Reena Straus and Hannah Oziel, Grade 12

The Chanukah story tells of all the struggling and suffering the Jews faced under Greek rule while Antiochus was king. We learn that the Greeks did not care about annihilating us physically, but rather they wanted to Hellenize us in order to extinguish the light of Judaism and, more specifically, the light of the Torah. We learn this from one of the first lines of Al Hanisim when we read: “כְּשֶׁעָמְדָה מַלְכוּת יָוָן הָרְשָׁעָה עַל עַמְּךָ יִשְׂרָאֵל לְהַשְׁכִּיחָם תּוֹרָתֶךָ”, which translates to “the evil kingdom of Greece stood against Your people Israel in order to make them forget Your Torah.” 

But as we know, the Greeks did not succeed in extinguishing our love and desire to become closer to Hashem and His Torah. Rather the opposite happened, and they made us want it more. It allowed us to rise up and rebel, and when we won, we reclaimed and repurified the Beit HaMikdash. This was when the miracle of Chanukah happened: instead of the oil lasting for one day, it lasted for eight. This is why we light eight candles and have eight nights today. But because of this miraculous event, we tend to overlook the other miracles and lessons we can see and gain from other parts of the Chanukah story. Specifically, what do we do to remember and learn from the Jews’ devotion to continue serving Hashem in such difficult times?

The answer lies within the candles themselves. The quote “כִּ֤י נֵ֣ר מִ֖צְוָה וְת֣וֹרָה א֑וֹר – a mitzvah is a candle and the Torah is light” (Mishlei 6:23), can teach us the Chanukah candles represent mitzvot. Furthermore, they can represent our victory over the Greeks in keeping our Judaism and Torah alive while they were trying so hard to repress it. The addition of a candle each night can further teach us that within Torah and mitzvot, one should never be content with what was done yesterday. Every day, one should strive to improve on his or her mitzvot and Torah learning. It is not easy and should be taken one step at a time, one mitzvah at a time, and iy”H, we can bring many more mitzvot into our lives to help us bring Mashiach even closer and celebrate Chanukah in Yerushalayim next year! 

What Are We Searching For?

Morah Efrat Burkis

Chanukah is often described as the Festival of Lights. We find “light” being used regarding the mitzvah of Pesach, where the Gemara learns that one should use a light to search for chametz based on the verse in Mishlei, which says, “Man’s soul is Hashem’s lamp which searches all the innermost parts.” Chanukah, which the Gemara in Masechet Shabbat describes the mitzvah as נר איש וביתו, light for a man and his household, also requires us to search for something.

What are we supposed to be searching for?

The entire battle between the Greeks and the Jews was because the Greeks attempted to make the Jews forget the Torah. Therefore, it makes sense that we should use the light of Chanukah to search within ourselves whether we are learning enough Torah. 

We are told that the spiritual entities of each festival return each year; therefore, in spirit, we – this year – are once again fighting the Greeks who are trying to make us forget our Torah. As such, it’s precisely during Chanukah that we should strengthen our learning and appreciation of Torah. And just like the negative spiritual entity of the Greeks is present during Chanukah, so is the positive spiritual entity of the Maccabim, who were willing to sacrifice everything to protect the Torah. Therefore, this Chanukah, if we commit to increasing our Torah study, no matter how hard it is, we will surely use the Chanukah lights with meaning.

Gratitude for Miracles

Yosef Grauer, Student Council President, Grade 12

Three times each day, we daven to Hashem. The main part of our tefillah is Shemoneh Esrei. During Shemoneh Esrei, we grow our connection with Hashem and ask Hashem to help us in many different ways. As soon as we finish our requests, we close by thanking Hashem. During this final part of the Shemoneh Esrei, we mention our chagim, split between Ya’aleh V’yavo and Al Hanisim.

We, of course, know that there are two main miracles we celebrate on Chanukah: (1) the miracle of the oil and (2) the miracle of the war. Yet the focus during Modim is on the miracle of the war instead of focusing on the oil. Why do we focus on the miracle of the war during Shemoneh Esrei instead of the obviously supernatural miracle of the oil?

To answer this question, we need to look at the focus of davening. Throughout tefillah we highlight miracles that Hashem has performed, and we thank Him for everything He has done for us. At the beginning of Pesukei D’zimra we say “זִכְרוּ נִפְלְאֹתָיו אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה מֹפְתָיו וּמִשְׁפְּטֵי פִיהוּ – Remember the wonders He has performed, His miracles, and the laws from His mouth.”

Towards the end of Pesukei D’zimra in Ashrei, ַwe focus on thanking Hashem for all He has done for us and praising Him for helping us with all of our challenges throughout history.

All the way at the end of Shemoneh Esrei during Modim, we mention miracles one last time. We thank Hashem “עַל נִסֶּיךָ שֶׁבְּכָל יוֹם וְעַל נִסֶּיךָ שֶׁבְּכָל יוֹם עִמָּנוּ, וְעַל נִפְלְאוֹתֶיךָ וְטוֹבוֹתֶיךָ שֶׁבְּכָל עֵת, עֶרֶב וָבֹקֶר וְצָהֳרָיִם – for Your miracles of every day with us, and for Your wonders and benefactions at all times – evening, morning and noon.”

When it comes to thanking Hashem for miracles, we know there are two types. We have miracles that are revealed to us and those that are hidden. Each holiday we celebrate revolves around a revealed miracle: on Sukkot, Ananei HaKavod; on Pesach, Yetziat Mitzrayim; and on Shavuot, Matan Torah. We also celebrate Chanukah because of a revealed miracle, the miracle of the oil, but during tefillah we focus on the everyday miracles. We praise Hashem for the miracle of the war because we focus on the hidden miracles during tefillah. Tefillah teaches us to appreciate the miracles that Hashem does for us every day.

As Rabbi Sacks says so beautifully, “Faith is about seeing the miraculous in the everyday, not about waiting every day for the miraculous.”

We can learn from tefillah and Al Hanisim that we need to live every day looking for the miracles that Hashem does each and every day, appreciate every way that Hashem helps us, and find Hashem in every part of life.

The Idea Lives on Forever

Mr. Jonathan Parker, Assistant Principal

The Jewish People are colloquially known as “The People of Book” – we celebrate Bar Mitzvahs with a young man reading from the Torah, we lein three times a week, and our Batei Midrash are known primarily for their boisterous debates over Gemara. Almost every holiday is associated with a specific text, including Purim, which happened outside of Israel and doesn’t even mention God. Chanukah here stands out as an anomaly – not only does it have no sacred text, but the closest thing to it is merely apocryphal. Even the Gemara has scant references to the holiday, aside from the infamous candle-debate of Hillel and Shammai and the rules in Masechet Shabbat governing the day. There isn’t even a commentary in the Mishna about the holiday, contrary to every other holiday in the calendar. As the Gemara asks, מאי חנוכה? What gives?

One answer (among several) that Chanukah’s possible texts – the Books of the Maccabees – were relegated to the Apocrypha is because the Chashmona’im didn’t live up to the ideals they professed at the outset. It is true that the religious zeal we read about in בִּימֵי מַתִּתְיָֽהוּ allowed us to recapture the Beit HaMikdash, and has become the basis for all manner of modern Zionist military tropes, in addition to leading to the miracle for which the holiday is so famous. But what happened after that victory? As described in Masechet Kiddushin: 

וַיֹּאמֶר יְהוּדָה בֶּן גְּדִידְיָה לְיַנַּאי הַמֶּלֶךְ יַנַּאי הַמֶּלֶךְ רַב לְךָ כֶּתֶר מַלְכוּת הַנַּח כֶּתֶר כְּהוּנָּה לְזַרְעוֹ שֶׁל אַהֲרֹן

The Chashmona’im, after defeating the Greeks and Hellenism, claimed both the priesthood as well as the kingship, when they should have been content with just the one. The Rabbis of the Gemara are critical of the Chashmona’im for overstepping their roles, for going beyond the spiritual and military victory described in בִּימֵי מַתִּתְיָֽהוּ and extending it inappropriately into the political and priestly realms.

But this then begs the opposite question from which we started – if the apocryphal Books of the the Maccabees are so contrary to our ethos as to be excluded from the Tanach, why have Chanukah as a holiday at all? In answer, as Canadian scholar W.G. Jordan wrote in his essay “The Significance of the Maccabean Period”,

Men do not know what the end will be when they begin a great movement. It is part of the tragedy of life that noble spirits are mastered by the course of events which they have sought to use and which master them… But the degeneration of a family is not the failure of a movement. A family may be a thing of two or three generations, but the idea lives on forever.

The power of Chanukah is in its gritty realism, its intense humanity. Most other Jewish holidays are sweeping narratives taking place in palaces, with abundant miracles and intrigue, but Chanukah is always in touch with the human experience. The Chashmona’im began grounded in the notion that if we fight for what is true then we will prevail, for fighting for truth is what Judaism has always been about. Did the Chashmona’im lose their way after their victory? Possibly, but they were only human. However the zealousness for a sovereign state saturated by Jewish ideals was the truth at the heart of their victory, and that must inspire Jewish generations for all time. Perhaps we don’t read the Books of the Maccabees as part of Chanukah because the end met by the protagonists is so contrary to Judaism, but we maintain the holiday because its roots are so pure. When we light the candles, we recall that purity, and publicize our commitment to it for the world to see.