CHANUKAH MAJOR ESSAY

1.     Three modes of pirsumainissa

a.      Pesach – reveal themiracles to family

b.     Purim - reveal themiracles to community

c.      Chanukah - reveal themiracles to world [=Tardema’i]

2.     Pesach = Family(Bayit): Catharsis, personal, intimate: revealing the odyssey of ourtransformation -

a.      from paganism toavodat Hashem (Rav)

b.     from having beendehumanized to becoming God’s representative people to the world (Shemuel)

Eachindividual experiences and communicates this odyssey both as a personal historyrecounting as well as the history of our people. The personal, individualisticrecounting of this experience includes a significant subjective component whichone is able to express, freely and with integrity only in an intimate setting. Putdifferently: The subjective component of our relationship to God and his worldcan only be communicated to people with whom our primary relationship existsonly in subjective terms.

Thege’ulah which we celebrate on Pesach is not only subjective butalso definitional. As with our relationship to our children, we are not able toobjectively characterize, our intimate relationship with our Creator, in anobjective, CV-job-description format.

Thisis the narrative which addresses the forging of our relationship with God -both as individuals and as part of the collective. This primal experience,therefore, is most appropriately related to family, i.e., those individualswith whom we enjoy a primary relationship.

Atthe Pesach Seder we do not primarily tell the story; rather, we allow those whoare closest to us to witness our subjective reaction to the story. The storyitself, therefore, is not at its core a narrative about miracles; it is rather are-experiencing of the process of ge’ulah, the freedom to serveGod with total dignity rather than being reduced and dehumanized as mausoleum buildersfor a self-appointed man-god. The story culminates not with a narrative dénouement,but rather with Hallel as the immediate joyous response to the experience of velakachtietchem li la’am.

3.     The foregoingdescription of the essence of Sippur Yetziyat Mitzraim explainswhy

a.      We co not recite theberacha over Sippur Yetziyat Mitzraim prior to Maggid,the way she’asah nissim comes before reading the Megillah and lightingthe Hanukah candles

b.     The beracha make nomention of nissim but rather focuses upon ge’ulahand our opportunity to be servants of Hashem.

Both of these characteristicsare due to the fact that the beracha is not chal onthe nissim but rather on the subjective experience of ge’ulah- an experience that does not occur until we are able to re-live the processand sing praises to our Redeemer.

4.     In general, the Torahformulates the Mitzvah of Sippur Yetziyat Mitzraim to the individual, not tothe collective:

Ish seh l’vait avot seh labayit

Velakach hu ushechayno…

Vehigadta l’vincha …asah Hashem li b’tsayti mimitsraim

5.     The miracles of Purimand Chanukah, on the other hand, possess a major objective component which isone is able to communicate to others, with integrity, outside the subjectiverealm. Purim celebrates our physical preservation in exile, due to God’s hashgachaand despite His hastarat panim. On Pesach we celebrate the ge’ulah- the opportunity to be an intimate servant of God, which is the privilege ofeach individual Jew. We do not celebrate his physical survival from persecutionbecause the individual is never guaranteed that benefit. God has guaranteedthat protection only to the tzibbur - to K’lal Yisraelas a whole – but not to the individual Jew. Millions perished in the Holocaustand in countless other persecutions throughout our history. The miracle ofPurim is that Am Yisrael Chai, despite all of theattempts to eradicate us (l’chu ve’nach’chidaym migoy/ im al Hamelechtov, yikatev l’abdam). On Purim, we view the Story of Esther as the paradigmaticillustration of that reality - a case in point, if you will. We communicatethis story of Jewish communal survival to the Jewish community. Our owncommunity has to be reminded of that reality; therefore, on Purim, the pirsumainissa is for them. We do not expect the gentiles to rejoice in the factthat they are unable to destroy us totally. We want them to focus upon ourmessage, not on the issue of our preservation as a people or their inability toutterly destroy us. The latter issue is exclusively between us - as amonolithic body-politic - and Hashem.

6.     Chanukah’s message, onthe other hand, is for everyone. Ner ish u’vaito: each Jewishhome is a mikdash me’at and as such, it is Tsion in exile.According to numerous Rishonim, Chazal endowed nerot Chanukahwith a din of the menorah in the Mikdash. The Mikdash hasuniversalistic import: Ki vayti bait tefillah yikaray l’chol ha’amim.The message relevant to all of humanity, I believe, is that we all must bewilling to sacrifice for our ideals, which ultimate translates as: every humanbeing must be willing to do whatever is necessary in order to fulfill his orher Divine mandates in this world. Every person is endowed with infinite valueas a tselem Elokim. This value is a function of his assignmentsin God’s world. Every human being must see him or herself as assigned by God tofulfill tikkun olam tasks which only he with his unique competenciesand unique sphere of influence possesses the capability and opportunity toaccomplish.

7.     We may conceptualizethe requirement of Pirsumai nissa - in this instance as well as regardingconsumption of the Thanksgiving offering – as follows:

Halachaobligates us to share all phenomenological manifestations of God’s overtHand in history - be they through events in our communal history or in the lifeof an individual. This act of publicizing God’s manifest salvation is necessaryin order to provide a counter-balance to the misperception (from ourtheological point of view) of God’s indifference to human suffering in generaland the suffering of the Jewish People specifically throughout the millennia.

8.     Two interpretations ofsunset (misetishkeh hachama)

a.      When a flame becomes usefulin order to see (e.g., automobile lights at dusk)

b.     When a flame becomes indispensable(sof sh’kiya).

9.     Why eight days? TheTorah requires certain covenantal acts of dedication to occur on the eighthday. Eight symbolizes sacrifice, i.e., the act of abandoning the realm ofself-preservation (created in seven days) and entering the realm ofrelationship, of partnership with another. The sacrificial gesture (willingnessto sacrifice) thus constitutes the sine qua non of all relationships, be theyinterpersonal or between man and God.

  1. Through the phenomenonof the Bais Hamikdash, therefore, Hashem, as it were, neutralizes the boundlessaspect of His infinite essence and He willingly self-concentrates into thecircumscribed space of the Holy of Holies. Kabbalistic thought finds God ashaving engaged in this same sacrificial gesture prior to His creating theworld. At that primordial moment, He engaged in the self-concentrating (andtherefore sacrificial), act of tsimtsum in order to create spacefor the realities exclusive of Himself, which He planned to bring intoexistence.

  1. Sacrifice, ortemporary obliteration of self, is manifest in God’s creative acts, insofar asGenesis I contains no Divine Self-focus – i.e., no “I”- statements by God. Man,when he self-actualizes in the role of God’s agent, realizes his commitment toameliorating the world by creativity that likewise precludes “I”- awareness.

  1. This conceptual nexusbetween the concept of creating the Mikdash and creating theworld finds its expression in the phenomenon of Shabbat. “Guard My Sabbaths andfear My Mikdash; I am the Lord.” Our creativity, in God’s image,is symbolized by the thirty-nine categories of acts which transform the naturalworld (planting, harvesting, hunting, cooking, etc.). These creative acts,analogous to those of God, require tsimtsum on man’s part These are all actssymbolizing sacrifice, for in all relationships – be they between man and Godor between man and man - the willingness of each party to engage in sacrificialacts for the benefit of the other is the most important element  is the most  stress the mutually sacrificial relationship whichmust be forged and, as with all relationships, constantly reinforced if theyare to exist between humankind and God, the Source of all existence and values.

a.      Dedication of mishkanand of bayit rishon

b.     Brit milah

c.      New-born offerings

  1. Miracle of cruse ofoil.

a.      A serious historicalproblem exists regarding the source from Megillat Ta’anit, which describesthe ritually pure jar of oil miraculously burning in the Temple’s menorah foreight days. No other reference to this miracle exists in the classicalliterature, including the Talmud, the Midrash, the Al Hanissimprayer, the Books of Macabees, and the writings of Josephus or Philo.

b.     The story presents halachicproblems as well:

i.      Tum’ah hutrahb’tzibur. The majorityof the Kohanim, and probably the vessels of the Temple’s sacred service a well,were ritually impure anyway, due to their contact with human corpses during andfollowing the battles with Hellenists and Syrian-Greeks. The Halacha statesthat in such situations, the Kohanim and the Temple vessels are no longerrequired to be ritually pure for the sacred Service to proceed. The miracle ofone day’s quantity of pure oil lasting eight days, therefore, was halachicallyunnecessary.

ii.     Even if the Halacha were to require the oil to beritually pure in that circumstance, the jar of pure oil that they found would immediatelybecome tamay as soon as the Kohanim touched it or as soon as theyplaced it in the menorah that was tamay.

c.      The culturalproblem: Why would eight days be required to procure new ritually pure oil?[Perhaps because they could not begin to process the newly harvested olivesuntil they (i.e., the processors) became purified from tumas mais(contact with corpses). This purification procedure takes seven days as theTorah details in Numbers chapter 19.]

d.      Modern skeptics deny the veracity of thismiracle, on the basis of its absence from other sources. Such a conclusion is methodologicallyand theologically problematic. We may reasonably assume that until the Templewas destroyed and the Jewish People lost sovereignty, this miracle wasconsidered much less significant than the miracle of the military victory againstall odds, and the re-establishments of Jewish sovereignty which was the resultof that victory. The miraculous burning of the oil did not result in there-institution of the sacred service or did it contribute to there-establishment of Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel; these resultswere realized through the Macabees’ decision to martyr themselves, by wagingwar against overwhelming odds, and God’s enabling them to overcome theirenemies nevertheless.

e.      Once sovereignty waslost and the Temple was demolished - especially after the Bar Kochba revolt - theJewish collective consciousness desperately needed to find and hold onto historicalindications that the Maccabean military was the result of God’s involvement inthe event, which would in turn indicate that God did not abandon His chosenpeople.

f.       Perhaps the nature ofthe ritual impurity - tumah - of the oils that the Hasmoneansfound when they recaptured the Temple was not tumas mais – i.e.,caused by having been in an open container which under the same roof as a humancorpse. Indeed, according to Halacha, such a tumah would notdisqualify the oils from use in the menorah or any other aspect of the sacredservice if the Temple itself was impure (as it probably was), or if themajority of the priests were impure (as they probably were).

Rather, the opened jars of oil thereforeunfit for use in the Temple due to the Syrian Greeks having appropriated them fortheir sacrificial offerings to the idolatrous cults which they had bought intothe Temple for idolatrous use - but rather tumah of Avodah Zarah- idolatry - which, of course, would not be hutrah b’tzibur!

g.     Perhaps, they wereable to find un-tamay olive oil processers, and therefore thereexisted no halachic utilitarian need to wait eight days in order to obtain halachicallypure oil for the menorah. [Also: what about the other avodot thatrequired oil, such as the daily menachot?] Indeed, the Gemarasimply reports that they were able to draw from that jar of oil for eight days.The Gemara does not state that those eights days were necessary in order toprocure new oil! The miracle was simply an indication that during those eightdays of rededication = Chanukas Habayis – Hashem Himself, as it were, chose tolight the menorah; kiv’yachol Hu bichvodo uv’atzmo chose toreveal His active participation in the rededication of this House whichcelebrates the reality of the eternal relationship between Him and His People.

This decision by Hashem to leave his realm oftranscendence and manifest his presence in the material realm mirrors theChashmona’im’s decision to abandon their normal realm of self-preservationenter the realm of martyrdom for the sake of preserving the purity ofrelationship with Hashem.  Ani l’dodivedodi li…

  1. The Beraisa fromMegillas Taanis focuses exclusively upon the miracle of the oil because it isinterested in explaining the reason for the Rabbis decision to extend thecelebration (including the prohibitions of hespaid and Taanis)for eight days. For the salvation of Purim, in contrast, the Rabbis hadconcluded that a one day Yom Tov is sufficient. Why was the Yom Tov of Chanukahdifferent?

  1. The term Chanukahevokes the reality of kedusha as designation. Theimplicit question underlying this phenomenon is: At what precise point does a buildingtransform from a combination of floors, ceilings and walls into a mishkan/mikdash,i.e., a cheftza of kedusha?  In other words, the underlying issue is thequestion of identity-acquisition. Kedusha indicates an exclusive designation,as with betrothal or even, l’havdil, pagan cultic prostitution.Mikdash possesses the designation/dedication to being the connecting linkbetween the human finite world and the infinite reality of God.

  1. In light of theforegoing, the term chinuch, meaning “education” etymologicallyrefers to the process of enabling the young person to dedicatehis life to the service of God. The Biblical symbol, or metaphor, which evokesthe concept of enlightenment, is of course the menorah,the Torah’s focus upon which constitutes the culmination of the Torah readingfor Chanukah.

  1. In describing the mitzvahof lighting the menorah, the Torah does not use the obvious verb l’hadlik,meaning “to light”. Rather, it uses the somewhat idiosyncratic gerundive, b’ha’a’lot’cha,which literally translates as, “with your [act of] causing [the flames] toascend”. The gerundive form (which transforms verbs into nouns) serves to endowthe act with concretization, to bestow an incarnate quality on that which isotherwise effervescent. In our experience, each micro-aspect of an actdisappears as soon as it happens - just as time itself, within the parametersof which every act occurs, disappears with its very manifestation. The dynamicdissipates, by dint of the very essence of its nature.

  1. In this context, the gerundive(b’ha’a’lot’cha) implies that the flame of the menorah - or morespecifically, the act of igniting it - will last forever.  nevertheless; C.f. terumat hadeshen

  1. Perhaps the Torah’sstress upon the menorah, and not only upon the flame, serves to reinforce theincarnate, and therefore persistent nature - of the lighting of the menorah andall that it symbolizes.

  1. The mitzvah oflighting applies “until the flame ascends of its own accord”. This imageconstitutes a most appropriate metaphor for the teaching-chinuch mission; the teachermust guide the student actively until the student is able to generate lightindependently of him. Compare: the blessing at a brit (zeh hakatan gadolyihyeh…)

  1. Essence of fire issacrifice – it (willingly?) consumes itself in the process of selflesslydevoting itself to shedding its light upon others in order to enable them tosee, not themselves but rather one other.  When light works well/appropriately, webenefit from it while remaining oblivious to its source.  This is perhaps the implication of lightbeing the primary foundational unit of all creation; by its very essence itsymbolizes and actualizes the concept of olam chesed yibaneh.

  2. Chazal interpret thegerundive to imply a requirement that the dynamic act of igniting must continueuntil the flame of each branch ascends on its own (ad…hashalhevet olahmayalehah). This requirement is clearly a sine qua non for the art of chinuch= education!

  1. Torah she’ba’alpeh requires moresacrifice than does she’bichtav, because unlike the latter itdemands intellectual comprehension which entails learning something new. -learning = killing old assumptions of default self. = abandoning the default

  2. Gifts of the nesi’im:no one gives more than the other yet the individuality of each nasiremains. Nasi – elevation, dignity = a model for every Jew.

  1. What do we commemorateon Chanukah?

a.      Miracle of Cruse ofOil (Beraisa)

b.     Miracle of MilitaryVictory (Al Hanissim)

c.      Re-establishment ofJewish sovereignty in EY (Rambam)

d.     Heroic willingness ofChasmonaim to martyr themselves if necessary to preserve purity of Judaism

  1. The Chanukah lamp orcandle itself intrinsically symbolizes the concept of sacrifice and even martyrdom- insofar as it “willingly” expends its essence as fuel in order to“generously” shed its light on the world exclusive of itself.

  1. Connection withParashat Vayeshev – Sippur Yosef:

Issueof Achdus - The milchama was a civil war.

  1. We paskin kavsa aynzakuk lah. This implies that [a] effort expended and [b] processare more significant than the result. This concept fitsappropriately with the Midrash that asserts that Hashem in creating the fruittrees commanded aytz pri oseh pri – i.e., that the taste of the tree(= the process for the tree’s production of fruit) be the same asthe fruit itself (= the result, from the perspective of humanconsumption). His prioritization of process and effort expended being moresignificant than the “bottom line” result is clearly anti-Greek, antisports-event, where the finish line is the sole determinant.

Anotherillustration of this prioritization is in the famous statement Echadhamarbeh ve-echad ha-mam’it – uvilvad sheyachavain libo lashamayim. (See:Menachot 110.) And of course: lo alecha hamelacha ligmor…

  1. In light of theprevious point: note that regarding the “finish-line” issues, the Greek worldrespects hair-splitting, nuanced details. Judaism, in contrast, focuses uponthe details of the process. Process exists in time and redeems time.Finish-line theology worships the unmoving, fossilized idol.

  1. Consider analogybetween the miracle of Harugai Baytar and the miracle of ner Chanukah. Bothindicate that God had not abandoned us despite the loss of sovereignty, land,or Temple. This concept connects with reconstruction of Pesach Seder

Exileis a type of death. As Hashem tells Adam, “On the day that you eat of it youshall surly die.” Yet, Adam, after eating the forbidden fruit, lives anothernine hundred thirty years! What does happen on that day, however, is that he isexiled from Eden. Exile is a form of death, I believe, because it is atransformation of context. Death, of course, constitutes the ultimatecontextual transformation in human experience. Through the Baytar miracle,Heaven indicated that our exile is not an ultimate reality; rather, it is atemporary dislocation. Likewise, through the miracle of the nayros, Hashem isindicated that even when the Temple will be destroyed, [1] the destruction willnot last forever, and [2] even in exile we will be able to self-actualize to asignificant extent as a “Light to Nations”. This concept ties into Ramban’scomments at the beginning of parashat Beha’a’losecha.