 One of the things that's very clear when we are attentive to the tune, the melody of the Bible is that time is very, very important. The Bible begins with the word, Bereshit, right in the beginning. So there's some reference right away to time, and as we go through the revelation to the Jewish people that came out of Egypt, it's very clear that a lot of the rhythm of our life revolves around the Sabbath and the festivals. At time obviously is also the currency of life, right? Our life is made up of the individual moments of life. So when we think about what is the substance of our life, it's built on these little tiny pieces of time. And that's why people that have spiritual consciousness understand how precious time is. Every moment of our life is packed with potential to grow. And we either stagnate in life or we're growing. There's no other possibilities. And so when we waste time on some level, it's almost a small, short way of committing suicide. It's like almost in steps. Time is such an important thing. And one of the things that I noticed last week when I was reading the Torah was when it speaks in the parshah of Shmini, there's a whole section that deals with the dietary laws. This is something that would never come out by the way when you're reading the Bible in English. But when you're reading in Hebrew, there's something strange that reveals itself. Because there are four animals that are unusual in that they only have one of the two kosher symbols, right? Most animals that are not kosher don't have any of the kosher symbols. They don't chew their cud. They don't have split hooves. Kosher animals have both. And the Bible focuses on four animals that only have one of the two, right? The hazeer, the pig, has split hooves, and it lays there advertising how kosher it is, but inside it doesn't chew its cud. But then the Bible speaks about three animals that have split hooves, but they don't chew their cud. But the way the Bible expresses it is fascinating. It speaks about one of the animals in the present tense is that it doesn't chew its cud. It's not chewing its cud. But then it speaks about another animal that it hasn't chewed its cud in the past tense. And then it speaks about the third one in the future. It will not chew its cud. And now I'll just throw this out for you to think about. Why does the Bible do that? Why is there this sort of range in these three animals when it speaks about in the past, present, and future tense? That's just extra homework for later tonight. But when Ruvane asked me to think about what to share tonight, I think what he had spoken about was where we are and where we're going. And to me, since I'm very caught up in time, I'm right between two big Jewish holidays. As we stand right now, we're almost smack in the middle between Purim, which was two weeks ago, basically, and Passover, which is a little bit more than two weeks from now. And what I wanted to try to share tonight was an understanding, not so much of Passover and Purim, although we'll discuss those, but an understanding of the history of spirituality. The history of the world in terms of how we have grown, how we're supposed to grow spiritually, and to use the Jewish calendar and the holidays as a model for this, and to understand where we are now in that scheme. Now, I'm going to hope that you'll be able to sort of imprint this model on your brain, so as I'm going through this with you tonight, you'll be able to travel with me. But on the sheets you have in front of you, you have basically a timeline. And the timeline here goes from left to right, as opposed to Hebrew, which goes from right to left. The timeline goes from left to right, and it starts with one, right? It goes to 12, because the calendar has 12 months. And I have it up on the board here for you as well. So the first month in the Hebrew calendar is Nisan, and that's going to be the holiday of Passover. We're not there yet. And the last month of the year is Adar, which we're in right now. As a matter of fact, we're just now sitting in the last few days of the month of Adar, which means we're now together for the last few days of the year. The year ends. This is the end of the 12th month. And next, I believe Tuesday, I think it's Tuesday, is Rosh Hodesh Nisan, which means it's the beginning of the new month of Nisan. So we're just a few days from the real first day of the year. And again, when we think about it, we are now literally right between these two Jewish holidays in terms of where they fall. Because this holiday, Purim, has happened just a few weeks ago, two weeks ago almost. And this holiday, Passover, is going to come up in two weeks from this weekend. So let's start our adventure. And you may want to strap your seatbelts in. We're going to go all over the place. But I'll try and be gentle. I'll try and be gentle. Okay, so what I titled this handout for you is Olam, the Hidden World. And why do I call it that? In Hebrew, the word for world, we're reliving the world. In Hebrew, that's Olam. So why is the world called Olam? The word in Hebrew for hidden is the same word as world. Ne'elam, Ne'elam is hidden. Ne'elam, Olam is world. So these two words, world and hidden, basically have the same Hebrew root. Now the question is why? Why do we refer to the world we live in? Why is the world somehow we call it hidden? What is hidden in our world? So that should be obvious. What's hidden in the world is the Creator. We don't see the Creator. So Hashem is, in a sense, hiding in the world that he created. There's a very beautiful Hasidic story that was told by Rav Baruch of Mejibus. And he speaks about an old man that sees a young boy. He's sitting on the side of the road and he's crying. He's so upset, he's broken. And the old man goes over to him and says, What's the problem? What's wrong? And he says, My friends and I were playing hide and go seek. And it was my turn to go hide. So I went and I hid, I went and hid in a very hard place. And you know what? No one came to find me. They all ran away. So the old man sat down next to the boy and he started crying. And the boy said, Why are you crying? He says, Because the same thing is happening to Hashem. He said, Hashem is hiding in the world and so many people are not trying to find him. So I love being with a group of people like yourselves because I know that all of us are medakshe Hashem. We're all seeking Hashem. We're all seeking more of a connection to God. And one of the ways that God reveals himself, one of the ways that God reveals himself to us is through miracles. Now the Hebrew word for miracle is nays. I have it on the board here. It's on your sheet, N-E-S. The word nays. Now what's amazing about the word nays, Hebrew is so mind blowing, is that the word doesn't only mean miracle. Nays means something else in Hebrew. Anyone know? So nays means a banner, a banner. And the reason is because every miracle waves the banner of divine immanence, right? The miracle is calling out and saying, Here I am! The miracle calls out to us. And God is announcing that He is here. So a miracle, a nays is a miracle and it's a flag. It's a banner. But our sages teach us there are two kinds of miracles. You'll see on the left hand side of your page is a miracle that's called a miracle that's nigle. And here I've translated it for you. Oh, it happens. So nigle means revealed. A revealed miracle. A revealed miracle is basically a miracle that is obvious. It's like a no-brainer that there's a miracle going on because they're usually supernatural, right? So when you witness a supernatural miracle, that's called a revealed miracle. A nays nigle, a nays, a miracle that is nigle that is revealed. On the other hand, they speak about another kind of miracle that's called nistar. It's on the right hand side of your page. It's over here. And nistar means not revealed but hidden, concealed. Because there are certain miracles where it's not so obvious that it's a miracle, right? Let's say you go back in history to the 1967 six-day war in Israel. Well, there were plenty of people who realized that it was a miracle. It was incredible. And there were many people who said, kol ha kavo le tzahal. All the glory goes to the IDF, the Israeli Defense Forces, right? There are people who didn't see any miraculous events in 1967. It wasn't so obvious. So again, we're going to speak about that polarity, that difference tonight between a revealed miracle that is supernatural, that's in your face, that's obvious, and the concealed hidden miracle. Okay. Now here is the thesis I want to share with you. As we say in Yiddish, you have to halt cup. You have to sort of pay attention. And it's not that hard, but it's a little bit maybe out of the box. But I want you to digest it so we can really go through the evening. Here's my thesis, my theory. My theory is that this timeline, this stretch of 12 months, right? It's 12 months. It's a timeline that just basically takes you through the year, from the first month to the 12th month, right? That I want to suggest that this timeline of 12 months corresponds to, illustrates, all of history. It's really speaking about the entire scope of history. Specifically Jewish history, but on many levels it's world history. And it begins at, let's say, the beginning of Jewish history, that took place 3,300 years ago when the Jewish people came out of Egypt. That was the moment where the Jewish people were birthed. That was the birth of a nation. That's the beginning of this timeline. And so the beginning of the Jewish calendar begins with that holiday of Passover. That's the beginning of our history. It's also the beginning of the year. What I want to suggest to you is that it describes the nature of the holiday at that time, describes the spiritual level, the spiritual level of the people at that time. And if we go to the end of the 12 months, it's only 12 months later, but what I want to suggest is that it describes the end of history. Which would be when? It's not the end of history, but it's the end of, let's say, our current stage of history. I mean that we're living in a certain stage of history which we would call, let's say, pre-Messianic. Where the world is still moving towards its ultimate climax. Where we haven't reached where we're supposed to be. The world really begins in paradise, in the Garden of Eden. And then we know that things get broken. And so in many ways we live in a broken world. We live in a broken world. And we're heading towards a restored world. We're heading toward a world that becomes shalame. Shalame doesn't just mean hello and goodbye, it means, and not just peace, it means completeness. So we're really working towards an age of completeness. An age where people and the world and relationships are where they're supposed to be. But we're not there yet. That's off in the future. It could happen next year. It could happen next month. It could happen two years. We don't know when it's going to happen. But the end of our calendar, the end of the calendar, I want to suggest, describes that period of history where the world has reached its spiritual climax. And it describes the spiritual level of the people at that time. Now I'm going to make this clearer to you as I give you examples. But again, the basic idea I'm trying to suggest is that this calendar of 12 months is really a picture of history going from the beginning of Jewish history until the climax when we've reached the Messianic age and we're living in an age that's returned to the Garden of Eden in many ways to paradise. And that's where we're heading, but we're not there yet. And that we have these holidays that we meet during the year. And I'm going to try to illustrate how these holidays describe the level, spiritual level of the people during this historical process. And the more important part is where are we today, all of us? Where are we today on this map? And really, what should we be learning? And really, how can we move ourselves and the world along? That's my goal for tonight. So let's begin where? At the beginning. We'll begin at the beginning. So Passover takes place 3,300 years ago. That is the holiday par excellence of the revealed miracle. If you want an example of a holiday in Jewish history where God basically pulls back the curtain and doesn't leave any questions answered and makes it abundantly clear who's calling the shots and who's doing everything, it's Passover. God basically hits the world over the head. And you have a whole year, a whole year of pretty incredible supernatural miracles. And just reading the scripture, the Bible, they're quite amazing. When you read how these miracles are understood in rabbinic literature, it sort of goes up a notch. So for example, whatever took place in Egypt was not affecting the Jewish people. So not only was there darkness for 3 days, a supernatural darkness where the Bible says it was so dark, people couldn't see each other and they couldn't even get up from their seats because it was so dark but the Jews had light in their dwelling places. And when there was blood in Egypt, in the Jewish homes there was water. So there wasn't just incredible things going on, unbelievable things going on but there was a division where it only affected this much of the country. Incredible things happening. It got so clear, it became so clear that even finally the Egyptians realized, I have it for you here, Exodus 815, what did they say? They say, et spah elo kimi. This is the finger of God. They understood. They understood. Even the Egyptian priests and their clergy, whoever they were, they come telling Pharaoh, look, this is God and we just can't fight anymore. And then when they come out of Egypt, after this year of supernatural miracles, incredible supernatural miracles, they come to the Yamsuf, the Red Sea, the Sea of Reeds, I have no idea what its real name is. They come to Yamsuf and again something incredible happens because the sea splits open for the Jewish people, they cross and then as soon as they cross the Egyptians go in and boom, they're drowned. And if we study this story and again the Madrashic literature, unbelievable. They cross not in one lane, they cross in 12 lanes and then the sea bed is totally dry and then there are fruits and vegetables growing from the walls of the walls. I mean, it's unbelievable what's going on. I think what the Madrash is trying to tell us is this experience was so overwhelming, right? Just imagine the most miraculous thing in the world, that's what's going on. So the rabbis in the Madrash say that as the Jews cross the Sea of Reeds, the most unsophisticated Jew crossing the sea had a clearer vision of God the rabbis teach us than Ezekiel the prophet. Now we all know if you read the prophet Ezekiel, it sounds like he's on LSD what he's seeing there in the first chapter. I mean he's seeing the heavens and he's seeing the... But they say the simplest Jew, the simplest Jew that had that experience saw much more than Ezekiel the prophet. This must have been some experience. And the Bible describes that what was God doing? God was showing us. God was literally showing us who he was. That's why we don't really talk so much about believing there's a God. I mean I would tell you that I believe that the Toronto Blue Jays are going to win the World Series this year. That's sort of belief, that's wishful thinking. But here God is saying I showed you so that you should know. Not that you should believe that I exist. I showed you so that you should know. And there's none beside him. Deuteronomy 435. Now what's going on here? You have this experience of the Exodus from Egypt, the plagues over that course of an entire year, the splitting of the sea. I believe that at that point in Jewish history we needed God to pull back the curtain. Because we had been submerged in an idolatrous Egyptian culture for 210 years. We were living in a land that reeked of immorality, that reeked of idolatry. And the rabbis teach us that the Jewish people had descended to the 49th level of spiritual impurity. That's how contaminated we became. So much so that the rabbis teach that when the Jewish people were crossing the Red Sea, the angels protested. And said why are you saving those people? The angels said they're idol worshipers and they're idol worshipers. So we had really reached a very, very low level in many ways. Although there was still greatness about the Jewish people. There was something there that was great. But we had been corrupted by our immersion in this land of immorality and idolatry. So I believe that because of that corruption we had to have very clear demonstration by God of who he was. We required a very clear demonstration. God had to take off the gloves and make it clear to us beyond the shadow of the doubt that he runs the show. That he is the creator and as the creator he controls the creation. Now, if you thought that that wasn't quite enough it gets better because 49 days later they're standing at the foot of Mount Sinai and they actually hear the voice of God. Every person standing at Sinai basically becomes a prophet. And here's exactly what God is saying to Moses. So we read here, this is the holiday of Shavuot the Feast of Weeks, the second holiday in the Jewish calendar where the Bible says, God says to Moshe behold I come to you in the thickness of the cloud so that the people will hear as I speak to you and will also believe in you forever. That we as a people had the clearest experience of God's revelation, not just hearing from Moses that Moses comes down and Moses tells us, that's what I heard, God revealed himself to me, no, every person standing there heard God speak. Incredible, incredible. That's the next holiday. That's the holiday of Shavuot in the third month of the calendar. Again, the beginning of the calendar, these incredible plagues in Egypt, the splitting of the sea, and then seven weeks later we're standing at Mount Sinai and we all hear God. And the next holiday, which takes place in the seventh month is Sukkot, or the Feast of Tabernacles, which commemorates the 40 years that we traveled through the desert and we were nourished and sustained again by unbelievably incredible supernatural miracles. So every day there is manna falling down except for the Sabbath and there's a well that follows them in the desert, they're getting their water from a well and there's a pillar of fire that leads them and God has these booths that he provides for them and we're told their clothing doesn't wear out and again in the Medrashic literature that Talmud, we're told much, much more stuff going on. No one has to go to the bathroom. That's how incredible this manna was. It wouldn't be bad for 40 years. We're told that the booths they were living in were air-conditioned. I mean, there were no bugs, it was just a paradise they had, but again it was very clear that this was not just something that happened. They were getting smashed over the head with it. They were getting hit over the head with it. And again, what I'm trying to share with you is that back here at the beginning of Jewish history, we needed it. We needed to have that clear, overt, supernatural, revealed demonstration of God's presence and God's reality because we had been crippled and we needed God to basically make it very clear to us. But now what I want to do is jump very, very far to the end of the year. And the end of the year where we're right now, the 12th month of Adar, we're just in the last few days now, and Adar is the holiday of Purim. So again Purim describes what's going to be at the end of history. And again Purim describes a spiritual level of the people at the end of history. What's with Purim? Purim is a very, very strange holiday. I forgot to mention, this will be helpful, that on Passover, just in a few weeks, we have a meal where we basically relive the experience of Passover in the Exodus and we have a special book that we read called the Haggadah, which tells the story. And if you've ever read the Haggadah, you should notice that there's something that's just strange in that there's a name that you would expect would be in this book and it's not there, right? Whose name is not really in the Haggadah? No, he's all over the place. It's Moses. Moses' name is not in the story of Passover. Now, wait a second, that's pretty weird. You would think that he'd be the star of the show, right? You're reading the Passover story and Moses is doing all the plagues and Moses is a leader and Moses is negotiating with Pharaoh and Moses is leading them out. There is the word, the name appears once as almost a parenthetical comment, but he's basically not there. Why? Because Passover is trying to make it clear to us. Don't think for one second that we got out of Egypt because Moses was a great leader. He was a good politician. He had some clout with Pharaoh. There was no human involvement at all. We got out of Egypt purely through divine intervention. But you get to pour him the last holiday and that's the redemption of the Jewish people from genocide 2400 years ago in Persia. There was someone that wanted to annihilate every single Jew, boy, girl, man, woman. That was the plan. Wipe them out, right? It's a very, very big problem. It's a serious problem we're facing. And we're redeemed, right? We're redeemed. And we read about this story in a book in the Bible called Megilat Esther. I have it on your sheets here. Pour him. We read Megilat Esther. Megillah in Hebrew means a scroll. And Megilat is the construct form. So it means a scroll of Esther. That's the book we read. We read the scroll of Esther. Tells the whole pouring story. I think it's 10 chapters. Whose name is missing from that book? God's name isn't there. There was no divine involvement in that story whatsoever. And that's why when we read the book of Esther we don't see God's name mentioned. Because it seems that his presence is not in the story. However, Pour him describes the state, the spiritual state of the world at the end of history. Where as the prophets tell us, the knowledge of God will be as spread across the world like the waters that cover the oceans. Isaiah chapter 11. Or as we're told in the book of Jeremiah. When everyone will know me, God says. From the least of them to the greatest of them, Jeremiah 31. Or the prophets of Fania. When everyone in the world is going to turn to serve God together. All of the prophets, all the prophets speak about a time in the future when all of humanity will come to know God. That's one of the great promises of the Messianic age. When all of humanity will come to know God. That's going to be the level that we're on at Pour him time. Pour him time. The end of history. The end of history. The 12th month which intersects the end. The end of the process. That's the time of the Messiah. When God's knowledge of God will be as spread in the world. Everyone's going to know God. So because everyone has that kind of profound knowledge of God. Everyone's going to understand that no, God is in the Pour him story. As a matter of fact, when you read the Pour him story with spiritual eyes, you see his fingerprints on every single page. I'll tell you a secret. I taught you two words before in the evening. Two kinds of miracles. A revealed miracle that's called a nice niggler. And a concealed miracle and nice Nistar. Nistar is hidden. So the words for the scroll of Esther that we read this book. The scroll of Esther. Niggilat ester. The scroll of Esther can be read. Those same words can be read as the revealing of that which is hidden. The word Esther means hidden. And niggila means to reveal the revealing of. So the book we read is not just the scroll of Esther. The words niggilat ester mean the revealing of that which is hidden. And the whole essence of Pour him is to be able to see that God is not hidden in that. God is hidden, but God is there. God is behind the scenes. God has engineered everything. Every step of the way, God is engineering that story. It's very interesting, by the way, that there are two Anochis in Jewish history. The first of the 10 sayings at Mount Sinai. The first statement of the Revelation at Sinai is Anochih Hashem Elokechah. I am the Lord your God. Exodus chapter 20. There's another time that word appears in the Bible. Anochih. In Deuteronomy chapter 31 where God says Anochih hastir astir. I will certainly hide myself. So these two amazing moments in Jewish history. This moment at Mount Sinai where God pulls back the curtains and speaks to everyone, clear, overt, revealed. And then there's the Anochih of Pour him where God is speaking in the hiddenness. The rabbis say something amazing about the holiday of Pour him. It's going to sound like a reticle. The bottom of your page here, the rabbis teach in the Midrash that the Messianic age, all the holidays will be nullified except for Pour him. Those rascally rabbis. What do they mean by that? We're going to do away with all the holidays. I personally don't think so. But I think they're saying something very profound. I think what the rabbis are saying is this. That when we reach this time in history, this time of Pour him, we won't need for God to do supernatural miracles for us to see him. We will have reached a level of spiritual sensitivity that will be able to see God even where God is hidden. It's only people that are on a low level that God has to split the sea or bloody the waters to see him. People on a low level need that. We're on a higher level. You can go out into the forest and sit by a still beautiful small stream and you could sense the godliness right there. So God tells Elijah the prophet. God is not simply in the thunder and the lightning and the big smoky mountain and the big production numbers. God is in the still small voice. That's where God is. If we are attentive, if we have ears to hear. I want to share with you an amazing passage from the Talmud. This is from the Babylonian Talmud, tractate Shabbat 88A. We're told in the Bible that before the revelation at Mount Sinai, the Jewish people stood at the foot of the mountain. Now if you get your Bible, it's in Exodus chapter 19 verse 17, the Hebrew there says they stood betachtit hahar. Betachtit hahar. The word takhat means underneath. Now, really, the way it's always translated is they stood at the foot of the mountain. But literally what it says is that they stood under the mountain. I remember I once heard George Carlin, he was talking about getting on the plane and the captain who said, you want to get on the plane? He said, no, I want to get in the plane. I'm an evil. I'm getting in the plane. So the Bible says they stood under the mountain. And the rabbis, they play with this. Let me share with this to you. Ravardimi berchame berchase seds. This teaches that Hashem held the mountain over the Jewish people. He held the mountain, he picked the mountain up from the desert floor, held the mountain over their heads and said to them, if you accept the Torah, good. If not, this shall be your burial place. Sort of makes them an offer they can't refuse. Ravacher Boyakov says, we see from here that the acceptance of the Torah was coerced. And that has really serious ramifications because God ever comes to you and says, hey, why were you having a double cheeseburger? You say, why can't I? The Torah says you can't. So yeah, but I never accepted the Torah. It's not a real deal. You can't put a gun to my head and make me sell you the car. My car, that's not a real sale. So the rabbis are saying something here that's very serious. That if we were coerced into accepting the Torah, Hashem can't really have any claim on us. That's a pretty serious problem. Barava says that it was re-accepted willingly in the days of Achashverosh, who was the Persian king at the time of the Purim story. As it is written in the scroll of Esther, chapter 9, verse 27, that the Jews established what had been accepted. Kimu v'Kiblu, meaning that at the Purim story, the Jewish people finally fully accepted what had been established before. That's the story in the Torah. Now, let me share with you the way a great rabbinic mind understood this story. I get asked questions all the time by my students. Do you have to believe everything, literally? So they say, there's a famous saying, if you believe it literally, you're an idiot. If you say it's impossible, you're a heretic. So you can't win. Basically, it's here not so much to tell us history, necessarily. It's here to teach us something important. So the Maharal from Prague, he was a great Jewish mystic who lived in the 16th century, obviously, from Prague. So this is how he understood this. Quite amazing, but it really, it helps us in terms of what I've been sharing with you tonight. What does it mean that God held a mountain over their heads instead of you accepting Torah good if not, you'll be buried here? Basically, what the Maharal says is what the rabbis are teaching us is that by the time they got to Mount Sinai, after everything they had seen, all of the plagues and the crossing of the sea, it's as if a mountain was held over their heads. How could you refuse at that point meaning that if I wake up in the morning and God actually speaks to me and says, go back, you have to wash your hands now. You go up in the morning. I'm not going to wash my hands. If God's telling me, I mean, what are you going to do? So there are times when you don't have free will. If I go shopping in a big jewelry store and I have six armed guards that are walking right around me in a failing, whatever they call it. I can't shoplift. My hands are tied. So there are times when the circumstances are such that you don't really have free choice. So what the Talmud is saying here is that the miracles in the Exodus story were so overpowering. They were overpowering that by the time God finally says, okay, you know, here's the Torah. Are you interested in the Torah? You couldn't say no. There was again an offer they could not refuse. Not that they had a mountain held over their heads. It was as if they had a mountain held over their heads. But the rabbis say again, incredibly, when is the Torah finally accepted? Purim time. Purim time, why? Because Purim time, there are no supernatural miracles. Purim time, there's nothing that's forcing their hand. Purim time, there's no one that has a gun to their back. Purim time, it's completely volitional. It's totally free will. At all, at Purim time. And that's when we're told the Torah is finally accepted. But what we see from this is that miracles are only needed for people who are not on a very high spiritual level. Look at the next story in the Talmud. Tractate Shabbat 53b. A rabbi's taught there was an incident where a certain person's wife died, leaving him a son to nurse and he couldn't afford to hire a wet nurse. He's a very poor man. So what happened? A miracle occurred and he grew two breasts like a woman's and he nursed his son center of Yosef. Whoa. Look how great this man is. That's such a miracle happened for him. But a bayet replied, no, on the contrary. What a low life he is that God had to destroy the laws of nature for him. If this man had been on a higher spiritual level, he could have found the money on the street. And he would have realized this is the hand of God that gave me this money. He could have won the lottery. Many things could have happened. But because this man is not on a very high spiritual level, he would have totally missed it. I would have assumed, oh, am I lucky? Lucky me. He wouldn't have sensed the hand of God. So for him, he had to grow breasts for him to understand that God was behind this situation. You know, the rabbis teach us something interesting. I hope you don't go doctors in the room. The rabbis teach tov shavarofim leganim. The best doctors will go to hell. What are they saying? They're saying that the best doctors often live with the illusion that they are the healer. They don't see that the hand of God is really working through them. So when the guy is the best doctor, she's the best doctor, it's not saying any doctor. The best doctors tov shavarofim leganim. They're going to go to leganim. Because they assume it's their power. It's interesting, by the way, that the main Jewish prayer every day is called the Shimonah Esrae, the 18 blessings. The word tov in Hebrew is the letters t'et vav bez, which spells out 17. It's saying tov shavarofim. The doctors that are only into 17. They only acknowledge God for 17 things. But the blessing for healing, they assume they're the healers. They don't focus on Hashem. Now for the important part of tonight's talk. Where are we in this scheme? Where are we? Meaning, I don't think we're here anymore. Because the truth is, we don't see supernatural miracles in our lives. I mean, not as a nation. But I don't think we're here yet. I'm pretty sure we're not at the end of history. I think we have a little bit of a ways to go. Before we're living in that world where the knowledge of Hashem is spread like the waters that cover the seas, we're not here yet. I think that we just experienced this as a nation where there were Jewish people who after the 1973 Yom Kippur War said, oh my goodness, this was not natural. This was not normal. This could only be supernatural intervention that we escaped in 1973. And that we were able to somehow rescue those people in Entebbe. Somehow, when the Six-Day War in 1967, there were people who saw that. But we all know there were many people who didn't recognize the hand of God in any of those occasions. And the reaction in Israel was often, all the glory goes to the IDF, Israeli Defense Forces. That's who did it. So I don't think we're here yet. And I'm pretty sure we're not there anymore. So if I had to find a holiday that corresponds to our spiritual place in history, it would be that holiday that takes place between these holidays that were typified by supernatural miracles that hit us over the head with God's presence and poorer where God is totally hiding. And that holiday is the holiday of Chanukah. Chanukah comes out in the ninth month. And I believe that our spiritual state now as a people, as a world, we're in the Chanukah state of mind as Billy Joel would say. We're in the Chanukah state of mind. I want to share with you my hypothesis that Chanukah is the holiday of transition. It's the holiday of transition. From what? From this kind of spiritual consciousness. From the consciousness which says I only acknowledge God when he hits me over the head and pulls back the curtains and performs incredible supernatural miracles. That's when I will notice Hashem. Like that man that had to grow breasts in order to nurse his child. How do we transition from that to this kind of world where you see Hashem everywhere even where he's really hiding? I think that's the purpose of Chanukah. And I think Chanukah has that incredibly important message to teach us because Chanukah is that holiday of transition from that kind of world to the world we're looking forward to. The word Chanukah means, one of its meanings is not just education, but education. Chinukh is education. So Chanukah is the holiday of education. It's supposed to be educating us to reach this higher spiritual level. Now what I'm going to hope to do in the next few minutes is share with you what I believe is the spiritual theme of Chanukah. What is the spiritual theme? And what is the theme I believe that again we need all of us to basically embrace. There's a verse in the story of Joseph that rabbis point out that every year when we're celebrating Chanukah comes out during that time of the year when we read about the story of Joseph. The whole Joseph story is every year intertwined with the holiday of Chanukah. Amazing. So the Bible says something incredible I don't know if you ever noticed this in Genesis 37.2 Eila told Odiakov these are the generations of Jacob. Joseph at the age of 17 years was a shepherd of the flocks with his brothers. There's something very, very wrong. There's something very wrong with this verse. What should the verse say? These are the generations of Jacob. What should the next words be? Ruvane, shimon, levi, hudah it's telling you these are the generations every time in the Bible when it's going to tell you someone's generations it lists their children. Here it says these are the generations of Jacob and it goes into a whole thing about Joseph. It's a non sequitur. A non sequitur. Joseph was taking care of the flocks with his brothers he was saying, what's going on here? Does everyone see the difficulty of this verse? Well the word tuldot in Hebrew doesn't only mean generations it could mean legacy of someone. One of the great Hasidic masters was Rav Menachem Mendel of Riminov he died in the year 1815 listen to what he said listen deeply he said what is the legacy of Jacob? What does it really mean to be a child of Jacob? He said it's Yoseph. It's this idea of Yoseph. What is Yoseph all about? We know that Jacob's wife his favorite wife was Rachel and she didn't have children Leah already has six children and she's like going out of her mind and she finally she gives one of her maids to Jacob to have children for her but she wants her own kids and finally we know she's blessed with a child and she names that child Joseph. Joseph. Why? What does the word Joseph mean? So what it says in the Bible is as soon as she has that baby she's been waiting so long she names the baby Joseph because the word Joseph means Hashem should add to me another son it means to add so as soon as she has that precious child what does she name the child? It's her prayer. I want another one that's what she names the kid I don't know if that affects Joseph self esteem I think he did okay but that's his name that his mother she is grabbing for more and what Menachem Mendel of Rimonov says is that is the essence of what it means to be a child of Jacob it means that you're someone who is always seeking more you want to go beyond you are not satisfied with what you have you want to increase you want to do more you want to go beyond you want to transcend and I think that the theme of Chanukah is the theme of transcendence the theme of transcendence let me illustrate it for you I have seven illustrations if I was a good boy I'd have eight for you I have seven okay so the first example is the miracle of the oil so we're told that when the Jewish people reconquered the temple in Jerusalem they cleaned it up it was defiled by the pagans and what do they wanted to do is they wanted to restart the daily practice the daily services and one of the things that took place in the temple every day was that the menorah which was of seven branches was lit every day in the temple the problem is that the Syrian Greeks defiled all the oil all the oil was defiled and so they couldn't find any oil to light the menorah anyway they finally find a little jar of oil but it only lasts for one day and the place where they're able to get four days away so they're stuck basically they're gonna have one day supply of oil and they're gonna be stuck for the next eight days they're not gonna have anything so we're told that an incredible miracle happened we're told that they lit that candle that menorah and it burned for eight days meaning that that small that small jar of oil went beyond its normal capacity it transcended what would normally be expected of it we expected it only burned for one day it burns for eight days that's the theme of Chanukah going beyond doing more transcending then we're told that there was a military victory and God gave the the rabbim beyond me'atim God delivered the many into the hands of the few and not just the many into the hands of the few who are the many? they were a superpower a professional army with all of the equipment they would ever need and who are they fighting? some mold rabbis basically I mean there was no fight here it was almost ridiculous forget about David and Goliath this is a tiny tiny tiny Jewish army they're not professional, not well armed they're fighting a superpower and we again went beyond what would normally be expected of us the expectation would have been that the war would last five minutes and we would be squashed but they went beyond what would normally be expected they did more that they should have been able to accomplish they transcended that is Chanukah then we're told something interesting the rabbis discuss how do we celebrate Chanukah? and they said we're going to light candles nice, we're going to light candles but of course how do you light the candles? so Natalmud is a debate and the school of Shamai says you light eight candles the first night and you light seven the second night and six the third night etc. you go from eight all the way down and the eighth night you light one candle and Hillel says no, you increase he says you go beyond you go more you do more and you light one the first night two the second night three the third night four the fourth and again Chanukah is about going up doing more increasing you're safe then we have something really amazing about Chanukah all of Judaism has a principle called Hidur mitzvah beautifying the mitzvah so when you build a sukkah you just make a structure that's very simple but really try to make it a beautiful sukkah and you could buy an etch rogue that just passes the beer minimal but you should try and buy a beautiful etch rogue I have titzit on I could have made titzit or bought titzit that were very simple no they're more beautiful they have racing stripes or whatever but we try to do the mitzvah in a beautiful way and that applies to all of Judaism all of Judaism, everything we should do in a beautiful way the one time, the one exception where the rabbis say you've got a super charge the beautification of the mitzvah is etch Chanukah the only example in all of Judaism how do you see this the truth is that according to Jewish law you can fulfill the mitzvah of Chanukah basically what all you need to do is the whole family gathers together every night and they light one candle that's all they need to do the whole family gets together and they light the candle the better way of doing it the Hidur mitzvah is each person in the family has their own candle and they light their own candle that's the better way of doing it but the better the better ways is that each person lights one the first night and two the second night and three the third night and four the fourth night it's strange why of all the things we do in Judaism there's a huge menu in Judaism this is the only example of Mahadrin, Minha Mahadrin we super charge the beautification of the mitzvah why? because Chanukah is the holiday of transcendence Chanukah is the holiday of doing more of going beyond of not being satisfied of wanting to go way beyond the normal another example according to Jewish law there's a principle of Tumah which means that if the entire community is ritually impure the bible has laws of ritual purity ritual impurity that if the entire community is ritually impure basically the laws don't necessarily apply so normally to go into the temple and to light the menorah you have to have pure oil but the presumption is that after the war everyone had some contact with the corpse everyone either touched the corpse or was in contact with someone else who touched the corpse but the presumption was that the entire community had some contact with the dead body so everybody in the community was ritually impure which meant that they didn't need to use purified oil they could have used any oil they could have used any oil no problems but they didn't want to do the mitzvah on that level they wanted to do it on the higher level they wanted, no, I don't care if I could have gotten away with using impure oil we're only going to use pure oil so they were striving to do more they wanted to go beyond that's Chanukah going beyond and so they only wanted to use pure oil and then our mystical teachers speak about the meaning of the number eight the number eight is the number of Chanukah there are eight days of Chanukah and eight is the number of transcendence the Maharal from Prad points out that seven is the number of the natural order there are seven days of the week and there are seven loves tellers of the rainbow and seven notes in the music at least in the western musical scale but in the it's different but seven is somehow that number of our physical plane in existence and eight is the number that is metaphysical seven is this number eight transcendence and then the physical symbol of Chanukah is the flame I don't know of anything else in the world that defies gravity everything else basically it will fall to the ground the flame is the only thing that by its nature it licks up it's just moving up by itself it's striving to go higher and higher so we have these examples where I believe Chanukah is screaming at us you can't just stay on this level you've gotta go beyond what are we trying to go beyond we're trying to go beyond this level the whole point of Chanukah is look boys and girls we're living in a world now where we haven't reached a redeemed world we're not living in that time where God's knowledge is spread like the waters that cover the seas we're living in a time where we're post these miracles we're not living in a time anymore that flashes us over the head with supernatural miracles and when Chanukah is screaming out to us it's saying to us you've gotta go beyond you've gotta get beyond this level where God has to literally rip open the curtains and reveal himself you've gotta begin being able to connect with God even when he's hidden but I mentioned that Chanukah is the holiday of education of Chinook so how does Chanukah teach us this lesson I'm trying to bring it to a close now I'll give you two illustrations two illustrations of how Chanukah teaches this lesson of transcendence one, this is pointed out by the Maharal of Prava also there were two kinds of miracles on Chanukah Chanukah had a military victory but you know what if you wanted to go into the way well we were fighting for our lives and we had a home court advantage what do they know about Israel and we know all the good hiding if you really wanted to push God out of the picture in the same way people were able to push God out of the picture in 1973 and 1967 and in Tebi so if you want to somehow explain it away naturally you can come up with an answer but there was those supernatural miracle that hidden miracle on Chanukah that military victory that was a hidden miracle however you had the supernatural miracle of the can of the menorah burning for eight days you can't explain that away naturally oil that should have lasted one day burns for eight days listen to what the Maharal from Prague says he says the purpose of that miracle of the oil is to illuminate the military victory the purpose of the oil miracle is to illuminate the military victory and tell you don't think for one minute that we were able to vanquish our oppressors by our skill and our might and our power so Chanukah it's very essence it's nature it's what Chanukah is it's there to teach us this lesson that Chanukah has both kinds of miracles and Chanukah is saying you got to get beyond that level of needing God to openly reveal himself to see him I'll show you one more example with you in all of rabbinic literature probably the most famous question I have a book that has I think 700 answers to this question probably the most famous question was asked by Rev. Yosef Karo about Chanukah itself very obvious question actually question is this Chanukah lasts for eight days it's an eight day holiday and he asked a very simple question he says well why does it last eight days really they had the answer because the oil burned for eight days but he says yeah but they had a one day supply of oil meaning it would have burned for one day anyway so he says well so how much was miraculous meaning it seems that the miracle were those last seven days it was the mazel tub the world burned for eight days but they had a one day supply of oil so Rev. Yosef Karo asks so maybe Chanukah should be a seven day holiday why don't we have an eight day holiday I think it's a very good question anyway there are literally hundreds of answers to this question I want to share with you one answer though I've seen it in a number of places the first time I saw it was by Reuben Feinstein and I since saw it by other people as well that the entire question is inappropriate it's an inappropriate question the question is saying why do we have eight days of holiday because only the last seven days are miraculous you know one of the things that we do is we use the word miracle when we see something that gets our attention so if you're standing there by the red sea by the Yamsuf and it splits and the Jews can go in and everyone gets around and they oh look a great miracle happened I mean there are certain times when God waves that flag that nace and it's obvious that a miracle is taking place and so we react and we say look a miracle happened the sea split or when the whole Nile river turns to blood look a miracle happened but the question is well who put the river there in the first place I mean that we unfortunately only talk about God doing something when again God destroys the laws of nature in many ways a miracle I'm sorry in many ways nature is just a miracle that keeps on happening over and over and over again so unfortunately we get all excited when the sea splits we go miracle but who put the sea there in the first place so if David Feinstein says is what a mistake it is to say only the last seven days were miraculous because the oil wasn't there at a burnt anyway he says no who makes oil burn in the first place so the whole purpose of Hanukkah is to teach us this lesson of transcendence don't make the mistake of thinking that it's only miraculous that it's only God that everything supernatural happens that destroys the laws of nature no Hanukkah is telling us that the fact that oil can burn in the first place is a miracle all of nature is a miracle because a miracle basically means God is doing something but God is doing everything and it shouldn't be that we only notice that when something unusual or strange or bizarre or supernatural takes place so the Talmud has a beautiful story last piece here one Sabbath Eve a twilight of Haninah this is a man that had miracles every day of his life miracles anyway his daughter she was sad she was very upset he comes home Friday before Shabbat she's crying he says to her why are you so upset because I used vinegar for the oil I put vinegar into the Shabbos canals instead of putting oil in and I used vinegar instead of oil and the vinegar is not going to last so he said to her what's the big deal he said whoever commanded the oil to burn we can also command the vinegar to burn what's the difference oil vinegar it's just basically God runs the show don't worry so much about the nature and not nature there's no difference between miracle and nature it's all miracle everything is a miracle and that's what happened that Shabbat the vinegar burned the entire day until after the end of Shabbat after a strange passage in the Talmud the rabbis ask why did we lose Jerusalem there are many answers that are given and one of the answers that the rabbis suggest is they say it's a bizarre piece because we observed the Torah we lived according to the Torah and the rabbis say that sounds like a good thing why would that cause us to lose Jerusalem because we were living according to the letter of the law but we didn't go beyond the letter of the law I mean that when you think about it what kind of a relationship would it be if a couple gets married and on the first day of their wedding the husband says to the wife, look dear I love you very much, you're very sweet very cute and you know what I'm willing to abide by all of the terms of our marriage contract but don't even think about asking me to do anything that's not here on the paper that's not going to be a good marriage or you go to your first day of work and you say to the boss, look I'm willing to get here at nine o'clock in the morning and I'm willing to do everything on my job description but don't even think about asking me to stay one minute after five or to do anything that's not on the job description so the rabbis are saying that when we basically live our lives where we're saying to God, look God I'll do whatever I have to do I'm willing to just play by the rules but you know I'm not interested in you know making more trouble for myself I'm willing to just to get by with the minimum so the rabbis say that kind of attitude where basically people are just interested in fulfilling their obligations that's why we lose Jerusalem and that really a healthy spiritual personality wants to basically see rules and the laws as a starting point as a safety net maybe as the minimal that we do but really if you're in love with someone you want to do everything they want so that's really what Hanukkah I believe is trying to teach us that's why I believe at this point in our history we're Hanukkah people we're people that should be trying to up our game and that we should be trying to grow and to never be satisfied and if we have a certain amount of connection to God a certain amount of faith in God we should try to increase that and deepen it the Talmud says that at the end of 120 years when we go upstairs there's going to be four questions that were asked and the first question we're going to be asked the Talmud says is nasattab in atattab emuna which usually is translated that you deal honestly and fairly in your business dealings first question but the Zanzarebi one of the great Hasidic masters read this a little bit differently and he read it like this nasattab in atattab emuna did you do business with your faith meaning any person that has $1,000 is not just going to put it under their mattress people that have money want the money to grow and if you have $1,000 you want to hopefully have $1,200 next year or whatever you can grow it to so what do people do with their money they read investment advice and they speak to people how to invest what they do with their money but people put effort and energy into growing their money and the Talmud is asking us at the end of our life we're going to be asked this what did you do to grow your faith what did you do to deepen your faith and it's one thing for people to say at the underlying level but then there's a level of betahon of trust and it's one thing to acknowledge that there's a God that created the world that's basically answering a question on a test do you believe there's a God yes I believe there's a God but then to live your life as if there is a God and to live your life with the trust in that God that takes a lot of work and I believe that what Hanukkah is trying to teach us is to go beyond to focus our study of Torah to try and study on a deeper level to try and focus our minds and ask deeper questions but never to be satisfied with doing things on the level that we're at like Joseph always seeking more always seeking to go beyond to transcend, to grow and I think that as a world that's how we're going to be able to reach this ultimate level where God's reality will be as natural to all of us every person on the planet as the waters that cover the sea