Set Apart Among the Nations: Chanukah's Light

1“And it came to pass at the end of two years of days.” The Midrash comments: “‘Fortunate is the man who has made Hashem his trust’: this is Yosef. ‘And did not turn to the arrogant’: because he said to the chief butler, ‘Remember me … and mention me,’ two years were added to him.”¹ The commentators' question is well known.² The Midrash seems to contradict itself: first it says that Yosef was a man of trust in Hashem, and in the end it says that his trust had a flaw.

2Let us also first cite a well-known teaching of Chazal. The Greeks decreed against Bnei Yisrael to abolish three things: Shabbos; Chodesh, the sanctifying of the new month; and milah, circumcision.³ Why did they decree against these mitzvos in particular? With Shabbos and milah we could say it was because they are among the foundations of the faith. But why did they decree against Chodesh?

3Let us further cite what the holy sefarim teach.⁴ The arrangement of the letters of Hashem's glorious Name that shines in the month of Kislev comes from the verse “And the inhabitant of the land, the Canaanite, saw,”⁵ which speaks of the mourning for Yaakov Avinu. And the seventy days of mourning for Yaakov ended on Chanukah.⁶ What, then, is the connection between Yaakov Avinu and Chanukah?

4To understand all this, we can explain it as follows. The Greeks wanted Bnei Yisrael to mingle among the nations and follow their customs and manners. As the Midrash tells, they said to them, “Write on the horn of the ox that you have no portion in the God of Israel.”⁷ They wanted Bnei Yisrael to proclaim publicly that they had thrown off the yoke of the kingship of Heaven, so that they would blend in among the nations.

5aThese three mitzvos, Shabbos, Chodesh and milah, all express the separateness of the Jewish people from the nations. Of Shabbos the verse says, “Between Me and Bnei Yisrael it is a sign forever,”⁸ and a gentile who keeps Shabbos is liable to death.⁹ So the mitzvah of Shabbos shows most strongly that the Jewish people is set apart from the nations. Shabbos is a time when Hashem and His people Israel are alone together, and so no stranger may share in their joy.¹⁰ As the Midrash says: “In the way of the world, when a king and a queen are sitting and talking with each other, one who comes and thrusts himself between them, is he not liable to death? [The words are a question.] So too this Shabbos is between Israel and the Holy One, blessed be He, as it says, ‘Between Me and Bnei Yisrael.’”¹¹

5bChodesh, too, shows the difference between Israel and the nations, for, as is well known, Israel counts by the moon and the nations of the world count by the sun.¹² So does the mitzvah of milah. The Rambam writes, and so does the Sefer HaChinuch, that its reason is to fix one sign in the bodies of all Bnei Yisrael, that we are servants of the King of kings of kings, the Holy One, blessed be He.¹³ So this mitzvah, too, shows the difference between the Jewish people and the other nations. That is why the Greeks set out to uproot these three mitzvos in particular: their aim was to uproot the uniqueness of the Jewish people among the nations.

6In this very matter the Chashmona'im, the Hasmoneans, stood against the Greeks with great strength. They worked to root firmly in Israel the conviction that it must remain apart from the nations and hold fast to the customs of Israel. This is hinted in their very name, as the Chida and the Toldos Adam point out: the letters ches, shin and mem of Chashmona'im are the initials of Chodesh, Shabbos, Milah.¹⁴ For they stood against the Greeks in these three and defeated them, strengthening still more the separateness of the Jewish people from the nations.

7aThat is why, when the remembrance of the Chanukah miracle was fixed, the aim was to root in us the very thing through which the Chashmona'im overcame and defeated the Greeks, and to show that Israel is “one nation in the land.”¹⁵ So no remembrance was fixed for the miracle of victory in the war, only for the miracle of the cruse of pure oil. The miracle of the cruse expresses the uniqueness of the Jewish people and its separateness from the nations. The cruse lay sealed with the seal of the Kohen Gadol,¹⁶ so no gentile hand had touched it, and no gentile had defiled it. The miracle of the war was different. It was a very great miracle, but it came to them through dealings and fighting with a foreign people. And in fixing the days of Chanukah, the aim was to show that we are “one nation in the land,” the opposite of what the Greeks had schemed. So no remembrance was fixed for the miracle of the war, only for the miracle of the pure oil.

7bTrue, in our prayers we do find a mention of the miracle of the war.¹⁷ That was fixed so that no one would think to deny the miracle and say, Heaven forbid, that it came not from Hashem's power but from “my strength and the might of my hand.”¹⁸ So praise and thanks to Hashem for this great miracle were instituted. But the remembrance of the miracle, and the mitzvah of lighting the Chanukah lamp, were not fixed for the victory.

8My holy ancestor, in the Toldos Adam, remarks that at the time of lighting the Chanukah lamps, one who feels the holiness of the lights feels the holiness of Shabbos.¹⁹ Those are his holy words; see there. In light of what we have said, we can explain this. We saw that the holiness of Shabbos shows the difference between the Jewish people and the nations. We are alone with the King and rejoice with Him, and He does not want a stranger to share our joy, only us, the people of Israel, the offspring of His beloved ones. In the same way, the Chanukah lamps come to show the bond between Israel and the Holy One, blessed be He, and the separateness of Israel from the nations. That is what my holy ancestor meant: the Chanukah lamps carry something of the holiness of Shabbos.

9This resolves the contradiction we raised in the Midrash, “‘Fortunate is the man who has made Hashem his trust’: this is Yosef …” Yosef HaTzaddik was certainly complete in faith and trust, in the spirit of “The righteous man shall live by his faith.”²⁰ His flaw in turning to the chief butler lay elsewhere: he caused a gentile to take part in bringing him out of the pit. The right way is to be set apart from the nations, with no connection to them at all. This is what the Midrash means by “‘And did not turn to the arrogant’: this is Yosef.” Yosef HaTzaddik's flaw was precisely that he turned to “the arrogant,” a gentile. But in the completeness of his faith, Yosef was truly the man “who has made Hashem his trust.”

10This also explains how Yaakov Avinu is connected to Chanukah. In Yaakov Avinu, too, we find separateness from the nations of the world: he kept the wicked Esav apart from himself, as when he told him, “Let my lord, please, pass on ahead of his servant …”²¹ And “the deeds of the fathers are a sign for the children.”²² So fixing the Chanukah miracle on the cruse of pure oil, which shows Israel's separateness from the nations, comes from the path that Yaakov Avinu walked and from his middah, his character trait.

11aWith this I have explained a Midrash: “Just as of the Holy One, blessed be He, it is written, ‘And Hashem alone will be exalted,’ so of Yaakov: ‘And Yaakov was left alone.’”²³ The verse “And Hashem alone will be exalted” speaks of the time of the redemption. Since the Midrash links it with “And Yaakov was left alone,” it would seem that this verse too is connected with the redemption. What, then, is its connection to the redemption?

11bWe can explain this through the words of my holy father and teacher, zt"l, on the verse “And I will put a redemption between My people and your people; tomorrow this sign will be.”²⁴ Hashem promised to redeem Israel from the exile of Egypt, “And I will put a redemption,” in the merit of “between My people and your people”: in the merit of Israel's keeping itself apart from the Egyptians. As is well known, our fathers were redeemed from Egypt because of three things: they did not change their names, their language or their clothing.²⁵ The verse goes on, “tomorrow this sign will be.” That is, the future redemption, which will come “tomorrow,” at a later time, will also come in the same merit: through our being completely separate from the customs of the idolaters. Those are his holy words.

12This explains how the verse “And Yaakov was left alone” is connected to the future redemption. The deeds of the fathers are a sign for the children. Yaakov was “alone,” set apart from Esav, and this teaches the generations that Jews must keep completely apart from the gentiles and far from their customs. In this merit they will be privileged to see the future redemption, as my holy father taught.

13From all we have said, we can well understand how important it is to keep apart from the nations and their ways. My holy father was known to be very particular about this. He wrote and urged that we not count and write dates by the months of the gentiles. In matters of dress, too, he urged us always to take care that the right side close over the left.²⁶ These things seem small to us, but he saw that the coming of the redemption depends on them.

14May Hashem help us hold fast to the customs of Israel. May “And Yaakov was left alone” be fulfilled in us, so that “Yaakov, the portion of His inheritance,”²⁷ is set apart from the nations. Then may “And Hashem alone will be exalted on that day” soon be fulfilled as well, and may we be privileged to greet Moshiach. Amen.