The Pure Cruse: A Miracle Untouched by the Nations

1“What is Chanukah? … When the Greeks entered the Heichal, they defiled all the oils in the Heichal. When the kingdom of the house of the Chashmona'im grew strong and defeated them, they searched and found only one cruse of oil that lay with the seal of the Kohen Gadol, and it held enough to light for only one day. A miracle was done with it, and they lit from it for eight days.”

2The early authorities asked:¹ why did Chazal establish a remembrance only for the miracle of the cruse of oil? There were other miracles there too, such as the victory, when Hashem delivered “the many into the hands of the few, and the impure into the hands of the pure.”² There is also the well-known question of the Beis Yosef:³ why must we light for eight days? The miracle lasted only seven days, since the cruse held enough oil to light for one day.

3Perhaps we can explain it this way. We know that Chazal said, “The Holy One, blessed be He, does not desire the praise of the wicked.”⁴ We can learn from this that Hashem does not want the gentiles to be involved in a miracle, as though it had been done through them. That is why Chazal established a remembrance only for the miracle of the oil, which came about through Hashem alone, with no part played by the wicked, since everyone could see that it came from Hashem Himself, without any intermediary. Not so the miracle of the war, for which they established no remembrance for all generations, since in several of its events the gentiles had a hand in the miracle. [Megillas Antiochus, an ancient account of the Chanukah events, relates that in the end Antiochus threw himself into the sea. The Midrash LeChanukah tells that the enemy's arrows miraculously turned back into their own ranks.⁵] Since the gentiles seemed to share in the miracle, Hashem did not want it remembered, for He does not desire the praise of the wicked.

4With this we can also resolve the Beis Yosef's question. That the cruse held enough to light for one day was itself a miracle: it was found with the seal of the Kohen Gadol, the gentiles had not touched it, and so the Chashmona'im, the Hasmoneans, could fulfill the mitzvah. The gentiles, then, had no part in this miracle, and it is for this miracle that we light on the first day. This explains well the reading of the She'iltos of Rav Achai Gaon:⁶ “and it did not hold enough to light even one day.” At first glance, why does he read it this way, unlike our texts, [“and it held enough to light for only one day”]? He is teaching us that the miracle took place even on the first day, in that no gentile had any part in it. It follows that the gentiles had no connection to the miracle or to the mitzvah of lighting.

5This lets us explain the words of the paytan, the liturgical poet: “Men of understanding, bnei vinah, established eight days for song and joyous praise.”⁷ What does understanding have to do with the miracle of Chanukah? The words also imply that it was because they were “men of understanding” that they established “eight days.” But why would special understanding be needed to grasp something so simple: since the miracle lasted eight days, we must give thanks and praise for it for eight days? But in light of what we have said, we can explain it. The sages of Israel understood that the miracle covers the first day as well. The miracle of the first day was that they found the cruse closed with the holy seal. From it they understood that Hashem wanted even the first day's oil not to come through the gentiles, so that the nations would have no connection with the mitzvah, since Hashem does not desire the praise of the wicked. To understand this one must be “men of understanding,” for binah, understanding, means to understand one thing from another.⁸ And since they were men of understanding, they established eight days.

6[What emerges from our words is that through this miracle Israel was privileged to be pure and set apart from the deeds of the nations, for the Holy One, blessed be He, does not desire the praise of the wicked. That is why these days are holy, pure and set apart from the other days of the year: on them we were privileged to see our souls redeemed. So we must resolve to keep away from anything that draws us closer to the nations' views and deeds. It has been explained elsewhere that in the days of the Greeks some Jews drew close to them and to their ideas, and the whole miracle is the separation from their evil way, so that we may have a cruse of pure oil. How very careful, then, we must be to guard ourselves in purity and holiness, without letting our minds mix with their evil outlook.]

7May Hashem grant that we be worthy to praise and thank His great Name, and to pray for the redemption of our souls. Amen, may it be His will.