The Life Changing Secret of Menorah Gazing - Ari Abramowitz: The Land of Israel Fellowship

which brings me to a different element of the power of the hanukkah lights and stay stay with me here my friends because you know i just open your hearts here because this may seem lofty but the potential within this idea is tremendous so roshlomo the maharal many sage of israel my own rabbis thousands of years of jewish tradition tells us that there's tremendous power in gazing at the chanukah candles every year since we're together shane and i light the candles we shut off all the lights in the room so that the candles are standing alone in the darkness and we stare at the fire emanating from the menorah how many of you do this a lot of you i see a lot of you do this it's such a primary idea it's such a central part of my hanukkah that i was actually going to call this fellowship gazing at the lights because the light of the hanukkah candles the light of the menorah is is ancient and powerful and it does a true tikkun right a real fixing of our eyes it can fix the way we see things the truth is it's it it's actually reflected in the in the code of jewish law that if for some reason you're not able to light the menorah yourself you still make the blessing for merely looking at the candles meaning we still recite hashem's sacred name we we don't say in vain we don't do that lightly we make up we make that blessing just for looking at the candles there's no other commandment in the torah that we fulfill just by looking at it and the reason is that the light of the hanukkah candles has the potential to heal the way we see the world the way we perceive everything because my friends i think we all know deep down that that's where the real war is how we see things how we perceive things because the eyes with which we see things that makes all the difference in the entire world you know rashomo carl bachi shares a beautiful teaching about the eyes about this very thing we're talking about he takes it all the way back to the beginning to show how the way in which we looked at each other was the root of the entire downfall of mankind so i'm actually going to read it to you from this beautiful book called can you see it it's called the soul of hanukkah it's the teachings of rav shomo karl bach on chanukah and it's compiled and edited by my beloved friend and rebbie roshlomoketz so here's what he says ready for this he says let's look at the first two brothers in the world what was the problem with cain and abel imagine cain would have said to god it's true that i'm not high enough to bring my sacrifice to you but i'm so glad you received my brothers how can i ever thank you for giving me a brother who's so holy do you know what would have happened his sacrifice would have reached even higher than abel's but you know friends abel was also imperfect we can ask abel why are you so happy that god received your sacrifice why aren't you crying over your brother's sacrifice that was rejected why don't you go to cain and say i'm so sorry that god didn't receive yours brother i'll tell you something even stronger if abel would have said to god thank you very much for receiving my sacrifice but i don't want you to take mine unless you receive my brothers also do you know what would have happened there would have been redemption for the whole world is that beautiful you know i i could end it there but rashomo actually takes it back even further and at the risk of going over he takes it back to adam and eve to show that the deepest sin may not have really been from them eating the tree the real sin was the way they looked at the tree he points out the words that we recite upon kindling the flames that you just heard from jeremy and tejila everybody says these words the the slide is up a little late it's okay everybody says these words they take up prime real estate you heard it from jerome we say we kindle these lights to commemorate the miracles and wonders what you have performed for our forefathers in those days and at this time through your holy priests throughout the eight days of hanukkah hanukkah these lights are sacred and here it is ready ain't lanu reshoot lihishta meshbahem ella we are not permitted to make use of them but only to look at them in order to offer thanks and praise to your great name and your miracles for your wonders and for your salvations that's right ain't no shooting elena we cannot use the hanukkah lights for anything other than to look at them now here's what says the downfall of the world began in chapter 3 verse 6 but and the woman saw that the tree was good for eating the way havah this is what rosa says the way looked at the tree was the beginning of all the darkness the fixing of hanukkah is when we look at anything in the world hanukkah is about the eyes and the fixing of the spies because the spies looked at eretistra l at the land of israel the same way that eve looked at the apple what was the problem i can look at something and say can i use it or can i not use it is it good for me or not i can look at eric's israel and think is it good for me or is it bad for me just like the spy said but the fixing of hanukkah is that i'm not trying to use it for anything i'm just so glad that it's there and i have to admit my friends that this is something i struggle with because like many of us i fall victim to this as well not only with torah learning but like refslomo said even with people even with people that's right with human beings i i like to think that i don't do it often and really i've been liberated from it to such a large degree but at the beginning there were times at the farm when there was such financial pressure that i would sometimes meet people and immediately wonder if they would be able to contribute and help us stay afloat and i just saw them can they be of help to me and and i think that there are times also when we do this in our marriages and we think is my spouse fulfilling my needs we look at them and we think am i getting what i want instead of just looking at our spouse and just loving them for being them right just for being just for being for who they are right now at this very moment no changing involved no arguing required maybe maybe this hanukkah let's consider looking at our spouses and our families by the hanukkah lights by the candles maybe tonight and just focus on loving them just for being them this highlight was taken from the land of israel fellowship every week hundreds of families from literally around the world come together on our live zoom sessions to strengthen each other to inspire each other and to learn torah from the land of israel in which we connect the dots between the bible the hebrew language and the confusing events of our times go to www.thelandvisual.com backslash fellowship or click on the link below to join thank you