Spreading the Flames - Candle #7 - Rabbi Dovid Kaplan & Rabbi Daniel Schonbuch

[Music] Happy Hanukkah and good evening it is now the seventh night of Hanukkah with at the seventh candle of Chanukah tonight on a wrote hallelu Cornish and these are the candles that are holy to us and every night of Hanukkah we meet here on the hill de bruit channel and we celebrate Hanukkah together and we've got guest rabbis songs and good music our sages established the eight days of Hanukkah as days of song and praise so here we are to celebrate together tonight we have a special guest rabbi dovid Kaplan rabbi Kaplan is a lecturer and he lectures all over Israel America and Europe he is presently a senior lecturer at or somatic Jerusalem his positive approach to clarifying Jewish issues is an inspiration to people around the world now rabbie camp and welcome but we start with music so would you sing with me is that your that's I'm singing a look I had a feeling our rights in life I think we'll do [Music] I'll convey ample was a Miami Miami [Music] we are the true [Music] I am me my they'll let you I am I [Applause] [Music] it's a level signal I am I [Music] aaaah they are let you order I love motels is the level signal Miami Miami [Music] ooh [Music] ooh [Music] no I am me my hey Maz man huh [Music] this calls for a clap rabbi oh you shifted into serious real quick kind of questions for you there's this concept of miracles which is much more than the concept mean a reality of miracles everyone in their lives at one point or another had something that was you know beyond this probability the statistics would never have let this occur yet yet we've all experienced these things and some of those miracles are hidden somewhere more revealed I imagine the hidden ones are all around us all the time I guess but they what is this hidden in open miracle well you got what people think it is that yet what it is the classic definition of a hidden miracle versus an open miracle people think that to get to miracle you have to have a splitting of the sea right for example of a miracle an open miracle an open miracle is with a plate full of gallo I haven't that consumed that he that is certainly a goal but the the people think like the splitting it to see give me a miracle the splitting to see and they think that a miracle is really something that transcends nature it's really what jumps into people's mind the problem is that the transcend nature even the Torah when it describes a splitting of the sea thus what are you to see as described is a very physical act the wooden blue all night baby yes water see what it mentions the wind blew and oh all right so then the skeptic comes along and says well you know I guess you know the wind could blow but the skeptic can't explain to you why it split right at the moment of their motion or a beta Moses points and needs it then you get the miracle so it's also the it says it crossed on dry land across on dry land right right so so people think a miracle has to be and then again we use marriage as always used we compare two marriages as to match people up is as difficult as the split eager to see it's a miracle that people ever get married and meet each other and in our day and age it's a miracle that people stay married that's a revealed miracle and people manage to stay right here actually one young ladies that their friend when I go out with a guy ask myself is this the man I want my children to spend every other weekend with that's the state of marriage it's really funny if you don't I tell my students that that we're happy you're engaged and it's wonderful you're getting married but as rabbis we celebrate anniversaries there's no easier you the fact you had a pulse under your foot there's not a present part that's right whereas they see the fact that the banner is that a hidden miracle is what people think he had miracle the fact that we could move our fingers as Rome Button says that he could move your body it's a miracle we take it for granted because we're so used to that's really where people go with a miracle we died I could do it and I never think about it but the fact is that's a miracle that's the hidden mirror that's a miracle the real miracle is generally anything beyond our experience of Israel takes out the Egyptian army and the first day of the six-day war so you could explain it to fit well we had a better Air Force but you didn't explain to me why the country who's been around at the time for 19 years why did they develop a better Air Force right it would the other ones have been around a lot longer right and why were the Egyptians still on the ground and why did and why why why so you could explain it in a very very physical way but it's timing and it's something beyond our experience and therefore you know that sure you probably are aware in West Point Military Academy in the United States they when they teach military strategy they will not teach or study the non Jewish generals will not study Israel's Wars because they say these are words that are worn by miracles and you can't teach a mirror military science yeah you can't tell your soldiers oh by the way when the guys go out there make sure they don't pull the pin on the grenades when they throw them at you you know that's what happened they didn't pull the pin who's early pick them up threw him back he can't teach your soldiers to get the other guys to do that unless you get tremendous mind control Wow how would the battle against the Greeks look like today how would the battle against the Greeks look today okay yeah so he showed me a clipping from a newspaper many years ago written by an Israeli writer not observant and he posed the very provocative questions of the Israeli public he said you know imagine that battle is taking place today you have the Greeks stand for theater entertainment licentiousness a certain lack of self-control general fun you have the Maccabees the Cushman time who stand for Torah study prayer character development and your celebrated Hanukkah you're eating sufyani out you're lighting the menorah if the battle was taking place today whose side would you be in and would you want to win that war and it creates a tremendous identity crisis ready Jew who one second I'm living like a Greek and if that war were happening today whose side would I be in who would I would I really be rooting for you could almost say that's exactly what's going on off and then lately we've seen it that some Jews are having a real identity crisis there with who are we with is are we a mine is Rayleigh am i Jew what am i exactly and if I am a Jew which you are cuz you're born Jewish but then how does that Judaism manifests itself where are your showing since we got 2000 years of basically - ie behavior very little Greek behavior well you want to be Jewish how do you how do you show that you're Jewish I had a young lady once could tell you a story sure you might enjoy you could use it for your students I walked into my wife is from Columbus Ohio not my fault that's where she's from why is it particularly boring there or something it's kind of you know it's not it's kind of lower middle class upper lower class kind of just very America in that very Jewish really yeah Columbus yeah it's varied I think actually test products in Columbus when they market something they put it in Columbus because that's very America really sells in Columbus that may so in other is that that's what the you know one of the places where what's a clerk of research market research so I was there allocating the Jewish and a black head on and I walk into an optometry shop young lady behind the counter obviously not Jewish they had to fill out a form my borough my from my father's middle initial you know to buy glasses frames yeah so I fill out this for I remember the young lady picks up the paper she looks at me she looks at the forum she starts oh you know so she comes across goes jerusalem you live in jerusalem is it fun to live in jerusalem now i tell you so that takes a lot to get me speechless i was speechless of all the how do I answer it was it fun well we have our moments you know for bus drives up on the sidewalk and honk see you out of the way that's fun you know if you go to a bank and the guy trips falafel sauce on your papers that's fun but you know my wife and I we decide to live in Israel we took a lot of things into consideration growth is a Jew Torah study raising children so I never once and we look at each other say and it's really fun truth so we're battling that we're bailing a whole world mentality of oh is so much fun this one rebelling against the battle today it's the battle teen heads the middle and you have fun on every square little box electronic back to give all the fun in the world that's the bail interesting right that's the fun that's the fun Wow you know there's a misconception when when Jews approached Judaism who are not affiliated or not very observant they always think that we're gonna take away the stuff they love to do in life then we're gonna like we're gonna take away what they love to do the misconception total misconception I mean they you know I've asked me sometimes because I have a background in surfing and mountain biking and I love craft beer and I love music gonna so I get the class to say kosher after each one Oh serving I was like kosher about my kosher crap beer coach yeah so it's a real misconception so on the one hand the overemphasis you're saying on the fun as being kind of an ended to itself directly that's where the fight is is that is there's nothing wrong with your fun but you better we're never enough fun send it up we're here to enjoy life there's joy and enjoy distinguishing join and enjoy fun fun could be a fuzzy abroad brained broad broad range description enjoy life I don't know if Torque Bow storages do enjoy life wow I can't to confuse very nice fun versus enjoying vs. enjoyment we enjoy life but fun he has a certain you know after fifth grade you know we get you know you know yeah I know I know a couple 50 year olds that can't get off the tennis courts there you go they missed that and if you're a you could be a torrid you and play Titans there's nothing wrong with the kosher is you saying right how should one find inspiration to get himself to advance in Judaism meaning he wants to get he wants to climb Jacob's Ladder he's got to advance he wants to advance but how does anis one get that inspiration to do that you know if I had one pet answer for that I would not be here I'd be a multi-millionaire living somewhere I'd hit but Trump's tower to shame I would make so much money but there's a few approaches there a few approaches the first approach I think is there two types of Jews there's a Jew who's already a what we'll call an observant Jew and the Jew who is looking in from the outside and wondering should he jump into the water which water would the observant wouldn't be the observant water any water he the Jew who wants to become observant is wondering should I jump into what we'll call the water as a symbol of observance any of the Jews already in the water trying to increase the speed of his stroke so you have to do produce two different Jews with two different okay so the Jews looking in from often is somewhat intimidated and rightly so you see a bunch of people who are you know they're going like this like they're do they look at the address in black and it looked like they'd only speak Aramaic you know the whole thing looks intimidating so what I always try to convey to the students is that I want to ask you a question right now if I may the mansion right now is your moment of grace you could ask for any three things you want right now any three things you know get them but it's not a fantasy I mean you could have three things that will guarantee you a happy fulfilling content life but it's not a fantasy so if you tell me you wanted me to CEO of a corporation you could be a CEO but it goes with the ulcers and the pressures that are potentially there as being a CEO if you want I want to be a CEO with no pressure where's one young man told me a fantasy I want a harley-davidson 10,000 yeah but that goes with certain risks of racking up I want a motorcycle with no chance of recce up there's a fantasy got you now if I give you three things that you'd like right now and you ask yourself and I give you a few seconds to think every time I've ever asked this to an audience any audience men women children young and old boys and girls moms and dads doesn't matter the answer inevitably is number one two on the list what would you think they are number one don't you for the average person for the average person who I guess wealth would be one of them nope really nope probably third but it's not their health health is always one or two and family yeah you're on the ball yeah one or two it's family marriage / family so I just tell people what do you want what are you looking for in life one felt you want you want three things and you're the person and I'll ask them you know who would say who'd say wealth my hand always goes up for wealth by the way okay who says power who's is control who says health no all the hands go up those who don't then kind of look around say yeah you could switch now worried that they blew their jib okay how many people want family good marriage / family rigid all day hands go up in the air all the hands go up for the actually once had when a couple middle-aged couple seeing in the front row and I said okay how many people said healthy I know how many people said marriage so she puts her hand up and husband was kind of spacing out at the time else and she says marriage she looks like no she looks at didn't like this and he's like oh and his hand goes up you know his health was on the line just then yeah so the question becomes are you living your life right now in a way that will bring you the successful marriage and family which you just said publicly are the two most important things in your life marriage is a family was a board thing or are you overworking not putting enough time into your marriage not putting enough time with your kids chasing money conveniences fun which you said is not the priority in your life and therefore a person who identifies what he's looking for in life becomes much easier for this versa to then understand look at the total world look at the observant world where family is so pronounced it is so blatantly obvious yeah the family life of the Orthodox Jews yeah if that's what you're looking for right it's right here yeah it does you know there's a great singer one of the greatest singers in the world is sting and his name stinger Gordon Sumner but he's really like the top you're after the seventies idea so you'll be here he's yeah he's from after seventies and anyway but he a friend of mine he said to a friend of mine who's Jewish my friends George with beautiful kids who raised really nicely and and he said to them like the one thing you Jews got is is how to raise children there's something yeah that's amazing yes Jenny she'd ask any Jew and he observed you where's the success of your family what would you say where is the success where is the key point of success and family what would you say if you asked the average an observer and you have a zero observant Jew what is the cent what is the single most important factor which lends to the success of a family family you need it unity what would they say most people say Shabbos Shabbos you have in the course of 24 hours the family sits at a table and communicates unheard of in the Western world Wow amazing they say more than the Jews kept chaves chaves kept the Jews absolutely yeah absolutely and also the the infinity of Shabbos meaning the six days we're like involved and the Shabbos worked out and like Hanukkah it's like eight days out and Chavez's and not only you meet your family Shabbos you get to meet yourself yeah who has that people ask all the time why so many restrictions and so many limitations on Shabbos without restrictions author imitation limitations your family wouldn't be there yeah that creates a situation where now we get to communicate you know I'll tell you what my story yeah when a man was was met at the wall by Rabbi Meir Shuster Z Connelly brother and he took this young man he spoke to him and he brought him over to his first Shabbos meal Friday night me okay picked him up two hours later he said Timothy how was it she says hey that was great that's like having Christmas once a week yeah and that's his family that's when the family got together once a year Wow we do it every week Shabbos person decides I want family that's where it's at Wow amazing and now we have a special guest from the US we have rabbi Daniel Shawn ba rabbi Jean buck tell us what in your opinion is the main message of Chanukah Ravi Glaser one of the greatest scenes of Chanukah is the concept of light and it turns out there's different times in the Jewish calendar where we celebrate light but Connick itself is very unique let's look at some of those times one of those times happens every Friday night before Shabbat comes in Jewish women around the world light their Shabbat candles but why do we like candles before Shabbat most of us think of Shabbat as a time of rest what's the connection with light it turns out there was a mewho ket over 2,000 years ago the Sadducees and the Pharisees the Sadducees said that one cannot have light lit before Shabbat running into Shabbat but those were the group of Jews who rejected the Oral Torah the Torah xalapa and our Talmud and our holy traditions the other group of Jews the Pharisee said no you can have light lit before Shabbat and into Shabbat what does that tell us the light of Shabbat brings Shalom by it into the home the light of Shabbat is the light of Torah it's the light of Taurus about pet it gives us a meaning in our lives and that's why we like candles and that's why the Mitzvah of lighting Shabbat candles is a symbol of Jewish identity for thousands of years a second light that we light is a light of Havdalah the Havdalah ceremony at the end of Shabbat where we take not just single lights but we put two lights together that symbolizes the fires of Shabbat going into the fires of the week we bring a little of that Shabbat the little of the light that we saw during Shabbat into the rest of the week with us but yet there's a third light a third time we celebrate the lights and that's the lights of Hanukkah it's important to know however there's actually two very different stories about Chanukah one story we learn about is how Judah a Maccabee the Maccabean overcame greatest empires in human history that of the Greek Empire the Torah tells us that the Greeks when they ruled the world ruled over the Land of Israel they made tremendous decrees against the Jewish people they virtually wanted to wipe out the Jews and their connection to the Torah and in fact they took over our holy temple they defiled our temple and who was going to fight the Greeks the Jewish people but the Jewish people who are a very very small small tiny nation and in fact a small group of Jews called The Maccabees rose up with tremendous dedication tremendous intensity and were able to overcome the Greek Empire and actually push back the entire Greek Empire my friends this was a watershed moment in history where the Jews overcame when the greatest powers in history yet the tork focuses on not the physical victory of the story of Hanukkah but the spiritual victory the Talmud tells us that when the Maccabees went into the temple they found only one small jar of oil yet that one small jar of oil was able to burn for eight days so today what do we do we light one Hanukkah candle for every night of Hanukkah and the last thing we have these eight candles burning bright what a powerful thing we do we're not celebrating the physical victory over the Greeks my friends what we're celebrating is the spiritual victory it's a little bit of that light from Shabbat the light of our holy Torah the light of the law we bring holiness into the world on Hanukkah we celebrate that powerful spirituality we nurture it never looked at a small Hanukkah candle it's a tiny little candle on our tables or outside of our doors but we add another light and another light until we have eight beautiful lights burning in Hanukkah that my friends represents the power of Jewish spirituality you know there are so many forces in the world today trying to extinguish the flame of Judaism think about all the anti-semitism in the world think about all the enemies of the Jewish people but also think about all the things which are fighting against our spirituality today the Internet our busy lives the movies the culture of the world telling us that Judaism isn't important but despite that what do we need to do we need to light up that Hanukkah candle within us we need to recognize it as we light it up as we increase the flame of our spirituality we begin to not only change ourselves but we begin to change the world how does a Jewish person do that we start learning more Torah we start lighting Shabbat candles we for Shabbat we start teaching Torah to the world we start doing more and more Hesed for people in our communities we start loving other Jews with more and more intensity that's how the light of Judaism begins to burn more and more brightly there are so many stories of Jews around the world today from the former Soviet Union from countries all around the world were there far and distant from anything having to do with Judaism and Jewish identity yet people on the internet or people are picking up books and reading about Judaism today learning Torah committing to keeping Shabbat committed to keeping the laws of kashrut and what happens every time I do a mitzvah the light inside of them burns more strongly and it burns faster and it begins to bring us to a higher level as the Jewish nation is today and every one of us can accomplish some small step today Chanukah reminds us to rekindle the flame deep within us but even further we have a an idea that we should light Chanukah candles outside of our homes as well why do we do this and in fact in the beit hamikdash in the holy temple the menorah inside the temple shone outwards from the windows of the temple outside into the world illuminating the entire world friends the Greeks destroyed us thousands of years ago but there's one thing that goes on today despite one of the greatest enemies in history is the Hanukkah candles despite all these in pen despite all the tragedies of the face of Jewish people despite all the factors which tells not to be Jewish we still have a Jewish flame burning within us and we take the myths of Hanukkah Hanukkah lights we bring it outside we share Judaism with other people today is the time and Hanukkah to remember our commitment to Jewish spirituality to Jewish light and more importantly begin to burn our lights more brightly and share our message of Judaism with our friends our families and the world around us Thank You rabbi Sean buck and thank you very much Robert Kaplan for being with us and sharing your beautiful words and a great depth that you bring to us and we'll see you tomorrow night for the eighth candle of Chanukah here on the Hebrew channel happy Chanukah