Oil Explorations
R. Yaakov Bieler
Chanuka 5770
Commentators over the years have striven to account for the sharply divergent presentations of the Chanuka miracle in our liturgy, on the one hand, and in the Oral Tradition on the other. The Al HaNissim additional paragraph, specifically catered to the Chanuka festival[1] and added to the Silent Devotion as well as the Grace after Meals, delineates the miracles and wonders associated with a decidedly military victory over the enemies of the Jews:[2]
We thank you also for the miracles, redemptions, the mighty deeds and the “Milchamot” (victories in battle) which you performed for our ancestors in those days at this time…
You Delivered the strong into the hands of the weak, the many into the hands of the few, the impure into the hands of the pure, the wicked into the hands of the righteous and the arrogant into the hands of those engaged in your Tora…[3]
The reference at
the end of the paragraph to the purification and rededication of the
Your Children then (i.e., after the miracle was completed) entered the holiest part of Your House, cleansed Your Temple, purified your sanctuary, kindled lights in Your Holy Court (as part of and perhaps even the culmination of the clean-up,) and designated these eight days of Chanuka for giving thanks and praise to Your Great Name.
The Talmud, however, omits completely reference to the military victory associated with Chanuka:[4]
Shabbat 21b
When the kingdom of the Hasmoneans was victorious, they searched and found only one cruse of oil with the seal of the high priest intact. It had enough oil to light the Menora for one day, but a miracle occurred and they lit the Menora with it for eight days.
R. Avraham Yitzchak HaKohen Kook, the first Ashkenazic Chief Rabbi of the State of Israel, suggested an evocative, visionary, mystical, homiletic approach to the singular passage in the Talmud describing the miracle of Chanuka:
Ma’amarei HaRe’iyah[5]
…Still deeper in the heart, the light of the Jewish soul dwells. The inner bond of the Jew…with the fundamental faith in the Name of the Lord, God of Israel, and the firm venerable will not to abandon his life-giving faith, lies hidden there…
But when the cruse remains insignificant, when faith is buried in the heart and does not actively influence life, how can it survive?...
At that time of confusion, when Greek lifestyles infiltrated Eretz Yisrael, the inner spark of faith which remained buried deep in the Jewish heart was symbolized by that small cruse of oil with the seal of the High Priest, which had escaped contamination by foreigners. But can its light endure when the predominant lifestyle does not strengthen it, disseminate it, or make it felt in the heart?...Yet a miracle occurred. Although life was then unprepared to impregnated with the holy light of the principle faith, nevertheless, by the force of God’s Hand and His Commitment not to abandon His People for the sake of His Great Name, the small cruse furnished enough oil to burn for eight days. The eight days represent the passing of the present era nd the advent of the splendid future age of sanctity, when (Yeshayahu 11:9) “the earth shall be filled with knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.”
When the two views of Chanuka are compared, it becomes readily apparent that only the Talmud’s version could be interpreted in a manner that it would apply to individual Jews throughout the ages. Rather than dealing with an historical event that involved the people as a whole and its army confronting a particular enemy with a specific agenda, the Talmud’s depiction fo the Chanuka miracle can be related to the existential reality of the Jew who could be described as “Tocho Lav KeBoro” (the depths of his soul is not like his outer appearance/behavior.)[6] In fact, while such a disconnect obviously applies to the condition of the Jew who is barely associated with the Jewish community, it at all, it simultaneously captures the reality of even the most committed and devoted religious individual. Is each of us as spiritual as s/he at heart and in essence has the potential to be? R. Kook implies that every Jew possesses a “sealed, pure cruse of oil”, i.e., a reservoir of holiness and spirituality, within, and there is the potential for “miracles” if only we would search and hopefully discover that elusive reservoir. RaMA in Shulchan Aruch, Orech Chayim 670:1 mentions the custom for women not to do Melacha during the time that the Chanuka candles are lit, and Mishna Berura #3 notes that in certain places, men follow this practice as well.[7] It seems to me that Chanuka could be made that much more spiritually meaningful if we would set aside that time when the candles are burning and think about how we could access and channel that mystical hidden cruse of oil within us. In that way we could energize not only the eight days of Chanuka, but our entire Jewish lives!
Chag Urim Sameach!
[1] A separate version is recited on Purim.
[2] From this perspective, the miracles of Purim and Chanuka are quite parallel, both involving the Jewish people physically defending themselves and defeating their enemies, be they the followers of Haman or the Syrian-Greeks. The introductory line of Al HaNisim that includes “Milchamot” is an appropriate lead-in for the specific events described in the subsequent paragraph.
[3] The
Koren Siddur, with intro, trans. and comment. by R. Jonathan Sacks, Koren,
[4] The
minimalist and specifically spiritual discussion of Chanuka, to which neither a
book included in the biblical canon nor a Masechet is devoted, in contrast to
Megillat Esther and Masechet Megilla,
takes on even greater significance in light of the discussion of the physical
destruction of
[5]
[6] This formulation is the converse of the qualities that R. Gamliel demanded in order to gain admittance to the Beit Midrash when he was the Nasi—see Berachot 28a.
[7] Mishna Berura #3 mentions that specifically women focusing on the lighting of the candles, as opposed to men, is a manifestation of the Talmudic comment, e.g., Shabbat 23a, Pesachim 108b, that “Af Hein Hayu B’Oto HaNeis”, which according to RaShBaM (Tosafot ultimately rejects this interpretation) means that women played the main role in the miracle. The reference is to Yehudit, the daughter of the Kohein Gadol who cut off Holofernes’ head, signaling the beginning of the insurrection against the Syrian-Greeks, described in the Apocryphal book, Judith.