Rosh Chodesh Kislev - The Essence of Darkness

2:27 So this does not appear at first blush to be a culture of darkness. Other rabba, I would have said this is a culture that illuminated the world. Greek philosophy is very chashav. So what's the pshat that the medrash identifies Yovan with darkness? The pashupshat. That people say is Yafei as Yefes, but O Aleishem That the beauty of Yefes referring to Greek logic Has a place in O Aleishem. It has a place in the tens of Klal Yisro. But on the other hand, we know that Chazal say that anyone that studies Chachma Yevanis, anyone that studies Greek logic Gives up their Chelak and Olam Haba. So there seems to be this aspect. On the one hand, the Rambam extols the virtues of Aristotle, and certainly Greek philosophy clearly impacted the Rambam. On the other hand, we see that there's something negative about Chacham Yevanis that a person gives up their chiluk and iruma ba because of him.

3:34 Shalit, what do these things mean? Just to jump right into it There's a chiluk between what we'll call the system of thought. That Greeks employs versus the logic of Yavon. There's a difference. One thing that Greece gave us was that they gave us language. I don't know if we often realize that our ability to articulate a concept is rooted in Greek philosophy. That it wasn't obvious that a person should categorize things and should know things in a very clear way. I think we take for granted, for sure, in the yeshiva system, we take for granted the Rambam. The Rambam was the first person to codify Kolat Harakula. The Rambam says you could open up the Yad HaChazaka and Kolat Harakula could be found in the Rambam, in the Yad. What exactly did he do in the Yad? He organized everything. He said there's a system of logic. Everything belongs in a certain place, and every single word in the Rambam is precise.

4:43 That is yafei yas yafes baolei shem. That there's a system of thought that things should be rational, that things should be explained in a clear fashion. That is something beautiful that Greece gave the world. This might be a little bit too far to say, but I think it's appropriate. In yeshivas today, our ability to articulate a concept, to say something clearly, it's not so pashit. When in the great yeshivas, the biggest magidim are the least clear. That's like how you know you're in a top shear. If you understand none of what your rebbe said, then you're like, I must be in a top shear because I don't understand anything the rebbe said. My rebbe was exactly the opposite. My rebbe was a talmud mivok of Rav Salavechik. Every single word was exceptionally precise. In fact, my rebbe's speech was so clear that even if you didn't prepare at all, you could understand every single thing that he said, which often led to the misconception that he was saying nothing at all. Some guys, who were like these, like genius guys, would walk out of Shira and they'd be like, "I don't even know what he said. It was just like it was so simple." I was like, "Right." The ability to articulate an idea simply and to communicate your message is not obvious. It's really a remarkable thing if you think about it that a person has the capacity to take a concept.

6:02 And to articulate it in words and to communicate it to somebody else. In fact, I remember my rebbe, if we used our hands during shir, if we were like trying to explain. You ever see Yeshiva Bachem talk? They talk. It's ten percent with their words, ninety percent with their hands. So my rebbe used to say, "Sit on your hands." It's very hard to communicate an idea without using your hands. You're trying to get something across. You know the old yeshiva bachurim thumb. Everyone has their way of doing it. The ability to articulate an idea is not a simple thing at all. That's something that Greece gave the world: a clear system of logic, a clear system of explanation, to be able to communicate ideas and convey them to another person. That is yafei asifes baolishen. However, there is an idea that Greece brought to the world.

6:58 We dare say that it is perhaps one of the most dangerous, corrupting ideas to ever exist in the history of the world. And the idea is as follows: In order to say that something exists, it must be explainable by logic. At first glance, that doesn't appear to be a terribly corrupting idea, but as you'll soon see When you really start to appreciate how profoundly distorted this idea is, you'll see the danger that lurks within this idea. If I can't explain it If I can't use logical, rational terminology to say that this exists, then it doesn't exist. My rebbe used to say that. He would do his best to articulate an idea. But just because the idea was beyond articulation, he would say, "I don't have the hubris, I don't have the gaiva to say that it doesn't exist." I'll explain why this is such a profoundly distorted idea.

8:08 Shaila is Is Hakadosh Baruch Hu bound by logic? The Greeks say The only thing that exists is that which I can articulate. So there, that idea puts a person at the center of the universe. That my mind, my logic, is really the only thing that exists. And the boundaries, the limitations of this world, exist within the confines of my logic. Perhaps in the history of the world, there is not a more arrogant idea. That's probably why the Greeks have all their idols are basically about them. That's basically what it is. As opposed to other idolatrous cultures, where the idolatry was different images. Greek idols are basically humans. It's placing a person at the center of the universe and saying my logic is the only thing that's real. Rebbe Nachshon doesn't exist. The fact that the Torah has grand ideas in it is amazing. You see this even articulated today. I think I saw it from Dr. Jordan Peterson.

9:30 You're holding in jordan peterson. Jordan peterson He said, if you had the best writers in the world, they couldn't write the story of Cain and Abel. There's so much wisdom in the story of Cain and Abel. He's right, but he's wrong. He's right in the sense that a person could spend their entire lives on ten psukim of Chumash and never stop. The level of infinity in every single element of Torah is so profound that a person could really spend their entire life on it. I was hired by an organization. It's good. It has to happen once in every year. I was once at a I was once at a funeral and hit the road jack came on somebody's phone that was much worse this at least is just a standard ringer I was hired and it didn't work out again I don't think the organization exists anymore but I was hired to write parenting articles see online all these parenting articles I asked my brother I said how am I going to write parenting articles every single week.

10:41 You have to have something to say every single week. My brother said it was a brilliant idea. He said, just take a dvar Torah on the parsha and apply it to parenting. Every single dvar Torah on the parsha applies to parenting. I thought it was a very good idea, and then I realized there's ben sorer u'mayra. Ben sorer u'mayra is an unbelievable topic for parenting And I started writing. I don't know how many it was. It was at least fifteen, sixteen articles that I wrote just on ben sorer u'mayra. And you and Mammash could have kept going. I probably could have written a hundred articles. The Torah is so exceptionally profound that a person could sit and delve into it. That is not the divinity of Torah. That's not the Elokuv of Torah. That's the logic of Torah. That's the brilliance of Torah. Unfortunately today, I think for many, and there's something beautiful about this, but I think it's lost something.

11:34 The Torah has become basically for many people an articulation of a psychological principle. You ever hear an idea, and basically all you're hearing is watered down psychology from rabbis that never really studied psychology. You know what I'm talking about? A little bit too close to home for some people. Maybe me. The idea that the Torah had an insight into the psychology of man. It's true. But the Torah is not a book of psychology. If a person wants to learn psychological principles, they don't have to learn Torah to do that. Torah happens to have psychological principles embedded in it, but to limit the Torah to its logic, to limit the Torah to the brilliance of its ideas It's a chisaron in understanding what Torah is. This is the tragedy of Greece. It places man at the center of the universe. And lest we think that's not a dangerous idea, historically speaking, that's probably the single most dangerous thing that a person could do, even on a very basic level.

12:35 What would it look like in any relationship if you were married to a person who places himself at the center of his universe? What would it look like? Where would be the space for you? Where would be the space for your children? Again, even just looking at the microcosm of a family, these things become very obvious. If I'm married to somebody who believes that he's the center of the universe, then I have no way to talk to him. There's no space for me. There's never going to be a validating experience, and if there is, it's only because of what he's going to get in return. There's a narcissism to this idea of my logic, myself is at the center of the universe. A parent, this happens quite often. A parent who places themselves at the center of their universe when their child is acting out or behaving in a way that's difficult for the parent.

13:29 We're no longer employing parenting strategies. We're employing behavioral tactics of how I can control my child. So we're not actually interested in what's best for the child. And if that person does employ good parenting tactics, what's the only reason they employ good parenting tactics? Because that's the best way of controlling my child. So this idea of a microcosm within the family is so destructive that it's hard for us to conceive that a person could be in a healthy relationship like that. But when you multiply that out And you put a person like that in a community, a person like that in a country. Just think about what the notion of politics has become today. It used to be that the nature of politics was about serving something larger than yourself.

14:17 It's hard for us to imagine, especially. I happen to think it's not such a bad thing. But today, Joe Biden pardoned his son Hunter, right? Did you hear that he pardoned his son Hunter Biden for all the crimes he committed over the last eleven years? After he had been saying for months that he wouldn't pardon his son, on the way out of office he pardoned his son. I happen to think it's not so bad. That's what a loving father should do. Also, he gave every rav a Yom Kippur drasha for this year. Every single rav throughout the entire world is going to be saying, 'See, a loving father pardons his son.' So I'm not so upset about it. But really, why is the world going crazy? Because that's basically the way we see politicians today. It's just power. It's just self-serving. There's nothing greater. There's no 'ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.' There's placing the self at the center of the universe. And even though it happens to be that the narcissist that's coming into office is our narcissist, but make no mistake about it, he is a narcissist, and that is fundamentally a dangerous thing.

15:20 And we all know how quickly it could turn Because when somebody is in a position where all they want is power. The opportunity to just switch and go, well that side is more powerful than this side, so that's what I'll do. Baruch Hashem, right now it doesn't seem apidarchateva that that's what's going to happen, but fundamentally there's a breach in what we perceive to be the normal modality of society. This is the impact of Yavon. My logic, myself is at the center of the universe. What does Yiddishkeit believe? So the simple answer is Yiddishkeit believes that God is at the center of the universe. And you're not at the center of the universe, and that would be a very easy thing to say. We wouldn't have much to talk about. The truth is a little bit more complicated than that. The truth is the following idea.

16:10 It's not so much that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is at the center of the universe. Obviously, that's true, but it's a much more profound idea. The idea is as follows. From the perspective, if you don't understand, feel free to ask because this is where it's going to get a deep dive. From the perspective of Hakadosh Baruch Hu's atzmos From the perspective of Hashem's essence There is no such thing as categories and there's no such thing as logic. I'll say it again to make sure everyone gets every step of the way. I'll try to make it as clear as possible. From the perspective of Hashem's essence. There is no such thing as categories. There's no such thing as logic. Hashem is not bound in any way by any category. There is no difference between any one thing and any other to Hashem. In fact, Chazal say that from the perspective of Hashem's essence, it makes no difference if we do a mitzvah or do an avera.

17:13 Except for the fact that the Torah tells us to do a mitzvah. We would have no idea that there's any difference between a mitzvah and an avera Because a mitzvah and an avera are categories. And from the perspective of Hashem's essence, Hashem's essence is so far beyond creation that you can't say even about Hashem's essence that it's a creator. Because even that would be to limit it in some way. Before I move on, I just want to make sure. Generally, I'm just trying to get a general sense of the room. How many people have a clue what I just said? Say it again. You have to give me some feedback. I get blank faces. I'm okay with blank faces, but I need some feedback. Say it again. Good. Of course, Hashem is at the center of the universe. But whereas a human being says "My logic is what's critical, and everything needs to be explained, and everything needs to be categorized," and there is something beautiful about that.

18:17 But fundamentally Fundamentally, Hashem's essence is beyond categorization. About Hashem's essence, you can say nothing. The only thing you can say about Hashem's essence is that it exists. In what way? We have no idea. Even to say that Hashem is a creator in some way would be limiting, because even that would be a categorization. Even to say about Hashem that he's infinite in some way would be limiting, because it's relative to the categories of infinite and finite. Does that make sense? Somewhat, From the perspective of Hashem's essence, there are no categories. There's no dualities. There's no such thing. We'll go this far. There's no such thing as body and soul. There's no such thing as Shamayim va'aretz. There's no difference between the spiritual worlds and the physical worlds from the perspective of Hashem's essence. This is a huge concept. Because it answers a question that, if we've been paying attention in our lives, everyone on some level has probably asked this question, though we may not have realized this was the question we were asking.

19:27 We've all heard the idea that we're supposed to bring spirituality into this world. Everyone is supposed to be mekadesh v'chol. You're supposed to engage in the material nature of this world in a spiritualized, sanctified way. Everyone's heard that concept. If you take a second to think about it, at first glance, that concept makes no sense. Spiritual and physical are two things that have nothing to do with each other. And really logically Nothing in the material world should be able to contain To express, to be endowed with any level of spirituality. It doesn't even make any sense. How could a table, which is physical Have something about it that is spiritual? How could it be elevated? In some way, how could the Shechina, how could the indwelling of Hashem's presence, be found here within the material world? It is a completely illogical idea. And we speak, we say it all the time, but if we think about it, it makes no sense. In fact, in Kabbalah Spiritual does not become physical.

20:31 When Hashem created the world, we know that the way Hashem created the world was mitzamtzim his or. That means Hashem refracted his light. But alpi chasidus alpi kabbalah It's not true that Hashem refracted his light until his light became the physical world. Because that would be impossible. I could take this light and you could refract it. For example, this light is refracted. Very beautiful. Do we call this a chandelier? What do we call it? A piece. So this light is being refracted. By the way, the cover that it has on it. Otherwise, it would be very uncomfortable to be in this room with this light because it doesn't have an appropriate cover. If we refract this light and refract this light, it could become darker in this room, but it cannot become an apple. This light can never become an apple. Why can the light not become an apple? Because the light is spiritual and the apple is material.

21:28 So it's not true that when Hashem Was Metzamtzim his R? That R became the physical universe. The Alter Rebbe explains that really, when Hashem created the universe, when He created the physical world, not the spiritual world, when He created the physical world, that had to come from Hashem's Atzmos Because the spiritual world can never become the physical world. The physical world is rooted in Hashem's essence, which is beyond all categorization. Why is that important? So here's the big. This in many ways what we're about to say is all of Yiddishkeit. This all of Kolot Torakula, and understanding this idea is mission critical to every single thing that we do. The physical world can only be merged with the spiritual world. Because from the perspective of Hashem's essence, there is no difference between physicality and spirituality. There's no difference between physicality from the perspective of Hashem's essence. That's beyond categorization. That's beyond logic, physical, spiritual. It's all the same. I'll give you an example. This is to bring it down to earth for a couple of minutes, and then we'll go back up.

22:40 In the relationship between a husband and a wife, we all know this to be true. Especially for those of us that are married. For those of us that are not married. You'll come with me on this journey, and you'll see that it's true. Men and women cannot be in a relationship. It's impossible. And all the marriage classes fail. Because men and women cannot be in a relationship, it doesn't make any sense. We are fundamentally different species. That's why marriage is, I would say, impossible. How could a man be married to a woman? For you've married for a couple of years. Do you realize now how insane the idea is? A kol d'sh baruch hu must have a sense of humor. What we communicate differently. We have different needs. We have different values. How in the world are these two people meant to become one? It makes no sense.

23:26 God has a tremendous sense of humor. Elamai, A man and a woman cannot get married. But there's something larger than male and female. There's something within which this notion of marriage is larger than male and female. And he has to stop being male and you have to stop being female in order for the marriage to work. There has to be some shared essence. Some something that unites you at a much more fundamental level, because on a physical level, just like spirituality and materialism don't mix, men and women don't mix. The only way that man can marry a woman is if a man becomes a husband and a woman becomes a wife. That's the only way it could possibly work.

24:13 There's something that's why we walk under a chuppah. What's the pshat? Why do we need to go under a chuppah? If you think about it, why do we need to go under a chuppah? Why can't it just be like a regular thing, by the guyem that they commit to each other and they go down to city hall. Maybe they sign some papers. They get a tax break and they live together until they decide not to live together. Why do we have to? Why do we have to make a whole fancy chasna, especially today? I give you a bracha that if you're making a chasna, that the inflation should go down. I'm making a chasna bez Hashem on the first night of Chanukah, and I made a chasna not that long ago. And it's thirty percent more expensive.

24:47 Bracha Hashem, I'm sure it's going to be beautiful, and the money will come from the rebbeinu Shalom. It is very expensive, and you have to ask yourself again. We're not that we're Chassidish. I'm hoping for COVID to come back, but like all people that are making chassons now are like, why didn't we learn our lesson from COVID? Why can't my kids get married in the forest illegally? I'm talking about remember what it was like. We were mom is going out to the forest in Beis Hamish like ten people, like a quick chuppah, and then running back. It was a beautiful time. Every father was so happy. Every father was like, I know it's so hard. But it's a ridiculous thing. We spend this much money on a chassna. But why do we do it? Why is there a mitzvah simchas chasam thekala? Why do they have to walk under a chuppah? Why do we have to have a whole legal procession? The Torah says this not just like concretizing the relationship. It's not legal in that way. It's legal only in the sense that halacha takes on the contours of reality. But when we walk under the chuppah, it's an expression of I'm part of this thing called marriage, which is not about what are. It's not about our specific categories anymore.

25:56 I'm beyond categories now. I'm not in the world of categories. I'm in the world of essence. And from the perspective of essence, there's no men and there's no women. So since there's no men and there's no women, what's left? All there is a neshama. From the perspective of the neshama, a man and a woman could get married because what man, what woman? They're just neshamas. That's why our baal yom before we were conceived, the baskal came out and said, Ploni will marry Plonis. Because a marriage has nothing to do with the binary categories of male and female; those just happen to be the particular roles that we play within the marriage. But of course, the marriage itself doesn't speak to the body; it speaks to the soul. Otherwise, there would be no notion. How could it be vahayu lebaser echad? How could two physical things become one? The Targum says physical things cannot become one. Physical things can only become close. The only way that something physical could become one with something else is if we take away the categories of physical and spiritual, and it's all one thing.

26:59 Because it's one thing, we can merge. This is the aside of everything in Yiddishkeit. If you start looking through the prism of this concept, you could talk about it in a lot of different ways. You could call it the atzmos of Hashem. You could call it the Yichida of the soul. That's the highest dimension of the soul. Doesn't matter what Hasidic or Kabbalistic terminology you want to use. Any concept in Yiddishkeit, and literally every single concept in Yiddishkeit comes down to this concept: that from the perspective of Hashem, there is no difference between this category and that category. It's all the same. That's what it is. This is the Yom Tov of Chanukah. This is why Hanukkah is so important Because basically what Hanukkah says is there is no difference between darkness and light Which is why we can light. If it wasn't for this principle, then how could I illuminate the darkness? I know this sheir is for those chaturim that have unfortunately not yet been brought home. I just want to say a small thing about this.

28:13 Where does a yid get the resilience to still have hope that we're going to be able to bring these chaturfim home? The world is so exceptionally dark. It is so dark. I was in Chicago for a scone residence two shabbosos ago, and somebody messaged me, "Be careful when you're walking in Chicago." There was just a shooting there. And I was like, I had to hit pause for a second and realize I feel less safe walking in Chicago than I do walking in Ramat Beit Shemesh. That's a crazy thing. We all grew up. I think we all grew up in America. Did any of us grow up not feeling with exceptions? Did any of us not feel safe growing up in America? I grew up in the Five Towns. A Five Towns kid doesn't feel safe if his parents aren't gonna get him the nicest car. That's how I feel traumatized. You only got me at sixteen years old, like a regular car. That's the way I felt growing up. Who didn't feel safe growing up? The idea that I was thinking to myself, I'm walking in Chicago, I have to be careful.

29:19 I'm going, I'm going not next, not this week, but next week, I think, to New York and New Jersey and in Tenek that there's like demonstrations, there's real demonstrations. They go out and like Where do we get the courage to say, Chaturim are going to come home and eventually all this darkness is going to be illuminated? How does he live with simcha? We've been living. I know it sounds like a funny thing. On the one hand, we've all been in a very weird state for the last year and change. On the other hand, there's tremendous simcha. There's tremendous simcha in this country right now. Where do we get the chutzpah to have this simcha? Where do we get the idea that a little bit of light dispels a lot of darkness? It shouldn't be that way. The darkness should be so profound that light should do nothing to it.

30:05 Anyone here go to the blind museum? It's a geschmack. It's like, especially I don't want to spoil it for anybody, but if you haven't been to the blind museum, it's definitely something to do. And the darkness is thick. You're walking, and at the end when you come out, it's like you ever see people walking out of a movie theater, where they like reacclimate to life. Watch people walking out of the blind museum. It's like they restored their eyesight. Darkness is so thick that light should not pierce it. What business does light have piercing the darkness? How could it be that the Rebbeinu Shalom created a world where I could illuminate the darkness? How could it be that the light of the moon exists? The Targum says it's only if you believe in the category of darkness. But Kolod, that you're looking at it from the perspective of the essence, it's all Hashem.

30:52 It's Hashem in the darkness. It's Hashem in the light. Avada darkness and light can be merged. Because they're not opposites of each other; they're only opposites of each other from our limited perspective. This is why the halacha is: we know that the shkina never comes lower than ten tefachim. But we also know that we're not allowed to light Hanukkah candles above ten tefachim. So everyone always says: so, everyone likes handles. What's the pshat? The terez is very simple. On Hanukkah, the reality of the world is being exposed. You think that there's a world where Hakadosh Baruch Hu shkina cannot be shira. Lower than ten tefachim Because you have a category called ten tefachim. On Chanukah, there are no more categories. That's why Chanukah is the eighth dimension. Seven is teva, right? Eighth is beyond teva. On Chanukah, we reach the highest level. That is to say, we reach the level where a person is no longer living within the binary categories of reality. That's why eight is always correspondence to the fiftieth, right? That's why seven times seven is forty-nine. The eighth dimension is always the fiftieth dimension. It's always the counting of matan Torahs on the fiftieth dimension. It's the dimension of that which is beyond reality. Just think about it even for a second. How does Torah come into our world?

32:04 How could it be that an infinite God could express His infinite will in a finite book? How could it be that there's halachos? How could it be that if one ox gours another ox, that this is the halacha? How could the infinite will be articulated in a finite world? That's only from the perspective of infinite and finite that you have that question. Once you go beyond the perspective of infinite and finite, all there is essence. There's no more categories. Once there's no more categories, there's no more questions. This is the holiest night of Chanukah. It's really the holiest night of the entire year. Mameila, let's start going back, and then I want to share with you a beautiful Gemara. Let's start going back. What was our original kasha? Why did the Greeks attack the Kohanim? Why did it have to be that the Kohanim were the ones to fight this battle? Why couldn't it be Malucha? It should have been. It should have been a Melech with an army. That's the natural way that it would have happened. So what's the pesha that Hakadosh Baruch Hu created it that the kaihanim were the ones that were attacked and the kaihanim were the ones that had to fight back.

32:59 Because the attack was not over. The attack was not a physical attack. It was a spiritual attack. The Greeks, their attack on us was logic and nothing beyond logic. What is the kahuna? The kahuna is kisif se kaiin yishmirudas. A kaiin is the keeper of das. What's the keeper of das? Not logic. That which is beyond logic. Just, I want to articulate this idea one more way. I want to make sure everybody gets it. When your husband proposed to you, did he get down on one knee and say, "Marry me"? Nobody makes me secrete serotonin and oxytocin like you. Why not? He didn't. I'm glad to hear that. But it's biologically true. From the perspective of logic, it's true. So why doesn't somebody do that? The Tzaddik says it's not a relationship that can exist within the boundaries of logic. That's what the Greeks said. The Greeks, their attack on us was you're trying to live beyond logic. You're trying to live beyond the dimension of self. That's what a Yid believes in. A Yid believes in selflessness. A Yevoni doesn't believe in selflessness. He believes in logic. He believes in self at the center of the universe. That's why they're tyrants. This is a tyrannical way of living.

34:19 Ayd says no. There's something essential that's beyond logic that cannot be articulated. That the chemical is a product of something that I can't possibly explain. That there's a reason that I'm attracted to one person over another, and it's not because of Freudian psychology that I had some traumatic moment when I was a child and now that girl is going to heal my trauma. There's something more essential about the nature of a relationship that can't be articulated. Greece is beautiful when it comes to logic and systems of explanation. But chas v'shalom for a yid ever to think that that's the only thing that exists. So that's the aside of the kahuna. The kahuna is the keepers of knowledge that is beyond articulation. It's words that cannot be categorized or cannot be articulated. It's an attack on the very notion not of spirituality. The Greeks could get behind the notion of spirituality as long as spirituality is logical, as long as it's explainable.

35:14 By the way, they you have this today, even within the world of Alcoholics Anonymous. That's what they say. A person has to be machnia themselves. They have to submit to a higher power if they want to become sober. It's the same concept. I'm basically using spirituality for sobriety. It's still limiting spirituality. It's still limiting that concept. A yid knows that our relationship to Hashem is beyond that which is articulatable. That's the secret of our existence. The secret of our resilience throughout history is we don't live within the world of logic. Logically, we should be gone. A yid doesn't live within the world of logic. Our neshama doesn't come from the world of logic. The yichida of the soul is essentially connected to Hashem. So it doesn't matter how much you persecute us and attack us throughout history. We're not limited to the logic that you have, which is why it's always been true throughout history that a smaller nation of Klal Yisrael has been able to be victorious over much larger nations.

36:11 Because within the boundaries of logic, we should lose all these wars. Even we shouldn't exist right now. This is, and again, no matter what side of the political divide you fall on, this ought to be obvious. We should not be able to live in this land right now. We shouldn't be able to. It doesn't make any sense. The fact that apartments now are through the roof in this neighborhood—you cannot find. My daughter found an apartment. She had to get a real estate agent. She had to get what do they call nadlan in English? A real estate agent. She had to get a real estate agent, and by the time she got to the apartment that night, there were four other couples waiting outside, and she had to on the spot tell them yes or no. That's the only way she was able to get an apartment. Apartments in this neighborhood now are like four thousand shekel for a shoebox. Do you remember twenty years ago when Ramat Shemesh was still like a desert, and you could buy a house in this place for eight hundred thousand shekel? I wish I had bought a block. I didn't know at the time how much money I had. I thought I couldn't afford to buy three houses. Turned out, I couldn't afford not to buy three houses, but nobody told me that.

37:12 What in the world? How is this nation exploding in such a miraculous way, despite all the persecution that's happening? How are we living here today? How did 1948 happen? How did 1967 happen? How did everything happen? Even this year has been beyond logic. If you told us on Yom Kippur, not of this past year, but of the year before, if you told us that Nasrallah Yemachshama would be dead and Sinwar Yemachshama would be dead, if you told us that Hezbollah was basically going to be gone. That Hamas was basically going to be gone. If you told us that Iran sent ballistic missiles to our homes. It was. This is not like I feel sometimes like when the siren they had the siren the other morning right from Yemen. I feel like it doesn't even bother me anymore. I wake up and I go Yemen, they're so cute. Who's afraid of a Yemeni? I shouldn't say it, but give me ballistic missiles, cruise missiles from Iran. That'll wake me up in the morning. Yemen, Saddam. We live in such a miraculous fashion that we don't even realize how miraculous it is. We live through. Aliyah numbers went through the roof with all of this going on. It's a crazy thing.

38:15 Elal Hopefully other airlines will open up, but you cannot get a seat on Elal if you don't book a flight months in advance. People are coming and coming. What's the pshat? We don't live within the boundaries of logic. The Greeks are dead because they did. There's no Greeks anymore. I'm sure there are people that are Greek. The idea, I don't know when the last time Greece produced anything other than Israelis going on vacation in Greece. Like I don't know. And I also see the ads. I'm also here, Taka. I also want to go there, not for Hanukkah, but maybe a different time. This idea that if you live within the world of logic, then you're subject to the vacillations of this world, the ups and downs of this world, we're not subject to those vacillations. We go up and we go down, but we can never be destroyed. That pentaliya, that essence of who we are, it could never be destroyed because the essence of who we are is the essence of Hakadosh Baruch Hu. And if you want me to say what that is I couldn't possibly give it language. To even attempt to give it language would be false. It would be the most foolish endeavor in the world. It'd be like trying to articulate why you love your children.

39:23 What would you possibly say? I love them because they're cute, and let's say they stop being cute. What happens the day they turn fifteen years old? Then you're not going to love them anymore. I promise you, it's a very quick shift. I don't know if it's after fifteen; it could be fourteen, it could be thirteen, whatever it is. But the moment that child turns that age, and all of a sudden, the most horrific words come out of their mouth—words that in a million years your cute daughter would never say—and all of a sudden they go, 'Are you really going out dressed like that?' Right? I watch my wife go, 'Really?' I was just hanging out of the house. That's not a nice thing to say. How do you love your child when they're not cute? Parents, it's because you don't love your child because they're cute. You love your child in a way that you cannot possibly articulate. And any parent who ever tried to articulate in the world of Greece, any child, of course, there's room for math and there's room for science and there's articulatable ideas. That's what the Rambam was saying. Anything not metaphysical. Aristotle had unbelievable language for. But the world is metaphysical. It's not just physical. It's metaphysical. There's something beyond this world that can't be articulated. It's poetry. It's art. It's love. It's music.

40:25 Today we live in a world. Every kid comes to yeshiva. I'm sure not in medrasha leiv, but every guy comes to yeshiva and he goes, 'Prove to me that God exists.' I said, 'And if I could' If I could prove to you that God exists, would that make it better? Then you could have your God in a laboratory, and you could be able to point to it. Would you ever want to worship a God that you could prove? All you're doing is limiting God to your logic, and then you're serving who? You're serving yourself. I would never believe in a God that I could prove. I can point to God's existence because I could point to— I don't even want to call them proofs. There are indications, like in anything in the world, there's a door. Somebody made this door, but it's not a proof. I can't measure God. I can't put him in a laboratory. But there's indications, meaningful indications, logical indications. But I don't worship the God of logic.

41:11 I worship the God that I can't possibly express the idea. That's the idea of Yudkevavke. I cannot say His name. That's why we can illuminate the darkness because the darkness and the light—it's all essence. It's all one. There's no chiluk. And if you'll ask me how what does it mean that there's no darkness and there's no light and it's all essence, I can't explain it. There's a level of essence that's beyond articulation. And a Jew has emuna that that's true, which is why historically speaking, any time it's been dark, we brought illumination to it because we didn't believe in the darkness any more than we believed in the light. Our ability to do things comes from the Rebbeinu Shlomo. I want to share with you one Gemara because I think this Gemara really highlights everything that we've been speaking about. We'll finish with this Gemara, but it's an absolutely stunning Gemara. I was going to read it inside, but I see we don't have time.

41:58 I'll share with you the idea of this Gemara because it's a stunning Gemara, and we've all probably heard this Gemara before, but it's worthwhile to take in our pockets because there are details in this Gemara that go very overlooked. There's a Shilu whether or not the Big Day Kahuna could be worn outside of the Beis Hamikdash. The Gemara in Yuma was dealing with this Shilu. Can the big day kohuna be worn outside the base hamikdash? So the gemara says, there's this day, the 25th of Teves. It's known as the day of Har Griesim. Har Griesim is still a place today. Har Griesim is where the Samaritans live. Have you ever traveled past Har Griesim in this country? There are signs indicating where the Kutzim live and where the Samaritans live. It still exists today. It was a day called Har Griesim, and it was established as a day of simcha.

42:49 And no eulogizing was permitted on that day. You weren't allowed to give any esbaidim. So the Gemara asks, what occurred? What occurred on the 25th of Teves that it became a day that a person couldn't be maspid somebody? The Gemara says it was on that day that the Kutim, the Samaritans, went to Alexander. They went to Alexander the Great. And they told Alexander the Great that they wanted to destroy the Beis Hamikdash. And he gave them permission to destroy the Beit Hamikdash, as they convinced him that Klal Yisrael was against him, and we're going to destroy the Beit Hamikdash. So they came and they told Shimon HaTzadik. Shimon HaTzadik was, of course, the Kohen Gadol. They came and told Shimon HaTzadik that the Kutzim got permission to come with Alexander the Great to destroy the Beit Hamikdash. So what did he do? So he put on the big dekahuna. He wrapped himself in the big dekahuna, and all the nobles of Klal Yisrael went with him. They had torches of fire in their hand.

43:47 That's an important detail. They had torches of fire in their hands. And that entire night, they came and they approached the armies of Alexander the Great and the Kutim. They were walking at night, and they had torches in their hands, and they were approaching Alexander the Great and the Kutim. The Gemara says When the dawn was coming, they finally saw these armies saw each other. And then it was alus hashacher. Then the dawn came, and Alexander the Great said to the Kutim, 'Who are these people that are coming to meet us? Who's this delegation of these noble Jewish people holding their torches and shemnazadek? Who are these people?' So they said, "These are the Jews who rebelled against you." And then when the sun shone, it was completely daylight. They met each other. Alexander saw Shimon HaTzadik, and the Gemara says he got down off of his chariot and he bowed down to him. You've probably heard this story before. Alexander the Great bowed down to Shimon HaTzadik.

44:51 And the escorts of Alexander the Great said, 'Should a choshev a king like Alexander the Great bow before a Jew?' And he said as follows: 'I do this because every time before battle, I see the image of this man's face. And if I see the image of Shimon HaTzadik, then I know that I'm going to be victorious on the battlefields.' So he said to the representatives, he said to these people from Klal Yisrael, Shimon HaTzadik, and these noble people, why have you come? So they responded in a very cute way. They said, what do you mean? We daven for you in the Beis Hamikdash. We daven for your success in the Beis Hamikdash, and now. People are trying to destroy the Beis Hamikdash that we daven for you in. So we thought we should come to you to tell you that they're going to try to destroy the Beis Hamikdash.

45:47 So he said to them, 'Who are the people that want to destroy the Beis Hamikdash?' So he said, 'The Kutim. These people convinced you to destroy the Beis Hamikdash. You don't understand that it's your kaiach of victory that's coming from the Beis Hamikdash.' So he said back to them, 'Okay, so then do with these Kutim what you want.' And the Gemara says in vivid detail that they stabbed these kutim in their heels and they hung them from horses' tails and they dragged them over thorns and thistles until they arrived at Hargrizim, and that's where they had at Hargrizim these kutim. They had their beis avodah zara over there in Hargrizim, and they plowed over the entire Hargrizim. The Gemara says and they seeded the area with leeks. Which was a way of symbolizing absolute destruction. And that day, the twenty-fifth of Teves, all of this took place on that day, the twenty-fifth of Teves. They made it a celebration, and nobody's allowed to be masped because we were able to defeat the Kudim on that day.

46:48 It's a very interesting Gemara. The Gemara is full of details here. Every one of these details could be explained beautifully, but I just want to focus on one thing. Shimon the Tzaddik finds out that the Beit Hamikdash is going to be destroyed. Do we know if Shimon HaTzadik knew that the Rebbeinu Shlom had been sending his image to Alexander the Great before every battle? The Gemara doesn't say that he had any idea. Let's assume for a moment that Shimon HaTzadik had no idea. What does he do? He goes out at night with torches in his hands. And as he gets closer and closer, what happens? It becomes dawn. They recognize each other, and when it's finally completely light out, what does Alexander the Great say? It was you the entire time that was behind me, Memila. That's the salvation of Klal Yisrael. What's the siman? What's the idea of the torches in the darkness of Amar Ashachar in the daytime? What's going on over here? It's a very simple thing. Be'etzem Shimon HaTzaddik should not have been able to defeat Alexander the Great. Shouldn't have happened. And by the way, this Alexander the Great was the beginning of the Hellenization of the world. Alexander the Great was Greek. It was the beginning of the Hellenization of the world.

48:02 What does Shimon the Tzaddik know? What leads him to say, "I'm gonna go greet them.", The Targum says it's in his name. What is Tzaddik? What does the word Tzaddik mean? Tzaddik doesn't just mean righteous. Tzaddik is the dimension of the soul where all things fade away and there is no duality. It's called the Yichida of the soul. That's what it means. How can we say that every single Jew is righteous? We mean every one of us is Danaveres today. How can we say every single Jew is righteous? The Torah says when we say the Amich Kula Mtsadikim, we're referring to a part of our soul that never sins. That part of our soul that never sins is beyond sin because it's beyond all concept of mitzvahs and averus. All it is pure connection with Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Shimon HaTzaddik lives in that dimension. That's why he's the Kohen Gadol. The Kohen Gadol is the Yichida of the entire world. Everything exists on three levels. In Oylam, the Kodesh Hakadoshim is the Yichida. The person of Yichidah is the Kohen Gadol, and the time is Yom Kippur. That's why the Kohen Gadol goes into Yom Kippur, goes into the Kodesh Gadol on Yom Kippur to get kapara for Klal Yisrael because he's accessed the Yichidah of the soul where no sin ever occurred.

49:14 So Shimon HaTzadik lives on the he lives in the dimension of what army. That's how Shimon HaTzadik sees Alexander the Great. That's how he sees the Kuti. What army? That's just a category. Those are just words. Those words mean nothing to me. So he doesn't go out during the day. He goes out at night and he's holding torches. What is that? What is that a symbol of? It's a symbol of what night? There is no night. Nighttime is a mirage. Nighttime is a word. It's a concept. It means nothing to us. It's only if you're living within the reality that that's a mighty army and I'm only one person. That's not the way the Makabim lived. That's not the way Shem Natsadik lived. He didn't live from the perspective of darkness and light. So he carries big torches to show. The darkness is fake. There's nothing about this darkness that's real. It's all just a category. And as that becomes more obvious, his torch illuminates the darkness to the degree that now it becomes light. When Alexander the Great sees him, an unbelievable thing happens. It comes out that the entire might of the entire Greek army of Alexander the Great was really built on what?

50:16 Was built on Shem HaAtzadik. So that which we thought was our opposition was really what? We were fueling that the entire time, and we didn't know how it could be that Shimon HaTzaddik was fueling the victory of the Greek army. You're looking at and going, this one's small and this one's large. This one's in the world of Yiddishkeit, in the world of the Beis Hamikdash, in the world of the Beis Medrash, and this one is a mighty army with guns and soldiers. So how could it be that this is fueling this? The Tzaddik says because you're living in the world of constructs, because you're living in the world of categorizations. So you say, from the perspective of a category, that's a mighty army. From the perspective of the essence Who knows what's creating the victory for that army? Shimon HaTzadik comes, and Alexander the Great. Alexander the Great realizes, not a yid. Alexander the Great, a goy realizes. And by the way, this is the bechin of Olam Habah, where even the goyim come to recognize Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Alexander the Great goes, it was you the entire time that was fueling my victory.

51:12 That's what a goy realizes in Olam Habah. Even a goy is able to recognize. What we perceive to be one thing might be something completely different because we're beyond the world of categories. Mameila, we understand why Alexander the Great said to them, "Do with them what you want." So what did we do? We plowed them under. From the perspective of Chanukah, from the perspective of Shimon HaTzadik, there will be a time where we plow under all the idolatry and all the evil of the world to the degree that it doesn't even exist anymore. It becomes a yantir for us, and a person can give a spay them on the twenty fifth of Tavis because of this. The idea that we reach a dimension where we obliterate all notion of idolatry in the world, and all there is the illumination of Shem HaTzadik. That's the way the world is headed, and that's the avayt of Chanukah, the avayt of Kislev. We're living now in a very dark period. Of course, there's been Baruch Hashem a tremendous amount of light over the course of the last year and change, but lemaisa we're still living in a dark period. And anybody who thinks that we're coming out of it and that there's still not a tremendous amount of darkness for us to encounter is making a very big mistake.

52:24 It's a very long labor Mashiach. It's not a simple thing for Mashiach to come. It requires a tremendous amount of emuna. There's a tremendous amount that we still have left to accomplish. We still have worlds of avos yisrael left to accomplish. We're still very, very far, and we're very close in some ways. Still very, very far in other ways. When it comes to the world of avos yisrael, we're still very, very far. When it comes to tapping into the yichidah shabenefesh and recognizing that all of life really is harmonious and gamzul etoyva and kol man daoved rachmanu letav avod. We're still living to live with the world of emuna and bitachon. We're beyond all the notion of categories and binary constructs, but Lameisa we're much, much closer. There's a tremendous opportunity now in these weeks, in these coming months, from the world now of Kislev to Chanukah and then from Chanukah to Purim, for us, for Es Hashem, to move beyond the world of logical Greek constructs into the world of the essence, which is the world of the Rebbeimishle. Shkayach, thank you very much.