CHANUKAH
Chabura with Rabbi Yaakov Zalman Labinsky
https://becomingdivine.com/about/
Will we have a building or a destruction this year?
The Transitional Point of the Year to Bring the Ultimate Blessing in the World
May we all be zoche to incredible 8 days of divine emanation.
May we burn through any klipos in our selves and Klal Yisrael.
May we draw down the highest light.
May we be zoche to His divine presence and koach in each minute of these 8 days!
May H’ shine his rachamim on us.
May we be illuminating forces in Hashem's world to nullify the darkness.
Chanuka: A macro orientation.
The Bais Hamikdash: A Past, present and future look at Chanukah
Hashem is He was, He is, He will be.
Past, present and future look at Chanukah. lets take a wide angleview of the year and the position of chanukah and why it is situated in time where it is in the progressiion of the chaggimand we will see the fullness.
One question is that we we understand at Rosh Hashana that the din is sealed, deliverd by Hoshana Rabba. There is a clause that says the fulllness of that delivery, until the ticket is fully delivered and received, does not take place until Chanukah.
Why is it of all times that the din is not over by Hoshana Rabba?
We have moved forward, the din should be sealed, delivered and done, but there is a dangling phrase that it is not fully done til Chanukah.
Chanukah is an Island
Question 2 about Chanukah is that a fundamental part is that it is tied to the zeman itself. If we like winter or not, some people who have winter blues, why specifically is Chanukah dangling...there is nothing the month before. Chanukah is an island in and of itself. Maybe that is the point but how does it relate to its own holiday, dangling from the earlier stage.
Connection to 10 Teves
Question 3 is after Chanukah we seemingly don't have anything til Tu bShevat, we have Asars BTeves and is there a connection.
Where is Chanukah coming from , where is it in context and where is it going to.
I would like to share a beautiful daungting exquisite Chosom Sofer from Toras Moshe drash zion, zion adar, and the ChosomSofor says on the third question, how is it connected. On the 10th of teves, we have this first of the few fast days tied to the destruction of the Bais HaMikdosh. The fast is abou the siege and the siege was just as it implies, a complete take over that cut the Jewish people off from their very life source of water and food in a way that they were drowning. this fast is coming to commemmorate and somehow make some kind of atonement for what is to come on the rest of the year.
In every generation the Bais Hamikdosh is not actually built in that generation it is as if it was destroyed in its days
how is it connected back to Chanukah? The Chosom Sofer says in every generation the bais hamikdosh is not actually built in that generation it is as if the bais hamikdosh was destroyed in its days. a very hard thing to understand. The Chosom Sofer says something awesome, if it was destroyed in our geneation, it is literally destroyed, each and every year the destruction of the Bais HaMikdosh is renewed yearly and the mishmpat, the actual din of whether or not it will be built or burned actually is decreed uniquely on 10 teves.
He is telling us that the 10th of teves, between the high holidays and purim and pesach, there is a huge space and we have Chanukah. Chazal are telling us that each year the bais hamikdosh is not built,destroyed, it is as if we destroyed it in our generation. this we know on the three weeks, but on 10 of teves? the first of the fasts has to do with the breakdown of the bais hamikdosh, six months before. Chosom Sofer says it is not as if it is destroyed, it is destroyed each and every year, as if literally a bais din in shemayim is set up on 10 teves. Who hears about this?
It is an important Chosom Sofer that should be publicized amongst the Jewish people
how do we wrap our hands around this. This Chosom Sofer is really saying a bomb thing and say as follows. it is true the three weeks are the final completion of whether there is a building or a burning but the process of the building or burning is not an end result. it is a process that goes back to thr 10th of teves and already the jury will be activated in the higher worlds to watch us to see for those next six months and that is the significance of the fast whether the siege will reoccur or will break it at its core.
How Hashem can you put this decree when the majority of the Jews did not know?
Will we have a building or a destruction this year?
If we look where we are right now, we have the answer. comes chanukah which is 8 days from 25 kislev to 2 teves, then seven says between 2 teves to the ninth and on the 8th day, the 10th of teves, begins that process of the jury from above setting into motion the process of whether we will have a building or a destruction this year.
How is it connected to Chanukah, never mind Shabbos which we will tie in.
What is Chanukah really about?
It is true that when things go well we are happy, blessing is coming our way, everything is very straight. but when things don't go so well, or they seem to go backwards, inside out, so topsy turvy, it makes you so dizzy and disorienting, what is going on and we can get so confused on the chaos of things that it literally causing us to be disoriented from Hashem and that is the test of Chanukah itself.
The Metzius of Chanuka: The real test of how close you when things are going well.
when things are difficult or troubling, we stay connected, we are loyal in our path and there is an attempt to move forward. the right thing is the right thing and the straight path is the straight path. that makes us unshakeable. it is there that we are really tested to see where we are holding. that is the metzius of chanukah. yes it is the winter but if we have to rise a little higher to the soul of the matter and into the depths and the time when it is the most amount of darkness in the year, the exact opposite of summer, it is really a heavy repressive and depressing time. when we throw in all of this, Hashem wants to see the degree of loyalty we have, the extent of if Hashem is there or not and how much we reach out to Him with simplicity and that we are His unshakable people, on a path of straightness and truth, but we dont have to arise there all at once. we start with one light, there are eight days and that is the inner straightness of our souls. we start to move forward anew again. Last year's darkness is last year. If we do not see the Beis Hamikdosh, then it is the new potential.
If we want to see the building, to have redemption and be in Israel, we have to start, to get on the straight path.
Light each day and add incrementally. that is the renewal. tie it back to your starting point. all the way to the eighth day, zos Chanukah and then we have the full expression of inner renewal where we rededicate ourselves new, to our inner divine identity, to higher divine service and to serving Hashem in a higher more refined or elevated way within the choshech itself. that is where we are holding, where we are in the darkness, where are we holding.
When we feel the distance and we say Here too Hashem is found.
There is no place in Creation that He is not and there is no place in my life or in time or space where He is not, in the intimate part of my life too. and I am using these 8 days to rededicate myself to being a mini mishkan. We are rededicating the mishkan for 8 days, the days we inaugurated the mishkan we are inaugurating ourselves. we want to be the mishkan.
Chanuka is the main preparation for 10 Teves: How we Shteig in these 8 Days
as we begin the future 8 days after Chanukah finishes, that will be the ikar preparation for 10 teves IS chanukah, how we shteig in the 8th days to declare at the depth of our being,
It is a dark world, distance, pain, suffering, trouble and it is so easy to feel chaotic and I want clarity and straightness and inner joy and I want the depths of the light to come down to each place. In truth there is no place where you are not because You are in everything.
each and every day of the Chanukah experience is to inaugurate ourselves through these days, and that segways to the 8 days preparing for 10 teves. will it be a siege by the outside forces that come from our inner vitality that is our inner ratzon or will our ratzon be burning so brightly and strong that we want Hashem so much.
Where are we going to strengthen our ratzon on 10 teves to know if it will be destruction or building?
if we wait til then it is too late. the judicial process is chanukah, the preparation for 10 teves and the 10 teves is the activation of the judical process until tisha bav and that is when in actuality it is determined for building the temple this year. but that originates on 10 teves says Chosom Sefer. it is not as if it was destroyed. each and every year it is renewed again in its destruction. that means in its building. what createts that for us, to make ourselves an inner mikdhosh for Hashem.
Chanuka is the preparation to awaken the inner ratzon on the 10 Teves
chanukah is about the inauguration of the temple for 8 days, leading up to 10 teves. as you relate to Me in the darkness with a commitment to Me, a higher orientation no matter what, that is the preparation to awaken the inner ratzon on 10 teves and if that is strong indiviudally, collectively and nationally, the judicial process is started.
chanukah is the preparation, the main preparation, for the beginning of the judicial process on 10 teves and continues on 6 months culminating on 3 weeks and tisha bav.
what an unbelievable way to look at chanukah as the judicial process for building and recreation.
we want the ikar mishkan back.
Right now, how we experience chanukah is the basis for the recreation.
how can signed on rosh hashana, sealed on Yom Kipur and sealed final on hoshana rabba...through the delivery of the decree, just like the delivery of mail, until it gets to our hands, it takes time. it comes out chanukah is that reality relative to the beginning of the year. Rosh hashana when we crown Hashem King, and Yom Kipur for atonement, and the simcha of simchas Torah. in the succah, we are on cloud 9. Now Hashem says this is momentum all the way to Chanukah. the place where you inaugurate, that new beginnig, that is where chanukah is.
Chanuka is Chanukas haMizbeach
chanuka is chanukas hamizbeach, the inauguration, capturing the new capactiy for a new beginning for a pathway for truth to serve Hashem.
Real chinuch means, from Reb Orlowick, from Pirke Avos, the mishnas teach us a specific midda a spiritual development, a time period, a point of origination, for the next period of time it is expanded to teach us the best way to captivate the process of chinuch, chanukah is to inaugurate. the incipient moment is to come within our capacity to grab it, put it into our new direction without any delay whatsoever.
Chanukah is the end of the Holidays - the Capacity is Being sealed
comes chanukah which is the end of the holidays through marcheshvan, all the way to 25 kislev is where that capacity is being sealed for this year. the process of the deliverancde starts on Hoshana rabba but is only received by us on Chanukah. Until we can internalize that no matter where in my life I am, closer distant, higher, lower, chanukah will be the full deliverance because it is only then that we have created the full capacity for the coming year. that is how chanukah retroactively is the full completion of the din for this year retroactive to rohshashana. then each day of chanukah, adding another aspect of connection to hashem of inner renewal of one's inner divinity, a greater purification. and to toil in that for 8 days and in that 8 day process of reworking ourselves we see it from the past to the present and from the dark of the present into the future of the 8 days into 10 teves and that activates the d=judicial process through which the bais hamikdosh is circumspect. is this the year of building or destruction each year a new judicial process like no other year.
this year the new reality in and of itself. you are a new reality in and of itself. you have a new divine capacity no matter what you did last year. as we shteig on chanukah we open up a capactityand it closes on zos chanukah.
why zos chanukah?
On Yom kipur we say three things remove an evil decree and over each of the three things..teshuva tefila and tzedakah. over each one of them we have fasting, kol and maim.. 136 is the gematria for all three. On Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur and succos it is set into motion for delivery but it is not received til chanukah.
408 is zos, the summation of teshuva, tefila and tzedaka, the full capacity of everything we will be. on 8 days no matter what nothing is going to delay us. we will praise Hashem from a language of judgment and mercy. whether we feel closer or more distant we are always connected. at the end of that zos chanukah we feel the shelamos of that connection and that is our preparation for the din of the decree for the 10th of teves. we see chanukah as the preparation for 10 teves and 10 teves is the beginning of whether we will have bais hamikidosh.
chanukah is the connecting point between the high holidays to chanukah, the transitional point when things turn around. now it propels us forward to the judicial process that we should see the building of the temple.
Chanukah is the Transitional Point
chanukah is the transitional point bewteent he potential of what we could be and the inauguration of the activation of everything we are going to become starts by chanukah. it is the completion of the process.
Chanukah we are grabbing the beginning moment that everything generated on Rosh hashana, the giving over of the ticket is fully received and the activation - we see the chinuch process to dedicate ourselves to Hashem and the darkness is that pure potential of everything going forward.
9 Months after 25 Kislev is 25 Elul = 9 Months of Pregnancy.
once we are in that now we have to live that way, to dedicate ourselves for 8 precious days. don't let anything derail us. no matter what is sent to throw us off, He wants to see how loyal and stragith we are for Him. it is all hashem and how will we deal with that on the ground. when we bring that all the way down, that begins the inauguration of the new you, the new soulful capacity, rededicate yourself, yoru own defined being, that is what these 8 days are that now prepare us to go forward.
for all of klal yisrael are we going to see a building or destruction.
what I dedicate myself for for this fast… I don't want a siege cut out from my ratzon, my innermost vitality. i want my ratzon to be a flame, to bring that out, and I don't want the siege to be for that. I want the ratzon to burst open.
We start with striving and perhaps this will be the year of the real decree.
And it will propel me forward to receive the real Bais hamikdosh and each one of us dedicating ourselves and help create the Bais hamikdosh.
We can live with ultimate illumination.
then the 8 days are the days to inaugurate, for klal yisrael to be restored. that is the significance to connect the whole year together and that is the way we are to light and be oriented.
If we can begin to live this way we are found with chazal.
On the ground, when we light, light and anticipate the lighting, be energized and vitalized, not a place for downtime or crashing.
be excited for the lighting, give tzedakah. come in with the right kavanas. realize what is happening. in those 30 minutes sit by the candles meditating and receiving the ohr haganos, brought into the above, into our homes and our hearts, the extent to which we can let that light cut through all the kelipos in our heart, we can have a watershed and that awakening is our inauguration, our chanukia and then llive it, for 24 hours, each day and tie it back to the first day of origination. we are not just doing it for Chanukah but back to Rosh Hashana.
Then we are setting the momentum forward whether it is this year or as soon as we merit to receive the lights well with gratitiude or joy. no matter what difficulties we have around us, here too Hashem is to be found. Hashem is everywhere to be found and we will rededicate ourselves and put our ego on the misbeach and Hashem You are everything and we are a part and we want the temple in a true way.
we know din is going to come again and we are not going to be so frightful and get shut down several weeks from now. we are taking chanukah that we want this world to be complete, we want it more than anything and don't let any part of olam haze distract us.
in that zechus we are dedicating ourselves to Hashem like no one ever has.