Chanukah: Experiencing Miracles In Life - Rabbi Daniel Glatstein

okay good evening everyone Welcome to our Wednesday night share on Tuesday night we were afraid that if we're going to have a share on Kaneka then people wouldn't know what to think the first night so we had to advance the shear before you light the first n this way uh you're adequately prepared for Kaneka and there were other reasons also we're continuing the shum on saus sh are generously sponsored by Dr tonight's sh is sponsored by my dear friend and the what's your first name yeah and the Shada family in honor of the victory of the if they not if they would not have won the war you wouldn't be here today so that's a that's a good reason tonight chair is also dedicated byor and Mrs price of Baltimore as for them and their children all of the sponsors okay so uh you only have less you have less than 24 hours to prepare for Kaneka so I'm going to give you my unsolicited advice before we begin if you want to know what you could get your family for Kaneka here we have a few choices Kana and you knowah it actually is thematic we have here to say after you light Theo for the well-being of your children we also have AER in English AER it's called the light and the Splendor I know you want to see it I'm going to show it to you in a minute the light and the Splendor you see this Mana this is a beautiful Mana you might not be able to own this Mana but you could own the book that has a picture of the manira on the cover it says on the back designed by El cron at art studios together and produced by shooki Freeman Studio Jerusalem Israel can you imagine this Mana is invaluable but you don't have to actually buy this Mana you could just buy the picture of it by purchasing the safer now once you own it you could also open up the book and see what's inside render you give it a good review absolutely you sender Schwarz says it's a good book okay most of it is on the line my version of the book he underlined almost the whole book okay then you could get you need to your books on ra English Hebrew if you need other selections then we could speak privately if you need to uh get other books okay um if anybody wants to join us this coming president's week we're having a special y kala in Panama City uh you could check out our site r.com we have an amazing learning program everyone's Cally invited okay here we go tonight we're going to open up new vistas of understanding even though we've discuss many different uh points of the of kanah the miracle of the oil the miracle of the of the victory of the tonight we're going to discuss something very elevated and very important the gar tells us we have one little gar inab eight lines right you know why there are eight lines cuz they're eight days of Kaneka that's another answer to the B the B wants to know why there eight days of Kaneka if the answer is if there would be seven days of Kaneka it would not be consistent with the eight lines of the gamar that's a new answer I never thought of that before right let me just count to make sure that's true 1 2 3 4 5 six yep eight lines even though the first line is like half a line and the last line is like a tenth of a line a line is a line mixas line kakula yeah and that's a see tells us what's on the 25th day of are the eight days of Kan we don't eulogize we don't fast the enter the they contaminated all the in the and then the prevailed and they were victorious they searched they only found one jug that was sealed with the sign the it only had enough to last for one night a miracle happened and it burned for eight nights the next next year they established and they made question number one question number one is what do you mean the next year they made a yam what about year one 200 years after what about year one why didn't they make a yam the first year they should have made a y the first what what were they doing for a whole year that what they had like uh gridlock in the House of Representatives why did it take a whole year for them to establish the of we don't find this by other that it took a year what's you know he wrote a called and he says the whole world asks why the next year so now no extra charge saus has a very interesting answer he says in year oneus wants to know if you if you don't have a Suka and you see someone else's Suka you make a no if you don't have a lul and you see someone else's lul you make AA no so why if you don't have a man and you see someone else's you can make AA the answer is in year one when the news got out that the mon was burning it was burning it was burning it was burning and people flocked to theik and everybody's looking at it and everyone made a that made a miracle so since in year one they didn't like Minas at home they were seeing the miracle they were experiencing the miracle and they made a br on seeing it so to commemorate that if you don't have a man you can make a br on seeing the man and that's why the says they didn't make the yam in year one in year one they were watching the Mana and making AA but that's not the answer we're going to use tonight that's question number one I'm going to tease you a little bit let's see if you uh could come up with how many questions we're going to ask tonight okay that's question number one question number two I'm not talking about how many W the war we we also said the word War how many wars were there I'm not no no I'm not giving license to that question third book it's book [Laughter] 13 um next question the by the way I found my saer of 500 answers to the B Kasha I found it K again is there's enough oil to last for one night it's a miracle extended it another seven days why in the world do we celebrate eight days if one of the days was not a miracle that's the question number two we're going to ask tonight question number three the shus you know the shus was written by RAB the RAB had a son he didn't want to learn at all so he needed to come up with a way to get his son to learn so he was mades that instead of writing like uh the Riff and the rambam and the rash he wrote the in according on the par he's the first re to write on the par cuz he had a son who didn't want to learn so the he wrote for the says all the house of Israel is to thank and to praise before hem at the time a miracle happens praise hasem All Nations Elevate him praise him all regimes because his kindness prevailed upon us so the shus asks because us the go should thank hasem what it means is the go should thank Hashem for what hasem did to them and certainly we should thank Hashem for what Hashem does for us right did you know that's what the Hal is you ever wonder you know by what's your favorite you know songs for that what was I'll give a little what was the first song on the words Rabbi Sons hallelu you know that it's before your time it's before you were born but I remember Stu the rabbi Sons what does it mean why should the praise us why is that a reason for the to thank says the that the should thank and there's a hidden we have to thank comes thear and thear wants to know I need a sh this to say that when a miracle happens to you you should thank hasem that that's I need a shus for that that the shus came he discovered America that if your life's in danger and God Saves you you should thank him oh the shus what a what an amazing Ein file what a what a that if God Saves your life you should thank him amazing everyone in the world is wow and so says it's obvious and also that only could find to thank hem is where we can't even read the we have to stick in a hidden that's question number four why do I need a shst Theus is the one who discovered thank hasem what about you know that song who said the words no who said those words D did David write those words where does it say that M who wrote those words adish but David composed it yeah David compiled it so why is the Shas going to the PK of that is question number three question number four the in Al we say and for the Jewish people you you wrought salvation like this day what is that mean you brought us salvation like this day what does that mean like this day what do you mean he Hashem brought Yeshua like this day which day so not like this day on what's like this day you know when the says every single day you should imagine your eyes as if you you receive the so it shouldn't say it should say next it's really important not to forget it's very important you need to remind yourself if it takes you know I don't know what you got to do tie a string around your hand so that you don't forget because Accord according to Rashi if you forget Alan you didn't have Kana maybe next year you could have kanaka but not the day you forgot rash learns um says which means if you didn't say Al you didn't have so you could have two guys one guy ate donuts and he didn't say Alim one guy said Alim and he didn't ate donut eat donuts so one guy gained four pounds on the spot and the other guy had Kaneka you have you have two guys one forgot Alim but he ate a donut one didn't eat a donut but he said Alan the one who said Alim had Kana the one who didn't say Alan did not have khaka now you don't have to go back you don't have to repeat but you also didn't have kanaka Alan is the definition of kanah do you need to say Alim in benching yes what if you forgot Ben is there any way to rectify it says look at number six when you get to says we have a new you could say should make for us Miracles and wonders just like Hashem did in those days at this time so the Rama so to speak is codifying a new it's not your typical it's not it's a think about what you're asking you're saying Hashem make miracles for us are you allowed to D for a miracle you know for a miracle let's say you live in New York and you root for that bad baseball team and you want to pray God make them win the World Series you're not allow to do that they they can't win I don't care if they spent three4 of a billion dollars on a good player it's not for them to win it's and therefore if you're going to pray and God will not make a miracle and if he does it's going to come out of your it's going to take away from your mitz you can't pray for miracles you know that don't don't think it won't be a miracle it doesn't matter how much they spend okay and it goes the same for anything else in life you're not how to pray for a miracle the gamar says that anyone who prays for a miracle they take away from your so how come on we have the right if you forget Al you could say how can you pray for a miracle now to D for miracle that is question number six six no [Laughter] five question number one why the next year why do they only make Kaneka the next year number two why is 8 Days number three what does it mean number four why do I need the shst to say that when a miracle happens to you you need to thank Hashem number five How Could You D in for a miracle you're not D for a miracle number six did you ever realize that there are myriads of Miracles mentioned in tanak and we do not have aump for most of them when Yeshua said hey Sons stop don't sit do we have a yump to commemorate that Miracle do we have a y to commemorate the miracle of the fall of against or the miracle of why is it that some Miracles we commemorate for all time and other Miracles they're one and done that's a very important question what is the determining factor of whether a miracle is commemorated by a yam or a miracle is not commemorated by that's a very basic question that the basar asks but actually I found that the earliest source of this question is the K in something called asks why is it that there are some Miracles that are commemorated for example the says they never made a miracle they never made a yump to commemorate it they were great Miracles why is that which Miracles are commemorated which ones are not okay so that is question number six we don't have a miracle to commemorate the some people would say that on P since we drink that's a a commemoration of that um another question what does it mean the wants to know what is the meaning of what I'm funny tonight I don't know cuz it's Tuesday Wednesday I'm more tired write it down okay um the also wants to know what does it mean in those days by the way the has a in those days and in our days what do you mean in our days there no miracles in our days God doesn't make open miracles in our days the of is but let's say you're not like what does it mean by at this time what does that mean what does mean what is the meaning of those words we say it right I assume you say those yeah you're Orthodox Jews you make the blessings when you do a mitzah what does that mean okay and finally question number eight I know you didn't know how many questions I was going to ask tonight but that's another answer toha eight questions tonight the name of the is because we rested on the 25th day so I have a great name for the we rested on the 14th like we ran out of names when it came to Kaneka what exactly why do we use Kaneka for the resting of the 25th and we don't use this kind of expression for any other yam says the kadas this is a question that K has okay so here's the principle the principle is what is a yam what's a yam so many would say yam is a commemoration of a past event no that is a simplistic understanding of writes in the David con wanted me to say at least once a month okay hopefully this this could count for that the writes in look at number nine he says aside from the fact that a YP is a holy day every yum has a living entity to it what does that mean so in the year 2448 when hasem took us out of MIM on the 15th of Nissan there was an influence of tremendous light that came down to the world and that brought great miraculous Feats that Hashem redeemed the Jewish people and killed the firstborn and took us out of MIM that was a great light a supernatural Divine Light that came down to the World on 15th of Nissan so you would think okay that was a a great event and now every subsequent we year we remember that or we commemorate that ah wrong that's not what happens every 15th of Nissan that spiritual light reawakens and comes back to the world in the same full force that it did in the first year in other words there's an idea that the Jewish calendar is a living calendar that the spiritual influence that descended to the world at the time of the miracle reawakens and re retir and recurs I'm going to ask you a little trivia does anybody know the difference between the English word recur and reoccur over the years we we've had many very important lessons Okay not hanging and hung we're not talking about now recur reoccur anybody know the difference by the way the the the subject of tonight's sh is Kana recurring light not re occurring light it's a very difficult question linguist struggle what's the difference between recur and reoccur reoccur means something that happens and sometimes it happens again and it it could happen again sporadically seldomly recur means it happens and it happens and it happens and it happens now the truth is I'm not looking for either word it's really really I'm looking for a hybrid something that happens again and again but at specific precise intervals the oo of pesak recur specifically on PES the difference says the between the Miracles let's say of Kana or the miracle of PM and what yahushua did by stopping the Sun or the Vic iory over San is the miracle of the victory over San was a onetime miracle one and done it was miraculous feet and then it's over or yua stopped the sun he stopped the Sun and it's over it was not a light that repeats itself annually not so of every year I forgot to put this on the sheet you know that Arab is considered a very dangerous day on the calendar thear says you're now at a blood L on that day and I'm very mid about that I happen to be very M I've never blood L ever on Arab why why is it user the bloodlet because since on ER sh God suspended the mountain over our head and he said either except the T good and if not here's your burial spot AR is a lethal day so you can't do anything dangerous what do you mean but it happened back in the day no it didn't happen back in the day every every year AR of shu is dangerous there are many examples of this so comes the kadas and he says that the primary difference between miracles in tanak that we do not commemorate and miracles in tanak that we make a yum is that when there's a yum that commemorates America that means discern that the spiritual influence that brought about that yump recurs reoccurs annually on that calendar date every year when comes this is not about ancient history y are not for historians I like history y has nothing to do with history it's about the present when you light the you you are accessing you are in touch you are experiencing a spiritual light as powerful as the very first miracle of kanah and it's the same by every y every y you need to allow your to be alert to the spiritual influence that is affecting the that's why sh brings it's the of the giving of the it's not the Tor was given 3,300 years ago there is a influence of Tyra at that moment there's an influence of divine protection every suus there's an influence of spiritual light every when we say in the it was in those days and it's and it's right now it's right now when you light the Mana there is a miraculous spiritual influence as powerful as the time of the original Miracle says when we say in you made a great salvation and uh save and and a rescue back then just like you're doing right Nowa is a time of now miraculous spiritual influence is coming down no less intense and Powerful as the original Miracle says you know why it took the next year on year two they established they established the rabbis came and they put in a bottle the lights of Kaneka and they established it that it should effectuate that day and year one it was a great day the lights came down the rabbis didn't have to do anything that's when it happened in year two the rabbis took the light bottled the light captured the light and they established it on that day they established that that day will illuminate forever and ever now you ready for this this is a little bit of a little of an extension says you know why it's called kanuka it's not because they rested on the 25th Day kanuka means beginning inauguration so what do you mean beginning it's not the beginning of the year it's not the inauguration of the year no it is you see this is unbelievable every Ras Hashem decrees the level of intensity of the light that will be present in the calendar of that year so let's say whatever we experience on P it was decreed on rashash whatever we experience on Kaneka we experiened on rash was decreed on rashash whatever we experience at any holy time during the year was decree on rash but the first light that comes down to the year in the aftermath of the what's the first yam what's the first yam of the year after the season of the decrees of thead it's kanah Kaneka is the beginning it's called Kaneka it's the beginning in other words if you want to know what kind of lights were decreed for the Jewish people on this year's rashash so the beginning of the year is Kaneka Kana is the inauguration of the experience of all the great lights that were decreed on the Jewish people on on rashash yam Kipper and Shas so if you want to know you know last year onas it was a rough finale of the Y if you want to know what happened this year you'll find out tomorrow night if your soul is perceptive to the intensity of the light that will be present tomorrow night when you light the now comes and it's interesting to me he doesn't quote but many of the expression are almost paraphrased um from the he says the shus is not needed to tell me that when your life is saved you need to thank Hashem I don't need aine I don't need going to teach that at the time let's look back at the the is at the time that a miracle happens he doesn't mean while the miracle is taking place the of the is the next year at that time that the original Miracle took place a Jew is obligated to thank Hashem because when that Miracle took place the shfa of light the Divine influence that comes down is commensurate is the same as the original light that's what the shus means he doesn't mean when the Miracles happening he means at the time the miracle happened that's the that's why we say by many of the Miracles especially connected to your kindness is eternal how is God's kindness Eternal cuz when he did that Miracle it wasn't a one-time Miracle it was a miracle whose influence replaced itself every year annually at that very time that's why these Miracles are key recurring by the way how do you know which Miracles were onetime occurrences and which ones repeat says the trick is does the tanak give you the date of when the miracle happened if it doesn't give you the date it's because you don't need to know the date cuz it happened then and it won't happen again but if the T gives you the date it's telling you the date because the date was Nik as a a recurring miraculous time you ready for this praise all the Gentiles and we should thank what does it mean what does it mean ask what's the we should thank hasem more than the G no maybe they should thank hasem more because for them the Miracles are infrequent so they could appreciate it for us it's common place so it's harder to appreciate no if the nations of the world have to thank Hashem when God does a miracle for them it's a one-time occurrence it's dead it happened and it's over but we should [Applause] thank piles up it it prevails it becomes stronger why because when it happened it's going to happen again and it's going to happen again and it's going to happen again it's G the of G is referring to this phenomenon that the Miracles of to CL is are Eternal they pile up something happened on many hundreds of years ago but it happens annually and it's going to happen again tomorrow night that's what it means like said it happened in those days and it also happens now now the GE of man is understandable but even better is our in those days at this very time it always occurs says this is the secret we have a tradition from the great that lived in earlier Generations if you read the the what does mean yeah retroactively it really it means backward it's a very interesting language when you want to say you want to read it backward means retroactively it should say if you it there what does it mean says so we have a tradition that means like this if when you read the M you think this story is only retroactively it's only relevant to the past but it has no bearing on the future you're reading the Milla retroactively you're telling your children the story if you sit around the S there and you say 3,300 years ago they should be thinking who cares what happened 30 why is it relevant what happened 3,300 years ago it's not about are not about what happened in the past y are about the living reality of the current time what yeah so P we always say it because Pak is creation of the future but now really every yff it's not even the future it's it's the living present therefore says there's a you're now to light with an old candle so we were we were unpacking our manira all the Manas and I found I have a box of the easy light from last year nobody knows how it got there I don't know it's a Mir it's another miracle that happened we don't know how it got there are you allowed to light how are you allowed to light with an old candle I don't know how old it is but no that's not an old candle I'm just telling you a story telling you a miraculous event in in our household what do mean old old when you see it you'll know what it is you know old a candle with long white hair with a cane it's clutching it's cing you can't light with an old candle so wants to know what's you're not light with an old candle is it because of Mitzvah there's no din by shabis by if you can't light with an old candle he says the secret of this is you can't light with an old candle is if you're lighting the candle thinking this is about an old Miracle this is an old story you know go to Grandpa he'll tell you about the miraculous victory of the hasmoneans you're lost this is not about what happened in the past this is not about an old story this is about the living reality of K klave that there are spiritual lights that come down annually coined an amazing phrase by the way I put it on the title of the of the sheet I don't know if anyone picked it up do you see the title I know you got the the message the name of the share was what recurring light but what's the Hebrew title you ever hear that expression in your there's an expression if you have a that became B like this let's say you have um a droplet of milk that fell into a big pot of chicken soup yeah a droplet of milk that that fell into a big so became bottle and so it's bottle let's say but let's say now another drop fell in and together with the old drop now it's not Shish anymore do we say it reawakens with an iron so the coined an expression with an Al the light reoccurs annually that's the expression of the so I I really like that uh pun you know for me if I see a pun in the that's a good day okay and by the way the says if you want to see it inside on sheet number four on the sixth line he says it repeats and it re lights Again by the way in his he says that the says that the of the that the found isas in the he returned for says what do you mean he returned from they only found one jug so why did say he returned for numerous jugs it was only one jug they found in it's very nice he was go he was finding the jug of the bikash later for the times of kanah it should say he went back the answer is because that was it wasn't a one-time Miracle according to the principle of the r of K of the the spiritual miraculous of that recur at that time repeat itself annually it wasn't a it was says the you know when you can't D in for a miracle that's if you root for a really bad team and you you pray God I want them to win no no you're not ading for that not for that they can't win they're just bad so El you want to pray it's going to come off your you can't D for a miracle that's a miracle that needs to happen from scratch but on Kana the light's coming down the miracle is happening the Miracle's happening on we know it's happening it's every year the miracle is a miraculous influence is coming down on the 25th day of K so we the same way you brought miracles in those days in the times of we're not asking for a new Miracle you can't pray for a new Miracle but a miracle that's going to happen anyway you could pray that we should be able to enjoy it the meaning of the that's permitted when you're not ding for a new Miracle when you're ding for the recurring Miracle of this time of the year and therefore says Rasha Klein the question of my Kana is when the ask my Kana you know what the cash is how did how is this miracle different than all the other miracles in history where yua made the sun stop and we defeated s how is this miracle different the answer is the answer is is the answer is on the 25th day of klave are eight days of Kaneka where the answer is cuz when the 25th day of klave comes the light is here again that's the answer you know why this miracle is different cuz those Miracles we don't commemorate cuz the lights don't come back but on Kano when the 25th day of Kiss slave comes the light reawakens that's why they didn't make Kaneka in year one you know why they didn't know they didn't know whether it was a one-time event or it would repeat itself so they had to wait till year two so they waited for year two the the with their spiritual capacity they realized it's back it's so they were so in the of zzer who gives a 100 answers to the BHA one of the answers he gives is that he said the said why did they wait till year two because they didn't know if the light would repeat itself so this would answer the basic Kasha you know why kanah is eight days because they turned on the spiritual bar you know um liom meter meter and they measured that the spiritual light that came down in year two was for eight days so they made kanah eight days what's the Kasha why do they why do we commemorate uh a 7-Day Miracle the answer is this is not about a s-day miracle we don't commemorate a miracle it is the living experience of the spiritual influence that came down to the World by the way just as an aside the you mentioned the and I didn't speak about the enough the wants to know did you know that in the times of p and you might not like this the writes in that when H decreed to eradicate the Jewish people he was only going to eradicate the ashm and not the you know about that yeah writes in six far that the the were not in danger by H by the way you know who followed in his footsteps for the most part Hitler and that's eie the says the the Jews inad were not in danger by so the asked so why do keep is that a wild question is that an interesting question says because are not commemorations of Miracles are living experiences of divine influence of miraculous influence it doesn't matter you could be ashkanazi you could Bei your life was in danger it wasn't in danger that's not the the core reason for atiff the core reason for yti is not what happened in the past what is happening in the present it's an experience of enjoying the spirit spiritual Delight of being a receptical to the Divine miraculous light that comes down on special occasions it's not only it's there is no difference between you and the Hans so coming back good every y yum is a living reality so coming back to the eight questions number one why in year two in year two is when they knew for certain that the lights were recurring why is Kan eight days well that's how many days the light the spiritual influence came for brought salvation for them then like it is now the of the shus is not that you need to thank hasem at the time of Miracles happening you need to thank Hashem annually on the calendar date because that influence is recurring at that time the that we we davem should make Miracles we're not doing for New Miracles we're doing that the spiritual influence that brought miraculous times back then should likewise do that for us the Miracles that we commemorate with the are the ones that repeat itself the other miracles of tanak were onetime occurrences that's what we say then is the very first calendar date in the in the year after the that we begin to experience the spiritual miraculous light of so on that note I wish you all a May that just like performed open miracles [Music] thank you very much was perm also the next year no perm was not the next year maybe because because since they had n maybe they knew right away but I'm not sure he doesn't really address that maybe because there were prophets they they were able to tell instantaneously but by kanah they didn't have Nim so they didn't know so they had a wait meaning by by P they had divine communication this is what should be done decreed right away was decreed right away maybe maybe have a good night everyone call to