Hanukkah: Miracles and Wonders

Episode 36 · December 7, 2023

Jewish holidaysFaith and trust in the Creator

The Truth Hurts · Episode 36 · audio in Hebrew

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The conversation

In this episode, Gili and Tal celebrate Hanukkah, and the way Gili sees it, the holiday carries a special meaning this year, following the national awakening since October 7. Gili presents Hanukkah, as the Holy Ari wrote about it, as an event of cosmic significance and not just a historical story about the war between the Greeks and the Maccabees, a war that in her view symbolizes the constant struggle between the soul and the false part of us that chases material things and instant gratification. She talks about what she describes as the psychological warfare being waged against the Jewish people since the crisis, and about her view that unity was the secret of the Maccabees' victory. The episode also includes practical tips for lighting the candles and an explanation, according to the approach she presents, of the inner meaning of the oil and the candle.

The truth

  • Hanukkah isn't only a historical story. The way Gili puts it, it's an arena that is still alive in every everyday decision: trample the other side the way the Greeks did, or move closer to them the way the Maccabees did.

  • The secret of the Maccabees' victory wasn't strength, it was unity. They were few, and only because they came together as one person did they manage to overcome the Greeks.

  • In the song Maoz Tzur the line is "the Greeks gathered against me," in the singular and not "against us," and by the reading Gili presents, that hints that the Maccabees acted as one body, against the "divide and rule" principle the Greeks tried to plant in place of "love your neighbor as yourself."

  • The oil stands for the ego, the will to receive only for ourselves, which we're soaked in from head to toe, while the wick that gets lit is the moment a person puts care for someone else out into the world, and by doing that lights up both themselves and the people around them.

  • Gili says the name of the holiday itself, Hanukkah, is connected to the word chanaya, a stop: the pause from routine and the gathering around a table, through which people can come closer to each other almost without noticing.

  • Gili also raises an idea about teamwork: a group of experts each working alone on a hard problem fails, while a group of ordinary people working together solves it easily, and as it's written in Midrash Rabbah, "in their unity the children of Israel will bring light to the world."

Questions and answers

What is this psychological warfare everyone is talking about?

Psychological warfare is warfare that usually isn't carried out with conventional weapons. It works on consciousness. It messes with your head, it damages your self-confidence and your morale, on the home front as well as at the front itself. Gili says that hostile parties use it to inflame internal disagreements, increase distrust and stir up rage in the Israeli public.

What can you really get out of one candle?

From one candle you can get endless things and enormous power. From one small light you can light many more candles and start a real revolution. That, Gili says, is the great secret of Hanukkah: each of us is a small light that gives the soul strength for its daily struggle.

Where does the name Hanukkah even come from?

From the word chanaya, a stop. It's our stop from the daily routine and our gathering around the table, which lets people come closer to one another over food and drink and remember the purpose they share: unity.

Why is it better to light the menorah right at the entrance to the house?

The entrance stands for the openings we have in the body, the eyes, the ears, the mouth and the reproductive organs, which pull us constantly toward the world of the body. Lighting the candle at the entrance expresses the power to resist the ego and that pull.

Gili's original episode description

An episode devoted entirely to Hanukkah.

In it, Gili and Tal explore the deep, magical meaning of this holiday and the window in time it brings with it, a time when you can go through central and fundamental changes.

What is the essence and the meaning of the holiday, really?

What is Hanukkah?

Why is this date nothing less than cosmic?

How do you get through the magic door?

What does the war between spirit and matter have to do with it, and what does any of this have to do with us?

Why is this exactly the period when we need to be even more focused, and to rise above the ego and the self-pity and light the light?

We came to banish the darkness!

About the podcast

Listening to The Truth Hurts feels like sitting in on a healing session.

The truth can hurt. It’s right there in the name. But we’re not here to cause pain. Quite the opposite.

In each episode, two women sit down for an honest conversation: an Emotional Healer and her client.

We talk about healing and consciousness, faith and science, the body and soul, personal growth, energy, and different approaches to healing. Above all, we face the truth no one says out loud: everything around us is upside down.

Is this podcast for you?

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You don’t need any prior knowledge. You only need the desire to explore a wide range of ideas and discover practical guidance for living.

Listen and get in touch

Gili Man Wolner, Emotional Healer. Helping you heal and grow through Jewish wisdom.

Have a question about an episode? Send a WhatsApp message to +972 50-681-0611 (messages only).

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