Chanukah: Rising Through Darkness to Light

AI summary (may contain mistakes)

How does a person climb in avodas Hashem when every level brings a new challenge? Rebbe Nachman teaches lifting the imagination up to the seichel, and each step up brings the imagination back to confuse us, a yerida l'tzorech aliyah. The Midrash and Rabbeinu Yonah teach us to see light inside the darkness. We see on Chanukah that the lights were lit only after the war against the Greeks.

Key points

• The Midrash faults Yaakov Avinu for seeing his plight as evil instead of seeing Yad Hashem.
• Rabbeinu Yonah writes that one who trusts Hashem senses hope, the darkness itself becoming light.
• The Sfas Emes says reaching for the whole Torah, not a fraction, brought the Yavanim's downfall.
• A gematria: Mah plus Shem Adnus equals 110, the same as Neis.
• Rebbe Nachman teaches that tzedakah breaks the koach hamedameh, the pull of the imagination.

In this shiur

1. 0:00Rebbe Nachman on lifting the imagination
2. 2:14Yaakov Avinu and the hidden Yad Hashem
3. 4:36Rabbeinu Yonah on hope in darkness
4. 9:02The one pach of oil
5. 13:20The gematria of Neis
6. 15:09Tzedakah and the koach hamedameh
7. 17:00Laughter and Hillel on Chanukah
8. 20:34Climbing a ladder between the rungs

Topics

• Chanukah
• Emunah
• Yerida L'Tzorech Aliyah
• Tzedakah