Transcript [00:01] hi everyone happy hanukkah to everybody [00:04] and welcome back to israel matters [00:06] how are you elliot i'm good hey welcome [00:09] to me bad [00:09] holiday extra food party food [00:14] you know because the miracle happened [00:16] with oil it's accustomed that we eat a [00:17] lot of fried food and that's why [00:19] uh whether it's latkes which are like [00:21] fried potato pancakes or uh [00:24] or jelly doughnuts whatever the custom [00:27] is uh we eat a lot of fried food it's [00:28] not healthy it's not good but it's good [00:30] but it's amazing anyway once again i'm [00:33] rabbi pesach wilicki and with me is of [00:34] course [00:35] uh elliot chodoff [00:39] who is a uh is an expert in a lot of [00:41] things military [00:42] strategy he has worked extensively with [00:45] the idf and he's also a tour guide and [00:47] uh [00:47] and he's been a lecturer at at uh at [00:50] various universities over the years [00:53] there's i give different introductions [00:54] every time elliott but everyone knows uh [00:57] in case someone's new they should hear [00:59] something new uh [01:00] about you uh before we get to [01:03] some just some stuff that's that was in [01:06] the news that's somewhat confusing [01:08] uh as always i'd like to share a thought [01:11] about hanukkah [01:13] uh on hanukkah when we light [01:16] candles for eight nights that's the way [01:18] we commemorate this holiday that's the [01:20] observance of the holiday [01:23] and that's of course due to the fact [01:24] that [01:26] the miracle the traditional [01:29] uh story the miracle of hanukkah is that [01:33] when the hasmoneans when the maccabees [01:36] reconquered the temple when they retook [01:38] the temple from the [01:40] assyrian greeks they [01:44] cleaned up the temple and they could not [01:46] find enough pure oil [01:48] to light the candelabra to light the [01:50] menorah [01:51] in the temple and all they found was one [01:54] little flask of oil that would have been [01:55] enough only for one day and it would [01:57] take [01:58] uh about a week to get fresh oil [02:01] made and brought to jerusalem so they [02:04] put the [02:05] flask of one day's worth of oil into the [02:07] menorah and they lit it and miraculously [02:10] the oil [02:10] burned for eight days and there's lots [02:13] of interpretations of the miracle [02:15] now when our custom today is that [02:18] we light one candle on the first night [02:22] two candles on the second night three [02:24] candles on the third night etc and [02:26] until we have eight candles burning on [02:28] the eighth night [02:30] increasing as we go [02:34] but in the talmud there's actually a [02:36] dispute between two schools of thought [02:38] the house of shamai and the house of [02:39] hillel which were the two great [02:40] academies [02:42] during the end of the second temple [02:43] period and there were two schools of [02:46] thought so [02:46] we follow the house of hillel that's one [02:50] two three increasing every night till [02:52] eight candles [02:53] and the house of shamai they're of the [02:55] opinion that we're supposed to light [02:56] eight candles on the first night [02:58] seven candles on the second night six [03:01] five four [03:01] three eventually on the last night the [03:04] eighth night of hanukkah we'd light only [03:06] one candle [03:08] and there's lots of interpretations [03:10] given for what exactly they're arguing [03:12] about and what's the dispute really [03:13] about i just wanted to share [03:14] one uh way of looking at it that i think [03:18] has a deep lesson for any person of [03:19] faith [03:22] which is this there's two perspectives [03:25] here [03:27] let's say you're the maccabees and you [03:28] enter into the temple and you pull out [03:30] that flask of oil and you look at that [03:32] oil how much oil is there well [03:35] one day's worth you pour it into the [03:37] menorah [03:38] you light it up and you think it's going [03:41] to burn for one day [03:43] a day passes and now it's day two and [03:46] it's still burning [03:47] and you say to yourself wow i thought [03:49] there was only one day's worth [03:51] miraculously it was actually two days [03:54] worth [03:55] and then the next day it's still burning [03:59] and after three days of burning you go [04:01] well i thought it was only one day's [04:03] worth [04:04] it's actually three days worth and then [04:07] it keeps burning on the fourth day in [04:09] the fifth day so with each and every day [04:11] the perspective of the person witnessing [04:14] the miracle as to how much oil there was [04:16] increases and [04:17] ultimately one who witnesses the miracle [04:20] realizes when all is said and done that [04:21] even though they thought there was only [04:23] one day's worth of oil [04:24] in if in fact due to god's providence [04:27] there were [04:28] actually eight days of oil so the amount [04:30] of [04:32] oil the amount of time the oil could [04:34] burn increased with every day [04:36] from the perspective of the people [04:38] witnessing the miracle [04:40] but now let's take a look at the very [04:42] same miracle from god's perspective [04:44] god knew what he was going to do so when [04:46] they find that flask of oil [04:48] how much oil is actually there enough [04:51] for eight days [04:53] they pour it in they light it up after [04:56] one day how much oil is left [04:58] seven after two days six [05:02] from god's perspective who knew that it [05:04] would last eight days [05:06] the amount of oil was diminishing from [05:09] the human [05:10] perspective the amount of oil that was [05:12] put in there was increasing [05:16] this miracle we can look at it from [05:20] god's perspective or from the human [05:22] perspective [05:22] and sometimes with miracles that happen [05:25] in our lives or in history [05:27] our perspective and god's perspective [05:29] can be complete opposites [05:32] they can run in opposite directions we [05:33] don't get it [05:35] we're interpreting things as they go god [05:38] knows beforehand how things are going to [05:39] play out [05:40] and our perspective can be completely [05:42] flipped around and this [05:44] this dovetails nicely with uh probably [05:47] something that you heard in your jewish [05:48] education growing up and i heard in mind [05:50] which is that in the future it's some [05:52] eschatological [05:54] uh teaching that some that at some point [05:57] at the end of times we're going to [05:59] switch opinions and follow the opinion [06:01] of the house of shama and i think what [06:02] that really means [06:04] in light of this interpretation is that [06:07] we're going to [06:08] have a different perspective we're going [06:10] to understand god's perspective on [06:12] miracles [06:13] i think it's just a lesson about [06:14] miracles in general we we don't [06:16] understand them [06:17] there's a great line in the talmud that [06:19] says that the last person to recognize a [06:21] miracle is happening is the person that [06:23] it's happening to [06:25] you know generally when things happen in [06:27] our lives we don't know what on earth is [06:29] going on and [06:30] sometimes years go by and we we look [06:32] back and go oh that's what god was doing [06:35] and that's really getting god's [06:37] perspective that [06:38] he already knew so i wanted to share [06:40] that thought i thought it was a [06:41] interesting interpretation nice i like [06:44] it well thank you thank you very much [06:45] elliot now [06:47] to the news i'm confused because last [06:50] week i was all excited [06:51] forgive me forgive me i'm a jew living [06:54] in israel i was excited because i read [06:55] the news [06:56] and in the news there was a story it's [06:58] about i think seven days ago eight days [07:00] ago [07:01] that said that kamine [07:05] i don't know how to pronounce his name [07:09] how do you pronounce it okay [07:12] the supreme leader of iran the second as [07:15] you pointed out last time we forget the [07:17] fact that [07:18] since the ayatollah khomeini uh led the [07:21] revolution in the late 70s until today [07:22] there have only been two supreme leaders [07:24] of iran [07:25] that ali khamenei the the supreme leader [07:29] the ayatollah [07:31] uh was so sick that he was on his [07:34] deathbed [07:35] and that he was stepping down and even [07:37] appointing his son [07:38] as an interim replacement [07:42] and then a few days later [07:45] there was this denial that there was [07:47] anything wrong and there's a news story [07:49] that comes out that [07:50] iranian officials close to his office [07:52] said that he's in perfect health [07:54] and uh any any reports of his imminent [07:57] demise were incorrect [07:59] and he's going about his daily business [08:02] as usual [08:03] so i don't know what on earth is going [08:05] on but it also led me to wonder [08:08] if it even matters and uh so i want to [08:12] throw this out to you like how do you [08:13] interpret what we saw [08:15] and uh and does it even matter [08:18] who the who the supreme leader is [08:23] does it matter who the supreme leader is [08:26] somewhat that there is a supreme leader [08:30] is important and i think it's important [08:33] to understand what that means [08:34] especially since we tend to think [08:38] of titles in sort of state [08:41] parallels uh the israeli president [08:45] is the parallel of a monarch uh [08:48] in a sense ceremonial position uh [08:52] there's been a monarch in the modern [08:54] sense the way yeah you know [08:56] constitutional monarchy right and [08:58] sometimes that's confusing to americans [08:59] who are like [09:00] because the american president [09:02] presidency is an entirely different [09:04] position [09:05] uh what is a prime minister what does [09:07] that mean and [09:08] and let's start with in democracies [09:11] because not every country that is a [09:13] prime minister is a democracy [09:15] in democracies [09:18] you have essentially two different [09:20] general forms there are many [09:22] variations of parliamentary democracy [09:25] versus [09:26] of the american style [09:29] um i don't want to go into a [09:33] a sharp break down there but but let it [09:35] be let's start here [09:36] let it be sufficient to say that the [09:39] title of a position [09:41] does not give it equivalency across [09:43] systems [09:45] so the president of the united states is [09:47] different from the president of israel [09:49] position wise there is no prime minister [09:53] in the united states in fact the prime [09:57] minister is not the same thing as the [09:59] president [10:02] so we yeah we have to be very very [10:05] careful as far as that goes [10:06] now let's go over to a non-democratic [10:10] regime like iran and let's go even [10:14] further [10:14] to a theocracy like iran and let's go [10:18] even further than that [10:20] to a homelandist theocracy [10:23] in iraq what do you mean by harmaneus [10:25] because you know [10:27] i would think a theocracy is a theocracy [10:29] no so first of all [10:31] you know dif different religions [10:33] different branches of religion different [10:36] ideas uh up until 1648 the pope was a [10:39] major [10:40] political player in european politics um [10:46] romani in the 1960s [10:50] and into the 70s developed an idea we [10:54] talked about this a bit and i think [10:55] it had been a few months ago yeah he [10:58] wrote a book called islamic government [11:01] and he created a concept a position [11:05] called the jurist or the overseer [11:09] would be another way of putting it and [11:11] what he [11:12] said was that when there was an islamic [11:16] state [11:17] there hadn't been one yet shiite [11:21] it's an idea that he essentially [11:22] essentially adopted from from the sunnis [11:26] said the head the that state needs to [11:29] appoint a supreme [11:33] religious political leader now this is a [11:35] whole new [11:36] radical new concept for shiites shiites [11:39] never had this before [11:41] and he created this this conceptual [11:44] position which he then later filled [11:47] called or the rule of the jurist [11:51] by the way fakir is similar to the [11:52] hebrew [11:54] overseer okay [11:57] supreme in the sense of overseeing all [12:01] but it's interesting that the title is [12:03] jurist implying that there's an existing [12:06] islamic law that he's merely [12:08] implementing he [12:10] must be he must be an islamic scholar [12:14] got it okay there is no separation of [12:17] church and state [12:20] now i the term ayatollah [12:24] maybe we should start with that is a [12:26] type [12:27] is a religious title it's a [12:30] it's a scholar of islam [12:35] it's one who who has reached a certain [12:37] level of scholarship so [12:39] all all i mean it has a meaning but [12:42] all ayatollah means is that you've [12:45] achieved a certain religious level of [12:47] scholarship [12:48] okay now among the ayatollahs there are [12:51] those who are looked upon [12:53] as particular scholars [12:56] to give rulings and we're familiar with [13:00] this in in [13:01] judaism rabbi with all due respect [13:06] it's a sure right it's it's not the same [13:08] as [13:09] who is sick [13:12] right being one one who has can issue [13:15] now a rabbi can issue but [13:16] nobody may listen in other words just to [13:19] explain to everyone [13:20] as a general practitioner rabbi as it [13:22] were [13:23] if i if someone comes to me with a [13:25] question that is not [13:26] clearly adjudicated in the books [13:28] available to me in this library [13:31] i don't make the ruling myself i contact [13:34] a [13:34] posique or a dayan and i pose the [13:36] question to them [13:38] and they issue a ruling these are [13:40] authorities [13:41] right exactly okay and [13:44] throughout history now again in israel [13:48] it's a little bit more structural [13:49] because there's a political aspect to [13:51] to rabbit and that sort of thing yeah [13:53] different okay but historically [13:57] the the higher level [14:00] authorities were higher level [14:02] authorities because they were recognized [14:03] by all the other authorities [14:05] it wasn't a it wasn't a structure in the [14:08] sense of [14:09] you knew right appointment it was he's [14:12] the guy you go to because [14:14] for sure so [14:18] there was an element there's an element [14:20] of that in the shiite world as well [14:24] and such a religious scholar leader [14:27] is in ayatollah but who gets the [14:29] additional title of [14:30] marjel taklit for our purposes [14:33] one who has the ability to make these [14:35] sorts of rulings on a religious level [14:38] and khomeini was was one as well [14:42] and he argued that such a religious [14:44] leader and [14:45] one of them meaning himself obviously [14:48] should ultimately be appointed [14:51] the supreme leader not of the islamic [14:54] state [14:55] but of all shiites [14:59] and it's a political leadership not a [15:02] religious one [15:04] through his political leadership he's [15:06] also the religious leader [15:07] not the other way around [15:11] that's interesting okay [15:15] now when he died [15:21] who was it also is an ayatollah was [15:24] appointed [15:25] the al-fakher but he is not [15:28] seen on the same religious skull [15:32] as khomeini was oh interesting [15:36] okay and there are many now now [15:39] who who appoints him okay the council [15:42] appointed him but [15:43] he basically okay injured got it [15:47] and remember khomeini was the man what [15:49] he said was [15:50] it now why did he pick him there are all [15:53] sorts of theories [15:54] but he he knew that he was politically [15:57] reliable [16:00] and now there are three groups [16:04] within shiism [16:11] first of all they're very there are the [16:13] anti-homeanists [16:14] and that's this is something that's [16:16] really important for us to to keep in [16:18] mind [16:19] in iran and in other places there are [16:22] those who [16:22] don't accept khomeini's islamic [16:25] government [16:28] so you know in the west we used to talk [16:30] about the sunnis and the shiites as if [16:32] they're you know that [16:33] that's the the two sides of the conflict [16:36] but the shiites are not monolithic any [16:38] more than the sunnis are monolithic [16:42] and there are there are many the amal [16:44] movement for example in [16:45] lebanon opposes romaniswali [16:52] okay so close by now does that mean that [16:56] they [16:56] that that shiites who reject khamenei [16:58] ism [16:59] don't pay any attention to the teachings [17:02] and rulings of the ayatollahs in iran [17:04] or they just don't accept that one [17:06] political exact aspect of it [17:09] exactly so they may accept the rulings [17:12] of ayatollahs who follow khamenei [17:15] they may accept the rulings of [17:17] ayatollahs who oppose khomeini [17:21] and there are those who sort of fall in [17:23] the middle as a [17:24] an ayatollah in um in lebanon [17:28] who is looked upon as a religious leader [17:31] by [17:33] hezbollah but he is [17:36] not a clear supporter of the khomeini [17:40] doctrine he's not an opposition he's he [17:42] leans [17:43] toward it but he's not part of the [17:46] operation okay and i mention all of this [17:49] i know it's very confusing but i [17:51] mentioned it because it should be [17:52] confusing [17:53] we shouldn't have this very clear idea [17:55] of how neatly it all [17:58] falls [18:01] you have those like hezbollah and others [18:04] who follow khamenei as well [18:08] but they don't accept his religious [18:10] rulings because he's not on a high [18:11] enough religious level [18:14] interesting and that's created a bit of [18:17] of misunderstanding in the west because [18:20] they didn't know to separate these two [18:22] positions [18:23] and the fact that his supreme leader [18:26] gives him supreme political [18:28] authority but on the equivalent of what [18:30] we would ask about [18:31] shabbat or or kashrut they wouldn't go [18:34] to him [18:35] uh-huh i see i'm i'm simplifying but i [18:37] think yeah i know i get it [18:40] okay now [18:44] does it matter who will take over from [18:46] him [18:47] it does kind of but as long as that [18:51] person [18:51] is a homemanist it's not going to change [18:54] much about iran [18:57] now is it going to be the same type of [18:58] thing as without as with com as with [19:00] khomeini [19:01] where where khamenei is going to finger [19:03] someone and say he's my successor [19:06] and then it's just a rubber stamp or no [19:08] word because he doesn't [19:09] no because he doesn't have the um the [19:11] personal authority that romania had [19:15] he has the political authority in other [19:17] words in his position [19:18] he's supreme but when he dies [19:22] it's not going to carry the same weight [19:23] that khomeini's worth [19:27] so he may try to appoint the son it may [19:29] or may not work [19:31] right i was reading actually that his [19:32] son is not considered enough of a [19:34] scholar [19:35] and that there's other and that there's [19:36] actually someone else that he himself [19:38] has that khamenei himself has has named [19:41] as a potential successor [19:43] my guess is that khamenei [19:46] understands the weakness [19:50] that he had because he wasn't considered [19:52] to be sufficiently [19:54] scholarly and that he will probably want [19:56] somebody [19:57] who's more recognized scholarly than he [20:00] was [20:02] to bring more stature to the position [20:06] that's interesting now how does this i [20:08] know that iran also has a president like [20:10] i remember we had that guy ahmadinejad [20:13] for a while right he replaced by the [20:14] current guy [20:16] rouhani who is very well groomed he's [20:18] like the [20:19] you know the neatest and tidiest of the [20:21] guys from iran [20:23] so i i know that the president of iran [20:25] is not a ceremonial position like in [20:27] israel like like the queen of england [20:30] but [20:31] but he's also not the supreme leader so [20:34] how does that [20:35] power okay so he's the chief executive [20:38] and he does he runs things day-to-day [20:43] and the supreme leader doesn't interfere [20:47] with the day-to-day running of things [20:48] and by the way [20:49] for parallel for us he doesn't interfere [20:51] with the day-to-day runnings of [20:52] hezbollah either [20:55] okay in other words the head of the [20:57] system whether it's the iranian state or [21:00] the hezbollah organization [21:02] runs the system but they run it within [21:06] parameters [21:07] of knowing what he wants [21:10] if there's a dispute that comes up for a [21:13] political dispute and again i'll use the [21:16] when they were debating whether to go [21:17] into us into lebanese politics or not [21:20] they ultimately went to khamenei to get [21:23] his approval [21:26] okay so he he certainly has the last [21:28] word let's also remember [21:31] that here very similar to i hate to use [21:34] the analogy but structurally it works [21:36] and i'm going to use it [21:37] nazi germany there are forces [21:40] that that answer directly to the supreme [21:44] leader [21:45] and not to the president the [21:46] revolutionary guards [21:48] are subordinate to the supreme leader [21:51] not to the to the state [21:53] right and from what you're describing it [21:55] sounds like nasrallah as the head of [21:57] hezbollah would also [21:58] answer directly to the supreme leader [22:00] because he's the president [22:02] of government iran governing all the [22:05] tentacles of the iranian [22:07] precisely global machine that's right [22:09] and hezbollah does it via the kudz force [22:11] of the revolutionary guards [22:13] to the supreme court okay [22:17] okay so how much autonomy how much [22:20] autonomy does the president have [22:22] meaning let's put it this way i just [22:23] asked if it matters who the ayatollah [22:25] who [22:25] who the supreme leader is does it matter [22:28] who the president [22:29] is no it matters much less who the [22:31] president is [22:32] uh i see because he's much more of top [22:34] being the top bureaucrat rather than [22:36] being the top decision maker i actually [22:38] i like medina [22:42] i like honest murderers yeah he was he [22:45] was really uh [22:46] he was quite inflammatory you know he [22:48] was out there to present himself as a [22:50] moderate [22:51] i hate guesswork [22:56] uh that's interesting but [22:59] remember everybody who runs for [23:01] president [23:02] has to be vetted by the supreme leader [23:07] so the the spectrum that you hear in the [23:09] west you know from [23:10] from extremist to moderate [23:14] is a very very narrow [23:18] sort of spectrum because anybody who's [23:21] too far over on the moderate side [23:23] doesn't get into the election the [23:24] supreme leader vets them [23:26] and rejects them so in that sense [23:29] anybody who becomes president is the [23:31] supreme leader's guy [23:36] it uh so [23:39] you know again you can you you can [23:40] always say well but what if it's [23:42] somebody [23:43] who's you know completely different [23:46] liberal it's not gonna happen it's is it [23:49] possible [23:51] well when everybody asks me is it [23:53] possible i always ask [23:55] when when you toss a coin uh [23:58] you ever bet side [24:04] now it's possible [24:08] yeah there is a number placed on that [24:10] probability but [24:11] that doesn't mean that it's ever going [24:13] to happen so [24:15] so wait a second the the president [24:18] is governing the country he's answering [24:21] supreme leader the supreme leader [24:24] let me let me try to put it in go ahead [24:27] the supreme leader decides on objectives [24:30] and grand strategy [24:33] the president is allowed to decide on [24:35] tactics [24:38] okay in other words once once the [24:40] framework is set [24:42] he's got autonomy to operate within the [24:44] framework [24:47] but he can't diverge from the framework [24:51] and if something new comes up and even [24:54] something not [24:55] new he's consulting the supreme leader's [24:57] word is in there [24:58] now he's probably not calling him every [25:00] day and telling him how to do things [25:02] but he's overseeing it he's seeing [25:04] directions [25:06] uh and his his general [25:09] position is clearly [25:12] out there and known to the president [25:16] so you know i want to point out [25:17] something that's interesting about this [25:18] because [25:19] uh when we think about dictatorships [25:24] where someone has supreme power and is [25:26] in there for life like a supreme leader [25:28] right generally what you have is [25:32] things like syria with assad correct or [25:35] muammar qaddafi [25:36] in the back in the day when he was in [25:37] libya you have people who [25:40] are who are in total [25:44] they're all powerful but they were also [25:46] not [25:47] chosen by any kind of council like the [25:50] records he kind of rose to power through [25:52] brute force [25:53] that's or or like kim you know kim [25:55] jong-un out in [25:56] korea and they seize power and then they [26:00] often [26:01] uh bequeath it to their children like in [26:04] the case of assad [26:05] right right now [26:08] you can have a dictator [26:12] like vladimir putin who was elected [26:14] under much more democratic circumstances [26:16] and he has [26:17] proceeded to destroy those circumstances [26:21] so that he can't be removed but that's [26:23] also [26:23] he broke the system in order to remain [26:26] in power [26:26] it sounds like an iraq getler did the [26:28] same thing right so [26:31] those are two templates it sounds like [26:33] in iran we have a different template [26:35] altogether which is [26:36] that the supreme leader was chosen he's [26:39] not [26:39] the son of the ayatollah khomeini no he [26:42] had to be voted [26:44] in to the supreme leader position by the [26:47] other ayatollah [26:48] by a council that's right which means [26:50] there was a council that [26:52] consented he didn't seize power in some [26:54] in some violent way [26:56] this isn't a mob boss killing off [26:58] everyone else [26:59] no in this style of uh of some other [27:02] people who's [27:03] or he's not vladimir putin and he's [27:05] inherited from his father [27:07] and that makes for a very interesting [27:09] system so it's kind of a dictatorship [27:11] by design think of think of the election [27:15] of the pope [27:18] uh-huh where the cardinals elect the [27:21] pope [27:22] but once the pope is elected he's [27:24] supreme [27:32] so is there okay you know one more [27:35] question and then [27:36] you know we'll we'll try to move towards [27:37] wrapping this up just to understand the [27:39] way the system works because if we are [27:42] if we are heading towards a transition [27:46] and it's going to be in the papers [27:47] there's going to be a lot of words and [27:48] terms [27:49] thrown out there and this is very [27:51] helpful elliot everything you're saying [27:52] just to [27:53] so that when the day comes because it [27:56] seems [27:56] from reading between the lines that he [27:58] is sick and he's been sick for a while [28:00] yes [28:05] he's not young he's 81 years old even [28:07] though they're claiming he's in perfect [28:08] health we know that [28:10] at some you know that it's more imminent [28:12] than they're claiming [28:13] so when the day comes and this happens [28:16] uh you know just to get a sense of of [28:18] what how this is gonna [28:19] work should we expect there to be some [28:23] kind of unrest [28:25] no no okay do we know [28:28] anything about the possible successors [28:30] meaning is enough known publicly about [28:32] these people [28:33] that we have any sense of them or [28:35] they're not really personalities that [28:36] we're aware of [28:37] i'm i'm not aware of it and i i wouldn't [28:39] spend a lot of time and i'll [28:41] tell you why are in the west we're [28:44] we're used to one of two possibilities [28:46] in the outcome [28:48] of elections either and i don't mean [28:51] individual and i'm not talking about the [28:52] current [28:53] specifically but i'll use the current as [28:54] part of the overall model [28:57] either there's continuity or the other [29:00] side comes in [29:02] when i say continuity i mean either a [29:05] president [29:05] is re-elected for a second term or [29:09] their party wins after they're [29:13] no longer running that's continuity [29:16] the alternative is what we have now and [29:18] what happened when [29:20] trump defeated clinton and when obama [29:23] came into office [29:24] and when bush came into office was [29:26] democrat republican democrat republican [29:28] and so on [29:31] there's a certain amount of turbulence [29:32] and i don't want to go into american [29:33] policies but i want to use the [29:36] the model here but let's understand that [29:40] this is not possible in iran [29:44] whoever becomes the ayatollah is going [29:46] to be a continuation [29:48] of and that's why i said before it [29:52] doesn't matter [29:53] all that much i want to say i'm not [29:54] going to say it doesn't matter [29:56] but it doesn't matter all that much [29:58] because it's going to be [30:00] a political ideological religious heir [30:03] to what has already been well he take it [30:06] a little this way we'll take a little [30:08] that way we'll be a little [30:09] more charismatic a little less [30:10] charismatic [30:12] those are important questions but [30:14] they're not the critical core questions [30:16] that we're used to asking and again i [30:20] don't want to [30:21] get into american politics but we all [30:24] know [30:25] trump or biden these these are are [30:29] yeah questions of of weight right [30:33] here this guy or that guy not so much in [30:36] other words to use your terminology the [30:38] other side getting in [30:39] isn't an option there is no other there [30:40] is no other point right [30:42] interesting so what role does the [30:44] council of ayatollahs play [30:46] so they will ultimately appoint the the [30:48] next one but they're all part of the [30:50] same team [30:50] in other words this is not ex there may [30:53] be [30:54] individual you know political personal [30:59] conflicts or or rivalries but [31:02] there's no left and right there's no [31:04] conservative [31:06] liberal got it uh these are all [31:09] hardliners [31:10] okay all right elliot this is very [31:13] helpful [31:14] um and uh we don't know when there's [31:16] gonna be news and of course [31:18] there's some news we didn't get to [31:20] there's some new peace deals going on [31:22] and they'll still be around next week [31:24] yeah it'll be around next week and who [31:26] knows what's going to happen but [31:27] it seems that the trump administration [31:29] even in its last [31:30] uh if it's if it is the end and it's in [31:33] its final weeks is still [31:34] moving ahead bringing more and more [31:36] peace to our region and [31:38] uh and thank god for that so happy [31:39] hanukkah everyone thank you very much [31:41] again [31:42] thank you everyone for watching please [31:43] share this and tell everyone about it [31:46] and have a wonderful and safe winter and [31:48] a safe hanukkah [31:50] and uh hopefully we will be talking to [31:52] you again next week but to our christian [31:54] viewers you're already putting up your [31:55] lights so merry christmas [31:57] have a good one god bless everyone
In light of recent rumors that the Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei is in failing health, Mideast expert Elliot Chodoff explains the role of Supreme Leader, the origins of the position, the process of succession, how is the Supreme Leader different from the President (currently Hassan Rouhani), and what we can expect if there is a transition in the near future. Also, Rabbi Wolicki shares a message about miracles and Hannukah.
