Chanuka
Hey guys, a gutten chodesh to ya’ll I know that it’s not erev Shabbat but it is in time for Rosh chodesh and Chanukah. I got a special request to share a few words with ya’ll about the festival of lights. So we had the privilege of having Rabbi Kelemen this past week on one of his rare visits to the country as Rabbi Kass puts it. So here it goes:
Ramchal writes that the Human being is composed of two completely opposite beings that are locked up together- the neshama and the body. At death they separate each going their own way. The Cheshbon Nefesh adds that sometimes the neshama is in charge and sometimes the guf gets the better of us9 we can all think of a time when that happened- like that last sufganiya you really didn’t need.) the guf seems to have an unfair advantage- the neshama speaks in a slight, quiet aidel voice( imagine Mrs. D) and the guf has a booming powerful voice that is so loud we barely hear the neshama, it’s no wonder we give in so often to the physical side of ourselves. The only way we can overcome the guf is through a nes. So imagine the scene: you have this really juicy piece of lashon hara to say to say or not to say, you know you shouldn’t but, really it’s not that bad and its true and they are gonna find out sooner or later, so what if it’s a couple a hours earlier? But you know that really it’s not the right thing to do and you can just imagine Hashem lehavdil frowning down at you as you open your mouth, no you aren’t gonna say it… but it’s too good you cannot help but blurt it out. So what would you say, did u fail or succeed? I think that we can all agree that we basically failed, but what about that second when you where really battling that yetzer hara and you weren’t gonna do it. That effort doesn’t go wasted. Every time we fight and fail and fight and fail and fight and fail you create a thin layer adding and adding to the layer from before, adding drops of oil to the vial, and every time you try you add another and another till eventually the vial overflows and explodes into a burst of light and out of nowhere you have this incredible strength to blow that blasted yetzer hara outa the water, all those failed attempts add up till they give you this immense strength you would never have had otherwise to fight the yetzer hara. The miracle of the Jews winning over the Greeks wasn’t such a miracle-its teva. When you fight and fight the natural consequence is that at the end you will be able to overcome the enemy and that is what the Jews in yavan did. They didn’t beat them initially. It was only after trying and failing and trying and failing that they triumphant. And this is how we battle the yetzer hara today, by constantly creating these layers piling them one atop another till we got so powerful that we blast that yetzer hara back to where it came from.
(This is the really cool part)
Think back to Yom Kippur-Neilah. Try to conjure up the feelings that you had at that awesome moment after you have been fasting for 25 hours and you are now standing before the Aron Kodesh, you are davening with your full heart. You are so close to Hashem; you have confessed all your chataim to your Father there are no secrets it’s all out in the open, you have reached an unmatched high, and this is the pinnacle of your avoda, working up 40 days till this point…. Are you there? If not take a few moments there is no timer, no pressure this is only or you. Once you get there, now think about the kabbalas you took on at that point to help keep you on this high. We all made them- have more kavana when making that bracha (anyone still doing that shehakol in the morning idea) overtime we’ve all slipped. The yetzer hara has convinced us that maybe we took on too much, maybe we were aiming too high, who were we fooling anyway, there is no way that I'm on that level, I need to take on something smaller. We failed too many times for it to be practical. But R’Volbe says that we have the power on Chanukah to get back to that point- to get to that high that we achieved on Yom Kippur. All we have to do is reaccept upon ourselves the commitments we made and we will come out of Chanukah with an unparalled aliya. It’s simply a matter of not giving in to the Greeks who want us to give in to the yetzer hara and not go back to recommit ourselves to a relationship with Hashem. The Greeks didn’t want to destroy our bodies they only wanted us to break off with Hashem, slowly, slowly by convincing us that we aren’t a “mamleches kohanim v’goy kadosh” they want us think that we are just our guf that our neshama isn’t there. But we have to take the strength from every failed attempt and allow us to give us the strength to win next time. The only way we will be able to continue is if we keep trying to grow, working on the kabbalas that we already made, remaking them and making them a real part of your life then you will be amazed to see what a difference to your year it will have, come Rosh Hashanah next year you really will be a different person.
- This point I'm making now is really from Rabbi Brown’s speech last year on Chanukah, I have yet to understand it fully so I cannot really bring it down but there were a couple a things he said that really hit home for me. As much as we would like to think that we are frum and we went o bnos chavaya and we have great hashkfos and that our first hashkafa is Torah-its not! Yavan is. Baruch Hashem that Torah is our second Hashkafa. If it wasn’t who knows where we’d be. But can u imagine if our first hashkafa was torah, what heights we could reach? We see everything through the eyes of roman/Greek/American culture. We are so steeped in it we don’t even realize the extent to which we are influenced. The second thing is extremely close to this. When our parents tell us to do something we usually will do, bcz we have a mitzvah of kibbud av’vaim. But was is your thought process when you were at home finally and your mother told you to for heaven’s sake clean up your room. Now your thought process followed this-Maaaaaaaaaaaaaa, I'm almost 19 years old I just came back from a year of living on my own total independence and you wanna tell me what to do, to clean my room. It is my room I’ll keep it messy if I pretty darn please. But of course you politely said yes (hopefully) and went to dutifully clean up ur room. So your action was a Torah action but was your thoughts? Rabbi Brown was warning us, not to think like a goy, don’t let your thoughts pass through the first hashkafa of yavan and then come to fruition through your secondary hashkafa of torah. Let your thoughts be those befitting one with a neshama who has the power to change olamos with your bechira!
A gutten Chodesh and frailchen Chanukah
(I’m slowly turning yeshivish here!) (Help!!!!!)
Ramchal writes that the Human being is composed of two completely opposite beings that are locked up together- the neshama and the body. At death they separate each going their own way. The Cheshbon Nefesh adds that sometimes the neshama is in charge and sometimes the guf gets the better of us9 we can all think of a time when that happened- like that last sufganiya you really didn’t need.) the guf seems to have an unfair advantage- the neshama speaks in a slight, quiet aidel voice( imagine Mrs. D) and the guf has a booming powerful voice that is so loud we barely hear the neshama, it’s no wonder we give in so often to the physical side of ourselves. The only way we can overcome the guf is through a nes. So imagine the scene: you have this really juicy piece of lashon hara to say to say or not to say, you know you shouldn’t but, really it’s not that bad and its true and they are gonna find out sooner or later, so what if it’s a couple a hours earlier? But you know that really it’s not the right thing to do and you can just imagine Hashem lehavdil frowning down at you as you open your mouth, no you aren’t gonna say it… but it’s too good you cannot help but blurt it out. So what would you say, did u fail or succeed? I think that we can all agree that we basically failed, but what about that second when you where really battling that yetzer hara and you weren’t gonna do it. That effort doesn’t go wasted. Every time we fight and fail and fight and fail and fight and fail you create a thin layer adding and adding to the layer from before, adding drops of oil to the vial, and every time you try you add another and another till eventually the vial overflows and explodes into a burst of light and out of nowhere you have this incredible strength to blow that blasted yetzer hara outa the water, all those failed attempts add up till they give you this immense strength you would never have had otherwise to fight the yetzer hara. The miracle of the Jews winning over the Greeks wasn’t such a miracle-its teva. When you fight and fight the natural consequence is that at the end you will be able to overcome the enemy and that is what the Jews in yavan did. They didn’t beat them initially. It was only after trying and failing and trying and failing that they triumphant. And this is how we battle the yetzer hara today, by constantly creating these layers piling them one atop another till we got so powerful that we blast that yetzer hara back to where it came from.
(This is the really cool part)
Think back to Yom Kippur-Neilah. Try to conjure up the feelings that you had at that awesome moment after you have been fasting for 25 hours and you are now standing before the Aron Kodesh, you are davening with your full heart. You are so close to Hashem; you have confessed all your chataim to your Father there are no secrets it’s all out in the open, you have reached an unmatched high, and this is the pinnacle of your avoda, working up 40 days till this point…. Are you there? If not take a few moments there is no timer, no pressure this is only or you. Once you get there, now think about the kabbalas you took on at that point to help keep you on this high. We all made them- have more kavana when making that bracha (anyone still doing that shehakol in the morning idea) overtime we’ve all slipped. The yetzer hara has convinced us that maybe we took on too much, maybe we were aiming too high, who were we fooling anyway, there is no way that I'm on that level, I need to take on something smaller. We failed too many times for it to be practical. But R’Volbe says that we have the power on Chanukah to get back to that point- to get to that high that we achieved on Yom Kippur. All we have to do is reaccept upon ourselves the commitments we made and we will come out of Chanukah with an unparalled aliya. It’s simply a matter of not giving in to the Greeks who want us to give in to the yetzer hara and not go back to recommit ourselves to a relationship with Hashem. The Greeks didn’t want to destroy our bodies they only wanted us to break off with Hashem, slowly, slowly by convincing us that we aren’t a “mamleches kohanim v’goy kadosh” they want us think that we are just our guf that our neshama isn’t there. But we have to take the strength from every failed attempt and allow us to give us the strength to win next time. The only way we will be able to continue is if we keep trying to grow, working on the kabbalas that we already made, remaking them and making them a real part of your life then you will be amazed to see what a difference to your year it will have, come Rosh Hashanah next year you really will be a different person.
- This point I'm making now is really from Rabbi Brown’s speech last year on Chanukah, I have yet to understand it fully so I cannot really bring it down but there were a couple a things he said that really hit home for me. As much as we would like to think that we are frum and we went o bnos chavaya and we have great hashkfos and that our first hashkafa is Torah-its not! Yavan is. Baruch Hashem that Torah is our second Hashkafa. If it wasn’t who knows where we’d be. But can u imagine if our first hashkafa was torah, what heights we could reach? We see everything through the eyes of roman/Greek/American culture. We are so steeped in it we don’t even realize the extent to which we are influenced. The second thing is extremely close to this. When our parents tell us to do something we usually will do, bcz we have a mitzvah of kibbud av’vaim. But was is your thought process when you were at home finally and your mother told you to for heaven’s sake clean up your room. Now your thought process followed this-Maaaaaaaaaaaaaa, I'm almost 19 years old I just came back from a year of living on my own total independence and you wanna tell me what to do, to clean my room. It is my room I’ll keep it messy if I pretty darn please. But of course you politely said yes (hopefully) and went to dutifully clean up ur room. So your action was a Torah action but was your thoughts? Rabbi Brown was warning us, not to think like a goy, don’t let your thoughts pass through the first hashkafa of yavan and then come to fruition through your secondary hashkafa of torah. Let your thoughts be those befitting one with a neshama who has the power to change olamos with your bechira!
A gutten Chodesh and frailchen Chanukah
(I’m slowly turning yeshivish here!) (Help!!!!!)
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