Charlie Harary | Revealing the Light of Chanukah

This Torah class is brought [music] to you by tora anytime.com. >> Thank you, Rabbi, for the uh incredible words and in many ways. I want really want to just continue where the rabbi was going if that's okay. It's to be here. It's to be able to be in the sh and thank you for coming out on a cold mat shabas night. Um, I want to begin first with the organization that um that I'm involved in that I'm really trying to help a lot. It's called Zirali. It's there to really help tons of people in Israel that really are not getting helped. Believe it or not, although there's so much money going to the way it works is that there are lots of holy amazing Jews that can't even get to the systems. Believe it or not, just the way it works. Sadikim and Sitkanas and apartments. It's it's incredible how many people are are in need on so many levels that just are not getting service. They're just not getting and so this is an organization. >> Sure. >> Absolutely. This is an organization that really finds a way to get into the the corners. There is no overhead. It goes to a sadic who sits there. people come and he gives and it's rent that's about to people getting evicted and there's people who don't have things in their home and there's groceries get put into fridges and shoes that get boards bought for Kindle it's it's it's incredible and so if you're watching here or you're here if you go to Zafali.com I'd really appreciate it and this is really the impetus of of of tonight because this it's hard to be able to celebrate when there are people in Kali Israel that can't. And so if you can, please do. And together we should be z to see a time where every single person in Kali Israel is able to get exactly what they need. x zenafali.com. So I want to just continue on with what where the rabbi was going and talk a little bit about what I think Kaneka is all about and and to the rabbi's point, Kaneka, I think, is the maybe the most important y of our year. I think that a lot but in particular Khan and the reason is because of where it stands. I tell this over a lot. I remember my grandmother would tell me all my grandmother would tell me stories of when she was a little girl in Romania and her h her dad her father was the rough of the town and when the Nazis came in and they gathered them all up it was it was it and she knew it. They go right for the rabbi first. Forget what they did to him. It's not for now. It's for another time where you have not after right after Shabas, but it was horrible. And when they got the family out of the house, they knew what they would do to the family of the RV. And my grandmother tells me what was what her mother did as they were leaving the house with the Nazis. She was in the back in her jewelry box and she's like, "What are you doing?" And she's putting her hands in the jewelry box. She's going to her daughters and she's giving them each a piece of her jewelry and saying, "Hold on to this and don't forget your mama. Don't forget your mama." And my grandmother held on to that little tiny jewelry that her mother gave her throughout the whole war as much as she could through Awitz and all the her last thing that her mother did because that's what a mother does. She's not thinking about her life. She's thinking about her kids as her life is about to end. And she knows it's going to get very, very dark. And you can't get very very dark without your mama. But if you hold on to me and I give you something that you can hold into your hand and that one little hold into your hand will remember me. It'll give you the strength to get through what you're about to go through which is going to be much harder than you can ever imagine. That's Kaneka. Kaneka is the moment where the cutters broke gives us your last miracle. The last open miracle we have in Tulus. like literally into gullis. We went from Kaneka from eight days of the Aishar's miracle into this world where everybody saw that Hashem Baam and he put it to a candle and he handed it to Claus Israel and he said, "Hold on to this because it's going to be a long dark exile and you can't forget your mama. Your screen is coming with you. I'll be here, but you may not see me. And it's going to get dark and I want you to be sitting around on a Saturday night in in 2025 and never giving up. But the gullus that we went through needs to we need to understand banist what am I? I'm a nothing. A little little something from where I I'm seeing it. I'll talk to you from a story from Levi who explained it to me and this is what this this is really all about. from one conversation I had with Levy about really what's going on and we'll hopefully build it out a little bit. But if when you get into the next eight days, if we get into the next eight days, like the way the rabbi said, if we get into the next eight days, by the way, there's a macar for eating something fried. I mean, we take it turning into like 12 donuts a night. I mean, we really like have pop-up shops. I don't know if there's a macar on pop-up shops, but whatever. Still there's Kaneka and then there's Kaneka. And if we we don't have again we don't have any more space for rolling through yontiffs through our stomach. It just doesn't work. If we go into a yontiff that is supposed to be the yontiff that Hashem gives us to hold on into the gullus and we miss the point, we're going to miss a chance to light up our lives and hold on to that trinket that that our that the gave us before we walked out of. So let's understand what's going on a little bit and we can hopefully put some pieces together because the story of Hanukkah happens way before antio I did this a little bit in the beginning of the week so I'm not going to repeat in completely the same the same thing but we'll touch a little bit there and we'll add a little bit here the story is way antio comes in the end as they say in the world of sports put down an alioop you know what I'm saying by the time Antiocus rolls in, it's almost done. He's the last bit. He just pushes the ball into the end zone. Antiocus is the end end of the story of of Kaneka. In fact, Vdim Miller says the the enemy and I'm I'm going to break this out. Vikd says that the real enemy of Kaneka is not theim, it's the Msavim. It's a Jew against Jew fight. The Greeks were called in at the end just to close the deal. The entire story of Kaneka is not about them. It's about us. And it's not about another Jew that we're going to look down on. It's about Jew versus Jew is taking place in our own life because if if Tim if we're talking about the impurification of the of the Bikdash as the as as the tell us what we're really talking about is what's taking place in our own personal bas and the story of Khan really is being manifested and played out through Jew versus Jew. But really, it's being played out in my own mind, in my own heart, and in my own avot. The story of Kaneka starts, as you know, with Alexander the Great, which we'll get to quickly. Alexander the Great was on. His job in life was not to go out and get more land. He had plenty of land. He was rich enough. He did not go in his young years to conquer the world just because he was greedy. He had a mission. His rebi was Aristotle. And the mission that Alexander set out on the world was to create a world that would be enlightened from a world that was. Until the Greeks rolled in, the most of the world believed in some power beyond them. It wasn't Hashem, but it was something. No one in the antiquity would have the gall to think that the crops would grow because of their ingenuity. No one at that time would think that I can survive a winter or I can survive in life because of me. It didn't dawn on humanity to think that way. Okay, it may have been the sheep or the stars or the moon, but it was some power beyond man. Alexander the Great and the Greeks came to change the whole world and to show the world that the truth is that the greatest aspect, the only thing that you can have in life that you can believe is true is the power of the human. And they believed in two core aspects. The mind, if you can't understand it, it's not true. Greek philosophy understanding and they had all this time for them to p ponder and pontificate through the mind and the body. The body was subject of worship. Olympics were began in that world of Greece and if you won they would sacrifice to the gods because you were considered to be something of holiness because the body was holy. The body was worthy of worship. And the Greeks came into this world and Alexander came into this world with the understanding that he would enlighten the world with all of this nonsense in which they would get stuck on the rituals and the diviness and they would take the world down into the world of where who you really are is and when Alexander the Great came to Israel on the 25th of and that whole thing that took place he didn't destroy the B mikdash he was very a big part part of the basan mdash. In fact, Alexander came back to the basan mdash. But what was happening at Aratisl during that period of time I believe it's around 3 320 330 BC was Alexander the great coming in and the world beginning at first to understand this concept that maybe it's really about who I am, how I look and how I think. And then around 250 B.CE CE something incredible happened in the world. It was a it looked like a wonderful thing but Claus saw it as a tragedy and in fact we have a fast day connected to it. After Alexander the Great died his kingdom was split into four parts. In Egypt the kings were called the Talic kings. Talmi. The second Talmeic king was a was a was a aim. He loved wisdom and he was building the library of Alexandria and he wanted to create the first ever translated Torah and so he brought 72 kakamim into Egypt. He treated them well. He put them in separate rooms and there's a famous story if you go to the Gomorrah they made very specific changes. One of the big changes has very big implications for us. That's why most people if you stop them on the street and you say Shabbat is a day of they say >> rest. That's all through that subduant. It was a mistake they made on purpose. That's not really true. It's not a day of rest. It's a day of soul. It's a whole game. They made specific errors during that time. And what came from there was the subtent. The subtent was the first translation of the Torah, which seems like a good thing. More people can read it. tell us the migillah says that the day in which they translated the Torah was the day as bad as why would that be the was why would the day that they translated the Torah be the beginning of Helenism and in fact that began there's a s called me that speaks about this that's how it began at that one moment it's interesting how it's we literally start there and we go through the whole year. It's the beginning of the gullus that takes you all the way through through Hanukkah. Why would that start there? And then [clears throat] it began and from there the Helenist began and began and began and this began the beginning of the gullus. Why? So let's understand this together for a few minutes. Surviv and I had this conversation a while ago. When you grow up in a world like ours, something happens. Something took place that seems innocuous when they translated the Torah. That was the beginning of the gullis. What was it? What is so bad about to the point in which it's considered like an eel? This catalyzed the entire process of Hellenism that brought to Israel that led to antio that led to Kaneka. What was the big deal? So let's delvage. So I was talking to the rabbi and he says to me, you know what the great one of the great tragedies are? I said, what? He says, "One of the greatest tragedies that you are going to face or people face in America today is the [clears throat] tragedy of identity. We grew up in a world and the world that we grow up in is a Greek world. The world that we are we are born into is a world in which we learn growing up that our value is based on something that is on the outside." And as a little kid growing up in this world, unless you grew up under a rock or grew up in an incredibly [snorts] amazing counterculture world, what happens to most of us is that you grow up in a world and as you're little, you start to ask yourself the following subconscious question. Who am I? Like who am I? And you go into a world and you try to see what does the world around me value because wherever I am I want to be valued and if the world around me values something I naturally will connect to that which will make me feel valuable and so what is it that they value and we grow up in a world what's taking place when we're young is not that we're trying to do life. We're trying to be in life. And well-intentioned people, let's take it across the country, will say things that make a do into a be. They'll say, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" Which means, "What do you want to do when you grow up?" But it'll sound the same. will [snorts] look up at people and say, "Who are the people in my micro world that are the most valued?" When I come home and I speak to my parents or my friends, what lights their eyes up? Because what I want in life as I grow up is I want to be somebody that can thrive in a world. I have no idea who I am. I'm too little. My brain isn't formed yet. I'm just getting there. I'm a teenager. I'm 20. Whatever. As I am for forming myself, what I'm really doing is forming my identity. And my identity is going to be formed when they're little through the world around us. It was funny. I was talking I have a podcast with our CEO in our company. His name is Scott Reckler. So, we were having a a show last week and I said to him, "You know what's interesting? You watch a little kid grow up. It's an He goes, "If you watch a little kid, it's an amazing thing. Little one-year-old, they get up, they fall, they get up, they fall, they get up, they fall, they get up, they fall." If you watch a one-year-old learn how to walk, it's a gishmach. You know why? Because falling is not failure in walking. If you see an adult fall, it takes them like a week to overcome that. You see a kid fall, it's not failure. The kid sees falling as part of walking. So it doesn't even dawn on them that they that they're failing at the activity called learning how to we're like when are you going to learn how to walk normally? They're not thinking that. They're thinking like that's what I do. I walk and fall and walk and fall and walk and fall. So he had a great he goes yes but what happens is when the kids are learning how to do that and they fall. What do they do? They look up at a an adult. And when the adults freaking out the kid's like what did I do wrong? And starts to cry. when the adults like, "Yay!" [screaming] The kid's like, "Yay!" Because a kid can't on its own, on her own, figure out if falling is a good thing. The world doesn't have meaning yet. The world is just experience. I don't know how to give meaning to my experience. So, what I do is I look up to those around me and I go, "Can you give me meaning to my experience?" And they [snorts] look in their eyes and they go, "Yay!" And the kids like, "This is amazing. I fall." Okay. But a mommy's having a heart attack that the kid doesn't know how to walk yet cuz her neighbor's kid is walking already. Kids's like, "Oh, am I failing?" And so as we grow up in this world around us, in a world that has been taken over by the Greek society, a world that has shown us that how you look and what you have is so critical for who you are. We grow up in a world and what happens to us is that we form on our identity and our identity is usually formed in the world of doing or being or having. You see somebody on the street for the first time and you say what's your name? The next question is what do you do? And then oh and then you form judgments. Oh, and they do something that you don't respect, but they've managed to make $100 million doing it. You're like, "Oh, oh, you do that. Oh, you figure out a way to make money doing that." Oh, you see somebody and then you have form a judgment and then you find out they have more than you thought. Wow. Your whole life is trying to figure out in understanding them. The metrics we use into understanding others is Greek. When I see somebody, when I see myself, how do I look is so critical for who I am. I will do things any way that I can do for how I look. And I will worry about how I look. I'll walk into a sima and the whole the majority of my sim prep is not in the panas of the sima. It's in how I look towards the simha. Why? I don't even know I'm doing it wrong because that's in a way who I am. If my family would look a certain way, if I have certain things, I may spend money on stuff that I can't even afford because how I spend and what I have isn't whether or not I can have it. It's my identity. I spoke to someone a couple of months ago. He's in debt. Like, forget it. So, I said, "Okay, so we'll talk to you because I'm going to I have to go to some wherever." I'm like, "Where?" Because I'm going on vac. I'm like, "How?" Goes, "Well, I have to borrow more." I'm like, "You're borrowing. I thought you brought I can't I can't not What happens is that you grow up in a world and if you grow up in a world where academics are important all of a sudden you want to be an academic. You grow up in a world where learning is important all of a sudden grow up in a world where how you look is important and you're going to be worried about how you look. You grow up in a world that how much you have is important you're going to be worried about how much you have. When you grow up in a world around you, the world is going to tell you exactly what it means to be valuable. The rabbi said the greatest tragedy of that is not whether you do and what you have. The abisha gives braha. The aisha gives the is constantly giving. He wants you to have a good life. It's that when you live this way, the Greek virus gets into our heads and says you don't have money to enjoy it. You have it because that's who you are. And if you don't have it one day, it's not a question of not enjoying yourself. It's a question of your identity. There's something wrong with you. And if you want a good metric, I'll tell you one. This is from me. See where you're jealous. See where you're threatened. You walk into a room, someone has something, you feel jealousy. Usually the jealousy you feel is connected to the to your identity. I walk in as a right now if I honest I walk in right now and I hear about a 12th grader hitting a jump shot to win the game at the the yeshiva league, I could care less. A bunch I'm not say how many. Bunch of years ago when I was playing in the Yeshiva League, I would have been jealous cuz when I was a high school kid, my identity was basketball. It wasn't I didn't play basketball. It was who I was as a person. The guy got an A on English lit. I'm like, I don't care. I go to law school and now all of a sudden it bothers me if I this guy. What happened? Because from high school to law school, I went from my identity was in basketball to my identity was and then I end up in a law firm and I find out that that guy made partner or that guy got that. Why does it bother me for? You know why it bothers me? If I walk into someone's house or if I walk into someone's sim or if you walk into someone the reason why we walk around sometimes you walk into someone's sim bothers because my identity is family building. My identity is being able to be seen in my commune. But we're all like I'm not saying this because I own it. I'm saying this because I'm failing at it. Let's just like talk it out. It's much of shabas. Like when else can we do this stuff? By tomorrow night, we're already pounding donuts. You know what I'm saying? We have one more night before all the oil gets into our heads. When you go through your life and you see people around you and you're not happy for them, why? How come when someone's in a sara we're like Superman and when someone's in a sim we're like why because it's threatening our identity because you're winning is my losing says who says the Greek virus that says you're not a Hashem doesn't have you the world is finite you're in a race you're running you're losing and when you're losing it's not that you don't have you'll get and you know you'll get it's that you're less of a person you're less you're less she got picked he's the one that family that guy I see her looking at her because she has I don't give my wife enough I must not be a good enough husband because I see the way he gives or he can take Identity is the fight of our life and if you're not aware of it you're losing you know where it came from subtent came from Alexander the great it came from as the rabbi says because the kureshu says here's how it's going to work if your eyes are open right now you know why your eyes are open for your eyes are open Because what's powering you right now is something called the Keshu created a world with seven right now with seven billion souls. He took a few million and every once took a few million and said you're mine. I'm when you were born the whole world is from says don't it's not a joke it's not theoretical if your eyes open right now the reason why your eyes open because what's powering your body right now is a piece of Hashem the inside is infinite the outside's in the middle of a competition but the inside is infinite. As the rabbi told me, he says, "You take a Jew, you put him in a if, god forbid, there's a Jew unconscious on life support on Shabas morning and he's going to die by Shabas day for sure." And he's the question is can you be Mahalo Shabas to keep him alive for one more hour? Can you mal Shabas for one more hour? Why on Shabas? He says to me, the rabbi says to me, he goes, "Because a Jew unconscious is being misak every second of his life. He didn't do anything. He's unconscious. Your existence as you're here right now sitting your existence is being talking the world. Do you have any I do we have any idea what it means for us to have a piece of the raon shalum as it's not just it's not like in our box in our heart. We're congealed spirituality. That means whatever we get for the rest of our life as big as it can possibly be would never ever ever ever ever compared to what we already have inside. How much time have we ever spent thinking of that? Stop. Maybe in seminary for six minutes in between donuts. Maybe in yeshiva like in one muster seder that when the rav you know why because Greeks don't think about that that's why during the subtent is I think it's the mark of migillah the rabbis all mistransated you know why it's called the shabas's day of rest because in when we say every day when did hashem finish working what does the Okay. When did Hashem finish working? Shabus morning. When do we finish working? Friday afternoon. Right. As we say, the dangerous most place for where does the most dangerous place a man stands throughout the whole week is in between his wife and candle lighting for that 20 minutes beforehand. Just stand to the side and take out the garbage. That's our job. Because she can't she's not getting into the seventh day by a second. They went to work Saturday morning. He's in the in the office Saturday morning. What's on he put in the nephesh? If you look at the subtent, it says why? Because they said a Greek doesn't know insides. Are Greeks holding on the nama? They're going to hold by. You know what they're going to say? Jews, Saturday morning, God's working. Get to work. That's Chabas stuff. So, at least they should keep us off on Chabas. The reason why we don't walk around and the reason why we've probably spent less than two minutes of our lives or less than 10 minutes of our lives ever while we're driving or while we're domining or while we're doing anything asking ourselves, what does it mean that I have Hashem inside me? What does it mean that I'm connected to Kotu? What does it mean that I have a Telmo Kim? The Re says, you know what the greatest tragedy Jews are going through right now is that their identity is not that they're a telamelo Kim. Their identity is not that I what do I who am I? I am a person who is plugged into elus. I have to work. I have things, my house, my clothes, whatever. But who I am? Who I am? I'm this force that somehow got chosen. I don't know why that has a direct connection, a plug into the remote shalom. I plug into some outlet and when I plug into that outlet, I can actually be I could sense Hashem. I speak words in Hebrew and I just assume that the whole world's going to change. What kind of ga do we have to walk into a shul open up at the hill and think that the whole world is going to change? What stroll all of a sudden they going to get save or go some get healed? How come? Because he's saying a couple of words. Where does that come from? It comes from the fact that I in my core. I never really THOUGHT OF IT, BUT I AM MY core am connected to a source that can open up my mouth in Hebrew and what? Change the doctor's hands, change the person's health. Yeah, that's what it means to be talim. You can't buy that. That's awesome. That's my identity. What I do every day is my tikun. But [snorts] Hashem sends to me every day to make sure that my identity that my that that plug into the raon shalom is not a tiny little cord that's half broken. But that cord is a massive cord that plugs into a nuclear reactor. And I've spent my life making that cord bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger so that I plug in every that's who I am. When you see a sadic, you know what you're seeing? You're seeing a telem. That's why they shine. You sit in front of a sadic and the face is shining. They're shining because that's who they are. They're on fire. When you see Hashem saying, what he says is if you're plugged into the source, you're always connected to a level of being one with Hashem. The world around you melts. It doesn't have the same impact because who you are is clear. What you do is what you do. What you have is what you have. And we should do and we should have we have to work. But who you are? >> You're Salim. You don't have two identities. You have one identity. The shujin comes in and says relax with the Tyra. This whole Tyra business it's a it's a book. Chill. Says the terra is congealed. are [snorts] tell us the reason why we have some not by we should have by we finish the shu should be our our cycle why say the reason why we have it is because when we're about to leave the sukus the whole world is sukus the the bas of hashem we're panicking says don't worry I'll give you terra because tyra is congealed r and you're like wait you're with me forever he's like yeah just follow just look at the words there are that's why as I said last week that's Like by the spire, do I know it's by the Ashkanazm so much? But by the spire, I grew up watching my holy grandmother. By the spider, you go to sar sh look at the women's section and then the Torah opens up. What do the ladies do? Go to any sard sh look at the ladies section. What are they doing? Not that I looked at the lady section, but if I I would I saw my grandmother do it. So I assume all the ladies do it. Especially if they're like old enough at that era, you know, go regular. Even the guys do it, by the way. Bity. Why doesn't do it too, by the way? Because the Tyra is not just words. Tyra is R. R are. You're staring at words in Tyra. You're looking at the words in the Tyra. Those light letters your your your eyes like letters. Your soul's like, "Oh, finally I could breathe. Come on. Come on. Put the R in." It's a Greek book now. You know what the Greeks say? Relax. You win in your competition and be Jewish, too. You're a lawyer. Who's a Jew? Huh? If Christians, Muslims, whatever, whatever. And now there are Jews. I'm telling you not to keep Tyra. Keep Tyra. All for Tyra. The Greeks love Tyra. The the Byamak says, "You kidding me? The Greeks go to go to every Greek university today. You don't think there's Tyra? Go to every Greek university. Go get Go to Harvard. go to theology school to say Torah. We love Torah. Just be careful not to die on the way in. But we love Torah. You're like, "Here you go." No, hold on. I got the B was my monities at 2 o'clock. I've got Bible at 3. We'll give a Talmud advanced class at 4, please. You know what says Tyra? The Greeks give you. You know what they're going to take? What they want? They don't want Tyra. They want the R of Tyra. But that's not your life. Let's be real. You're a dual citizen now. You can have Tyra, but it's not R anymore. It's just words. We'll translate it. We'll suck out the depth. When you look at it, it's not going to connect to it deep. You're not You're not going to shed a tear when you're reading the subtent anymore. No one's going to go when they look at the subtent. It's brilliant. Oh my gosh. There's a Torah in psychology. Do you know the psychology of Abraham and Isaac? It's brilliant. Oh my gosh, Joseph. If you apply Joseph into your career, you can achieve so much. Moses, the leadership of But with you're a dual citizen. Yes. Bees. Fight. Be Greek. You have to. And then be Jewish, too. And by the way, when you're Jewish, here's how you can tell. By the way, here's a litmus test. When Hashem is Amazon.God, you can tell. How? Hook me up. Hook me up. I need to get this thing. And I'm domining for this thing. See, I need this thing because this is my identity. So, I'm doving for it and domining for it. Doing Let's go. Let's go, Gick. Amazon has Prime. Look at my Look at my front porch. What in the world is taking you so long? Why else am I doing to you? I'm dvening to get something from you. What else is happening here? Where is Hashem in the Holocaust? What in the world question is that? And my grandparents all survived the Holocaust. I don't You know what the question is? If you're not protecting us, why do I need you? Like, what's the deal? Why am I doing if you're not hooking me up? Your job is to hook me up. You tell me to do, I'm domining. You tell me to wear skirts, I wear skirts. Learn tire, I'm I'm doing what you want now. Deliver. I got an identity to maintain. Deliver. And by the way, I'm I because I'm I'm failing at this. The Greeks say, "Use them. I I'm all God. Yes. You got two. Got you. Got your identity and you got your Torah. Relax with the R. He gibbies. You didn't just come off the boat from seminary. Now you're sophisticated. Sophisticated people don't cry when they learn. Stop. Sophisticated people don't listen. Don't believe in hashkah stories. Stop. Show me the evidence. You're Greek. Septuent. Suck the R and keep it wisdom. The Maharal says, you know what they're doing? They took it and they took out the elocus. You know what the ael is? The ael is you need a leader. I'll give you a leader. Suck out the elocus. Stick it in a box. Now that's called a vodara. Vodara means you take the kuresh avod, which is my connection to you. You know why I serve you, Hashem? Because you're my life. You know why I serve you, Hashem? Because you want me to be close to you. Because you're trying to teach me how to take that identity called Salomim and make it so big and so connected that I'm going to become I'm going to walk through that wall. That's why I serve you because I trust you and I love you and I have nothing else but you. And if me and you are connected, how much else could I possibly have? And you give me a life and you Oh my gosh. The Greeks say serve them for your identity. Subtion happens in 250 and then the fun begins and now the tyra goes on the shelf and now it becomes wisdom and then it starts. You notice something very interesting happens next. What happens when the Greeks after the kahan gdole and what happens when Jason becomes the kayang? Jason, remember Jason and Menelis were the two menis with the two kohanim that were h why were they khanim for? They were coining gules that were helenized. They were wonder like why if they weren't from if they were helenists why were they even in in the kahuna? They should have been on the in the in the villas in Quesaria up in the north chilling out. Why were they in the base migdash for? Because when you're a helenist you have two identities. You care about how much you look. You care about how much you have, but now you want to also have Yiddish kite. Yiddish kite isn't gone. Yiddish kite is redefined. Helenism doesn't take away Yiddish kite. Hellenism redefineses Yiddish kite. It redefineses into becoming a sway to get stuff. It redefineses Torah into a way in which I can become a scholar. It redefineses my Judaism and something that I have to do because I don't want to get Hashem mad. It redefineses it. The Hellenist didn't leave Yiddish kite. They just impurified Yiddish kite. There was still stuff going on in the Basan Mikdash. It just was impure because it didn't come from a place of my is what's driving me. It came from a place of this is what I do to serve and to be another identity to my real identity which is wealth and power. And the beginning started and then as these identities started to continue. Hashem got it got worse and worse. And when antio came he said we're almost at a place where these Jews are going to walk around and they're going to be Jewish like the r said but they're not going to be connected. How do I break the connection? I got it. Briss Mila is the ice that it's me and them. Shabas is the ice that it's me and them. And the fact that the kesh broke created a world and handed you the keys to how the yontiffs are going to work. It's the most incredible thing. The ban, think about the concept of people sitting there declaring theesh. And because they declare the kesh these people on the ground is going to decide when yum kipper happens but the whole yum kipper that the kesh comes down and it's and you can't eat AND THIS CAR THE WHOLE THING is decided by human beings because they decide on a Monday and a Tuesday. You know what that's called? It's called that we're connected. We're partners. It's me and you. Hashem says we're doing this together. I don't trust you. I don't believe in you. I am going to take the yontiffs of my entire year and put them in your hands. And the Greeks say, "No, you're not special. Relax. You're another nation. Go fight. Go race. You race your own races. Your races have longer skirts. Fine. Whatever. Race. Your houses are bigger. All knocked down. One community. Whatever. Your food needs to be kosher. Whatever. I don't know. Whatever. You're gonna fight. You can kosherize all the fights. You just be like everybody else. And the second you close your eyes, remember your value is the Greek value. And you're a Jewish Greek. There are Syrian Greek and Egyptian Greeks and Jewish Greeks. And you're one of them. As the major says, what does mean dark? What's darkness? Darkness is not as the says darkness hasn't been the Mitsus. Darkness is the inability to perceive the Mitsus. The Greeks came in and they had us. You know how they had us? They had us through identity. Because who you are will dictate how you feel. What you think you are is going to determine when you get excited or upset. And if you are anything but it your life will not be surrounded by connection to Hashem not at the level that it could. And the Greeks are saying be Jewish. Of course we love Jews. Havila blue and white. Oh my gosh. There's a place for you. I can't believe the Holocaust happened. I went to Holocaust Remembrance Day. I was terrible. We love the Jewish people. But remember, you're like us. You're just like us. [clears throat] Relax. The battle of Kaneka took place in the Yates of the Yid here. Here here. If you believe you're can walk through that wall. You believe you're [clears throat] believe you're and you're more scared to make Hashem upset than your boss. You believe you're somebody enjoying their lives having a sima. You are so thrilled that the kures bor's child is making a sim that you're in tears for the abish and the nas. You're not competing with Jews when you're at because you're so connected to the father that you're so happy for his kids who says you're life is different. You'll have trust me I not put you on this world to torture you but I did not put you on this world to become Greek either. Auntie shows up and says oh you want to be Greek I could do that trust me you like Greeks I'm going to bring the Greek magic. We're closing this deal. And now, gin, you choose to be Greek, I'll force you to be Greek. And watch how this ends. And then I'm done. It's late. Watch how this ends. You ever notice something interesting? When the came into into the B mikdash, did you ever notice that the whole Yontiff is based on like a hiddah? Just think for a second. The BA midash was ransacked. Okay, what should have happened is they got to the basdash and they cleaned the place up. It's a wreck. Like if you're going to have a zias, like you're not going to have a kanuka when the living room is still got just beams. You're going to like I don't know put some plaster and like make it look nice. When you have the people come to the shul for the kanuka of the shul, I'm hoping the shul is habitable. What they should have done is walked in and said, "Oh my gosh, and there's stuff in the bind. There's two missak, there's a shan, there's a minora, there's stuff that goes on. It's not just the minora and the whole place was rocked." And by the time it takes them to clean up and sweep up, they could have sent the guy to make pure oil or okay, they needed to get the manura. First of all, the manura wasn't even in where it's supposed to be in the they dragged it out to the why and they had to remake it according to one opinion and then there's a rule called which means if everything is impure you can rely on the impurity of the environment. No, they had to shle out the minura immediately and then look and look and look and look and now we're going crazy over this one hidd says something so powerful says you know what that shak is that she is you know what that is but they weren't just looking for she's you She mar says she says she is the one thing that doesn't mix. You put water in shem's like dude I'm not interested in water. You go up or down ain't messing with me. She has to act in a way that is single. They say like this, you know what was really happening is that the heal that was being impurified is us. Do you know why? Because it's been a long time since we stopped and searched for that shak. It's been a while since we stopped and said, "I am not going to settle for a Yiddish kite that does not feel like it's on fire. I'm done sticking Yiddish into my life. It's time to stick my life into Yiddish. If I dive in or say to him or do and I'm already Greek, I'm done. I got to find the hapim that is inside me. I got to find that place that the Greeks have not touched. I have to find that shaman zas that no Greek finger touched. I'm not competing. I'm not worried. It's not how I look. As Miller says, one of his he has a whole thing on how to become a god. You see this thing? It's great. One of his things is one thing every day that nobody knows about. Do one nice thing every day that no one could ever know. You and the rabbon show pure. I want to learn into a place that's slow and protected enough that I can actually taste learning. Not when I'm attached. If every time I do is with my day, I'm not ever slowing down. and really dominating. I want to find a place in my day where what I'm tapping into is she zas. I got to find I got to touch and appreciate the fact that who I really am in this world is that pure little oil that has not been touched by the Greeks. No fingers on it. No. How does it look? No. Am I am I winning or losing? No. What do I get for it? Just because I love you. Just because I'm honored to be in your presence just because I cannot believe that out of seven billion souls. I get to say, "Why did you choose me? What in the world were you thinking, Hashem?" Like for real, I am so regular. Like what are you looking at when you see me? Like are you serious? Is it really are you really looking at me and you call me your kid? Why do I open my mouth in a tila and you actually listen? Why do I get to say the word ata in a bra? How many hours a day do we think of this? That's called searching for the shem in zak. Stopping what we're doing and being like, "Holy cow, the luckiest person on planet earth. I have Hashem. He loves me. I don't know why I have this thing called a where they're telling me that he's going to take care of me. Why don't I believe that? What happened to me? How come? Where did I go? How'd they get me? How do I walk into the room and not be happy for people? What? What? What's going on? That hour, that minute, those seconds. You know what that's called? Searching for the she zas. I have to find that place in my soul that is just me and you, Hashem. And when I find it, it's gonna Oh my gosh. I could I can tear up thinking about it because that's who I am. And this world has convinced me that I'm not. And they've made it so from so that competitions for school is from. Like you can from up Greeks like crazy. Kayen. Jason was the kayangle. Does it get more of a dress up Greek than that? This is chump change for the Greeks. Kaneka comes and we light the candle because we remember that if you find your shaitak, you tap into being miraculous. That's the R because there's no R except for the R of Hashem. The Greeks took the Greeks [clears throat] didn't take our Tyra. Vam says, you know what? The Greeks took our R. I'm more pumped watching a guy break the line and go 60 yards for a touchdown than I am listening to the rabbi give a shear for sure I am not this rabbi of course I am more pumped when I look walk into a room not me personally and I'm wearing a new dress not me personally and I walk into a room with a new dress than I am later in the morning and I'm sitting by myself and saying it to Helen because I wear a new dress I walk in and everyone goes you look amazing the attention it's addictive [snorts] It's the attention from my It's Greek. It's not exactly Greek, but it's Greekish. I love that. Where'd you get that? Looks amazing on you. Oh my gosh. Stadium erupts. Awesome. And the rabbi goes, "You going to compete? I got to get back. I got to get back to that place where what I'm feeling exclusive to you, Hashem. No other. That's what it means to be in a relationship one says, "I'm telling you, my kids, my kin, I'm telling you, it's going to get dark." Darkness is the lack of perception. There is no greater lack of perception in this world than you and your nishama. Nothing is further that needs to be brought closer than who I am and who I think I am. As the sanszer says, the greatest distance in life, I think it was a sanszer, is from the head and to the heart. Yavan, relax. The darkness of Yavan is you're a regular person. Chill out. pray to your God, get back to the to the race. And we say, "You're right." And we feel it. And the Kashm come and say, "All you need is one little one. One P. You find your P and you put the of in that P. You light up your Hashem." They say I saw this by Raaja. I think it was that oil isma. That's what I think Raaja says. You're supposed to have a little oil help you with your Kaneka is coming. When you light those candles, remember your job is not to light candles. Your job is to be candles. We're fighting a battle where they're winning. They're destroying. It's not even like a brace anymore. They're bringing in their scrubs. When you stand by those candles, you look at that light and you dive into Hashem that he finds a way that you find your light. And if you're blessed to have children or friends, and when they come home with Greek stuff and your eyes light up, you're making them Greek, whether you like it or you don't. And when you're more worried about how they look than who they are, you're making them Greek. They're Jewish Greeks, but they're Greeks. When we get it ourselves [snorts] so clear that our identity is summ they didn't find it in a minute. They didn't just get it. They searched the to watch these guys and said, "Look at my kids." When you're searching for your pan, everyone around you is going, "What are you doing?" And you're searching for yours, your place with you and Hashem, your honesty in your honesty in your ability to give to somebody else the credit. Your ability to do what you think is right. Your ask of what you want of me, Hashem, versus what I want of you, Hashem. That's called searching. Every day, I'm domining slower. I'm giving more. What does he need? What does she need? I'm not looking to always be the center. I want to learn to a place my phone isn't in the world if I can't enjoy my learning. Why do I look at my phone during domining? Am I insane? If I open my phone, I'm sure that everything I look at is going to for sure not have braha. There's no way's going to be braha. When we reorient ourselves to become people that are searching for the people around us start to look and go, what is happening? Because what we're doing is we're taking the manura and dragging it into the kutzer and saying watch what happens when you can find shem and zed zak it's going to blow you away because she zed zach is miraculous it is so much better than what you have in the Greeks we bring it out it's not it's not it's not we try to it's what happens when you find she goes to the and comes around and they look at it and they go holy cow this is possible The is still here. He still loves us. I don't believe it. And we make a Y on it because the Yiff has nothing to do with the whole thing. We don't do anything all day. All we do, all we do in this Yantiff is light candles. Raj says, "If you don't like candles, you can't make a shakyanu because the entire y is the candles." Because the kbu is saying, "This is what [laughter] I'm looking for. This is all I want. I just want your candle. I just want your oil. I just want your pop. Stop making it so complicated. Just you. That's our job. That's why we're on this earth. That's why this is our yontiff. This is our yontiff. We live in dark times. And we need people that are willing to spend their lives looking for their pan so they can light up their shs and light up their communities and light up those kids who don't need to be sitting on couches their whole lives because they can actually know that they're the most special people on planet Earth. even if they don't memorize stuff because they're pieces of Hashem. So my bra is that we have to realize this is the greatest most important of our lives. We have eight days to be candles to go to that R and beg it to come into our lives to go to the Kuru and say help me stop being Greek to realize that if you're standing here at 2025 not only you and Kasra but you're the Kalis coming to a matabis it's not a gift it's a responsibility you're responsible for the people around you to light their lives up You don't have to be a rv or a rabbitson. You have to be a yid. That's all. We should be z to not only light candles this year. So we should be z who looks down and from shmayim this year. You know how you look at those candles and you drive by you see candles. They're looking down and they should be when they look at the candles. What they're looking at is you're in a shamas and they see all these candles lit up throughout far away in the five towns. They said mashia JFK is a great place. Let's go straight to get the first flight out those days.