Made Anew by Humility: The Year They Waited

102aThe Chacham Tzvi's question is well known: why was the miracle needed at all?¹ Impurity, after all, is set aside where the community's service is concerned,² so they could have lit with impure oil. The Kozhnitzer Maggid asked about Chazal's words, “The following year they established them and made them festive days.”³ Surely “the zealous hurry to do mitzvos,”⁴ so why did they wait for the following year, and not make Chanukah in that very year? And my holy father and teacher, zt"l, zy"a,⁵ asked why they established the miracle of Chanukah for all generations at once, when of Esther we find that she sent to the Sages, “Establish me for all generations.”⁶

102bMy holy father answered the famous question in his holiness. True, impurity is set aside for the community, but only when the impurity arose while the Beis HaMikdash stood in its place and in its holiness. Chanukah, though, was the dedication of the altar, a time of chinuch, of inaugurating, sanctifying and purifying anew, and then it was not fitting for any trace of impurity to be found. So pure oil with no flaw at all was needed, and that is why the miracle was needed. As for waiting a year: they did not know whether the light of the miracle would carry on and break through as it had in the first year, and so they did not know how to establish it for the generations. The following year they saw the bright lights on the first night too, just as in the first year: the miracle carried on, for “He has made a remembrance of His wonders.”⁷ So the first night too was a miracle [though the cruse held enough oil for that night], since at the dedication the rule that impurity is set aside for the community did not apply, as we said. And once they saw that, they established the days and made them festive at once, for all generations. Those are his holy words.

103His holy words are a Torah of truth, and from them we will take how to serve Hashem.

104aTo explain his holy words, we may follow the ways of avodas Hashem, the service of Hashem. A person who was loathsome and sunk in the vanities of this world, and now wants to enter the gates of holiness, needs a chinuch, a new inauguration: he must be made wise and trained anew, like a newborn child, in the spirit of “This day I have begotten you.”⁸ The way to do it is humility: he makes himself like dust before everyone. Then, as he cleaves to the Source, his impurity flies off, and he is like a new creation.

104bAs R' Shmelke of Nikolsburg taught, our purification is hinted at above all in the Mishnah: “Seedlings of terumah that became impure and were then replanted are pure, and no longer make things impure.”⁹ For the seed's root and source is the earth. If one plants it in the earth after it became impure, the sowing joins it to its source, the earth, until it goes back to being formless matter, pure potential. It is absorbed into the ground, and its impurity flies off. So it is with us. The source of our souls is hewn from beneath His Throne of Glory, blessed be His Name, and when the soul comes into this world it is defiled by a person's sins. Its chief purification is to return it to its source with mesirus nefesh, the readiness to give one's life, cleaving and binding one's thoughts to Hashem. This gives the soul a cure for its sickness and purifies it of its impurity. This is the meaning of “and let my soul be like dust to all.”¹⁰ For the people are a holy seed, a planting, as the verse says, “I planted you a choice vine, wholly a seed of truth.”¹¹ Then he knows that he needs his heart opened anew [as the prayer goes on, “Open my heart”], for he knows nothing at all any longer.¹²

105aMatisyahu the Kohen, through his great holiness and the holiness of the mitzvah of lighting the Menorah, which alludes to the Menorah on high, made light shine in the darkness, in the hearts of the holy congregation. He kindled the souls of Israel and set them aflame, in the spirit of “The soul of man is the lamp of Hashem,”¹³ and bestowed on them great and lofty secrets, in the holiness of the light of the face of the King of life. The following year, when the year turned and its cycle came round anew, each one lit. For the men of knowledge, their lighting awakened the bright lights, as in the year before. And the remnant of Hashem's people saw the joy of heart and soul that the men of knowledge had in their lighting as they felt those wondrous lights, while they themselves stood outside. They became humbled and lowly in the extreme, and from their broken hearts they came to holiness and purity of mind, and to the lights of Chanukah.

105bThis is “they established them and made them.” Keva'um, “they established them,” speaks of people of precious worth, who did not need to be made anew. Va'asa'um, “and made them,” speaks of the simple folk, who are made into a new creation, as we saw with the one trained anew like a newborn. “With Hallel and thanksgiving”: Hallel speaks of light, as in the verse “His sneezes flash forth light,” tahel or.¹⁴ These are the great lights. As we say in the blessing, likro es haHallel, “to read the Hallel,” where likro also means to call together: that is, to gather all the lights. And hoda'ah, thanksgiving, which also means acknowledging, speaks of submission: that is for the simple folk of Hashem's people. Through their submission they came to emunah, faith, as the sefer Avodas Yisrael says: the word modim, “we acknowledge,” implies that others dispute it, those who deny the providence of the Creator, blessed be He.¹⁵

106aThis is what the Yerushalmi says: R' Masnia said, “I owe thanks to my head, for when it reaches Modim it bows by itself.”¹⁶ The hint is in machzik tivo, “I owe thanks,” literally “I hold its good”: to better (leheitiv) and mend the head, that is, the mind, the chief counsel is submission. That is “when it reaches Modim it bows by itself.” Through his submission a person comes to purity of mind. Of such people it is said, “The wise man has his eyes in his head,” and the opposite is “the fool walks in darkness.”¹⁷ And this is why the miracle needed “Your holy Kohanim,”¹⁸ for, as the holy Zohar says, every “holy” is Chochmah, wisdom [the purity of mind we spoke of].

106bTake even one who sinned so greatly that he blemished the attribute of Kol, “All,” which is Yesod, the sefirah of foundation [bound up with the sign of the covenant]. The holy sefarim call it the attribute of binding, as the Targum renders “for all that is in heaven and on earth”: “that holds fast to heaven and to earth.”¹⁹ Through the blemish he was driven far from the light of the King of life. Even so, through true submission and righteous humility, nullifying himself utterly before Klal Yisrael, he comes to emunah. With it he purifies his mind, and with that the blemish is mended. This is what Dovid HaMelech said: “Open for me the gates of righteousness; I will enter them, I will thank Yah.”²⁰ The way to enter is submission, hinted at in the word odeh, “I will thank,” for Chazal said that all the bowing is at Modim. Through this he mends the Name Yah, yud-hei, which, we know, alludes to the holy mochin, the powers of the mind.²¹

107The light of Chanukah is known to reach even those who stand outside,²² and, as is known, Netzach and Hod, the sefiros of victory and splendor, pictured as the body's legs, are “outside, not within.”²³ Through the lighting of the Menorah they kindled the hearts of Israel and set them aflame, and people come to know truly that there is a Creator of the world, the Master of all. So the holy Kozhnitzer Maggid says that nes, “miracle” (נס, 110), has the numerical value of mah, “what” (מה, 45), with the Name of Mastery, Adnus (אדני, 65).²⁴ He brings an explanation in the name of the Kedushas Levi: when a miracle happens, people wonder and ask, “What is this?” and the answer is that there is a Master of all Who works wonders. All this is above nature. This is what we say in our prayer: “and raise a banner, nes, to gather our exiles.”²⁵ Nes is the same word as in the verse “Raise up a banner”:²⁶ by contemplating how exalted Hashem is, a person knows his own lowliness, and through this he can grasp great secrets. “And gather us (vekabtzenu) together” hints at the vowel kibbutz, “gathering,” which is called shuruk. And the blessing “Sound the great shofar,” to which these words belong, corresponds to the attribute of Yesod, yet it carries the vowel of Hod [the sefirah whose name echoes hoda'ah, submission]. The hint is the one we saw: through submission and self-nullification a person mends the attribute of Yesod.