Rabbi Michael Mansour | Shabbat Chanukah | CHAZAQ

Shalom everybody enjoy but the day is short so we have to it's quar to 10 already we're already half hour late so we have to start it's yadua from tadim the T ready brings it down that every time par falls together with a holiday we are sure that there are a lot of lessons that we could learn out from the and connected to the holiday I heard this week a beautiful thought that I would like to start off sharing it with everybody it says that your was delayed being in jail for an extra two years as the par and the question is why was he delayed two years so the mid says that she says that because he asked the S mash the leader the the the Secretary of drinks the Sim to bring to remind to free him Hashem added two years until the forgot about him and the question is what did yourself do wrong by doing some type of to try to get out of the cell and the quotes how Hashem is so careful with a tadik how is that every time aad does something if it's not 100% perfect so then he gets punished for it I heard a beautiful thought this week that said if you realize y that this that par was able to commute sentences and he was a little bit the way he commuted sentences it was like Biden he didn't have too much brains Yik heard the dreams of theim of the secretaries and he saw that the baker is going to die and the the butler is going to live is there any reasoning why the butler is going to live and the baker is going to die so the mid says that he should have been more careful but the bottom line is all of a sudden par decided to free him he computed he commuted his sentence like today they commute sentences without any logic you could be a big killer and they still commute your sentence and he even if you killed in jail they commute your sentence stupid guy yadik should have reli on hasem that he would he could have made the stupid guy free him also the same way he freed the butler he could have freed me he should have learned from that alone so why do you have to go make every time you have to go and try when you're dealing with normal people when we're dealing with crazies par was a crazy like we have a president so he was the same thing so I should have just done away with him man T says that's why it was a little bit lacking in his in his level not an hour level an hour level where where we're so far away from them but at least to learn a lesson that as much as a person could ingrain in his nature to rely on hasem he has to work on it now it says further in the Paras that when yadik met the brothers he says to them I'm going to take them in jail for three days he was fearful from God the mid says in the you have to be you have to have fear of God and he says who's the person who has an example one of the examples of somebody who fears God is is because it says explains what was the uniqueness in the fear of God that Yik had and we'll say it with a little introduction when they were the three big prophets where what was that punishment from the king of he threw them into the burning fire and what happened they were sitting there enjoying themselves they walked out son they walked out with not even a scratch not even a burn saw such a wonderful thing happen what did the do he started saying praises to Hashem and the mid says that those praises to Hashem could have been greater than of what happened the Mal came and smacked them on the mouth he gave him a smack on the mouth the Mal right all of a sudden he gave him the smack on the mouth he stopped him so everybody learns the pasas of the mides that they stopped the from saying the praise ask a question somebody's praising why you smacking him on the mouth why you stopping him because you want him to not be better than DAV if he wants to do it let him so he says such a beautiful thought what did say praise His Son Shalom wanted he kill him right David had a son his name was shalom shalom he kill him what did he do when he wanted to kill him start saying he starts praising hem sh wanted to kill him he Praises Hashem he's running in the cave this guy wants to kill him DAV was running away like a chicken without a head and still what did he do praise was ready to praise hem when things were going good say the minute he got a smack I can't praise hem it wasn't that the smack stopped him from praising Hashem it was this that he got the smack made him say ah N I can't I'm calling it quits with God you know why when do I run to hasem why things are good in my life but the minute that things are a little challenging okay Hashem I'll see you next week that's what he says he didn't stop him yadik was sold by his brothers he went through a hard life he went through okay he gets a good job as as put what does she say he's accused of doing his sin where does he end up in jail what a beautiful life he was with his father Beau F had a good time now he's sitting there in jail would you like it no would anybody like it no but does he still praise Hashem he had every reason to throw in the towel but still he said no I'm feared of God and says the that's why we learn from him what it means to fear God it's not we only have God in our lives when things go good for us we have God in our lives we praise hasem even when things are challenging now we'll get a little bit closer to the concept of kanuk what is the highlight of kanuka the highlight of kanuka is we have these candles lighting everybody lights the candles we sing by the candles and we enjoy the candles and we look at the candles but what is the real Miracle of Kaneka if you think about it it's that we won the war the Greeks were out there to destroy the Jewish people now I want to ask you something I want to kill you and I you get stopped from killing you and then besides that I give you a uh a a gift card to Jude Plaza $180 now let me ask you what are you going to thank me for for saving your life for the gift card for $180 for both for both but where would the main where would the main focus be on saving the life if you realize in modim when we read modim we don't mention a word about the miracle of the lights it doesn't mention one time that it lived for eight days all we thank Hashem for in modim is that hasem saved Our Lives that we fought the War and that's really should be the focus of thanking Hashem because they wanted to kill you so they killed you so I'm asking you so there was a miracle of eight days what's a bigger miracle in my eyes the miracle is the war that my life was spared and all of a sudden the Highlight is the candles you hear the question if I saved your life is isn't that more important much more important so I said made another miracle of of so that's a good gesture beautiful but what I should really the the main focus should be on the war but we see that the biggest focus is on the candles and because it's late and it's out of kanuka and we have to already almost pray we're not going to spend too much time today but this question could be the alludes to it and I want to explain with an introduction from the this week's in the year he wrote it we say every week by hav we say we say Byes there are three significant divisions and separations that are the most fundamental in the world one is between day light and darkness imagine you had no day no night every day will be cloud cloud is not enjoyable what's the beauty beauty is a nice Sun so Hashem separated the sun and the night and the night and when Hashem created the world he also did that he separated the Sun the the real light with the darkness and what did he do with that beautiful son he saved it for the saved it for the for the in the world to come where was the light that came to the world the light was from BET mikash mdash is the light it said that when the lit inash it gave light to the whole Jerusalem the whole world you didn't need that's why the windows in bash were how big in the inside and narrow in the outside and still all the light went outside and it lit the whole place so big miracle the light of the world comes from y says the there are three components that are necessity to a person in his life nees and Sh means the world Shah means the year and Nees means the person what is mean Hashem had to make a separation in the creation of the world what was that separation Darkness from light then there's nees nees means in the there's a difference between the soul of a Jew and the soul of a and sh there's a separation between Shabbat and weekday NE sh again is the world Sun and light sh is the year Shabbat and weekday and then there's nees in the person there's a difference between a Jewish person and a says this this is an introduction to getting back to this point it's fascinating the main separation has to be between a Jew and a go separated us to be distance ourself from a the minute of person feels separated from a he'll feel k shabat a person goes Shabbat and they think Shabbat is only one big day to eat but they don't really appreciate the beauty of Shabbat and the reason is because they don't understand this coak this power of Separation the same way that has to be separate totally dark from night separating a Jew from a totally that's the only way when you know Shabbat is a total separation it's just not day number seven it's not just day number seven we call Sunday in the Torah what day one Monday is called day two day six is today Friday what do we Shabbat is not day seven it's considered we refer to it nobody says oh the seventh day of the week I'm coming over for dinner I'm coming over when Shabbat because Shabbat is not day number seven Shabbat is separated from the six days and if a person doesn't feel sometimes the theat the simple reason is because he doesn't have that that idea that understanding that he has to separate his life from a the more that a person feels the separation that we are different so it comes out that day number seven by us is also different day number seven is not day number seven it's Shabbat KES in the time of kanuka the reason why the Greeks had such an influence on the Jews is because we know the Greeks had something that was appealing to us one of the things that they did was they in they they um they translated the into Greek Greek um into Greek language and what happened when I when that happened Darkness very good there was Darkness for three days straight why was it Darkness because the whole significance of Separation The First Time in the history of the world that there was separation between two items was dark and light guys you have to follow with this the first time that there was such a concept of separating good and bad was Darkness and Light when Hashem created the world now if you go and you say that the Greeks are also going to learn Tor it means that there is no separation between a Jew and a go we learn G they learn G so the minute that they were um explaining the talud in Greek so they said there's Jew what's a Jew T we also have Tor so the nature of the world was chaos and the minute that that world became chaos what happened with the world with the original separation of Darkness and Light there was no more Darkness and Light it was only Darkness because that beauty of having light and dark was out of whack because they were already taking over the light they were taking over the Jew the Greeks were trying to destroy the Jewish people and they wanted to destroy us spiritually much more than physically like the T brings down what's the difference between between and puim was they were trying to destroy us mentally puim they were trying to destroy us physically that's why when it comes to puim we drink and we have parties every the whole time and everything some kanuka we don't have The Parting like like um pin kanuka is more supposed to be focus on the intellectual part of a Jew focusing more on understanding the concept of what a Jew means because they were trying to destroy the Jew in his mental capacity what is the main thing that a Jew has to know that's unique over everyone else that hasem makes us separated from a what did the the Greeks wanted to do they wanted to blend in with the Greek culture they weren't saying that there's go and Jews we could all be one people together we could all unite One Nation one nation that was one the that was that was one of the things that the reform said that we should all be like we're the country we're living in they were taking away the beauty of and Hashem until Masia is going to come we're going to our main battle is to distance ourself from a to say we're different than a a style is not our style a Go's a Go's wildness is not our style and if you want to know something there's nobody can say that he's pure from it from the top of the list to the bottom of the list we're living in a culture that we get influenced but our challenge is and the truth is guys everybody really wants to be like that because the minute you separate yourself from aoy you feel much more of a quality life you appreciate Shabbat KES you appreciate the light of the world that Hashem gives the fight that the Greeks had with the Jewish people was a fight on the it was a fight to take out the barriers to break the barriers that separate the Jewish people from the they W wanton that battle there was a few Hardline people which we called them Hardline but they weren't hardliners they saved the Jewish people who is that the he went and he took his few Sons they had a little army and they said we see that they're infiltrating to us they went they had spy all the people they you know the guys with the nice shss the nice ties they were living the life they had their Bentleys they were best friends with the Greeks the Greeks were in low lives they were the highest Society at the time they had beautiful homes beautiful houses beautiful stadiums where did stadiums come from you know where it comes from the Greek culture the whole uh the whole entertainment business comes from them the whole athletic idea of the strong body until you're 35 you could be a football player all this came from the Greeks all this came from the Greeks they worshiped the body if you didn't look good they threw you away they didn't care about you if you weren't strong let the lines eat you up you to the what the yeah you had to so what was they but they consider themselves very high society and all of a sudden the minute that the Germans were the ones who felt they were they were high society what do the Jews want to do join along because we also want to feel high society even though we're much higher than them we're much smarter than them but they're Pro they're they're saying they're high society so we want to go join them what does Hashem tell us you want to join them I have to bring you a holocaust you want to join them they're going to destroy you when did they win when did the Jewish people win when they separ when they separated themselves when they came to that he came with his kids and he said you know we're not going to let this happen Hashem says okay I'm saving you that's what hasm said we're going to save you what is the way to express the real feeling of the Separation by lighting the candle the expression in the Lisa in the action of what it means to be separated from a is we go to the beginning of creation always says if you want to understand the concept where do you heard this a lot of times from me you go to the first time in the Torah when it's mentioned the first time when the Tor says that I separated something was Darkness from light from dark the light from dark that was in the creation of the world was a light that's burning in every single Jew till today everybody has in the bottom over there that understanding that they want to be a real tadik sometimes it comes out in the wrong way sometimes it doesn't come out and sometimes they don't even realize it and a lot of people could go their whole lives without realizing it that they really have that inside of them when does it come out when we light the 36 candles over the eight days of kanuka like we said how many how many how many hours right how many hours did the light that special light that or stay in the world 36 hours it was 12 hours of Friday when Man was created and Hashem gave him also the extra 36 hours of Shabbat when did he start falling apart after Shabbat he thought everything is gonna be dark until what did he do no no no what did he doat when he saw that it was dark he went and took two stones and he made fire he created fire that's why we say on Saturday night on if you realize it even to when we don't make what do we do we the only time we do is when we do have after after the holidays do we do why not because we're commemorating the fire that built that made onat after the 36 hours how many candles do we have from that is 36 hours that that cor that coordinates that's the right word no cor it correlates with the 36 hours that Hashem created the world so that light shows us that there is a special light of the that she says that that light of the 36 hours hasem saw that if everybody's going to be exposed to that light it's going to cause trouble and the explain if you just want to understand a little bit depth the the the the says that if a rash looks at it and he infiltrates that that light it makes it weakened says the his words are like this it's a beautiful thing that it for that that the by them looking at it by them infiltrating their eyes into it they take away from the power so hasem said I don't want to ruin this beautiful light but Hashem with God's grace gave us 36 candles to enjoy that light you know when on Kaneka you know why on Kaneka because that's when we stood at them we said we're not going to get influenced we stood up to the world and we fought them even though we were doomed for disaster with a few few Wise Guys fighting a whole Greek army and intelligent Army a strong Army full line if you see the the midash that they say what was going on in the world was crazy but Hashem said you give it you say that I'm going to push them out of my lives Hashem says you know what you push them out of your lives I'll take care of you and we're commemorating it with the creation of the first separation we're commemorating it with the first time Hashem said this is or this Kaneka candles is not something that's regular it's special candles you know why special candles because this is it correlates with the creation of the 3 first 36 hours because those are things that are only when we understand like said what's the most important thing in order to have separation in the world when a Jew knows he's different when he knows he's different then everything that he'll feel Kat then he'll see the then it'll come out the greatness that every Jew has in himself so now that we to go to shabas khah the Shabbat with khah with lighting the candles in Shabbat we have all three of them this week we have the understanding of the separation of a go from a Jew that you can have any time you have the Shabbat CES that separates Shabbat from the weekday and you have the Kaneka candles that refer to the light and the Darkness it's the only Shabbat of the year the only day of the year that you have all the three separations in one day you hear this highly recommend highly recommended to go to the mikah every Shabbat you know why you know why why is it like that they say that M came to edit he met then he said to him if you have to go to the mikah you go to the Mikvah but if you don't have to why should I go he says is if Mikvah could make a to a Jew surely he could make a Jew to a better Jew so the Mikvah also represent separating a joy a go from a Jew so I like what YF said he added on that we should s make sure to go to the mikah today cuz the quential day of separating a Jew from a go is the Shabbat you ever thought of it the Shabbat from weekday the go from a Jew and the 36 the from the darkness when else do you have that only the Shabbat every Shabbat you have two this Shabbat was three hasem should give us the opportunity to really see that light we only having a sense of a feeling of the light that's why this is the this light is the the booster that we can feel mashia because this is showing us the light that we're going to see and we should have that we should see the of the and we should have a shabbat shalom and appreciate Shabbat that it's separated from week day the same way we separate our for