Rosh Chodesh and Chanukah: The Power of Renewal

1“It was in the days of Antiochus … ‘Now come, let us go up against them and abolish from them the covenant that their God made with them: Shabbos, Rosh Chodesh and circumcision.’”¹ This raises a question. Shabbos and circumcision we can understand. They are among the foundations of Judaism, and their violation carries the penalty of stoning or of kareis, being cut off from one's people, so the Greeks had good reason to decree against them. But what did they see in the mitzvah of sanctifying the new month, that they decreed against it more than against any of the other 613 mitzvos?

2Let us also first cite a question that my holy ancestor, zt"l, asks in his sefer Toldos Adam.² Why is the miracle called “Chanukah,” after the chanukah, the dedication, of the Altar?³ The main miracle was with the cruse of oil, so it would have been more fitting to name the festival after the miracle of the oil.

3Perhaps we can resolve this as follows. As is well known, the foundation of all foundations in avodas Hashem, the service of Hashem, is to serve Him always with renewal and holy vitality, in the spirit of “Every day they should be in your eyes as new,”⁴ and not, Heaven forbid, out of laziness and heaviness. When avodas Hashem is done with holy vitality, that vitality shields us against the counsel of the yetzer hara, so that we do not turn away from the path of Hashem.

4aThis lets us explain the verse “And it was, when Moshe raised his hand, Israel prevailed, and when he lowered his hand, Amalek prevailed.”⁵ Chazal said: “Do Moshe's hands make war …? Rather, as long as Bnei Yisrael looked upward and subjected their hearts to their Father in Heaven, they prevailed …”⁶

4bWe may explain it this way. We know that Amalek wanted to cast coldness into Bnei Yisrael, so that they would do the mitzvos lazily and heavily, Heaven forbid, without vitality. As the verse says of Amalek's attack, “and you were faint and weary, and he did not fear God.”⁷ This is the meaning of “when Moshe raised his hand”: when Moshe Rabbeinu instilled holy vitality in Bnei Yisrael. “Moshe raised his hand” hints that he moved their hearts to do Hashem's mitzvos without laziness, with the movement of their limbs, in the spirit of “All my bones shall say: Hashem, who is like You?”⁸ For, as the holy sefarim explain, outward arousal leads to inner arousal,⁹ and through this “Israel prevailed.” But “when he lowered his hand,” that power was missing, and their service became lazy and heavy, without vitality. That is the kelipah, the force of impurity, that Amalek stands for, the coldness we have described, and then “Amalek prevailed.”

5The Greeks attacked Bnei Yisrael in the same way: they wanted to take away the vitality and holy fire with which Bnei Yisrael did the mitzvos. This explains well what they saw in Rosh Chodesh that made them decree against it. Rosh Chodesh stands for renewal, like the molad, the birth of the new moon, which renews itself every month after making its round of thirty days. Chazal, too, treat a thing as “new” for up to a month. A loan made without a set term is for thirty days,¹⁰ a nazirite vow with no set term lasts thirty days,¹¹ and the Amoraim, the sages of the Gemara, reviewed their learning every thirty days.¹² All this shows that anything keeps its newness for up to thirty days, and after that it grows old. The Greeks wanted to take renewal away from Bnei Yisrael, so that avodas Hashem would be to them, Heaven forbid, like something old, with no life in it. That is why they decreed against Rosh Chodesh. They wanted to abolish renewal, which, as we saw with “Every day they should be in your eyes as new,” is a great foundation of avodas Hashem.

6This lets us understand why the festival is called “Chanukah,” after the dedication of the Altar. The name points to renewal in the service of Hashem, blessed be He, the very opposite of what the Greeks plotted. The foundation of avodas Hashem, as we have explained, is renewal. That is why Chazal established the name “Chanukah”: to teach how great renewal is, so that we feel it within ourselves and take the lesson to heart. For the chinuch, the inauguration, of the Beis HaMikdash points to the inauguration and renewal of avodas Hashem, in the spirit of “Every day they should be in your eyes as new.” Young people especially must strengthen themselves in this, for their way is to serve Hashem now and then, for a passing hour, and not steadily.

7May Hashem grant that we be privileged to serve Him with renewal and with steadiness. Amen, may it be His will.