Steve Gar- Chanukah Tour- in the footsteps of The Maccabees

hi guys my name is steve gar a big shout out hello to the project inspire family some of you might know me guys i miss you unfortunately because of this pandemic many of the trips to israel through project inspire have been cancelled and those of you who have come here shabbat on him might remember a little bit of the experiences that we've had together and as i said my name is steve barr i serve on an elite counter terrorism unit this is a unit that operates here in the gucci on just south of urushala and we are currently standing at the military checkpoint just south of jerusalem 15 minutes away jerusalem is their way north and south of us is hebron the second holiest city this is the main highway connecting jerusalem and chevron what i want to do is give you a little bit of an understanding of what the gush zion is about moving from this military checkpoint into the guccion there are 24 jewish towns 120 000 jews i want to focus on the special festival that we're enjoying right now chanukah and see the connection between gushetsion and hanukkah i want to wish all of you a happy festival of lights guys it's gonna be an awesome tour come join me and check out the gushetsion okay guys as we're going over here as you can see our military checkpoint on our left hand side over here on our right hand side it's called the tunnel roads this is the main highway road number 60 connecting and yerushalayim and chevron guys just for you to know that there are four holy cities in israel number one yerushalayim behind us that's north of us number two is hebron number three is uh number four is tarberius tavaria this highway road number 60 the tunnel roads connect there are two holiest cities for the jewish people that's yerushalayim and khebron bronze is the second holiest city because all the matriarchs the patriarchs are buried over there avraham yakov sara rifka we left out someone and we'll talk about that very very soon guys guys i want to take you now to an incredible lookout over bethlehem over beit lechem and explain why bethlehem is also important for the jewish people remember there are two reasons number one king david well he wasn't a king he was a little boy a shepherd born over here in bethlehem but there's a second reason as well we're going to discuss this reason at this beautiful lookout overlooking the modern palestinian town of bethlehem remember in ancient times bethlehem this is talked about in the five books of moses in the torah and this is also very very important in ancient times for the jewish people so we're going to get to this lookout and have a gorgeous view of this town and understand its importance for the jewish people okay guys we're discussing why bethlehem in ancient times was a very important for the jewish people king david a little boy was born over here in bethlehem he was a shepherd in these hills in this area remember walking just seven miles down the road into the ella valley that's where he fought against goliath the second reason is because we have someone very very special buried over here because we said that jerusalem is the holiest city because the temple the first and seventh temple stood in jerusalem the holiest site for jews in fact today when a jew prays anywhere in the world we pray in the direction of the holy temple because that's just north of us to on our own inside straight towards her and towards yerushalayim that's why jerusalem is the holiest city for the jewish people the second holiest city is where all our forefathers the four mothers our matriarchs and patriarchs are buried that's down in hebron south of us to my left over here guys everyone's buried over there abraham isaac jacob sarah rebecca and leia who did we leave out rachel mother rachel is not buried in chevron she was not allowed in the question is why why was she not buried in maratha magpala rather she was buried right over here in bethlehem the gemara gives two reasons and the second reason is so beautiful the jewish oral law says that rachel had prophecy just before she died she said i do not want to be buried half a day's journey it took half a day by camel to travel from jerusalem to hebron she said i do not want to be buried half a day's journey outside jerusalem you see she had prophecy and she saw the pain of the jewish people she saw the destruction of the first temple the destruction of the second temple she saw the destruction of the holocaust she saw all the pain of terrorist attacks and she said i do not want to be buried half a day's journey out of jerusalem i want to be buried by the soul of the jewish people we have a soul it is the soul jerusalem our holy city is our soul she said i want to be buried right here because bethlehem touches jerusalem and she said when the jews are being kicked out into exile when they're going into galut they can smell the burning of the beta magdash the temple will be in flames but i want them to see my grave and i want them when they see my grave to know that there is hope because i'm up in heaven the verse tells us up in heaven rachel is crying for her children's you know daddies only pretend to feel the pain of the kids mothers actually feel the pain rachel the foremother our matriarch she is the mother of the all of the jewish people and she says i'm crying i'm feeling your pain and in the merit of her tears in the merit of us keeping the mitzvot doing hashem's will it says one verse later don't be despondent don't despair one day you'll be coming home back to your borders we're going to come home that's why rachel is buried right over here in bethlehem used to be a very important town now you can still go and visit kevin rahel we have made a safe way that you can actually travel into the heart of bethlehem to where rachel is actually buried one of the best places for a jewish person to pray because we know that rachel is up in heaven and she is praying for safety she's praying for her health and she's praying for her children to return and come home not only is badly important because of king david not only is it important because of our great matriarch the mother of the jewish people we also have in that beautiful valley right over here if you look down at this valley you can see the greenery guys we had one of the greatest wisest kings an architect and engineer this was king solomon over there is from solomon's pools he designed it not even um a quarter day's journey from the temple this these pools would be able to give water and irrigate every need that was in the temple these pools were designed in such a clever manner were engineered that these pools are still full even though we've just came out of a summer his engineering genius was just phenomenal this was in ancient times king solomon built these pools which are full to this day with fresh water that can be used that's down here in that valley we can see on the other side of the valley is actually the hills of efrat efrat a jewish town and this is what we know in the verse that raheli men who is buried rachel of matriarch is very derek and this is on the way to hebron this is over here bethlehem ephrath and baidler actually touch it absolutely could be that over here this is where rachel according to the verse in the torah died this is where she requested to be buried because she knew through prophecy that one day the jewish people will need to be comforted and to know that she's feeling the pain of every single jew and in the merit of her tears in the merit of her pain the shavu her children will come home just want you to have a look at this beautiful town over here this is categorized according to the united nations as a refugee camp because words are so important when i hear refugee camp i look for tents i look for you know um people that are living in a camp this i've got beautiful buildings beautiful factories beautiful homes unfortunately it is defined as a refugee camp let's move on guys god i wanted to take this opportunity to say huge thanks to my friends and project inspire you know due to project inspire to have the opportunity to speak to you guys guys for the last nine months tourism has been closed in israel i so look forward to taking groups and bringing them and showing them the gush so i'm really grateful for this opportunity to project inspire to allow me to bring you the beauty the holiness of eret israel and bring it to your own living room to be with you there in your own home so thanks for joining me thanks for the opportunity for looking and learning and touring the gushitzion this beautiful era which in modern and ancient history is so meaningful for the jewish people i just want to say on that note um a shout out to the rabbis of project inspire you guys do the most incredible work your dedication and your love for the fellow jews is inspirational and it's just an honor for me to be part of such an incredible organization so thanks for her for having me and thanks for the opportunity to uh bring the jewish community closer to to eretz's role the land of israel to the gushitsyan and really feel the passion of how this is connected to the beautiful festival of hanukkah and how we can actually have this opportunity guys this is a video i pray that we'll have the opportunity one day that you guys can revisit israel the scars will be open the pandemic will be over and you guys can actually feel the holiness of walking the land over here let the tanakh the holy bible come alive over here with the stories of king david with the stories of goliath with the stories of our matriarchs and patriarchs in this very area i pray for a time where you guys can come over here and enjoy the holiness of the land of israel hopefully it will happen soon and um you will be seeing you visiting eric's israel the land of israel once again guys we're touring the gushets here and welcome to the gushitzion guccizion means the ezion block remember this block is made up of jewish towns it's also made up of 120 000 jews just south of yerushalayim but you know it has an ancient name the whole of israel in ancient times were split up among the sons of jacob jacob had 12 sons and each got a portion it's not fair the greatest and holiest portion was given to one son not only did this one son get the second holiest city chevron where all the matriarchs and patriarchs are buried he got bethlehem bethlehem where rachel is buried and he got half of the holiest city he shared it with his brother binyamin he got half of jerusalem who was this his name was yehuda i have the honour of having a son born here in the guccicion i named him yehuda after this beautiful area of the one of the sons of jacob and also after my beloved roshi shiva who passed away rav yehuda amital zazal who passed away an incredible man and in his memory we named our son yehuda because this is known as yehuda the judean hills this is judah this is over here and you know what i got very emotional at my wedding because i was married in jerusalem straight after being married a young man from south africa to a young lady from canada being married in the holiest city in the entire world in jerusalem we then came and had a cheva bracot the seven feasts the seven days of feasting here in the gushetsiyon and you know i got very emotional as i'm sitting around the table with my best friends they sang a song you may have heard of it and i got emotional because the song is we're going to be hearing the rejoicing of a bride and a groom where in the judean hills i'm sitting next to the most beautiful bride in the world i am a groom and we're singing and rejoicing this brought the words of a prophet over 2 000 years ago these words were written and this was a prophecy that was alive today we're sitting in the judean hills the judean cities and we're singing and rejoicing just as the prophet said we would cause these hills over here the judean hills as i said one of the most beautiful cities is over there is baitar 65 000 ultra orthodox jews very religious it's a beautiful place you go inside you feel like you're in a shtetl one of those places out of fiddler in the roof you got people dressed as ultra orthodox hasidic jews you've got people eating choline seven days a week on shabbat for sure they're having children but yeah during the whole day is heimkas is the best talent he puts it on after shabbos ends and it just keeps adding to the pot the whole entire week it's nasty stuff but it is delicious hank is chilling you have to taste it in baitar it's a beautiful place which has got lots of people learning torah there's colls people are doing cressed are helping one another a beautiful city but you know there's a beautiful story of baitara not only the modern city but an ancient story we had a great soldier in fact we know that this was the final stand against the romans the romans had taken jerusalem but we had a very powerful soldier so powerful that the romans could not defeat him he had his final stand right over here against the romans what was his name i'm sure you've heard of him was a very powerful soldier in fact our oral tradition teaches us he was so powerful that the romans would catapult rocks at the jewish soldiers he would catch the catapult the rock with his bare hands he would hurl it back at the romans destroying the catapult killing the romans the romans made a siege around the ancient city of batar and they could not penetrate and the oral law tells us for two reasons number one because of this incredible soldier parkour not only you should know what bhararakoppa means barakova means the son of the stars he was sent to us according to rabia kiva he was sent to us from the heavens he was god sent to protect the jewish people not only did we have him we had also side by side with barak by his holy uncle rabbi eleazar rabbi eliaser was such a holy sage that he would fast the entire day he wouldn't eat and he prayed and he prayed for the survival and the protection of the jewish people the oral tradition tells us that in the merit of barak bay and his holy uncle the etar was impenetrable but unfortunately one day an ally of the romans snuck inside the walls of baitar he wasn't armed but he found where rabi eliezer the uncle of barkokpa was praying and he went up to him and began to whisper in his ears the soldiers of barack oh saw him whispering they immediately arrested him they took him to their leader by kobaya baruch said what were you whispering to my uncle i know you are an ally you are a spy for the romans and this is when this sumerian an ally of the romans messed with the greatest weapon a soldier has you know our greatest weapon is not a gun it's not muscles the greatest weapon a soldier has is his mind the spy for the romans said to barack oh if i tell you what i told your uncle you would kill me if i don't tell you you're going to kill me either way i'm a dead man this angered barak but not only did it anger him it planted the seed of suspicion he thought that maybe his own uncle was making an agreement behind his back with the romans he went to his uncle and said tell me what did the sumerian whisper when you were in prayer the uncle said i was so deep in prayer i was meditating i had no clue anyone was whispering to me do you know that barcock was suspicious and he was angry and in his anger he kicked his uncle in the stomach the gemara tells us how oral tells us he was so powerful and ravi eliezer his own uncle was so weak from fasting that he fell to his death when barack obama realized what he had done he began to weep he put down his weapon when the commander puts down his weapon it's a sign for all the soldiers that this is surrendered they put down their weapons the jewish soldiers of barack obama put down that with their weapons it's then the roman soldiers attacked and broke through the city walls they killed everyone there barack oh his soldiers were all killed and defeated and we know that there were rivers of jewish blood flowing through their yehuda the judean hills into the mediterranean sea we say this on the saddest day the saddest day of the jewish calendar is tisha b'av the ninth of and we say how the horses the horses were up to their nostrils in jewish blood flowing through these hills it's then the jewish high court the sanhedrin no longer in yerushalayim it was in a place called the avne and the sages the holy sages of yavner said to the romans you've defeated us you've killed us please can we come back and bury our dead of batara berry rabbi eliezer the sage barry barcoch by any soldiers do you know the romans embarrassed by this jewish rebellion the rebellion of barack obama said never you will never come back year after year the sun hadron begged one year a miracle happened the miracle was that for some reason no one can say why the roman empire allowed the sages of yavneh to come and bury the dead they made the trek over the hills and when they reached this valley of batara they saw a second miracle the first miracle that they were allowed to come the second miracle is the jewish bodies that lay there did not decay did not decompose they were fresh like the day they died you know that when the sages saw this incredible miracle they said we're going to add on an extra blessing when it comes to grace after meals you know when we eat bread afterwards the birkat amazon it used to end with the building of jerusalem over new shallam the sages are added on and out of the bracha another blessing the bracha tov god is good and does good the two expressions of good hat god is good and does good the two expressions of good are the two miracles that happened over here the first miracle that the romans allowed us to bury i did the second miracle that when we arrived here the bodies were still fresh they didn't decay and we were able to give them the respectful burial that they deserved you know that my son was sitting in class over here after recess this is an eight-year-old young boy called aitan my son said after recess eating his sandwiches they went into the classroom to do the benching to do their birkat amazon to say grace after meals and he says abba shouldn't have been doing this but i was looking out the window while we were saying birkat amazon and my eyes fixed on the city of baitar and it just so happened we were saying the blessing of god does good and is good he said abba this is where the miracle happened and i'm saying the grace after meals in the very place where this blessing the source of this blessing came from is it an incredible education having kids laying down roots here in the land of israel where the whole torah the whole bible comes to life it's not just stories we live it in modern times where it makes benching so meaningful when it makes tasting a great so special to know that these grapes have seeds and dna that go back to the second temple period to be in a place that is so spiritual and so holy guys as we continue north on this ancient highway thank you for joining me back in the car i want you to see coming up on our right hand side here's another one of the shivataminim the seven holy species to the land of israel this is a fig tree here on our right and you can actually see the huge leaves they look like hands and there's a tradition that this is what adam and eve covered themselves up with when they understood that they were naked after the sin they covered themselves up with these big fig leaves as you can see the fig tree we know in hebrew has those massive leaves that look like hands this is another proof that this is an ancient highway remember in ancient times guys they didn't have cold storage they didn't have storage trucks that were refrigerated you know they wanted to get their produce as fast as possible to the main city centers in front of us is north behind us is south and you know to travel to the main city centers of jerusalem and they would wake up early in the morning and pack up the wagon with all maybe fresh olives fresh grapes pomegranates figs and they would put it and they would arrive at the jewish marketplace guys they couldn't have their fields inside jerusalem it was too expensive real estate they couldn't have it inside chevron but they could have it as close to the modern highway look on either side the terraces the beautiful fields that we have over here that really show us that this was prime property for having fields when it came to getting harvest fresh to the marketplaces every single day we're going to turn around over here guys this opportunity is to see another proof of why this area is so important to the jewish people we're going to have a look how this area also connects to the festival of hanukkah and lastly don't forget my challenge that i have to prove to you guys that this regular dirt road isn't any dirt road but actually a highway used in ancient times the repercussions are phenomenal just to understand if i'm able to prove to you that this is a highway that connects jerusalem to hebron then we are standing on a highway where the greats once stood i'm talking about our matriarchs and patriarchs we're going to be standing on the same soil where abraham isaac and jacob where sarah rebecca rachel and leia walked between jerusalem and hebron this is quite an incredible place to be join me to come and see another proof how this road is a highway in ancient times guys thank you for joining me here at this very special spot where we're going to discuss this road being an ancient highway guys i wanted to take this opportunity to thank project inspire for making this happen because for me to be able to bring a little taste of israel to you sitting there in the united states of america guys i hope you're enjoying i hope you're connecting on the special festival connecting to the land to connecting to our history and connecting to our heritage project inspire thanks for making this happen you guys are awesome because this is proof that this is a highway guys how do we know that this basin over here this this little structure going back 2 000 years proves that that's a highway guys i want you to know that this was a very clever businessman this clever businessman used his brains remember what we said in archaeological times they were old the principle is they were old they are not stupid they use their head because the same way as in modern town times we have at a gas station midpoint between jerusalem and hebron you know kids are driving in the car they need the bathroom they want an ice cream the exact same thing happened when they were on camels they would be coming from jerusalem maybe taking the kids to pray at maratha magdela to pray at the cave of the patriarchs of the matriarchs and what happened is the kids were complaining are we there yet we want a drink cause this over here is an ancient gas station what is it look at the top basin this top basin is where you take fruit from the area we have vines grapevines we have figs and they would pile up the fruit on the top basin hopefully they would remove their shoes they would then stand in this basin extracting all the juice from the grapes it would connect in this canal over here and pour into the cup guys they would have delicious feet tasting grape juice this is not a wine press this is a juice press and this would be the midpoint the ancient gas station where where they would feed their camels give them to drink where ancient travelers would stop off the mid point between jerusalem just like that gas station we saw on the way in remember where everyone was standing over there we had hitchhikers we had bus stops this would be the ancient gas station remember there's always a mirror between ancient and modern times that happened over here guys behind us and i want to show you again keeping to to jewish law the jewish law and the is that any building inside a jewish town needs to be lower than the holy synagogue where we pray and you can see over there the beautiful two buildings that are the highest on on a launch foot the buildings over there the one being the central synagogue and the second one over there where i'm pointing that one is actually um my yeshiva is it's made in the shape of an eagle which is very beautiful and the reason is there's a verse that says we are going to come back to israel after the exile after the pain and suffering we're going to come back to israel and kanfe nisharim we're going to come back on the wings of eagles isn't it beautiful to come back to the land of israel and sit in a structure that's made like an eagle and we can learn the oral law we can learn about our heritage we can connect in the deepest possible way to our creator and understand his torah this is the gushitsyon follow me if this is a proof that all this is ancient highway that abraham isaac and jacob actually stood on this road follow me to the next site where i'm going to show you something even more incredible that will blow your mind that shows you how we know for sure that this area was huge traffic in ancient times not only huge traffic but very connected to the festival of hanukkah follow me guys guys here's the actual entrance that we can go to the well remember this is the well that would feed into the the mikvah the flowing water that would make it a kosher mikvah according to all the opinions because before we go inside it's got an incredible story so listen to the story and that way we have entrance to see what happens inside this incredible well so guys just happened two decades ago a father and son were hiking in the area they decided to stop for a break they saw the mikvah over there that was um visible but this entrance to the well was completely overgrown these are vineyards these are grapevines and these grapevines were all over and they decided when they're having a break to eat some grapes but eating grapes but the little boy the son wanted a grape right over here he reached up to get the grape and he lost his footing he fell down into the well what does a good daddy do he jumped after his son you know they didn't hurt themselves this was cushioned with leaves with delicious grapes lots of foliage and they found that there's an entrance they crept inside and they started digging guys do you know that inside this very well they were able to dig and find archaeological remains that date back to the hashmonaem the hasmoneans the story of hanukkah god's swords bows and arrows the shoes used and we know that this was a maccabee command center the maccabees the story the fight against the greeks this was one of the main battles i want to tell you something interesting about arab culture they will never ever change the name of a place now i've mentioned a few times on our tour the name of that arab village that's friendly our next door neighbors is called zakaria that's what it's called but if you open up the hanukkah story safer if you open it up you'll see that there was the battle of not hirabat zakaria the names are the same and what happened at that battle if you open up your chanukah stories is that the greeks were on the other side of the valley where my kids school is over there the greeks were over there with their weapons not only did they have weapons they had tanks cars in ancient times what was the ancient tank what would they bring to battle that made the greek a superpower they would bring elephants do you know they fed these elephants huge barrels of red wine it didn't make the elephant drunk it made them aggressive they put armor plating on the elephant and the greeks were over there on the other side of the valley this was a maccabee command center the maccabees were made up all the generals in the army were the sons of matitiau i'm not going to tell you his name that's for their end is that one of the sons one of the generals came out and he looked across the valley at the greek army the superpower of the day and he said oy they i don't know if you spoke yiddish in those days but he said there's no chance they are many we are few they are mighty we are weak we cannot fight against them he said i got a plan every one of my soldiers i want you to run in different directions disperse the greek army well know in which direction to go in that way we will not die here today but we'll meet up in a few days time and regroup and regather the soldiers were so happy these maccabees thought this is fantastic we don't want to die against the moth of the greek army they started preparing to scatter when while they were preparing the commander by himself grabbed his spear and ran down into this valley when the greek saw a jewish the commander a maccabee running for them they desperate they they sent out an elephant the elephant was angry and aggressive it ran but he was not afraid as the elephant was about to crush him it went on its back legs to come down instead of backing away this commander went right underneath the elephant with all his might he thrust the spear up through the stomach of the elephant into its heart the elephant came down and died but crushed the commander the greeks on the hilltop watched this and said how is it possible that a lone soldier with a spear could take out the powerful elephant the ancient tank it's like in modern days if i took my little m16 and i shot out of the tank the bullets would just bounce off can you imagine if i shot one bullet and the tank would explode what would the enemy think then we would think there is no chance we can win when the greek saw the might of israel the might of the maccabees they turned around and said we cannot win although the commander fell the jews were victorious and that's why we celebrate khanukah that story of chanukah is our victory over the greatest superpower of the day because we have a superpower up there in heaven you see this was the war cry of the maccabees [Applause] this was the war cry of the maccabees mila hashem eli who is with me who is with god you see they fought for a love of this country the land of israel they fought for a love with for the torah and they fought with love for hashem with hashem on their side that were able to take out their superpower of the day guys we are standing over here at a maccabee command center i just want you to know the name of this young man this commander that gave his life but killed an elephant killed an ancient greek tank his name was that's why i live over here in a city named el azar my address is hashmonaem street nes gadol there's a great miracle that happened right over here in the hasmonean kingdom of judah a miracle that is so incredible a miracle that happened right here where we a small nation were able to take out a superpower guys welcome inside this maccabi command center it's right over here where the commander is went out to battle against the greeks we know the story him sacrificing himself underneath that elephant but showing the greeks with god on our side anything is possible guys that's where el azar where the town where i live with my gorgeous wife five children is named after el azar hakoen that son of matitiau one of the generals of the maccabees who fell fighting the greeks and showed them it's in his honor we have the name elazar for our town all the streets are around the theme of chanukah i live in hashman street there's all the themes of hanukkah come through the streets and that is the theme of el azar do you know that light candles this hanukkah with my family as it says in the jewish law in the rook that we should like pete just outside your home so everyone could enjoy the incredible miracle that happened but when my candles are burning i then bring my kids over here and sometimes it's raining hopefully if i get my way it is even snowing and i bring my kids here and we come down into this command center in this well that's adjacent to the mikvah and we come down over here and we light our chanukah candles again we don't make a blessing but my kids can taste hanukkah over here and it's not because of the sufganiya of the donuts it's because this is where the story happened nes a miracle happened right over here we love hanukkah candles i put them up over there to give us light we light a little bonfire down here on my left and this is where we roast some marshmallows have a little bit of s'mores i think it's important to bring american culture here as well but this is where my kids can taste chanukah this is where they can feel the festival in its entirety in a maccabee command center guys i want to say thank you for joining me on this tour of the gush at seon i hope you enjoyed it i hope you are able to taste a little bit of israel to feel a connection to the land project inspire thank you for making this happen you guys are awesome it's been fantastic the opportunity to speak to everyone to celebrate hanukkah with you and you know i pray i pray that everyone stays healthy during this crazy pandemic you and your family should only have health and i hope you have an enjoyable hanukkah and i pray that very soon you guys will be able to come back to zion to return to the holy land when the scars are open again when the pandemic is over so that you are able to celebrate the festivals over here to connect to the land and to connect your heritage guys i want to wish you a shame's help we'll see you back in israel soon stay [Music] safe [Music] you