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Sponsored in memory of Fay and Nathan Holzman.
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Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: The Misora Baltimore Rodish program is sponsored in memory of Faye and Nathan Holtzman and may all the learning done throughout the entire series be in Aaliyah for their Nishamos. Tonight's class has been sponsored by Pearl Zoan to commemorate the yard site of Fayim Shaya Ben Mordechai whose yard site is the fifth of Kislev and Yaakov Nachman whose yard site is the 20th of Kisle Cindy Ring in memory of her mother Basrav Shmuel, whose yard state is Rosh Chodesh Kislev the 30th of Cheshire Ruth Nussbaum in memory of her mother Tsiporabas Arun, whose yard site is the fifth of Kislev Linda Elman to commemorate the yard site of Chaya Sarah Bashai, whose yard site is the 30th of Kislev as well as the yard site of her grandfather Lev Azrael Ben Arie Shlomo Limi Michelle as is the phosphor Fua Shalima Bimhaira for her dear brother Usher Ben Yehudis and Marge Edelman in memory of her dear friend Rosemary Parker.
It is my honor to introduce tonight's speaker, Mrs. Sarah Makwinter. She is joining us from Silver Spring where she is a sought after speaker in her community. She is Lamoude Kodesh, assistant principal, the Yeshiva of Greater Washington Girls Division and a frequent contributor to the OU's Women's Initiative Torah Programming. We are always grateful when she can take some time to learn with us. So I'm now going to turn the program over to.
[00:01:26] Speaker B: Thank you so much. It's such a to participate in the learning. It's so inspiring to see women who love to learn together and we are going to start thinking about Hanukkah. It is Hanukkah is one of those Yamim Tovim that when Rosh Chodesh comes around it's still like quite a little bit away. So. So it's exciting to be able to think about Hanukkah for a few weeks.
I called the class Inner Light in all honesty before I prepared and I'd like to amend it slightly to Inner Voice.
Hanukkah is all about lights, but there's something that Rav Moshe Shapiro teaches that really reminds us that in order to bring the light into the darkness, we need to use our voices. And that's really going to be the theme of tonight. And we're going to start with the very powerful, even though a little bit enigmatic, haftorah that we read on Shabbos Hanukkah that comes from Sefer Zacharya Paragh Tez.
And I have the English underneath, but I'm going to translate a little bit as you go along.
So Zechariah talks about a vision that he had. And in that vision, Hashem showed him Yehoshua Kohengadal standing before Amala Hashem. And this Satan is standing at his right in order to oppose him. Now, there are a lot of very unusual events, right in this first pasuk. First of all, Zacharya in his vision is actually seeing a contemporary. He's seeing someone who he knew was a friend of his, was Yeshua Kohen Gaddal. And although we talk a lot about the Satan, the Satan hardly ever appears in Tanakh, appears in Iov, and it appears here. So he saw this Satan and. And Hashem speaks to the Satan and says, Yigar hashem bechaha Satan vayigar hashem bechaha bocherbu yushalayim haloza UD mutzalma eish Hashem is not happy with the Satan. He says, you are starting up with Yeshua Koh and Gadal. I'm going to start up with you. I'm going to fight you. Don't you realize Yehoshua is an UD mutzal ma' eish Yehoshua is a firebrand who has been saved from the fire. He's a survivor. We don't touch Yeshua kohen gadar.
And then Zechariah says, I looked at Yehoshua and what did I see? Yehoshua lavush be' gadim tsoim v amad lefnehamach. He was wearing dirty clothes. Really? Like dirty. The worst kind of dirty. It's like with excrement, that kind of dirty.
Vayan vayomar alhom dimla v le marha siru habgadimatzo IME alav. And so the Malach says, take off these dirty clothes. Vayom re lavrei havartime alecha avonecha v' habeshos chamachalatzosa. I'm going to take off all of your sins when I take off those clothes. And I'm going to dress you in pristine garments.
And put his hat on him. And they put his hat on him.
And the Malach Hashem testified on Yahushua, saying, so, says Hashem, if you walk in my path, if you keep my mishmaris, if you keep my testament, and you judge my home, and you guard my courtyards, then I am going to uplift you. And you will be a walker amongst all those who are standing.
Hear. Listen to me, O Sho Cohen Gadol. You and your friends.
By the way, Zachariah may have been talking about himself here, right? He was a friend.
You who are sitting here, I want you to know something.
You are a miracle. You people are a miracle.
I am going to bring my servant, the one who is growing, who is going to come out of you as well. It's a lot to unpack here in this Haftorah. And this is not even the whole Haftarah.
But we definitely see Yeshua Kohen Gadal, who was one of the high priests in the second Beis Hamikdash. And his clothing was dirty. And just like the Pasuk connects the dirty clothing with sin, so do the Mafarishem, so does Chazal. And the Medrash explains that there was so much confusion in the second Beis Hamikdash, so much difficulty in getting it right.
And so many people had made mistakes. And the mistakes had hit the best families. Even Yeshua Kohen Gadol had members of his family who had married people they were not allowed to marry and had sinned in ways that were not okay.
It really is symbolic of the time period of the Hanukkah story.
The Medrash talks about the Hanukkah story and the famous story of Yehudis, the daughter of the Cohen Gadal.
And the Midrash gives us, like a background to that story that is truly heartbreaking.
Where did the story of Yehudis and Aliforni come? What's the context of that story?
Medrish talks about all the Gezeros, all the decrees that the Jewish nation faced during the Yavani time. Some of them are more famous than others.
The Greeks made a decree that Jews could not put locks on their door. They wanted them to feel vulnerable, and so they didn't. And then they continued to serve Hashem.
So the Greeks made a new decree that anyone who owned an ox would have to write on its horns, I have no portion with the God of Israel. So what did the Jews do? Those who are faithful?
They sold all their animals.
No meat, no milk, no cheese.
And then they made. They saw it wasn't working, so they made new decrees. They decreed that women can no longer go to the mikvah.
And so the men and women separated from each other.
And then they made a new decree. And this was perhaps the most painful of all.
And the decree was that any woman who got married the first Night after her wedding, she would by law be taken by a Syrian Greek legionnaire, and he would take her.
And that was the context of the story of Yehudis. Medrash says that Yehudis got married and she was standing at her hasana and she started to tear her clothes.
And all the best people were there and they were horrified. And they said to her, like, what are you doing? Why? Why? You know, you're in public. What are you doing? You're a kala. What are you doing?
And she said, this is what's horrifying you. This is what's shocking to you. And what's happening to the Jewish girls is not talking to you.
And she rounded them up and got them excited and got them upset and got them ready so that when she courageously kill Teleforni, they were ready and they were ready to fight back.
When we are fighting against an enemy that is too great for us, when we're fighting for too long, when we're holding on and it doesn't seem to be making any difference, when the decrees keep on coming, our clothing starts getting dirty, it's hard to stay clean, it's hard to stay strong, it's hard to stay pristine.
And that really became the story of the Hanukkah story. The truth is, the more you learn about the Hanukkah story, you start to get a little bit.
Sad because you start to wonder, what was it all for anyways?
How long did the victory last?
And soon after, the Hanukkah story actually was a destruction of the second Beis Hamikdash.
So what was the light of Hanukkah? What was this light of Hanukkah? What exactly are we celebrating? And that's really going to be our journey tonight.
So Rav Moshe Shapiro teaches that there is a pasuk in Devarim where Moshe Rabbeinu talks to B' nai Israel.
And he says like this, I want you to know that after I die, Navi mi kerbach hamena ya kimlacha Hashem alokecha e' love Tishmaun, I'm not the Once I die, you should just know there will be other prophets. And Hashem is not going to leave you alone. He will set up other prophets. And when they come, you should listen to that.
And this is in response to what you asked for from Hashem at Khorev at Matan Torah, when you said, I can't hear Hashem's voice anymore. It's too powerful. That fire is too much. The voice is too Strong. I don't want to die. Vayom ro Hashem elahitivu Hasher diberu want you to know that when you cried out, when you said that, Hashem told me they spoke. Well, I am going to make profits for them, and I will put my words in their mouths and they will speak everything that I command. Really interesting. But until Rav Moshe Shapiro said this, I personally never noticed the connection between the cry of B' Nai Yisrael of the Jewish people at Harsinai, when the sound, the voice of Hashem was too powerful for them, to the emergence of prophets of prophecy.
But like Ramos Shapiro says, the connection is very clear.
You said you can't hear me. I am going to set up prophets. There will be prophets. And I want you to know, Moshe, and I want you to tell Bini Israel that when they speak, you're hearing me. This is the way that I will speak for B' Nai Israel. This is the way that my message will still be. And that's why we have this idea from the midrash that the sound of Harsinai never stopped. The voice of Harsinai never ended. It just continued into prophecy. So Hashem, once he started to speak, he continued to speak.
What's the problem with all this?
He stopped.
He spoke and he spoke and he spoke. How long did he speak? For a thousand years.
There was a thousand years of prophecy of Navua from Matan Torah.
Until when?
Until the beginning of the Greek empire. 3, 4, 4, 8. Exactly 1,000 years after Matan Torah is when Navua stopped.
And it coincided with the beginning of Alexander the Great. That's actually the year that he started to rule over the Greek Empire.
That was the year that Ezra Hasofer died. And that was the end of prophecy.
What's the problem with Hashem stopping to allow prophecy?
When Hashem stopped talking, there was silence.
But there wasn't just silence.
It left room for a lot of other voices.
And the truth is the voices really is symbolic of that Greek empire too. All the Greek philosophy that came really in denial of God. So they started talking. And we have this concept in halacha, Shtika kahodaya. If you're quiet, it's like it's okay, right? If somebody says this code is mine and I don't say a word, then I kind of lost my chance to say that it's mine. Shtika kodait, as if I'm agreeing to it.
So it's not only that Hashem Stopped talking to us.
It's that it left room for so much else, so much junk, really, that's spoken in denial of Hashem.
There's actually a gemara gitten where Abba Chanen spoke. And he says, What is that pasach that says that Hashem is so strong.
What is the strength of Hashem?
You hear everybody who is blasphemizing and speaking and speaking against you, and you are silent.
I find it in the pasuk that says, who is like you, Hashem, among the gods.
I have another way to read that.
Who is as mute as you? Who is as silent as you, Hashem? You are so silent.
Now we understand that the silence of Hashem is the strength of Hashem. He's holding back from speaking, and he's not talking and announcing himself while everybody around is denying him and just doing whatever they want and saying whatever they want. And Hashem is right here.
Who is like you, who could be so strong and so silent?
But there's a little voice inside of us that's kind of crying out and saying, we wish you wouldn't be so silent, Hashem. If only we could hear your voice just once.
If only the whole world could hear your voice. We live in such a confusing world.
We live in such a world filled with deniers. And we're trying, Hashem. But why? Why do you have to be so silent? Imagine. Imagine a world of prophecy. Imagine a world of matzah Torah. Why does it need to be this way?
So there's a pasach and dibreh Hayamim, the praises of Hashem. We say this pesukh so many times. Lecha Hashem, hagadullah, vahagavura, vahatifarez, vah hanetzach, vahod, kechoba, shemaim, lechava, Hamas, masey, cholerosh. There is a lot that's hidden in the depths of this pasuk. But Ramosha Shapiro teaches that each one of these words refer to a time in history where Hashem demonstrated a certain Midah. So that Geula is always a reference to the kindness of Hashem. This is creation. This always symbolizes the creation of the world. Gevurah, the strength of Hashem, the power of Hashem. He demonstrated that Midah at Yitzh Mitzrayim, at Exodus, we saw the power of God.
When did we see the splendor, the majesty of Hashem more than any other time? This indeed is Matan Torah. This is when Hashem demonstrated that there is nobody other than God.
Netach is a victory when was there a victory? When there was a war.
So this is Purim and hod is Hanukkah.
What is Hod?
So the radak explains that the word head means echo.
Chanukah is symbolic of echo. Hanukkah is where we experience the echo of Hashem.
The voice stopped, prophecy stopped.
The echo began with Hanukkah. The mida of Hanukkah is symbolized with the word echo. What does that mean? How do we understand that?
Okay, so we're going to take a little break from this and go to sheer Hashiram. There is a pasuk and Sheer Hashiram Parak dalit Zion pasuk, Yadalid haduda im nasnu Reah.
Hadashim gam yishanim dodi tsafantilach haduda im nas nu ra. Those mandrakes give a fragrance. And at our gates are all manner of choice fruits, new and old, which I have laid up for thee. Oh, my beloved. Definitely sounds like the pasuk and shere Hashiran Dudaim says the Yalka Ruveni.
Who is the dudaim?
A dudaim Ze ruvayn. That's Reuven. Okay, so that we can understand Reuven is those dudaim became famous through Reuven. He was the one who found them. He's the one who gave them first to his mother and ended up with Rachel. Right. The dudaim is Reuven.
Not only did Reuven find the dudaim, the dudaim becomes symbolic of Reuven. Somehow.
That part of the pasuk at our gates, all manner of choice fruits. Zener Chanukah. This is the light of Hanukkah. So that's really interesting. The medrash is connecting the dudaim of Reuven to the light of Hanukkah in the same pasuk of Shir Hashiram. So our question becomes what does Reuven have to do with Hanukkah? What does Hanukkah have to do with Reuven? What's going on here?
I want to share with you happens to be that Parshas Vayeshev is Shabbos Chanukah. And if you look at and such a painful parsha, it's the parsha of Mechira Yosef. And there are some interesting sukkib in this story of Mechiros Yosef that always struck me and I highlighted them for us here tonight. I'm going to make it a little bigger.
So this is the story.
Yosef comes to his brothers very innocently. His father sent him to find his brothers and bring them home. And as soon as he comes, his brothers plot and they want to kill him. Vayishma ruven vayatzilehumi Adam Vayomer lona kenu nefesh. Ruven hears and he saves.
And he saves him from their hands. And he says, we're not killing anybody today.
Do not murder him.
Throw him into the pit that's in the midbar. Don't kill him. Lamon hatsil usomi Adam lahashivo olaviv. In order to save him and to bring him back to his father was when Yosef actually arrived.
They stripped him of his special coat.
Vayikachuhu vayashlikhu so habora. And they took him and they threw him in the pit. And the pit had no water.
They went to eat bread. Vayesu e' nehem veruvinei orchas yishme' ba' am yi gilad ugmaleim no sim nechosutriv lot they see this caravan coming and they're it's on its way to Egypt. Vayomer Yehuda Alachav. Yehuda speaks up and he says, what do we gain? What are we going to profit from killing our brother?
Covering up his blood?
Let's go sell him. We'll sell him to the Ishmaelim.
We don't have to get our own hands dirty with this.
He's our brother. He's our flesh.
Bishmachav. They listened to him.
Vayavru and hashim mityanim so harim vayimshochu vayalu as Yosef minhar Midiani merchants came. They picked Yosef up. They took him out of the pit. Bayim cru was Yosef the shmiel. And they sold him be'srem kessa for 20 pieces of silver. Vayaviyu was Yosef mitzraim. And they brought Yosef to Egypt.
Vayasha ruven el habar reuven returns to the pit.
Yosef's not there.
Vayikras be'. Gadav. And he tears his clothes. Vayashav'. Elachav. He returns to his brothers. Vayomer. And he said hayeled'. Nu. The boy is gone.
Where can I come to? Where can I go?
They took the coat of Yosef and they slaughtered the goat.
They dipped it into blood and they sent that kison.
They brought it to their father. Vayamu zos matsanu. We found this. Haker na hapson es bin chahi imlo. Please bear witness Recognize. Is this your son's coat or not? Really. Really painful to read.
Painful words to say. When we read this terrible, terrible, terrible Avera that b' nai Israel did question.
Reuven tried. He really tried.
Did it help?
Did he accomplish what he wanted to accomplish?
Not really.
His plan did not work.
But what's fascinating is the Torah that is so careful with its words.
The Torah puts words in so that we know, first of all, that he tried, second of all, that he meant well. Laman hi tzilo somi adam la hashivoa leviv.
Where do we know those words from? Torah testifies. The Torah says, I want you to know what Reuben was trying to do when he threw him into the pit. He tried to save him.
And then when he cries out and he says, hayalenenuvani ana ni ba, there's no response. Nobody says anything.
Nobody shows any signs of remorse. The story continues. They take the coat. They plan goes on.
Ruvane's cry falls on deaf ears.
Reuven's cries seem to accomplish nothing.
But the Torah puts it in.
The Torah writes it.
Why?
What is the message of Reuven? What did Reuven accomplish?
Question really is, what would our story look like if every single one of the shvatim would have been okay with Mehiras? Yosef?
What is the power of Reuven's cry?
The power of Reuven's cry was, I'm not okay with this.
This is not okay with me. This sinam. This is not okay.
And the Torah tells us, and I want you to know, his cry was heard.
Who heard his cry?
Maybe Yosef heard his cry.
Hashem heard his cry.
We hear his cry.
And what do we learn from Reuven?
When something is not okay, we need to cry out.
Our voice matters.
And what does the midrash do?
The midrash connects the cry of Reuven to the cry of the Hashmona'. Im.
And if we started our class by asking the painful question, really, what are we to make of Hanukkah? What was the point?
They worked so hard to get the Beis Hamikdash back.
How long did it last after?
What is the point of Hanukkah?
Our voice started to be heard.
Why does Hashem silence his voice? For 1,000 years, there was the voice of Hashem. Ramos Shapiro says, when Hashem quieted his voice, that was very dangerous. Because when Hashem is quiet, so many other voices started. Terrible voices. Voices that deny Hashem, Voices that laugh at us. Voices that make it very confusing.
Hashem says, you know why I Quieted my voice.
Because when my voice is in the room, nobody else's voice can be heard.
And I want to hear yours.
I want to hear your voice. The truth is, not only did the Greek Empire start after Navuwa ended, you know what else started?
Mishnah started, Gemara started.
Our voice of learning became very loud during that time.
When did that start?
That is the voice of Chanukah. The voice of Hanukkah is when the Greeks say, you can't keep the mitzvahs anymore. You can't have the bis hamikdish anymore.
You going to be okay with that? Are you going to be quiet with that?
What's unbelievable to me is that same quote of Mihamocha b' ilim Hashem, Mi' hamocha b' ilmim Hashem.
When Hashem was quiet, that became our battle cry. That actually is Maccabi. That's what they cried out, Mi chamocha bayla mashem. They said, hashem, we are echoing you. We're crying out. When you're quiet, we're going to start to cry. We're going to start to call out.
The only time our voice can be heard, really, is when Hashem is quiet.
Because what Hashem is waiting to hear is when I'm quiet.
Will you talk? Will you talk for me?
Will you defend me? Will you cry out for me? Will you be a reuven?
Will you say, I want you, Hashem. We want you, Hashem.
And we want. We want B' nai Israel to be okay, and we want our brothers and sisters to be okay.
When it becomes confusing, will you cry out for shalom? Will you cry out for peace? Will you cry out for love? Will you cry out for Torah?
The sound of Hanukkah has to be our sound, our voice.
There was no other voice other than our sound, our voice. And it's only when we cried out and cried out without knowing there was going to be a miracle that Hashem said, I'm with you.
In Parsha Svayitze, there is another very interesting story where after Yaakov has the whole encounter with the Sulam, with the Ladder and the Malachim, he makes his way to Haran. And he's looking for Rahul, right? He's looking. He's looking for Levin's family. But who does he meet first?
He meets a bunch of shepherds. And the Torah takes many psukim to tell us about a really interesting conversation that Yaakov had with a bunch of nameless shepherds who will, you know Then leave and we'll never hear from them again.
Vayar vihine be'. Erbasata. There was a well.
There were three flocks of sheep, Rov tamale. They were kind of lying around there because they always used to drink from this well.
And there was a gigantic rock on top of the well, and all the flocks would gather there and they would roll off the rock from the mouth of the well, and they gave, and they would give the sheep to drink.
Then they would put the rock back. That's the background to this rock that the Torah tells us.
And so Vayom ra' lahem Yaqub ya' Aqb says to them, achai, my brothers, me ayenatam, where are you coming from? Vayomu mecharan, we're here from Haran. Vayom ralechem. So he says to them, he said, do you know love and benachar? Vayomu yadanu. We know him. Vayom alhamha Shalom lo. Is he doing okay? Vayomru shalom, he's fine.
And his daughter Rachel is coming with the sheep, Vayomer. And he said to them, heyn od hayom gadol. The day is still young Loeis hey aseif hamiknah. It's not time to gather in your sheep. Hashgu hatzon.
Give them to drink and go shepherd.
And then they explained to him that we can't do that, the rock is on top, etc.
Everybody struggles with this story.
What do we learn from this story? Why is this story? How did this story make it in so many other things that we would love to know did not make it in this story of Yaakov speaking to the shepherds. What is the meaning of the story?
And so the Medrash tells us, every word in the story is symbolic.
The rock with the three flocks, this is symbolic of the three Chagim, or it's symbolic of the three bate Mikdash, or it's symbolic of the three Elios. And the even is the Yetzahara. There's so much in this story comes the Alshech. And the Alshech says, if everybody's going to analyze this story, I'm going to analyze the story too.
This is how he explains the story.
The Al Shaykh says Yaakov is going to come at the end of time, and he's going to see all the flocks of sheep just hanging around.
And he's going to say to them, achai, my brothers says Yaakov is going to be talking to us, his brothers in exile.
And he's going to say to us, my brothers, what are you still doing here?
Why are you still in exile? How long has this exile been?
And we're going to answer him and we're going to say to him, me Haron Anachno Charon comes from Haron av.
We're still stuck in exile because Hashem is still not happy with us and we're still kind of distant from him.
And Yaakov is going to say, do you know how to make it white again?
Do you know how to fix it?
And we're going to say, we know.
And he says, are you going to know how to make peace with Hashem again? Are you going to know how to bring peace?
And we're going to say to Yaakov, we know the secret.
This secret is actually Rachel. Rachel's going to come. And in the zhus of Rachel, we have faith that in this chus of Rachel, we've all heard the stories and the navuos and the prophecies. In this chus of Rahul, we're going to be saved.
The Alshech says Ya' Aqob is going to turn to us and he's going to say, hein om gadol.
He says he's gonna say to us, the day is still so long. Are you okay with that?
Are you okay waiting in exile all these years?
How much longer are you okay with this?
Stop waiting. Start crying.
It's time to gather yourselves together.
All of you.
Don't wait for Rachel. Start making peace. Start getting together. Start davening. Start crying.
Are you okay with this? It's time for you to call out too.
What does this mean?
So when we put it all together and we go back to Sefer Zechariah, when Zechariah saw this vision and he saw Yeshua Cohen Gadda and Yeshua Koh and Gaddo is wearing dirty clothes. It sometimes feels like even those of us who are trying just keep getting dirty. It feels like those of us who are trying to pull it together, we just don't have it. And this Satan keeps fighting us.
And it feels like we take one step forward and two steps back and we experience the miracle of the hostages coming back. And we think, now, now we're going to be at peace forever. Now we're going to remember we daven so hard. We remember how much we love each other.
And then we kind of get stuck in messes again.
And we are facing a lot of darkness and we're not facing silence. We're facing a lot of noise. And it gets very confusing.
And Hashem says, I wanted you to hear my message. I'm talking to the Satan, but I'm talking to all of you. I want you to know something. You're not nobodies. You are an ood mutzal meish.
You are all survivors. You are people of miracles. You are miraculous people. You are anshe mofes. When I look at you, that's what I see.
And if you want to understand why it's quiet now, why I'm being quiet now, because I'm waiting to hear your voice.
I need to hear.
Where are the rulemains in the room.
Where are the hashmonayim in the room? Who's crying out for me? I can't hear your voice as long as I'm talking. But when I hear your voice loud enough, then I will bring the miracles back. You've seen it so many times before.
I want to end with a beautiful Hanukkah story, a very famous one from Rav Chaim Stein.
Rav Chaim Stein During World War II, the great Rosh Hasifa of tells, during World War II, he was escaping with his friends and it was Hanukkah and they were Bachram, they were boys and they so badly wanted to light the menorah. And they were on a train in the cold Russian night.
And the story goes like this, that when they got. When the train stopped, they ran outside and they started to scrape off some grease from the oil and they were trying to to scrape off enough and they did a tiny bit.
And that's how they lit the menorah that night and the next night and the next night.
But then it was so freezing that it didn't work.
And they were so miserable they could not even light a tiny bit.
And some of these very courageous boys said, okay, we're giving up. And Ralph Heimstein and his friend said, if we can't light the menorah tonight, then we're going to learn Torah all night. We're going to let the Torah be our light tonight.
And these two boys together started to learn that entire night.
And then Rav Chaim himself recorded this.
That this drunk looking Russian guy opens up their door and starts to yell at them and say, does anybody want a candle?
And threw a candle at them and left.
And they lit it and they lit the candle that night.
Years later, Rab Chaim heard people tell over the story and talk about how Hashem sent Eliyahu Hanavi to Rav Chaim Stein so he could light the menorah.
And he got very upset.
And he said, if you think that's the story, you missed the point.
This is not about Eliyahu Hanavi. Who cares if it was Eliyahu Hanavi or a Russian guy?
This is a story about Jewish boys who want so badly to light the menorah. And Hashem is going to make that happen.
The story of Hanukkah is a story that continues every single year in our hearts. And it is that hidden light of all of us who so deeply want the light of Hashem to shine, who so deeply want the cry of Hashem to be heard again.
And we let it come out from the depths of our hearts.
It is the inner light of Hanukkah. It is the inner sound of Hanukkah. And we understand so beautifully why Ramosha Shapiro says, if you want to know the secret of Hanukkah, it is hod. What is hod?
Hod is echo.
When we hear the echo of Hashem in our own hearts and in the hearts of those around us, and we hear that call and that cry, and we know that we have a place in that, that we have a sound in that, that we have a part to play.
That if we're silent, there's going to be silence.
If there's just the sound of fighting, there's going to be just the sound of fighting.
If there's going to be the sound of peace, it's because we cried for peace. If there's going to be the sound of Torah, Hashem says, it's only going to happen because you cried out for Torah. If there's going to be the sound of Kiddush Hashem, Hashem says, you know what the secret of Hanukkah is? It's when you cry out, I want to be Mekadesh Shem Shemayim.
It should be a lichtega Hanukkah, A Hanukkah of light, Hanukkah of echo. A Hanukkah where we hear the echo of Hashem in our own hearts. Thank you.
[00:42:34] Speaker A: Amazing. Thank you so much. If there are any questions.
Let's see if I see any questions. You can put it in the chat.
Just let me look and see if anyone has their hand up. If not, we will say, thank you very, very much.
A great way to start off Kisleave and getting ready for what comes before us. So thank you so much, and thank
[00:42:59] Speaker C: you very
[00:42:59] Speaker A: much during the week.
[00:43:01] Speaker D: It was beautiful, Very beautiful. Thank you so much.
[00:43:05] Speaker B: Much
[00:43:06] Speaker E: to think about. Thank you.
[00:43:07] Speaker F: Thank you so much. It was really beautiful.
[00:43:10] Speaker G: Wonderful. Sheer.
[00:43:11] Speaker E: Yes.
[00:43:12] Speaker C: Thank you so much.
[00:43:13] Speaker E: Thank you. Thank you.
[00:43:17] Speaker G: Thank you so much.
[00:43:20] Speaker A: Have a great night, everybody.
[00:43:22] Speaker D: You too. Thank you.
[00:43:23] Speaker E: Thank you. Andrea. Be well.
