Rabbi Benjamin Yudin Discusses Parshas Miketz on JM in the AM (5786)

Good morning. Good shabas everybody. Wow. This is what we call a shabus kodak moment. Namely, we have this privileged tomorrow of taking out three cifrey Torah. From the first one, we're going to read from para sasha vua mikates. From the second one, we're going to read from paras shabis roes. And from the third one, we're going to read from paraso from the sixth day of Kaneka. Finally, let me just tell you that the ha tora comes from the ni and it's a upbeat ha. It's abro which talks about the return to and the vision that the Nvi has with the ha tora with the manora and two olive trees on its side feeding into the minora which our rabbis interpret to mean Hashem, the two individuals who will be appointed and anointed with the olive oil, namely the Cohen God and the King of Israel, Emirashem, the Torah promises us that that's what is in store. Wow. Very, very special. Okay, let's do a very important. I'd like everybody to be able to talk intelligently and to know why you cannot use the small colored candles for lighting shabis kaneka candles. What's the reason? The reason is because whenever we light near Khaneka, if we're lighting after 510, 510 or beyond, it has to burn for at least a half an hour. Tonight with candle lighting being approximately 4:10. So we have to light near Kaneka before we light near Shabas because even though Shabas is more frequent 52 times a year and Khan is only eight days. We Ashkanazim follow the opinion of the bahag that when a woman lights shabas candles and she says the nare shell shabis she's already accepting shabas upon herself and she can no longer light the minora. Therefore we light the minora first. So it means that whenever we light the minora there has to be the ability for the light or oil to last after 510. Now what's special about 510? The answer is that Shia sunset is 4:30 and the candles are to burn from which is approximately 40 minimal 40 minutes after sunset. Therefore, the ideal time is to light 510. We can't light 510 tonight on Shabas when Shabas candles were lit 18 minutes before Shakia. So therefore it has to be able to burn from the time we light the Shabas caha candles which is about 4:05 in that ballpark. We have to have it burned till 510 and then another half hour minimally. So that brings us to an hour and a half, a little bit more. So in order to facilitate that, you cannot use the small colored candles. You have several choices. One, if you use oil, wonderful. many of the uh receptacles for oil and the oil burns for 2 hours or more. If you don't have a minora that you can put shabas candles in, if you put chabas candles once again, it will last for at least an hour and a half. However, if you only have a smaller minora, then according to the law, all you need is one any and every night of Kaneka. The bare minimum is one. So if you don't have a manora and you are concerned, you can take one tealight, put it on uh a safe surface in the window and light that one. If you'd like, you can put aluminum foil down and line up in a row six tea lightss for tonight and a shamish a little bit beyond, you know, etc. to separate it to make it clear that it's six and one and that would be fine. Now listen carefully. Please please be especially careful with lighting of candles tonight to make sure that your naran is nowhere near anything that god forbid could catch fire. And certainly do not leave your home with the candles burning. If you have to leave your home, then perhaps consider because you should light where you sleep and not where you eat. Then perhaps consider lighting one tea light for near the sink or right next to the sink. So if it should fall, it's only going to fall in the sink and this way you are safe. Please loeno, there have been too many accidents and you don't want that to happen. Okay. Next I want to discuss for a few minutes the interesting teaching of Rab Yeshua bin Ley who teaches in three different gumaras in Migilla inim and in Shabis that women are obligated in the mitzvah of migillah and purim women are obligated in drinking four cups of wine on the night of the pesak seder and women are obligated to light near Kaneka. Now these three mitzvos which are rabbitic mitzvos, women are obligated because as the rash rashbam explains in 108b the rash says number one they too were in the m miracle Number one, the opinion that says women caused the miracle. The gammoran sto 11b says because of the righteous women in Egypt did we come out of Egypt. So therefore they too are to drink the four cups because they brought about the salvation. Mikram McGillah was brought about through Esther and Kaneka was brought about through Yehudis who when she went to the governor she managed to give him some milk and whatever else she was able to get him to sleep and she decapitated him, brought his head to her father and the rest is history. This is how the war begun. Others say that they too like toos brings that they too were part of the threat namely Hmon wanted to kill men and women and when it comes to mitim the women as well were persecuted and when it comes to Kaneka so the women as well had the immoral decree against them that a bride had to spend a night with the local governor before her marriage. So the Gammorra says all of these three reasons and mitzvos women are to participate therein. I'd like to ask you a very simple question. How does a woman lighting their Kaneka, how does that remind her of the fact that she brought about the miracle or she too was threatened? And the answer is the teaching of the Maharal. The Maharal basically says that we know the second in the plural. God performed two miracles for us at Kaneka Bazman those days at this time. What are the two miracles? The first one is the very name they rested. They stopped fighting 25 on the 25th day of Kislave. And the second miracle is that the one jar of oil to oil this one jar lasted not for one but for as we know eight days. Two miracles. Now says the Maharal. The second miracle wasn't really necessary. who needed it. After all, technically speaking, unus if you have no choice, you have no choice. Use impure oil or no like the Yeshua says we were allowed to use even initially impure oil. So the answer comes along the moral and says the first miracle was that of the military victory. As we say inim that turned over, the mighty to the weak, the many to the few, the righteous were given the wicked. How do we explain this? We explained this. Come on. That it was maybe we had the home court advantage, meaning we knew the terrain of Israel and therefore we won the war. Someone had to win the war. So rather than attribute any kind of other cause to our winning the war came the second miracle. The miracle of the oil that lasted eight days. And why do we have that miracle? We have that miracle to remember we won the war. And what was the purpose of the war? The purpose of the war was that they wanted the Jewish people to assimilate. They wanted the Jewish people to give up their laws. T h e i r. The laws of the Jewish people which the Greeks could not understand. They couldn't understand why you can't mix kosher meat with kosher milk if everything is kosher. They couldn't understand any of the as we say in the alhanim that they wanted to to turn the Jewish people away from the statutes from those laws of that we can't understand but we accept it because we believe it comes from God and therefore women by lighting the Kaneka minora they are basically saying I believe in two miracles. I believe in the miracle of the oil which substantiates that the miracle of the war was not by chance but the miracle of the war was God answering the Jewish people and therefore by lighting the candles they are affirming that God is the one who controls history and destiny. Shabbat shalom and aan to all.