Mylife: Chassidus Applied

Rabbi Jacobson will discuss the following topics:What energy do we draw from these days between Yud Tes Kislev and Chanukah?  What do these holidays have in common?  Why don’t we study Torah on nittel eve?  How can refraining from Torah study have a positive impact?  How can a negative turn into a positive?  Why is there a custom to play chess at this time?  What connection does it have with Chanukah?  Why aren’t we obligated to read Megilas Antiochus on Chanukah, as we are about reading Megilas Esther on Purim?  Why is it called Megilas Antiochus?  How does Chassidus explain the lessons of Chanukah?  Why do we mark this holiday by lighting candles and not by commemorating the victory in the war with our enemies?  Since the Chanukah menorah represents the rededication of the Temple Menorah, why is it different in so many ways (eight instead of seven candles, kindled in the evening and not the morning, at the door facing outside, not inside the home, lit by every Jew not just the High Pri