Part 129: Turn the Spark into a Roaring Flame

okay good morning want to thank our sponsors for this series for amuna for the year Dr zavi and Bella Morgan lmas in memory of Rabbi Dr Brian galet Ru nasan we thank them for their sponsorship a reminder that a week from today is the C masas that will be celebrated at MetLife Stadium in New York and around the world but also with a location here in Florida it's going to be an enormous celebration of Torah for people out throughout South Florida thousands signed up and uh a special cm hasas in memory of Brian special Shas has been learned in the last few months alone just in his memory and will be a great tribute to him and it's not too late to get tickets and in fact the tickets are $5 admission next to nothing but tomorrow they go up so take advantage of ordering today South florida.org is where you can get them we also want to thank the sponsor for today in particular our friend Lin Han thank you Lynn For Your sponsorship we appreciate it okay we are in is fantastic safer the righteous live through amuna if you walk through life with amuna you're alive and if you're walking through life with no amuna if you think that you are the beginning and end of it all if you're pursuing your own honor your own ego your own needs your own pleasure your own happiness you think that you are the one in control it's your own Pride it's your own sense of arrogance that you are the one responsible for all in your life then you're dead even while you were alive then you're sleepwalking through life to be a righteous person means to find life through the that we are that we are living this is what khaka is all about I'm not digressing to khah yet we're going to get into our our finish up what we've been learning and then we'll get into khaka if we have time but I just want to say that that's what khaka is all about the notion the contrast of Kaneka of Darkness and Light are not a physical me reality a physical contrast they are a metaphysical contrast the image of darkness is a person who's living in a self-centered World a person who's focused on themselves the person who thinks that they are the beginning and the end the person whose ego is inflated and arrogantly walks through life thinking they're in charge they're in control they're responsible they get the credit is a person who's living in darkness the saddest thing about the people who are cloaked in darkness is too many of them don't even know it the the egotistical self- centered narcissistic person thinks they have all kinds of relationships but they're shallow they're superficial they're counterfeit and they're fake and they think that they're living a full robust life they don't even know what they're missing out on only when you turn the light on do you realize you ever walk in a room and someone was sitting there and they thought that it was light you turn the light on for them some people's childhood was like that when their parents save money by turning all the lights off in every room even when someone was sitting in it so if you come into that room if you come into that room and you turn the light on for them they say wow I didn't even realize how dark it was until you turned the light on I didn't realize how much I was missing I didn't realize how much I was struggling or straining to see until you turn the light on I thought it was light and once you turn the light on only now do I realize how dark it actually was how much Darkness I was sitting in and the same is true for us emotionally and spiritually could be walking around in darkness and not even know and you turn the light on for someone and you show them there's a bigger world and there's a higher being and there's more to life and there's meaning and there's purpose and there's selflessness and there's giving and there's fulfillment and satisfaction and there's happiness Happ is to turn that light on and that's what we're doing eight nights in a row we're turning the light the dimmer a little higher and a little higher and a little higher until the eth night it's burning bright and that glow is enormous we're Fanning that flame that starts out as a small spark inside each of us on that first night all there is thank you for the coffee each week we appreciate it so much on that first night all I light is that little flame and I think that that's all there is is that little flame that little spark inside inside me and shabash told the story but looking around many of you were not here in shabash shoua no no not many of you don't live locally it's not a criticism of you so I'll tell the story again very very briefly just to give you the the context for Kaneka but that last year two years ago on pesak at the end of the seder at 1 1:30 in the morning we walked the guests out and a woman came running frantically back into our backyard screaming and yelling and waving her arms and not idea what had happened but she grabbed me me literally grabbed me and dragged me to the Shool and when we got to the entrance of the sh I saw that there was an enormous fire an enormous Fire And since we want to really expand our campus and do major work my first thought was turn around and go home you didn't see nothing but then realized there's C Tor inside and so on and so forth anyway we came up closer and by the time we got up closer there was a dumpster that had this enormous fire that was going up it could be 20 30 ft into the air an enormous fire and shortly after the fire department had come cuz someone else saw it as well and called the fire department who came and who put it out and we tried to struggle to figure out where did that fire come from how did that happen the fire department helped us understand what had happened is that morning it was the first dat it was the first night of pesak and that morning we had BS we have these big metal drums where people come and drop off all their kets to burn and our incredible amazing devoted dedicated custodians had made sure to put out the drums of fire before they emptied its content into the dumpster and what did they do they poured enormous amount of water on it and they waited till the whole drum had cooled and then they poured more water on it and then they checked it and it was all cold and it was all cool and it was all out and it was entirely extinguished and when they were confident it was they turned the whole thing over and emptied it into the dumpster and the fire department said you know what must have happened buried underneath somehow self-contained and able to still survive there was an ember there was a little glow there was a spark all that survived of the effort to EXT extinguish the fire was a little was a little Ember but you know many many many hours later the Ember able to breathe with the oxygen in the dumpster turned into a fire and became a raging fire that literally came very close to a tree overhanging the dumpster which also was overhanging the building and really we got away from a disaster with tremendous sarov and gratitude to Hashem but what's the lesson I took from that story was that I'd have to still raise a lot of money to try to build this building number one but number two but number two was that all you need to have survive within us all that needs to remain all that has to be there if life circumstance has extinguished the fire in us so we had bad teachers or ream or Role Models or people mistreated us or Judaism or Orthodox Jews have turned us off or hardship and trials and tribulations have made us feel disconnected and turned the fire lower and lower and lower and turned it out all that has to remain as long as there's an ember glowing inside you somewhere as long as you can identify that that pin that spark somewhere inside you you fan that flame and it grows brighter and brighter and it can yet turn into a raging fire a raging bright light and a raging fire and that's the imagery of kanaka we start out that first night with one little light one little p survived all the little flask we start out with a tiny little spark a little Ember one little glow and by the eighth night we follow the opinion of B that we are M we we add and it grows and we do more and we do more we're each night it's Mo how are we M by giving ourselves all right we'll start out with Kana for a minute and then we'll come back to we'll come back to amuna how are we most you know inspiration going from an ember the first night of kanaka to the eighth night doesn't happen on its own every night you got to set up the candles and you got to add an extra flame and you've got to light the next Flame the second flame doesn't light from the first and the third flame doesn't light from the second we have a shamish and we are that shamish and we are lighting those Flames within us and we're Li the flames in the people around us the amazing thing about fire is you can light the flame of people around you and it doesn't diminish your flame whatsoever no matter how many candles that shamish lights it doesn't get any smaller fire has that incredible almost unique ability to light countless Flames without being diminished itself other resources and other Commodities if I share what I have with you I have less if I give you my money if I give you my food if I give you my time if I give you my energy if I share what I have I have less but the image of fire is that no matter how many times I've shared it no matter how many fires I've lit with it it remains burning bright it's not diminished in any which way we are that shamish that's our mission is to not become diminished in any which way is to maintain that fire within us to find that ember that glow and to let it burn bright and to make it burn bright the PK says Aon lit the manur we're lighting theuk the man to commemorate the manura of the B mikdash Aron lit the manura in the B Mikes as the first coing God and the P tells us after the of the of the which is what we're reading every morning of Aon did this askon and Rashi quotes Rashi quotes the um the rabbis who tell us this is the praise of Aon that he never changed he never changed that's the praise ofon that he never changed God told you to do it this way and he did it the way God told him o wow we should honor him at the and God tells you how to do it you didn't do it differently you're not some sadic I mean God told you how to do it and you do it the prescribed way the way you were told to do it that's your job that's your job is to do it the way that you were told to do it why are we loing our own why are we putting all this Praise on our own that he did it in that way so many commentaries explain that really you have to read it differently sh means that not that he changed the way he was told to do it it's not that the process didn't change it's not that he didn't change what he was supposed to do it's that he didn't change the same excitement the same Joy the same fervor the same energy the same enthusiasm that he brought the first day and the first time he was asked to do it by the thousandth time he was just as excited it never got old it never got stale that's what the refers writes that when it came to the the 12 loaves that were in the B mikdash and they changed it out every shabas it says sidur when they took the bread away it was as fresh as when they put it there and the typical understand understanding of the gamar means that it was a miracle of the bread and the Mishka and there were no preservatives there were no additives there were nothing to make it last and yet a week later when they took the bread out it was just as fresh and when they put it there but first says don't read the gamar that way it doesn't mean the bread was just as fresh it means the coim the same ones who did the same procedure and the same process and the same activity they didn't become stale they never lost their enthusiasm their energy and their excitement and that's our mission to walk in the way to be a disciple of aroen to be just as excited to light our shabas candles our khah candles to do each Mitzvah to volunteer with each moment of to be just as excited with the passion the fervor and the enthusiasm to be devoted to give our entire selves to be part and parcel of this process you there's an amazing thing about the about the uh Kana candles we all know that we celebrate the miracle of the the little flask of oil that was meant to last one day and lasted instead for eight but one of the great questions the asks is they could have other flasks all the other flasks had been contaminated they had been compromised by our enemies the only one that remains pure and eligible to be lit was this tiny little flask but we have a principle we have certain halic principles variables technical not for now but the circumstances were such that you could rely on certain leniencies and you could have lit any of the other oils they didn't only have to light that loil only that oil so Le of the B says nevertheless they devoted themselves they dedicated themselves only to light the one that was the highest caliber they they were so devoted that they made a statement that they would be unsatisfied lighting anything less than the best anything less than the best and this is the message of khaka is to not be satisfied with a little T yeah the rules technically and it's okay and I can rely on it's exception and it's exemption and I can get away with is that the way we live our lives is that the way we live our lives when people ask me they're putting up a new home I get the privilege of getting the first tour of the new homes because they have all kinds of mes I take a tour of the new houses that go up so they say Rabbi called the Sofer and there's a mza for $40 there's mza for $140 and there's misas in between do I really have to is there really a difference it's ink on parchment it says the same thing is there really a difference between the $40 mza and the $140 mza and the $300 do I have to really get so I say let's go out to your driveway what are you talking about what my driveway have to do misza nobody thinks you have to put a mua on a driveway I said let's see what kind of car you drive if you're driving the most basic car with rolling windows and none of the features and none of the then you can get the most basic mza but if you're not satisfied with the basic features if you're not satisfied with the least options if you're not satisfied with the most basic model then you can't be satisfied with that in your spirituality either I'll tell you the same thing about a car does it not get you from point8 point B I would use the name of a basic car but I don't want to insult anybody I drive a Honda Accord I have like my fifth Honda Accord in a row it's the most balaba C you could have a Honda Accord It's A Pas car a Honda Accord Honda Accord in fact I'm up for a new lease and the person I get the lease from said you know the Accord for some reason is expensive the Acura is less I said I'm not driving an Acura though I don't care if it's less money I'm not driving an Acura a Honda Accord so if you drive a Honda Court does it not get you from point A to point B just like a Lexus a Mercedes a BMW or a Tesla and yet you want the Tesla you want the BMW you want the Lexus you want the infinity you want the Acura so if you have that kind of car that's the kind of misza you have to get to and in our physical lives we are overachievers I want a bigger house I want more money a bigger portfolio nicer car nicer clothing I want more and more and more in our physical material lives in the education of our children secularly we are overachievers take the SATs again you could do better take it at 17th time take it 22 times you can get the honors because that also means I get more of my money that I get to keep if you get the the honors so more and more and more and more in the physical material world and in the spiritual World ah it's good enough isn't there some opinion that says that's kosher somewhere doesn't it say somewhere isn't there an exception an exemption is I'm on vacation I can go and I can rely can I rely on isn't there an opinion I can rely on I Googled it and I found somewhere someone once said something and if it was good during the Holocaust can I also so when it comes to the world of spirituality we're satisfied being Underachievers and Kaneka says no be an overachiever they could have used they could have used the that was T they could have used the contaminated oil but they said no to light our holy manura to illuminate the world with the Holy manura we're not going to bring anything that's less than the ideal we're overachievers we're doing the best in our home for our family we're going to bring anything less the ideal we shouldn't feed them garbage physically we shouldn't feed ourselves garbage spiritually and we have to live with the highest and the loftiest and that's how we have to devote ourselves sh like like AR to never lose the enthusiasm the passion and the dedication and devotion and to be present in all that we're doing and that's the we say a when we light the candles and the and writes writes that this bra is not like every other of a mitvah if I left out the BR before I shook the lul was I in the Mitzvah lul yes it happens to be the rabis ordained the mitzvah we have three kinds of we studied this at length when we talked about the 100as so we have three kinds of before I enjoy your benefit from this world where I praise lightning thunder and so on you see natural phenomena and then you have a what I say before I light the candles before I put on myin before I shake lul before I blow chauffeur before I hear Miga I make a before doing a Mitzvah when it comes to every other before a Mitzvah if I omit the I still fulfill the Mitzvah and yet writes that when the that you say before lighting the candles if you lit the candles candles but you did not make the you've not why not I've achieved the net result if you look in my window you'll see that there are candles lit okay the BR is corollary the BR is tangential so I forgot the bra I missed out on the BR but didn't I get the Mitzvah just like every other Mitzvah if I shook lul or heard the chauffer heard the Milla or lit the shabas candles or put on my and I forgot the BR did I get the Mitzvah absolutely I forfeited the BR sadly but I got the Mitzvah so why is KH candles different so he says because it's only through the BR it means that when I'm present when I'm devoted when I'm thoughtful when I'm mindful when I'm conscious when I'm giving myself Pur when I'm seeing in the light of that candle my when I'm seeing my capacity to grow and to Aspire and to elevate that's when I the Mitzvah the other Mitzvah even if I do them very superficially even if I do them just physically and I wasn't mindful in present I didn't have the cab when I did it I could still put a check you the most amazing thing in a relationship is that if you take out the garbage with cavana that it's drawing you closer to your spouse who asked you to it's beautiful but if you didn't have the cavana while you were taking out the garbage that even though this is disgusting act which will leave my hand smelly and I was already undressed and I got to drag it to the edge of the driveway and the car was really in the way and it would be such a pain I had to go around it and I had to go through the mud and even though but you know what each of those compromises and sacrifices is bringing me closer to my spouse who asked me if I'd take the garbage out what a kavana what a br I'm taking the garbage out and I'm the garbage through this taking the garbage out mes wow we are this is an unbelievably romantic gesture so that would be the holiest and highest way to take the garbage out but let's say you didn't have any of those thoughts the only thought you had was I got to get this over with as quickly as possible still if the garbage is on the curb your spouse is happy you got it done the is the same way he wants us to be present when we hear the Milla blow the chauffeur put on on fill and light the shabas candles and so on and so forth he wants us to have mindfulness and be present and have the entire experience and be transformed by but in the end of the day as long as we can put a check that we did it we've been y the Mitzvah but kanak is different because the whole institution of kanaka the whole holiday of kanaka is that we don't get away with the bare minimum the whole idea of kanaka is that I'm not satisfied underachieving it's not enough to just get away with it it would have been enough to use a contaminated jug of oil but they refused to they went to extra mile because they never lost the enthusiasm and the passion the dynamism the energy and the devotion so therefore you have to Len what he writ if all you see is a candra lit in your home so people just think what it was dark and they needed light now today we have electric lights we would never have candles burning in our window but in Antiquity time of the gamar and until fairly recently a person lit a candle in their home every night because that's how you were able to see so how did someone know whether the lit candle reflected the fact that you needed light or whether the lit candle was because you wanted to publicize a miracle how did anyone know what transformed the lit candle from a conduit of light to a conduit of personal growth was your presence and mindfulness to make that Braha so khaka is the holiday of not getting away with it of not underachieving of not doing the bare minimum of not looking for the out Kaneka is the holiday of getting it right and giving all of ourselves and being fully present and reaching and striving we mentioned yesterday in the paraa class as well that it's the image of the candle it's the image of a candle you look at a candle and what do you see when you're looking at the flame of the candle no matter what direction you hold a candle in it's an amazing thing physics wise no matter what direction you hold the candle in the flame goes up so you say to the flame I don't feel like going up flame I'm having a down day I'm down and out I'm depressed I feel like I'm in a dark place it's the L anguage in the vernacular that we use somebody who's down and out who's hopeless and helpless somebody who's depressed somebody who's turned inward says I'm in a dark place I'm in a very dark place in my life right now so you say candle we're facing down we're in a dark place and the flame looks back at you and it says tough nuggies I'm I'm facing up I only know one way to face I only face One Direction and that's up and that's the pin the spark the flame inside us says no matter what's going on in your life no matter how you're feeling no matter how people around you are behaving no matter what what life is throwing your way that little flame it could be the Ember it could be the Ember and the dumpster or it could be a full-fledged flame but it turns back you and it says I only face One Direction I only face One Direction the candle is the symbol of our soul of our we're made up of two parts we're made up of an animal and we're made up of our Godly Spirit we're made up of the physical the gashi and we're made up of the spiritual the we come from the the ground the Earth and we're going to go back there but we also our soul descends from above from Shay our entire lives are trying to merge sh Heaven and Earth our entire lives that's the lad of yov ainu we're trying to create the bridge between Heaven and Earth on the one hand the earthliness in us the the that we've been learning about from V is dragging us down on the one hand it's trying to drag us down and it says just eat it and drink it and look at it and go there and do that it's all about your physical pleasure it's all about indulging in your happiness it's all about pampering with vanity your body the body's dragging us down down down down down and the Soul inside us says come on you're so much better than that and you're so much more than that strive higher come on it's not just about the latest clothing or your appearance or your look it's not about your money or your things or your happiness it's about meaning and it's about purpose and it's about your Nish and it's about connecting to a higher power and a higher being and meeting his expectations and following his prescription for your happiness come on you're capable of so much more stop resisting it stop allowing the arat in us the Naish bahami the animal in US stop allowing it to create a resistance that's holding us back and break through and make that change and nourish that Soul inside you because it's desperately trying to go from an ember that's holding on it wants to be fanned it wants to be able to explode into a raging fire and that we look at the manora we have a m the Kad Le says or Le tells us that kanak is the holiday of seeing different holidays have different tastes we have five senses and the different holidays correspond with different senses that we have pesak is our sense of eating matah and pesak is the holiday of eating each of the holidays correspond with a different sense pum is the holiday of listening of hearing I have to hear the Milla khaka he says is the holiday of seeing it's the capacity to see and what am I looking for what am I seeing he says the kadas Ley after you light the khaka candles we have a tragedy that happens and we struggle with it everybody struggles with it you light the manura and immediately you run to the other room open presents make lotas spin the Jal that's the best case scenario worst case scenario running out to the next concert the next event the next program the next Gathering the next and those poor little Kaneka candles they say you weren't supposed to just light me and leave me you weren't supposed to just light me and abandon me spend some time with me sit with me look at me now we're not allowed to benefit from them that's what they used to say the boys would say about the girls you're only allowed to look at the candles you're not allowed to benefit from them or interact with them just so the whole candles they theseal were lighting them and K they're KES they're holy so take our little kids to sh when they're little kids when schul is over we walk them on the beima we open the AR and say look it's a Torah give it a kiss give it a kiss it's holy it's a holy Torah it's F it's holy but they're holy and what do we do come on kids presents in the other room lka in the other room drel in the other room that's the best case scenario because at least we're still spending time with each other worst case scenario is everyone scatters and goes on to their own lives and Kaneka lasts for 7 Seconds that it takes light the Mana but you're not allowed to use the light of the Mana you can't learn or count your money the gamor gives an example or or do your own personal things next to the light of the manura you can't benefit from the light of the manura but yet what are we supposed to do the one thing to do with them is not to use them as a torch to light up the room what do we do with them they're there for one reason and one reason only to stare at it's not polite to stare when it comes to the khah candles it's not polite not to stare it's impolite not to stare our whole mission and the kadish Ley says this is the holiday of looking of seeing of staring and it has the ability to repair the damage we've done to our eyes we've done damage to our eyes in different ways some people have damaged Their Eyes by looking at the things other people have with jealousy and envy and wishing they had it and wondering why their neighbor has it some people have damaged Their Eyes by watching things that we shouldn't be watching images that we shouldn't be absorbing in our eyes we have all kinds of Damage Done to our eyes and how do we repair that damage done to our eyes we have a a good kind the legit kind that when you finish lighting the man the Kana candles don't run anywhere the lkas will be waiting the drel can wait the kanel can wait and the distribution of the presents can wait just gather around the candles and look and stare and watch that light and what are you looking for you know the flame it dances it's dancing remember the B we learned a few weeks ago a person walks into a room and there's music playing and everyone's dancing and it's a huge party but they're deaf they've got earplugs in they've got noise cancelling headphones on and they don't hear the music what they see are a bunch of crazy people dancing in a room but it's only because they don't hear the music and the bahm says amuna is the music of life pem is playing the music of hi I'm here and let's dance together and there's a music and a rhythm and a meaning and a purpose to the world but if you don't hear the music you just see a bunch of crazy people dancing but if you take the earplugs out and now you hear the music all you want is to jump in the Middle with them you can't hold back from dancing with them so that flame it's dancing it's flickering and what way is it dancing it's not dancing down it's not dancing down to the Earth and it's not dancing to a place of physicality it's dancing only up it's dancing higher and higher and higher our is just dying to go higher and higher and our body is the resistance that's blocking it and holding it back and leaving us feeling unsatisfied and unfulfilled and lacking the meaning and the purpose that we all crave that's what we're looking at the the the Yim I said this also in the para class I won't believe but the's mission was they tried to darken our eyes the P says the world was when the God created the world is the description of the original creation and the four pH in that sentence all correspond with the four Exiles so the Exile of of darkness is the Exile of the Syrian Greeks of kanah of the Yim of the hellenists they tried to darken our eyes what does it mean to darken someone's eyes they said stop looking at the flame stop feeding and nourishing your Nish stop believing that there's an ember and a spark inside stop lighting fires they tried to make it dark outside how do you make it dark by turning off the light by extinguishing the fire by extinguishing the flame they tried to put out the Ember they tried to they tried to put out our fire they tried to extinguish our fire and our mission in life is not only to be on fire but to light other people's fire and to make our fire burn even brighter and how do we do that when we look at the light of the manur when we look at that light of the manura you know what you see if we gather around that FL that fire of the manura Han and if we'd stare at them you know what we'd see we'd see the bra that's under our eyes all along what does it mean to be living in Darkness Darkness is wo is me darkness is I have nothing and the world is nothing and all there is is pain and suffering and there is a lot of legitimate pain and suffering in this room and well beyond people who've suffered and struggled and been stricken in ways we can't and shouldn't ever have to imagine and Hashem should just give you strength and courage and comfort and consolation and braa but those who haven't experienced that horrific struggle and that horrific suffering yesterday I had back-to-back meetings first and I met with amazing Couple come to my para class I told the story in Adia last year two years ago about the hidden SCH of tan so the daughter of the artist who drew that hidden Sho comes to the para class and she and her husband came to meet and they shared more of their story and they are are you allowed to say about a couple of the cutest couple you ever met and the sweetest couple they're both deep into their '90s and they both were sent on the Kinder transport and lost their whole families and they met at an orphanage at a young age and then they got married and they built a beautiful beautiful beautiful family and there they were telling us their Story of Survival and how they lost their whole family an extraordinary extraordinary story talking all about Hashem and how good Hashem is to them and The hund Offspring that they have the being at their grandchild's grandchild's bris their great great grandchild's bris and how amazing Hashem is amazing Hashem so parents murdered killed family exterminated suffered sent on a cancer transport living in an orphanage and Hashem is just amazing they're on fire they're on fire the light of the manura on fire and the next meeting sadly was with a A young member of the community dating a non-jew turned off went through our entire Jewish education system and you say why well because this and this happened to me so there's no God there's no Judaism there's no purpose and and this isn't a reason to be observant I said to them I'm not trying to guilt you into it or tell you the reason I just can't help but telling you that the people right before you in this office in the same chair were two people who lost everything who went through the greatest atrocity in the history of humanity who went through the greatest loss in the greatest pain that ever existed and they sat here with a smile on their face talking about choosing to see what Hashem has done for them choosing to see the good choosing to turn on the light rather than live in the dark they're exceptional they're extraordinary and I'm not saying it's easy and I don't say it to guilt that person or guilt any of us but they are Role Models they are a source of strength for us and we live in a generation that you know this one Whatever didn't work out for me I'm out I'm done life isn't perfect everything doesn't happen exactly the way I want I'm not talking about the people people who had terrible tragedies who have every reason in the world to object and protest Hashem but I'm talking about you know I recently flew and would you believe the Wi-Fi didn't work and there's no God there's no God the Wi-Fi was slow it was out my Direct TV didn't work or the channel I wanted wasn't working there's no God what was me why do bad things happen to good people and there's no God which I'm exaggerating but not by much this generation which includes us so you light them you light the kanaka candles and and and you see the braa that's right in front of us all along that was right under our nose George Orwell once wrote to see what is in front of one's nose needs a constant struggle to see what's right under our nose needs a constant struggle and what I'm getting at and then we'll get to our learning what time is it we're almost done what I'm getting at is whether we live in the light or the dark is up to us it's up to us you could turn off the light and sit in the dark and say woe is me or you could choose to turn on the light and by turning on the light the problems are still there when you turn the light on but you also see some of the solutions you see the challenges but you also see a lot of the blessings so the choice khaka tells us turn on the light and all you can start on the first night is a little light so you turned on one light and by the eighth night you're able to turn the dimmer Higher and Higher and fan that flame brighter and brighter and khaka says find the Ember find the spark it's inside you and that spark is K it stands for your and it's dancing to go higher and higher and your body is the resistance that's making you drag you down down down but the spark of the Soul inside you is trying to make you go higher and higher and higher stop resisting it stop holding back take that leap stop resisting it kanak make a pledge make a promise make a change you don't have to wait an extra week when the rest of the world are going to make their resolutions you can make the resolution now overcome that resistance and feed that soul that Nish and let it go higher and higher what Improvement are we going to make if we don't dve in every day I'm going to dve in every day if I die without I'm going to try to be present and think about what I'm saying if I never volunteer to do I'm going to be thoughtful and drop off meals or check in on people when they're all alone if my dress and modesty need Improvement I'm going to work on that if my gossip and language and speech need Improvement I work on that what area of my life is the resistance holding me back that I say it's just not me I eat that I eat that I eat out in those places or I speak in that way or I use that language or I only care about myself that's just me it's the way it is it's it's been forever it's the way it'll always be no it doesn't have to there's a soul there's a spark it's dancing up and up and up and it may be a little Ember or glow fan that flame give it the oxygen it needs what's the oxygen it needs is Torah the oxygen it needs is Torah and amuna which is exactly the point amuna is the oxygen that the Ember needs in order for it to glow and grow bright and to burn as a Raging Raging Raging Fire that's what it's all about Kana is the holiday of sight and of seeing they're holy and they're we're supposed to look into them and see ourselves and see the lives that we're capable of and the amuna that we could have and how it would transform our life to wake up every morning with a sense of mission and a sense of purpose with a sense of why we're here and the difference that we can make and to see the BR in our lives should we do one paragraph back in the safer okay one paragraph Torah tells us that in the time visited a after he had his bris so Angels Came we all know the story we just read it recently sitting outside his tent it's the third day after the bris it's the most painful day in recovering from surgery and hashem's in the middle of visiting him and talking to him and Angels come now if God is sending the Angels couldn't he have delayed their arrival a few more minutes till he was done visiting with ar why did Hashem set up that conflict to begin with why create the conflict what we've been learning has been telling us is that the the best way to improve ourselves is to live with amuna we think that if I'm better I have amuna but it's the opposite if I have amuna and I recognize and realize and devote myself to Hashem then I will improve myself so what Hashem was testing out was who was saying the following I'm in the middle of talking to you but you know my whole relationship with you is so that you'll be like me so let's put it into practice Let's test it let's see if it happens you ready we're in the middle of a conversation let's see if you interrupt to go host these angels that you think are men let's see if you interrupt because God says in the conflict and choice between talking to me and being like me I'd rather you be like me and is supposed to make us better people it's supposed to help us correct and repair our mid by believing and seeing the hand of hm guiding Our Lives which is also obviously the story of they happened then and they're happening to us now there are Miracles every single day go back and listen to the sitter snippets on mod and realize that when you woke up this morning and you opened your eyes and both your eyes worked there was a miracle that happened to you today you went to the bathroom everything worked there was a miracle that happened to you today you put two feet on the ground and you didn't collapse and your legs took you where you meant to go there was a miracle that happened to you today there are Miracles each and every day and for eight days Hollow we are filled with gratitude to Hashem thank you thank you for those daily Miracles the overt explicit Miracles and the hidden implicit Miracles the purpose of the big Miracles the overt ones is to open my eyes to the hidden ones these are days of eight eight is one more than seven the supernatural I see Hashem I see you everywhere in the natural is Supernatural in the ordinary is extraordinary Hashem I see you everywhere and because of that I'm going to improve my MOS I want to be like you I'm going to emulate you I'm going to follow your model follow your lead so that's what Hashem was testing ab and that's how R is explaining this otherwise very confusing section why didn't Hashem just delayed their arrival till he was done meeting why did he set up the conflict and the reason he set up the conflict was to test and to say abam you claim that you loveed me Aram you claim you've discovered me and you found me then you must know that what I want more than anything is not for you to talk to me but for you to be like me be like me improve your MOS be kind and giving and gracious and magnanimous and benevolent and generous and alistic be like me that is the great tribit you can give to me so I give us all a that on the remaining days of kanah we should stare at those candles and watch them dance and flicker upwards and they should Inspire that spark inside us the Nish inside us the flame the the the Ember that's inside us that we should fan it with amuna until it blows glows bright and becomes a Raging Raging Fire that is lighting up the whole world Happy Kaneka