The Deeper Meaning of Beit Shammai’s Opinion
Nava Edery and Aleeza Glogauer, Grade 12
Chanukah is a beautiful holiday filled with light and joy, but it also has contradictions about how we create this light. We review the dispute between Beit Hillel and Beit Shammai each year concerning the order of lighting the candles. Beit Hillel says we light another candle each night, whereas Beit Shammai says we start with eight candles and light one fewer candle every day. We follow Beit Hillel, so why do we still discuss Beit Shammai’s opinion every year? There are contradictions about almost everything in the Mishna. Once it is determined which opinion to follow, we rarely discuss the other views. Still, on Chanukah, Beit Hillel and Beit Shammai’s contradiction is always discussed. Why?
I think we talk about Beit Shammai’s opinion because it is usually misunderstood. Many people think that descending from eight to one candle is not considered holy. But Beit Shammai’s reasoning behind this concept is truly considerate and beautiful. They base their opinion on the parallels between Chanukah’s candles and Sukkot’s korbanot. The first holiday the Maccabim were unable to celebrate was Sukkot. Sukkot and Chanukah are the only holidays where on all eight days, you say Hallel with a beracha. And on Sukkot, they would give korbanot every day, starting with eight, then the next day descending, and on the last day, give one.
Beit Shammai related to history by ruling by descending the candles as was done with the korbanot, reminding us that the first holiday we were not allowed to celebrate was Sukkot, and now we can freely celebrate Chanukah. They connected these events, and we can create a deeper meaning: to be thankful for the ability to be Jewish freely when the Maccabim were unable to celebrate anything at all.
May we all be zocheh to learn from our past pain and sorrow in order to turn our darkness into a beautiful source of light.
The Hidden Oil Within Us
Mrs. Shira Lipner, Director of Judaic Studies
In the time of the Chanukah story, the Jews were in Eretz Yisrael, there was a Beit HaMikdash, korbanot were being offered daily and seemingly, we were in a very good place spiritually. But all was not as it seemed. According to the Bach, the Greeks were so successful in their campaign against Klal Yisrael because we had weakened in our Avodat Hashem; our excitement in performing mitzvot had waned, and our light, our passion had dimmed. The Greeks took advantage of this weakness and aimed to extinguish the light completely.
They knew that as long as the Menorah lights were standing and shining brightly, they would give Bnei Yisrael the koach to shine its light of kedusha as well. So, they purposefully broke every single flask of pure olive oil they found in the hopes of wiping away any chance of Klal Yisrael shining again. However, as we all know, Hashem has His own plans, and one single, pure flask of oil remained, hidden away until it was meant to be found.
That flask of oil represents the part of the neshama of every Jew that Hashem watches over to make sure it is never defiled. Rav Shlomo Brevda teaches that the fact that Hashem saved one flask of oil is a sign that as dark as things may get, as far removed as Bnai Yisrael may be from Hashem, as hard as it may seem to uphold our faith, that tiny bit of pure oil will always be inside of us, waiting to be ignited. In fact, any Jew who connects to the lights of Chanukah will have their spark ignited, with the potential to grow stronger each night as we add another flame.
The lights of Chanukah give us the koach to maintain our identity in a dark world and to stand proudly as members of the Jewish People, shining forth our light and kedusha to the rest of the world. May the flames of this Chanukah ignite the fire and passion inherent in living a life of Torah and mitzvot and continue to burn brightly throughout the whole year!
Making Chanukah Last
Yedidya Helfenbaum, Grade 12 and Convener, Student Council
The story of Chanukah consists of the battle between the forces of good and evil, light and darkness. It truly checks all the boxes of the universal story of good versus evil. Does an evil outside force come to disrupt times of peace and prosperity? Check. Does it seem like all is lost? Check. Does a hero rise to the occasion and inspire others to follow his cause? Check. Do they defeat the bad guys? Check. Do they liberate the old cities of good from the clutches of evil? Check.
Typically, what follows is an epilogue consisting of something like “and they lived happily ever after.” Oddly enough, this is precisely the opposite of what happens. The Jews defeated the Greeks, and ironically enough, the Jewish People soon turned to Hellenism. How could someone become the very thing they risked everything to defeat?
To answer this question, we must look at the similarities of this story to our own lives. Many times we have an inspirational moment, and everything becomes clear – through a tisch, an inspiring Dvar Torah, a life-changing event, or acts of chesed, love, or more. All these events have a transformative effect. “This is the new me,” we think, “everything is clear and easy. I’m on top of the world!” And what happens right after? We fall right back to where we were before.
What changed?
In the incredible experience we went through, everything seemed to have this incredible sense of clarity, but as we transitioned back to the mundane, we lost that sense of inspiration. Things began to become grey again, and we could not accomplish what we envisioned in our moment of inspiration. The hard truth is that an inspiring life event without any follow-through is a temporary aid. It soon loses its power, and we return to our old ways.
However, this does not need to be the case, as everyone has the power to maintain and even improve this clarity. It requires mastering an elementary yet difficult skill: the ability to realize that true progress is a long and gruelling process. Anything quick and easy is often fake. Real progress means noticing the little successes we achieve and attempting to recreate them again and again. It is nothing flashy, but the results it brings are.
This Chanukah, do not just seek inspiration but also discover ways to carry that inspiration into the realm of the mundane.
Religion and Nation
Rabbi Eitan Aviner, Director of Judaic Advancement and Israel Guidance, Shaliach
