Chanukah; Mamleches Kohanim V’Goy Kadosh

Well, we had the the Rashi in the parsha but what what the mashma'us in Rashi is that Rava's svara mechozei is where he's told to the the person is being ne'enas to kill a Yisroel. So then there's a svara mechozei. But had he been told the the Ben Noach so then there's no svara mechozei. We mentioned the Pri Megadim's Pri Megadim's diyuk in Rashi. There's another another well-known din that me'ikar hadin before one factors in eivah before one factors in even worse than eivah even actual possible sakonas nefashos but mamash me'ikar hadin so פקוח נפש אבי ישראל would be doche Shabbos but פקוח נפש אבי עכום is not doche Shabbos. Chanukah one of the themes of Chanukah certainly the who spoke about it first Noam and then then the Noni spoke about it the the relationship between Yisroel u'mose ha'olam that's one of the common motifs between Sukkos and Chanukah. So it's kedai to try to understand what these dinim represent what these dinim reflect. It's mamash gufei Torah. There's a Gemara towards the end of the fourth perek in maseches Shavuos that the Gemara talks about prefixes and suffixes which are attached to shem Hashem so whether or not they're niskadesh with kedushas Hashem that the special issur mechika לא תעשון כן להשם אלקיכם which applies to shem Hashem does it apply to the to the prefixes and suffixes as well. So everyone agrees it doesn't apply to the prefix. The suffix is a machlokes tannaim. The tana kamma says that

כל הטפל להשם בין מלפניו בין מאחריו הרי זה נמחק

and אחרים אומרים מאחריו אינו נמחק שכבר קדשו השם. And Amar Rav Huna halacha k'acherim. We pasken k'acherim. So what does that mean? So it means when it says Elokeinu so the nun-vov the suffix of nun-vov has kedushas Hashem. So at first glance you see the words shekvar kidsho Hashem so you think that the difference between the prefix and the suffix is that by the time the the letters of the suffix are written so at that point you already have the shem Hashem so memaila it's being nitpal to a shem Hashem. Mashenkein when you write l'Hashem when you write the prefix you don't have the shem Hashem yet so it's not being nitpal to the shem Hashem. But the Rav says that lichora that doesn't that doesn't seem to be the correct pshat because let's say if you're writing yud-kei-vov-kei you're writing Elokim no prefix no suffix you write an aleph so an aleph can be what's the what's the game with letters? Scrabble? No no no that you play orally. Ghost? Yeah ghost exactly. So you begin with an aleph so it could be anything you could end up with end up with with a shem Hashem you can end up with anything. So what do you do? So after you write the rest of the letters and you form a shem Hashem so you say oh so now that you see that the aleph is part of a shem Hashem so you have to go back and and look at the osios in retrospect anyway as it were. So if that's the case you should be able to go back to the prefix also. So what then is the difference that acherim have in mind between a prefix and a suffix? So the Rav says this is in in one of the yahrtzeit shiurim it's printed before that it's also in a footnote. The Rav says an amazing thing. He says we assume the halacha that Tzeva'ot is shem HaShem. It's shem HaShem. It's kodesh. Meaning that the translation of HaShem Tzeva'ot is not Lord of Hosts. It doesn't refer to the tzivos hashomayim or any other any other hosts, but Tzeva'ot is another shem HaShem. Given the fact that Tzeva'ot follows on the heels of the shem Havayah, Yud-Kei-Vav-Kei, why do we understand it to be its own shem? Doesn't it seem more cogent that it takke is a smichus and that it takke means something like Lord of Hosts? So the Rav quotes Ibn Ezra from Yesod Mora, Ibn Ezra's philosophical work, where the Ibn Ezra says because the shem Yud-Kei-Vav-Kei can't be in smichus to anything. Because the shem Yud-Kei-Vav-Kei alludes to, let's say like the Rambam holds for argument's sake, but it doesn't depend upon that. It's true what we're saying is true according to the Nefesh HaChaim as well even though he doesn't agree with this next line from the Rambam. But in terms of the svara of Yud-Kei-Vav-Kei and why it can't be b'smichus. So the Rambam says that the Yud- that Yud-Kei-Vav-Kei, why does it have special status al pi halacha more than than other- it has a din of shem hamforash more than than Elokim and and Keil and Shakai and Tzeva'ot. Because Yud-Kei-Vav-Kei is not a description of some middah of HaKadosh Baruch Hu's actions but that's actually HaKadosh Baruch Hu's name. Yud-Kei-Vav-Kei actually represents HaKadosh Baruch Hu. So HaKadosh Baruch Hu is absolute and independent of everything so the name Yud-Kei-Vav-Kei can't be in smichus to anything. So memaila Tzeva'ot, it can't be a smichus construct because the shem Yud-Kei-Vav-Kei can't be in smichus to anything because HaKadosh Baruch Hu is hu eino tzarich to any- anything else, so that's how we know that Tzeva'ot isn't- isn't something to which Yud-Kei-Vav-Kei is nismach. That notwithstanding the fact that you don't find the shem Yud-Kei-Vav-Kei ever nismach to anything, you do- the Rav says that this is the sort of the revolution that HaKadosh Baruch Hu- HaKadosh Baruch Hu brings about when he says to Avraham Avinu in Parshas Lech Lecha:

והקימותי את בריתי ביני ובינך ובין זרעך אחריך לדורותם לברית עולם להיות לך לאלוקים ולזרעך אחריך.

I'm going to be להיות לך לאלוקים. What, until now HaKadosh Baruch Hu wasn't- wasn't their God? What does it mean להיות לך לאלוקים? So the Rav says what HaKadosh Baruch Hu here is saying is that I will make myself known in the world as אלוקי אברהם אלוקי יצחק ואלוקי יעקב. And that even though you don't find the shem Yud-Kei-Vav-Kei b'smichus but you do find Elokim, right, you do find אלוקי אברהם אלוקי יצחק ואלוקי יעקב. De'hainu HaKadosh Baruch Hu says I will reveal myself in the world through you. I will make myself known to the world, I will make myself known within the world through you. And as it were I will become identified with you. The Beis HaLevi says the same idea in a- so that's what the Rav says is pshat the nitpal HaShem l'achronov, that's what it means. It's not stam a suffix. The prefix is a prefix to HaShem. A person is nishba b'HaShem. So the bais is stam a prefix. But when it says Elokeinu, so that's part of the shem that HaKadosh Baruch Hu says that That that he he's identified with us, that he that he reveals himself through us, and that takeh becomes nitpal to the Shem. And and that takeh is is niskadesh bikdushas Hashem. So ad kan devarav. The Beis Halevi says something very much the same. He doesn't say it based on halacha. He says it more based on aggada and and takeh in parshas hashavua, in parshas Vayigash, when Hakadosh Baruch Hu says to Yaakov Avinu

אל תירא מרדה מצרימה אנכי ארד עמך מצרימה ואנכי אעלך גם עלה.

So what does it mean that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is going down to Mitzrayim? What does it mean Hakadosh Baruch Hu is coming back up? So the Beis Halevi says, no, that's what it means. That what, and what does it mean that the Shechina is in galus with us? He says what it means is that again, since Hakadosh Baruch Hu

כאן בוא לו ההבטחה הגדולה שבכל ההבטחות שיהיה נקרא שמו,

Hashem's name,

שיהיה נקרא שמו על ישראל והכוונה בזה דלעולם לא יפרסם שם כבודו בעולם על ידי מעשה היוצא חוץ מדרך הטבע רק באמצעות צורך ישועתן של ישראל ועל ידי ישועת ישראל יתפרסם שם כבודו בכל העולם.

And therefore,

בכל מעשה ובכל זמן שיהיו ישראל בשפלות חלילה ממילא יהיה גם כבודו בהסתר ובהעלם.

And that's what he said to him, אנכי ארד עמך מצרימה. That's what it means Hakadosh Baruch Hu is going down to Mitzrayim, that that when Klal Yisrael is shafel, so then kvod Hashem in the world is also mushpal and also becomes nistar because of this exclusive identification and and exclusive agency for Hashem making himself known in the world. So if if you reflect on that for a minute, so what it means is that every every single Yiddishe neshama, every single Jew is עם זו יצרתי לי תהלתי יספרו is a representative of Hakadosh Baruch Hu to the world. That's that's what it means to be part of of the am hanivchar. When when we see again the Rashi with which we began in the Mei'achazas, or whether the din of pikuach nefesh and and we think that that dehumanizes the ben Noach, we miss the point. It doesn't dehumanize the ben Noach, but it says that there's a much higher madrega than than being human, and that is to be an eved Hashem, to to belong to Hakadosh Baruch Hu kulo kulo, that אנכי ארד עמך מצרימה ואנכי אעלך גם עלה. And and it's this distinction which is reflected in in such dinim as as we mentioned. But this is a tremendous mechayev also. It's a tremendous mechayev. Beis Halevi continues, that's what it means when Chazal point out that Hakadosh Baruch Hu says that I was meshatef my name in your name. That the name Kel is integrated into Yisrael. That's what it means. A person's name is a person's reputation, that Hakadosh Baruch Hu's reputation is linked to our reputation. And you see that so much in Chumash. That's what Moshe Rabbeinu is being mispallel in in the tefilla of Vayichal. We said Hallel this morning. So the meforshim all explain in

לא לנו ה' לא לנו כי לשמך תן כבוד על חסדך על אמתך.

That it's takeh a bakasha that Hakadosh Baruch Hu should. exclusively associated with us and that's the pesukim the well-known pesukim in Sefer Yechezkel as well when Hakadosh Baruch Hu says לא למענכם אני עושה אלא למעני. Again, the same yesod that Hakadosh Baruch Hu identifies himself in the world with Klal Yisrael. That's more than being human. It's not dehumanizing anyone else, but that is something incredibly greater. Problem is we don't have enough of a chush for that. Too often we feel that ben Noach has... okay, so ben Noach pours he eats whatever he wants and we look for the OU or the Kaf-K as the case may be before we eat or drink. Afilu more mitzvot. A few more mitzvot. But it's a difference between having some mitzvot and being an Am Kadosh which means that every person is devoted, his life is sacrosanct to representing Hakadosh Baruch Hu in the world. And that's what every Jew's mission is. Every single Jew's mission. It's not only if a person is by vocation a klei kodesh. Every Jew's, that's every Jew's calling in the world.

אתה אחד ושמך אחד ומי כעמך ישראל גוי אחד בארץ.

How can you mention a yichud like Hashem, so how can we mention the same breath alongside achdus Hashem, ומי כעמך ישראל גוי אחד בארץ? Because the answer is obviously we're not equating the achdus, but the point is the fact that there's an Am Echad ba'aretz is to serve as a testimony, as a testament to אתה אחד ושמך אחד. That's what Rashi quotes Moshe Rabbeinu tell Korach and the 250 people, he says le'ovdei avodah zarah he says they have lots of gods. So they have lots of gods, so they can have lots of Kohanim Gedolim and they can have lots of everything. Says אנו יש לנו אלוה ה' אחד and Torah Achas and Kohen Gadol Echad. All the echads in the world are intended to give testimony to the ultimate Echad of Hashem Echad. That's what's reflected in these dinim. It's not a difference between seven and 613. It's a difference between u'shmeinu karasa bishmecha. That it's not just that a person is governed, regulated by mitzvot, but the person's entire essence is supposed to be representing and looking to increase Kavod Shamayim in the world. It can be done and should be done in many different avenues. It's not only if a person again vocationally becomes a teacher of Torah. If that's the right thing for him, he should definitely do it. If that's not the right thing for him, it doesn't mean that he doesn't share in the same mission of bringing and representing Kavod Shamayim to the world. The Rambam has... we discuss I don't remember. Rambam has a teshuva where he was asked about listening to Arabic music. And the Rambam has five different issurim you can be over. He says first of all it's all stupidity and he says it's assur to listen to stupid things. He says shichlus tipshus is assur. Stupidity is assur. Not supposed to, not supposed to, infect and expose his mind to that. Then he says if it's accompanied by instrumentation, so the Rambam there in the Teshuvos has the most, most chumordika understanding of the Gemara in the first perek of Gittin that that not just beveis mishtaos, and not just with a regularity where you wake up in the morning as Tosafos says and are serenaded by, by instrumentation. But the Rambam takke talks about basically any, any musical instrumentation. And then he says if you have a woman vocalist, that'll be a third issur, and then if it's a beis hamishteh, you add another issur. And then after he lists off all the issurim, so then the Rambam says, he says hamuchuvan banu, he says that we should be a goy kadosh. That's what we're supposed to do. And what does that mean? So what that really means and what we have to aspire, again, every one of us has to aspire to, to work towards, is, again, this is the Hebrew translation of the Rambam's teshuvah: שלא תהיה לנו שום פועל או מחשבה, we shouldn't have any activity or even any thoughts unless bilti if it's either in shleimus or דבר המביא לידי שלמות. Because that's what it means to be a goy kadosh. To be a goy kadosh means, it's not the pshat that, okay, when I eat, there's a mitzvah that regulates what I eat because I have to make sure I'm eating kosher, and then I have to make a bracha achrona. Okay, but now until sort of the next mitzvah regulation is relevant, so now I'm sort of in neutral land. No, המכוון בנו להיות גוי קדוש, that's what we're talking about again, is, is that a person totally, totally belongs to Hakadosh Baruch Hu because of ushmeinu karasa bishmecha, because if Hakadosh Baruch Hu is exclusively identified with us, so that means that we have to bechol maaseinu we have to be preoccupied with the Ribono Shel Olam. So halevai that we should all be able to move in that direction and realize the challenge and the bracha of ממלכת כהנים וגוי קדוש. Amein.

יתברך שמך בפי כל חי תמיד תמיד לעולם ועד יתברך שמך בפי כל חי תמיד תמיד לעולם ועד.