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Why Chanukah Is SO Relevant
Chanukah occurred during a low in Jewish history. Under the domination of other rulers, Israel was only semi-sovereign, yet were granted a miracle.
This holds two relevancies:
A. Miracles that occur within nature, at a time when all were not saints, give hope for today; we too are no saints. Yet, as then, we may yet merit miracles!
B. A miracle granted to regular folks shows the depth of Hashem’s commitment. The miracles of the Exodus were glorious, but they were done unto special people. When the chips are down and our stock low, then we know our true friends.
Hashem is steadfast with His People, despite mistakes they make. What other miracle compares with that!?!
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Is Chanukah Significant?
“No miracle we experienced is as significant as the Chanukah miracle. Sukkos, Pessach, Purim and Shavuos do not compare with Chanukah. Chanukah is significant in the extreme.
For neither Paroh nor Haman decreed against Mitzvos. The Greeks did. Chanukah represents not deliverance from pain, – physically we were okay – but rather celebration of our license to serve Him. While most holidays celebrate physical survival, Chanukah celebrates Judaism. To us, this is the greatest happiness.
Instituting a commemoration, we created an eight-day holiday, to equal Sukkos, the longest holiday. Even had oil not burned miraculously for eight days the holiday would still be that long. Only it would not be of candle-lighting, rather rejoicing and singing to Hashem” – Ri M’Lionel
This remarkable statement addresses the Beis Yosef’s question of why we have Chanukah for eight days, not seven, if there had been enough oil to burn one day anyhow? And it outlines the meaning of Chanukah: We thrill that we can serve Hashem.
(Entirely by the way, I’d suggest another answer to the Beis Yosef: we represent that the oil burnt eight days in place of one. That can only be represented with an eight-day ceremony. Suppose we wished to honor the tallest man in town, Mr. Charlie Brown, by building a monument to his height of eight feet. Would a monument of two feet do him justice? After all a normal person is six feet tall..)
Is Chanukah the only Yomtov about Judaism? We received the Torah on Shavuos, isn’t that celebrating Mitzvos too?
One suggestion was that cripples healed at Har Sinai, so physical joy mixed in as well, whereas Chanukah is totally spiritual. Also, Shavuos is the Festival of Bikkurim, New Fruit, an agricultural festival.
Perhaps the idea here is that starting up a business with someone means you trust him enough to test partnering with them. But going to great effort to keep that partnership going means its truly worthwhile. On Shavuos Hashem offered us the Torah. That great event meant that Hashem is willing to try us out. But on Chanuka He enabled us to continue observing the Torah. It means that we are worth His while. He wants us! Yay!
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More Valuable Than Life
When faced with a choice: Sin or Die, we choose Sin. At least for most sins.
The Rambam explains that life comes first, for the Torah is for our benefit. It follows that when indeed we are to die rather than sin, it’s because dying is actually preferable to such sin.
One sin worse than death is keeping a secular lifestyle: we are obligated to give our lives rather than become irreligious. (Orach Chaim 206, Mishna Berurah 58) We need to internalize this: it’s better to die than live irreligious.
Chanuka is when the Greeks tried to Hellenize us. We consider this fate far worse than death. Our salvation is greater than the physical salvation we enjoyed Purim and Pesach!
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On Relationships…
Chanukah is for thanking and praising Hashem (l’hodos ul’hallel). We recite the Hallel. We need not eat nor be merry (many rishonim). Yet on Purim we do feast, yet do not say Hallel. Why?
Hashem is many things – our Father, our King, our Shepherd, and our Redeemer. Mishlei calls Him ‘our Friend and your fathers’ Friend’. We have many very different relationships with Him. The Holidays relate to different facets in our relationship, our varied associations with Him.
In human relationships we have friends to pal around and party with. They are fun to be with, but worthless for tangible assistance. Other friends – such as business associates – are not particularly emotionally close, yet afford us great assistance. They may loan us ten thousand dollars when we need.
Hashem relates to us in both ways: Sometimes he shows us great affection, but we are not shepherded by Him directly; we are servants under some King or regime. Despite the friendship and love displayed, we do not receive much substantial assistance. At other times He does not show us a friendly face, things seem bitter and hard, yet He helps us tremendously.
We celebrate holidays apropos to the relationship showcased. On Purim the Jews were afforded honor and glory. They remained servants of Achashverosh, but Hashem had shown them love. This is a time for celebrating and feasting with Hashem. Chanukah, however, is when He afforded us massive assistance, but He kept distant – even after the miracle we had much angst and trouble. We celebrate by praising and thanking Him, as we would to a business associate who has given great help.
Sometimes we celebrate WITH Him, sometimes we thank and applaud TO Him.
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Going Eight
What’s the Jewish meaning of 8?
Classical Jewish thought is that Seven represents Nature; Eight the super-natural. Seven are the days of the week in which nature was set up in, thus representing natural order. Eight means; ‘past and beyond natural order’, i.e. supernatural order.
Milah is the classic example: man is born uncircumcised. Milah (on the eighth day) is non-natural. (Indeed, the function of Milah is to enable Man to rise above his nature!)
Chanukah, the few prevailing against the many, the weak vanquishing the strong, one day’s oil burning for eight days, these are supernatural. Eight fits the bill. (- Maharal).
I would like to share another thought: Seven in scripture often means ‘many’, ‘all the way’ or ‘the entire spectrum’. Some examples:
“??? ???? ????”, “???? ?????? ???”, “????? ????…??? ??’”, “?? ???? ???? ????”
All these ‘sevens’ mean ‘many’, ‘completely’ or ‘all the way’.
Although the full range of a subject (the ‘seven’ of it!) has many fields, [for instance science has many branches; biology, chemistry, and physics, to name a few,] those branches have a common root. Eight represents the branches plus their root. Seven – the range and multitude we see and know, plus one more, – the common root.
Many the things relating to the Bais Hamikdash are Eight; the Chanukas HaMishkan was on the 8th day, the Kohen Gadol had eight special pieces of clothing, the Levi’im played on eight different instruments, there were eight ingredients in the Ketores and eight in the Shemen Hamichcha and so on. This is because the Bais Hamikdosh relates to the world in the ‘eight-way’; it relates to the essential root of things. (- Rabbenu Bechaya, Shmini).
Chanukah is eight too. When visible factors didn’t allow for victory over the Greeks, we then moved up a level and engaged the root dynamics of the Greeks, the non-physical powers that animated them, and thus obtained victory. Chanukah celebrates our extra dimension, the ability to work at the root level of things, at their inner dynamics.
These two paths loop back to each other. The Jewish nation exists on miracles. Perhaps the dynamics are that they don’t really exist against nature, rather they operate at an inner root level of nature. This level is not plain to see, so we call it ‘miracle’ and ‘supernatural’. All it means that we operate at a different level than anyone else. The supernatural is really ‘inner-natural’. And on Chanukah we celebrate living at the inner octave, the secret of Jewish immortality.
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Chanukah Challenge:
Normal people conform, they go along with evil and co-operate with it. The Maccabbeim did not. They confronted evil, refusing to bow or accommodate it. Had we lived at the Chanukah story, would we have been Hellenists, conformists, or Maccabeim?
Chanukah challenges us to develop an immunity from being swayed by public opinion, an ability to formulate one’s own moral viewpoint and to act accordingly.
When Dr. Stanley Milgram conducted a study where it turned out that people conformed to authority to the extent of killing innocent human beings, (-they thought they were killing; it was staged) people realized just how dangerous could following directives be, and determined to follow their own convictions.
Humans are naturally influenced by others. Political correctness determines our thoughts. How can one develop the ability to stand apart?
Three suggestions;
A. ‘Kli sheni is not mevashel’; only an original can cook. The Baal Shem Tov initiated a revolution in Polish Jewry, Rav Shamshon Refael Hirsch reversed the tide for German Jewry, and Rabbi Yisroel Salanter saved Lithuania by introducing the Mussar movement. We tend to think that each of these communities needed the particular changes these great men introduced there. Perhaps not. Perhaps Change itself made the difference. When there is change people embrace Judaism as their own, above and beyond something inherited from their forbears. Religion becomes personal, something they identify with personally. That makes all the difference.
So we need to find something new to work on in our avodah. We will be more committed Jews, people capable of standing up for their religious feelings.
B. Practice doing what is politically incorrect, but the morally proper thing to do. Practice means doing it where it is not really necessary, but it will condition you for the real test. If one sees a woman struggling to get her carriage into the bus, jump down and go help her, whether it’s in style to do so or not. Relish opportunities to develop you individuality, your ability to be different.
C. Willpower is a muscle, and can be effectively developed. Modern psychologists have specific exercises designed to produce a stronger will, and part of one’s service of Hashem ought to be practicing one’s will, and strengthening it.
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Ever See This Happening?
[There are goal and means. Never confound the twain.]
Someone opens a yeshiva or help organization. At some point the yeshiva is not needed, or the help superfluous. Or maybe the organization is necessary, but someone else is better suited to lead it. Will the founder hand over the organization or close the yeshiva? Sadly, usually not.
Why? After all, wasn’t the organization created because of a need? If that need will be better addressed by someone else, why not hand over the reigns? Because having that yeshiva or organization, originally a means to an end, have turned into ends themselves. Dangerous.
The Chashmonoim fought Hellenism at cost to their lives. They drove out the Greeks. Then they turned king. Eventually they became Hellenists themselves, the very ideal they risked their lives to destroy. How could this happen??
Power had become an end, no longer a means. The price turned out to be Hellenism, for Torah could not justify a Kohen king, only Hellenism could. And they corrupted.
May we profit from their example; never allow an endeavor become an end unto itself.
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Who Needs Chanukah??
How would our lives have been different without Chanukah?
Without Purim we would have been long gone, killed by Haman and co.
But Chanukah?? The chashmonoim lasted only 103 years, until roman rule. (The Rambam stating that Malchus returned to Israel for over two hundred years counts in the years when our king was a roman pawn, like Aristobulus and the latter Yannai.) Historians reckon the peace after getting rid of the Hellenizers lasting merely thirty years, (- R’ Yitzchak Isaac Halevi) which do little to rebuild or turn a nation around. (-Y’mei Bayis Sheni, from the Da’as Sofrim) We are exiled now around two thousand years. Without Chanukah it would be two thousand one hundred and three. Is that all the difference??
Not only was Yaakov called ‘Yisrael’, so was Avraham and Yitzchak. (There are verses alluding to them with that name) ‘Yisrael’ refers to the ability to overcome the force of nature, stars and heavenly angels. All the Avos had this, and so were all called Yisrael. We are called Yisrael because we too are not bound by Teva, whether in the form of a doctor, political professor or anyone else.
This fact, which Jewish history attests to, is hard to digest. Facts on the ground stare us down, flatly contradicting this. We too must conform to Nature, it seems. Yetzer HaRah also keeps us believing in natural law, not according to merits or their lack thereof, for then we need not better our ways.
Its therefore so important to reminding ourselves that we live and die by hashgachah pratis. Chanukah remind us. So aside from the help we received back in those days of old, we gain a reminder of what is running our lives today.
This is the Chanukah dividend we gain even today!
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A Crime More Serious Than The Most Serious One
Mattisyahu killed the Hellenizer attempting to sacrifice a pig for an idol. Why? Is there ‘kanoim pog’im bo’ on this? For only four or five things ‘kanoim pog’im bo’, and this isn’t one of them. Why kill him?
One suggestion is that this person was thoroughly wicked, a moser and an apikorus. Killing him was legal. Another is that although only specific crimes are vigilante punishable, attempting to uproot Torah in general is akin to the severest crime. That would justify death.
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A Minhag Gone Wrong
The Gemarah tells that the Kohen Gadol tried to stay pure for the avodah on Yom Kippur. As a precaution, he would stay awake the entire night before. The custom was that other kohanim would keep him company, reading interesting portions of the Tanach, snapping their fingers, having him do push ups and so on, so that he would not slumber.
Some pious people in Jerusalem understood that the quiet of night contributed to sleepiness, and would stay awake in their homes learning and making noise so that the Kohen Gadol hear the bustle of the city.
After the churban, people wished to set a remembrance for the Beis HaMikdash so they would hold a vigil Yom Kippur night. Eventually people forgot what the vigil was all about and would spend the night socializing, which turned into a rather promiscuous shidduch scene. Things went slightly askew…. (Yomah 19)
I wonder if Chanuka parties are also getting diverted from their course…?