Zos Chanukah: Kingship and the Unearned Gift

168aAt the end of Taanis, Chazal say: “In the time to come the Holy One, blessed be He, will make a circle dance for the tzaddikim in Gan Eden, and each one will point with his finger,” as the verse we began with says: “this is our God.”¹ The word zeh, “this,” means pointing with the finger, as Chazal said on the verse “This is my God, and I will glorify Him.”² And zos, the feminine “this,” is Malchus, the sefirah of kingship, which, as is known, “has nothing of its own.” When a person knows that he has nothing of himself and that everything comes from Hashem, that knowing is the kingship of Heaven, and he becomes a merkavah, a chariot that carries the attribute of Malchus. That is why Chazal learned from the verse “This (zos) was mine, because I kept Your precepts” that the royal crown fit Dovid.³ It is as we said: Dovid knew that he had nothing of his own, and that is the level of zos. This is “Zos was mine.”

168bThe holy Zohar says, “Dovid was a faithful king.” My holy grandfather, zt"l, zy"a,⁴ explained that Dovid had pure emunah, faith, and knew that everything comes from Hashem. So when Shmuel anointed him king, he accepted it willingly, and when they sought to take the kingship from him, he did not complain. Not so Shaul. At first he “hid among the baggage”⁵ and did not want to reign, and afterward he was angry that the kingship had been taken from him and given to Dovid.

168cDovid's attribute, we know, is the attribute of Malchus, and the kingship of Heaven rested upon him. As we said, he knew that he had nothing of his own, like the attribute called zos. And Chanukah comes from the same root as vichuneka, “and may He be gracious to you,”⁶ as we ask, “Graciously grant us from You knowledge, understanding and insight.”⁷ The holy sefarim write that we see that even a small child has understanding; so it surely does not come from his good deeds, but only as an unearned gift. So too on Chanukah: Israel was not worthy of a miracle, and it came only as an unearned gift. This is Zos Chanukah, the name of Chanukah's eighth day: zos is Malchus, as we said, and Chanukah speaks of chaninah, grace, for everything comes from Hashem as an unearned gift.

169“From Hashem was this (zos); it is wondrous in our eyes.”⁸ “This is the gate to Hashem; the righteous will enter it.”⁹ Malchus is called a gate, in Aramaic tar'a, and the Name Adnus (אדני), “Lord,” has the numerical value of tar'a (תרעא).¹⁰ This means that the righteous should know they have reached only the gate. And “From Hashem was zos”: one must know that everything comes from Hashem, and this zos is the kingship of Heaven, as we said. This is the gate to becoming a tzaddik.