Exploring the Miracle of Hanukkah

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Produced by Mishkan Chicago. Music composed, produced, and performed by Kalman Strauss.

Transcript

Transcript

0:03  
Um, I'm about to hit play on a tune that Matthew Ellen wood, our music director, brought to the Hanukkah music jam this past Saturday night. They brought a whole bunch of music that is Hanukkah, or Hanukkah inspired, much of which I'd never heard before. And I'm going to give you a link. I'll put it in the chat here and in the minion Slack channel. It's like a link for a reflective Hanukkah playlist. You know, of not the usual stuff that you might hear for the holiday of Hanukkah, but like, beautiful and very, I don't know like good for aligning with the spirit of the season, and I think you'll love it. And this tune that I'm about to play now is just a, I think, a nice intention, nice way to start the morning, and also beautiful words connecting with the idea of opening ourselves to seeing light and being light and holding light and carrying light. And you know, we always do a healing prayer as part of our Minion. This morning, Aiden Gilbert, who many of you know and love, is in the ICU. And so as we are here praying, I just, you know, for all of the people who we are praying for, I especially want us to direct our healing, love and energy and prayer toward a refuge, lemah, for Aiden, you know, and just to be strong and make it through this bout of, you know, whatever, Whatever brought him to the ER, okay, and so we set this intention this morning for Let's see our maybe try and original sound. Okay, we set that intention for him, you know that he may find total and complete healing. And then I'm going to hit play on this song. This can be for you. And as we did last week, this is a different battalion Levine song, different different words, same kind of invitation, which is she says, May I be, may I be. So if you have intentions you'd like to add May I be, go ahead and put them in the chat, and we'll all benefit from one another's aspirations for ourselves on this day. This is Bhatia Levine's tune being sung by the rabbi's cantors and choir at wise temple in LA a big reform synagogue. Let me know if there's a problem.

2:45  
Hearing, may I be empty and open to receive? The light, may I be empty and open to receive? May I be full and open to full and open to receive the light. May I be full and open to receive? May I be empty and open

3:19  
to receive the light, may I be empty and open to receive? May I be full and open to receive the light? May I be full and open to

3:40  
full and open to receive. May I

3:51  
be empty and open to receive? The light, may I be empty and open to receive? May I be full and open to receive the light? May I be full and open to receive? May I be empty and open to receive

4:15  
the light? May I be be the light, may I be empty and open to receive, may I be full and open to receive? The light? May I be full and open to receive?

4:54  
Amen, amen, amen. All right. It take a moment now to go to Taliban. May I be present, may I be open,

5:14  
may I be empty, and may I also be full and open to receive baru kata, aronia, Mishkan, Vanu, laita, what

5:33  
I wanted to do this morning was look at Hanukkah. That's what I want to do this morning, because one week from today, we will be lighting candles. And I always, you know, for any holiday, it's nice to kind of look back and see where the tradition emerged from, where the traditions emerged from, where the arguments were in the tradition about how to observe. And so I want to do a little bit of that this morning. So we're going to do a little we're going to be efficient in our davening, and so that we can get to a little bit of some studying. Alright, jumping right in with bar ho seems a little intense. Alright, let's, let's open with, with a Hallelu, with a with a psalm for gratitude. And also, let me make sure that this guitar is tuned.

6:38  
All right, you know, good enough. All right, on this morning, what are you thankful for? What are you saying Hallelujah for? You know what I'm

6:57  
going to tell you, I'm going to show you. I'm saying Hallelujah for having found this mug, this enormous mug that I didn't know that I had. It says, stay wild. But mostly it's just huge. That's what I'm feeling grateful for this morning.

7:14  
Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. Hallelujah

7:26  
Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah

7:36  
Hallelujah Hallelujah

8:00  
Hallelujah ya hallelujah,

8:12  
hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah,

8:20  
hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah.

8:33  
Now I have to read the things that you wrote. Mm,

8:41  
hmm,

8:43  
oh my gosh, so much good stuff. Grateful that my sickly Kitty is eating again today. Grateful for musicals, grateful for access to art supplies, grateful for financial support from my family and partner toward my dreams and for his emotional and moral support. Grateful for friends, family and the minion, yeah, grateful for my voice, grateful for long term friends, old and new, grateful for the beautiful weather, grateful for energy and a loving wife, grateful for the ability to take time off between jobs. Miriam, I want to hear more about that. Grateful for community, grateful for abundant jigsaw puzzles and grateful for my HUC rabbinical school interview being tomorrow Chloe, good luck. Really excited for you, grateful for warm jackets for Chicago weather and for strangers who stop to make your life easier and when we make mistakes to help us figure them out collaboratively. And Ellen knows exactly what I'm talking about. Grateful for a new coffee grinder and grateful for this Minion and everyone here so am I? Hallelujah.

9:57  
Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

10:04  
Hallelujah, Amen. I mean, I mean, alright, so

10:14  
for if you're able to stand in body or in spirit, go ahead and do that now, and we will make our way through the blessings of baru and Shema. And just as a heads up, as we get to the ahava and you will love, that'll be what we use this morning as our prayer for healing. So as you know, after we do the Shema, thinking about all the interconnectedness of all of us, sending love and prayer to everyone who's on our list, and how deeply connected we are when we send our healing molecules and energy their way, it actually does make a difference. But as we say, they have to that can be as you you know where you put the names in the chat or say them out loud,

11:01  
very cool at Adonai,

11:06  
humor Ed Baruch

11:11  
atah Adonai, Elohim yotsu or Shalom at a call May I rather art, letter, Tara, Mata, Elena,

11:37  
Bucha, Elena

11:42  
vahaya, Irene Bucha, enlighten our eyes with your Torah. Let our hearts cleave to your mitzvot and bring our hearts together. Yacht, live a venula. Ahava, uracha Mecha, in both love and awe of your name. Let us not feel ashamed ever again, let us place our trust in you and your salvation. Bring us from the four corners of the earth upright to our land. Key el polish, because your activity daily is saving, is coming to the rescue of us and all people. Van of a heart shown and you have chosen us for this task, which is La ahava, Uli Ra, etc, love and to find awe before your name, lahoodla, to be gratitude, to be grateful and to bring your name together in love. Israel, be ahava. Blessed are you the one who chooses us for love, in love, with Love, we go into the Shema. Shema,

12:53  
Israel, Adonai. Adonai, I don't know.

13:06  
Now, if you want to add the names for people that you are thinking about for healing, I'm gonna sing this via Hata. That's just the chant these beautiful words.

13:22  
They dehaa,

13:43  
you will love with all your soul and all your might be,

13:55  
these words which I am speaking will be on your heart the

14:00  
whole repeat

14:02  
them to your children. Speak of them when you sit in your home, when you walk along the way, when you lie down and when your eyes are find them as a sign up on your hand and let them be symbols between your eyes. Write them on your misuses, on your gates, and you will love. And you will

14:35  
love, to

14:56  
everyone mentioned here, ever mentioned that? Every day, people who are sick, people who are living with chronic illness and pain, anyone suffering from loneliness or heartbrokenness, anyone struggling with recovery, fertility, just a body that's not working quite write, send you love.

15:30  
Fauci, may you know completeness and complete healing.

15:42  
I mean, amen.

15:52  
Amen. Amen. Yeah, lot of folks in our hearts this morning, every morning, but it feels like especially today. So I'm just, I'm looking over, I'm just scrolling through and looking over the names of everyone trying to see and register and send loving, healing energy to every single one of them, and all your parents that need prayers. Siblings, children, friends. Okay, now I'm gonna shift gears every every Friday night, when we light hot, when we light Shabbat candles, I always ask my kids, who is someone that you would like to send love and light to? You know, when we gather, and we do the gathering in the three, you know, the 123, and then we say the blessing, and, um, and at first, you know, they're, they're kids, so at first they were a little selfish. They're like, Well, me, and it's like, okay, yes, you, but you're also right next to the candles. You get the light. But you know, we're, we're sending it somewhere. We're imagining the light going to people who are not here. So now, who are we thinking, Oh, our grandparents. You know, this friend, this friend who has a new baby? Okay, great. Now we're, now, we're in the Spirit. And I think Hanukkah is quite similar. It's like sending light. It's it's light as a symbol for something, you know. And so the question is, like, for what? And the tradition has been asking this question for a long time, and I wanted to look at some sources with you this morning about what the candles are about and what we're supposed to do with them. So let's see, what are you more interested in? To start with, what to like the Halacha on what to do with the candles, or what like the miracle is in the first place? Do you want me to help you carry it? Okay? The miracle, yeah, okay, the miracle, okay, um, great. So this is, you know, season of miracles, not just Miracle on 34th Street. The Jews invented it a long time before that, this whole idea that, like, there's something miraculous about this season that is worth celebrating and publicizing. But the question is, what? What's the miracle? So, all right, I'm gonna I went into my my trusty friend, safaria, because, you know, many, many Rabbi's have gone back through the sources to look at this question. And so here we go. I'm relying on this guy. Don't know, Jay jubez, but I'm grateful for him putting together a a little source sheet for us that looks at this question that the rabbi's ask in the Talmud, in the section on Shabbat. Because, of course, the Talmud is organized. It's organized sort of, but like, in a weird way. You know, there's no section called Hanukkah, but in the conversation about Shabbat, there is a conversation in the section called Shabbat, there's a conversation about Hanukkah that they get into via a whole conversation about candles. So they say, my Hanukkah. Like, honest question, what is Hanukkah? Which they are starting with, the premise that there is such a thing as Hanukkah, which, you know, like they were already celebrating something. The question was like, Well, why do we light candles on this day. As you know, when looking at a source and Safari, what is in bold is what is directly translated from the Hebrew or Aramaic what is not bold is what you infer in the English language to make that make sense, because you need many more words in English to say what you. And say with fewer words in Hebrew or Aramaic. So the Gemara asks, What is Hanukkah, my Chanukah? Why are lights kindled on Chanukah? And the Gemara answers the sages taught in a different section of the Talmud, megilat, Tanit, the section on fasting on the 25th of Keith schlev, the days of Hanukkah are eight. Okay, great, by the way, if you look up into the sky right now, maybe yesterday there was a full moon. Many Jewish holidays are celebrated on the full moon, not Hanukkah. Hanukkah, weirdly, like the 25th of Keith's love will always mean the moon is on the wane. You know, five days away from being, you know, from from the new month beginning four or five days. Okay, on the 25th of Keith, the days of Hanukkah are eight. And here's how you celebrate. One may not eulogize on them or fast on them. What is the reason? Meaning when one may not eulogize, or fast, meaning these are joyful days. What is the reason why? Okay, you've Are you? You've now told me when it is and that it is and how long it is, but you have not told me why. They say, okay, when the Greeks entered the sanctuary, they defiled all the oils that were in the sanctuary by touching them, by knocking them over. You know, they the story of the Maccabees is, you know, they brought pigs into the sanctuary. They intentionally brought in many things that would defile the space. And when the Hasmonean monarchy overcame them, meaning the Maccabees, and emerged victorious over them. They searched and found only one cruse of oil that was placed with the high with the seal of the high priest, undisturbed by the Greeks. You know, it still had its little, you know, red seal on it, or whatever, that hadn't been broken. And there was sufficient oil there to light the candelabrum for one day, a miracle occurred, and they lit the candelabrum from it for eight days. The next year, the sages instituted those days and made them a holiday with the recitation of halal and special Thanksgiving in prayer and blessing. Okay, there you have it. The story you've probably heard before about the one little cruise of pure oil that was supposed to go one day but lasted eight, okay? And by the way, this was probably written the Gemara, I don't know, six or 700 BCE or CE, you know? So this is already, like, close to 1000 years after this story took place maybe, you know, maybe somewhere between five, 500 years and 1000 years, depending on when the conversation recorded in the Gemara actually happened. But, but that's the story. Okay, here's, here's the story in the Maccabees that was actually written much closer to the time of early in the morning on the 25th day of the ninth month, which is the month of keithsleb in the 148th year BCE, they rose and offered sacrifice, as the law directs, on the new altar of the burnt offering they had built at the very season On the very day that the gentiles had profaned it, it was dedicated with songs and hearts and lutes and symbols, and so they celebrated the dedication of the altar for eight days and joyfully offered burnt offerings. Then Judas and his brothers and all the assembly of Israel determined that every year, at this season, the days of dedication of the altar should be observed with joy and gladness for eight days, beginning with the 25th of the month of Keith schlev. How is this different, this little kind of historical rendering from Maccabees, than what we read a minute ago in the Gemara here. There's no miracle. What do you mean? There's no miracle. There's

24:00  
no lighting of the candles, is there? I mean, they, they celebrated. There's no one cruise of oil that lasted eight days, right?

24:08  
We there's, there's nothing about a little cruise of oil that was only good enough for one day that that suddenly lasted for eight but there is celebrating for eight days and offering burnt offerings, which you assume, you know, involved, like, I think they're not saying they lit the menorah, but there was a lighting, you know, there was, there was a lighting, because that's part of the dedication of the temple. But like, they had what they needed. They just, they did it for eight days, okay? And

24:38  
there's no desecration, is that, right, there was no deficit.

24:42  
No, there was, I mean, the gentiles had profaned it, meaning, like, for this, okay, for the years leading up, and this was, and it was years, you know, it wasn't, it was years leading up, they couldn't do any of their, you know, Jewish things in the temple. Okay, so that's that, all right? So. Syriza says,

25:00  
One focuses, yeah, what? Go ahead. I didn't mention why eight days? Boom.

25:05  
Thank you, Sherry, thank you. There was, there's no why eight days? It's, it says eight days. Why does it say eight days? It's, it's right, great. Thank you. And then Theresa says, One focuses on the celebration of the rebuilding of the altar while the rabbi's teases to celebrate the miracle of the oil. Yeah, that's actually fascinating. That's it. That's a really interesting way to look at it. So the rabbi's here, they, you know, there's this miracle of the oil, and then, by the way, the sages are the next year someone instituted it. They're, they're assuming, they're inferring the sages and made them holidays for for, you know, forevermore, for eight days with thanksgiving and Hallel. Here it's the assembly of Israel. You know, it's not the experts who decided this. It's the Jewish people who determined that every year at this season, the dedication of the altar has to be observed with joy and gladness for eight days. You know, it's like it's, it's a much more it's, it feels much more like what it's celebrating is what we can do with our own two hands and minds, and what we set our mind to do and to, you know, make happen, as opposed to celebrating what God, you know, kind of creates with a miracle. Because they, of course, you know, they did this, they went in, they fought, they fought for months and then years, and then they got they, you know, they won. So you can imagine how absolutely joyful they were. And celebrating for eight days feels appropriate. But the question of why eight is still a good one. Now let's read Josephus. Josephus was, I believe, someone you know, who had been Jewish and then became kind of like a scribe of events of this time period for the Romans. Judas celebrated the Festival of the restoration. But just to say, Josephus is often seen as as close to history as possible, as opposed to, I mean, everybody has their agenda when they're writing, but it's seen as close to history as possible. He stayed Jewish, though, thank you, Leary. Now, Judas celebrated the Festival of the restoration of the sacrifices of the temple for eight days and omitted no sort of pleasures thereon, but he feasted. He feasted upon them very rich and splendid sacrifices. He honored God and delighted them by hymns and Psalms. Nay, they were so very glad at the revival of their customs, which, after a long time of intermission, they unexpectedly had regained the freedom of their worship, that they made it a law for posterity that they should keep as a festival. Keep a festival on account of the restoration of their temple worship for eight days, and from that time to now, we celebrate this festival and call it lights Hanukkah. The word Nair is in there and to dedicate. And so, so, okay, narrow it. I suppose the reason was because this liberty beyond our hopes appeared to us, and thence was the name given to the festival. So he's really kind of conveying the joy of this, like, for so long, the Jews couldn't do their customs. And now finally, it's like, It almost reminds me, there's a lot of parallels for me right now with hearing about, you know, the Assad regime falling in Syria, and all of these people like coming out and rediscovering, you know, for the ones who are like family members who they haven't seen in years, and, you know, celebrating in the streets and feeling like they can be themselves and Be free for the first time in years and years. And there's just a joy with it. And the thing is, is knowing the Hanukkah story and also knowing the story of how very many regimes can fight against something, but then when it comes to actually ruling, it's a whole different story. You know, there's we're in a moment. We're seeing a snapshot here of just abject joy and gratitude, and that, that's what this eight day holiday is for. Now, okay, 831 alright, I'll go through this quickly. What I'm about to show you here is the section of prayer that is in the daily Amida that is called Al Hani for the miracles. Ah, ha, nice work on the Al Hachi. Oh, okay, for the miracles. And we include this on Passover, excuse me, on Hanukkah and on Purim, okay, and there's a slightly different one. There's a different one for Purim than Hanukkah, but it begins the same way for the miracles, for you know, the great deliverance that you gave us God. And then for Purim, it describes the Purim story. And on Hanukkah, it describes the Hanukkah story. And here is how the rabbi's who wrote a lot of what we are reading right now, the Gemara, put together the story of Hanukkah for the prayer. Here in the days of matitiahu, the son of Yochanan, the high priest the Hasmonean and his sons, when the wicked Hellenic government rose up against your people to make them forget your Torah and violate the decrees of your will, but you, in your abounding mercies, stood by them in the time of their distress. You waged their battles, defended their rights, avenged the wrong done to them. You delivered the mighty into the hands of the weak, the many, into the hands of the few, the impure into the hands of the pure, the wicked into the hands of the righteous and the wanton sinners into the hands of those who occupy themselves with your Torah. You made a Great and Holy name for yourself and your world, and affected a great deliverance and redemption for your people. Israel. To this very day, then your children entered the shrine of your house, cleansed your house, cleansed your temple, purified your sanctuary, and kindled lights in your holy courtyard, and instituted these eight days of Hanukkah to give thanks and praise to your great name. What's the miracle? Al hanissing? What's the miracle

31:00  
that makes it sound like winning the war was the miracle.

31:06  
God is the miracle.

31:11  
Yet they seem utterly shocked, incredulous, mystified, like cannot believe that they won Right? Like, the only explanation is that God stood by them in their time of distress, and waged their battles, defended their rights, avenged the wrong done to, you know, sort of like the like the American Revolutionary Army fighting the British could have said a similar thing. Like, the only way this could have happened is if God stood with us, you know, like, not brilliant strategy, not, you know, like, not us actually having the strategic and physical resources to do this. No, God was the miracle, God standing by us. Clearly, what this says to us is that God was on our side, and so we celebrate and Kindle lights out of gratitude, to give thanks and to praise your name. Um, oh. And Gail says, personally, I think it's a miracle that we still celebrate after so many years, beautiful. So in any case, it's interesting because the same, the very same Rabbi's who wrote the story of the the miracle of the oil being an eight day miracle, like those same people. I didn't, I don't know if it's exactly the literal same people, but the same generation of people also wrote this prayer, this completely different version of what the miracle is about. You know, in one it's this like, kind of completely divine supernatural occurrence that you know that almost like defies the physical laws of nature. You know of how long a candle should burn with a certain amount of oil, which they knew very well. And then the other version of a miracle is human beings being somehow inspired toward greatness. You know, just two different versions of what the miracle is. And I want to, I want to share with you all right. So the question of why eight? There are a couple theories. One is that it was Keith 25 when they could finally go into the temple again, but the last major holiday they missed was Sukkot. The last major holiday involving sacrifices in the temple was Sukkot. Somebody wrote this in the chat. Sukkot is a seven day holiday, plus the eighth day of sheminiaret. So they celebrated for eight days. They basically did Sukkot in the winter. You know, they caught up on, they caught up on, you know, what they had missed? That's one theory. Another theory is, if you look in the Torah, Moses dedicates the Mishkan for eight days, like, that's just what a dedication ceremony is. It's eight days. And that's, you know, been true in the Torah, and it's true in the temple. There's the story of the oil. And now here's another one. I like this one. This is in a section of the Talmud cut called Avoda Zara, which means idol worship. And so it's talking about the dates of these festivals, various festivals, and also festivals of non Jews around this time, okay, when Adam Harishon, when Adam the first man, saw that the day was progressively diminishing. It was getting dark as the days become shorter, from the autumnal equinox until the winter solstice, he didn't yet know that this was a natural, normal phenomenon. And so he said, Oh no, woe is me, oily, perhaps because I sinned, the world is becoming dark around me and will ultimately return to a primordial state of chaos and disorder. Can you imagine, can you imagine the fear of Adam? He like did this one thing. Wrong. And now all of a sudden, the world is getting darker, and he thinks it's because of what I did. And this is the death that was sentenced upon me from heaven, you know, as it is written, and to dust you shall return. And so he this is, this is like a Midrash. And so he arose and spent eight days fasting and in prayer for eight days. But once he saw that the season of Tevet, ie, the winter solstice, had arrived, and the day was progressively lengthening. He said, clearly, the days become shorter and then longer, and this is the order of the world. He went and observed a festival of eight days upon the next year. He observed these eight days again, on which he had fasted the previous year. But these eight days became days of celebration and days of festivities. He, Adam established these festivals for the sake of heaven, but later for the Gentiles of later generations, they established them for the sake of idol worship. But we, of course, continue Adam's, you know, original original plan, original intention, which was to simply honor the changing of the natural world. You know, the ordering of the Sun and the planets and the earth and the way that the Earth spins and on. You know, during some seasons, the days are shorter, and then all of a sudden they're longer, which, this works really well in the northern Hemi, I was just gonna say, wasn't in northern Canada, like or in the southern hemisphere. You know, you kind of have to read this and know what he's doing, know what they're talking about, because you're in the same hemisphere. Isn't this an interesting story, an interesting Midrash here? What do people see in this?

36:47  
It makes me wonder how exactly Adam observes a festival,

36:51  
uh huh. You mean, like, did he have candles or what? Yeah,

36:55  
yeah. I mean, it's not like he can, you know, throw a party, really?

37:03  
Oh, my God, he and Eve partied hard.

37:06  
But I kind of imagined they did that every day, though. So fair,

37:10  
fair. But maybe they, by the time they were celebrating the following year, maybe they had, you know, family to celebrate with

37:19  
my committee, right? But

37:21  
it's interesting, because what they're suggesting is that for the entirety of the Torah, the unwritten, you know, like untold story, is that literally, every generation of humanity, not just Jews, celebrated Hanukkah, and that the different traditions, the different religions of the world ultimately adopted it for what they wanted, which, by the way, like I was, I was explaining to my son last night, exactly, there's a recognition of the solstice in almost every tradition. Diwali is the lighting of lights. I mean, Kwanzaa was invented relatively recently, but surprise, surprise, it involves candles. You know, the Advent wreath, like involves candles. There's something about lighting lights at this time of year that seems to be nearly universal, which the rabbi's of the Gemara observed. And so they thought, Well, gosh, how on earth could everybody be doing the same thing? It must be, because Adam Hari, shown the very first human instituted an eight day festival around this time, lighting up lights. All right, so, all right,

38:23  
I'm sorry. Quick question. Back to the eight. It says for eight days. But did I miss why he was celebrating for eight days? Dom,

38:33  
did you miss why? Like,

38:35  
What the Oh, because you decided eight days.

38:38  
Yes. Oh, Sherry, thank you, yes, in this particular case, because by the end of eight days, we've now blown through the winter solstice, and the days are now beginning to get longer again.

38:54  
So it's pretty amazing that he could tell by minute by minute. I would not Yes, he was very in just a week that he would know, that's right,

39:03  
I mean, but you could, I mean, all he did all day was sit around and look at nature. He didn't have, like, Netflix or anything to distract him. He just had looking at nature and the subtleties of the sun and moon and shifts in, you know, time and daylight. So I guess he could notice it. All right, wait, I want to see what Martin. Martin says. Here I am struggling with the a bit, with the idea that God would be on one side of a war and not the other side. Like that is some kind of miracle. Feels like the root of this world is so messed up. God is on our side and not yours. I'm so glad you mentioned that, Martin um, I'm so glad you mentioned that, Martin. So alright, this is, this is all kind of about different the lighting of the candles and Lori. Lori wants to cover the why, like one to eight, as opposed to eight to one, which I also want to cover. Um. Um, oh, God, this is, this is um. He closes here with Maimonides, who kind of summarizes the whole thing, Martin, I want to, I want to, I want us to speak to your concern, because I agree with you, and I think the rabbi's of the Talmud who wrote the story of the eight day miracle, were equally bothered by the thing that you're bothered by. I'm just, I'm gonna, I'm gonna read this one kind of closing thing from Maimonides, and we're gonna say mourners coddish, because some of you are here to say mourners coddish. And then for those who want to stay on for 20 minutes, we'll look at the sources about eight to one verses one to eight. Okay, so this is Maimonides during the period of the Second Temple when the Greeks were in power. They proclaimed decrees against the Jewish people, abrogating their religion and forbidding them to study the Torah or to perform their divine precepts that, as far as we know, is actual history. They laid their hands on the wealth of their daughter and their daughters, they entered the temple and broke through it, defiling the things that were pure. The people of Israel were sorely distressed by their enemies, who oppressed them ruthlessly, until the God of our fathers took pity, saved and rescued them from the hands of tyrants, the Hasmoneans. The Hasmonean great priests, won victories, defeating the Syrian Greeks and saving Israel from their power. They set up a king from among the priests, and Israel's kingdom was restored for a period of more than two centuries, one century until the destruction of the Second Temple, I guess one and a half, when on the 25th of Keith Slav, the Jews emerged victorious over their foes and destroyed them. They re entered the temple, where they found one jar of pure oil enough to be lit for only a single day. They used it for lighting the requested set of lamps for eight days until they managed to press olive oil to press olives and produce oil, so Sherry. This is the last explanation of the eight days. Why was it an eight day miracle? Because this is how long it takes to produce olive oil, eight days. And so if they had only one cruise of oil, it needed to last as long as until they could produce more oil. And so magically, it did. And but, you know, they they started working immediately on making more olive oil, and then once they had it, you know, the original little pack of oil finally burnt out. But they had what they needed. Because of this, the sages of that generation ruled that the eight days, beginning with the 25th of Keith sledge, should be observed by rejoicing and praising the Lord. Lamps are lit in the evening over the doors of the homes on each of the eight nights to display the miracle. This is important word in the Hebrew. Kim, a wait. Where is this person? May Nisa, where does he say it? I just want you to see it in the Hebrew. Oh, look a lot nice to reveal the miracle. But that's kind of the essential. The essential Mitzvah of Hanukkah is displaying the miracle. These days are called Hanukkah when it is forbidden to lament or too fast, just as it is on the days of Purim. Lighting the lamps during the eight days of Hanukkah is a religious duty imposed by the sages, like reading the Megillah on Purim. So he kind of harmonizes both, right? He says, you know, the backdrop was oppression and persecution, and then we fought, and they won. However, when they got into the temple, they discovered this one little jar of oil that wasn't enough for eight days, but so they lasted for eight days because of this. He doesn't actually say it's this or that it's sort of the whole story, kind of like what Gail said. I you know, here we still are doing this. You don't have to say it's because of one thing or the other. It's because of all of it. And so here we are lighting these eight days. And by the way, once upon a time, it wasn't in your window, it was like you would put a little shelf or something by your door or over your door, and that was how you observed Hanukkah. Okay, let me pause there. We are going to go into Kadish at home, and then we can discuss any any more about this Hanukkah story, what we find confusing or inspiring. But let us pause for Kaddish here. I Who is it that we want to lift up and honor Yvonne Jennings, Mark nur love, Tim Hotchkiss, Nathan Pollock, Richard Morin, Gary Sloan. I

anyone else? Joan curlo, is

there anybody who would like to lead us in coddish this morning? I. Loretta, Stephanie and Rhino,

45:06  
all cousins, anyone,

45:17  
I will eat gadow, the Kedesh Shamir, Bucha a

la,

may their memories be blessings. Okay. Pause here on, on tefila Um, back to this Hanukkah story here. So, Martin, do you want to say a little bit more of kind of how you're synthesizing, at least what we've learned here so far about the different influences going into, you know, what is it that we're when we light candles, what we're lighting in reference to,

46:38  
sure, sure? Um, yeah. So I'm trying to synthesize everything. It's a lot of different information to take in. And a lot of times with these, a lot of times with, well, pretty much all the time, with Jewish holidays, with with, I try to, you know, think about sort of the somewhat literal side of it, but then also, what's this, what's the sort of universal, spiritual piece of it. And I really love that you talked about, you know, the this is the time for light, you know, for everybody, this is the time for light. And so I think there's a practical piece of that in terms of darkness, but I think there's a spiritual piece too. And the spiritual connection I have to the oil story is that, you know, when, when in our lives, did we think we didn't have enough light, but we actually did. You know when, when in our lives, do we think we we weren't enough or we didn't have enough, but we actually were enough or we had enough of something. That's the spiritual essence of Hanukkah that I feel most connected to. I do struggle like I said. You know, I think so much of what's happening in the world, certainly in Israel and Gaza and everywhere is because one group feels like they have God on their side and the other group doesn't. Yes. I mean, we can go, we can go to the roots of European colonization, where Europe, the Europeans were, you know, said, Hey, we're, we're actually the ones made in the image of God, not these other people. Yes. And so we can go out in the world and do whatever we want. So I do struggle anytime I hear that God, God likes us better. And the last thing I'll say Rabbi Lizzi, is that, you know, I'm a, I'm a big football fan, okay, I always crack up when one team says that God delivered, you know, the victory to them and not the other team. Yeah, no, you know. I mean, or like, you know, when fans pray for, and I'm a Cleveland Browns fan, so we do a lot of praying, you know, like when we pray to God to deliver, you know, deliver us a victory like that, to me, is like a, it's a, it's a manifestation of this idea that somehow God likes us better, or that, yes, we're more connected to God, and therefore we're the good people And you're the bad people. No,

48:41  
that's, it's so good you just that was, that was a brilliant sermon you just gave. And then to just, like, bring it back around to, okay, so everything that you just said, being the case, the Rabbi's, like, take us back to this, you know, myth. But this, like, kind of spiritual, what can you say? Like, a spiritual image of something that you don't think is going to be enough, being enough, and so I love, like your Josh on that your, you know, kind of the spiritualizing of the one to the eight is, you know, when have you felt like you didn't have enough, but you did? You know, when did you feel, yeah, like you couldn't, you couldn't, you couldn't persist, but you did, because that's actually a spiritual truth that everyone can relate to. But I think you're right. I mean, I can't. How could anybody disagree with what you're describing? I mean, I think the interesting thing is none of the stories that we've read here, other than the reference in the Maimonides, really talk about what happens after. You know, the what happens after, meaning, like God was on our side until, like, God wasn't anymore. Or, you know, until, like, what happened that that things went from here to from. On top to now being on the bottom. Like, they kind of don't talk about that part, you know, just to your point, it's like, so that Cleveland Brown, the Browns win. And everybody's like, Yes, God was with us, but then, like, they lose, and it's like, well, I guess God wasn't with us

today. You know, it's a very, it's a very kind of juvenile way of understanding the creative life force of the universe that created all human beings in its image.

50:30  
But weren't the husbands kind of a corrupt dynasty? Yes, that might have brought about some of that decline.

50:38  
Yeah. I mean, I yet, so the answer is yes. And so then it's like, is it God that you know, led to both the the victory and then the the decline? Or is it that, you know human ingenuity strategy, you know, like ingenuity strategy, and you know, being able to figure out how to win a war is what won them the war. And then it's human fallibility, corruption, you know, all of the things that happens to human beings with power. You know, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely that like they fell victim to those very same things. It wasn't like God had a preference for them. It was that they were humans. And the what we should learn from this is not that God picks sides. It's that if we are not mindful of maintaining a moral code that is fair and just and right, we will lead to our own destruction. We will lead to our own downfall, like God doesn't stay on the side of people who behave that way as leaders, as evidenced by the way this story actually ends historically. Yeah, we appreciate you. Martin, right like, when I think about, what do we learn from this story, you know, it's like, think of the, you know, whether it's the United States or Israel right now, like governments that people said, like, Oh, they're democracies, you know, basically, like, there's nothing that can go wrong now that we've achieved X, and it's like, wrong that is wrong. Like you cannot at no point can you rest on your laurels thinking like we've achieved, we've gotten there. No, there's no there. There. It is only the everyday lighting of the candle of, you know, justice and righteousness and morality and fairness. And, you know, like, that's, that's what the lighting of the menorah represents. It's like, it is persistent every day you don't get to stop. And, you know, be like, Oh, we've arrived. Not, not really, yeah. So, all right, very quickly. Does anybody else have anything to say? I feel like I've done a ton of talking because it was because it was a lot of material. But anybody else have any observations or thoughts?

No, no. Okay, so let me show you this. These texts about lighting the candles, because this is actually, this is interesting stuff. This is who's whose source sheet are we looking at now. Rebecca Kaufman, thanks. Rebecca, alright, so this is in that same section in Shabbat, in the tractate about Hanukkah that starts with my Hanukkah. So it gets into the conversation about, how do you observe Chanukah mitzvah, Hanukkah near ish uveito. The basic Mitzvah of Chanukah is to have each person light a light near ish uveito, light for each person and their household, uma hadrin and for the people who are very scrupulously observant near the whole everyone gets a candle. You know, it's like you give a tea light to everyone. And mehadrin, mean hamahain, like the 1% of the 1% who are super, super scrupulous, they Shama omrim, the house of Shamai says, Yom Rishon Malik Schnabel, on the first day, you light eight mikan veil Lech po Keith, vaho Lech, and every day reduced by one. UVA telerim, Yom Rishon, Malik ekad, on the first day, light up one mikan VA Elek, MOSI, faulech, and every day after that, get more and more, gradually increase. Okay, so isn't this interesting? The basic Mitzvah is literally to just light one candle. Light one candle for them, Maccabi children. But the Mitzvah is just to light one candle. And then, if you're really, if you're really, you know, fancy pants, you can give everybody a candle in the house, but if you're fancy pants, fancy pants, then you start, you start with one, and you light up to eight on the eight nights. And as as you see, who won this debate? Hello, Hillel. Won the debate, as Hillel so often does. And given the symbolism, you know, since so much of the this is about the symbolism of light, before we look at what a Hillels reason is, do you have a Do you have a thought as to why? Why? Why does Hillel win? Are you? Are you asking? Yeah, I'm totally asking. Okay, so

55:19  
this is what I heard, that Shammai always told you why you were wrong, and Hillel always listened to your arguments and then had a discussion with you. So Hillel came out on top more times than Shammai because of Shams crappy attitude. Ha,

55:38  
that is good theory. That's a good theory. That's kind of a meta theory. So it's not so much about this argument as about SHA mys approach in all arguments. But what about in this particular argument? So Julian says, candle sales, but you sell fewer candles? Do you sell more candles if you light, I guess I don't really know, not good enough at math to do it backwards, but, but what else? Any other thoughts? Why should Hillel win this argument?

56:14  
Because we want to be symbolizing

56:16  
increasing things, not decreasing. All right, well, it's like you are, it's like you were there. It's like you were a sage themselves, yourself. So this so 21 yeah, this is 21 b5 so this is, like the very next paragraph. ULA says there were two more im in the West, in Eretz, Yisrael, because this is, of course, the Babylonian Talmud. So they're saying. But in Israel, there are these two sages who actually disagreed on this dispute, Rabbi Yossi bar avin and Rabbi Yossi bar ZEDA. It's funny, like there were, there were two sages. They were both named Yossi, and they disagreed about this. One of them said the reason for beit Shama is opinion is that the number of lights corresponds to the days in the future, meaning on the first day, there are eight days that remain of Hanukkah. So you light eight candles, and then on the second day, seven days remain, and then on the third day, right? And so basically you're counting down, 87654321, till the last night, candle goes out. Holiday is over. The reason for bait. Hillel, opinion is that the number of lights corresponds to the outgoing days right. On day one, you're counting up basically, on day one, you light one. On day two, you light two, the reverse of Advent. Gail, how does Advent work? I actually will admit to not really understanding Advent. What is Advent? I think it is the

57:44  
counting backwards. Now, I could ask Larry, he's around the corner, but yeah, it's like, you start with the calendar, and then you're like, counting down until the holiday starts. Beautiful. Got

57:58  
it Okay, right? And so you're saying that's kind of like what Shammai is describing,

58:04  
yeah. And this is yeah. And

58:07  
so, yeah, go ahead. In

58:09  
relation to the summer, winter solstice is sort of where does this fit? And if it starts on this, you know where it is. If it's starting on this winter solstice, then you would think you need less light because it's growing lighter out, as opposed to when it's darker. And I don't know how the holiday and the Hebrew calendar connect with that. So,

58:36  
right, right. Well, I think the the solstice stuff that we were reading about, it's like, connected to the holiday, but it seems like it's not, I don't know, like it's, it's not an exact science, like they're trying to harmonize a couple things. One is an eight day celebration that happens starting on the 25th of Keith schlev, which, depending on when it is, will be differently connected to the Winter Solstice. I just looked up when's the winter solstice? It's Saturday, December 21 which this year is a few days before Hanukkah even starts, you know? So it's not, it's not an exact science here with the solstice stuff, but clearly it's related. Okay, the reason for being my body just just feeling it out, like, if I'm starting off with a lot of light and it's decreasing by day, yeah, it kind of I feel a little more withdrawn and a little more sad. But if I'm adding to it, the joy of the festival really comes out, because there's more and more, and then it's like, bright and

59:37  
beautiful at the end.

59:38  
Yes, I love that. I love that. And I think we're going to see that Beth Hillel feels similarly. The reason for bait Hillel opinion, not is the is the days that are come, is the days that have passed. So each day, 12345678, and on the eighth day, we have, you know, arrived at something, and it's the most light. Okay? Okay, the other Yosi said that the reason for Beit shama's opinion is that the number of lights corresponds to the bulls of the festival of Sukkot. Remember the reference back to Sukkot, 13 were sacrificed on the first day, and then each day one fewer was sacrificed. This is during the holiday of Sukkot. There's this whole like ceremony of sacrificing animals for the nations of the world, and you go down, you know, starting with a lot, and go down with each day of the holiday. And so they're saying, this is like that. One of the Yosi says this. That's what shame. I think the reason, verbatim, hillel's opinion, is that the number of lights is based on a certain principle. And I'm going to show this to you in Hebrew. Ma Alin, budesh, vein, Mori, Deen, we ascend in holiness, and we don't we don't decrease. We don't descend. So this is kind of like what Roberto was saying and what Meredith you were describing. One elevates in matters of sanctity, we don't shrink or downgrade. Therefore, if the objective is to have the number of lights correspond to the number of days, then we increase. That's what we do. We increase day by day, by day by day. Beautiful. Okay, and obviously you see that Hillel won. And not only did Hillel win, the starting with one and going up to eight. He we the winning, the winning version of this is the version that is the mahadrien minha. You know that that you, you know you don't just do this with one candle per household. You everybody's got a menorah, and they light, starting with one and going up to eight. All right? The rest of this stuff, yeah?

1:01:45  
One addendum, I'm just trying to type it. It's taking too long. Yeah, Larry. Larry explained to me that there's this Advent wreath, and going backwards five weeks, the first week one gets lit, the second week two get lit. So it it, the candle lighting itself progresses.

1:02:06  
Five, got it. Oh, okay, so you're counting down, but you're lighting up, right? Got it, counting down, lighting up. All right, Oh, got it cool, cool. All right. So now this is, this is actually, you know, Rabbi Steven and I were talking about this, this whole idea of publicizing the miracle, because you're supposed to put the menorah at the entrance of one's house so that all can see it. And if you live upstairs, place it at the window, adjacent to the public domain, adjacent to, you know, like facing the street, and in a time of danger, Bucha atta Sakana, when the Gentiles issued decrees to prohibit kindling lights, he places it on the table, and that is sufficient to fulfill his obligation. So you can see, even in the in the time of the Talmud, the triumphant feeling of we won. We can be Jewish everywhere all the time is no longer true. It's no longer true. They're already used to the fact that Jews are not able to be Jewish in the public domain all the time, there are times of danger Bucha now, and in which case, don't put it in your window, don't put it outside your front door, put it on your dining room table. Observations about any of that? Okay, and then the rest of it, the rest of this stuff, has to do with like, what happens if, what happens if something catches fire off your menorah that's outside the that's outside your front door, which is fun to read, but I feel like we don't have to read that right now. But I'm happy to put this into the I'm happy to put this into the chat if you want to read more Talmud on your own. All right. Wow. Good learning. Lots of learning this morning. Cool. Oh, playlist, yeah. Let me give you all the let me give you all the things. Thank you for asking Meredith. All right, here we go. This is the reflective Hanukkah do to do. Oh my gosh, I'm so bad at Spotify, I never know, there we go, there we go. There's your list. All right, all right. Well, have a great day to you. Eric, have a great day everyone. You.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai