Rabbi Aaron Dovid Poston: Chanukah's Lesson how to Eliminate our Enemy

[Music] warm welcome home to torah we're going to talk about hanukkah now in the previous year that i just recently heard from rabbi wetbright spoke about talking about something new so this is something that is not new i actually heard it before but i didn't really hear it right you have to you have to go through the information several times and every time hopefully you'll discover something new so i will ask you if you want to go into some of the previous shearing i'll put in the description box below where i discuss some of these things years past in more in depth but now we're going to take a whole new look at some of the things that we did speak about i think that we will start with the banish high okay so we're going to basically use two texts tonight not the clear cards we normally do as we usually do but we're going to talk look into the banished high in the jurashas on kitavo and we're going to look at the the tsuruhamor on the atkhanan and it's very interesting because in a very recent year we talked about krishma right a snake was about to swallow something up and the guy yelled shmai israel and guess what it could save one's life even if it's not your own okay so we're going to talk about how the shema leads into or let's say prayer let's say more specifically has something to do with chanukah so i'm going to start off with the banish kai because it's more general i mean it's very deep but it's it's kind of like it's a little bit fun there's a little bit of a it's just an easier read okay we're going to go deeper and deeper into the trojan more okay so we all know and let me just see the verse it's in uh it's in deuteronomy one second i don't think i have it here oh here it is and actually i don't have it but anyway if you surely listen to the words of the god is commanding us hashem will place you if you do what you're supposed to do you keep the commandments you keep studying torah you're moving forward you're going up and up right one step after another in the services of hashem hashem will place you el yon el yon means supreme i know that in today's world that is not very pc let's put it like that right but somehow the word this is god's word so we're not going to argue with him he's going to place the jewish people el jon above high up the word supreme is what is used upon all the nations of the world so as the banishkai usually does he says nearly he begins his all his words by saying it appears to me the way i've been able to explain it is with the help of hashem do you do it we all know well it's well known that what arb there are how many fingers do you have right now weinberg so you have to have five finger clarity you know you have five fingers well four of them go in one direction the other one which is called the godot which is not a every every figure has a name okay we're not going to go through that tonight you can see in the description box below for the other shiri where we go into in-depth but there are four fingers that hint to the four major the four kingdoms that unfortunately the jewish people had to experience exile or we called shibuya mahu being subjected uh to their authority and it's not a it's not a holy and strict authority it's not a it's not a righteous authority but nevertheless we are subjugated by them in other words these four are like paradigm kingships where all the rest of the akon 70 nations but we're here talking about uh 66 additional nations are somehow uh you know included in the all 70 nations are basically underneath these four the hagoydell this one called a finger right this finger we call it the thumb it's the godel levad it stands by itself and it's roimesli israel this is hinted at by meaning the jewish people represents the jewish people okay there's a verse and it goes like this interesting that word the va is right me dude we're all familiar with that word means isolation right during the pandemic of corona which i'm sure where this this video will outlast this corona so for those who are looking at in years from now we'll say what in the world was corona and people had to be isolated but anyway the pasik says that the jewish people that am israel will dwell isolated will dwell alone will dwell by themselves now i say the america that this is actually a proper thing what is important that every now i don't know what he means by sharing means not so you i would call them joints right so the four fingers have basically three joints one two three or you're talking about three bones right with two joints in between but you come at three units either way so that's what you have by the four fingers but rock the goedel snake sharing the thumb is the only one that has one less right it has two joints two either you're talking about from here to here it's two joints or two units two bones so you're seeing already that there's a difference between the goedel which represents the jewish people and the four fingers which represents the four nations that really include all the 70 nations of the world ki israel yakabu i'm just making sure i didn't skip the line because israel the jewish people received what we call shether means providence influence the the bounty is coming directly from hashem built to empty without any intermediary without any force in between israel that's why god is called everyone knows even the christians and the muslims they still hope that the bible is holy and the bible calls the god of the universe the one who created the world six days and wrestled on the seventh day the one who took the jewish people out of egypt the one that sent moses as the prophet right they all believe in this right is called the god of israel that's how they refer to that's how the whole world knows it's the god of israel if you're a believer this is very strange because he grew up not in a christian neighborhood he grew up in iraq and yet he's referring i mean he's definitely not referring to the muslims okay but he says they're only able to receive and perhaps he is referring to them because he's talking about um they're only able to receive any kind of shepherd any kind of bounty any kind of influence machine through the mca through some type of intermediary and who are they they are the sarin shellahim these are the arch angels that watch over their nations no we don't have an arch angel watching over the this nation of israel we have only hashem but they have some kind of i call i'll use the word administrating angel because that's what the administrating angel will do you you know they would pray to that and then hopefully that's what they expect that their administering anger would then go to hashem so they have a need an intermediary i shouldn't say they need an intermarry they use this is worth this is where they're they're lost let's say so what is it saying let me just go back so we say that's why when it concerns them they do refer to as god of gods right the most high and that's fine but that's way that's the difference between the jew and the non-jew now i just want to just reiterate because we have a lot of people who are really true sadiq amongst the non-jews they are not akum they're not pagans not idol worshipers they actually believe in the god of israel and they've attached themselves to the nation of israel in whatever way they can and they believe in the bible they know it's from hashem they know the revelation took place and therefore they are no real they're not really in the category of the rest of the going they're somewhere in between okay i just want to emphasize that for our holy subscribers and viewers who are righteous gentiles the rest of those four fingers that hint to the idea that there are three knots three um joints remission shrieking it just hints to the idea that they do require seemingly i'm going to use words seemingly this intermediary yes that means they have those three knots and anytime you have number three you always have something in between right simple you have three you always have something that's in between the two in between the two extremes [Music] israel this hints to the jewish people there is nothing preventing us there's nothing holding us back we go straight to hashem in fact we spoke about the name yashar el israel is straight to god that's what the name means that's why it says shamur mitzvothai guard my mistress you will live the [Music] now just to find the verse i think it's in proverbs 7 verses 1 through 3. so i'll read it really quickly in english it's really the last few words of the of that sentence my son keep my sayings and hide my commandments with you keep my commandments and live and my instruction like the apple of your eyes now this is the important part bind them on your fingers inscribe them on the tablet of your heart what is this talking about i'm going to give you a little bit of a hint what do we do with our hands when we pray yeah we don't do this we used to do this but basically we put our hands over our eyes we say and we're saying right we're saying that god is one we have four fingers going in one direction and the golden is going in a totally opposite direction like we said that goedel dwells alone i'm going to go on this is an idea sorry glommer what does it really mean the and the etzba oat dhaka shamayu like hello if you look at the proverbs we just read what does it mean bind them on your fingers whoever spoke about fingers i understand the heart the the bislama i get it right we have to have god on our heart we should have him in our minds in our heart yes beltsarak of course there's a need called because i'm going to say i don't like the word religion but our way of life is being in touch and guarding our hearts what what relation does our religion or our you know our spirituality have to do with our hands as the asian lamb is there move on because my shop here actually there is a way to understand this with the help of god comes out well to say the sharing shell its boat that's this idea bind them on your hands is like this you have to remember there really is a a very big difference between you and the nations of the world you the jewish people yotair there's a puzzle that actually tells us this this is in deuteronomy 4 4. god says but you who cleave to the lord your god are alive all of you we have the vague hashem we have the opportunity to cling to hashem you do not need any intermediary in fact for a jew it's forbidden it's idol worship and i want to say based on this benishchai i think it resolves there is a makloch satosos whether or not by by christians per se by non-jews if they use an empty is that true idol worship or not i would sa i would tend to decide that perhaps we can be mako if it's if they really have a father figure and they only believe they need some way to get to that father figure and my way of resolving it is really the truth is you need the jews you need the jews because we're the witnesses we were there harsinai we received the covenant we're the teachers the torah describes all this okay so the way the rambam says if you want to be a righteous gentile a really truly pious amongst the nations that you have accepted that the jews have a mission because they meaning that the torah is from harsinai meaning it was received from god directly and given to the jews and if you believe that you're well on the right path so there is an employee that's the jews so for those christians the secret is every time you read your new testament every time you come across the word jesus just replace it with the word jew and you're well on your way to the right place and that's why it says it's because through your involvement in torah that was given with life la sota to to do it which is not true by the pagans the armor the um as we know the rambam says any akuma who's involved in torres high of mesa now what does that mean it means a pagan not a true benenois who wants to learn more about the seven mitzvahs of right or wants to involve himself with even other mitzvahs as long as he does them correctly which means with the direction of the jewish people now that's how i wanted to introduce this idea because it really relates to the idea of prayer and shema and how we hold our hands now we're going to go to an interesting perish and this was written about 440 years ago and this is what we're going to call the bal ha ha so let's go through it a little bit slower he starts off by saying like this and i have a better copy just for the first paragraph and it says like this and this is the say for hamor this was a tribute to the governor of sabah he was the the father-in-law of the base joseph okay and he wrote regarding the the the the concept of hanukkah and that's why we're going to deal with it tonight so he says what i'm about to reveal to you right i want to reveal to you here what was revealed to me without any books and without any teachers i'm going to reveal to you something that i never heard it never saw and never heard before explained and that's why this holiday is called hanukkah okay every holiday that we have yes every one of the holidays we have has some kind of a connection and a reason why the name of the holiday is somehow connected to to to what it's about like pesach and sukkos right pesach god jumped over the houses of the jewish people passover means to passover circus because we dealt in sukkahs pour in as we know in in esther for example yeah very nice right in the story of esther it specifically says that um that um there were lots drawn and that's why it's called purim shame me why is hanukkah called hanukkah on what on what basis usually it's brought down as one reason at the time it was taught that on the 25th of kislev the mechanical because basically um we rested on the 25th of kislev from our enemies now that's all true that's all true chanu because we rested on the 25th of kislev meaning to say islam hanukkah exactly but what is the name it's very nice to tell me that we rested on the 25th day of kislev and therefore chanukah that's very nice but really we want to go deeper and understand it better so yeah if there would ever be god forbid a decree that you're not allowed to learn torah just like happened bisman rebeca just like that happened in the 2000 years ago 1800 years ago bismana or god forbid even other times what would be left if you're forbidden from learning torah and teaching torah what would be left just one thing alone one verse shma israel in deuteronomy chapter six verse four it says as we all know this is the mantra of the jewish people shema israel hero israel the lord is your god the word is one i'm not going to ask you i'm going to tell you how many letters are there in the shema i'm going to tell you you can count them and i suggest you do 25 letters in that verse why is that significant as we know we've already discussed the idea of 25 being significant because hanukkah falls out on the 25th of kislev and if god forbid that like at the time of rebbe or any other time that torah would be forbidden what would we what would we be left with we would be left with only one verse which israel that we would consider this truth in our hearts the ikshv torah and it would be actually as if we were learning the whole torah because that's all we have that's all we're allowed to learn that's all we're allowed to say that's all we're allowed to do and perform is one verse but if the whole torah is included in that verse after the fact that we would not be allowed this is what the greeks did the greeks and the romans followed in their suit by forbidding us to do a teaching torah in public basically would we be stuck what learning um learning torah like with this um just basically we wouldn't be able to learn with other people like it says like in in perky a where he says where 10 people are able to sit together you and they have divreitar amongst them i'm just looking for where i have it i'm not as organized as i would very good it's in perky albus chapter three mission eight rebecca the son of dosa from the village of canada would say 10 who sit together and occupy themselves with torah the divine presence rest amongst them as it says in psalms 82 1 the almighty stands in the congregation of god and from where do we know that such is the case for just five so there's another verse what about three there's another verse what about two there's another verse what about one that's going to be the important thing because if you're stuck and you're not allowed to learn public and torn public and you're not even allowed to learn with someone else it says we know that even an individual who learns torah hashem is with him from the verse in exodus chapter 20 verse 21 which says every place where i have my name mentioned i come to you and bless you by the way god's name yes it is mentioned in the shema israel but i have something better than that the entire torah from the first bet of brexit to the last lamin of israel meaning the entire torah the entire 300 000 plus words it's one name of god okay so keep that in mind it's like the whole torah even when you have one person only saying the shema now leficia's [Music] era now this happened to have happened it was a decree by the evil governments such as rome and greece uh we did manage to learn one-on-one with other people it was speaking the the in this mission spoke about ten people learning in public originally um the fish lawyer i can't read that word shell gazer this was not in our generation shalom it's talking about the different generations sometimes it was a gazer like that sometimes it wasn't about uh amar the yeshpenayem divre toruba cesar nevertheless even when there was no gazera they could still learn in private and that's why we talked about that last idea of one person only one person learning torah alone that was good enough meaning that's all we had to do we still had to do it so the more the the mishnah how do you know even by one person as we said in the verse in exodus chapter 20 verse 21 the comma comma esquire anytime my name is mentioned i am there is meaning that even when there was a gazero where even two people couldn't learn together they're not going to say um you're not going to say that he's not learning torah even one person alone is still learning torah but even one person learning on his own just between himself and that's what it means over there in perkial fine now hashem um i want to let kane wrote a shame shame to give to them an explanation a parsha a unique let's just say he wants to make it as uh as short and concise as possible he wants to give this in a very short and concise way just like you a teacher would always try to teach the student in in a very short and concise way so he wants to do the same with us now if you're not able to read the whole parsha the time well at least the might at least minimally you would say right if you're not allowed to learn torah you can't have time you don't have time what we do bro hashem we're able to at least say my israel and we spoke about this earlier in this recording how important it is this is the foundation of knowing that god is one why there is 25 osios communion this you can find in genesis chapter 15 verse 5. god promised abraham and he said and he took him outside and he said please look heavenward count the stars if you were able to count them and he said to them so will be your seed the last few words so will be your seed look at the hebrew cuff hay 25 will be your seed meaning the shema your seed no matter what happens in history when there's gazeros not to learn torah you will still always have the shema israel the cuff hey right ko yeh zarekha this is a promise of hashem which we already said is the foundation or the secret of the unification of hashem that was nimako zara abram this was given over by tradition to jacob who's the seed of abraham moshe and guess what moses also knew it it reached him as well listen to this verse when moses went out and he saw where he was still living in pharaoh's house and he saw an egyptian hurting a jew in exodus chapter 2 verse it says he turned this way and that way and he saw there was no man so he struck the egyptian and hid him in the sand what does the verse say va he turned in every which way but we're referring to the 25 letters of the shema how did he kill this egyptian with the name of god he didn't actually raise his hand right even though the verse says it we know that he used the ineffable name of hashem through the the name of god in the verse in the shema he was able to kill the egyptian who torkula as we already said when you read just the shema alone it's as if you're reading the entire torah that's what moses did because as i said the whole torah is one long name of god remember they were zealots and they were they were paid a lot and they didn't mean the generation was painted a lot and there were a lot of decrees one of the main decrees by the greeks was that the jews were not allowed to learn torah how you met how else could the maccabees how else could the um i call them the maccabees but the how else could they unify the name of god except through israel which has 25 ocls 25 letters ub and through this power and these abilities of they were able to overpower they were able to have be victorious over their enemies this is the secret of the jew to say israel to learn the torah the power of the torah they were able to overcome their enemies now we're understanding why it's called chanukah right and because this is the true name without any additional i'm not sure what he says here any guesses that is hints to the whole unification the whole idea of the oneness of god that is expressed in the shema israel that has 25 ocos this is what hanukkah is about when we were in the deserts we were in the desert how were we arranged according to what according to our flags but much more than that listen to this idea it's in psalms 20 verse 6. we said let us king david let us sing praises for your salvation and let us assemble in the name of our god may the lord fulfill all our requests this is how we were arranged according to our flags this is in the hebrew i know it says let us assemble in the name of our god but really is beshema lokeno nidgo that the idea of arrangement of the different tribes the twelve tribes arranged in the desert was according to god's name we are shift we are the the um the tribes of yah of of hashem okay so that's the what the verse is referring to when we were in the desert in the assembly according to the flags now i just have to find my place here we are shall shame hashem the way we were assembled was according to the name of god and that is the concept of unity we are one people even though we're 12 tribes we're one nation in psalms i think it's in 20 i think i just read that one no 20 verse 9. no this one i just read that okay so what does it mean remember the name of god yud kevke actually is the gematri of 26. sorry 26. so if you have 25 letters of the shmeistral hashem including meaning it's nice to say schmeichel kennedy with 25 letters but you also have hashem who's one included in it and that equals 26 which is actually the the gematria of the name of god itself so ima shame shabom yukhad this is hanukkah to hint what the kawak of the name of hashem that it's he is the one who causes us to be victorious in war lo bakayo belo baka you know that this is a very important lesson in zaharia chapter 4 verse 6 and he answered and he spoke to me saying this is the word of the lord to zerubbabel saying not by military force and not by physical strength but by my spirit lo only through my spirit right so we go out to war how we victorious not because of the the the sword of the weapons lo lo bakhanit that's a spear this is interesting because now we're saying that it's also there's a 72 letter name now now we're going to get to that if you go i think it's exodus 15 verse 11. it says who is like you among the powerful o lord who is like you powerful in the holy place that name when i say that name and the words hashem is 70 no it's just the acronym sorry the acronym maccabee mem cough betyud that is 72. in other words that verse i just read the acronym we would call it reishitevos are from mihamoha that's how we get the word maccabee right you're all aware of that right yeah so you add the word maccabee meaning the letters of maccabee you get the 72 letter name of hashem barosheitevo samakrabi ola ayan base lefishu davar says kavod hashem mimikomo now that verse you find in ezekiel chapter 3 verse 12 and the wind lifted me up and i heard behind me a sound of a great uproar blessed is the glory of the lord from his place baruch kavod hashem is maccabee okay not in that order but it's it's the same letters okay maccabi i'm not sure how to read this word macabre that's why this for this very reason the kashmir nayim were called let's just say maccabees mac beam this is why the we call them are called the maccabees and al-sham's there because of his name hassan are you not shame they didn't win the war because of what because of their might and strength in fact we even say the opposite we were small in number we were weak in number right we were we were pure we were righteous not because of our strength not because we were more numerous not because we were more that strong or mighty foreign i in bed but because of the holy name of god the the the 72 letter name which is as we said the word maccabee equals 72. now when you take the power that's unified in the 25 letters of shema israel this is hanukkah you take them right then we understand that they used the the the unification of these 25 letters [Music] now i'm going to stop here but i want you to understand that he's trying to explain to us we have a lot of explanations why hanukkah is the name of the holiday he wanted to really put it into context what's the context it's not by our might right but it's by the shame hashem and the shame hashem is something that's unique to the jewish people and we already spoke about it right the four nations they have intermediaries right we say what do we use our hands for and we use it like this specifically where the thumb goes in one direction to remind us how unique we are how we live alone and where the truth is we don't have to live alone we invite the whole world right that's what the prophets of israel have been declaring that we the jewish people should live up to our mission that we should be the true not forget teachers you can't teach if you're not living it right to the to live it and maybe and perhaps only by living it alone that the world would catch on but the truth is there's a thirst there's a hunger right for not for water not for bread but for the word of hashem and we were there we got to step up to the plate number one let's start living it take an opportunity on hanukkah as the previous class explained rabbi explained take the time to learn something new take especially during hanukkah it's a time to learn torah someone asked me the other day is this a time like i see a lot of yeshiva's trying to collect money on hanukkah yes this is a time this is the time to give to torah educational institutes this is the time to take care of your rebbes to send them yes money so they can continue to learn torah and teach torah not to buy a new car or to buy a new fancy apartment right but so they can continue to spread the word of torah this is the time hanukkah gelt that's an old fashioned statement but this is what the hanukkah girl was always used for the in fact i hate to say this but christmas carols they stole it from us that the tama day hachaman used to go door to door knocking on the door singing and everyone would give them money right this was called snoring right they would go around to collect money singing making people happy and somehow another as many of the traditions in the judaism has been hijacked and plagiarized and for example we used to light outside that was our big deal that's the whole thing of hanukkah to light outside but because of anti-semitism number one that's a big reason we don't light outside and also as many will say because once the non-jews started doing the same thing in a pagan fashion a lot of times we stop doing certain things that we should be doing but anyway bizrat hashem there will be a tikkun a fixing of the world and the truth will be revealed and bizarre to shem i wish everyone a fantastic hanukkah absolute hanukkah that the eighth day of hanukkah is the greatest day of hanukkah it's unbelievable so we should all build ourselves up to the wow wow towards those hanukkah mizrat hashem we'll see you on the other side have a great life [Music] is