Holiness Onto The Mundane - Rabbi Aryeh Lebowitz | Chanukah 2020

On we celebrate two things. We celebrate a war and we celebrate a miracle that's almost the exact opposite a a little jug of oil but we didn't really need it. We could have used the tame oil and it lasted for 8 days and it was just such a nice embrace of we just felt like Hashem was giving us a hug at that time. I was thinking that maybe the idea of the two miracles is to show how was involved in every element of our lives from the most spiritual to the most physical but maybe it's something else also maybe the message of these two miracles is that life is always full of moments where we feel the closeness of Hashem and the only way we're going to appreciate those moments we're going to know what to do with those moments is if we also So take advantage of all of the moments in between, all of the mundane moments, all of the moments that don't seem so special. You know, I asked my as an extra credit question on a test. I don't know if it was last year or two years ago. It was a very hard question. I asked, list three things about Judaism that are very special to you. Then I asked the second question. List three things about Judaism that are not very special to you, that are very challenging. And on almost everyone's list of the special things was Shabas. On almost everyone's list of the nonspecial things was Mina. And it's interesting because if one is really going to appreciate Shabas, if you're really going to appreciate what it means to have spend some time with us, a person really has to experience the mas of life as well. You know, we say in Alan, we celebrate, we talk all about the war and then we say And afterwards we went in and we lit the minora because the only way we're going to appreciate lighting the minora is if it's first if first we have the war if it's preceded by the war. In 1967 there was a major event in the Jewish people. We got back to the kotel. We had a speaker in yeshiva about 15 years ago that told us that he had a son that was born shortly after the kotel badenu. Shortly after we got back to Kotel and he was so inspired by the whole event. It was such a moment for the Jewish people. This speaker told us that he named his son Israel Yer that Israel should give off light because he was so inspired by the incredible event. And obviously you're probably aware that baby grew up to be our Rebi, our Rashiva, Rabbi Kavanetski. Now in that moment there was another fellow that was alive at that time who was a major general in the army and later went on to become the prime minister Ariel Chaon and Ariel Chiron was at the kottow and came over to him and gave him a pair of filling was as secular as he gets. He would never put on film. Probably never did before that day and probably never again after that day. And a reporter asked him. I don't understand. When you came to the Western Wall, the gave you a pair of fill and asked you to wear them and you did it. Why suddenly the religious fervor? And he answered, "Yeah, I did do it. I did put on the filling." And he explained, "When I came to the hotel, I had very deep feelings and I wanted to express those feelings. But to my dismay, I discovered that I didn't have the vocabulary to express those feelings. Religious Jews have the vocabulary to express those feelings. I had no context in my life to appreciate what was going on." A religious Jew has the context to appreciate what was going on. Writes that the rash if you scramble them is if one wants to appreciate the it's important that a person experiences the of Judaism. What we do at our table in the bish what we do at our table in the shul that has tables. what we do at our table at home, how we act day in and day out. It's only if we have that kind of dedication, if we take care of the mas of our lives that we'll be able to appreciate the khanas of