could stop me if you have questions. The mefarshim talk about the connection between פרשת מקץ and שבת חנוכה, or חנוכה, יום טוב של חנוכה. Yeah. The Eliyahu Rabbah in the name of the Shiltei Gibborim points to the words that Yosef said when he first saw Binyamin returning with the brothers. Yosef said, וטבוח טבח והכן. Yosef wanted to dine with his brothers, and he instructed his servant to have meat slaughtered, וטבוח טבח, והכן, and to prepare a seudah for them. Said the Shiltei Gibborim that the letter ח from the word וטבוח, טבח rather, טבח together with the word והכן are the letters Chanukah. Yeah. Did you like that? Yeah. Where is this? In which pasuk? I think it's right before or right after Shishi maybe? Right about Shishi. Right at Shishi? Okay. You want me to pause it? You can pause. Yeah, okay, go on. You have it there? All right. Shishi. Is that Shishi or? Shishi, Shishi. Okay. I just want to see it so I can put it in my head. Okay. Okay. How does the pasuk go again, may I ask? וטבוח טבח והכן. Oh, okay. וטבוח טבח. Pasuk ט״ז. It's almost like a repetition, ט״ז. ט״ז. So, how's that go again, Chanukah? The letter ח טבח together with the word והכן. והכן. Same letters as Chanukah. Okay, טבח והכן. Nice. Additionally, so this is a semach, that's talking about, by the way, seudah. והכן means hachana, prepare. Yeah. Why double lashon? I don't know. Okay, go on. So which is a semach for the seudot that we make on Chanukah. This was a seudah that he was preparing, so this is a סמך, a basis for that. Yeah, not all agree that you make a seudah. The Rambam, I have it on a, I've got a whole shiur on that. Yeah. Yeah. And

who disagrees, the Rif, the Rosh against the Rif, the Rosh, the Rambam disagree. Yeah, okay, fine. Don't agree with the Rambam. The Rema says you do. That you do, you make a seudah. But most most don't. Even if you don't, but if you have divrei Torah or something, did they say that if divrei Torah and I didn't hear that pshat. שבח והודאה, then it becomes more like a seudat mitzvah. It's not, yeah. Okay, but that's it's not it's not Chanukah related. Not a chiyuv, but yeah, it's related because of the songs. Oh, because of the, because it was a commemoration of the nisim, singing the praise, the shevach, like they say. Oh, you mean if you learn, you have a shiur on The Rambam says it's a chiyuv, it's obligation? Or he just says it's an inyan, what does he say? Okay, whatever. He says, yeah, you make a seudah. Okay. Yeah, seudat mitzvah. Okay. Yeah. I'm going to listen to this, אי״ה. So, additionally, the gematria of וטבוח טבח, the numerical value is 44. 44, huh? Which is the amount of nerot that we light including the shamash. Shamash, right? וטבוח טבח, this is great stuff. You like this, huh? You don't usually hear this from me. I like this kind of stuff. 9 and 8, 17, and 2, 19, and 19, 38, and 6, 44, yeah. Here we see a remez to the Yom Tov of Chanukah in the parashah, and it's hinted to in Yosef's words, which indicates that there is a קשר מיוחד between Yosef HaTzaddik and Chanukah. And Chanukah. Yeah, the קשר מיוחד, קשר מיוחד. I understand, a special connection. Special connection. Special unification. And this needs to be understood, why is it that Chanukah is כנגד יוסף הצדיק? What's the connection here? Like in Kabbalah. יסוד עולם, you know, צדיק יסוד עולם. So Rabbi Yerucham Elshin, now this is not really על פי קבלה. Right. I'm sure there's many levels and he explains that there were that there's a parallel between Yosef's experience in מצרים and the נס of Chanukah. Yosef's experienced a נס that was למעלה מדרך הטבע. One moment he's an עבד, the next he's משנה למלך, he's vice roy of מצרים. The זכות for which he was זוכה to this was the mesirut nefesh that he demonstrated in his avodat Hashem when אשת פוטיפר was trying desperately to entice him to sin and he overcame his temptations. As the מדרש explains, when Yosef was being adorned with the royalty, with the by פרעה, the מדרש says, I'm only going to quote you part of it because this is meant for a speech and I don't want to The whole thing is very long, but פיו שלא נשק בעבירה, his mouth, which did not נשק, did not kiss in עבירה, the Torah says about him earlier, probably around שלישי time, ועל פיך ישק כל עמי. Give us what? I'll have to read the translation. על פיך, your mouth, ישק כל עמי. Find the Hebrew. Also, you didn't translate all that, but you're saying I'm not going to translate, I'm just going to translate the last one. Just everybody knows For the sake of letting it letting it flow. That'll be right right over here. ועל פיך ישק כל עמי. על פיך ישק כל עמי. The מדרש continues: גופו שלא נגע בעבירה, his body, which did not touch a עבירה, the פסוק continues, and you can read this also along: וילבש אותו בגדי שש. He clothed him with בגדי שש. Linen בגדים. Oh, linen בגדים, like צוארו, his neck, שלא הרכין בעבירה, which did not lean towards an עבירה, וישם רביד הזהב על צוארו, he was a put a necklace around his neck. A gold chain upon his neck. So says Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel, this is brought down in the מדרש, I actually noticed they do bring it down on the bottom there, that יוסף משלו נתנו לו, that these honors were well-deserved. He elevated himself and had self-control to be עובד השם in a way that was למעלה מדרך הטבע, mesirut nefesh. So too Hashem was נוהג with him in a supernatural way, כדרך ניסים. And he rose to greatness. Everybody. So far are you with me? Yes, absolutely. And remember, you know, there's a peshat that he'd come to a desire and he had to stick his fingers into the ground. I remember hearing something about that. Yeah, and release. So, the hand, maybe they had different A lot of fingers, a lot of different midrashim. Yeah, there are, yeah. Some say דמות דיוקנו the image of his father appeared to him. Right, also. I mean, it all could come it could be It all could come together. It all could be come together. But another thing was the very peshat of as it says that he was busy. He came to work that He came to work that day. And what the peshat is, what did he come to work to do? It was something or Yeah, that to have relations. So it doesn't make sense. From everything else we generally learn. But maybe then he would Yeah. So, al kol panim, He'd come here Oh, so. Gehennom. came to do his accounting. Doing his books. So

similarly Chanukah, the miracle we experienced in the time of the second Beit HaMikdash, the Bach says was also in the zechut of mesirut nefesh. And I quote you his lashon: כשחזרו בתשובה ולמסור נפשם על העבודה, הושיעם השם, השם saved them, על ידי כהנים עובדי עבודה בבית השם. For this reason, the Bach continues: על כן נעשה גם נס תחת אשר הערו נפשם למות. They were ready to give themselves up, give up their lives על קיום העבודה. So this the mesirut nefesh for the avodah that was they merited this nes and yeshuah. That's what the Bach is telling us. They merit? Oh, they merited the yeshuah. The mesirut nefesh for the avodah was what merited Right. the nes and yeshuah. With this, explains Rabbi Yerucham Alshin, it's מובן מאד, we very much understand why the Torah is נרמז, sorry, where Chanukah is נרמז in the Torah by Yosef HaTzadik. Because the שורש, the כח and the שורש of this מדה that Klal Yisrael demonstrated, the מסירות נפש לעבודת השם was נובע, you have a word for that? Wait, נובע? What's that? Inshore? Came from, I guess. Huh? Came from. Came from. The source of it. Like מעין הנובע or like a well that נובע. Nove'a. נובע, על כל פנים, was nove'a from Yosef Hatzadik. And and his ma'aseh, or his his mesirut nefesh, maybe with אשת פוטיפר. This this ability was inbred in Klal Yisrael by Yosef Hatzadik. The Chashmona'im were zocheh to ניסים גלויים through their mesirut nefesh, kidush Hashem. You know it's probably a gilgul. Does this follow, does it sound like it? Yeah, I'm thinking about if there's another reason to say on Yosef there was mesirut nefesh, not just with פוטיפר's wife. I mean, his being in Mitzrayim, I don't know, being in jail, I don't know, whatever it is. Something that he might have Well, that's not, I mean, he was living a hard life. But, I don't know if we see the Also, the parallel he's trying to bring out is the is the Yosef going למעלה מדרך הטבע and Hakadosh Baruch Hu reciprocating and treating him, you know, הנהגה ניסית. This is where we see clearly based on this midrash that he was promoted to such greatness from the zechut. Mesirut nefesh. Can can can that You think people can relate to that in general? That's what I wanted to get to. But I did want to The rest of my speech is now I'm going to talk about the chatan, but you don't need to hear that, so. Don't you want to hear about the chatan? I'll hear about anything you want to talk about. But I thought I could I'm flattered, I mean. Well, just talking about the It's just It's just flowery flowery fluff to make my in-laws feel good. Oh oh, cuz the chatan, the real chatan, cuz you're at the wedding. Oh yeah yeah yeah. There's that and I don't know, I'm going to hear it now, I'm going to hear it then, so. No, I didn't even start Torah. No, this is Tell me about the guy, he's your friend, you know him. Well, it has to do with what you were asking earlier about how what does this mean for us? Right. What does this mean for us? Mesirut nefesh to get married and have a family and raise children. And learn every day. Go to kollel and It's not easy. Yeah, so I'll quote you what Rabbi Yerucham Olshin says. And he says that mesirut nefesh is not only about actually giving up one's life, like Chashmona'im were ready to do, but but also, what's included in that is let's see if I have this here. Oh, I had it here. Included in that is anything we do to give up from our luxuries, our comforts, our conveniences, in order to be עובד השם. That is a form of mesirut nefesh. If you're tired and you're willing to push yourself to learn and lose some sleep, that's mesirut nefesh. And that is something which is relevant בכל מצב ובכל מדרגה, there is an avodah of mesirut nefesh. It works like this. And he wants to say that in accordance with what a person is able to be מוסר נפש, to elevate himself above his natural instincts, it'll be how Hakadosh Baruch Hu will reciprocate. Do you realize that in your in your, I don't mean to be personal, but do you realize that in your life, I mean, realize, I mean see it, does it manifest? I mean, I'll say it like this: regular Next! One second, water! The question was Next question. You're saying it's, uh, whatever. We're talking about, yeah, we're talking about Because I feel I find that when you really go off and go to, you know, go beyond yourself, it's always it's always a greater reception. There's there's a reward, it's evident. The reward is Commonly Manifests in many ways. If you're if you're aware, it's there. It's It's just like, you know, a runner. It's like into a The guy's running a marathon, and after the first 5 miles, he's totally, he's ready to drop right then, you know, 10 miles, whatever. He's got to go over that, cross that next bridge, so to speak, get over the I've lost all my words, I have not My mesirut nefesh, I didn't eat dinner, and look at the clock. So, you have to get you have to go over a certain Leave it out. I always have said this before and I can't remember the word. Anyway, and and just after he he passes this this stage of where he's totally knocked out, anyway, he he gets a new energy and and he can then he can finish. I mean, you talk to athletes like this, it's this happens you might you might even see it in your own life. You know, it's just like, I'm so tired, I'm worn out, and all of a sudden something happens, you've got to get into it, you've got to You get a second burst or something. You get a second You get a second burst because you've you've you've gone over that chasm, that that that that whatever, that that moment when you can push through that. That's that moment of mesirut nefesh, that moment of pushing through when you're tired or you're hungry or you'd rather do something else and you can do that. Anyway, that's that's yeah, that's mesirut nefesh, the That's what we have these days. That's our mesirut nefesh. Yeah. Come on, to do a favor for somebody when you'd really rather be doing something else. And I think it has to come out in what we learned this whole עוסק ב... Learning Torah or doing a mitzvah. Here we have to take ourselves, we have to fulfill the mitzvah, if there's an inyan there. Take yourself away from what the what your love is to learn Torah. You're sitting there learning Torah. Anyway. Yeah, very good. So,

I'm going לשמח חתן. So, you're you're going to New York to לשמח חתן? And that's a mesirut nefesh. You get on a plane, pay for a flight. I mean, like to me it occurred to me last time I went to a wedding in New York, it's like wasn't a family member. I'm saying to myself, spending, you know, $400, you know, besides the getting to the parking and the taxi and the and the you know, airport, like losing sleep in somebody's house, and just to show my face. Like, it's not like I have that money to just spend. If it doesn't mean anything. Mesirut nefesh. You know. But it didn't even seem right to me. Like the guy'd understand, I'll send him a hundred bucks and you know, in a marriage and send him a gift. Sometimes I got to give a gift on top of that, too? It's enough that I just came! That's how I left it. Okay. Anyway. So, what else? So, that's that. That that's my thoughts. Okay, great. Is it presentable? Yeah, it's great, absolutely fantastic. Very short and sweet, but you have more, too. No, that I just wanted to blend in the No, very nice. It's great. I'm going to give this over to the Rav. I'm going to tell him that this is fantastic. Very good. He might He might enjoy. He He has a tremendous אריכות, he connects it with a lot of things. He talks about how you know that you're not not to oh, R'' Yerucham Olshin, one of the ראשי ישיבה's, Olshin Olshin, ראש ישיבה in Lakewood. Okay. He talks about how I think he gets involved in the question that in Birkat Hamazon of Chanukah that if one forgot, what do you say? הרחמן הוא יעשה לנו נסים ונפלאות כשם שעשית לאבותינו בימים ההם ובזמן הזה. Yeah. And

Tevuot Shor asks we don't daven for nissim. We don't daven for nissim? We don't daven to praise nissim? So, when we praise nissim, that's Al Hanissim we're praising. Yeah. But if one forgets Al Hanissim in bentshing, in Birkat Hamazon, Yeah. you say הרחמן Yeah. יעשה לנו, should do for us, נסים ונפלאות כשם שעשית לאבותינו. Really? Yeah. We say that in the Siddur. We try We try not to We try not to forget it, Al Hanissim, but if we forget Al Hanissim, let's see if it's printed here. Oh, so that what's always saying that we should So So the question is, how do we daven for a nes? And you should throw in another question, how come על המחיה we don't have anything about Chanukah? That doesn't seem right. תמוה. Let's see, where is the הרחמן's? There's probably some gematriot that we can figure out. By the way, so I learned a little shtikel with the Rav, a little pilpul on Chanukah, I'm sorry. Go ahead. What were you saying? Go ahead. חנוכה, פורים, שכח לומר על הנסים בברכת המזון, הראוי, the proper place, יאמר, he should say, הרחמן הוא יעשה לנו נסים ונפלאות כשם שעשה לאבותינו בימים ההם ובזמן הזה. Yeah, it says. So, what were you saying? Then, I'll finish. Oh no, with the Rav, I was learning a shtikel pilpul about בהם ובפיהם. What דף כ, which we'll get up to. I think it's דף כ. Maybe, whatever. And was interesting that, you know, whatever, but he asked me when they're finished, oh, I mentioned this letter that you were told about. The Lubavitcher Rebbe circles his eyes. You asked him about it? And he, and he You what? No, he knows this stuff, you know. But this one letter, he said he doesn't recall seeing or where it's printed. So I'm wondering if you could find or do you know or you found or someone, you know, somebody told you the story. It was a story. There's no way to track it down. It was Oh, there is a way to, you know, some people know. He Some people know where the story, you know, these a lot of these these You know all the stories? He said it's a printed. It's volumes of Igrot Kodesh. I would have no way really, no way. So, okay. I just thought Maybe it wasn't this Lubavitcher Rebbe, maybe it was a previous Lubavitcher Rebbe, I don't know. Could have been. So, you know, I don't know, but it sounds more like this one because he was more very much into that, and he would always, he never spoke about, he never spoke about eyes. Anyway, but so then he had asked, and I told him that you gave over that story and he liked that. He liked the story? He liked the story. Oh yeah. Sure. And it did fit perfectly. And anyway, he asked me if you ever open up the sefer that they gave you. So I said, I wouldn't know really, but I would think that when we're learning a topic, you know, that we're going through, we might might bring it up, you know? The truth the truth is I brought it home, where I keep most of my sefarim, and at home I very very rarely have a chance to open any sefer. Yeah. I got four kids under the age of five. Yeah. So maybe I should just bring it here. Four kids under the age of five, that's good. I definitely have opened it here and there. I don't open it every sugya. Right. But Nice stuff. I think most of it is based on, you know, the Rogatchover stuff, which is the style of the Lubavitcher Rebbe. In other words, the the conceptual, you know, חומר וצורה, יחסים, חפצא וגברא, you know, that kind of stuff, you know, וכדומה. כולי האי ואולי, bli neder, I'll maybe when I come back. There's no chiyuv there. No, I mean it's just a question he asked. The Rebbe talmid chacham and he But I figured you'd open The last thing I looked at was a little a little above me. Yeah? No, I'd have to sit down and start. Yeah, you'd have to really sink into it. I tried to learn with with him, learn it with him, and I mean I feel bad because he looks at me like looks at me like like my head is hard, you know, and you know, and I you know I I I just I apologized. Alright. Anyway, so you hear the she'eilah? So how do we daven for a nes? We're not supposed to daven for miracles. Yeah, so now we go back. Yeah. So, I

think along the the line, his theme his theme here is that what we see with Chanukah, what we see with Yosef Hatzadik was that when we push ourselves, give up, mesirat nefesh, Hakadosh Baruch Hu is also מתנהג with us also בדרך ניסי. Uh-huh. What we're asking is that He should do nisim like He did for us then, means to say we should also be zocheh to that level of being able to mesirat nefesh and we should be worthy of such nisim. Right. So, in other words, if we do mesirat nefesh now, then So what we're asking is something to help us bring up our level. Right. being able to mesirat nefesh. And he also I think connects it similarly as a very also interesting piece. That he brings down that the famous piece from Rabbi Yaakov Emden that talks about how Klal Yisrael's existence right now in galut is למעלה מדרך הטבע. Living world where everyone wants to kill us and destroy us, just you know, so that the simple fact that we're existing is is a miracle. Not only a miracle, but I think the way he worded it is one of the greatest miracles that we're still around after all these years and Right. different countries trying to You know, I I think we can come on to that idea that mesirat nefesh is just comes down to learning Torah, because when we're we're we're sacrificing, in other words, we're giving over ourselves to what Hashem wants, and what He does, to take to daven three times a day, to try to follow all the halachot, to learn even more, and then teaching, and you know, it's I think that's an inyan of mesirat nefesh itself. Even though we do it in a sense of comfortable comfortability, but the fact that we give ourselves over, that's

what it is. So, we're sacrificing our lives. Okay, so you might like to word it, not such a big sacrifice. Listen to this: חי נפשי כי התבוננתי בנפלאות אלה גדלו אצלי greater by me, says רב יעקב עמדין, מכל ניסים ונפלאות שעשה השם יתברך לאבותינו במצרים ובמדבר ובארץ ישראל. Yeah. No, I mean the kiyum of Klal Yisrael, of our existence, he's saying. The kiyum of כלל ישראל בין האומות, בבחינת כבשה אחת, one, literally like a sheep amongst the 70 wolves. Right. So, says Rav Yaakov Emden, when I think about one sheep amongst 70 world wolves, our existence is a greater nes than all the ניסים ונפלאות that God did by Yetziat Mitzrayim and everything else. So, he goes on to the same point that, so how are we davening for our existence? A sheep should be able to live among 70 wolves, that's a miracle! How do you explain that? So, he goes on to the same idea that we're not just davening for our existence, we're davening that we should be zoche, we should be able to come to the beit midrash to learn, we should be able to elevate ourselves in mesirat nefesh to be worthy of the nes of having amen.

ברוך אתה ה' אלקינו מלך העולם, שעשה ניסים לאבותינו בימים ההם בזמן הזה. אמן. הנרות הללו אנו מדליקין על הניסים ועל הנפלאות Did we daven Maariv? Did we daven Maariv? Yeah. We do it before Maariv. Here it is. It's 15, what time is at night? The second for the zman, and it's 15 How does, how does it shtim with this, with this shita to do it by shekiyah?