The First Night's Miracle: Faith Above Nature

115aThe Beis Yosef's question is well known: why did Chazal fix eight days of Chanukah, when on the first night there was no miracle [since the cruse held enough for one night]?¹ Perhaps we can explain it in a way that is also a path of life and a word of reproof, through the verse “Hashem founded the earth with wisdom … by His knowledge the depths were split open.”² Chazal expounded “and darkness upon the face of the deep”: “This is the kingdom of Greece, which darkened the eyes of Israel and said to them, ‘Write on the horn of the ox that you have no portion in the God of Israel.’”³ This is in line with their saying, “Cursed is one who teaches his son Greek wisdom.”⁴ For Greek wisdom and the accursed philosophy explain everything by the intellect. Everything, they say, is only human reason, chance and nature, and all the ways of the world run only by the course of nature. Nothing in the conduct of the world, as they see it, is above the intellect and a person's grasp, still less above the order of nature and the Divine attributes. Their wisdom made them proud and haughty, and they mocked faith in Hashem.

115bWith this they darkened the eyes of Israel, so that they would not see “a bright light in the skies”:⁵ that everything comes from Hashem, and “even a little bird is not caught without Heaven.”⁶ And they said to them, “Write on the horn of the ox”: that is, you are like beasts, without knowledge and without a man's understanding, since you think that Hashem is exalted above the world and above the Divine attributes. In the end they brought all this into the hearts of Jewish souls and darkened their eyes, and with it they defiled all the thoughts of Israel. That is Chazal's phrase “they defiled all the oils,”⁷ for oil alludes to wisdom.⁸ As a result the sense of sight, which flows from the brain, was damaged, until the blemish reached the mind itself. For one who lets his thoughts roam and “hops between two opinions”⁹ can easily fall, Heaven forbid, into the net of heresy.

116aBut we are the faithful of the treasured nation. The quarry we were hewn from and the root of our stock are the seed of the faithful, “believers, the children of believers.”¹⁰ A holy duty rests on us to fix, root and plant in our hearts the vineyard of faith in Hashem: emunah, a simple, complete and wholehearted faith. We must believe in Hashem, in His Oneness and in His providence: that He gives being to all that exists, causes every cause and overturns the order of nature. For can a person of flesh and blood, a lowly, dark creature of slight and meager understanding, grasp and understand the essence of “the One perfect in knowledge,”¹¹ Who is without end and beyond all searching?

116bBy human reckoning, one who has fallen, Heaven forbid, and sunk in the depths of the sea, and all the more one who has gone down to the bottom of the abyss, sees himself drowning and surely tells himself that all hope is lost. As far as he can grasp, there is no counsel or plan left to save himself from the pit. But “by His knowledge the depths were split open”: with the light of da'as, knowledge, from the Ein Sof, the Infinite One, even the depths are split. At first glance, if the abyss is split further, he only sinks deeper into She'ol and is lost, Heaven save us. Even so, when his soul grows faint within him and from the belly of She'ol he cries out to Hashem to save him from the pit and to let him see the light of life, the horn of salvation sprouts even from there. As Yonah the prophet said, “From the belly of She'ol I cried out; You heard my voice.”¹² For Hashem's kindnesses never end;¹³ He is never at a loss for counsel.

116cMy holy father and teacher, zt"l,¹⁴ said this in the name of the holy R' Shalom of Belz, zt"l,¹⁵ on the verse “He brings down to She'ol and raises up”:¹⁶ When the Holy One, blessed be He, in His great mercy and kindness, wants to raise up one who has fallen, Heaven forbid, to the depth of She'ol, into the depth of destruction where no lower level is left, what does He do? “He brings down to She'ol”: He lowers She'ol and makes it deeper still, “and raises up.” Of itself, then, the man rises, for he is no longer on the lowest floor as before. So too the verse says, “My Lord said, ‘From Bashan I will bring back, I will bring back from the depths of the sea.’”¹⁷ For in His kindness Hashem devises counsel and plans for every living thing, to bring a Jewish soul back even from the depths of the sea, even when by human judgment he seems cut off from the land of the living. “For My thoughts are not like your thoughts, nor your ways My ways, says Hashem.”¹⁸ And a person of flesh and blood, a lowly creature who lives but an hour, passing through the world and gone, wants to grasp and understand the essence of the Creator, Who is without limit!

117aThis is what Chazal meant by “and darkness upon the face of the deep.” The Greeks darkened Israel's eyes by telling them, “Look and see your pains: by your corrupt deeds you are at the bottom of the abyss.” And “they defiled all the oils”:¹⁹ with their accursed arguments they saddened them and brought them down to the ground, until it touched Jewish souls and they believed them. For “by a fall one means to acquire”:²⁰ the Greeks used Israel's fall to take hold of them, and so they defiled all the thoughts of Israel. When the kingdom of the house of the Chashmona'im grew strong and defeated them, it was after the Holy One, blessed be He, had lit up their eyes, in the spirit of “For You light my lamp.”²¹ With open eyes and with the mind's understanding they saw the greatness of Hashem: that He is the One and Only, Who causes every cause; that Hashem did all this; and that He runs the whole world above nature and above any creature's grasp. Then they knew and understood that their victory in the war too was not by nature, for He delivered “the mighty into the hands of the weak, and the many into the hands of the few.”²² By the way of nature, who would have defeated whom?

117b“They searched” means that they searched themselves and their thoughts: how to clear and cleanse their minds of every stain and flaw, and bring healing to the sicknesses of their souls and the wounds of their hearts. “And they found one cruse of oil”: a way to cast aside and nullify, like the dust of the earth, all the inquiries and the accursed philosophy. All those thoughts are vanities with no substance, “like the chaff that the wind drives away.”²³ Only one thing is left: to believe with complete faith in the One, Who is Unique and Alone, Who made, makes and will make all things, above nature.²⁴ Then they knew and understood that all the wars, and also the finding of the cruse and their recognizing that it had not been touched, came from Hashem and not by nature. This knowledge was the essence of the miracle, and through it they were privileged to bring healing to the sicknesses of their souls. So the essence of the miracle was on the first night. This answers the Beis Yosef's question.

118This explains Chazal's saying, “The one for whom a miracle is done does not recognize his miracle.”²⁵ He does not recognize or know how far his miracle reaches, for the miracle stands still higher, beyond his grasp. Take one who has fallen, Heaven forbid, and been caught in the net of the yetzer hara, of the accursed Haskalah, the movement of secular “enlightenment,” and of their impure wisdom, which came only lately and has spread over the face of the world. Afterward the Divine spark awakens within him. He considers how much harm his bitter sin has caused, and his heart is torn to pieces. He seeks counsel and plans to save his soul from the burning fire, for the Jewish spirit still lifts itself up in him, and the sparks and embers of “the flame of God”²⁶ have not yet gone out. His counsel is emunah and humility: to humble himself before Klal Yisrael. Through the power of true humility he will be privileged to see and know the greatness of Hashem. As Dovid HaMelech said, “For Hashem is exalted, veshafal yir'eh.”²⁷ The words mean “and He sees the lowly,” but here they are read “and the lowly one sees”: the lowly one sees the greatness of Hashem, that He watches over all. So too the verse says, “Though I sit in darkness, Hashem is a light to me,”²⁸ and in the spirit of the verse “The wise man has his eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness.”²⁹ “For You light my lamp”: the Holy One, blessed be He, lights up his eyes, and he is privileged to know the greatness of Hashem. There is no end and no limit to His understanding; He overturns the orders of nature and runs His world above nature.