DailyHalacha.com

Rabbi Mansour 09
Shabbat morning class
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The eighth day of Hanukah is one of the holiest days of the year. The Admur from
Ruzhhin teaches, that what a simple man can accomplish on the 8th day of Hanukah,
even great Tzadikim cannot accomplish with their Tefilah during Neilah of Yom Kippur!
What is so special about the 8th day of Hanukah? On Rosh Hashanah we are judged, on
Yom Kippur the judgment is sealed, on Shemini Atzeret it is delivered. We still have one
last chance to change things until the 8th day of Hanukah, after which everything is
completed and starts to get carried out. Therefore it is a very special day to beg
Hashem for mercy for all that we need, and that we should have only good decrees
upon us. This is hinted in the number of Pesukim contained in the Parashiot that we
read in the month of Elul, when we approach Rosh Hashanah (At the end of every
Parasha it lists the number of Pesukim and a ???? to remember the number. There are
deep concepts in these ?????? and numbers. Rabbi Dovid Feinstein wrote an entire
sefer explaining some of these concepts). In ???? ????? there are 40 Pesukim
corresponding to the 40 days of Teshuvah from Rosh Hodesh Elul till Yom Kippur. In
???? ???? there are 30 Pesukim corresponding to the 30 days from Rosh Hodesh Elul till
Rosh Hashanah. In ???? ?????? there are 52 Pesukim corresponding to the 52 days
from Rosh Hodesh Elul till Shemini Atzeret (the day the decree is delivered). What
about the 8th day of Hanukah, where is this hinted? From Rosh Hodesh Elul till the 8th
day of Hanukah there are 122 days (the 4 months of Elul, Tishrei, Cheshvan, and Kislev
total 120 days plus the first 2 days of Tevet total 122). If we add the total number of
Pesukim in these 3 Parashiot- 52+40+30=122, showing us that the culmination of all
these days of judgment and holiness is 122 days later, which is the 8th day of Hanukah.
In addition, the Parasha before ????? is ?? ??? which has exactly 122 Pesukim, showing
that we are about to begin the 122 days of the judgment process!
Parashat Miketz is always read on Hanukah and there are several hints and
connections to Hanukah in this Parasha. At the end of the Parasha, not only does it say
how many Pesukim are in it, but it is the only Parasha that lists how many words are in
it, and that is 2025 words. Why list the number of words? One answer is that there is a
Machloket in the Gemarah about the meaning of the word ???? (the word Pharaoh
used to describe Yosef). Rabi Yehudah says it means ?? ????? ??? ????? - that he was
old in wisdom but young in years. So it is comprised of 2 words ??-?? , but Rav Yose
ben Dormaskit argues and says that ???? is from the word ??? (the thigh), meaning
that they all bowed down to Yosef. So Rav Yehudah held that ???? is two words and
Rabi Yose ben Dormaskit held that it was one word. So at the end of the Parasha we
have a count of the words, to teach us that the Halacha is that ???? counts as only 1
word. Hacham Baruch ?'? said another answer which connects Miketz with Hanukah.
The word ?? -candle is numerically 250 and we light it for 8 nights so 8x250=2000, when
do we begin lighting them? On the 25th night of Kislev, so 2000+25=2025. So the
number of words in the Parasha hints to the holiday of Hanukah.
There are 10 Sefirot, the 7 lower Sefirot are what we associate with during the 7 days of
the week, each day for a different Sefirah, with Shabbat being the Sefirah of Malchut as
it says ????? ??????? . We rarely associate with the top three Sefirot (on Shabbat,
during the 3 Tefilot, we actually connect to the 3 upper Sefirot. On Friday night with the
third, on Shabbat morning the second, and the highest Sefirah- the Keter, we connect
with during Minhah of Shabbat, which is the pinnacle of Shabbat. This is why the Satan
does alot to try and prevent us from praying Minha Shabbat in shul with proper
Kavanah). On Hanukah we have an 8 day holiday, the number 8 represents above 7,
above the 7 Sefirot that we normally connect with. (This is why the Kohen Gadol wore 8
garments showing he was involved with these higher levels). During the eight days of
Hanukah we are actually connected to the upper Sefirot. This is hinted in the miracle of
Hanukah, which involved ??? -oil. The word ??? is like the word ???? , the number 8,
which represents the Sefirot above the seven Sefirot that we associate with today.
Therefore Hanukah represents being above nature and hints to the future eternal
world, when Mashiach will come and we will have the third Beit Hamikdash. The word
???? is .??????? ???? ??? ????? – ?'?
There are 3 months that are linked to the 3 Batei Hamikdash. The month of Kislev is
linked to the second Beit Hamikdash, since it is the month of Hanukah, when they
reinaugurated the second Beit Hamikdash. The Month of Tishrei is linked to the first
Beit Hamikdash since that is the month it was inaugurated in. Although it was ready to
be inaugurated by King Shlomo in the month of Cheshvan, Hashem said to wait until
Tishrei (another 11 months) to inaugurate it. The month of Cheshvan "felt bad" that it
did not get the first Beit Hamikdash, nor does it have any other holiday in it. Hashem
told Cheshvan not to worry, it will have the greatest day, and that is in the future with
the inauguration of the third Beit Hamikdash which will be permanent. Therefore the
third Beit Hamikdash is connected with the month of Cheshvan (that’s why Shlomo
Hamelech wanted to inaugurate the first Beit Hamikdash in the month of Cheshvan,
because he knew that if he would do so then it would be eternal, but Hashem said he
had to wait). The Pasuk says ?????? ???? ???? ?? ????? ???? - this refers to ??? ????
(she was the ?? -mother) and she was happy ( ???? ), since her children, Menashe and
Ephraim (from Yosef) and Binyamin, correspond to the three months that the Temples
???? ????) ) will be completed in (in the desert the Jews would travel with flags that
corresponded to the months of the year. Ephraim, Menashe and Binyamin were all on
the same flag that represented the first three months of the year). Ephraim
corresponds to Tishrei, the first temple. Binyamin to Kislev, the second temple.
Menashe corresponds to Cheshvan, the third Beit Hamikdash. The third Beit Hamikdash
will be an eternal one, so everything associated with it has to be eternal. What is
eternal? The Torah is eternal. The Torah begins with a ?, it ends with a ?, and the
middle letter is the ? from the word ?????? (in ???? ????? ) these 3 letters make up the
word ??? - the month of Cheshvan is referred to in the Pasuk as ??? ??? (since ??? is
from the word ???? -the flood that took place in this month of Cheshvan. ? -??? a forty
day flood). Cheshvan is when the third eternal Beit Hamikdash will be built so this
eternal aspect is hinted to it its name ??? ,??? ??? being the first middle and last letters
of the eternal Torah. What else is eternal? The ???? - the soul. This eternal aspect of the
soul is what Yosef Hasadik was hinting to when he named his son ???? , which is the
same letters as ???? , since he knew that this son corresponds to the third Beit
Hamikdash of eternity, he was hinting to something else eternal: the Neshama. So
Menashe represents the time of Mashiah and the third Beit Hamikdash when we will
connect with the upper three Sefirot. Menashe was born in ???? ??? which we always
read on Hanukah. Also whose ???? do we read about on the eighth day of Hanukah?
Menashe, which brought his ???? on the eighth day. This all hints to the connection
between Hanukah (which as mentioned is 8, above today’s nature) and the connection
to the upper Sefirot, the eternal world of Mashiach, and the third Beit Hamikdash.
Another connection between ??? and Hanukah is that the Greeks tried to distance us
from anything that brought us close to Hashem. So they banned ????, ???, ??? ???
.The Shabbat brings Hashem down to dwell with us, like it says ?? ???? ????? , it’s as
if it says ?????? (to dwell). The ???? ???? makes us worthy to have the ????? of Hashem
upon us, like we see by Avraham that after he did the ???? ???? it says ' ???? ???? ? - that
Hashem appeared to him. Rosh Hodesh is the time of the new moon, when we say
???? ????? , we try and do so on ????? ??? , since we are dressed in nice clothing and
still have the ????? from ????? on us. We are going to greet the ????? as we say at the
end of Birkat Halevanah ?????? ??? ????? ?????? ??? ??? ???? ??? - the ????? did not
want us to connect with Hashem so they banned these 3 Mitzvot. The first letters of
these 3 Mitzvot are ??? ???? ???)-??? ) that is why we say ????? ??? . This holiday
represents our reconnecting with Hashem, represented by these 3 Mitzvot. That is why
they were called ??????? , which starts with the letters ?''?) ??? of ??? ??? ???? ). This
is hinted to in the Parasha when it says about Yosef- ???? ?? ???? - (literally-he divided
the land) ???? is also these 3 letters showing that Yosef was spiritually fortifying ?????
with these 3 Mitzvot. The Jews kept Milah throughout their stay in Egypt. They also
kept Shabbat, since Moshe told Pharaoh that the Jews will not work properly without a
day off. So Pharaoh asked which day should I give them off? Moshe picked Saturday,
even though the Mitzvah of Shabbat was not yet given. That is why later on when
Hashem gave the Mitzvah of Shabbat, Moshe was very happy that he picked the right
day! Like it says .???? ??? ????? ????
There is another connection to Hanukah in the Pasuk about Yosef dividing the land. In
???? ????? we read about how the angel of Eisav attacked Yaakov and hit him in his
thigh. Why did the angel attack him? The Targum Yonatan Ben Uziel explains, the
reason He attacked him was because when Yaakov had left to run away from Eisav, he
promised that he would give to Hashem a tenth of whatever he was given- ??? ??? ???
?? ??? ?????? ?? . So the angel told Yaakov what about your children?! You must give a
tenth of them as well! You have 12 children; you have to give one to Hashem! So
Yaakov calculated which one of his sons he should dedicate to Hashem. He started to
count his sons, excluding the 4 Bechorot (the 4 firstborns from each of his 4 wives)
because they fall into a different category. He started the count with Shimon and went
"around the order" and the tenth one was Levi. As follows:
1)Shimon 2)Levi 3)Yehuda 4)Yisshachar 5)Zevulun 6)Naftali 7)Asher 8)Binyamin
9)Shimon 10) Levi.
So he dedicated Levi to Hashem to be the tribe of Kohanim and to serve Hashem. This
is hinted to in the spot that the angel hit Yaakov. He hit him in the ?? -the thigh.
100 =?? and 100 =??? ??? , to show why he was being attacked, since Yaakov had not
yet dedicated Levi to Hashem as ???? from his children. When we analyze further we
see that actually Yaakov had promised to give 20 percent to Hashem like it says ???
?????? (double tenth). So he had to give a second child to Hashem. Who was chosen?
????? . Using the same system as above, the tenth comes to ????? as follows: 1)
Shimon 2)Yehuda 3)Yisshachar 4) Zevulun 5) Naftali 6)Asher 7) Binyamin 8) Shimon
9) Yehuda 10) Yisshachar.
Yaakov dedicated ????? to Hashem to be devoted to learn Torah exclusively, while
being supported by ?????? . By dedicating his two son’s ????? & ??? to Hashem, Yaakov
was actually preparing the Jews for the miracle of Hanukah, since the miracle of
Hanukah was done thru the ???????? who were Kohanim- the children of Levi. It was
instituted and set as a holiday by the ??????? -the Supreme Court, who were from the
tribe of ????? , as it says ????? ????? ??? ????? . This is alluded to in the Pasuk when it
says that Yaakov went back for ???? ????? – small jugs. The only other time we see this
word ?? , is by Hanukah with the ?? ??? - jug of oil. So he went back for the ???? , which
is plural, alluding to the 2 sons he was dedicating to Hashem, to set up the miracle of
Hanukah- done with the ?? ??? . The Pasuk by Yosef says that he was .???? ?? ????
Targum Yonatan Ben Uziel explains that ???? is 1/5th, which is 20 percent. Yosef set a
20 percent tax on Egypt, to help set up the miracle of Hanukah like his father Yaakov
had done when he dedicated 20 percent of his children- the sons ??? and .?????