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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 lai lai lai lai lai lai lai lai lai lai lai lai lai lai lai lai lai lai lai lai lai lai lai lai lai lai lai lai lai lai lai. Bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum. Lai lai lai lai lai lai lai lai lai lai lai lai lai lai lai lai lai lai lai lai lai lai lai lai lai lai lai lai lai lai lai lai lai lai lai lai lai lai lai lai lai lai lai. Bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum.
Oh, ai ai ai ai ai ai ai. Ai, ai, ve'noam al panav, ve'noam al panav, על פניו שירה חדשה. Hey, ve'noam al panav, ve'noam al panav, על פניו שירה חדשה. ve'noam al panav, ve'noam al panav, על פניו שירה חדשה.
ve'noam al panav, ve'noam al panav, על פניו שירה חדשה. Bediyanta ve'vavli. Bediyanta gediyanta. Shkoyach.
Shkoyach. ten li chibuk. Abba. To my brothers, let's learn something strong today for this mysterious, mysterious day.
It's Zos Chanukah, month of Tevet, sponsored by the Aron family, לעילוי נשמת לוי בן יוסף by the Silvers, in memory of בתיה פיגא בת ישראל. This week by the Finns, in, for the le'refuah shleima and the ve'chizuk of all the ptzuim ve'chayalim ha'ptzuim, including ליאור סאן דוד נתנאל בן אילה אהובה. Sorry about the, shkoyach, status of the photocopies, but you'll you'll make it through. Here's your paper.
Today we're going to see something that's short, sweet. It's a little bit different what we're used to because it's trying to understand a minhag, a minhag that's rooted, we have to, we have to learn a little halacha, we have to see a beautiful picture of Zos Chanukah. This is a very mysterious day. I got so many calls and texts of real mevakshim, people that really want to understand.
They say, "Can you just tell us what what is this day?" They don't say, "My Chanukah," they say, "My Zos Chanukah." What, what's, what is Zos Chanukah? ma zeh? I didn't grow up with it. You know, I didn't grow up with it. I don't know how many of you grew up with Zos Chanukah being a special day. It was the last day of Chanukah.
What was so special about it? That the menorah was full. That's it. But then you look, you open up any of the sfarim of pnimiyus that today are going around everywhere and you realize everyone's speaking about Zos Chanukah, but, but even when you look inside, it's still very mysterious. Okay, so we say Zos Chanukah is the mizbeach.
We just leaned. There's all these vortlach about בזאת יבוא אהרן אל הקודש, מאת ה' היתה זאת. The word zos, what it represents. We did, we learned it in the past, focusing on the word zos, the word zos.
This year I was seeing much more כסיל לא יבין את זאת. The fool won't understand Zos Chanukah. Right? We say that that pasuk in Mizmor Shir LeYom HaShabbos, כסיל לא יבין את זאת. So a fool doesn't understand zos.
Aharon ha'Kohen only comes into the kodesh be'zos.
מאת ה' היתה זאת. Zos ha'Torah. And many, many others that we could darshan a lot about zos versus zeh.
There's a lot of drashos here, a lot of drashos. What I want us to look in today is a minhag. This beautiful sefer I got, when did I get it? I usually write the the month when I get. This was already, wow, so embarrassed.
So I got, very like seven years ago, six, six years ago. You knew what I did it? Six years ago. Yud Tes Kislev. This is a sefer from the from it's it's it's from from Belz, the minhagim of Belz, the Belzer Rebbes.
And there's a beautiful vort, beautiful minhag here that I'm sure you've seen in many different places, and if not, you're you'll learn about this minhag. If there was one kapitel of today, it's the kapitel that we say, we say every single day after davening, and it's a kapitel that Dov has made t-shirts of, Mizmor L'Todah, the gratitude kapitel. So if you see on Reish Yud Cheis just on Zos Chanukah. We're just gonna we're gonna run through this.
It's not so hard but it's a there's something very special that can give us a lot of chizuk and koach for this last day of Chanukah. I don't know about you, emotionally this Chanukah has been a roller coaster. A lot a lot of highs, a shtickel lows, up and down and all around, making sure that Camp Katz in my situation was running smoothly, while your own personal camps were running smoothly as well. Yeah? B.H..
But now just to end off with a sweet minhag.
המנהג שבליל זאת חנוכה בשעת הדלקת הנרות מוסיפין לשיר מזמור לתודה בנוסף למזמורים שמזמרים בשאר הלילות ומנהג זה נובע מהרב הקדוש רב אורי מסטרעליסק זכותו יגן עלינו שהמנהג היה כך. So this is not something that is that everyone does, but in Belz they added on to saying Mizmor L'Todah by hadlakat neirot, davka motzei leil hadlakat neirot of the last night of Chanukah. B'seder.
This is not doesn't seem such a far out minhag but we I want to understand with you why davka here. So turn the page over. And this is from Rav Aharon Belzer and he's saying it in name of Reb Yissachar Dov Belzer. All right? The Belz dynasty we should dedicate a whole year to, at least one year.
It's very rich, rich. I don't mean I don't mean I'm not trying to be funny with with money rich because the Belz shul and everything and a lot of Belzer chasidim. It's very rich. It's a very rich masoret.
It's a very rich tradition. So every minhag is is is is approached with a lot of kavod, a lot of lot of kavod.
ואמר אבינו אדוננו מורנו ורבינו רבי יששכר דב זכרונו לברכה. So the previous Belzer Rebbe says like this, what's the reason that you say Mizmor L'Todah? Ha'taam l'minhag zeh.
דהנה כתבו הקדמונים שיש נוהגים שלא לעשות מלאכה ביום א' דחנוכה וביום ח' דחנוכה. We don't hold like this so much, but there was a minhag back in the day that you should refrain from doing melacha on the first day of Chanukah and the last day of Chanukah.
וביום ח' דחנוכה. V'yesh l'havin.
Let's try to understand.
מפני מה שונה הוא יום שמיני דחנוכה משאר הימים לענין איסור עשיית מלאכה. You have to put on your Gemara kops a little bit this morning, okay? He says let's try to understand, what's the difference between the eighth day of Chanukah and the other days of Chanukah in regards to refraining from doing any melacha? What's the difference?
ובשלמא מה שיש נוהגים שלא לעשות מלאכה ביום הראשון מובן הטעם בזה. We don't have a question on the minhag of refraining from doing melacha on the first day of Chanukah.
Why?
כי ביום ראשון חנו מן המלחמה ונחו מאויביהם. What was the first what's chaf hei? Chanu kaf hei. They finally the war ended and they stopped, they stopped fighting, they rested from their enemies.
ולכן מאחר שנחו מאויביהם באותו היום לזכר זה אין עושין בו מלאכה.
So we can understand because we commemorate the fact that they stopped fighting and they rested on that day, we underst we could understand why there could be a minhag to not do melacha on the first day.
אבל מה מעליותא של יום ח' דחנוכה משאר ימים שלא לעשות בו מלאכה. But why are you going to the end of Chanukah and saying, ah, and here again we're not doing melacha. So now just use, for some of you this even the tone in my voice is a trigger, and if I put up my thumb right now it's really going to mess you up.
If you're going to say that the eighth day of Chanukah, the refraining from assiyas melacha is also have shaychus to the fact that we rested from our enemies, then what's the obvious shayla? What about the rest of the days? Then all of Chanukah should be a yom tov. All of Chanukah should also be an issur assiyas melacha. And if you want to tell me it's another reason, it better be something really good because you can't just, you know, you can't just say whatever, it sounds good to end off with an issur assiyas melacha. Further, the real question for you and I today is, no, do you know anyone that doesn't do melacha on the first day of Chanukah or second day of Chanukah or last day of Chanukah? We know an inyan from the Shulchan Aruch it brings down that women are supposed to refrain from doing any, you know, assiyas melacha around this time, hadlakas neiros, b'seder, but l'maiseh we don't hold like this, so what's the pnimiyus of this? What is it telling us? What's this eighth day really telling us? V'yesh lomar.
The במי חשמונאי ובניו כאשר עשה השם יתברך לבני ישראל ניסים ונפלאות ונצחו את היוונים ממלחמתם in the days of Chashmonai and his children, when Hashem made tremendous miracles for and we beat the Yevanim in their wars, נסחיב בני ישראל להביא קרבן תודה לבית המקדש עבור הניסים והנפלאות שעשו להם השם יתברך באותה שעה. So, Am Yisrael were obligated to bring a korban todah to the Beis Hamikdash after the amazing miracles that Hashem did for them at that time. After, right? After such a thing took place, such a, such a miraculous victory, what are you supposed to be bringing afterwards? Korban todah. What's the problem?
אמנם במשך שבעה ימים הראשונים עדיין היו כולם בחזקת טמאי מתים ולא יכלו להקריב קרבניהם.
What couldn't happen for the first seven days of Chanukah? They couldn't bring a korban. Why? Because everyone's considered to be under the category of tumas meis, of impurity because of death.
טומאה הותרה בציבור רק לקרבנות של הציבור ולא פרטיים. Lo yachid, nachon.
Nachon. Aval, I don't want to, I know, I know what could happen now. When we open this up, your the halachic brain is going to start to go wild. I want to stick with his mahalach, okay? Stick, stick with his mahalach.
אך אחר היום השביעי ביום השמיני כבר נטהרו כולם מטומאתם והיו טהורים. But a week passed, seven days have passed from the beginning of the time of Chanukah, and the whole inyan of the gezeira of tumas meis is already chalaf, already everyone had enough time to become pure, ושוב היו יכולים להביא קרבן תודה, and now they could already bring a korban todah, only when? Zos Chanukah. Only on Zos Chanukah could they bring a korban todah.
הרי שבזאת חנוכה הקריבו כל כלל ישראל קרבן התודה.
It's amazing that on Zos Chanukah, all of Klal Yisrael brought the korban todah.
וזאת ועוד דאיתא דגמרא מגילה אומרת דחנוכת המזבח היתה ביום ח'. So the really, the the day of the dedication of the altar, like we know, took place on the eighth day. Why did they wait for the eighth day? Why didn't they do Chanukas hamizbeach as soon on yom alef of Chanukah? Why did they wait till the eighth day?
כי בשבעה ימים הראשונים היו צריכים לטהר את המזבח וכל כלי המקדש מטומאתם.
The first seven days, they had to purify the mizbeach and all the vessels and the utensils from the tumah that they were in.
ואם כן ביום ח' נגמר ונסחנך המזבח. Then on the eighth day, Chanukas hamizbeach was finished, ולא היה שייך להקריב קרבנות על המזבח בבית המקדש במשך ימי החנוכה ורק ביום השמיני שבו, שבו ביום היתה חנוכת המזבח, הקריבו כל ישראל את קרבנות תודה על גבי המזבח, להודות ולהלל לשם יתברך על הניסים ועל הנפלאות שעשו להם. So even though they had a mizbeach, there was nothing they could do with it as well.
Not just that they themselves after the milchama and whatever they went through couldn't come and bring a korban, but the place itself wasn't muchshar, it wasn't literally kashured enough in order to be ready to be a makom ra'ui to bring korbanos because of the status of the Yevanim, what does it mean? Whenever I remember, I have to remember al hanisim, I go to Miami Boys Choir, ואחר כן באו בניך לדביר ביתך ופנו את היכלך וטהרו את מקדשך, right? We came back, וטהרו את מקדשך. We came back, we had to be metahir the whole area. The the gmar tahara of the mikdash and everything inside of there took until Zos, until until Zos Chanukah. This has something very weird about the first seven days of Chanukah.
What does it say about the first seven days of Chanukah? It's all prep for the last day, but what does it say about the status of where we were at the first seven days of Chanukah? Alef tumah, beis, the makom hamikdash itself wasn't ra'ui u'muchshar, it wasn't suitable to be a place to bring korbanos, and the utensils weren't ready, and everything about the whole situation seems to be nice prep and nice hachanos, but really, Zos Chanukah seems to, if you asked me, you know, I mean this really works for Beis Hillel, Beis Shammai, this doesn't, is very hard because Beis Shammai is left on Zos Chanukah with one candle, you know? But it's very, it's a very interesting thing. Actually, I saw a beautiful picture of Rav Reuven Elimelech. Cohen's menorah. You know Rav Re'em HaCohen? He's the Rosh Yeshiva of Otniel.
There was a he has a chanukiah that has it's three levels. The first two aren't it's not real menorahs, it's just like art. It's basically a sculpture of a menorah al pi Beis Shammai, then then al pi Beis Hillel, and then on the eighth day of Chanukah, when it's fully lit, you just see there's shalom between Beis Shammai and Beis Hillel on the top of his menorah. It's a beautiful thing.
Because it's נאוץ סופן בתחלתן ותחלתן בסופן. Because we have a concept of like the beginning and the end are always etched together, right? So the eighth day of Chanukah is connecting the beginning of Beis Shammai's Yom Tov to the way Beis Hillel ends Yom Tov. It's a beautiful picture. You understand? Can you get the visual? It's a I'll have to find it online.
I'll send you a picture of it. What it's basically showing us over here is that don't ever learn this Torah on the first day of Chanukah. This is not a Torah you're supposed to learn first day, second day, third day, fourth day. This is a Torah of taking Zos Chanukah and trying to understand in a more primitive way, why is it that Anshei Sod, those that are more tuned and tapped into the mystical nature of how things go, see that Zos Chanukah is where it really happens.
Because Zos Chanukah was the day that I could finally come and say thank you like a clean, pure mentch to the Ribono Shel Olam. Only on Zos Chanukah was this possible for me. Gam yesh lomar.
דמאחר שהיונים נכנסו לבית המקדש ופרצו בה פרצות, לא היו יכולים להקריב קרבנות במשך הזמן ששלטו שם היונים.
ואם כן רבים מישראל שהוצרכו להביא קרבן תודה נתעכבו מלהקריבם. Meaning there was a long line of people that wanted to bring a korban todah for a long time. Who knows how long the Yevanim were actually in there messing things up. But you know, people had a lot of different inyanim for which to bring a korban todah.
And there was a long line of people, wasn't just the first seven days of Chanukah people wanted to bring a korban todah. It was also before that. A long line of people wanted to bring that korban.
ואם כן, כעת לאחר שחזרו הכהנים לעשות עבודה בבית המקדש, Now the Kohen is back.
The Kohanim are back. The Beis Hamikdash is working again.
ביום שמיני נשלם מעשה המזבח, הביאו רבים מישראל קרבן תודה שהתחייבו עד הזמן ההוא. Meaning, you understand, it wasn't just seven days of people wanting to say thank you.
I don't know the exact, does anyone know the exact timeline of how long they weren't able to even bring a korban? Like how long were the Yevanim actually in there? Does anyone know? I don't know. Maybe one of the chevra online will help us. But it was a long line of people.
רבים אנשים המון זמן רצו להביא קרבן תודה, לא יכלו להביא.
So it was together with the seven days of the seven day Chanukah Yidden that wanted to bring a korban todah for the war, add on to that a whole list of people, a whole tkufa of people, that wanted to come with their full hearts and say thank you to Hashem. That all culminated together in Zos Chanukah. So Zos Chanukah is like is carrying the light of todah for so many people, for so many different reasons as well. So 165 years.
Depends on how you count. That's chat. What are you talking about? That's how long. Oh, you went to the to the, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Someone online might tell us. The war was twenty, the war was twenty-five years, but sometime in the middle we got back the Beis Hamikdash. It says here three years. Yeah, it says three years.
Let's say, listen, let let's go with the minimum amount of time. Three years of time for Yidden to that have reasons to bring a korban todah, that's a lot of people. That's a lot of korbanos. And they all, the second they had the opportunity to be able to bring the korban todah, they did it.
That means what a rush that must have been in the Beis Hamikdash on Zos Chanukah. What a can you imagine? Thousands and thousands of people online with their korban todah, thousands and thousands of people. So we'll end over here on the bottom. We learn in Tosfos in Maseches Pesachim quotes from the Yerushalmi, שבאותו היום שמקריבים בו קרבן, נקרא יום טוב של המקריב, ואסור אז בעשיית מלאכה.
Now we go back to understanding the first shailah we had. Why is, why is there a minhag by the Kadmonim that on the eighth day of Chanukah it's assur b'asiyas, there's an issur of doing melacha? Because the day that you bring a korban based on the Yerushalmi that the Tosfos quotes in Pesachim, that day is considered for you a Yom Tov. The day that you can, that you have to bring a korban, for you that's a Yom Tov. And what do we know on Yom Tov? It's issur.
asur b'asiyas melacha. So therefore there must have been so many people were in a status of yom tov. Not like yom tov sheini chevra that come in, you know, not not like that. I mean that the, it's rov? Does he say rov? No, but like think about it, anybody who was Jewish wanted to say thank you to Hashem and bring a and their family.
It's it, could be. Who would, who wouldn't want to? Could be. Could be. This is unbelievable.
הרי מזה שביום ח' דחנוכה, בשנה שבה היה הנס נאסרו כל ישראל בעשיית מלאכה. Very good.
שהרי כל כלל ישראל הקריבו אז קרבנות תודה על גבי המזבח בבית המקדש על כל הניסים והנפלאות שנעשו להם. Very good what you're saying.
That means there wasn't one Jew that was not in a status of yom tov on that initial Zos Chanukah. Everyone was in a state of of yom tov because who's exempt from bringing a korban todah after such an experience? Everyone was in it.
ואותו יום שמקריבים קרבן הרי זה נקרא יום טוב ואסור בעשיית מלאכה.
ולכך, לזכר זה, יש נוהגים שלא לעשות מלאכה ביום שמיני דחנוכה.
And this, in memory, in to commemorate this, there's a minhag to not do melacha on the eighth day of Chanukah for the reasons we gave. He continues here for like three or four more pages now explaining also the pnimius of the kapitel mizmor l'sodah, but there's there's I just want to give us a taste to understand what's the avodah of of of Zos Chanukah. What's the avodah of those of Zos Chanukah today? That's every day. What's the avodah of what's the avodah of Zos Chanukah? We're all chayev on our own level, on a nationalistic level, everything that we're going through the whole year, Iran and etc. So you're bringing up something that's in the in the news again, that Rav Rimon, I don't know if you saw this, he wrote what's called Megillas Tekumah.
Did you hear about this? Megillas Tekumah. It's a megillah that he put together. Tekumah, k'viyachol, after the name of this war that we've been through. And he feels it's very very important to make a big inyan about the nissim v'niflaos that took place and the gvurah and the nitzchonos that have happened in our arena.
I know it feels weird because we haven't really walked away from the last two and a half years feeling like, wow what a win, because it doesn't seem that the threats have been completely removed, right, at all. But it doesn't negate the fact that nissim v'niflaos were flying over our heads, 100%, a million percent. So I think Matiyahu is very much mechaven to the avodah pnimis of this day. You know, to say thank you for something waiting for there to be a perfect picture in order to say thank you means you have no idea what thank you is all about.
Nothing to do with it.
מודה אני לפניך ה' אלקי ואלקי אבותי על כל החסד אשר עשית עמדי ואשר אתה עתיד לעשות עמי. I thank you Hashem. When do we, the people have the minhag to say this when? Anyone know? Friday night.
No, it's a it's a different lashon. This this lashon is a very very very powerful lashon because it's it's basically saying there are things to say thank you for right now and there are things that I don't yet have the ability to say thank you yet, but I know that I know that I will be able to say thank you. Not just me, for my house, everyone. Every, there's so much.
So today is a day of spending some hisbodedus. See, I have to spend some time and realize where are the areas in life that I've held back from saying thank you to Hashem because I'm waiting for a perfect picture. And then to do like some serious teshuva. Today's the gmar chasima tova.
Today's the day of today's the day of of really immense teshuva mei'ahava. This is, you know, Chassidim wish each other gmar chasima tova on on on Chanukah b'frat, on Zos Chanukah. So to give, I want to give us a bracha to have enough guts to look into areas in life that we've actually refrained from really saying thank you because we're still waiting for this like picture perfect situation in order to say thank you. And by the way, when they brought the brought their korban todah, was it picture perfect in Eretz Yisrael? And yet did they bring a korban todah when they were able to? Yes.
Like that. That that midah must be tavua, must be embedded in us. As soon as we can. I think there's a very important yesod and spend the day today mamash as much as you can.
as much as you can with dibur, with with talking to Hashem. All day long, just to talk to Hashem. All day long, bring a strong, strong hold until we have the yom tov of of of Purim. We have Tu B'shvat in the middle, but we're now going into this beautiful month of Teves and we have a month of month and a half until there's a shtickel yom tov.
So we have to hold on tight, give each other koach, and b'ezras Hashem witness the coming of Mashiach when the Kohen again will be in the Kodesh lighting the menorah. And then וראו כל אפסי ארץ, then it won't be a safek to anybody it's the time to say thank you. The whole world will say thank you b'ezras Hashem. Amen.