Wars and Miracles: Spreading the Light of Chanukah with Charlie Harary

[Music] Hanukkah is an incredible holiday but if you look at it it doesn't feel like a typical Jewish holiday most of our holidays are filled with a sitting in shol and doing and long meals and days off from work and tons and tons of things to do but Hanukah doesn't have that we do nothing during the day just at night we have for a few minutes we just light a candle I mean because we're Jews we find a way to not only light oil to eat oil but that's us being us really there's not much there light a candle yet the rabbis say no we're going to give you something special on top of this we're going to actually create a thing called Puma which means you have to not only light it you have to publicize it this candle is a big deal it has to be lit only at the time where most people can see it has to be lit at a place where people can see it we do a lot of things all year long and we don't have to go out and show the public but this one we do why I'll want share with you an idea that I heard once that really stuck with me because the story of Kaneka is really not about candles the story of Kaneka is about wars in the 160s BCE in Israel there was a general that came in from the north named antias and he was a Greek General a Greek king that wanted to eradicate not just Jews but Judaism and he engaged in a campaign to destroy us of our own religion and by the way he almost won Torah punishable by death bris rosesh you do anything Jewish they basically kill you so most of the Jews ran for their lives and the ones that stayed Jewish lived in caves and then he came to a small little cave outside the town of modin and he pulled out the leader a Coen named Matisyahu and he made him or he asked him to do the unthinkable to sacrifice a pig on an alar and he wouldn't at that moment Maho and his sons engaged in a battle against the greatest army at the time now think about it for us we forget this this is a bunch of Kohan these are priests they weren't trained in battle didn't have swords and they're up against the strongest army of antiquity and it wasn't one shot it was 3 years to push back the Greek army to reclaim the base hamiga and to be able to engage in the service again that's the miracle that's the story that's Kaneka we almost died and all of a sudden a few Kohan stepped up and with Miracle upon Miracle upon Miracle beat the greatest army and got us to Bas H mdash so what in the world do we do in lighting candles Kaneka shouldn't be about lighting oil and eating oil Kan should be about swords we should be doing we should be doing push-ups not eating Donuts in the kitchen like what in the world are we doing the mabes the had an incredible concept that is the basis of what we're doing today the macbes when they first got in the first thing they did was they dragged out basically a meso manura into the courtyard which it didn't we typically wasn't they searched and they searched and they searched and they searched and they searched until they found a little bit of pure oil in front of an entire group of Jews that came to watch they they lit that small bit of oil why they didn't have to there's a concept called tumah they could have done it without it being pure they could have worked on other sacrifices they could have put the whole B some of this back together what is it about this oil that was so critical to the end of this campaign you see oil and fire is very very very valuable to us oil represents something that is not in this world you see fire is the thing that we have that is the representation of spiritual you know when someone passes away we light a candle why because it represents their soul the the candle of God is the soul of man if you look at even fire and you see it flickering you almost look at it and go if it wasn't for a wick it wouldn't even be in this world fire represents the soul fire represents spirituality fire represents something Beyond this world hanuka's got a fake out if you don't if you don't pay attention it looks like a war if you go closer what you realize that the rabbis are telling us don't get fooled by the hands of battle the hands of battle is being governed by the soul of the Jew we won the war not because of our hands we won the war because of our soul because of spirituality because of God yes we went through the motions yes we went to battle yes we did the work but that wasn't the driver of our success the driver of our success was spirituality so the rabbi said listen don't get distracted you know what Hanukah is lighting a candle to remember the spiritual component of this war but I don't want you to light it I want you to publicize it I want you to show the world that we don't believe that is with our hands that wins battles I want you to show the world that we are not the people that believe that our hands and our heads and our work is the source of our success I want you to show the world that we believe that the core driver of our success of our survival of our abilities comes from our connection to the Divine that's what it means to be a light to the Nations and so in the holiday that represents the war forget the sword swords forget the shields take out a candle stand by the doorway and show the world that we can fight battles and don't believe in the battles we can fight Wars and know that it is the soul it is the god that we have that we've been given it is the Divine connection that wins for us that's the miracle of Hanukah that's why we're here in this year unlike many we are literally in battle at the time of kukah we want to do this year is bring you stories that have to be more stories of people that saw challenge ad missst a battle of war and said I know it looks like my hands are too weak to win but it is my soul that determines and connected to the Divine in ways he never connected before stories of people that were saved and understood immediately in their gut that they weren't saved because they got lucky they were saved because they were connected stories of people people that reached for things like Fillin and chabus and situs and candles and stories of people that separated khala which is a Mitzvah and all of a sudden their desires were were were were met stories of men that stood in front of the world and said Shay is and were connected to their families stories that seem to be on paper to be coincidence but we both know that what drove their success was not the hands of battle was the spirituality of the candle it was the soul today we have our own stories of Kaneka and we light candles and we say it happened then but it's happening now we can't let this Hanukah pass without us stopping to realize that kanuka is happening around us and maybe maybe this year's pum needs a MIT maybe this here the the command to publicize the miracle is not just it is but not just by putting it at the door maybe it's also by speaking it out to our families by sharing by recognizing by seeing modern-day Miracles and using it as a way to connect it to the candle to the soul to our own relationship with the Divine so stick with us as we deliver some stories and some lessons that hopefully will bring us to a greater understanding and appreciation of just this incredible Miracle of Kaneka and how it is taking place then taking place every single day of Our Lives