Chanukah Day #6 | Extending Your Arm to Reach the Impossible

we all know the story the khashoggi liberated jerusalem and the holy temple from the syrian greeks when they came into the basan mikhtar's holy temple they found only one jug of oil and there was only enough oil to burn for one night they kindled the menorah and it burned for eight nights hence we celebrate eight nights and days of chanukah with kindling the menorah each evening most of us understand the significance of that miracle to be attributed to heaven there was enough oil to burn for one night and it lasted for eight nights amazing incredible but there's also a second miracle and in a way a deeper miracle and this is the human miracle you see the kashmir nayim could have easily said to themselves we only have oil to last for one night what's the point we'll kindle the menorah the oil will be depleted and then for the next seven days we're not lighting the menorah it's disrespectful why don't we wait until we get sufficient oil and then we'll begin lighting the menorah with much gusto and joy in an uninterrupted fashion the miracle was they did not think this way you have oil light the menorah where did they acquire this attitude perhaps from the genesis of all of jewish history little moses was born in egypt the egyptians were then casting every jewish male newborn into the nile delta mother takes little baby moses he's all but three months old she puts him in a basket and places him in the nile river hoping for the best pharaoh's daughter batya comes to bathe in the most exquisite beautiful nile and she sees this little basket and the torah says she fetches the basket she stretches out her arm and she takes the basket but the talmud insight and the madrid say something fascinating and that is her arm was not long enough to reach that basket she stretched out her arm her arm extended [Music] maybe 30 40 50 60 100 feet until it reached the basket and she retrieved the basket opened it up rescued little moses from death and raised him as her own child in the palace of pharaoh and i want to ask you a question what's the point of this midrash the torah doesn't indicate such a miracle the torah says she stretched out her arm and she took the basket why the need to say that her arm stretched out and extended beyond nature besides if you went to the beach to the river and you saw a basket and you stretched out your hand and suddenly your hands started to extend 50 feet what would you do i know what i would do i would run for my life and call 9-1-1 was bhatia not scared the great mastered absence once gave a marvelous interpretation he said the sages weren't trying to create a story that didn't happen god forbid they were actually conveying the true essence of the story batya was pharaoh's daughter imagine the daughter of stalin or the daughter of hitler rescuing a jewish child in the middle of the second world war and raising him in the bavarian home of hitler it doesn't make sense there are certain things you can do that make sense they are within human reach but there are certain things that you just don't do this is just something that is beyond your reach that's what bhatya should have been thinking but she didn't there's a child here and he's going to die and i need to do whatever i can to save him so she stretches out her arm and you know what happens god allows that arm to extend beyond her reach there's an invisible arm that connects to your limited arm and the impossible happened moses was saved he liberated his people from slavery he molded them into a nation and here we are today three thousand three hundred and thirty years later because of the courage the resilience the faith and the fortitude of that heroine the egyptian prince is the daughter of pharaoh who did not fail to extend her hand by saying it will never happen anyway isn't this true about so many of our lives i look at goals and tasks they're formidable they're amazing but i say what's the point of extending my arm what's the point of beginning a journey i will never complete what's the point of putting in oil into a cadillac so that there is a flame of light that burns for one night it's going to be depleted it's going to be extinguished it's going to fail let me just sit on my couch and do nothing maybe one day the great hero will come and light up the world judaism is an exercise in an opposite way of thinking you have a little oil you light your candelabra and you cast your light and god's invisible arm will attach itself to your visible arm and the world will be transformed happy hanukkah [Music] you