Rabbi Aaron Poston at Yiboneh on Chanukah

good evening I'm going to start by sharing a few ideas about Hanukkah through some questions hopefully through these just asking the questions we'll be able to get some deep insight into the holiday of hanuka itself number one one of the things that we notice when we learn the laws of Hanukkah is that the the Wicks and the oils that we're allowed to use are very different than shabas for example when Shabbat we're supposed to use very high quality oils and Wicks when it comes to haneka it's permissible to use even the most inferior of Wicks and oil question is why what's what's so different we know both of these Han the Hanukkah and chabas candles they're both considered holy yet there's a huge difference in the quality that we're allowed to use for Hanukkah and I think the some deep Insight behind that another thing we know that the right side is always considered more important more Holier we say that the right side is Mercy we bring close to the right we bring close to the with the right hand and we push away with the left the left represents den and judgment and perhaps a side that we're not so comfortable with so there's a big difference there and yet the hania the minoris to be placed on the left side of the doorway as you're coming in when you have of course when you have M on the right the Han is to be placed on the left the left has a certain connotation perhaps even negative and yet we're supposed to place the hania on the left side as opposed to the right side another idea is that the hania is supposed to be placed below 10 10 hand breaths yet there's a concept that the divine presence does not rest below 10im 10 hand breaths so what's the deal here why is it that the hania is to be placed on such a low level and I think that that also when we think about it and we really Ponder upon it it may help us understand this a great deal better also there's a concept of madrin M mahadin we know that so many people light in the household the Father the sons perhaps the girls but you have almost everyone in the family lighting their own manora and not only that we have each person lighting an additional candle each night okay so if you have eight people in the family lighting by the last day you have 80 candles lit at the same time but the real Mitzvah the bottom line Mitzvah the minimum of the Mitzvah is just one candle that's it for the whole household and not each night not that you add a candle each night but you light only that one candle each night meaning by the eighth night you still have only one candle lit in the entire household one little itsy bitsy small little flame not as we do today where everyone is doing a mahaj mahadin to the best to the most beautiful extent that they could so why is that that that is the Bas it's a very uh very it's it's it's mindboggling that that is the since we're not familiar or we're not accustomed to doing it that way and the last question I want to ask is what is it about the day itself the 25th of Kev that is so significant that we start this 8 Day holiday and with that I'll begin to answer some of the questions but I want to discuss this idea of the soul the soul itself and how it's related to in tanak in the Bible as a flame so there's an idea that in the very beginning of creation God said let there be light the and there was light and God saw that light and it was good that's in the beginning of Genesis later on in Proverbs Mish Z that's chap 20 verse 27 it says that a man's soul is the lamp of Hashem hasem and in Proverbs 6:32 v l it says that the Commandment is a lamp and the is the light so I'm just trying to get a little bit of an idea of how a candle or the lamp or the light the flame relates to the soul soat em mentions that theot the letters of the word nees nin actually represent what we're discussing here as the N nun is a n that's can the p is is the wick and the shin of the word neish the last letter Shin represents sheman the oil itself so what do we know about the a soul so too about a flame we know that the flame is constantly striving to go upwards it's flickering and it's alive it doesn't stand in one place it's constantly trying to go higher and higher and that is what the soul is yet what do we find just a little bit of some background some of the previous parot that just passed by in par Vish it talks about the angel the Archangel of Edam is battling with Jacob with yakob so if you turn to that would be Genesis 32 verse 25 so we see the J yov was left alone with a man wrestling with him until the break of dawn okay yob was left alone that he he wrestled with the man the word wrestling is means dust when you're wrestling you're bringing up all this dust and what does it do to your eyes the dust blinds you this is is what we were told that the angel wanted to do was to overcome Yakov to Blind him and who was this Angel so he even asks his name but he does not respond with his own name but kazal tell us the rabbis explained this was the Archangel of asov who is the Sam this is the yahar the evil inclination this is the Mal the angel of death this is the Satan Satan himself so what do we have here that's the so we're going to take the name which spells his name Sam what does Sam mean Sam could mean drugs it also means to be blinded Sam Suma is a blind person the goal of this evil inclination of the Satan is to Blind us from what that's the first two letters of the word is kale lamid is God's name it's trying to Blind us from the truth it's trying to Blind us from seeing the true reality the spiritual reality of the world that exists and so his name is exactly as described right now Sam kale and that's what the dust also represented in the wrestling okay so now we get to the next point of what exactly is the left side the word sale it sounds like the word SM SM means left we go in we place the manora on the left side as we're entering the house the left side now in Hebrew the Sam and the shin or in this case the sin can be interchangeable so you have even though we're talking about the other side that's literally what we're talking about here when we mention this name of the angel or this we always refer to it as the other side so here we're talking about it's literally the other side it's literally the left side now why is it below T the never rests yet what do we do here we're talking about that little bit of a soul that little pent Aid these Sparks that will never be extinguished even that one little light remember we're not talking about eight lights on the eighth night or five on the fifth night always one of those lights is the minimum and that light can never be extinguished and it's lower down than T man it's on the left side and yet it burns and it illuminates and it's trying to reach higher what night what was it what is it about the 25th of this month of K so there's a concept called the winter solstice anybody knows even basic astronomy we know this is going to be the longest night of the year so there's a medis that's brought down about Adam the first man first of all he was told he was going to die die after the sin the transgression of eating from the the tree of knowledge good evil so there's gamor there's a gamor brought down in a zar that talks about a holiday called SATA and kalanda interestingly enough kalanda sounds like the word calendar satna was a ancient holiday uh worshiping idols and originally Adar when he was created in Nissan and he noticed after the curse that all the days were getting shorter and shorter so approximately 3 months after his life began and the days were getting shorter and shorter he said to himself wo is to me because of my sin the world's getting darker and soon there's not going to be any more light and it's going to go back to way it was originally darkness and void and this is how he thought he was going to die eventually but as the days as he was progressing he went and fasted and repented and cried out to Hashem and in eventually those around this time the winter solstice it stopped getting shorter in fact it eventually started getting longer meaning the days were getting a little bit longer again but they stopped getting shorter and he realized oh this is the way the world must have been created either way he gave thanks to the Almighty and he made holidays on these times and apparently the way the gamorra expresses it that many of the early human beings his own progeny mistook what he did and they started to make a holidays holidays for worshiping Idols in fact not not not that strange F here it is there's um there's a lot of pre-christian holidays that are uh worshiping Idols in fact I'm sure that's no question about it that Christmas probably came and developed as a pagan holiday similar to the earlier pagan holidays there was a holiday called what was it called a son inv Victa or invict sorry the unconquerable son Su n but it also could be translated as s o n which is no doubt where the Christians got there especially since it was also worshiped on the December 25th and there are so Marduk was a Mesopotamian God as well and he was also born of a virgin so there's a whole list you can Google it if you want in the meantime just getting back to this idea that in one of our recent pares also in VA shave interesting story that there was a woman named Mrs patiar and she was going to seduce she had her mindset she was going to seduce Yosef and everyone went to church or went to Temple or wherever they went to on this particular day I'm going to say it it was December 25th and she said okay I don't feel so well I'm going to stay home but really she had a plan her plan was s to seduce yoseph if you look in Genesis L that's 39: 11 it talks about this very day that she went and tried to seduce him so the verse says and it was on that day that went home to do his work and there was not one of the men of the household that was there in the house but she was there so what does Rashi say on this verse very interesting was on this day that is to say it was when a special day came a day of frivolity it was the day of their idolatrous Festival they all went to the Pagan Temple she said I have no day is fitting for becoming intimate with Y remember these words as this day so she said to the members of her household I'm feeling sick and I can't go to Temple today so she stayed home to seduce him and what day was this it says Rashi brings down this was an idolatrous Festival if we go to our own prayers we discuss the sanctification of these days these Holiness of these days the what we have to give Thanksgiving for in alhim it says I read it in English you delivered the strong into the hands of the weak the many into the hands of the few the impure into the hands of the pure the wicked into the hands of the righteous and the Arrogant into the hands of those who were engaged in the study of your Torah you made for yourself great and holy Renown in this world in your world and for your People Israel you performed a great salvation and Redemption as of this very day in Hebrew listen to these words this very day as if the came down and saved y from this um seduction of this woman he saw his father's own face remember he already forgot his father's own face how does how is it that he saw his father's own face because his father's face rests on the holy Throne of glory and as if Hashem himself came down with the Holy Throne of glory and reminded yoseph as he saved ysf from such a treacherous sin so we see this is what the holiday is really about that Hashem has come has he has an everlasting love for the Jewish people for us and that flickering flame will never go out even if it's so low as less than 10U him less than hand 10 hand 10 hand breaths even on the left side which is the dark side and even if it's just one flame that's flickering it will never go out that hashem's love for us is so strong and so great and he'll come to us in the darkest in the longest nights and we should never forget and one of the Psalms that we sing to remind us of this idea sorry I just want to get out the English I have the Hebrew in front of me the Hebrew says English we're all familiar with this we sing this on Friday night tonight it is good to thank the Lord and sing Psalms to your Supreme name to tell of your love and kindness in the morning we can recognize that in the morning but it's the Dark Nights your faithfulness is at night this is where the amuna the faith the real exercise of belief in our God the god of Israel that he is always with us and may we take the strength that we gain through these days these dark and cold and bitter and long nights and take it with us through the rest of the Year everybody