The Deeper Meaning of the Chanukah Lights - Rabbi Shlomo Wiener

[Music] kanuka a very very amazing holiday and there are two aspects basically we have one the amazing military victory that the Jews were able to achieve against the Greek Empire and two we have the miracle of the oil that there was enough oil for one day and then it ended up burning for eight days so we have these two Miracles kind of coexisting and weaving one within the other so I think if you would make an observation a simple observation of the two Miracles it would seem that the military miracle was much greater according to historical accounts there was only a thousand Jews left at that time that were faithful to Torah and Mitzvah so it was a thousand people fighting against the Greek Empire which if you would try to figure that out today a thousand people taking on the us or something like that it would be almost impossible however if you look at how our sages how kazal have us celebrating this holiday the emphasis is certainly on the lights this emphasis is on the oil the miracle of the oil all the hakas that we have refer to the miracle of the oil in in terms of the war say Alim we put that into our daving we put that into B but the emphasis clearly seems to be from our sages on the Miracle of the oil and it seems to be that our sages are stressing here that this was not a physical War this was not a physical battle between two Nations the Jewish nation and the Greek Nation but rather a spiritual battle this was a battle between light and darkness the Greeks are referred to as darkness which is a fascinating thing because they looked at themselves as very enlightened they had all the great philosophers they had Aristotle they had Plato and Socrates and they discovered geometry they had tremendous insights and yet the Torah the medish rabba calls them darkness and our sages by stressing the oil is calling us light so what's the distinction here why are we referred to as light why the Greeks referred to as Darkness there's a distinction between Torah on the one hand and on the other hand the Greeks were symbolizing wisdom and there's a fundamental difference between Torah and wisdom which is very interesting because Torah is wisdom so what is the fundamental difference the difference is is that Torah really is supposed to penetrate your being it's supposed to change you it's supposed to transform you into a different person and HMA is as great as it may be stays on the outside it doesn't change you doesn't make you into a different person and the Jewish approach to wisdom in general is that if it's not improving you if it's not building you if it's not transforming you it's not worth anything it is actually darkness and that's a fascinating Insight a very contemporary insight and a very fascinating insight as to what the very fundamental distinction was between the Jews on the one hand and the Greeks on the other hand I'd just like to finish with an interesting story that can illustrate the difference between Torah on the one hand the Jewish approach and kma on the other hand there was a great professor in America in the 20th century by name of bur and Russell very very astute professor and he taught ethics that was his field and it seems to be that Professor Russell had a problem that he was not the most ethical person in the world he was carrying on with a few ladies on the side even though he's a married man and back in those days the students were outraged that a person who is a professor of Ethics is acting like this and so the students actually put him on trial and they said Professor Russell How could a teacher of Ethics be carrying on like this it doesn't make any sense and Professor Russell in his very intelligent way responded as follows he said does a mathematics teacher have to be a triangle that was his answer I'm an Ethics teacher maybe I'm not so ethical but I know ethics that isma stays on the outside Torah has to penetrate the inside so maybe this is a time of year we should be reflecting on the lights reflecting the message of the lights we are the people of Torah and Torah means that what we learn hopefully is integrated and helps us to become better people and hopefully this will be a time a a time when we have Enlightenment we're picked up and that we can embody what we're learning the Tor should become part of all of us [Music]