The Pach Shemen in All of Us - Rabbi Aryeh Leibowitz

the gemara asks my Hanukkah what are we commemorating with the holiday of Hanukkah maybe it's the military Victory the robin acting the many in the hands of the few this miraculous military victory that the Jews were able to conquer the Greeks maybe it's the miracle of the flask of oil that one small little flask of oil was able to burn for eight days I'd like to share a perspective that was offered by the spasmus which I think has such profound meaning for us today says maybe what we're commemorating maybe what we're trying to highlight is the fact that we found the Pakistan in the first place we know the Greeks they search the entire base that mikdush that their goal was to defile anything sacred anything that they could find that was holy that was pure they sought to defile it the truth is this could probably be said about the Hellenistic culture in general that anything that was pure anything that was holy the Hellenistic culture came to try to defile it to make it profane to make it mundane to remove the spirituality to remove the Holiness from it but there was one small flask of oil after they searched the entire basement that lay beyond their reach One path one pashem and that they were unable to defile one Pak that was impervious to the mighty Greeks and herein lies I think a very important message for all of us because no matter how defiled we may feel sometimes no matter what dark places we seem to find ourselves in if we search we too will find within ourselves within each of us is a small vial of pure oil that's impervious to defilement we say every morning in davening eloh kindness I have a pure Soul there's a part of me that still contains the Seal of the coinggato and the light of that small flask has the power to dispel a tremendous amount of Darkness I think this also gives us a perspective on the opinion of beshamai many of us know that there's a dispute between baselo and Beijing was the opinion that we follow and it's understood to us we Light One Candle the first night two of the second night three of the third night more light more light but beishami's opinion seems that first glance to be quite depressing we light eight the first night then seven then six then five but if we think about it from a slightly different perspective might be saying to us that no matter how much the light diminishes no matter how dark it gets there will always be one candle left you know a lot of people look at themselves they look past years and they they remember with Nostalgia how well they were doing how connected they felt to God how pure they were but now come to Space Jam and he says if there's still a candle left and there always will be one candle left so then there's always a chance to emerge from the darkness that little pashem and unbeknownst to us when we lit it has a power Way Beyond what nature dictates Hanukkah always comes during the winter but but specifically during the darkest time of the winter when the the nights are the longest small light of the chanukkah candle in the dark winter reminds us that despite the darkness the long Darkness there's always some light to warm up our soul remember there's always a pure flask of oil somewhere within you sometimes it's hidden from sight but it's always there you just need to search for it and then you'll find it and it's from these small flasks of oil that Miracles emerge have a great and meaningful Hanukkah