What Can We Learn from Chanukah? - Part 6 - Rabbi Dr. David Gottlieb

the first Psalm 113 I think has in it a capsule of a general picture of creation and what our purpose is have God relates to the world and the last three verses this Psalm has nine verses and it breaks up into three groups of three take a look at the first two groups briefly and then I want to focus on the list group of three in some great detail it starts give praise your servants of a Shem praise the name of a chef I want to I want to share with you an idea about the idea of praise what is praised in particular is praised subjective when I praise something I say something that's a great piece of art great piece of music am I just expressing my feelings just saying I like it it moves me somebody else says no it's junk when I really disagreeing I'm expressing how i feel just was until he feels a lot of people think that way a lot of people think that praise essentially is subjective but that's not correct is it great i should say it's very sizeable number of philosophers will agree the praise is not subjective of course nobody's philosophers disagree and say it is Togepi we like there's always controversy but it is a very I think strong and respected position that praise is not really subjective let me give you a outlandish extreme example you run across someone at a from Australian Greg desert an Aborigine who's never heard of basketball doesn't know what it is never basketball let me I got to show you something come with me to Sydney I'm going to say something that's really not innocent take him to it into a stadium and the teams were warming up and suddenly he grabs your arm and he says I can't believe what I just saw that guy that guy was in the air he was actually in the air and he threw the ball is it the hoop that's amazing what a great shot he made a jump shot from the foul line hey listen don't get excited high school kids can do that you know that's not really a great shot that's um you know well maybe during the game you'll see George we great yes but that was not great because it's Ordinary what do you mean what do you mean he said it's great he's just expressing how he feels you telling him how he should feel it shouldn't feel yeah that's what you're telling you you're telling him you can't call is great because my definition great is something that's not very ordinary great is outstanding superior to almost everything else that's part of the definition of great and there were a person could tell you somethings great and make a mistake if it's possible to make a mistake that it's not subjective a definition subjective meters no sir see you to stay I have my reaction you have your reaction and that's simply not correct John Stuart Mill offered a criterion he said take two different pictures or novels or symphonies or whatever you like now imagine that everyone who's capable to understanding both of them prefers one so you take a play by Shakespeare and a novel by Dickens it might be this doesn't have to happen but let's suppose it happens to everybody who understands both of them prefer Shakespeare then said mill this knob this play by Shakespeare is objectively superior to the novel by Dickens why because judgment is better when you're informed the more understanding you have the better your judgment is here everyone with competent judgment to evaluate both of them free her as one of them that means if somebody disagrees he says no Shakespeare's junk it's overwhelmingly probable he doesn't understand it why is he different from everybody else and if you really didn't understand it then quit those criteria wouldn't be fulfilled it just wouldn't be such a case Miller's only saying that if everybody you can understand both for as a particular one then that one is superior so I think there's good reason to say that praise is objective as a verse which says enter his gates with Thanksgiving his courtyards I have no clue why the English very often says courts for hot air Katella is a courtyard nothing to do with judges sitting there and citing cases and putting people in jail enter his gates with Thanksgiving his courtyards with praise now this rabbi said let's read it on the surface the Gateway is the entry to the Courtyard so what's associated with the Gateway is more superficial was associated with the courtyard is more essential more fundamental you have Thanksgiving at the gate praise when you're inside what's the difference between thanksgiving and praise he says if it is this thanksgiving starts with a complete the selfish focus Thanksgiving starts with the observation I got something good my position has been improved then I think how did that happen did it fall out of the sky did he grow out of the ground no George gave it to me okay then I Oh George something because he improved my position Thanksgiving starts with the subjective with the personal with the individual with the ego and moves to a perception outside for the cause of the benefit praise he said is totally objective in order to give praise you have to step outside of yourself all together and that's why Thanksgiving is an entering way to praise Thanksgiving takes you from the internal to the external once you've made that shift to focus on the external then you're qualified to engage in praise that I think is pretty much on the surface of what this verse says okay having said all of that let's go back to 633 the song starts give praise you servants of a chef is that meant to exclude everybody else in a certain way yes who is qualified to give praise only a person who knows only person who understands someone is close enough to the subject is competent in the subject to be able to say something that's accurate about the subject so yes give praise you serve itself a chef because those who are servants who are close the other ones who are qualified to express accurate praise and indeed we have this registered in the prayers every day several places where we say holy holy holy is a Shem of hosts hold of this filled with glory where do we get those words from who said them first the Angels it says in the text every time we say those words were saying the angel said Isaiah had a vision of angels praising God when we say that we always quoted from them we say we're qualified to say that we wouldn't have come up with that we wouldn't have known that but they say it and more qualified than we we are imitating them we're taking you from them so that's why we have a right to say it because they're more qualified that we are so praise be an attempt to describe something objectively you can do it better or worse you can do it right or wrong and therefore the first in the first instance is for the instance is for those who are close to a chef okay now goes on blessed be the name of a Shem from this time in forever forever the rising of the Sun to its setting a shams name is to be praised is the second one included in the first one cuz then it sounds redundant doesn't it mean like forever morning noon evening 24-7 and from sunrise to sunset like you know that's my father doesn't have to be that way because I'm sunrise to sunset might be geographical not time but geography it means from east to west not from the time the Sun comes up to the sign and sun goes down but from the east to the west so the first one is throughout time the second is through our geography and they complement one another yeah well the truth is those are the words that are used for east and west so it's likely the text isn't saying it well misra the word mizerock means the shining of the Sun this rock means to shine it's just borrows from that to mean east ok so this read this these first three verses talk about God being praised everywhere everyone and starting with those who understand then the next three high above all nations accession above the heavens this is glory who's like a shower God who is enthroned on high yet and now your English translator he uses a political word which nobody understands Danes you have a clue what Danes means ok today means to do something that beneath your stature dug beneath you you know below you it's not worthy of you and it could translate it that way but the literal Hebrew is lowers himself Masha pili must feel means to pull something out from the shelf from the roof if someone has a picture that God dwells in heaven think again here he has to lower himself to look at the heavens the heavens are infinitely beneath him because the heavens are a creature and he's a creator so this pictures God as above beyond transcending everything that's the position for which God runs the world for its ultimate purpose when God is pictured as intimately involved in everyday affairs and the details of everyday affairs it could be that God reacts in a way that's determined by what's going on at the moment when guys pictured is above and beyond everything it means that this focus that's going to be expressed is the ultimate purpose of creation that sets up the last three verses to make them absolutely crucial now let's look at the last three verses he raises the needy from the no see they do it again dirt not dust off our is dirt dust acai vac in Hebrews almost never uses like used here either he raises the needy but you reporting this translator was gonna write right third third sounds 30 just not a nice thing you talk about say his poetical dust but literally bruise is dirt he raises the needy from the dirt from the trash heaps he lifts the deft the destitute to seat them with now the literal Hebrew is philanthropists people who give he takes the needy from the dirt the trash heaps he lifts up the destitute to seek them with those who are generous benefactors that's not an obvious move if you're overcoming poverty presumably what you do is you make the person either wealthy or independent why would you contrast poverty with philanthropy that's not an obvious move okay I I hear I hear it could be but then one wants to know why the text doesn't say that why talk about people who are poor why don't I go people who received charity from receiving charity to giving charity poverty there are poor people who refuse to take charity are such people and even if the poor person typically takes charity why speak of his objective economic condition rather than what you're trying to refer to which is specifically the fact is receiving from others well the person begins an event from the place where they're unable to satisfy themselves and double plays were finally gonna satisfy themselves and then have excess that they give to others so it's it's not necessarily about having charity received charity initially but not not having enough initially and then going to a place of having xxxx nobody knew that exists you spread that you share that that's it close to what you said but it's it's more narrowly if it's the concepts I didn't think of that example that's interesting example I have another explanation which isn't which and they can both be true but you're out you have a direct the right thing especially destitute poor doesn't doesn't mean necessarily that he can't do for himself and evie own have young probably would be somebody who can't do for himself now he says it's the contrasting into the scale okay I hear what you're saying one could still ask why the text wants to picture him as going to the contrasting ends of the scale why is that the point of text is making let's take a person who's sick what would you think of as recovering from sickness I would think health is a to be a top Olympic athlete that's the other end of the scale but why why would you go that far you know the sickness is is a is a disability and when you're healthy you're not suffering a disability you don't have to go no no no natural reason why you have to go to the other extreme of the scale in order to repair the problem that you have but isn't about what God can do it's what he does right so it's not clear why he would be committed to doing that I clearly committed to doing it indeed with health we ever say we never say you go from sickness to being aesthetically strong at athletic we just say you become healthy that's all so I hear what you say and it's definitely relevant but this more to be said last one is he transforms a barren wife into a glad mother of children now there are lots of people in trouble in the world sick people in particular ice not mentioned captives when we mentioned other prayers named in the various prayers not mentioned people that captures my captain's need to be freed suffering broken limbs as over the zone one wants to know why King David picked these two examples particularly there's a statement of the Talmud which i think is directly relevance here and of course it means has taken really from what you gave is talking about the Talmud says there are four categories of people who aren't fully alive I'm now explaining the intention of the Talmudic statement the new statement is more bold it says that that as if they did but in ninety-nine percent of the context it's not true so what what the tiniest a bit means is that they are not fully live who are they one is a person who's impoverished another is a person who's blind another person who is childless so we have two out of them and another's a person who is harassed terrazas a physical condition that's mistranslated leprosy is not really leprosy but it is characterized by being expelled from the community expelled from the city and no one should have any contact with the person the Talmud says that these four are as if they are dead why so some of the computations explained as follows the common element in all four of these is that all four lakh the normal opportunity to do loving-kindness they lack the normal opportunity or opportunities to the love and kindness and they fall into two sub categories one sub category is they lack the normal opportunities because they lack the means and the other is they've acted on opportunities because they lack the contact with people who need it now let's see how it works a person is impoverished doesn't have the physical resources to help other people that doesn't mean it can't do anything he can give free advice he can accompany your person he can give motional support but he can't invite a wedding in his home and you can't lonesome $100,000 to save his business he can't do that a person was blind is very largely dependent about other people again a blind person can do for others can give advice can can give support teach but can't give you a lift to the supermarket you can't help suggest i should decorate your living room and that's at the end very largely dependent on other people to get things done childless person lacks contact with the needy that we draw out of him responsive loving kindness that usually the person doesn't even know he possesses when you will become parents and your chosen will be a need you will discover a wellspring of loving kindness in you for most parents it comes as a shock when my child is screaming at 2am and nobody knows why and that happens they pick the child up you put them on your shoulder or her in your shoulder and you singing to the child playing music and pacing with the child that bouncing the child and you don't feel irritation and you don't think boy am I going to be tired tomorrow but a pain in the neck I'm up all night but you don't think that and you don't feel that what you feel is my child is is in distress and I have to do something for my child having children draws out of a person that loving kindness that isn't ordinarily expressed and a person who has Tara's is isolated he's really isolated you can't live in the city with anybody else no one can approach him so of course the normal means of expressing loving kindness are denied him that's the common element now what is king david saying well he David is saying is that God overcomes this disability let's think not moving your direction but not exactly in the application what is the spiritual problem with poverty where is the spiritual disability in poverty that you can't help others that's what's wrong with poverty royal property is not different time to time you miss a meal that might be good it might be bad depends upon you but if you don't have enough money to help other people that's the problem so then the solution is you have to put them together with the philanthropist because that's the solution to the problem you started unable to help others the solution of batteries put them in position where he can help others it's a direct opposition now a direct direct two ends of the same scale and the same is true with the Baron mother she doesn't have the opportunity to give loving kindness to children so she gets the opportunity to give that's what God is giving and if you'll ask why was each one of these chosen from the subcategories I think because they're more common poverty is more common than blindness and berenice is were common than harass than this physical condition so King David picked each one to pick example of each one his general point is there are conditions in life where you are crippled in your ability to give and God solves that problem he repairs those in abilities by making it possible for you to give are we getting so far okay now remember this is what God is doing from on high from the position of being above the whole world being transcended that's got to be the purpose of the world the purpose of the world a particular purpose of man's creation is that man should be able to help be able to give be able to express something kindness and the gifts that God gives to a person is to put him in a position where he can express loving kindness we got so far ok now the capstone what is God doing the whole time in creating the world what is he doing he's giving to us there's nothing that he so to speak personally he consistently gets out of the creation the whole purpose of the creation is that he can express his loving kindness to and other and that's us so when God then makes it possible for us to express love kindness he's making it possible for us to be godlike it makes it possible for us to do what he's doing and that's what we're created to be were created to become through our own choices godlike and since the underlying theme of everything that he's doing is to express love the kindness that becomes the whole the highest theme in human life to express love and kindness and that means that here in this some King David is telling us that God gives people the greatest gift possible he gives them the ability to become Kim to become godlike I don't think I pumped too much in here I think it's pretty clear that this is what the verses are talking about with that statement from the talent which of course is important to have in order to have have the background okay together this is almost the end of hollow the four verses it's really two verses doubled in the middle of the page set off the short verses please say I'm safe now twice at least I shall bring success now you hear a gifted singer do a rendition of hollow to me it's always interesting to see when he gets to this this is really in certain sense the high point of all hollow where does he put the emphasis on the first verse or the second verse let's see what do you think where does the high point below please ash em safe now please Hashem bring success now what's the difference between saving and bringing success back up to your success is being is about you okay yeah you're right in the English language has problems with the vocabulary here but the word for redemption is gula and here is you sure it's not nagoola so it wouldn't be redemption in this case we just say when when would you yell save me when you're a job like drowning right pres growling save me that's usually when I'm lost I'm lost I have noticed to save myself I've no way to to ya out of the problem so I ask somebody else to save me when you ask bring success now what's your position where are you when you say those words okay you're already saying you're already vested your basket what are you what's your position what are you doing or more assistance beyond yeah okay with the keywords assistance in other words i'm doing something i'm engaged in it process i'm engaged in the task i want success we're not sitting back and waiting for it to happen by itself that's any bad waiting it out for God to do it I'm running a business I haven't got enough money to invest I'm short on investment sir please he'll give me success by providing me with more assistance assistance means I'm doing also i'm asking for partnership I'm not asking for salvation i'm asking for partnership now what are we put in the world to do i would put in the world to drown and say that God saved me from drowning that's not what we're put here to do it happens it happens and we do have to be asked to be saved no question about it but that's not the purpose of our creation for our creations that we're here to do something to accomplish something always to remember that we're never doing it alone and we could never succeed alone but to be to ask for our God to bring success is to ask for God to participate in what I was created to do to has to be saved is not that they asked me same just I'm gonna be lost and I won't be able to do anything unless you save me so I think the real high point is bring success now I think it's really successful okay now I want to tell you a story mr. probably happened about 120 years ago it was rosh hashanah and the Gary Rebbe of that time told his calcium that this year on suckers when you say hello if when you say please Hashem you have in mind what you need I promise you you'll get everything that you need that's what he said you can imagine three weeks later on a circus and they said howl the roof was shattering several months afterwards to the elder Cassidian were talking and one said to the other you know I have a terrible confession to make I'm sure I had in mind what I need when I said please a sham but nothing happened and yellow and said you know strange to say i had the same experience so they decided they were going to try to get an answer it's a tricky thing to go to the guy rubbing and ask him straight out it's not something which is easy to do and obvious to do but they went to the galley and the gab I who was has there's Babies confidence and ease with him hey told him the story and he said to them you didn't get what you wanted and you sure you had it in mind a which verse did you have it in mind so they say whoever said please Hashem save now please him bring success now god I said wrong verse wrong verse look at page six thirty seven two lines from the bottom please Hashem for I am your servant that's another please hush yet so i'll summon how but it's not pleased I am safe now and please Hashem make Gib success now it's please ashamed I am your servant that's what the rebbe min rabbin meant when you ask for something if you ask for something in the meaning of I'm serving you and I need more help and serving you then you'll get it if your whole request is only for a greater ability to serve God then you'll get it if you are personally involved and egotistical II motivated please Hashem send me that 2015 Porsche why because I like nice cars like nice cars you know I just I just needed 2015 Porsche then I'm not guaranteed but you asked only for of what you need to serve Him because you needed to serve him then I'm guaranteeing that you get it so this is the police a sham that he met now this is a key to prayer in general this is the level that our petitions for God should be on the level of I'm asking you for means to be able to serve you better that's what the Gary we wanted to communicate again so far he will bless those who fear Hashem the small as well as the great that's a written the English but that is not a good translation the literal translation is together with em together with not the end but together with and here you have a key idea that you can participate in God's relationship with a great spiritual person by being connected with that person you don't have to earn it all on your own the very faculties connected such a person means that whatever greatness he has you can benefit from that you could connect to that so person says fear of God that's not my strong number I i know that i really need to to grow and develop in that and i know that because of that for me personally God is not as close to me as i would have liked but I know someone who is great in fear of God by touching myself to that person I too can benefit from his fear of God and that's true in two ways first of all when you associate with such people their greatness rubs off on you when the Jewish people leave Egypt and on the way to Sinai before they get there there's an army of Amalekites that comes and attacks and Moses says to Joshua raise an army and go out and fight them and it's a battle and it says the third says that mows well to a mountain with iron his brother in court brother-in-law and he was on the mountain and when Moses raised his hands the Jewish side was victorious when he lowered his hands the Amalekites I was victorious and its hands were up and down and the victories switched from side to side until they got him a stone to sit on and he sat down and they held his hands up hands were up until nightfall and the Amalekites I'd was weakened remains we can throughout history because of that battle now the mission in Russia Jonah says to Moses hands make war or break war we're not believers in magic of that kind you know defend fingers are further off the ground so therefore you win and close to the ground you lose know when the people saw that Moses hands but up and they dedicated themselves to god they were victorious and what his hands went down they didn't dedicate themselves together then they weren't victorious the busted Rebbe official I'm lives in her know many years ago asked a very simple question talking about Jewish soldiers now right I'm going to be very chauvinistic now Moses hands go up the dedications god and they are victorious well the saints go down and they don't let it get those God and I start to lose can't it to hear it now they know it is in Moses hands that's doing it they know it's their dedication to god that's doing it so even when his hands go down dedicate yourself to God I win answer they can't do it they can't do it they're dependent upon the inspiration of Moses to be able to do it so this is what they get when they connect themselves to Moses and they can be benefited by his inspiration they reach a higher level when they reach a higher level that give you more successful so now this means that this is an opportunity that God gives us there are great people make use of their inspiration yourself to them so that their inspiration elevates you enables you to reach higher level that's one thing and the other thing is that god favors such great people that those who are in their company those who are connected to them are included in the blessings that God gives to those great people both both both of those ideas are expressed in that verse that God will bless those who are small in fear of God when they are together with those who are great in fear of God there's a few little things that think about tomorrow morning you