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Chanukah Day #2: The Secret of the Dreidel
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Chanukah Day #2: The Secret of the Dreidel - My Craving for Power, Thirst for Knowledge, Longing for Love, & Passion for My Body A video a day by Rabbi YY Jacobson. The second episode of our Chanukah 5778/2017, a video a day series.
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Transcript
Auto-generated transcript. Not time-synced to the video.
[Music]
[Applause]
you saw the anecdote going around the
Greeks were very focused on four things
sports fashion looks and exercise so how
do we celebrate Hannukah our victory
over the Greeks by eating lots of latkes
and donuts submerged in a lot of oil
margarine and sugar so that we make sure
that we don't look like that but what is
really the Jewish attitude to this
reality we call the body so tonight I
want to explore that lovely Jewish
tradition and custom to play dreidel on
Hanukkah now the dreidel of course is
the four-sided top each side has another
letter of the Hebrew alphabet unknown
Iginla heya they all come down to
join the point on the bottom upon which
the dreidel spins so we play dreidel I'm
comically you have usually a pile of
money
whoever spins the dreidel if it falls on
no none stands for nisht nothing neutral
if it falls on gimel gimel is guns you
get the whole pie hey is how we get half
the pie and shin is Stella ride you have
to put in whatever it is a quarter or a
dollar into the pile of money
but there is also a spiritual and
psychological meaning behind the
tradition of the dreidel you see each of
us has four passions I have a passion
for knowledge we are the curious animal
the Homo Sapien is that unique creature
who is inquisitive who seeks to
understand we want to know why bees
dance when they come back to the Beehive
we want to know what happened before the
Big Bang we want to understand how to
cure disease and how we can lengthen our
lives by another hundred or two hundred
years this is one dimension of the human
experience there's another dimension we
have a passion for power I seek power I
want control
I want success there is something else I
want to satisfy my bodily appetites my
physical yearnings and cravings and
habits and then there is something else
I want to be loved we have a passion we
have a yearning for connectivity for
communication I want to love and I want
to be loved I want to feel that I matter
that I'm cured for we seek attachment
now very often our life journey is a
conflict between these various four
passions
sanika which celebrates the unique
contribution of Judaism the Jewish
perspective on life
we play the dreidel and what the dreidel
teaches us that all four sides
ultimately come down to a single point
upon which the dreidel spins and these
four sides have different letters known
gimel haitian the B'nai is Oscar says
gimel stands for golf the body it
represents our physical cravings our
physical appetites my body has incessant
needs and cravings and desires and
inclinations and instincts and then
there is the shin which stands for saeho
I'm a curious person we seek knowledge
we are inquisitive and then there is the
hey hawk oil I want everything I want
power I want control I want success I
want a lot I want everything if I can
get it and then there is de nun nefesh
we seek soulful connections soulful
communication soulful relationships I
want to feel loved you want to feel
loved these are four parts of the human
soul and often there is so much conflict
between them but the Judaism teaches us
then ultimately they all come from one
singular point don't be afraid of any
one of these four parts each of them is
part of your journey towards oneness
each of them constitutes part of a
harmonious perspective on life in which
we are searching to come back to oneness
each of them plays an indispensable
indispensable role in our connection to
our own oneness and our connection to
the oneness in the universe and the
oneness of God which is all one never be
afraid of any one of these four factors
never feel the need to mutilate any part
of them each one of them is an
indispensable part of our service and
our connection with our true identity
and the true core of the universe the
Prophet says me hi I'm Kirk Easter Olga
Akkad bards who is like your nation
Israel won a unique nation on earth and
the great masters explained go ahead
Boris our mission statement is to reveal
the effort
the oneness in a very fragmented
universe like a cabarrus as you spin the
dreidel of life at different points the
dreidel falls on different sides
some days I experienced this urge while
other days I experienced the search some
nights I'm overtaken by this passion
while other nights I'm overtaken by a
very different passion but which ever
side my dreidel falls upon I must
remember that
all of them can become a reflection of
oneness every part of your life if you
look at it with the proper lenses and
the proper perspective is all part of
your oneness happy Chanukah
[Music]
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