Chanun's Night: Asking Only for a Free Gift

64aThe holy Arizal set a kavanah, an inner intention, for this night [the third of Chanukah]. It is the attribute of Chanun, “Gracious,” the third light of the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy.¹ On Va'eschanan, “I pleaded with Hashem,” Rashi explains: “Chanun means nothing but a free gift. Tzaddikim, even though they have their good deeds to hang their requests on, still ask only for a free gift.”² To explain Rashi's words, we may begin with what the holy Rebbe, R' Simcha Bunim of Peshischa, zt"l, said on a teaching of Chazal: “If a person sees suffering coming upon him, let him examine his deeds. If he examined and found nothing, let him hang it (yisleh) on neglect of Torah.”³ This teaching of Chazal is puzzling. He examined and found nothing, and yet he should hang it on neglect of Torah? Then he has found a great deal, for Torah study outweighs all the mitzvos!⁴

64bBut the point is this. A man whom suffering has come upon wants to pray to Hashem to take the suffering away from him. “He examined his deeds”: he searched his righteous acts and good deeds for some in whose merit he would be healed. “And found nothing”: he has no good deeds in whose merit he could be healed. This answers the puzzle: “let him hang” means that he hangs his prayer on neglect of Torah: “Master of the world, these sufferings make me neglect Torah, for one cannot study Torah with toil and depth in the midst of suffering, Heaven save us.” This is what Rashi wrote: “Tzaddikim, even though they have their good deeds to hang their requests on.” Their prayer could be that suffering and hardship should not hold them back from their service, the holy avodah. Even so, they ask only for a free gift.

65The point is that the holy Avos bequeathed the merit of their righteousness to their children's children. As Chazal say, R' Pinchas said: “Whoever does a mitzvah and asks to take his reward for it, of him it is said, ‘Hand to hand, the evil one shall not go unpunished.’ He is wicked, and he leaves nothing for his children.”⁵

66aWe may also read Rashi's words, “even though they have their good deeds to hang their requests on,” another way. They speak of tzaddikim whose hearts are in their own power, who cling to the service of Hashem with a wondrous deveikus, cleaving to Him. They are sure of this: if they are redeemed from their trouble and their soul is rescued from death, they will serve Hashem with greater understanding. So they could pray, “Master of the world, heal my soul in the merit of the mitzvos and good deeds I will yet do, if You restore me to health and keep me alive.”⁶ That is “they have their good deeds to hang their requests on”: the mitzvos and good deeds they will do in the future. Even so, they ask only for a free gift: “Be gracious to me from the treasury of free gifts.” Their righteousness they left to their children.

66bAs for Moshe's prayer: to eyes of flesh it seems that the 515 prayers Moshe Rabbeinu prayed, the numerical value of Va'eschanan (ואתחנן), achieved nothing.⁷ But the truth is not so. Moshe's prayer remained for the downcast in spirit and the broken-hearted among Bnei Yisrael, who are too ashamed to lift their faces or open their mouths to say a word before the King of kings, the Holy One, blessed be He. They only lift their eyes on high, and their soul weeps in secret.⁸ For them the prayer of Moshe Rabbeinu is awakened. Had Hashem granted Moshe Rabbeinu's prayer then, the remembrance of wonders that his prayers bring would have been spent on that too, and what would be left for us, people of low worth like me? I do not mean, Heaven forbid, to speak against Israel.

66cBut the Merciful and Gracious One, our Father in Heaven, awakens the attribute of Chanun for us out of the fierce love with which He loves us, and He accepts the prayer of the lowly with favor, like a pleasing fragrance. As Chazal say, reading “his banner (ve'diglo) over me is love” as ve'dilugo, “his skipping” over the words: Hashem says, “His skipping is love to Me.”⁹ And as Dovid HaMelech said, “He made a remembrance for His wonders.”¹⁰ The word zecher (זכר), remembrance, is also zachar, male, and every zachar is a kind of giver, for all remembering is in the mind. That is, He bestows the wonders on their children's children because, as the verse goes on, “Hashem is gracious and merciful,” and He awakens for us the light of the attribute of Chanun. “Ve'dilugo is love to Me.” This is what the holy Arizal composed in the zemiros for Friday night: “We will make You crowns with precious words.”¹¹ From the prayers, songs and praises of Israel, even of the lowly and the least, He makes crowns for Himself and for all the worlds, out of His love, like a father's for his son.

67Above all on Chanukah, whose name, read chanu-kah (חנו כה), speaks of Chanun: then the attribute of Chanun is awakened. Then the Creator, blessed be He, wraps Himself in His kindnesses and girds Himself with His graciousness, and He graciously grants every creature the light of da'as, knowledge, and every kind of salvation from the treasury of free gifts. As Chazal say, one places the Chanukah lamp “at the entrance of his house, on the outside.”¹² That is, the light of Chanukah is awakened through the attribute of Chanun even for those who stand outside. I mean one who is like a poor man standing at the door of the house, outside, who has nothing at all in hand and asks only for a free gift. This is what the Magen Avraham wrote: “It is the custom for boys to go around to the doors on Chanukah.”¹³ The hint is this: the pesachim, the doors, speak of the posechim, those who open the gates of mercy. They ask of the Merciful and Gracious One like a poor man standing at the door, who knows that the householder owes him nothing at all. He claims nothing from him on account of the past, nor on account of the future (in Yiddish, akonte, an advance); he asks for a free gift, pure and simple. So too, tzaddikim ask only “from the treasury of free gifts, be gracious to me,” and their righteousness they bequeathed to their children.

68This is what we say in the morning prayer, in the blessing of Ahavah Rabbah: “Our Father, our King, for the sake of Your great Name and for the sake of our fathers who trusted in You, whom You taught the laws of life, to do Your will with a whole heart, so be gracious to us and teach us.” At first glance this is astonishing. How can a human being, coarse and soiled, be so bold and brazen as to compare himself to our holy fathers? They devoted their hearts, their will, their souls and all they had to Hashem, and turned evil into good, for Hashem alone. How can he too ask, “so be gracious to us”? But it is as we said: even the holy Avos, though they could have hung their requests on their deeds, still asked only for a free gift, and not merely as a way of asking. For what difference does it make whether it was a free gift or the wage for their service? If they were given it freely, we too can be given it freely. Think this through.