The Mitzvah Is Its Own Preparation: Hillel's Way in Exile

88aThe Gemara's dispute is the one set out above: Beis Shammai light eight on the first night and fewer each night after, for the bulls of Sukkos, while Beis Hillel light one and add, for we rise in holiness and do not go down. My holy father and teacher, zt"l, zy"a, explained their dispute in his holiness by the ways of avodas Hashem, the service of Hashem (and so it is in the holy sefarim).¹ Beis Shammai hold pocheis veholeich, “lessening as he goes”: one lights eight and then lights fewer, for “the beginning of wisdom is the fear of Hashem.”² Pocheis, lessening, means that every person must first subdue and lessen the power of evil, so that he is clean and cleansed of bad middos, the bad traits, and of this world's desires, and must clear out the dross. Holeich, going on, means “and do good,” as Dovid HaMelech said, “Turn from evil and do good.”³ After that, a person can be one who “goes on” in serving Hashem, and his soul can cleave to the Creator, blessed be He, with wondrous deveikus.

88bBeis Hillel hold mosif veholeich, “adding as he goes”: a person should add in holiness and begin by doing good. Later, once he is used to the good, he should begin to repair himself from the sins and transgressions he has committed. For when he is afraid and begins to worry and to repair the traits he has blemished, the enemy will meanwhile rise and kill him, and he will drown in the depths that the wicked have dug for him. The advice is not to make reckonings now, but to strengthen himself in serving Hashem, to defeat the enemy standing against him and heap coals of fire on the enemy's head, the fire of fervor in the mitzvah. Afterward he will set right whatever he has made crooked. This is the dispute of Beis Shammai and Beis Hillel over whether the placing of the lamp makes the mitzvah or the kindling.⁴ The placing means that a person should first bring himself low and humble himself. The kindling means that in the very darkness his sins have made, he should kindle and catch fire in doing the mitzvah. The halachah is that the kindling makes the mitzvah: a person should begin by doing Hashem's mitzvos. Those are his holy words.

89aTo explain his holy words, perhaps hanachah, “placing,” comes from the verse “leave (hanichu) one of your brothers with me,” and is like “they leave (hinichu) their surplus to their children”:⁵ it speaks of what remains. That is, a person clears himself and his thoughts of all the vanities of this world and readies himself with great preparation and in holy purity to do the mitzvah properly and fittingly, wholly and completely; then the fervor of the mitzvah remains in him forever and does not go out. Beis Shammai hold that the placing makes the mitzvah, and that one lights “lessening as he goes”: he should first lessen and subdue the evil, and through the preparation he goes on in the ways of holy service. For what remains of the mitzvah stays forever, even in the days of katnus, when the spirit is small. As it says, “She tastes that her trade is good; her lamp does not go out at night.”⁶ One who tastes the pleasantness and sweetness of the mitzvah's light, through the great preparation he makes for the mitzvah, is worthy that “her lamp does not go out at night.” The lamp is the one of the verse “For a mitzvah is a lamp, and Torah is light.”⁷ And the night is the time of smallness and darkness, when the light of holiness does not shine in its full strength.

89bBeis Hillel's trait is kindness: they heal the broken hearts of Israel, for the letters of Hillel (הלל) begin the words HaRofei Lishvurei Lev (הרופא לשבורי לב), “He heals the broken-hearted.”⁸ They hold that Beis Shammai's trait is certainly very good. But not every mind can bear it, especially at this time, when the darkness is at its height and we are on “impure soil.”⁹ So they hold that the kindling makes the mitzvah. If the inner light awakens in a person, the Divine spark hidden within every Jew, and the fire of the mitzvah burns on his heart with fierce love and longing to do the will of the Creator, he must not delay at all. This holds even if he has not prepared himself for the mitzvah, and even if he is still wrapped and covered and soiled in “the filthy garments.”¹⁰ For if he waits and delays until he has prepared himself fittingly with great preparation, the spark will meanwhile go out and be gone, and afterward too he will be able to do nothing. “One who watches the wind will not sow.”¹¹ For how far does our awakening and our fervor reach in these times?

89cThis is what “the kindling makes the mitzvah” means: the doing of the mitzvah is itself the preparation. As we say in the blessing, “Who has sanctified us with His mitzvos”: kideshanu, “sanctified us,” is the same word as in the verse “Sanctify them today and tomorrow,”¹² which speaks of preparing and making ready. In bemitzvosav, “with His mitzvos,” the letter beis stands for “through”: He prepared us through the doing of the mitzvos. And this is what we say, “Make our hearts cleave to Your mitzvos”:¹³ through doing Your mitzvos. The mitzvah itself is the preparation for the mitzvah.

90This is the meaning of the verse “For a mitzvah is a lamp, and Torah is light”: through the light of the Torah one comes to the lamp of the mitzvah. And this is Beis Hillel's “adding as he goes”: the main thing is that a person keep adding in mitzvos and good deeds, for “we rise in holiness.” Through this he will by that very adding bring down and subdue the sitra achra, the “other side” opposed to holiness, and clear out the dross. And the halachah follows Beis Hillel.

91aThis is like another dispute of Beis Shammai and Beis Hillel, in the Gemara: “They said of Shammai the Elder that all his days he ate in honor of Shabbos. … But Hillel the Elder had a different trait, for all his deeds were for the sake of Heaven, as it says, ‘Blessed is Hashem day by day.’ It was taught likewise: Beis Shammai say, ‘From the first day of your week, for your Shabbos’; and Beis Hillel say, ‘Blessed is Hashem day by day.’”¹⁴ Beis Shammai held that a person should busy himself and prepare himself with great preparation to receive the holiness of Shabbos “from the first day of the week.” That is “all his days he ate in honor of Shabbos”: all six workdays Shammai prepared himself for the holiness of Shabbos.

91bBeis Hillel say: this trait is certainly very good, but “the Holy One, blessed be He, does not make impossible demands of His creatures.”¹⁵ In His great mercy He takes the place and the time into account. And what are we to do in these generations, in ikvesa diMeshicha, the days of Moshiach's footsteps, with “the leaven in the dough and subjugation to the kingdoms”?¹⁶ That is what “he had a different trait” means: Hillel healed and brought relief to the downcast in spirit and the brokenhearted, and he said, “Blessed is Hashem day by day.” A person should not think at all about what will be or what has been. He is obliged only to look at what is happening with him now, at this time and this moment in which he stands. Even if he has not prepared himself at all for the precious delight of the holiness of Shabbos, when that holiness is drawing near and he wants to take upon himself its wondrous light, he is granted the radiance of Shabbos's holiness, shining upon him in its splendor. This is “Blessed is Hashem day by day”: Hashem takes the place and the time into account. In these times, at the height of the darkness of exile, when “each day's curse is greater than the last,”¹⁷ even one sigh from the depths of a broken heart is precious in Hashem's eyes. The preparation at the time of the mitzvah is enough.

92This lets us understand the flow of the Pesikta, which passes from the mitzvah of Chanukah to Efraim and Menasheh: “A person should not say, ‘I will not keep the mitzvah of the Elders, since it is not from the Torah’” (it is speaking of the mitzvah of Chanukah).¹⁸ “The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him: ‘No, my son. Rather, whatever they decree upon you, keep, for they decree even upon Me. Know this: when Yaakov blessed Menasheh and Efraim, what is written there? “He set Efraim before Menasheh.”¹⁹ He made the younger come before the elder, and the Holy One upheld his decree. When? At the offerings of the princes, where the tribe of Efraim offered first, as it says, “On the seventh day, the prince of the sons of Efraim,” and “On the eighth day, the prince of the sons of Menasheh.”’”²⁰

93aTo understand it, we begin with the verse “Yosef named the firstborn Menasheh, ‘For God has made me forget (nashani) all my toil and all my father's house.’”²¹ This follows what the Tur writes: the early chassidim and men of deeds would wait an hour before prayer, for they would seclude themselves and concentrate in their prayer until they reached hispashtus hagashmiyus, the stripping away of the physical.²² This is the hint in “made me forget … all my father's house.” It speaks of one who has done teshuvah for all his sins until they were sweetened and forgotten, and has prepared himself so fully that he reached the stripping away of the physical. That is why “the name of the firstborn” is Menasheh: this is the first trait. “And the second he named Efraim, ‘For God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction,’”²³ in my low and lowly state. Onyi, “my affliction,” speaks of aniyus, poverty: poverty in Torah, poverty in understanding, as Chazal said, “No one is poor except in understanding.”²⁴ Because of sins, understanding is taken away. Yet even if he has not yet washed from his filth, he should still make the fruit of the mitzvah and keep “adding as he goes,” and through this his body will be purified. Hifrani, “made me fruitful,” speaks of being fruitful and multiplying in the spiritual sense.

93bYaakov Avinu looked ahead to the end of days and saw that the generation would not be worthy. “His father refused and said, ‘I know, my son, I know.’” That is: certainly, at the time when knowledge increases and light shines forth like the morning light, and “Hashem will be for them an everlasting light,”²⁵ there will be only the choicest way, Beis Shammai's, the way of Menasheh we have described: “Turn from evil” first, and afterward “do good.” “He too will become great”: in truth it is a very high and lofty level. “But his younger (katan) brother will be greater than he,” because he makes himself katan, small. “And his seed will fill the nations”:²⁶ what will they do when they are mixed among the nations in exile, under the leaven in the dough and the subjugation to the kingdoms? Then, out of their distress, they will be compelled to take the way of Efraim, “God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction”: even in poverty they will be able to do the mitzvah. So Yaakov set Efraim before Menasheh, as Beis Hillel hold.

94This is what Chazal said in the same passage: if we hold that the kindling makes the mitzvah, one must put in oil for its measure.²⁷ Oil hints at wisdom.²⁸ The measure, shiur, is as the holy Zohar writes on “Her husband is known in the gates”: each one according to what he measures (meshaer) in his heart.²⁹ And wisdom and faith go together from one place, as the Ramban explains in his sefer Emunah uBitachon: “The righteous shall live by his faith,” and “wisdom gives life to those who have it.”³⁰ A person must take to heart how low his state is. What is his strength, and with what face can he stand before the King on high, approach His holy service and do His mitzvos without understanding and without kavanah, only with the deeds of his hands, like a body without a soul? Even so, he must know that a holy duty is laid upon him, for Hashem commanded us to do the mitzvos, each one according to what he “measures in his heart” and the level on which he stands. Otherwise he would not do them at all. Only, he should do the mitzvah with great, true humility and a broken heart.

95He should believe with simple and complete faith in the providence of the Creator, blessed be He, for His counsel is faithfulness. Simple, wholehearted faith is in the spirit of “The simple one (pesi) believes every word,” for in Arabia they call a lad pasya,³¹ and a small child believes that everything his father gives him is for his good. This is “Train (chanoch) a lad according to his way.”³² Chanukah comes from chinuch, “training,” as when something is dedicated anew. That is, through his strong faith a person trains and renews himself as a new creation, believing with simple faith as one who has not yet begun to know the least thing of the Creator's greatness, like the pesi, which in Arabic is a lad. Or the verse may mean “Train a lad”: a person must train himself in the mitzvah like a child without understanding who has reached only the age of training, for he can no longer do the mitzvah wholly and with fitting preparation. The doing of the mitzvah itself will be the preparation for the mitzvah (and the mitzvah as well). This is like Chazal's words “His service inaugurates (mechanchaso) him.”³³ “Even when he is old he will not turn from it”: even when he is a zaken, an elder, which Chazal read as one who has acquired wisdom,³⁴ he will not turn from it, from faith. For then he will know anew how far the preciousness of faith reaches.

96Through his strong faith a person brings joy and gladness to the heavens above. As we say in the Shabbos zemiros: “Prepare the meal of complete faith … the joy of the holy King.”³⁵ The holiness of Shabbos signifies faith, for it testifies to the world's creation and to the providence of the Creator, and through it one comes to faith. Through the Shabbos meals too one comes to faith. “The joy of the holy King”: his faith brings joy and gladness above. This is what the poet of the zemer says: “My soul thirsts for Hashem; may He fill my storehouses with plenty. To the mountains I lift my eyes.”³⁶ The mountains are the great, lofty and exalted secrets that cannot be grasped, which seem to a person like a mountain (as the Rambam writes). That is, a person takes to heart how low he is, and against this the preciousness and exaltedness of the holy Torah and the great secrets hidden and concealed in it, of which he grasps and knows nothing at all, and how little even his deeds and his service count. Then, out of great brokenness of heart, humility and true meekness, he will come to simple and complete faith, in the spirit of “the simple one believes.” He will believe in Hashem's great mercy and boundless kindness, that “no one banished should stay banished from Him,”³⁷ that He will not forsake His kindness and His truth, and that He will accept his teshuvah and his prayer even without great preparation, “like Hillel and not like Shammai.” For the halachah follows Hillel and not Shammai.

97Or we may read the zemer's “My soul thirsts” as Hillel's way at the moment of the mitzvah. When my soul thirsts for Hashem to do some mitzvah for His sake, I must act only like Beis Hillel and not like Shammai. That is, even though I did not prepare myself fittingly for the mitzvah, the mitzvah itself will be the preparation for the mitzvah, as we have explained. This we learn from “the joy of days and the years of eternity.”³⁸ “The joy of days” is Shabbos, the joy of the seven days of the week. Shabbos is also called joy and gladness because it is called a nachalah, an inheritance, which comes without toil: so is the holiness of Shabbos. “And the years (shenos) of eternity” is Chanukah, which returns year after year. Shenos also speaks of change, as it says, “It is my sickness, the shenos of the right hand of the Most High,”³⁹ where shenos means change. At the time of the miracle a change came about in all the worlds for the good: the order of nature was overturned for the good. In both of these the halachah follows Hillel and not Shammai, as we have explained.

98“And upon my head may they be whole (tamim): the lamp of mitzvah and the light of Torah.” Tamim, “whole,” hints at the mitzvah's kavanah, its inner intent, as Chazal said, “Prayer without kavanah is like a body without a soul.” Doing the mitzvah with its fitting kavanos is a whole building. “The lamp of mitzvah and the light of Torah”: through the rays of the splendor of the holy Torah a person comes to the lamp of the mitzvah, to its kavanah. Kavanah (כוונה) is the same word as kavin (כוין), windows, in the verse “and he had windows open”:⁴⁰ through the light of the holy Torah he comes to the lights of the mitzvah. As the holy Zohar says, “The Torah and the Holy One, blessed be He, and Israel: they are one”:⁴¹ through the light of the Torah a person cleaves and binds himself to Hashem, and comes to the lights of the mitzvah.

99Or one may read “And upon my head may they be whole: the lamp of mitzvah and the light of Torah” this way: from the lamp of mitzvah one comes to the light of Torah. Why does the line put mitzvah before Torah, when Chazal said in Kiddushin that study comes before deeds?⁴² This is explained by what my holy father said in his holiness on Chazal's words “A person should always rouse his good inclination against his evil inclination.” [This subject is brought below at length, beautifully, in Parshas Vayigash.] He wrote there that the counsel for engaging in Torah properly is the mitzvah of reading the Shema with mesirus nefesh, the readiness to give one's life, with all one's strength. Through this he weakens the power of the material, subdues the yetzer hara, and can learn. That is what the Gemara says: “If he defeats it, good; if not, let him read the Shema.”⁴³ Through reading “Shema Yisrael” with mesirus nefesh he defeats the yetzer hara and comes to engage in Torah. This is “the lamp of mitzvah and the light of Torah”: if he lacks the strength to come to the Torah, then through the lamp of mitzvah, the Shema, he can afterward come to the light of the holy Torah.

100aWhat we have said explains what the poskim write in the Shulchan Aruch: it is a mitzvah to place the lamp below ten handbreadths.⁴⁴ This signifies humility: a person should humble himself down low, knowing that his kindling is without the preparation it needs. As we have explained Chazal's words “A woman certainly lights”:⁴⁵ one who knows that he is a receiver, that from his own side he has nothing at all and does not know what is in his strength, certainly lights. For if the halachah were that the placing makes the mitzvah, it would require his own effort and preparation, as it says, “Whatever your hand finds to do with your strength, do.”⁴⁶ But who is worthy of that? Not every mind can bear it. And the halachah truly is that the kindling makes the mitzvah, and it takes only a moment, as long as it takes to say it; even a deaf-mute, a fool or a child could light it. So even if a person has lit properly, he should not grow proud and think that it came from his own strength, effort and great preparation. That is why, if a deaf-mute, a fool or a child lit it, they have done nothing at all:⁴⁷ the fool imagines that he is lighting the Chanukah lamp properly and correctly, and so they have done nothing.

100bThe verse hints at this in “On the seventh day, the prince of the sons of Efraim”:⁴⁸ when a person is “in the land of my affliction,” he knows the truth, that it is not by his own strength that he prepares himself for the mitzvah, but only by the help and support of Hashem. The hint lies in “on the seventh day,” for, as is known, holy Shabbos signifies recognizing with true recognition that everything comes from Hashem, even without any act of flesh and blood, for on it work is forbidden. And Shabbos is the source of blessing.⁴⁹