records this. It was because of the locals, the Samaritans, other sanalot, all these other people who wanted to be in control of Jerusalem. Jesus does sound familiar. all sorts of who knows what they were tribes and foreigners and all the people that got mixed up into the land of Israel who had nothing to do with the land of Israel petitioned and says it's not fair it's not fair not fair why should the Jews have this land we'll have the land let's make it a democracy so just like the British did in the 20s when they said we're going to declare a Jewish state precisely the same idea but the Arabs the Arabs are going to riot the Arabs are going complain and we have to even even in the original declaration they said we have to accommodate the Arabs. Nonsense. This land belongs to the Jewish people and is for the Jewish people as decreed by God. Even the ambassador from America who happens to be a person who believes in the Bible although [clears throat] not in the way that we do but he said it says in the in in the Bible that this belongs to the land of Israel belongs to the Jewish people by God. That's what you must have to say because if you say anything else, we become subject to the concept known as democracy. Democracy means you take the aggregate of people that are there and you see what their will is and based on the will of the people, you establish a political reality. That's your two choices. You can either have the Torah or you can have democracy. You can have Jerusaleim or you can have Yavar or you can have Greece. The problem was is that Hmon says to Koresh, "What are you doing? What are you doing? This is a democracy. This is a democracy, right?" Okay. Even if Alexander hadn't yet arrived, but he was soon to arrive and the the the Greek wisdom and knowledge was already very very well known in the world even at the time of Reishon which had been which preceded this by by close to 100 years. So there was everything was known about Greek democracy demos. It was only spread by Alexander the great but the teachings of Aristotle and before and Plato and so on and so forth they had penetrated the world even in the time period of bite rishon okay they were started that started everything started until such an extent that when by when Bay Rishon was destroyed it says that Yeryahu the Nvi who preaged and saw the destruction of Basishon he's the one that met Aristotle and they had a conversation at Khazal Kazal say in the medisha that he asked him that the Greek philosophers asked him why you crying you believe so much in these wood you're a person of spirit you're a person that you believe in the invisible God why you care so much about these stones and this bricks and this wood this temple what what's what does it matter The Jewish God cannot be destroyed. The Jewish spirit cannot be destroyed. Why are you crying? Said your ma'ami. And this is really the point of the issue. He says, I cannot get to my spirituality, my prophecy except through the mitzvah that are performed in the BA mikdash and the Torah which is centric to the bas mikdash. This is a point that one of my teachers Rebeccan makes and this really launches the conversation. If Hmon challenged coat and said, "Listen, you can't talk about God and Torah, you know, that's that's the old way. Let's look at this from a democratic point of view and let's factor in San Balat and all these other rashim and their thoughts and their feelings and their desires to control Jerusalem. Stop the building of the BA mikdash." Exactly. Because by having a bas mikdash, we put the plug in that what it does is that through the mitzvos and through the limit to which are centered in the bas mikdash, there is an electric connection literally between Hashem and the world that results in prophecy, divine communication and imbuss the world with an incredible reality that the physical ical world is not what it seems to be. When you pull that plug, then you're stuck in that matrix which says physical world is what I can see, is what I can measure. It's what I can experience. Human intelligence is the only intelligence and whatever I tell myself is reality. And that is the darkness of Yavan. So the darkness begins with begins with Hmon. He says stop building the B mikdash. Well, we struggle through that Esther and the final push of the prophets. Esther was a prophetist that still existed. The kak of the Bdish that of the which resided within them due to their deep connection to Torah mitzvah and Hashem sparked an ability to defeat Hammon. Brilliant. And now the plug can be replaced. And Darovves II who is the son of Mori and of of Esther and King Aes veros in the year 355. That's 16 years later. 15 years later you follow me. Hammon stops the BA mikdash in the year 370 approximately before the common era. Daveesh restarts. It was a 15-year and that 15 years almost led to the complete destruction of the Jewish people because they too began to accept the as the ruler of the world wearing the garments of the B mdash as if to say that's it the era of prophecy has concluded already and if it even if it doesn't exist does exist it has nothing to do with the Jewish people and a Jewish people that renounces its own kesher, unique kesher to Hashem as the as the revitalizing light of the world who challenged the world to say the world is not what it appears to be. a ode mv there is only hashem you're being fooled by your eyes and by your senses you are being caught in a matrix in which you perceive a reality which isn't quite the truth is far from the truth and only the nim the sadikim the people who are close to hashem the masters of Torah they literally manipulate and control the world according to their desire because they understand the truth truth that the world is not what it appears to be. It is all Hashem. Now this message is the battle for Kaneka. This is what Kaneka is all about. It is not really about happiness. You know I I I tell people what do what do you wish you what do you wish how do you do Khan greetings to somebody else? What what greeting do you use? I'm curious. You know what greeting do you use? If you say to somebody, "Happy Hanukkah," what you're really doing is giving a Christianized version of uh of the of of a Hebrew holiday. Because what you're saying is Merry Christmas in the Hebrew terms. It's not what it's about. Khan is not about happiness. It will bring happiness. Khan is about is about understanding who is in charge and thanking Hashem for pre for being willing to step into our finite world and bring us victories, help and salvation. The fact that we believe that there is some ability, there is massive possibility of kawakashem coming in to influence world events to save the Jewish people time and time again. That is the message of Khan. Okay, I'm going to I'm going to prove it to you by just reading very simply the text of the prayer that was chosen to be inserted into our benching and into our which is the alhan. So watch this carefully. Hold on. We'll get back to our timeline. Hashem. So it goes like this. If you were writing a prayer about Khan and Kaneka was about simka and I'm say this because in light of the tragedy and bondi notice bond bondi bond bond bond is a kesher. There's a bond, an unbreakable bond between Hashem and the Jewish people, between the physical and spiritual worlds that the Greek mentality which is the philosophy which Rome then carried forward with great brutality and misery man. It's all goes back to the philosophy was championed by Alexander the Great, student of Aristotle. Now let's look at the prayer first. It saysimuran the miracles and the redemptions the strength who's kuros the the the saving of whom of whom of whom the makabes the Jewish people and why does it start the what's the connection to what's before flows to wonders what wonders Why are we talking about which is healing from mourning? Why is that in here? Oh, we finally get to the wars. Put that verse. Isn't that what this is all about? No. You did it then and you're doing it now. Does mean at this calendar time or mean in our generation as well? All right. So if you first start with the VV, it it connects back to the idea of which is the in which it appears both in the as well as in the of thanking Hashem where we say you'll always be our God. So you're our source of life. We realize that our lives are exceedingly fragile and that our just like the people on the Bondi beach, exceedingly fragile. One person could step in and shoot them to death in one moment and no one would have predicted it. Extremely fragile. The miracles that happen not only on special occasions, but every day is a miracle. every day that we survive, that we live, that we have health, that we have food, that we have sustenance, that we have security in this world is not a given. Don't think it's a given. Oh well, naturally we can expect such for such. It is Hashem's will that we live. Hashem's will that something could happen tragic as we saw demonstrated. It's a shocker. The Bandi terrorist attack shocks us into rethinking what's going on for a moment about in this holiday. It's not what you think. Fragile is life. And that's what the modem teaches us. We need Hashem's protection every minute of every day. I think they had what, four guys there with guns that were supposed to be protecting them. I don't know if that protection was worth a dime. The only thing I heard was that another Arab stopped that Arab from shooting and that other Arab was a father and a son. Strange bonds in the bondi incident. A father and a son could be bounded bound by the idea that it's their it's their it's their commandment to shoot Jews on a beach celebrating Kaneka. What is this? And how could Hashem have allowed this? One might ask, well, we understand that. Ask the question the other way around. Why do you feel that you have a guarantee that your life is always secure? The security of your life, every second of it is dependent on Hashem. Asked the question the other way around. Thank God that you're alive even for a moment. Thank God that you're alive even for a second. Cuz look what can happen. Life is very fragile. The shock of a terrorist attack reminds us to thank Hashem for what we have which is by his by only through Hashem and only a miracle. There is no nature well by life expectancy I should live such and such and by and by right I should have such and such a parnoso or no no there there is no reality that's guaranteed that's what this terrorist teaches us and modim says whatever you have in that moment in any moment of any given day thank hashem because it's all a gift from hashem anyway it's all from hashem there is no nature nature looks like nature but it's not it's not what you think it is especially with the with the discovery of of uh physics and of of the physics of the 20th century which is quantum physics. We now understand that the things that we thought were solid as a rock are not at all solid and they're not at all predictable or reliable. What do you mean this is a wooden table? You could you could hit it as much as you want. Nothing's going to happen to it. It's iron and steel. Isn't a steel molecule unbreak? No. No. Go down to the basics into the down nano reality and you will see that there is no reality. What? I thought nature is nature. It's it's strong and it's sturdy. It's not strong and it's not sturdy. Did you ever see those um um guys that do karate and they able to cut able to put their hands through massive cement blocks or people that are able to walk like in India on the hot coals and nothing happens to them doesn't make any sense. Well, it makes sense if you're coming from the paradigm that it's that what you're looking at is not as solid as concrete as you think it is. Those are molecules. Those are molecules that are thin air. Not only are they thin air, but their electrons are not even set in this particular place or pattern. There's really nothing there. Well, what do you mean? I feel it. I touched it. My nature, sorry, you don't get it. It's a It is God's manifestation of something which gives you the test. Are you going to pull the curtain on this reality or not? Abdullahillian Abdul. So, you're going to have your Wizard of Oz moment or not? When you realize that it's all bluster and behind that curtain is the yahashem who's communicating to us every single day, sometimes in tragic ways. Always always though communicating. And by the way, the tragedies that we perceive are subject to the same scrutiny. In other words, what we perceive as tragedy in our limited human mind is the same thing as we portray nature. We don't understand how the death of these holy people, these kadoshian kadeshm where they fit into the advancement of Hashem's plans for the world. It doesn't make any sense to us. It pains us. It hurts us. It maybe it depresses us. Maybe it it takes away our spirit. But it shouldn't. It shouldn't because once we put everything in the category that this is the will of Hashem and we don't really we cannot rely on our rational perceptions. Let's not fall into the Greek paradigm. That is the Greek paradigm. The opposite of I'll explain that in a moment. Just look at this. It says goodness that Hashem has on us. Then we say follow me. Khan is predicated on the idea that life is exceedingly vulnerable. We are incredibly dependent on Hashem and whatever life he grants us and whatever good he bestows upon us whether we understand it or not is good is sourc's goodness. It cannot be anything but good. It's only a matter of perceptions. So now we've aligned oursel with those thoughts and suddenly Bandi beach looks a lot different. It's a place of keshm. It's a pace of the adv of the advancement of the divine agenda for the world. How and how we'll interpret it? It's a very good question. What did it mean that two were killed? What does it mean that people were want were wantly killed? What does it mean that somebody even stepped up in the Muslims world and stopped it? Is there some growing recognition that the evil being per perpetrated against the Jewish people against the state of Israel and Jews around the world is not based on any perception of reality but is irrational hatred which has no basis and no no place in this world. I watched carefully to see which nations and how they would they they would um decry this tragedy. But they're playing a game of deception with themselves. They want to think that hatred of Israel politically and demonstrations and and and more than that, boycotting Israel and not going to the silly Eurovision with them and not going uh not wanting to buy from them, which is even much much more serious and not wanting to include them public forums and having them condemned in in international forums and having them booted literally from the camp of the good people of the world doesn't have ramifications that are going to end up in murder. Oh, now you're going to come and pronounce, "Oh, I feel so bad that Jews were attacked." Excuse me. You, your government, Australia, your government, Netherlands, your government Iceland and and Ireland and all you countries who hate Jews. Hate Jews. Don't come and tell me, "Oh, I only hate Israel because Israel are genocide nicks, but Jews not." If anything, this event on this Kaneka proves the lie, the the the rationalism that has been used rationality to be used to make a distinction between the state of the Jews and the Jewish and the state and the Jewish people. The state of the Jews and the Jews and the state of the Jews. No, there is no difference. The guy's going to pick up the shotgun and shoot a random Jew in Australia, whether or not he ever attended a hatik, you know, state of Israel independence day celebration or not, whether he's wearing a a de or a pin or not. Doesn't care. The world knows the truth. Israel, the land of Israel, the Jewish people, the Torah of Israel, and the God of Israel are inseparable. If you attack any one of them, you attack the claim of the Jewish people on the land of Israel, or if you t attack and defame the Jewish people from their divine mission to save the world, okay? Then you're attacking the entire package. If you, the government of Australia, refuse to accept a minister from the state of Israel into your midst, then you, Australia, I accuse of being complicit in this crime. And you better accept responsibility for the crime because you and then the the the falsity of it that this Australian prime minister who is a leftist and a Sony Israel and a sona the state of Israel gets up and says what a great job the police did when the only person who reacted to save these people were not that Australian police who had pistols in their hands and watched while Jews were being shot like peacocks but rather some Arab who jumped on his friend in an act without a And then you want to go and praise the responders. What responders? There was no response. They wouldn't risk their lives to save a Jew. Why did that Muslim risk his life to save to save a Jew? Maybe he's got a little different perspective. Maybe they have a thing or two that that they might be able to recognize. And I do believe that many of the Muslims do recognize. They do recognize the kaduca of the Jewish people and their special control to land of Israel. It's the combined western amalate weaponization of hatred [clears throat] against Israel which is Asav Malik utilizing Yeshi uh people by paying them and bribing them and giving them the good life and giving them honor and giving them food and putting trucks and trucks and trucks of of aid to support the terrorists that would destroy the Jewish people on the land of Israel. You are complicit. You have turned the Ishmaim into something that they inherently really aren't. Russia did it to Russia did it. Russia built the Arafat. Russia built the states that wanted to destroy the Jewish people. And of course the leftist media which is the spreading the the the gospel the haval of of this uh I'll call it um Greco Roman falsity you remember but even Christianity as a whole what it does is it takes paganism and weds it to some form of Jewish belief and calls it a reality. It's not that dis it's not that different from what happens in our era when the Jews for Jay right try to put on a talis and fill in and make synagogues here in Israel and say no but all you got to do is believe in in Yashka Yashka is a man a man cannot be god it's just taking a pagan concept the Greeks believe that gods were humanlike and because there is a ceiling so so so let me explain these two concepts concept number one Torah teaches teaches us that human life and nature is completely in Hashem's hands and more importantly is a an is an expression or extension of Hashem himself. It's so hard. That is a very very difficult concept for ancient man or even modern man to wrap their heads around. What do you mean? There's no nature, there's no tables, there's no metal. No, the people in the know. You can crack those cement blocks if you understand that you're working with forces in spirituality that can go through it like cutting through nothingness, like cutting through air. They understand, they have the gifts of a vainu about the real reality of the world. Hashem has shocked science into believing into understanding that there's nothing concrete at all. Ain't ovado quantum mechanics means a ovado. That's what it means. The Hubble telescope proved to a certain extent and this new telescope is proving beyond the incredible Kawak Hashem that cannot be grasped cannot be grasped by the principles of physics at least they can they can dream about it but they're they're just not grasping it. They keep seeing things that contradict everything that they understood about how physics works. And they keep trying to come up with theories. And the only theories they can they can they can begin to fathom are ones that come closer to the reality that Hashem is teaching them through these scientific inventions. That the world is one. That technology unifies the world. the technology is showing that communication with uh one another and with Hashem teaching the entire world in one moment or Mashiach influencing the world one moment is the reality of Hashem. So science is is being pushed and forced who refuses to turn around and face Hashem. But that is what the modem is all about and that's what Khan is all about. But Alanim and that's the theme of Alanim. When you go one step further, you'll see we don't mention the destruction of the basikdash, defilement of the bame mikdash. We don't say it. I mean, if I were if I were making a prayer about, I would start like this. And then uh Antio went into the Bay you know in the times of Antio right when he goes into the Bik not may remember you know in Pim we don't we don't we say we speak about Hmon H or Russia here we don't speak about that why Ah, why don't we speak about the Goyesha tormentors? Cuz it's not about the Gaesha tormentors. You follow me? It's not about what the Greeks did in the BA mdash. It's how their ideas spoiled Jews and how Jews were needed to wake up other Jews from their false beliefs. When Jews fell into a trance like they fell into in the days of Afro and when they went from the aphimist party and then they bowed down to the idol of Nanetsar and they lost their connection to Hashem. That's the problem. That's not the problem. It's not what it's how they were mame the Jewish mind and heart and soul. And when it says here, the strong ones and the weak, it doesn't say Greeks. It means Jews. The Jews who had abandoned Yiddishite for Henistic thoughts, they were given over. Robin, the majority were already helenized. And Helios is is the sun, by the way. It's it's it's based on the the the word Helios, which means believing in a sun god. No progress from the time of of parrot who also believed in the sun god. Hellenists backwards into paganism. He says, "Wake upim. That's not we're not rashim. You're talking about Greeks being rashim. They're not even Jewish. They can't be a Russia. They don't have the same mitzvah as we do. That's not what it means. Those who intentionally would destroy Jewish values, Jewish tradition, Jewish learning for those who are oscorah because Torah is that electric connection and infuses our nishama and activates with Hashem. Every time you learn a piece of Torah, every time you say a Mishna, every time you read a capitol, you're energizing your nishama with divine energy. That's what's going on. It's not because, oh, this is such a nice mitzvah. I want to be from and shis. It has nothing to do with that. The Baba Sali, one of the great miracle working rabbis of all time here in Arjel in the modern era, never stopped learning, paging through the Talmud. Now, what does the Talmud have to do with his mystical understandings of the Zohar and his abilities to offer offeros that would shape reality and twisted and bended to his will? Yeah, cuz where does the battery get charged from every daff of Gamarra that he learned? He never stopped learning Gomorra. He said, "Hashem gave me the Gumar as a gift." What? I thought he's not a brisker. He's not learning, you know, only only Gomorra. No, no, no, no, no. The Baba Sali understood if I pull the plug on my talmutic uh uh energy that's running running my soul that's infusing my soul with energy then the connection of Hashem is lost. This is why a generation of Jews that does not teach Torah is lost. It's the same thing as pulling out a you know I guess it's like like I'm doing right now. You run your computer. It's going to run for a little while, but it's not plugged in right now. So, you know, it's going to die. It's just a matter of time. And what happened? Who restored that connection? They they're they're the story. What did they do in the end? Once they won the hearts of the Jews back, they won the hearts of the Jews back. They said, And they spurred them by acts of shocking military might which is against all logic. Robin no logical person would fight that war. There were maybe 10,000 Jewish soldiers fighting 120,000 m. If you read the history which I love to read the history used to read us the history and we knew about lysakus and menus and read it read the history. None of these things made any sense because they said stands forem. My power comes not from myself. And just like they did in the days of Shel when they had the overwhelming same idea theim who were Greeks by the way according to our sources they came from Keim Cree and all these countries they invaded Israel on boats that's why they're called pishim palu. They brought that that energy the energy that was later to be associated with Adam and they came to Israel and they fought against the shaamelik who wanted to root out a malik right they pushed him become an enemy because they're also a malik and the pushim where do they live they live in Gaza that's where they live that's where they always live that's called eritz pushim biblically and And they came and they destroyed Shamel's attempt to root out a malik and then build the basic just like Esther Mur had to root out Hmon before we could get on with the building of the Bish. It's the same thing and today the same thing it's never ending. And and this that the camel what kind of nos say no no no no is what they used to do you know when when everybody came to see the sadik and dance and accept the fact that they are the ones who are our protection and our help because they bring the schina here and when the shina is here we can be protect protected and when they tried to bring the toi beach the enemies of theina came and said no don't do it we reject it just like the pushim just like hmon don't bring kaduca into the world don't tell us that this world has something to do with other than human thought morality and pleasure which is what the rest what the west is champion championing and which the west uses to activate the IshRaelites who are not nearly as bad as the as as they are to destroy sanctity of Israel and Jewish people. Yeah, you can be Jewish, but you got to be pull the plug. You got to have short shelf life. Once you're plugged in, it's dangerous. A Jew plugged into dangerous. A Jew plugged into dangerous. A Jew that's plugged into is dangerous. And they fight it with every fiber of their being. And that's what those shots were about because Jews are trying to connect to the orhagan is the hidden light of Khaneka. That's what Kaneka is really all about. It's about a profound profound and difficult paradigm shift. And that's when the manora that's what the manora really represents. How could a manora burn against all logic and physics and science for eight days? Because that's exactly the point. beneath the physics and the science and the logic. That's just uh that's just trappings that if you're willing to go beyond it and push past it and go through that hidden door, you'll find the or Hashem. And Hashem winked at us on the Kaneka miracle. And he opened the opened uh that light to to verify and to quantify that his hand is really there's really nothing in this world but Hashem. How can we come to really believe that? How can we come in our lives to say, "No, no, it's not about my efforts. I have to be a good moral Jew. I have to be plugged into Torah mitzvah to ethics. I have to be sympathetic to everyone. I have to be a moral force and a moral figure. And then the world will be okay. And then my world will be okay." Much much more stronger. And you know that the uh my wife pointed out to me that there was an there was an article of uh the presidents that observe Kaneka in the White House, you know, and I think this it goes back to uh it could be the Bush era, could be as far back as certainly the Clintons. All right. And then it became this whole thing, the Khan party and they invite people. Okay. The real Kaneka president was George Washington. I don't know if you heard the story. George Washington was a profoundly um righteous person. His greatness as a human being also included his understanding of the unique role of the Jewish people and Hashem in the world. And the most faithful decision that he ever made was based on seeing the Kaneka Manora. Do you know this story? This is a fully accurate story well documented that is Washington was about to make a rational decision and surrender at Valley Forge. Remember his greatest victory is Washington crossed the Delaware, the turning point of the Revolutionary War. the war that abolished European tyranny and brought an America where freedom of religion and and the separation of the tyrannical Christian religion from the state so that Jews could come and flourish and and observe Torah mitzvos. That's America's great great great contribution and and to the world. He saw his troops on on that night of Kaneka and Valley Forge as being frozen, as dying, and as not having the power to fight. And he was ready to surrender until he came across a Jewish soldier who was lighting a Kaneka candle in Valley Forge on the ground somewhere. He scrapped together some sort of mini manura of some kind and lit it. And George Washington intrigued as he was going through the camp trying to make his decision his fateful decision noticed this man and he said what is this? And he explained to him the story of Kaneka Robim those inspired by Hashem those who only know force murder and darkness. And he said, "If such a people could survive 2,000 years and make it to this day, then I'm inspired to take up that fight of the Mcabes and see if I can ban tyranny from this soil, from all the crimes of the British Empire throughout the years and out the ages and the hatred and domination and lack of sensitivity and lack of spirit. And we the men of spirit, men of freedom, men of values, men of love for all men, men of belief in God, but not as a as a God in the context of the European model. And he decided to fight and he won. And sometime after the war, George Washington tracked down this Jew that was living at the time leaving New York. And he knocked on the door. He became some sort of shopkeeper or some some Jew was going to business, you know, wholesale something business. I don't know what it was. I don't think it was business. But he knocked on the door, comes into his store and says, "I'm George Washington. Mr. President, what are you doing here?" He says, "I came to give you a gift." and he gave him a Kaneka manura. That's the presidential manora. That's the presidential manora that interests me. Not the fake one of the Clintons or Obama in their arrogance and in their willingness to convince themselves that they are far more important than the will of Hashem and their behavior and their conduct and their values and their attitudes towards Israel. George Washington had it right. That's the presidential manora that we need. And maybe our own uh maybe America's own Donald Trump will do a little bit of chuva because I think he's lost his way. I think he's got too much of his own glory in mind and he's needs to te to turn an attentive ear on this Khaneka and say, "No, my my job is not to rebuild Gaza for the Palestinian pushim, but to rebuild Jerusalem for Hashem and the Jewish people. Maybe he'll maybe this Khan will be a turning point. Maybe maybe the attack in Bali will shock him back back to his senses. And if such a case in these people bondi the then these people will not have died in vain. The the stark reality that you cannot fool yourself into believing that being anti-Israel and pro Palestinian is in any way anything other than a form of trying to destroy Israel, the Jewish people, the state of Israel, and the will of Hashem in the world. There's much much more to say. I'll just I'll just end with the following that um the the uh the the the bottom line is that as we look at and we process these tragedies, we have to just remember that when we light the monora, that's not really the point of joy, happiness, and celebrating victories. The reality is thatim established the holiday of Kaneka one year after that miracle despite the fact that it would take 25 years for a Jewish state to emerge that was not controlled by the Greeks. Follow me. It took 25 years of wars, endless wars. the death of all the children of Matisa save one Simon who then unfortunately made a pact with Rome and that spelled the doom but that was really all the beginning of of what that that period of time in the second bas mikdash which represented the 103 years the hassimonian rule until we gave way to Herod and we're under the that's still considered somewhat Jewish rule because Herod wasn't what you thought he was and this is a whole another lecture maybe we'll learn it next week when we look to our Torah he did chuva and he decided after first thinking that his whole thing was being a pedigreed himmonian king which he failed to do because his should with the last Jewish princess he was a slave of the house of Kashanim she committed suicide rather than marry him and and it didn't really work and he in his anger at the on Hedin who saw him as a as an inappropriate violent you know figure but a tremendous genius and builder one of the greatly talented people in history I mean in history king Herod was able to do projects of building and expansion and politics that few people could ever imagine and when his brother-in-law Shiman binak told him he says is you have destroyed Torah. You have attacked the sages who said, "Uh uh-uh, your Israel that you want to build is not the Israel is a Roman Greek Israel. That's not what we want." So he said to them, "What can I do to be a real Jew?" And he said to them, "You put out the light of the world, which is the Torah. You must rebuild the light of the world, which is the BA mikdash." And so Herod using all of his brilliance and his mastery of architecture, his soaring concepts of of of how majestic buildings and building countries in ways that no human being could possibly imagine in greatness. He put his mind to work to rebuilding the second basis. He took it apart stone by stone from the humble ba mdish of the simp of the of the holy nim and put a Roman-like edifice according to the rules of and he said I'll finally merge my great knowledge of science and of the real of the world of gash gashmas and I'll listen to you rabbis and I'm going to fix the light of the world but it could and that could have been the end and that could have been mashia But our own interessine struggles foil that you follow me. It's not Herod to blame. Herod was not to blame. Herod was a Baltuva in many many regards after his evil period. He had he rebuilt the Ba Mikdash. It was really now up to us to carry it forward. That's what Bin Aman said. Aman said famously to his students on the final Kaneka of his life when he was sick and dying. Basically, he died less than a year later. He said to them, "The great lights have come and gone, and now we have to be lights to one another. We have to make talidim out of each other." How do you make a talmet out of one person? Say one vo that inspires another Jew, and they'll tell you a vort that inspires you. Bash has come and given his great light. Others have come and given his great light. He himself came and gave his great light. But just like the Bahamas would say many years later, I've done what I can do and the rest is up to you. And that's exactly the point where we got to and that's the point where we must pick up from to inspire one another the people who were victimized not to fall into despair but to inspire and say this is a war. Kaneka was started in a period of terrible war and bloodshed. But it was the spirit of Kaneka that helped us through. And it is the spirit of Kaneka that will help us survive these tragedies. Continue to go, continue to demonstrate that Hashem's energy in the world will turn the world into a far more spiritual and beautiful place than any human design. Wishing you, not a happy Khan, but a lightfilled Khaneka with the light of Hashem. Torah. Hold tight to Torah. Hold tight to mitzvah. Hold tight to In that way, the word of Hanukkah should be respplendant in ourselves and the world. [music and singing] [music] Heat. Heat. [singing] [music] [singing] >> [music and singing]