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What Can We Learn from Chanukah? - Part 5 - Rabbi Dr. David Gottlieb
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Auto-generated transcript. Not time-synced to the video.
there's a problem that we all face and
that is that certain things repeat over
and over again and become very familiar
with them and then we take them for
granted and we stop thinking about them
and then all of a sudden we discover
that things aren't the way we thought
they don't mean what we thought and it's
a bit of a jolt to me it's always a joke
because I think of myself as an
intelligent thinking person and then I
discovered that I was asleep when I was
was dealing with these things this
happens with the texts of Prayer very
regularly I want to share one with you
right now at the bottom of the page in
the gray is the addition that we insert
in the prayers for the two holidays
konica important want to go through the
one that describes Hanukkah and I'm
going to read through it as I read
through it think about Hanukkah think
about what you know of a conical what
we're doing and see how the text relates
to what's going on for the miracles a
Salvation mighty deeds victories battles
you perform for our forefathers these
days at this time the days of Martha CEO
so I'm the Oakland High Priest the
husband Aaron and his sons when the
wicked Greek kingdom rose up against
your people in Israel to make them
forget your Torah and compel them to
stray from the statues of your will you
and your great mercy stood up for them
and the time of their distress you took
up their grievance judge their claim
avenged their wrong you delivered the
strong into the hands of the week the
many into the hands of the few the
imperior to the hands of the pure the
wicked at the hands of the righteous and
the wanton and
hands the diligent students of your toes
for yourselves you made a great and holy
name in your world and for your people
Israel you work the great victory and
salvation as this very day therefore
your children came to the Holy of Holies
of your house cleansed your temple
purified the sight of your holiness and
kindled lights and the courtyards of
your sanctuary and they established
these eight days of Hanukkah to express
thanks and praise to your great name
something strike you as odd here no how
about something odd by omission if all
you had was this text that was the only
source you had about about about
Hanukkah what would you be missing
you'll be missing the miracle the oil
there isn't a clue here death is a
miracle of the oil it's all about
battles armies victories the many into
the hands of the few the strong at the
hands of the week it does say at the end
they cleaned out the temple and
dedicated it lit lights but so I think
that's a miracle they're involved I
think that's passing strange so maybe
you'll find that ok when weird Avenue
and in the big house of Muslims we say
after after eating bread it's the same
paragraph for some reason or other it
should be it should be omitted
overlooked how about when we're actually
lighting the menorah actually lighting
the menorah aren't we lighting the
menorah in order to commemorate the
miracle of the oil isn't that why we're
doing it right the middle of the page
this is the paragraph that we say why
we're lighting the candles these lights
we Kindle upon the miracles the wonders
the salvations and the battles which you
perform for our forefathers in those
days at this season through your holy
priests
during all eight days of Hanukkah these
lights are sacred we're not permitted to
make ordinary use of them or to look at
that have no respect thanks appraise
your great name for your miracles your
wonders and your salvations any clue
here there was a miracle of the oil and
the only thing that's mentioned in any
detail is salvation said bowels that's
clearly the war isn't that strange when
you're lighting the menorah shouldn't
you say and you made America or other
lasted eight days instead of one day but
not a word that's very strange that
needs to be explained boooya number two
the morale wrote a whole essay on
Hanukkah called a mitzvah he says
something which isn't obvious to many
but he says it and he himself is a major
authority he says that if you had been
observing the battles of the Maccabees
against the Greek army you would not
have seen any open miracles it would not
have seen any open miracles I which I
said that many into the hands of the few
of the straw at the hands of the week is
that really unheard of in history don't
remind Americans about the Vietnam era
when a primitive primitive backwardation
somehow stymied the Americans to the
point where they ended up with the whole
country making a communist and I'm
confident that no people here from
Britain's will be embarrassed by the
independence war of the Americans
against the British where the British
had one of the finest armies in the
world and that was a time when they said
the Sun never sets on the British Empire
because they had provinces over the
world they sent their fine army to
America and they were defeated by a
bunch of ragtag amateurs doesn't it
happen that smaller weaker less well
equipped armies defeat greater armies
especially when the smaller is fighting
on his home turf for independence
and when the attacker he could represent
a empire but they're mercenaries they're
people who are paid to fight and have no
personal stake in winning or losing
other than getting paid doesn't it
happen in Natural History what we think
of as natural history where the smaller
less well-equipped army defeats the
greater our me says the Maya Rao if you
had been attached to the Maccabee
enforces you would not have seen the
earth open up under the Greek forces and
swallow them up more boulders fall down
from Heaven's on them with no open
miracles now says their emphasis in the
prayers is to teach us something crucial
about the message of Hanukkah this is a
application of the thing we've been
talking about for four days theme of
nature and that is that we should not
divide the world into miracles which
happened once in a thousand years and
that's where God acts in the world and
the rest of that I'm God is on vacation
and nature carries the world and God
intervenes when he deems it necessary to
intervene in the rest of the time it
carries on its own that's a mistake the
point of Hanukkah is to teach you how to
look at the seemingly natural that's the
point of it yes the open miracle was the
miracle of the oil but the point of that
miracle is to teach you how to look at
the war that's the real message real
message is to look at the war in a
different fashion how do the two inter
interact how do they relate well after
all who started the war you read now
everywhere certainly in the sanctified
New York Times that's irony case you
missed it and other places as well the
first war of national liberation the
first war that's support of universal
human rights and conscience and freedom
and some of the so on well
don't tell us the people who might be
too offended upset by it but that's just
baloney the Maccabees were not in favor
of freedom of religion they would not
have been happy they would not have
tolerated someone who wanted to practice
polytheism and idol worship in the Land
of Israel on the grounds that we just
fought a battle for freedom and
self-determination no the Maccabees
represented the truth of the Torah and
the Torah is god's way that the world
has to run in particular how the Jewish
world jewish people has to run and it
was to remove oppression that stopped
them from fulfilling what the Torah
wants for me was not the beginning of a
national liberation war as certain
political parties want to use it too was
reinforced their own ideologies not at
all now it was started by the Maccabees
who were priests it started when a
certain abomination took place in the
temple that the Greeks offered a pig not
as if pigs were specifically now not
only designed to spite us the use of
pigs the sacrifices was very widespread
in the non-jewish world it was very
widespread but to offer a pig in the
Jewish temple is that just a Greek
saying let's still hear what we usually
do they knew very well what they were
doing they knew what we stood for it
they knew what what role the pig has an
art in our thought system they did it to
say we're Greek applying it in such a
way that we're digitizing we're going to
do something which is an abomination to
you in your own holiest place and it was
the Maccabees as priests who led the
revolt the revolt was specifically
theological wasn't liberal politics it
was theological and outraged his head
had taken place in the location that God
makes his presence felt and we can't
live with it and we're prepared to put
our lives down for that so how does the
war proceed they're all proceeds from
out the North that driving the Greeks
and Syrian Greeks back to the north
there in Jerusalem which is only halfway
through the war did not end when they
conquered Jerusalem we cleaned out the
temple and instead of the menorah and
that the lights didn't end it and when I
for once afterwards they come into the
temple they clean it out and they like
the menorah immediately there's a
miracle immediately is a miracle if you
are fighting this battle what do you
feel when that miracle takes place what
you feel is God is with us we made the
right decision and he's behind us and
he's showing us that he's with us it
isn't as if maybe we should call off the
war oil is the whole thing let's double
the oil production and let's export it
the rest of the world the convert them
no no they continue the battle but since
the battle was for the sake of
rededicating the temple they get
confirmation that the war is something
that God wants and that he's with them
in the war this is the crucial message
when you are living your life and things
happen the way you expected to happen or
within the range of normal variations
normal fluctuations and you think to
yourself ok that's the world doing what
it usually does that's a trap that's a
trap because then you lose sight of the
fact that it's all divine providence and
as a matter of fact the purpose of this
miracle and the miracle of purim both of
them are to teach in a in a open observe
observational way that you shouldn't
look at the normal progress of life as
if it were absent of divine providence
it's all an expression of divine
providence indeed there's a progression
going from egypt the miracles in egypt
the plagues through pooram to Hanukkah
expressing this idea in ever greater
measure where Hanukkah is the less than
I want two traits that development for
you and that's the bottom
what we have to experience with item an
hour to think I'm saying honey Russell
oh and there's although it says there
were battles and that's what the
lighting the lights is supposed to push
me to understand not as if the miracle
of the oil is irrelevant it's not
irrelevant but the big message says the
morrow is how do you look at what seems
to be natural let's go back to do deep
background let's talk about the plagues
in Egypt the plagues in Egypt divided
into two categories the ROM bob says
this he uses it for a different purpose
but he bet he talks about the same
division some of the plagues are anti
natural the river turns to blood rivers
don't turn to blood there is a period of
darkness where for at least 72 hours
there's total darkness and it becomes
substantive so that you can't move
nothing like that happens that's the
firstborn there are no medical
conditions that attack firstborn
children that's just not a medical
category those miracles break nature now
imagine a polytheist looking at those
events how did you see them what do they
mean to him how does he interpret them
he's not to phase remember that in the
polytheistic ancient world there was no
religious competition there was no
religious competition every group that
had its religion agreed that the other
groups religion is valid it's true the
Babylonians agreed that the Egyptian
gods are real God's the Egyptian agree
the Babylonian gods are real guys indeed
a war between two nations is a war
between the two sets of gods no one has
a complaint about something about
somebody else religion maybe some
misguided modern I won't say the
clinical term would be that you know the
ancient world was all Los Angeles you
know you do what's good for you after
was good for me well we appreciate each
other so there were no religion there
were no religious worst it wasn't there
was nothing to fight about so an
Egyptian witnessing these events will
say okay we understood the juice our God
every nation has a gun up until now we
thought the Jewish God was impotent the
Egyptians have been enslaved the Jews
for 90 years he didn't do anything
okay so it's a week God secondary God
now we see that you do things that we
weren't we appreciate he has certain
powers that doesn't mean they recognize
the one creator of the universe and give
up their own religion all that means is
when I take account of how to navigate
the world one thing I have to keep in
mind is that the Jews also have a god
and you know what has to try to stay on
the right side of all the powers that
are applying doesn't challenge his point
of view but the other plagues have a
different character let's take frogs
Egypt is inundated with frogs where do
the frogs come from they come from the
river it says so in the text explicitly
but that's where frogs always breed
that's why they always come from they
always come from the river only this
time they calm and spectacularly greater
numbers and we come exactly where Moses
says they'll come and they leave exactly
where Moses says they'll leave see here
you have what I would call a hybrid it's
a miraculous event built on a natural
source it's clearly miraculous because
human being normally predict when
they'll be a gigantic infestation of not
wrong and quantity of infestation was
unprecedented but frogs didn't fall from
the sky or go out of the flower pots
which would have been much more
unnatural much more striking no they
came from the river where they always
came from that's true for all the
intermediary plagues lice people have
lives and until let's say 20 last 20
years 25 years in this country was very
common you had lice checks in the
schools and tell always some proportion
of the people who have lice you don't
have it everybody infested with lice at
the same time doesn't happen cattle
sickness cattles get sick but cows get
sick sheep and goats get sick and they
die but not all of them at once and
infestation of wild animals there were
wild animals in the hills but they were
typically afraid of human habitation
they lost their fear and they came and
swamp locust locust exists in this part
of the world locusts travel from place
to place you know how they travel
they travel on the wind they do have
wings but they can't fly hundreds of
miles on they travel on the wind the
Torah says explicitly they were blown in
on the wind that means it's a natural
process but again Moses said exactly
when it would start if a station was
quantitatively greater than it ever even
before they ended exactly when Moses
said it would end this is a hybrid it's
a natural process expressing itself in a
supernatural way let's think of the
message of that imagine a polytheist an
ancient polytheist was looking at these
events how does he take them well how
does he structure his world there's the
god of the Sun and a god of the wind and
a god of the sea and a god of death of
the god of fertility and I kind of
victory in war why because these are
natural forces forces he doesn't
understand forces he can't predict and
he pictures them in a way that's
familiar to him there are intelligent
agents behind each one but there's only
one it's only one god of the Sun not 20
competition for the Sun the one god of
the moon one god of the sea one god of
death no competitions for these for
these agencies now what about frog
production of course there are god
there's a god i'm in charge of frog
production yeah the gods in charge of
everything who's doing it well up until
now it was either Nile or at which was a
god or an ally of the Nile someone
someone of the gods was in charge but
for one week it's quite clear that it's
the Jewish God who's doing it it's a
Jewish God who's producing the frogs so
who brought us the frog the rest of the
time well if you have a consistent
picture and use the same methodology
that leads you in the direction of
thinking maybe the rest of the time
Jewish Congress doing it also well the
rest the time he was doing its small
scale and now when it suited His
purposes you did a large scale and that
will be true for cattle sickness at will
be true for a license I'll be true for
the annals of 80 and it'll be true for
the wind blowing the wind say this is
true by the way is splitting of the sea
the splitting the sea was was done by a
strong wind that blew all night why who
needs the wind God doesn't need a wind
to blow it he's making a point making a
good point that what you think of as the
forces of nature are really expressions
of the Jewish God's activity also this
spreads by the effect of the Jewish God
into what formerly would have been
thought of as the realm of nature or the
realm of other gods Jewish God is taking
over multiple functions that's a process
that started in Egypt Purim you have a
continuation of the process let's just
recall the events with which the book of
Esther starts and as I recite them
imagine yourself living through them aha
so a roach the King has party six months
he knew how to party even Los Angeles
could learn something from him and at
the end of the party when he's a bit
high he makes a appeal that the Queen
should make a showing this whole
political intrigue behind this i'm not
going to F&F it out and she says no she
Speights him and he's now realized that
he's got a rebellion on his hands and he
calls on his advisors and Eston how to
handle it the divisors say if you leave
via text carefully make it into a
feminist issue and do something to make
sure that women will respect men and
women will be subjugated to men it's
real feminist issue in the first chapter
there and he does so and she's removed
now imagine you lived through that what
do you say these oriental potentate sand
this guy who can party for six months
you know I'm a drink for six months who
knows what he can do would you say that
this is a miracle why these are just
politics and oriental intrigue doesn't
have to get a new queen and that's a
beauty search and Lester is taken into
into the group along with thousands of
other
and she's chosen what's the probability
of that well obviously whoever is chosen
it's a very low probability lotteries
are engines that produce events and low
probability not always when events low
probability is it a puzzle or a miracle
a lottery is something that's designed
to produce an event with low probability
that George one rather than somebody
else so she won must I call that a
miracle I don't think so nothing in it
whoever won will be very low probability
now there's a plot on the King's life
and Mordecai discovers it and tells
Esther Esther tells the king and the
plot is foiled the Kings saved their
plots on Kings lives very often almost
always they filed otherwise it would
hardly pay to be a king because you
wouldn't last long and almost all of
them get foiled the factors apply what
if I happen to overhear it must I regard
that as a miracle now the King doesn't
reward Mordecai that's pretty puzzling
you would think that if somebody saved
your life you'd reward him to encourage
other people to save your life sort of
thing you'd like people to do but the
Jews were a downtrodden nation even
though he perish was the Emperor of the
whole area but we were in a worse
position because we had no homeland we
were in exile so maybe he felt that
honoring a Jew was unnecessary or
politically inappropriate and he didn't
do it still although it's odd to say
that it's a miracle is not demanded of
the fact up there by the facts now
humming arises and he decides that he
hates Mordecai because he hates
mortifies kind of attack the whole
Jewish people and he decides that he
can't stand motorized existence he's
going into the king to ask him for
permission to kill more like he's
already erected a gallows to kill him
before he gets there it's nighttime and
the King can't sleep so the King says
bring their stirring rocks because
everybody knows history put you to sleep
right now historians here
and it just so happened to history book
is open to the incident took place four
years before when mordechai saved the
King's life and now when he hears this
he thinks cheated we do anything to
reward water suddenly his conscious
disturbs him we didn't do anything to
reward work I know we didn't let's see
what kind do something for Mordecai
who's in the courtyard hummons walking
in to tell the King to kill more time
and the King says oh come in humming
have I got a project for you go and
honor Mordecai in public at that point i
think the reader says that's going too
far that's going too far normally in
normal life that doesn't happen it's too
much of a coincidence it's too
engineered to be expect to be accepted
as just a coincidence that's right
that's the point of the of the of the
book the point of the book is to tell
you here you have to admit there
tomorrow this is not something that
would happen just by chance okay then
Esther is queen and she's right in a
position where she can it's a seat on
the behalf of the Jewish people and said
the Jewish people at the end of the book
you see clearly that miracles are taking
place that's fine that's obvious that's
open to everyone I want to take one baby
step beyond that now go back and
re-examine the events at the beginning
of the book so let's see how Irish had
this party and he called for the Queen
to come and the Queen didn't come and
then his advisors advice to him to have
it removed was that just happenstance
after all that's how i stir got in
that's how she was there then I haven't
the same two Jewish people years later
doesn't it now look as if it was
contrived Mordecai overheard the plot
and he told esther and the plot was
foiled but that just happens this he
just happened to be there heaven though
the foreign language they were speaking
so he picked it up and the King decided
not to honor him to reward him with that
just happened says but look that's what
set up the ability to withstand Hama
Druz coming you haven't killed
that moment that was called in and used
to defeat humma so now you go back years
before and say well maybe the fact that
Mordechai was there overheard the plot
the plot was sobbing he wasn't rewarded
that also was planned in order to set up
the final salvation the intellectual
path here is to live through events
which strike you as natural and then
later to have to go back and reinterpret
them and unsee them as an expression of
divine providence that's a very valuable
lesson here God taught the lesson in a
way that a whole generation saw it in
front of them but you know one of the
chief differences with you who beings
and squirrels is that every squirrel
repeats the life of every other squirrel
since the beginning of time there's no
progress in repeating is that cumulative
culture we don't have to invent the
wheel in every generation rented once it
be carried for that ice generation event
something else once you have that
experience and you have it on record
later generations could say okay they
learned the lesson I can learn it also
without going through the same process
again what looks as if it is just
natural events it's just a way of God
hiding his agency but his agency is
there now that's what happened in Purim
was very important that the poor of
event took place in exile this took
place in Persia for many people once the
temple is destroyed the false prophet
said to Jeremiah god will not abandon
his temple Khan will not abandon his
city the Babylonians can't possibly
conquer us God and jeremiah said to them
making mistake God has told me babylone
is going to succeed for many people and
they went to Babylon it was over it was
over I Jeremiah predicted it and he told
them that is God's Way of repairing the
failures and trying to bring them and
bring them to a higher state of v4 many
people who was over so much so that went
70 years later the second temple was was
inaugurated only minority people came
back dress the people didn't come back
so
that's why that this this miracle in
Persia was very important don't think
that because you're in exile and you're
powerless that I've abandon you know I'm
here with you also and I'm showing you
that what looks as if it's natural is
really divine products now in his fourth
certain sense konica was worse hi was
worse for two reasons first of all
because of Purim they only want only the
attack was on the physical the attack
was physical annihilation in Hanukkah
the attack was spiritual annihilation
the fact that your body keeps on living
but your mind and heart are filled with
false ideas false goals disconnected
from the reality is in our Terms worse
than physical death and the attack took
place in the Land of Israel in a way
that's worse if you're in exile it's
natural to expect it's wrong but it's
natural to expect you're outside the
Land of Israel things aren't running the
same way the same elevation the same
spirituality same divine attention but
that the attack could actually overpower
us in the land division now destroy the
temple but to use the temple for idol
worship abominable idol worship that
that was a greater challenge to the idea
God is running the world and that's why
the miracle had to take place and the
second miracle was one which had the
same message the open visible part of
the miracle was the oil but the message
was that the war that you fought are
fighting and will win there's something
where God's providence is what is
running the war that's precisely why
there were no according to my router
brethren there were no open miracles in
the in the battles because what you have
to learn to do is see that in the
natural that's an expression of divine
providence as well now these two there's
a blessing that we make was like the
candles the miracles that you did for
our forefathers by your me mahane in
those days buzz man has a at this time
so the simple explanation those words is
this happened thousands of years ago
but it happened to these dates of the
year and we're now recording and we're
celebrating what happened at these days
of the year but actually those words was
managed a I have another two very
important implications one is for us we
who lived and to a certain extent still
live in exile because until the majority
of Jews live in the Land of Israel
legally the exile is still in force
there are certain mitzvahs that will
only come back into force when the
majority Jews live in the Land of Israel
and that has not yet happened so we're
talking about 2000 years of exile and in
those two thousand years a great deal of
history looks natural that's me an
antidote today and the antidote is that
you look back and say there was another
time in Jewish history when they were
living under what looked like natural
conditions and they were shown
forcefully that would look like the
actual conditions are divine providence
and that we have to learn applies in our
day as well in a second yeah implication
of those words I just saw an essay from
then see the sean series Sean that's the
name of the safer was the slaw nomura be
up until about I guess ten years ago
when he was niftar it's a great scholar
a great leader he was the one who
rebounded the facility after the
Holocaust and he asks the following
question there were other events in
Jewish history open miracles which for
which we have no holidays Sun kariv
besieged the city of Jerusalem he's
surrounded it with a gigantic army in
one night the entire army died we have
no holiday to celebrate that I frankly
don't remember what they that happened
on I don't think I'm alone you asked
many many religious Jews what date was
it that some Pharaoh's army was was
destroyed don't know what's the
difference between those miracles that
become celebrated annually forever and
those that don't
and the Sanwa Rebbe cites a few words
about the miracle of hanukkah it
describes the ignorant describes the
miracle that happened and then it said
and the following year they established
the performance the mythos that we do on
high following you what's let's say was
a following year who cares why does that
give our bother to mention that I was a
following here Aslam Rebbe said this our
holidays are not historical I highs are
not historical they don't celebrate
things that happen in the past some
things that happen in the past plant in
the world and living potential and every
time the date comes back that potential
is available and can be realized if you
interact with it an appropriate way and
usually the appropriate ways to mirror
what happened on the original event
that's why we have a seder every
beginning of face off every year because
they had a seder in Egypt that's what
they did and we do the same thing we'd
welland in ensue coast because that's
what he did in the wilderness of course
was the clouds of glory it's a long
story but that's this week they let a
menorah in the temple we light him an
era the holiday of Purim was celebrated
at that time with feasting moving
feasting quit for 2500 years since then
that's because the same spiritual
potential repeats itself every year not
every miracle in history does that the
destruction the armies on high roof does
not create on that date further every
year that same potential and therefore
there's no holiday celebrating it
because the holidays are not historical
not to remember what happened once upon
a time there to realize that recurring
potential and not every holiday has
definite potential and that's what the
Camorra says well it says they waited a
year to see will that same potential
recurred will it reassured self if so
then we should do something to recognize
it and to exploit it if not we'll ignore
it just like sometimes event was ignored
wasn't so they did so
bus monitor as long as that means we're
doing it now because this date these
dates are the dates of which that
potential is available that potential is
potential of seeing the world in
appropriate fashion to see that what
looks like something that's purely
natural purely accidental is something
which is really divine providence that's
why in the prayers you have the heavy
emphasis on the war because that's the
challenge challenge to see that would
look like the war is in fact divine
providence and that being the case to
accept it as such and then look at our
own lives and say the things that look
natural things look like be really
accidental are themselves expressions of
my province
you