70: Chanuka: The Great Escape

[Music] hi this is Deborah Orlowski and welcome to the rabbi allow ski show thank you thank you studio audience that is by the way not canned applause that's real and whether you are listening unto her anytime or wherever you watch or listen to your podcast it's so nice to have you along and we have a sponsorship this week particularly meaningful when Lily knishmas liebe kaya buzzed Ovid was lifted this year at the age of a hundred and for a hundred and for the Holcomb grip David he doesn't make videos and somebody went to ask to make a video for Sheinberg Zeus even said they don't make videos he says for shine burgers is all forever Sheinberg than I have to he said that you ever wonder why Yosef Sheinberg again they were over a hundred yeah says cuz nobody replaced them somebody lose that long it's because the fish broke one knows that there's nobody in the world take their place he left to 104 she Louis children the Holocaust was tormented by the Communists and managed to rebuild a family that is shall recover and mitzvahs may she continue to be a male latisha for her descendants and classy so I was interesting there was also a someone who survived the Holocaust and lived to a very old age they were sitting Shiva he says my mother always wondered says the train came from her town and everybody was sent to the gas chambers except for her and she said was I not Roy - dials kiddush Hashem and I told her told her daughter I said some people are chosen to live Oscar - am and that's much harder so went through the Holocaust went through the communist that managed to build a tour home that is such a tremendous thing so we're happy to this week use it as a year as a killing this russ for this wonderful wonderful lady and a family and of class show should should gain from her squeeze the we're in the middle of our seminary series somebody asked me are you done I said me I'm just warming up now I'm not gonna go on forever because you know I've other topics that I want to get to and I get suggestions from people why don't you talk about this we'll talk about that there are other issues that I want to talk about but I'm gonna have more to say but then I realized it's Hanukkah no it's not yeah Hanukkah it's Eric Lanigan but I have to give a conic a message it is very important when time comes around that we focus on what that is Moe eight we call it moe a just like we say oh hell no eight oh hell no aid is a place in space and a holiday is a place in time it's a mode pointed place so you see sometimes the oil mode is translated into English as the tenth of appointment yeah so it's an appointed place it's it's it's a destination in time when you want to know where you are in space you use a map and if you want to know where you are in time use a calendar and it tells you that there are opportunities that exist in this place at this time that you could take advantage of very interesting that tomorrow tells the whole story my Faneca what happened and tells the whole story and the miracle that took place and then it says and the next year they made a holiday called sonica why because they wanted to find out whether or not this was an individual miracle that took place or whether the miracle was a manifestation of an eternal truth that the miracle revealed the dogma the real says that the talmidim rebbi akiva died from Pesach tissue is except for special days they didn't die in sharpest in giant qodesh then dying pace of Shanee and they didn't die unlike bomber so it's not that luck but Allah is a special day because the Tau medium of rebbi akiva didn't die it's that Lag Ba'Omer is a special day the way we know it's a special day is because ruby Kiva's tell me them to die but that revealed the nature of the day the twenty-fifth word in the Taira is or that is an allusion to the 25th of Kislev which is Hanukkah the Mishkan they started building it on circus and they finished it on the 25th of Kislev they didn't realize the significance of that they didn't dedicate the Mishkan until where's Krishna son but that date that they finished was not a coincidence it was something that was built into the fabric of the universe that's why they finished that so there are certain times so the Cohanim wanted to know Vinay bina you mesh Mona cover she ran uh named Bonet vena those who understand maven Dava tough Dava they understood the essence they made Hanukkah when the next year came around then they sensed there was a power of the light returning at this time and so that's why they were able to make it until yet them as opposed to a miracle there were many towns in Europe that celebrated a Purim it wasn't the pouring full of clay so it was a perm for that town they had a película salvation a particular yeshua and they would celebrate a special poem for that town because they recognized it was a miracle that took place but it wasn't a miracle for God's clientele they wanted to know whether or not this was just a miracle that took place or whether the miracle was the revelation of the fat that there was a power during this time and when they sensed that power how do you sense that power I don't know you have to be very spiritually attuned in spirituality is a Jews for J told me you can't tell me that my feelings are illegitimate I feel that Jesus came into my heart and now I feel that I've had a salvation and I've been you can't deny that I feel that way I said that's true that's true doesn't mean it's real but it's for sure that's how you feel because anyone can feel spirituality doesn't mean it's real yeah my brother one Purim put scratch-off lottery cards and every one shot one is so one guy scratched it off and he won a million dollars he called his kids he called his grandchildren who was that mom and she was so happy and when he saw my brother he thanked him so much and my brother said oh those are joke ones that I put into the shop - then they're not real the guy was very upset I don't think it was my brother some people know said to you but but but that guy really felt like he had a million dollars he didn't but he really felt that way I saw somebody once he was up uh-huh he was just floating on air bought a Powerball he won a million dollars or ten million dollars or fifty million dollar armature was and he was showing it everybody and finally somebody said you're off by one number they missed the number okay he still won something but he was sure he was sure that's a story an amazing story where this woman in Boston went to her local Orthodox rabbi and said that she wants to wear a tell us she says don't ask me salivate chicks in town go and ask him so or salivate she said listen we don't do things like that in Judaism we don't just jump try wearing the towels without that census see if you feel anything and if so will the other touches so for a month she's coming to show got thoughts of her head Oh at the end of the month she tells salivate check and I felt such a spiritual elevation I felt so you know amazing yet he says really because what you did was of no spiritual consequence at all except that if you were a man you would have gotten in a veil for wearing a four-cornered garment without senses that's called spiritual paganism and that's how I feel I don't know I don't have to deny someone's feelings but if you're a person who understands spirituality you could say that ok that's how you feel but that doesn't make it real doesn't make it real so the B'nai be not these were people understood spirituality and they understood there was a power of the light coming back into the world at this time the menorah being lit and burning for eight days was the revelation of the power that was already there it wasn't something outside of time so there's a special opportunity and that's why I you'll forgive me if I'm breaking with the pattern over here what's great about a podcast is you could just choose not to listen to this one until the next seminary comes out and listen to me rant and rave about that some more and then listen to this but listening to a Chanukah podcast after Hanukkah is like eating matzah brei on shoes it's just not the same that's what I think anyway so I actually thought that maybe the next one which also comes out on moti Shabbos which will actually be find a guy could do it then but then it's somebody at the end of Chanukah you know yeah the messages already times have slipped away it was interesting I give a moti Shabbos year every other week and I know sometimes you can find it in to her anytime it's on the parsha that we read that Shabbos and one time somebody said to me what good does that do you should get us ready for the next week's parsha point well-taken anyway as my Rebane would come when i asked them questions like that there spons was pretty standard no no I remember what that my poor mices only the relationship hero you know and if he thought what you were saying was it legitimate he used to give it to you everybody except for me he never yelled at me nobody elderly somebody noticing once goes how come he's always so nice to you I said because he is a master mechanic and he knows that if he yells at me I won't get upset I will just die I'll just drop there very nice so I said whatever was that I said and his eyes flashed and everybody took a step back and then he goes no no so I said when does the rub use new and when does it use new new yes I've heard him use both like me he said zip M ed sewed yeah that's a secret I can't reveal it so you know if you really wanted me to continue with the seminary thing and it breaks up your you know sense of continuity no no anyway but we got took laconic yeah Hanukkah Hanukkah Hashem it's such a wonderful time yeah you could just already feel your arteries hardening just thinking about all the oil you're gonna be pouring into you and one of my nutritionists I've gone to several many of them gave up and you know went into the professions one one turned to drugs and alcohol but but one of them said to me if you have a choice between latkes and soup gonna yo definitely go with the latkes it's it's it's less bad in this Afghani otha so so I weigh it carefully and and I understand the reason we eat these foods is because you know the Greeks worshiped the human body that's why they always have this Greek statue I'm a Greek statue asking we're gonna show that we reject that we're gonna look like Jews there baby and the chronica you're sweating oil [Laughter] it's great I know everybody pretends that they don't like some kind of yet but you can always tell you see because that's why they put the powdered sugar on it not know about an American and so you can buy them without powdered sugar yeah because if you hit the powdered sugar when you eat it it gets on to you and if you try to brush it off what you do is make a glaze everyone knows in a second that all of your protestations about how you're an evidence of gaudiya is in fact you are betrayed by the powdered sugar so I guess you can get the chocolate they have everyone that was I get chocolate on me on the top you just have a little chocolate stain yet little cream jelly but but be that as it may when the time comes around Joey's have to understand it and it's interesting that the morale says this in regard to Hanukkah is where he speaks this out and he says that time is not a circle because if it's a circle you just keep going in a circle you don't go anywhere he says time is a spiral so you come back to the same points but it's always on a higher level so you can't you can't have the same iconic every year we would nut was very careful every hunter to say am i Murr see him my Murr says you can't let mo ade go by without gaining a new insight into it and someone one of his tell me them said when he was sitting Shiva he pulled together some of his clothes tommy them and said I know I know I'm in a veil is but you have to say mine you can't you can't go into it into a mo aid without a mind where you have to say something so let's say yeah opportunity when it comes around and I want to talk about really one of my favorite topics cuz I talk about it all the time and that is culture and that's one of the big things because you have to understand that we talked about Gullah C oven and it's a very strange goalless because we didn't go into Gullah sui stayed in Eretz shell the Babylonians took us away the Persians would not let us return the Romans took us away the Greeks we stayed night so they wanted to take the the Jewishness out of her shell not the Jews ever its shell they didn't destroy the base of McNish they defiled it everything that we taught and that's why it's hot was the oven Yavin was an intellectual battle Rome wasn't interested in us accepting their philosophy didn't have any philosophy and the first reference in the Torah the dogma he owes the four kingdoms the eraser toe of oh the Xhosa open I saw him emptiness void and darkness upon the deep waters tovo that's Bevelle that's per ass hole chef is Yavin open ASA home Rome is the deep waters obviously it's the longest colors and Yavin is just a veneer on top of it the Romans didn't have their own culture they just stole everything from the Greeks they took their entire pantheon of gods and just turned it around you know they took Zeus and they turned it with the Jupiter yeah so they did they just they took everything that was there and they just made it you know made it as their own thing they took Hermes and turned him into mercury they just took all of the gods and just changed it around they kept it intact they they weren't interested in this they took everything was Greek until the kymaro refers to them as a as a non nation I don't really have a culture they stole everything they were interested in one thing power power and control and I had I weren't interested in contributing to the welfare of the world having that they had they took from Greece but Greece it was an intellectual battle we may have spoken about this last chat I remember I didn't I didn't watch the last podcast so from a year ago bang when I went to school I remember and my history book they had a whole chapter dedicated to the light of Greek civilization now okay if you're sacrificing babies to mullah you know I suppose you know Greek civilization was a big stage up that was it was presenting intellectualism philosophy philosophy science university theater literature sports entertainment everything that we think of as Western civilization that was Greece and Greece brought to the world all of this which we call them darkness oh sure they call themselves light the light of Greek civilization compared to what everybody else had it was a step up but we had the Taira Josephus writes we Jews are not given to the writing of many books the Torah is our entertainment so we do for fun we don't have there's no there's no word in Hebrew for adventure we don't go on an odyssey we don't go on a quest we don't fight the Minotaur we don't go through the maze yeah all these things that are in Greek mythology all their adventures we don't even have a word for that The Odyssey which describes Odysseus journey back so as it's a it's an exciting exciting voyage exciting trip we don't have things like that Judaism we don't we don't have adventure there's no word in Hebrew for fun we don't have fun Jews ever had fun in thousands of years yep fun is there's a word in Hebrew Kevin an Arabic word whatever word for fun we have simcha we have saw sign we have a Lisa we have a Lisa yeah we have we have lots of words for happiness tenly shyness for happiness we don't we describe being happy but fun fun is take me away from reality escapism the world of make-believe the only time that we use make-believe when there's a muscle because we can't understand what we're talking about meister spirit once said you find these madryn that have fantastical concepts and creatures and ideas being expressed why because I'm trying to find words to tell you something that you can't relate to so I have to find something that you can hear at least on your own level to try to be able to relate to it it's fantastical but escape from reality there's this beautiful concept in the non-jewish world when a couple gets married so they rush off to their honeymoon they go to Disneyland Club Med someplace exotic and exciting and they live this make-believe existence yeah music video life then they come home to real life and they have to settle back in and they just remember this tremendous romantic time that they had we have something very similar to that it's called Sheva bras you don't go anywhere every night you were surrounded with friends and family and a small apartment with a bunch of chairs that all stuck together there's no room if we have to get up there leave the entire room has to get up you eat a breka and chicken with rice part of our ice cream on the menu is come down to us through the years yeah somebody pointed out that Mela spent most of his life in Chevy broca's you make the calculation I said no whether he died at 52 you eat all that varenka's and Parvati was gonna kill you and that's it you know every night you exhausted you could see the cup of there's like you know the girl spends her entire time trying to see if her sheitel is on right you know I was like you know and the guy is sitting there listening you know it's a speeches from people that he doesn't know and you know picking at his Barreca you know very exciting so so and that goes on for a week so he doesn't have to first then come back to real life you're already there I made a yacht I moved there itself the first year we weren't officially because yeah we moved here 1988 and it was just pandemonium we will speak about making alia Bhatt but how I did it was the wrong way to do it but anyway I was going with four little kids the oldest was was no she was five yet maybe she was five the youngest was six months and it was just craziness and this couple comes over and one scoops up one kid in a suitcase either one scoops up the other kid in the carry-on you know and carries us onto the plane I don't know we would have done otherwise it was so he said thank you so much you know what you're gonna hear it's gel they said yeah we're celebrating her honeymoon no they didn't look like your average honeymoon couple and they saw that I was surprised and they said your honeymoon is after ten years those otherwise you're going away on some make-believe vacation with someone you don't know what's the point yeah if you could if you go to Disneyland and you don't know enough to be able to laugh at it and you buy into it like when first times I went to Disneyland and there was a tram and this person asks one of the Disneyland people you know I mean where's goofy I'm parked in goofy because it's right there peristyle thank you very much I don't think anybody appreciated the the irony you the conversation that was taking place you just buy into it yeah they have a saying Disneyland that they don't have employees they have actors everybody's an actor no playing a role for your enjoyment and if you can't laugh at it and realize that you're in a way this whole thing is make-believe and you can buy into it I feel that way sometimes when I go to America but that's also for another discussion but anyway we stay rooted in reality the most fun is reality so we don't have entertainment you never had Jewish theater in the good old days yeah Jewish entertainment well aunt IRA that the more you were based in reality ultimately they're happy you're gonna be and if you need escapism it's because your life itself is not that happy so the Greeks bring to the world what we call culture sports okay let's be fair okay I'm not a sportsman I was never good at sports I was pretty good at miniature golf that was more or less my sport I could get the ball up the little volcano into the hole faster than most people this was something that I had mastered I could usually get it in between the spinning blades of the windmill usually better than the average person but surprisingly the competitive miniature golf field has never been televised I was okay at tennis the problem was I only had a forehand I don't know why I never mastered my backhand so I spent a lot more time running around the court at the ball so we used to have those things in camp you know where you know elimination I could get through one or two rounds but after that you know someone who's already and the third round more or less has a back then I was at a disadvantage yeah um I was like swimming I don't know why I never I know I've done this and people have tried to help me from the time that I was nine but I cannot when I do the crawl and you turn your head useful take a breath I can't get a breath in so I'm doing the move not breathing and if you keep swimming and you don't breathe eventually you're gonna you're gonna run out of air and that's that slowed down my swimming career so I was never much of a sports person I admitted my brothers all were and as such I never really followed professional sports I have no type of fruit I know I have brothers I have lots of friends who love to watch sports they will sit there and watch a baseball game baseball games I didn't mind so much because nothing happened since was very easy most of the time the two people are talking about you know their family people they met stuff that's going on you know up no no that was just a swing and swing gonna miss okay and so anyway so tell me I heard your wife went down to the oh yeah oh there's a head sounds great he's just sit there I mostly eat you know it was my kind of sports you know you go to basketball they're running they're running a whole time people are running shooting it's it's too much action for me yeah I've never gone to a football game I've never even watched football game I just to watch 15 billionaires the size of refrigerator freezes smashing into each other you know and then they will it'll stop and they line up again and they have a discussion for about 16 minutes and they show you the same thing over and over again and then they line up again and boom ice hockey yeah a bunch of people with blades on their feet running around with sticks okay so the the opportunity for violence is very exciting I understand that but for me that holds no appeal somebody told me they were at a fight now hockey game broke out so it gives you an idea about the nature of the sport yeah so um golf I don't know why anybody would watch it huh people whispering whispering oh I see and then they just show you a white ball and a white sky laughs but people are crazy mad sports I knew somebody I moved here in the 80s and on he says I'd love to move there it's joke but until they get island to games I can't come I can't come I have to watch the eye on this you know I people were Boston Red Sox fans until they won the World Series I mean there was called the Babe Ruth curse when they after they created Babe Ruth to the Yankees they never won the World Series and I remember one time when they lost in the playoffs and this guy was crying he says they did it to me they did it to my father they did it to my grandfather but they remain the remains fans because this is a Munna Munna Schliemann but people's desire for sports for entertainment Irish Shiva told me he says I can work with every buckle with every problem I can work with people who don't get up in the morning I can work with kids who drink anything I can deal with except of a kid has access to the Internet because the Tyva of our generation is just to sit and watch movies and TV all day nobody even watches anymore you binge watch somebody mentions you a television show it's been on for seven years and you sit down and watch things you know casually you doze off using go to get some BP did I mean yeah but but basically you just that's it you just sit nothing that's animate I most people don't know this but outside of elevators they have these giant mirrors the reason is because as long as people can look at themselves they don't notice that they're waiting for the elevator [Laughter] so they put you on a plane they stick getting smaller and smaller seats you know you all cramped up but that's okay cuz you have a little screen you can sit there and watch and you just disappear and he said that's the tire of our generation is just just to escape to a world of make-believe that's what you haven't brought to the world culture theater art entertainment literature the the ability to be able to escape into the world of make-believe the caja Demian that's kosher or is reality light is truth it shines the light on and you see what Emma says Torah is called aura because it reveals reality and comes Chanukah and it's always ironic because we her special Chanukah performances special Chanukah concerts special Chanukah forms of entertainment people I've spoken about this in the past you know what's wrong with the concert you know okay so if we were just going to listen to somebody sing songs okay so you could get CDs more fun watching them alive okay but but it has to come with a show has to come with a performance my daughter's go to Bass yakov's here in Yerushalayim and they all have videos now sometimes it's a video of a person speaking who's right there at the event but you'll watch them more on the screen than you will if they're talking in person that's that's the reflection that's what we prefer the illusion and reality so I gave emotional once it says if you're walking and you're learning and you stop to admire a tree now the flowers alright so then you you've missed the whole point why so because it's like I go to visit somebody and they said you want to see my kids and I say don't you have any videos so I sit there and watch the videos of the kid I could just walk into the house and see the kid I was in Bangor Maine we were riding in a speedboat out on whatever the harbor was over there and I saw a tourist he was in the speedboat filming it standing up filming it he was missing the experience but he could watch it later no that's what happens you go to Costner's I've spoken about this how the video guy has control of the of the Koopa and nobody can see the cop because the video guy is taking it over I was an 88 condition and and the photographer wouldn't I wasn't able to see what was going on and I kept trying to push it in and he said get on my way all naki to the ground Wow because we gotta get the pictures we have to be able to look at the pictures afterwards rather than to enjoy the moment Konica we light the lights light is Tyra light is reality we have to shine the light on the truth live life don't live a life of make-believe don't escape is it okay to go to you know a Disneyland I'm not past kidding but if you do go just remember this is make-believe I mean when I pulled into Disneyland to the parking light it says the happiest place on earth okay well obviously to finding happiness differently you know to wait on line for two hours you know to be strapped into a machine that's gonna hurl you upside down a hundred miles an hour backwards in the dark is not my idea of an exciting time I live in rural I'm I could just take a taxi and have the same experience and have the word online fright you know but but it's okay as long as you understand the whole thing is just a it's just make-believe but when our life becomes illusions and comes make-believe that's the darkness of Yavin so it's interesting we don't really say have a happy fine ago we say I have a lipstick in Faneca have a light Hanukkah Hanukkah light yeah holiday of lights and everyone should ever look the honk Annika and that's it for this week if you want to find out more about the show you can go to my website Reb real Lansky comm you can add comments see my upcoming schedule contact me if you want a sponsor an episode you can go to every llc.com slash sponsor and that's it for this week I'm Debra laughs key and this is the rabbi Olaf's key show [Music] you