Transcript
Good morning Boker Tov and a Freilechen and a Lichtigen Chanukah. Wonderful to see everyone, hope you're having an amazing and enjoyable and beautiful and light Chanukah. Our Emuna series is generously sponsored by Dr. Zavi and Bella Morgan in memory of Rabbi Dr. Brian Galbut and in memory of Bella's mother Dr. Ellen Shanzar; we remain very, very grateful to them. Today's shiur is also sponsored in memory of Dr. Jacob M. Hiller, who exemplified and modeled how to live with Simchas HaChaim, and by Michelle and Marty Weingarten in honor of their parents Dr. Alexander and Meryl Weingarten; thank you very much for your generosity and your sponsorship. I want to just share a quick thought about Chanukah and then we'll dive back into the Sefer of Gamliel Rabbinovitch that we've been learning, Tuv HaEmuna, some beautiful, beautiful ideas and thoughts on Emuna. So two quick Emuna stories, you know I love to share Emuna stories. This, no classes, no learning that we do is theoretical. If learning is theoretical, then I won't say it's a waste of time, but it's not conceptual, abstract or theoretical. If Torah learning doesn't transform or filter down into changing who you are and how you live, then it might not authentically be Torah learning. All Torah learning should be something that leaves us changed and transformed when we're done with it, but particularly living with Emuna. Our Emuna shiur is all about empowering and enriching us to live with Emuna. So I will tell you that yesterday I was flying back from somewhere with my daughter and we had a flight, I know all my stories, all my Emuna stories have to do with traffic or airlines, but you know I don't get out that much. So we were flying back and our flight was 8:58 am and we took off at 2:35 pm. So it was a long day. But I will tell you I'm proud of both both my daughter and myself, that we just put in practice the Emuna shiur. This is where Hashem meant us to be, had an outlet, and we had access to coffee, and we had a roof over our head and we just sat. What's the difference of sitting working here, sitting working in the airport for six hours? So Emuna is what gets you through and at no point were we frustrated, angry, panicking, miserable, resentful, worried, bitter or anything like well she got to miss school so there was nothing for her to be upset about. But again Emuna just gets you through whatever it is in life. But the real thing I wanted to start with is last night there was a wonderful United Hatzalah event in Miami in Turnberry. United Hatzalah, the organization in Eretz Yisrael that saves lives, 6,500 volunteers who answer 700,000 calls a year in under 90 seconds, an amazing organization. So the featured performer last night was, I'm going to say his name correctly, Andrea Bocelli? Did I pronounce it correctly? Andrea Bocelli was the featured performer last night. Why am I bringing that up? To make you feel bad that you weren't there? No. Oh, that's so nice of you thank you. Not to make you feel bad if you weren't there last night. I want to tell you for the following reason. If you don't know, I didn't know, Andrea Bocelli is blind. He can't see. Okay, of course you knew, I'm a boor. I'm not as sophisticated and cultured as you are. I did not know he went blind apparently at 12 years old. So I was only there at the very beginning of his performance. First of all he was honored by United Hatzalah, he and his wife, who are not Jewish but are dear friends of the Jewish community. His wife spoke beautifully standing with the Jewish people during this time of antisemitism to dispel the darkness with light and with Chanukah, spoke really beautifully. And we need friends, we need friends, the more prominent that they are, the more influential they are, the more their friendship means to us and is valuable to us and it was really a very beautiful thing. But as he was on stage holding on to his wife or being led to hold onto the microphone or whatever point he was on stage and performing, all I could think was the following question. If you could offer Andrea Bocelli today that you would trade his voice for his eyesight, would he take it? I'd love to have him on Behind the Bima to ask him but I don't see that happening. But would he trade his voice and his prominence and his celebrity status and his influence and the joy that he's brought others in his performances? Would he trade his voice to have his eyesight back? It occurred to me he's never seen his wife. He has no idea what she looks like. He has a 10-year-old daughter who was on stage and he's never seen his own daughter. He's never seen his 10-year-old daughter. Would he trade his voice for his eyesight? And I don't know the answer to that question. I don't know if anyone's ever asked him. I don't know whether he would or has an answer to that question. But why am I bringing that up? Because we have our eyesight and we can see. And what a gift that is. And how much we take it for granted. And maybe if he would give it all up, the money, the status, the celebrity, the voice just to be able to see, wow how lucky we are to not have to give up anything to wake up every day and to be able to see. What a gift and what a bracha it is and that is really in essence and very very much what the holiday of Chanukah is really all about. We say in Haneros Hallalu, הנרות הללו קודש הם ואין לנו רשות להשתמש בהן אלא לראותם בלבד. These candles are holy. And these candles, unlike the Shabbos candles, where the purpose and the goal, the role of the Shabbos candles is to increase and promote shalom bayis, the Shabbos candles illuminate the room so that we don't trip or fall, we're not bitter or angry, whoever left the toys around or left the room a mess. So the Shabbos candles are the catalyst for shalom bayis. The whole purpose of the Shabbos candles is to see. If they don't illuminate well, they don't create a bright and proper flame, then you might not be yotze Shabbos candles, that's their purpose. So on the one hand the Shabbos candles are to see. When else do we use a candle? Bedikas chametz. The purpose of the candle is to be able to see in the cracks and crevices of the home if there's any chametz to get rid of that yetzer hara, that ego, that inflated dough that has risen, any ego that has risen inside us. So normally the role of the candle is to illuminate to be able to see. But in great contrast when it comes to Chanukah, אין לנו רשות להשתמש בהם אלא לראותם בלבד. We're not supposed to use them. The Gemara Shabbos says you can't sit by the candles of Chanukah, you're not supposed to use it to read or to count money or to organize or to sew. You can't use it for illumination to see. So what is the purpose of them? Liro'osam bilvad. To look at them, to gaze at them. And many great tzaddikim through our history, many of our great gedolim, our very righteous people would sit, some say for half an hour, and they would just look, they would just stare at the candles. Just stare at the candles. And the candles repair our eyes. The Kedushas Levi of Levi Yitzchok of Berditchev says that that each holiday corresponds with another sense. So Pesach is the sense of taste. We eat matzah, we eat maror, it's about eating. And Purim is the sense of hearing. We hear the Megillah to fulfill the story of Purim, we hear the gragger as we blot out Haman's name. And Chanukah is the sense of sight. It's the sense of seeing. And we repair whatever damage we've done to our eyes when we sit and we gaze and we look at that light, the light of the menorah. The menorah represents the wisdom of Hashem. The different arms of the menorah are the different wisdoms of the world. And they all point towards the center of the candelabra of the Beis Hamikdash, which was the center was Torah. The center, the tallest, the highest light is the light of Torah. But there are all kinds of other wisdoms of the world and they're all meant to complement, they're all meant to combine together with the beautiful light of Torah. And when we stare at that light and we realize that our life should be illuminated by the values, by the priorities, by the messages, by the ideas, by the ideals of Torah. Torah should illuminate our life. That we put on those emunah glasses and everything we experience that we talk about every single week, and yet you still come back. But everything that we experience from the delayed flight to traffic to the disappointments to the health challenges to the simchos and the joy and the great news, it all is filtered through seeing Hashem, seeing Hashem in everything. Seeing Hashem in everything. Shulchan Aruch records based on the Gemara, an unusual halacha. Halacha is haroeh mevorech. A person who can't light for himself or herself but sees the candle of someone else makes a bracha. She'asa nissim la'avoseinu. Haroeh mevorech. A person let's say doesn't have a home. A person is homeless, God forbid, actually homeless, or a person is traveling they don't have a home, they don't have a place to light. The obligation to light is based on the home, whether your permanent home or if you're traveling altogether a temporary home. When I was away on Monday night, Yocheved lit in our home and I didn't light. I was in a hotel that you can't light and I wasn't in my home, and the chiyuv, the obligation of lighting candles is an obligation on the home. So she lit for us for our home. My son was very disturbed by that. He wouldn't let her. She had to call me for me to tell him it's okay, Mommy can light the candles, that's the right way to do it. There's no other agenda. He was, I don't know what he was worried about exactly. So haroeh mevorech. But let's say everybody's on the road. Let's say everybody's on the road and nobody will be in the home. Nobody is home base to fulfill the mitzvah haroeh. So haroeh mevorech. But you're passing someone else's candles, there's a bracha. We don't have that with any other area of halacha. We don't, I don't see you eat matzah and I make a bracha. Haroeh, I see you eat matzah and I make a bracha. I don't see you put on tefillin and I make a bracha. I don't see you do any other mitzvah and make a bracha. This is the only holiday that has a component that you see someone else do the mitzvah and you make a bracha. Why? Because Chanukah is all about seeing. It's all about seeing in the sense of sight. My own mitzvah ideally and preferably, but when not, I see someone else's mitzvah, I see those candle lights and it changes my sense of sight. So what are we honing in on? How does it change that sense of sight? So it repairs the damage to the eyes. That's what all the Divrei Chaim, the Sanz Rebbe, the Zera Kodesh, the Ropshitzer and that's what the Kedushas Levi of Levi Yitzchok of Berditchev, all the tzaddikim all say. You sit and you stare. We spoke on Shabbos at the women's shiur about this beautiful movement, Savor the Light, for half an hour. After you light the Chanukah candles, turn off all devices, turn off all technology. Don't be distracted, don't be interrupted, don't look at any screen, just look at each other. Just look at that light of the candles. Look at that wisdom, look at that emuna, look at that faith. Look at that flame that flickers that represents our soul that just wants to go up. You know, you hold a candle, no matter what direction you hold the candle, what does the flame do? It goes up. Because a Yid, no matter what direction you put them in, they could be falling towards earth, they could be on the rise, on the ascendancy, or they could be descending, they could be struggling. But the neshama's always going up. It's always flickering up. Whatever direction you hold the candle, the flame is always flickering up and the same is true with us. So we gaze, we look, we look at that light and we feel the light dispelling the darkness in our lives. And as we spent many months recently talking about, Hashem is not only found in the light, sometimes He's found most clearly, accessibly, in the dark. So it's in that darkness that we light the candles of the menorah, the chanukiah, we stare at that light and it changes us. It changes us. The Midrash says that חושך על פני תהום זו גלות יון. That when there was darkness, right, there were four exiles, four exiles, and Bavel, Madai, Persia, and Yavan, Greece, and Edom. We are in the fourth exile right now, Christendom. We're in the fourth exile of Edom, of Edom. So these four exiles are hinted to in the very opening of the Torah. Hakadosh Baruch Hu creates the world and it says tohu, the world was והארץ היתה תהו ובהו וחשך על פני תהום. The world was tohu vavohu, חושך על פני תהום. There was darkness across the whole of existence. Zu galus Yavan. Why? Why is that galus Yavan? Because what was the aim, the mission of the Greeks? שהחשיכו עיניהם של ישראל. They wanted to darken our eyes. You know what that meant? They wanted us to go blind. We put on our emuna glasses and we looked and we see the whole world through Hashem, through this prism we see Hashem everywhere. And the Greeks said, uh-uh, we're outlawing bris milah, we're outlawing Shabbos, we're outlawing Rosh Chodesh. I don't want you to, all three of those by the way, because those three of those represent our differences, our uniquenesses, our distinctions. The bris, the Greeks said, the human form is perfect. What are you doing? They invented the Olympics, they invented the worship of the aesthetic. They said, what are you doing by mutilating the human body? Bris, they outlawed bris. And we say mutilating? God, Hashem invited us to be His partner in perfecting man. We are born imperfect and He invited us to partner to perfect. We're not mutilating, we're partnering and we are perfecting. Rosh Chodesh, Rosh Chodesh, they said you have your own calendar? What, are you different than everybody else? Have the same Gregorian calendar as us. Why do you have your own distinct unique Jewish calendar? And Shabbos, גוי ששבת חייב מיתה, non-Jews not allowed to keep Shabbos. Shabbos is the special treasure that Hashem has set aside and preserved for us. We talk about it, we sing and dance about it, we celebrate it every Friday afternoon and our ten minutes in our turn Friday into erev Shabbos. Oh, the geshimak, the beauty, the greatness, the uniqueness, only we have this treasure called Shabbos. So the Greeks were opposed, the Syrian Greeks were opposed to all of that. And they said why do you have to be different? Why do you have to be different? They worshipped the aesthetic, they tried to make us blind, they tried to take off our emuna glasses. Shehechshichu, they tried l'hashkicham torasecha. They wanted us to forget Torah. Forget you have a Torah, forget you see the world differently, you live in the world differently, you navigate the world differently. Be like everybody else. And we're living in a time now again of this assault. We're living in this galus, this exile, that the world is saying, observant Jews, take off your glasses. Stop believing and defining and having policies and living differently than everybody else. Just be like the rest of us. Go the world the way the rest of us. You should also just disrobe, literally and figuratively, and live like the rest of us. And again we have to, like the heroes that came before us, muster that strength to remain principled, to have the resiliency, to have our convictions, and to see the light, to see the light of the menorah, to allow that light of Torah to illuminate our lives. So what is it that we're trying to see? When you sit tonight, fourth night, halfway through, and you're looking at those four candles and the shamash, and you've turned off the screens, and the whole family's just sitting there, laughing and talking and being and existing. If you're with a family. If you're alone, we wrote about and spoke about this past Shabbos and I wrote about this week, everyone has a neighbor, a friend, somebody in their development who lives alone, invite them when you light candles. Invite them for latkes and to spin a dreidel. Get them a gift and think about them this Chanukah. Nobody should be alone. If we want it to be light, not just in our own homes and for ourselves, invite others. But as you look at those candles, what is it supposed to repair? How is it supposed to repair our eyes? So what's the difference between a room filled with darkness versus one filled with light? The only difference is... Ability to navigate. Whether the light's on or off in the room, there's furniture there. And the layout of the room, the placement of the door, the height of the ceiling, everything about the room is the same whether the light's on or off. What's the only difference? Our perception. Whether we see it, whether we observe it, whether we appreciate it, whether we have gratitude for it, whether we can navigate our way through it. So Chanukah is about turning on that light. And it's about seeing the things, the people, the ideas, the miracles that are right in front of us, that are right under our nose, even though we haven't or failed to acknowledge them. We don't genuinely appreciate them. George Orwell once wrote, "To see what is in front of one's nose needs a constant struggle." To see what's right under our nose, sometimes the most obvious things, to see what's right under our nose. What would Andrea Bocelli give to see again? Would he give up his voice? Would he give up his fame? Would he give up his fortune? I don't know the answer to it. I don't know. But I know that we don't have to think about that question because we woke up this morning and we see. And we can see our home, and we can see our clothing, and we can see our ability to walk and see and hear. And if we have family locally we live with, we can see our family. We can see so much bracha in our lives, it's right under our eyes. You know, you can live with your eyes open, you can have perfect vision and still be cloaked in darkness. Or it could be pitch black and you can see clearly because you really see in a penetrating way. The Chashmonaim didn't see their numbers and they didn't see their weakness and they didn't see the odds or they never would have tried. They didn't see what was in front of them. They saw what was beyond them. They saw with a sense of vision that was well, that was well beyond them. So this is our mission and this is our vision and I'll tell you, Chanukah is that ability to see beyond what's right in front of us. So Andrea Bocelli is challenged, we're not. We wake up and we have that incredible gift, that ability to see. Lou Salazar was a pitcher, a major league baseball player. And when he retired from baseball, he became a coach. And he was in the dugout and a foul ball hit him right in the face, right in the eye. And it made him blind in one eye. And he had to take a leave of absence from baseball. He was recovering. I think it broke his eye socket and made him blind in one eye. And I read an article years ago in Sports Illustrated, an interview with him talking about the incident. And he was talking about the incident, this leave of absence he took from baseball, and he said, friends, former teammates, coaches he hadn't been in touch with in years reached out to him. Reached out to him. And that leave of absence, that time off, he had never taken time. He played baseball, he was coaching. He spent time with his family. And I'll never forget one line in the article. He said, "You know, I now see more with one eye than I ever saw with two. I see more with one eye than I ever saw with two." So that's the holiday of Chanukah. That's what we're in the middle of. To see, to let that light illuminate. To see, to see the bracha, the things we're taking for granted. To see the gifts and the blessings that Hashem bestows upon us. To see the good that we have in our life to be grateful for. To see the life that we could lead and who we're meant to be, and to repair our eyes. For some, the repairing of the eyes is that we looked at things with jealousy and envy. For some, repairing the eyes is that we looked at people hypercritically. For some, repairing the eyes, we looked at images and we watched entertainment that was inappropriate, things we shouldn't have been looking at or entertained by. Everyone has to figure out what they need to repair, which misuse and abuse of their own gift of sight, of what needs to be fixed with our eyes. But that's the mission of Chanukah to sit and to look at those candles, to watch them. אין לנו להשתמש בהן אלא לראותן בלבד. We don't use them. We're not using them to read, we don't sit near them for shalom bayis. Ella lirosan—their whole purpose, we're lighting them to look at them. So if you light them then you run to the other room to give the gifts and make the latkes and run out to the concert and the Chanukah party and you never sat and savored and dwelled and watched and looked, then you missed out. You missed the boat on Chanukah. To teach ourselves and our family, sit and gaze and stare. Half an hour's a long time, but see if you can make it. And you don't have to look at it the whole time. Sit with family and look at them and talk to them, but turn off all the technology, turn off the distractions and just look at. And think about how do I want to repair my eyes? How do I want to use my eyes? I don't have to trade anything in. I don't have to trade fame or fortune or a voice to have eyesight. I woke up this morning and I can see. So how do I want to use my sense of sight? To see the good or to see what's missing? To see what I can compliment or to see what I can criticize? To see what I should be grateful for or to see what I should complain about, what's missing in my life? To see the bracha or to see what I think is a klala? To see a cup that's half full or to see a cup that's half empty? Every cup is full if you count the air that's in the cup. Question is how you calculate. So what do I want to see? How do I want to use our eyes? That is a quick thought about *Chanukah*. Back to our *Sefer Tiv HaEmunah*, Rav Gamliel Rabinowitz. So we last left off last week, we spoke about *Shema Yisrael*. We say *Shema* every morning and every evening, *Shema* is that mission statement of our people, the unity of *Hashem*'s existence, and he re-translated that *pasuk* for us, changed the way we'll say it forever. גודל אמונתו בהשם אלוקינו השם אחד כך הוא ישראל. What we're saying is *Shema Yisrael*. Hey wake up you *Yisrael*, wake up you Jew, wake up *Yid*! השם אלוקינו השם אחד to the degree that you believe השם אלוקינו השם אחד will determine what kind of *Yisrael*, what kind of *Yid* you are. Do you really live a life *Hashem Elokeinu*, *Hashem* is our God, *Hashem Echad*? *Hashem Elokeinu*, He's not just *Hashem*. It's not just he was, he is, he will be, he's omnipotent, omniscient, infinite, all powerful, he's not some abstract God who created a world and moved on, he's *Hashem Elokeinu*! He's my God. He's my God. Everything that happens into my life is by design, nothing is random or chance, it is all the way it's meant to be. And we were meant to sit in an airport for six hours. It wasn't random or chance that our plane had a technical problem. That's the way it was meant to be for what reason? Who knows? But it's okay because it was by design, it's okay because it's his plan. So just lean in. Now it's pretty innocuous and benign, it's a easy example, there are much more stressful, difficult, painful ones, but to the degree that we can live *Hashem Elokeinu*. *Hashem* you're my God, I talk to you, I'm in conversation with you, I'm grateful to you, I protest and complain to you, I feel you by my side, I see the world with your presence, then we are *Yisrael*. תליא כמה אמונה יש לך בהשם ולכן כל כמה שאתה בבחינת ישראל כך אני השם אלוקיך. When we are *Yisrael*, when we live as a faithful Jew seeing Him, then He will be our God. And the more we make Him our God, the more of a *Yisrael*, the more of a *Yid*. ואם אדם לא משקיע בזה, we're on page *samech chet* now, turn the page 68. ואם אדם לא משקיע בזה, if a person is not careful with this, הוא יכול חס ושלום לעבור את כל חייו עלי אדמות כשהוא מנותק מהקדוש ברוך הוא חס ושלום. You could spend your entire life in this world disconnected from *Hashem*. כי בלי אמונה אין לו קשר לבורא עולם. I don't care if you're going through all the motions. I don't care if you're putting a check next to every *mitzvah*. But if you don't live with *Hashem*, if you don't feel him, talk to him, acknowledge him, you're grateful to him, if you don't understand everything through him, if you don't live with *Hashem*, then אין קשר לבורא עולם, you have no connection to God. God is just someone you read about on the internet, in encyclopedia, that you get together for a *yom iyun* to bring proofs that he exists, he's just someone you talk about. Is God someone you talk about, or is God someone you talk with? Is *Hashem* someone you talk about, or is he someone you talk with? Talk about is the *dvar Torah* you give at the *Shabbos* table. Talk about is that you *daven* but your mind was really elsewhere. Talk about is that you did a *mitzvah*, you said a *bracha* before you lit the candles. You're talking about God, but do you ever talk to and with? Do you ever hear him talking to you? That's a *kesher*, that's a connection with *Hashem*. And it's not enough to know he exists. You know your mother and father exist, but you never talk to them? What kind of relationship do you have with them? So people say, oh are you, your parents, are they still alive? Yeah, I have parents. Where do they live? They live here. Tell me about them. Not really in touch with them. I don't really talk to them. I don't tell them about me, I don't listen to what they have to say about them. Then you have no relationship with your parents. Your parents are theoretical, your parents are someone you fill out in a form, God forbid. Children, you have children? Yeah. Tell me about them. I talk about them, but do you talk with them? So *Hakadosh Baruch Hu* is no different. We shouldn't be satisfied with talking about *Hashem*. We should be committed and devoted, we should be making time and making the effort to talk with *Hashem*. וכעת בעמדנו לפני קבלת התורה עלינו להתבונן מה הדיבור הראשון ששמענו מפי הגבורה. And this *ma'amar* was said obviously before the holiday of *Shavuos*. So Rav Gamliel says, a person should think about what's the opening *dibbur*: אנכי השם אלוקיך אשר הוצאתיך מארץ מצרים. *Hashem* says I'm the Lord your God, I took you out of Egypt. האמונה בהקדוש ברוך הוא היא התחלה של כל קבלת התורה. The entire experience of receiving the *Torah* is predicated on first *Hashem* saying, 'Hi, I'm *Hashem*, nice to meet you'. I took you out of Egypt. I took your ancestors out of Egypt. I'm involved in your life. I love you, I care about you, you may not always see it or perceive it or appreciate it, but know that nothing that happens to you is random or chance, it's all by design, it's all on purpose, and believe it or not, feel it or not, it's all in your best interest. ובלעדי זה אין אפשרות לקיים את התורה כלל. And without it you cannot fulfill *Torah*. Without *emunah* there is no *Torah*. We do it backwards. We do it backwards. Unfortunately, this is many of our experience, that we grow up with *Torah*, we learn a lot of *Torah*. From our early childhood, we're taught Torah. What parshah is it, the lessons of the parshah, the story of Chanukah, we're taught the mitzvos, light the candles, how to keep Shabbos, make a bracha, daven, keep kosher, and it's only adolescence, teenage years, young adulthood, for some deep into adulthood we say, hey, what's this really all about? Who's behind it? Am I really supposed to be in a relationship? We leave absent from our curriculum, both in school and too often in the home, the education of emunah, talking to Hashem, the modeling of emunah, not just mitzvos. Sukkah is it how many tfachim, how many amos, is it tied down, and the schach, how does it go? And is this a good menorah, the arms move, they have to be stationary, is it the right level, how long does the oil last? All this is important. I spend my life and my career, but my life learning and teaching and promoting these minutiae and these details and these halacha. They are critically important, they're non-negotiable. They're very, very important. Of course they are. But without emunah as the platform that they all stand on, they just fall down like a deck of cards, like a house of cards. It all just implodes and collapses upon itself. It has to be built and predicated on the foundation of emunah. Why are we doing this? For whom are we doing this? With whom are we in a relationship? Do we talk to him? Do we think about him? Do we care? You're about to light those Chanukah candles. So are you like yelling and screaming and it's time and we gotta go so everybody come and gather around, we gotta light. Did you light? Who lit first last night? Who lights first tonight? I told you to clean out the menorah. I can't believe you didn't. Now we're delayed even further and we're gonna be late to the concert. Is that the Chanukah experience? Or everyone gathered around and someone says, you know, before we light everybody close your eyes, let's take a few deep breaths and let's get rid of the distractions and the chaos and where we have to go tonight, whatever event we're going to, we'll get there. We'll get there when we're meant to get there. But let's take a moment and let's think about the darkness in this world and let's make a commitment to bring greater light and dispel it. Let's do pirsumei nisa, let's spread Hashem's miracle. What miracles are in our life? בימים ההם בזמן הזה. The reason we're doing pirsumei nisa, the reason we're publicizing a miracle is because the miracle is not just ba'yamim ha'heim. The whole purpose is ba'yamim ha'heim, Judaism is not a commemorative religion. We don't commemorate holidays because they happened in the past. It's בימים ההם בזמן הזה. It's because he does miracles today. So the miracles of the past, they strengthen us, they reinforce that we can find and see those miracles of today. So holy family, chevra, kinderlach, what are the miracles in our life that we want to express great grateful gratitude for, that we want to publicize, that we want to shout from the rooftops? What's the darkness that we want to dispel with a little bit of light? What's the darkness in our own eyes? How have we damaged our own eyes that we want to repair by looking into this light? By looking into this light? What is the wisdom of Torah that we want to further absorb to replace some of the other way, foreign ways of thinking that has entered our own mind? How can we look at this light? Okay family, now that we've spoken about that, we took a few deep breaths about that, we meditated and reflected on that, you ready? Baruch atah... it's a different experience of Chanukah candle lighting. Our whole Yahadus, our whole experience, is that what we're modeling, is that what we're teaching? Is that what our children are growing up experiencing? Is that what we experienced? Is that what our grandchildren are going to experience? Or is it quickly light and who didn't clean out the menorahs? And who didn't replace the candles for the next? We're gonna be late for the concert and whose turn was it last time? And I can't believe you got me a sweater again. Is that our experience? And then you run out of the room. Quickly, grab the latkes and sufganiyot. Everybody in the car, we gotta get to the concert. And the poor candles are sitting there by themselves. Like, hi, wait, what's up? How? What? All you did was come in the room, yell and scream at each other around me, then mumble something and light me and then run away from me. And that's it? That's what you did to me? Nebech, I'm gonna cry for the menorah. You could cry for the candles. They're like, here, I'm here to change your life. I'm here to light up your life. I'm here to transform your world and make everything brighter and better. Where you going so quickly? What are you doing? What are you doing? So Anochi Hashem Elokecha. Hashem says before you get my Torah, before you receive and take my Torah, the first thing is Anochi Hashem Elokecha. The very first thing is Anochi Hashem Elokecha. First thing is believe in me, have a relationship with me, come to know me, come to feel my presence in your life. Yeah? Good, we know each other, we have relationship with each other? Good. Now, here's my Torah. Now practice it. Now live it. Now the minutiae and the details and the halacha, they matter and they count. But without it, what is it? וזהו הזמן הנכון לחזק בקרבנו את האמונה וזכות לקבל את התורה מחדש and now is the time to redo our kabbalas hatorah. And I think we might have even started this next section the last week. לדאבוננו האמונה בדורנו ירדה פלא. Rabbi Gamliel bemoans our generation in which the vigilance and scrupulousness for mitzvos is maybe greater than ever. In segments of the community, in the whole community Baruch Hashem we're more careful than ever, we're more scrupulous than ever, we're more vigilant than ever. There's more Torah learning than ever, than ever. The Mir Lakewood, six, seven, eight thousand talmidim, YU at record enrollment this year in its beis medrash, Yeshiva of South Florida, new yeshiva Baruch Hashem in our community, spreading the light. There are more people sitting and learning Torah for more hours than ever. So do we see a spike in emuna? Do we see it translated into greater emuna? More vigilance in mitzvos, more Torah learning. וכי מרגישים קשר עם הבורא על ידי קיום המצוות? Is this board meeting, more chumras, more stringencies that we've adopted upon ourselves, does it translate, is it synonymous with more emuna, with more feelings of faith, with more conversations with Hashem, with more calm and serenity, with more humility? באיזו מידה מאמינים בפשיטות שהקדוש ברוך הוא אדון לכל המעשים וממנו הכל? כיצד אנו מרגישים שהבורא משגיח בהשגחה פרטית על כל פרט ופרט וכל הפרנסה ושאר הצרכים הכל ממנו? How do we come to realize that our livelihood, our income, our health, our wellness, the health of our relationships, it's all from him, it's all from above. So he's the address. So yes, yes, we have to turn to doctors and therapies and yes, we have to turn to initiative and effort when it comes to income and a career and a profession. Yes, we have to work on shalom bayis and our relationships. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. But how much are we doing all that and then we're leaving off the ikkar, the most central part, which is turning to Hashem, turning to Hashem. There's a flu, a cold, COVID going around the community, going through some of our homes. So we take every test there is and then we try every, what is it called, Echinacea and zinc and every shtick and every, every herbal tea and everything you could get off the shelf at CVS and every, everything in the world just to get, it's miserable, it's miserable, the flu, the cold, the COVID, it's all miserable. Anyone in the family daven for that person? Say Hashem, my mother, my father, my son, my daughter, my brother, my sister, somebody's not feeling well, someone's sick, come, let's all say, let's turn to the One who's going to make them better. It came on out of nowhere, it could go away out of nowhere, the symptoms could disappear quickly. So you go to the, go to the doctor, we don't believe in Scientology, go to the doctor, make an appointment, stick all the Q-tips in every orifice of your body to figure out what you've got. Figure it out, take every medicine whatever they tell you to take, prescribed medicine and over-the-counter medicine and the witchcraft medicine that somebody told you you should take and the tea and the this and the that, do it all. But, but you leave out the ikkar, we leave out the ikkar, we leave out the most core and central part, Hashem. You're the great doctor in the sky, you're the rofei chol basar, Hakadosh Baruch Hu, could you make them better? I'm not just talking about obviously significant illnesses and the people for whom we're davening from the bottom of our heart each and every day, and as always we ask you to remain after for Tehillim, לחיה אסתר תהילה בת עדיה ציפורה and all cholei Yisrael. But even something like a common cold you feel it coming on, you're not bedridden, you feel a common cold coming on. So in all the remedies that you're taking on, everything you read somebody posted on the internet you should do to have this cold not turn into the flu, did you include among them Hakadosh Baruch Hu? Talking to Hashem like from the bottom of your heart, like a real conversation, a real hisbodedus, a real conversation, a real conversation. Not while I davened this morning, while I was walking around the kitchen and still putting away the backpack and packing the lunch and doing this, I davened this morning. No, like did you really have a conversation with Hashem? Did you talk to him? Parnassa, health and wellness, shalom bayis, that the flight go on time, that everything work out right? And afterwards did you say thank you? Afterwards do you say thank you? It all goes together, it all goes together. אם נתבונן בין אנשים שומרי תורה ומצוות אפילו בני תורה ממש מה ההרגשה שלהם כלפי הכסף me'eifo hu magiya? If you turn to the strongest, strictest bnei Torah, think of the most religious people you know, the most righteous people, the most vigilant, the most strict, the most scrupulous, the most machmir people you know, and you ask them where does money come from, where does parnassa come from? Will they say Hashem? מהראש כולל או תומך אחר? Do they say oh, where does your paycheck come from? Try it. Ask someone sitting learning in kollel, the one with the greatest diligence who learns the most hours, who's the most righteous, who's the most strict in halakha, and you say where does your paycheck come from, will they answer oh from my kollel or will they answer from Hashem? What will they answer? All of us, we live in this illusion called this world, this matrix, which is so confusing, so we say, you know, why did you get? Oh, I see you got better, you bounced back quickly from that cold from the flu. Oh yeah, yeah, I took this incredible medicine. I made this incredible concoction. Or do you say, yeah, from Hashem, I spoke to Him a lot, I davened to Him a lot. What's our instinct, what's our intuition when we're asked about why something went right or where it came from? Do we say, or do we say it came from Hashem? סומך עליו שהוא לכאורה הזן ומפרנס אותו או שהוא עובד בעצמו וסומך על כוחו ועוצם ידו שהוא המביא את פרנסתו הרי זה בכלל אפיקורסות. וכי הראש כולל הוא זן ומפרנס? Is the Rosh Kollel the one who gives the paycheck? Is the Rosh Kollel the one who provides and sustains? וכי הידיים של אדם המה המפרנסים? Are hands, our feet, our brain, our heart, our initiative is that what provides? Other people with a hands and feet and a brain and a heart who struggle, they're not as good as you? וכי כשרונותיו הברוכים עומדים לו לעזרה בכל צרה? So that's our effort, that's what we're working on, that's what we'll pick up with im yirtzeh Hashem next week is, how do we get to a place where someone says, oh you bounced back, you got better, yeah Hashem made me better. Oh, where's your paycheck from? It's from Hashem, not from my boss. Oh where's, whatever the case may be, to give everything, to credit everything with Hashem, that's where it all comes from, that's our mission, sit by the candles tonight, halfway there, 50% of the light on our march to illuminate the world to be mosif ve-holech, more and more and more. We pasken like Beis Hillel, we don't go from eight to one, we go from one to eight, which means we're halfway through, we're halfway through increasing the light in this world, we're halfway through repairing our eyes, the way we look at the world, we're halfway through seeing the berachos that are in front of us all along, we're halfway through this Yom Tov, this holiday of Ha-ro'eh Mevarech. שהחשיכו עיניהם אין לנו רשות להשתמש בהם אלא לראותם בלבד. Take advantage, look, gaze, enjoy those candles, should repair our eyes. Tonight we're going behind the Bimah with Rav Yosef Tzvi Rimon, the Rav of Gush Etzion, of Alon Shvut, he's the Rosh Yeshiva of, of Machon, no, I'm totally blanking out, Jerusalem College of Technology. What's it called? I totally had a brain freeze, long day yesterday. And a great author, a great person, started Job Katif and so many other things, Rav Rimon is wonderful. That is tonight at 9:00 o'clock and until next time, stay happy, stay healthy, and stay holy.
