Potential and Deed: Lights That Repair Lost Days

174In the dispute above, Rashi explains Beis Shammai's reason, “the days that are coming in,” as “those yet to come,” and Beis Hillel's reason, “the days that have gone out,” as “those that have already gone out, and the day he stands in is counted with those that have gone out.”¹

175Let us explain their dispute by the ways of avodas Hashem, the service of Hashem. As is well known, the first night of Chanukah is the source of the middos, the attributes through which Hashem acts in the world. In potential, then, the miracle had more force on the first night than on any other day, for on that day all eight days were still held in potential: eight days of miracles were yet to come. This is Beis Shammai's view that on the first night one lights eight, for what exists in potential counts as much as what is actually done. That is why Rashi wrote “the days yet to come”: we know that the sefirah of Binah, Understanding [the source of the attributes], belongs to the World to Come, in Aramaic alma de'asi, “the world that is coming.” Beis Hillel hold that the main thing is the actual deed, for thought cannot count as real existence; the main thing is what is actually done. And in deed, they saw the full force of the miracle's working on the eighth day more than on any other day, for by then they had seen Hashem's salvation in deed, in the midst of the land, for all eight days.

176aTo explain this: we know that the letters of Hillel (הלל) begin the words HaRofei Lishvurei Lev (הרופא לשבורי לב), “He heals the broken-hearted.”² Beis Hillel's trait was chessed, kindness, as the holy Zohar says, “Hillel is from the side of mercy.”³ They drew the light of chessed down into the world and healed the broken hearts of Bnei Yisrael. And the halachah follows Beis Hillel. As the holy Arizal wrote, the letters of halachah (הלכה) begin the words Hari'u LaShem Kol Ha'aretz (הריעו לה' כל הארץ), “Shout to Hashem, all the earth.”⁴ That is: in a time of darkness, even one sunk in the things of the earth can restore and revive his wretched soul, and cancel the dinim, the harsh judgments, by the power of studying halachah.

176bThis explains Chazal's saying, “Whoever studies halachos every day is assured that he is a son of the World to Come.”⁵ It rests on what my holy father and teacher, zt"l, zy"a,⁶ told me in the name of R' Chaim Vital. The Mishnah says, “The cow of R' Elazar ben Azaryah used to go out [on Shabbos] with the strap between its horns, against the will of the Sages,” and on it the Yerushalmi says: “R' Chananiah said: It went out so only once, and his teeth turned black from the fasts.”⁷ The disciples asked R' Chaim Vital: “Rabbeinu, what can we who come after them answer for ourselves? ‘If a flame has fallen among cedars such as these, what will the hyssop on the wall do?’⁸ If he afflicted himself so much over so light a matter [a strap on his cow, and only once], until his teeth turned black from fasting, what can we who come after them answer, when ‘there is no soundness in our flesh’ from our many sins?”⁹ He answered them: “In these times, in the darkness of exile, even one cry and one sigh from a Jew, from the true depth of his heart, counts like the fasts of the early years.”

176cFrom the time of R' Chaim Vital until now, the exile and the troubles have grown ever stronger, and “each day's curse is greater than the last.”¹⁰ Surely, then, the outcry of Israel from the depth of the heart is as precious in Hashem's eyes as the fasts of the early years, for “the Holy One, blessed be He, does not make impossible demands of His creatures.”¹¹ That is why “whoever studies halachos every day” in the darkness of exile, halachah whose letters spell “Shout to Hashem,” “is assured that he is a son of the World to Come.” Before the Holy One he counts like people of great worth, who have Chochmah, Binah and Da'as, wisdom, understanding and knowledge; and Binah, as we saw, belongs to the World to Come.

177aThat is why the halachah follows Beis Hillel, whose trait is chessed, for “the world is built by kindness.”¹² But in the time to come, when the verse “the earth shall be full of knowledge” is fulfilled¹³ and chessed is revealed in the world, and “all Bnei Yisrael will have light in their dwellings,”¹⁴ the halachah will follow Beis Shammai, as the Arizal wrote. For Beis Shammai “are sharper”:¹⁵ too sharp for this world, their level higher than this world. The name Shammai comes from shemaya, heaven.¹⁶ This world cannot bear or endure the measure of their great holiness, nor their view that the main thing is potential, in thought. So they hold that on the first night one lights eight, for the chief awakening of the bright, holy lights was on the first night. And “once its time has passed, its offering is void”;¹⁷ it is “a crooked thing that cannot be made straight,”¹⁸ for the day that has passed cannot be given real existence again. That is “from then on he lights fewer as he goes”: the first day, once it has passed, no longer gathers in or joins with the days still to come, like anything that is subtracted and taken away from the whole.

177bBut “not every mind can bear this,” and “who can ascend the mountain of Hashem”¹⁹ and repair everything in potential? On this Beis Hillel spoke. Their trait is chessed, and they heal the broken hearts of Bnei Yisrael, “so that no one banished should stay banished from Him,”²⁰ even the simple and the lowly, who have not reached so great a level as to serve Hashem in potential, that is, in the holiness and purity of the mind. Such people should serve Hashem in deed, and through the work of their hands the inner light and the potential will awaken. That is “he adds as he goes.” And Beis Hillel's reason is “the days that have gone out,” which Rashi explains, “and this day is counted with the days that have gone out.” That is: a person takes to heart that the days have gone out and passed and he has come away with nothing. Until this day he did not feel the great holy lights of the Chanukah candles, he has not mended or completed his soul at all, and he is deeply grieved at heart. Even so, on this very day, through kindling the Chanukah lights, which we still light today, he can repair the days that have passed, like anything added to a small amount, which joins with what came before. That is “he adds as he goes” onto the first day.

177cSo it appears from the Midrash Rabbah, on Naso, and from the Pesikta: “A Chanukah lamp in which oil was left over on the first day: he adds a little to it on the second day. If oil was left over on the second day, he adds a little to it on the third day, and lights.”²¹ That is why this day is called Zos Chanukah:²² on this day all the days of Chanukah are included, and today still one can draw down the holy lights and the attribute of mercy upon Klal Yisrael. And that is “we rise in holiness and do not go down”: this is faithful counsel for rising in holiness and not going down, Heaven forbid. Perhaps, too, Chazal meant something more by “the days that have gone out.” One who is worthy to sanctify and purify his days and years, busy with Torah and prayer, “comes into days”: his days endure forever, as in “And Avraham was old, come into days.”²³ His are not days that go out, pass and are gone, “like yesterday when it is past.”²⁴ And that is “corresponding to the days that have gone out”: to light up and repair the days that went out, passed and are no more.

178We have written before that the dispute of Beis Shammai and Beis Hillel, over whether the main thing is potential or deed, is the dispute of R' Eliezer and R' Yehoshua. R' Eliezer says the world was created in Tishrei; R' Yehoshua says the world was created in Nissan.²⁵ In Tosafos, Rabbeinu Tam writes that both are the words of the living God: in Tishrei it arose in His thought to create the world, and it was not created until Nissan.²⁶ Following Tosafos, we can explain: for R' Eliezer, thought and will alone count as the deed's real existence, and so he holds that the world was created in Tishrei. R' Yehoshua says that thought cannot count as the deed's real existence, and the creation in deed was in Nissan.

179aTo understand it, we begin with what my holy father wrote on the dispute between the Midrash and the Asarah Maamaros, which the Rema brings in these words: “The meticulous are accustomed to sway when they read the Torah, and in blessings and in prayer; and so it is in the Midrash.”²⁷ The Magen Avraham cites in the name of the Asarah Maamaros that some perushim, men who hold themselves apart, used to sway gently only at the endings of the blessings, to fulfill “and before My Name he was in awe (nichas),” read as nachas, gently.²⁸ And R' Menachem Azaryah of Fano, its author, also writes in a responsum that one should not sway in prayer.²⁹ My holy father explained their dispute, and I will explain his holy words at greater length. At first glance, what is their dispute about? What difference does it make whether one sways or not? “The Merciful One wants the heart.”³⁰ If the inner heart does not move with dread and fear, trembling and sweating before the glory of His majesty, when a person takes to heart before Whom he stands, how can anyone tell him to sway or not to sway? Does the Creator, blessed be He, desire a service of swaying?

179bBut it is as the verse says, “Its flashes are flashes of fire, a flame of Yah,”³¹ and as the holy Zohar says: “Once he says one word of Torah, this light is lit, and they cannot be still, and they sway this way and that …”³² When a person takes to heart before Whom he stands and prays, before the King of kings, the Holy One, blessed be He, and especially in the Shemoneh Esrei, the prayer of Atzilus, the highest world, a name that speaks of etzlo, “near Him,” he has drawn nearer to “the light of the face of the King of life.”³³ Then, from the great dread and fear before the glory of His majesty, “this light is lit”: his inner heart catches fire from the sparks of the “flashes of fire,” and “they cannot be still, and they sway this way and that.” All this we can say of the individual who stands on this level. That is what is meant by “the meticulous” and “the perushim are accustomed to sway.” And if the swaying does not come from within, they do not sway, for “the matter depends on the heart's understanding.”³⁴

179cThe approach of the Midrash and the Rema, that “they are accustomed to sway,” means this. In truth “not every mind can bear” serving Hashem b'ko'ach, in potential. Even so, a holy duty lies on a person to act at least in deed, b'ko'ach, now meaning “with strength,” in outward service, with voice and outcry, until his inner heart catches fire and burns. As the verse says, “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your strength (b'kochacha)”:³⁵ he should do the holy service in deed and with outward strength. And as Chazal said, “Him shall you serve: this is prayer.”³⁶ Then the encompassing light, the ohr makif that surrounds a person from outside, is awakened, and the spark within catches fire and burns of itself, and “this light is lit” until “they cannot be still, and they sway this way and that.”

180And the halachah follows Beis Hillel, that the main thing is the deed, especially in these times, in the darkness of exile. It is not as the Chassidim of our day think, who imagine they are men of high levels who serve Hashem b'ko'ach, in potential, and who wait and stand still in their prayer until their inner heart catches fire. All that belonged to the early generations, when the time was fit for it and the people too were prepared and suited to it. They were people of great worth, who sanctified and purified the mind and the thought, which is the main thing, as the verse says, “Guard sound wisdom and discretion … more than all that you guard, guard your heart.”³⁷ But in these times, with the force of the troubles and the darkness of exile, and the people too …³⁸ who is the fool who would think that he is fit, that he prepares himself and sanctifies and purifies his mind? Minds mixed with falsehood count for nothing at all, “and Hashem God is truth.”³⁹ Through true submission and bittul, self-nullification, a person comes to awaken the encompassing light, and his inner heart catches fire for Hashem, as the verse says, “Though I sit in darkness, Hashem is a light for me.”⁴⁰