Good evening and 'Hanukkah Sameach! With Hashem's help, we will discuss a topic related to 'Hanukkah, in the spirit of the Parashiot we read during this period.

The war of the Greeks against the people of Israel aimed to darken the eyes of Israel. It was not a physical war like Purim, where Haman wanted to exterminate all the Jews. With the Greeks, whoever wanted to become Hellenized could go on living: what mattered to them was that Jews not study Torah, not sanctify the new month, not perform Brit Milah, not keep Shabbat.

This idea is already alluded to in the second verse of the Torah.

"And the earth was tohu vavohu, and darkness was on the face of the deep, and the spirit of G-d hovered over the face of the waters."

But what is our hope? The rest of the verse tells us: "And the spirit of G-d hovered over the waters" – this is King Mashiach! After the exile of Rome, Mashiach will come.

Facing this attempt to darken the eyes of Israel, we celebrate 'Hanukkah: we light candles. This is the very essence of the Mitzvah of 'Hanukkah.

"For the candle is a Mitzvah, and the Torah is light."

We also recite Hallel in the prayer service, and in the Amidah we add 'Al HaNissim,' where we say:

We must be spiritually sensitive enough to feel that Hashem performs miracles for us also at this time. Every minute that we breathe is, in reality, a miracle.

But we don't really live with this awareness. We don't understand that everything is a miracle; we need a big miracle to feel it. Yet in truth, every moment that the Holy One, blessed be He, creates is a miracle in itself.

To illustrate this through 'Hanukkah, let's see what happened. The Greeks entered the Temple and made all the oil vessels impure, because they didn't want the Menorah lit in the Beit Hamikdash.

But as the Talmud reports (Shabbat 21b), they 'missed' one small flask of oil, sealed with the seal of the Kohen Gadol, containing enough oil for only one day. A miracle occurred: the oil lasted eight days.

Answer: that's precisely the message. Hashem wanted to show them: 'I am with you!' That small sealed flask was a wink from Heaven.

Let's give two more examples to understand this concept. In the previous Parashah (Vayeshev), after the brothers pulled Yosef out of the pit:

"They lifted their eyes and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, their camels carrying spices, balm and lotus, going down to Egypt."

Precisely! Hashem changed nature so that with every breath Yosef took, he would say: 'Wait, how is there no bad smell? Ah, Hashem is doing me a chesed — He is carrying me in a caravan of perfumes!' With every breath, Yosef could say: 'Hashem is with me!'

Let's move to the second example: David and Goliath. David takes his sling and throws a stone that strikes Goliath right in the forehead.

"David put his hand into the bag, took out a stone, slung it and struck the Philistine in his forehead. The stone sank into his forehead and he fell on his face to the ground."

Goliath stood about 3 meters tall, and David stood several meters away from him. Had Goliath fallen backward, David would have had to walk 6 meters or more to cut off his head. Hashem made Goliath fall forward, right at his feet! It was a message to David: 'I am with you, and this will be your sign that you will defeat the Philistines completely.'

Let's return to 'Hanukkah. Yes, they found a small flask of oil sealed with the Kohen Gadol's seal. But that's precisely the point!

Hashem's presence is revealed in small things. We must know that He is with us all the time, even when we don't feel it around the clock. We must aspire to live with this awareness.

Example: you arrive somewhere late, rushed, thinking: 'There's no way I'll find a parking spot.' And suddenly a car pulls out and you pull right in. That is a wink from Hashem saying: 'I am with you.' What matters is that we feel it and live this way.

At night, before going to sleep, we recite the Shema. What is the last verse we say?

"Into Your hand I entrust my spirit; You have redeemed me, Hashem, G-d of truth."

We deposit our soul with Him as a pledge. And in the morning? He could say: 'I don't feel like giving it back'! We hand over the deposit and hope to get it back. In the morning, when we receive it back, we say: