Enjoy!

==

Now, Hanukah is subduing all the Hellenists (Hellenising Jews).

Because the ikker of the war was against the Hellenising Jews – because they called Antiochus. They called him! [To come and fight against their brother Jews in Eretz Yisrael].

They built a stadium here. Now, it was the World Cup. The World Cup was here, in Jerusalem, once upon a time. All of the Olympic Games were held here. In Jerusalem, there was the biggest stadium in the whole of the Middle East.

They came from Syria, from Afghanistan, from Bukhara, from Tashkent. All the wrestlers came here, all the actors. The biggest stadium was here!

==

Until Yehuda [HaMaccabee] came and burned it down.

And afterwards, they dug in, inside the fortress. Today, they call it the Antonia Fortress, there’s an Arab school there in the North [of the Old City of Jerusalem]. You enter by way of the Lions’ Gate.

You enter, and you get to the Antonia Fortress, it’s called the Hakra. It’s called the Capital. There, they used to entrench themselves, until Shimon [HaMaccabee].

He[1] had five sons: Yehonatan, Shimon… Yehonatan was king for seven years. Shimon was king for seven years. Yehuda was king for two years. And Yehonatan and Elazar, the poor things.

He [Elazar] stabbed the elephant.[2]

==

They [the Syrian-Greeks] came with elephants – thousands of elephants!

Each elephant, that they stabbed, until this was impossible…

An arrow didn’t pass through an elephant – it was like a tank. An elephant’s [skin] is 25 cm thick, it’s impossible, and [the skin] isn’t porous even for sweat.

==

We were there, we were there…

We saw that the elephants spilled water upon themselves. Because when we were in Johannesburg, so we went out into the jungle. I took Nachman with me. In the end, we saw no end of elephants.

And when the elephant flaps its ears, then you need to escape. We were in a large jeep, ten people all together, with the grandchildren Nachman and Natan.

Then the South African soldiers showed up, and said that when the elephant does that with its ears, you need to run away. Because the elephant thinks that the jeep is a type of animal. It sees the jeep, it sees a type of animal, with ten heads. It doesn’t understand what this is, at all.

It wants to attack it. The elephant can flip a jeep, it can turn everything over, even a truck. If a truck driver sees an elephant, they also need to run away. It can tip over a truck, it thinks that it’s a type of animal.

==

So, we travelled there, inside the jungle, and of course, we didn’t have weapons, unfortunately, that could fire stun grenades, and fire bombs. We looked for a weapon, we didn’t find one.

At the end, when we left, there had already been an accident, lo alenu, and they were waiting there by all the checkpoints. They were waiting by all the barriers. We left by plane, that’s how we left.

And he said to everyone be happy![3]

The pilot said this to all the travellers. There were around 100 passengers. He said, there are Israelites here, we merited to have Israelites join us. And the whole world knows that the Israelis are the biggest ‘heroes’ in the world! Even today!

They are five million, and they fought against 200 million Arabs surrounding them. And another 2 billion muslims, in the whole world.

So, five million already fought against the whole…

==

In 1948, we were just 50,000 here.

And everyone was a child, a baby. 600,000 babies, and kids, and women. 50,000 soldiers against 20 million.

There was Tougi [?] – he was the biggest tzaddik. Tougi – you must go to his kever (grave). Tougi – he was the Iraqi commander, and he came with 200,000 Iraqi soldiers.

They found all of them tied to posts, with chains that wouldn’t bend…They found all of them…

All of this is already 70 years ago, 75 years ago.

==

In any case, you were only born now, but slowly, slowly, each shiur will drip down a few more of the miracles of Hanukah.

The miracles of Hanukah, that we see in everything. It’s like we say, ‘as in those days, as at this time’.[4]

==

So now, the Hellenising Jews are ruling for nine months, over this State.

And now, they are saying that they are the opposite – they are the ones who are ‘freedom fighters’, they are the ‘democrats’. Ultimately, these are people who have never kept Shabbat in their lives.

Bennett has never seen Shabbat in his life. He wears a kippa, he has no idea what Shabbat means. His kids are chilonim, they don’t know what Shabbat is, at all. He doesn’t understand, what Shabbat actually is.

==

So, this is all of Hanukah.

Which is now the victory over the Hellenising Jews, this is the ikker.

That the Hellenising Jews will rule here for nine months, and they will arouse the whole world against Israel, against Am Israel, and especially, against the chareidim.

==

They say, it’s simple, these are monkeys, who haven’t progressed.

What are ‘chareidim’?

After all, this is their shita, that once upon a time, we were all monkeys. So they say these are monkeys who simply didn’t evolve… Some sort of species of primate, that happens to keep Shabbat.

Did you ever hear of a monkey that kept Shabbat?

So if we all came from a monkey, why are you keeping Shabbat? Where did that come from?!

No, it’s a species of monkey that keeps Shabbat.

==

They have no idea how to explain this. How can this be?! Where did this species come from, all of a sudden?!

Maybe, they discovered this in Australia, together with the kangaroo. Maybe, it’s a species of kangaroo?

They have no idea what’s going on, here. What did we say, that you’re monkeys! So then, how are you keeping Shabbat?! Just drink and eat! Eat a coconut! Why aren’t you eating coconuts all day long?!

==

So, on Hanukah it’s a mitzvah to also eat coconuts.

So now, we’re in Hanukah. Now we are going to light the candle, the second light. We need to know that Hanukah, this is greater than Yom Kippur, all these eight days.

==

Now, we are mamash in Hanukah.

Now, we are already after when Rabbenu came to the world, and Rabbenu is winning all the wars. It doesn’t matter what people do, chilonim, dati’im, it doesn’t matter at all.

We are saying today that already, everyone are tzaddikim. There are no chilonim at all! It’s just tinokot she’nishba-oo.

Now, we are before Moshiach, before the complete geula.

Speedily in our days, amen.

[Shiur from 5783 – 2022]

==

Translated from Shivivei Or, 436.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Apparently refer to Matityahu the Kohen Gadol.

[2] This is meant to have happened in the area of today’s Gush Etzion. The yishuv of Elazar is named after this encounter.

[3] The Rav is apparently talking about when the South African police were chasing after him, at the behest of senior figures in the South African Jewish community, and of course, the State of Israel.

[4] In the benching for Hanukah.