The Yanuka Rav Shlomo Yehuda-חדש!! הסוד של חנוכה - לראות מעל הטבע שיעור נדיר של הגאון הינוקא לפני כעשור ומתפרסם כעת לראשונה

2:50 In the war with Amalek, when Amalek wanted to rule over them and rise up as enemies against the Jewish people, and to oppress Israel — and the Holy One, blessed be He, stopped them and nullified them. And the Holy One, blessed be He, did the same for the later generation too, for Purim — for Haman the wicked; him too He nullified. So Yisro heard a thing that is on the side of nature: that is the war with Amalek.

3:18 In any case, about a war one can say that it is possible to win: maybe there is strength, maybe there is an army, maybe there is might, and so it is possible to win a war. But the splitting of the Yam Suf is a thing that is above nature. He heard one thing, Yisro. What did he hear? The splitting of the Yam Suf — that is above nature. And the war with Amalek is perhaps a thing that can be explained by nature, because it is power: maybe they have power and strength and might, it is possible to win.

3:46 So from Amalek, later on, came Purim; but the splitting of the Yam Suf — that is the miracle of Chanukah. The miracle of Chanukah is recognized through seeing. This is where it says, "And Israel saw the great hand that Hashem wielded against Egypt" — "And Israel saw": with seeing. It is written in Tractate Avos, in chapter 2, mishnah 1: Rebbi says: "An eye that sees, and an ear that hears, and all your deeds are written in a book." "An eye that sees" — that is the Chanukah candle.

4:15 One needs to look at the candle. "And an ear that hears" — that is hearing the Megillah. To hear — to fulfill their obligation, one needs to hear the Megillah. One does not need to see the Megillah; even just hearing it. On Chanukah we need to see the candle. So on Chanukah one needs to see the candle. But the level of seeing is a thing that is higher than hearing. Because hearing is within nature. But seeing is a thing that is above nature. It is already a thing that one merits to see; it is a thing that is above grasp, above the level of the person: that he sees the thing that is not in nature.

4:45 So "And Yisro heard" — that he heard of the splitting of the Yam Suf — he joins with Amalek. So what did Yisro hear? He saw the splitting of the Yam Suf. He cannot explain away the splitting of the Yam Suf. One cannot see the splitting of the Yam Suf — whoever saw the splitting of the Yam Suf: this is the thing that was not in nature. One cannot see the splitting of the Yam Suf and say that it is a thing that simply happened. A war — a person can say: maybe from the side of nature there is power, maybe might, maybe an army; they have valor, they have the power to win.

5:11 But the splitting of the Yam Suf is a thing that is above grasp. That is Chanukah. On Chanukah the Holy One, blessed be He, shows that precisely the weak one, the one who is the least, who is the poor and the lowly, he can be the highest. It is at the lowest point, the point that is lowest, lowest down. You see what is done on Chanukah — and the dreidel, which you connect with.

5:36 Does anyone have a dreidel? Yes, yes. Avi, will you bring a dreidel? Let's see... — We'll explain a little bit, perhaps. This is the secret of Chanukah. Chanukah is being included in one point. This is the good dreidel. This is the mehudar dreidel, the finest kind. This is the right one. The round dreidel is not good, because it has no corners; it needs corners like these.

6:07 Good. "Nes gadol hayah" — "A great miracle happened..." "Nes gadol hayah po" — "A great miracle happened here." That is, it should be "Nes gadol hayah sham" — "A great miracle happened there." Your dreidel is a mistake. Yes, Rav — it should be with a shin, right. All right. That's what they sell. That's what they sell.

6:33 In principle it should say "A great miracle happened there," not "A great miracle happened here." Why? That is a good question. The answer is — from the tzaddik, may his merit protect us, the son of the holy Maggid. He writes that "A great miracle happened there" — there are many things said about "A great miracle happened there." All right, so let's say: "A great miracle happened there."

6:58 He says that they wanted — on Purim they wanted to destroy the bodies of the Jewish people, but the World to Come they would have had. But here, on Chanukah, they wanted to destroy them both from this world and from the World to Come. And therefore one must stress that the great miracle happened there — in that time of theirs, when it was not possible for there to be a rescue both of the body and of the soul. But there the Holy One, blessed be He, brought it about that it was both of the body and of the soul. That is "A great miracle happened there": that it was both of the body and of the soul — the Holy One, blessed be He, brought this about.

7:28 There is another beautiful explanation, from the Tzemach Tzaddik of Vizhnitz — the holy gaon, the author of the Tzemach Tzaddik. Whoever has heard of him — he was one of the great geonim of the generation, and all the tangled questions of the generation would come to him; they would reach the Tzemach Tzaddik. He was a gaon of the world, tremendous, holy of holies. The Tzemach Tzaddik — he has a sefer, the famous Tzemach Tzaddik: part three, on Chanukah, on page 22, in the discourse on Chanukah, in part three, he writes a very beautiful thing about the nun, gimmel, shin. He says that Chanukah is "Tashev enosh ad dakka" — "You turn man back until he is crushed."

8:01 "Tashev enosh ad dakka." "Tashev enosh" — that is a person's teshuvah. Until when does a person's teshuvah reach? "Until the crushing of the soul." So he says: when does it end? The teshuvah begins on Yom Kippur. And when does it end? He says: on Chanukah. "Tashev enosh ad dakka." "Dakka" is kaf-hei, twenty-five. Dalet is four, kaf is twenty, alef is one — that is twenty-five. That is kaf-hei. The twenty-fifth of Kislev.

8:25 A person's teshuvah continues until the twenty-fifth of Kislev. Until Chanukah. "Tashev enosh ad dakka." And he says that the nun, gimmel, shin, hei means "gmar shanah," the end of the year. The letters of "gmar shanah": the gimmel is "gmar" — a notarikon, shorthand for "gmar" — and what remains is "shanah." That is "gmar shanah." So for this too it has to be gimmel, nun, shin, hei. So again it comes out that this one is not good. That is beautiful.

8:50 The Bnei Yissaschar of Dinov — Rabbi Pinchas of Koritz also says why it is gimmel, nun, shin, hei. Generally the tzaddikim spoke more about the dreidel. That was not there. There is the Divrei Yatziv, the Shefa Chaim — Rabbi Yekusiel Yehudah — there is the responsa Divrei Yatziv, in Orach Chaim, at the end of siman 283. He writes that the hint in the dreidel was this: when they would play with it — when the Greeks would come to the Jews to see those engaged in Torah, how they were learning Torah, or that there was a bris milah — the Jews would take out the dreidel and play this game, and so it was as if they were just playing a game. So we make a remembrance of the game they had; that is why we spin it.

9:29 That is according to this reason. But Rabbi Pinchas of Koritz says that it is also the initials: nun, gimmel, shin and hei — it stands for "shemonah neiros," eight candles, and "Hallel gamur," the complete Hallel. Those are the letters: "shemonah neiros, Hallel gamur" — those too are the letters. "Shemonah neiros, Hallel gamur." So this too is how it has to be; it's a mistake again. So it needs to be corrected. This one too, yes? — They probably sold it over there. — No, what a mistake. No — they sold it over there, so...

9:54 Ah, now — All right. There is a matter in this. Rabbi Tzvi Elimelech of Dinov truly brings a kavanah, an intention: What is there in the dreidel? What is there in the dreidel? In the dreidel, in fact — he writes this in the Bnei Yissaschar, in the discourse on Kislev, in the second discourse on the month of Kislev. He says that the point of the Jewish people is this point, the middle point.

10:20 And the Holy One, blessed be He, spins all the nations and everyone, so that all of them be included in the oneness of Israel, that all be included within the whole of the Jewish people. When we spin the dreidel, the whole entire world is nullified and included in the root of the Jewish people, which is the point. The Jewish people is a point, one point. We are the smallest, the poorest, down below, and everyone circles around us to do us harm.

10:48 But the Holy One, blessed be He — when we spin together — the Holy One, blessed be He, removes all the sighing, all the filth, all the kelipos, and then they are all completely nullified. Rabbi Refael of Bershad also writes about this, about the nun, gimmel, shin and hei. He says why it is nun, gimmel, shin and hei: that it adds up to the number of "nachash," the serpent, and that is the gematria of "Mashiach." And so the Holy One, blessed be He, will spin around all the appointed ends and quickly bring the Mashiach.

11:13 So maybe this is also a reason why time passes quickly — that time now passes quickly: because of this. All right. This needs to be understood, to be explained. All right, so we will explain only about the dreidel, what we wanted to explain. When we spin the dreidel, we want to show Hashem, blessed be He, that everything that passes over us, and all the troubles that pursue us, and all the distress that passes over us, all the things that surround us — it is only because we — it is not from our side; it only grips us from all around; it is not our essence. It is a spinning that a person is in. This is in Sichos HaRan, sichah 40.

11:57 Rabbi Nachman — he writes: A Jew, at times — each time he goes around and around again: one time he is a king, and one time, Heaven forbid, he goes the opposite way; and one time he is a king, and one time he goes back to the opposite way. And that is the dreidel: when one spins the dreidel, each time it shows in the person — one time he is like this and one time like that, one time like this and one time like that. Each time he goes spinning around his own point; he does not manage to understand his own essence, he does not know.

12:27 That is the dreidel. In the dreidel, in fact, there is — with the simple motion of spinning, one should have in mind to spin away all the obstacles and the concealments, and to reveal the Hashgachah of the Holy One, blessed be He. The Hashgachah of the Holy One, blessed be He, is revealed when a person looks with the eyes. Looking with a person's eyes is a thing where he cannot see beyond.

12:51 The way a person sees with sight, he can see only what is in front of him; he cannot see what is behind what is visible — he cannot see it. If right now there is a wall, a barrier, some thing — he will not see. Unless one merits a greater attainment, and that is already called "from the hidden light," which is glimmers of ruach hakodesh. There is ruach hakodesh and there is the spirit of prophecy. The spirit of prophecy — there is no one who attains it; it is found only with Eliyahu, may he be remembered for good.

13:16 The spirit of prophecy. Ruach hakodesh is a very great level, but it is glim— and today, in our days, there is siyata diShmaya, help from Heaven, close to glimmers of ruach hakodesh. To attain ruach hakodesh — that is already a thing no longer to be found. We speak of siyata diShmaya, and perhaps glimmers and sparks of ruach hakodesh. That is a very great level. The spirit of prophecy is in fact the "ruach hakodesh" that is spoken of — what is written at times in the sefarim of our master the Arizal, at those levels.

13:45 Right: it is called ruach hakodesh, but it is the spirit of prophecy. Their level was very, very great and high, and it was not, now, something that people can understand — a thing they think is something that can be compared. And if there are those who think that this tzaddik and that tzaddik have the same ruach hakodesh — these are heretics and fools and apikorsim who have no emunas chachamim — faith in the Sages — at all; they are called fools. They are full of heresy and apikorsus, and illnesses can come upon them. And all the troubles and all the persecutions are because people think that they know something and that they have emunas chachamim. A person has no emunas chachamim at all.

14:19 A person is the greatest heretic of all; every person must know that he is a great heretic when it comes to emunas chachamim. We have no emunas chachamim in this generation; because of this Mashiach has not come, because of this the Beis HaMikdash, the Holy Temple, has not been built; because of this there is no high attainment at all; because of this a person's mind is rotten. He comes to learn something and understands nothing. His intellect is rotten. Because of this his livelihood comes with toil, and everything goes heavily, and nothing goes well for him. All this is only because of emunas chachamim. Emunas chachamim is in fact a thing that is above nature.

14:46 Emunas chachamim is a thing that is not in nature. Because in fact, what the Sages of Israel have is a thing that comes through learning the Torah; and through learning the Torah it is drawn from the hidden light — the light with which the Holy One, blessed be He, created the world; He created it with the Torah. And the Sages are engaged in a thing that is above nature. And when, Heaven forbid, there is no emunas chachamim, it is as if a person, Heaven forbid, casts down the hidden light; he does not take the light to himself.

15:11 Because the hidden light — the Holy One, blessed be He, created the world, and He hid the light away in the holy Torah. And when, Heaven forbid, one damages emunas chachamim, one damages the hidden light. And the hidden light is the light of Mashiach. We see: the hidden light means the light of Mashiach. That is the meaning of what we say. The chamber of Mashiach is in fact the place from which all the miracles and wonders descend. In heaven there is a chamber of Mashiach; there is a chamber of teshuvah, there is a chamber of melody.

15:38 The chamber of melody and the chamber of teshuvah, in heaven, are next to each other. The Imrei Esh writes this: the chamber of joy, the chamber of melody and the chamber of teshuvah are next to each other in heaven. One here, one here. But the chamber of miracles and wonders — that is in the chamber of Mashiach. From the chamber of Mashiach come all the miracles and wonders. And the miracle, and nature, and the overturning of the order of nature, come forth in the merit of the King Mashiach. Therefore Chanukah is in fact the light of Mashiach — the light of Mashiach that drew near, to return the Menorah to us.

16:08 As the Sages say in Tractate Bava Basra, page 25b — they say that the Menorah is in the south. Why is the Table in the north and the Menorah in the south? What is it about the Menorah, that it should be in the south? Why is the Menorah to be in the south? What is so needed — "One who wants to become wise should turn to the south" — and everyone wants to attain the Torah? Because the wholeness of the Menorah is the intellect. That is a person's Menorah; it is his wisdom, it is his wholeness. This is in Parashas Beha'aloscha, in Bamidbar, chapter 8, verse 2.

16:36 It is written: "When you light the candles, toward the face of the Menorah shall the seven candles give light." "Toward the face of the Menorah" — the Menorah is a face. A person's face is his Menorah. It is the intellect; it is a thing that is above his grasp. It is a person's intellect. If a person engages in Torah at a high level, then in fact it is not from the side of his own intellect. Then he can attain a thing that is far more than what he is able to attain. When a person learns in a way that is above nature, he learns beyond his own powers: when he learns with more understanding, with more cleaving to the Holy One, blessed be He, with emunas chachamim. If he reads a teaching and does not know in whose name he is saying it,

17:12 or if he reads from a tzaddik and has no idea who the tzaddik is — he has not learned about him — then he has no connection with the tzaddik, and it is as if, Heaven forbid, he does not believe in him, and as if, Heaven forbid, he denies him, because he has no connection with him. A connection — a connection: when we say "connection," the meaning is blessing. If there is no connection, there is no blessing. When are we going to connect and bring the geulah near? When can there come to be a connection within the Jewish people? When we have — when there is — blessing.

17:39 The Rebbe Rashab, may his merit protect us; the Rebbe Maharash, and the Tzemach Tzedek, the Mitteler Rebbe — this is what they are accustomed to do in Chabad. The Rebbe Maharash, and the Tzemach Tzedek, the Alter Rebbe — the Baal HaTanya — Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak, all the holy great ones — the Mitteler Rebbe, Rabbi Dov Ber; Rabbi Hillel of Paritch; Rabbi Aharon of Strashele — all these great ones of Chabad: every year their custom was to sit, to take the candles, to sit and go through the whole telling of thanks to the Holy One, blessed be He, for all that had passed over them the whole year.

18:07 And they would recount the miracles and the wonders, and raise a l'chaim, thanking the Holy One, blessed be He, for everything. Because the secret of giving thanks to the Holy One, blessed be He, is found in Chanukah: that every Jew gives thanks, in general and in particular, for all that has passed over him. Only then can he merit to see a thing far above his intellect. When a person manages to thank the Holy One, blessed be He, for a thing that, from the side of his intellect, he cannot see why the Holy One, blessed be He, did it — he looks to heaven and says: Master of the world, why did You give me this thing?

18:41 and he does not manage to understand why — and he thanks the Holy One, blessed be He, for it, and he rejoices in the Holy One, blessed be He, and he thanks the Holy One, blessed be He, for it — then he comes to be in what is above nature. Because his seeing is now like that of the Holy One, blessed be He, who says: it is for the good. The Holy One, blessed be He, knows what He is doing. And you, when you thank the Holy One, blessed be He — you are included in what is above nature. It is written about Boaz in Megillas Rus, at the beginning, in chapter 2 of the Megillah, verse 4: "And Boaz said to the reapers" — right? "And Boaz came from Beis Lechem and said to the reapers,

19:13 'Hashem be with you,' and they said to him, 'May Hashem bless you.'" In what is their connection? He says to them, "Hashem be with you" — and to that they say to him, "May Hashem bless you." For when can the blessing come to a person? When will we know whether Hashem is with me or not? When I have blessing. And in what does the blessing lie? That there is a connection between one and another. The connection between one and another can bring the blessing.

19:38 And when is there a connection? When can there be a connection between one and another? When we can see a thing that is above a person's grasp. When a person can attain a thing that is far greater than himself. When a person is inside nature, and his whole head thinks that he grasps the thing, then he can never understand it. When can a person see something much higher? When he is included in a thing that is far greater than himself.

20:04 I will give you an example, so that you understand better what I mean. If we come and say of a person, for example — we come and they say of a person that he knows the Holy One, blessed be He, he is acquainted with the Holy One, blessed be He, he knows the Holy One, blessed be He, he knows everything — what will everyone say about this person? That he is a great fool. Because no one can know the Holy One, blessed be He, and no one can grasp at all the greatness of the Holy One, blessed be He. He cannot say at all that he has merited, and he has found, and he knows, and he understands.

20:35 No one can say anything. No one can say that he knows, that he understands. When can a person say that he understands and knows? If a person comes and says: I have not known, I have not found, but I understand that I need to reach for a thing that I will never understand — then what will we say about this person? That he has begun to understand. This is "the ultimate of knowledge is that we do not know." The Sages who learn the Torah — the more they understand, the more they understand that they understand nothing.

21:00 It is to take the intellect and the eyes to a place where you know that you understand nothing at all. That a person understands, for example, what lies behind an act of desecrating Shabbos. If a person says: what is there in it? From the side of nature there is nothing in it. What is there in it? But if he understands that, when one looks at what he does in that act, a thing is caused that is far more severe than what he sees — those are already eyes with which he cannot see, but they are the eyes of his intellect; he needs to see it. Just like anyone who keeps Shabbos and has fear of Hashem in his heart: he knows that he will not do a forbidden act.

21:33 Why will he not do a forbidden act? He knows that the outcome of the forbidden act will bring about a thing far more severe than what he does. But if we ask: but he does not see it! He does see it; he sees it with the eyes of his intellect. In the eyes of the intellect the forbidden act takes shape for him, and he understands the severity of the thing, and out of the severity and the prohibition that he sees, he keeps away from that forbidden act, and then he does not do it. And that is called a seeing that is above nature.

21:58 When he understands the thing above nature, he is in fact included in a high emunah, because now he keeps the Shabbos and fulfills that mitzvah. And so it is when he keeps Torah and mitzvos: the more one fulfills the whole Torah, the more a person is included completely above nature, and then, when nature comes against him, it is completely nullified. But when a person fulfills the mitzvos, or keeps the Torah, but he does not come to them with looking — that is, he only hears with the ear, but he does not see anything; he does not merit to grasp the thing that is heard; he looks at it lightly — then he, Heaven forbid, values nothing.

22:37 He belittles the Torah, belittles the mitzvos, belittles the Sages. So also, when nature comes against him, nature subdues him. Because he cannot stand against nature. He will never manage to stand against nature, because then he has no power against it, because nature is above him. And this is what happened on Chanukah. In the war with the Greeks it was: who would win? Would the power of nature defeat the thing that is above nature?

23:02 And what did the Holy One, blessed be He, do? That what is above nature subdues nature. And the thing that is above nature — that is what the Jewish people were: that they managed to overcome them, the Greeks, in a thing that is within nature. But why did they manage to overcome a thing that is within nature? Because they had an outlook, a way of looking, of above nature. Their outlook was above nature. Their contemplation was on what is above nature. So there was a drawing down. And that drawing down brought blessing.

23:27 And that blessing brought peace. This is what is meant when we say "shalom," peace: that the Holy One, blessed be He, blesses His people Israel with peace. That everyone sees — the Holy One, blessed be He, blesses all the Jewish people, and all receive from the blessing that the Holy One, blessed be He, gives, and everyone sees. What is blessing? The blessing with which the Holy One, blessed be He, blesses — blessing is called peace. When a person lights up his face toward another, when a person smiles at another, shows another a welcoming face — he does not know what this Jew has been through.

23:54 He says: maybe, Heaven forbid, some trouble has passed over him, maybe some distress has passed, maybe some thing has passed — and he thinks of the thing in what is called a favorable light: that he looks with a seeing perhaps higher than what he thinks. If he judges him unfavorably, then he is looking from the side of the ear. He says: no doubt he went and behaved in such and such a way. But looking with the eyes, when he judges favorably — he is looking at a thing that is above nature, for he judges it as something that perhaps could not be, and yet was, or that perhaps it never happened at all. But he is looking at something much higher.

24:27 And because he looks at something much higher, a connection can come about in him. And a connection can come only... There is a teaching in the name of Rabbi Pinchas, the Baal HaHafla'ah, the brother of the holy gaon Rabbi Shmelke of Nikolsburg, may his merit protect us. Their father was one of the holy geonim, the famous Rabbi Tzvi Hirsh of Chortkov. Famous. He was a gaon, holy, immense, a prince of the Torah, he was a gaon of the world.

24:52 And he, Rabbi Pinchas, the Baal HaHafla'ah, the Toras Moshe, Rabbi Moshe, the Chasam Sofer, writes it at the end of Parashas Vayechi. He brings a tremendous thing in the name of Rabbi Pinchas, the Baal HaHafla'ah. He brings that when there is a connection between the one who blesses and the one who is blessed, when a person wants to come into a connection, into the flow of blessing: if he does not love the one who blesses, if he has no connection and love for the one who blesses, he can never be blessed by him. The flow of the blessing will not come to him. This is what the Sages say in Tractate Chullin, page 49b. The Gemara says that the Holy One, blessed be He, blesses the kohanim. The kohanim bless Israel; who blesses the kohanim? The Holy One, blessed be He.

25:27 The Holy One, blessed be He, blesses the kohanim because they bless Israel. But for that, the kohanim must bless the Jewish people with a whole heart. If they do not bless with a whole heart, the blessing does not take hold. When does it take hold? When there is love of fellow Jews, when there is love between them. Then they will love the Jewish people, then the blessing will come, and then the Holy One, blessed be He, blesses. And that is why: "You shall love Hashem your G-d." "You shall love Hashem your G-d" is the whole flow of a person's blessing. Love for the Holy One, blessed be He, must be expressed in this: that a person, in everything that happens to him, looks with his eyes to see something much higher than himself.

26:02 This is really what is called emunah in the Holy One, blessed be He, and this is the way to draw down a miracle from the Holy One, blessed be He. This is the way to nullify nature, this is the way to overturn nature: that a person's looking is much higher, far above what he can grasp, that he does not look from the side of the intellect. If he looks from the side of the intellect, or from the place where he stands, he will understand nothing. But true looking is a seeing in which a person looks far, above his own powers, above his level. This is really what is called looking, this is really what is called the purpose, the purpose.

26:33 This is really what the Sages did, this is really what there was in all the generations. But because we are hard, and a person is weak and poor and cannot grasp anything, because of his weakness, with his own powers he cannot accomplish anything, so he does not try to think of the Holy One, blessed be He. So he accomplishes nothing, so he has no connection, and so Mashiach does not come.

27:00 When we cling to the Holy One, blessed be He, through looking, then the Holy One, blessed be He, will also hurry to bring us the end of the exile sooner. The end is held back because people do not manage to take to heart the purpose of the deed, of the mind, of the vessels that the Holy One, blessed be He, gave. When one looks at the outer things, one can never grasp something that is entirely spiritual.

27:27 After all, the way of the Torah, the way of Hashem, blessed be He, is a way of lowliness and humility, of complete self-nullification, of something that has no side of the Sitra Achra in it at all, no side of haughtiness. A complete, total cleanness. This complete cleanness always stands off in a corner, in the desert. There, really, one can take hold of Hashem, blessed be He, where the mountains are, the hills, where no human beings tread.

27:53 There one can reach Hashem, blessed be He, where there are no people. When there are people, there the whole road is full of pitfalls. There, even as a person walks the straight path, even one who is already something of a tzaddik can be in falsehood. He can fall down, into filth. And all of it is in order to be completely clean. One has to be so clean, clean, clean, that a person does not see people at all, not at all.

28:18 He does not see any opinions at all. He gives no weight to any opinion of people. There is no opinion that stands in front of him. He will be one who is clean before Hashem, blessed be He, in thought, in speech and in deed. This is called a seeing that is above his intellect, this is called above understanding. This will only be in the future to come. Only in the future to come will the Holy One, blessed be He, give us this: to understand something that is above our grasp. It is written in Yeshayahu the prophet. The prophet Yeshayahu says, in chapter 52, verse 7: "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the herald, announcing peace, heralding good, announcing salvation," "saying to Zion: Your G-d reigns."

28:55 "Saying to Zion: Your G-d reigns." When does one say to Zion, "Your G-d reigns"? When "saying to Zion"? When "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the herald, announcing peace." "Announcing peace." Peace is the connection of the Jewish people. Peace: the meaning is Chanukah. Chanukah is peace. Chanukah is when the Holy One, blessed be He, gives us His face. "His face toward you," "and be gracious to you," vichuneka. "His face toward you": the face, the lifting of the face, it is the face, when the Holy One, blessed be He, shines His face to us. On Chanukah, "His face toward you" comes through the Menorah: "Toward the face of the Menorah the seven candles shall give light."

29:26 So the Menorah corresponds to the face. We know that the Menorah is the face. And "His face toward you" means that the Holy One, blessed be He, will "give you peace." When the Holy One, blessed be He, "gives you peace," that is when we behave this way, like peace, like the Holy One, blessed be He. If we behave with His attributes and give the way the Holy One, blessed be He, gives, then there will be "His face toward you," and then the Holy One, blessed be He, also "says to Zion: Your G-d reigns." So this is a seeing: that the Holy One, blessed be He, will redeem Israel. For then there will be "heralding good, announcing peace," and the Holy One, blessed be He, will give peace in the whole world.

29:57 It's simple. Right? Yes. And when will the Holy One, blessed be He, do this? When we are like this? Apparently so. We are meriting it, we are meriting it. Look: you ask, you listen, and so does another. It will come, slowly, slowly. The Holy One, blessed be He, does everything quickly, quickly. We say "slowly, slowly," but He will do it quickly, quickly. Another day passes, and another day, and the Holy One, blessed be He, hastens the time to bring the end of the exile.

30:25 Every day, every day, every day, every day, every day, and another day, and another day. He will come, he will come. Every day we wait for him to come. And then the Holy One, blessed be He, will redeem us. Another day will come, and another day, and in the end it will be. Right? Hm? May it be His will that the Holy One, blessed be He, lead us on a path of peace, on a path of joy, that we merit a shining face, and to engage in acts of kindness, and to show a shining face to one another, and to know that everything our Master, the Creator, blessed be He, does from Heaven, everything Hashem, blessed be He, does is for the good, and that Hashem rejoices and is glad in us, and, with Hashem's help, to be connected to the Torah and the mitzvos in the way that the Alter Rebbe explains.

31:15 In the Tanya, in chapter 5, he explains the connection to the Torah through learning, and this is to reach complete understanding in the Torah. One needs to learn the Torah on the surface level, and to learn the Torah in the inner way of the Torah, to truly understand the holy Torah, so that a person's intellect truly encompasses the whole Torah, to learn the Torah with connection, so that he truly understands the whole Torah, in the way of the Torah, to understand with complete connection.

31:39 For if, Heaven forbid, this connection to the Torah is missing, then there is no bond, there is no Divine life-force of the Torah. One must come with full grasp and absolute connection to the holy Torah. So that is why this is our way of learning. Everything we learn is emunas chachamim, all of it: the mitzvos and the enactments, Torah law, Rabbinic law, the words of the Scribes. In everything we do, we fulfill the whole of the Torah by learning this way.

32:04 So this is the way of Chanukah: that the Holy One, blessed be He, shine light for us, and that "for the Jews there was light and gladness, joy and honor." And I'll just say: next week, with Hashem's help, you know, there will be no shiur. The week after that, also not, because I won't be here. So, in three weeks. It will be hard like this, not seeing you. We will pray for everyone, with Hashem's help, that the Holy One, blessed be He, give everyone the help of Heaven, that the Holy One, blessed be He, give everyone salvation from Heaven, that the Holy One, blessed be He, give everyone blessing and success and a good livelihood, and good lives, and miracles and wonders for everyone, and salvation from Heaven for everyone. May each one see salvation, in good that is seen and revealed, in everything he needs, in every single matter

32:50 and every single thing. May the Holy One, blessed be He, light up everyone's eyes, that we merit to see the light that Hashem, blessed be He, gives us to see, to see it in the way that we look, and to thank Him with complete thanks. This is the complete Hallel. This is what we said: it is to see everything in something much higher, in a thought much higher than what you see. When you look at the surface of a thing, that is Hallel.

33:15 And to see something much more, that is to thank Him with the complete Hallel. That is absolute self-nullification to the Holy One, blessed be He, absolute self-nullification to the light of Mashiach. This is Erech Apayim, Arich Anpin. It is the highest level that is spoken of. May it be His will that the Holy One, blessed be He, grant us the complete geulah and the building of the Beis HaMikdash. Our master the Arizal writes, in the discourse on Shabbos night in Sha'ar HaKavanos, and it is written in the siddurim, and in the Zohar, Acharei Mos, page 60a, and in the Shulchan Aruch, siman 271, se'if 1, Maran writes that on the eve of Shabbos one must come home and hurry right away to make Kiddush, and not delay the Kiddush.

33:55 So our master the Arizal explains, in the second discourse, what it means that one comes home on the eve of Shabbos. There he writes to kiss the hands of his father and his mother. This segulah of kissing the father's hand, kissing the mother's hand. To kiss. If the father is not alive, kiss the mother's hands. And he says to enter with joy. He says to enter his home with joy when he comes from the synagogue, and to say with joy, "Shabbos shalom." Why? Because then the unification of everything we did during the week becomes included in the kedushah of the eve of Shabbos.

34:24 For the eve of the holy Shabbos joins the physical with the spiritual. For all week we were on the level of the weekday, we were on the level of the material, with eyes that looked within nature. And now, on the eve of the holy Shabbos, there is a connection, with eyes that are above nature. For a person now looks at the seventh day, and he testifies about the Master of heaven and earth that He created everything. And you make Kiddush. Now you must hurry to make Kiddush, so that your eyes be included in something that is above nature.

34:50 This is the level of the eve of Shabbos. So that is why one must hurry to get home. And what must he say when he comes from the synagogue? He should say, "Shabbos shalom." He should say "Shabbos shalom" with joy, for the sake of this union between him and the Shabbos. There must be a union, for only through it can he receive the Shabbos. We see: "Shabbos shalom." We stress the "Shabbos shalom." But what is the shalom, the peace? It is the name of the Holy One, blessed be He. And if it is the name of the Holy One, blessed be He, then of course the person will be blessed.

35:15 How do we say it? Shabbos "is the source of blessing." It is the source of blessing because there is connection in it: a Jew testifies about the Master of heaven and earth, that He created the world. When he keeps the Shabbos day, he is included in something that is above nature, for now he is not within nature. He does no work, because it is forbidden to do work. So he testifies: see, the Holy One, blessed be He, created heaven and earth. And so he is not within nature. And since he is not within nature, he is blessed.

35:40 Here is another seeing: Shabbos. Another thing in which one can see: the holy Shabbos. Shabbos can lift a person up so that he is not within nature. And the more he is on that level, the higher he rises. This is a person's level: Shabbos. Good. May it be His will that the Holy One, blessed be He, grant us miracles and wonders in plenty, good tidings, rains in their season, and dews of blessing.

36:11 May everything come here: dews, rains, everything. May we merit all the seasons, everything together. When the day of the geulah comes, we will see the sunrise in the sea. If you immerse in the sea in the morning, suddenly you will see the sun in the west. And when did the Holy One, blessed be He, do this? He did it once, when He overturned Sodom. When He wanted to overturn Sodom, He turned the sun around on them. It began to rise, not in the east, but in the west. The sun was coming up in the west.

36:42 There was the sea, and people were sitting by the sea, and you see the sun beginning to rise out of the sea. So it is understood that the Holy One, blessed be He, turned things over on them in Sodom. Why? To show them the overturning of the order of nature. He made everything backward for them. Everything began the other way around, and it was a hint to them that they must return in teshuvah to the Holy One, blessed be He. And they did not return in teshuvah, so it was overturned upon them.

37:06 That is the generation of the Flood, and Sodom. When the Holy One, blessed be He, begins to bring trouble, He begins to overturn nature, to hint to a person to look at something that is above nature. And if he does not look at what is above nature, then, Heaven forbid, nature turns over against him. This is what was with the generation of the Flood. For example, this is Sodom. Nature turned over on them. But before nature turned over, Hashem, blessed be He, brought it about that nature was subdued: He turned the sun around.

37:35 By rights they should have looked with eyes of above nature, and because they did not look with eyes of above nature, nature subdued them. So nature subdued them, and they were nullified before it. That's how it is, yes. That is how one must prevail, since this is above nature, right? Each one, we only need the Holy One, blessed be He, to grant us to give life to everyone, for all to be in joy, full of great joy, all of them before the Holy One, blessed be He, to be full of life, of joy, of enthusiasm.

38:07 May the Holy One, blessed be He, give everyone miracles and wonders, that we merit to be redeemed with an upraised hand. That's it. We want the geulah already. We don't want any more exile, right? Don't think: now another day will pass, another day, another hour will come, like that. We don't want that anymore. May the Holy One, blessed be He, redeem us already. Let us be redeemed. May the Holy One, blessed be He, redeem us. That's it. How much longer can one go on with this exile? How much, right? How can one go on with an exile like this?

38:33 Don't we care? So many years, such a long journey, one thousand nine hundred and fifty years. Where is the Torah? Where is our learning? Where is the learning of old? In the old holy books, like that, everything. I want to say: may the Holy One, blessed be He, redeem us. Yes, yes. May we merit to be redeemed with an upraised hand. Yes. And let us remember: "You shall love your fellow as yourself." This is a great principle in the Torah. Yes, right. In fact, the one who came before Hillel: he said to him, "Whatever is hateful to you..." In Tractate Shabbos, page 31, which side of the page is it?

39:04 Side a. I think it is also in the Yerushalmi. People don't know. They think it is only in Shabbos. Yerushalmi, Tractate Nedarim, chapter 9, halachah 4. The Talmud Yerushalmi. One must learn Yerushalmi. People look only at the Bavli. One must learn Yerushalmi. The Yerushalmi is the main part of Torah learning. It is holier than the Bavli. Learning Yerushalmi is on a higher level than the Bavli. Learn Yerushalmi every day. It is written there: one came before Hillel. He came before Hillel, and he said to him: "Whatever is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow." Everything that is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow. This is the whole of the Torah.

39:34 What is there in this that is the whole of the Torah, "whatever is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow"? What is there in this that makes it the whole of the Torah? A person wants to fulfill the whole Torah, and it is just "whatever is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow"? What does it have to do with the whole of the Torah? Why should this be something that includes the whole Torah? What is there in it that makes it include the whole Torah? How can it be that this includes the whole Torah? Do you know what it means? Or don't you know?

40:00 How's that? What? Each one has a letter in the Torah. "How's that?" Each one has a letter in the Torah, and if he takes away from love of his fellow, he takes away from the Torah too. Very nicely said. We said at the beginning that the Holy One, blessed be He, created the world, right? So He created... Where is the hidden light found? In the Torah. And all the Jewish people are part of the Torah.

40:25 So if, Heaven forbid, there is no love among the Jewish people, then, Heaven forbid, you take away from the hidden light. You do not receive the light. And that is a lack in love of fellow Jews. That is why tzaddikim... When Rabbi Elimelech asked, he asked Rabbi Zusha, "How do you work miracles and wonders?" He told him: "Only from love of fellow Jews. I love all of Israel and they love me back, and so I bring about salvation." Only from love of fellow Jews. For the joining of the letters is what makes everything one whole. This is the level.

40:52 It is, as it were, the level that everyone is speaking of now. Understand: Shabbos is not... Why is it so important to keep Shabbos? When one comes to the holy Shabbos, and a person rises to such a great level, then, as he becomes holy, it is not only that he merits to reach the whole of the Jewish people. In general, a person who keeps Shabbos properly also attains love of fellow Jews. He attains love of fellow Jews. One merits love of fellow Jews in full through keeping Shabbos.

41:20 One merits love of fellow Jews. For the Torah, the Holy One, blessed be He, and Israel are all one. It is all one. So, seemingly, here Shabbos is such a great level, and yet they did not permit one to say shalom on Shabbos. Seemingly. The Sages handed it down; they discuss it in Tractate Shabbos, page 113a, in the Bavli, about saying shalom on Shabbos. They barely permitted saying shalom on Shabbos. It appears in the Yerushalmi too: Tractate Shabbos, page... no, it is in chapter 15, halachah 3.

41:46 There too, in the Yerushalmi. If they did not permit saying shalom on Shabbos, then what? How can one say it? So the Be'er Heitev on the Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim, siman 307, writes in se'if katan 2, and the Mishnah Berurah writes there in se'if katan 5, in the name of the holy Shelah, that "they barely permitted saying shalom on Shabbos": what does it mean? That one should not say to him, for example, say he now tells him "tzafra tava," good morning, on the holy Shabbos day. He comes on the holy Shabbos to the synagogue and says to him "tzafra..."

42:12 But there was a man in the time of the Sabbateans. They came to the Chasam Sofer and told him that there is a certain man, that maybe there is something about him. He said, "Go at Minchah and watch at the third meal." And he heard the man say, "Come and eat the midday meal." He said, "This is the Sitra Achra." They said: how did he know? He said: because the man said "to eat the midday meal" on the holy Shabbos day. One has to say "the Shabbos meal." On the holy Shabbos day, say "the Shabbos meal," "Minchah of Shabbos."

42:39 And he said that he is going to have "the midday meal" on the Shabbos day. That is, from his speech he grasped it. "The midday meal," he said. He meant to say "the Shabbos meal." When he said "the midday meal," he understood that this is not holy. He meant to say "the meal of the holy Shabbos." He said "the midday meal." So he understood that he is blemished. This is the meaning of "they did not permit saying shalom on Shabbos." It does not mean that they did not permit saying shalom. Certainly it is a mitzvah to increase shalom on Shabbos. But the meaning is that, Heaven forbid, you should not speak on the holy Shabbos the way you say shalom on a weekday.

43:08 How do you say shalom on a weekday? You say "tzafra tava," you say "good morning" to people, "the midday meal," you are going to "the evening meal." That is how you use your everyday language. So it does not mean that you should not say shalom. It means: do not come to people and speak with them in a weekday kind of connection on the Shabbos day, for on the Shabbos day your eyes must be above nature. You must look at something that is not within your mind at all, something that is above nature. So how can you come and say to people "tzafra tava," or "good morning," or "the midday meal," something that belongs to your nature of the weekday?

43:38 So in this you have caused a blemish, and so one must be in this "above nature." Good, never mind. So: Shabbos shalom, a good week, a happy festival to everyone, a happy Chanukah. May the Holy One, blessed be He, redeem us with a complete geulah, may we merit miracles and wonders. A happy festival to everyone, a festival of light and joy. Blessings to all of you. Come, let us quickly read Megillas Antiochus, and then we will say "Rabbi Chananya."

44:53 So I will read: "And it was in the days of Antiochus..." We will do it like this. "...king of Greece." We said last week that the Tosafos Rid, in Tractate Sukkah, page 44b, writes that there were places where they had the custom to read the megillah. There were places where they had the custom to read Megillas Antiochus. There were places where they used to make a blessing over the megillah, once, in their times. Today it is not read at all.

45:19 One should read Megillas Antiochus. And it was in the days of Antiochus, king of Greece: he was a great and mighty king, strong in his rule, and all the kings obeyed him. He conquered many lands and mighty kings, destroyed their castles, burned their palaces with fire, and bound their men in prison. From the days of King Alexander no king like him had arisen on the whole far side of the River, the Euphrates. He built a great city on the seashore to be his royal seat, and he called it the city of Antioch, after his name.

45:48 And Bagris, his second-in-command, also built another city opposite it, and he called it the city of Bagris, after his name, and so they are named to this day. In the twenty-third year of his reign, which was the two hundred and thirteenth year from the building of the House of G-d, he set his face to go up to Jerusalem. He spoke up and said to his officers: Do you not know that there is the people of the Jews, who are in Jerusalem, among us? They do not sacrifice to our god, they do not keep our law, and they forsake the king's laws to keep their own law.

46:14 They also hope for the day when kings and rulers are broken, and they say: When will our King reign over us, and we shall rule over sea and land, and the whole world will be given into our hands? It is no honor for the kingdom to leave these people on the face of the earth. Now come, let us go up against them and abolish from them the covenant that was made with them: Shabbos, Rosh Chodesh and bris milah. And the thing was good in the eyes of his officers and in the eyes of all his army. At that hour King Antiochus arose and sent Nikanor, his second-in-command, with a great army and many people, and he came to the city of Yehudah, to Jerusalem. He carried out a great slaughter there, and he built an altar in the Beis HaMikdash, in the place of which the G-d of Israel had said to His servants the prophets: There I will rest My Shechinah forever. In that place they slaughtered the pig, and they brought its blood into the holy courtyard.

47:00 And when Yochanan son of Matisyahu, the Kohen Gadol, heard that this deed had been done, he was filled with fury and rage, the radiance of his face changed, and he took counsel in his heart what he could do about it. Then Yochanan son of Matisyahu made himself a sword, two spans long and one span wide, wrapped under his clothes. He came to Jerusalem and stood at the king's gate, and he called to the gatekeepers and said to them: I am Yochanan son of Matisyahu, the Kohen Gadol of the Jews. I have come to appear before Nikanor. Then the gatekeepers and the guards came and said to Nikanor: The Kohen Gadol of the Jews is standing at the entrance. Nikanor answered and said to them: Let him come in. Then Yochanan was brought before Nikanor.

47:39 Nikanor spoke up and said to Yochanan: You are one of the rebels who rebelled against the king and do not want the peace of his kingdom. Yochanan answered before Nikanor and said: My lord, now I have come before you. Whatever you wish, I will do. Nikanor answered and said to Yochanan: If you do as I wish, take a pig and slaughter it on the altar, and you will wear royal garments and ride on the king's horse, and you will be as one of the king's friends.

48:05 When Yochanan heard this, he answered him: My lord, I am afraid of the children of Israel, lest they hear that I did so and stone me with stones. Now let every man go out from before you, lest they make it known to the children of Israel. Then Nikanor sent every man out from before him. At that time Yochanan son of Matisyahu lifted his eyes to heaven and set out his prayer before the Creator of the worlds, and he said: My G-d and G-d of my fathers, G-d of my fathers Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov, please do not give me into the hand of this uncircumcised one, for if he kills me, he will go and boast in the house of Dagon his god and say: My god gave him into my hand. At that hour he took three steps toward him and thrust the sword into his heart, and he cast him down slain in the holy courtyard.

48:43 Yochanan answered and said before the G-d of heaven: My G-d, do not count it against me as a sin that I killed this uncircumcised one in the Beis HaMikdash. So may You give over all the peoples who came with him to oppress Yehudah and Jerusalem. Then Yochanan went out on that day and fought the peoples, and he carried out a great slaughter among them. The number of the slain that he killed on that day was seven hundred and seventy-two thousand, for they were killing one another. When he returned, he built a pillar in his name and called it: Maccabee, Slayer of the Mighty.

49:11 And when King Antiochus heard that he had been killed, that Nikanor his second-in-command had been killed, he was greatly distressed, and he sent to bring the wicked Bagris, who led his people astray. King Antiochus spoke up and said to Bagris: Do you not know, have you not heard, what the children of Israel have done to me? They killed my soldiers and plundered my camps and my officers. Now, is it your wealth you rely on? Are your houses still yours?

49:36 Come, let us go up against them and abolish from them the covenant that their G-d made with them: Shabbos, Rosh Chodesh and bris milah. Then the wicked Bagris arose with all his camps and came to Jerusalem, and he carried out a great slaughter there, and he decreed an absolute decree there against Shabbos, Rosh Chodesh and bris milah. When this happened, as the king's word was urgent, they found a man who had circumcised his son, and they brought the man and his wife and hanged them in front of the child. And there was also a woman who bore a son after her husband's death and circumcised him at eight days. She went up on the wall of Jerusalem with her circumcised son in her hand, and she spoke up and said: To you we say, wicked Bagris: you think to abolish from us the covenant that was made with us. The covenant of our fathers will not cease from us, nor from our children's children. And she dropped her son to the ground and fell after him, and the two of them died together. And many of the children of Israel did so in those days, and did not change the covenant of their fathers.

50:26 At that time the children of Israel said to one another: Come, let us rest in a cave, lest we desecrate the Shabbos day. And they were informed on before Bagris. Then Bagris sent armed men, and they came and sat at the mouth of the cave and said: Children of Israel, come out to us, eat of our bread and drink of our wine, and do as we do. The children of Israel answered and said to one another: We remember what we were commanded on Mount Sinai: Six days you shall work and do all your labor, and on the seventh day you shall rest. Now, it is better for us to die than to desecrate the Shabbos.

51:00 When this happened, when the Jews did not come out of the cave to them, they brought wood and burned it at the mouth of the cave, and about a thousand men and women died. After that the five sons of Matisyahu went out, Yochanan and his four brothers, and they fought the peoples and carried out a great slaughter among them, and drove them to the islands of the sea, for they trusted in the G-d of heaven. Then the wicked Bagris got into a ship and fled to King Antiochus, and with him were men who had escaped the sword. Bagris spoke up and said to King Antiochus: You, O king, gave an order to abolish from Yehudah Shabbos, Rosh Chodesh and bris milah, and behold, there is a great revolt within it.

51:36 Even if all the peoples and nations and tongues were to go, they could not overcome the five sons of Matisyahu. They are stronger than lions, lighter than eagles, and quicker than bears. Now, O king, let my counsel be good in your eyes: if you fight them with this army, you will be put to shame in the eyes of all the kings. Therefore send letters to all the provinces of your kingdom, and let the commanders of the armies come, not one of them staying behind, and let there also be elephants clad in armor with them. And the thing was good in the eyes of King Antiochus.

52:01 Therefore send letters to all the provinces of your kingdom, and let the commanders of the armies come, not one of them staying behind, and let there also be elephants clad in armor with them. And the thing was good in the eyes of King Antiochus, and he sent letters to all the provinces of his kingdom, and the officers of every people came, and with them elephants clad in armor. A second time the wicked Bagris arose and came to Jerusalem. He breached the wall and tore down the entrance, and he broke thirteen breaches in the Temple, and he also shattered the stones until they were like dust. He thought in his heart and said: This time they will not overcome me, for my army is great and my hand is strong. But the G-d of heaven did not think so. When the five sons of Matisyahu heard, they arose and came to Mitzpeh Gilead, where there had been deliverance for the house of Israel in the days of Shmuel the prophet. They decreed a fast and sat on ashes to ask for mercy from the G-d of heaven. Then good counsel fell into their hearts. And their names were: Yehudah the firstborn, Shimon the second, Yochanan

52:50 the third, Yonasan the fourth, Elazar the fifth. Their father blessed them before he sent them to war, and he said to them: Yehudah my son, I liken you to Yehudah son of Yaakov, who was compared to a lion. Shimon my son, I liken you to Shimon son of Yaakov, who killed the people of Shechem. Yochanan my son, I liken you to Avner son of Ner, commander of the army of Israel. Yonasan my son, I liken you to Yonasan son of Shaul, who killed the Philistines. Elazar my son, I liken you to Pinchas son of Elazar, who was zealous for his G-d and saved the children of Israel.

53:17 After this the five sons of Matisyahu arose and fought those peoples, and they carried out a great slaughter among them, and Yehudah was killed among them. At that hour, when the sons of Matisyahu saw that Yehudah had been killed, they turned back and came to their father. He said to them: Why have you come back? They answered and said: Yehudah our brother has been killed, who was equal to all of us. Matisyahu their father answered and said to them: I will go out with you and fight the peoples, lest the house of Israel be lost, and you are shaken over your brother! And Matisyahu went out on that day with his sons, and they fought the peoples. And the G-d of heaven gave all the mighty men of the peoples into their hand, and they carried out a great slaughter among them: everyone who drew a sword and everyone who drew a bow, the army commanders and the officers. Not one survivor was left of them. And the rest of the peoples fled to the lands of the sea. And Elazar was busy killing the elephants, and he sank in the dung of the elephants. They searched for him among the living and among the dead and did not find him, and afterward they found him in the dung of the elephants.

54:06 And the children of Israel rejoiced that their enemies had been given into their hands. Some of them they burned with fire, some they stabbed with the sword, and some they hanged on the gallows. And the wicked Bagris, who led his people astray, the children of Israel burned him with fire. And King Antiochus, when he heard that Bagris his second-in-command had been killed, and all the army commanders who were with him, got into a ship and fled to the lands of the sea. And in every place he came to, they rebelled against him and called him "the Runaway," and he cast himself into the sea. After that the Chashmonaim came to the Beis HaMikdash.

54:32 After that the Chashmonaim came to the Beis HaMikdash. They rebuilt the gates and closed the breaches, and they purified the courtyard of the slain and of the impurities. They looked for pure olive oil to light the Menorah, and they found only one flask that was sealed with the signet ring of the Kohen Gadol, and they knew that it was pure. There was enough in it to light for one day. And the G-d of heaven, who rested His Name there, put blessing into it, and they lit from it for eight days. Therefore the Chashmonaim established it as a fixed law and made it binding, and the children of Israel together with them as one, to make these eight days days of feasting and joy, like the festival days written in the Torah.

55:00 About this, what we spoke of last week: there is a dispute among the Rishonim. The Radbaz, the Rashba, all the Rishonim who discuss it, the Raavyah, the Mordechai. See how much they discussed this, these words, and people do not know how important it is to read this megillah. See, over these words, what a dispute. See: "to make these eight days days of feasting and joy, like the festival days written in the Torah."

55:25 This sentence. And to light candles on them, to make known the victories that the G-d of heaven did for them. On them one may not eulogize, nor decree a fast, except for one who has a vow upon him: let him fulfill it. But Chashmonai and his sons and their brothers did not decree on them a stop to work and labor. They and their sons and their sons' sons, from that time until the destruction of the House of G-d, two hundred and six years. Therefore the children of Israel have kept these days in all their exile. And they called them days of feasting and joy, from the twenty-fifth of the month of Kislev, eight days. And these days they established and accepted upon themselves and upon their children's children forever: the kohanim, the prophets and the Sages who were in the Beis HaMikdash, upon them and their descendants forever.

56:00 Be strong and take courage. May their merit protect us. I love you with a great love. May the Holy One, blessed be He, give everyone all the blessings. I love you with a great love. Be strong and take courage, that we merit the complete geulah. Pray for us, with Hashem's help. A complete healing, strong health, and success in Torah. "Be strong and let your heart take courage, all you who hope in Hashem." Rabbi Chananya ben Akashya says: The Holy One, blessed be He, wanted to give Israel merit,