Rabbi Benzion Klatzko - “Chanukah, Antisemitism, & Life"

thank you everyone for coming I want to just uh first thanks to Robert Plaza for coming over from Muncie so thanks for everyone who came out it's uh it's a big squat I first wanted to just uh thank the sponsor the mizraki family Jordan is not here tonight he's in Philadelphia for his mother's 11 month uh Euro type but uh he wanted to do something very special in her memory and and to support the key lab to support the door on the show so we everything Jordan did Lee Lewis when his mother and um for people who were here before we have many children who go on like this many through khazak which of course I I always mess up the numbers of how great khazak is but if you haven't seen their their uh recent campaign I don't know Robbie how much you is 2.3 million something which is oh he's behind the camera he can't talk but they raised a lot of money to support uh help the public school kids in the community be transferred over to the yeshivas everyone who knows me in the recent couple weeks I tell one that I want us not being a lawyer and just work for kazak and I say the goal sincerity but it could just be a reflection of My Life as a lawyer but so really thank you for having a class before world doesn't know my introduction to me is uh just a minuscule of course everyone knows from shabbat.com who and for being a campus rep throughout the the whole uh I guess the United States I'm sure go around to all the campuses really I've learned the most from from many weeks ago I listened to this inspiration to the Nation Podcast and I learned a lot about the web and I was really uh floored to hear about all the amazing things that Rob does and uh so now whoever wants even more background could could listen to that and see all the amazing things that I was doing so thank you so much for uh taking your time to come here and um here thank you so much I'm gonna grab one to hook this up yeah like this here okay so there's a good idea okay okay good evening everyone outside of the fact that I am struggling with my uh voice you're in for a treat tonight I have a lot of good stories for you I would like to start by saying thank you to kazak uh what Kazakh is doing over here in Queens and in this community there's no other community that has this and um and I'm I'm really sincere when I say this I'm from Cleveland I lived in Los Angeles I live in Muncie in none of those communities do we have something like this that just makes this your room and does it for the right reason and it's all very inspired and I get inspired so whenever Robbie asked me to come I can't say no he's just so sincere and uh wants to inspire people so that's that's amazing I also want to remind people about daily giving daily giving is an organization that gives and to many other incredibly important organizations and really when you think about it if you if you haven't given that it's a dollar a day so at the very least you made sure you're getting stuck every day that's the very least and really end up giving to a lot of good causes you've Diversified your portfolio so I think that it's such a wonderful opportunity and you go to dailygiven.org you can do it and big news happened from uh giving to Dhaka and especially to daily giving that doesn't in such a amazing and sincere way so I I give it my full support and um you know I it's just worth it's worth two minutes and on your credit card you won't feel it so that's what I think uh thank you also to the school uh and uh let me get your Navy and Mordecai for uh uh for introducing and setting this up it's just very inspiring so so this year is supposed to be about Hanukkah it's supposed to be about anti-Semitism and life the truth of the matter is that I realize they have to be very current so if you want to speak about something you speak about something very current and unfortunately we've got to the place where anti-Semitism has become a current topic that's really crazy I didn't think that would happen in my lifetime you know my teachers were Holocaust Survivors that came from Holocaust Survivors when I was young but I thought we had a few more years in America before this Michigan started over and here we go with um people being outspoken with their hatred of Jews Judaism and it's just it's just amazing that that we are here speaking about anti-Semitism in such a overt way in the English year of 2022 soon to be 23. and um I don't see any great um save your Insight in terms of uh you know people thought for a while Trump is going to come and he he um allowed the or he gave his Blessing to the council being put in Jerusalem and he let out robotsky and everyone thought okay this is the kind of person who we need somebody from the outside but we know at this point and we've always known that that's not reliable and people who supported us one day turn against us the next day now what does at the semitism have to do with Hanukkah so really everything obviously obviously at the office was an anti-semite how do we know he's an anti-semite because his hatred for the Jews did not end with the fact that they nationally wanted Israel back but he made decrees against Shabbos like what do you got against challenge well you you don't like you don't like to filter fish if you're asking right you know like what what is your issue Bruce Mila like you know you don't even sees it like why do you care about personal and it turns out that Antiochus right Epiphany is the fourth as he's known in history was a Madman but also a tremendous anti-semite now oh I think it's important to understand the following that while it's true that and the Syrian Greeks were considered the the bad guys in the story but the truth of the matter is uh the real uh bad guys if I could use that term of the story were the Jews they were the Miss yabnam they were the hellenists other hellenists were the ones who got the Greeks involved is he originally the Greeks used to come to Israel and they were you know they spread their influence but they didn't rule that we weren't a vassal of uh of the Greeks you know Alexander came you know years before and he you know he didn't conquer yerushalayim we named our kids Alexander in gratitude and the the Greeks they hovered they were around they brought some of their culture we didn't like it it was it was non-jewish culture but what got them into yerushalayim what got them into our business and the answer is that in those days there were no Jewish Kings at this point the era of Jewish Kings had ended now it's true there were Jewish Kings King Herod later on became a Jewish King but these were all puppet Kings really the person who was the strongest most influential most powerful Jew was the coin godl the coin gado the high priest was the king now you had two groups within the Jewish people you had people called the perusum which would be today be the Orthodox or religious Jews we would be we would have been called perusum if we would have lived in those days or like the Christians call them the Pharisees but we were the person we were the people who would separate from things that were profane and connect the things that were holy and then there were the missyavnim and then Mrs were these hellenists and the hellenists believed that we can open our doors two Greek culture to Greek sensibilities to Greek values we'll hold on to our Judaism but it will be dressed in a Greek toga we will have the Olympics and we will have them in Jerusalem we will be build big amphitheaters we will name our kids Greek names and before you knew it this other group of Jews had a tremendous influence on all of Israel and there was there was this the civil war going on between the misyanim the Greek Jews and the perusum the Orthodox Jews a civil war at what was the great fight over it was over who got to be the coin godo who became the high priest because the high priest was the one who was very powerful and he wasn't just powerful but he was very influential that he was very Regal now picture this the miss yavnim wanted a Hellenist to be the high priest now let's just be honest like today that would be the godo let's say that one of the godoli outdoor or the godlandor and it would be like somebody like the reformer conservative movement saying our guys should be the Guadalajara even though he's not Sharma Shabbos or even though he's but he is really very secular in the way he thinks and the way he acts and the way he conducts his life it's really horrific and eventually they realized the following in order to be declared the high priest you add to Curry favor with the Greeks because the Greeks were very powerful and if you could go over to Antiochus and say you know what we'll smear you we'll pay you and then you make us thy priest and Jokers would be very open to appointing whoever paid him the most money and so at the office we're lost a war recently who was pretty broke who needed to gather funds was approached by somebody who wanted to be the high priest now if you have never heard Jewish history you will be shocked at his name but this was his name two thousand years ago his name was Jason would sound like a like a 2022 named Jason that was actually his name he was Jason high priest it's it's really crazy but that was actually his name and Jason paid at Georges and after a while Jason became the high priest coin got old Jason it's like Christopher like it's a ridiculous thing to think about but that was his name and what's interesting was that he had a brother who was even more devious than him who was even more wicked now by the way how did Jason pay the the Antiochus Jason didn't have a lot of money so Jason said I'll go into the Treasure House of the base I make dush and I will give antioxide I will give you money from who would have never thought of doing that like I'm gonna you're gonna go into the Jewish temple and give money to us are you sure your brothers and sisters are going to be happy with you Jason says don't worry about I got them so he takes the money and he gives it so his brother whose name was Menelaus says hey make me the high priest instead of Jason and I'll give thee even more money okay you're the new high priest so now Menelaus was the high priest and after a while at the office says you know what if they're willing to give me the money from the basement why do I need to ask their permission I'll just go and take it myself in comes the Greeks they go into Mr mcdosh they just take all the money they take all the money from the business and he says hey once I'm there I may as well put in an idol to Zeus and all of a sudden the business that used to be a place of the greatest Holiness now is full of Idols to Zeus where the money's been plundered and the Greeks are in control who invited them and Jason and Elias Jews invited the non-jewish world to come and infiltrate and influence and impose their will unfortunately we have a really really tough history and I don't mean tough in terms of the non-jews hating on us that's going to happen is that that's how Hashem made the world Hashem allowed us to stay separate by saying you know what you're Jewish you're not Jewish they're not going to like the fact that you said don't kill don't still don't commit adultery that's not the way that they function they're not going to like it Hitler himself said I hate the fact that Jews promote morality I don't like that I want to do what I want to do believe it or not they haven't been our worst enemies our worst enemies historically have been Jews those Jewish people who leave Torah who leave mitzvot it's not enough that they wash their hands of Judaism but they've got to go on television and then promote it to the world about how bad Jews are they got to make movies about it they've got to say you know what I'll give you the inside scoop in Spain there was a great person named the ramban not commodities and he was called to debate in front of the king Judaism who does he debate he debates a fellow by the name of Pablo christiani sounds like a very Christian name right no he was Jewish he was a converted Jew popular Christianity Christianity takes ramban parades him in front of the king and in front of all of Spain of course the ramban wins but the Fallout made Raman have to flee the country and eventually ended up in the Inquisition and the expulsion of the Jews it cascaded from there it was a Jewish person unfortunately so much of history that we know that skewed ancient history comes from Josephus who was a Jewish fellow who turned on his fellow Jews and became a Roman and became a Roman scribe so we can't have an accurate vision of History so many Jews left Judaism because of a man by the name of bark Spinoza a philosopher Baruch Spinoza from Holland who wrote against Hashem against God and decided to promote the idea that tourism considered even in the secular world one of the great philosophers Karl Marx also in the secular world one of the great philosophers of course he's the spiritual or intellectual father of communism but people look up to him for his way of looking at the world and Karl Marx was a Jew but a self-hating Jew who looked at Jews as the very worst people you know the great battle of Hanukkah is of the great lesson that we're supposed to be learning it's not oh no we have issues with the Gentiles that's not we don't need Hanukkah to tell us that we could just walk down Queens walk down the street and we'll we'll get screamed at we don't need that what scares us is the Jew who turns on the Jews the Bernie Sanders of the world who stands up and speaks against Jews who has no issue speaking against the land of Israel has no issue standing up and and saying let's stop arm allowing Israel to have arms not understanding that it's very personal because I imagine that many of you including myself have family that lives in Israel I have two sons lives in Israel you don't you don't take away arms from the country that's protecting my children and grandchildren and yet that's what anti-Semitism does and the anti-semitism that the world loves is anti-Semitism of Jew versus Jew because the Jews do doing the dirty work for us we don't even have to do it the Jew is going to do it for us what happens what happened to us how did we become so often Our Own Worst Enemy we have to look in the mirror you know the good morning speaks about the concept Imlay Allah if we don't rise to the greatest Heights we very easily can fall to the greatest depths you know on Hanukkah we tell the story of Khan of the Shiva banel Kama and her seven sons who wouldn't worship the idol that Antiochus wanted them to and each one was killed in the most horrific way until China finally killed herself out of grief and anguish and that spurred on the result which were the maccabeem and montessor but there are Jews today who are still struggling to be Jewish to keep Judaism and they're not allowed because their family and their friends stop them they hatred towards Jews by Jews I had a young lady was supposed to come on one of my trips to Lord Torah 14 15 days of inspiration her mother didn't want her to go you're going to get brainwashed kept telling her no year after year finally this year she says I'm going to go the mother steals her passport and hides it she's not going she could have gone and learned Torah I had a young lady who was in she came with me to Israel she was on fire the nashama this person was jumping to parents forbade her from coming around my house around anywhere where she could learn Torah do you like your Judas I love my Judas what do you mean I'm a proud Jew I just don't want my kids to be too proud I don't want them to be too engaged in Judaism we had a young man of the house this is a this is a very current story I just said the story two weeks ago with the guy right there young man in the house whose parents got divorced whose father left Judaism left that their father was Jewish loved Yiddish guide marry somebody who's even more anti than him and this little boy Ephraim not going to say his last name Ephraim is made to stay by his father and his father forbids him from keeping kosher forbids him from celebrating and his new stepmother is even more anti and he tries his best when the divorce happened and he was forced to stay with his father he made up his mind I'm only eating kosher and for months this boy who was eight years old only ate oranges and apples wouldn't need anything else parents wouldn't they wouldn't give in finals I was so hungry for months just eating fruit so I tried to figure out what's okay what's not okay he decided that he's gonna when his parents go out to eat when his mother when his stepmother and his father go out to eat he's going to only order a salad it's a little boy no that's that's what he knows he'll eat a salad the mother the stepmother invited some of his friends together with him let's go to Taco Bell before he goes to Taco Bell he calls up his birth mother who is still from he says mom you know they're making me go to Taco Bell but I'm gonna make sure to only eat salad and the mother says you can't eat the salad either they don't check the lettuce for bugs who knows what kind of oil they put on and tell you you can't just eat a salad in the night that they cut it's it's trafe straight you can't understand we need salad so the little boy is 12 years old at this time this little boy he decides he's not going to eat anything the mother takes him to Taco Bell with the father they said okay we know we know you like it you'll eat a salad we understand okay we'll be accommodating their order the salad he doesn't touch it and the mother says I know what you're doing I know what you're doing you're not eating it because it's not Kosher enough for you you eat that salad or you're going to pay for it young man you eat that salad or you're going to be punished and if I'm sat there in Taco Bell not touching the salad he came home and his mother said you're grounded sit on the couch not a television in front of them not a computer sit on the couch and the next day no you're still ground sit on the couch this young man was forced to sit on the couch for a half a year six months all day every day sitting on the couch doing nothing because he wouldn't eat a salad a Taco Bell the boy's a hero he was by me two weeks ago I wanted to point them on he said you know there's that's a guy over here and everyone turned he's the man he's the same one who would hide a yamaka in his briefcase or in his school locker so he could put it on but he couldn't wear it at home and once in a while he would forget so he'd put on the Army he'd have the Amica in school but when he'd go home he'd forget the Amica was still there so they would beat him for wearing a yamaka how is it that us Jewish people religious or secular can have so much hatred towards Hashem how does that happen what's become of us years ago I received the random letter letter copied it over here I thought it was interesting I didn't know who this person was but I wanted to read the letter to you read a little bit of the letter it goes like this I I this girl called me up her name was Mila and she lived in she lives in Winnipeg she sweat to Israel for a little bit I got a tour and she wanted to stay and learn Torah but her parents didn't let because they were anti so she called me up I said I'd love to do something for you Winnipeg Winnipeg how cold it doesn't Winnipeg the coldest city there's the coldest average temperature in the world is in Winnipeg in a major in a major city not a lot of Jews in Winnipeg hi rather clats go I wish I could have stayed in Israel but again I was faced with a huge problem my parents were expecting me home and getting very angry I came back to Winnipeg on September 2nd it was very difficult to be here because there's no Jewish community what can I say other than this challenge being back in Winnipeg has been really difficult and other ways too especially with my parents she writes me it's very emotional and irrational with them they criticize everything I do they make jokes about Judaism they make me feel bad they try to make it hard I do didn't see them getting better with some things because they they think it's just a faith they see it's not a phase but it's really stressful to be around them and hear the things they tell me and then I start to question everything and I feel weak about my Judaism they refused to support me in anything related to Judaism just to give you some idea of my dilemma I'm still dependent on my parents for everything I live at home they pay for University as long as I'm here and doing well this is a way for them to keep control over me so for example she writes when I'm in the store I'm looking to buy skirts to be at sanua she said my mom will say no way let's go I'm not buying you any skirts or she'll say things to me like you don't understand what kind of life you're getting into dabbling with Orthodox Judaism we're not going to support you and you can't survive without us you won't be able to do anything on your own Etc she writes to me this this letter a letter of a young lady who has zero support and she writes the next few weeks I will try to keep Shabbat at home I remember how hard it was emotionally when I once tried it and just a few weeks ago I decided to make Friday night again to see if it would be any different now it was just as stressful and as unpleasant as I remembered hearing shouting criticism and what my parents have to say afterwards and then she writes what's the best way for me to avoid conflict I don't know how I can stay strong and grow here in Winnipeg I really need to be in an environment like yerushalayim right now and then she ends with these words chanukkah is going to be quite sad here a few girls and I have managed a little to get together it's a record for Winnipeg five Jewish girls somewhat interested in Judaism in one room but other than that I'm on my own before I end I want to wish you a happy Hanukkah be well Mila and the shama in Winnipeg is trying to keep Shabbos tried to be a sonua and in her own home she's mocked and made fun of so I told her I said Mila I'll make you a deal if you've got 10 girls in the room who want to come to a Hanukkah party who want to be inspired I'll fly out to win a bag and I'll be at your Hanukkah party ten girls the 10 people I fly to Winnipeg who did I know there are no straight fights to win the packets longer than Israel to get to win the peg this is in December so she writes back hi Rabbi k after our conversation last night although I was so shocked about the offer I was very excited having you come here would be the exact thing we need in order to lift our spirits and give us some encouragement that can last for a while although at first I was a little doubtful if I could pull together the girls for this especially that it's around exam time I got into full force last night started emailing and calling and as of right now I have nine confirmed including myself as well as two other girls that might invite their mothers to come we will hit 15 God willing so it's scheduled for Tuesday 11 and the plant time is 7 to 9 p.m see you there happy Hanukkah Mila I turned to my wife I say guess where I'm going for Hanukkah Winnipeg Canada I'm gonna go and celebrate a party with Mila I don't know who Mila is but let's celebrate with Mila so I found a flight I remember 16 1700 bucks just to get to Winnipeg fly out to Winnipeg with a few stops on the way get off the plane it is so ridiculously cold that when you walk the the pavement the sidewalk crackles with with the ice that just covers everything and you can feel your upper lip frosting over from the breath of your nostrils and I'm thinking what am I doing here I come to a hotel it was one of these hotels probably built in the 1920s with an old red maroon carpet that is so dirty and caked over with age it just felt like something out of a film and it was like an abandoned Hotel and I said okay I'm gonna be here I got here a few hours early said okay I'm gonna settle in light my Menorah over here in the hotel room and she calls me down she says okay I'm gonna get somebody to pick you up she had a brother brother picked me up we come to one of these shoes another shoe looks like it was built in the 1920s 1930s with all of these plaques and bronze plaques all over the wall all over the wall people passed away in the 18 and early 1900s and I'm sitting there I come into the shore and there are these 10 15 girls sitting around me and they're very quiet and I'm not sure what to do and there's a bag of potato chips that was it maybe some soda and I said okay I'm gonna sing Dreidel Dreidel Dreidel they're all like staring at me like what are you doing and I'm sinking by myself and I'm doing one Hanukkah song After the next while they just stare at me and then we go around the room and I tried my best to give them a little kazuk and an hour later they're all thanked me and I went back to don't tell the next day I flew back to Monsey New York and Mila writes a little letter when I arrived back to New York I found this letter I rather clatsco I want to thank you so much for doing this for us for coming all the way and making it possible when I started planning this tried to get people to come I forgot how much I myself needed it I thought about how much the girls who showed up could use it I got great feedback once you left they felt they learned something like they were inspired my only hope is that they realize this inspiration is true and they're able to hold on to it and realize that they need Judaism in their lives truthfully at first I didn't think I could do it I'm still surprised that it happened I didn't think it would happen and even when I thought otherwise I wondered will it make any difference I want to tell you it definitely makes a difference I was thinking last night that right now for whatever reason I have to go through what I'm going through and on top of that I have to do it in all places like Winnipeg but for the first time I thought maybe that's just it maybe I'm here because there's something I can do you were saying I was an inspiration but the truth is that everyone was inspired by you that you came out here just for us that you took off the time to come here to this place called Winnipeg that you came that you were strong enough to come in the cold into the snow I can't explain how I personally felt that you came it was great I really needed it especially now thank you I hope you had a safe trip you know how many of these nashamas are floating out there do you know how many people have no support you know it's hard to understand what the message of Hanukkah is and every Rabbi on Torah any time tries to quantify this is the message of Hanukkah this is it and the truth is of course they're all right there are many messages are given with multiple layers and multiple levels there's no question about that we say in our Museum the strong were given over to the hands of the weak the many were given over into the hands of the few that's miraculous right on a weak a weak person beats up a bully that's huge when a few people are able to beat a huge Greek army says seventy thousand people because historically speaking they're about 70 000 Syrian Greeks that were fighting that's amazing but if you look at the Allah needs him it continues foreign the impure of the hands of the pure the wicked in the hands of the righteous writers and those who are against you were given over to the hands of those who will learn Torah so there are five categories over here and the way I've always looked at it is that the last three are the answer to the first two the B King Robin beyond my item how could many fall into the hands of a few Maccabees how could that be how could the strong fall to the hands of the week the answer is because they were tame it wasn't just strong and weak it was the impure it was the false it was the fake and it fell into the hands of the pure of the sadikim the Oscar Osaka the answer to how we keep a flame burning is that we keep it pure you see that's why these two miracles the fact that we beat the Syrian Greeks and the fact that the menorah remained lit are in are entangled they're intertwined they're not two separate Miracles the only way that the Jewish fire lives survives and thrives is not because we have an IDF it's not because we've got the best America of our tanks it's not because we have the best drones and we have the Iron Dome that's not it that was never it you can have great armies that fall like that you could have a nations in six days the Six Day War Hashem destroyed them it's never about the caliber of the weapon or the genius of the technology it's about tame him if we want to keep Eric's Israel going yeah root for the IDF there are brothers there are sisters there are people but don't forget to root for those who are learning Torah don't forget to look up to that and those who are careful with their eyes and those who are careful with their speech and who love Hashem who promote Shabbos and Eric itself because ultimately you only have Robin if you have Roshan we need that we needed and that's what that little flame is we could have gone and taken oil there was plenty of oil oil exists why did we need to take the oil with the Seal of the coin goggle come on was just used for Zeus it was just used for a a non-jewish Idol so you know baby steps baby steps okay we wanna we want to reconsecrate the business we want to make it call this again baby steps let's start with lighting the menorah with oil let's do it every day okay won't be the best oil why do we need the best let's just get a lit isn't that I I would have said that right get it lit yellow well we suddenly we have to go from Zeus to the very best oil that exists there should be a few steps in between not only that but nationally speaking wouldn't it give us tremendous Pride as the Jewish people to see the menorah lit every day I would if I were a rabbi then maybe I would even make a hashburn I would say you know what because we're just starting to light it again we have a Hector to use any oil but stop the oil is okay we'll use we'll try to get the best oil but to give the Jewish people back their pride they should see manolin every day wouldn't that be what the layperson said that's what I would have said instead they said no if we're going to bring out Shaman Torah back to besan mcdosh We Can't water it down we can't take shortcuts and we can't assimilate we can't give up we can't give in we have to do it the best way that we know our we're going to take the bhakshaman that at the Seal of the coin guttle and if it's going to last for one day so be it 'll last for one day we can't help that but we're not the whole reason the whole way that the Jewish people slipped and fell was because we cut Corners because we hellenized ourselves we're not going to cut Corners anymore we're going to do things right and if you don't get the support of the parents and if a mom makes this then on a couch for six months and if you have to keep a menorah going all the way there in in in Winnipeg and make a Hanukkah to be inspired we're going to do it right we do it right because we don't know how to cut corners we're not ganu you know today we are a product of the Torah generation there's so much Torah going on in the world today we we can barely appreciate it but it's true we like to think oh boy oh yeah poor generation we're doing so badly we're so distant we're doing amazing in certain ways there's more Torah Lord in America there are more yeshivas open more people learning to Yeshiva in America today than there were after a thousand years in Europe there's more in America today than more than a thousand years in Europe and there's more people learning in the Yeshiva in Israel than they are in America Torah is spreading everywhere we're we're we're in a we're in a regular Tuesday after Tuesday evening and here we have a crowd full of people learning listening to Torah Alan Torah any time comes out khazak comes out or ashua opens up people want we are thirsty Hashem we want to hear the word of Hashem where does that come from you know where it comes from it comes from after World War II who came to America and they insisted that the same Torah in Europe foreign that can happen over here in America and America that was known as the tree for Medina the non-kosher Medina the non-kosher country and people laughed at a barn Cutler people laughed at ramaysha fights what you're gonna you're gonna bring European Torah to America America is different you know mayor Shapiro who started the dafyami and he started a Yeshiva called shiversary Lublin he came to America and he was trying to collect money for his Yeshiva of course before World War II the Nazis ended up taking over the years they burnt all this Farm the roshishiva was was Nifty beforehand but when he came in the 1930s he came to collect for Yeshiva and they were so removed from the concept of a sadik a goddal they were so removed that when he went around saying I'm going to collect him for Yeshiva he was laughed at but you know what they heard about him they heard that he had a beautiful voice and they came over to these smart American guys in the 1930s they said Shapiro I tell you what instead of going around collecting for Yeshiva why don't you make a concert and you'll be the singer and you'll raise money through ticket sales now can you imagine someone going over a few years ago saying okay your Torah well we don't know about that but you could be like God Elva's like grab that microphone and let's let's jam and we'll sell tickets and you'll keep the money and give it to whatever God give it to you Shiva he was one of the good darling and in America all they understood was and guess what he did it he actually did it he made a concert but then the one who started dafyami he I have to say I think he was lowering himself to put that's his covert to sing in front of people as a concert for tickets but he did anything to support his Yeshiva that was his love for Torah his love for his Bakr and yet what happened after the war these big Sadiq they came and they said you know what we need real totally here we need every dog we need jiram and they took the tour of Europe and they planted it and that's why here in Queens and in Brooklyn and in Florida and in Detroit down in Chicago and in Baltimore that's why there are those yeshivas there because they took that Park shaman they took that little bit of light and they said you know what we need the purest light we won't change with the times although the other movements in Judaism like reform and conservative insist that we change our morals and our values with the times we won't you know why because Hashem is Beyond Time Torah is beyond time and while the world will Drift Away into Oblivion and become more and more corrupt Torah will remain pure and it's only that light and we're not going to say oh let's give everyone a boost so you know what instead of diving in Hebrew we'll Divine in English because we'll we'll increase membership and instead of having men and women separate we'll have everyone sit together okay we're watering it down but it's for the greater good believe me that was the Kesh bomb the kashburn of these movements was to increase membership that would have been like us of the time has been something dush using any kind of oil to light the menorah let's at least let's give everyone a boost but no we wouldn't have had Menorah we went to that Hanukkah [Music] full idea it's the purity the many in the hands of the few the only way we survive is because it was to May and be our direham it's true we were few but we were taught her we were at sadikim we were isaka I want to finish with this idea you know we have a we have a bracha sometimes when it seems like the fire is going to dim and we live in a sensational world where if there's a car crash you could have a backup for 10 miles it's called rubbernecking rubbernecking the the traffic jam is not going this way in the highway it's going that way but there's still 10 miles of traffic because everyone has to turn and look at the accident it's not very considerate but it does serve a purpose if you happen to be in one of these slow Acts or the slow highway traffic jams because of rubbernecking you should think what everyone else is thinking as you pass the car that is flipped and burnt out you say that's not me that's what they're thinking they're just not using the words Hashem they're just saying oh wow what an accent not me but we said Hashem it's not me for Hashem but something did happen to us and it was a tremendous lesson and it actually ended up in a magazine called mishbacha and they printed it and you know sometimes I tell over a story and then somebody prints a story and I think oh that's very nice but I could say it over better but I actually like the way they printed it so I'm going to read to you a little bit of the story then I'm gonna tell you what went on behind the scenes see here's the story less than a year ago on November 2020 two years ago our house burned down with a fire there's actually the second fire we suffered in 15 years our house burned down twice this one is the house that we had a custom built to accommodate many guests so we live in Muncie and we have built this house with a very long dining room and the dining room can take you know 80 90 100 people and we'd have thought that amount of people almost every week in that house we still bought Hashem have many many people and we try to serve him the fire was so hot and fast it melted the silver Menorah I received from my father-in-law when I became a cousin one of the firefighters explained what that meant most the house reached a heat of at least 1100 degrees and silver melted 1700 degrees so it was an incredibly incredibly hot fire the menorah became our symbol we comforted our kids by telling them we were safe and it was only our possessions that were destroyed even the menorah we said was just a menorah we still had the midst of Hanukkah you can make a menorah out of tea lights if you must and you'd still be doing the mitzvah we thank dashem that our children that our children were able to absorb the message we had each other and stuff is just stuff silver Menorah but I could use tea lights accounts but we were homeless we lived in one place for two weeks it wasn't feasible long term a friend of mine who lives in Williamsburg had a summer home in Muncie and he offered us that house to move into was a little bit bigger but it wasn't our home and we missed the Comforts of having our own place in our mitzvah then we discovered that our insurance didn't want to pay for the fire they said they did that had they known that we had so many people on the premises they would have given us a different policy and in the midst of all this I contracted coven I got covered and I ended up in heart surgery from Coven in the middle of the fire in the middle of being homeless I had four hour heart surgery where my life was on the line because of Covenant for the first time in my life I was really down I didn't know how we'd move on from the fire and rebuilt what we lost I didn't know where we live and how we'd get our Mitzvah of akhana come back my wonderful children wanted to be musame they decided they would all come shavaskanika which was just about a month after the fire we weren't in our regular house of course and this one wasn't big enough to accommodate everyone including my married children but anyone everyone decided to come anyways it was the first night of Hanukkah we had bought little tin manures that's all we didn't have manures left so we bought those little you know tin ones little colored candles we found them in a Judaica store I couldn't help but remember the beautiful silver Menorah I'd lit all these years it was a very large Menorah I looked around at my kids and grandkids and even my son in Israel stayed up late to dial in at the time of lighting so he could participate in our family gathering all the kids came from everywhere with their kids at least we were all here I thought and I was grateful just as I was about to make the bracha my youngest son tapped me on the shoulder I turned to him and noticed a gleam in his eye and the smile and glow on all of the children's faces I turned around our youngest son was holding a box nice big box and I said what's this box they said tati open it up I opened it up and all the kids had chipped in to buy me a casa menorah and they wrote the most beautiful beautiful note and of course I stood there crying wasn't wasn't the menorah it was the fact that we were still around and we were still trying to do our mixes and we were United and they were trying to you know rebuild From the Ashes and one of the children said you spread light to so many people we wanted to spread some light to you and I wrote I was speechless usually I give speeches but this time I had no speeches to give you know there's a mitzvah in the bits I make Dash Ace Thomas there should be an everlasting fire that burns on them is back should never go out there's a symbolism here it's nice when we have near issue baso it's nice when everyone gets the light menorahs and when you've got bark Hashem a lot of children and each one on night number eight so you've got eight and with this Menorah and eight that Menorah there's 60 70 candles and it's bright and it's beautiful and you can see it from the window and ah so much knockers but really the Mitzvah is one candle that's all you need is one candle in the house one person one candle one light and there's a reason that's the mitzra because we need at least that one pure light to exist and to thrive I'm sorry that Jewish history has such an awful history of Jewish anti-semitism it makes me sad very often it comes from ignorance I don't think it's spite but I know the way to fight the way to survive is not to give in it's not to say yeah you're right but it's to be like The Maccabees Mila May lie whoever is with Hashem come to me you know who rallied everyone around it was about to show coin goggle yes the same coin godo who has to put his seal on that oil that's the same coin goggle that rallies the troops that says you know why they fought because in a city called Modine some Jews in order to pacify the Greeks some hellenists agreed to sacrifice a pig to Zeus in modin and yahudama and his brothers went and instead of allowing this travesty this hill Hashem to happen they went and they killed that person you're gonna you're gonna sacrifice you can do avoidazara in Arabs his soil in front of everyone a pig to Zeus we don't think so we will fight and if we have to hide in the desert we have to hide the mountains we'll do so but our oil will not be tainted our oil has the ability to last through a holocaust through an inquisition through the kozaks through the Crusades our oil will light through assimilation in Winnipeg it will last everywhere because we keep it pure I want to give you each a bracha that the Torah and the beliefs that you hold to be true you shall hold on to them very strong and understand we don't give up not in salute foreign the moment we feel we're giving in is the moment our oil loses its seal it's the moment we no longer have we don't have chanukkah because we've given up the littlest amount opens the tidal wave it's a crack in the dam and the water begins to flow through and the town gets flooded and the people get killed when we have a crack in the dam of yiddishkite when we give in our light becomes extinguished our oil becomes tainted and our Judaism can Outlast not in the way that Hashem intended thank you very much [Applause]