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A Little Band of Hasmoneans

A Little Band of Hasmoneans

Schneerson, Rabbi Menachem M.
December 10, 2023

The “nekudat pnimiut,” meaning the purest, innermost part of each person’s Divine soul, connects us to Hashem.

 

This essential point is given to us completely pure. The choice is ours to keep it pure by following the ratzon Hashem (His will) or contaminating it with averot (transgressions) and exposing it to klipot (the side of impurity).

 

When we expose ourselves to negative and unholy images, we are in danger of transgressing “Do not stray after your heart and eyes” (Numbers 15:39).

 

The eyes serve as a channel to the soul. Whatever we look at affects our soul for the positive or the negative. Hence, we must carefully guard what we expose ourselves to.

 

By following Hashem’s Will, we draw closer to Him and become fit vessels to receive His bounty, both in this world and even more so in the world to come. What we accomplish in this world prepares us for our soul’s experience in the world to come.

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Read this teaching on Chanuka by the Lubavitcher Rebbe.

 

Here are some excerpts:

 

“… We, as Jews, have always been outnumbered; many tyrants attempted to destroy us because of our faith. Sometimes they aimed their poisoned arrows at our bodies, sometimes at our souls, and, sad to say, many of our brethren have for one reason or another turned away from G?d and His Torah and tried to make life easier by accepting the rule of the conqueror.

 

In such times of distress we must always be like that faithful band of Hasmoneans, and remember that there is always a drop of ‘pure olive oil’ hidden deep in the heart of every Jew, which, if kindled, bursts into a big flame. This drop of ‘pure olive oil’ is the ‘Perpetual Light’…”