Lighting up the Chanukah Lessons
Tali Wercberger, Grade 12
Chanukah is known as a holiday to celebrate because of the miracles Hashem did for us. He gave us an unpredicted win in the battle against the Greeks, as well as an extraordinary miracle of the scant amount of oil in the Beit HaMikdash burning for eight nights. Yet, what lessons can we take away from Chanukah, and how can we apply them to our lives?
The first lesson can be found in Al Hanisim. On Chanukah, we read the tefillah Al Hanisim, which tells of five different ways that Hashem helped us. Four of them are described using opposing concepts: “mighty into the hand of the weak,” “many into the hand of the few,” “impure into the hand of the pure,” and “the wicked into the hand of the righteous.” However, there is an inconsistency with the fifth description, “the arrogant into the into the hand of those who engage in Torah study,” because the ideas don’t seem to correspond.
One may think that someone who is well-learned is likely to be arrogant and all-knowing. In reality, it is the exact opposite for someone engaged in studying Torah. One cannot be successful in Torah studies without humility. It is important to always remember this, to be sure to learn Torah in the correct mindset, with the understanding that one can always learn more and grow from Limudei Kodesh.
A secondary lesson can also be learned from Al Hanisim. It comes from the question of why “hand” is written in singular if the adjectives are written in plural. This is inconsistent and confusing. An answer to this trying question is that even though multiple Maccabees were fighting, they all fought together as one unit, hence the singular “hand,” “yad.”
This lesson about working together with others to try to become “one” has been relevant throughout Jewish history and remains relevant now. The more the Jewish community works collectively to get along, there is so much that we can accomplish as one.
Chag Chanukah Sameach!
Mrs. Sharon Fixler, Assistant Principal
There’s an interesting minhag brought down by the Shulchan Aruch in relation to Chanukah candle lighting that states that, “the women have made it a custom not to do work while the candles are burning [for about half an hour after candle lighting each night].” The fact that women are specified in this minhag of refraining from work while the candles are burning has led commentators to wonder: why specifically women?
The Magen Avraham explains the answer here by pointing to the Talmudic statement “אף הן היו באותו הנס – they too were part of the miracle”, in relation to women. On this, Rabbanit Karen Miller Jackson, of Matan Institute for Torah Studies, explains that there is a debate between Rashbam and Tosafot regarding what this phrase actually means. Tosafot hold that it means that women were miraculously saved from danger as well as the men. Rashbam’s explanation of women’s involvement in the miracle refers to the fact that there was a female heroine, Yehudit, who was actively involved in saving the Jewish People.
Based on the above, the reason for the minhag seems to follow Rashbam’s interpretation, because of the fact that women are the ones actively refraining from work after candle lighting. As a minhag exclusive to women, it highlights the position that women played a special role in the Jewish victory in the Chanukah story, therefore only the women refrain from work.
There is also a beautiful connection here that Rabbanit Miller Jackson brings between the semi-holiday that women celebrate on Rosh Chodesh by customarily refraining from work, in honour of their refusal to participate in the sin of the Golden Calf, and women refraining from work after Chanukah candle lighting. Interestingly, both Rosh Chodesh and Chanukah have elements of a chag (e.g., special tefillot), but both are not full-fledged chagim. As Miller Jackson writes, “the development of the minhag for women not to do work reflects the unique role women played in Jewish history and their consistent emunah in the face of physical and spiritual threats to the Jewish people”. In other words, women in particular have the special ability to see and be the light in the face of times of darkness.
May we always recognize the power of the emunah within ourselves to light up the lives of others in challenging times.
Chanukah Sameach!
Our Ner Tamid
Jonah Cohen, Grade 11, Junior Vice President, Student Council
We all know the miracle of Chanukah. For eight days, we light candles, and each night we make the blessing over miracles: she-asah nissim la-avoteinu. But what was the miracle of the first night? The light that should have lasted one day lasted eight. But that means there was something miraculous about days two to eight, but nothing miraculous about the first day because they knew it would last at least one night.
I found an interesting answer given by Rabbi Sacks zt”l. The miracle was that the Maccabees found one jug of oil with its seal intact, undefiled. There was no reason to think that anything would have survived the relentless destruction of the Greeks to the Beit HaMikdash. Yet the Maccabees did not lose hope; they searched and found that one jar. Why did they search? Because says Rabbi Sacks, they had faith that even in the worst tragedy, something would survive. The miracle of the first night was that of faith itself, the faith that something would remain with which to begin again.
Jewish History has always been like this. There were times when many other people would have given up in despair: after the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash, the Spanish Expulsion, or the Shoah. But the Jews did not sit and weep. They gathered what remained, rebuilt our people, and lit a light like no other in history, a light that tells us and the world of the power of the Jewish spirit to overcome every tragedy and refuse to accept defeat.
As Rabbi Sacks said, “From the days of Moshe in Egypt to the days of the Maccabees and the single jug of oil, Judaism has been humanity’s ner tamid, the everlasting light that no power on earth can extinguish.” In life, we cannot simply just give up because something does not go our way. We must keep our heads up and keep going with faith in Hashem, and as long as we do that, there will always be light at the end of the tunnel.
