Israel Inspired: In Those Days in These Times

[Music] and now live from Jerusalem you're listening to Israel inspired radio [Music] here your hosts rabbis Aria bream woods and Jeremy Gimpel [Music] Shalom everybody and welcome to Israel inspired on the Land of Israel network at the Land of Israel calm this is Jeremy compel I'm here with Ari Abramowitz and I have one thing to say Happy Hanukkah kind of got some man this is the best holiday ever there's something that's just so fun about Hanukkah what's so fun about Hanukkah you know you don't have all of the restrictions of like ya gotta eat matzah you got to not move you got to not drive like you can do whatever you want and then at nighttime the whole family comes together we light together we sing together we get doughnuts it's just a fun holiday it's just the best holiday I love Hanukkah you got to not move Nick you always throw things like that Shabbat you like can't drive you can't go anywhere tell me I've always been good at like just listing things and people aren't following the entire list no tomorrow we're going down to a lot for four days we Airbnb on what holiday can you not are you not allowed to move a Shabbat Yom Kippur about you can't get in the car and drive moving I meant like going traveling all right let's not get lost here what I'm saying is that Hanukkah is amazing I love how it falls in the parshas of Yehuda and Yosef I love what's going on in the world today in this dark dark time the Jews are lighting it up I just love everything about Hanukkah on Thursday our dear friend Yossi sawsan who's a part of the been a massive auto vaca war that were that we love so much organized this teal he's a mod retooling he's a tour guide and he said all right we're bringing families together we're gonna go down to one of the caves that literally the Maccabees the Jews themselves made during the war of Hanukkah and I was like wow that sounds incredible my kids are coming to heelas coming we're going awesome it's Torah oriented its land of Israel oriented it's Hanukkah oriented it's fun it's awesome we're going we went to this tool and as I'm driving by I notice that we're actually going to the place right next to biblical odd dual um and I'm thinking a dual um that's just marvelous what is a dual arm how do we know this place well the story goes as follows Joseph is sold into slavery the brothers take responsibility they don't even know that he's sold into slavery as far as they're concerned and he's dead and it breaks Yehuda Yehuda is devastated so much so that he actually leaves he like leaves the Jewish people he leaves God he leaves the family he leaves the destiny of the promises of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and he goes as his valet read and he went down down down all the way to a duel um he becomes friends with a Gentile heathen named Akira he marries a non-jewish woman he has children there and that's it he's gone he is like left the family and he's left the destiny and in that dark dark dark dark dark place is where you hooda actually discovers his leadership in from that place of a deulim where we were at on the teal yahuda turns it around and ultimately becomes the leader of all of the tribes and ultimately becomes the father of messiah himself and i find it just so awesome because we're driving down through a mecca allah where david confronts goliath in the place that his great-great-great great-grandfather Yehuda was and where he turned it around and I just learned this beautiful Torah from Rebbe Nachman about Hanukkah and he says what is the magic of Hanukkah what's the spiritual power of Hanukkah and Rebbe Nachman says through the mitzvah of Hanukkah we're able to draw upon ourselves fierceness and holiness in such a manner that we can strengthen ourselves in the service of a Shem constantly but the main point is to begin anew each time meaning you fall down like you hooda you make a mistake you're devastated you're failing in Hanukkah the whole power of the holiday when you light the candles is you're able to start again anew it's a time of chuva which is the name Hanukkah stands for that's the service should always be in a way of training every day that we light is actually training us training us to start again anew to start again in our service of a Shem and this is Rebbe Nachman x' words the lights of Hanukkah each day we add on another candle because each day you start fresh as if doing it for the first time and this way you keep adding growing in service of a Shem because each day is done with new reinforcement with a new start with a new awakening every time we add another candle in another candle in more light in more light and in the darkest time of the year we add more and more light and I felt like on this to you'll I are you were there my family was there some of my best friends were there it was just so fun to be walking through history and at the same time touching our destiny because as we were in this cave that the Jews carved out from the chalk caves in order that they would be able to just learn Torah the Greeks they didn't want to kill us physically they wanted to kill us spiritually and we weren't able to learn Torah in the lengths in the efforts the Jews went to to continue burning the fire of Torah and then we were talking about the heroism of the Jewish people and then in comes an entire platoon of IDF soldiers and then we all started dancing around the cave with modern-day Maccabees and like these brand-new Jewish children that many of them had just made alia or were just born in Israel it was just marvelous and this holiday brings out the best in us because the Jewish people we are a people that have seen more darkness than any other people in the history of the world and in that darkness somehow we've brought more light into the world than any other people right it's true and you know sometimes the light can be so strong and so overwhelming that you can't even see it I know that that's how I feel sometimes in our days that I can go through a day and things like something like that can happen you could be on that tool that we were on with Yossi thousand and and the Israeli soldiers come in and the children are there and all these new Olema are there and we're all dancing but if your mind is preoccupied and focused on other things you can't even see or appreciate the overwhelming miracle that we're a part of right now because it's really it's it's a battle of consciousness and to me that actually is the secret of the Chanukah candles because it's one of the only mitzvahs that actually not allowed to derive any benefit from that's the halacha you're not even allowed to count your coins by the light of the Chanukah candles you can't use it for anything other than what to look at you're allowed to look at it to meditate on them to light your candles and just stare at them and literally just look just to change your perspective to not focus on all the other stuff that usually occupies our mind but to just see the light that's true every night this week I've actually fallen asleep to the Chanukah to the Chanukah candles just staring at the meditating of them and falling asleep right there but but I'll tell you that you know this is something we've discussed before but it's worth revisiting that what was really if we're gonna not talk about the miracle of the victory in that war but the victory of the miracle of the the oil lasting it wasn't really a miracle that lasted eight nights it was really 7 nights there was enough oil there for the first day for the first day so if we're gonna talk about the miraculous oil lasting miracle time it's the extra 7 days so why do we light eight days oh there's so many good answer so this would answer yours but I mean I won't say that this is mine this is one of the beautiful ones that I want to focus on right now is that the miracle was that they needed eight and they only had enough for one of they bothered lighting that they bothered even to light that candle that in this war against the Greeks Seleucid Empire they even even bothered to fight that they even went to war against the the greatest superpower in the world a band of zealous Kohanim warriors that's the miracle is that they even bothered fighting and and real that's part of what we think has shown for when during the al-haseem prayer we say a violent felony float we think hashem for the bravery the bravery that they showed in that war against the greek Seleucids that they because that bravery is from hashem as well i think about living here in this house on this hilltop right a lot of people don't know this but when we first came out here we had a dilemma we were facing are we going to build a fence around our whole place and then have sick dirty cameras are we gonna invest are very limited financial resources in planting trees and in making the desert blossom and in really planting our roots deep into this place and we decided of course in a unanimous vote that we were going to plant trees and we weren't going to think twice about it but here I'm living through days and nights and with nothing between me and say year and ki-sun and all of these Arab villages and I have not felt one moment of fear since I've been here now why is that all I can say is Hashem is made aware I don't feel fear in my heart being in this place at all not for a moment but I can't exactly take credit for that because I felt fear many other points in my life but being here for some reason I just don't and and I can only credit God with with putting a certain strength in my heart and why have I not been attacked why have we not been attacked I think it's because God is putting a certain fear and there are two the fear that should be in mind isn't and maybe it's put into theirs and they say who's that guy living and that who are those people that are very boldly going out and settling this place you me to tell you why know that Hashem loves us why because each I Fleischer just moved a lot closer to our farm that's I know I know right he moved to Efrat we when I went to pray in the morning in a fraud cuz we go and we learn of so I Drive in it's a 15-minute drive I just found a new route into efrat into the site did you know about that no I didn't know that it doesn't go you don't have to drive through a front really yeah it shaves like a good four minutes off that's interesting well the point was then I go into the minion and Yishai is there and I said really is this my life right now that I could go and just see Yishai in the morning and minion he was always like a little bit like the untouchable guy that you really have to go super out of your way to find an exam Hara is a team to go to either a hard as a team or delivered into some war zone the most dangerous places of the world if you want to see shine that's where you have to go you know he's living in a front it's really uh well what's so fun about that is over Hanukkah which means dedication he hosted a Hanukkah byte he dedicating his new home in a front and he had one of the real founders one of the leaders of the heaven Jewish community come because obviously shy is the international spokesman for heroine and so at his party he had one of one of the real probably the world's expert on Mahatma fell on the tomb of the patriarchs he just wrote a book about the tomb of the patriarchs norm are known an amazing amazing individual and each I asked Noam to come up and speak and he got up and taught all about Chanukah and all about the Wars of the Maccabees and just so much information that I really didn't even know the wars that happened just right across the street from a front the Jewish community called Eleazar in the valley right where Eleazar is is where Eleazar the Maccabee I was killed and one who knew that though I'd that part I knew but they were sitting there was just so much information and each I like pokes me and he's like Hanukah that's that's not even his field of expertise you know he was just such an Aloha just like such a genius one of the points that he that he draw that that was drawn out which I found particularly meaningful was he said that the Maccabees had eight massive critical wars with the Greek Empire and it was in the middle of all of those wars that they actually reclaimed the Potomac - the temple they cleansed it out and they found the the oil and they lit the menorah and it lasted for eight days but the wars continued and then they lost the temple again and they continued to have Wars and then eventually the you know the beta Cosmo neither Hasmonean dynasty rose up and then eventually they recaptured the temple once again and they cleansed it again but when we celebrate Hanukkah we don't celebrate the end of the war we celebrate the first time when the miracle of the oil happened we celebrate in the middle of the war and to me I found that I couldn't stop thinking about that as soon as I heard his beautiful drush as his beautiful divert or his beautiful speech that he gave it a shy house and I was thinking how marvelous the Jewish people are that in the middle of the war even though the war wasn't done yet even though many others died in future Wars and we lost the temple again and once again they brought avodah Zarah the idolatry into our temple we still celebrated the first victory when we got the temple back we immediately started celebrating we let the candles we didn't have enough oil we're gonna light it up and we're gonna celebrate then and so Ari was at my house over Shabbat and I was talking to her I was like all right what is that what does that do for you because I've been thinking about it and thinking about it what is it about the Jewish people why do you think we celebrated the middle of the war and not the end of the war why do you think we do it that way and are you want to share what you said well I think I the perspective that I had on it is something that I tried to integrate into our my consciousness right now is that when we look back at things you know hindsight is 20/20 but in some ways it's really not there seemed to be a lot of anticlimactic very slow acquisitions during that war and then we lost it and then we got it from our perspective backwards it was a great miracle it lasted a bunch years and we want we won this war and now we're celebrating that but at the time it was sown it was really not clear it seemed very much like it does now that were in Israel and we conquered Israel we returned in 1948 then in 1967 and then there's the disengagement from Gaza and then Jews are ripping each other out of our houses in omona and they're destroying houses in the Teva vote and there's tremendous waves of secularism and it seems like it's it's like growing and waning and growing and waning I think the word that really struck me when you spoke about it over Shabbat was like it is dealing with the anticlimax meaning we've said the six-day war Horeb I'd be a danger the Temple Mount is in our hands that's it time to celebrate forever and ever and it's like what we gave the Temple Mount back and now we're struggling with disengagement sand we're struggling with all of the terrorism and all of this stuff and what's going on no exactly at that moment that's Chanukah for us by a meme ahem Bosman Isaiah I think about that bracha that blessing that we say have we've been saying now for 2,000 years more than 2,000 years and how marvelous is in those days but in our times imagine what we're saying like we are living and breathing a miracle if we just have the eyes to see it Trump's declaration over Jerusalem a lot of people are pooh-poohing in there saying I'll but he's this or he's dead and what does it matter the next president will be something else and no folks something is actually changing in the world today something is happening if we just have the eyes to see it that we are living by a meme ahem like in those days but in our time and that's I think the Maccabees held steadfast to that consciousness to that awareness during those wars even though it wasn't clear to the naked eye at the time very much like the story of Joseph that we're reading through right now right he was thrown into the pit he was sold into slavery he was in Potiphar's house he rose the ranks he was trusted beyond anyone in the house and then he's accused of rape when in reality the opposite was the truth that he overcame this seduction by Potiphar's wife he's thrown in prison he's there for years and what is he thinking after year one and a half he's still in prison in this deep dungeon in Egypt was it clear to him did he know what we know now the whole story of Joseph no only in retrospect do we see that beautiful brilliant story of ascension from the bottom one of my favorite pursuit came in the time I was just reading through the through the parsha and I read this verse and it just it stood out to me and it just gave me hope in life right it says Vyse Loughborough via cried Joseph a URI to Mina Bor Riga Latvia collapsium lata vivo up el burro in one verse Joseph goes it says Pharaoh sent for Joseph and he called Joseph and they rushed him out of the pit and they shaved him and they changed his clothes and they brought him before Pharaoh all in one verse Joseph goes from being in the lowest place in the world yeah Vera Pitt a prison in Egypt to standing before the most powerful man on the planet and becoming the second most powerful man in the entire world in one verse yeshua tosh MK hera fine right the salvation of God it can happen in the blink of an eye and that's why we have to always remember in our lives when we're going through these ups and downs with this things seem so like we're on the verge how many years year after year am I saying this is it jeremy mushiya has to come next year i just know it and then it's just where it's already like a private joke like okay when's it gonna happen I but but that what I'm off by how many years were in those days we're in those times and the tension is growing so much and we have to keep in mind when we see these things that to our naked human myopic perspective seem like drops really it's it's part of a tremendous unfolding well I'll tell you last year I took the time to read the book of macabees during Hanukkah and the my favorite part of the book and probably it's everyone's favorite part whoever's read it as you when they actually call for the rebellion and they say Mila Hashem Ally this is whoever is for Hashem come with me and then they that's how the rebellion starts I'm like what an epic line Mila Hashem ally whoever is for God is with was then that also that's what makes it so amazing like they saw themselves as a direct continuation of the same struggle and what I see that's happening now is Israel is in some ways even if Netanyahu isn't saying it it's Milosz MLI right now and all of the believers are all around the world now I mean my goodness I think next week are known two weeks we have a group our first group from China that's coming and they are just seeking after God and if we just had the eyes to see it if we really took the Chanukah lights seriously you know in the mystical writings of Judaism it says that the Chanukah lights this this Mitzvah is rectifying the sin not only of the spies that came into israel and didn't have the eyes to see it they saw israel and they could have seen the miraculous they could have seen the promise they could have seen the destiny of israel unfolding and instead they saw big walls and that scared them where who was the one that said it was a Rashi who Suraj's Roger says if they saw big walls they should have known the people are weak they need big walls to protect themselves it was just a matter of perspective and then we go back to the very first sin of the world we look at the tree of knowledge of good and evil and it says it was a viola a nine it was a lust for the eyes and now in Hanukkah were going all the way back to the Garden of Eden worth fixing our eyes were fixing the way we see things because what are we really supposed to see and this brings us all the way back to Joseph and to Yehuda and I heard this beautiful Torah by Ralph Ilan Mazur who teaches in yeshiva takoto he was a he taught it to me actually in my home this afternoon and I just want to share it with you Joseph's entire life is led by dreams and we know that the month of Kislev is the month where we fix our sleep it's the darkest time of the year and according to the ariza of the month of Kislev is where we're fixing our sleep and so what do we do when we sleep we're dreaming and Joseph is always led by dreams and we have these these three pairs of dreams that come to us about to him there's wheat that's bowing down to him and what does Joseph do with those first dreams he just tells people about them he just tells his brothers and tells his family then the next time he's encounters dreams he is in prison and they all doesn't just tell the dream this time he interprets the dream for the ministers of Pharaoh that were thrown into prison so one time he just tells them and now he's already interpreting the dreams and then in the last two dreams he encounters with Pharaoh what does he do he doesn't just interpret Pharaoh's dreams with the cows the big cows the fat cows and the thin cows no no he doesn't just interpret it but he also responds to it and then think about that that's a way that Joseph is learning now to relate to God to relate to his dreams in totally different ways one way she just says listen I want you all to know there's a dream here there's a destiny that's going to unfold it's just going to happen the next time he almost becomes a little bit more of an interpreter of that dream how do we figure this out I mean and the next time he's responding to the dream he's like well this is a dream that's happening I now have the opportunity to understand the dream and to react accordingly I now become a real shoot-off Lim I see Bereshit I become a partner in the creation itself through the dreams that God has given me but then when his brothers come down they all bow down to him except for Benjamin and his father and it says and Joseph remembers the dream a share hollom lamb that he dreamed for them and then what does he do the Rambam has the most marvelous interpretation because Rashi says hey he remembered his dream they're all bowing down to him and he remembers hey my dream has been fulfilled but the Ramon says Rashi I'm sorry I mean his dream was that everyone was gonna bow down to him his father's not there and his brothers not there this can't be the fulfillment of his dream so then what does Joseph do according to the rumba engineers it he engineers it he says God has given me a dream now I become bahaha lamode I become the master the dream a master where I don't just have a destiny where I just live with faith that the destiny is gonna unfold I have a dream now I participate in creating my dream empowered by God and now let me tell you folks what Hanukkah is all about seeing the lights in the darkest time of the year knowing that we are back in Eretz Easter el Hashem has given every single one of us a dream and now just like Bala hallo mo the master of dreams Joseph it's up to us to figure out how do we participate in this great dream that's unfolding how do we engineer our place in this marvelous story how do we take the next step in the journey do we see ourselves as modern-day Maccabees can we say Mila Hashem alai the way The Maccabees said it the way that Moses said it that really is our task in these days to not only know that there is a dream that Messiah will come the question is can we become Baal a hollow mote can we become the dream master and participate in creating this dream in the darkest time of the year it's hard for me not to notice also that while you and I and and Roni and Josi we have dreams of this place that we're doing it's not really the dreams at night I know I've dreamt about it but the story that we've told all of our listeners and the people who've been following us know what we're talking about it this woman from Switzerland how did she come to give this massive wave of support that gave an entire wave of Anna gene growth to this place it was through a dream through out dream a dream that she had in her sleep from 15 years ago that the dreams that we've had and you were just telling your story Jeremy about you and tequila yeah it was a few years ago it was the Saturday night before the new year and rough Danielle our rabbi that we loved so much was hosting a workshop to prepare us for Rosh Hashanah and you know he's playing the clarinet and there's a percussionist and there's a guitarist and he says that right now we're standing before Rosh Hashanah this is the time where God dreamed up the universe that he was about to create before that let there be light moment in that big flash of light that created the universe it was before that we're now standing on Saturday night before the new year and now this is an opportune time for us to dream about our upcoming year and I want you all to dream and let it go and so he started playing this beautiful meditative music and I let my dreams go and of course what was I dreaming about I was dreaming about this place and what I wanted it to be and the people that I saw and what I wanted to happen here and the night was an amazing night probably the best preparation for Rosh Hashanah I ever had in my life and I come back and tequila asks me like we're like lying in bed we're about to go to bed well so tell me what did you dream about and so I started telling her at the dream of this place and I said it's going to be a place of Torah and people from around the world from all different types of backgrounds are going to come and learn about Israel and learn about Judaism and learn Torah and celebrate Shabbat together with us and they're gonna work the fields and we're gonna eat of the fruits of our labor and we're gonna raise our children in this marvelous place and as I continue to go to heal it jumps out of bed runs into the baby room which is right attached to our bedroom I hear books falling off the the shelf the baby wakes up I'm like what is Dayla doing she pulls out her diary from when she was 18 years old something that she hadn't looked at and I don't even know how long and she's like I totally forgot about this dream but I want you to know the dream that you just told me I had this dream a long time ago and she handed me her diary from on her 18th birthday she had a dream and I opened up her diary and I read the exact words that I had just articulated to her she had already had a dream before I even knew her I married her when she was almost 20 and this happened on her 18th birthday and at the very end it says I don't know how I'm gonna get there and I don't know how it'll happen I'll need a partner to help me make it happen but I just know that that is what Hashem wants for me in my life and so everyone needs to know that Hashem has a dream for all of us and this is the time to connect to the light to connect to Joseph and Yehuda and know that the dreams that Hashem has for us are inside us and we have the power to become Valhalla mode to be the dream master and engineer the dreams that God has for each and every one of us friends Happy Hanukkah Shavua Tov kodesh Tov very soon Shalom from the hills of Judea [Music] so I knew Kohanim [Music] one candle for the Maccabee children hi this is Josh hastin host of Israel uncensored and on behalf of all of the show hosts here we want to wish our listeners all over the world a Happy Hanukkah and all the best from Jerusalem happy holidays from the team here at the Land of Israel calm