So this is the appropriate time to discuss, what is truly the meaning of חנוכה? Now, we have to start with the simple part of חנוכה, where חנוכה comes from, why there is a holiday of חנוכה. So I will just read and translate some of the words that we say in the prayers. We דאווען three times a day, we pray three times a day, שחרית, מנחה, מעריב, and we add a certain portion to the תפילה, to the דאווענען, and that talks about what חנוכה is all about, where חנוכה started. And I'll just read from here. It says: In the time of מתתיהו, the son of יוחנן, who was the high priest, and the the family name was חשמונאי, so the מלכות יון, the Greek government, הרשעה, the terrible one, the evil Greek government, wanted להשכיחם תורתך ולעבירם מחוקי רצונך. They wanted to make the Jews forget Your תורה. This is part of the prayer, so we're talking to God. And we're telling God that they wanted to make us forget Your תורה, ולעבירם מחוקי רצונך, and take them away from the laws of Your will, of the מצוות, of the... the commandments that we keep. ואתה ברחמיך הרבים, and You with Your great pity, עמדת להם בעת צרתם, You stood in their time of need and You... and it comes to, and it says מסרת גיבורים ביד חלשים, You gave over, God performed miracles that the many... the strong were given over in the hands of the weak, the many in the hands of the few, and the bad ones in the hands of the good ones. And You made a great miracle for us, and we won the war. So basically, this part of the תפילה, of the דאווענען, tells us one aspect of חנוכה, the aspect that there was a war between the Jews and the יוונים, and the Greeks, and there was no chance naturally, in דרך הטבע, in any form or shape that we'd be able to win. There were very few on our side when there were hundreds of thousands of soldiers on the other side, and there was no way it's possible to win. Nevertheless, God made a miracle and we won the war. That's one aspect. And then there's another aspect of חנוכה which we don't mention here in this part of the prayer, but there's another part. In other words, חנוכה is made up of two parts. There were two miracles that happened, two major things that happened, and because of that, the holiday of חנוכה was established. What's the second thing? The second thing is the miracle of the oil. One of the commandments that there is to do in the holy Temple, bringing sacrifices, all kinds of things that you do, special holy things, and one of the things is to light the מנורה, the candelabra that stood in the בית המקדש, in the holy Temple, and you had to light it every day with oil, olive oil. And this was one of the most important commandments and services that were done in the Temple. And you had to do it every day. Now you also... the law is that you have to do it with כשר oil, and besides being כשר, it has to be טהור. טהור means has to be pure. I don't mean pure physically. There are certain things that cause something to become impure spiritually, and you can't use any oil that is impure according to the many, many laws that apply to what's called טמא, impure, what's called pure. When finally they won the war and they came back into the בית המקדש, we got the holy Temple back, and they were going to light the מנורה, there was no oil that was that you were able to use to light the מנורה. Finally, they found one jug of oil. And that jug of oil only had enough oil to burn for one day, to last for one day. And to get new oil, which would fit to the qualities of what you need in the oil, it would take eight days. So they knew that for seven days, besides the first day, they will not have enough oil. But God made a miracle that the oil that was supposed to last only one day lasted for eight days. And that's a second part of why we have the holiday of חנוכה. So we have two parts: part of the war, that we won the war miraculously, and the miracle of the oil, that it lasted for eight days instead of one day. Now, in each one of these two things, there is also two parts. The part when we speak about the war, what kind of war was it? It was a physical war and a spiritual war. The physical war was there was a war, there was a rebellion that the Jews rebelled, the religious Jews rebelled against the יוונים, against the Greeks, without any possibility naturally of winning the war, and nevertheless they won the war. And then there was the spiritual war. They were really fighting a war, a spiritual war, because the יוונים, the Greeks, wanted to make the Jews, as we just read here, להשכיחם תורתך, to make them forget Your תורה, the תורה of God. God, and they wanted to make us go away from חוקי רצונך, from the laws that השם, God commanded us to do, which is the will of God. So we fought a physical war and a spiritual war, and in both cases, we won the war miraculously. So that's a very important part of חנוכה. And the second part is the fact that they even found one jug of oil that fit to the laws of purity, that they were able to use it to do the commandment of lighting the מנורה, and it lasted for eight The first, the fact that they found even one jug of oil, that was a miracle, and the second part of this part of the miracle of the oil is that it lasted for seven days. Now concerning the second part, just before we get really into a little bit deeper, the question that's always asked is, why do we have eight days for this holiday? Because the miracle was for eight days. We had the oil for eight days, that was that lasted for eight days. But the question is, the miracle was only there for seven days, because there was enough oil for one day, so one day was no miracle as far as that is concerned. So the real miracle was only for seven days that it burned seven extra days which naturally it couldn't have burned that way, and that was a miracle. And the answer that is in the commentaries is that one day is to celebrate the victory of the war. Another explanation is that one day is to celebrate the fact that we found the oil, that was in itself a miracle. Because the יוונים, when they entered into the holy temple, into the בית המקדש, they made sure to make all the oil that's there טמא, impure. For some reason, they thought maybe they're going to lose the war, I don't know why they thought so, but they thought in case of that, when they'll come back, they should not have any oil that would be fit to light in the מנורה. So the fact that they found one jug of oil in itself is a miracle, and that is one day. And then the fact that it lasted for seven extra days, that's another seven days. Some even hold differently. Some hold what they did was, when they saw there's only one jug of oil that could last for one day, but they know they need it for eight days, so what they did was they divided the oil into eight piece eight parts, and every day they put in just an eighth of that jug. So every day there was a miracle. What happened was that they put in a little bit, which would only last for an eighth of the night, and it lasted throughout the whole night. So every day there was a miracle. So there are eight days of a miracle. But the bottom line is these are the two things. The main part of the holiday of חנוכה, especially according to Chassidic philosophy, and according to the inner meaning of קבלה, the way it's written in many of the Kabbalistic writings, is the spiritual part of it. The fact that this this was a time that the Greeks wanted us to forget our יידישקייט, our Judaism. And they fought and they were successful to a certain degree. And there were some people, many people that went over to their side, and they are called Hellenists, they're called in English, but in the Hebrew it's called מתיוונים. מתיוונים means those that accepted the Greek culture. And they were fighting with us too, which makes the miracle of winning the war double. Imagine when you fight a war with an enemy is one thing, when you have what we call a fifth column, when you have people on your side fighting against you, that makes the war even much harder to win. And this is what happened here. And also spiritually, when you go to war, we know what it says in the תורה, that in order to win the war, you need the help of God. Obviously, you always need the help of God in anything, certainly in a case like this. And in order to get the help of God, you need special merits that God should give you that power to win the war. And imagine if you have many people who are who were traitors basically, spiritually, not only physically traitors that went over to the other side, they were traitors spiritually, which means that they accepted the philosophy of the Greeks against the philosophy of the תורה. So that should in in the spiritual sense, would take away from the merits that we Jews have, because there are many Jews who are not following what God wants. Made it even harder spiritually. So it was a problem physically and spiritually, but there was a miracle that God won, made us win the war. But the main part of the war is that we won the war, that what they tried to do spiritually did not work. Now what did they try to do spiritually? They wanted us to leave the way the path of the תורה and leave the path of doing מצוות. And they were forcing it upon the Jews. And that's why they made a rebellion to try to fight them. But the way Chassidic philosophy explains this is a little bit deeper than what it seems like. If you don't learn the Chassidic philosophy, you don't learn the way it's in קבלה, You assume that they wanted us not to do the מצוות, not to study any תורה. And we know Jews studied the holy book of תורה, which includes the written תורה and the oral תורה. And they wanted us to stop studying תורה. Also, they wanted us to stop doing מצוות. We shouldn't do the commandments. But basically they they were against mainly three: שבת, they were fighting mainly against keeping שבת, they fought mainly against ברית מילה, circumcision, and חודש. חודש is the way it was set up the calendar. Now we have a set calendar, but the time in those times, that every month the סנהדרין, the High Court, would have to look into seeing every month how to establish a calendar, when is the first day, when is not. I'm not going to go into the into the this is all concerning the way the solar system works, things like that. And they were against that because that is the foundation of all our holidays. Part of the תורה is keeping the holidays: פסח about מצה and not eating חמץ, ראש השנה to blow שופר, יום כיפור to fast. So, it all depends on the date. And they wanted we shouldn't follow the laws of how to establish the dates, because every month they had to establish it. So, the simple meaning is that they were against us keeping learning the תורה, and against the Jews keeping the מצוות. But the רבי, especially in the רבי's talks, which is all based on what it says in the Chassidic philosophy, stresses some of the words in what I mentioned before. Now I'll read it again. Here in the דאווענען, and when we add this prayer we say two lines, one line and a half. What they wanted is להשכיחם תורתך, to make them forget Your תורה, ולעבירם מחוקי רצונך, make them to go away from the חוקים, which is another word for laws, of Your will. Any מצווה we do is God's will. So, the רבי says, it doesn't say here להשכיחם התורה, that they wanted to make the Jews forget the תורה, which is exactly what they wanted to do. It doesn't say that. It says להשכיחם תורתך. They wanted to make them forget Your תורה. What he's trying to what we're trying to say here is, they, according to the Chassidic philosophy, did not care if the Jews learn תורה. As a matter of fact, anybody who knows the history knows that at that time, when חנוכה took place in history, the Greeks were the most cultured nation, they were the greatest חכמים, scholars, in the world. There's even a group called סבי דבי אתונא, the scholars, the elders of Athens, and they were known to be the smartest ones, their great philosophers came from from the Greeks. So, they really appreciated knowledge. They appreciated שכל, which is knowledge. So, why would they fight us learning תורה? We know תורה is besides we know what תורה is, but it's a very, very deep, deep subject. Anybody who learns תורה and learns it properly, it's a very deep subject. There's a lot of logic behind it, a lot of שכל in it, a lot of information there. Actually, they even say, even nowadays, that the best lawyers are the ישיבה בחורים. If a בחור, a person, learned in ישיבה, and learned גמרא, learned the תלמוד, and he knows that makes his sharpens his mind, these are the best lawyers. They come up with ideas because in תורה we find it's a very, very deep, smart subject. There's a lot to it. So, the Greeks, being people of knowledge, people of of of intellect, why would they fight us learning the intellectual, learning the תורה? תורה is intellect. And I'm not surprised if we'd find out that many of the Greeks themselves studied the תורה, because from there you could get certain ideas. We know most of the things we find even in science, we find it in the תורה, and we could learn it out from the תורה even deeper than what the scientists think. There's so much in it. Why would they fight it? So, that's why the רבי says they did not fight the תורה. They did not mind if we learn תורה, which is not the way you would ask a regular person in the street, 'What did the Greeks want from us? We should stop learning תורה.' חסידות says, no, they didn't care. They appreciated תורה, learn תורה. What bothered them was that we learn תורה think knowing that it's תורתך, it's Your תורה, which means like this: there are two aspects to the תורה. There is the wisdom of the תורה, the wisdom, the knowledge, there's a lot of wisdom there, a lot of understanding, a lot of science there, a lot of all kinds of things there that makes you smarter. And then there is what we call the קדושת התורה, the holiness of the תורה. We know that the תורה is considered, Maimonides says this very clearly, חכמתו של הקדוש ברוך הוא, which means the wisdom of God. And the רמב״ם even adds another part to it: הוא וחכמתו אחד, God and His wisdom are one. Now how can that be? He himself asks, how is it possible? They're like if we say a person has certain knowledge, certain intellect, certain wisdom, there is the person and he has wisdom, it's not him. And by God, the רמב״ם says, and this is what we know is the truth, not always is it easy to understand, the רמב״ם himself says that it's hard to understand how this is possible, but this God is beyond us. רמב״ם quotes from verses from the תורה where it says that His לא מחשבותי מחשבותיכם, our מחשבה, our thought is not like His, we can't understand His thought. החקר אלוק תמצא, there's a פסוק that says if as much as you'll think, you'll never really understand it. So we really don't understand how it is, but we know, now I stress the word we know, I don't want to say we believe. The moment you say we believe, you know, there's right away another side to it. If I say I believe this, which means I say, \"Well, you want to believe, believe something else.\" I don't believe, we know. We know what it says in the תורה is true, and we know that the תורה is the wisdom of God, and He and His wisdom is one. So, basically, what is the תורה? The תורה is Godly. And when we learn תורה, we're supposed to learn תורה with the understanding, with the feeling that this is Godly wisdom. That's what bothered them. They were very much into science, into into intellect, but intellect human intellect. And to them, as you know the history of the of of the Greeks, nature was the most important thing. Even the gods that they had in mind, their gods was all things according to what they understand and what human beings are, and it was similar human. That that was their whole life. Very much intellectual, but the intellect was an intellect a human intellect, not believing in anything beyond the nature. Human intellect is part of nature. We learn תורה not for that reason. We are learning we learn תורה, we're supposed to learn תורה because we know when we learn Hashem's God's תורה, then we connect ourselves to God. And that's the fight that they had. According to חסידות, the fight that they had against the Jews is, \"We don't want you to learn תורה feeling that this is תורתך.\" That's why it doesn't say they wanted להשכיחם התורה, to make them forget the תורה, to make them forget that the תורה is Yours. And to us, that's a very important part of our learning. It's not only that we learn, we gain knowledge, which is true, we do gain a lot of knowledge, but the main thing is realizing that this is God's תורה. Let's go to the second part. They wanted to take us away from the מצוות. Now we know that there are three categories of מצוות. Three titles, three categories of מצוות. If you learn more חסידות, not even חסידות, if you learn more תורה, you'll figure out. There is parts called there is חוקים and משפטים and עדות. Which are the three categories? משפטים are those מצוות which are completely logical. And even if the תורה wouldn't tell us to to keep them, we would keep them anyway. Like, for instance, don't steal, don't kill, it's logical things, we understand that. It's a מצוה, we have 613 מצוות, this is part of those, but that's something that we Those are called משפטים. Then we have מצוות that if the תורה wouldn't command us to do those מצוות, we would not do it. On our own, we would never do it. But after the תורה told us, it makes sense to us. For instance, שבת. Why do we keep שבת? We keep שבת because God created the world in six days, we know that, תורה tells us that, seventh day He rested, and by us keeping שבת, resting on the seventh day, we show, express our knowledge, our belief, and our knowing that the world was created by God. It didn't happen by itself, it was created by God. So we have a reason, it makes sense why we should keep שבת. תפילין, if God if the תורה wouldn't tell us to keep תפילין, we wouldn't put on תפילין. Why should to take a box and every morning wrap straps around It's a little silly. But after the תורה told us and gave us the reason, it makes sense. It's a way we express that we are משעבד, we give over our brain, our intellect, and our heart the תפילין of the hand is next to the heart and our hands, which means our actions, give it over to God. So we put on something to show that we are accepting what He wants us to do with our brain, with our heart, with our actions. So it makes sense. Then there is a third category of מצוות called חוקים. חוקים are מצוות that make no sense whatsoever. There's no explanation to it. Here it doesn't say they wanted to stop us from doing מצוות. After all, why would they care if we do מצוות? Every nation has certain customs that they have and they do, so we have our custom. What bothered them that we have so we put on these boxes? What bothered them is not the the מצוות the the regular מצוות, the חוקים. We do מצוות that don't make sense, and The only reason we do it is because this is God's will. So it says להעבירם, they wanted to take us away מחוקי רצונך. He could have used other words, could be משפטים or עדות, different expressions which would mean that wanted to take us away from keeping מצוות. Keep the, take us away from keeping חוקי רצונך, the חוקים, the מצוות that don't make sense. That means when you do the מצוות that don't make sense, you're completely given over to a higher power, and you believe and accept this higher power beyond nature, but not just the part of the creation in the, in the framework of creation. That's what they were fighting. And the, the רבי even goes a deep further. It says that they wanted to take us away from the חוקים of your will. Why does it add the word of your will? It should have said מחוקיך. They should have said חוקים, because the main thing that bothered them was the חוקים, the מצוות that don't make sense. How could you do that? That means you believe in a higher power that's beyond you. So it should have said מחוקיך, from your חוקים. Why did the, we add here חוקי רצונך, the חוקים of your will? And the רבי adds a very, much deeper point here. In truth, they didn't even care if you do the חוקים. But there are two ways to do, even the חוקים that don't make sense, there are two ways to do it. One way is I don't understand it, true, but I know that there is a reason. My brain is not, not not big enough to understand the reason behind the חוקים, so I don't understand this, we human beings don't understand it, but we believe and we assume that there's definitely a very good reason for these מצוות. That wouldn't bother them either, because it makes sense, it's a logical thing that there are certain things which are beyond our understanding. Like a child knows there are certain things that he has to do his father or the teacher tells him to do, איי he doesn't understand it, but he knows that there is a good reason, my teacher is smarter than me and he understands, so I have to do it. So this is also logical, to under- to do something because you believe or you know that there is a reason for it which is beyond me, that didn't, they wouldn't care either, because after all, it's based on intellect, it's an intellectual thing. But we don't do the חוקים for that reason. We couldn't care if there is no reason for it. It's not because there is a reason, but it's too, too deep for us. It's because it's God's will. That's the way we have to keep the מצוות. Even the חוקים they wouldn't care, but they cared about חוקי רצונך, the חוקים and we do it because it's your will and that's all. Not nothing else, not because we really believe, no, there is a reason, and there is a reason, God has his reasons, but that's not the point here, that's not why we do the מצוות. And this was the basic war between the יוונים, the Greeks, and the Jews, to believe in a higher power, and not only believe, to accept this higher power, and that's our behavior is based on that. Now I want to go a little bit more into this part of it. We learn חומש, חומש which is the basis of the whole Jewish religion. The חומש starts with the word with the three words בראשית ברא אלוקים את השמים ואת הארץ. בראשית means in the beginning created God the heavens and the earth. And in ירושלמי, which is תלמוד, the one of the other type of תלמוד, asks a question, why does the whole תורה start with the letter בית? Wouldn't it make sense that it should start with the letter אלף? אלף is the first letter of the alphabet, so it should have started with an אלף. Why does it start with a בית? It's interesting, everything is exact and this is a question that the ירושלמי, that our sages ask the question. And you know what the answer they gave? Very strange answer. Because בית אלף, let's say, is the abbreviation, the first letter of the word ארור. ארור in Hebrew means cursed. So wouldn't the תורה, השם did God did not want to start the תורה with an אלף which has some kind of connection to ארור, to cursed. בית comes from the word ברכה, ברכה means blessing, so the תורה starts with a בית. Why do I say it's a strange answer? Because I'm sure we could find a word in Hebrew that starts with an אלף which is good, and we could find a word that starts with a בית which is not so good. Because there happens to be the word ברוך and ארור, there must be the ברוך and ארור, the blessed and cursed must be some deeper meaning here, and the רבי explained is much deeper. And another point before we get to the answer, the תלמוד tells us that there was a king תלמי המלך, and he forced the sages to translate the תורה into Greek. The whole story the תלמוד tells us that he gathered the סנהדרין, the חכמים, the great sages, didn't tell them what he took them all and put them each one in a separate room and didn't tell him what he wants, and then finally he came in to them and told each one, \"I want you to translate the תורה into Greek.\" Why did he put them in separate rooms? Because otherwise they could make changes. He didn't want them to make changes. He wanted to, because no one would if they're all together, they would speak about it. And each one of them, the תלמוד tells us that this is what happened, each one of them made the same changes. They did make changes. Certain things the תלמוד tells us, because there were certain words, if they would translate it exactly the way it's written, he would make a mistake in what it means. So one of the changes they made is this: the word that's written in Hebrew is בראשית ברא אלקים. בראשית means in the beginning created God. If they would translate it exactly that way, know what he would say? That there is some kind of creature called בראשית, and that creature בראשית created God! So they changed it, and it started with the words, אלקים ברא בראשית, that God created in the beginning the heaven and earth. But it comes out, according to the translation that they made for תלמי המלך, it actually started with an א. Because the way that the change was made, it started Huh? Oh. It's connected to this. So it started with an א, אלקים ברא בראשית. That's also, that's strange. Everything that happened that's connected to תורה, to אידישקייט, has a deep meaning. And there's deeper meaning, and deeper and deeper layers upon layers upon layers. So there must be a meaning, a deeper meaning, first of all why the תורה regularly starts with a ב, and why when they translated it, it did start with an א. And this is what the רבי explains: Why did the תורה start with a ב which is two? To teach you that the actual study of the wisdom, of the intellectual part of the study of the תורה, is the second step. There is something before that. Before that, when before we start learning the תורה, we have to keep in mind that this is השם, God's תורה. What we're going to do now, we're going to study God. This is what it is, השם himself. That's why it starts with a ב. That's what the ירושלמי means that it's if it start with an א, which would mean that the first step is we start learning as if the wisdom of the תורה is number one, that's cursed, that's a curse, that's not good. What's the blessing? When you start learning, you should keep in mind, before you even start, what am I going to do here? I am going to study the wisdom of God, and every word that I'm learning, I'm connecting to God. That's what we have That's the way we have to learn. It's interesting that in the גמרא also, in the תלמוד, it starts with the first page is page number two, is that it starts with ב. Now, the simple reason why it's like that is the printer, the first printer who printed the first first first ש״ס, the first גמרא, actually wasn't even Jewish. Gutenberg, they discovered the press, he printed the תלמוד, and he, I think, considered the front page as page number one, so the second one that where it starts actual the actual גמרא, it starts with a ב. But everything is השגחה פרטית, everything is Divine Providence, and it's accepted by Jews that we follow this since then, this goes 500 years, and since then it's always every גמרא starts with a ב for the same reason: to show us that when we start learning, we have to keep in mind this is the number two, this is the ב, this is not our The approach has to be that we're learning the חכמה of השם. But, you know, only a Jew is capable of doing that. To connect yourself to השם, to God, through learning His תורה is something that is in the נשמה of a איד. We know that every Jew learn תניא, and if you don't didn't learn it yet, you will be learning it, and in תניא, in the beginning of תניא, he explains that every Jew has a נשמה, a holy soul, which is called a נפש אלקית, a godly soul, which is a חלק אלוק ממעל ממש, which is part of God. Now, someone might ask, \"What do you mean, the soul part of God?\" Well, we only have 15 more minutes. I mean, this is this for that you've got to learn weeks and days, and you learn more, and you learn more, you'll get into this. In the beginning, things sound strange, but you got to know that anything you start learning You start learning geometry before, you don't know what you're talking about, and you've got to take things for granted, and then eventually you learn. The same thing here. So it is part of God. So being a Jew has within himself the נפש אלקית, the godly soul, he is capable of feeling the connection to God through learning the תורה. So that's why the תורה that God gave to the Jews starts with a ב, to tell you that, you know, that first before the the starting to learn, that's the number two. But when it came to the translation to תלמי המלך, which is to non-Jews There it טאקע actually started with an אלף, because there, that's how it is. We have non-Jews who study תורה. But to them the תורה, what is it? It's wisdom. The The פסוק, there is a verse in חומש, where it says כי היא חכמתכם ובינתכם לעיני העמים, that the תורה is the smartest subject that exists in the world. And there are non-Jews who learn תורה. But to them, it's a very smart and deep intellectual subject, and that's all it is. The godliness of it, that could only come when you have your נשמה, and you have the connection that you have anyway to God, that could bring out within the person to understand it. That's why it says, the rabbi, the sages tell us in מדרש, that if someone will tell you, חכמה יש בגוים, that the non-Jews, the world, the nations have wisdom, תאמין, believe it, it's true. There are many, many smart, smart people amongst the nations. If they tell you, תורה יש בגוים, that the גוים, the non-Jews have the תורה, אל תאמין, don't believe it, because they don't. And the commentaries ask a question, what do you mean they don't? You have non-Jews who study the תורה, some study the Bible, there are even some non-Jews who study גמרא, study the Talmud. There were in history, there are smart, there's some we know, they study it, they study it even from the original ספרים, not only in the translations, some of them are smart. So what do we mean if someone will tell you that there is תורה by a non-Jew, don't believe him? Why not? The answer is, doesn't mean that they don't study the תורה, there are some who do. The תורה that they study is חכמה, is wisdom, and that's all they have. But the real thing of what תורה is, that they don't have. The The תורה, not the חכמה of it, the godliness that's there, that they don't have. And that's what bothered the יוונים. When they had this war, they wanted, according to חסידות and קבלה, when they wanted to stop the יידן, they did not care if they study the תורה. They did not care if you're smart and you study the תורה, but just don't take it as something beyond nature. It's part of the world, part of nature, a very smart subject like any other science. It's not. This is something that is godly, and that's what they were fighting against. And חסידות explains, that's the reason why they made all the oil impure. It says in the Talmud that when they entered into the בית המקדש, into the holy temple, טימאו כל השמנים שבהיכל, they intentionally went and made all the oil טמא. Whatever they did, they touched it, and by doing whatever they did, they made it all טמא. That's why they couldn't even find one jar, it was a miracle that they found one jar that was able to be used. What was the purpose? Why did they make it all טמא? If they wanted to make sure that the Jews won't be able to light the menorah in case they get the בית המקדש back, they should have destroyed it, burned it, destroyed it. Why did they left it? There was a lot of oil when they entered the בית המקדש after the war, and they won the war, there was a lot of oil there. But they made sure to make it all טמא. What's the idea behind it? So חסידות says it all fits to what we're saying now. Oil, it says in חסידות and קבלה, oil represents wisdom. Why? Because oil is the source of light. Okay, nowadays the source of light is the bulb. But oil, in those days, oil, you would light oil to bring light into a room, you would light a candle. You would light oil with a wick, and that's how you would get light. What's light? שכל, intellect is light. Even in להבדיל the comic books, I don't know, nowadays things are different probably, but when I was a kid and we used to see the comic books, and you wanted to show in a comic book that somebody got a bright idea, what would you have? A light bulb. Because light is idea. Light Why is light idea, שכל? Why is light intellect? Because there's something very similar between intellect and light. Light doesn't change anything, whether the room has light or the room is dark, it's the same. When you go into a room and you open the light, nothing changes. The difference is before that you couldn't see, now you see. Without the light, you couldn't see what it is. You see a knob and a door, you don't know if it's opening a door to to a treasure, opening a door to a pit that you'll fall in. You don't know what it is, you don't know what's good or what's bad, you don't know. So light makes you see. Intellect is the same thing. Intellect doesn't make anything. Intellect is only that you realize certain things, you understand certain things. It doesn't change, doesn't make anything. So light represents שכל, represents intellect. The יוונים, the Greeks, did not care about us having intellect. They wanted that the intellect that we have should be impure. And what does impurity mean? Impurity means, like I said before, to believe that this is human, man-made, and the תורה is man-made, the תורה is nature, and that's all it is. So when they wanted to do that, what they did symbolically, they made all the oils which represents the logic of the intellect that we have, should be טמא, should be impure, and what we should do is get this feeling that there is nothing beyond nature. And we won the war. And what does it mean we won the war? And how did we do it? The חשמונאים, they put their life on the line and they put their life on the line against nature. Like I said before, naturally it was impossible for them to win the war, so they showed God that they are behaving towards God beyond the nature. And by doing that, they brought out within themselves the connection to a God beyond nature, and therefore, God did the same and made them win the war that they should really be able to continue this idea that nature is not what is in control. And therefore, חנוכה is such a special holiday. It says, the sages tell us, that when משיח will come, I use the expression that it says, but don't jump at it because it needs explanation, and then I'll explain it. Sometimes you say something you say, \"Oh, oh.\" It says when משיח will come, we won't have any more holidays except חנוכה and פורים. Woah, what does that mean? We know that תורה is forever, it's going to be we won't have פסח anymore, we won't have all the other holidays? What does that means? But so if you hear such a statement, you say, \"Oh, okay, משיח will come, won't be so busy with all the holidays that we have.\" What it means is like this, according to חסידות and קבלה, it means what is a concept of a holiday? A holiday means that there's a day where there is a certain spiritual energy, godly energy, which we call אור אין סוף, the infinite light of God that comes into the world. That's what happens. That's why it is holiday. You see it works the other way. Why is this a special day? Why is שבת a special day? Because שבת, there is a special godly light that comes into the world. And therefore, the world is different on שבת. We don't, and that's why we have to behave that way. Actually, it says why can't we work on שבת? We're not allowed to do any work on שבת. תורה says so. But חסידות says the meaning is like this. If you're standing, based on the תלמוד, the תלמוד says if you're standing in front of a king and you're going to do work, this is a rebellion against How could That's not respectful in front of the king you should do your job, your work? God is all over. God is always here. How could we work ever? How could we work? We're always standing in front of God. We know that. The answer is it's not בגילוי, it's not revealed, we don't feel it. שבת is a day where the revelation is much stronger, and you're able to feel this the presence of God even more. That's why we can't work. Same thing with יום טוב. What does a יום טוב mean? That there is a certain presence of godly light, we call it, in קבלה everything based on light, godliness that comes into the world, which is not natural, not regular. Every day in the week, it's a natural way the world works, and שבת and יום טוב, it's different. There's a special godly light. When משיח will come, the godly light that will be constantly will be so strong that the special godly light that comes down on פסח will not be really felt. It won't be special, because we have that special light all year, even in the regular weekdays. That's what it that's what it means we won't have the holidays. We will have them, but the godly light that is behind the holidays will not be anything special, because there will be godly light constantly. The godly light that we have on חנוכה is so powerful nowadays, even, that even when משיח will come and we will have special godly light coming into the world, it'll still be special. And this is because the way they behaved then, the מסירות נפש, they put their life under their lives on the line in order to protect this idea that we serve God and we do the מצוות because it's His will, we learn תורה because it's His תורה, it's holiness. Because they did this, therefore this brought down, that's what קבלה says, חסידות, this brought down such godly energy into the world that is so strong, even stronger than any other any other energy that comes, the godly energy that comes on another holiday, and even when משיח will come, it'll be special. And that's why חסידות explains certain details of the מצוה of חנוכה. The מצוה of lighting and the the expression that says in different ספרים, different holy books, is the light of the candles, I'm looking at the light of the candles. We know when משיח will come, it says there is the concept called אורו של משיח, the light of משיח. This is the beginning of the light of משיח. And this has a power to break through all kinds of boundaries because this came from the Jews fighting for this concept of recognizing the godliness that we have. That's why the מצוה of lighting the candles is when it gets dark. Darkness represents the opposite forces, the forces of evil or the forces of קליפה. When we learn חסידות we learn about the different, there's קליפה in the world as the forces of evil. And that's represents that's represented in darkness. This is comes here to take away the darkness, to light up the darkness, which brings godly light into the world. That's what this is. It says originally the way the מצוה was that you would have to light it outside. Outside in the street. It says later on it was not possible, but the original מצוה is to light into the street. The street in Hebrew is called רשות הרבים, the public domain. Inside the house is called the private domain. So in חסידות we learn the private domain, רשות היחיד, יחיד means the single one, that's God! God is one! השם, שמע ישראל, hear, o God, Israel, השם אלקינו השם אחד, השם is one. So the concept of רשות היחיד, the private, the domain of the one, that's godly. רשות הרבים, the domain of the many, that's not godliness, godliness is one. That represents things which are not godly. And the purpose of the light is to come into the רשות הרבים, into the public domain, which means in that area where we don't feel godly, this has the power of bringing godliness into a place like that. That's the greatness of the יום טוב of חנוכה, according to חסידות. Because the יום טוב of חנוכה is represents the fact that the main thing is the godliness in the תורה, the godliness in the מצות, and even further, the godliness in the world. We know that the truth of the world is when you learn חסידות, and you learn to understand it, first you accept it because it says so, but you'll learn, you'll come to understand, especially you learn חסידות חב״ד, ליובאוויטשער חסידות which is called חב״ד, חב״ד means חכמה בינה דעת, wisdom, there's three parts of the person's intellect, חכמה בינה דעת, different levels, there it explains everything that we're able to understand it. We're able to understand the truth of the world, that the whole world really, the nature of the world really is godliness. But the first thing we have to realize that when we learn תורה, that this is godliness. And when we do מצות, then we go a step further, that makes us understand that the whole world is only really an expression of God's will, it's not an entity on its own. That's the real truth of the world. The real true, we said it in הלל today when we דאווען, when ראש חודש and חנוכה, we say, there's a verse in הלל, ואמת השם לעולם, the truth of the world is God. And there's a verse in חומש, אין עוד מלבדו, there is nothing but Him. What do you mean there's nothing but Him? This is nothing? You see, I touch it, I hear it, it's there. But when you think about it deeper, you'll realize that this is nothing but the expression of God's will. So when we look at it, if a person who learns a lot of חסידות and looks at it, what he sees right away is, he sees this is the expression of God's will. The אלטער רבי, the בעל התניא, the אלטער רבי, before he passed away, he told his grandson, the צמח צדק, who later was his successor, so he said, you see, there was like a beam there, you see this is a beam, but when I look at it, I don't see the beam. To me this is an expression of God's will. That's all it is. Which always reminds me of when water is made up of hydrogen and oxygen. So a scientist who's dealing with water and dealing with these things, to him when he deals with water, he sees in it hydrogen and oxygen. Once a guy told me that when he when he studied this and he looked at it that way, so then when he was thirsty, when came to drink a cup of water, he took took him a minute to realize, hey, this is water, this is water that you can drink! To him this was not water, this was H2O, it was hydrogen, oxygen, this this is what it is. Same thing here, when we look at the world, we don't see it, but if you learn חסידות and you learn more, but it's all based on how you study with the תורה. And this was the real spiritual war between the Greeks and the אידן. And the יום טוב of חנוכה, the holiday of חנוכה represents that the truth prevailed. And that's why it says חנוכה is a special day, and we have on חנוכה a special, auspicious day that if a person makes a decision to learn more תורה, to do better the מצות, and he makes it on חנוכה, and he He takes such a resolution, it'll be easier for him to actually keep it. Because usually people make resolutions, today they get awakened, they get aroused in a good feeling, but when it comes actually to do it, sometimes it doesn't work out really. And חסידות it says why? Because see, we have the head, the intellect, and I understand this is the right thing to do, but between the head and the heart, it gets very narrow on the way. So narrow it narrows out and it gets very little. So sometimes you have you make a decision in your mind, but you know, it doesn't help it doesn't really work. There are certain days of the year that if you make a resolution, it'll you get more power, more energy that it'll work. And one of the special days is חנוכה, and I have to tell you, not חנוכה only, but זאת חנוכה. זאת חנוכה which is tonight, the last day of חנוכה, that's the culmination of what חנוכה is according to חסידות, this concept of bringing down understanding the godliness that's there in the תורה, the godliness is there, and we come to understand the world, and we look at the world with a different eye completely. You look at the world, if you learn חסידות you look at the world with a different eye. The world, the reality of the world is not the way we think. The reality of the world, we think reality is this. The reality is God, and that's not enough just to believe. And I'll just finish off, the תלמוד tells us, the גמרא tells us, that there is a possibility of somebody to steal, to break into someone's house, before he does it, he's praying to God, \"Please make me successful, help me to be successful in my what I'm going to do now.\" And the question that's asked, what what kind of guy is this guy? Does he believe in God or does he not believe in God? Well, obviously he believes in God, he's praying to Him. And he believes and he prays very quietly. He doesn't want anyone to hear that he's praying to be successful in his stealing. So if he prays quietly, obviously he believes God hears. So God must be very close to him. So why does he steal? He knows God says don't steal. On the other hand, if he steals, it means he doesn't believe in God. So who's he praying to? The answer is no, he does believe. But it's only a belief. Like I said before, believing is not really seeing is believing. That's the real thing. It's not really, because I could believe believe, see if he'd see a policeman come, he'd stop stealing, because that's real. A policeman is a real human being, and he has handcuffs, and he's going to put the handcuffs on the hand, take him to the real prison. That's real. But the fact that he knows there's a God, and He's here, and He's able to help me, he believes, he believes, he believes, but it's not really really reality. And that's the problem. It has to be real that the godliness of a Jew and the way a Jew is supposed to look on the world, that's reality. It's easier said than done, I have to tell you that. It's a big job. So not everybody and most of us don't even reach that real level of really feeling it, but we're towards it. We're a little closer than an average person because we learn about it. And חנוכה is a special day to make a החלטה, to make a resolution. Yes, I'm going to start keeping more מצוות, do the מצוות more, I'm going to start learning more תורה. I'm going to start feeling and learn חסידות to feel that the every word of the תורה that I learn is godly. And if it's godly, what could be better than that? And it makes us more godly, so to speak. So every word of תורה we learn, we connect to God. Every מצוה that we do, every commandment that we do, seem sometimes funny, silly things. You take a you wrap yourself, that's God's will? The word מצוה doesn't only mean commandment, the word מצוה also means connection. We connect to God, who is beyond. We don't understand it, because even מצוות we do understand, that's not the real thing of the מצוות, there's much more than that. I once told somebody, and I repeated I think once in one of the classes I gave here, I once said that if some if I would be able to understand the reason, the real reason behind every because some people say, \"I don't keep מצוות, doesn't make any sense to me.\" So I told this guy once, \"If I would understand and have a reason for every single מצוה, I probably wouldn't do it.\" Because you know what that show to me? Who did it, who made it? Somebody who's in my level that I could understand it? He's smarter than me, little smarter, but why should I keep, because somebody who is in my level decided I should do that? It's impossible for us to really understand it. God did us a favor that a little bit we do understand some things to make it easier for us to do it. So this is what we have to take upon ourselves, and חנוכה is the best time to do it. And השם should help that we should actually all, each one in his own level, add more to his learning תורה, add more to his doing מצוות, have the proper outlook on the world, the proper outlook on תורה and מצוות, and this will be revealed to the whole world when משיח will come. See, people are waiting for משיח to come. What are they waiting for? They're waiting for to have a lot of money, to be a lot of food. The main thing that says in the prophet says there'll be the revelation of the truth of God. That's what it is. We are able to do that a little bit now as a preparation for it. And if we do do the proper preparation, it'll hasten that משיח will come very, very soon, and maybe still זאת חנוכה we will go to ארץ ישראל with משיח and build the בית המקדש and light the מנורה in the בית המקדש.