Measure for Measure: The Miracle of Hiddur

1“The Rabbis taught: The mitzvah of Chanukah is one light for a man and his household. Those who beautify the mitzvah, hamehadrin, light one for each and every person. And for those who beautify it most of all, hamehadrin min hamehadrin, Beis Shammai say …” The Chiddushei HaRim, the first Rebbe of Ger, zt"l, raised a question here. With the other mitzvos we find no such thing as “beautifying it most of all.” We find only hiddur mitzvah, beautifying a mitzvah, as Chazal said on the verse “This is my God and I will glorify Him”: “Beautify yourself before Him with mitzvos.”¹ Why, then, did Chazal also institute “beautifying it most of all” only for the mitzvah of Chanukah?

2The Chiddushei HaRim answered on the basis of the Pnei Yehoshua and the Chacham Tzvi.² They asked why the miracle of the cruse of oil was needed at all. Impurity, the Gemara says, is permitted in the service of the community,³ so they could have lit with impure oil. They answered that the Holy One, blessed be He, wanted to show how dear Bnei Yisrael are to Him, so that they would perform the mitzvah of lighting the Menorah in purity. That is why He made a miracle and gave them pure oil for eight days, so that they could fulfill the mitzvah with hiddur. It follows that the whole miracle was for the sake of hiddur mitzvah. In return, here, in the mitzvah of Chanukah, we practice hiddur to the fullest, and Chazal instituted the hiddur of “beautifying it most of all.” That is the gist of his words.

3[Following the Chiddushei HaRim's approach, we can explain why only the mitzvah of sukkah has the idea of noi sukkah, adorning the sukkah, something we do not find with other mitzvos.⁴ The mitzvah of sukkah is a remembrance of the Clouds of Glory that surrounded Israel in the wilderness.⁵ The Clouds of Glory, too, show the Holy One, blessed be He, going beyond what was needed in His goodness to Bnei Yisrael. Bnei Yisrael could have survived without the Clouds of Glory, yet out of the Omnipresent's love for us He surrounded us with them. In return, we too beautify the mitzvah of sukkah greatly and adorn it. This also explains why Chazal compared the Chanukah lamps to the bulls offered on Sukkos.⁶ What we have said makes the connection between Chanukah and the festival of Sukkos clear.]

4But the heart of their words needs explaining. Why were Bnei Yisrael of that generation privileged to reach so lofty a level, that the Holy One, blessed be He, wanted them to fulfill the mitzvah with hiddur? We know that Hashem runs His world measure for measure. So we may say that Bnei Yisrael of that generation, too, served Hashem with hiddur, and therefore Hashem dealt with them in the same way.⁷

5This lets us explain a phrase in Al HaNissim: “and the wanton into the hands of those who engage in Your Torah.”⁸ Notice the wording. Why does it say oskei, “who engage in,” and not lomdei, “who learn,” Your Torah? Following what we have said, we may answer. The Bach explains the wording of the blessing “to engage in words of Torah”: the main thing is to engage and toil in Torah.⁹ That is the gist of his words. In other words, just as a person engages and toils in his business dealings with joy and eagerness, so his engagement in Torah must be with joy and with hiddur. This is the meaning of “and the wanton into the hands of those who engage in Your Torah.” That generation engaged in Torah and mitzvos the way one engages in business, with joy and hiddur. As we saw with Hashem's way of measure for measure, that is why they were privileged to have Heaven deal with them with hiddur in turn, according to their own measure.

6This may explain what the Meiri writes: “On the first night, when there was no miracle of the oil, we bless for the redemption and in thanks for finding the cruse; on the other nights, for the miracle of the oil.” So far his words.¹⁰ Some have challenged him: if so, why did Chazal choose to commemorate this miracle, the finding of the cruse, through lighting, of all things? What does it have to do with the act of lighting? But by our approach we may say this. The whole miracle came about through finding the cruse: both that they lit from it for eight days, and that Heaven dealt with that generation with hiddur and added purity. Once they found a pure cruse on the first day and fulfilled the mitzvah with hiddur, they drew this same way of Hashem's guidance from Heaven upon themselves in turn, measure for measure. So a miracle was done for them, and they lit from that cruse for eight days in purity. The miracle of finding the cruse is therefore truly connected to the lighting, and that is why we light on the first night as well.

7May Hashem help us always to fulfill His mitzvos with hiddur and eagerness. May He plant in our hearts a love of learning and teaching, and may we be privileged to see the coming of the Redeemer. Amen, may it be His will.