The Last Day of Chanukah

The Holy Last Day of Chanukah
Based upon Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach ztz'l - Last Day of Chanukah


What does it mean when people say “I’m at the end, I’m finished. I
just don’t have strength anymore?”

Chanukah is a holiday that came about when it looked like we as the Jewish people were at our end. Over matched,Out-numbered 

But sometimes, something happens at the end. When we are out of options sometimes we grasp at what is highest good, we grasp for what would be the highest light.

For us Jews, there is no such thing as the end. On Chanukah, we
celebrate that even if a Jew reaches the lowest point possible, he can still take one holy little match and make the greatest light in the world.

The Gemara asks: What was the greatest thing that Moshe Rabbeinu did? After he saw us sinning at the sin of the Golden Calf, he broke the tablets that Hashem gave us.

Moshe taught us that after you break the tablets - you don't quit - you don't give up - you start all over again. Moshe fought for us and the Jewish people eventually received another set of tablets- all was noyt lost.

If Moshe hadn't taught it to us, we would never have the strength to have the ability to pick ourselves up time and time again and start again. .

What happened after they killed the Six Million? What did we do?
We started all over again. We went to the Holy Land.

The holiness of the Jewish People is not only their beginning, the
holiness is that we know what to do at the end.

When we come to the end, we are so strong! In the winter, in the cold exile, we are at the bottom. The world is mamesh reaching the bottom too. There is more darkness than the rest of the year, but the
end is so holy.

On Chanukah, in the middle of the darkness of the winter, G-d lights
up the world.