What is Hanukkah? Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein

when God saw that no matter what they have been through they are still following the laws by kindling pure oil then God gave them the miracle the story of Kaneka began 2,000 years ago and there are two parts to Kaneka there were two amazing distinct Miracles that we celebrated till today just like in life there's the body and the Soul just like the body without a soul cannot function is useless the same thing is the miracle of khaka has two elements to it there's the body part and the Soul part the spiritual part well you may have learned of the history of what happened 2,000 years ago in Israel when the Syrian Greeks came to rage war and to conquer Israel and Yehuda hakabe with a very small group of soldiers were able to defeat the Army the great Army and that was the body part it was a war that was that was uh waged on destroying the Jewish body in Israel but then came the other part of the miracle which is the the sole part which is about the miracle of the oil and it's very interesting that when you look in the talmud in the book that writes about the history of kanaka our sages just talk about the second part of the miracle the miracle of the oil it almost bypasses the victory of the battle of the body until today it is more the sole part of Kaneka that we celebrate and that is the miracle of the oil so what happened after Judah makabe won the war won the battle was able to drive the Syrian Greeks out of Jerusalem and they went to the temple and they saw how the temple was so defiled and one of the the most important services in the temple is to light the manura the manura had six candles three from each side and one in the middle symbolically it is to bring light into the whole world the temple had windows that were shaped in a form that it would bring the light from inside outside because the manura was to light up the whole world when they re-entered the temple the very first thing they wanted to do is to bring light into the world a little bit of light pushes away a lot of Darkness how much more a lot of light so they went looking for the oil necessary to Kindle the manura in order for the manura to be kindled it required to have a pure bottle of oil which had a seal on it from the high priest to its authenticity and its pureness however they came and they saw that the Greeks purposely destroyed all the seals on the oil defiling all the oil bottles there's a lot of oil there but they found only one bottle that actually had the seal Steel in attack now interestingly that bottle of oil looked identically to the other bottles of oil what was the difference the difference was that one was spiritually pure and the other one was defiled during the days of Kaneka it wasn't just a physical war that was waged on the Jewish people in Jerusalem it was also a spiritual war the alienists tried to stop the Jewish people from believing in God they prohibited the observance of keeping the holy day of Sabbath keeping circumcision this and other tra other Commandments that requires faith in God anything that had to do with God they wanted to eradicate so it was a spiritual war as well well when the Jews came back into the Holy Temple and they saw the bottles of oil even though they found plenty of oil but it was defiled it didn't have this spiritual seal of the high priest intact and they said what keeps Judaism alive is believing in God and believing in the laws of God and if the laws are that you have to have pure oil then were're going to have the pure oil but they only found one jug of oil enough to last one day and they said you know what the only way we could serve God is to serve him properly so we're going to use the one jug we have and we'll light it for one day cuz it takes eight days to be able to prepare a new batch of oil but we're going to light at least one day and by the time next week comes we'll have fresh oil squeezed and ready to go so they were so excited to rededicate khaka also means to dedicate they rededicated the temple the Holy Temple in Jerusalem and they lit the manura this candleabra and they celebrated bringing light again to where there was Darkness the victory of Kaneka the victory of the few that were able to overcome the many the weak who are able to challenge the mighty and still be victorious but most importantly that they did not succumb to the influence of the Greek influence to abandon God and to abandon Judaism they rather survive to keep Judaism alive when God saw the miracle that the Jewish people did not abandon him when God saw that no matter what they have been through they are still following the laws by kindling pure oil then God gave them the miracle that this oil lasted the eight days they needed to be able to have another supply of pure oil this is what Kaneka is about Hanukah is about the concept of being able to good over evil light over Darkness this is why the way we observe Kana in our generation is not celebrating the victory of the war necessarily that is actually secondary primarily it's the Victory the miracle the spiritual Miracle the Rejuvenation the renewal of believing in God and following the precepts to the detail by only using pure oil and this is why we light every night of Kaneka not just one candle but when it comes the second night we light two candles and then three and then four and then five we go through eight candles because every day we continue adding light to the world and that is how we celebrate Kaneka comes Kaneka the first night we take out the manura whether we have candles or we use traditional olive oil and you hold a candle lit and you say a prayer thanking God for the opportunity to Kindle the manura thank you God for the Miracles that you've done those days and this time and thanking God for being alive to be able to do this again and then you light the first candle on the right and you sit by the manura and you look at the flame and you think of the power of light the power of God the power of Judaism the candles will talk to you and will light up your life what many people don't realize that if we weren't Victorious Kaneka Judaism would have been eradicated from the world and therefore there would never have been Christianity and there would never be Islam so kanaka is not just a Jewish holiday this is a universal holiday and it's a universal message to the world that the weak can overpower the power power ful the few can overpower the many by being committed by following in the right ways and remembering that God Almighty put us on this world to be a light unto the Nations to be a light to each other CU a little bit of light pushes away a lot of darkness and that's why Kaneka is such an important holiday to celebrate not just privately but publicly that's why we have minoras in the public so people could remember the Miracles of 2,000 years ago but the Miracles of today as well so make it a priority this year to obtain a manora the world has faced much Darkness especially recently there's no time more than now that we need to bring as many lights together so when you light the manur this year it may be your first time or maybe a first time in a long time you are doing your part and just imagine as many lights as we can have a cumulative together will become a beautiful CH torch that a little bit of light pushes away a lot of Darkness all the light will eradicate Darkness forever and we'll all see better and greater times to come