Deep Dive with Rabbi Feldheim 12 5 2023

are so happy to have joining us tonight Are by Yak feldheim he is a renowned International thinker and lecturer he specializes in Jewish thought and philosophy he travels to major universities and Jewish communities to present religious ideas to secular audiences he has spoken for us many times at project Inspire and for H and he is also the rabbi at the AL in Bay Harbor Florida so thank you so much for joining us by fell time okay amazing it's good to see everybody I can see everyone but I see a lot of friendly faces hello everyone okay let's get straight to business we don't have that much time before I send you to your rooms uh so Kaneka Kaneka is it's all about light you know the beauty of seeing things in terms of light and dark is that it's very simple you know it's light and dark is binary there's there's living in the light and living in the dark and uh the question of Kaneka is or the the topic of khek is is how how we all can spread the light live in the light go out into the light leave the darkness so I want to give two different thoughts before and after your session the first one is uh you know in last week's paraa we read about yakob Jacob um and his final showdown with asav the great struggle where he fights with the angel of asov and he gets the name Israel Israel and that's what he's known as until today we are all the children of Israel but a little known fact that I mean people know but the Torah says it but in order to fight with the angel of asov he had to leave his encampment and he went back across the river and the reason why he went back across the river was to look for What's called the piman the small flasks and all the cabis Forum and the books onos they all say that this is a hint a remes to the holiday of Kaneka which comes after this week's paraa or this is the par of khaka and khaka begins or the miracle of KH begins with the search and the finding of the small flask the P the same word the Pim the same word for the The Vessel he went to look for basically Yakov went to find his small flask and the Kaneka Story begins with this small flask the finding of the flask of untainted oil so I I want to speak for a few minutes the significance of the small flask of oil the entire Miracle takes place with this small flask of oil so you know let's go back to the Garden of Eden that's the if you have five minutes to do anything that's the neatest and simplest way to do everything all of history is contained in those few moments that Adam and Eve spent in the Garden of even of Eden and uh the Garden of Eden is all the way I've Tau it to you guys in the past I'm sure you've heard me and if not I could say it I'll say it now again in 10 seconds the Garden of Eden to me is also pretty binary not as clear as light and darkness black and white so you know but the Garden of Eden is a garden a beautiful garden and then there's the bushes the place to hide from the garden Adam and Eve were men to dance to live happily in the garden garden was the garden was God's gift and instead they find themselves ashamed hiding in the bushes so this is this is how I like to simplify all of the Torah all of Judaism all of creation God is the creator he he gave us a gift he wanted us to live with joy the joy is the garden the gift of God all gifts of God are symbolized by The Garden and we're Adam and Eve and we're supposed to be in the garden and the struggle of life is a very it's it's at least philosophically it's simple are you going to dance in the garden or hide in the bushes and the thing that causes people to hide in the bushes this thing that has to be overcome is in the story of the Garden of Eden and every every all of us all the future Adams and Eve it's Adam and evees it's the exact same story it's shame Adam and Eve were ashamed and they went to hide in the bushes so the entire story of life is had to overcome the shame and re-embrace the garden and uh that's in Kaneka when we switch to Metaphor to light and dark it's going to be the same thing if we want you to come out of the dark which is the bushes and to live in the light which is the garden then you also have to overcome the shame so kana's cure every holiday has a different mode a different tool to come out of the bushes and back in the garden the job of Kaneka is to find the flask of oil what does that mean so if you look in the Garden of Eden Adam and Eve when they as soon as they ate from the tree it said they took fig leaves and they made belts by they sewed fig leaves and they made belts that's what they did and then they hear the voice of God in the garden and they feel ashamed and they go hide in the bushes and God comes to them and says Adam where are you and Adam and he says I'm here the bushes he goes why you in the bushes did you eat from the tree and he basically admits it yes I ate from the tree and that's why I'm ashamed and that's why I'm hiding in the bushes um and God punishes them you know the F all the the famous nuances of that but then God gives them clothing made of leather he gave them be shame he gave them clothing of of skins and the big question is is why did God have to give them clothing of skins if they were already wearing the uh the belts that they made out of the Fig leaves so they already had clothing so why why did God have to give them leather garments so the answer to that is is obvious it's not much of an answer because it creates bigger problems but the answer to that is the reason why God had to give them garments is because the clothing that they made for themselves obviously weren't working because if you again if you read the story it it wasn't that they were ashamed hiding in the bushes and then they made belts out of fig leaves it says that they they ate from the tree they realized that they were naked and then they made belts and then they were ashamed and went to hide it seems that not only did the belts not not cure the shame and allow them to leave the bushes they actually only felt ashamed and went to hide after they made the belts so that's why God had to give them clothing because they felt exposed and felt asham but the question is is then so why did they make the belts if they were worthless they were wor it te they were worse than worthless because as soon as they made the belts they first felt shamed they were doesn't even say they were ashamed before they made the belts so that's the big question so the answer is really in in in the understanding of what it means that they made belts the way we understand it doesn't make sense that if someone feels exposed that they would make belts and for this reason we like to assume or at least we visualize that it wasn't belts there was a belt but they held some kind of like the Indians wear some kind of loin cloth and and that makes sense then the belt is just something to hold the covering but that's not what the Torah is says the Torah said they made belts and um we don't assume that because does what does a belt do Belt doesn't do anything but the Torah says what it wants to say so the Torah says they made belts they made belts so why would somebody who feels who's done a sin make a belt who doesn't cover anything and the answer is a belt is much deeper than a covering there are two modes to deal with when you do something wrong you could potentially feel ashamed one is one is to cover up what you did I mean to fix if you feel exposed to not be exposed but there's a deeper way to deal with failure or or become being compromised and exposed you see what happens is when we do something wrong and we feel ashamed so the shame could potentially run through our whole personality unchecked and we feel like a nothing and when you feel like worthless because because the shame is overwhelming then you give up on life and you just you just don't dream and you don't live and you never face the light and you live your entire life pursuing Darkness because the light is too it's it seems too Out Of Reach the life that you could live live in the light or in the garden story The Garden seems impossible for you you you're not deserving shame basically destroys us because it runs unchecked through our personalities so what Adam and Eve do is one of the greatest secrets of of staying close to God is when you do something wrong put on a belt the belt is a a blockage it it it sort of qu it's like a tourniquet it keeps your sin in check it says yes I did something wrong but why should it spread through my whole personality and totally debilitate me why can't I do something wrong and have a flaw but still be good at the same time why do I have to be all good or all bad The Cure of a belt for a sin is to say that just because I did something wrong doesn't mean I'm worthless above the belt is bad below the belt is good or above what I'm I'm I'm segmenting myself and I'm saying I'm partially good and partially bad and this way I don't have to hide the rest of my life I can live my life be based on the part of myself that's still good everyone does things wrong why does that have why does and and why does that cause that I have to check out of life because of the shame why what we do is we put on a belt yes you can put on clothing which means get rid of your sin repair your failing that's trua that's ideally what we would do and then of course you can dance in your garden but even without chuva well without repentance what you could do is you can you know in your mind psychologically even segmented to say just because I did this wrong doesn't mean I I lost my temper doesn't mean I'm not charitable doesn't mean I'm not kind I'm a hard worker um we we're all full of good traits and bad traits it's very important to know how to put on a belt so that our failings don't spread through our personality and that that little segment of good no matter how small it is allows you to live in the garden and then you can dance and just because of of of of that little bit of goodness and that's what Adam and Eve do Adam and Eve put on the belt and now they know they're good and when they know they're good then for the first time they hear the voice of God in the garden if they wouldn't have put the belt on then they would have had to check out and live in the dark there's something worse than shame what's worse than shame is to just hide to spend the rest of your life running away because you don't want to feel the shame when you do something wrong and it's spreads through your whole personality there's nothing good left then you have to check out because there's no redeeming Factor when you put on the Belt doesn't solve the shame you still did something wrong but it allows you to open your ears and your eyes and to live you don't you don't have to Cur curl up in a fetal position sorry okay okay I'm sorry okay so uh so what happens is we're almost in the at the end so what Adam and Eve do is they they put on the belt and they realize and then they've they they're they're partially good and there's nothing to hide from because I am good and then they can hear the voice of God in the garden for the first time they can listen and then they can feel ashamed for what they did wrong and they can deal with it without the belt they wouldn't be able to do that so the secret of beginning life nobody is clean of sin everyone does things wrong the Jews in the time and the makab were were involved with Greek culture and they they had many fa ings but you don't have to check out you make a belt so the story of kanuka is the metaphor in Kaneka is not a belt the Kaneka metaphor is to search for your small flask of oil that's untainted the whole job of kanaka is to find the part of you everybody has a small flask maybe all of my oil is Tainted but there is one small flask that isn't part of you is still perfect and if you find that small flask the part of you that's untainted it allows you to open your ears and your eyes and to live in the light you only have to run to the darkness when there's nothing Redeeming the metaphor on khaka is the small flask of oil we're all familiar with once they found the flask and the flask miraculously lasted for eight days the Miracles come because of the flask they're automatic meaning if you can search and you can the job in these days is to search your personality and find the part of you that is is still pristine the part of you everyone has that's what Jacob goes back to search for and that's what we have to go back and search for and that's what the Maka be searched for if we can all find the flask of oil that's untainted then that little bit of goodness allows me to live in the garden live in the light and then I that light in the garden is a beautiful life and it grows and it grows and that little bit of oil can last forever it'll multiply it's only hiding that's a dead end as long as I'm living and I'm facing the light then I have blessing and good deeds and friendships and studying and learning and prayers and and my flask grows and more and more oil that the you keep on creating new oil but that's only if you're in the light and that's so that's the job I'm the the metaphor of Kaneka is the it's not a historical event that they found the flask of oil and that created Miracles our job is to find our flask the part of us that that is untainted and that allow us to dance in all of our Gardens it allow us to face the light and to embrace all of the gifts that Hashem has lined up for us okay so I'm going to send you to your rooms and um we'll continue later okay thank you so much R felt time so we're going to split off now into breakout rooms and we'll see you in about 20 25 minutes perfect about that the idea in in in the first part before the break I just explained that the the miracle the job of finding your flask of oil as opposed to just the miracle of the lighting of the the miracle of the lasting eight days the first step is to find your flask of oil and then all the N all the Miracles are possible if you don't find your flask of oil then you just hide in the dark and nothing can happen but if you find your untainted flask then you can face the world which brings us to part two once you facing the world and you're living your life so then there's something called Miracles and I wanted to explain the idea of miracles in Judaism a little short understanding of them uh first of all there's an argument about the purpose of Miracles everyone people know already I it was in your sheet the argument between Hill and shamay one of the most famous arguments of Hill and shamai whether we go backwards we light 87654321 or 1 2 3 45678 and this argument really has its roots in two opposite understandings of Miracle shamai understands that the purpose of a miracle is that the natural state of existence is God and and we live in an illusion of our control so the goal is to live with the Miracles and to slowly give up control so every day we light a little less meaning we're depending on God more as you you know acclimate yourself to Miracles you in the beginning it's very hard to trust God and let God do Miracles and so first you light all the eight candles and then seven at the end we totally trust God and we allow ourselves to live in God's hand and then the possibilities of Life are infinite they're only limited by what we try and do ourselves when you let God do things then he's in control but the truth is we don't rule like shamai we like the manura like hillo and hillo has a whole opposite understanding of Miracles Miracles are not about letting go and letting God control the world what are miracles about according to hillo so and the entire purpose of khaka is what we call Puma to light the candles in your window or at your doors so that the entire world sees we're we're teaching the entire world some lesson about miracles so he here's what shamai what Hillel holds is the purpose of Miracles not to let God run the world but literally the opposite what is it so there are two different types of Miracles the rabbis added two holidays to the torah's calendar the Torah gives us holidays it gives us rash and yipper and pesot and Sh but then kazal they added in the holiday of purm and the holiday of Kaneka these are the two Rabin holidays and both of those holidays are about publicizing miracles the miracle of purm and the miracle of khah which are really two opposite kinds of Miracles and together they the the totality of when we understand purm and Kaneka then we will totally understand what Miracles are entirely now although in the calendar Kaneka comes before PM that's just in the calendar in history um PM happened well before Kaneka PM is the story of the Persian Exile which was in between the two temples the first temple the second temple and kanuka takes place late into the second temple during the Greek ex during the Greek Exile yeah by the way when yua fight and this miracle that you have Moon and Sun at the same day for the Jewish to win and nobody celebrate it interesting that's an interesting question interesting interesting why we don't celebrate the miracle of of uh okay fascinating interesting for us it's for the whole world yeah okay but I'm Gonna Give You Light I gotcha I got a very it's a great question why don't we celebrate the Mir there are there listen there are endless amount of miracles in the Torah the two miracles of khaka and porm are the ones that were added in why and that's really I I sort of want to answer your question I'm not going to explain why we don't celebrate the the miracle of shees the stopping of the son of of of Yeshua but I'm going to explain why these are the two Miracles that got holidays it's it's not just the miracle of of of Yeshua with the Sun that we don't have a holiday we there there infinite amount of miracles in Jewish history that we don't have holiday holidays for if we celebrated every Jewish Miracle we'd have multiple holidays every day of the year but the the two holidays that we did create the rabbis created are khaka and PM they actually both hinted at in the Torah so let me let let me just tell you quickly why we need these two Miracles and okay so so the short I have to do this quickly and compact this this normally this a the a purm class and a khaka class and I'm G to make it into a five minute class on both of them why is it that people aren dancing in their Gardens that's the question why is it like we all have we see the beauty of the world we know all the blessings of life but why are we so reluctant and so hesitant to live the all the things that we wanted to live and the first answer to that was well the first part of the Shar of Shame and the answer to shame is to find your flask of oil but it seems that you can still have a flask of oil you can still know that you're good and still be afraid and the there's two problems and khah and PM answer those two problems the first answer is I I like to use the metaphor two metaphor for of a of like a circus the first one is a tight rope uh you have a tight RPP so the reason why people don't walk on tight ropes is because they're afraid they're going to break their neck it's very scary and we see and it's a metaphor for life we see Life as a tight RPP and we're afraid to uh to to dance on the tight RPP to walk on the tight RPP even though it's you know you get get Fame and recognition because we're afraid we're going to break our neck so that's problem number one so the the answer for that problem is what what we c meaning I know how beautiful life could be I I know how great it is but I'm afraid to live my life because maybe I'll fall so the kanuk of purm was created for that reason the kanuk of purm is the holiday PM is the that God does the Miracles in the model of purm purm is that everything looked over and Hashem saves us the lesson of purm is in one second is that God can catch us when we fall purm is the safety net under the tight RPP when you know that there's a safety net under the tight RPP then nobody's scared to walk on the tight RPP because you know you can get caught the purpose of the safety net is not to catch you when you fall the the purpose of the safety net is that is that you can you can Embrace Life the fact that God Saves us which is the miracle of purm that he can behind the scenes catch you when you fall save you no matter how precarious and how scary the situation is that God can turn things around in one second and save us the what is the purpose of that Miracle the purpose of that Miracle is not so you give up the purpose of that Miracle is that you start to live when you know that there's a safety net then you can Embrace Life and start to dance and and love and think and work and create and study and all the things you ever wanted to do because you know that Hashem will catch you when you fall you're no longer afraid of falling so this is the first explanation for miracles people need to know that God provides a safety net and that no matter what he'll catch you you're not going to splatter and the purpose of that Miracle is so that now you can dance and now you can live and now you can walk the Tyro so shamai saw Miracles as letting go of life and allowing God to control things and you you not living and therefore we count down the candles Hill sees life sees sees Kaneka as the opposite God does Miracles not so you give up and you don't do and you give God control so that you take the Reigns and you start to live and you start to expand the purpose of Miracles is not for us to minimize ourselves but for us to maximize ourselves and publicizing the Miracle is screaming on the top of our lungs the miracle of purm at least that there's a safety net don't be scared you can start dancing you can start investing you can start doing things hold on let me finish because I'm almost out of time and then I'll stay on as long as you want but I just got to finish this in the next three minutes so that's the first miracle that that's the pum the publicizing of the N of porm and that's what we read the Milla the point of the Milla is that everyone should know that there's a safety net don't be afraid to live if there's anything you wanted and that you were reluctant Hashem will catch you just like he saved morai and Esther in the times of but for some reason rabbis realize that it's still not enough people know that there's a safety net we had a holiday of purm and people are still afraid to live and they needed one more holiday because knowing that Hashem will catch you when you fall for some reason I know hashem's going to catch me and still we don't wake up early we don't live with fire we don't invest ourselves fully why not so I call pm a negative Miracle a miracle to get rid of a problem but the problem is ifem gets rid of the problem and I'll never break my neck and I won't splatter why should I still get out of bed because just because I won't get hurt but what what's going to happen so I'll go to work and I'll make a little bit of money I'll still never be able to do everything I ever wanted to do how much could I make already how much Torah could I know already how just because I'm not going to break my neck doesn't mean that it's not still not exciting for me to live my life because what are the returns when I think about what might happen it just seems It's not exciting enough for me so there's another miracle the one Miracle is the safety that the the negative miracle that God will catch you when you fall but then comes the Miracle of Miracles the greatest miracle and that is not only is God Prov providing the puim safety net the hatah but there's another thing in the circus in the in the stage of life and that's a trampoline a trampoline is not going to catch you when you're full a trampoline allows you to multiply everything you do when you jump you can do flips you can fly through the sky there's a positive miracle that makes any little bit of your effort exponential the N of khaka is that after do we know Hashem will catch you when you fall not only will he catch you but everything you do when you invest yourself you think you're doing something small a little bit of oil can last eight days a little bit of investment can give you exponential achievements don't think that you'll put an effort and you'll get a little bit of a payback you have no you can't begin to imagine what your little investment will do get out of bed and go invest yourself in in three months you can be the CEO you the math of of involvement in the world is a whole different kind of math the miracle of Kaneka says that the that the smallest investment can can give rewards that nobody could even in their wildest imagination believe could possibly happen and this is the creation of khah and PM that these two things and this is what we're doing by the windows with our Manas we're telling the entire world that you got to live don't W all the reasons that you're in bed and all the reasons that you're reluctant and all the reasons that you're making excuses and the reasons you're not dancing in your garden don't worry Hashem will catch you you're not going to break your neck don't be scared and not only don't be scared but be so excited be so vibrant because everything you do will be multiplied then the presum of tells the world that you you have no idea what your investment will give birth to you have no idea what you could life could look like this is why we like the Hana candles and this is what hill says Hill says the purpose of Miracles is every day we light more candles because we're not giving up our role to God God isn't giving M doing Miracles so that we we don't have we don't we we don't live we don't do God is doing Miracles so that we will live the miracle are what allows us to invest ourselves God will catch us when we fall and allow us to do crazy sum results triple axles lotes I don't know what they're all called all those trick moves but understand there's a meta for us but what does that mean for our lives and this is I give you guys a br that we should have a lit up Kaneka and not just us but in these special times difficult times that the Israeli soldiers the armies should should Hashem should catch them they shouldn't fall no one should get hurt and every single effort that they do should see rewards that you can't imagine the smallest little movements hundreds should run away from one soldier one soldier should take out Legions brigades and should provide the net that saves all of the hostages protects our soldiers and redeems the land of Israel in time for Kaneka be a perfect time for both the safety net and the trampoline should give to our people a amen thank you so muchel time thank you so much everybody for joining us thank you to Alisa who did all the technical support behind the scenes and wishing everyone a thank you so much this is wonderful um we will be sending out the recording shortly so thank you okay anybody have question I take I take to a I was I was pushing him off before um who was it I don't see everybody on the screen at one time my name is I ask you about okay what about what about he jumped to the water and this is what create the miracle wow very nice so I'm saying that that that the miracle allows us to jump and you're saying n jumped and created Miracles that's amazing that's amazing yua was fighting yeah no so listen listen not not everyone needs Miracles we shouldn't need you ideally this is why the Torah didn't have KH andm because we really should be able to live our lives knowing trusting Hashem that he made a beautiful world why do I have to know that that see the safety net why do I have to know there's a trampoline why can't I just trust that hasem is is loves us and is in control and let me invest myself knowing Hashem wouldn't mislead us and the answer is is that true sikim can do that true sikim are able to serve Hashem without Miracles but most but Hashem loves all of us not only sikim all of us what we call K with small faith that we don't trust so much and we're reluctant maybe we trust Hashem but we don't think Hashem will will you know Hashem knows us he knows me too well he's not going to do anything for me I I don't deserve it whatever the reasons are rabis realize that we need Miracles the knowledge of Miracles for us but you know if only we were all naon you sound like a naon so uh you know I think this king David I'm sorry King David David what about David he conquered Jerusalem so he can build his son Sho can build the beta mikdash okay but this King David with few of his people GI right they come and Jerusalem if you remember the story I I understand but David is the basically the he started there was no miracle and bet mikash was there yeah but DAV H is a very good example of the trampoline he was a gior he's his but bottom line is is the whole image of Little David when sha was a head and shoulders taller than anybody else and he was Tiny compared to gas David was facing Gia the image of David with his slingshot facing gas is is literally like a miniature Kan Miracle right the little guy with the slingshot taking down it's the Y hasem you do your thing you stand up with no armor no huge sword and can make anything happen the toab he was starting the Mutiny with no Army exactly this is what we say in the we say right uh the weak in the hands of the strong because this is the miracle the miracle of Kaneka is the trampoline that don't think a little bit can't beat a lot don't think weak you have no idea of God's math God has a a different system of math and do you understand how we would live if we all knew this the the reason why we tiptoe through life is because we're doing math and I thinking I'm gonna invest myself what you know what can I make an hour when you realize that you can make millions of dollars an hour you have no idea what you could do it's it's not regular math that's khaka and when you see the that's what you're supposed to think one little thing of oil creates all this it never burns out it burns for eight days my little lighting can also burn exponentially I believe in what he say every Friday okay that mean we have to go on real life on very narrow bridge with lots of dangerous of breaking our neck as you say but we have trust so that's sounds more to me like the porm miracle the G is the answer to the G is will catch you when you fall but then is even bigger than that right Kan is not only want you full it's it's a g but but you won't fo but on that gisher is a ladder that takes you who knows where you know it's a whole different Miracle my point is Miracle started when you have human involved exactly that's Kana little you need to find your flask of oil first if you don't find if they didn't find their flask of pure oil they would have been a trampoline doesn't work unless you jump on it it multiplies your jump but you need to jump jump you need to find the flask of oil and then Hashem can do anything with it and that's what we're telling everyone with manora you put the manora at your door at your window and the message to the world is is jump on the trampoline you don't know what can happen don't don't think you know what's gonna happen it's bigger than that that's the lesson exactly your point you you need you need you and that's why we build up in in the lights from one to every day you add you add more Hill's take on on Kaneka is is that Miracles allow you to live more and more and more I want to go back to the first stuff that rather fell time I have to give you guys a two- minute warning I'm gonna have to close out the zoom in two minutes okay go ahead quickly here so I have two more minutes I can give you guys go ahead very good go ahead let me hear create Adam he create first the body and only then he put the spirit the the sh and this is everything start with the real and then we go to the second level but you can start with spirit before body and this is kanuka Kana in all America there the human body and then come the go okay I hear I understand but you can look at it the other way too it's the same question of the chicken or the egg Hashem existed before the body the body existed before the N you know so so in a way you you can always like the sa does the saf net come before the tight rope yeah you know so that's that's Hashem before the body and but of course the body comes before before the so the way I explain life is you know the game do you have that in Israel called Leap Frog Leap Frog is where one person jumps over the other one and then the one behind jumps over them and then you jump over them and you keep on going one the person who was in front is now behind the person behind is now in front life is like leap frog every time you it's the gof and then the and then the and then every time you you do something holy you become stronger and now you do something physical and the more physical you do the more I've done the more mitzvot the closer I get to Hashem and now I'm more spiritual so now I live with more fire and now the I do bigger things and the bigger things I do the closer I feel to Hashem so I live with more fire and the r leads to GM and GM leads to R and it goes back and forth forever it's hard to know which one comes first the point is is that we go forward we should never know which one comes last we should keep keep unring the script all right okay thank you so so much I'm so sorry to cut things short but um I have to close out the zoom thank you so much R Fel time again thank you everyone for joining us and to everybody OD that was amazing stuff every single thing you say is amazing like uh amazing amazing all right okay Han thank you time thank so much thank you so