The Concept of Chanukah - Rabbi Reuven Lauffer

before before we get going with it with the details of the air lockers just that you should know that the whole function behind lighting the candles on chanukah is a concept which is called pierce for me Nissa personally Nyssa is Aramaic for publicizing the miracle right which is again in in Hebrew that would be Pearson nace or pistol mein Meister to publicize a miracle so the whole function of lighting the Chanukah candles is to publicize a miracle that took place and that the battle of the rededication of the temple and everything that went together with it and as we'll see them it's a sham that's one of the reasons why part of the part of the mitzvahs is where you're supposed to light the candles you should like them in a prominent place where they can be seen we'll see if it's a shame as we get going the miracle of the rededication of the temple and the light lasting for 10 days we're not we're not we're not publicizing the the war we're not publicized which is publicizing the yeah the miraculous own I I think one of the reasons is possibly like this as I mentioned yesterday Chanukah is a rabbinical festival Yeah right and what was what was called a minor when I was growing up a minor festal and how the the maybe maybe the idea over here is that the a lot of a lot of effort is being put into making this you know turning into something that's got a lot of a lot of publicity to it in order to give it an importance that maybe it wouldn't have otherwise we have to know that when the rabbi's introduced you know rabina Klaus and Rebekah festivals and things like that we have to take them very seriously ok let's go back when it went kanika the original can occur when do they start celebrating it in the in the year after the original dedication took place right so maybe maybe I'm just this is like conjecture but maybe maybe all of this grew up out of having to teach the Jews in Israel that the miracle had taken place and that they need to recognize that God's around again there was an awful lot of hellenization that was going on and maybe maybe maybe that's pot I don't try to look this up a little bit maybe mate but maybe that's part of the of the reason why it's given such prominence is that everyone should know right here this is what this will happen last year and this is what happened the year before and the year before that and you you know that the families need to know and there needs to be it needs to be seen write a plus needs to be seen to be publicizing that miracle maybe it's not just for the people who are wandering around outside but also for the people inside to know that this is what they have to do ok let's just get through the ice gets really the the not nice part of the halacha of can occur all work is permitted on Hanukkah but there is a custom that women refrain from working for the initial half an hour that the lights are lit for if it's a sham will learn our lockers later on we'll see how long the lights got to be a light for but there's a minimum of half an hour from darkness on words from night full of words so let's say gets dr. lett saying it's dark and I don't know wasn't getting dark at five fifteen so until quarter to six the light should stay alight and look at the customers admit the women don't do any work within that half an hour because the miracle of can occur one of them one of the ones I mentioned the miracle of hanukkah what came about through a woman called yield it who managed to manage to to assassinate one of it one of the generals imaginable sassily one of the generals that that was actually one of the turning points of the war and therefore because the women were so actively involved in the in the miracle to begin with so they've taken upon themselves a little bit of a more stringent approach which is at least for the big obligatory half an hour that they shouldn't do any work the good news is that the mission of Brewer writes that there are certain communities where the men have taken on that custom as well so you shouldn't imagine that you're going to have to be working like a dog you know for half an hour after the lights have been lit right because you know your wife is simply sitting there whatever you know II to eating chocolates and whatever I know whatever women do you know breaking over a six pack six pack of beer or something and I telling you here you know clean that and wash that and that needs to be ironed and that needs to be sewn back and and all that kind of stuff you could just say well you know according to mr. Brewer there are some communities where the men don't work as well and I've taken that upon myself bleeeeegh nadir of course a mess or something that you particularly want to do the whole idea of course is to give us the obligor the opportunity just to reflect upon the nature of the miracle right which means that when you're not doing anything when you're not involved in work and you're not involved in running around all over the place so it just gives you the opportunity to sit down the amongst the Hasidic red B's this is like a big thing they sit in front of the menorah they watch the flames and right and they have all kinds of all kinds of insights into the concept of can occur and the light that's being brought into the world there is a very beautiful idea found in the in the Swat I met thus far tonight is one of the great Hasidic rebbes he's a second Rebbe from Gore who writes like this how many how many how many Chanukah lights are lit over the whole of can occur well eight plus seven plus six plus five plus four plus three plus two plus one says its mass M is most beautiful idea he says that Adam was brought into the Garden of Eden he was created on the 12 hour than midday on friday afternoon and he was sent out of the Garden of Eden God kept him in the Garden of Eden over shabbat even though he sinned already before shabbat and he was sent out at twelve o'clock at midnight on saturday night which means says it's fast emmis the Adam Rishon the first man was privy to the light of the Garden of Eden for 36 hours he's 32 bar he was allowed to stay in there for Shabbat and then after Shabbat he was expelled from the Garden of Eden as census our service it's really a very beautiful idea there was a very special light of an intensely spiritual light that was in the Garden of Eden something which was put away afterwards the rabbi's to explain it was it was stored away in God's in God's storage rooms right and the semi says that for 36 hours Adam was privy to that light and the lights of can occur which add up to 36 not including the shamash which we'll talk about later on but the lights of kanika which add up to 36 are able to bring that light back into the world like the light the lights the fire in general is something which has got a very spiritual dimension to it according to Jewish ideas right you know fire is is something it's very serious fire you know you can't tap you can't you can't hold it if you touch it it hurts right but you know you can stick your fingers for I'm sure you all did that right but maybe his children maybe last night but but you know you know just put your finger through the flame backwards and forwards nothing happens it's very it's very it's like I've got a very esoteric dimension to it and fire is always the idea of bringing light into the world bringing warmth into the world and fire is very analogous to the Torah itself like that the the turtle so you know it's compared to fire something that brings light it brings tremendous warmth and allows us to do all kinds of things that light is something which is very spiritual says it's the service of 36 lights of kanika those 36 candles of Chanukah are there in order to help us bring that light back into the world again and if you stop and think about it for a moment it makes perfect sense because yesterday we spoke about the idea that can occur was a the time that the Jewish people went to war in order to be able to learn Torah in order to bring be able to bring the Torah back into their lives and therefore the the reward that's given to us is to light the clinical lights and see you know like a measure for measure right we wanted to learn that Torah we bring the light back into the water and that's why by many people you'll see that our Hanukkah when the lights are alike they sit and they really they still going to great introspection and they meditate in front of those lights because the lights have got a quality to them which other lights don't have like very special quality to them it dressing that the sages point out that there's a intrinsic difference between the two the two rabbinic fest festivals that we've gotta go I've gotta stop calling the minor festivals rightly the two rabbinic festivals is Chanukah in this poem Chanukah is an intensely spiritual dimension and Purim is an intensely physical dimension right pouring what do we do we I mean it's true that there's a mitzvah of reading the megillah but you know we have an enormous Suder we haven't in order enormous meal we drink too much and sometimes people get a little bit drunk and you know it's like it's a very physical time and the sages explain that what we're doing is we're commemorating the two different dimensions on Hanukkah we were facing spiritual annihilation which is why Hanukkah has that spiritual dimension to it of lighting candles and everything being on a spiritual plane there is like as mentioned yesterday there is no Mitzvah per se to have a seuda to have a meal festive meal on chanukah like that the midst of Hanukkah is to light the kanaka lights whereas on Purim we faced physical annihilation and therefore the way that we commemorate that is very much through the physical so we'll have the sooner we'll drink too much and will give out presents to people and we'll make sure the lots of charity is being given out like I mentioned before it's true we read the megillah but that's just one one litter out of many that we that we celebrate there's a very interesting book called Tammy humming hug him in Tanana magatama again that the name of the book indicates what it is a tam means a taste Tamara mean again means a taste of the customs and he explains the different customs that exists inside of the Jewish people explains why they are and where they come from and in time and monogamy he's even got the most incredible explanation to the different things that are used on a can occur that are used on Purim so for example on Hanukkah I hope everybody here you're familiar with the idea of using a dreidel you know what a dreidel is a little a little you know spinning top and it's got different letters printed on it and you can you know people used to people still use that today and they have a year you can use my kids use chocolate money if you want you can use real money if you're in education like I am chocolate money is bad all you're going to have to love you you know did you get a proper job then maybe you'll get paid for what you do and that way you can use real money but the dreidel has a dreidel look it's got its ok got a base and then it's got the that you know the little the little hand or coming out the top in order to be able to spin it huh four different letters four different sides and nice nice Gadol hayah poor right which is nice as nun gimel is Godot hey hey yeah and pay poor outside of Israel they have dreidels which say Shum instead of pop which means over there so nice kadalai gosh um right and again with you if you're using these things in order in order to bet with so you need my kids need to be in here to explain what what is what but none it falls a little it means I think that's it nothing right none for nothing right and I think it's the same for my kids as well actually I don't for whatever reason whatever whenever mine for whatever it is I have to whatever I've got I've got to give it in even if it's different from the time before I don't know my kids work this one out i really don't owe you like nothing shall what hasn't resco hey you put one in I think and get more got Dali's you get you get it up get you get it all whatever's in there I all I know is that whatever I get even if i get a gible my kids say no no you've got to put some in yeah I wait wait a minute hold on did you just tell me that by pain and then I know you yeah hey we know the rules ah ok yeah it's great thing a pair of what can I tell you said the time I mean I give the most incredible idea listen to this he says everything we do there's a meaning behind everything right so the dreidels got a handle which sticks up and the noise maker has a handle which sticks down at you hold it over here and the things on the top and you know like that right so he says what was the chat he says because uh no no no Chanukah the dreidel everything was spiritual right so the pointing out the handle points up towards alright everything ever all of this is all spiritual the whole thing organica the whole idea of what's going on whereas on Purim everything is physical the handles pointing downwards right down towards the physical earth right and it's interesting actually they need to take a look in the story of the story of Purim to me it's a shame when we get closer to port we can you know we can go through it but when you get to that when you get to the story of Purim you'll see it's very difficult to see God doesn't even appear in the megillah the name of God it's not there at all and the whole idea is that God's very much hidden away somewhere over there is like you know hidden in the background and you've got a looking it's all very physical and so the time I mean I'm i think is an incredible idea that everything everything and everything in in in Judaism has got meaning everything has got symbolism and significance because Chanukah is a rabbinical festival there's no extra day added on right so you know that when you're outside of Israel if you if it comes to a festival normally we had an extra day so for example ansa court and the end of Sekot ends a day later in hutzler it's outside of Israel that it does over here the end of the end of what I just say so courts are they in the pace after chevre wat has got two days as well here in Israel it's only one day right however Chanukah is eight days universally doesn't matter where you are and the reason for that is and that no decrees being decreed upon a decree you can the rabbi's don't come and add a decree that here when you've got a halacha right so the rabbi's can come along and they can add a dimension to that halacha they can be more stringent right and they can decrease something that we have to do around the and the original halacha however when the rabbi's have already decreed something so they can't come now and make another decree to go around it that's considered to be that you're being too that's being too stringent because can occur itself is a decree I was decreed by the sages and it wasn't something which was given to us by the tour itself therefore they don't decree that outside of the Israel they need to keep a next day the good news is because we're Jewish is permissible to eat as soon as the candles have been left right I mean you don't have to wait even though many people have a custom not to do work for the half an hour the candles are alive for but if the works already been done before you're just sitting down to have a meal that's a hundred percent okay you don't have to wait interestingly enough if you know anything about the the Talmud right the Babylonian Talmud has a tract 84 everything except for Chanukah it's quite fascinating so for example there's a track tape that's dedicated to Purim called mastectomy Gila there's a track tape that's dedicated to pay staff and attracting that's dedicated to support and a tractate that's dedicated to Shabbat right and don't you know all everything's got to tractate except for chanukah there's no tracking there's no more sector Chanukah it comes inside of shadows and it's all really rather roundabout right the way that it's learnt inside of shoppers have talks about something a port in our pit which is over 20 and what deep then that says from there that you can't see something and then you've got to be careful about where you like your kind of collides it appears in a couple of other places as well but the it doesn't it's interesting it doesn't have its own separate track to which one would imagine it ought to have the some sofa work at UMSL fair one of the great one of the great rabbis from a few generations ago and he writes that this is a form of a punishment the crush mana in who originally they were the ones who went to war right so the kind and the Maccabees they were the ones that got up and they said we have to go and we have to fight the you know to me komodo believe my share Maccabees is it like an acronym for we we we belong to God right we're not going to put up with this any longer and they went off to war however the problem is and that afterwards they took upon themselves and monarchy now the problem is that the kahaniyan priests cannot be kings it's two completely separate strands of leadership in fact one of the reasons why it's supposed to be like that is to have checks and balances and that's where that's where the Kings are supposed to come from right which was a tribe of Judah is the kingly strain and the tribe of of lady and particularly the children of Aaron there the qur'anic strain and the two are not supposed to mix together because there really is supposed to be a form of of you know separation please excuse excuse the the phrase we're against the separation of church and state which means that that the King takes care of the physical needs of the people and he could do whatever he wants right with regards to physical things right I can I can I can requisition whatever I want as king right and any kind of physical dimension right I can requisition whatever I want which means that you know I need you I need you now we're going to go to war I need you now here I can take you into the army without getting permission from anybody I can take your land without having to go and get permission for anyway that's the function of the king but the king is not allowed to start giving dictates about spiritual dimensions right which means that there's an absolute separation and the OL idea is to keep some kind of a balance right who was it who said i think i think it's i think it's they say that i think Lord Tennyson who said that you know power corrupts and total power corrupts totally so the idea of having two forms of leadership one taking care of the physical dimensions and one taking other spiritual dimensions was a method of trying to keep things more or less balanced all right ah it did it works it doesn't always work right it did it did work I mean it worked for you know for generations at work here you're going to always going to run into problems so for example what is that what are they the hash Mona in they were all Co handing they were all priests and yet they took upon themselves a monarchy after they fought back and managed to retake the temple of rededicated they took upon themselves a monarchy and that was something discuss I'm sofa that was something that they had no right to do and therefore as a form of the punishment again it's a theory a theory the subs over write that as a form of punishment there was no tractate that was dedicated solely to Hanukkah because the truth is it all ended up it didn't end up well in the end which means the immediate aftermath was great and for I think for two generations everything was okay but after that it all just started spiraling out of control there was a little bit of a civil war two different to different people who was you know fighting over the throne and each one went to a different a different member of the Syrian you know not the Syrian of the of the Greek Empire and the Greeks came back and that really was the end of the end of the of the Jewish rulership over the Land of Israel okay let's have a look and see the most famous question of all the disaster that Hanukkah is when do we get to eat the donuts but there is a the second most famous question is why do we keep eight days of Hanukkah we should really only keep seven days right because again they found the picture of oil the patrol was supposed to last for how long for one day which means it kept a light for eight days so really the miracle was only seven days long so it's actually this is this is a question which has garnered up a huge amount of interest there's even a book that a book called nella mia which has got a hundred reasons why can occur as eight days long and not seven days long whatever there's that there's a lot of a lot of explanations over here the simple the simple shot of course is that they found the picture of oil I mentioned yesterday you know they went into these enormous cavernous hangers where which were chock-a-block full of pictures of defiled oil and they searched and they searched and research until they found this little picture which means finding the picture itself was something which which you know was a miracle in on itself therefore the first day of hanukkah according to this idea commemorates finding the picture the seven days of Hanukkah that come afterwards they commemorate the idea of the light staying a light that's 11 opinion what wonders 111 opinion which says like this but I think again a very a very simple opinion the number 8 represents everything which is llamala minute ever something which is beyond nature right supernatural and the Oracle Shelton says that the very fact that the Jewish army Jewish army what was it about a bunch of like mentioned yesterday a bunch of weeding Shiva bakhram who went out to war against the mightiest army in the world and they won the very fact that they won is an indication that this whole thing is miraculous and therefore commemorating for eight days is very apt because the number eight represents everything which is above nature it's not a natural dimension there is another another dimension and which is found in the Gomorrah there's a very famous story the daughter of rubbing somebody crabby kanina Ben dosa his daughter came to tell him as Chavez had already come in she says daddy I made the most terrible mistake and instead of instead of filling up the you know that thing instead of filling up the shovers lights with oil I put in by mistake vinegar right and now it's already shovers and I've lit them and vinegar is going to burn out you know it won't burn and it's a problem and the rubber can even Ben dosa told his daughter don't worry he says whoever tells the oil to light will tell the vinegar to light instead right Misha Malyshev and clogged so don't you do the same for the vinegar and that's what happened that that vinegar stay delight as she stay delighted to the following the following week so another another comes that why we why are we celebrating the first night of Hanukkah if they already found it all it was supposed sell light for one for one day anyway so the idea is because this the whole concept of oil burning is something which I college bar who has brought into nature but we should always understand that nature is something which belongs to God it doesn't belong to us and somebody somebody wants to I think was a measure honk wards road that there's nothing natural about nature which means that we have that we have to recognize you know the divinity of everything including the fact that oil can light another opinion we mentioned yesterday they knew that they were going to need oil that was going to last for eight days there are two reasons that are given Y eight days the first one I mentioned yesterday was because it took four days to reach whether I all grew up where the olive groves were so it took four days to get them four days to go back right so they knew that they were going to need oil for eight days however there's another opinion which says that all of the Kohanim all of the priests were all of the priests were impure because they've been they've been to war they've come in contact with a dead body and that makes it spiritually impure and it takes eight days to become spiritually pure after having touched a dead body right so what does that mean it means that they can light the first candle they can light straight away when they dedicate the temple because if everybody's impure then that's okay but after they knew that it was going to take eight days until they would be able to light again the oil so according to that opinion says abasio so what did they do they separated the oil into eighths and every day they put in the eighth for that day and the oil kept alight the whole time even though there wasn't enough there to keep it to stare like for all day nevertheless they put in the oil every day and it stayed a light the whole day if that's the case that's a base Yosef that means that the first day was as much a miracle as any other day because they're putting in not enough oil to be able to do that another reason that's given is that on the first day I don't know which is right which is wrong right I'm just telling what people say another reason that is given is that on the first night they emptied out the entirety of the contents of the bottle into the oil into the into the menorah to you know at the beginning to use it all up in order to fulfill the mitzvot in the best possible way and the bottle then filled itself back up again some kind of a miraculous happening and it refilled itself night after night after night until the eighth night on the eighth night it didn't fill itself up because they were going to have a replacement oil for the oil by then you just mentioned a very a very important thing over here the menorah in the temple if you'll if you walk down to the cot I'll when you walk down to the cutter when you go down the stairs all right on the left-hand side just before you get to the you know to that little little plaza before you go down there is the most extraordinary vanora we have you seen any other petty attention to it next time you go down and take a look at sea out on the left-hand side it's a full-size replica of the menorah that's supposed to have been in the temple and you'll see that it's only got seven branches have you been to the Knesset oh yeah okay so when you go to the Knesset and take a look out good wait when you go I'm sure they'll pointed out to you but but take a good look outside the Knesset made out of some black metal is a seven branchman I again a replica of what was in the temple the we're not going to get involved in the halacha which says that you're not supposed to copy these things really yeah we won't we won't get involved in that but the the the menorah that was in the temple had seven branches and it's interesting until it talks about seven branches of wisdom that come out of the Torah the Torah itself is the middle branch and all the other ones come out on each side is that there's an interesting disagreement amongst the amongst the early authorities about what the menorah looked like now you're you're probably all familiar with it you know the pictures that you've seen outside of the Knesset and the one down by there that's sort of it's sort of rank got like rounded branches to it the rambam my mana DS was of the opinion that it wasn't like that at all the rambam was of the opinion that was a central pole going down the middle and then coming out at a straight angle were three branches and it was a much more angular design now I'll tell you something interesting actually they were there because it doesn't great could join you could draw pictures of it there are graves as well I mean this is famous picture on the evening on the Titus arch which is a slightly problematic because the base of the menorah dozen Titus's arts the base of the mountain doesn't match up to anything it's not it's not it's not right the only thing it matches up to is the Roman you know Roman basis of different different candelabra they had in those days there is a theory that the you know the people that were doing the the people that were doing the etchings on the on the arch so they itched what they would all look like but the bottom part no one was really pay very much attention so they just drew whatever would have been the norm at that time which I guess is that sounds to me as much of a reason as any other I was called it the ram the rambling says that they were coming out of an angle and the truth is that the run Barmes explanation is an explosion which fits in very neatly with the concept inside of the temple rather says all of the utensils inside of the temple were angular all of the utensil set for example you've got that you've got the altar was angular right you've got that you've got the the RN that the Holy Ark was angular right instead of a circle he says why is that explains our first because circles are natural and angular things are not you have to make an angle right a circle is something here think of that think of the earth right it's a sphere thing can think of my stomach you know it's natural so it's round right if you don't have a round stomach then obviously there's something unnatural about you the central hirsch that the utensils in the temple could not have been round because there was nothing natural about the temple it was a it was a supernatural place according to the RAM bombs depiction of the way that the Manolo look it fits in very neatly with that idea because it's all angular you've got these branches coming out right at an angle as opposed to the branches that appear like again walking down to the Kotel or outside the Knesset where they're rounded right it's much much much softer look to it a much more the truth as much appealing look to it but it may not it may not be accurate in all events a menorah that we light on chanukah has got eight lights not seven lights right the seven like the 77 branch menorahs only for the temple and the eighth branch Monroe with the extra bit for the shamu church will talk about a business shown at some point that was that was foot that's made especially for Hanukkah you