A Miracle for the Generations: Pure Oil and Bittul

37The maamar starts from the Gemara's answer to “What is Chanukah?”, the story of the one sealed cruse of pure oil that burned for eight days, and of the days established the following year with Hallel and thanksgiving.¹

38My master, my holy father and teacher, zt"l,² asked: Why did Chazal establish Chanukah at once for all generations? With Purim the Sages held back, as the Gemara tells. R' Shmuel bar Yehudah said: “Esther sent to the Sages: ‘Establish me for all generations.’ They sent back to her: ‘You are stirring up the jealousy of the nations against us.’ She sent back to them: ‘I am already written in the chronicles of the kings of Media and Persia.’”³ So from where did Chazal have compelling proof that they should establish this miracle for all generations? In his holiness he answered that each question answers the other. The Pnei Yehoshua and other commentators ask why such a miracle was needed at all, since tumah, ritual impurity, is permitted where the community is concerned: when the whole community is impure, the service may be done in impurity.⁴ Why, then, was there a miracle? It must be that the miracle was for the generations to come, and that answers the first question as well. And perhaps this is what Rashi meant when he explained “What is Chanukah?” as “For which miracle did they establish it?”⁵ Many miracles were done then. Yet none of the others gave compelling proof that would allow them to be established for all generations without the consent of the Sages [such as Purim needed]. Only the miracle of the lights could be established at once for all generations. Those are his holy words.

39aTo explain his holy words, we may say this along the ways of avodas Hashem, the service of Hashem. Consider the principle that impurity is set aside where the community is concerned. We know that no sin, guilt or transgression, Heaven forbid, can touch the Divine portion planted and rooted within every Jew. Of it the verse says, “Who dwells with them in the midst of their impurities.”⁶ However much a person has sinned, the portion of Yaakov in him is not blemished or spoiled. Impurity of the mind grows from pride. One who is proud blemishes the yud and hei of the Name Havayah, the Four-Letter Name, which allude to the holy mochin, the powers of the mind. What is his remedy? Let him lower himself like the hyssop,⁷ make himself like dust before everyone, and truly include himself in Klal Yisrael. Then he will see how precious his fellow's virtues are, and against them he will see his own leaven, the yetzer hara within him.⁸ For until he nullified himself before Klal Yisrael, he imagined that he was unique in his generation, and that it did not befit him to nullify himself before anyone. Through true bittul, self-nullification, he sees his real state and takes stock of his soul. He binds himself together with Klal Yisrael into one, to do his Maker's will with a whole heart.

39bThrough this, all the sparks, embers and flashes of fire, shalheves Yah, “the flame of God,”⁹ that are in every Jew gather together and become one great blaze, for like strengthens like, and their hearts and souls blaze for Hashem. This is in the spirit of Rashi's words, which come from Bereishis Rabbah: “One spark goes out from your bellows and burns it all.”¹⁰ The spark of the One and Only, Who dwells within a person, goes out and burns away all the barriers that divide him from our Father in Heaven. Jews bound together as loving companions are joined at their root, and so the impurity is set aside from them, as Chazal said, “Whatever is joined to the pure is pure.”¹¹ This is what the holy Torah says: “Love your fellow as yourself; I am Hashem.”¹² Through love between companions they become joined to “I am Hashem.” This is the meaning of Chazal's saying “Impurity is set aside where the community is concerned.”¹³ Tzibbur, community, is the same word as Chazal's tzevurin, in tzevurin munachin, “heaped and lying” together.¹⁴ Bound together as one, they have the impurity set aside from them.

40aIn the days of the Greeks, when they entered the Heichal, they defiled all the oils: that is, all the thoughts and minds of Israel. For oil, the Gemara hints, alludes to wisdom, chochmah,¹⁵ and the Tikkunei Zohar says, “Chochmah is the brain.”¹⁶ The Greeks' wisdom and their accursed philosophy seek only to account for everything by reason, and not to believe with steadfast faith that Hashem alone did all this. Through such inquiries they blemished every thought and darkened the eyes of Israel, as the verse says, “My iniquities have overtaken me, and I cannot see.”¹⁷ The darkness reached the heart of Jewish souls, for the sight of the eye hangs on the heart.¹⁸

40bIn the days of Matisyahu and his sons, who were great tzaddikim and served Hashem with mesirus nefesh, the readiness to give one's life, giving their lives to sanctify His Name, there was no real need for a miracle to give them pure oil with which to purify the minds. For the people had someone before whom to nullify themselves: these very tzaddikim. Rather, the Cause of all causes, in His great kindness, seeks to help His children, “so that no one banished should stay banished from Him,”¹⁹ Heaven forbid, and He brought impurity upon them so that they will need the community, see its precious worth, include themselves in it, and nullify themselves, each one before his fellow; through this they repair the blemish. As we wrote at length [on Parshas Parah], on the red heifer that purifies from the dead, the impurity of the dead came so that they would earn emunah, faith, and repair the blemish of their doubting thoughts about faith.

40cFor the people of that generation, then, “impurity is set aside” would have been enough. But the will of the Holy One, blessed be He, was that this miracle should remain for all generations, as it says, “He made a remembrance for His wonders; Hashem is gracious and merciful.”²⁰ In His abundant mercy, when a time of favor and mercy comes about, He wants that time of favor to stay engraved for all generations, for a time when there will be no one to awaken favor and mercy for Israel, when Jews will have no tzaddik before whom to nullify themselves completely. This answers the question of why a miracle was needed at all. For the miracle to remain for all generations and light up the hearts of Bnei Yisrael even when they lack bittul, a miracle of pure oil was needed, to let them purify their minds for the service of Hashem. And through the lighting of the Menorah with pure oil specifically, the time was sanctified and purified for all generations.

41aThis is “they established them and made them … with Hallel and thanksgiving.” Hallel is the same word as in the verse “His sneezes flash (tahel) light”:²¹ they sanctified and purified the time [and made it shine] for all generations. When this time comes, even if a person's soul does not feel the bright light and the great awakening, because it is in a low state, the time itself still brings his soul to awaken in the service of Hashem, and he will see the great light that is bright in the skies. As it says [in the holy Torah, Parshas Mishpatim], “like the very heavens for purity (latohar),”²² where tohar means brightness, as in “You have ended his brightness (mitehoro).”²³ Purity, tohar, is a word of light: one comes to see the bright light in the heavens. This is the meaning of “established them and made them”: “established” speaks of the time, and “made” speaks of the soul, for the time will awaken even a soul brought low.

41bThis is why Chazal use the word kevaum, “they established them,” as the Shelah HaKadosh writes [in Sha'ar HaOtiyos, letter shin], in these words: “In Sefer Yetzirah it says that the Holy One, blessed be He, established twenty-two letters in man's mouth, in five places of articulation: engraved in the voice, hewn in the breath, established in five places.²⁴ And he explained there that the word kevaan, ‘He established them,’ points to a great matter: the five places of articulation have their root on high, at the head … but they descend and unfold … And out of love for man, Hashem established them in his mouth, so that he could cleave to his Creator. For when he utters these letters below, in Torah and in prayer, he stirs and awakens the higher roots above. That is the word ‘established.’” So far his words.²⁵

41cAnd kevaum, “they established them,” also means fixed fast, like a peg that will not give way, fastened with nails. Every soul has thirty-six cords by which it is bound and tied to its root above. Even if a person's many sins have cut him away, Heaven forbid, from that root, still, if he is joined by a single strand, he can bind himself and cleave to Hashem. His heart will blaze for Hashem, light will shine for him out of his darkness, and his eyes will be lit up in the holy Torah and in avodas Hashem, as is fitting.