Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
This is a collection of shiurim to help us prepare to light the Aish Kodesh (holy fire) of the Channukah menorah. It offers new insights on the pnimiut of these important days.
lai lai lai lai lai lai lai lai, lai da da da da dai. Am ba da bam bam bam ba ya. Am ba da bam bam bam ba ya ya ya. Ai ya ya.
Ai ya ya ya. Oi, am ba da bam bam bam ba. Am ba da bam bam bam ba. Am ba da bam bam bam ba.
Ai na na. Ai, lai lai lai lai lai lai lai lai. Ba da dam bam bam ba ba bam bam bam. Lai ya ya yam bam bam ba ba bam bam bam ba.
Ai, lai lai lai lai lai lai lai. Ai, lai lai lai lai lai lai lai. Ai yam bam bam ba ba bam bam bam bam bam bam bam bam bam. Ai am ba da bam bam bam ba.
Ai am ba da bam bam bam ba. Ai am ba da bam bam bam ba. Ai na na. Am ba da bam bam bam ba.
Ai am ba da bam bam bam ba. Ai na na. Ai, ai, ai, lai lai lai lai dam bam bam. Oi yam bam bam bam bam bam.
Boi oi oi yam bam bam bam bam bam bam bam. Ai, ai ai ai lai lai dam bam bam. Ai yam bam bam bam bam bam. Ai.
Good morning. We're learning in the month of Kislev. The ilui nishmas Livi ben Yosef, for the refuah sheleimah of שיינא יונה בת עדל and Hila bas Ilana. For the ilui nishmas בתיה פייגא בת ישראל, for the refuah sheleimah of דוד נתנאל בן איילה אהובה, צבי דוד בן תמר מלכה, אורי חיים בן מירב, אחיה בן יעל חיה, טוב שמואל בן אביבה נאוה, and also by sponsored by the Herskowitzes, the ilui nishmas of Raziel's saba, שלמה לייב בן רפאל גדליה.
By the Gantavniks in honor of Ilyana's bat mitzvah and their anniversary. This week is sponsored anonymously for the limud Torah this week and by Lisa Blumberg in honor of Ike's birthday. Baruch Hashem. To many, many more sponsorships.
To many more sponsorships. Okay, let's go right to it. Today what we're going to be seeing is like I wrote yesterday in the message that today we have a piece from Rav Ginsburgh based on a sicha from the Rebbe on Hanukkah. Now, I know that sometimes when we, some of these sichos are very, very complicated.
They're very, they're filled with sodei sodos. I chose something that seems to be very straightforward that will help us begin this march towards Hanukkah, the light of Hanukkah. And it's all based as you see on the top over here, this is based on a sicha that the Rebbe gave in Tav Shin Yud Gimmel, in Kislev Tav Shin Yud Gimmel, so that's that's Kislev 1954 and Hanukkah Tav Shin Yud Gimmel, on the same year, on a week or a week or two later on on Hanukkah Tav Shin Yud Gimmel, 1954. And what the sicha is, is the Rebbe contrasting Chanukas hamenorah in the Beis Hamikdash, the light in the Beis Hamikdash and the light of Hanukkah that we have today.
And there's a lot of comparisons over here that Rav Ginsburgh is going to be pointing out. So I want us to, even though it's a lot of Hebrew here, the Hebrew this is like, honestly, from all the sichos from Rav Ginsburgh that I've seen, this is probably the easiest Hebrew that I've ever seen. So hopefully this will make it an easier way for us to livloa es zeh, to to swallow it and to chew on, well first to chew on it and then to swallow it. But Hanukkah is definitely not a yom tov you want to just show up to.
Hanukkah, you want to show up to with a lot of Torah she'b'al peh, with a lot of light, with a lot of Torah already in your kishkes, in your system. So let's go for it.
בין נרות חנוכה לנרות של מקדש.
חנוכה הוא חג של חום ושל אור.
Hanukkah is a yom tov of warmth and of light.
הרבי מבאר מציין שנר גשמי הוא תופעה של גשם שמחממים אותו עוד ועוד. So the Rebbe in the sicha that this is based on explained that a actual candle is a phenomena of when it says here geshem, it doesn't mean rain. It means something that's completely megusham, meaning something that's completely No, physical.
Right, gashmi. That something that's completely, completely a candle. What's a candle? What's a candle made out of? Wax. So what what's this is completely like these worlds things, physical things, that you warm it up more and more, or it's a situation of wood.
You light it up more and more and more עד שלבסוף הוא נדלק ומאיר את הסביבה כולה, and eventually that thing that's completely physical lights up and burns throughout the whole, it's all surroundings. And bichlal, he's going to say a comment here which is very important.
מושגי האור והחום, all concepts of light and of warmth, ועבודת השם המיוחדת הקשורה בהם, all the different aspects of light and warmth and avodas Hashem that has to do with this, תופסים מקום נרחב בתורת החסידות. Chasidus bichlal.
What is it always speaking about? Like one time on Lag Ba'omer, Rav Weinberger said, I couldn't believe he said this. He said, Chevra, you ever get the feeling that you just you read another sefer, you get another sefer, you keep on looking at all the different sfarim and you come to the conclusion that every everything is saying the same exact thing more or less? Like all the sfarim are basically just saying the same thing, right? And that's what people feel like sometimes. It's true because in order to attach yourself to light, you have to get to a lot of, you have to go through it from a lot of different angles. But if you could pinpoint it down to one thing, you could say in תורת הבעל שם טוב this, oh, mountain over here came to bring or and chom, light and warmth, to a dark and cold world.
Light and warmth to a dark and cold and cold world. The headquarters of this is Chanukah. Unless you're in Australia, because then it's that's it's all hafuch, you know, in Australia it's it's it's summer and and long days and full of light.
והדבר מתאים למסורת שיש בידינו, this is all shtims with our tradition, שלפי הבעל שם טוב חיבב במיוחד את חג החנוכה.
Ba'al Shem Tov had a very special loving and liking towards Chanukah. You know, he loved all the yomim tovim, but by Chanukah something was happening, something different was taking place. Second paragraph.
עצם גילויה והפצתה של תורת החסידות קשור לחנוכה.
The revelation and spreading of the Torah of the Ba'al Shem Tov is connected to Chanukah.
השמן שאנו מדליקים מייצג את חלק הסוד שבתורה. The oil that we light represents the aspect of the secrets of the Torah.
אותו מבקשת החסידות לקרב אל כל יהודי ויהודי, that Chasidus wants every Yid to have access to the secrets of it.
גם Yud Tes Kislev.
היום בו ניתנה גושפנקא משמיא, you know what gushpanka min shmaya means? Approval from above. Like a stamp. A stamp from above, approval from above להפצת רזין דאורייתא, to spread the secrets of the Torah.
When does that take place on the calendar?
נמצא בתוך ההיקף של ימי החנוכה. You know, in halacha sometimes we have this with different dinim, that if something is seven weeks before a certain date, it falls under the category of what it will be, of of the seventh whatever it falls under. So how many days before before Chanukah is is Yud Tes Kislev? Six, so it's under the week. It's in the week of that of like the the prep for Chanukah, בתוך שבעת ימים שלפני החג.
It's not stam. There's tons and tons of ma'amarim explaining the the connection between Yud Kislev and Chanukah. That was just a reka. But now we're going to go into the contrast between the Beis HaMikdash menora and the Chanukah and and chag HaChanukah.
And there's you already can, in your mind, you can come up with a lot of different distinctions between the two, obviously.
נרות חנוכה נובעים לכאורה מתוך נרות המקדש. Lichora, what does it seem? That the fact that we have Chanukah candles and we light the menora is because of that there was a menora in the Beis HaMikdash, nachon? That's what it seems like. Bichlal, you know, I think one of the greatest Purim sudas I ever had, you were you were there, remember we lit the menora at the at the seuda? Remember this? Yeah.
We lit the menora at the Purim, we didn't say with brachos, but we we lit the menora at the seuda because we were learning that year that when it says והשקות בכלי זהב וכלים מכלים שונים, that Achashverosh pulled out all the keilim that they stole from the Beis Hamikdash at that seuda in the beginning of Megillas Esther. So you could just imagine, obviously they must have had a menorah there too and they and they probably pulled that out at the seuda. Chanukah is all over the it's it's all over but its origins, the inyan of the menorah, it's not stam a made up thing the Maccabim came to and that we continued with. It has to do with the menorah of the Beis Hamikdash.
Lich'ora. Lich'ora it comes from there. Omnam, this is based on the the Rebbe's sicha, במבט נוסף, looking deeper, מתגלים ביניהם כמה הבדלים יסודיים כמדובר בדברי הרבי. There are there are very big differences between the two.
So let's go through some of them.
במקדש מדליקים את כל נרות המנורה בכל לילה. It was like a Beis Shammai experience, at least for the first night, right? That they would light all the candles of the menorah every single night.
ואילו בחנוכה, we know, according to Beis Hillel, נר חנוכה מוסיף והולך.
ואילו בחנוכה מוסיפים נר בכל לילה, בכל לילה, ומעיקר הדין די בנר אחד. So we start off with one, we add by one, but if you only have one, me'ikar hadin it seems to be that the the the poskim say that's enough to be yotzei the mitzva. That's one difference, starting off full, not even going down, always full. By by the way we we light the menorah, it's not like that.
במקדש אור של המנורה מודלק מבעוד יום. When do you light the menorah in the Beis Hamikdash? Not mishetachshach. Not the way that we do it, but while it's still complete daylight. V'ilu b'Chanukah, mishetachshach.
Chanukah, we know when we light it, later in the day, as it's about to become dark. Now this is another interesting difference.
במקדש מאיר האור בתוך הבית, ואילו בחנוכה דווקא על פתחו. Where do you light, where was the menorah situated in the Beis Hamikdash? So we learned this a little bit last year towards the end of Tikun HaMedina or in the middle of Tikun HaMedina, we had a few shiurim on the actual location of the menorah in the Beis Hamikdash and which light, do you remember this? Like the the tzura of the menorah as well, he's gonna explain this.
What's the difference over here? Where do we light our menorahs? Pesach habayis, the outside, has to go to the outside. Or it's really should be if it's if you could do it, mamash on the outside. But in the Beis Hamikdash it was it wasn't on like on the outside where people would see everything. The light would reach people but in a different way.
ומעבר לזה, but more than that, דומה שעוד הבדל יסודי אחד קיים בין שתי המנורות. There's one more fundamental difference between the menorah in the Beis Hamikdash and Chanukah. The number of stems?
מנורת המקדש מייצגת תקופה של זוהר בחיי עם ישראל, תקופה של שלמות בקשר בין השם יתברך לעמו. Right? The menorah in the Beis Hamikdash represents a a period of prosperity and shine in the light of Am Yisrael, a period of shleimus of total completion regarding Hashem and his people.
As Chazal said, עדות הוא לכל באי עולם שהשכינה שורה בישראל. The menorah represented this thing where it was clear to everyone that the Shechina is in Am Yisrael.
לעומת זה נולדה החנוכיה דווקא מתוך המלחמה על הנפש היהודית. As opposed to that, the chanukia was born davka from a place of war on the Jewish soul.
ובזמן בעירתה רובה ככולה הוא זמן של חושך.
חשכת הגלות הנורא שעדיין לא תמה. And the time of its burning, most of it, is a time of darkness.
חשכת הגלות הנורא שעדיין לא תמה.
The darkness of galus that still hasn't, that still hasn't ended.
ונראה שההבדל הזה, bottom paragraph, it's this last distinct difference, הוא העומד ביסוד כל שאר ההבדלים. This is really what makes the difference.
והוא גם הנותן להם את פשרם.
נר חנוכה הוא נר של מסירות נפש.
על פי הטבע, כשטוב בגשמיות, טוב גם ברוחניות, ולהפך חס ושלום. Naturally, based on nature, so Rav Ginsburgh is saying, the name of the Rebbe, that when things are good in gashmius, it's good in ruchnius too, and also the other way around, chas v'shalom. When things are not so shvach, when things are not so good, they're pretty shvach in gashmius, ruchnius is also pretty bad.
לא כך קרה במאור שנתנו לנו למצוה חביבה זו. That's not what happened during the story of Chanukah.
בהם נתגלה שדוקא כשרע בגשמיות, because at the time of the story of the of Chanukah, what was revealed is that davka when things are bad in gashmius, מתגלה טוב רוחני עליון ביותר. The high supreme spiritual good becomes revealed ממעמקים כאלו שבזמן של טובה ונחת אין אנו זוכים להגיע עדיהם.
Okay, chevre, outside the text, I want to emphasize this last nekuda. When do you feel a geshmak to daven? When you're broken. When did that happen? All the time. No no, chevre, it's not the inyan now to be funny and depressing.
I'm trying to based on what we just learned, everything we just learned right now. When does when you would you naturally, al pi teva, have a geshmak to daven, have a cheshek? When things are good. But you're also right. al pi teva.
But what you said is also correct, why? Because it's true that we know that there's a geshmak to daven when you're so broken. And that's sometimes those those tfilos pierce shamayim v'aretz. Mamash. Where did that come from? Chanukah.
That was a chiddush in Chanukah. Something shifted from the story of Chanukah that there's a geshmak to daven and to cry and have a and have a hisoirerus ruchanis, a spiritual awakening, davka from brokenness which doesn't add up al pi teva. This, now, now of course, in our day and age, when do we feel the highest davenings come about? Chanukah or Beis Hamikdash? You understand? If Beis Hamikdash represents when things it's all good, שכינה שורה בישראל, it's all beautiful. In today's day and age, when do we have more of a geshmak, when do we feel like wow, tzama l'cha nafshi and that our davening is on fire? When does it, is it is it a result of the reality of what the Beis Hamikdash was like or Chanukah? Chanukah.
Chanukah. Chanukah. It seems like such a simple thing, but you have to realize that it's al pi teva it shouldn't work like that. Al pi teva is the opposite.
So what what we're seeing over here so far, and that's why he says over here that this is the yesod of the of the difference between Chanukah and the Beis Hamikdash, is that the menorah that was lit in the Beis Hamikdash was like, it's all good, hakol sababa. Let's light, let's bring light into the world. Chanukah is, it's not good. Things are really bad, things are about to be destroyed, and somehow I have a hisoirerus in me.
Wow, I want to bring more light now more than ever, I want to cry out to it. So therefore what's our yom tov of this dor? Beis Hamikdash or Chanukah? It's Chanukah. It's Chanukah. Is that is that distinction clear, clearer now? Ken? But we shouldn't forget about the Beis Hamikdash.
Assur. No, but I'm saying when things are good, it should be kol shekein also. Vadai, vadai, but that becomes even a bigger struggle. Right.
A hundred percent. that becomes even a bigger struggle, and we speak about that a lot, nachon. It's not, you're not supposed to lean only on Chanukah light to get you going. You have to also look into the into the clear picture of we're sitting here this morning in Efrat, a bunch of chevre that apparently don't have to work and around sitting around a table and we're sitting and learning chassidus like like like yeah, this is my normali.
Zeh lo normali, guys. This doesn't add up, doesn't make any sense. But it's a great geshmak thing. This is more like a Beis Hamikdash vibe.
Right? What what would be a Chanukah vibe? If one person here showed up to night seder. Or if we had more than eleven people for mincha maariv one day. I'm allowed to give you guys some shtuch. It's okay.
Another one, let's go. Oh, I could, you know me, I can I could keep on going. But on that note, it would be nice to see more chevre mincha maariv. I'm being serious.
It's great to have 500 people on a Friday night, but 12 at a mincha maariv, not so much. So, try to, and if we didn't have the kollel here there'd be no minyanim. So, it's your shul. Come here for mincha maariv, at least that.
Amen. Yalla, vaiter. Wait, someone had their hand up. Yosef? Oh no, Raziel, Raziel.
The whole idea of it being physically bad but spiritually good is emblematic of the whole idea that they physically had a little bit of oil and yet the light could still illumine. Nachon. Nachon meod. Nachon.
So now turn the page. This is this is like this is very powerful stuff what he's going to say over here.
נקודת פנימיות הנשמה היהודית, האיתן שבנשמה. This inner, this inner point of the yiddishe neshamah, which is called the eitan.
Eitan is means strong. The strength of the neshamah מתעוררת רק כאשר היא נדרשת באמת. You know when it wakes up? Only when it's really needed. This nekudah pnimis of our souls wakes up usually only when it's really needed.
כשחיסרון זועק מעורר אותה. When something that's lacking is screaming, and it wakes it up. We speak about this all the time. How gevalt would it be if the eitan sheba neshamah would wake up from just saying מה רבו מעשיך השם, it's all gevalt.
It doesn't work like that. The eitan sheba neshamah only wakes up when when it's, Ah! Then that thing wakes up. Like, think about it. Do you guys remember the vibe in חשוון תשפ"ד in this country? Two years ago, Cheshvan, Kislev? Does anyone even remember what it felt like here? Yes.
I mean, could that have happened? I mean it's sick to say such a thing, but could, huh? No. No what? It couldn't have happened without it. It couldn't have happened without it. So that's how he's saying there's a nekudah of eitan sheba neshamah.
Strong. You know who was called eitan? Avraham Avinu. Eitan haEzrachi. It's referred to.
We say, we, there's a reference in the davening of Yamim Noraim on this. You remember where? Bizchus hatam. That's hatam, but there's eitan.
עוד זכור לנו אהבת איתן אדוננו.
Uvizchus tam, and then right afterwards it will be bizchus hatam, you'd see it, right. He says over here, this only wakes up when you need it.
וכשהיא מתעוררת בכוחה לנצח את החושך הגדול ביותר. When it wakes up, it could beat the greatest darkness in the world, מה שאין בכוחו של הטוב הרגיל והשגרתי של הנשמה.
But the regular shigrusi, shigra, shigra means routine. The routine, the routine does not have the koach to wake up this place in the neshamah. Unfortunately, sometimes certain couples have to be on the brink of divorce in order to wake up this nekudah of eitan sheba neshamah of their yachasim. It's horrible, but we've seen it.
That that that is a reality. You have to be on the brink of something. The other way, the routine does not wake this stuff up. It doesn't wake up this nekudah that we're speaking about.
So, someone once asked if things were so gishmak in the first Beis Hamikdash and there was shalom like we've never seen before, how could it be that we lost the first Beis Hamikdash? Second Beis Hamikdash is a different story. We already know basic elements that were in the first Beis Hamikdash were not in the second Beis Hamikdash. Elements that would would have brought down shalom v'shalva. First Beis Hamikdash in the time of Shlomo Hamelech, mah hayah chaser? What was lacking then? What was lacking in the Beis Hamikdash? What was lacking within the am? So I would say it's very hard to understand this.
How could it have been destroyed? First Beis Hamikdash. Shechina's there. So Reb Shlomo once said it like this, and I really am seeing it through here. The Beis Hamikdash stopped breaking our heart.
Life and the routine stopped really touching our heart, because it was just so there all the time. The Shechina was there, the avodah was there, the Leviim's niggunim were there. You stopped, you'd come bring a korban, the levi would sing a niggun, and you'd be like, "Yeah, that's what happens here." Like with everything, "Yeah, that's what happens here." But there was no choshech that was waking up the nekudah of the eitan sheba neshamah. And that's why it's such a danger to get used to anything.
Anything. Yeah, Yosef. Didn't you just raise your hand? Oh, okay, okay. Change your mind.
Okay. Interesting. Happy birthday.
מנורת המקדש הוא המנורה של שלמות.
Zev, you brought this up. How many branches, how do you call it? Kanim? Branches? How many branches were in the menorah of the Mikdash? Seven.
מספר שהוא שלמות הטבע. The completion of shigra.
The seven days of the week, meaning, within the realm of nature, it that that that is a... completion of it, right?
והיא מאירה בכולם כאחד בהתאמה לתקופה זו ולגילוי השכינה ששרתה בה. And it was shining and illuminating to everyone in accordance to the period and revelation of shechina that it was in.
היא מאירה מתוך הבית כלפי חוץ.
So it was shining outside, but not because you put it by a window or a doorpost, but the Beis Hamikdash had this very very interesting windows.
כדוע, היו חלונות בית המקדש עשויים בצורה שתקרין את האור הפנימי כלפי חוץ. Chalonei shkufim atumim.
הצרים כלפי פנים ורחבים כלפי חוץ.
Do you make do they make this kind of windows today? Yeah. Like Anderson does this stuff? You understand the description here of the type of windows in the Beis Hamikdash? How would you say it, Uziel? Like that it went inward out instead of outward in. Like the light wasn't coming in, the light was going out. So it was designed in a way to illuminate the outside.
Correct. Like a reverse funnel. Like a reverse funnel. Yeah.
Yeah. Ve da like like from the mechitzos also. Yeah. Like certain mechitzos have the, whatever.
Ve dai.
ודי לו בכך. And it was enough. It was enough to just be like that.
האור גדול די הצורך. The the light was plenty.
וגם בחוץ אין החושך שורה. And it wasn't so dark outside either.
מדליקים אותה מבעוד יום. You light the menorah of the Beis Hamikdash during the day.
בבחינת מקדים רפואה למכה.
כי כל עוד אור הדולק, because as long as it lights shine, its light shines, ein la'laila shlita.
The night has no, has no, has no control.
ואין החושך יכול לקנות לו שביתה במציאות. And the darkness can't take control. Chevra, how many of you are night people here? I don't know, it's an interesting thing that most people today are, not not just here.
Most people are. Besides here. I don't think that's what got you out of being normal. Halevai that's what got you out of being here.
But no, but I've asked this question many times in this dor, most people are night people, like it's a very interesting thing. But because it has, and it has to do obviously with how we're how the Rebbe and Rav Ginsburgh built this whole thing up. Zot omeret, the Beis Hamikdash is such a hard reality to connect to sometimes because it means, like, we we have to change, our our nature is going to be changed, right? That nature of like, oh, night, you know, that, deeper, it's all, you know. Each one of us carries our megillos of traumas, so like that we're all night people, right? But the Beis Hamikdash wasn't like that.
That that's not the metzius of the Beis Hamikdash. We wait for the night because then we feel more in tune with with what what what, you know, our own darkness finds like, like, like companionship with the with the reality outside in the world, the physical reality of darkness. And Chassidus comes and says, you know, davka go to there, go to there, and flip it over. The Beis Hamikdash, you didn't have to flip it over because it wasn't so dark outside because you're lighting while it's still daylight.
And you're lighting within the confines of like shleimus hateva, seven branches, כנגד שבעת ימי השבוע. Neiros Chanukah, third paragraph, מאירים מתוך מצוקה של לילה שכבר ירד. When do I light the Chanukah candles? When I see that that light that existed during the day wasn't here to stay. Remember the, I remember this is a Torah we put in Even Shlomo.
It's one of my favorite, favorite teachings. We put it in in parshas Chayei Sarah, I think. When was the Yitzchak, ויצא יצחק לשוח בשדה. That's parshas Chayei Sarah.
Mincha. So the story was, the Rebbe Rashab was walking with his son, with the Friediker Rebbe, the sixth Rebbe, and they were walking around shkiah time. And his father, the the fifth Rebbe asked the sixth Rebbe, he said to him, he said to him, do you see what the sun looks like right now? He says, yeah, the sun looks looks like it gets red almost every day when it starts to set. He says, yeah, do you know why? He says, yeah, because it's embarrassed that its light that it brought today wasn't enough to bring Moshiach and it wasn't enough to prevent the darkness that's about to come right now.
So every single day, the the sun itself has a shtickel busha that its light wasn't enough to keep the light shining forever. unbelievable, unbelievable. Huh? Never going to look at sunset the same again. When I I never, since I heard that story also, you know? What a story, just like a two-liner but it's so so chazak.
But then but Hanukkah comes to that story, it says, hey, listen, don't worry. You know why? Because there's there were there were makabim in the world. There was a concept called makabim. And we're plugged, we have to be plugged into that.
So נרות חנוכה מאירים מתוך מצוקה של לילה שכבר ירד. Hanukkah is coming down at a time when, okay, I acknowledge, darkness came. hachoshech hasamich shebachutz, that thick, thick darkness that's outside מכריח להדליק נרות אחרים. It makes me light more lights.
שיעמדו דווקא על פתח הבית ויאירו כלפי חוץ and I'm gonna where am I going to do that? In the opening of my home so that my home and the outside both simultaneously are gaining from this light.
רק נר אחד דולק, zeh ma sheyesh. I got one candle. Like we said halachically, that's all I got, that's all you got.
But that's what that's all there is. v'al pi minhageinu, להדליק כמהדרין מן המהדרין, אנו מוסיפים נר אחד בכל לילה מעלין בקודש because we know that we always have to add one after another after another because maalin bakodesh, the greatest, I've shared this with you, the greatest visualization I ever had of this was always for many years, I would go up to San Francisco to perform by the Chabad candle lighting by Union Square. Union Square is this massive area in the middle of the of the I guess it's the finance district in San Francisco. And Rabbi Yosef Langer, shlita, who I miss so much, he, I try to share this every single year because it had such a hashpa'ah on me.
He had this massive candle lighting, was called the Bill Graham Menorah Festival. If any of you, I could see where you're holding, if any of you, right. I could see who's I could see who listens to what and who partied where based on what I just said. The Bill Graham, you guys are so straight or young, I haven't figured it out yet.
But the Bill Graham Menorah Festival. Bill Graham was the promoter of the Grateful Dead. And Bill Graham was killed in a helicopter crash. And he was the one that ran Fillmore East, Fillmore West.
He was a yid, obviously, and he got involved and it's a long story. But there was a massive, massive menorah lighting. And I was on stage and what they did, I don't know if they would allow this today because of safety hazards, but he gave out thousands of candles into the crowd and he held a torch. I have to find footage of this.
He would hold a torch and he passed it the torch to like five people that were around him, meaning they lit with their candles and then you saw from the stage a sea of people suddenly with this is pre-smartphone days. So today everyone just turns on their flashlight, but this is like real light, you know? Real light just, and suddenly that whole and San Francisco, not that I'm complaining so much because I got you got several here from Cleveland, Chicago, New York, but San Francisco is pretty Detroit, sorry, San Francisco is pretty cold for us Los Angelinos. I know, exactly. We were pretty cold.
65 degrees? It was like 61 degrees, you know? And suddenly the whole place was filled with light. It was it was such an amazing thing. Started from one candle. When? cheshkas layla.
It's totally dark by then. Completely dark. I told you about the year that Carlos Santana was the guest of honor to light the menorah? So smooth. Amazing.
מי שאין לו יותר מנר אחד, whoever doesn't have more than one candle, בוער בו הרצון להוסיף ולהעלות בקודש. It's an amazing thing. You know what Chanukah brought out? Chazal said it's okay, you have one candle, you're yotzei. But a yid that tastes this amazing energy of eitan she'baneshama of the nekudah pnimis of my heart and I'm like, I could snap out of this.
So what's the natural reaction to like having a taste of getting out of a little bit of your darkness? More and more and more to get out of my darkness. Maalin bakodesh. Another candle, another candle. That's where it comes from.
That's where this mehadrin comes from.
מתוך תודעה של חיסרון הוא מוכרח שלא לשקוט, from a consciousness and awareness of something that's lacking, I can't be quiet anymore. v'hu mosif v'holech and he adds more and more עד שבתנופה אדירה, you keep on adding until you don't even realize but you know, tnufa, how do you say tnufa in English? Momentum. Like a, momentum.
Until there's this amazing momentum comes, who gam הוא גם עובר את שלמותה של מנורת המקדש before you even realize it, you know what you surpassed with all your adding? You surpassed the seven, meaning you even went beyond the Beis Hamikdash. Chevra, you have to realize how monumental this teaching is. With that cheshek to add when you feel it's dark, but you got a taste of who you could be, you surpass the sheva. You surpass the light of the menorah of the Beis Hamikdash, and you go to shmoneh.
You go to me'al hateva. This is what Chanukah brings out of us.
אז הוא מגיע לשמונה נרות, then you reach eight candles.
מספר המסמל את מה שמעל הטבע.
אחד למעלה מן הקודש כפי שהוא מסתגל בגדרי הטבע. You went above and beyond nature, and you were plugged into eight. Where did it come from? It didn't come from a world of light. It came from what? From Nazis.
From, from all these terrorists here. Somehow that's what drives us to, to try to be mosif al hakodesh. It doesn't come from rikudei am and singing shirei Eretz Yisrael. It doesn't.
It doesn't come from a nice kumsitz. It comes from, Ribbono shel Olam, my heart is burning. I've tried everything and I still feel like I'm in utter darkness. And then you're zocheh for one moment of a light.
And then you, you, you take that, how do, what did we say, b'tnufah? Momentum. And you go with that momentum until you completely surpass all that you thought you were possible, that was possible in the realm of possibility.
כשאנו מתבוננים בנר הראשון ומוצאים אותו קטן ודל. We look at that first candle, standing on its own.
It's nice, it's cute, but it's, it's alone, and it's not such a geshmak. Haner haboded, that lonely candle, hu garin. It's a seed.
שמתוך חסרונו נתנות לו כנפים.
This is so beautiful, what Rav Ginsburgh's saying over here. From that lacking that that lonely candle has, it's given wings. U'kvar achshav, כשנוטים צללי ערב של שקיעת החמה, as what's it called? tzilalei erev, meaning night's falling and it's starting to get dark, אפשר לראות בו את הבקר שיפציע עלינו במהרה בגאולה שלמה. You could already see the morning that's about to come upon us with the great, great geulah, with the complete geulah.
And here, of course, Rav Ginsburgh, hergelo bakodesh says, and that's why Ner Chanukah is the gematria of vayehi voker. You know, I love that sometimes when, when he does this, so he'll talk like this, you know, for like three and a half hours, right, with a very serious face. And then he knows where he's, like, he knows what's, what he's going to say in three and a half hours, right? But you're never, you're never sure. So then he, then he'll basically look up and he'll be like, Ner Chanukah, gematria, vayehi voker, right? It's like everything he said suddenly shows up in a gematria.
Ner Chanukah equals vayehi voker.
ראה הקדוש ברוך הוא שצדיקים הם מועטין עמד ושתלן בכל דור ודור. We learned this by the Rashi in the beginning of Bereishis, talking about the, about light, the or haganuz, that Hashem saw there weren't going to be so many tzaddikim, so he planted them in each and every generation. K'mo neiros haChanukah, like the Chanukah candles, גם הצדיקים הם נרות להאיר.
They're also, tzaddikim are here to shine.
חסידים מספרים שהבעל שם טוב היה הולך ברחוב קודם שנתפרסם בעולם. Before his, his hit album hit the, hit the, hit the rag, right? Before, before, before, so what year was that must have been? 17, 1734 is when the Baal Shem Tov appears, and so whatever, 1720s, early 1730s. So he comes out and he would go out to the world, he would go out to the street.
כשהיה פוגש ילד יהודי, when he'd meet a Yiddishe kind, היה מניח את ידו על לבו, u'mevarech oso. The Baal Shem would put his hand on the kid's heart and bless him, shetihiyeh Yehudi cham. You should be a warm Yiddele. You should have varmkeit, you should have warmth.
יהודי חם עולה חנוכה. Chanukah is the gematria of the word, of the two words, Yehudi cham, to have this, to have this warmth.
נשתדל להתבונן עוד בעבודת השם של החום והאור. As we go along, chevra, this was like two pages out of like 65 pages of one night of Torah that Rav Ginsburgh gave a few years ago.
But he says this. the beginning of looking deeper in avodas Hashem regarding warmth, light, in order to what? kedei l'hafnim osah to internalize it.
ולקחת ממנה לעבודתינו בפועל ממש, and to take it for our avodah b'foel mamash בדרכו של הבעל שם טוב, so that we could say, yeah we really are following the path of the Baal Shem Tov.
וכשיפוצו מעיינותיך חוצה אל תוך ליבנו, and when his wellsprings spread out into our hearts, נזכה לביאת מלכא משיחא במהרה בימינו אמן.
Amen. Just come to Mincha today. Just start with that. Just start with that and everything else will flow.
I love you guys. Have a good day and a good.