Spreading the Flames - Candle #2 - Rabbi Yirmiyohu Abramov & Rabbi Paysach Krohn

[Music] Happy Hanukkah good evening it's now the second night of Hanukkah we lit the second candle of Chanukah tonight a neighbor's hallelu kodesh him these candles they are holy every night of Hanukkah we will meet here on the hitter boot channel for a special program with guest rabbis songs and good music together with me in the studio tonight is rabbi yer meow Abramov rabbi avraham served in various rabbinic and educational positions in Israel and abroad and founded the narrative of world center for Jewish leadership and outreach he is also the spiritual advisor of the hindenburg English project before we speak though rabbi we got to do a little music Chanukah so we're gonna go straight to a song let's go [Music] are you vanilla so alive as I finish my move or to come up in July with team who call us Ronnie [Music] life became more colors my honey hey my - individual life as I be my husband evening the lime booty more colors money whom in the second column nothing is latosha impulsive him [Music] my song is great I've been hearing it for the past 60 years yeah and it gets better every year and so I have some questions for you and I would like to start with the following question and that is how did the Maccabees prevail against all odds and they do it okay it really is against all odds you have the massive Greek army with all its sophisticated weaponry and a little handful one family essentially taking them up and they prevailed how does such a thing happen that is really the essential miracle of Hanukkah so the issue is that there was such self-sacrifice there it was so deep and so profound that the deeper person digs into his essence the closer he gets to God and he evokes spiritual assistance say it was completely Maki miraculous and these people were functioning they were being propelled by a real deep desire they realized they were defending the very essence of the Jewish people Wow and there's a bit of a history in Tanakh of like a berm of you know and you know we're a very few number yeah can can do something very powerful and obviously with with God's wind in their sails they prevail well that's the essence of the Jewish people Avraham ha every Abraham the Hebrew the word every means on the other side the history the nature of Jewish history is that we always seem to be isolated in one side a small little folk and on the other side of these massive groups of enemies and somehow we've got some divine assistance that we can we prevail please God we'll keep going Mahinda me okay so our sages tell us that just as the Maccabees purified the temple in order to read our narrate the temple the Maccabees themselves when they came back you know I imagine there was some level of impurity they were dealing with death and the impurity of death so what exactly is involved with the purification of of the Maccabees and and what is it all about purify yourself before you purify the temple good great question they reached into the depths of their soul you know the word soul is nefesh which is the same letters as ner candle pay which is the patil which is the wick and shin is the Shemin and so the essence of Chanukah of a candle is soul the Jews have prevailed throughout history reaching into the depths of their soul when people reach into their soul that is the ultimate purification so the way they prepared themselves for this massive task was to reach deep into the depths of their soul and connect with the most profound an element that there is in this whole creation and that is God so what you're saying see I thought you were gonna tell me they jumped in the mikveh you're saying that which I'm sure they did go in the big foot and they probably had other purification processes necessary maybe even the ashes of the red heifer I don't know if that there's too much space from that but there were there were also it was there was a lot of Jews who had joined that battle so there were there were Mitch of NIEM Hellenized Jews and they're absolutely so but what you're saying is is something much deeper and that is perhaps what we'd say is like creating a context of something before you even get to what you're gonna do with that context and you're saying like they dig deep into the soul kind of creating your own vessel for for what you're going to be up to later and and but it life's just like that I mean think of anyone in any position of responsibility there was something was inside first and you're saying that for Hanukkah maybe for all of us we have to dig in to the like real depths of the soul and then light the candles and the paradox is the deeper you dig the higher you go so digging deep is really elevating like a building like the deeper the foundation the higher the buildings innovating and ones connecting they were connected with the higher source and being connected the highest source and propelled by tremendous self-sacrifice well some of them died in this battle but it was there this is the essential story of the Jewish people it's I don't know if you do this or you suggest people to do this but maybe before lighting so quickly you know each night maybe to close our eyes and go in there go in there and then why that's true and and there it says that one should look at the candles because looking at the candle look meditate a little bit about that candle is an energy is a power that the scandal is digging down to the depths going through the wick into the very essential chemin which is the fuel and that's what we need to do we need to constantly be fueling our actions from the depths of our soul Wow amazing which is partially why the Greeks didn't like us very much because right the depths of our soul was much bigger than they could ever have she contended with great great because they actually denied the existence of anything beyond the physical they denied the existence of the soul so it became a battle of soul against against the physical and that's where the battle ours and we prevailed because that's the essence of what the world is about so that's where how we prevailed we had info now we're on education here so I'd like to ask what is self education okay we were ready their parents have a sacred obligation to make their children alert and aware of the fact that there is an inner self children have a very uncanny sense of that self education means they don't stop going to school it means you have an inner self that's precisely there nice that's your term self that you can't drive yeah self education and that's really what kid wouldn't want to be self educated right and you know what it's not such a great challenge because kids in with their purity they they very very easily can access the depths of their soul the soul is not enclosed and encased in in many layers of what's called the shelves called clipart which shows that eating in case that this flawless purity and so the moment appearance starts awakening this and evoking this the kids respond and they become much more soul and much more in depth and when you've got that in the child the child becomes passionate about what he's doing and that's what you want to evoke in our children educating doesn't mean just throwing information at them education it means making them aware of the deeper inner self Wow beautiful beautiful what is the main job of parents when it comes to educating kids yeah well I guess parents have to understand that they're on stage as we are right now and when you're on stage you know that eyes are riveted upon you parents are the most beloved to a child the child looks to the parent and he wants to emulate so the key word is education by emulation if the parents conduct and behavior is not consistent with what the message is trying to give he won't be taken seriously by the kids so the first thing is parents get your act together start behaving like a mensch control different elements of yourself so the father who screams at his kid I won't have anger around in this house and he's saying it within anger the kid is saying so what's this guy telling me so it's by emulation education is very Malaysian well of Paris primarily we want them rather to emulate as parents then emulate maybe other figures or other personalities that are around all over the world let them educate their and it's worth laugh because parents love their children naturally so they sense that it lends me a lot to right now to think about parents being kind of more involved in Greek life style then then then the Judaism while sending their kids to Hebrew school or wherever they're sending them or you know well look the fact is we're living in alien cultures alien and different to the Jewish culture that's been very much the name of the game for Jews throughout history and we were trained by our forefathers Abraham primarily that you've got to be able to resist the culture around you you've got to stick to your guns you got to stick to who you are you know can I tell a little story sure there was a secular fella traveling in Africa on a safari and he was warned that there's a lot of hostile bandits so don't stop the car when you're driving through the jungles of Africa don't stop the car just keep driving and say he abided by this until you saw a little kid a little very wretched looking kid with his hand out must be hungry so he figured the ikan be he's harmless say stop the car and he switched off the engine in order to dig in his knapsack in his bag to find the killer chocolate bar and he was there digging but when he by the time he stood up and looked around him he was surrounded by a band of very hostile looking savages armed to the teeth well the game's abscess kid was the decoy so they said to him give us all your money but crystal tell us who are who are you before we kill you we'd like to know who we killing faces well I'm a Jew from Israel so the leader who knew a bit of English he said you Jewish you're from the chosen people and he said something in the African lingo and they all suddenly dropped their arms and ammunitions and they said the chosen people we finally see a member of the chosen people at this baffle circular fella didn't know really who he was and there they were dancing around him plied him with gifts and they left there a different man that he had to go to Africa and have primitive savages telling him that he's part of the chosen people we've got to keep impressing upon our children we special we've got a special history the world recognizes it from the savages in the deep jungles of Africa throughout the world recognizes that the Jew is something special so give this kid so true he's in this foreign Greek culture there's this alien culture but if the parents role in educating is no were you coming from you're coming from great places well Wow amazing we have a famous you know line regarding education which is Hana therapy darka that you educate a child according to his way what he took the kids ways are Greek his kids got Greek weights you know he's living in that culture and that's what he values that's you know he's got his you know he's got the whole world hold that his fingertips you know of the the Greek world into the Western world a father he's really his way that's just a show you know the Talmud tells us that every individual in mankind throughout history is completely unique and different you know everyone's face is different and the Talmud says by the same token that their face which is Panama is different so the PLIM which is the internal self is also different and that is every single child and every single person in this world is unique and different and the parent has to when when the it says cannot learn our LP dark oi educate a person in accordance with his way it means parents should identify and they should understand I'm dealing with the unique individual identify his unique the unique aspects of his personality cultivate them build them foster them don't just lump them all together what's good for one is not necessarily good for the other that's what means are Peter call but you got to delve into the depths of this kid again into his personality go to the self Wow herself and then in herself will be something totally different than the his externality the whatever Western externality so you're saying that that's just a cover-up for the deeper self yeah that's Adam and the flame of the that's right in herself from that child that's right and the moment the cut the child becomes more focused on inner himself then the shell automatically starts just dropping off and his essence become who he really is that's it that's the challenge of Education find out who the child really is and faster that and cultivate that well since I have the leader behind Hidde brood English programming can you just give us a word or two one of the plans where we going from here yeah this is amazing by the way this is our first inaugural Chanukah so hit a brute which is a fantastic lease accessor Israeli Hebrew speaking endeavor historic and it's making it has an enormous impact on us all television network right this is 24 6 24 6 television network as well as a very sophisticated site on the and the Internet and it's it has a huge following they got a lot of Israelis are tuning Mendes following and from all sectors ranging from the very totally secular in Israel and they're fascinated by the fact that they can see sophisticated and high-class and sensitive programming so it's been a fantastic success really so I came along to the heads of Peter Brook primarily to the rabbi rabbi Zamir and the people around him and I said you know guys there's a massive English world out there and the vast majority of Jews in the world are English speakers so why don't you use the art that you've developed and the sophistication and the infrastructure and let's start doing programming for English well and I've been as I say in good Nick you know i I've been very persistent and and we now it's not happening they've taken it very seriously and it's happening and there's there there's a whole channel developing please God in in English there's gonna be a lot of English programming these guys like River young tour glazier around who's an untapped resource and many many others of fantastic fabulous educators who we need to hear we can dip into their those resources and the idea is to do programs in Israel there's hundreds of thousands of Anglo English speakers in Israel and of course there's millions of angler english-speaking people abroad and today with media you can get to you can reach all these people so I think this is really great future and the idea would be to harness their know-how because they've got a fantastic set up over here a lot of great professionals and this can become a real historic a new Vista and there's programming's there's weekend's there's you know they they just started offering now that we'll send out for Shabbat to a community anywhere in the in Israel they'll send out a rabbi and his family or Kapler rabbis and they'll spend the Shabbat in the community so now we can extend that also the english-speaking communities that any english-speaking community can invite a rabbi they'll come the rabbi with his little with his wife and his little family and they'll spend Shabbos together and that's a fantastic opportunity to to make it real it's not just on the screen but really to be encountering and to meet this they're planning now a very a series of weekend seminars in English here in Israel well they've had great success in these weekend seminars abroad in New York and California so it's really a very exciting new initiative so for Hidde brood network doesn't just mean television that's right network means real network absolutely beautiful amazing so I want to thank you very much and let's let's hear when New York we actually have rabbi Pisa Crone because that's great Pesach Crone is amazing and one of the great storytellers who rabbis of extraordinary of our generation so let's hear a few words from rabbi pace at crow Shalom rabbi glazier thank you so much for your kind words and your enthusiastic encouragement I can just tell you personally that I have been to the offices of hid abroad and I am so amazed at the multi-faceted aspects of this great organization the Torah that has said the inspiration and I am so proud to have been asked to say a few words about the wonderful yontiff of Chanukah I would like to begin by quoting a passage that the prophet yahya who said yummy Yahoo compared klog Israel to an olive and olive tree Cius Ronen the PASOK tells us in year miyagi olive to Zion Zion run on a fresh leafy olive tree your favorite oil is such a beautiful fruit Cora Hashem Shimon Hashem has called you that beautiful olive tree with its beautiful olives now why is Claudia stroke compared to an olive and the Midrash in choice Arab element of Olive tells us something very interesting it says why did you Muir compared Claudius trial to an olive and the answer is because you could try this yourself you'll see you could take many many different liquids you could take water you could take wine and you could take soda and you could take oil olive oil mix it together and you will see that the olive oil will remain separate it doesn't get mixed together with the other oils even though that they're all liquid not only that it rises to the top and that's exactly what Claudius oil is that they do not mix what the nations of the world we get along with them we work alongside with them we live near them but we don't become part of them that's the beauty and the lotion of the Med wishes that call Hamas Kim is Arvind Zabuza all the liquids mixed together but the hidden a Nima sorry that they don't mix and that only vent they rise to the top and that's the beautiful thing and that's why governor Mela tells us until them cough cough eskimo bennetto your children kisses silly zaysan should be like olive plants they should rise to the top and you know something olives are always fresh and vibrant and that's what we want for our children so now here we come to the young thief of Hanukkah beautiful very happy yontiff and i want to share with you something if you take a look in the mirror my eerie was one of the great early showing him one of the great commentaries on the shots on the Talmud Bavli and he writes in the introduction a very very important lesson in life that every experience that we go through whether it's a simcha a happy occasion or hospice tell them something otherwise we have to learn something from it every young TIFF that we go through we have to learn something from it it has to change us it has to elevate us and he said if it doesn't then a person hasta show'em could be considered like a ham or like a donkey a donkey carries a week in the wheat season barley in the barley season oats in the oat season but it remains the same donkey but when a Yid goes through a simcha yes to think about why did I Shem allow me to go through this wonderful occasion how can this have an effect on me and the same thing is with Hanukkah same thing is with any yontiff so I was thinking what is a lesson that all of us can take from Hanukkah that can elevate us and carry us throughout the year and throughout our lives and I'll tell you what I think it is you know that there is a McLucas there's a controversy how you're supposed to light the candles and how many you light and what order you like them for example but Shammai says on the first night you light eight candles second night you light seven six five four three two one and his reasoning is because after all in the beginning there were eight days left to the miracle then there's seven days left six days left five days and it goes down that way however basil--oh says no we light one two three four five six seven eight why because of Moises viola most of all I love means we then we go higher and that's what did you is supposed to do everything that we do are always supposed to strive to get better and to reach a higher level and so therefore when we come to this young turf I think that what we should try to look in our lives how are we darling can we improve Alex Fela can we improve not only the amount of learning tour that we do but the depth of the Torah how we understand it what can we do to enhance our understanding of Torah how can we do more asset you know I'm a very big believer I speak about it all the time about people doing your hasit every single day that's what the cover time tells us and the safer Abbas has said that every single day a person should do a hazard for somebody else just like a person is supposed to learn something every day and so therefore when you get involved in doing for others if you've never done that if you really haven't been involved get involved and if you're being involved get involved even a little bit more that's the my sofa Hilah that's getting a little higher you know I want to share with you a beautiful story a beautiful Hanukkah story and this story happened in the 1940s there was a row of his name was rabbi Schmitz ler his exact name was rubbish raga Schmoyer schnitzel or everybody knew him as rubbish Malka unfortunately he was in the concentration camp in Bergen Belsen but it was a very great man and he wanted to give physic to the people in the barracks and it was the month of Kislev and he told them don't worry you'll see we are gonna be able to light Chanukah lights here even in the barracks he couldn't tell them whether it was gonna be candles or oil but he said you'll see Hashem will make it that we'll be able to light many people doubted him many people thought he was just saying it so that he should encourage people but how in the world in bergen-belsen were you gonna be able to light Chanukah left it's impossible but you know of SHM Elka had a very very difficult job unfortunately if the people were gassed to death these corpses were taken to the crematorium when they were burned and they were put on a truck I've been to Auschwitz and Madonna kyv seen those trucks and they would pile bodies very high and never he had to walk along that truck be sure the bodies didn't fall off and he brought them into the crematorium but they were going to be burned it was an awful thing rubbish Milka would often say that he would cry because he recognized some of those people that were on those flatbed trucks every day he would walk along with the truck and then he would walk back to the barracks and one day as he was walking back to the barracks he noticed he almost tripped because suddenly they there was a lump in the ground there's like a little bump and he couldn't imagine this wasn't there yesterday had somebody hit something in their way he was very curious so he waited until nobody was around none of the SS cars were around and he went back to where that bump in the ground was because it wasn't there the day before and he dug up and he saw the most unbelievable thing he saw a little jug of oil he could not believe it and he dug a little bit more and you would not believe he found some cotton strands that you could make a wick and little jugs eight jugs who put it there obviously a you'd put it there but now wow he could have these jugs and the oil and he could like to Hanukkah let for the people in the barracks but to me this is the greatest part of this story he just covered it up and he left there you know why because he figured that if some Yid hid them what right does he have to take them but he watched it every day to see who was gonna come back to take that which was hidden in that lump of ground he went back to the barracks and he isn't did anybody hide any oil did anybody hide any cotton nobody knew what he was talking about the days went on Hanukkah was getting closer and that lump in the ground was still there and then when it was just about an hour or two before Chanukah he figured whoever hid them obviously is not coming back for them and he ran out and he got those strands he got that oil and when he came back to the barracks he lit the first one and the people could not believe it he had said the three bravas the people were crying they were incredulous how in the world could this have happened how in the world where did he get this oil and the wicks and the little jug and every single night he lit those strands of cotton and every night of Hanukkah they were able to say the braja and be able to participate in the great myths of Chanukah candles Oh Chanukah oil Chanukah lilt a few months later in April of 1945 they were liberated and this rubbish Milko went back to Hungary and he became the rub in a place called Becca shava he was known as the Chava Rove he was such a holy person eventually he moved to Eretz Israel and people used to go to him every day to get blessings from him now one day in the 1950s he came to America and he came to visit the satmar rebbe reb Yael taught Obama sacred sonic Lavrov he came to visit him in Williamsburg now the satmar rebbe was also in bergen-belsen and they got into a conversation and they were talking and sharing memories each one expressing their hopes and their aspirations of hopefully being able to get out of that place and then the South more ever said an amazing thing they said you know I feel bad about something and the travel of rubbish rubbish knits Allah said what are you what does the Rebbe feel bad about he said you know I was able to bribe one of the guards and he let me hide some oil and some wicks and little jokes and they were never used because I got out on half I love kiss life I got out on the 21st day of kiss love for days before Hanukkah I rushed it's Laura mocha the chopper of said Ruby you're not gonna believe this I found them I found it I saw it in the lump of ground where you hid it and we brought it back to the barracks and we used it and the sunna Rebbe was so elated and he said how wonderful and how special it is that once again a sham made a miracle happen with oil in the month of kiss life incredible now I want to tell you something I have a son in law his name is hunter Anya Kramer he has a multimedia company in Baltimore called call ROM multimedia and he and I have put together something called living lessons and what we do I tell some of the stories that I've written in the market books and he and his company put it to animation and when we put out five stories about Hanukkah this was one of the stories that was put together with animation well about two years ago when it first came out suddenly I get a call from a friend of mine hi in its life this is rabbi croon I don't believe what I just saw I said what are you talking about he said the Chava robbed up Shmuel Gershon Isla was my great-grandfather I am sitting here in the hospital with my father a Bermuda and we're sitting and we're watching living lessons and we are so proud that this great wonderful story about our ancestor I'll now be remembered forever how could I ever thank you so beautiful so beautiful because that is the story that's worth remembering so I just want to end just with this beautiful thought you know on the dreidel on the dreidel there are four letters known gimel shin and hey now that's the dreidel that we use here in America and all over the world I think maybe in Paris yes well they have different letters but those are the traditional letters nice God all Hashem but you know something non gimel Haitian you know what that equals dinkum Adria and fifty-eight the word mushiya also is equal to 358 ma'am shame your dress and you know the hama value your safe one said you know the word mushiya stands for mad leakin Simona's you may Hanukkah we light eight days the Hanukkah Hanukkah menorah the Hanukkah with the Hanukkah oil the Hanukkah candles let us hope that in this year of Hanukkah when we will light with great enthusiasm will be moist for Hilah we'll do it with greater adherence to the hollow ha we'll do it with greater excitement with a family that as we do on Lincolnshire - you make Hanukkah we will all be Zeta to that which is hinted at on the letters of the cradle the 358 will be safer to see mushiya on our time thank you so much for inviting me and thank you for listening thank you very much rabbi Crone amazing words rabbi every month I want to thank you very much for being with us tonight thank you it's been amazing I mean they're your words are gorgeous one question oh yeah yeah these deaths will it upset the dish if I take one I think we have to hold off on the doors I mean okay just remember just remember I booked one okay look the way it was set up there that's gorgeous good night to all our viewers I welcome you to join us again tomorrow night Happy Hanukkah