Rabbi Mordechai Kraft - Channukah - Igniting Our Inner Spark

so start again then everybody for this first level wish you a Happy Hanukkah to everybody and I'd like to speak today just a little bit about some of the ideas of Chanukah and see we could just take a deeper perspective into it and what's going on you know you know first of all Chanukah is is probably you know is such a joyous time of the year for us it's something we would look forward to so much and we have such fond memories of it you know latkes and and Afghani Alton doughnuts and and family gatherings dreidel and gifts to each other and all sorts of wonderful things and at the same time it's it's probably I is just such an enormous leap deep deep yom tov a deep holiday with so many things going on and so i wanted to take us a little bit to that depth if i can and see if we could just you know give a little bit of a deeper appreciation of what's going on around us so let's begin you know first of all because a famous question that we asked him Konica and the question is we know that we like candles for eight days and it corresponds to the miracle that took place at the time of the second temple to the time of the you know funded in time to the greeks so it their battle against us really began as we know as a coal like a kulturkampf a war waged against Judaism it wasn't waged against us physically at first as a people what they really wanted they liked us what they really wanted us though was to to give up our belief in ash em give up our are terrorists so to speak and just be part of them and it was promoted by unfortunately in that situation by by many Jews Helen lists we call them Madea Vernon who also fell you sort of followed suit to that were enamored with Greek wisdom with Greek culture with with the beauty which is Greek the Greece was Greece and and and there was a lot of beauty tremendous beauty enormous beauty the problem with their beauty was it was a beauty that was separate from a chef a beauty which was trying to to say you could have this physical world but you don't need to have the morality that guides when you know it Sherman was the source of the physical world fact Greek philosophy believing was called a cod mode Cod mode you know really mean seda Lee Cadwell that there was there was no beginning that the world was always here there was no first cause as it were and you know it's interesting that the it's the the gematria of Yvonne is goggle which is goggle 66 which means a wheel a wheel going around and around and around the cacao and it's brought out because that was the way they viewed the world as a gaga there was no point of origination there's no point of origination well there's no beginning it means there's no creator and of course that there's no creator there's no laws that restrict us or bind us or bound us behind us to anything higher than our own mind and that's a Greek philosophy when after a Greek culture they went after the human mind and the utilize the human mind to an amazing extent through science and investigation of of this world to bring in a lot of the innovation that even we utilize today but it's interesting this idea that there's no first cause like a wheel gaugau mr kumar a 66 your van you'd evolved known it's just something which is very fascinating and apparently that was part of modern science until very recently you know until the Big Bang in the 1970s when Arno Penzias and and Bob Wilson at bell laboratory detected backlash from what we call now the big bang than the there wasn't a name for it but they detected radioactive backlash of an original explosion and from that they realize that things were expanding the world is expanding outward from a first point of first cause that was a breakthrough in in in modern science that there was a first cause called the Big Bang you know and of course that first causes is nothing new to us as Jews because we've always believed in a first cause you know we just understand - em is the is the one who caused it the big man was caused by God but Greek philosophy didn't have such a concept and that was Greek philosophy influenced really smarter science up until this 1970s until we realized in modern science dictate the discovered they first caused that the world started the size of a mustard seed like the robots headquarters are expanded outward so the Greeks in in philosophy they love philosophy they love Jewish wisdom even the the tad art are translated it's what we called now the Septuagint it's called the target even in which he placed 70 rabbis into 70 different rooms and the translated are turret into into Greek it was the first time that I'd ever been translated which by the way is one of the reasons we mourn on your design a but Thomas is that 17th Atomos that were mourning that translation because when we took our turret now and is translated out word of course is gonna be distortion in it it was interesting by the way that when it was translated into Greek that he placed 70 rabbis into 70 different rooms and one of the great miracles was the all translated it correctly that's correct they all translated similarly why is that so amazing because there are different verses in the Torah which taken out of context can be totally misunderstood you know for example it says in beret it says not sodden bit Sami no so let's make man in our image let us make me a NASA atom let us make man who's God speaking to well if you're an eye doctor like the Greeks you must assume that he's speaking to some pagan god up there some other kind who is he speaking to Rashi tells us quoting our sages he's discussing with the angels and we learned from that such an important concept before you make major decisions in life God is teaching humility you see Jake that's what we called derech Eretz you know make a big decision without first the first consulting even with in with the people or a group that's low than you who was the same level as a gym but the pagan world would take that out of context and they would say let us make man there must be more than one God so the rabbi's in each room translating separately all translated as I shall make man I will make man not let us make mid but I shall make mid in order not to confuse the pagan mind different examples like that we mourn it by the way because you know with it's not a translation it's a it's a commentary and it's a step removed from the actual original source as are all translations that's what we need you need to study things always in the actual Hebrew but the war that they waged against us was against our belief was against our trust in the Almighty and that's why we know that they made certain decrees at certain points where they forbade the practice of Brit Milah the forbade observing the Shabbos Shabbat they forbade Rosh Hodesh these were three things that the Greeks focused in on you know and if you think about it why these three things so it's interesting let's just analyze each one for a moment Brit Milah is really a statement that the human being is born with an imperfection and it's a job of mankind to take our potential and actualize it and become perfect we have to take a part of the body which is is a blockage as it were and we have to start fixing ourselves and repairing ourselves correcting ourselves there's something more that the human being has to become we have to generate and create ourselves into a moral human being and that's why the Covenant with God is of course on the part of the body which is the most is the part of the body of desire and and passion and we basically say we're going to control what's natural what's natural isn't perfection what's natural is the tool to become greater when utilized property and live properly with controlled so the first thing we're saying Brit Milah speaks of length totally against Greek philosophy say the human being is not perfect the beautiful God is perfect and we need to become godlike by controlling ourselves controlling passion controlling our nature so you can understand why the why Brit Milah might be something which upsets that philosophy you know just just there's a famous story they tell of a philosopher at Chicago and he mister Chicago and it was interesting interesting story I think it's told about Bertrand Russell in the story was that apparently he was a it was a very well known and and an accomplished philosopher in in ethics and works in books on ethics and in the 1950s somehow got caught up in some unethical unmoral encounter with one of the female students apparently and the students at the university of kaga were upset by this they were bothered by this and and the hannam come before a like a student court and the wants understand how can he justify himself as a that's a philosopher as an ethicist as someone who is living out a life of you know of great ideas how can he justify behavior which doesn't seem to be that of the day of thinning befitting a person of such a great of great ethical mind and his defense was very interesting he said it's true I've mitad written more books on ethics maybe that anybody in this university I've written more books so that things maybe then any more than anybody in in in maybe in America on any University campus he said but I have one question for all of you he said do you expect your math professor to be a triangle does your math professor have to be a triangle just like he doesn't have to be a triangle why do I have to be ethical in other words just because I have a big idea doesn't have to live it if you're a mathematician you don't have to be the triangle just show the beauty of mathematics I show the beauty of ethics do I have to be ethical interesting Rick Miele is the Covenant on the part of the body of the human being of the Jew which basically says that we have to adhere in practice to a higher ideal that what's natural and normal needs to be controlled and refined and directed so we understand why the Greeks were so valued the human being and so valued a world without God because the world out God allows us to do allows the human being to really choose their path for morality we understand why but neither would be would have said this you know Shabbat what is Shabbat say Shabbat is the is a declaration of course that there's there there's a first cause there's a creator to all of this not only are these their Creator but the Creator is it is involved with his creation loves his creation is involved with us cares about us in fact that's what we see every Friday like you know we stand for the kadosh testimony that God is the creator of the world but witnesses and we basically say two things number one you created this world and number two you care about this world is demonstrated by the fact that you took us out of Egypt you changed nature for us nature isn't isn't nature isn't a finite nature is something which God controls and we need being he'll change it because he that guy cares about us He loves us he wants to come forth from Egypt it's also interesting that the forebay brush Kodesh logical - how - we know is the first of the month and what happens is the way we determine the first of the month is when witnesses come to Jerusalem having spotted the new moon that's when the new month begins and depending on when the new moon is spotted everything all the Jewish holidays the Jewish cycle the Jewish calendar follows it progresses after it for example and t-shirt when it's due was spotted in tea tray so we know that the first to teach fair will be Russia ten days later we'll be you know kipper another five days later we'll be Sukkot oh nice son we spotted the first Elise on 15 days later is Pesach Passover so the Jewish calendar depends on Rosh Chodesh and which color should determine when when we spot the new moon by the way we don't do that anymore today it's been since about the third or fourth century it's been it's been the calendar has been prepared based on astronomical of configurations that the rabbi's knew from the tablet and then the the great sages put together but this is the way the system really was set up to work it didn't work like this very well we had the base of big dodging of course to the time during their different many many many many many centuries so what's interesting about kodesh is well number one they didn't want from scottish on a simple level because if you want to destroy the Jewish life cycle you know bad witness is coming under much kodesh and declaring little wolf how can you if you can't determine their mood you can have the holidays but there's something even deeper in it what is Russia how to speak to the way we determined the Jewish month is when we say the month begins that's to say when we come to what this has come to the court in Jerusalem and they said we've spotted the new moon they're investigated where do you see it how do you see it and whether whether their seat to be telling the truth they declare it is Rosh Chodesh the new month has began so questions suppose it the wrong it's whether they saw something that confused their eye or maybe they you know they just were misled is it still Russia kodesh absolutely yes because God gave over the determination of the new month to man to us about doesn't make sense wait a minute if we got the wrong day we're gonna miss the day of Rosh Hashanah maybe it's not really rush Hashanah today may be in heaven they're not actually opening the ledgers it's not day of judgment maybe it's gonna be tomorrow and if it's not and that's today it's not they have Russian Shana ten days later it's not gonna be I'm Kippur either we're gonna have the right day like what's going on the answer is God says I follow you you tell me when I begin first of all send a magnificent elevation of the human being what the human being is all about from Jewish perspective and where we were we have such potential that we could be partners with God you know that that's a magnificent idea of what the human being is all about and that's that's the that is the Jewish vision but what upset the Greeks in this is that basically Rosh Chodesh says that time itself is it even natural if you believe that nature is everything and there's a world that doesn't have a first cause the Jewish vision that says no even time isn't natural and normal you can't even determine there's no nothing in nature that determines a new month even we say when it's a new month even our seasons and our holidays they don't just follow seasonally it's determined when we come to a court and we say now it begins otherwise nature is so to speak in flux it's in our hands God gave it in our hands to determine why the new one begins so we said there's nothing natural and normal in this world that even time seems to be a divine time is a divine gift so the Greeks looked at us they loved our Torah in terms of the wisdom of Torah but the purpose of our Torah which is the purpose of of living a life of morality a life connected to a deeper ideal a life to say that man is not in control but we have to submit to the will of the Almighty that's where the battle raged and that's what they that's what they were trying to undo and uproot from the Jewish heart and this is something which reached a a crescendo reach to a point where ultimately we realized the only way to defend ourselves is through battle and through through taking up arms and actually going against going to war against the Greek army now you know when we think about this first of all it's a it's a daunting task you know the Greek army was the most powerful army in the world it was the most mechanized army they fought with elephants and elephants don't sound like so modern but but they put plates and armor on the elephants and people and yet soldiers got up there with spears and it was like a tank it was a modern-day tank warfare and those who opposed the Greek army the Jewish army were the hochman doing the Maccabee and it was basically an army of of Torah scholars rabbis Torah scholars who were resistant the odds were not in their favor and yet through miracle upon miracle upon miracle over the course of a number of years they were victorious in vanquishing the Greek army now you know you know it's interesting by the way that Hanukkah improve our two rabbinic holidays but I need a rabbinic words there's nothing the turret explicitly that talks about Hanukkah or Purim because they both coincide with historical moments historical events that occurred in Jewish history Purim which occurred about 500 years before 400 years before Faneca was you know when when akka Farish and humming want to destroy and I liked Jewish nation physically and what did we do Esther had the nation fast and as a retired Esther and a great miracle occurred as we know and what haven't tried to do to us it was all turned around Mahatma hope Hanukkah 400 years later was almost the opposite of Purim in some ways the Greeks did not want to destroy us physically against actually speaking about the Greeks liked us you want to keep us or who they liked our toes it's a beautiful philosophy book you know do you not but they want to destroy our connection to God they wanted to sever the root of our connection to a shampoo now how interesting it is by the way when our enemies want to destroy us physically what do we do we fast we pray as in the story of Purim when our enemies wanted to stress spiritually what do we do we fight it sounds like should be the opposite it destroys physically we should fight joy spiritual we should pray the answer no when our enemies one destroys physically okay now it's time to rely upon a sham sham you can thwart our enemies but if they want to destroy us spiritually that we cannot rely on a sham for our spiritual existence our connection to God is something we have to choose now we have to sometimes fight for it if need be now stop this thing we could sit back and pray to a shaman say and you'll take care of it when it comes to our spiritual connection our spiritual resistance has to come from within ourselves and therefore Hanukkah is a time or spiritual resistance and for spirit resistance we had to fight it's only to live a life connected God God says that's up to you you're free choice to take that you can't pray to me for that if that's important to you then you have to do something about it so interesting it is when our enemies one of the story spiritually we fight the one that starts physically we pray which is very counterintuitive to some extent but I think it makes a lot of sense because a spiritual connection to a Shem that has to come from us yours interesting the whole holiday of Hanukkah really speaks to this because the way we celebrate it is interesting that that if you look at the Shannara there aren't so many things we need to do I'm kind of go you know for example it says it's a good idea to get together to have a soda we're not commanded to have a meal like we aren't perform it's the midst of a meal and kind of cook if you do get together for a meal turn it into something spiritual support and Shahana use it as an opportunity for Hallel to see Prince to sham teach Paco's praises to God use it as an opportunity to connect to a ship but you have to do it in other words the command to do is not coming from above God's saying this has to come from you because law holiday is about regenerating yourself spiritually and to regenerate yourself spiritually to revive you so spiritually you have to bring it forth you have to turn that meal into a spiritual occasion and if you do oh then you have a real conical party kind of a conical soda just gonna eat the latkes and the donuts but no words of terror no songs of praise we haven't really done what we're supposed to be doing at that sort of now care we're not commanded but we have to turn into that it's also just think the one thing we are obligated to do is to light the menorah of course that is the that is the really the the central feature of the day and it's interesting what is the command to light to light a fire to light a fire really to light the menorah really means you know gather oil what's oil oil we know is from an olive and you have to get that oil you have to break the olive you have to crush the olive you have to squeeze that olive and once you drop getting it down what do you do then you have something so pure the most valuable part of the olive is that part which only comes when you break it down the morale says now what does that mean it's the olive oil is always a sign is symbol for us of the spiritual world notice how do you get to the spiritual world you have to break the physical world down you have to crush it you have to squeeze it you have to think about it don't work on it first kiss its back you're not gonna see it a little bit of work a little bit of effort you gotta crush it I understand what's behind the scenes just like the oil is behind the scenes of the olive you don't see that oil right away but that's the richest part of the olive the olive sells for whatever it sells from the oil stones for a lot of money you have to squeeze it out that's a metaphor for the spiritual world then what do we need to do take a small wick place it in there and you ignite the spark you strike that match the energy has to come from you you have to create the oil you have to get to the spiritual world and then if you want to see the glow in that spiritual illuminate your life you have to do the effort you have to spark the flow you have to light the fire it has to come from below the whole holiday speaks this idea of really what it's all about we're the whole ideas about fighting spiritually that effort has to come from us nobody can do it you could do it for us a beautiful beautiful concept there's a famous questions live Chanukah this so I just want to address right now famous question asked by the base Joseph by the author the chaplain our honor and it's a question as I believe I have is safer at home a book at home called that near the mayor that has 100 answers to this question when I could go through a hundred of them right there go through once the question is this so what happened we fought a war against the Greeks and in this war it was miraculous there were there were miracles now as soon as the miracles weren't always so apparent and if you looked at the miracles or at the war you know you might size it up differently to be in a modern you know a secular hit text history texts about the battles you might say the Jews you know the new the topography better the land better they were able to fight almost like in guerrilla warfare and what's likely Vietcong fought in in in Vietnam and now sir is not real to defeats a very powerful mechanized army just like the Vietcong succeeded in England after a long period of time has succeeded in causing America to to exit Vietnam so you know when you when you understand land topography you understand the how that known as the hills you know you're working together you have motivation you can succeed but when you think about that question a little bit deeper it doesn't make much sense your son once said it's like a bunch of rabbis finding the United States Marines I bet on the Marines you know I think I would but it's this was the rabbi's fighting the Marines and he won but it wasn't always so visible to the eye so here's the question the question I have for everybody's like this and this is the biggest fastest question said so we understand when finally after a number of years we came back to our temple which had been defiled by the Greeks which had been idols had been placed there and we came then and we wanted to we cleaned it and we wanted to start serving once again in our in our temple the bathroom and - and we wanted to light the menorah of the beta mag - not the the not an eighth candelabra but a seven seven wrong candelabra and to do so of course we needed oil and this part of the miracle was we found a flask of oil that was sealed by sealed that had to be contaminated and we lit and without going to all the differences about the oil and everything like that and didn't need to have Purell not for all sort of discussion but the miracle that were familiar with is that there was enough oil to burn one night and it didn't burn one night it burned eight nights and that was noticed that's an overt miracle a miracle which really turned around the loss of nature it's natural for Altenburg one night it's unnatural it's against its lotv it's against the laws of nature to go eight days so this of course attracted attention and it made the juice made the Jewish nation fully aware this is open miracle that's going on but here's the question the beit yosef as he says like this the yes of cairo said wait a minute so why do we keep Hanukkah for eight days well you tell me about because the miracle of eight days the oil is to burn one day and it burned additional seven adds up to eight and as a result we want to keep Hanukkah for that eight-day period but wait a minute is it a natural oil to burn one day the first day wasn't a miracle the first day was was merely the oil was doing that which it's programmed in nature to do the bird supposed to do that the additional seven days are the days of miracle not the first day so really the holiday of Hanukkah should be a seven-day period not an eight-day period so why do we celebrate for eight days it should be seven days of miracle on one day of natural burning so what's what what's going on over here why did our sages when the when they established the holiday of Hanukkah going back about 2400 years ago why did they make it an eight day festival well eight days the correspond to the miracle of eight days it was a seven day miracle not an eight day miracle because the first day was natural that's the question the famous quick famous question to call the question the Baker sir and again I have a book at home safer which offers 100 answers to this question so I want to share a I think a very very poignant a beautiful answer that really speaks to miracles you know in the story of Hanukkah it's really a dual story that's happening there is the story of the menorah which is a story of an open miracle but the main story of Hanukkah is real we were speaking about it's the story of our spiritual resistance and our physical resistance the war the fact that we went to war waged war to fight for what we believe that we want that we succeeded it's really two things going on and very interesting you know that that duality you see the way we express it we've the far save-the-dates we express the miracle out to the world with the menorah but what we're praying in our Mona Astra three times a day in the section called motive where we think a sham won't even affirm that we insert a paragraph our nice thing on the floor about to show to show us and all the miracles and what do we speak about about the war be made not to see how can God little Cosmo knowing and then how we defeated how the few defeated the middie how the weak to feel the strong it's all about the battles so they're really two things going on over here there's the the miracle of the menorah and there's the hidden miracle of the war because it wasn't a miracle because each battle one might say well we won because of natural reasons we won because we knew the land better we wanted we because we have more motivation whatever we want to say but they were they were miraculous it doesn't make sense a small band of Torah scholars should not be able to feat the most powerful army in the world that doesn't that's miraculous but it's a miracle that's not visible always to the eye you have to get below the surface to see it so what is to the base your success is the reason we keep the eight nights of Hanukkah is your right the first night is not a change in nature for one night oil does burn seven days after you write that's a change in nature but that first night of the oil burning is really commemorating another part of the myth of the miracle of Hanukkah which was the war in other words God allowed something to burn for eight days because why eight think about eight phone by the way eight is always the Jewish symbol my romli probably brings us down eight is always the Jewish symbol of going above nature in the word for eight in Hebrew issue all day if I rearrange those letters by the way I put a different values ation underneath it it's pronounced she may not should be non Hebrew means fat excess maybe that's why we eat all that oil you know in jelly doughnuts Schmidty na means excess what's excess what's fat it's going beyond that what you're supposed to be there eight is always the number that symbolizes going to be on nature just like fat goes beyond what's supposed to be there SH mean ah it's excess it doesn't belong that's breaking out of the natural that's why eight is always associated miracle what day do we take that little baby boy and we say a little big boy now we have to start fixing you up the eighth day they put me not why because we're asking a little big boy to go above his nature it's true you have desires and passions but we're gonna make a covenant with God on the organ of passion desire to say you're gonna control your nature forgot because we God we could try our nature for God God controls nature for us eight symbolizes going above nature so God let's go for for eight days you know it's just thing also you take that same word more then should machine men noon hey if I rearrange those letters I could rearrange them to nice Shama Shama which means the soul the soul is the part of the human being which is above nature doesn't not natural it's planted from above down into us it breaks out of nature that's the soleus and if I rearrange those letters again shamone that I can spell Mishnah Mishnah which is part of the oral law the oral law which was given from God from above nature brought into this world that's terribly vishna learning of Tarun the mission of the oral law there are laws like the altar is something which originated above and was shot down below it was given to us from the Creator so eight always speaks this idea of going above nature in all respects so God says I'm gonna create an eighth day miracle it's 1818 miracle over here or eight days it's gonna burn seven days but the holiday is set on eight days why because I want to understand the fact that that oil burnt beyond what it was supposed to have done the fact that that oil changed nature and was an open miracle I want you to utilize that and look now at the natural world look at things if you don't always see miracles in look at the war look at those battles look at it from a different perspective crush the olive and get to the oil and understand it was all miraculous on the outside it might not look that way and the outside it might look like the Jewish army was just good and trained and and and and smart and they are but that doesn't explain a victory like that you have to get below the surface and you have to understand that what you think is natural is also miraculous and that's why there eight days that's the first answer number one what does that mean it means in other words you're right the first night really oils supposed to burn that seven nights is unnatural you're right that corresponds to the miracle of the oil burning but the first night of the eight days of Hanukkah is to focus to utilize is to utilize to say to us utilize the miracle of the menorah which broke nature to look back at that which is natural understand that's also miraculous do we hear that utilize the burning seven days beyond where it's supposed to be so you look back what you think is natural and realized that's also miraculous God is in control of nature and things that you think are natural they're not natural at all God is present there and they're miraculous events occurred and that is supposed to focus us on specifically in this case on those wars but in a larger sense we're supposed to go beyond looking at the miracle of the wars of the war but look at the miracles of our lives things which we think are natural are not natural it's God directing it in guiding it there is no nature in this world you know the words for for nature in Hebrews is Tavo TEVAR tech beit onion if i valve that a little differently it's t ba t bon hebrew means to drown interesting to drown you can either see nature as well sometimes you could drown in nature i mean you can't see that God is directing in the controlling it however the Kamaria of hot temper which means the nature had a hey before it hot ever it's the same numerical value as hello Kim which is 86 because you could look at nature in one of two ways you could either see the divine hand or you could just be drowned in it and not you understand just see nature for what it is and understand this director and there's a there's a guide and there's someone from above who's controlling it you know we have it we have a customer and unpair and Hanako to take it to spin a dreidel oh no I lost you everybody we have a customer and Chanukah to spin a dreidel when we spin the dreidel what are we doing we're taking our hand from above spinning in and letting it go you look at the dreidel you say oh look it's always been spinning like a goggle like a little circle because you can't see the hand any marker the hand was smarter than left that's a metaphor to us and for us about really what the holiday of Hanukkah is all about that the natural world is being directed and spun so to speak by the Creator it's not just going mad assault there's a guiding hand that's getting starting it started it off not just started off but always in control always holding it up to it you know when I think of Hanukkah and and this type of miracle I my mind just goes back to 1990 1990 there was a war another war that is real faced and this was a war which we called the Gulf War which just sound of a saint he maximo had an idea to invade Kuwait should have put in the heart of George Bush not George W Bush George Bush the idea that this was immoral this is wrong George Bush put together a coalition of Europe including Saudi Arabians anything went to war against against Saddam Hussein it was on one condition though that Israel stays out of it because if Israel was going to be in this the Allies together with America so apparently they would've lost Saudi Arabia and they needed Saudi Arabia also to be part of the coalition Israel was told to sit back and just don't do anything at that time there was Saddam Hussein had certain term type of missile called Scud missiles almost like rocket ships and there was a concern that they were they were packed with with with chemicals they weren't in the end but in Israel gas masks were distributed would seal the rules in order to prevent to say the from gas attacks it was called a hater Auto people would taking tape going to hit Auto with the siren ring and gas masks went on and now what's interesting in these scuds the Scud missiles 39 fell on Israel 39 consciousness these missiles were almost like I get rocket ships and the explosions D caused destroyed apartment building especially in Ramat Gan more so interesting is that not one Jewish person died as a result of these Scud missiles it was amazing I mean he saw pictures of collapsed buildings everyone had a story I went outside I was at my neighbor's I I was helping somebody they nobody nobody was dying it was absolute that was something people couldn't understand and just to put it in contrast that that apparently one of these Scud missiles was intercepted by an American patriot over Saudi Arabia the debris alone falling on an American army camp unfortunately killed oh I think a couple hundred soldiers just by the debris of avoid these falling falling missiles imagine what an explosion would do and nobody was killed this was a a I mean something we were witnessing almost open Brokers before eyes interesting by the way 39 is interesting number in Judaism because 39 is the numerical value of a Shem a hug Shem is good hey pave 26 a HOD I love guitars 13 Michele is more 39 39 Scud missiles and nobody killed all the miracles something to marvel about yet that was 1990 and how come we don't think about it how can we forgotten it we witnessed open miracles got involved in nature changing nature before eyes saving my miraculously yet it's not front and center in our mind and the impact that it should make and could make it's lost Chanukah says the speaks a language of don't lose that impact eight days of Hanukkah seven days of miracle one day of natural all burning but you have to understand something look at that what you think is natural and see the miracle in it don't be swayed and fooled by this world understand this world is hot ever is guided by that hand that spins the dreidel it's a located it's a world which is connected to a source that's the Jewish mission that's the Jewish passion that's what we're living for that's what we're striving for that's the mess to work with trying to bring out to the world then tha's radishchev this Chanukah should be a time when we have clarity in this when we see so clearly that God is directing and controlling and that everything in our life is a manifestation of his miracle his guiding head his loving hand and we could do something will truly have a joyous chronicle which would be it just be the means to usher us to a higher and new level of service notion and awareness stuff is love in our life I wish everybody happy Chanukah indict and look forward to continuing our discussion next week