The Opportunity of Chanukah (12/5/07)

The two reasons that the Gemara gives for Beis Shammai's shitta that poches v'holeich in lighting Neiros Chanukah, so one of the two is k'neged parei hachag. It's not clear exactly what the connection between parei hachag is and Chanukah. Let's just very briefly reflect on the Yom Tov of Sukkos as well as Chanukah and perhaps the connection will emerge. There is a din with which we're all familiar, the Gemara in Sukkah says in daf tes that חג הסכות שבעת ימים להשם, that just as

שם שמים חל על החגיגה כך שם שמים חל על הסוכה,

and it's this drasha which is the basis for the din that sukkah is assur b'hana'ah. So it's interesting. So the Gemara says that sukkah has a kedusha comparable to chagiga. Mitzvas Lulav arguably, probably what we're about to say is talui on a machlokes Rishonim, but Mitzvas Lulav b'emes b'ikaro is a mitzvas mikdash and the chidush is that yom rishon it's noheig b'gvulin as well. The trend which begins to emerge, and there are rayos also, but I don't want to be ma'arich now, is that Sukkos b'etzem is a Yom Tov of Mikdash. It's a Yom Tov of Mikdash and the very special quality and feature of the Yom Tov of Sukkos is that despite the fact that it's a Yom Tov of Mikdash, it's one which the Torah says that we can observe, that we can be to'eim kedushas mikdash b'chol makom, even shelo bizman habayis uv'chol zman. A kedushas mikdash, a b'china of kedushas mikdash that the Torah allows us to partake of even chutz la'mikdash. The Beis HaMikdash is referred to as Sukkah in the Hoshanos when we say Hoshana sukkah shalayim. Sukkah shalayim refers to the Beis HaMikdash. Beis HaMikdash is referred to as Sukkah. So lich'ora amongst the shalosh regalim, that's the uniqueness of Sukkos, this b'china of kedushas mikdash. And the emes is that lich'ora you find the same l'gabbi Chanukah. Whether as indicated by the shitta of the Ba'al HaMaor that the assur l'hishtamesh l'orah, that the issur l'hishtamesh l'orah by Chanukah is an issur hana'ah which is modeled on ner she'b'mikdash, whether it's the Midrash the Ramban quotes at the beginning of Parshas Beha'aloscha, but Chanukah also has this special quality again of being b'ikaro a Yom Tov of Mikdash. That's why, otherwise somewhat puzzling, why the miracle of the, and this is an arichus unto itself, but the nes hashemen in Mikdash wasn't so unique, wasn't so different than the daily nes of the Ner Ma'aravi, and yet it's this which gives the character to the entire Yom Tov of Chanukah. So the teretz is it's among other things, it's to highlight again that the Yom Tov b'ikaro, that Chanukah b'ikaro is also a Yom Tov again where there's a b'china of Mikdash that we have again the incredible opportunity over the days of Chanukah to absorb, to be to'eim a b'china of kedushas mikdash. Sfas Emes has this idea in a few places. In this edition of Sfas Emes on Chanukah, I'm reading you now from the introduction to that. The m'laket at a few places in which the Sfas Emes highlights this idea.

אכן בימים אלו נמצא קצת הארה מבית המקדש כמו איתא חנוכה רמז למנורה וכן מאירים אלו הימים שיוכל כל איש ישראל להלל ולהודות להשם יתברך והשאיר לנו.

This is a different passage. The m'laket at a few places in which the Sfas Emes highlights this idea.

והשאיר לנו שירות ותשבחות מעין השיר שבמקדש גם עתה שאין לנו בית המקדש. בימים האלו מתנוצץ האורות מבית המקדש.

So it's this common denominator which Sukkos and Chanukah have in common, and that's what Beis Shammai say that the hadlakas neir Chanukah should be modeled on the parei ha-chag. Now when pocheis v'holeich, so we end up according to Beis Shammai the last night lighting one. Dehainu pocheis v'holeich means that the avodah is to ultimately recognize yichud Hashem that השם אחד ושמו אחד, again despite all the superficial perception of ribbuy and diversity in the world, but ultimately it's השם אחד ושמו אחד ואין עוד מלבדו. That's what pocheis v'holeich in mikdash, it's the same thing, in Sukkos also, again mismaid v'holeich, mikdash represents that awareness of Hashem echad, that's why the shem Havaya is pronounced kichsivaso in mikdash. Shmini Atzeres also culminates with a par echad. So that's the again the nature of Chanukah, a b'china of kedushas mikdash and a time to recognize yichud Hashem. Now the Ramban comments in a, there's a famous comment in the Ramban in parshas Korach in talking about mikdash. Ramban is commenting on why was it bimei David HaMelech when David HaMelech took the census and he counted the people directly and because of that there was a mageifa. So the question is if Kol Yisrael were being punished, so clearly it wasn't only the cheit of David HaMelech, that there was some Hakadosh Baruch Hu, there was some middas hadin against Kol Yisrael as a whole. So the question was what precipitated that middas hadin against Kol Yisrael? So Rashi says he doesn't know. He's not sure. So the Ramban says he thinks the pshat is like this:

שהיה עונש על ישראל בהתאחר בנין בית הבחירה שהיה הארון הולך מאהל אל אהל כגר בארץ אין השבטים מתעוררים לאמר נדרש את השם ונבנה הבית לשמו כענין שנאמר לשכנו תדרשו ובאת שמה.

Dehainu, Ramban emphasizes that binyan beis habechira requires initiative. It requires a lishichno sidreshu, right? It's a very interesting phrase that the Torah uses, lishichno sidreshu, a person has to be doreish, has to be looking, has to be desiring, there has to be a hisorerus, there has to be an initiative. That initiative was lacking bimei David, and that's what precipitated the middas hadin. So kedushas mikdash isn't a present, kedushas mikdash is something which requires a hisorerus. Chanukah also perhaps amongst all the yamim tovim has this feature as well that Chanukah is a yom tov of hishtadlus, of hisorerus. There was a hisorerus again from the Chashmonaim through their mesirus nefesh. There was a hisorerus which brought about again this b'china that Chanukah has, ha'ora with an aleph, ha'ora of kedushas mikdash, takeh came about through this, through this hisorerus, through this drisha that the Ramban is talking about. This too you'll find in the Sfas Emes on Chanukah:

חנוכה ופורים הם מועדות שזכו להם בני ישראל במעשיהם מעשיהם מעוררין אותו יתברך שהרי חדשו במעשיהם זמנים מקודשים.

And therefore the Sfas Emes continues and this is something which the other seforim mention as well: ועל ידי שאלו המועדות זכו בני ישראל להם במעשיהם. Precisely because Chanukah is so special in this respect, that it's a yom tov which came about through a hisorerus milmata, through a hishtadlus, precisely for that reason the time is mesugal for people to for each and every one of us to be mesakein ourselves, to be mesakein something in our lives. Lachein yachol limtzo...

יכול למצוא בהם כל נפש ישראל תיקונו כי יש לכל בני ישראל דבקות ושייכות להם כנל.

So Chanukah is a time precisely because through that drisha, through that hisorerus that we generated the Yom Tov of Chanukah, that we were able to generate this haora of Kedushas Mikdash, so Chanukah is a time which is mesugal for initiative. It's mesugal for initiative on two levels. It's mesugal for initiative on a personal level. That kol yochid v'yochid ba'asher hu sham, so each one of us, hopefully, is aware at least of some of what in our personal lives requires tikkun, whether it's avodas hatefillah, whether it's the avoda of Shabbos, whether it's bein adam l'chaveiro, whether it's in the realm of gemilas chassodim, bein adam l'chaveiro, so hopefully each one of us has some awareness of what it is to mekabel upon ourselves, what it is that we can be mesaken in this special time which is so mesugal. But the hisorerus and the segulah for being mesaken does not only involve chovas yachid, but chovas tzibbur also. It's also a special and unique opportunity for a tzibbur ba'asher hu sham, באשר בני הציבור שם to collectively be mesaken. I think most people who have been around the yeshiva and the koslei beis medrash over the years, I think will agree that the most potent and most wonderful koach for devarim she'bekedusha in the yeshiva has always been the talmidei hayeshiva. So much over the years has been and continues to come about through that hisorerus. In particular, there has been some interest expressed as of late that there should be a mussar seder in the yeshiva. There probably isn't a better time for such a hisorerus, for such a hishtadlus, for the b'nei yeshiva again with a hisorerus milamata, not without anything being imposed, without anything being legislated, but to be mekabel upon themselves collectively to try to establish again as much as is possible as many people as possible who can participate in such a seder. So towards that end, some of the osim uma'asim in trying to make this happen, there're going to be signups im yirtzeh Hashem that people should sign up for a bli neder commitment, bli neder commitment, שלא נלכד חס ושלום בעוון נדרים, so a bli neder hischaivus for a 20-minute mussar seder. Rabbi Olian has invested kochos in trying to jumpstart this and it would be a tremendous way of taking advantage of the segulah of these days. Again with a hisorerus, a hisorerus for that tikkun and a tikkun on a level of a tzibbur. That people should accept that again bli neder commitment to write their name down so it's a real again it's bli neder, to write your name down to join in that seder if one can envision beginning it right now tonight as מה טוב ומה נעים, if for this semester one's sedarim already are set and one doesn't have the flexibility to change, so then the commitment can be made as of next semester and it would be a wonderful wonderful way of on a tzibbur level, of taking advantage of the segulah of these days to try to absorb so that we walk away from Chanukah with some of that haora of the Mikdash until we're zocheh to the Mikdash itself.