Part 62: Chanuka and Moving on to ‘Plan B

okay good morning I want to thank for sponsoring this morning memory of her beloved daughter should have alah okay we're taking a break from our normal study we're going to do the in case you didn't get the memo today is khaka and so to try to combine our ambition for growing Aruna but within this Yan of of khaka so this is the as you could see the pattern big fan on it's published as a separate booklet and here so he starts as follows you see where we are when it comes to we find two components the miracle of the candles and the rededication of the altar the fact that the Syrian Greeks had taken over the temple and defiled it so there were two Miracles one that a flask of oil lasted longer than a should have and number two the miracle of the rededication of the when it comes to the miracle of the flask of oil that lasted longer that thear addresses when it asks what is the essence of they contaminated all the oils and we found one flask that really should have only lasted one day but and a miracle occurred and it lasted not one day but days eight days and to commemorate that Miracle we light the we build up it's do you start with eight and go down to one do you start with one and go down to eight go up to eight we follow the opinion of B we start with one and we go up to eight we light for eight days to commemorate the miracle that it lasted for 8 days just as an aside the B asked the famous question question for which a saer was published neara which was 100 answers to his one question his one question is why is kanaka eight days it should only be seven days why should it only be seven days because after all the first day wasn't a miracle there was enough oil to last one day the miracle was that it lasted seven more so why is khaka observed for eight days it should only be observed for seven like I said if you've heard a few answers to that there are at least 100 say for n laa quotes 100 answers and there are many many times that but what's always struck me as I think in some ways the most obvious but to me the most meaningful answer is the following in MA last night we began to sing the one of the stanzas ends of ma towards the end the people who established Kaneka the themselves were Ben they were men of great Insight of great wisdom penetrating wisdom what do the words mean translate so they do not mean days if you look even the art mistranslates it says 8 days but it's not8 days how would you say eight days in Hebrew now that wouldn't work as well in the song so therefore clearly in order to be able to work it's but more than just working into the song does not mean eight days these men of penetrating wisdom and insight established not eight days they establish days of eight what's the difference between eight days or days of eight it's like a Sesame Street days that are brought to you by the number eight that's the theme each one of these days is brought to you by the number eight so the mar explains that seven represents nature the natural order the natural world seven of the days of the week seven are the days of creation seven is the natural world eight is one above it's one more eight is the supernatural eight is that which goes beyond khaka is an holiday that eight days a year we remind ourselves that even that which looks natural is is Supernatural even that which looks ordinary isn't in truth extraordinary you know the gar tells the story of um uh the famous story of one of the uh Tan's wife who ran out of uh oil she wasn't able to light the chabas candles she said light the vinegar light vinegar vinegar is not fuel vinegar can't last vinegar can't light and he said why not the same one who created oil and said that oil will serve as fuel and light so too vinegar vinegar can light and so was am Amica the vinegar lip what's the message of that story is the only difference between the natural and Supernatural is what we've come to take for granted it's what we come to expect but the natural is no more natural than the supernatural or no less Supernatural than the supernatural the only difference is how much we take it for granted how used to it we've become but the bottom line is that all of it is the will of the Reon it all comes only with the Providence of Hashem it's only when Hashem wants it and wishes and wills it and allows it and if he did oil wouldn't light either so the same one who allows oil to light could allow vinegar to light and the theme of khaka is khaka is not 8 days long because the miracle was 8 days long the miracle was 8 days long because the miracle was a miracle of the number eight and so these days are not just it's not just eight days they're they are days that are brought to you by the number eight that as we live our natural lives in these eight days we look and see that there's actually nothing natural about them that if you can see and hear and walk that if you have the miracle of life itself I saw a great story thatman who who Aron who passed away yesterday great one of the great gum of the Jewish people he was4 years old so last year a young man said to him rashash what does it feel like to be a walking Miracle so he looked at the young man and he said I don't know you tell me and what was the message to the young man is just because I'm 104 doesn't make me any more of a miracle than you at 22 years old if you're alive if you're awake if you're here you're no less a miracle than I apparently when he was already 102 or 103 there was a doctor who told him you can't fast on y Kipper so he said to the doctor how do you know that he said because I'm a doctor he said well really how much experience do you have treating 103 year olds so the doctor said to be honest you're the first one so he said so that means I don't have to listen to you who says you know what I can or can't do and he went out and he fasting right but anyway the point is how does it feel to be a walking Miracle cuz you're 104 I don't know you're 15 how does it feel for you to be a walking miracle if you woke up this morning you're a walking Miracle who says you should be alive at 104 who says you should be alive at 15 there are horrific tragedies of young people and there's the longevity and life span of older people and it all comes from Theon it's all equally natural or it's all equally Supernatural but there's no difference between the two and that's the essence of holiday of of Kaneka is that don't look at the world through the prism and wearing the glasses of seven don't see nature wear glasses of the number eight see Supernatural see Miracles all around us because there are Miracles all around us these are days that are so come back to the B's question why is KH eight days it should only be seven the first day wasn't a miracle there was enough oil to last the answer is the first day is also a miracle who says the oil should ignite who says the oil should light who says the oil should burn even that first day that day it's fine it's fine leave it that day too is a miracle so therefore kanaka's eight days one of which was a day that we would have taken for granted seven of which seem to us to be outrageously outstanding but all eight of which in truth really come from Hashem so what should we be working on these eight days is giving how and not for when we see a miracle but just not like itself is a miracle just life itself that comes together that works out the things that we take for granted they too are I always say this the what we say shabas morning those two columns and then we list everything God created the world and he made the constellation and the moon and the stars God your kindness endures forever and then we recognize all the Miracles of God in history you took us out of Egypt and we all these amazing Miracles and how do we end how does end I've shared this with you before makes no sense what kind of end is this it's so anticlimactic God you suspended The Rules of Nature and you made the sea split and you made 10 Miracles occur and God you created the world something from nothing and magnificent constellations and the Seas and the land god did all and also when I go to publ there's bread on the Shelf Bread on the Shelf in Publix equals all these other things so anticlimactic El what's the answer yeah you know I went to Publix and taka there was bread on the Shelf there wasn't one bread there was 20,000 breads I had to pick out of which one I wanted okay maybe only one of them had a h CU bread some reason bread is doesn't have a lot of but when I go to the supermarket just because I'm not a farmer in the field relying on the rain and waiting for the produce to grow and to harvest it but the fact that we go to Publix is or windix or whereever you shop is a miracle that these products and produce and they have and they're so plentiful and there's so many to choose from and there's not like one loaf of bread I went to Russia twice in uh the 1990s to visit my cousin was running Yeshiva in kishinev and in kishinev I remember there was a market and there was a long line of people waiting single file and they were waiting to get their half a quart of milk and to get a loaf of bread and it was rationed out and it was so little of it we walk one apple one slice of bread one cup of milk and we walk into Publix and to your hearts they don't when you check out of publ they don't say I'm sorry as a quota only three loaves a person they're grateful for you to buy an entire pallet of bread so no say you go to publ you can buy a pallet of bread you go to Costco and whatever you could buy so that is no less miraculous than the sun in the in the sky and then the constellations and the 10 plagues and so the what second the holiday of OFA the whole Essence is it's not that it's eight days long it's days of a when you go shopping in publ in Costco and wind Dixie and the Grove kosher market and the other new places wherever you go make sure include everybody wherever you go your shopping on Kaneka should be different than it is the rest of the year the rest of the year you just went in and you left and you bought your stuff and you paid when you shop on khaka you say wow it's a miracle I see eight within the seven I see the supernatural within the natural and therefore even the first night even last night is the biggest Miracle even the night for which there was a flask that too is a miracle yes isn't there a story in tanak about a woman who burned vinegar that's yeah that's what I referenced so the vinegar she was upset there was no oil there was no so burn the vinegar exactly the notion so that's when it comes to the miracle of of the oil that's our job that's our mission that's with our children to point out to our children our grandchildren over these eight days that they shouldn't wish oh I wish there were Miracles oh I wish God revealed himself to me oh I wish I and lived in a time what do you mean you're FaceTiming with your your sibling in Israel your cousin you don't think that's a miracle in real time your face is going up to the heavens and down into Israel 6,000 miles away and you're talking to one another and you could see one another and you're telling me you don't live in times of Miracles I'm not talking about a thousand years ago they never dreamt that could happen I'm talking about 25 years ago we didn't dream that that could happen we thought it would cost a million dollars and all who would have it and if you had it it would break up and it would be a delay a time delay and it could never work out and now you could buy something on Amazon and have it arrive at your doorstep through a drone within 5 minutes and you can go and you can FaceTime and you can watch my father happens to be in Israel but my mother was here last night my father from 6,000 miles away joined us for candle lighting literally his he was there for with us for candle lighting and it was not on time delay and we didn't record it and send it to him and you had to download it I remember when it first came out when we were living in Gross and the internet was just really starting I remember I went we had this you know the dial you dial up your internet and there was this cool thing so I remember I downloaded on on the laptop it was like an 8sec video of Michael Jordan Duncan the basketball I pressed the download before we went to sleep and like 14 hours later the 8sec video had downloaded I show it was so cool look at this it's so cool you can download you can watch it 8C video it's so cool it took a half a day download the 8C video which is all grainy and blurry and we live in a so what it's not Miracles these aren't y we're not living in the capital of of we're not living in these are incredibly miraculous times again the first time you used FaceTime you said whoa the first time you use ways you said that's incredible now it's like it's natural it's natural it's a big deal it's natural some designers it's a free app I have to buy it my FaceTime is not working it says that it's it's reconnecting what is this garbage I can't believe this it's these are miraculous miraculous miraculous times and we can never ever make the mistake of confusing the natural or the supernatural with the natural the extraordinary and seeing it just as ordinary and what about the reconsecration of the altar this is what our Rabbi said sh they contaminated the Al and the constructed a new Al and consecrate it was on the 25th of K that the construction of the Tabernacle was complete so we first began to use the Mishka the Tabernacle on the first of Nissan but the construction of the Mish was complete on the 25th of K which happens to correspond with today the name of the holiday wres why is the whole holiday called it is commemorating the the reconstitution the reconsecration of the m we read today in the toah reading of is the dedication of the why is the holiday called after the consecration of the Altar and not based on the candles after all if you ask me which is a bigger Miracle which is the bigger miracle that you L you light a tiny flask and it lasted eight days you know that every I haven't seen it yet this year but every year you see on the internet someone puts out a picture of the cell phone battery which said that it only had 1% but it lasted 8 Days Mir so that's the modern application of the miracle of Kana your cell phone battery showed 1% but it lasted eight more days so which is a bigger miracle that your battery was down to 1% it lasted eight days or that you took your Kum to the Mikvah and now you could use them and cooking them that your M that was contaminated you purified and you could use it would so we Nam the holiday after the fact that we rebuilt the altar we did what was necessary to purify the altar okay what's the big deal that's nice we drove them out they had occupied notice the word they occupied our Temple and we drove them out and we recovered it and we purified it and we re to use it again oh and also this little flask lasted 8 days long so we name it after that we were able to purify the altar what do you mean the other Miracle is much much bigger so why don't we name the holiday after the miracle of the oil why is the holiday named after the miracle of the ability to use the altar once again so says I want to explain it based on how the commentators explain the par we say every morning before M chapter 30 m so what is m a it's a wrote It's a she it's a song and what was the song composed for what was the occasion for which it was composed for the inauguration of the right when when a person buys a new house or they build a new house or they remodel a house they hold the we emulate that's the same word as the holiday of it's all the same root it's all the same word I think I wrote about it last week that I wrote the about theuk is to is to Usher Something in for the purpose for which it was created so when we hold the you hold that party what you're saying is that this home is not constructed for me to watch TV and eat good meals and indulge in the pleasures of this world I'm I'm I'm I'm building not just a house I'm transforming it into a home I'm making it a holy a sacred home and the home will be defined by what happens inside of it not by the walls of it that's theuk it's okay to me so this mism that D wrote mism l cap L which get a new Palace did he get a new house so it says we say these words every morning before what do they mean God you raised me out from the dungeon from the of my soul you you gave me life from The Descent down to the pit so when did write this I'm sorry I skipped the line explain which is this when built the he established he wrote he composed this song To Be Sung during the during the dedication of the new was describing a life without a a world without a is a world without what is the Bas of mikash the B of mikdash is hashem's intent to dwelling among us there were 10 Miracles that happened daily in the temple Mish per tells us 10 open Miracles that happened that meant that if you lived in the time of the B mikdash and you had doubt or uncertainty as to whether there was Hashem in your life you made your way to the B mikdash and you renewed and reaffirmed your faith you saw open Miracles and you couldn't help but but believe that he was there so the bik is the vehicle for that hem dwells Among Us you can palpably tangibly intensely feel his presence that's why we've been suffering the last 2,000 years what gas what is is it's when hasem withdraws his divine presence and we feel a void a whole absent we're struggling to make Rhyme or Reason for what's happening in the world we're struggling to feel hashem's presence in our lives so says a world without is a world filled with s gous it's the darkness of Exile it's the darkness of uncertainty you know kazal already give us the Insight that uncertainty is is one of the most painful things in the world someone waiting for the result of a test they took it's almost better they're almost more prepared to get the bad news than living with the uncertainty bad news you could deal with you can learn to deal with you can figure out how you're going to deal with but the uncertainty is literally a form of torture it's torture there's nothing more joy ful than resolving uncertainty and doubt just making the decision knowing which direction you're going to go in knowing what you have to deal with knowing what you have before you you know if you've ever not felt well or someone near you has not felt well and you go to countless doctors and you just nobody can put their finger on it you take countless test and no one knows what's wrong I love when our kids go to the doctor there something's wrong and they say it's an ear infection it's strap it's this it's that when they say it's a virus that's the worst you have no idea what it is how to treat it how long it's going to take when it's going to be gone they say here's what it is great pick up the antibiotic get it started you know it'll be a couple days and they'll be back on the road so says the gas Exile is characterized by the challenge of uncertainty by not knowing by not feeling by living with this ache in your stomach why is this happening and what's going to happen and is Hashem here with me and what is the B mikash it's it's like someone's sick who got better oh that's what my problem is I just need to take this this uh I just need to take this packet of antibiotics I just need to take this thing of steroids and I'm going to get better there's no better news than that you already feel better even before you filled the prescription because you know you have your medicine you take it you're going to get better that's what the building of the so here's the question I understand when we built the second base if you'd compose a song called and you'd say in it You Raised Me Up from from the the dungeon of my of my soul you Lifted Me from the pit because I was in gas you took me out of the gas and you brought me into the G but the first B mikdash we didn't come out of gas the first B mikdash was not a return from an exile it was the first so some say when did David say this after he got sick and then he recovered he was sick and he got better this is the the the body is the Goof that holds the and when the body is sick the struggles to connect it's very hard to feel connected with your soul when you're in pain or when you're lethargic when you're debilitated so some suggest not like rash that when did D compos this chapter that we say every morning he happened to have had a certain ailment a certain illness and when he got better that's when he wrote it if that's the case what the peric refers to is do himself that after he was sick he got vibrant he got his energy back but this is also hard because if you go through say if you go through the story of you will not come across a story of his being sick so that's difficult to understand so says theb you want to know what it's really talking about let me tell you what it's talking about wrote this mis not having to do with the building of the bikash because we didn't come out of a GS not having to do with his personal illness or diagnosis because we don't find the story if he's being sick why did David write this chapter for every one of us because every one of us in life confront circumstances that we feel are going to shatter us that we feel are going to knock us down and we're never going to get up when you are in that dark place when you're going through that dark time it's hard to imagine it ever getting better interpersonal relationships one's own illness one's own illness of a child Financial ruin whatever crisis one is going through through it's hard to see a light at the end of the tunnel it's hard to believe the tunnel has an end you think this is your new your new reality nothing could ever get better it's just the worst it's going to we're going to collapse gives you the strength and the capacity so you know what this mism is about out says the son when your inner home when your inner world is on the verge of collapse and Hashem fortifies it and Hashem strengthens it and Hashem holds up those walls and Hashem allows you to rededicate it and to say you know what I thought my house was imploding my inner home my inner world my heart my life my hope my family my faith I thought it was crumbling I thought it was collapsing I thought it was falling down but gave me the strength my faith enabled me to get through it and you know what I came out the other end coming out on the other end doesn't mean that the sick person got better it doesn't mean the marriage made it it doesn't mean that you made a financial uh all of a sudden you made millions of dollars coming out on the other end means that you had the strength to be able to deal with it that you you were able to put one foot in front of the other and live life that you could smile again that you had the resiliency to live life I gave a talk on at the women's health and day which if you weren't there shame on you because it was an amazing day and an amazing success um and so my class was about um what was my class about how to be a good friend to someone in crisis so I'm a big fan of Sher samberg's book option b so her book option b which is about resiliency is not about how to get option A back she couldn't bring her husband back to life her husband Dave who died so suddenly the book is not about how to resuscitate and resurrect the people who are gone how to resurrect the life you had her book is about when option A is taken away from you how do you move on to option b I actually saw on her website she has a whole website about option b and someone wrote to her what happens when you're up to option y or W or Z what happens when you're at the up to the last options when you've been through so many options in your life but her her the essence of her book and she's using research and study she co-wrote it with Adam Grant is how to live a life of resiliency and how to do option b when option A is taken away from you so I want to be very careful to say that living a life of amuna and being able to have your own personal kanuk saas to rededicate your inner heart your inner home your inner world is not about getting option A back sometimes it is wow I thought it would disappear and it turns out I got my health back wow I thought I had Financial ruins and it turns out right the people who lost all their money with maid off most of whom got back a very significant percentage of it so the day that it came out that made off was a Ponzi scam and a scheme and they thought they lost all their money and they were in Ruins was the worst day of their life and lo and behold many some of them got much of that money back so sometimes option A comes back you thought it was a terrible terminal diagnosis turns out it was arthritis you thought it was whatever it turns out it was sometimes you get option A back but more often than not you don't but the question is how do you have the strength to move on to option b how can you make option b your new your new reality that's what this mism is written in this mis articulates all that he had been through I was in this pit this dungeon this dark place those who were there on Sunday we showed the video from B Brown the difference of sympathy and empathy when the person is in the pit the sympathy is the person who's on top who looks down and says wow it looks pretty dark and cold and miserable down there so sorry for you empathy is that you climb down the ladder in the pit sit next to that person in the pit so that's this imagery of D in this mism that God the geh of my soul you gave me life from being low in the pit Longing To had a tough life a rebellious son who wanted to kill him a father on who chased him and pursued him and wanted to kill him every direction he was being pursued and when he was in that dark place when he thought it was hopeless when he thought he was going to collapse when he thought that this dark reality was New Normal and his new reality and there was no way out what did he do to you I call God what good is there in my death I can't serve you from this low position what good is there in my suffering listen to me and bestow kindness upon me and help me forever I will Express gratitude to you this was written posits the not because David healed from a particular illness and not because he built the B mdash he rebuilt his own home his own life his own heart his own inner world so he wrote it for all of us that when we nationally or collectively go through a hard time imagine how this was said after the expulsions and the Inquisition how this was said after the Holocaust that you give us the strength take me out of my hell out of my dungeon out of my pit help me and I will forever thank you we can come back and strengthen we have to re inaugurate and reestablish and have AAS for the Jewish people are we not living in the time of theuk of the Jewish people is the state of Israel not the Kanasas that the homes of the Jewish people were were obliterated were destroyed 6 million I'm if you saw yesterday there was a New York Times article with a picture of a manura that was lit in a window opposite a Nazi headquarters with a swastika in Berlin it's an unbelievable picture and a great story of defiance right so of the manura opposite the image of the of the swasa so if the Holocaust was the destruction of our Collective home is the state of Israel not the biggest manura there isuma of the reestablishment of of the Jewish people and of our home says it's not a coincidence brought down we just began it this morning that every day of even though we said before if you're asazi or or whatever you say it if you're but even though we already said it we say it a second time at the end of daving we say the and it's as if the is why because it captures this idea of the rededication of Our Lives that when you thought it was hopeless when you were despondent when you thought that this was a new reality that you could never climb out of this dark place Hashem was there we reach out to Hashem we put our amuna and faith in him and either he gives us option A back or if not he gives us the strength to move on to option b or option C or option D and with that strength to be able to lift our head high again to be able to live life with a sense of resiliency again and now we understand when the asked my and it aners oh we found all these flasks of oil they were contaminated and when when the mighty won and they looked and they found only one small flask L at lasted eight days and one can ask what was the G's question about my isn't it strange says the the gar asked why is it called khaka and then it gave an answer that didn't answer the question the question was why is it called Kaneka we said oh they found the flask of oil at last of eight days how did that answer the question the question was why is it called and you didn't answer about the you answered about the candles the says that wasn't a question it was a different question but what was the answering how did the answer correspond with the question and all the more so why did we name the holiday okay they rededicated the altar okay so the altar became contaminated they purified it they were ready to start going again in the Bas of but that was a miracle that happened for its time it wasn't an enduring miracle if you say we were slaves in Egypt and we were going to be destroyed and he split the sea and he did the 10 plagues and we became a nation that's an enduring Miracle forever if you say we got the Torah har it's an enduring Miracle forever we sat in suas and we Brave the elements and here we are to tell about it it's an enduring Miracle they rededicated the contaminated and why did they have to wait a year in order to estabish the holiday Why didn't it happen immediately so he says because it took a year to see that the the light would last it took a year to break through and see light at the end of the tunnel it took a year to see that this new reality that option be that the light could come back again sh that the light of that Kana candle didn't just last eight days it's lasted now for thousands of years and it will last until will come if that's the case the holiday should be named after and correspond with the miracle of the candles not the rededication of the altar the answer is that the rededication of the altar was not temporary it didn't just happen in its time but the message and the symbol of the ability to rededicate something which was broken to take something broken and make it whole again to begin to to be alive and energetic again that is something which it endures it's an enduring message this is the idea of renewal of a fresh beginning of a new start of the ability to break out so what is the h of Kaneka all about the holiday of Kaneka is all about two things number one seeing the ordinary as extraordinary seeing the natural is Supernatural as we spoke about that's the component of the miracle of the candles but it's also about the miracle of the altar it's the knowledge that within us is the ability within us is the strength within us is the capacity that when we feel broken when we feel exiled when we feel we are in darkness when we feel that we are in a moment ofan our family is aan our finances are aan our our our health is aan our our when we feel that we are in a place ofan that we should know that we can once again rededicate that we can rebuild that we can have a fresh start just like the Jewish people were in a place of of destruction after after giving up and in this momentem gave them great light he said just look through the tunnel I promise you there's a light at the end there is a light on the other side just look and you will see that light there's a way out you have the resiliency you have the capacity you can rededicate you can start again you can make it through and I wish we could read the rest of this piece but we're out of time but this is the theme of M it is the essence of what we can achieve and what we can break through with with khaka and we have that power so look at the lights tonight when we light the second candle don't do what most people do which is you get done with the Mitzvah so that you can leave the room and go make the lkas and eat the donuts and give the gifts and move on to what you were doing first of all last night we proudly put all of our screens and devices in a bucket put them aside for more than half an hour we had incredible time together that was the screen free challenge we spoke about last week but stay in the room and look at the light and in the light see your light at the end of your tunnel in that light see your better future in that light see the possibility illuminated before you that you're not stuck in the darkness of whatever kurban you feel you're you're held back by but see the light of possibility of what yet could be happy Kana