Chanukah: The Recap

חנוכה = Chanukah

The word consists of two parts: the word חנו (“We Rest”) and the letters כ and ה, which have the combined numerical value of 25 (each letter has a numerical value such that words and phrases will themselves have numerical value and significance; this is called Gematria). Chanukah begins on the 25^th day of Kislev to commemorate the day on which the Jews defeated the Greeks.

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As a child I always remember the Jewish calendar essentially revolving around Chanukah. Just as the country was celebrating Christmas, the Jews had Chanukah, and while Christmas may have had more television specials, Chanukah more than held its own. On a cultural level, Chanukah is a goldmine: dreidels, gelt, menorahs, latkes … and presents. Eight nights of presents.

To be very honest, the weeks leading up to Chanukah filled me with trepidation in place of the eager anticipation of years past. All the outward benefits of the holiday I had enjoyed (presents, family, dreidels, presents …) were to be lacking; conversely, Chanukah merited mountains of extra davening everyday, for eight days, and whereas I may be in a good place with my personal davening, I am not on a level to outwardly welcome 30-60 minutes of additional prayer on a daily basis.

The yeshiva set up a place in the cafeteria for everybody to light menorahs together, and this promised to be an exciting element of the holiday. At Machon Shlomo, the convention is to use oil menorahs, so the guys uniformly went over to the Yesh Supermarket and picked up 20 sheckel menorahs and a bunch of olive oil. For me, this provided a bit of a comic scene, as I would attempt to bring the bottle of olive oil down to the menorah to pour, but the bottle was too full to bring down to the level of the menorah, so I had to pick the menorah up to pour, but the oil came out too fast, and the little glass oil-receptacles on the menorah were too small … and so on. Night One, and I’m already making a mess.

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On the topic of lighting candles, here was an interesting bit that I learned at the weekly visit to the Kollel*.

*Machon Shlomo partners with a Kollel in Ezras Torah such that every Friday, we get to learn one-on-one with bucharim who get paid to learn at the Kollel.

What is the mitzvah associated with Chanukah, the Gemara asks in Tractate Shabbos. The answer: one man from a household must light one candle each night. The Gemara follows this up with another question: how would one M’Hadrin this mitzvah? This is to say, how would one glorify this mitzvah? If each person within a household would light one candle every night for the duration of the holiday, the overall effect would be that much greater.

And if one wanted to M’Hadrin the mitzvah to even a greater extent? Here, there is a machlokis (argument) in which the Gemara provides two answers.

The House of Hillel holds that the ultimate M’Hadrin of this mitzvah would be to add candles in ascending order every night (1 candle the first day, 2 the second …); the House of Shemai holds that one would have to start with 8 candles on the first day, and take one away each day. Both opinions are equally valid, but in practice, Hillel won out.

To all this I would pose the following question: how is it that the most secular of Jews have come to perform the mitzvah of lighting Chanukah candles in its most glorified form when more basic mitzvahs are frequently disregarded?

Simple answer: it is simply the tradition to do so. Bigger idea: the most glorified form of the mitzvah was the version passed down from generation to generation because of the supreme significance the Jewish victory over the Greeks holds.

The Greeks sought to de-sanctify the Jewish people. They wanted to eradicate (or, in yiddishkeite terminology, “extinguish the light of”) the Torah. They filled the Temple with idols, forced all brides to lay with Greek leaders before consecrating their own marriages. In every capacity of life that Judaism gave a guiding light, the Greeks sought to bring darkness.

That the Jews rebelled against, and defeated, a mightier Greek entity is not simply a military victory. It was nothing short of securing a Jewish future, of re-establishing the covenant between the Jewish people and G-d himself. Hence, everybody who celebrates Chanukah shall celebrate in the most glorified way.

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For me personally, how was Chanukah week different from all other weeks?

Saturday night I walked from Har Nof to the Western Wall, and I paid my respects over there. (I am still amazed … I am in walking distance of the Western Wall)

The yeshiva still held a (nearly) full day of classes every day, but Gemara classes reviewed instead of going over new material, Rabbi Gershenfeld’s class was cut short for candle lighting, and evening tutoring was canceled. It was a laid back week, and so this was a nice change.

Monday night the entire Yeshiva was invited to the home of Rebbetzin Rosenberg, the mother-in-law of both our Rosh Yeshivas (Rabbis Gershenfeld and Auerbach married sisters). What ensued was 30 guys, 5 courses, dozens of niggins (songs) in one room. Fun times all around.

On Tuesday night Rabbi Parker’s daughter got married and his Gemara class was invited to the Chupa. I got to attend only my second wedding, and my first Jewish (let alone Haredi) wedding at that. It was very festive. There was a machetza separating the dancing between men and women. The newly-weds looked truly blissful for the duration of the night.

Thusday night a visit to my cousins, the Coopers, in East Talpyot.

Thursday and Friday, Chanukah fell on Rosh Chodesh, the beginning of the new month. Both Chanukah and Rosh Chodesh require extra prayers and Torah services, leading to the two longest non-Festival days of davening all year.

Now, I suppose the wedding wasn’t specifically a Chanukah event, but nonetheless, it fit in with the week of Simchah.

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A fascinating sheer that shows Chanukah within a more divine context, courtesy of Rabbi Auerbach.

The opening lines of the Torah (within Parshas Beresheis) go into detail regarding the creation of the universe. When analyzed on a deeper level, the very plight of the Jewish people is contained within these words, including the experience of the Jews against the Greeks.

As Torah describes, darkness is created before light is formed. The Torah explicitly uses 4 separate words to describe the darkness that sits upon the Earth’s surface (mind you, just one of these words would have sufficed). Several rabbis point out that these 4 words directly coincide (conceptually and chronologically) with the 4 dark periods in Jewish History:

ותוה = Void——————-The Babylonian Exile (Destruction of the First Temple)

The Babylonians wanted primarily to destroy the Jewish Kingdom, but allowed Jewish culture to thrive in Babylonia (The Talmud Bavli was written here). Still, the Jews were removed from the land of Israel: a deep void.

והוב = Chaos————–Attempted Physical Destruction in Persia (The Purim Story)

In the period of the Babylonian Exile, the Jews in Persia where nearly exterminated, a time of immense chaos set off by Haman.

חושך = Darkness———–Attempted Spiritual Destruction by the Greeks (The Chanukah Story)

After the Jews rebuilt the Temple, and some 200 years before the second Temple destruction, they had to deal with the Greek threat. The Greeks did not wish physical harm to the Jews, but rather demanded the Jews extinguish the light of the Torah, that they adopt the Greek Gods, assimilate into the larger Greek people, and essentially cease being Jews.

תהום = Abyss—————The Roman Exile (Destruction of the Second Temple)

The Romans took over Jerusalem, destroyed the Temple, and sent the Jews into worldwide Diaspora. It is considered an abyss as it is by far the most long-lasting of the dark periods. Today, the Jews are still living in the Roman Exile; from the Crusades to the Inquisition through the Pogroms and the Holocaust, this all happened within the Roman Exile.

Amazing that the very plight of the Jewish people is drawn out within the very first chapter of Genesis.

And for those who are counting: What is the 25^th word of the Torah?

אור = Light

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And there we go. A week of rest, a week of learning. A week of Simcha. A week of Chanukah.

And the prayers weren’t even so bad after all.

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~ by ericrosenbloom on 20/12/2009.