Unearned Grace: The Great Light out of Darkness

47a“Va'eschanan, I pleaded: chanun, pleading for grace, means nothing but an unearned gift.”¹ This grace bears on the question the Rishonim ask: what was the miracle on the first night?² We can answer along the lines of the verse “May God be gracious to us and bless us; may He make His face shine with us, selah.”³ When a person knows that on his own account nothing at all is due to him, and that whatever he has comes only from the kindness of the Creator, blessed be He, that very knowledge draws blessing down upon him. That is “May God be gracious to us”: we are privileged to know that everything comes from grace and kindness, and not through our deeds. Through this we earn blessing, and that is “and bless us.” Afterward we ask that we may always know that everything is from Him. That is “may He make His face shine with us, selah”: selah, forever and to all eternity.

47bHere too, at Chanukah, the victory in battle still left room to imagine that something in it followed the way of nature, the ordinary way of war. True, the few defeated the many. But Israel did not then stand on high levels, and at their level they could come to err, Heaven forbid. And they did fall short in this: they imagined that all this had come to them by their own strength. The wicked wisdom of Greece sensed this error and told them, “[Write on the horn of the ox that] you have no portion in the God of Israel,”⁴ meaning: everything comes from your own strength, like the ox of the verse “Abundant produce comes through the strength of the ox.”⁵ But when they found the cruse of pure oil, through the kindling of the Menorah even “the people who walk in darkness have seen a great light.”⁶ They saw the greatness of Hashem's kindness: not on their own account and not by their deeds had they won these heavy wars, and not by the way of nature at all, but only by the kindness of the Omnipresent, blessed be He. As they reflected on Hashem's kindness, they became utterly nullified, truly as nothing. Through this they were privileged to receive chen, grace, as the verse says, “And to the humble He gives grace.”⁷ For they had become like the Ayin on high, the Divine Nothingness. This is the name Chanukah (חנוכה), which begins with chen (חן): through grace they earned the miracle of Chanukah. And this answers the question about the first night: “on the twenty-fifth (כ"ה) … the days of Chanukah are eight,”⁸ for on the twenty-fifth itself, the first night, all the days of Chanukah are included.

48aThis is the meaning of “May Hashem make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you.”⁹ When Hashem makes His face shine upon you and gives you light out of the darkness, and you know that everything comes from the light of His face, by His great kindness and not on your own account, then you will be privileged to receive grace, and knowledge with it, as we pray, “You graciously give man knowledge.”¹⁰ That is Yeshayahu's “and its heart will understand”:¹¹ he will understand that everything is from the Holy One, blessed be He, and not from his own strength and the might of his hand.¹² “And it will return”: he returns all his powers to Hashem. Then “it will be healed.” And this is the understanding, binah, in the hymn's words “Men of understanding, bnei vinah, established eight days for song and joyous praise.”¹³

48bSee the Midrash Rabbah on Parshas Vayeira: “Sarah turned back and said, ‘I do not give up hope in my Creator; as for me, I will rejoice in Hashem; I will exult in the God of my salvation.’”¹⁴ So too on Parshas Vayeitzei: “Yaakov turned back and said, ‘I do not give up hope in my Creator,’ but rather, ‘My help is from Hashem.’”¹⁵ The Os Emes, a commentary on the Midrash, deletes the word chazar, “turned back.” But we may keep it and explain it by the verse “Worry in a man's heart, let him bow it down; and a good word will make it glad,” as the Metzudas David explains it there.¹⁶ And on the verse “The people who walk in darkness have seen a great light,” the Midrash Tanchuma explains that the people who toil in the Oral Torah were privileged to see the light hidden away since the six days of creation.¹⁷ For the Oral Torah is darkness, as the Gemara says: “‘He has set me in dark places’: this is the Talmud of Bavel.”¹⁸

48cThis is what it means. A Jew takes to heart how far he is from holiness. The darkness of night is before his eyes, and he does not see “the light of the King's face,” which is life.¹⁹ So too with every darkness, of body or of spirit, that surrounds him: he imagines that by the way of nature every counsel, refuge and shelter is lost to him. If he can lower his worry and lessen it, that is good. If not, then once he is subdued and brought low, down to the dust, that is the time for “Arise, be our help”:²⁰ let him take to heart the greatness of Hashem, Who is past searching out: “Can you find out the depth of God?”²¹ Before Him there is still much relief and rescue, by a miracle above nature. The light that the Holy One, blessed be He, created was above nature. Seeing that the lowly world was not worthy to use it, He arose and hid it away.²² And the holy Zohar explains that it was hidden like seed that is sown: it keeps sprouting, little by little, until we are privileged to see salvation sprout in full.²³

48dThis is the meaning of the Midrash Tanchuma on “The people who walk in darkness”: after it has grown very dark for them, then they “have seen a great light.” Through toil in Torah they see the great light that is above nature, for “there is no light except the light that comes out of the darkness.”²⁴ And this is the meaning of “a good word will make it glad,” as the Metzudas David explains it: once a person has no counsel at all by the way of nature, he tells himself to rejoice and exult in Hashem, Who is able to save him above nature. This is the meaning of the Midrash Rabbah on Sarah and Yaakov: after they saw that by nature they had no recourse, out of this they saw a great light. And this is “As for me, I will rejoice in Hashem; I will exult in the God of my salvation.” So it was here at Chanukah: out of the darkness they saw a great light. But they could not feel this until after the first lighting.²⁵