The First Night's Light: Faith Above Nature

15aWe may give one more answer to the question the Rishonim ask: why did they make Chanukah eight days, when on the first night there was no miracle [since the cruse held enough oil to light for one night]?¹ The answer rests on two teachings of Chazal. The Gemara tells that Ben Damah, the son of R' Yishmael's sister, asked him: “Someone like me, who has learned the whole Torah, may I study Greek wisdom? …” R' Yishmael said to him: “Go and find an hour that is neither of the day nor of the night, and study Greek wisdom in it.”² And the Midrash says: “‘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 share in the God of Israel.’”³

15bWhy the horn of an ox? The Mishnah teaches, “All shofars are valid except that of a cow,” and the Gemara explains there that a cow's horn is called a keren, a horn, but is not called a shofar.⁴ As is known, the horn grows from the surplus of the brain. In people of fine character even this surplus is weak and slight. But the fool who grows proud gores with his horns, and, as Chazal say, he “pushes away the feet of the Shechinah.”⁵ If a person reflects and takes to heart Who created all these, the heavens and the earth, he will surely be too ashamed and abashed to lift his head. So Ezra the Scribe said: “I am ashamed and abashed, my God, to lift my face to You.”⁶ And the Zohar says of Dovid HaMelech that he said, “I lower my eyes for fear of my Master.” The wisdom and philosophy of the accursed Greeks accounted for everything by reason, to show that all is only the way of nature, and that “Hashem did not do all this.”⁷ Their wisdom made them proud and haughty, and they mocked faith in Hashem. In the end the darkness reached the hearts of Jewish souls, for the Greeks planted this in the heart of the holy people. They darkened Israel's eyes, until the Jews too grew proud, haughty and coarse of heart, denied the providence of the Creator, blessed be He, and said that everything runs by the way of nature.

16In truth, a person must believe that even the ways of nature are above our level and beyond our grasp. Who, after all, created nature? And what is “nature”? Israel is one sheep among the wolves, who take counsel every day to destroy us, and they would succeed were it not that the Holy One, blessed be He, watches over us.⁸ R' Elimelech of Lizhensk, zt"l, said on the verse “And Bnei Yisrael walked on dry land in the midst of the sea”:⁹ one must believe that even the natural is a free gift and a miracle from Hashem, like walking through the midst of the sea. It is Hashem alone Who fills all worlds and surrounds all worlds, Who watches always with hashgachah pratis, His watchful care over each individual, and “in His goodness renews the work of creation every day, always.”¹⁰ From every step a person takes, he can learn the fear of Hashem. Our holy master and Rebbe, the Maharam, R' Menachem Mendel of Vorka, zt"l,¹¹ said that even from the paving of the floor one can acquire yiras Shamayim, the fear of Heaven. That is the verse “The earth is full of Your possessions (kinyanecha)”:¹² even from the earth one can acquire (liknos, the same root) the fear of Hashem. And so the verse says, “The ekev of humility is the fear of Hashem,”¹³ [ekev, “reward,” being also the heel that takes each step].

17aAfterward the Holy One, blessed be He, helped them and did for them all the miracles and wonders. Matisyahu the Kohen Gadol lit the Menorah, which alludes to the Menorah on high, in holiness and purity, and so he kindled the souls of Israel toward their Father in Heaven. The sparks and embers of the fire, “the flame of Hashem,”¹⁴ blazed up within them, and “the people who walk in darkness have seen a great light”: their eyes were opened to see with their own senses that Hashem had done all this. Everything was above nature, for the many were delivered into the hands of the few. They set faith in Hashem fast in their hearts, fixed and bound there: that He watches with hashgachah pratis; that He made, makes and will make all deeds; that He overrides the order of the stars and guides His world above nature. Then they knew and understood that even the cruse of oil they found was beyond the way of nature, lying there [untouched by the Greeks] sealed with the seal of the Kohen Gadol.

17bAnd they attained teshuvas hamishkal, a teshuvah equal in weight to the sin, for the sin's very root: the blemish of lacking faith, which had come upon them through the wisdom of the Greeks. This was their chief joy, above all the miracles, a joy “exceeding in dignity and exceeding in power.”¹⁵ The holy sefarim explain that when a Jew is in distress, Heaven forbid, the Shechinah says, “My head is heavy,”¹⁶ and in the same way, when salvation comes to a Jew, joy and delight fill the heavens. That man is then granted further salvation, for causing joy and delight above. They rejoiced and delighted greatly at being privileged to repair the root blemish, and at the light that brightened their eyes, the light of faith. So they loved Hashem more, and this added gladness and joy in the heavens above. Through this joy they were worthy to awaken the whole miracle [of the eight days].

18aThis answers the question about the first night: it was the heart of the whole miracle, and through it they were worthy that the light goes out from it to the other days. That is what Chazal meant by “Eight days are they”:¹⁷ the first day includes all the seven that follow. And the light of this season reaches on through the generations. It brought out for us the light of faith for the end of days, when the exile grows heavier and “each day's curse is greater than the day's before it,”¹⁸ so that we can believe with simple, complete faith, in the spirit of “and Your faithfulness in the nights.”¹⁹ In our time it is very, very urgent to root in the heart a simple, complete faith in the providence of the Holy One, blessed be He, Who guides His world and “alone does great wonders.”²⁰ Even what is nature is also Hashem's power and might. As the holy sefarim write, אלהים, Elokim, has the numerical value of הטבע, hateva, “nature” (86).

18bThis was the heart of the Chanukah miracle: Hashem's Godliness and Oneness, blessed be His Name, became known to all, and that He guides His world. And this is what a nes, a miracle, is. The Kozhnitzer Maggid, R' Yisrael, zt"l, writes in his sefer Avodas Yisrael that nes (נס) alludes to the union of מ״ה, Mah, and אדנ״י, Adnus [whose values, 45 and 65, add up to נס, 110].²¹ He brings an explanation of this in the name of the Kedushas Levi: when a miracle happens, people wonder and ask each other, “Mah zos, what is this?” And the answer is Adnus, “Lord”: there is a Master over all deeds, Who guides His world and does wonders. That is the verse in Tehillim, “What ails you, O sea, that you flee?”²² We wonder and ask, “Mah, what ails you, O sea, that you flee?” And the answer is “Before the Adon, the Lord”: there is a Lord over all the earth, Who fills all worlds and surrounds all worlds. Through the power of faith in the time of darkness we will be privileged to see the great light, as it says, “Though I sit in darkness, Hashem is a light to me,”²³ and “Hashem will be your everlasting light.”²⁴