הדלקות חנוכייה במקומות ציבוריים (חלק 1)

00:00 Speaker 1 This is Iggros, and we have been looking at letters from exactly fifty years ago. Yesterday, we looked at a letter that launched, uh, or the letter in the Sefer that launched Mitzvah Hanukkah. We said that the, uh, mission to bring Hanukkah menorahs to every single Jew on Hanukkah, make sure that every house had at least one menorah, is an initiative that at least I thought of as being very old. I would have put it among some of the earliest mitzvahem. It is not. We saw yesterday that, uh, that when it came to some of the very earliest mitzvah attempts on Hanukkah, we have letters from the Rebbe saying, "Make sure that on Hanukkah you go meet people and put tefillin on them," and the idea of giving them menorahs and lighting up their homes doesn't seem to even be on the radar. However, in the year Tav Shin Lamed Dalet exactly fifty years ago, the Rebbe begins pushing it in letters. Then he pushes it in one very large sefer that we read together, a major sefer, where the Rebbe sort of lays down the founding principles of, uh, how, how if we wanna be a light unto the goyim, we wanna be a light to the nations, that being a light to the nations means a mitzvah Hanukkah, means a very outward and very public, uh, spreading of the Hanukkah miracle. So that's what we talked about last time, and, uh, we read the sefer together, we went through it. Uh, one year later

01:01 Speaker 1 was the first public menorah lighting, and these public menorah lightings grew directly out of mitzvah Hanukkah, and it largely happened because shluchim were acting all by themselves. This didn't come directly from the Rebbe, this really came from the shluchim, is that once the Rebbe gave the shluchim the instructions that they had to start spreading Hanukkah, we saw yesterday that, uh, the Rebbe Qunin, uh, was very strongly encouraged to order extra mezuzahs and, uh, mezuzahs. Why do I keep saying mezuzahs? It's a thing with me. Uh, to order extra menorahs. Um, we saw that the Rebbe encouraged shluchim to really make mitzvah Hanukkah a big deal, and the shluchim then kind of ran with it. So a couple shluchim started this idea of as long as we're doing mitzvah Hanukkah anyway and handing out menorahs, why don't we also do big public menorah lightings? As far as I know, and as far as history seems to know, either the first or one of the first was a picture I have on your screen right now. It was, uh, it was Rabbi, uh, Avraham Shemtov in Philadelphia in nineteen seventy-five. So this is only one year after mitzvah Hanukkah launches. He decides he's going to do a giant menorah lighting in front of Independence Hall. Giant is an overstatement of the menorah. Uh, those who are listening at home can't see, but the menorah is, I don't know, about four feet tall. It is in front of Independence Hall in Philadelphia, and, uh, it is very-- it's,

02:04 Speaker 1 it's a ramshackle menorah. It is ... But it was the first. As far as we know, it was the first or one of the first attempts to, uh, to in response to mitzvah Hanukkah, specifically light a menorah in a major public area, and I don't think it got a whole lot of attention. But this, uh, we do have the picture on the screen. Uh, Chaim Drizon in San Francisco, he one year later decided to put a literally giant menorah, twenty-two feet tall, that's quite big, a twenty-two-foot-tall menorah on the city's Union Square of, uh, San Francisco. That was the first one on the West Coast, and that was in nineteen seventy-six. Once again, we don't have specific hayraz from the Rebbe about this. We just have shluchim kind of winging it. Shluchim saying, "It seems like a good idea to put a giant menorah here as long as we're doing mitzvah Hanukkah anyway." The giant menorah lightings as we know them now, which are in like every city and broadcast everywhere, the enormous event of giant menorah lightings really don't come into their own until nineteen seventy-eight after the Rebbe's heart attack. After the Rebbe's heart attack, a Shmuel Butman, who was in Manhattan, uh, thought that he wanted to give some sort of nachas to the Rebbe, some sort of gift to the Rebbe, and he's thinking, "How can I do something special for the Rebbe?" It is the waning days of Tishrei, so he's trying to think coming up, what's after Tishrei? Cheshvan,

03:05 Speaker 1 not much to do there. We have to be thinking Kislev. Can I do something for the Rebbe before Kislev, specifically after the heart attack? And he decides he wants to build the biggest menorah in the entire world. So he builds the biggest menorah in the entire world at the time. I think there are bigger ones now, but at the time it was the largest. I don't know how large it was. I didn't get the stats. But he builds a giant menorah in Manhattan. He gets permission from the government in Manhattan to put it on Fifth Avenue, where it is to this day. I don't know if it's in the exact same place nowadays. It was on Fifth Avenue then. It's on Fifth Avenue now. A giant menorah on Fifth Avenue, and this becomes an event. Actually, the Rebbetan made a trip to Manhattan one time to see the giant menorah lighting in Manhattan. And, uh, the Rebbe insisted, the Rebbe here finally does start getting involved very intimately in the giant menorahs. He sends multiple messages to Rabbi Butman. Uh, I, I don't have any of these, uh, I don't have any of these messages. I was unable to find them. I think they're in a Torah somewhere that I just don't have. But the Rebbe is constantly giving input on how to build this menorah, how this menorah should be done. So the Rebbe is involved in the Manhattan menorah. Excuse me. And the Rebbe is also very concerned that this giant menorah should

04:02 Speaker 1 be lit at its proper time. Note that this is a bit of a divergence from what we talked about yesterday. Yesterday, we talked about the Rebbe saying, "I want mitzvah Hanukkah to be during the day specifically so you can put tefillin on people." Here, the Rebbe wants to make sure that menorah lightings are relatively close to shkiya, which doesn't give you a whole lot of time for mitzvah tefillin, suggesting that at this point we're doing a shift into mitzvah Hanukkah, uh, in earnest, away from the, the, uh, mitzvah Hanukkah as an aside to mitzvah tefillin. In any event, the Rebbe is very specific, uh, that this menorah in Manhattan must be lit at its proper time, including on Erev Shabbos. Rabbi Butman at the time was, uh, was living in, I believe living in Crown Heights, maybe he still does. He lived, lived in Crown Heights, but he was coming into Manhattan for things, and this just wasn't practical. So the city of Manhattan, the, the city of New York, the, the government, uh, the mayor got a helicopter for him and would fly him in and out of Manhattan on Fridays so that he could light the menorah. And as far as I know, this still continues. Either it continues to this day or it continued until very recently. Uh, this continued for many, many years. Uh, so even, even nowadays, this is sort of a tradition at this point that Rabbi Butman comes in on a, uh, on a helicopter, lights the menorah,

05:01 Speaker 1 and leaves, uh, in time for Shabbos. So it's wonderful. Uh, we're lighting up the entire world. As you probably know, though, everybody was angry at us for it. Nobody liked this idea except for the Rebbe. That's not, that's not entirely fair. Um, actually, non-Jews loved the idea. Non-Jews didn't have any problem with it. They were already u-used to Lahav Dil lighting their big things in public squares, but the Yidden were very unhappy. Non-religious Jews and religious Jews alike were furious about this idea of putting menorahs up in public. The Rebbe got a lot of pushback, Chabad got a lot of pushback, and it, uh, exclusively came from Jews as far as I know. I, I don't believe that we have any record of non-Jews pushing back against this, with the possible exception of a Supreme Court case that I believe that Supreme Court case was also brought by Jews who were unhappy about it. The governments generally liked the idea. Most city governments were already Lahav Dil lighting these giant trees. They didn't mind the idea of lighting a giant menorah too, and, uh, it just kind of fit with the theme of what they wanted to do with, uh, with unity and everybody having their holidays. It was really the Jews who didn't like it. And, uh, we have a-- the first pushback comes in the year Tav Shin Lamed Ches. Almost all of the letters we're looking at today are gonna be in English because in almost all of these cases, these are

06:03 Speaker 1 American Jews writing to the Rebbe and the Rebbe writing back explaining why he supports giant menorahs. One of the first, uh, letters of opposition we have is from Joseph B. Glazer, who was at the time the executive vice president of the Association of Reform Rabbis, an organization that I have also angered at various times, uh, asking about it at a farbrengen. In any event- Uh, I'm in good company because they were not happy about this. They wrote to the Rebbe saying that they think it's very dangerous, a dangerous precedent. We, uh, the whole idea of America is that we need to assimilate, and if we keep our heads down, they won't kill us again, and here you are putting giant menorahs up. So we have here a response from the Rebbe that was written on the third day of Sivan of the year Taf Shin Lamed Ches, and is written to, uh, to this Glazer, who was the Executive Vice President of the Association of Reform Rabbis. I'm gonna read in English 'cause it's in English, but I'll obviously summarize a bit here and there. So the Rebbe says, "I'm confirming receipt of your letter. I regret the unavoidable delay in replying to it more promptly." Yeah, it's the middle of Sivan. I don't know when it was sent, but that does feel like a delay. "In it, you express your reservations about the kindling of Chanukkiot in public places on the ground." Note that the Rebbe does use the word Chanukkiot here. I believe

07:00 Speaker 1 he's quoting the letter that was sent to him, but we almost never use that phrase. It's actually a very new phrase, Chanukiah. Uh, the-- it was invented by modern Israel. I just-- I find it interesting that's in the letter. Uh, in the principle of separation of church and state and it being counterproductive. So these were the two major claims in the letter, that there needs to be a separation of church and state, so there shouldn't be menorahs in public property. Certainly on private property, nobody had a problem. But the idea of Chabad was that we were putting these menorahs in big public places like in town squares or in front of government buildings. That's public. So this, uh, Reform individual, um, vice president of Reform Rabbis, was concerned about the separation of church and state, and also concerned about it being counterproductive, about it making more enemies for us and causing us more problems. The Rebbe writes, "Had I received your letter years ago when the practice started." Now recall, this letter's being sent in third-- in, uh, Taf Shin Lamed Ches. The practice started in Lamed He. So had I received your letter three years ago, is what the Rebbe means. When the practice started, I would have had a more difficult task defending it, uh, for the simple reason that the expected positive results were then a matter of conjecture. The Rebbe says, If you sent this to me at the very beginning, I would have told you I think it's gonna work

07:58 Speaker 1 out well, but I'm not completely sure it's gonna work out well. But now, after the practice and the results have been observed for a number of years, my task is an easy one. We now see how effective it is and how good it's turned out. So it's very easy for me to demonstrate that you're not right to be concerned. The general acclaim and beneficial results have far exceeded our expectations. People love the menorah lightings. The fact is, the countless Jews in all parts of the country have been impressed and inspired by the spirit of Hanukkah, which has been brought to them, to many for the first time. Indeed, the eternal and always timely message of Hanukkah, the victory of the outnumbered forces of light over the overwhelming forces of darkness that attempted to make Jews forget God's Torah and mitzvahs, as we say in the prayer of Al Hanissim, struck a responsive chord in the hearts of many Jews and strengthened their identity with the Maccabees of all ages. So the Rebbe says, This has been an incredibly successful thing. We've been doing it for three years. It, it works well for Jews. It inspires the Jewish people. Inspires them to take the always timely message of Hanukkah, which is the victory of the few, uh, of the outnumbered forces of light over the overwhelming forces of darkness. It strikes a chord. It's working for us. The Rebbe says, This year too, now that some six months have elapsed since Hanukkah, and reports have come

08:55 Speaker 1 in from various places where the Hanukkah lamps were kindled publicly, the results have been most gratifying in terms of spreading the light of Torah and mitzvahs. Once again, it's working and reaching out to Jews who could not otherwise have been reached, either because some of them are unaffiliated with any synagogue or they're loosely affiliated, always thought the religious practice belongs within the confines of a synagogue, and do not relate to the personal everyday life of the individual. This is a really interesting point here. The Rebbe is saying that we reach w-- we reached Jews who you also aren't reaching. Because remember, he's talking to the Union of Reform Rabbis. Union of Reform Rabbis has congregants. The Rebbe's saying here that, uh, we reached Jews who are unaffiliated with any synagogue in addition to those others, or, or loosely affiliated. People who would, who would have thought that religion is onl- always in the synagogue and don't relate to personal everyday life of the individual Jew. This is probably something that is important for Reform, uh, for somebody concerned about the Reform rabbinate to hear, because he's telling him that we're reaching the Jews who nobody's reaching. It's precisely through kindling the Hanukkah lamp in public places during ordinary weekdays with dignity and pride that it was brought home to them that Judaism is practiced daily and that no Jew should feel abashed about it. That's probably something that his, uh, that his recipient, that the audience for this letter could relate to. With regard to

09:56 Speaker 1 the constitutional question. So first of all, the Rebbe spends the first part of this, and I think we can use this in our own discussions too about anything we're really trying to defend in Chabad. Whenever there's a, uh... Sorry, just one moment. Yeah. Whenever there's, uh, something to defend in Chabad, a practice that we're doing, uh, step number one, look at how the Rebbe defends it. Step number one is at this point, the things we do are tried and true and work. They work for people and they're pleasant. And And since they work, that in and of itself is part of the proof. So, uh, start off by, st-start off by singing the praises of our organization. What we do works, and therefore there isn't a lot to say against it. However, the Rebbe then does get to the meat of the argument, which was, Isn't this a constitutional problem with the separation of church and state? With regard to the constitutional question, I can most assuredly allay your apprehensions on that score. I'm fully certain that none of those who participated or witnessed the kindling of a Hanukkah lamp in a public place, and in all cases permission was readily granted by the authorities, felt that his or her loyalty to the Constitution of the United States had been weakened or compromised thereby. This is, uh, almost a flippant statement. If I didn't, if I didn't know this was the letter of a tzadik, I would say this was a flippant sentence. The Rebbe

10:57 Speaker 1 writes here, I don't believe anybody here felt that their loyalty to the Constitution was called into question by the fact that they attended a public menorah lighting. And I also will note here that the Rebbe says that in all cases, permission was granted by the authorities. This is how we always used to work, and that's probably how we still should work. I know that some people don't like working this way, but getting permission before you do something is not weak. It's the way that we've always operated. So in all of these cases, at least at this point, we always got permission from the authorities before putting them up. We weren't tell you a dick. We weren't, uh, we weren't mad and chaotic. We t-- we got permission. We put up our menorahs. And, uh, nobody felt that their loyalty to the Constitution was weakened. Indeed, many expressed surprise that this practice had not been inaugurated years, years earlier. We keep hearing, Why was this not done before? The US Congress opens with a religious invocation by a representative of one of the major religions of the country. Surely, the US Congress comprises in each and every state of the Union is the place where the Constitution should be most rigidly upheld. The Rebbe says here, If you want proof that separation of church and state doesn't mean you can't have religion in the halls of Congress, he says, Well, explain this to me. The place where I would expect them to keep the Constitution is

11:52 Speaker 1 in Congress, and they open Congress with a religious invocation. So clearly, some form of religious expression is allowed by the Constitution. There's sur-surely no need, need to belabor the point. The Rebbe says, I'm sure we're not violating the Constitution. As you state, some Jews did object to the ceremony on constitutional grounds. Now, apparently in this letter, this person had written to the Rebbe that some people did say that they felt that the separation of church and state had been thrashed. The Rebbe says, To my knowledge, these were exceptional, isolated incid-instances. You can't make everybody happy, right? So s- yeah, some people complain, but they-- few, few and far between. Moreover, I dare say that Entre nous, that's random French. The objectors, though ostensibly cited in the Constitution, are motivated by other sentiments, a plausible assumption since they are identified with organizations that thwart every effort to get state aid for Hebrew day schools and yeshivas to alleviate the burden of the secular department and non-religious needs. The Rebbe says, I'm not sure I trust the people who are claiming the Constitution was violated because they're the same people who are always getting in the way of religion. Be it noted that the money that would have been received in such aid carried the motto, "In God we trust." The Rebbe said people have been trying to block Jews from getting aid, uh, because of a separation of church and state, and, uh, that aid they would have received would have been money. And the money

12:55 Speaker 1 they would have received, which would-- don't give them money because it might violate the separation of church and state. On that money, it says, "In God we trust." So I don't see the violation here. It is lamentable that as a result of this attitude, thousands of Jewish children have been deprived of the right to a Jewish education. It's not surprising, therefore, to see such an appalling rate of intermarriage, nor is it surprising, however sad and deplorable, that the vast majority of intermarriage takes place among the ranks of young people who have been deprived of Jewish education for one reason or another. So the Rebbe says, just as an aside, the people who are up against this Menorah thing, they're also the ones who are against aid being received by religious schools. Just to give you an idea of why that was. It was, it was because of the same argument. There were a group of people who wanted to make the claim that, uh, that no religion should receive any aid from the government or any recognition from the government. And ostensibly, their hope was that the other religions also wouldn't receive it, and therefore, they were willing to throw Jews under the bus as well. The Rebbe never had this position, as far as I know. The Rebbe's position was, let the state give money to religious schools of any religion, let the state support any religion, and also us. But there was a group of Jews who felt that it'd be better if

13:49 Speaker 1 the state supported none of us, including them, rather than us including them. And, uh, this is not the Rebbe's shita. So the Rebbe says that, uh, their shita, which is that-- Well, and by the way, a lot of Orthodox Jews had this shita as well. It'd be better if the government didn't get involved in any religion. I said their shita has caused a ridiculous amount of intermarriage. It's caused a lot of Jews not having a Jewi-Jewish education because they felt it was so important to make sure that, uh, that Christians didn't get their money. They ended up depriving Jews of the money that they should have gotten as well. So the Rebbe, as an aside, doesn't like this approach at all. The Rebbe does not seem to feel that the separation of church and state is, uh, is, is something that justifies us not working with the government. Uh, in view of your expressed concern for the preservation of Judaism in this country and for the protection of our children against proselytizing, et cetera, I'm encouraged to take advantage of this unexpected change-- exchange of correspondence between us to express my heart and hope that you will use your influence to put an end to the destructive fight against state aid to parochial schools. At any rate, insofar as the secular department is concerned, so as to enable Jewish schools and yeshivas to open their doors. So the Rebbe goes on to say, "I didn't expect to hear from you. I didn't expect to get

14:44 Speaker 1 a chance to talk. But as long as we're here, I would like you to use your position of considerable influence to get more money for Jewish schools from the state, and of course, to encourage the state to give money to every religious school." Part of their concern, this, uh, note about proselytizing up there, is that part of their concern, uh, their stated concern-- The Rebbe says it was an illegitimate concern, but part of their stated concern against Jewi-Jewish schools receiving money from the secular government is that the government could then force them to have prayers in schools to force them to pros-to proselytize to them. The Rebbe is not worried about this at all and tells them, uh, what-- see, see if you can do what you can to, uh, to switch your position and to encourage that we should be able to get money for Jewish schools from the government and also for other religion schools from the government to lift this rule of a separation of church and state so that governments can't aid religious institutions. Um, the Rebbe says here, "I hope and pray that everyone who has a voice and influence in Jewish community affairs will act in the spirit of the basic principle of this nation under God and government of the people, by the people and for the people." So the Rebbe's quoting the Constitution, including also the Jewish people, and do everything for the good of every Jewish child. Uh, and he goes on to give a berakhah,

15:45 Speaker 1 his sincere wishes for a Matan Torah that will be good because it's right before Shavuot, and that's the Rebbe's letter to Reform-- the head of the Vice President Association of Reform Rabbis about their particular concerns. So that was in nineteen seventy-eight. In nineteen eighty, and I don't think we're gonna finish today. What we'll do is we'll do this as a two-parter. I'm gonna do the entire Teaneck scandal next time. That is, uh, New Jersey got very angry at the Menorahs. The Rebbe wrote literally four letters to them. We have the responses to the letters that they wrote back to the Rebbe. So the Rebbe's whole back and forth with Teaneck. Teaneck really pushed back against these Menorahs. So I think we're gonna probably do that next time. What we'll probably end off with now is a discussion of how it made it to the White House lawn. So, uh, Abraham Shemtov put up a giant Menorah on the White House lawn under Jimmy Carter in nineteen eighty. So that's two years after this letter was sent, and not until nineteen eighty did we have the one in the White House on the White House lawn. Uh, at the time, it was a very charged time. Nineteen eighty, I don't know if anybody-- I don't know if you remember nineteen eighty. I don't. Wasn't born yet. But in nineteen eighty, uh, Jimmy Carter had been holed up in the White House for a hundred days at that point, uh, as sort of a self-imposed, um, self-enclosed,

16:48 Speaker 1 uh, golus. He put himself in exile, said he was hiding in the White House, and he wouldn't come out until the Iran, uh, hostage crisis had been solved. So Jimmy Carter wouldn't come out. They nonetheless invited him to participate in the Hanukkah ceremony, and that was the first time he came out for a hundred days. Nobody had seen the president for a hundred days in public, and he made an exception to come out to help with the Menorah celebration on the White House lawn. He lit the Shamash, which is something we also did when we were on campus. We gave the uni-- the, uh, the university, the college president, the, uh, the Shamash. That's a great thing to give a non-Jew you wanna honor at the ceremony 'cause anybody can light the Shamash. So, uh, we had-- they had the President of the United States, Jimmy Carter, lit the Shamash, and, um, and they had the first Menorah lighting on the White House lawn. I do have a picture of that. There we go. Not a very good picture, but that's Abraham Shemtov looking young with a bright red beard, and that's Jimmy Carter in the background with a big old smile. They're lighting a not-so-giant Menorah. It's actually a pretty small Menorah that's in glass. As you know, it got bigger after that. But this was, I believe, the first public Menorah lighting on the White House lawn. You have a picture of it there. Uh, the Rebbe was very happy about this, that

17:46 Speaker 1 the president participated in lighting the Menorah, and the Rebbe wrote a letter to the president thanking him for participating in the lighting of the Menorah. We have that letter. That was written in the year nineteen eighty-one. The reason why is the Rebbe probably wrote it only a day later. But, uh, remember, the Hanukkah can fall in, uh, well, I guess November of nineteen eighty-one. I have no idea why it took so long for this to be read. Um, maybe the, maybe the first lighting was in nineteen eighty-one, and I just had-- You know what? It was nineteen-- Yeah, I don't know. It was nineteen eighty or nineteen eighty-one. Maybe I just had the year wrong. And anyway, the Rebbe-- No, that's-- it's 'cause I have the wrong letter on the screen. That explains it. Where's the letter I'm looking for? I was gonna say the year seemed wrong. Where is the nineteen eighty letter? I have a copy of it here in case we lost it. Don't worry, I'll pull it up. Here we go. There's my copy. There. That makes more sense. January thirty-first of nineteen eighty. Okay, the Rebbe writes to President Jimmy Carter, the White House in Washington, greeting and blessing. See, that's where I got the picture from. Oh, you know, I put the letter down here. That's where it was hiding. There we go. "I appreciate very much your gracious and thoughtful felicitations conveyed in your letter of January twentieth, nineteen eighty. Your warm sentiments are most encouraging to me

18:51 Speaker 1 and to the movement which I have been privileged to head these past thirty years." Jimmy Carter had written a letter to the Rebbe, so this is in response to the-- to Jimmy Carter writing a nice letter to the Rebbe. The Rebbe says, "I appreciate your sentiments to, uh, to me and to the movement which I've been heading for these past thirty years as of nineteen eighty. Ever since our two centuries young Chabad Lubavitch movement," that's a strange way to put it. Not two centuries old, two centuries young. These are the Rebbe's words. "Ever since our two centuries young Chabad Lubavitch movement made its headquarters in this blessed country forty years ago, then under leadership of my illustrious predecessor of saintly memory," that's the Free the Rebbe, of course, "it has found a most fertile soil for its dedicated services in the cause of religious, educational, and cultural advancement in many states of the Union from coast to coast. And may I add that your personal commitment to the ideals of morality and justice, human rights, and the upgrading of education has greatly enhanced the conducive and stimulating climate for all positive forces working for a better human society." This is the Rebbe complimenting Jimmy Carter on his personal records, and your personal commitment to morality, justice, human rights, and the upgrade of education has enhanced the climate for all positive forces working for a better human society. Not sure how well this letter aged, but at the time he was a force for such things.

19:53 Speaker 1 Not only in this country, but also abroad, whatever American influence and practical aid make their impact. Wherever American influence and practical aid make their impact. So the Rebbe says that when America does things well, this also influences the world to do things well, and that makes it easier for Chabad to do what it's trying to do, which is to spread education and religion. "I heartily re-reciprocate your good wishes." Rebbe says, "I reciprocate your good wishes." "And I hope and pray that the Eternal continue to bestow his blessings on you and your family, grant you health and vigor to meet the challenges and opportunities of your exalted office for the true benefit of all dwellers in this great country, as well as for the benefit of humanity at large in the fullest measure, both materially and spiritually." I think a lot of people would be surprised to see such effusive blessings coming from the Rebbe toward a US president. But, uh, this, this is the way the Rebbe chose to do it. The Rebbe chose to speak, uh, very, very kindly and also with, with enormous blessings for the personal life and the personal record of this president. "I also take this opportunity to express unto you my genuine gratification of your personal participation in the ceremony of lighting the Hanukkah candelabra in front of the White House." Here's the part we needed. The Rebbe specifically wanted to thank him, personally wanted to thank Jimmy Carter for participating in the Menorah lighting. The symbol of light

20:56 Speaker 1 is universal for all peoples on Earth, Jews and non-Jews. I want you to remember last time when we saw that where the Rebbe talked about Midzot Hanukkah, his main reason for launching Midzot Hanukkah was that it makes us a light to the nations. Is that it's something that they-- that whereas a lot of the things we do indirectly benefit the nations of the world, they don't really feel it. They don't really understand how when we put on tefillin it changes the world, but it does. It makes their lives better, they just don't get it. When it comes to the symbol of light, uh, the symbol of the Menorah, that's something that is really understandable to everybody. It's understandable to Jews and non-Jews. So it's one of the rare ways that we positively impact them, and they understand that positive impact. And note that the Rebbe is here explaining to Jimmy Carter that this symbol of light is universal for all peoples on Earth, Jews and non-Jews. The intrinsic power of light in that even a small light dispels a lot of darkness is surely a source of inspiration to all men of goodwill with its eternal message of the eventual triumph of all that is good and bright in human life. The Rebbe says that there's a universal message to Hanukkah that speaks to a Jew and a non-Jew both, and that is the power of light to dispel a lot of darkness. We have, of course, a lot of very personal messages to Hanukkah

21:53 Speaker 1 that we need to, uh, take, uh, that we need to take Torah the way it is very seriously, that Judaism is not just a culture, it's a religion, that Torah needs to be God's Torah, it can't just be good books information. These are more specific to us. There is a message, however, that is for absolutely everybody, Jews and non-Jews, on Hanukkah, and that is that a small amount of light dispels a lot of darkness, and that should be an inspiration to anybody of goodwill. The, uh, the Rebbe's-- with its eternal message of the eventual triumph of all that is good and bright in human life. That's it for today. What we're going to do next time, this ends the section on the White House. Next time, we're gonna talk about the, uh, significant argument that, uh, that, that, that erupted in Teaneck, New Jersey, over the lighting of public Menorahs, and we're also going to look at the Rebbe's response to a Supreme Court case in nineteen eighty-nine. It was brought to the Supreme Court, the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU, brought a lawsuit against, um, Coun-County of Allegheny. I guess that Pennsylvania something. I'll look at-- I'll have more details for you next time. In Pennsylvania, they brought a lawsuit against Pennsylvania, uh, for wanting to put a public Meno- uh, Menorah, a private Menorah on public property. We won. Spoiler, we won that court case, and the Rebbe has a press release that he edited, that he edited heavily, uh, celebrating that

22:58 Speaker 1 particular, uh, court case and the Supreme Court ruling. So that's for next time. Uh, that's it for now.

23:04 Speaker 2 There's a bit of an a- an addendum to the story with Carter, uh, which I wouldn't say it over if not for the fact that Rabbi Shemtov tells it over himself, 'cause it's-- otherwise it would sound pretty lush and heretic. Anyway, I actually heard it from him, uh, but he-- besides the fact he told it in public, I actually heard from him, uh, individually. Anyway, if you'll notice in the picture, the, the Menorah has all the, all the lights burning, all candles, right? But that was not the eighth night. Now, Carter-- what happened was Carter said to Rabbi Shemtov, he says, "Hey, guys, that we're now in such a mess that the world is in crisis," and the, uh, the whole business with Iran. So, uh, and since the whole idea of Hanukkah is bringing light, so it would be-- wouldn't it be a good idea to light all the candles? So the way he tells it all, he says in that split second, he's thinking it's not a-- there's no mitzvah, uh, s- that's, that's being contravened over here. There's nothing wrong except with lighting it, et cetera, et cetera. So he said, "Yeah, good idea." And they did that. And there were picture sent in to the Rebbe and the whole report about it, and he got an answer, I think probably through Rabbi Kadakov, that the lush-- I don't know the lush exactly, but something along the lines that we expected more of you, uh, we expected better of you, the Gaon

24:18 Speaker 2 Yaakov. In other words, you shouldn't have just given into that just because he made that suggestion, because he's sort of like giving the wrong message.