Moshav Meor Modiim, Kislev 5749 Reprinted from Cong Kehilath Jacob News  Everybody knows that Chanukah is the culmination of the high holidays. We are accustomed to think that joy and bliss are the highest a human being can aspire to, but our holy rabbis teach us that light is even deeper. So after Simhas Torah, when we experience the greatest joy in the world, we come to Chanukah. Chanukah is the Festival of Light. Chanukah is when we initiate the Third Temple, which shall be rebuilt soon. It is the one week of Chanukah, when every Jewish home is a little bit of the Holy Temple, which gives us the strength to hold out until the Holy Temple will be here for always.

It is possible to know every word of the Torah, but if the inside light of the Torah is not shining into you out of every word, you are still an outsider.

Chanukah has two outstanding characteristics:

On every other holiday you dont need a house. On Chanukah you need a house to kindle light at the door. On Chanukah when I see someone else kindling, I also say a blessing.
When do I know that Im at home with the Torah? When do I know that the light of the Torah is really my own? If I blow my mind over everyone elses good deed and I cant control myself, I have to say a blessing over it.

It is possible to live in the same house as your wife and children and be strangers to one another. On Chanukah every person in the house is kindling light; every night the light is becoming stronger and deeper and more.

Our age is the age of strangers. Were strangers in our own homes; were strangers in our own land; were strangers in our own religion.

Let this Chanukah open the gates for all of us -- the lights of Chanukah at the gates to show how holy everyone else is.
Let this Chanukah give us the strength to bring light to the whole world, because people only hate each other when they have no home. So our light of Chanukah will show the whole world how deep life is -- how deep it is to serve G-d.

The holy Ishbitzer says the greatest blessing one Jew can give another is to feel at home with the Torah. So many of our generation are assimilated only because nobody made them feel at home with Yiddishkeit. You and I should be privileged to kindle light at the gate of everyones heart to make everyone feel at home.

Love, Shlomo   Transcription by Sam Intrator  Rabbeinu speaking:

You know dear friends, sometimes, I ask myself, after the destruction of the Holy Temple nearly two thousand years ago we still cannot stop thinking about it. How come? How come? Who ever heard of mourning for a house destroyed so long ago? But, let me tell you. Imagine that I loved this girl very much, and then we had a fight, but before we separated we agreed that once a year for eight days, that we would be as close as we once were. Can I then ever forget her? I want you to know that our Holy Rabbis teach us that on Chanuka we are once again in Jerusalem and not here in Poughkeepsie. We are not ordinary people on Chanuka, but we are all High Priests and we are kindling the lights in the Holy Temple.

Kindling the Chanuka lights is a lesson in Jewish history. Knowing the past is vital, but living it and re-living it is the obligation of the Jew. History is important, but merely knowing facts is pagan, an aspect of Greek culture. A Jew survives in the present because he also experiences his past. And what is it about Chanuka that we celebrate? Not the amazing feat that seventy priests defeated a highly trained army of Greek soldiers. Do not think that Judah the Maccabbee, or his father Matisyahu, the High Priest studied military strategy. I can assure you that they never held a weapon in their hands before they fought the Greeks. A priest in the Temple does not train with weapons. The priests are the pillar of peace and forgiveness.
Our Holy Rabbis taught us that Aaron, the first High Priest, loved peace and alvays pursued it. The Maccabees fought to restore the glory of G-d, but today we celebrate the miracle of the lights. Each day that the candles burned was a great miracle. G-d promised the Maccabees that the lights rekindled by them would burn forever. Each day that the candles burned was a great miracle. G-d promised the Maccabees that the lights rekindled by them would burn forever. Each day we add one more light. We must teach our children to remember the holy ancient lights, but also to add new lights, new ways.

Modernity is not alien to religion, it enhances it.

The young people of today are not unlike the young people in the days of the Maccabees. They too have strayed from their holy tradition. We need someone like Judah Maccabee to show us how beautiful it is to be a Jew. Young people must understand that G-d needs each of them to make a special contribution to our religion, that only they are capable of making. Every day we are supposed to add new lights. G-d wants even the most alienated person to be a shining light. On Chanuka we see in the shining lights only the beauty of people.

You know what I consider the worst possible meeting that a person can attend-- a parents and teachers meeting, where teachers tell parents how bad their children are. Basically, parents see only good in their children, but unfortunately sometimes they let the bad things teachers tell them about their children affect them. A so-called rebellious child must be viewed like seeing Miss America in the mud-- she is still beautiful but all she needs is to be washed off.
Yes, sometimes our children do not behave well and so require a little bit of fixing and that must not detract from the fact that they are still basically good. If we can transmit to our children how our grandparents blessed the Chanuka candles, then and only then can we guarantee that our grandchildren will also offer holy blessings over the candles and continue to serve as shining lights.


A FEW GOOD CHANUKAH STORIES   DEEP SECRETS MASQUERADING AS PROFANE  In Europe many people were accustomed to playing the game, checkers instead of learning Torah on Chanukah. (I dont know the origins or reasons.) Once Reb Nachum Stefanester, (a son of the holy Rihzner) walked into the bais medrash (house of learning) and found some of his chassidim busy playing. Although they were embarrassed, the rebbe casually asked them if they knew the rules of the game. After they remained silent for a while, the Stefanester answered his own question as follows. You give one in order to acquire two, (sacrificing one in order to double jump), you must never take two steps at a time, you must always move up never down and once youve reached the top you can go wherever you like.  THE HOLY DINOVER  Reb Zvi Elimelech of Dinov, known after his work The Bnai Yissachar (lived about 175 years ago), always wondered why he felt particularly exhilarated when Chanukah came around. As much as he thought about it, he just couldnt figure it out, since he was not descendant from the Macabees because he was not a cohen. Why did the Chanukah lights affect him so much. In as much as he was on his way to visit his rebbe, the holy Chozeh of Lublin, who was reknown for being able to see from one corner of the universe to the other, he figured that the Lubliner would be able to supply him with the answer.
When he arrived in Lublin, the holy chozeh informed him, even before he could ask, that his deep connection to Chanukah was because he was descendant from the tribe of Yissachar. They were the leading Torah scholars who lead the high court of law in the time of the Macabees. This was the reason why the Dinover named his torah work, Bnai Yissachar.

THE LUBLINERS CHANUKAH SIGHT  One Chanukah Reb Yitzchak Meir of Ger, the Chidushei Harim, traveled to Lublin to visit his rebbe. He had brought with him a kvitle, a letter of request addressed to the rebbe, from one of his friends. When the holy Chozeh looked at the kvitle he threw it down in disgust. The following evening the Chidushei Harim once again handed his rebbe the kvitle. This time he read it and supplied an answer. Reb Yitzchak Meir was puzzled and asked the Lubliner what was the difference between the two nights. The Lubliner replied that the previous night the kvitle writer was wasting his time playing cards but tonight he was kindling his Chanukah lights.

There are numerous folk customs associated with the holiday of Chanuka. In many communities, it is not unusual to find people playing cards and gambling in the synogogue. The custom with many hasidim is to play checkers on Chanuka.
Once, during Chanuka, Reb Nachum suddenly entered the study hall to find his hasidim playing checkers. The hasidim, seeing the Rebbe standing over them, froze with fright. Reb Nachum merely asked them whether they knew the rules by which the game was played. When no one dared to reply, the Rebbe answered his own question. Ill tell you the rules: two moves at one time are not allowed; you can only go foward, not backward; but when you reach the end space, you can go in any direction you please.  
Moshav Meor Modiim, Kislev 5747 Reprinted from Cong Kehilath Jacob News  Every person has two functions. One function of me and the world, and then there is me and me, me and G-d.
Between, there are two kind of relationships, you and me in the world, and then there is just you and me without the world. Beyond the world. Deeper than the world.

How do you know how much you love a person? Are you aware of the world when you are talking to them? If there is still a sure you are close, but real closeness is when suddenly the world stops.

Reb Nachman says, when you daven, there is me and the world and G-d. But then slowly as you daven more, there is just me and G-d. Then I go higher and higher, I stop to exist. There is only G-d. The deepest secret is how do you keep it all together.

You know what happens when people come to Shul on Yom Kippur. Why doesn't it last five minutes after? Because on Yom Kippur if I'm so close to G-d, it is just me and G-d. But the minute there is a world, G-d disappears. Let's say I love this girl very much when I am with her. Then I walk out on the street and already I forget that she exists.

How do you get it all together? Here I want you to know something. The Greeks offer us a beautiful world, but that's all. Yiddishkeit, basically offers us a world. There is only one G-d, there is just me and G-d. So I want you to know something, we lost our children because children want the world.
Sure they want to think sometimes that there is no world, just you and me, you and G-d. But where is the beautiful world?

So Chanukah, the Hashmonean really got it together. They brought in Chanukah lights. Everybody knows Chanukah is Mehadrin min Hamedadrin, beautiful and more beautiful and we kindle lights in the house. The house is a place where I'm just alone, where I'm alone with my children. I'm kindling lights by the floor and I'm shining into the world. Because the real truth is the world doesn't tear you away from G-d or from the Torah.

The time for Chanukah lights is at night. Basically the night is a time when people can get so close because during the night the world doesn't exist so much. But there is a world.

The Hashmoneim say, "Gevalt Master of the world, let me kindle the chanukah lights!" Do you know what is so special about the lights? You are able to see them and yet it is "Ohr Haganuz", a hidden light that you know not to be an ordinary light or just a candle burning. It is full of secrets, full of mystery, full of the deepest depths. It means that while I see something I'm always aware that there is something deeper, so much deeper, the part where the world doesn't reach.

When I love someone very much, I see them, they are there, but I also know, there is so much more.

The Torah says about our Mother Sarah, "hinei bo-ohel", Behold, she is in the tent. The mother fixes for children their relationship to G-d without the world. There is something between a mother and children that is so close; it has nothing to do with the world. The father is supposed to give over to children how to believe in G-d in the world,  Everybody knows that the woman is the house. Sarah, "hinei bo-ohel'. So Chanukah the deepest fixing is "Eesh ubeisso", a man and his house. Mamesh, the husband and wife together, it is the world and without the world, beyond the world.
It is so beautiful that you can't take your eyes off it, and yet you know that you don't really see it because it is so much deeper, and the deepest depths is that all the children are kindling lights also.

I don't have to make sure that my little boy of seven puts on Tefillin. But my little boy, my little girl of five, are kindling Chanukah lights. Because, maybe what I see is seven years old, but the part I can't see is ancient, eternal, forever, beyond time and space. On Chanukah I put it all together because I'm truly close to children when I know that what I see is only a small part of they really are.

You know, the Greeks say the world is only what you see.
On Chanukah I say, yes I see a world, it is beautiful, but gevalt!

Our Holy Sages teach us, "We are not permitted to make any use of them except watching them" I look at the lights and see everything nobody sees.

You know friends, Israel is the same way. Everybody knows that on Chanukah we fix our eyes. We fix the sin of the spies.
Because what was wrong there? The spies looked at Israel and saw only what they saw. They didn't see that which can't he seen. But when you see what you can't see, then you took again and you see a different world. And everybody knows that on Chanukah, when you kindle the lights, suddenly every house becomes a different world. Suddenly every house is Israel, every house is the Holy Temple, and every child that kindles the light is the High Priest. Good Yom Tov.

Shlomo  
Subject: zos chanuka Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed" 
Moshav Meor Modiim, Kislev 5745 Reprinted from Cong Kehilath Jacob News 
Dear Friends, 
The Talmud says the story of Chanukah is not written down and the Holy Rabbis comment that until the Moshiach comes, we are still in the middle of the story of Chanukah. There are still the Greeks who want to defile everything holy that we have, and the Greeks In all shapes and forms, under the flag of holiness or culture, who drag our children into all the pagan temples.
But there are still somewhere the High Priest and his children who save Israel. And there is still somewhere buried within every Jew one drop of pure oil. And it is still in every generation that we think that the light will not last more than one night and in every generation the miracle happens, the light lasts forever.

Everybody knows tha G-d is signing on Yom Kippur, and Aharon the High Priest, in the name of all Israel is signing on the last days of Chanukah. And this has millions of meanings. Let me share with you one, On Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur I stand before G-d as an individual, asking G-d for forgiveness, hoping and praying for another good year. On Chanukah, it is all of Israel. And unless all of Israel, unless G-d's light will burn forever, unless my children come back from all the pagan temples, and unless I find again that one drop of oil which is untouched by all the ugliness of the so-called Greeks, I don't want to live. But can the world be without Jews? Can even G-d be without us?
Can the world be without the Holy Temple? Can the world be without a High Priest? Can the world exist without our children kindling holy lights every night?

So therefore on Chanukah, the energy is not into eating, having a feast like every other Yom Tov, because, so to speak, I am standing by the door of my house and I say to G-d that unless my children be forever Chanukah lights, I'm walking out on you. And by the door with great joy and great thanksgiving, G-d is sealing us, sealing us into the Book of Eternity. You see, my beautiful friends, at Yom Kippur we are sealed into the Book of Life and with Chanukah the sealing is into the Book of Eternity, And only the High Priest who sealed the one drop of pure oil can sign you and me and all of Israel into that Book, the book of all books, the secret light of the Torah.

Shlomo 