Deep Dive Chanukah 2022

thank you all right everyone should turn on your videos and be on the recording so okay so you should just know that I like I have multiple devices surrounding me that we're trying to get on the zoom so I feel like at any point in time you're just going to be seeing like 10 of me you know just from all different angles so just bear with me but anyhow I'm on my phone the slow about stuff that you're seeing now is the phone version and I'm just scrolling through on my phone to see all of you and like it's like non-stop how many people Danielle how many people do we have on the call tonight it looks like we have 70 people look at this I just signed it from another thing okay hold on everyone hold on I'm leaving here stay where you are okay here I am do you see me no you don't see me one second Robux spam do we have you did we lose you is he still with us okay sorry about that everybody hopefully he'll be back in a minute see that's the miracle of Hanukkah the miracle technology G all right well that was an epic fail anyhow as I was saying it is wonderful to see everybody again and how amazing is it why why that we are here right before Hanukkah which you know there's so many different aspects to final go but what people don't realize is that Torah study to learn tolerance specifically the way we're doing it one-on-one with the study partner to delve into a concept delve into an idea is so much so deeply connected to what Hanukkah is all about there's a fascinating piece of talmud our sages say that around the Hanukkah time around the story of Hanukkah that is when this whole idea of Mach Lucas raise your hand if you're familiar with the term Focus is debate good people are raising their hand my focus is debates debate in the talmud we know right you know they say two Jews three opinions where does that start from it starts from the talmud every single page of the talmud is full of rabbis debating arguing and for someone who might be new to Torah study this could be disturbing because we like to think that something that the word of God is going to be black and white and everything will be clear tell me what to do you know how many people ask me questions and they're just like gay rabbit just tell me what to do tell me what to do like they want just a clear answer and here you open up the pages of the Town load and it's full of debate and our assumption is well someone's got to be right and someone's got to be wrong and because of that when I say just say that around the Hanukkah story around the time of Hanukkah when it became more difficult for the Jewish people to study and therefore there was now more debate amongst the rabbis one might get nervous about that and say you know what maybe certain ways the evaning the Greeks won because they confused us they confused our Torah they sent us in multiple paths they mixed us up and the great great Mystic in Rabbi and roshishiva refutner asked this question and he says actually the opposite is true the opposite is true and even though it may seem that through all of the debate and all of the most locusts so part of the authenticity of Torah was taken away the opposite is true a new beauty of the Torah was revealed the fact that Allison and and Rachel and and uh and and Ayla and uh Luciano's here right the fact that you guys can say we can all sit down and we could learn together and we can have debate and I say this and you see this and you know what we can both be right the the Talman has a powerful line multiple opinions and yet then maybe saying the exact opposite things and yet who's right they're both there's an aspect of Truth to both and that actually shows the beauty of Torah the beauty of Torah a new beauty of Torah that was revealed right around this time of Hanukkah so it is a wonderful wonderful marriage to be learning together specifically to create dialogue and learning in a Torah study and I just want to say this as we're about to break up into these sessions to get into the one-on-ones but obviously we know that there's a lot of mystery surrounding Chronicles not just the final goes in a dark time but there is a lot of mysteries around the chronicle we know hanukkah's eight days because of the tremendous Miracle of the oil right and and we know that that itself creates a question the most famous question in Jewish literature is this question about Hanukkah that why eight days and we should maybe only be seven days because there was enough oil to last for one day and we know that there are a myriad of answers to this there is not one question in Judaism that has more answers to the question of why Hanukkah is eight days and that creates a mystery and Intrigue around the entirety but one has to wonder is it merely a coincidence that it's an eight day holiday we know the number eight is a fascinating number in Judaism we know that seven represents the natural order of things and eight is the number of transcendents so is it purely a coincidence that it took that long for them to get this new oil or is there a much deeper message about the essence of the day what is this number eight how does it connect to Hanukkah and like every other holiday if a holiday can never holidays never just a commemorative event why do we celebrate this holiday because this happened two thousand years ago this happens with that oh never a a holiday is always meant for us to look at our own life look at our own world our own spirituality and as we go through the sources tonight I encourage you to ask the question what is the depth of the number eight how is it relevant to my life how is it relevant to my spirituality and how is it relevant to where I am right now something to think about as you're going through the sources we'll meet again on the other side starting for the late start we'll meet again on the other side and we'll wrap up all of these ideas together and and and focus on probably a beautiful new aspect of Hanukkah one that in all of my years never I never realized before this idea was uh Danielle mentioned I was on a trip recently to Israel I was in a cab the craziest things happen in cab rides in Israel and a cab driver uh made me aware of a certain aspect of Hanukkah that I had never heard before and I'm excited to share that with you at the end of the session so enjoy your one-on-one learning and I'll see you again on the other side okay great everybody we're gonna go to our breakout rooms and we will see you back here shortly enjoy the learning I put a link in the chat box if people don't have the material printed foreign okay I can see everyone now I have several devices later it's good to see everybody back it's nice to see everyone's faces I'm just gonna change my view over here so I can see all of you okay how did it go do me a thumbs up you like your Learning Partner okay tour is beautiful Jews are beautiful let's talk a little bit about Hanukkah so interesting Danielle mentioned that I was in uh Israel last week so there's this there's Divine hand in everything and you know I don't know if anyone here has any disaster travel stories but um just to put it bluntly I missed my flight to Israel it wasn't pretty I was going with my daughter we left too late and we got stuck in DC traffic and I missed the flight well so you know obviously we all you know when whenever you miss a flight that's like your time to put everything that you teach all of the like Muna classes and all the mindfulness and all of the manifesting like you just got to put it all into practice so I was like prepared I was like this isn't my big you know I can't just talk the talk I gotta walk the walks I'm like you know what everything's for my Chevy I'm doing the whole thing but like obviously deep down inside like you know you're just wondering like I'm keeping I keep on checking the phone to see like is the plane gonna crash like there's got to be some reason why I missed the flight right of course you know it's gonna be my my story I want to get into what is it the living and Luna series you know but like what's gonna happen anyways I didn't quite know what was going to happen and I still don't know why I missed the flight but I can tell you that because I missed the flight I had to rebook because I had to rebook I was going for a wedding and I was going to miss the wedding so ordinarily I would have taken the train but instead I hired a driver so I'm driving back you know from the airport from bengurion television to go straight to straight to the airport and you know I'm schmoozing with the cab driver and the cab driver he says well you you know I don't I don't always you know Drive cabs well not a cab but I don't always you know drive people but I'm a tour guide and um I'm not getting a lot of business these days so I'm doing you know this to kind of supplement my income so I said all right well you have any interesting like you know tell me some tour guide stuff do you have anything interesting plan what's your next tourist is what I'm doing is I have every single year a set Hanukkah tour and that's when I tell the real story of Hanukkah she said well what do you mean by the real story of Hanukkah and he shared with me something fascinating and again I'm looking around through the and I see we have a lot of a lot of very wise people so maybe I'm going to tell you something that you already know but again for me it was new and he says something quite magnificent honestly it's the whole eight-day thing they think like I mentioned earlier it's very unusual and especially to think that like Aid is such a such a prominent number in Judaism to think that it was just a technicality that it would take eight days for them to get pure oil there's got to be something you know something significant about why specifically eight days so we pointed to a safer of Jewish book a Jewish work called the auras raise your hand have you heard of the Shogun before you learned a little bit so I don't know if you've learned the orange but he says something that is very very interesting he says that when during that year that the Jewish people were under such terrible persecution from the Greeks so when it came Sook his time remember that circus is the only other festivals the only other holiday that is eight days right okay so he said when it was Suki's time they couldn't do any of the temple service on circus because the Greeks didn't let them right the whole Temple was was being occupied by the Greeks they couldn't get in so therefore there was no Temple service done so when it came Hanukkah time and they liberated the base time English they liberated the temple they said what can we do now like what how should we celebrate this and they said you know what we missed Circus Circus is an eight-day hug we missed circus which is seven days and then the eighth day is so why don't we celebrate sukis now on Hanukkah have you ever heard this before good so I'm not the only one let's celebrate and not only that but so we know that the entire Hanukkah story is based on a few lines in in the gemara and Tom would attracted Charlotte this is just a couple of lines but there's more information that we know about Hanukkah from a book that it's not a hundred percent clear how whether whether it's it how historically accurate the book is but there actually is a safer like almost like a Magilla it's not considered one of the books of the Torah but it does give us some information and there's a very interesting piece of information that it says in the safer amaka but not the same as to how they celebrated that very first Hanukkah it says in safravagan that they went into the temple via hogu they made a holiday this is the language of similar to sukis and it says how do they celebrate it they took couples to Marin and Arvin do you know what those are that is a lulub and an irava those are sukhi species very interesting they took Suka species on Hanukkah why would they do that well according to the Shogun it actually makes a lot of sense because the the way that they were celebrating it again that first year before they established it as a holiday of Hanukkah but the very first Hanukkah was actually a makeup circus do you know that Hanukkah and circus are the only two holidays during the year when for eight days we saved a full Hollow and you you know something else very interesting it says that listen to this listen to this the um I don't remember it my I don't have my my own computer open because of the whole mix-up but I believe it's a mishna possibly in sukkah that says that on on um on circus we know that there was a big party in the temple every circus right it was called the SIM card base the mishna says that the kohanim would juggle fire that I think we are familiar with right you've heard that before how much fire would they juggle the mishnah says they would juggle eight torches ate torches they would juggle do you know that there is a machlokis there is a dispute between base Hillel and beishaman basilo says that you lie when you like Kansas the way we do it first night is one second night is two third nine is three fourth night is four that's what we do it says on the first night you light eight candles then seven then six then five then four then three then two then one we don't go like this shamite but when asked to explain himself why do you say that says the following three words what does that mean connected because on circus they would we know they would bring 70 sacrifices in the temple seventy and the way they would do it is they would have the largest number on the first day and then minus one and minus one they would go less and less and less each day so beisham I says the same way that on sukis they minimize the sacrifices we minimize the amount of Lights why in the world has been shot by trying to learn from Hanukkah out from the law of sukis the answer is all of this is pointing to one thing that the very first Hanukkah celebration was actually sukis in the winter now why do I think this is something that is so amazing why do I think this is I would get so upset I'm like it was worth missing the flight just for this it actually was probably not worth missing but who knows maybe it was maybe it was maybe for a piece of Torah but it was phenomenal it was phenomenal but I think it's so beautiful because there is a line in the great Hasidic commentator the spas and this the sasama says something beautiful about chanukkah he says that if we think about it in the beginning of the year comes Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur and circus and we have such a spiritual jolt right raise your hand how many people over here on sukis who will just flying high right you're coming right off of Rosh Hashanah and then you had them Kipper and you fasted and then it came circus and he sat in the sukkah dwelling in God's shade for seven days and then you danced on simchastura and you were like I am never going to be the same Buxom again I mean that's it that's it this was a game changer every other year I thought was a game changer now this year is a game changer and then you know what happens see Hashem very strategically places all of the holidays because we know that the time of year the seasons the young and told them the holidays are very much connected to the seasons and all of the holidays pesaches in the spring and then shuis is closer to the summer and then comes where shashanah is right after the summer and these are all in those spring summer months Yom kippurs everything is in the months of long days and short nights and then right after sukis slowly slowly the days start getting darker and darker the night time starts getting longer and longer and longer and the point of Hanukkah that comes right around the winter solstice is when the nights are long and the days are short and this wasema says that that's symbolic of the fact that the satama the power of the negative forces gets stronger and stronger and stronger after circus and again I hope looking around they see we have a very very special crew over here but again many human beings might feel that after circus where it seems like everything should go so beautiful so amazing suddenly it gets harder and harder and harder and harder and harder and sometimes when it comes to Hanukah time we're already depleted already looking back at this past where shashan and Kipper suggests it was so long ago and we're like I think this was just another year I think this was just another high and now it came down from that high and the significance I believe of this idea that the that the the hashmona in that they decided to celebrate sukis in the middle of the winter is a reminder for us that just when you think that you've lost that fire just when you think that you lost that spark now Comes Hanukkah time celebrate circus again get back to that recommit yourself Hanukkah is a rededication recommit try to ignite inside of yourself that fire that you felt not too long ago because Hanukkah is meant to be a turning point of the year it is the gateway to the winter and as the world gets colder and colder and colder something else happens slowly the days start getting longer and longer and longer it's an amazing amazing thing that sometimes when we feel so low in our spirituality sometimes that's actually the beginning of the greatest Aaliyah and I think that it's something that is so important for us to remember and one of the things that I loved about the source The Source sheep was how it showed that you know Hanukkah is so much connected to our homes because in our homes very often we might look at the various relationships someone is asking but I'm sure the people sat with the equator um we love you but you don't fit into any of the holiday children sorry I don't know what to say um but um very often we look at various relationships in our life it could be with the spouse it could be with God it could be with our children and we think about the good old days I remember when things are so light things are so bright things are so fun things are so cute things are so simple things are so easy what happened to that Hanukkah time is a time of rededication to that the idea of having sukis in the winter is to say I could reconnect I want to try to remember what it was like and how can I bring that how can I bring that now Into the Now into the moment how can I reawaken that love reignite that spark inside of me that's essentially what Hanukkah is all about and therefore it has to come specifically now specifically at this moment of transition that happens in the year and if I could just end with Danielle introduced me as the author of a book that I I really I I take a lot of gives me a lot of nafas and I feel privileged that I was able to write it called the four elements of an empowered life and it's really about understanding your inner World understanding the different parts that are inside of you well there's a beautiful idea in Hanukkah as well and that is when we look at the candles so we know that a candle is made of a Nair which is the actual um light itself the flame itself still is the wick and Sherman is the oil and near the moon of Nair the pay of silt and the shin of shemen spells nephesh nephesh means our soul our inner world and if you actually look at these three things so so Kabbalah says that the seal itself is like our physical body oil is like our emotions and the flame is like our soul when we look at the candles we're supposed to see in the candles a reflection of ourselves we're supposed to see ourself as the candle and the different parts of our inner World reflected in these candles and it's supposed to be reminded to us that even if whatever reason life is taking it's told even if we're not feeling as spiritually inspired as before even if our relationships are not where we would like them to be where it once was Hanukkah is a time to rededicate ourselves to our greatest potential to really see ourselves as the burning fire the flame that we are the flame that we can be and use Hanukkah as an opportunity to to change the trajectory of our year to find new joy to find new simcha to find a new reason for hag a new reason to Rejoice that gratitude will Hollow to find joy we have to take control of our joy the world has a way of making us sad for no reason and when we're sad we start to say we start looking at different things it must be my job it must be my spouse it must be my kids we blame everyone but it's just the natural flow of life and chanukkah is a push for us to reclaim our Joy by saying we are responsible when we do that we can really reignite ourselves reignite our homes ultimately reignite the world so I want to wish everyone it should be a Time full of praise full of song full of joy in your homes and may we dance together not only on Zoom but with Michelle thank you all for joining Danielle thank you thank God for you thank you so much time and thank you so much to Eliza sakowitz who did all the technical work behind the scenes thank you all so much for joining us and wanting to wish everybody a happy happy Hanukkah thank you thank you so much don't eat too many jelly donuts or do that's right thank you bye bye