A Deeper Look Into The Chanuka Lights

[Music] Pas VV always coincides with kanaka what's the connection between the [Music] two it says in bayev that yose's Brothers rather than kill him decided to throw him into a pit the Torah says the pit was empty there was no water in it Raji comments that if the pit was empty that means obviously there was no water in it and the phrase is redundant and so he answers that when the Torah tells us there was no water in it it's implying the Torah implies that even though there was no water in it there were snakes and scorpions at its bottom the gamar and chabas have on base says that the kanyes cannot be placed more than 20 amot above the ground that's about 32 ft or nearly 10 m Rashi and other commentators explain that the lights are placed above 20 aramos then they can't easily be seen by a person passing by in the street and that's lacking in the Puma the proclamation the advertising so to speak of the miracle now immediately following this law the gamorra over there interrupts the discussion about Kaneka and tells us that the pit into which ysep was Throne was empty of water but it contained snakes and scorpions as we said above why did the gamorra interrupt his discussion of Kaneka and start talking about the verse in aasha the torima suggests that the JX deposition of these two passages is to teach us the limitations of human vision and just as an object 20 Amo high is not readily observable so too the brothers were unable to clearly see the bottom of the pit and therefore they did not realize that they thrown ysf into a pit containing snakes and scorpions kanaka is all about seeing and the limits of human vision we're not allowed to use the Kaneka lights to illuminate our home we may only look into the light itself we may only gaze into its depth why can't we use the light of Kaneka for some other sacred purpose why can't we use their glow to read words of Torah for example or to say toim PMS what sets aside the kanuka lights from every other worldly light why may we only gaze into the light and what are we supposed to see there the Darkness you turn on a light light has two Powers firstly your surroundings are illuminated you can see what's around you and secondly there's the light itself the source of the illumination when we look at our surroundings our perception of the light is second hand it's reflected it's Enlightenment but it's not the light itself when we look at the light itself we see the source there are two words in Hebrew that are spelled identically they have different vowels but their letters are the same one is the word for proof Rya and the other is the word for Sight Ria these two words Express the two aspects of light Rya proof is the reflection of the light the verification that the light exists by the fact that it illuminates our surroundings reia sight is seeing the source inim in Psalms King David writes for with you with you AEM is the source of light in your light do we see light because the Creator is the source of Life his light cannot be perceived by reflection we can't use the lights of the kanaka for any purpose however holy for with you is the source of life when we look into the lights of Kaneka we're seeing we're looking into the source of life itself to the ancient Greeks what is beyond the mind of man does not by definition exist the Greek view of the world is a world of evidence of Rya it's a world of reflected light the Greeks constantly engaged kazal the sages of the talmud challenging them to give incontrovertible evidence that the Torah Works proof to us they said that Brit Mila causes some empirical Improvement in a person that keeping shabus causes a phys physical change in a person or in the world but the Torah doesn't conform to Greek thought it doesn't observe the world it's the source of the world the Torah is lacking in empirical proofs because it is not a description of that which already exists it is the source of that which is to be it depicts an existence that has not yet come it is the source not the outcome it is the light and not Its Reflection [Music]