Vayishlach (Chanukah) - Finding Sparks in the Lowest Places (Deep Shiur!!!)

2:33 The great sage Rav Chanina ben Tradiyon somehow had become captured within Shchem And when Shchem hurt Dinah in that way Somehow there was some influence that released the soul of Rav Chanina ben Tradiyon from captivity. That's what the Aruch HaYam Hakadosh says. There are two questions. We'll start with the more obvious one. The first question is: Whenever we learn anything in Torah There has to be some relevance to our life. There has to be some way of connecting this to our life. So we hear a dvar Torah like this. It's a pretty cool thing to think about that the word Rachavto is Rashi Tevus or Vchanina ben Chadyon But it seems to be intellectual. It seems to be cerebral. It doesn't seem to have anything to do with our avodas Hashem. So the first question is: What do we do with this? The second question, which is more of a learning type, is about the connection between Rav Chanina ben Tradiyon and Shem. Why? Because, of all places, was Rav Chanina ben Tradiyon's soul captured by Shem? What is the nature of Shem? What is the inner nature of Shem that we can understand in order to understand the connection between Shem and Rav Chanina ben Tradiyon?

3:53 I want to share with you a story about Rav Chanina ben Tradiyon. The Gemara tells us that Rav Yosi ben Kisma fell ill; he became sick And Rav Chanina ben Tradiun went to visit him. And Rav Chanina ben Tradiun, at the time, was teaching Torah publicly. And Rav Yosi ben Kisma said to him,"Chanina, my brother Don't you know that Hakadosh Baruch Hu has given Rome power over this world? Don't you know that Hakadosh Baruch Hu allowed Rome to destroy his house, the Beit Hamikdash, to kill the tzaddikim and to rule over all of Klal Yisrael? So why do you sit and study Torah publicly? This is the question that Yosi ben Kisma asked of Chanina ben Chadya. So Chanina ben Chadyon responded,"Rachamim shamayim, you'll see that the Torah will protect us. Hakadosh Baruch Hu will have Rachamim on us. Nothing bad will happen. And Yosi ben Kisma responds, very interesting response. He says, 'I'm trying to be logical. I'm trying to be sensible, and you say that we're going to have rachamim from Shamayim.'

5:04 He says, "I wouldn't be surprised if you and the Tyro would be burned together." Which is eventually what happened. It's what eventually happened. Rav Chanina asked Rav Yosi ben Kisma. He said, 'And what about my chelak and olim haba?' What about my portion in the world to come? So, Rav Chanina asked. Rav Yosi asked Rav Chanina. He said, "What merits do you have? What schuyos do you have?" Rav Chanina responded. Chanina responded, and he said, "One time" I had money for the Purim Sudah And I also had money that was meant to be dispersed for tzedakah. Rav Chanina was responsible for both of those things. Since he didn't know which money was which, he gave all the money to Aniyah. And that was my s'chus. That's the s'chus that Rav Chanina ben Tradion had. Rav Yosi ben Kisma responds, and this is the end. This is the end of the Gemara.

6:05 He says, "If that's the case, then I want my portion in Eilam Abba to be with you, and that my fate should be similar to yours." Now, there are many questions on this Gemara. I'm going to try to ask just a few of them. It's such a strange conversation. You know Rav Chanina ben Chadyon is a hero. Somebody imagine teaches Torah berabim when there's a xera that we shouldn't teach Torah and Rav Chanina ben Tradiyon gets up and says nothing will prevent me from teaching Torah. What a tremendous thing to do! And Rav Yosi ben Kisma is critical of him for this. What does that mean? Why is Rav Yosi ben Kisma critical of him? Adrabi, he's teaching Torah berabim. He's doing exactly what he's supposed to be doing. Not only that, he tells him. Because of what you're doing, I'm trying to be sensible. You're saying rachamay shamayim.

7:03 Since when do we see that that's a value? If a person has an opportunity to teach Torah in the face of persecution and he teaches Torah, you need to have rachamay shamayim for that. Rivayi Seben Kismah says, 'Be sensible.' You're not being sensible. That's kind of like what we would expect from our tzaddikim. We would expect for them to be living on this higher plane. What's Rivayi Seben Kismah saying? Rivayi Seben Kismah says to him. You want to know if you have a chelik and all of mabul? Let's look at your schuyos. What do you mean, look at your schuyos? This is Reb Chanina ben Traedium we're talking about. He's teaching Torah berabim. Is there a schust that could be greater than that? And of all the schuyos in all the schuyos Girls, you're all wonderful. You're all amazing. This can't be like a conversation about air conditioning in the room. That's for the dorms. You're welcome to fight and discuss all the temperature in the room. But for now, it is what it is, and we have to leave it. Fair. Say it.

7:55 It's just trying to do something bigger. Of all the schuyos to come from, he says, "One time, I miss. At one time, I messed up the money that was supposed to go to the aniyim, and for my perem suddo, so I gave it all to the aniyim." That's a schus. That's a nice thing to do But that's the great schus, that Rav Chanina thinks for himself. And apparently, this schus is so big. This schus is so big that Yosi ben Kisma says, 'I want your chelik and holam haba.' And I want my fate to be similar to yours. Even though he knew that he was going to be burned with a sefer Torah, what in the world is going on over here? In order to understand this, we need to go back to understand the fundamental nature of the city of Shem. And in order to understand the fundamental nature of the city of Shem, we need to go back to Mase Bereshis.

8:47 We all know, I'm sure you've heard Chazal say before That if you look in the Torah, it says Bereshit bara Elohim. What's the language of Elokim? What does Elokim mean, girls? As opposed to Yud Kevavkei, Elokim means Din. Why? Because when Hakadosh Baruch Hu first created the world, how did He create the world? With Din. Hakadosh Baruch Hu said, 'We're going to have strict justice in the world.' And then Hakadosh Baruch Hu said, 'I see that the world is not going to last with Din, so I'm going to create something called Rachamim. I'm going to create something called Mercy.' Very, very strange. Why does Hakadosh Baruch Hu want the world to be created through din, and why ultimately does He want the world to have mercy in it? The answer is as follows. Let's think about a relationship for a moment. What do you want from your husband?

9:37 Do you want that you should have mercy on your husband Or do you want your husband to operate within the regular boundaries and rules of a relationship? Every one of us wants a relationship of din. We think of din. Din gets a bad rap. We think of din as being strict justice, but the ems is that justice is a beautiful thing. You want to have a husband that follows the rules of the relationship. If you have to have compassion on your husband, what does that mean? It means that the boundaries of the relationship were already violated. Okay, so if you have to have compassion on your children, what does that mean? It means that your children already went against the rules. What's the greatest expression of the connection between a parent and a child, if the child follows the rules of the parent? Does that make sense? If a parent says to a child "I want you to be home by ten thirty for curfew And the child says, "No, I'm coming home at eleven."

10:38 What does the child effectively say? I don't care about your rules. I'm not interested in being part of this relationship. If a child Says I'm going to come home at ten thirty. As a parent, what do you feel? There's a respect, there's an honor, there's a dignity to the relationship. If a husband is talking to a wife, and the wife says, 'This is what I want from you in our relationship. I want you to put away your phone when you come in the house for the first hour, so that you could be here and you could be present.' That's the din of the relationship. She's saying these are the boundaries within which the relationship can be maintained. If the husband doesn't follow that, what is he saying about the relationship? Okay, so he's saying the phone is more important to me than you. Does that make sense? So really, din is a very beautiful thing.

11:28 If a girl comes to seminary and she comes to class, talking to her friends, passing notes on the phone What is she saying? What is she saying? If she violates curfew, if she does whatever she's doing. What is she saying about her standing in the seminary? Saying I'm going to do it on my terms. I'm here. You hear this a lot. It's my year. You hear that a lot. Like it's my year. Why is the school giving me such a hard time about doing this? It's my year. What's the answer to that question? Because you operate within the framework of an institution. When you operate within the framework of an institution, naturally there's going to be din. And by the way, what happens when somebody calls you out on it? What do girls always do if they get called out for violating the rules of the relationship?

12:20 Why can't they just understand me? What are you saying when you say 'have mercy'? You're saying I know that I violated the sanctity of the relationship, but have rachamim on me anyway. Can we now understand why our Kadosh Baruch Hu wants the world to be a place of din? In a place of din, that means the relationship is valued. The problem is that sometimes, because we're human beings, we fail to live up to our own expectations of the relationship. For example, have you ever had something like this? You ever makkabel on yourself, not to what's goi? You ever makkabel on yourself? I think I'm not going to sleep through shachris. I'm going to at least make davening by sovs man tviyil. You ever have something like that, and you really commit yourself to it, and you do it for a week, and then you miss one day.

13:10 If you treat yourself with din, what happens? If you treat yourself with din, it becomes avera goreres avera. If you say I messed up, it's over, finished. I have nothing left to do. I messed it up. I was on a streak, and now the streak is over. So then, what happens the next day? I already missed it yesterday, so now I'm going to miss it today. And then three weeks later, what are you sitting here saying? Chaval, I didn't start doing this three weeks ago because now I have to pick it up again. What would happen if you had racham? I once had a friend of mine who I said something to, and he said to me, "It was a very beautiful line that he said to me." I said something nasty about myself, and he said to me, "He goes 'Can you try that again? But can you be a little nicer to my friend Mordechai?'

14:00 Relax. What's beautiful about that? Because we're human. To be human means to make a mistake. If somebody treats us with strict justice, what are they really saying? I don't really value you; I only value the relationship. Does that make sense? When we have rachamim on somebody, let's say you have a guy in yeshiva, and a guy violates one of the big rules of the yeshiva, and you have rachamim on him, and then he violates another big rule of the yeshiva, and you have rachamim on him. And then he violates another big rule in yeshiva, and you have rachamim. What are you really saying? Yeah, I think that's what you're really saying to him. Al pidin, you should have been tossed from yeshiva the first time. Certainly the second time, and the third time is already pasul. Now we're on the fourth time. What is the chinuch message that you communicate to a guy when you say, 'Look, we can't keep doing this, but I'm going to have rachamim on you. I'm giving you that one last chance.

15:00 "You're telling him, 'I know that al pidin, this relationship is over.'" But I actually care about you, not just the relationship. The reason why rachamim is a beautiful thing in a relationship. If as a if a wife says to her husband,"When you come home, I want you to put the phone away for an hour But then he gets curious and wonders if his office messaged him because he left and wasn't sure if that big deal was going to go through. So his wife goes to the bathroom. So he quickly runs to the drawer and he turns on the phone to look. And his wife comes out of the bathroom at exactly the wrong time. And she sees him on the phone. And he turns around and he goes, "Ooh, busted!" Right? Alpidin, she should be upset. What would Rachemim mean? Rachemim would mean I know that you want to be in this relationship. I know that you don't think this is your best self. I see that your curiosity got the best of you.

15:52 I don't just care about this relationship. I care about you. So it was a mistake, and we can let it move on. We can have rachamim in these situations. But ultimately, what's the point of rachamim? The point of rachamim is to get back to a world of din. Because if you have enough rachamim, what happens? Then the person begins to behave within the relationship. I want to share with you an amazing chinuch line. This is from Dr. David Palkowitz. Rules without relationships equal rebellion. It's an unbelievable line. If a parent puts a set of rules, and she says, and the mother says, "Be home by ten thirty," but the mother has no relationship with her child, what's the child going to do when it's ten thirty? I have a choice. I can hang out with my friends or suffer the wrath of my mother in forty-five minutes from now. What's the child going to choose?

16:48 Very often, the child is going to say, "All right" I'm going to now. I'm in a power play with my mother. I'm going to come back at eleven fifteen, eleven thirty. And my mother's going to yell at me like she always does. And I'm not going to listen like I always don't. And then I'm going to go to my room, and I'm going to wake up tomorrow, and I'm going to go to school, and I don't have to deal with my mother. Rules without relationships equal rebellion. We need to have rachamin because we need to teach our children: you are worthy of participating in this relationship. But ultimately, if you give a child enough rachamin, what starts to happen? The child moves back into the world of din. If a mother really cares about me, then what happens? If she really cares about me, of course I'm going to participate in the relationship. When do kids stop participating in the relationship? When the parents say we only care about the relationship.

17:38 How many people here understand what I'm talking about? Not enough. You understand what I'm saying? So the way it goes is as follows: When Hakadosh Baruch Hu created the world, He created a world of din. Once He created other marishim, what did He see? Din is not going to work. I need to create rachamin. But olam haba is not rachamim. Olam haba is din. So it's din then rachamim back to din. Does that make sense? That's the nature of everything in the world. We set rules for our children. We know that our children are going to break the rules. We tell them we love them. Eventually, they come back within the guidelines and boundaries of the relationship. Din then rachamim back to din. You know what shchem is? Shchem. Is the lowest point of all of creation? The Gemara in Sanhedrin says Shchem is a place of din, only harsh, strict judgment. That's why all the bad things always happen in Shchem. What happened in Shchem? We know Dinah was attacked by Shchem. Where was Yosef sold down to Mitzrayim? Yosef was sold down in Shchem. Where did Yeshua give the brachos and kallahs in the Torah? He gave them from Shchem. When Yaakov arrived in Shchem, listen what the pasuk says. Yaakov came shalem to the city of Shem.

18:56 What does it mean that Yaakov came shalem to the city of Shem? We all know he came and he said, 'I'm whole. I kept tarrying mitzvos in Lavan's house.' He came whole to the city of Shem. What's the significance of the fact that Yaakov comes to the place of strict judgment and he was perfect? It means that Yaakov Avinu was able to go to Shem and to say. In this place, where there is harsh judgment, he was able to say that he lived up to the calling of Hashem. That's an unbelievable thing to be able to say. And therefore, what did Yaakov do? Listen to the words of the pasuk: "Va'ayomer elav etzba'ot Yisrael al tishlachu esh el aratzot." Yaakov Avinu bought Shchem. How does Yaakov Avinu buy Shchem? What does it mean for Yaakov Avinu to buy Shchem? Yaakov Avinu says I can own every single rule in the relationship.

19:53 I can own every aspect of this relationship. That's no small thing to say. And you know what the Ibn Ezra says on this? The Ibn Ezra says a wild thing, something we're only going to understand at the end of this year. From here we see that if you own a plot in Eretz Yisrael, you own a chilek in Olam Haba. If you only rent a place in Eretz Yisrael, then you don't own a chilek in Olam Haba. What in the world are we doing with Olam Haba here in Shchem? But if you remember again, I'm not going to answer it fully now. But if you remember, how does the world start? The world starts with din. What does it end with? It ends with 'din' in the middle, I think. Right? Okay, so like, the middle is 'rachamim.' It's a 'din' sandwich, or I should say, it's a 'rachamim' sandwich. But the point of origin and the end point of all relationships is 'din.' Yaakov Avinu comes and he says, 'I own din.' But listen, what does din mean?

20:42 Din means if you really want to know if you're worthy of the din. Then you have to know that Shchem is a place where Hashem is totally concealed. And I'll explain to you what I mean. If you're in the mood to wake up for davening, and you wake up for davening, who are you serving? Yourself. Yourself and Hashem. It's not so obvious, right? If you're in the mood to daven when you wake up to daven. You're davening, you're talking to Hashem. Okay, but can you say I'm serving Hashem? You can't know if you're serving Hashem until you daven when you don't want to. In a certain way, what's higher? If you show up to davening and you're not in the mood to daven at all, and you just mumble through the words Or the person who's so excited to go to davening and she davens with tremendous kavanah. In a certain way, it's much higher. To show up to davening from a place of concealment, it reveals the truth of the relationship.

21:50 Just turn it over to a husband and wife for a second. A husband goes away on a business trip. He's in a situation where something funny could happen. And before he left to go on the trip, let's say he got into a big fight with his wife. When do you see the truth of the relationship? If everything is going fine in his marriage and there's a temptation. So the sefer, everything is going fine. It's not such a big temptation. But what if his wife hasn't spoken to him in two weeks? What if lo alenu they're in such a place that they mamish can't communicate to each other, and now he's in a situation where nobody's going to know. The din means you stay loyal to the relationship. The din tells you to be loyal to the relationship. In other words, where do you find din? Says the Beis Yaakov of Ishbitz, the Ishbitz Rebbe.

22:41 Only where there's total concealment, if Shchem is the place of din, then Shchem has to be the place that conceals Hakadosh Baruch Hu's presence completely, and that's why the Bei's Yaakov explains that Yaakov Avinu bought Shchem for a hundred. The lashon of the pasuk is a hundred. It's very unique lashon. Me'ak shita is a hundred kshitas, which is an exorbitant amount of money. The Beis Yaakov explains that there's ten spheros inside of everybody's soul. And each one of those ten spheros has ten spheros, and ten times ten equals a hundred. Yaakov Avinu went into the place of total concealment, and his entire being was a place of din. This is why the Beis Yaakov explains. This is why Yeshua specifically gives the blessings and the curses in Shem. Outside of Shem, when you hear a curse, you might be able to ascertain that there's a bracha within the klala.

23:39 But in Shem, when you hear a klala, you only hear a klala. In Shem, when you hear that something bad happened, it means that something terrible and tragic happened to the person. Now we understand the deep thing that nobody's ever understood. Why does Dinah go to Shem? And why is she called Bas Leah here? Because Leah was Din. Why was Leah din? Because she was the firstborn. Girls, what came first in the creation of the world? Din or Rachamim? Din comes first, then Rachamim. So if Leah is born first, what is she? She's the midah of din. Why did they do that? Because Esav came first. Stam because they were both firstborns. They should marry each other. If Esav came first, then he was also the midah of din. And what does Leah do when she finds out that she's going to marry Esav? She cries. And what does she do? She begs for rachamin.

24:33 The reason why Leah doesn't marry Esav is because she changed the nature of her soul. That she should become a rachamin. She should become someone who required compassion, and then she could marry Yaakov, who's the second. He's rachamin. But even though Leah changed the root nature of her soul Even though Leah said, "I'm no longer a balas din" All of her children were din. And there was one child more than any other who represented Din, and who was that child? That child was Dinah. So Dinah, who's the daughter of Leah, goes to Shchem, which is the place of Din. The ultimate place of concealment. Now there's an unbelievable arizal. It was worth it to come six thousand miles for those that are actually physically present and mentally present. It was worth it to come six thousand miles just to hear this Torah. Okay, let's see. We know that Dina has many Gilgulos. She comes back as many different souls.

25:40 But there's one common theme that you see in every single Gilgal of Dina. In the first go around, Dina is taken advantage of by Shem. In the second go around, Dina comes back as Avigail. Who's Avigail married to? Nobody here. Naval Naval Akharmeli, and ultimately, who does she end up marrying? David Amelch. Another one. Dina is married initially to who? She's married initially to Turnus Rufus. Who was the enemy of Chalysar? He was a Roman. And then she became a Goyerus and ultimately marries Ravakiva. Says the Ariza. Every time you see Dina, every time you see Dina There's always some sort of transfer. She always goes from the hands of someone evil to the hands of someone righteous. So originally Dina's attacked by Shem, who marries her. Her brother Shimon. Originally she's married to Navel, but then she passes to David Melech. Originally she's married to Turnus Rufus, but then eventually she marries Rava Kiva. Why is that?

26:49 So this is what Dinah does, and now we can start to understand. Dinah goes into the most concealed place in the entire world, and Dinah says, 'Where nobody sees any spark of goodness, where nobody can see, Hakadosh Baruch Hu, I can find Hashem, because I know, because I'm a person of Din, I know that there's godliness everywhere. The rules of creation are that there's godliness everywhere.' Now we can begin to understand how, by going down to Shchem, what does she find? She finds Rav Chanina ben Tradjon. Listen to the Gemara again; it's an unbelievable Gemara. Rav Chanina ben Tradjon is sitting there teaching Torah. What does Rav Yosi ben Kisma say to him? Why are you teaching Torah? You're going to be killed. Al piderach ateva, you're going to be killed. Where is Rav Chanina ben Tradjon's soul from? His soul is from a place of din. Din exists in two points: in the point of creation.

27:52 And then once again in olam haba. Rav Chanina ben Tradiyon. The secret of Rav Chanina ben Tradiyon is he's the soul of olam haba. So in olam hazeh, if Rav Chanina ben Tradiyon is teaching Torah publicly, what's going to happen to him? He's going to be burned along with the sefer Torah. And that's exactly what Rav Yosi ben Kisma says to him. He says you're acting in an irrational way. You're acting in an oyalam habadik way. Don't you see that Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave the world over to Rome? What does Rav Chanina ben Chaviyon say? I don't see that the world has been given over to Rome because there's going to be rachamay shamayim. There's going to be rachamim. We're living in a world of rachamim. Din is only at the end. What is Rav Chanina ben Chadyon interested in? He's not interested in. If he dies, what does he say? What's going to be with my chilek and olam haba? He doesn't care about his chilek and olam azeh.

28:41 So Rav Chanina ben Chadyon says, "What's going to be with my chilek and olam haba?" "So Rav Yosi ben Kisma says to him, 'Tell me what schust do you have? Tell me what makes you a ben olam haba? What gives you the definition of a ben olam haba?'" And this is based on the Maral. Anytime an ani asks you for tzedakah, that's olem haba. Ani is not asking you for tzedakah because they want to go to shmaltz. You don't get stuck for going to shmaltz. When do you get stuck? You get stuck when you're starving. You get stuck when you don't have a roof over your head. So the maral says tzedakah is olem haba But Purim is olem hazeh. Purim is the ultimate olem hazeh. Because what are you doing on Purim? People are drinking and eating and partying. On its surface, it looks oilam azeh.

29:30 What does R' Chanina ben Tradiyon say? I was in charge of giving out the money for Purim sudd. I was in charge of giving out the money for stakka. I was holding oilam azeh and oilam haba in my hands. And I took all of it and I made it oilam haba. I am a ben oilam haba. If so, says R' Yisroel ben Kisma I want my chelik to be with your chelik, and I want to suffer the same fate as you. I want your chaylik and oylam haba because you are such a ben oylam haba, and I want to suffer the same fate as you. Because if you are going to die in oylam hazeh like a ben oylam haba, that's an unbelievable way to die, and that's exactly what happens when they wrap the safer tire around him. The talmidim say, "What's going on? What are you seeing?" And he says, "The parchment is burning. The oylam hazeh is burning, but the letters are flying."

30:14 The letters can never be burnt. He's living in a dimension of Olam Habah. How does Rav Chanan ben Chayyim come to live on a dimension of Olam Habah? Because he came from Shem, and Dinah was the one who brought it up. Dinah was the one who told me about this. So maybe I should just say that, but I think it's important to mention that. And then Dinah was the one that extracted him from Shem. And so Dinah always goes to the same place. Yeah, and then she ends up with Shimon. And then maybe it's with Na'val, she ends up with David HaMelech. Maybe it's with Tarnas Rufus, she ends up with Rav Akiva. Always Dinah is bringing things from one dimension to the other, from Olam Hazeh to Olam Habah. What does this do for us? I want to share with you a very deep Torah. It's a Torah for every single person in this room. There are times when we make mistakes. There are times when things happen to us that we cannot control.

31:06 Okay, let's start with the easier one first. If something that you did you're not proud of, you went to a low place. You ever make a bad decision? I'm looking around just to see who made a bad decision. Some honest people in the room. You ever make a bad decision, one that you're not proud of? You can sit here and you could say, "not proud of this decision, bad decision." Or you can understand that sometimes we have to go to low places for reasons we can't possibly understand. Of course, we take responsibility and ownership for what happened But sometimes we go to low places. Some of the best things that can happen to us come from low places. Sometimes we have an epiphany. We're behaving in a way that we don't want to behave, and all of a sudden we're able to go "I don't want to behave that way anymore." You could change your life from such a thing.

31:57 That's easy to understand. Here's the harder one. Sometimes things happen to us in our lives—death Divorce, illness, tragedy. Sometimes things happen to us And we're not in control of it. We didn't choose to do it. We don't have anything to take responsibility for. But sometimes in those places the highest sparks are revealed. I want to share with you something that I just saw moments ago. Mamish, moments before I walked in. One of the great Rashi yeshiva of today's generation is a tzaddik whose name is Roshal Alter. Roshal Alter is the Ger Rashi yeshiva And there's a picture of him giving shir in Yeshivat Har Etzion in Gush. Unbelievable picture. I could find the caption. I could find it maybe in two seconds. If I find it, fine. If not, not. It's not here. I don't see it. I'm not going to stop everyone. But it's an unbelievable picture of him giving the shiur, and somebody put a caption under the picture.

33:05 And they said Chaval, that it took us this long to find unity. Let's not lose it. Something to that effect. Girls of October seventh never would have happened. Would we have what we have today? Were we in control of whether or not we got thrown into the darkness of October seventh? We went to Shem. We didn't want to go to Shem. We didn't want to be in that place. We didn't want to have that attitude. We weren't there. We were fine. Everyone was fine, right? But Hakadosh Baruch Hu thrust us into this. He sent those terrorists, those behemoths. Across the border to do those unspeakable atrocities. But an unbelievable spark was found in that darkness. It was the spark of Achdus that's happening in Klal Yisrael today. It's incredible. Would we choose to go to Shchem? Do we ever choose to go to Shchem? Dinah went to Shchem because she understood that's the nature of her mission. The nature of her mission is to go to Shchem, al pidin, to go to that place of din, to find the godly spark that's hidden within Shchem. That's Dinah's role. Do we choose to go to Shchem? Nobody wants to go to Shchem. Nobody wants to be attacked.

34:17 But Reuven Hanina ben Tradion's spark is in Shem. You can't go anywhere and just ignore the spark that's there. That's the lesson that Dina teaches us. If you're somewhere, if you're in a dark place, you're there for a reason. There's a beautiful story with Rabbi Jonathan Sachs and the Lubavitcher Rebbe. Rabbi Jonathan Sachs was the Chief Rabbi of England. Rabbi Doctor Sir Chief Lord, had all the titles. How did he become chief rabbi? It's a very famous story. He went from Oxford. He had philosophical questions. He traveled to New York. He wanted to meet the Lubavitcher Rebbe to ask him all his philosophical questions. And he arrived and he said, "I'm here to meet with the Rebbe." And they laughed him out and said, "There's no way you're meeting with the Rebbe. People make appointments months in advance to meet with the Rebbe." So very disappointed, he got on a bus and he went to Los Angeles. He left a number where he could be reached. As soon as he arrived in Los Angeles, they said, "Seventy two hours from now, you have an appointment back in New York."

35:11 So he got on a greyhound bus and he went all the way back across the country and he went to meet the Lubavitcher Rebbe in New York. And when he got there, he met with the Rebbe and sat with the Rebbe, asking him every single philosophical question he had. One by one, the Rebbe answered each question and showed him why each could be resolved. And obviously, Rabbi Sachs, who was at the time just a young man, not a rabbi, not even thinking about a position in the rabbinate, was very impressed with the Lubavitcher Rebbe's answers. He thought the meeting was over and got up to leave. And the Rebbe said to him, "Where are you going?" He goes. I thought we were done. So the rebbe smiled and he said to him You got to ask me questions, and I don't get to ask you questions. So he sat back down, and the rebbe said to him, "What are you doing for Jewish life in England?" What are you doing for Jewish life in Oxford and Cambridge?

35:58 So Rabbi Sachs, when he tells over the story, he says, "I answered the rebbe like a typical Englishman. That is to say, I evaded the question." " So he said. Rebbe, in the position in which I currently find myself And the Rebbe cut him off, and he said, "There's no such thing as a Jew finding himself somewhere." Wherever you are is exactly where you're supposed to be. Dinah finds herself in Shchem because she needs to get the soul of Rav Chanina ben Tradium. And ultimately, she marries Shimon. She marries Naval so that she could go to Davar HaMelech. She marries Turnus Rufus so that eventually she can marry Rav Kiva. If we find ourselves in a dark place, the only question is What are we doing there? What's the point? What's the spark that we're going to mine? Sometimes it's because we chose it, but many times, girls in our lives, did we choose that shchem?

36:48 Nobody chose October seventh. Nobody chooses to lose a loved one. Nobody chooses to have to go to visit a loved one in Sloane Kettering. Nobody chooses to see a sibling or a parent suffering. Chas v'shalom lo alenu. Nobody chooses to lose their job. Nobody chooses to watch their parents struggling with their own poverty. Nobody chooses these things. The question is: Are you a victim, or are you there to kindle the spark? This is the lesson of Hanukkah. Hanukkah is not the yomtiv of oila mazetz, the yomtiv of oila mabah. Even in the base hamikdash, the menorah only had seven lights. But on Hanukkah, we go to the level of oila mabah and we light a candle that has eight. Because we're going beyond, and that's why the oil lasts for eight days. And oil represents chachma, oil represents wisdom. But on Hanukkah, there's a wisdom of oil and mabah. It's not the wisdom of teva. It's not the wisdom of Rav Yosi ben Kisma saying, 'Al pidar chateva, you're going to be killed.'

37:40 It's the wisdom of there's something l'malam in ateva. That's why the Maccabees were able to overcome the Yevonim, even though the Yevonim were much stronger. Al pidar chateva, the wisdom would have said, submit to them. But there's a chachma of Hanukkah that says that you could fight them. And that's why we put the menorah on the left side of the door. The right side of the door represents Olim Haba. The left side of the door represents Olim Hazeh. The right side of our door we have a mezuzah. On the left side of our door we put the menorah. Even in Olim Hazeh, a person has to know that they can find the lights of Olim Haba. And that's why we put the menorah lower than ten tefachim. We go to the lowest place in the world, and we say even in Olim Hazeh, even in the coarsest, most low places of Olim Hazeh, a person can find Olim Haba. And how long do we light for? Until the Tarmudayim come home from the shuk, until even the Goyim come home from the shuk, those people that are literally chopping wood, mamish. At the very, very, very end, in the darkest, darkest, darkest time, you can light Menorah up until that point.

38:38 It's a long war. I'm sure many of us are already like, I can't hear any more about the war. We're not talking about the war, girls. We're talking about our response to the war. There's a moment that we have right now, as we stand on the precipice of Mashiach. It's a choice that every one of us gets to make. It's not about the war. It's about the choice that we get to make. How do we respond to the darkness? Do we cover up our pain? Do we just ignore it? Do we stay in our separate corners? You know what you do when you're in pain? For many of us, we numb our pain. What do we numb our pain with? Everything. We numb our pain with our phones. We numb our pain with food. People numb their pain with alcohol. People numb their pain with drugs. Everyone numbs their pain in a different way. If we choose to numb our pain right now, if we choose not to pay attention to the pain that all of Klal Yisrael is suffering Then we're losing precious opportunities to mind the spark of Rav Chanan Ben Tradi. We're losing out on the opportunity for Olim Haba in these moments. There are Jews that are living olim haba-oriented lives. When Roshal Alter is invited to Gush and he accepts the invitation, when the Hasidic world and the Dati Lumi Litvish world collide, it's an olim haba-oriented moment.

39:52 And then, unfortunately, there are those people that are still going. We have to make sure to draw our lines in the sand. Chaval—that's an olim hazeh response to an olim haba opportunity. We are not going to lose out on these opportunities; they're too precious. My generation didn't do it. I know you think I'm young. You look at me; you must think I'm very young. I'm going to be a grandfather by Hashem in January. I'm not as young as you think. Thank you very much. Thank you. L'chaim! It's always the young people that change the world. It's never people in their 40s and 50s and 60s. Those are the people that mess it up. It's the young girls in their twenties that still have hopes and dreams and aspirations and expectations for what their life could be. Build families of Eilam Haba girls. Don't build Eilam Hazadika families. Build families that see the spark even in the darkness. If Bez Hashem you do that, maybe it'll be in the schuz of the Nashim Tzidkanius in this room that will be Zeichut Agri Mashiach Tzidkenu.