Chasidut for Shabbat 42:13
אמר רב כהנא דרש רב נתן בר מניומי משמיה דרבי תנחום
What is [the reason of] Hanukkah? For our Rabbis taught: On the twenty-fifth of Kislew<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' The ninth month of the Jewish year, corresponding to about December. ');"><sup>22</sup></span> [commence] the days of Hanukkah, which are eight on which a lamentation for the dead and fasting are forbidden.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' This is an extract of the Megillath Ta'anith, lit., 'the scroll of fasting'. ');"><sup>23</sup></span> For when the Greeks entered the Temple, they defiled all the oils therein, and when the Hasmonean dynasty prevailed against and defeated them, they made search and found only one cruse of oil which lay with the seal of the High Priest,<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Hence untouched and undefiled. ');"><sup>24</sup></span> but which contained sufficient for one day's lighting only; yet a miracle was wrought therein and they lit [the lamp] therewith for eight days. The following year these [days] were appointed a Festival with [the recital of] Hallel<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' 'Praise', Ps. CXIII-CXVIII, recited on all Festivals; v. Weiss, Dor, I, p. 108, n. 1. ');"><sup>25</sup></span> and thanksgiving.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' This lighting took place in 165 B.C.E. Exactly three years before, on the same day, Antiochus Epiphanes had a pagan altar erected in the Temple, upon which sacrifices were offered (I Macc. I, 41-64). Apart from the Talmudic reason stated here, Judas Maccabeus chose 25th of Kislew as the anniversary of the Temple's defilement, and the dedication of the new altar was celebrated with lights for eight days, similarly to the Feast of Tabernacles, which lasted eight days and was celebrated by illuminations (I Macc. IV, 36; II Macc. X, 6; supra a, p. 90, n. 3). Actually the revolt was against the Syrians, of whom Antiochus Epiphanes was king, but the term 'Greeks' is used loosely, because the Seleucid Empire was part of the older Empire founded by Alexander the Great of Macedon, and because it was a reaction against the attempted Hellenization of Judea. The historic data are contained in the First Book of the Maccabees. ');"><sup>26</sup></span> We learnt elsewhere: If a spark which flies from the anvil goes forth and causes damage, he [the smith] is liable. If a camel laden with flax passes through a street, and the flax overflows into a shop, catches fire at the shopkeeper's lamp, and sets the building alight, the camel owner is liable; but if the shopkeeper placed the light outside, the shopkeeper is liable.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' For the loss of the flax. ');"><sup>27</sup></span> R. Judah said: In the case of a Hanukkah lamp he is exempt.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Because, as stated above, it should be placed outside; the onus then lies upon the camel driver. ');"><sup>28</sup></span> Rabina said in Rab's name: This proves that the Hanukkah lamp should [in the first instance] be placed within ten.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Handbreadths from the ground. ');"><sup>29</sup></span> For should you think, above ten, let him say to him, 'You ought to have placed it higher than a camel and his rider.' 'Yet perhaps if he is put to too much trouble, he may refrain from the [observance of the] precept'.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Possibly the lamp may be placed at the outset higher, yet the Rabbis did not wish to make the precept too burdensome. ');"><sup>30</sup></span> R. Kahana said, R. Nathan b. Minyomi expounded in R. Tanhum's name:
Kedushat Levi
Kedushat Levi
The second type of ישועה, “rescue” is when G’d garbs Himself in the “clothing” worn by nature, i.e. makes use of natural law without disturbing its normal function. A well known example of such an event is the “miracle” of Purim, which according to all that we know about it did not contain any elements that could be described as interference with the natural course of events.
Achashverosh married Esther, and due to his jealousy of Haman who he thought had tried to rape his wife Esther, he hanged Haman. A similar “miracle” resulted in the festival of Chanukah, the king or chief general of the Seleucids lusting after Yehudit and trying to rape her, resulting instead in his being killed by her, and his army becoming demoralized. In both the examples mentioned, many thousands of gentiles, antisemites, were killed in due course.
The subject becomes easier to understand by means of a parable. A King built a palace for his son; originally, he had meant for his son to live in that house. After a while, some wicked people expelled the son from this house. It would be appropriate for the house that had served as the protector of its inhabitants to not only protest this action but to take counter measures. However the house, i.e. the stones, are immobile, as pointed put by Chabakuk 2,11. Seeing that the stones of the house are immobile, they are powerless. The world was created for the sake of the Jewish people, i.e. the world is our “house,” as G’d has told Pharaoh that the Jewish people are His firstborn son when viewed in terms of the parable. (Exodus 4,22) When the gentile nations dispossess us or kill us, the “world” ought by rights to rise up in our defense. As this is not possible, the owner of the world, G’d, will do this instead. This is why the numerical value of the word טבע, nature loosely translated as “world,” is the same as the numerical value of the word אלה-ים, G’d, i.e. 86. When “nature” smites the gentile nations, it is the same as G’d smiting them. The world is the sum total of the Creator’s creative activity. G’d may be perceived as its father. The expression מעשה בראשית, a simile for the 6 days of G’d’s creative activity, contains the word ראשית, “beginning,” i.e. that the final product of G’d’s creative activity had been planned from the very beginning, i.e. as a home for the Jewish people, who are the whole purpose of G’d’s beginning the creation of the universe. At the conclusion of this process, אחרית, the Creator garbed Himself in what we are fond of calling טבע, “nature,” and all that this term entails. When Moses said in Deuteronomy 32,18 צור ילדך תשי, “you (his people) neglected the Rock that begot you,” his words expressed similar sentiments.
Before someone opens his mouth to say something, a person considers if the words he is about to utter are the ones appropriate for expressing his wish. If he wishes to make a request, he thinks about how best to phrase such a request in order that it may be granted. By changing his mode of speech, he becomes a totally new person. When G’d issued directives to create the universe, He created the whole world with these oral directives. (Compare psalms 33,6 בדבר ה' שמים נעשו, “the heavens came into existence by a single word of the Lord”.) When it comes to “saving” this world from impending destruction, using the טבע, “nature,” as His instrument, He deals with something that is established, and therefore employs a different means than the one He had employed when bringing something into existence. According to our author the word טבע is closely related to the word חנוכה, completing a training program, consecration, i.e. establishing a kind of order, norms, imprinting a form on something, as in מטבע, coin. G’d no longer needs to resort to something brand new, i.e. miracles.
When Esther is described as אילה, a strong animal, (feminine of איל, ram) i.e. fully mature, our sages referred to the period of overt miracles in Jewish history having come to an end in her time, so that the salvation of the Jewish people in which she was instrumental did not require G’d’s intervention by upsetting the rules of nature through a miracle.
[If G’d were forever to have to resort to miracles to achieve His purpose in the universe, this would reflect a basic flaw in that universe. When at the end of the Purim story the Jews are described as voluntarily accepting what they had accepted at Sinai under tremendous pressure, this too is a compliment to G’d, whose children had matured. Ed.]
The sages (at the beginning of 40,10) are quoted as seeing in one of the branches which the cup bearer saw in his dream, the young priests, the ones who would perform the sacrificial service in the Temple in due course. If we revert to the allegorical approach that the author has adopted, the פרחי כהונה that the Talmud spoke about are the sacrifices offered in the Temple, which are symbolic of how miracles become converted into norms, טבע, seeing that most communal offerings are closely tied to certain days, weeks, months, or years, and these in turn symbolise how what had come into existence as an overt miracle at the creation, had been transformed into what we call natural phenomena, i.e. manifestations in nature that are not only predictable but can be calculated thousands of years in advance.
[The author tries again to bring the subject of Chanukah into this portion, as the portion is always read around that time of year, draws on the Talmud Shabbat 21 where the subject is Chanukah. Ed.] The Talmud there stipulates that the best time for lighting the Chanukah candles is the period immediately following sunset until it has become so dark that no more pedestrians are about. (There was no street lighting in those days) Our author sees in this a symbol of the gradual switchover from G’d performing overt miracles to working through letting טבע perform most of His intervention in the affairs of man. The expression for complete darkness, used by the Talmud is עד שכלתה רגל מן השוק, usually translated as “until the pedestrians have ceased walking in the public domain.” Seeing that the word רגל does not only mean “foot, but is also directly related to רגילות, something habitual, he understands the Talmud as hinting at this “getting used to seeing no more brilliant miracles,” as the period following “sunset.” The expression used by the Talmud for sunset is שקיעת החמה, the word חמה, “sun,” referring to something overt, highly visible.