Help from Nothing: Humility in the Greek Darkness

77aThe Midrash reads this darkness as Greece, which darkened the eyes of Israel by telling them to write on the horn of the ox that they had no portion in the God of Israel. The point is this: in a time of darkness, the whole strength of a Jewish soul lies in knowing how great and exalted Hashem is. A Jew has Someone to lean on, as the verse says, “Let him trust in the Name of Hashem and lean upon his God,”¹ Whose good way is to do good and to have mercy on every soul, so that not one spark of Israel will be lost. As Dovid HaMelech said, “In Hashem my soul glories,” and Rashi explains: “I take pride that I have such a Patron, to protect and to save.”² For all people are presumed blind until the Holy One, blessed be He, gives light to their eyes.³

77bThe accursed Greeks, with their impure wisdom, darkened the eyes of Israel. They insulted them and brought them down to the ground by recounting their many sins and transgressions. It seems that Israel had also blemished themselves with the bitter sin,⁴ and this sin takes away the light of a person's eyes, as Dovid HaMelech said: “My iniquities have overtaken me, and I cannot see.”⁵ For the five senses all spring from one place in the brain, so when a person blemishes the mind, all the senses are spoiled with it. People who were dejected and low, as nothing in their own eyes, the Greeks could easily topple with their words and catch in the net of the snare, for a fall is the moment to take possession, as the halachah says of one who falls upon a find.⁶ So they went on until they darkened the eyes of Israel and put it into Israel's hearts that they no longer had any portion or inheritance in their Father in Heaven. They argued, too, that Israel did not even have the merit of the Avos, for to draw on it, our deeds must have at least some slight connection with the deeds of the Avos.

77cBut in truth, a Jew may take to heart how far he has strayed from holiness: the darkness of night before his eyes keeps him from seeing “the light of the King's face, which is life,”⁷ and darkness of body and spirit surrounds him. When this humbles him and brings him low to the dust, he is privileged to receive Hashem's help from the height of His greatness. As Dovid HaMelech said, “Me'ayin, from where, will my help come?”⁸ Me'ayin means “from where,” but here it is read “from ayin, nothing”: when a person is as nothing and naught in his own eyes, from that reflection “my help will come.” For who can give light to the places of darkness but the Creator, “Who gives light to the earth”?⁹ And who can lift a person up from the depths of the end but the Creator, blessed be He, Whose greatness cannot be grasped or understood? “Can you find out the depths of God?”¹⁰ Not even an angel of Hashem of Hosts can; how much less, many times over, can a coarse man, uncircumcised and impure, understand it!

77dSubmission and bittul, self-nullification, are found only in the Jewish soul, as it says: “Not because you are more numerous … did Hashem desire you … for you are the fewest.”¹¹ Chazal expound it: because you make yourselves small, not like Pharaoh, Nevuchadnetzar or Chiram.¹² Those kings had no power to nullify themselves, so great was the pride and coarseness of their hearts. But the Jewish soul, through its great submission, reaches the true purpose of submission: Jews believe and trust in Hashem and in His salvation, with strong and firm trust in His abundant kindnesses, which never end. For He still has much relief and rescue before Him, and He will raise us up from the dunghills of our poverty. And in the merit of this faith and trust, a person awakens the merit of our holy Avos, for we are “believers, the children of believers.”¹³

78aThis explains Chazal's teaching: when the Greeks entered the Heichal in Yerushalayim, they made thirteen breaches in it.¹⁴ The hint is that they breached the thirteen attributes of mercy, through which Hashem's compassion flows, and kept them from shining on Israel. That is why Chazal say there that when [the Chashmona'im] prevailed, they instituted thirteen prostrations opposite the breaches, to repair them and to draw down the thirteen attributes of mercy again. With each prostration they drew down the light of mercy, one of the thirteen attributes on high, to shine in the world. For prostration is faith. As the Midrash says: “Everything comes in the merit of prostration. Avraham returned only in the merit of prostration; Israel was redeemed only through prostration, as it says, ‘And the people believed … and they bowed and prostrated themselves.’”¹⁵ That is, through faith. Prostration speaks of faith: a person believes with complete faith in the Creator, blessed be He, and out of great fear of Hashem and dread of “the splendor of His majesty,”¹⁶ he falls down and prostrates himself before Him. If he did not believe in Him, why would he fall and prostrate himself before Him? This is the plain truth, not empty words.

78bThe Greeks wanted to tear Israel away from faith in Hashem, for through our faith we are bound and joined to the holy Avos, since we are believers, the children of believers. As the Midrash on Shir HaShirim says: “‘If she is a wall, we will build upon her’: this is Israel. The Holy One, blessed be He, said: If they make their deeds stand like a wall, ‘we will build upon her,’ and I will rescue them. ‘I am a wall’: Israel said before Him, ‘Master of the world, I am a wall, and we will make mitzvos and good deeds stand like a wall. And my breasts are like towers: for we stand ready to raise up groups upon groups of tzaddikim like ourselves in Your world.’”¹⁷ “Mitzvos and good deeds like a wall”: the wall is faith, for “truth and faith are a law that will not pass,”¹⁸ firm as an iron pillar.

78cThis is the meaning of the words of Maoz Tzur, “And they breached the walls of my towers”:¹⁹ the Greeks wanted to tear the congregation of the holy people away from their faith, which is strong as a wall. “And they defiled all the oils”: oil hints at wisdom, as Chazal said,²⁰ and the heart of Israel's wisdom is the fear of Hashem, as the verse says, “The beginning of wisdom is the fear of Hashem.”²¹ With their foolish wisdom, the Greeks defiled “all the oils.” “And from the remnant of the flasks”: as Chazal expound, “For whom does He bear iniquity? For ‘the remnant (she'eris) of His inheritance’: for one who makes himself like leftovers (shirayim),”²² that is, in the merit of submission and bittul. “A miracle was done for the shoshanim, the roses”: nes, miracle, is the same word as in the verse “Raise up a banner (nes),”²³ for through the miracle the higher shoshanah, the rose on high, which is the thirteen attributes of mercy, is lifted up and raised high. The thirteen attributes are called a rose, as the holy Zohar writes at its beginning, and as the holy Alshich writes too: like this rose, which has thirteen green leaves above.²⁴

78d“The sons of understanding, bnei vinah, … eight days”: Binah, understanding, stands above the world. It is the eighth light, above the seven attributes [through which the world is built]. Of it is said, “Do not expound what is too wondrous for you,”²⁵ whereas in the seven attributes a person still has permission to expound and search. “Established song and joyous praise”: they were privileged to establish for all generations that every Jew should light the Chanukah lamps. This holds even for one who lights without understanding, with the deed of his hands alone: even if, in the holy Zohar's words, “we do not know how to direct the will, only the deed alone.”²⁶ And it holds even when the Jewish people are me'usim, rejected, as it says, “I will not reject them (me'astim), nor abhor them,”²⁷ and as Chazal say, “‘I will not reject them’: in the days of the Greeks.”²⁸

79This explains Chazal's ruling: a deaf-mute, a shoteh and a child do not light, but a woman certainly lights.²⁹ The shotim, the fools, are those who pride themselves on their own understanding, sure that they light the Chanukah lamp with proper and correct intent: they have not lit at all. “A woman certainly lights”: those who weaken their strength like women, as Chazal say,³⁰ the hint being that they know they are only receivers, certainly light. Through the lighting they are privileged to draw down healing of soul and healing of body, so that a person is truly chai, alive. That is, if he is privileged to sanctify and purify the mind, to think holy thoughts and to serve Hashem in purity, he becomes cleaving and bound to the Life of all life. As it says, “But you who cleave to Hashem your God are all alive today”:³¹ he is privileged to be among “all alive today.” This is why the holy sefarim say that Chanukah is a time when barren women are remembered, for one without children is called the opposite of living, as Chazal said.³² It is also the time to repair the bitter sin, and through that repair a person is called chai, as is known, for one who blemishes is the opposite. And he is privileged to awaken the attributes among the thirteen attributes of mercy, as the kavanos, the mystical intentions, of the holy Arizal teach.

80According to the holy Arizal's kavanos in his siddur, on this night, the fourth night of Chanukah, the fourth of the thirteen attributes of mercy is awakened. And according to what the Arizal wrote, Erech Apayim, “slow to anger,” counts as two attributes; so the fourth, awakened on this night, is Erech, and it is healing. Erech is the same word as aruchah, healing, in “and bring up healing and cure,”³³ and as orech, length, in “for He is your life and the length of your days.”³⁴ So a person can draw down healing for all his ills and for the afflictions of his soul, and purify the mind, and with that he repairs the blemish at its root. For the holy sefarim call the attribute of Yesod [the sefirah of the covenant, where that blemish lies] E-l Chai, the living God. Through this he is privileged to repair, sanctify and purify the mind and to learn with a pure mind. In this way he becomes cleaving and bound to the Life of all life, and so he too is truly chai, as it says, “all alive today.”