Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz: Time of Light and the Mystery behind Chanukah

[Music] but I thought tonight since this is before Hanukkah talk a little bit about Hanukkah and Hanukkah historically is a very very fascinating holiday because the reasons for the holiday of Hanukkah seems to have changed and evolves with the passage of time there's a chronica version one and we'll see this a Konica version 2 and then later Konica became a synthesis of two different ideas first we know of course the basic story of Hanukkah erage Israel was under the rule of the dynasty of Seleucus Lucas was a successor to Alexander the Great and when I was younger the Great died in his early 30s supposedly the legend has it that he was crying they'd have no more world's to conquer but his empire was divided among four generals and for purposes of Jewish history only two of those generals are significant Ptolemy PTO L AM II wine who ruled over Egypt and North Africa and seleucus who ruled over Syria and Turkey and as you can imagine if you envision a map Eretz Israel is right in the middle and for several hundred years there was a constant political football in which there were wars between the Tomei of dynasty and the sellers of dynasty and their richest Earl was sometimes under one rule and was sometimes under another rule but the story of clinica which took place in the second century BCE Ranjan 180 185 is situated at a particular junction in time when Erica swell was being dominated by the Seleucid dynasty in Syria so we thought about Greeks we don't mean Greeks from Greece we're talking about Greece the Greek Empire from Syria and the king the villain of the Chanukah stories of course I'm Theo cos now it's interesting to know antiochos went by the name which he gave himself Antiochus the great ante Otis FB finest behind his back people called him antiochos fp- which actually means antiochos be insane and probably was crazy even in a sec logical way just as Herod Herod was one hand a paranoid schizophrenic but on the other hand he really wasn't paranoid because everybody did hey that paranoid is you have a delusion that everybody hates you in the case of Herod was actually true so in some ways it wasn't even a delusion well Antiochus was somewhat of the same but one has to realize that Antiochus was actually unique he was the first ruler in the ancient world who promulgated anti religious decrees against the practice of Judaism this is people don't always don't always realize this because we had plenty of villains before I'm theokoles we had Cairo in Egypt and we had Nebuchadnezzar in Babylonia and we had a hush of a rush you know with harm on and you know plenty of bad guys but interestingly enough the bad guys prior to Antiochus did not specifically target the Jewish religion per se welcome Ezra did not destroy the temple because it was in order to attack the Jewish religion Ian so he destroyed the temple because that was part of his subjugation and conquest of a rebellious Jewish nation and the office is very different Antiochus wanted to create a homogenized Society he wanted to create a society where people would adhere to Hellenistic culture but literature and science and mathematics even in athletics and he saw the Jewish people with their distinctive observances as a thorn in his side and therefore he was actually he was not an anti-semite in the his Larian or the Hamid sense he was perfectly willing to give Jews full political and social and economic rights as long as they would go with the game go with the plan and not keep their unique religious observances such as Shabbos tatras bris Mila etc so in fact they were the acronym say that is why Chanukah is celebrated differently than poor him Emporium where who gave it to make a festive meal on Hanukkah although people make latkes and stuff there is no obligation to make a meal we celebrate Hanukkah by lighting candles and the difference is that the danger of poram was a danger to our physical survival so we celebrate by physical ceremonies Hanukkah was not a danger to our physical survival it became a war but remember it only became a war because of the determination of the Maccabees not to compromise in their spiritual pursuits had we simply compromised our spirituality had we assimilated there would have been no war there would have been no violence at all so Chanukah was not a threat to the body Chanukah was a threat to the soul and as a result we celebrate by neighbourhoods which are described as the human soul narration this man's misra might have done the physical danger delivery from physical danger is celebrated in a physical way delivery from spiritual danger is celebrated in a spiritual way now the thing to keep in mind is that's the actual majority of the Jewish population actually went along with Antiochus and indeed they were Hellenized before after Yoko's even issued coercive decrease the freshman died on this family of courageous Kohanim who organized a guerrilla rebellion against the most powerful military force in the world we're not only fighting against overwhelming odds in terms of the enemy they did not have the support of their own people the average Jew in Eretz Israel at the time looked at the Maccabees as fanatics looked at them as obstructionist looked at them as not living in a modern progressive world you know why God should be a nice first century BCE and a modern person so to speak so you can imagine how demoralized the freshman I'm actually would have been they were fighting against really amazing odds overwhelming odds and they did not have the supports of the Jewish population most of whom were held in December like the whole idea that stupidness abysses are really a Helenus branch the icer certainly the aristocracy the wealthy politically well-connected Jews were all miss youngnam and the length so with younger helymus mr. youngnam is yoga misiek min well well there was something a certain certainly the coercion of Antiochus had some row but but as I said many Jews Hellenized irrespective of a coercion well yeah basically it's the same reason why there are so many assimilated Jews in America you know Hellenistic culture was very rich in many many ways it was those art there was science there was literature there was music it was very attractive it was a way to be politically well connected and to be respected in general society so and Jews were given freedom meaning to say they were given freedom to participate in all of those elements as long as they don't you know accentuate their distinctive identity so once again the parallel to society like America or Western civilization generally is very very apparent the only thing on the yoko-san did was Antiochus added the element of coercion of meaning go with the plan or I'll kill you that was a bit of a unique twist but overall hellenism was a factor and a force that was working totally independent about the others Antiochus accomplished 90% of what he wanted to accomplish before he made his decrees but there was that stubborn 10% or even less that was not was not giving in so what happened at some point was that the maket by by the way just again a semantic difference what is the difference between cosmonium and Maccabees like we refer to the group of Jews that were by those two names and they're usually interchangeable but but there there are there is a technical difference and that is the cosmonium refers to the particular family of Matisyahu the Kohen Gadol and his descendants and why are they called Cushman or him again there are two origins for cosmonium in to heal him there's a word called Koch Magnum and fresh when amis nobility aristocracy and the name of this family this family were were righteous people and they were known as nobility of spirits or cosmonium is a corruption of the Hebrew word in Salem trash man named in fact if you have a good liturgical memory in the song mouths or we refer to cash money man but that's taken from the hilum well that's true often that's maybe whatever but but that's my name is a word that appears in Tehillim itself others say cosmic Cosmo name is from the town of a Shmona which is a town was Italian heritage as well and although moustachio lived in Modi'in which is not the same as modern Modi'in people at the end but the origin of the family was crushed when I am so hush Mona I am is specifically refers to the family of Matisyahu his sons and their descendants who were the leaders of this revolt Makka beam is a term for the entire army now there's all of the Jews that joins in the struggle were called The Maccabees the Maccabees and what is the origin of the word Maccabee we have two interpretations some say Maccabee is not the health service here the capacitor limb but it refers to an abbreviation me kabocha but a limb hashem who is equal to you among the gods a Kadesh Barco and it is said that the Maccabees had this on their banner under flag that they went into war even against the of mhmm that were very very very powerful because they had be Taco Nina Shem others say that the word maka beam comes in the word not kevin's McKevitt in Tanakh is a word that means a hammer and it refers to their military prowess in smashing the enemy Michael Evans up so the problem is there's a difference in how you spell it meat combo car body when Michelle is men cuff that's good Mike Evans is with a quote and the problem is that here is the following the safer Tomica beam which I'll discuss in a moment we only have in Greek we do not have in Hebrew any Hebrew translation is a modern translation so consequently when when we get the word Maccabees we don't know how it was intended to be spelled in Hebrew and there's no reason that's given for the name so as a result the commentators have a bit of a disagreement the safer amon tobin we're not really sure was it originally written in Hebrew and then translated in Greek or was it originally written in Greek we don't know the one thing we know for sure is any Hebrew translation of the book of the Maccabees is a modern translation and that was made from the Greek we do not have an original Greek version of the book of the Maccabees since it's not within the authoritative text who are we swimming Rhoda just because it's in it right so I'll talk about that now in the course of this guerrilla war at some point the Iranian gains custody of the beit hamikdash we know this interestingly enough the date that they gained custody of the mikdash which they profaned by avodah Zarah by sacrificing pigs to their idols by even creating prostitution in the temple they actually gained custody on the 25th of Kislev it's very very fascinating the day that a few years later became chronica was the actual day that the base on Macduff was seized by the of onion and corrupt and contaminated and desecrated and the battle went on for three years and three years to the day of the 25th of Kislev the maka BIM regains debates of mikdash they dedicated the temple of the Hanukkah story etc etc eventually the cosmonium established their own monarchy which served as an independent Jewish state for around 150 years until the Romans came in again we'll discuss all of this and like now what are the sources of the Hanukkah story how do I know what I'm saying and what are the sources so the earliest source for the Hanukkah story are in the books that are either called safer Chanukah beam or sometimes they're called safer kimono him now they are not part of tonight they are not part of the kiss we are - because they date from an era which is after prophecy the biblical period of Tanakh ends at the beginning of the by Cheney hi guys a Shia Maliki are the last prophets and chronologically the latest events in Tanakh are in the books of Ezra and Nehemia and the last Persian King that is described in Tanaka is Darya Vecchi shading Darius the second and Alexander which initiated the Greek period is already outside of tomorrow tonight does not explicitly talk about the Greek period except prophetically in the Book of Daniel in the Book of Daniel which dates from the Babylonian exile if you remember if you ever look at this in Perak you'd-you'd Oliphant you bet there is a long story about the wars between the king of the north and the King of the South and most before some understands that this is a prophecy about the wars between the Tomei ik dynasty in Egypt and the Seleucid dynasty in the north and the victories of the king of the north refers to Antiochus etc but that's only by way of prophecy and as a result the verses are very obscure but chronologically the whole tegu fog the Greek rule over Eric Israel is post-biblical it is not in the Tanakh at all so the book of the Maccabees is what we call the Apocrypha or and he brought their called swaram he sown in so among these four increase on him is something called the book of the Maccabees say for a mock up him or say for a freshman I am and there is actually four books of the Maccabees for maximum Aleph markup embeds markup and gimel markup in Dalit we do not have the Hebrew original of these books nor do we even know if there was a Hebrew original scholars are divided over whether there was a Hebrew original the the earliest versions we have are Greek versions but they are very early they were written shortly after the rebellion in around 185 190 certainly before the Year 200 BC BC you were talking about BCE and we don't know who the author is the authors are anonymous and let me just describe what each book is because indeed they're very very different first of all in terms of the history of the revolt and the establishment of the Hasmonean dynasty the only relevant history is in Maccabees 1 & 2 safer not mocking them 3 and 4 is actually nothing to do with the Maccabees at all they are philosophical treatises about the meaning of life and whether one should be prepared to give up their life these were reflections that maybe were precipitated by the wars against Antiochus but they are not historical books at all the history of the revolt against the of onion and the reclamation of the base of McDonough and the establishment of that smoke dynasty are in Maccabees 1 & 2 Maccabees 1 has much more history than Maccabees 2 and it's interesting that they have a different emphasis very very very fascinating Maccabees one details in really extreme detail every single military strategy of how this small group of guerrilla revolutionaries defeated the mighty Greek Empire so the emphasis in Maccabees one is on military strategy of course they talk about a sham they talk about praying to a sham but it actually emphasizes so you know we know the Hanukkah story in very general terms but if you really wanted to know every single battle every single skirmish every single technique that the Maccabees used Maccabees wine is kind of a West Point's you know textbook and in fact I believe that it's looked at when they study ancient battles which they do in West Point I saw another military maybe he was never never just realms maybe especially in Eretz Israel they actually studied the Maccabees because you know those of you who are old enough to remember the Vietnam conflict that the United States was engaged in for many many years and you know part of the amazing issue was that here you have the United States the most powerful army or male at least certainly up there one of the most powerful armies in the world constantly getting stymie then you know defeated in some ways by this you know this group of people that didn't have shoes and didn't have food but there were just a small groups of guerrilla warfare but in truth that's part of the lesson of military history that even conventional the best conventional army is going to have a lot of difficulty against these small groups of guerrilla warfare and Maccabees one makes that point over and over again so Maccabees one is a book that details military strategy Maccabees two focuses on what you might call spiritual resistance it talks about martyrdom the famous story we know in The Chronicle story about kana and her seven sons all of whom died by Antiochus because they would not bow down to idols that is what is emphasized in Maccabees - it's a very interesting perspective who are the heroes you know what they say Donald Trump once remarked it was not a nice thing to say at all about the late Senator John McCain that he said he didn't think we came was a hero because he says heroes are the people who don't get caught you're something McCanless said was a prisoner of war for five years so Trump says the heroes are the guys who don't get caught whatever it's a typical Trump for that type of comment to make but you see if Maccabees won in Maccabees - you actually have these two models of heroism in Maccabees one the hero is the victorious warrior and then Maccabees - the hero is the person who dies alkie - ahem even in the Holocaust to this day you know yo my show are young Yama Yama think around I'm sorry I get my names like yo my secret is is for the KLM of the IDF but yo mashallah is the anniversary of the fall of the Warsaw Ghetto it's in the month of Nisan and although that is certainly a date that's deserving of commemoration but there's a long bit of convoluted history why that date was chosen for yo Messiah because in the aftermath of the Holocaust when the State of Israel was established there was a certain pride in the nude shoe the Jew that would not be a victim the Jew that would not be led like sheep to the slaughter the Jew that could fight the Jew that was tough and as a result there actually was a certain embarrassment among some segments of Israeli society about what they thought was the passivity of the Jews who went like sheep to the slaughter so as a result the from that way of thinking the real heroes of the Holika only the Warsaw Ghetto people because they're the ones who actually fought so there was a bit of controversy some said besides the fact that in the month of Nisan you don't have sad days they thought that this was a bit of a denigration for the spiritual sacrifice of those who gave their lives Okita sham now the truth of the matter is this is the name of the day yeah is your vote that's correct that's correct the word give around is very very so is very very telling right that's 100% correct so but the truth of the matter is in reality this should not be an either-or type of situation at all it is a false dichotomy there are many different ways of heroism there is heroism in achieving victory and there's heroism being willing to die for your cause and everybody's a hero but I just want to point out that Maccabees 1 emphasizes the military aspect Maccabees 2 emphasizes the martyrdom and the spiritual heroism ok but now let's go to the story of Hanukkah so I'm the 25th of Kislev they regained the Beit HaMikdash tremendous joy tremendous ability to serve Hashem once more a victory of brilliance of victory of spirituality so Maccabees one says they established an eight-day holiday because they celebrated dedicating the based on McDuff or 8 days just as the tabernacle the Mishkan in the mid bar was dedicated for eight days in motion remaining so to Hanukkah affective or Hanukkah the word Hanukkah means dedication Monica was an eight-day holiday celebrating the reclaiming of the rededication of the Beit HaMikdash after it had been desecrated by the venom now note what it does not say it does not say in the book of the Maccabees anything about finding oil it does not say anything about a miracle lasting eight days Konica is eight days because canoe cots how by it was a days as it was in the day of Moshe Rabbeinu so according to Maccabees one Monica was an eight-day festival to celebrate the victory over the of onion and the rededication of the Potomac - that's what Maccabees one sets Maccabees 2 adds something else that's a bit peculiar and it says that that year Sukkot was not celebrated obviously orsakon was not celebrating the base emic - because the base of Mukesh was under the custody of the avaya me so Hanukkah now Sukkot is really an eight-day festival seven days of sukar's followed by its and that's a separate hug but right away right afterwards is the hug of Shmi knee at Sarat so Hanukkah was enacted as an eight-day festival to be a communal make up for the fact that Sukkot was not celebrated that year in the beta mcdonough odd kiddin cos that in Maccabees - there was something that hi logically it's very bizarre that people made Sukkot and they took a lulav in escrow for the seven of the eight days of Hanukkah to make up for Sukkot now how logically there is of course no such thing and as they say the book of Maccabees are not halakhah documents they are not rabbinic documents but they they may be expressing folk traditions things that people were doing even if it did not have the same Mohammed but Lamia Scottie although in gazelle there is absolutely no reference to Hanukkah being a makeup for circus sometimes even in a game that cause I wanted to crush they consider them to be inauthentic managed to have a life of their own and survive in some attenuated forms and let me give you an example of this there's a famous argument between Bates hello and Bates Shama how do you celebrate the Seneca lighting base shall I says night one you start with one candle and you add a candle every night the world until you Adams up Sybase hello sets you start with one candle and you wear that every night which is what exactly what we do but base shaman has an unusual procedure they shall I says you start with aids and you go down and the Gemara wanders likewise but where does they shall I say what he says but one of the reasons that they Shama gives is that the product of candles should follow the pattern of the carbon notes of the Bulls that are brought on sue cos the carbon O's that are brought on Sukkos are brought in a descending order the first day of Sukkot you bring thirteen and then you go down so Bassam I says the same way the circus offerings go down the Konica candles go down now this is an enigmatic passage okay circus goes down but by what Association would you therefore say the ritual of Hanukkah should be connected to Succoth so my speculation I did not see it anywhere is that this is the sole survival in rabbinic literature of the folk tradition in Maccabees number two that Hanukkah was on some level of makeup for Circus and therefore Beit Shean I at least we don't trust in my place online they shop I maintained that the pattern of Kendall and should follow the kubrana subsidies so so far both in Maccabees 1 and in Maccabees 2 there is no reference to a jar of oil that was found that miraculously burned for any case if we asked Akasha why is there an eight-day festival Chanukah according to Maccabees 1 it is a celebration of a military victory combined with the dedication of the base of Macduff and according to Maccabees 2 it is a somehow a spiritual make up for the holiday of service so where do we find for the very first time a record at least again I'm not I'm not suggesting things were made up in other words I I believe there of course was such a miracle but it was not given as the reason for the hug the first document that describes the story of finding a jar of oil that burned for eight days is it a safer that was written more than a hundred years after the Hanukkah story I see close to 200 years after the Hanukkah story and this is the safer call from Achilles Thomas now McGillis Thomas is earlier than the mission of the mission is from the Year 200 McGillis Titus's maybe 100 years earlier but that would make it a hundred Cee and the Hanukkah story is 185 BC so this is almost 300 years later years later and yes it is absolutely it is not my central status McGillis Thomas is a document that lists all of the festive days where you're not allowed to SAS not allowed to fast and not allowed to eulogize it does not list Torah holidays its lists various rabbinic holidays and it's mrs. Hanukkah as a rabbinic holiday where you're not allowed to fast and it says the following it gives the familiar story that we know that is quoted the kimono but the Gemara is quoting this older document called McGillis Tanis that when we finally liberated the beit hamikdash that had been desecrated there was a jar of oil that was sealed with the seal of the Kohen Gadol all the other oil had become from a and this oil only had enough to burn for one day and a miracle happened and it burned for eight days and to commemorate that great miracle we celebrate by lighting candles that commemorates the miracle of Hanukkah and that is the reason that the gomorrah gives that's the reason the Camorra gives and that's the most familiar reason that we give for Chanukah which means when I say Chanukah version one and Hanukkah version two I mean that Chanukah version one was a celebration of a military victory coupled with dedication of the base of mikdash or was connected to su cuffs Hanukkah version two which was not emphasized again I'm not saying was made up but but that story was not emphasized until 200 or 201 was 300 years later in which the emphasis shifted from the myth secretly so cone of the mill come on the canoe canoe baiance to the idea of the miracle of the profession there was a redefinition of the fact now let me just mention one thing one of the most famous questions about Hanukkah is a question of Rev Joseph Carol famous famous question and that is if the miracle of Hanukkah was that the oil burns eight days when there was only enough for one day the Hanukkah should only be celebrated for seven days because the first day was not a miracle like the question and I know there are there are at least 500 answers to this question because I saw it safer I didn't get it yet but I saw savor that it's 500 answers and that's great inflation because last year I saw a safer that only had 125 answers so somebody decide is like the Guinness Book of World Records oh you know you Devon hundred 25 I'll make it five hundred that's gonna be a record that's going to be hard to beat 500 answers but let me point out that according to the book of macabees either one or two the question doesn't even start because the reason Hanukkah is a days according to the Maccabees 1 and 2 which are the earlier sources are not because of a miraculous burning of the menorah for a days it is because the canoe cuts hamikdash is eight days or circus is eight days which mean the answers so it's interesting that the safer homonka beam furnishes a very very compelling and simple answer to the famous famous question of Ravi of Cairo the eight days of Hanukkah comes from chronica one it doesn't come from chronica - now interestingly enough the morale of Prague who wrote a beautiful beautiful book on Hanukkah it's called the near Mitzvah and the morale did not have access to the book of the Maccabees the morale didn't read the book of the Maccabees but the morale on his home actually offers this as a terrace tomorrow actually says the following perspective in which he links the two he says Chanukah is not a celebration of the miracle of the oil because we don't make holidays over miracles I mean for example 'days / God redeeming us from an enemy that wants to destroy us yeah miracle happen I mean I mean there are a lot of miracle for example in the giving example a canina Ben dosa was a righteous person he was very poor his wife did not have oil for Shabbos candles and he said to his wife like with vinegar and when she said vinegar doesn't burn he said the same God who can make oil burn can make vinegar burn so there was a miracle do we make a young chef because canina Mendoza's wife was able to like in other words their mother better here well okay that's good but my romick's a point we don't make a young tiff every time there's a miracle we make a youngster when as a result of that miracle God saved us so the morale says it's a dove report that the holiday of Hanukkah is because we were liberated from the in him and were able to serve Hashem it's not stopped that we found a jar of oil and the oil burnt there are plenty of miracles that don't have holidays but the morale says the reason why we have to link the military victory to the oil is because otherwise we might tribute the victory to our own promise so I need the autumn to have in mind the supernatural idea that it was God that gave us Nisan so really the morale himself was makovan to the book of Maccabees that the eight days of Hanukkah is not because of the miracle of the oil but the miracle of the oil gives us a perspective on the source of our needs a home that we shouldn't de tributo success to what the Torah calls cousine the ocean yo-dee-yo-dee-yo and was the odd shake nested with all responsible for all of these in did it come later but it's no AMA Nissim is very early and this is a famous question people ask this question all the time in the al Haq Nissen prayer that we recite both in the shmona ra and in burkas amazon you will note there is no mention of the Hanukkah miracle of the oil it mentions they lit candles but that just means they rededicated the temple and lift the menorah it doesn't say there was any miracle the whole Allah Nissen is about how Hashem gave us the power the pure defeated the impure the few defeated the many the tsadikim defeated the regime the those who kept the Torah were able to overcome the people who wanted to destroy the toilet water the whole ala Neeson is about the victory now again not just a political victory but the victor the spiritual victory of the primacy of Torah but it's not about the Polish women and and the point basically is that the other recent days as old as the book of the Maccabees very very old and at that point in time the process chemin was a miracle but it was not the reason for the holidays so it was written in Hebrew it's authoritative yeah I'm just actually buzzing around the time of the I'll check well it's gonna be a question because there was there was no by the time of the Hanukkah story there was no I think necessary there was or anything but they're already finished so we have to assume it was the son Henry that's a kind of close all right so cuz out so the point is our Neeson is Maccabees one I'm sorry is Hanukkah one trying to get version one so the question becomes why did we kill us Thomas and the Babylonian Talmud change the emphasis of Hanukkah to emphasize the had Luca tomatoes and the answer is because in retrospect marvelous gosh mine I turned out to be a bust because here is the problem the those of you that ever read George Orwell's Animal Farm George Orwell's Animal Farm is a parody of the Russian Revolution if you remember the story it's just a story about animals revolting against an oppressive human system to establish liberty and freedom for all the animals what happens is that some of the animals themselves become dictators and they're actually more repressive than the human beings that they overthrew and Arlo was making the point that you know the average Russian citizen did not do better under Lenin or Stalin than they were under the under the Tsar and of course this rope sphere the French rebels put Phnom Penh and that's an upside what's the guy's name oh yeah Paul Potts yeah yeah I mean you know these are people who are rebelling and overthrowing authority to establish greater freedom and they wind up being you know mass murderers of unbelievable unbelievable proportion I mean talk about whatever it is this is the history of revolutions there are exceptions the American Revolution you know whatever it is P some people aren't that okay but b'seder well what happened was that this happened to the hush Medina they became the very thing they fought against why did the Maccabees fight they didn't fight for political independence they fought to be able to keep the Torah to be able to keep the mitzvahs ahead Antiochus not made his decrees they would have been content at least for the time being to remain under examination they fought for the primacy of Torah they fought to be able to keep a sham as well and if they had to have engaged in military combat they did so but they then established their own monarchy the Jewish state an independent Jewish state but what happened in the passage of time is the male flush my knowing themselves became Helenus they became persecuted on imls etc became persecutors of the common many huh I'm gonna have to go in hiding many for coming more kills they became Helenus now it's very strange why did that happen the Ramadan points out information that's the mock up in the freshman know him where it's a DK know young they were righteous they were pure their motives were totally ashamed Sherman and yet their descendants became the very enemy that the Cushman arm we're trying to overthrow by the way it's always a little bit of a kind of a funny anomaly and you know that you know the the Jewish substitute for the Olympics is called the Maccabi Games now it's it's so funny yeah there's nothing wrong with athletics but the point is the holiday the Olympics is kind of taken from Greek culture so you put the Maccabees with something that is adapted from Greek culture when the Maccabees were fighting against all of the Greek culture yeah and the like but what happened to the Harshman I am what happens and after they conquered eventually by the way the old house mony and dynasty was wiped out by the time of Herod there literally was no survivor at all so the Rabanne has a whole army Costa Ramon suggests that the freshman I'm she never have made themselves monarchs that even though once the military victory was achieved they should have found a descendent of David amela of the Davidic line loius or she bets Mia who da the rambling also points out there's a special sin that a calling should not be a melody needs a but if it's very fascinating you need to have separation of church and state even in a Tory society and that is the Cohen is the spiritual teacher he should not be involved in politics that's an interesting lesson for the State of Israel today because the ROM bond says that when religious leaders are involved in political decision-making they get corrupted and there are no longer a voice of Torah and look me Brooke needs etc by the way the Pope even recognize this not this one but two popes ago john paul ii issued a Karnataka's era around 20 years ago that no ordained Catholic clergy could serve in any government position and I know in Washington DC there was a congressman Robert the dragon who was a priest and he had been in Congress for almost 30 years and he had to resign his seat because the Pope decreed that no priest can be in politics well the emesis that's what the robot says but whatever it is in retrospect the cosmonium was a failed rebellion it was failed in in in a number of ways even politically it was failed because after I've been 50 years the Romans conquered them so by the time the mission and the Gemara is written the base I make this is destroyed there's no big win under Roman government engines so what did the customer not accomplish politically they accomplished very little but even more importantly spiritual the very thing that they want to establish with their rebellion turned out to be a failure as a result the concept that Chanukah should be a celebration of mahadesh monoi the military conquest that no longer works because if the military conquest would have created a society of Torah wouldn't it etc that would have been worthy of celebration so as a result the initial celebration may have focused on the Osmo nian dynasty because of the hope you know it's similar in a way you know Obama President Obama former President Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize I don't know how maybe 10 years ago or something and nobody really knows why there was no particular there was no particular accomplishment at all but the common explanation was that the Nobel Committee saw in him promise and potential and they were actually awarding potential rather than actualization of potential that's an interesting criterion for awarding a prize but okay so in many many ways kind of aversion one was a celebration of a potential that could have been but by the time because I'll codified these laws in the mission and in the Gemara that potential was seen to be uh naturalized and it was a failure politically it was a failure spiritually and therefore the emphasis changed to the miracle of the past a Shemin and that is why the emphasis of Chanukah changes neither aspect disappears the other Nissim still talks about the fact that god gives us victory over the enemies that try to destroy us but the evidence has changed now you can also give a simpler reason where the emphasis changed that is once Arijit show became under Roman domination it was actually dangerous to the media we're live in comedy channels so some Roman guy walks by and says why are you lighting kind of candles oh we're doing it to celebrate the overthrow of foreign domination in Eretz Israel it is not a politically correct holiday when you are under foreign domination so one might give a simple reason that the empathy that the emphasis of chronica had to change when we're under foreign domination which might mean that here in the state of israel we could go back to tribeca version one but you also have this other reason that in a more basic way cuz i'll had enormous for good reason they had enormous hostility to moses monoi yes that's correct but but that was still version one another word says tomorrow says because I've had tremendous hostility towards Malthus crush benign and they just regarded it as a continuation of Greek domination not regardless as a Jewish state they did not they did not regard marquise-cut Rene as a Jewish state they regarded it as a non-jewish state in which the rulers happen to have been born Jews and as a result they did not see anything to celebrate and as they say I found that plenty of good reasons for this because wealthy flesh we know after the first generation were active persecutors of rabbinic Judaism and many many great rabbis had to go in hiding literally they had to go in hiding the only bright lights what you don't see on a Malcolm which is so fascinating because according to halakha a woman is not supposed to be the head of state we charge in la jolla mauka and yet the only righteous Hasmonean ruler was shalom seona Malka it happened to be her brother was shimon that checked at the head of the Sanhedrin and only when her husband died I am ecstatic and she became queen that was considered to be the Golden Age within mouth discussion when I of the flourishing of religion and and and Torah so and it's so fascinating that but Africa the ruler who didn't have her logic entitlements to rule was the one who did the most for Judaism and Torah energy struggle that that's correct now you actually are you are correct under which there was no she was no worse than that me the customer know him themselves who didn't have the right to be mullah but this is why I Konica under wednesday's metamorphosis and that's why it's so fascinating now I would say that it's interesting that when the Rahman describes the holiday of Hanukkah the ramp-up does go back to what I call Hanukkah version one he says it was a wonderful thing that the mullahs was returned to the Jewish people for more than 200 years the Rambam sees the establishment of Jewish sovereignty as a reason to have a condom this has interesting implications for you're not smart I did you know I'll be seeing the different segments of Israeli society there are different attitudes regarding celebration of young matsumoto in fact even in the American rabiner any rabbi that's up for an interview for a job one of the interview questions will always be you know what is your position on your mat smooth the rabbi will sometimes say well what do you want me to do it yeah I can go either way but so people say well not religious state you know you know whatever I don't want to go over the different arguments people have but what's interesting is this passage of the problem is very very instructive because the ramp-up says the fact that she'll tun rebo notes was returned to the Jewish people for a period of 200 years or more is a cause to celebrate now the problem is referring to mullahs Kozma night which was a lot more anti religious school setting than the state the state of israel is and yet the ramped up said the fact that is in Jewish hands what's considered to be a cause for celebration so I actually think that that is a very significant debt in terms of how we would regard I'm not sure well let me put it well yeah but the Rambam gives you reason the ramp-up says that Malthus does belong to you who does but show lamella was from the youngin because since the Jewish people requested a king in a very improper way Hashem gave them kind of an improper king than that that's what that there was a prophet prophet pointed - yes but it was a getter of an Amish that's what he's saying there that God is showing his displeasure with the people by giving them somebody not now I just wonder who I've mentioned one thing if we put aside the conical one and Tomica to which i think is a very very fascinating point in how the meaning of a holiday can emerge differently in different times and Chanukah wanna was based on a potentiality that could have been achieved and Hanukkah too is a realization with that potentiality never panned out and therefore we have to say something else but let me go back to the base Joseph's question right that's a simple question if the eight days of Hanukkah is because of the miracle of the oil which McGillis Thomas says it is so why is it eight days let it be seven days because the first day was no miracle so let me give you a Terence I once heard from the former referee she release romayor Wow now is the Rebbe of tel-aviv works for his son heard of it why was the referee say I'm sure when a father has to work for his son in that way there's a lot of Nos and doing it and they also think that probably being the rap of Tel Aviv is probably a harder job than being a rapper Oceanus whatever they think when you're in the city you're involved in more of a nitty-gritty daily stuff but okay be it as it may you may know her blouse story of love as a child was in the concentration camp I think it was like four or five very very young and if he would be discovered by the Nazis they would kill him on the spot they did not allow little children to hang around in concentration camps so his older brother who just lived a few years ago would drag him around in the bag you basically just kept him with him all the time and the Nazis didn't discover it for two years or so it was really an amazing thing and Rallo would say that this was absolutely a miracle because it would have been so easy for them to look for him and they would if they would have looked they would have found so the miracle he experienced he said was they didn't look so everyone wanted to apply this to character in Reverse the miracle of the first day was that they bothered to look for pure oil why did they bother to look there was plenty of impure oil and halacha CLE actually they could have even a lid they could have lived the impure oil this is a principle that is called to mouth good trip and seaboard that for communal offerings impure quantities can be used why did they bother to look and why did they bother to light because let's say they found something but it's only in the last one day so like tomorrow as far as they thought we're gonna have to go with the tummy stuff anyway good it takes at least seven days to get pure ah so if we're gonna go with tummy stuff tomorrow anyway then why bother to do this and that's a miracle the miracle was that they went to the effort of doing something that didn't seem to have any prospect of being successful and yet they did it and that's the greatest lesson of all you know you live in a world of darkness the world is dark on many many levels there is the darkness of ignorance the darkness of suffering the darkness of violence and oppression and each of us has a capacity to light something bring some light to the world but our life is so small and our life is so insignificant that we often what's the point what's the purpose I'll light my light today what's gonna be tomorrow and the ultimate and most important lesson of Chanukah is you do what you can even if it seems hopeless fruitless worthless ineffectual but when you do what you can God blesses your efforts beyond what you would have thought was possible when they found that oil there was no reason to think it would burn a days there was really no reason whatsoever but you do what you can yeah what's the purpose of lightning and today if it's not I'm not gonna have it tomorrow okay but I thought today this minute I got this time so that's the great lesson and that's why Konig is so important really as a lesson for life you do what you can and you never know the doors that are going to be open if they wouldn't have lit the miracle wouldn't have happened yeah one final historical event that makes this even a more powerful thought although I've been discussing the dedication of the temple and the establishment of antimony and dynasty is occurring at the same time that actually is not true they did retain the base and make this after three years of fighting but that was not the end of the war the war continued for more than twenty years the Jewish state was not established until twenty years after the Seneca story by that time you dhaba could be a died already a mother a die the shim ohn was the last surviving son of Matisyahu and Shipman was the first cosmonium king he called himself de marsay shim ohn now see Israel so think about it this way the message of the oil is actually a message to the Jewish people to the Maccabees themselves because here they are engaged in a struggle against the most powerful military force in the world and they too could think what's the point why should we fight we're gonna lose our defeat is inevitable at some level so what does the candle say do what you can and I will bless you beyond what you thought possible you see having it at the beginning of the struggle is actually much more meaningful and at the end have it been at the end it just would have been a frosting on the cake but here it's a message I'm engaged in a military struggle I think the odds are hopeless God gives me a sign do what you can't and things are gonna happen by the way there's a beautiful story with George Washington and Hanukkah Cantus ago it's an American story so I apologize for the people who aren't American but but it's AB it's a beautiful story anyway in which during Valley Forge which was a very low point in the American Revolution and the American army of the car the army of the colonies didn't have food that even their blankets it was an awful winter in Pennsylvania got a lot of snow and and cold people were dying and the British unlimited supplies they were very well stocked and very well trained and at one point Washington was very despondent and Washington was seriously thinking of justice surrendering and accepting British sovereignty but in his army there was a Jewish kid a teenager but somehow immigrated from Poland and he was not religious but the one thing he got from his mother was you have to liked Hanukkah candles and he was embarrassed electronica channels when people were up but he waited folk 2 o'clock in the morning when everybody was sleeping and he lived candle and General George Washington is walking by kind of checking the Army's checking for blankets like I said with the puppets crime used to go to the base measure and put blankets on sleeping students so Washington was doing the same thing covering people and he says to this boy he says what what are you doing he says this is the candle that the Jewish people like to signify the triumph of light over darkness of good over over evil a victory over those who oppress and take away freedom and he said to Washington I know that this should also be a symbol for you so be victorious and Washington got very excited Washington said oh you Jews are the prophets your prophetic people your prophet are you giving me a prophecy I don't know how the kid could say he was but he said yes I'm president and in Washington you know the war was finished in the United States was victorious or the comedies were victorious became the United States so a few years later to this president and the first capital of the US was in New York and in those days there was no Secret Service and this boy this man is living in New York and he's lighting Hanukkah in the window and Washington walks by he knocks on the door and says I remember you you gave me hope in my darkest moment and he said and I made something for you I'm glad I was found I didn't know where you lived and he said he gave him a medallion a gold medallion with a menorah on one side opposite to star you know they say it's true and it says to the person who gave me light in the middle of the darkness so it's a nice story George Washington chronica and really I think that's the ultimate lesson here because whether it's the military victory which is emphasized in Mohonasen or whether it's the miracle of the oil that should have only burnt one day and it's burned for eight days the common denominator is we live in a world where our efforts often seem to be ineffectual but Chanukah says your job our job is to do what we can do to bring light to the world and then a Shem blesses our efforts beyond what we thought were possible but if we didn't make their initial efforts those things would never have happened so because just a sham I hope for all of us trying to get to be a time of light and redemption and simcha and joy and made the miracles that a sham brought to our forefathers continue to be miracles for us as medicine [Music]