Lamp Left, Mezuzah Right: Kindness Behind Every Judgment

51The sefer Mateh Moshe writes in the name of the Hagahos Mordechai that in most years Chanukah falls in the week of Parshas Mikeitz, and the sign for it is Mikeitz shenasayim, “at the end of two years.”¹ Shenasayim (שנתים) is read as initials: smol ner tadlik, yamin mezuzah, “on the left (ש) the lamp (נ) you shall kindle (ת); on the right (י), the mezuzah (מ).” His words need explaining. So does Chazal's teaching that the Chanukah lamp goes on the left, “so that the Chanukah lamp will be on the left and the mezuzah on the right.”² What has the Chanukah lamp to do with the mezuzah? And why give the reason “so that the mezuzah will be on the right”?

52aThe answer follows Chazal's words: “It is a mitzvah to place the Chanukah lamp at the entrance of one's house, on the outside.”³ Their teaching can be explained through the verse “For a mitzvah is a lamp and the Torah is light, and the way of life is the rebukes of discipline.”⁴ Rashi explains: “The rebukes of discipline turn a person toward life; so they are the way of life.” This rests on the holy words of the godly gaon, the Yid HaKodesh of Peshischa, zt"l, on the verse “From Heaven You made judgment heard; the earth feared and was still”:⁵ judgment is not Hashem's own way of leading the world; it comes only to frighten with the rod. Afterward, when Israel hears the awesome judgment and is afraid, shrinking and trembling in dread of it, then “it was still”: the harsh judgments are stilled and sweetened, lifted from them.

52bIn truth the Father of mercy does not aim, Heaven forbid, to afflict and to punish; His judgment is the road that brings a person to life. Sufferings cleanse a person's sins,⁶ and he comes out refined and purified: “Prepare yourself in the antechamber, so that you may enter the banquet hall.”⁷ For the Gemara learns from the creation of the world: b'reisha chashocha vehadar nehora, “first darkness, and then light.”⁸ The Aramaic word for “then” there, hadar (הדר), is also the name of Hadar, the last of the malchin kadmain, the early kings [of Edom]: with Hadar, life began.⁹ This is the meaning of the verse “And after my skin was struck, this; and from my flesh I shall behold God,”¹⁰ as Rashi explains there: “But they pay no heed to my Redeemer except after the blows to my skin …” If a person took well to heart from Whose source the sufferings and harsh judgments come, and Who it is that “brings on the evenings,”¹¹ he would know that all this is for his good. Evil does not come forth from Him;¹² this is a hidden love, for “there is no light except the light that comes out of the darkness.”¹³ He would not be like the fools who find it hard to accept: why must Hashem first make darkness and troubles, and only afterward the salvations?

52cThis is the meaning of “and the way of life is the rebukes of discipline”: rebuke comes so that a person will reach the way of life, as Rashi writes there. So too the verse says, “And it shall be that at evening time there shall be light.”¹⁴ It is like the night watchmen: the more they see the darkness of the night grow in its full strength, the more surely “the watchman said, ‘Morning has come.’”¹⁵ And this is “They surrounded me like bees; they were extinguished like a fire of thorns”:¹⁶ through this [darkest hour, when surrounded on every side] comes “the sound of joyous song and salvation in the tents of the righteous,”¹⁷ for then they believe that Hashem will shine for them. Oholei, “the tents of” (אהלי), is read from the same root, הל, as tahel (תהל), “flash forth,” in the verse “His sneezes flash forth light”:¹⁸ it speaks of shining. And they come to see “Hashem's right hand is exalted,”¹⁹ as kindness, the right hand of the Most High, grows strong and is revealed.

52dAnd this is “It is a mitzvah to place it at the entrance of one's house, on the outside.” Lehanichah, “to place it,” is the same word as vehinichu (והניחו) in the verse “and they leave their abundance to their children,”²⁰ a word of something left over: something [of Hashem's light] is left even at the entrance of one's house, on the outside, in the handbreadth nearest the public domain,²¹ which stands for alma deperuda, “the world of separation.” Do not let it enter your mind that Hashem wants, Heaven forbid, to push you away. On the contrary, His good intent is only to bring in and draw close the congregation of the holy people, even those who stand far off. And “Hashem's salvation comes in the blink of an eye,” as Chazal said of the twilight of R' Yose: “this one enters and that one leaves.”²² That is, in the very last blink of an eye, when a person stands on the brink of destruction, Hashem has mercy on him, sends him His light and revives him, for He knows his times and his moments.

53This is what the great and holy Maggid of Mezritch, zt"l, said on the verse “and the breath of the Almighty gives them understanding,”²³ through Chazal's words that Hashem “said to His world, ‘Dai, enough!’”²⁴ The Maggid's meaning: the world came down step by step from the spiritual to the physical, all so that it would return through the tzaddik, through his pure thought, and become a great delight. For “good news from a distant land”²⁵ is a great delight: human beings refined, returning to what they were at first. When the world wanted to spread out further, Hashem said, “Enough!” For He understood that man would no longer be able to return to deveikus, cleaving to Hashem, and without that, what need would He have of the world? The world was created only for this, for deveikus with the Creator, blessed be He. This is “and the neshamah, the breath, of Shaddai (שדי)”: the soul that comes from Hashem, Who is called Shaddai because He said to His world dai (די). “Gives them understanding”: this teaches us to understand that the world was not created for the sake of the physical, but only to return to its root. Otherwise, why did He say “Enough”?

54aThis is the meaning of Chazal's teaching that the mezuzah is on the right, as they expounded: “‘Your house,’ beisecha, is ‘your coming in,’ bi'ascha: the way you come in is from the right.”²⁶ The hint is to make known that the Creator, blessed be He, intends to draw every person close. Someone may have sinned so greatly that he is like a dead man, as Chazal said, “The wicked, even in their lifetime, are called dead,”²⁷ for his life has been cut off from the Source of life, and he stands on the brink of destruction, Heaven forbid. Even so, at that very moment Hashem has mercy on him and sends him His light. Then death departs, zaz maves (זז מות), the very letters of mezuzas (מזוזת), and he comes to stand at the right hand of the Most High. This is the hint in writing that Name, Shaddai, on the mezuzah.²⁸

54bThis is also the hint in shenasayim (שנתים), which speaks of change, as in the verse “It is my sickness, the changing (shenos) of the right hand of the Most High.”²⁹ As is known, the right hand is chessed, kindness. The “changing” of the right hand of the Most High comes only to frighten, to make people shrink and tremble in dread of the Day of Judgment. Through this dread they will be privileged to sweeten the harsh judgments and to see Hashem's right hand revealed. This is “He drew back His right hand”:³⁰ so that the right hand would grow strong and Godliness be revealed. And this is “Hashem's right hand is exalted; Hashem's right hand does valiantly”:³¹ that Hashem's right hand be revealed and made known in the world.

54cAnd this is “It came to pass at the end, mikeitz.” A person may be at the end of days, imagining that he has reached the end and there is no more hope. Even so, “Pharaoh dreamed”: cholem (חלם), “dreamed,” is read here as “grows strong,” so let him strengthen himself,³² for all this comes only so that Hashem's attribute of goodness and kindness will be revealed in the world. Paroh, Pharaoh (פרעה), speaks of revealing, pera (פרע). This answers the question of what the Chanukah lamp on the left has to do with the mezuzah on the right. One must know that all the harsh judgments belong to the left, even for the people whom the handbreadth nearest the public domain stands for, those who, as we saw, stand very far off. Even so, the mezuzah is on the right. The hint is that people should know and understand that the judgments come to make His goodness and kindness known in the world. Even when a person is in a time of trouble and stands on the brink of destruction, Heaven forbid, Hashem's salvation comes in the blink of an eye. So the Name on the mezuzah hints, spelled shin, dalet, yud (שדי), named for His saying dai to His world, so that it can return to its root. And all this is the kindness of Hashem, Who has promised us: “I will not reject them, nor abhor them.”³³