How to be UNAPOLOGETICALLY Jewish

the message of Hanukkah become more comfortable with your faith that's what Hanukkah is all about there was the few in the hands of the many the weak and the hands of the strong but these small group of Jewish people but stood up for what they believe in because they had faith and they were very comfortable with your faith being comfortable with our faith means it's part of who I am it's I'll do anything for it because that's me that's just who I am Judaism isn't just a culture like the Greeks wanted it to be at the time it's me it's my identity the market of kajnits teaches something that kind of reframes how we think about Hanukkah in the context of faith generally the theme of Hanukkah is Illuminating the outdoors Illuminating the darkness outside and that's why the gemara says that you should actually light the menorah outside and that's what Jews actually used to do in Israel many still do it but in practice we actually light the menorah indoors many lighted by a window some specifically don't light it by a window but light it near a door but not necessarily visible to the outside why isn't the theme lighting up the outdoors the market of cabinets explained that these days the outdoors and indoors are quite similar because of the darkness of Exile so it used to be light on the inside spiritually speaking dark on the outside go outside and light it up but these days the inside is similar to the outside we gotta light up the inside so Hanukkah is about becoming more comfortable their faith not only externally but internally on the inside but how do we become more comfortable with our faith how do we become more comfortable with our Judaism with our identity as Jews in general there's two ways inspiration or education what's the difference between the two so here's the difference inspiration is not something that you choose it's something that happens to you it happens against your will it leaves against your will education is a choice it's something that you actually choose to do and to become uneducated once you're educated it takes a lot of work you know what it's like it's like it's like the difference between falling in love versus growing into love you don't have to do anything to fall in love you got to be at the right place at the right time with the right person but you also need don't need to really do anything to fall out of love it just happens easy come easy go as they say to grow into Love Takes intention takes work and when that happens it's less likely that one will grow out of love because again that's going to take intention as well it's like the difference between relying on external sunlight just happens but at some point the sun's gonna set you can't just have sunlight you got to have lights in your home if you want it to be light all the time and Hanukkah is about turning on that internal light not just relying on external light it's about growing into love with god with our Judaism it's about being educated not just being inspired so I'll give you an example inspiration is helpful by the way we're not anti-inspiration but again your motivation due to inspiration is only going to last as long as the inspiration does so if one was motivated I remember a couple years ago there was a there was unfortunately a catastrophe that motivated somebody to come to shul they came to show and they said you know what I got to start taking my Judaism more seriously my Jewish identity this was an anti-semitic catastrophe and we got to support the show we got to support the synagogue and we gotta show up and he and he came to synagogue and he he hasn't been since and this is no judgment to him this is a judgment on inspiration that's what inspiration does you feel good at that moment and you make decisions but are they gonna last but what if my observance was motivated not just by inspiration but by education I understood the value of observance the value of coming to show or the value of whatever I needed to do well that understanding isn't going to go away the inspiration the feeling might go away but the understanding isn't going to go anywhere and you know where you see this by the way in Judaism you see this by The Exodus of Egypt when the Jewish people left mitzrayim they didn't really leave because at some point they were re-chased by the Egyptians cornered by the Sea and finally the sea split for them and that was the moment that was the moment where they experienced God's presence that was the moment where they experienced that were actually free and they experienced God and you know what they said this is my God and I glorify him okay Avi the god of my father's and I exalt him they extolled God God they experienced God but there's a beautiful explanation from the kadishaya orowitz the 1500s and he explains who this is my God and I adore him I Adorn him I glorify him if God is my God he's personal I'm educated about who he is relevant to me he's my God I'll glorify him okay Avi I remember man who he's the god of my fathers if he's only God because I heard from my fathers I was inspired or some external you know just passed down from generation to generation but it didn't take ownership or responsibility or intentionality all exalt him he's exalted he's abstract he's not necessarily relevant we realized that when we became a people if we want this to be sustainable we can't just rely on the tradition we have from our parents although that is important we can't just rely on inspiration we gotta become educated we've got to become intentional we got to approach our relationship with God not just wait for it to happen for to us try to grow in love with God try to grow into love with the Torah grow into love with our observance grow into love with our Judaism not just wait to fall in love and that's what Hanukkah is all about Hanukkah is the Festival of Lights but it's also the Festival of enlightenment Hanukkah actually the word Hanukkah literally means education because Hanukkah is about educating ourselves about our Judaism and not just the light of Hanukkah the inspiration of Hanukkah but it's enlightenment and that's something we got to do on our own it's something we got to be intentional about the Greeks didn't want Jewish Education that's what the big fight was about they didn't want us to study the Torah didn't want us to study it as God's Torah that's what Hanukkah is education chanukkah means we resolve to become more educated about Who We Are to become more enlightened not just inspired people are inspired on Hanukkah Hanukkah is like naturally inspiring you meet Jews from all over the place that come out of the Woodworks and they just celebrate Hanukkah might even be the most celebrated Jewish holiday because it's inspiring but if we take the opportunity to become more educated if we take that inspiration and motivate ourselves to become more educated about Who We Are it will endure Way Beyond Hanukkah Monica is the only Holiday by the way that has no talmud attract a dedicated to Hanukkah you have a couple of pages about Hanukkah and track date Shabbos but when it comes to Rosh Hashanah you have tracked eight Rosh Hashanah and the talmud an entire track they dedicated to explaining Rosh Hashanah same thing with Yom Kippur attracted Yuma Purim even though it's a rabbinicality you have poor which attracted megillah you had all the holidays have their own dedicated attracted chanukkah does not in the Bible explains because when it comes to light you can't just have somebody else teach you about light it's got to be your own track that you gotta write it yourself you gotta write the story of your light and that starts through education it's something we gotta approach education is something we got to do we gotta sit and study and learn and become put in the effort to become more comfortable knowledgeable about Who We Are it's not just going to happen externally and when we do that it endures it doesn't Fleet [Music] an employment of Carlene he was the talmud of iron of Carlin he used to light his Hanukkah candles specifically with wax preferably we're supposed to use olive oil that's what the miracle happened with technically you can use anything but the preferred the the preferred candles are actually with olive oil if you can't use olive oil use some sort of other oil but he preferred wax and his acid masked and why you'd explained because oil a little bit spills or whatever it is you clean it up find wax drips and when it drips the wax is just there and it stays there oil drips you clean it up fine but Hanukkah candles that are made with wax the wax drips and the wax is stuck there and Way Beyond Hanukkah itself I'm still reminded of the message of the holiday education lasts much longer than inspiration does that's my story and I'm sticking to it happy Hanukkah friend