Lamp on the Left: Faith That Brings Kindness

58My holy father and teacher, zt"l, zy"a,¹ said in his holiness, in the name of the holy Shelah, citing the Hagahos Mordechai: In most years Chanukah falls in Parshas Mikeitz, and the sign for this is Mikeitz shenasayim, “at the end of two years.”² 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).”³ This needs explaining. So does the reason Chazal gave for the halachah that the Chanukah lamp is placed on the left of the doorway: “so that the mezuzah will be on the right.”⁴

59aThe explanation follows the verse “To tell of Your kindness in the morning, and Your faithfulness in the nights.” At first glance it is puzzling: why did Hashem bring the wars upon [Israel in the days of Chanukah]? In truth, even the salvation of the miracle did not come in the merit of their good deeds, for they were not worthy or deserving of it. Rather, the merciful Father, in His abundant mercy, stood by them in their time of distress, and He Who answers in time of distress answered them from the source of great mercy. Afterward, when they were granted the salvation, their joy was not in what the war had achieved, the rescue of their lives from death to life. For in truth, what does such joy achieve? What use is life to them, if not to do Hashem's will and His mitzvos, and to be one in whom the King delights? If a person knew that, were he to live on, he would keep heeding Hashem's voice and giving pleasure to his Maker and Creator, he would rejoice, and his soul would exult in the days of his life. But who knows what a day may bring? “The inclination of man's heart is evil from his youth,”⁵ and it entices the congregation of the holy seed and leads it away from serving the Creator, blessed be He. Under so many troubles and the pressures of the times, the strength to stand against it fails.

59bTheir true joy, far greater, came when they took to heart how low they had fallen. Once distant and despised, they were now near and dear. The King, the King of kings, the Holy One, blessed be He, desired their service and drew them near to His service, in the spirit of “may Your right hand draw us near,”⁶ and as the holy Zohar says, “Fortunate is the one whom the King draws near with His right hand.” And they saw that He desired their kindling, to increase and add lights in the heavens above. Then they saw, and rejoiced that they had remained alive to do their Creator's will, and from this the joy of their souls and the gladness of their hearts grew.

59cAll the more so Matisyahu and his holy sons, in their great submission and humble righteousness. They saw that they had been drawn near to “the light of the King's face,” which is life,⁷ and that the King, the Holy One, blessed be He, wished to honor them for their service and their kindling. So they were glad and rejoiced that they had been given the privilege of doing their Maker's will, and Hashem rejoiced with them in the joy of their souls. That is why the main remembrance of the miracle was set on the kindling of the Menorah. For the main miracle happened in the lights: in this miracle Hashem's love for them was revealed, that He wants them, dwells with them and accepts their service like a pleasing fragrance. As Chazal said, “The western lamp is a testimony for Israel to all who come into the world that the Shechinah rests among Bnei Yisrael,” His treasured people, the holy seed.⁸ And as Chazal said in the Midrash on Tetzaveh: “Does He need its light? … Rather, so that you may know how dear you are to Me …”⁹ So “these lights are holy, and we have no permission to make use of them, but only to look at them.”¹⁰

60Moreover, when the remnant of Hashem's people truly saw how low and poor their state was, they saw with open eyes the greatness of Hashem. For “Hashem is exalted, and the lowly will see”:¹¹ the lowly one is able to see Hashem's greatness. They saw how great Hashem's kindness is, that in the miracle He bestowed good kindness on His people Israel, not according to people's deeds. For it is His good way to do good, and especially to the seed of Israel, His treasured people. People of high standing do not know so well how great are Hashem's works and His abundant kindness. It seems to them that all this is due to them as payment for their good deeds, and that they have come by their wages. But the humble, who believe in Hashem and His abundant kindness, that “the world is built on kindness”¹² and He guides the whole world with His goodness and abundant kindness, come to awaken kindness upon themselves. This is “To tell of Your kindness in the morning, and Your faithfulness (emunascha) in the nights.” Through their strong faith (emunah) in the darkness of the night, that the darkness too is kindness and everything is for their good, a hidden love, they come “to tell of Your kindness in the morning.” Like the light of morning, light will shine, and with it true and good kindness, so that every eye will see the goodness and kindness of the Most High, from a place “higher than the high.”¹³

61This is “The sound of joyous song and salvation is in the tents of the righteous.”¹⁴ Oholei, “tents,” speaks of light, as Rashi writes in the Gemara on the verse it cites, “And Moshe would take the tent”: ohel is from behilo nero, “when His lamp shone.”¹⁵ Tzaddikim, the righteous, are called believers. In a time of hidden love, the believers trust that the hiding too is kindness, though no good or kindness has yet been revealed to any eye and it still takes faith. In the righteousness of their faith they are glad and joyful, accept with love things as they are now, and rejoice in the holy lights, as in “Rejoice, O righteous, in Hashem.”¹⁶ They look forward, hope and wait for Hashem's salvation, that He will do them revealed good and grant them good kindness before every eye. By this they awaken “Hashem's right hand does valiantly,”¹⁷ kindness from the right hand on high. “Hashem's right hand is exalted (romemah)”: from a high place, above the grasp of human understanding. As the holy Kozhnitzer Maggid, R' Yisrael, writes in his sefer Avodas Yisrael, Marom, “the height,” is a name for Binah, the sefirah of understanding, which is exalted above the middos, the attributes below it.¹⁸ My holy father explained Rashi's words in Parshas Yisro in the same spirit: “If you accept it upon yourselves now, it will be sweet for you from here on”:¹⁹ if you accept with love things as they are now, even though it still takes faith, it will be sweet for you from here on.

62Suppose a person takes to heart his bitter state, both with all of Israel and as an individual. He does not brood and complain with empty, foolish claims that more is due to him from the Creator, blessed be He. Instead he knows faithfully the righteousness of Hashem and the judgments He has done with Israel: He lays no charge on a man beyond his sins.²⁰ On the contrary, He bears with the rebellious, looks away, and does not reject us. So He promised us in the holy Torah through Moshe, His servant, trusted in all His house: “I will not reject them, nor abhor them, to destroy them.”²¹ And Chazal said, “‘I will not reject them’: in the days of the Greeks …”²² Though we are loathsome, abhorrent and soiled with sins, even so He does not reject us. And in truth, who is such a fool as to think that more is due to him? As Chazal said, “Does a person have any claim on his Creator?”²³ Through this contemplation he understands and sees the greatness of Hashem's mercy. By it he awakens the source of the flow of holy lights, so that the Creator will bestow on the people of the holy seed, according to His good will, to reveal and make known in the world His goodness, His kindness and His abundant flow of blessing.

63This is “on the left the lamp you shall kindle.” All the harsh judgments, as is well known, are alluded to by the left. If a person sets all the judgments aside and believes, then, that the judgments too are mercy and kindness, he earns “the mezuzah on the right.” For the Name of the flow of blessing is the Name Shin-Dalet-Yud, and this Name is written on the mezuzah.²⁴ That is, he awakens in the world the light of that flow from Hashem's right hand, so that the Creator, blessed be He, will bestow it, according to His good will, on the people He loves, reveal and make known in the world His goodness and kindness, and “keep us alive, as on this day.”²⁵ This is what Chazal meant by “so that the mezuzah will be on the right,” and it answers the question of their reason.