Mercy as Nature: The Faith of the First Night

49aThe Rishonim ask what the miracle was on the first night.¹ Perhaps we can answer in the way we explained Yaakov's vow in Parshas Vayeitzei.² The verse means “then Hashem will be my God,” but here it is read: Havayah, the Four-Letter Name, the Name of mercy, will be to me Elokim. Yaakov said: If I pass through all these waves “and I return in peace to my father's house,” that is, if I am privileged to return in peace to my root, then I will know that everything is only by the mercy of Heaven, and not by nature, hateva (הטבע), which has the numerical value of Elokim (אלקים).³ I will make known that the attribute of mercy is itself the nature of the treasured nation, and I will know this clearly.

49bNow, of the days of Greece the Midrash says: “‘And darkness was on 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.’”⁴ This is in the spirit of Chazal's words, “Cursed is one who teaches his son Greek wisdom.”⁵ For this is the accursed wisdom of philosophy, which explains everything by the intellect, as though all were nothing but human reason, as though “his strength and the might of his hand”⁶ had done all this, and everything were chance and nature. With this they darkened the eyes of Israel, so that they would not see the light that “is bright in the skies”:⁷ that everything is from Hashem, and “even a light little bird is not caught without Heaven.”⁸ They went so far as to tell them that the horn [on which they wrote] grows from the brain's surplus: by the power of your own intellect you grasp that you have no advantage and no share in “the lot of the inheritance” of Hashem, the God of Israel.⁹

49cThen they found the cruse of pure oil, which hints at wisdom,¹⁰ and kindled the Menorah. The Menorah hints at “You guard My lamp,” as the Midrash brings on Parshas Behaalosecha, and as the Gemara says, “and your lamp is in My hand …”¹¹ That is: know that only I give you light, and “all are presumed blind until the Holy One, blessed be He, lights up their eyes.”¹² By the power of that holy kindling they came to know that all these wars, and even finding the cruse and recognizing that no one had touched it, all came from Hashem and not by nature. This is the understanding in “Men of understanding, bnei vinah, established eight days for song and joyous praise.”¹³ For after Hashem lit up their eyes, they saw plainly about the first night too: though it looked like nature, they had believed with complete faith that this too was not by nature, but only by Hashem's kindness. In the merit of that faith they earned the miracles. This answers the question: the faith of the first night was the main thing.¹⁴