Chanuka Message from 1940 - 80 Years Ago

so we're learning the mimer my mother my look at volume one the mimer's my hanukkah and we're on page uh 100 the third ice let's um recap the basically what we learned yesterday that i've asked many questions one of the questions was why does the gemata tel ask what is hanukkah which is the beginning of the mimer my hanukkah and it tells us what what's hanukkah all about uh it's about the finding of the jug of um oil and uh the question was that should have been asked it should have been said before the at the very beginning of the discussion of chanukah if you look into the gemara it's not that way it follows other laws that the kumar already speaks about hanukkah so that's that was his first question then he asked others and that one of the questions was also why are we celebrating the jug of the that the miracle really the big miracle was the the victory of the many the the the weak over the mighty and the the few over the many as we're saying the alanis right so the alamisim is all about what really it's all about the war but yet we celebr we don't celebrate that really we celebrate the the oil and that ever went on to explain because the essence of hanukkah is a spiritual victory it's not about the physical war of course there was a war and of course they won the war but what were they fighting for and that that ever said they were white they were fighting for godliness divinity hashem not logic the syrian greeks and that entire movement they had no problem with any part of toyota any type of mitzvah that rep that that be speaks of cycle of logic and intelligence but anything that seems um you know not understood not logical and even contrary and contradictory like the mitzvoth para duma where the one sprinkling becomes impure the one who gets the the the the mayan hayem potion sprinkled on themselves it becomes pure that's an oxymoron the person who's pure and he sprinkles he becomes impure and a person who's impure gets water a potion and it becomes pure so that's uh not only not logical it's contradictory and and these are things that we call hukim statutes and this is what they had a problem with it in other words oh you're doing it do not mix wool and linen why not because hashem said so that's what he decided yes you you look into the min of the difference for him it gives explanations you know for mitzvahs even mitzvahs that are hook him but the traitor doesn't say and the toyota does not say an explanation the trader we have three categories of mitzvos laws commemorations and statutes so the abba said this proves that the the idea the thrust of hanukkah is about rukhmus it was a rook this and because of this the highlight is the oil because the oil represents what he said yesterday in the mimer you know speaks about oil being but in this mimer so far he speaks about oil being oil being kind of pleasure you know like i gave told yesterday you know a salad without oil is is is bland but when you put oil in it that has schmuck it has taste that's tastier so the time of the pleasure of a mitzvah is through the oil so that so what do we do we're celebrating the oil they found a jug of oil they found that judaism yiddish is most alive and most uh relevant when there's taino pleasure when a person derives pleasure from doing a mitzvah although he doesn't understand it and that's why i told you that you know when when when you see a yi to says it's also a psalm and believe me he's not meditating or philosophizing when he says it but he says it and you see his eyes you see his body you see his face you see you see that the man is totally not here but he's elsewhere and he's in love with with the with the mitzvot the bracha whatever it is that's time that's pleasure that's what pleasure is pleasure is a feeling that transcends or takes over any other experience that's there at the time so you so for example when someone understands something and they don't have yet pleasure they understand that but they're not moved by it when you have on pleasure in what you understand you're moved by it because the the element of pleasure is one that it makes an impact on the person in actual behavior whereas seiko and even midos you know if it's associated with intelligence and logic it can remain aloof and even if you do a behavior based on it it's like you said at the end of the mime it's cold it's apathetic what are you getting so excited about but someone who who who who's driven by tyner pleasure is a whole different experience and that's why it's not easy my to to have to do a mitzvah with pleasure it's a it's a big avoider it's not something that comes from eating cheesecake and sleeping a lot it doesn't it comes from when you come to a point in your life that hashem is the only reality and and you feel it in your bones then that when you make a bracha it's it's it's permeated with with that that godliness and it's pleasurable to you so you you you it's sweet you say out those words with with with with a lot of sweetness okay it's pleasurable and that's that's a life salvador this isn't something the biggest hasidim and the biggest of the hashem worked all life to find something in their life that they did for hashem that was truly pleasurable it's so easy to say it and say it well and explain it well you know you have all these you know lecturers and and then and teachers and they could talk up a talk and and and motivate and everything and then take a look at the way they do a mitzvah and i promise you they're as far as from what they said i'm not just saying that and i don't i'm not saying it you know they they mean bad they don't mean bad but to have pleasure for a mitzvah that pleasure for mitzvahs is is an avoider and siddha says it's possible see this says it's possible to attain if it wouldn't be possible you're innocent we wouldn't learn about it it would be the avoid of assadic right what's the story with the altar but when he wrote the safer shelter the same day the spoilers they that passed away it was burnt in a fire and we don't even have a copy of it what's the message the message is that this safer is belongs to the spoilers eight that was at sadiq so he took the safer with him no remnant of the book that the out that ever wrote the savior shall bainin in the tanya we have and we have many copies and we have the two different the two the the first version the second version and today you know all over there's a tanya and it's translated in portuguese and in spanish and russian and in french and et cetera what's up shot that this is attainable so on one hand on one hand i emphasize not to be dubbed by the externalities of of of mitzvos um and in any and i don't only mean you know the shaking and baking and and movements and screaming i don't know what i mean that that too but even the chabadnik who's more of a moa you know more using the head no i'll tell you a story anecdote that i remind myself of now in tel aviv in the 1940s well in 1930s and 35 36 there came a group of hasidim that were that were students in lupovic the families were the guerraris the khan of the follow khan khan's father abner goldschmidt these are all the families of the babbage today right and others and they came around the same time 35 or so whatever and they don't they make they they made a school in the nachos section which today is very trendy and artsy i don't know if you've been there moshe but it's a it's a midrak today it used to be a street that you can go through today they made a midrakhov and people you know show their art and they sell their not the street was i think called nakhla pinyamin and and the whole section was also called nothing but the whole section we're talking about a few blocks you know what i mean i know what you mean right so so this hasidah made a show on benjamin in a in a building and i think there was a garage stable there on one floor and they and they rented or gave it to the babbage to make a steamboat of bhavaji steeple and it became known as the nakazu and it it became very prominent in in the world of lubavitch since that time and it and it it uh it acquired its place in khabar history when you talk to someone who knows about the bhavaj history you say nachos their eyes will usually they'll uh oh why oh because they had all these hasidah who both were intellectuals and they were you know altos penalties was with shazaar like this and he was the rebels like middle man with shazaar so you had you had a you had a very big mix of intellectuals emotional see them and machines never seen them and they were all sworn to the rebellion like these were these were real the bother to see them from from the past their parents their zedas you know what i'm saying and and these were the the sons today we have we don't even have all all of their sons already passed on is maybe one of the only people that's left from this whole group they've all passed on anyway hashem so so so i heard and you know shot and you know he took him about shabbos going into this show there was a kiddush they didn't call it a fabrega and i spoke to some of the young guys that were there it was called the kid she's told me every kid this was a fabregan we had a kid we sat down we said look hi and we sat over divider and we started to sing the goon and you know and and there were people that used to dive into two o'clock it was it was like a very very rich laboratory environment in tel aviv coming from russia you know what i'm saying so it was a very very interesting my father as a teenager when my grandparents lived in tel aviv 10 10 15 minutes from there walking okay so my father when he would come home from yeshiva and lured into the bavarian street this before they moved to krakow he would go over there so he he and in fact yo khan's father that follow khan taught him this he was the first one to really teach him to see this when he was a a young teenager anyway so he he told me as a boy growing up you know his memories of that shoe although he technically wasn't from you know his my grandfather was a vision it's a cluster he wasn't he diving the bells and vision it's you know he didn't diving in lavage but my father actually became more and more of babbage he would go to the nachos benjamin school you know too far bring into a kidney store darwin and when he came home anyway so there was a several bruce from one one of the one of the people's uh kids have shadow brothers and at the cheva brachus there were two who see them that were sitting at the table you know whether they were the the the bali simcha or not i don't know and the meltzer you know what the meltzer is the the the waiter the waiter came by one hostage stopped the waiter and he said the police you know i i you know please put down some food you know whatever bring some food he stopped the waiter to make him aware that he wanted a portion of food the second closet didn't stop the waiter because he didn't realize that the waiter walked by i know who they see them are that rabbi oil said that this was the difference between the two seed and both knew a lot of cedars and both were big seed but he said nevertheless one was so enamored with siddhis and he was thinking see this so deeply he didn't realize the way it was there the other one maybe can explain see this better but his mind was not one would see this so he recognized the way he was there and he has to put down some food i'm sharing i'm sharing this story with you both big see them both on the right page but nevertheless one has tai nugg it is one does not yet have tainook and and and this is my observation and the difference is whether you know that there's even a butler a waiter there or you don't know so i'm sure what am i showing you that that you could be a hussey then you could you daven and you cannot see this and you could teach and everything but to have tainook [Music] it's a whole different experience it's a whole different experience you want to say something moisture no yes yeah yes i've seen a crowd y'all being clown heart for 15 years by delivery and going home from blind absolutely i think i told you you're innocent when when i was a boy and my father we lived in borough park and the rebels and crown heights and after yamchev matsuri jumped if he we would go come back two three in the morning or late very late my father got up the next day to go to work there was no you know he he wasn't a coyote guy and working you see that he had to get up and it was it was sometimes my blessed mary my mother blessed memory would would she would drive to pick us up because my father couldn't stay up so late anyways but i do remember um once driving back my father said i don't want to leave if a prank was over so i said why he says because i just wasn't gonna aiden and i don't want a wife and i don't want kids and i don't want pun work i just want to pee in 770 where i was an hour ago with the rabbit so that's exactly what you're talking about unison but but we all know that if we don't if we don't make that experience in our life it's a past it's a wonderful past and a wonderful memory but that's what we have to recreate that's the avoid every day so anyway i just i just i want to now start learning inside but i just shared this to give us a little reca a little background to understand because we speak always about pleasure and misfits kind of the mistress you know what are we talking about what are we really talking about and and and how difficult it is to attain this and how much of ye that's the work on himself to instill this pleasure or or or let's talk about you know the mitzvah of ava really loving another jew re i mean the same as yourself to love a fellow jew just the same as you is the basis of our holy holy day you know those words are liberty it's a nice tomb but you really love someone else as yourself you know so this is why we learn sickness we don't exceed this to every day to to to think again so when we learn such a reminder we talk about the oil it's hanukkah go tell a person on your block go tell them chanukah is about you know tying the pleasure and mitzvahs no they'll say hanukkah is about light lighting up the world if you're you know if you think that way or lighting the world through tighter learning if you're that way but who's thinking about that at the time represents the oil represents pleasure and it's about looking and finding pleasure in the mitzvah pleasure in helping in that's a different analysis and and all three are important and good and holy but this is um you know i share these things with you from time to time because i i want you to to have the understanding and i'm communicating to you what i heard from my teachers and what i saw from older siddhim and and what the altered and the several band put into the 200 years so like if you relate to this it's like you could relate to being in russia in because that that's that's what was going on yes they had to do it through this azar and and and this situation that situation but this was a a staple in chabad hasidis and this is what has brained about they didn't speak about you know other things this they they spoke about this and and and this also explains another thing that maybe you've come across and wondered sometimes you come to a fabregain or you hear you know people are like belittling others and and you know and putting down others and and by the way if you think it's only putting down you know the lit facts you're wrong they put down the hasidim they put down their own sydney so on one hand it's so wrong it's so rude and it's not right right but on the other hand where they're coming from where are they coming from yeah did you ever ask yourself that question and i'll tell you what the answer is you probably understand by now the answer is because they put down themselves because they they they look at themselves the real barbecue hosted of all looked at himself as so insignificant so inconsequential as far as re why because he's so far from taino as one example he's so far from the truth so the tendency of the of of this um feeling spills over and at times in in not a good way so what i'm saying is i'll i'll i'll say it differently the sense and concept of bitter which is probably the number one idea is a mainstay there's a professor uh don seaman of emory university he's the associate professor of jewish studies a good friend from june and he you know he's he told me he was writing uh um a book on bittle that's how he got in touch with me and we spent a lot of time both in architectural when he was there lived for a year and whatever bitter so bitter is a mainstay in every my mercedes and the whole time your bitter bitter bitter so when you when you when you when you you know convince it talk learn so much about bitly talk so much about it you also kind of uh can go off on the left and beam about to others right what's that famous vert there's uh three hasidim you ready for uh a sharp void president are talking always about simcha simpson fought for truth and [Music] the biggest opposite of ms that you could find and the probably not always talking about bitter and they're the biggest bali guys and you should know there's truth to this vote because if there wasn't it wouldn't be repeated i wouldn't repeat it and i heard it from others there's an element of truth so moshe you know you know the western way of thinking is hey hey and and this is where this is where you have to rewire your thinking your kids don't have this issue our kids don't have this issue really because they were born into a system but those that weren't born in the system and i've seen this with bali chuva who are 20 30 years bali truva many years 40 years the certain things they haven't rewired and this is one of the things and i understand why they haven't rewired because in the western way of thinking it makes no sense if you're all about bitter what then where do you come to go and put down other people you're you're a hypocrite wait a second i'm sorry which is the thing that doesn't make sense again they've been four years then they haven't rewired which they haven't rewired because it they don't from where they're coming from from their youth and their training which i call the western way of thinking it doesn't make sense if if you if you believe in truth you shouldn't speak lies if you believe in enjoy and simply you shouldn't be depressed and if you believe in bitly you shouldn't be about guys how do the two go together now what i'm explaining today is that at least with the issue of bitter it does go together because there's no good without bad no bad without good so the more you're into bitter and the more you you practice it and the more right there there tends to be a uh an out on that outage a a uh uh a way out where you let out your bitter and sometimes it's derogatory you know because you think of yourself you're a nothing you know i'm nothing i i doubt and i learn i do mistress but compared to hashem compare i'm a nothing so you you inculcate this feeling in yourself i'm a nothing and then you say everyone else's are nothing let's learn so what you're saying is that you projected onto other people yes yes it's a known psychological uh back that's what they went but but but it it it it it's like in a western way of thinking you know tell me if i'm wrong you're innocent but it doesn't equal doesn't make sense if you believe a certain way and and want that then how could you use that to go against what you believe it's like a contradiction anyway i [Music] you mentioned that they didn't call the for brain and they called it a kiddish yeah so i'm just curious what time what time did they dive and shop this morning at that point um 9 or 9 30 as far as i know i i don't think they dive in at 10 9 or 9 30. okay you know i would have to uh rubbish you know rabbi show him bear he can in a hurry is you know 85 to 90 still alive and i think his head works he lives in tel aviv he's like he's the one who took over for from all those hasidim he once gave me a tour if you're in tel aviv or you want to take your children if he's well enough to he he'll give you you know you could pick him up and then drive him over and it there's not much to see there but he told me he kept a few benches and tables where the hacienda of all these stuff i bring and he shows you the old ones oh and oh but it might be that they now i think they demolished the building the question is they do it already and they're building they're building chabad except a nice rule so i don't know if it's it might still be before so i thought it's a very nostalgic and um um i asked him to show me a little bit around you know so rabbi shalom bear but he's rabbi khan's brother-in-law and he lives in tel aviv and he was mr nachos from after the husband passed away pretty much in the 70s into the 80s he liked to go over and and then he he also gave it over to a younger group and there's an active younger group and every shabbos they give chong and there's a fabregan you know but this huster told me in his days it wasn't it was a kidness you know there's a kiddush and by the way i think that they didn't they didn't sit in for brains they did but but it wasn't a fabrega for them was i think three times a year you're just kiss live in other words it's purim you know it's it's a special time where you don't this was every shabbos we're in shul we have a kid dish i don't know if every shop is that a it's what we would call a fabregan he just the person who told me this he just told me that you know we didn't look at it as something special this was a kiddish and once a kid is a kid they should say it's not about eating it's it's about getting together saying which is is today what we call fabregan it's not a very big emphasis and nuance it's just something that he told me i'm sharing with you okay let's learn a little bit between today and tomorrow i want to finish the vide what is the advice to overcome this battle ayday krishna it's saying this is the activity of the mind to comprehend and understand and to understand and comprehend hashem's unity cooler with the entire creation why because in small we have the concept of the unity of hashem which is the most important idea therefore it precedes the two other parshas the two portions [Music] the essential study of the of that we study when we say shma is god's his unity meaning it's not about just understanding the literal meaning of the traitor that we learn [Music] rather that through our learning of the we create yunni hashem and reveal god's love so of course we're learning moshe but what's the purpose of the learning is unity revelation love of god and if you if you if you are particular in looking at the words of the rambam you'll see this in two laws further i think and he encouraged us to unite god's name just as our ancestors have run and yitzchak did the move the rebel asks what does the rambam mean to imply by adding just like the the the way of ram and yitzhak his father went in that way i mean why must you say that you could say you understand that the purpose is ye finished the rambam doesn't suffice with saying that that ambum says just like avram and yitzhak did so this is the rebbe's question it's a rhetorical question to bring out a point and he continues [Music] all of the christmas about yehuda hashem is prosecution the [Music] this is the real idea of unity in cain so the question that i've asked he said what is that by saying hashem that he commanded the jews and he encouraged them just like to go in the way of hashem just as abram and yitzhak went also now his response is retort to the question to the comment to the rhetorical comment that in in regard to unity of god there's a certain style and certain of method our ancestors are the chariot the holding in america what is the entire concept of a chariot who indian habit it is the concept of subservience and putting yourself aside for hashem and he says in yiddish the eberg gavin kite it mean this means the dedication kite a vega lake means to put yourself aside to get the kite so again ebert gavin kite is that the manner on which you unite hashem you bring is in a specific way what could be the opposite that ever says hashem the way of god it's the derek of your own puppet as we say in yiddish your own belly button your own ideas even in yehud we're talking about uniting god but it's your way and understanding of how you unite god that says no not only is the result moisture that's reported it's the way you come to the result and that's called hashem let's continue let's see what he says what does it mean that it's it it could be that united hashem but not in the way of hashem the method of hashem their hashem this means that this lacking beetle but the you the i is always there in the unity that's not what the rambam says that's not the ultimate mitzvah of of of of i'm sorry that this is still part of the the what we don't want that but he considers himself an evidence but he says who you know something i'm important god needs me well for with nasa yeshua macias if god needs it knows god wants a slave a servant and i am a servant so does god need to serve it yes says that ever automatically that causes his ego to inflate for all of them the rabbis he and i cannot rest in the same room there's no room for both of us that's because we're both 700 pounds but because he's full of ego and i am hashem the real positive holy ego and if there's someone else in the room there's no room for me a gemura it is impossible for anee for i gods for who and man who has guide though as ego yohoilung loved her to dwell in one room the hot gospel yesterday his [Music] the light this inner light of traitor is concealed from him the zoo you avoid the krishna and this is what we need to do with krishna you need yourself in the manner so what's that what the rep is emphasizing is the style the orphan the manner the method which we call the calls they had self-sacrifice afram says bring your son hashem says we're too right here he doesn't ask whether are you contradicting you say you want i should have and they be a nation and not no questions you say i'm here to see this nephesh that's called the celebrated couple of soil how does this begin how does this activity this method of unity how does it begin that ever says acceptance listen first you should accept the yoke of hashem although we said at the beginning of this chapter that the service of of christmas to use your brain your head [Music] he redefines what he said how do you become how does the avoidance uses of your mind how is it authentic by beginning on the foundation of kabbalah soil so yes why should we want the use of the mind i want to understand but why is understanding important because god said so and if god said not to understand just bang your head on the wall and do what i tell you we would jump in a those that information that we need in order to understand hashem in in in in the service of god its beginning itself is in a manner of kabbalah number one has to exert their mind and to engage their intelligence palm once star him twice the challenge [Music] until he knocks it into his head that thought and that thought becomes part of his brain kiss next page once it's in there you have to then use your head to understand it well but the first thing is to get into your head it reminds me of a of another short story i heard from from rabbi picarski who's the slayer in tel aviv he's one of the rubbish look and tears his throat so he told me that there was a fabregan in crown heights in 1972 i think udall of nissan that was the 70 years there ever became 70. and it was a very rich time and the hasidim were very you know elated so there was a fabregan that certain coil younger light and and bakura made and and they invited them ah spirit of your khan and he and he took a lot of moscow any any and he was saying and picarsky was there because ruby oil you know was spent some time working on picarski picarsky was a more of a bald gamora you know so if you was you know working on him a little bit but he immediately said he took his he took his knuckle and he went like this and he started to bang you'll be oiling his head with his knuckle he said i want to see this to to become part of this physical head if y'all can if you can't the genius the world's greatest genius of hasidis and kabbalah and and in many other areas is is saying to himself and showing this book or him who says it's become part of my brain and that you have to you have to work on it you have to you have to invest in it that's what we're learning here let's look at the language you have to exert your brain and bother you know bother sacral exert your sacral l to understand the concept very well as you say okay we'll stop here and tomorrow just trying to finish the rest of the mimer right okay so i shared a few good stories no one yeah i liked some of the stories where do we stop we stopped at [Music] rather the first line the first line the isabel rambam the last two words on the last line on the first line why yeah [Music] the first line on page 102. oh the first line okay oh we stopped there yeah at the end right we're up to the after the comma the word is bria after the comma okay got it thanks okay tonight's the fifth night that's says that sam said made a latkes oven so try to make some vodkas tonight bring everyone together as many as you can say let's say over it says interesting that they would repeat the same stories every year look at today i found that amazing in other words like in a way why why is there ever put together this and why is he saying that in a way it's like a little embarrassing right you're talking about the the urabendy sadique they couldn't find new stories to say over but there's a lesson that if you say of a story and you say it over as though you're there it's new yes yes give hanukkah take care bye-bye have a good day well thank you thank you