Chanukah Today - Access the Divine Light of Salvation {Shalsheles Seminary}

this Torah class is brought to you by Torah anytime.com good morning everyone it's a real honor to be here I've been here many times but it's very exciting to be here ER of kanuka let's speak about a very fundamental question throughout history there have been many many miracles if we were to make a yam every time there was a miracle for the Jewish people we would have aump on every single day of the calendar I mean if you look throughout the pages of the N there literally dozens and do dozens of Miracles made we know that yosua benun as he's traveling into the land of Israel he needs to finish a war than thank you yosua needs to finish the war on that day so what does yahushua bon do he talks to the son he turns to the son he says say stop he stops the sun and the St Sun stops you know there's a great war that waged against do we commemorate that war do we have a y the victory against do we have a yum about yosua stopping the sun we don't have a yti not for the stopping of the Sun not for the victory of s but we do have a yum because they found a little flask of oil that was only enough to last for one night and it lasted for eight nights like how do we determine what What miracles we commemorate with atiff and which Miracles we don't commemorate with the yti who decides whether a miracle is important enough to celebrate with the yti or if it's not important enough this is a very important question what exactly are the what's the threshold of when a miracle makes us excited that we need to commemorate it and when a miracle is just ordinary and we say you know what it was a nice event but we don't need to have a yump to commemorate it so I want to share with you a small insight about the establishment of the of Kaneka do you remember when our sages teach us the gamar tells us the story actually it occurred to me last night you know you know why there are eight days of Kaneka cuz if you look in the gamar the gar has eight lines describing the story of kanaka the gar tells us it was the 25th day of KL we don't fast we don't eulogize the Greek the Greeks entered the he they entered the sanctuary they contamin contaminated all the oil in the sanctu sanctuary they found one little flask of oil that was enough to burn for one night and it lasted for eight nights the gar says in the next year they established it they established the to say and to say Al by the way it's very important don't forget to say do whatever you got to do to remind yourself to remember to say Al because actually what's the if you forget Al do you have to repeat no you don't have to repe it's true it's not as important let's say as that if you forget it you'd have to but if you forget it you didn't have Kaneka what do I mean by that Kaneka was established to say Alan so you could have two people one person said alhan and didn't eat donuts the other one ate donuts and didn't say one of them Hada and the other one did not have the establishment of is to recite if you don't say it ain't but what's interesting is the G says that they made in the next year in the next year why in the next year why didn't they make Kaneka right away very interesting question another interesting question does anybody know do you say you do right right after you say what is the if you forget what do you do then is there any way to make it up there's an interesting at the end of there's a special you know about this most Ventures have it you say I'm practicing my accent I'm working on it okay very it's good okay we say that God should make miracles for us the same way he did for our ancestors think about the meaning of these words so again if you forget you could make it up by saying the merciful one who made miracles for our forefathers he should make miracles for us it's a very unusual request are you allowed to ask God to perform a miracle gar says you cannot pray for a miracle you could pray God for refua you could pray to God for parasa you could pray go to God for happiness you're not allowed to pray for a miracle gamar says if you pray for a miracle either it won't happen or if it will happen it comes out of your bank account God will take away reward from mitv if you pray for a miracle and yet on kanuk if you forget the Alim you're allowed to straight out pray for a miracle God make a miracle for us like you did to our ancestors so I'd like to share with you a very important understanding of yam in general and then we're going to speak about a few very important topics many people think tonight we're going to light the minora tell me by uh in your community do girls light the Min no do girls single girls do they light the manora oh so what do you you guys do only the father lights the brothers and the family light how many people in one house light the manora it's one one minora and that's it ah what all light the one what do you mean you all after Dad lights the man what does your brother [Music] do Oh you mean the first night dad will light it the second night big brother will light oh Dad lights one and your brother lights the second one yeah really okay by ashm let's say in my house canara we have eight Manas I light my boys all light my daughter's light my daughters like them know Mish says um because okay but that's not important that's not when we like the monora tonight but you're present right every the whole family comes everyone's going to watch man many people think what are we doing on Kana we light and we're commemorating a miracle that happened 2,000 years ago or let's say on P we're sitting around the table and we're all remembering something that happened over 3,000 years ago many people think that when a yam comes it's about history ancient history now sorry this is not not about ancient history cuz if your brother had the to ask Dad Dad that happened 3,000 years ago you don't even remember where you put your car keys an hour ago why why are you remembering a miracle that happened thousands of years ago the correct answer to that question is a very important fundamental and revolutionary understanding of what happens on a yam 2,000 years ago when the Jews entered the BET mikdash after reeling from what the Greeks did to us we went in and we found one flask of oil and God made a miracle how did God make that Miracle he sent down a spiritual light that influenced that nature will change and that this one flask of oil will now last for 8 days there was like an atom bomb of spiritual energy that came down to the World on the 25th day of klave and changed the way the world operates and now oil that was only enough to last for one night it lasted for8 nights 2,000 years later on the 25th day of kave tonight when we stand around the manora we are not remembering what happened 2,000 years ago you know what we're doing we are experiencing the annual influence of spiritual energy that comes down to the world every single year on the 25th day of klave it's not about remembering what happened in the past the Jewish calendar is a living calendar living calendar means when a miracle happens it could be recurring recurring means that spiritual energy that allowed this miracle to happen repeats itself on the 25th day of klave every single year and when pesak comes the energy the spiritual energy that allowed the Jewish people to leave Egypt repeats itself on the 15th day of Nissan so that we're not remembering what happened in the past we are reexperiencing that spiritual energy that comes down to the world annually it's very interesting do you know which Miracles that we commemorate with a yov and which Miracles we don't commemorate with a yov when yahushua told the son stop does the na'vi tell us what date of the year that miracle happened the na'vi doesn't give us the calendar date you know why the navi doesn't give us the calendar date because it was a one time occurrence we didn't need to know what date it happened because that spiritual energy it happened and it will never happen again when we defeated SV when defeated SV God miraculously delivered us from our enemies it was a one-time occurrence and it will never happen again but there are certain momentous occasions in the history of the world where God not only gives a certain spiritual energy he Sears into the day that that day is established as a day that is infused with miraculous Divine energy that's why in halal we say in the 136th chapter of I'm say now means that when God took us out of Egypt that day the 15th day of Nissan was seared was stamped with a spiritual energy of redemption for the Jewish people and many many redemptions that we experienced and will experience happen on the 15th day of Nissan we have a tradition that just like God redeemed us from Egypt on the 15th day of Nissan he will redeem us from this galut on the 15th day of Nissan you know when P comes we anticipate the G you know why we anticipate the G because that's the day that has the spiritual energy it wasn't a onetime occurrence when God took us out of Egypt it wasn't a one-time event it was an energy that occurs every single year my grandfather he passed away a few years ago at 106 years old he was a holocaust Survivor and he believed with every fiber of his soul every single day mhia was coming even in awz he believed every single day mashiah was coming the last words he said in this world my father asked him tati are you okay are you okay he said I'm waiting for messiah and he passed away those were his last words he passed away on the 15th day of Nissan of course the 15th day of Nissan the 15th day of Nissan is seared with the energy of the Redemption of the Jewish people tonight when you stand around the manora and you watch your father light the manora don't think thank you Hashem for the miracle that happened 2,000 years ago you are currently experiencing a Divine Light of energy that comes down to this world at this time annually that created miracles for the Jewish people 200 years ago and continue to create miracles for us every single year year therefore we can pray if you forget alhan we could pray God you made miracles for them 2,000 years ago please make miracles for us we asked how could you pray for a miracle I thought it comes out of your bank account if you ask for a miracle yeah if you ask God to perform a new miracle that comes out of your spiritual account we're not asking him to perform a new Miracle the miraculous light is coming down anyway it's happening it begins tonight we're asking him that with that miraculous light that he's going to bring down to this world tonight please allow us to access that to create miracles for the Jewish people I'm going to tell you something a little controversial do you ever hear of you ever hear the he's AIC Rabbi you need to have heard of him says something something I'm not sure you're going to like this but it's okay I'll go home afterwards okay says in at least six that when ham wanted to eradicate the Jewish people it was only ashaz not so he writes that the Gaz of ham was not inar because a didn't rule over Saar he ruled over the whole Known World he ruled over the Middle East not Europe and therefore from the asks why do they observe P how do you feel about that you like that you like to think that only asham should have P that's what asks he was you know the signed his name you know what Sam stands for so he was AI himself and he asks in many why observe P he says because it's a mistake to think that you celebrate a yam because we're we were in danger and God saved us that's not the real reason we celebrate a yam the real reason you celebrate a yam is that when occasions happen in the year a spiritual light comes down from the heavens of divine connection of miraculous salvation and it comes to the Jewish people it doesn't matter who you are it doesn't matter you're in danger you're not in danger on the 14th day of Adar spiritual light came down to the Jewish people in an unparalleled way and therefore all Jews celebrate Purim tonight is not about history it's about the present it's a spiritual connection every Jew is privileged to enjoy this is the meaning says the it happened back in the day it also happens it happens today it's about the connection you will have access to this evening when the Sun goes down in your synagogue do they read the Miga on Kaneka you could tell me I won't tell anyone I'll go back to where I live and I if you want me to tell them you read the Miga I'll tell them do you read the Miga on kanuka good answer good you do not read the Miga Does anybody read a in did you ever hear of a fora did you ever hear of a book called there's a book there's a book about the story of Kaneka did you know that there were communities that would read the same way we read m root we they read M many re him record it but you go to a synagogue today whether on Ocean Parkway or in the five towns or in Lakewood nobody is reading any on Kan why not why do we only read the story on puim and we don't read the story on Kana you know it's interesting the rambam in his opening does anybody know you ever look at the rambam is the or anybody know the r or the r is not a story book He's not telling you nice mid he's not telling you nice stories it's do this don't do that you know the rambam starts off unartistic in the very first of the r tells us the story of kanah it's basically the only story he writes in the whole Mish T in all 14 books of mish Tor it's the only Story the ramam Tells why do you think the ramam tells the story of Kaneka he's not a Storyteller he's a why is he telling us the story of Kaneka so the answer is pretty simple is there a mitvah just to go over to a light it and walk away without thinking anything is that a Mitzvah no you're lighting the manur for what reason Pur P You're publicizing the miracle if you have no clue what the miracle is you're not doing anything imagine a guy you tell him uh you know tonight you have to light the man he says really why do we light the man we light the because you know it it's very dark outside early and tomorrow the Sun is going to be out for another minute and the days are starting to get longer so we're celebrating that he said oh that's a wonderful holiday I can't wait to light the man imagine you told that to a guy and he lit the Min you think he gets a Mitzvah he's not doing anything he has no clue why he's liting the man you tricked him so you need to know the miracle of kanuka to fulfill the mitvah so the r who's aist he's not a Storyteller he's telling us the St ofah not so we know the story but so that we could fulfill the mitvah of lighting the man properly to know what you're publicizing so then why don't we read the Mig why don't we read the Miga on Kan why don't we read the story in the sh wouldn't it be nice to read the story of kanuka in the in the sh so I have to share with you a very important point and a a very amazing secret about the word kanuk the G asked the following question in the 22nd chapter of it says says the gar who's the who's the Morning Star Esther Esther was the Morning Star why because just like the Morning Star comes at the end of the night Esther was the last miracle in the history of the Jewish people so the gar asks what do you mean there was the last miracle let's see uh let's check I'm going to ask you a personal question now what came first or you have two one of two answers this not very complicated what came first puim or Kaneka puim you sure you're right puim came before Kaneka very good Round of Applause to what's the name of the Seminary Round of Applause for shalel Seminary no okay you took it for granted of course you know this so asked the gamar what do you mean Esther was the last miracle but Kana came after puim yeah you hear the question how could you say Esther was the last miracle Kana is the last miracle answers the gamar Esther was the last miracle you're allowed to write down Kana you're not allowed to write down you cannot record the miracle of kanaka why not why are we not allowed to record the miracle of Kaneka did is Kaneka is the book of the makab the the book of antias is it part of tanak no does anybody know world history did you know that it's sort of part of the New Testament you know that the book of the makab is part of Christian ideology isn't that interesting that for the Jewish people the book of the makab m is not part of tanak and for the Christians it is part of tanak isn't that it's like backward it's ironic that we do not read we do not consider it part of Tanakh and the Christians consider it part of Tanakh and the reason is for a very important reason when I was a bakur when I before I got married 70 years ago you don't have a sense of humor over here you know so um right now you're get yeah I used to live I grew up on Avenue EMES 31st in Flatbush the other side of flush and I used to walk here at Ocean Parkway to R RAB AAR Miller almost every chabas about a 45 minute walk and I even I have a notebook of questions that I asked him when I was a when I was a young bakur and one of the things with Miller would talk about is understanding why is it that we reject the story of Kaneka as part of tanak and the Christian World considers it an important part of their document for a very important reason you ready does anybody know who is the last prophet in Israel who is the last prophet of the Jewish people anybody know who the last prophet was Mali Mali does anybody know what's the last prophecy in Mal so imagine here's God he turns to Mali he says okay this is the last thing I'm ever going to tell mankind until Mia he tells them two things number one remember to keep the law next in the end of days I'm going to send those are the last two prophetic messages number one keep the law number two see you lat see you in a few thousand years theah says these two messages are the two most important messages of of the prophets why because 500 years after Mali a new religion was created Christianity and they claim that God spoke to their founder so we asked him really God spoke to your founder he hasn't spoken to man in 500 years all of a sudden he spoke to your guy and what does that founder say you don't have to keep the law abrogate the law the Torah is not binding anymore so he said I don't understand the last two things God told us was number one you have to keep the law and number two is I'm not speaking to you again until aoi get out of here God gave us two closing messages number one you have to keep the law and number two I'm not talking to man again until mssiah comes so you're you're going to convince us that God spoke to your guy and he told your guy we don't have to keep the law so now the Christians are floundering what do they do what do they do they need to fill up these 500 years they need to somehow make up that God has been speaking to man for the last 500 years from Mali until the founder of Christianity so you know what they do they take the book of the makab and they took take the story of Kaneka and they stuff it into the document to fill in the missing 500 years so that there isn't 500 Missing Years that God didn't communicate with mankind but he's been speaking the whole time but for the Jewish people it's very important to understand the book of the makab the story of is not part of tanak you know why it's not part of Tanakh the fact that it's not part of Tanakh upholds the whole Torah you know in and are called the pillars of the Tor how area and puim the pillars of the Torah listen very carefully onim we have a onuk we have no M so you'll ask why on puim do we have AA and Kana we don't have a Miga and the answer is because puim happened before God stopped speaking to the prophet it happened before Mal when God was still communicating with man so we had a happened a few hundred years later when God stopped speaking to man ah so you know what we see from kanuka and puim if puim has Mig and kanuka has no Miga that means god stopped speaking to man and if God stops speaking to man if any religion now steps up and says you don't have to keep the law it's bogus do you understand how kanuka and puim uphold the whole Tor we have no Mig puim we have a MIG why the answer is puim happened in the era of Prophecy kanuka happened after the era of Prophecy kanuka shows that when the temple was destroyed God stopped communicating with man and there won't won't be any other religion to tell you otherwise says you know what stands for eight prophets six books of scriptures hey migot how many books of Torah are there anybody know how many books of Torah are there 24 you have five books of Kash you have eight Nim you have 11 six books of plus five the word stands for eight books of the prophets six books of the scriptures he and if you want to add you want to add the book of the makab you want to add they stopped before they got to the 25th book the word Kana means don't add a 25th book and when you don't add the 25th book it demonstrates there's only one True Religion that's why kanuka and puim are the two pillars of the whole Torah puim still has M has no why stop when you get to the 25th book of T it's one of the great pillars of the whole tor five and they stopped when they got to the 25th book now even though you're feeling a little uncomfortable you know I I said you know do have to keep Pim you know I know that wasn't the best welcome for this community but I'm going to give you a really good one okay because when it comes to kanuka Kana maybe applies to your community more than anybody else there have been four empires in our history Babylon Persia Greece Rome was there ever a time where the rabbis said okay Jews arm yourselves and attack the ruling Empire of the world never happened it didn't happen against Babylon it didn't happen against Persia it didn't happen against Rome the only time it happened was against against Greece where the a family of 13 armed themselves and they went to war against the why would we do that this is not a Jewish practice when was the last time you heard the rabbis told us you know arm yourselves and fight the enemy here's a great secret the secret is whatever happens in the history of the Jewish people whatever Abraham and yov did that is the Paradigm of how we should conduct ourselves in our history if kanuka is the only time we went to war against the nations of the world it must be rooted in the actions of somewhere Abraham Y and yob it must be rooted in the very first war in the Torah does anybody know what's the first war in the Torah very good Abraham ainu have the war of the Four Kings and the five Kings the Four Kings defeated the five Kings and Abraham ainu went to attack the Four Kings what were the names of the Four Kings the names of the Four Kings Amel M sh AR elar Four Kings you know the Met says these four kings are the four main nations of the world is the king of Shar B Persia R of these four Kings does anybody know who was the main King that Abraham attacked I don't know if you know ashaz TR okay maybe one time will teach you was the main King isn't that interesting so who is Abraham attacking Kad who's Kad yavan so of all the four nations of the world the one that AB ainu is attacking is Kadar Omar yavan does aru have a big army he has almost nobody it's him and K say theuk says 318 men that's a tiny Army and Rashi says it wasn't even 318 men it was him and elazar elzar is numerically valued 318 so it's two guys against all four Kings it's and who does Abu take to fight the Four Kings remember the word he takes his trained soldiers what in the world does the word mean says rash isuk he took his kanuka people Rashi says where does this word come from oh it comes from M can you imagine such a thing is fighting Four Kings of all the Four Kings he's fighting he's fighting Y and how many people does he take almost nobody and what kind of guys does he take they're called kanuka people [Music] says he alarmed them he energized them who are called does anybody know who won the war for the Jewish people what shave did they come from they were kohanim what's the first time Kain appears in the when abrahamu meets maled sh he meets and the says he was a who was a Coen simply maled was a Coen but the gar tells us that Abraham ainu actually was awarded do you know the story that shame when AB ainu met shame after the war so first shame blessed Abraham first shame blessed Abraham and then shame blessed God and because of that shame lost being Kain and you know he lost it to he lost it to abrah ainu became a Kain so think about it you know where Kaneka is alluded to in the Kash in the very first war in history recorded in the Torah whose War Abraham against kadara om who's kadara Omar King of yavan and what is he awarded with that because of that war he becomes cohain and here's the cliner the Greeks who defiled the temple were they regular Greeks you know the Greek Empire was split into four sections after Alexander the Great died the Greek Empire was split into four sections what kind of Greeks what type of Greeks defiled the temple Syrian Greeks so if Abraham ainu is going to create the victory of kanuka where is he going to have to chase these Four Kings back to do you remember the pasuk the pasuk says he divided against them in the night he and his servants Abraham ainu chased the Kings all the way back to Damascus back to Syria you know why because AB ainu is creating the victory of Kaneka and if Kaneka we were defiled by Syrian Greeks AB ainu has to overcome damasak Damascus do you think it's a coincidence that in the weeks leading up to Kaneka this year we we saw with our own eyes the fall of Damascus the fall of Syria the fall of the this Empire do you know the miraculous story do you know Bashar you know how he became the emperor the the ruler of Syria his father heet was a mass murderer and actually you know there's a great Rabbi buried in Damascus you know that rabim vital is buried in Damascus till today he's buried in Damascus maybe about 15 years ago they needed to build a highway over the the bakar so they moved over Ral a little bit then they wanted to expand the the cemetery so they moved Ral to a new cemetery and they built a highway over where was buried was no longer there his oldest son who is the AA parent who's going to take him over Bashar was out of the country Bashar was making glasses in uh London he had no hope of ever ruling Syria his brother was driving over the highway where r v was headed to the airport he got into an accident and he was killed on that Highway and they had to rush Bashar back to Syria that's how he took over the country don't start up with r vital and now both of them are gone so we see in our times what AB ainu did in the war against the Four Kings where he defeated them all the way back to Damascus and it's very interesting the war of Abraham against these Kings the pasuk says happen it happened in the night you know why because theim what what was their decree against the Jewish people they darkened our eyes they darkened the eyes of the Jewish people and Abu then was called the light of the world so tonight when you stand and you watch the lighting of the manura realize that great Miracles happened 2,000 years ago in the time of kanuka but the great spiritual energy that theam brought for the Jewish people then we're not commemorating it we're not remembering it we're accessing it now we're experiencing it now we're feeling it now when you make the you say by but you also say the great spiritual connection that the Jewish people had to the ream 2,000 years ago is available for you in the same intensity today this evening may we all be that just like Hashem made miracles for the Jewish people 2,000 years ago we should be able to connect in the same way today and we should all be you've just experienced another Torah class brought to you by tor anytime.com