Chanukah & Tefillah

ועשו יום טוב בהלל ובהודאה לא שעשו במלאכה שלא נקבעו אלא לקרוא הלל ולומר על הניסים בהודאה.

The kashya is yadua, it's not really not gonna preoccupy us at the moment. Why, according to Rashi's understanding of the Baraisa in Megillas Taanis, there is no mention of Chanukah? Be that as it may, the whole Yom Tov, the whole Yom Tov of Chanukah is a Yom Tov of Hallel, it's a Yom Tov of Hoda'ah, and and that's its reflected in the Al Hanisim: וקבעו שמונת ימי חנוכה אלו להודות ולהלל לשמך הגדול. Chanukah is a Yom Tov of Hallel and Hoda'ah. Now the Ibn Ezra has an interesting comment in Tehillim on the posuk: טוב להודות לה' ולזמר לשמך עליון. I think that's where the Ibn Ezra is. The Ibn Ezra comments that lehodos l'hashem is with emunah baleiv, and then ulezamer is to articulate, to voice that feeling of Hoda'ah which is baleiv. So Hoda'ah is baleiv, the Ibn Ezra says. There's a very interesting Bach here in Taf Resh Ayin, the Piskei Teshuvos is metzayen this Bach. He's commenting on the shitas HaMaharal, which is like the Rambam, that there is no mitzvas simcha on Chanukah. So the Bach is discussing, so why is it that Purim has a mitzvas simcha, Chanukah doesn't have a mitzvas simcha?

איכא למדק היא גופא קשיא למה לא קבעום למשתה ולשמחה כמו בפורים ונראה דבפורים עיקר הגזירה הייתה לפי שנהנו מסעודתו של אותו רשע ועל כן נגזר עליהם להרוג ולאבד את הגופים שנהנו מאכילה ושתייה של איסור ושמחה ומשתה של איסור וכשעשו תשובה עינו נפשותם כמו שאמר אסתר כנוס את כל היהודים הנמצאים בשושן וצום עלי ואל תאכלו ואל תשתו שלושת ימים ולפיכך קבעום למשתה ויום טוב לזכור עיקר הנס.

So what precipitated the near calamity was a simcha shel issur. The tikun for that, the teshuva for that, was the inuy of taanis. And then mimaila Chazal koveia keneged that, through the inuy, through the teshuva, through the inuy, mimaila so that the result is that there's a simcha shel hoda'ah.

אבל בחנוכה עיקר הגזירה הייתה על שהתרשלו בעבודה ועל כן הייתה הגזירה לבטל מהם העבודה וכשחזרו בתשובה למסור נפשם על העבודה הושיעם השם על ידי כוהנים עובדי העבודה בבית השם על כן נעשה הנס גם כן בנרות תחת אשר העבירו נפשם למות על קיום העבודה ולפיכך לא קבעום אלא להלל ולהודות שהיא העבודה שבלב.

So the Bach says something very interesting. The Bach says, again, the whole tzaros and the whole nisayon which forms the background to Chanukah was because of a hisrashlus ba'avodah, which is why the tikun, the teshuva, was to be moseir nefesh for avodah led by the Kohanim. And that's why Chazal wanted that the observance of Chanukah should be through avodah. Aye, but the observance of Chanukah is not going to be limited to Mikdash, so the observance of Chanukah is through something which is a kiyum avodah, d'hainu avodah shebalev. So clearly this Bach has relevance to what we were discussing last night in terms of Chanukah being a Yom Tov of Mikdash. So kumt ois that according to the Bach, Chanukah is a Yom Tov of Mikdash, not only... in the sense that Ner Chanukah, the Baal HaMaor, the Ramban because of its connection to neiros shebeMikdash, but be-emes even the קבעום ועשאום ימים טובים בהלל והודאה is basically because Chazal were looking for something which would be a kiyum avodah. Because Chanukah is a Yom Tov of Mikdash, so what, where do we have avodah chutz la-Mikdash besides the chiddush of Ner Chanukah? It's through avodah shebelev. So what emerges, again, the Ibn Ezra that the semantics of lehodos is balev. This Bach that אלא להלל ולהודות שהיא עבודה שבלב, that Chanukah is a Yom Tov of avodah shebelev. And again, related to the perhaps overall idea that Chanukah is essentially a Yom Tov of Mikdash. So let's reflect just for a few moments, what does it mean when the Gemara in Taanis, the Sifrei, the Rambam quotes in the beginning of Hilchos Tefilla that איזהו עבודה שבלב הוי אומר זו תפילה? What does it mean? First of all, just what do the words mean and what's the idea which is being expressed in the words? So the peshat is that avodah shebelev means an avodah which happens in the heart, like we talk about a kiyum shebelev. An avodah which happens in the heart, beis denoting place. There's this very interesting line in the Rabbeinu Yonah. In the sugya in yud-beis where he's holding wine and he thinks he's holding beer, and where he's holding beer and he thinks he's holding wine, so פתח ובירך אדעתא דבורא פרי הגפן וסיים בדשהכל. So there's a major machlokes in the Rishonim whether it means that he actually mistakenly said borei peri ha-gafen or just when he was thinking, what he was thinking when he said the Shem u-Malchus of the bracha was that he should say borei peri ha-gafen, but le-ma'aseh he never mistakenly said that. By the time he finished melech ha-olam, he recognized that it was beer and he said shehakol. So that second peshat that he never actually made a mistake about what he was saying, so the question is, so what that he had in mind the wrong bracha when he said the Shem u-Malchus? Or the way that Talmidei Rabbeinu Yonah present the question is Talmidei Rabbeinu Yonah assume that we pasken מצוות אין צריכות כוונה, and based on that there's a lot to be done on which isn't our issue at the moment. So da me-hacha, so who cares what he was thinking? How can it be the fact that when I said the Shem u-Malchus I was planning on saying borei peri ha-gafen, מצוות אין צריכות כוונה anyway? So in that context, the Rabbeinu Yonah writes as follows.

ויש לומר דאפילו מי שסובר דמצוות אין צריכות כוונה הני מילי בדבר שיש בו מעשה שהמעשה הוא במקום כוונה כגון נטילת לולב דאמינא דמיגו דאגבהה נפיק בה וכן כל כיוצא בזה אבל במצווה שתלויה באמירה בלבד ודאי צריכה כוונה שהאמירה היא בלב וכשאינו מכוון באמירה ואינו עושה מעשה נמצא כמי שלא עשה שום דבר מן המצוות.

Okay, so Rabbeinu Yonah says... So the Yanash says that if you take a lulav without kavanos mitzvah, but the ma'aseh, you still did the action which the Torah prescribes. You did an act of ולקחתם לכם ביום הראשון. If you say words of a beracha without any kavana, so then that's not even what the Torah prescribed. Similar to to Rav Chaim's chiddush in terms of tefillah. That the kavana is not supplementary, the kavana doesn't accompany, but the kavana is me'etzem hama'aseh. But the lashon here in Rabbeinu Yonah is very interesting.

מצווה שתלויה באמירה בלבד ודאי צריכה כוונה שהאמירה היא בלב.

What's the amira hi baleiv? The amira is not baleiv. The amira is with the akimas sefasayim. To make the amira is baleiv. So lechora, the translation in Rabbeinu Yonah she'ha'amira hi baleiv means that amira is not in the heart, but with the heart. With the heart. You can have a netilas lulav shelo baleiv. It doesn't have to be with the heart. It's better if it's with the heart. But it can be shelo baleiv. You can have a netila without the leiv. Amira, it isn't in the heart, amira is not baleiv in the sense of in the heart. Amira is with the heart. Dehainu, without the heart, without the kavana, again, it's Rav Chaim's yesod that the kavana is not supplementary, not miding kavana, but it's me'etzem hama'aseh. Same thing over here. But the usage of baleiv is very interesting. Baleiv means not in the heart, it means with the heart. What's meyuchad about avodas hakorbanos? What's so distinctive, what's so special about avodas hakorbanos? So kemiduma that in sefarim the following explanation is given. When you makriv a korban, maybe most dramatically an olah, but it's certainly true for every korban, the entire gashmius, the entire physicality is misaleh for avodas Hashem, for ruchnius. Even by the korbanos hane'echalin, so is be'alim, is כהנים אוכלים ובעלים מתכפרים. Amazing thing that the achilas hakohanim, achilas hakohanim is a source of kapara. כהנים אוכלים ובעלים מתכפרים. We don't go back kammah last year, of course according to Rashi, even the cheilek haba'alim is משולחן גבוה קא זכו. Not only the cheilek hakohanim, but in a shelamim, where is the cheilek haba'alim? The cheilek haba'alim is also משולחן גבוה קא זכו. So what you have by avodas hakorbanos is that the entire again the entire davar gashmi is totally totally misaleh because it's completely harnessed for avodas Hashem. That accomplishment, that iluy is avoda. That iluy is avoda. The Nefesh Hachaim stresses the fact, quotes the Magen Avraham, that we pasken that hirhur lav kedibbur, even when it comes to tefillah. Even when it comes to tefillah, which is avoda shebaleiv. You would have thought that when it comes to tefillah, so perhaps that'll be an exception. And by tefillah we should pasken hirhur hi kedibbur. No. Even by tefillah, hirhur lav kedibbur. Dehainu, there has to be an akimas sefasayim by tefillah. A person has to be motzi bepeh tefillah. So kumt ois that for a person to davon, the entire person... Every the machshava, dibbur, ma'ase, all has to merge and all has to blend in order for a person to be mispalel. If there's no kavanah, the tefillah is nothing, tefillah is nothing. Amira hi balev. It's with the heart. Without the heart, it's an empty shell. The heart is not enough. Hirhur lav kedibbur. A person has to speak, dibbur, and dibbur, the Gemara tells us, is also a bechina of ma'ase because עקימת שפתיהם הוי מעשה the Gemara says. The movement of the lips, which is involved in speech, is something that we also classify as a ma'ase. So when a person davens, when a person davens, so all chelkei haneshama, the machshava associated with neshama, and and the dibbur associated with ruach, and ma'ase associated with nefesh, everything is involved when a person davens. That's a bechina of avodah, bechina of avodah. Avodah shebelev, it may be the pshat is, not only an avodah which is in the heart, but it's an avodah that's with the heart, avodah that's with the heart. Lulav, every mitzvah in the Torah don't have to be with the heart. And even if you hold, even if you hold that mitzvos tzrichos kavanah, but the heart is, is, is something, again, it's midin kavanah, it's not me'etzem hama'ase. But the one mitzvah, the one mitzvah where everything converges, the entire person, is in tefillah. On another occasion, we have to come back beli neder, the Sifrei also darshans that ul'ovdo is not only tefillah, but ul'ovdo is talmud also. Have to come back to that on another occasion beli neder. So Chanukah then is a yom tov of avodah shebelev, the Bais tells us. It's a yom tov of avodah shebelev. Avodah shebelev is not only with the formal tefillah of shevach, bakasha, and hodaya, but hallel and hodaya also is belev. It means that, that a person has an enhanced capacity, if that's the mitzvah hayom, so it means that these days are especially mesugalam for avodah shebelev. Whatever the havana of avodah shebelev is, whether avodah which is in the heart, inward, or whether it's an avodah which is with the heart, but either way lichora, if the heart is central to the mitzvah, so the mitzvah can't be any more pure than the heart is that the person brings to bear on the mitzvah. The avodah can't be more tehorah than the lev is tahor. If the amira is belev, is with the heart, is through the heart, is because of the heart, so that amira, the zakus ha'amira is going to be directly tied in and and the function of the zakus halev, which is why it also says in sefarim that Chanukah is a zman of teshuva. Chanukah is a zman of teshuva. The according to the sefarim, the teshuva season of Tishrei, of Yamim Noraim, doesn't end until Zos Chanukah. If it's a day, eight days where the mitzvas hayom is עשאן ימים טובים בהלל ובהודאה. It's a day of avoda she-balev, a day of enhanced capacity for avoda she-balev, for a person to develop his ability for avoda she-balev, when Pesach is a zman where the mitzvas hayom is emuna, it means that a person can intensify and he can deepen his emuna, and on Shavuos a person can intensify and deepen his commitment, his connection to Torah, to talmud Torah. So on Hanukkah, the days are mesugal for a person to be able to cultivate and make his experience of avoda she-balev more genuine, more meaningful, more profound. And that can only happen in tandem with a teshuva, which means that the zman, as it says in the seforim, is also mesugal for teshuva. And all of that is part of the avodas hayom of Hanukkah.