This is Hanukkah - Ari Abramowitz: The Land of Israel Fellowship

hello my friends so here i am in the united states i'm still here and i'm sending this message from philadelphia where i'm spending shabbat with my cousin and his beautiful family and we're having a little bit of a family reunion later literally as the fellowship is happening so just a couple hours ago right now is when i am filming this message for you and uh and so now that my trip here baruch hashem is winding to a close i'm already starting to see the value in my coming here to america perhaps not the entire value but a good part of it and at least in my limited mind it's so powerfully connected to chanukah because uh you know rob carl bach he asks a question from the song that we sing every night after lighting the candles called ma o's tour and [Music] and from the leftover vial of oil that left over minotaur the leftover vial of oil the hanukkah miracle was done so the question is why the greeks didn't find that last vial of oil and so are you ready for this he gave an answer that i've never thought of yet it seems so obviously true as it's so consistent with hellenized western philosophy so the answer that roshlomo shares is that the greeks did see that last vial of oil but they didn't care because they figured what can be done with just one bottle of consecrated oil that little bit that little jar it's just irrelevant we can ignore it they didn't know the jewish secret of the world that with one vial of oil one last drop we can illuminate the whole world greek thinking is that this world is quantitative the bigger the army the stronger you are the more money you have the richer you are the more powerful you are that more is better and less is worse they're quantitative in the way they see the world we on the other hand we're qualitative that one vial of oil was able to continue burning until this very day until this very moment when jeremy and his family will be lighting their menorah on this night the eighth night of hanukkah the eighth night the night that we called zotronica based on the biblical verse from numbers chapter 7 verse 84. anyways on my travel travels over this last week i have seen the human equivalent of the last vial of oil for his proverbs tell us ner hashem nishmat adam the soul of man is the candle of hashem and you can almost you can almost visualize it right god himself is that eternal torch that original fire of light and illumination from which all of existence derives its sustenance and the soul of man deep at the soul root when you peel away all of these shells of impurity that soul of man is a candle lit from the same divine fire which is hashem and i'm telling you i i met people on this trip who gave me goosebumps you know i almost literally had to wince when i looked at them there was just so much light and immediately i said these here these are the remnants the remnant vials of pure oil that's what i felt like when i met these people for example i met charlene ferguson from our fellowship shayna got to meet her and so did vosh and she gave masha a little teddy bear that she loves but um it was vasha's nap time so shane and didn't get to spend the precious time with charlene that i did they only got to hear about it afterwards every day until now and unfortunately charlene's sister wanda wasn't able to make the trip because of her back but we're praying for her as well but the inspiration i got from charlene has stayed with me and fueled me since i saw her and and i heard her story of intellectual curiosity and spiritual thirst and intellectual honesty and heroic courage it's not really my story to tell so i'm not telling all the details now but just her willingness to be different and to stand apart from her community and her friends and even her family no matter what the cost and i walked away not knowing how i how i would have been had i been charlene but um i was definitely far from sure that i would have had her abrahamic strength and courage and another story i'll share with you in my it was about my meeting with my holy friend jack i met him in his office in downtown brooklyn and maybe it was the weather or the area or both but everything just seemed like this dreary concrete jungle in brooklyn and as i sat with jack in his office and saw his company that he built and i asked him how he built it in the background story of the company and then he did something that i really think i'll just always remember and it's difficult to describe i'm not going to do justice to it but he just he came he sat down next to me on the couch and he just he pivoted towards me and he looked me in the eye and his face lit up and he said is it okay if we just skip all that please please just tell me about israel talk to me about israel and uh you know that that look in his eye just i can only describe it as lovesick he was lovesick like someone asking to hear a word from their fiancee who they haven't spoken to or seen for a while he just wanted to hear anything about israel i could have said anything as long as it was about his beloved israel and i remember for one fleeting moment wondering whether he was more in israel sitting in his underground office in brooklyn than some people actually living in the holy land and so on my journey i see these last single jars of oil these last remnants of supernatural holy light shining from the darkness of the exile and i can't help but to think to myself that perhaps that's what the exile is all about the darkness of the exile was there to provide a contrast for the light of redemption and with charlene and jack and the others during the time i was with them i actually felt like i was in the land of israel it wasn't a thought it wasn't a feeling for those moments it was i mean it was a feeling for those moments i feel like i could have been sitting in the heart of jerusalem with these people that was the spiritual strength and energy i got from them it was beautiful it really it was beautiful and that's what hanukkah is about chanukah is about beauty rafa said that on yom kippur we are purified right we're forgiven we become pure again but on hanukkah by the light of hanukkah we become beautiful again the etz right the tree of knowledge of good and evil that knows what's right and wrong good and bad but the light of hanukkah transcends all of that by the light of hanukkah we see beauty so my friends may we merit tonight when we gaze at the eight holy candles of hanukkah together to see only beauty in the world beauty in each other beauty in ourselves and beauty in the destiny that we've been given to bring forward and to bring forth the light of redemption and mashiach hashem all right shalom my friends i'm so eager to see you again please god upon my return to eretz israel as the masks are coming off and much of the world is turning not only against israel but yes against the jewish people if you feel different if your love for israel is growing deeper and stronger if you're thirsting to cleave to the nation of israel and to the god of israel if you're thirsting to learn authentic torah from jews in judea then the land of israel fellowship is for you hundreds of individuals and families from around the world come together on zoom every week in what can only be described as a fellowship of love friendship of learning and praying and belonging a fellowship really unlike any other it's more than just a movement it's a family to learn more about the land of israel fellowship click on www.thelandofisrail.com backslash fellowship or send an email to fellowship at the land of israel.com love and blessings from judea