So the class tonight is on Chanukah. And I just want to give a little introduction that what I'm going to say tonight is probably, not probably, it's for sure, not going to be anything new to all the people who are here, because anybody who has a little bit of knowledge in what חסידות has to say about Chanukah, or certainly what the Rebbe in the שיחות has to say about Chanukah, will certainly be familiar with the ענינים that I'm going to be saying tonight. But I thought that doesn't matter because never hurts a little review, even on things that you know, simple things, but comes to the date, comes to Chanukah, it's good to have a review even of those things that people are familiar with. As we know, we always do that. Comes to Purim, we read the Megillah every year. Everyone knows the story of the Megillah, and the הלכה is that you have to re-read it again. It's a review. So we will review the ענינים of Chanukah, even though they're simple and everybody I'm sure knows what the ענינים of Chanukah are according to the way חסידות explains and the way the Rebbe explains. But, like I said, it won't hurt anybody just to sit back, relax, and you won't have to put, do too much concentration, because these are all familiar ענינים, but nevertheless, hopefully, I will come across with what the Rebbe said on Chanukah, even though it's very simple and everyone understands. We know that Chanukah is celebrated basically for four reasons. In other words, four things took place at that time which are the reason why we have the Yom Tov of Chanukah. Number one, we celebrate the victory of the war. At that time, when the Greeks took over ארץ ישראל, and they decreed different decrees against the Jews, as we will talk about later, it turned into a great war between the Yidden and the גוים and the Greeks, and there were many, many more in the goyishe army against the Yidden, and they were also much stronger, and, naturally, it was impossible for the Jews to win, and nevertheless, Hashem made a miracle and they won. So we celebrate the Yom Tov because of the victory of the war, which is a physical war. There was a physical war between the Jews and the Greeks, the יוונים, and the Yidden won, and that's one reason for celebration. The second reason for celebration is the נצחון, the victory of the spiritual war. Because, as we will see later, in addition to a physical war, there was also a spiritual war. The יוונים decreed terrible decrees against the Jewish religion. They wanted to stop the Yidden from practicing Yiddishkeit. And when the Yidden came out victorious in the physical part of it, automatically the decrees were nullified and they had the victory over the יוונים in the spiritual sense. So that's another reason, another part to the Yom Tov of Chanukah. Then the third part to the Yom Tov of Chanukah is that when they came to the בית המקדש after they won the war and they wanted to start the service over again, so there was one thing they couldn't do. They couldn't light the Menorah, because in order to light the Menorah, you have to have the pure olive oil that has to be tahor. It cannot be tamei. It cannot be touched by people who have the ruchniyusdike, the spiritual tumah, the spiritual impurity. And they couldn't find any oil that were, they were able to use for the menorah. So a miracle happened and they found a jar of oil, one jar of oil that was sealed with the seal of the Kohen Gadol, and they had proof that it wasn't touched by the Yevanim and they knew for sure that this was tahor, it was pure, wasn't tamei. So the finding of the jar of oil in itself is a reason to celebrate. That's the third reason. Whether we could call it miracle or we would call it a פלא, only a wondrous thing, but nevertheless, it's reason to celebrate. And then the fourth part to the celebration is that that when they did find this jar of oil, the jar of oil was only enough to last for one day, and Hashem made a miracle that it lasted for eight days. And the reason that he did for eight days, because it took eight days for them to make fresh oil which would be tahor. So they needed eight days of, a supply of eight days till they would get new oil, and Hashem made this miracle that it lasted for eight days instead of one day, which is the reason why Chanukah is for eight days. If it would be just for the other reasons that we said, for the victory of the physical war or the victory of the spiritual war, or for the עצם, for the real, for the finding of the jar of oil, one day would be enough. The reason we have eight days is because the miracle took place for eight days, the miracle of the oil that it lasted for eight days. The truth is it says in some of the sefarim, in the Sefer Chashmona'i for instance, other sefarim, that the year when they won the war and they entered into the בית המקדש, they celebrated for eight days, regardless of the miracle of the oil. They celebrated, the celebration for the victory lasted for eight days. And then from then on every year we celebrate eight days. But the real reason why we celebrate eight days the Gemara says is because the miracle of the oil lasted for eight days and therefore we have Chanukah for eight days. There are many questions that come up concerning Chanukah. The first and most famous question is, if the reason we have eight days is because of the miracle of the oil, then really the miracle was only for seven days. Because, as we said, they found a jar that had enough oil to last for one day. So one day was not a miracle. It had enough to last for one day. The extra days that it lasted was extra seven days, so the miracle really was for seven days. So we should only celebrate Chanukah for seven days, not for eight days. And there are many different reasons given to answer this question. As a matter of fact, there is a sefer which is called Ner LaMeah which has 100 answers, 100 answers to this one question. And the truth is there are more answers that were given which are not even written in that sefer, Ner LaMeah, so there are really 120 or how many answers to this question. The main answers are, number one, that one day was set aside to celebrate the victory, in itself, that itself is a day. So one day we celebrate the victory of the war, and then seven more days is the miracle of the oil. Another answer is given that one day we celebrate the fact that they found the oil, which we said before, was in itself like a miracle. So we celebrate one day that Hashem made that they should find one jar of oil, and then seven more days is the miracle of the oil lasting for eight days. All kinds of answers. One answer is ספיקא דיומא, because just like every Yom Tov we have two days, even though originally they were one because we don't know exact- they didn't in those days know ex- not always did they know which day Rosh Chodesh is, so that the same thing could happen with Chanukah. Then there is a very simple answer, and according to this answer, not only is it an answer, but according to this there is no question to begin with. The whole question is based on this that the Gemara says that they found one jar of oil שלא היה בו להדליק אלא יום אחד, it only had enough to last only for one day. The question is, but for one day it had, so the miracle was only for seven days. There is a girsa, there is according to the She'iltot, the way he has in his Gemara the way the She'iltot was written about 1,000 years ago, according to him, that's not what the Gemara said. The Gemara said they found one jar of oil ולא היה בו להדליק אפילו יום אחד, it didn't have enough even for one day, which means that there wasn't even enough for one day. So even the first day was also a miracle that it lasted. But whichever way it is, we find answers why Chanukah is for eight days, even though it seems as if the miracle was for seven days. Then there's another question that's asked about Chanukah, that when we say that the main reason for Chanukah is the fact that the oil lasted for eight days when really it should have lasted for one, and the reason they needed the miracle because they couldn't find any oil, they only had one jar of oil. But the Gemara says they had many jars of oil. The problem was they were all tamei. It doesn't say that the Yevanim destroyed the oil. It says טמאו כל השמנים שבהיכל, it means they made tamei all the oil of the בית המקדש, and therefore they couldn't use it. They could only use this one jar of oil, because the din is that when you light the menorah or anything else that you do in the בית המקדש, it has to be the thing that you use has to be tahor, it cannot be tamei, it cannot be impure. The question is we have a halacha, a law, which is called טומאה הותרה בציבור, which means that when it comes to a public service in the בית המקדש, and there is no choice but to do it with tumah, to do it while the people or the object is tamei, you're allowed to do it. That's the din. That's the halacha, that when you're able to do it b'taharah, when you're able to do it with the things and the kohanim and the people involved as they are tahor, that's the way you're supposed to do it, and you're not allowed to do it when it's tamei. But if there is no choice, then the din is טומאה הותרה בציבור, when it comes tzibur, to a public service in the בית המקדש, you're allowed to do it b'tumah if that's the only way you could do it. So in this case, when they did not have any tahor'dike oil, any pure oil, any, not pure, pure in the ingredients, but pure meaning not tamei, clean oil, spiritually clean, על פי הלכה, they were allowed to light the menorah with tamei'dike oil. So what's the big fuss over the nes? Why did Hashem make this miracle when really this miracle was not even needed, when they על פי הלכה were able to light the menorah? And the mefarshim answer that Hashem wanted to show the Yidden at that time how much he loved them, that even for a hidur mitzvah he made a miracle. Definitely, it is a hidur mitzvah, it's better if you light the menorah with tahor'dike oil even though you're allowed to light it with tamei'dike oil. It's only if you have no choice, we call it b'diavad b'sha'at hadchak, when there is no choice, the halacha is that you're allowed to use tamei'dike oil. But definitely, it's not a hidur, it's not the best way possible to do. Hashem wanted to show the Yidden that even just for a hidur mitzvah, even just for them to be able to fulfill the mitzvah b'hidur in the best possible way, Hashem performed a miracle. This shows the חביבות, the love that Hashem has to the Yidden, that not only for their personal needs, not only for them to be able to perform a mitzvah did Hashem perform a miracle, but even if they were able to perform the mitzvah, but it wouldn't have been so good, so behidur, Hashem wanted them to do it behidur, so he made a miracle. This shows the chavivut, the love that the Eibershter has to the Yidden. Why did Hashem at that time want to show the Yidden this special love? Because the Yidden went on mesirut nefesh. The Yidden who fought the war actually were ready to give up their lives. They didn't know that they would win the war. The odds were against them, and nevertheless they went to fight the enemy, and this was all for the sake of Hashem. As we know, the motto that Matityahu, what he said when he gathered the people, he said, מי להשם אלי, כמאמר, like it says in Chumash, who is to השם, come with me. And the motto of Yehuda Hamakabi was, the Maccabi is an abbreviation of four words, מי כמוך באלים השם, who is like you among the gods, Hashem, that means Hashem is the only God. So when they fought the war, they fought for the sake of Hashem, and they did not know they would win the war. They just went on mesirut nefesh for the sake of Hashem. When the Yidden showed their mesirut nefesh for Hashem, Hashem said to them, I will show you how much I love you. You show me how much you love me, that you're ready to give up your life for me, I will show you how much I love you, that I will perform a miracle even when it's not needed for the fulfillment of the mitzvah per se, but it's needed only for the hidur, Hashem said, I'll do that.

What was actually the mesirut nefesh? Why did the Yidden go on mesirut nefesh? What was the reason for them being ready to give up their life against the goyim? What was it that the goyim wanted? So as we said before, there were two things here: there was the physical war, and then there was the spiritual war. And actually, the physical war came as a result of the spiritual war. The reason there was a physical war because there was a spiritual decree that the goyim had against the Yidden. And because of that, the Yidden started the war, revolted against the goyim. So the physical war came as a result of the spiritual war. So really they went on mesirut nefesh because of the spiritual decrees that the Yevanim made against the Yidden. What were the decrees that they made? What did the Greeks want from the Yidden that the Yidden fought so much against? It says in the Midrash that they wanted them not to fulfill the mitzvot. Mainly it was the three mitzvot, but it really included all, but mainly they stressed not to keep Shabbos, not to keep the mitzvah of milah, circumcision, and not to keep the mitzvah of חודש, which is when the בית דין is מקדש the חודש, they set up the months, which is the time for the ימים טובים etc., etc. The way to remember these three is very easy: they make up the ראשי תיבות of שמח. שמח is שין, סין, which is שין, מם, חית: שבת, מילה, and חודש. These were the three main things, but really they wanted to make them go against the whole Torah. Till the Midrash says that they wanted to force the Yidden to write, that's what they said to them, כתבו לכם על קרן השור, write on the horn of an ox, שאין לכם חלק באלקי ישראל, that you have no share in the God of the Jews. They wanted to tear them away from the Jews. And as the Rambam says when he describes the problems the Yidden had at that time before the miracle of Chanukah, so he says that לחצום לחץ גדול, they pressured them very much, and they wanted them to go against Torah u'mitzvot. Not Not to study Torah, not to do mitzvot, that's what the Rambam says. And what do we need more than what we say in ועל הנסים? בעל הנסים we say they wanted להשכיחם תורתך, to make them forget your תורה, ולהעבירם מחוקי רצונך, make them to go against the חוקים, the the מצוות, רצונך, of your will. So they wanted the Yidden to go against the Torah, they wanted to force the Yidden not to fulfill the Torah. And the Yidden had a hard time. And because of that, they revolted and went on mesirat nefesh to fight the goyim. But there was another tzarah, another problem that the Yidden had, in addition to the Yevanim that wanted to do this to them. The problem they had was an inside problem. They had the מתיוונים. At that time, you know, a lot of people who were מתיוונים. Misyavnim mean they accepted, Jews who accepted the Greek culture. And from within the Jews, they made them the biggest problems. And when you have problems from within yourself, then it makes the fight, the war, much harder. And it makes it harder physically and spiritually. It makes it harder physically, we all know that when there is a war and the worst thing that you could expect is a fifth column. They call a fifth column is if you have from within your own people who are against you, then you have the hardest fight. When you know who your enemy is, then you could fight it. When it's amongst yourself, even if you know who they are, but if they're it's amongst yourself, then it's the hard you have the hardest fight, physically. So they had Yidden, many Yidden, as it says in the history of that time, history, I don't mean the goyishe lehavdil history books, but from the sources, the proper sources, they had many Yidden who were misyavnim, who accepted the goyishe culture and joined forces with the goyim. So the Yidden, imagine what kind of trouble they had to fight then. Plus, the fact that we had misyavnim made it worse beruchniyus, spiritually. Because we all understand what when it comes to fight a war, we need Hashem's help, especially in a case when you have many against the few and strong against the weak, so certainly you need Hashem's help, but you always need Hashem's help. In order for Hashem to help, you have to have a zechut, you have to have a merit. We all know when someone is in trouble, what do you do? Say Tehillim, you give more tzedakah, you learn more Torah. Why? Because you need more zechuyot. So the Yidden need zechuyot when it comes to war. They need more merits. Now imagine when you had so many Yidden who became misyavnim, so many Yidden who accepted the goyishe culture, and they themselves did not keep Torah u'mitzvot. So you could imagine the lack of zechuyot, the lack of spiritual zechuyot, of merits, that the Yidden would have in the eyes of Hashem, which made it even harder, which made it even worse for the Yidden. So the goyim decreed against the Yidden, which made it hard, and the misyavnim made it even worse. And that's one of the great miracles that took place, that Hashem helped the Yidden even though they have so many misyavnim who made it worse for them beruchniyus, which is by the way an answer to an interesting question that we have in ועל הנסים. In ועל הנסים we say that Hashem performed the miracles, and we mention few things: מסרת גבורים ביד חלשים, that you gave over the strong in the hands of the weak. It's a miracle, imagine that the strong were conquered by the weak. רבים ביד מעטים, the many in the hands of the few, that's a miracle. And then we continue, ורשעים ביד צדיקים, the רשעים in the hand of צדיקים, טמאים ביד טהורים, the impure in the hands of the pure, the זדים, the evil ones ביד עוסקי תורתך, in the hands of those that study Torah. But the question is, what is the miracle here? If the the Al Hanissim which describe the miracle, these last three statements don't describe a miracle. The miracle is when they're the strong in the hands of the weak, the many in the hands of the few. What is the miracle that the resha'im were given over in the hands of the tzadikim? Or that the teme'im, the impure were given over in the hands of the pure? What is the miracle here? And what is the miracle the last of זדים ביד עוסקי תורתך, the evil people in the hands of those that study Torah? So the Rebbe explained that these three do not refer to the goyim. They do not refer to the Yevanim. They refer to the מתיוונים, to the Jews. And that's the miracle. That Jews who were resha'im did not win. Because the fact that Jews were resha'im, that would be a reason for the evil forces to win, because we lack the זכותים, so many Yidden are resha'im. Or teme'im, so many Yidden are tamei against the tehorim who were less in numbers than the מתיוונים, the Jewish teme'im. That's a miracle that nevertheless Hashem helped the few against the fact that there were so many Yidden who were not the way they're supposed to. And the same thing with זדים ביד עוסקי תורתך. As a matter of fact, the Rebbe says that When we use the word tzadikim versus resha'im, or resha'im versus tzadikim, it can't even refer to goyim. We can't call goyim resha'im versus Yidden tzadikim. They're in a different category altogether. In the Yidden itself we could say some Yidden are resha'im, some are tzadikim, or teme'im and tehorim. We can't even call the goy tamei. A goy is not tamei. A goy is not at all in the category of tumah. Tumah v'taharah, the spiritual purity and impurity is only by a Yid. A Yid could be tahor, should be tahor, a Yid could be tamei. If you touch something the Torah says makes you tamei, it makes you tamei. If you touch a dead body, or certain other reasons that make a person tamei. A goy cannot be tamei. The Rambam says, in many places, and the Raavad, that there's no such thing as tumah by a goy. That's why there is no such thing as a goy has to wash negel vasser. Because negel vasser is take away to take away the רוח הטומאה, the טומאה'דיגע spirit. A goy doesn't have a טומאה'דיגע spirit, he's not in the category. The Alter Rebbe in Shulchan Aruch says, where does a tumah come? In a place of kedushah, tumah tries to get an אחיזה, tries to hold on. But the goyim don't have that category at all. So how could we mention in the Al Hanissim that Hashem gave over the teme'im, the טומאה'דיגע ones in the hands of the טהורה'דיגע ones, if we mean the goyim? The goyim are not tamei. So the Rebbe says this means the Yidden who were tamei. And the same thing, זדים ביד עוסקי תורתך, the evil ones against the ones that study Torah, you can't refer to the goyim, because they're not in the category of studying Torah at all. But it means the Yidden. And that's another part of the miracle, that even though you had the Yisraelim who made it harder for them בגשמיות physically, and made it harder for them ברוחניות, and nevertheless there was the miracle that we won. The Yidden went on mesirut nefesh. The Frume Yidden went on mesirut nefesh knowing that the odds are against them begashmiyut and beruchniyut, and they nevertheless went on mesirut nefesh. What did really the יוונים want that brought out by the Yidden mesirut nefesh? So we mentioned before that what they wanted was, as we say in על הניסים, להשכיחם תורתך, to make them forget your תורה, ולעבירם מחוקי רצונך, make them go against the chukim of your will. And the Rebbe explains that this means something very special. The יוונים did not care that the Yidden study Torah. As a matter of fact, the יוונים were very smart people. The Greeks at that time were the smartest of the world. The Greeks at that time were the most cultured nature, nation of the world. They were the ones that were the smartest. In the Gemara we find a lot about the חכמים. When it talks about חכמי אומות העולם, the חכמים, the scholars of the גוים, it refers to the Greeks. There's a whole sugya in Gemara talks about סבי דבי אתונא, the סבא, the scholars, the elders of Athens. They were very smart. They could not care that the Yidden study Torah. Torah, we know, is a very, very intellectual subject. Even the גוים agree that the Torah is an intellectual subject. There's a pasuk in Chumash that says: כי היא חכמתכם ובינתכם לעיני העמים. This is your wisdom, your knowledge in the eyes of the nations. The nations know that this is something very deep and very smart. So the יוונים, who were very smart people, and the יוונים, who appreciated knowledge, they had respect for knowledge, what do they care if the Yidden study Torah? So the Al Hanissim tells us that that's not what bothered them. It doesn't say that they wanted להשכיחם התורה, to make them forget the Torah. They didn't care that the Yidden study Torah. What they wanted the Yidden not to do is not to study the Torah because Torah is תורתך, your Torah. They wanted to make them forget that it's your Torah. When we Yidden study Torah, we don't study Torah because there's so it's so deep. We don't study Torah because it's so smart, and there is so much wisdom and knowledge. That's not the reason to study the Torah. We study the Torah because it is your Torah. We know that the Torah is חכמתו של הקדוש ברוך הוא, it's the wisdom of Hashem. When we study Torah, we think of Hashem, and this is His wisdom, and He commanded us to study Torah. That's why we study Torah. That's the way a Yid is supposed to study Torah. What they wanted that we should study Torah the same way. They wanted we should study Torah, but it shouldn't be תורתך, we shouldn't study it because it's your Torah. There's a famous Midrash that says, and everyone knows the Midrash, that if someone tells you חכמה יש בגוים תאמין, if someone says that the goyim have chochmah, wisdom, knowledge, intellect, believe him, it's true, they do have. If someone will tell you תורה יש בגוים, אל תאמין. Someone will tell you the goyim have Torah, don't believe it. And the mefarshim say, what does that mean? You have so many goyim who study Torah? There were goyim who studied Chumash, studied Tanach, there were goyim who studied Talmud, Gemara, there were goyim. So how could you say the goyim don't have Torah? The answer is, when the goyim study Torah, it's only chochmah. When it says in this Midrash that they have chochmah, not Torah, It doesn't mean chochmah versus Torah. It means Torah versus Torah. The Torah that they study is pure חכמה, they study it for חכמה and that's what they like and that's what they have. They don't have a connection to the קדושה, to the holiness of Torah, to Hashem who is in the Torah. But we study Torah because it's Hashem's Torah. And what they wanted was להשכיחם תורתך, to make Yidden forget that it's Toratecha, your Torah. And then we go on, it says further, they wanted us להעבירם מחוקי רצונך, to make us go away from the חוקים of your will. Now, we know when we talk about mitzvot, there are three categories of mitzvot, which are namely משפטים, עדות, and חוקים. משפטים are those mitzvot that we understand, those mitzvot that if the Torah would not have told us, we'd have done it anyway. Mostly they're מצוות בין אדם לחבירו, between man and man. For instance, not to steal, it's a mitzvah, but it's a mitzvah from משפטים. If the Torah wouldn't say it, the Gemara says, אלמלא ניתנה תורה, if the Torah wouldn't be given, we would have learned out גזל מנמלה, we would have learned a lesson from an ant not to steal. The ants don't steal. צניעות מחתול, we would have learned out צניעות, to behave with צניעות from a cat. You don't need the Torah for it. We do it because the Torah said so, but these are mitzvot that we would understand on our own. עדות are those mitzvot that on our own we wouldn't keep, but when the Torah did tell us to do it, we know why the Torah said so. For instance, Shabbos. If the Torah wouldn't tell us to keep Shabbos, on our own we wouldn't keep Shabbos, but now that the Torah said, we have a reason, we understand it. Hashem rested, created the world in seven six days, rested on the seventh, keep Shabbos. Pesach, we wouldn't keep Pesach if not for the Torah, but we understand. Then there are such mitzvot which are called chukim. Chukim are mitzvot that have no reason. As the Midrash says, Rashi brings it, Hashem says, חוקה חקקתי, I established a rule, a law, גזירה גזרתי, I decreed, אין לך רשות להרהר, don't think about it, you'll never understand it. These are things that make no sense, like shaatnez and פרה אדומה and בשר בחלב not to eat meat and milk. There are certain mitzvot called chukim. What does it say in Al Hanissim? It doesn't say they wanted to make us go away from the mitzvot. They wanted us make make us go away from the chukim. That's what they cared. They didn't care that we did mitzvot. Just like they didn't care that we learned Torah, they themselves learned Torah. The גוים studied. They didn't want us to do it because it's Hashem's Torah. The same thing here, they didn't care if we did mitzvot. Everyone knows that every nation, להבדיל, has their own customs and their own things that they do. What do you care? So we'll do these things, big deal. They didn't care. What they didn't want us to do was the חוקים, מצוות that have no reason. So why do we do it? Because Hashem said so. That's what bothered them. Not only that, if we look in the expression, it doesn't say להעבירם מחוקיך, they wanted to make us go away from your chukim. It says מחוקי רצונך, from the chukim of your will, which goes a little bit deeper. They didn't even care if we do chukim. There are two ways why a person would do chukim. One reason would be, even though I don't understand the reason for the chukim, but I believe that Hashem is so smart and if He told us to do it, He definitely has a reason. I don't know it, but He definitely has a reason. If I do chukim for that reason, sof kol sof, the bottom line is that I'm doing it because there is a reason there. It's just that I don't understand the reason, but there is a reason to chukim. They didn't care if we did that. They would say, you're doing it for a reason, but you feel that you're not smart enough, so you don't know the reason. Like somebody will listen to his parents even though he doesn't know the reason, but he assumes that they know, they're smarter than me, they're older, they have more experience, they have a reason. If a yid would do the chukim for that reason, then they didn't care. What we really do chukim is not because we believe that Hashem has a reason. We don't care if there is no reason. What we care is Hashem wants us to do it. We don't stop and think, well, we do it because there is a reason, some things I understand the reason, some things are a deeper reason. That's not the that's not why we do it. We do it because they are חוקי רצונך, of your will, and that's what they didn't want. להעבירם מחוקי רצונך, to make us go away from the chukim of your will, not just from the chukim, from the fact that the chukim are your will. That's what they didn't want. And that's why they said to the Yidden, we want you to write על קרן השור, on the horn of an ox, שאין לכם חלק באלקי ישראל, that you don't have a chelek in Hashem. That means they didn't say, write that you will not perform the mitzvot, write that you will not learn Torah. They didn't care if we would learn Torah. Write that you have no share in Hashem. You'll learn Torah, not because Hashem said so. You'll learn, not because it's Hashem's Torah. You'll do mitzvot, not because Hashem said so, but just that you feel that it's a good idea to do mitzvot. And they wanted that to be written, a proclamation from the Yidden. And they wanted that we should train the children from as small as they are to follow this philosophy. Which is one of the reasons it says in mefarshim, why they told them to write it on a horn of an ox. What's the idea of a horn? Why on a horn? Why didn't they say write on the a paper? Or at that time, write on a piece of parchment, proclaim in the newspapers you have no connection, you have no share in the God of Hashem, of Yidden. Why on a horn? So, there are different peshatim. One of the peshatim is an interesting peshat. Nowadays, when a mother can't nurse, we have bottles. What did they do before the bottles? Just years, years ago, 2,000 years ago, what did they do? So they used to take a horn, like a shofar, and drill a tiny, tiny hole, and they would fill it with milk, and they would put it in the mouth of the baby, and it would drip, drip slowly into the mouth of the baby. That's what they said, \"Write on that horn. When you nurse your children, from the moment they're born, when they're tiny babies, raise them with this philosophy, that you have no share באלקי ישראל, you have no share in der Eibershter, in Hashem.\" That means, do what you want, teach them to be to to learn Torah, but not in a form of Hashem, because Hashem said so. What they didn't like, something higher than sechel, that's what they couldn't take. That's one of the reasons it says in sefarim, why one of the things they did was they were metamei, they made impure all the oils. Why did they do this? Why did they make it tamei? If they wanted to make sure that the Yidden should not be able to light the menorah, in case the Yidden will take over again, they should have destroyed the oil, burned it, threw it away. They left it. They didn't destroy it. They made it tamei. Why did they make it tamei?

So we know that out of all the mitzvot in the Torah, the one category that is completely beyond logic is tumah v'taharah, is the fact that you're tamei or tahor. The Rambam uses that term. The Rambam says that אין המת מטמא, you touch a dead body it doesn't make you טמא, ואין המקוה מטהר, the mikveh doesn't make you tahor. It's a gezeirat hakatuv, Hashem said so, and that's it. The truth is, there are other mitzvot that are also beyond logic. The difference is why tumah v'taharah is more, we'll explain it. Other things, even though we don't understand why, but every mitzvah has some physical change that takes place with the mitzvah. When you make a pair of tefillin, and it becomes holy, we don't see the kedushah. We're not such great people to see the kedushah. But when does the kedushah come, according to our emunah, when it's made in a certain shape? When it's made in tefillin, made in a certain way, so you see a change. When is matzah matzah? We might not know why we'd eat matzah and not chametz, but matzah and chametz are two different objects. Everything, the גשמיות has something to it, physically there's something to it. Then, on top of that, why if it's this way, it's like this, if it's this way, it's like this, that we don't understand in many cases. But we see what the Torah is talking about. The only thing that we can't see any physical change whatsoever is tumah v'taharah. If a מת, a dead body, will touch something, it will become tamei. You don't look at it, not only won't you see the tumah, there is no difference in what happened before and what what was before and what happened now. You don't see anything. And when you dip it in a mikveh, it becomes tahor. You don't see a difference, there is nothing there that's done. It's the same thing as before. When a person is tamei, you don't see a difference in the person before he's tamei and now that he's tamei. And then he goes to the mikveh, he becomes tahor. So out of all things, one thing that is completely beyond logic and beyond anything that we could grasp is tumah v'taharah. And that's what they did. They made it tamei. This was to symbolize that their whole idea is to go against the taharah, which is a spiritual thing beyond nature. And what did they make tamei out of everything? The oil for the menorah. Why the oil? Because we know the oil is to light the menorah, to bring light. Light represents seichel. Light represents understanding, intellect. I always use this example, in the comic books when they want to show that somebody got a bright idea, they make a bulb. Light, that's an idea, that's seichel. And it makes sense why also. What is seichel? Seichel doesn't create anything. When you understand something, nothing is changed. What it is, it becomes clear in your mind, something you did not understand before, now it's clear, just like light. Light, when you open the light, nothing changes. The room was there the way it is there, the way it was there before. Before, it wasn't clear, you couldn't see it, now you see it. That's what light is. That's what seichel is. What they wanted is that the seichel should become tamei. Like this, our seichel tells us that even though we understand, but this is not it. There is beyond seichel, there is Hashem, and the Torah that we learn is not because of the seichel, we go beyond the seichel. They wanted to make tamei the oil and then light the menorah. They were happy, they wanted we should light the menorah with tameidige oil. Then it would symbolize that the light that comes, comes from tumah, which means that the seichel is touched by impurity, which means that we don't have that beyond seichel. And that's what they wanted. And against this, the Yidden went on mesirut nefesh. They chose, they fought against these things which showed the connection of a Yid to Hashem, not because of logic, but beyond. That's why they chose Shabbos. Shabbos we know is a sign that we belong to Hashem. Milah is a sign in the body that we belong to Hashem. חודש, that's because all the holidays, which is a big percentage of Torah, of mitzvot, are dependent on when Rosh Chodesh is. So they wanted to go against it because they wanted us not to feel our connection to Hashem. Not the Torah and the mitzvot that they care about, it's the connection to Hashem that they cared about. And that's what the Yidden went on mesirut nefesh. When the Yidden went on mesirut nefesh, that means that they awakened in themselves deeper kochos which is beyond the normal, average, natural way of a person behaving. Naturally, they couldn't do what they did. They would never fight against an army like that, you can't. They awakened in themselves deeper kochos that allowed them to go beyond nature and beyond logic, because the whole fight was logic against beyond logic. The Yevanim wanted logic and nothing more, and the Yidden, their whole inyan is beyond logic, is for the sake of Hashem. And that's when they felt this, they aroused more kochos within themselves to be able to fight. Which if we want to use a little bit kabbalistic terms, chasidishe terms, the pshat is that when they went on mesirut nefesh, they brought down into the world at that time such a spiritual or, a spiritual light, which is not natural and not normal, beyond normal circumstances. We know that always there are spiritual light, there is אור אין סוף, the infinite light of Hashem that comes into the world. Ordinary people don't feel it, but great tzadikim feel this light. When it comes Shabbos, there's a much stronger light that comes into the world. Comes Yom Tov, a stronger light comes into the world, and every Yom Tov has a different type of light, but that's the whole idea. Different spiritual light, אור אין סוף comes into the world. At that time, when they went on mesirut nefesh, they drew down into this world great a great level of light. And that's why the Yom Tov is a Yom Tov of lights. The way we celebrate the Yom Tov is that we have extra light. And that extra light that we have on Chanukah represents that great, special, spiritual light that they brought down. They brought it down at that time when they actually went on mesirut nefesh, but we know that every year the same thing repeats again, just like Pesach every year it repeats again, the same light that came down the first time of יציאת מצרים, every year it comes down. Chanukah, too. Every year on Chanukah, we bring down that great light, and that's a very, very special light. It's a light that's stronger, it says, than the light of the menorah of the בית המקדש. And as we see, the menorah of the בית המקדש was a light that's not everlasting. When Mashiach will come, it'll start again, but there was a time when it stopped, which means, if you want to look at it from a kabbalistic point of view, that the גלות, the exile, the darkness of גלות has the power of pushing away the light of the בית המקדש. That's exactly what happened. The גלות came and that extinguished the light of the בית המקדש. That means that the גלות, the darkness of גלות was so strong that it went against that light of the בית המקדש. The light of Chanukah is such a strong light that the גלות can't push it away. It started then and it brought into the world this type of light that we have it every year, we bring it down again, that as far even though we are in גלות, we still have it.

The Ramban says in the beginning of Parashat Beha'alotcha which we takeh read on Chanukah, says that Hashem said to Moshe, tell Aharon he's going to light the menorah. So Rashi explains that what happened, that after, when they put up the Mishkan, for the first 12 days, every day another prince, נשיא of a tribe, brought different sacrifices as a dedication for the Mishkan. 12. שבט לוי was not included. So Aharon, who was the כהן גדול from שבט לוי, felt very bad. So Hashem said to Moshe, tell him he shouldn't feel bad, because what he's going to do is even better than what they did. What's he going to do? He's going to light the menorah. So the Ramban asks, why is that better than what they did? They brought korbanot. Why is the menorah greater than korbanot? And more questions. So the Ramban says that's not what Hashem meant. He meant, tell him that this menorah that he's going to light will eventually bring about a mitzvah of light, which is Chanukah. And that is greater than what they did, because they dedicated the Mishkan, which is the בית המקדש, and that, at a point, stopped. והנרות הללו אינם בטלים לעולם. These candles of Chanukah are never going to be batel. They will go on and on and on, because the light that came down at that time with the mesirat nefesh of the Yidden to fight against the philosophy of the יוונים brought down such a such a special light that the light of the בית המקדש didn't have it. And as we see, there are a few differences between the light of the בית המקדש and the light of the menorah of Chanukah. The בית המקדש, they used to light during the day. The בית המקדש, they lit the menorah inside. Chanukah, we light the menorah at night. We light the menorah, originally the way the halacha was, we light it פתח ביתו מבחוץ, towards the outside, to light up the outside. This is to symbolize that the light of the menorah could light at a time when there is light, so it adds more light. It doesn't go out into the street. It was in a רשות היחיד, in a private domain, while what we do, we're supposed to light up the רשות הרבים, the public domain. And we know, and it says in sefarim that the difference between רשות היחיד and רשות הרבים, private domain and public domain, is private, יחיד, represents Hashem. Hashem is יחיד, he's the only one. רבים, the רשות הרבים, the domain where you have many, that represents the evil forces because that's the opposite of unity. That's the world, that's the סטרא אחרא, that's the קליפה, that's the evil. So the בית המקדש light was in a רשות היחיד because it didn't have that power to light up the outside, while the light of the menorah is at night and it lights up the רשות הרבים because it has that power that even in darkness it's able to light up even the רשות הרבים. That's why the halachah is that when the Gemara says, how long do the candles have to burn? It says you should light it משתשקע החמה, when the sun sets, עד דכליא רגלא דתרמודאי, till the feet, meaning the people that were called תרמודים. At the time of the Gemara, there was a group of people called תרמודים, and they were the last people to leave the streets at night. And this was about a half hour after nightfall. So the way the Gemara expresses it, you should light it till כליא, finish, you get rid of the feet of the תרמודאי, of this nation called תרמודאי. ברוחניות, what does that mean? תרמודאי, the word תרמוד is the same letters as the word מורדת. מורדת means rebellious. These were people which were are rebellious against Hashem. Actually, the truth is these people, תרמודים, says were descendants of slaves that were the slaves of Shlomo Hamelech, and they revolted against Shlomo Hamelech and they left. He sent them away. So these were rebellious people. So it symbolized the rebellion against Hashem. And the Gemara says you have to light the menorah till you get finish, you get rid of the feet of the rebellion, that means you get rid of the rebellion against Hashem. That's the reason why interesting that the side of the door that the menorah is supposed to be is on the left side. It says that you should have מזוזה מימין, מזוזה on the right, נר חנוכה משמאל, the חנוכה מנורה is on the left side. Actually, it says that the way it's supposed to be is the mezuzah on the right, Chanukah candle on the left, the person who's wearing tzitzit standing in the middle. So the Midrash says this is a חוט המשולש לא במהרה ינתק. There's a pasuk that says, if you have a rope that's made up of three strings, it doesn't tear so fast. Here we have the three: the משולש, the מזוזה, חנוכה, and the tzitzit. But here we see that נר חנוכה is on the left side. Why on the left side? Why on the left side? Because the left represents the other side, the klipah, klipah, the evil side. The right always represents kedushah. The left, as we all know, even in English, even in Yiddish, der rechte un der linke. Der linke are bad people, the other side. So the נר חנוכה is on the left side because the light that we bring down with נר חנוכה is so great. That's why we have eight days, we know that, when we spoke about numbers, we spoke about that number eight represents למעלה מהשתלשלות is a very, very high level. Seven represents the highest level of השתלשלות. That's why we have seven days. Everything is in a cycle of seven: seven days and seven weeks, seven years in שמיטה, seven heavens. There are seven, seven is a complete cycle. That's why seventh day is Shabbos, holy day, it completes the cycle. But it's still the cycle, this is what the Rashba says, it's still the היקף, the cycle of creation. Even Shabbos is part of creation, it is the completion of creation. As the Midrash says that what was missing till Shabbos? Everything was finished, something was still missing, menuchah, rest. בא שבת בא מנוחה. So the world, it says, was חסר, was missing. So Shabbos completed the creation. Eight, which is the one above the seven, that is higher than השתלשלות. אז ישיר, אז, אלף זין, the אלף, the one on top of the seven, and everywhere Chassidus explains this. Milah is on eighth day because it's higher than Shabbos. Chanukah is such a high level of light that it has eight. That's why it says, it's brought down concerning Chanukah, a פסוק, והשם יגיה חשכי, which means, and Hashem is going to light up my darkness. So it doesn't say Hashem, it says והשם with an extra ו, and, and means more, a higher level. It's higher than Havayah, it says. In Kabbalah, it is לפני הוי-ה, higher than the level of Havayah. That's what it is. And that's why it says when Mashiach will come, כל המועדים עתידים לבטל, all the ימים טובים are going to be nullified, חוץ מחנוכה, except Chanukah and Purim, which Purim also for a similar reason, but now we're talking about Chanukah. All the holidays are not going to exist anymore. And Chassidus asks, what does that mean? We know the Torah is נצחי, Torah is forever. How can you say that we won't celebrate Pesach anymore, we won't celebrate Shavuos? The answer is, as I said before, what is a Yom Tov? A יום טוב ברוחניות means that there is a special Godly light that comes down into the world. When Mashiach will come, constantly there will be such great Godly light that will come down, that the light that comes down on Pesach will not be felt as a special thing. We'll celebrate Pesach because the Torah will continue, but we won't feel it as a special day. Chanukah, even then will still be a special day, because the light that is נמשך, that comes down on Chanukah, is so great, because it's from such a high מדרגה that even when Mashiach will come it'll be celebrated as a special day, as a special Yom Tov. And all this came about because the Yidden went on mesirat nefesh. They awakened within themselves the depth of their neshamah, which brought down this great light.

And where do we see hinted, now I'll finish in a moment, where do we see hinted this concept that it came from the עצם הנשמה? It says they found one jar of oil, and the jar of oil was sealed with the seal of the כהן גדול, the high priest. What does that mean? That says that is a remez, a hint to the essence of the neshamah, which is called the יחידה שבנפש, or in Yiddish we call it the pintela Yid, which has the seal of the כהן גדול. The כהן גדול represents the פנימיות of קדושה. Every Yid by Matan Torah, it says, was in the level of a כהן גדול. Hashem said by מתן תורה, ואתם תהיו לי ממלכת כהנים, and you will be to Me a kingdom of kohanim. So the Baal Haturim says every Yid by Matan Torah was like a כהן גדול. That's the highest level possible. Because at Matan Torah, the יחידה שבנפש, the essence of the neshamah was revealed, and it's expressed in the fact that everyone's like a כהן גדול. Here, on Chanukah, they found, where did they find it? They found it physically in the בית המקדש, but they found it in every Yid's heart! They found this jar of oil that's sealed with the seal of the כהן גדול. That's the יחידה שבנפש. And when that was brought out, that brought down such a great light, and that great light continues every year. And every year when we light the Chanukah candles, we again bring down that light. The Frierdiker Rebbe said, men darf zich tzuhern tzu vos di lichtelech dertzeiln, we have to listen to what the candles tell us. Have to sit there, you sit for a half hour after you light the candles, we have to put our ears, they tell us a story. What do they tell us? Well, they obviously tell us the story of Chanukah, etc., etc., but more than that, they tell us what they are. These little lights that burn, these little flames, are a manifestation of the spiritual flame, Godly light that's there in the highest levels possible that come down here through these candles. that we light with this mitzvah that Hashem gave us. And when we realize that, so it's not only that we should fulfill this mitzvah, but that makes us understand that we too have to behave the same way as they did at that time. בימים ההם, it was then, בזמן הזה, in our times too, we have to behave the same way, to awaken that עצם of neshamah, and serve Hashem with a true feeling and realize that it's תורתך, your Torah, and it's חוקי רצונך, your chukim, your ratzon, and when we do that, then this light will shine and shine, and this is the light that it says that will bring Mashiach. It says that the concept of Chanukah is the best preparation for Mashiach, because when Mashiach will come, the כינור, the harp that Mashiach will use is going to have eight strings. The harp that they used in the Beit Hamikdash had seven, it's going to have eight. What will bring about Mashiach is the mitzvah of Chanukah, because Chanukah and Mashiach have a very, very close connection. So when we have that feeling, we understand what the lights tell us, then this will help us bring Mashiach, and we hope it's going to happen very, very soon במהרה בימינו ממש. Yes. Talk about the Chanukah lights from the eight lights, whereas we know that the shamash lights the others. What is the significance? Yeah, but the shamash is not part of the mitzvah. The shamash, we don't count shamash, it's only something that serves. The word shamash means to serve, it's a servant, it serves the others. It does have spiritual meaning, yes, it does have. That's one of the reasons why we know that in shul we also light the menorah. And we don't only light it at night, in the morning by Shacharit we also light the menorah. The question is, do we need a shamash in the morning too? Because the simple reason why we need the shamash is not only to have something to light the menorah, but it says since you're not allowed to have any use from the candles, if by mistake you'll use the candles to read or something, you'll be doing an aveirah. So if you have the shamash there, there is no problem, because you'll always be able to say that it's you read it by the shamash. But the morning when it's light outside, that's not possible, because wherever you'll read, it's still light, so you'll never be over. So why do we need the shamash? The answer is because there are spiritual reasons why we need the shamash, and it has רוחניותדיקע meaning. There is even a remez in the pasuk, it says שרפים עומדים ממעל לו. The שרפים, which are the malachim, but מלאכים, שרפים can mean the burning malachim, עומדים stands ממעל לו on top of him. Now the word לו, למד ו is thirty-six. How many candles do we light throughout the whole Chanukah? No, that's with the shamash. We light thirty-six candles. עומדים ממעל לו, it has to stand on top. That's why the minhag is that the shamash should be higher, because it has to be ממעל לו. And it says it has a certain meaning that this is maybe the כלי of what brings down the המשכה, but this is not the המשכה, this is not the light that comes down. The mitzvah, which are the candles, that's the light that comes down. That's the manifestation of this great אור אין סוף that is נמשך for Chanukah. Yes. I have two questions. One, is it any difference whether the candles or the oil burns for an hour or two hours or three hours? No. No figure in having it burn longer? No, no. A half hour, arvisdik is fifty minutes, five-zero, fifty minutes, and then you could extinguish it. It's just a feeling that who's going to go extinguish the candles of Chanukah, so Can't use it for anything else, right. Can't use it, any leftover in the in the, not in the bottle, in the menorah, you can't use it, because it's muktzeh for the mitzvah. For another day, yeah. Right. If a person died, why wouldn't they can't be You can ask a different question, which maybe I should ask: if goyim can't become tamei, how did they make tamei the oil? How did they make the oil tamei? This is, when we say a goy can't become tamei, it's mid'oraita, from the Torah. Derabbanan made that every goy is tamei. Every... So no, no, that's that's not the tumah. Touching the wine makes it asur for a different reason we can, not because of tumah. If that would be the reason, nowadays when טומאה וטהרה don't apply, you should be able to drink it. It's not because of tumah. It's an issur that has a, yes. Tumah, but a goy, every goy when the דינים of טומאה וטהרה applied, the chachamim made every single goy tamei. The reason was so Yidden should stay away from them, because when you had the דינים of טומאה וטהרה, you were very careful not to become טמא. So a yid would stay away from a גוי, be afraid to become טמא. But מדרבנן they made it. After the רבנן made it, so then when he touched the oil, it made it טמא, which shows even further that Hashem made a miracle not only for a hidur mitzvah, Hashem made a miracle for a hidur mitzvah, which is only connected to דרבנן, and still He made a miracle of eight days. Yes. The only thing that bothers me is the expression, that is, the expression that they found enough for one day and it burnt for eight days. And they, of course the Menorah had to be, had to be lit every day. So if it burnt straight eight days... It didn't burn straight eight days. That's why the expression bothers me, it burnt... Yeah, it lasted for eight days, it doesn't say it burnt. There are so many different opinions how that happened. One opinion is they took the jar and they divided it, divided it to eight parts, and they poured in every day an eighth, and it was supposed to burn naturally an eighth of the night, it burnt throughout the whole night. In other words, the quality of the oil became stronger. There's another peshat that the the jar was filled up. But anyway, even if those that say that it continued in the in the Menorah, but they extinguished it in the morning, and then they came later and they started it again. Did they clean it out? Have to clean it, right, right, right. Did they use the leftover? Peshat is they did. Because there's a question whether... BaChanukah what's better. Right, right, that's true, and even in the halachah it's not clear. Okay. Thank you.