As every year, this year too a Chanukah gathering was held for the orphaned children of our holy community, through the ‘HaBen Yakir Li’ organization, headed by Rabbi Yehuda Kadush הי"ו, in the inner sanctum.

As mentioned, the gathering took place yesterday, Wednesday night—Leil 2 Teves, the seventh candle of Chanukah—at the holy residence of The Rav, Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a. At first, the children sang heartfelt songs of praise, Hallel, and thanksgiving. Afterwards, the children merited that The Rav shlit"a delivered a lesson to them. Below is a summary of some of the topics The Rav shlit"a spoke about.

The Rav opened the lesson by speaking about the lofty greatness of the days of Chanukah. He then spoke about the tremendous light that exists within Judaism, and, on the other hand, the great darkness that exists on the other side. He said that many people have related that they returned in teshuvah simply because they did not want their children to grow up into such darkness.

The Rav then strengthened everyone regarding learning Gemara, and cited Rebbe Nachman’s words in Torah 3, which speaks about learning Gemara—Shas. The Rav mentioned the Gemara that Rava would be greeted each ערב יום כיפור (the eve of Yom Kippur), and brought in the name of the holy sefarim that Rava was a gilgul of Lot—as hinted in the verse, “And they took Lot and his possessions, the son of Avram’s brother.” Seemingly, it should have first said “the son of Avram’s brother” and only afterwards “and his possessions,” but this wording comes to hint to this matter.

From one subject to another, he spoke about the Mishnah in Ta’anis that the daughters of Israel would go out dancing on Yom Kippur. He explained that this is because already at Kol Nidrei all the sins of the daughters of Israel were atoned for. The Rav shlit"a then said that Zos Chanukah is like Yom Kippur, and he mentioned that the Nasi of Zos Chanukah is Gamliel ben Pedahzur—hinting that a person must bring children into the world “like a rock” (tzur). He compared this to the sons of Tzeruyah: in the merit of their mother’s holiness—who was like a rock, without physical cravings—her children merited to fly in the air. Here The Rav told about Avishai, who saved David in the merit of flying through the air.

The Rav shlit"a concluded the lesson with the matter of the tribe of Asher: the brothers placed him under a ban for more than two hundred years. This was because they thought that Asher was the one who revealed to his daughter Serach the secret that they had sold Yosef, and they feared that Yaakov would find out about it—because a single strictness of Yaakov would have caused them all to die, as happened with Rachel Imeinu.

After the strengthening lesson, all the children went by for a personal blessing from The Rav shlit"a, and received Chanukah money from his holy hands. The Rav, like a compassionate father, greeted each and every child warmly, asked about his situation, strengthened him, and blessed him with a joyous Chanukah.