Zot Chanuka: Overcoming the Copper Thigh of Yavan with Heartfelt prayer. Rabbi Dovid'l Weinberg

I just came straight from uh the train which was from another train which was from my wife and children are still in Kad and I took the train back from there the Jewish people are so beautiful I just have to share that with all of you you know in Yim so we know the Jewish people are beautiful here but throughout all of art Isel um it was pouring rain as it was I'm sure here as well there and I davened this morning shakas before we get started this has nothing to do with the she by the way you'll cut it out afterwards if if you see fit I I walked into doav pouring rain absolutely pouring rain and one after another gentlemen you know age is just a a concept you know but one after another gentlemen the ages 70 and above I think I was for sure the youngest there were coming into DAV shakas you know I don't know it's something that when you're out in the you know further reaches of errell or you're in small town there's like last of small buildings there and you see people just they weren't coming even on car they had their little umbrellas and they walked in with such with such with such Simplicity and I was just moved to the core at wherever you are I didn't even know where I was going to find the minion I just got in the car started driving around I saw something that looked like a Sho and um everywhere in the world where you are especially in ell wherever you find yourself you just look around you'll find Jews of all ages of all backgrounds who are shle to sh in the rain in the snow even you'll see unbelievable so I just one last little thing cuz uh cuz I can't help it where we were staying my wife and I um we were staying overlooking this gigantic soccer field and it was raining there also and yet there were young boys uh I don't know exactly how old they were and they were out there you know kicking around the soccer ball and doing drills with their coach and you know I said to my wife I said like it's it's an un this was earlier this was like maybe uh yesterday at some point I said it's unbelievable look at the dedication I'm if you're dedicated I'm into it what I don't know whatever it is if you're if you're dedicated if you're skilled I'm into it so they were I was like look how unbelievable that so my wife said yeah you'll use it in a Shear sometime you know that's what she said little she know this morning I was going to see that Shear come to life I didn't need to use it in any specific way here but I walked into the Sho and saw the same dedication from these people doesn't matter what age doesn't matter what the weather is Jewish people going to Davin it was a beautiful way to to just start the day now we can get to the she I just wanted to introduce myself you know properly and part of my introducing myself is my love for the Jewish people and my love for Isel so we'll put that to the side now and um and I had to speak with my wife and my children now we can get to the uh to the content of the year we can get to the tow red so so I want to speak to you this morning about a large sugya it's it's a long Su I'll try to be sensitive to the time and I'm grateful for the clock in the back and I'll I'll begin by asking a question and then we're going to go on a very circuitous route the way that I like to study torra is I like to see it as a puzzle the question that I want to ask before I explain the methodology of how we're going to get to the answer is why is it so hard for all of us for myself included why is it so hard for us to either a admit that we need help when we need help why is it so difficult for us to say I really can't do this by myself I need someone else to help me cuz Torah should always be practical so this is the Practical this is what I want because it's going to be not practical for the next 25 minutes or so till we get back to the answer why is it so difficult for us to acknowledge that we need help and on the flip side why is it sometimes so difficult to be someone who is only in the helping role and not appreciated as the star of the show both of those actually psychologically are rooted in the same place on the one hand feeling like you need to ask somebody for help and being in the helping role and not being the star in the center seem to be opposites but I think after we do a little bit of work together we'll see that actually it comes from the same route and we'll be able to take away something very practical that we can use not only for Kaneka not to help prepare ourselves for Z khaka which is coming in a few days but also something which is practical we could take with us for for our entire lives so let me tell you about my favorite gumar in all of Shas I don't know if you're allowed to I was never told if you're allowed to you're not allowed to have a favorite gumar but I have one sh don't tell anyone luckily it's not in the ble I don't have a favorite Kamar in the Bley they're all equally beloved to me in Yi though I have a favorite Kamar my favorite gar in Shi is AI that says sometimes words of Torah are poor in their place but they're rich elsewhere what does that mean words of Torah are poor in their place but they're rich elsewhere so the gar proves this by citing a p which is going to come as a shock to most of you especially since this is a room of at this point just me and all women before there was a cameraman here but you know as that we sing to our sisters and wives and mothers grandmothers the is it's true it is a song that we sing to our uh to our sisters and mothers and and wives it's also a song that was written to the Torah the Torah is the quintessential feminine K Torah the Torah is also considered feminine and it's a song which if you look throughout kazal you see that they constantly Dar they constantly learn these Pim as references to the Torah herself so one of the verses in is she was like a merchant ship now I don't know about you but my wife probably would not appreciate if I compared her to a merchant ship you know like if on Friday night I said like you are like a merchant ship she probably you know I mean I I guess I do every Friday night but let's try to explain what that means she was like a merchant ship from far away she brings her bread what do we know about Merchant ships so a merchant ship basically relies on one of the basic Frameworks of all economics which is supply and demand if you have a product which is in high Supply in one area and in low demand put it on a ship and you bring it to a place where it's in high demand and low Supply and you make a killing on it so she is like a merchant ship bringing things from far away she brings her bread she has some business savvy but when applied to the Torah say it means sometimes you have words of Torah that are poor in their place which means that in their immediate context we don't necessarily know what to do with those words you ever study tanak or and you come across some detail fine detail fine point of or of Jewish history found in not just Jewish history but the Jewish spiritual Enterprise that's found in tanak did you ever come across something in tanak and you're like I don't know what why this is supposed to be Lor this is supposed to be for all generations it was written down because it's eternally relevant what in the world am I supposed to do with this and at that moment you have two choices you could and this is why it's my favorite gar you could either say the Torah is a giant puzzle and if you've ever done a puzzle you know that sometimes they come across a piece that you're not quite sure what to do with it yet but that's just because you haven't found the island of relevant correlating pieces and if you if you God forbid throw away that piece you're going to be really upset when you get to the end of the puzzle right you need that piece especially when you come to the end there's that one little gaping hole it's going to be very upsetting and so when you're studying Torah when I'm studying Torah the load star this that sometimes words of Torah are poor in their place but they're rich elsewhere is a statement that we should never ever ever think of any detail of the Torah is unnecessary at best or at worst I would say what we can or should do is put it to the side until we can come back to it so here's a puzzle that I've been working on the whole Torah is one gigantic puzzle and here's a and they're all pieces are connected to each other if you know how to sale it properly here's a puzzle that I've been working on for upwards of 10 years and I'm going to share it with you today in less than minutes the puzzle starts with a or rather AES which is brought down in it's brought down in Thea which is the SA and there the elas has a very peculiar remes the remes is that the wordes bronze or copper is a is a pneumonic or is an acronym for kanuk shash the candles of kanaka should be lit by way of a agent by a shamash by a helper camp that's what the word stands for now this is very peculiar on multiple levels first of all why and second of all just tell me that I'm supposed to light it with a shash I mean there's a whole in theab that talks about using an extra candle for a number of different reasons we're not going to get into the lumus of it right now but we know that you're supposed to use a shamash what do you need to give me an acronym and and okay so let's put that to the side for a minute and try to understand we're going to get more puzzle pieces along the way let's try to understand what has to do with so I have some friends here I brought some friends let's start with a passage inel includes a Kina on the Port City of Tor an elegy a eulogy before the downfall of Ty Ty is a port city a little bit north and ifes was living nowadays yel would probably have called this the durge or the elegy for Amazon Prime that's what I that's how I like to think of this uh because that's exactly as you'll see in a moment what this prophecy ofel is all about yel begins you know the port city of T we have a delicate relationship with t as opposed to Amon and moav as opposed to some of the other surrounding Nations who we have really bad relationships with s actually they were very instrumental in helping to build the B mikash we had very nice alliances with them throughout Jewish history at many different points at other points not so much however there's definitely a r rry between Yim as an economic Center and Sor as an economic Center and when the Babylonians came and they destroyed the B mikdash so this caused a psychological and political upheaval for Yim because Tor was now spared from B they were not destroyed by B and was destroyed by B so part of's message in the restoration of and the restoration ofel turns to the city of Tor and says like uh don't gloat CU you are gloating and he says let me tell you a parable God spoke to me and he said let me tell you a parable I want you to say the following elegy on and what's amazing is that it's the most not subtle uh mush Parable you could ever have and is filled with these not subtle Parables says once upon a time there was a boat called Sor okay not the Nino the Pinta and the Santa Maria s there's a boat in the middle of the ocean called s now that's a not such a subtle mush for a port city called Sor and he says well this boat is out in the middle of the ocean and all of the nations of the world are bringing their greatest good whatever they have you know the Swiss are bringing their watches or their chocolate I don't know and the Japanese are bringing their cars and their microprocessors everybody's bringing their own whatever their expertise is in each one with its own expertise and every nation has its beautiful expertise and I'm I'm kidding there's many beautiful things that are brought in from many of the nations of the world and they all have their wees to sell and this boat is sitting in the middle of the ocean and it's receiving all of the different goods and services that are being provided by the various Nations and as the boat continues to load up it loads up and loads up and loads up with more and more and more and more and more until finally it sinks to the bottom of Y says and the one who understands should understand that s you're headed down the wrong path your obsession with accumulation and being a center of Commerce is going to lead to your destruction if you don't also focus on things that are more meaningful and certainly y sh being the center not only of Commerce and economy but also of morality you could use a lesson from y you shouldn't gloat at the downfall of Y because it's going to lead to your own downfall in the middle of this discussion of the various different Wares that are brought so not surprisingly we we find all the nations included and we find that yavan who is the of course the heroes or the anti-heroes of Kaneka are also listed on the charter of this boat of the people who are bringing their Wares and lo and behold if you look in you find that together with tual and Nation called Mas which is all provinces of the general Assyrian Greek Empire it says that they are he they are your Merchants they are the ones who are bringing you okay they trade in slave trade that's not going to be relevant for us right now and in so here we have our first hint apparently turns out that yavan and the province from which the Syrian Greeks came to attack the Jewish people and take over Yim was actually rich inet in Copper deposits and bronze deposits that was their National Wares just like every other Nation brought whatever they particularly specialized in we find that in in the most unlikely of places we find an illusion to this idea that copper somehow relates to or in just very simple historical terms is the national Goods of Y unbelievable we find this again in s zakar and zakar and per zar tells us see sa Z is difficult saer the beginning of sa zakar the izra and other as well say that the reason zakar is so difficult is it's the end of the second temple period prophecy is about to disappear it's the end of N and as the faucet is uh being shut off and it's like dripping the last few drips that are left so so you knowu level of is basically you know has when he wants to say what hasem wants to say he just says it straight out there's no there's no funny business you get to some of the middle prophets and they'll sometimes use Parables but then they'll explain The Parables sa zakar is at the very end of the prophetic experience it's like when n is just about done with and there the Ezra says you know why sa Z is so difficult because even Zar himself didn't fully understand his prophecies and then he says good luck to me trying to write a commentary on it if the Novi didn't understand it how am I supposed to say he says the only thing that I have on zakara that zakar didn't have is that I have a little bit more historical context because these Nas happened already so I could look backwards and try to piece them together a little bit per Z begins with a very simple which is confusing in terms of what exactly it's relating to but it's very simple it's not nothing fantastic there are other Nas that we read just this past shabas in t overflowing Manas and you know sat standing next to the very strange this is a little bit easier I saw chariots coming between two mountains all of a sudden there were these chariots that were coming between these two mountains and these mountains were the mountains were mountains made out of copper out of says the malim and says many of the other maim this is Zar again at the end of the second b period that's when the took over it was during the temple was standing already that the is an emblem is a symbol is a prophetic symbol for the coming insurgence of the Greek Exile that's about to happen and it's described as again we understand why now because we read okay so now we at least have a connection between and but before we start to make some seder of things I want to grab one other piece that might be helpful to us soon enough and that's from sa Danel and then we'll bring it to also I know we're supposed to speak about so safer Danel safer danil is also a wonderful safer very hard saer because it's written in Aramaic most of it and saer Daniel begins with Daniel and several of his friends who are who we know also from tanak aarya tanak tells us that all four of them were taken to be Court Jews to be taken to the Palace of netar to be they were both all of them were quite precocious they were young fairly young um and they were you know sought after as advisers to the king and so they were brought to they were brought to the Palace of netar and Danielle begins with these you know it starts with Like An Origin story the four of them are brought to the palace and they're basically handed over to a prison guard it reminds us of ysf you know in the stories that we just read there's actually many parallels between Danielle and ysf and Danielle is instructed you know you have to make sure that you and all of these other Jewish prisoners you have to they're fed all types of luxurious food foods make sure that they stay healthy and well trained for the king and Danielle says you know we keep strict glat kosher I ordered the glat kosher meal on the plane you know like uh I'm going to pass on the you know on the crab or whatever I'm going to I'm wait for the for the glat kosher meal and the officer says that's impossible you need to eat meat if you don't eat protein you know how you going to be able to be healthy for the king so he says listen I'll make you a deal give us 10 days to just eat nuts and seeds and some berries that's we're going to have a full diet of nuts seeds and berries and you'll weigh us afterwards you'll check our you know our muscular and you'll and you'll see if you'll see if if if we can continue on this path 10 days elapse he does a test wow unbelievable Miracle they're still completely healthy and he lets them continue the rest of their time this becomes a prototype for esthera later when she's in prison that she also is going to be able to do this tell us okay that's the ordinance story that's peric Alf of Danielle peric Bay begins with like uh that's when the stuff starts whoa things start flying so has a terrifying dream and in his terrifying dream he sees a huge monster a mlet and he wakes up from his dream and he's deeply Disturbed and he calls all of his soothsayers and his advisers including the Jews and he says problem I just woke up from this terrifying dream I have no idea what the dream was I can't interpret it I don't even remember the contents of the dream I need you to tell me what the contents of the dream is and I need you to tell me its interpretation and all the advisers starts saying but your highness we never heard of such a thing before we've heard of people people giving interpretations for dreams I never heard of someone having to explain what the dream was and then inter he said you're just trying to stall I'm going to kill all of you so Daniel Comes forward and he says listen we've already you know you've seen that we've proven ourselves get give us a few days to DAV all dreams are interpreted by God anyway again mirroring Yad give us a few days to pray to our god perhaps he'll be able to reveal the content of the dream and the interpretation well lo and behold Daniel goes and he davens and the interpretation for the dream is revealed and in the dream he says when he comes finally to he tells him the dream he says in the dream your highness you saw this gigantic monster that was made out of various different types of material the Head was made out of pure Golda have the head is made out of pure gold the arms and the upper chest was made out of silver ah the lower waist and the thighs going all the way down to the knees is made out ofes it's made out of copper and then from the bottom down the the uh the calves and the feet are made out of an ad mixture really the calves seems like are made out of um some sort of iron barel and the feet themselves are made out of maybe Pottery or something like pottery and out of nowhere you saw this dream you saw a giant boulder came down and smashed the bottom of the feet that are made out of Pottery the most sensitive part and that Boulder smashed the feet and all of a sudden the entire monster this entire statue came falling down and the meaning of this dream is that you your highness are the most pure gold in the world and of course are known throughout the world for being a genius and so therefore how fitting it would be that you would be called a head of gold and after the Babylonians there's going to be another Nation Paras umai the Persians the median the medians and the Persians are going to come and they're going to take over and they are represented by the hands hands of KF and after that there's going to be another and it's unbelievable it's in Danel beish all before it happens AA there's going to be another nation and that's going to be theim and they're going to come and they're going to be like the copper thighs and finally there's going to be one further Exile that's going to be the fourth Exile and that's going to be a composite Exile going to have different components to it some harder some softer and it's going to ultimately be that Last Exile which is going to be broken that God is going to bring my people finally back to ER Isel forever and what you're seeing in this dream is the ultimate Redemption of the Jewish people and that is your dream so we could probably spend uh several months interpreting this dream and going through sa for Daniel but all we want is one thing and what we want now is we just got an amazing puzzle piece and that is that not only is yavan compared to Copper but they're compared to Copper thighs and that has to be understood now as well if we can understand the copper and the thighs we can understand a very very profound secret to human psychology to our own struggle in the question that I asked before about admitting when we need help and being a Helper and not being in the Limelight and we could understand something profound about and about khah which will totally change the way that we relate to what is all about and what Kana really is all about okay so thighs where can we find thighs see this is this is this is how you have to learn Torah you know where do we find thighs so anyone I'll take suggestions Yakov Yakov get hit in the thigh that okay excellent I'll take it any any other thighs by Yakov there is another thigh by Yakov what's that heel okay yakob is the heel okay okay heel but I'm looking for thighs ah I heard it I don't know where it came from but I I almost heard it from two places at once right there's a that says let your hand be under my thigh right that's by Y and by Abraham that's here's two two places so let's talk about that one first let's talk about that one first so there's a famous Rashi which is uncomfortable to say at the shabas table where Rashi explains that Abraham and yov are saying to ever Abraham which is probably elzar according to kazal and Ys in the case of Yakov where they're saying I want you to take an oath that you're going to fulfill my request in the case of aam to find a wife for in the case of yov to be buried in I want you to take an oath by holding on to the one that we have which is the of the BR or approximate the Mak of the BR which is called under the thigh that's rash but there is an unbelievable Parish of which is much more comfortable to say at the shabas table and that is the following is an unbelievable Parish in these words it's not an accident that both Abraham and jakov are on their deathbed or close to their death when they make the person who is representing them take this oath those are the only two places we find it we need a a little bit of fancy footwork here as knows how to do and that is RA says what is a hand and what is a thigh so he says if you look throughout and also throughout you'll find especially in the laws of in G as well in the laws of in the laws of agency so there's a whole discussion about the relationship between y hands and an agent an agent is called y it's called like the long hand of the person if I make somebody my agent and they go to do something for me it's as if my hand is stretched out to be able to go and do that this may by the way I'm not going to get distracted by this this may be a way to resolve that famous K that says that basar stretched out her hand like this and according to the simple interpretation she sent her amama it means she sent her agent she sent somebody to go it's it's the same thing a stretching hand is someone else who's going to do something for you so says what would it mean well let's talk about thighs first what's a thigh so anyone who's ever public transportation you know so you know that if you're I don't know who I'm not saying bad about them but whoever designed the things they like slip they move I don't know what that's about but it's not so easy you even if you even if they were stable and they were holding on you know in one I guess so you don't pull your arm out of your socket if it like you know it moves a little bit but those those things if you're holding on with your hand and you're on the bus or you're on the on the uh train if you're just standing there holding on to that you don't have such stability but if you can even get your thigh up against the wall or against one of the chairs you know all of a sudden you have unbelievable equ stability thighs equals stability or put differently self-sufficiency the ability to hold oneself up the biggest muscle in in the entire human body right the two pillars that held up the opening of the basement were called Y which is another name for the two thighs they're they're pillars they're support systems for the entire body says someone who's about to leave the world and asks someone else to do something that they can't do for themselves anymore might say let your hand your agency your power of agency beas Tas doesn't always mean under geographically it also means instead of like an i instead of an ey let your hand be instead of my thigh put into plain English let your ability to act on my behalf take the place of my inability to support myself because I am on the way out unbelievable beautiful so what are copper thighs what are copper thighs so I'm going to take one tiny left turn and then we're going to start pulling things all together the word in Aramaic but also in Hebrew for is what it says in in in is being now that should remind us of something else we need one more little puzzle piece where do we find a snake and we find by BYU byuu teaches about Rashi tells us that even though Hashem told mosha to make a s not a mosha said another word for S is a in fact that's the primary name for the animal s is just a species of and the which is a snake sounds awfully like the word now Ines things that sound similar to each other are similar to each other in any other language there's something called the theory of arbitrariness there was a fellow who won the Nobel Prize for this his name was Ferdinand Sor he won a Nobel Prize for pointing out that the word tree and the concept of the Woody substance of a tree have nothing to do with each other so that you can't really make any SM you can't make any Dres from like I read a book and the color read they have nothing to do with each other they're just they're both arbitrary words that we use to designate speaking about a book or a color but the word because they are made up of the same letters they have to be related to each other in some way which brings us of course to this inion of the what's the so the amazingly if we go all the way back to the beginning now we're going to travel through history very quickly let's start with the the offers something which is almost irresistible what he offers is not the tree the tree is just the means to the ends of getting this what the offers is the ability to make their own worlds remember this Rashi if you'll eat from the tree orim you'll be like God Rashi writes you'll be able to make your own worlds making your own world here doesn't mean you know making another Cosmos or another you know area of the universe you know like the phrase she lives in her own world he lives in his own world it means you'll be able to construct reality the way that you see fit through your own eyes through your own prism you'll be completely self-sufficient in the way that you see the world you'll be able to stand on your own moral to thighs so to speak the offers all of humanity offers Adam Anda the ability to make their own world and to see the world perfect through the prism of their own understanding without any need for outside verification this poison of the snake which entered Humanity at that point has a rich history that travels throughout all of history and comes out of even the person who's holding this microphone these characters of tanak the and in a moment we'll jump to Noah and his three sons they're all still alive they exist in here they exist inside of us and the Torah is not just interested in telling us about people who lived a long time ago it's interested in trying to figure out the contradictions inside of us and try to make some sense out of it if a rabbi stands up usually and gives a jasha and he resolves two contradictions between a PK in this safer and a PK in that safer nobody gets upset but if the rabbi starts poking around at the internal contradiction of the person Rabbi who hold on a second that's like getting a little hold on just a little Cent events and a little put the suum together and like uh you know leave us alone so I'm not going to you know I know I'm not going to try to resolve any contradictions I'm just going to point out some contradictions the basic place where we can find the essence of all personality strengths and flaws is in the first people to inhabit the second iteration of planet Earth which is the three sons of Noah this is an amazing thing which if we had more time maybe another time we'll study together but on the most basic level the names of these three characters are not just names but they're personal they're archetypes in very quick terms Yeet means Beauty and it means attraction it means the ability to attract to pull means passion it means hot but it means passion right it could be passionate love or passionate anger but it means passion it's funny because it could be both right you could be passionately angry and you could be passionately in love represents passion and shame which means name or Identity or Essence means trying to get to the internal character of The Thing trying to chase after the the the intellectual thing that's there and they almost set up as a beautiful you know the three of them set up you know the head is is the seat of of wisdom of of Shame and you have the the heart which is the place of of beauty of Attraction and you have the stomach area which is the place of the passions and there's almost this Paradigm that the three of them are three lenses to look at creation through now here's the last piece put it all together yees in the aftermath of whatever happens there after Noah comes off the t is given a blessing in disguise where Noah says to himim you're very powerful you have Beauty and almost as a definitional quality Beauty means the ability to attract to pull but exactly where you're going to pull is slightly subject to the discretion of how you Orient yourself God gave you this magnetic charismatic attractiveness but that attractiveness has to be put in the tense of Shame Shin not s a m in the tense of Shame otherwise you'll end up in the tense of Shame which is sh of because that power of Attraction if not properly sourced in the tense of shin of Shame of ethical morality of of looking at things for the essence of what they are will slowly become coarse and ugly and violent so shame is your place you have to go you have to now here is where we get to a lot of trouble because as I told you before the snake offered reality to humankind that we should be able to manipulate things however we want we should be completely self-sufficient in our way of orienting ourselves through the world and yees who are the great great grandparents of yavan yees can't handle and neither can doal can't handle handle being told you you have unbelievable worth God has blessed you but only if you're in the tense of Shame your worth your beauty is contingent it depends on you being second to shame you need to enter into his domain and be moved by the guidance of the spiritual and religious Enterprises of shame in order to find your beauty otherwise you'll be coopted and corrupted to the tents ofam at first this maybe doesn't sound so bad but over history this becomes a movement which becomes impossibly irresistible to to they reject completely this notion that we need to be second the ran inos now this is AER ostensibly also on Z khaka one of the big ideas about zhan is that Z khaka is the end of the entire yum Kipper story what began on yum Kipper with the Judgment of yum Kipper if you look in this Zohar the Z says that the final final Final judgment you could still you know there's like little amend you can make to the contract on the bottom and the little little letters could be added until KH until the last day of Kana Byer there's something that the Torah tells us with this can come into Holiness and what is the Z what is the this in that is immediately followed by telling us about this Lottery that takes place a lottery between two goats one goat which ends up going into the Kash or approxim Kash and the other one which goes has a very bad end sounds very familiar sounds very similar this power of the lottery is described by the ran the ran in his commentary toes writes there that this Lottery is the exact opposite Hana the exact opposite way of acting from the ofanim he even says from the cursed Aristo harsh words the cursed Aristo the hero of rambam aristot who could only rely on that which his own mind understood and anything which could not self-referentially be proven could not be the truth that's what ran writes this Lottery what's the lottery the lottery is saying I don't know how to decide between these two goats they both look equally the same they were purchased for the same amount of money they're the same height the lottery this goal this goal is going to determine what goes to The KES kadash and what's thrown off of a cliff this refusal to receive wisdom from anywhere except for your own understanding is the root of the of Y Yan's self-sufficiency the copper thighs the ability to make space for someone else to be able to guide you to push you in the right direction the gamar says unbelievably that if a person doesn't this needs to be explained also says in that if a person doesn't bow in mod in the right spot after many many years after 70 years their their spine will start to turn into a snake means their spine will start to bend automatically modim saying thank you saying I can't do this by myself saying I need some outside reference point in order to make my life go in the right direction is the exact opposite of the path of yalan that says I cannot bow to anybody else I have copper thighs and in fact if you remember what Danielle said it actually the the starting points for the copper is from the lower waist down all the way to the knees which is all that literally from the waist to the thighs to the knees all the things that you need in order to properly bow the copper thighs of yavan therefore is an unbelievable insight into the problem that keeps us from being able to admit that we need help I'll tell you an amazing teaching from rutner the great rashash said that the word means two different things in Jewish Consciousness on the one hand it means to think as we know from Kana to think but in a court system in do means to admit to admit right the admission of the defendant if he after being accused admits that he stole the money so then he's for sure guilty hutner says and this is the core this is the Lynch pin every admission every admission that a person has to make it hurts a little bit just like you when you admit that you did something wrong and you admit in court you there's a payment that you're making because of that thinking is no different every time we have to say thank you we're making it in Mission we're saying I could not possibly have done this by myself every time a person looks at another person sincerely and the hardest thing in the world to do to say I can't do this by myself anymore I'm not capable I'll I'll share something personal not to give anyone uh you know but about six years ago I was diagnosed with t Cel lymphoma I've been healthy now for six years one of the most difficult transitions went back to America not because the medical system here is not good it's amazing just we don't we didn't have any now we have some family here at the time we have any family so my parents and brothers are all there it would have been easier for us to go there no one should think that the medical system in Is Not Top Notch when I would tell the people who the doctor wasn't there to tell they say oh she goes to all the medical conferences he's like the top so one of the most difficult transitions was as a person who I teach Torah I teach Torah both to adults and to young men in the old city of in Yesa called and some other yeshivas and seminaries as well so in my role as a Torah teacher you know somebody once asked of brisker what is the definition of a of a rabbi of a you know of a I guess he's talking about a community Rabbi and said that's what it is and that's the truth right sometimes is through intellectual gifts sometimes is through helping other people or are having Financial issues marital issues this comes to your plate if you if you teach Torah that's why rabbis should probably get some sort of you know degree in some sort of mental health profession they should just uh you're helping people all the time so typically my wife and I were on the the end of giving to other people all of a sudden we found ourselves in this role where we had to admit can't do it on our own not possible not only do we need help from parents and siblings but we needed help from community members people I remember there's a family who used to drop off as if this was what I was supposed to be eating at the time they used to drop off um Rice Krispie treats you know like the Rice Krispies in the in the fluff they used every a of chabas Rice Krispie treats and flowers another person used to drive my kids to school all these things and if you're anything like any other human being I've ever met it's very hard to accept all this help and to then sincerely look at the other person and say I could not have done this without you to admit to giving thanks to give thanks and to admit that you couldn't do it by yourself yavan in the face of standing before shame says to shame we don't need you we can do this on our own we have our own logical systems the snake already promised us we can make worlds of our own we don't need some direction from God that was revealed to you in the year 2448 at Sinai and that you've been passing down Faithfully we don't need your help we can do this on our own and the sense that we're second fiddle to you please and no thank you this is the place of yavan in history the refusal to Bow there's a mission is a fascinating as they all are but it's especially fascinating because it goes through if you like architecture it goes through the architecture of the B even sometimes there's like picture you know pictures of the m and the different walls and the chambers of the M fascinating in the third peric ofos we find a description of something called the S apologize I think it's in the second it's third mishna in the second second chapter third mishna so describing the various walls you know there's the wall of harabas and there's the wall of the B itself there's different different walls one of the walls that we find in the bikash something called the S now the S is a fascinating piece of architecture a fascinating structure the S is about I don't know probably a little shorter than this probably probably about this High maybe as high as the the benches which is a familiar number for Kana T tall and the the explained to us is the wall is kind of like the yellow tape or the red tape that says Adan non the B based f the Bas m is a place for everybody and it really is but just like the Kohan only allowed to go into certain places so the only to go into certain places the isim are only allowed to go into certain places so nations of the world right we welcome all types of converts but the nations of the world you know this is this is the place where you have to stand when theim saw this says the mishna listen to this unbelievable mishna and it explains the line in um in in most s that you know know maybe you didn't know what what exactly was talking about there were 13 breaches in the there were 13 breaches in the wall of the that the kings of yav made in the you can understand why they made this they don't want to be they want to be self-sufficient they don't want to have to rely on anybody else amazing the mishna says 13 breaches in the wall of the so were made by the kings of y when the came and they restored the bikes to its proper Glory they patched up these 13 breaches and made a Gaz that anyone who passes by these 13 places has to Bow you hear how it all comes together they have to bow and this if we had just read this on it own it would have been pouring its place now we have some of the pieces of the puzzle together when they bowed they were saying you think that we're trying to say that we're better than you we're not better than you you're not second to us you're second we're first no you're second and we're second and everybody is second to Hashem that's it this s which you felt the need to breach because you said I need to be have equal access otherwise it must be second place they put it back together they said that's not Thea and we'll prove it to you every time we pass it we're going to fall on our hands and feet and we're going to show that we're also nothing compared to Hashem the whole Tas of this thing is just that there's different places there's the place to Kohan go the place of leim go the place the everybody has their place in hashem's world and so they made kega these 13 breaches 13 the place of theik is a place of of bowing to of of admiss that the world cannot function without Hashem all ofila is standing before Hashem it's true there's three different types of technically but all of is leading up to the the which will never expire say that the only corbon are connected to coronos the only corbon that will continue into the times of Mia is the carbon to the carbon TOA doesn't only mean that we're going to say thank you to hasem the carbon to means that at the end of everything when we finally turn around and we realize that everything that we did was only with the help of Hashem because the heart doesn't beat without Hashem because the mind doesn't work withm because the stomach doesn't even growl and get hungry and our need to go to sleep all of that is being orchestrated by Hashem and it's true that there's a place of free choice but the glory of Hashem is going to be when we turn around we say the nce that happened that we were able to serve hasem will all be clearly seen as being bem the fact that we're able to serve hasem is going to be completely BM two more things CU we're almost out of time number one you know the mes tells us that the originally going back to that that the originally in was supposed to be gives a little motivation to why the did what he did it says that the all the were supposed to be shash they were supposed to be servants for and they're to bring them food and drink you know standing there with the Palm frons or I don't know it doesn't say that but they're supposed to you know be waiting on the beck and call of everything they wanted the said I'm not going to do that I'm going to be your servant so that the human being could be the crown jewel of creation the refused in fact say that the used to have be able to stand up also now the is in a permanent state of in a permanent state of the of being a sham which the was relegated to so to speak in his own eyes is a great honor he could have been he should have been the shamish for go back to our original question well not our original original question we'll go that in a minute we had asked what is the remosa shamish I ask you this who is the hero of the khaka candles so on the one hand of course it's it's the it's the holy candles on the other hand except for the fact that we have the shamish the shamish is the candle that lights all the other candles and gives them some utility the candles of khaka themselves that's the that's the light that's holy that's hashem's light that's that's hasm is doing the shamish is not yavan it could have been Yan if they would have played their hands right because there's an aspect and it could be the yov on inside of us if we play it right the shamish is the understanding that a person can finally come to grasp that being a shamish to light hashem's candles to be a forem to be the shamish to something bigger than oneself and to say I don't have value without you to admit to thank and to admit I can't none of this makes any sense Without You Hashem and at the same time to also recognize like I said before I'm not the center of the show really of course that's the whole thing of Kan but for them to have any utility for me I need to have a shamish I need to be a shamish so I want to end with a story story about RAB AKA AER AER one time had two Brisas he was double booked another problem that rabbis sometimes face one of them was for a family member and one was for a student so of course the family member went out but he didn't want to completely abandon the student very close student and he said to one of his students no he didn't say that he said he said be my agent I want you to go I can't do I can't possibly dance at both at both weddings I want or br in this case I want you to go and represent me at the second BR so the guy said re anything for you of course no problem so the fellow sets out for the Brisa gets there a little bit early wants to make sure he's right there you know representing his reiker and rer has complete trust in this fellow he arrives at the P he's a little early sitting in the back corner gets there before the family even when the father and the mother of the baby come finally to start start setting up a little bit before doing they see this fellow sitting in the corner and they say what are you doing here so he says he says oh Maz you know we don't know each other we're both fellow students of reer different you know different years I'm like uh you know from the 13th year and he's from the 17th year of the Yeshiva you know whatever it is I we didn't we don't know each other but I came to represent our reer so he said wow I'm so touched the re you remembered and he he he followed up about the bris and wow unbelievable thank you so much for coming so the fell sits in the back is preparing for doing they DAV bris the whole thing so the guy goes over to him at the end and he says thank you so much for coming you know you don't have to stay but there's going to be a meal downstairs you're welcome to come for uh you traveled all this way might as well join us for the meal so the fellow says oh that's so kind of you yes I was planning on staying anyway thank you so much he goes down and he sits down he washes probably a bagel un locks you know how it is even back then so he sits down for his meal and there's some speeches and the whole thing the meal goes on for an hour and the guy's still sitting there at some point the guy comes over and say like you know you can it's okay you can leave you don't have to stay for the you know yamas there's like special you could just you could you could you could leave it's okay so the guy says no no anyway he makes an excuse no anyway I washed I was planning on benching with 10 people okay so finally they get to benching and they bench and everybody starts to pack up their you know little sandwich bags whatever and they they and this guy is just still sitting there and they're sweeping up and he's just sitting there and sitting there and it's a little uncomfortable but you know eventually after like another half hour passes he goes the guy's just sitting there at the table and the guy walks over and says like it's it's really okay you can you can leave like everyone else left already like you're you're allowed to go and the guy looks at the Bal bris looks at him with utter seriousness and he looks him in the eyes and he says you know that our sages s say that a person who is representing as an agent for another person he is like that person how often do I get to be RAB AER he said I'm not going anywhere how often do I get to be rer I'm sitting here for as long as I can as long as I'm his agent I get to be like raber friends how often do we get to be like Hashem and the answer is it depends how much we work on our in a way where we become shash where we become agents for hashem's will in the world to the degree that we get rid of the copper thighs we melt the copper thighs that we remove the poison of the that we believe that Hashem is pulling the strings and hasem is running the show and that we have the courage to admit not just to Hashem but to other people who are helping us on their Jour on that Journey who we could say I literally could not serve hem without you we're at a time now when if only if only and I'll end with this as a br if only if only the Jewish people were able to see that those who are studying Torah and those who are fighting if we could thank one another if we could admit to one another there's no way we could be doing this without one another if it was possible for those who are fighting to say to those who are learning Torah there is no way we could possibly fire one bullet in the right address without or or or or hopefully more defend you know defend things that are F until people put down and beat their swords into plowshares until that time there is no way that we could be defending the Jewish people and proactively fighting there's no way that we could do that without your Torah study and if the people who are studying Torah said there is no way that we could possibly have the shes to sit and to study Torah if not for the fact that you were protecting us that we're being defended if we could look at each other in that way if we could look to Hashem and say how often do we get to represent one another how often do we get to represent Hashem so then we'll be sitting constantly at a Sim at a party that will'll never want to leave has should help us that we should be Z to be admitters to be thank to be people who are grateful to the to each other and that