Then Yosef commanded that they fill their vessels with grain and return their silver-pieces into each man’s sack, and give them victuals for the journey. They did so for them. Then they loaded their rations onto their donkeys and went from there. But as one opened his sack to give his donkey fodder at the night camp, he saw his silver – there it was in the mouth of his pack! He said to his brothers: My silver has been returned – yes, here in my pack! Their hearts gave way, and the trembled to one another, saying:

“What is this that God has done to us?”

(Bereishit 42:25-28)

 

 

Libel, Test, and Repentance

Despite his testing of his brothers with the “You are spies!” libel, Yosef still had doubts as to whether they love Benyamin, or if they still scorn the sons of his mother, Rachel. Therefore, he wanted to involve Benyamin in the test of the goblet, to see whether they would make efforts to save him. At the same time, however, he feared that the brothers might think that he really did steal the goblet – just as Rachel had stolen her father’s gods. Because of this they may say “The one who stole shall die,” and not plead for him with all their strength – not because of hatred for him, but because of their shame at the act. Because of this, Yosef commanded to place, along with the silver goblet, Binyamin’s payment and all their payments, so that they realize that all this was not the fault of Binyamin and his wickedness, but rather the scheme of the master. If, knowing this, they have compassion upon him and essay to save him from servitude, he would then know that they love him; he will consider them to be fully repentant, and will reveal himself to them and do good for them – as, in fact, he did.

(Abarbanel on Bereishit 44:1,2)

 

 

HANUKKAH – WHY EIGHT AND NOT SEVEN?

Shammai Leibovitz

 

“WHAT IS HANUKKAH?”

The answer of the Gemarra in Tractate Shabbat (21b):

For our Rabbis taught: on the 25^th of Kislev… when the Greeks entered the sanctuary, they defiled all the oils in the sanctuary, and when the kingdom of the House of Hashmonai overwhelmed them, they searched and found only one vial of oil which lay with the seal of the High Priest, and there was but oil enough to be lit for one day. A miracle was performed, and they lit from it for seven days. A later year, they established them as festival days, with praise and thanks…”

The Beit Yosef (Orach Hayyim 760) posed an excellent question:

Why did they institute the lighting for eight days? Certainly there was enough oil available for one day. Therefore, a miracle was needed only for seven days. If the lighting is to commemorate the miracle, then they should have ordained seven days for Hanukkah?

          This question prompted many answers – “Torah has seventy faces” – and this is not the place to review them all. We shall focus upon two interesting answers, each of which expresses an important aspect of understanding the meaning of miracles in general and the miracle of Hanukkah in particular.

          The great sage, Rabbi Hayyim Soleveitchik of Brisk, explains in his usual fashion, by means of typical “Brisk” inquiry. First he asks a prefatory question – how could they have fulfilled the mitzvah of lighting the menorah with miraculous oil? The mitzvah is to be fulfilled specifically with “olive oil alone” – and not with oil which was added miraculously! But certainly the berayta in Tractate Shabbat did not intend to say that the miracle was quantitative, i.e., with the addition of real oil, but that it was qualitative – that is to say, the power of the oil grew stronger from night to night. According to this explanation, the priests poured all the oil of the vial into the menorah; every night an eighth was consumed, and this eighth sufficed for the entire night. Thus we find that the miracle occurred already on the first night in the same degree as on all other nights.

          Reb Hayyim’s premise that they could not have fulfilled their obligation with “miracle oil” is most interesting. This premise follows from Reb Hayyim’s basic position in all his Torah explication, i.e., “All the Holy One, Blessed Be He, has in this world is the four cubits of Halakha.” If the Halakha commanded to light olive oil – authentic, natural, tangible – there is no permission nor possibility to discharge one’s obligation with “miracle oil.”

          Here we find expression of the principle that the Torah relates to physical reality as we recognize it, and not to some supernatural, metaphysical reality.

          This statement has far-reaching ramifications regarding our understanding the meaning of miracles. Since the miracle has no standing in Halakha itself, it cannot be considered a reason or motivation for observance of the mitzvoth. And here the question is asked: Why does Reb Hayyim block the entry of the miracle into the Halakha, and why is the this separation between the world of miracles and the world of Halakha so imperative? It can be said that if we do not separate between these two worlds, there exists the danger that man’s free will will be lost. The importance of the principle of freedom of choice is axiomatic; to simplify the position we cite Ramhal, who effectively described the centrality of this concept:

It is within man’s power to achieve perfection. This, however, must be of his own choice and will, for if he were forced in his actions to choose perfection, then he would not, in truth, be a perfect person… therefore it is of necessity that the matter be left to his choice, that his leaning be balanced between two sides, not necessarily towards one of them; then would he have the power of choice, to deliberately and willingly choose whichever he desires, and he has the ability to lean to whichever side he desires, and he has the ability to move in the direction he wants.

(Derekh Hashem, Part I, Chap. 3:1)

A miracle is intrusion upon nature, intervention which is forced upon man in a way that he cannot ignore it or deny it. If this is the motivation for observing the mitzvoth, then man has no true freedom to choose. The breaking of nature’s laws with a miracle coerces man into observing the mitzvoth, for he sees in the miracle “proof” that this is the proper path. The miracle upsets the “balance” which must exist between the way of Torah and the way of sin, and tips the scale clearly towards walking in the path of Torah. In this situation, man does not have two equal choices, and we cannot say his choice of the way of God was truly a free choice.

In the light of this, Reb Hayyim sought to diminish, as much as possible, the significance of the Hanukkah miracle, explaining the miracle in a way which would not involve addition of real oil, but rather a change in quality of the oil. Such a change is hardly noticed, and even if detected, it can always be explained in a manner which need not contradict the laws of nature (it can be logically assumed that oil of a higher quality burns longer).

The words of Reb Hayyim concur with the outlook of his great-grandfather, Reb Hayyim of Volozhin. In his view, with regards to mitzva observance, there is a clear divide between the period prior to the giving of Torah and the period following. Mitzvah observance by the Patriarchs was a subjective-religious experience, influenced in great degree by the existence of miracles. From Moshe onward, the Torah becomes subject to laws of logic, conforming to normative-intelligent discipline. Reb Hayyim of Volozhin feared that the preference of the experiential dimension over the legal dimension might serve as a rationale for behavior not in keeping with Halakha, for acts swerving aside even a hair’s breadth:

And since Moshe came and brought it down to earth – it is no longer in heaven. And let not the man whose intelligence is great, presume to be so wise as to say: I, who see the secrets and the rationales for the mitzvoth in higher worlds and powers as befits me according to the source of my soul – or whosoever according to his source – to transgress (heaven forbid) any mitzvah, or to reject any detail of the performance and do it imperfectly – even if only changing a single rabbinical fine point or changing the time of performance, heaven forbid.

(Nefesh HaHayyim, Part I, Chap. 22)

          This does not mean that Reb Hayyim is nullifying the experiential dimension of Halakha. On the contrary, he accepts and accentuates the feeling of purity, the ecstasy and the emotion of clinging to God which accompany the performance of the mitzvoth. But because the spiritual component is so lofty that its full realization is beyond human capability, the Halakhic act with all its fine details remains the essential component of all mitzvoth.

          The saintly Rabbi Meir Yehiel Halevi of Ostrovetzeh took a different approach to the question posed by the “Beit Yosef”. Unlike Reb Hayyim, he is not at all ideologically opposed to the miracle and its centrality in the Hanukkah miracle. He sees no Halakhic problem with lighting miracle oil. Along with this, he agrees that the miracle oil burned only seven days, exactly as implied in the berayta. His explanation for the fact that we light eight days is bold and surprising:

Our Sages decided that human acts are superior to divine acts. The acts of the Children of Israel, who do not depend upon miracles, but act and exert themselves and execute that which is imposed upon them, are certainly greater and more important – both in the eyes above and of those below – than the works of The Holy One, Blessed Be He, which are performed miraculously. Thus we find that the eighth day of Hanukkah, on which they ceased to exploit the product of miracles, and lit the holy candles in the menorah of their own production – this day is more important and greater than all the seven days of miracle; its light shines brightest and is most dear. Even more, it elevates along with itself the seven days of miraculous candles.

            According to this understanding, the achievements of men and their efforts are immeasurably superior to miraculous happenings. This position designates the eighth day of Hanukkah, the day on which they lit with natural oil, as the most important day of Hanukkah, affecting the meaning of the entire festival. Thus, we do not celebrate the miracle itself, but rather commemorate the natural lighting – a work of man – which symbolized the return to the service of God after a dark and horrible period of decrees and persecution.

          It is to be hoped that the candles we light this year will light up for us the natural and practical way for us to exit the darkness in which we find ourselves. We do not need a miracle; we need “the eighth day” – endeavors of sensible and wise people who will know how to make correct value decisions, with concession and compromise, for the sake of achieving a lasting peace in our region. Matters cannot be resolved by hoping and waiting for “miracle oil” which will arrive on its own from above. The Holy One, Blessed Be He, is the source of both light and darkness, both war and peace – “forms light and create s darkness, makes peace and creates evil” (Isaiah 45:7). We have been entrusted with the mission of extracting the light from the darkness, peace from evil. “The light of peace” will arrive only through the natural kindling by human hands, in the sense of “The word is near to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to do it” (Devarim 30:14). When we fulfill our obligation and bring peace with our own hands, then will we merit the realization of the passage “May the Lord make his face shine upon you . . . and give you peace.” (Bemidbar 7:26)

Shammai Leibowitz is a lawyer specializing in traffic law

 

 

WHO SEPARATES BETWEEN HOLY AND PROFANE, BETWEEN LIGHT AND DARKNESS, BETWEEN ISRAEL AND THE NATIONS

THOUGHTS FOR HANUKKAH

 

          As these lines are being written and prepared for publication, the media are broadcasting details about the victims of the terrible attacks perpetrated yesterday in the Yerushalayim Ben Yehuda Mall, and today in Haifa.

          We do not generally relate to current events, primarily because of the time lapse between editing and distribution.

          Today, considering the concentration and timing of events, it seems to us that even after two weeks, it is proper to relate to the horrible slaughter of innocent people by terrorists.

          The Talmud, in Tractate Avodah Zara (8a), describes Adam’s first meeting with the dark:

          Our Rabbis taught: As Adam, the first man, saw the days diminishing, he said:

“Woe unto me, perhaps because I transgressed, the world is dark because of me, and is returning to tohu vavohu, a state of wild and waste, and this is the death which heaven has decreed for my punishment.” He rose up and sat in fasting and prayer for eight days. But when he saw, in the Teveth season, that the days are growing longer, he said: “Such must be the nature of the world.” He went and celebrated for eight days. In a later year he established them as festivals for both them [for Jews] and for them [for idolaters].

          Every one of us, either as an individual or as part of society, can experience the feeling of the first man meeting a world becoming increasingly dark. This encounter is most frightening; we are confronted with the darkest elements within ourselves, which can be understood in the circumstances created. The dread and the fear are liable to bring out in us the desire to take undiscriminating revenge.

          In these days of Hanukkah, however, when we rule according to Beit Hillel, we are daily commanded to add light, to fight the darkness, and it seems that it is not by accident that the Rambam ends the Laws of Hanukkah with a haggadic quote which expresses a very deep truth:

If he had before him (enough money to purchase) a lamp for his home [the Shabbat lamp], or a candle for Hanukkah, or for Kiddush, the lamp for his home takes precedence because of peace in his home, for the holy name was erased in order to bring peace between man and his wife.

Great is peace, for all the Torah was given in order to bring peace to the world, as is written:

                    “Its ways are ways of pleasantness,

 and all its paths are peace.”

(Rambam, Mishneh Torah, Laws of Megillah and Hanukkah 4:14)

Pinhas Leiser - Editor

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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