ONCE PHARAOH WAS ANGRY WITH HIS SERVANTS, AND PLACED ME IN CUSTODY IN THE HOUSE OF THE CHIEF STEWARD, TOGETHER WITH THE CHIEF BAKER. WE HAD DREAMS THE SAME NIGHT, HE AND I, EACH OF US A DREAM WITH A MEANING OF ITS OWN. A HEBREW YOUTH WAS THERE WITH US, A SERVANT OF THE CHIEF STEWARD; AND WHEN WE TOLD HIM OUR DREAMS, HE INTERPRETED THEN FOR US, TELLING EACH OF THE MEANING OF HIS DREAM.

(Bereishit 41:10-12)

 

Stereotypical Vision and Alternative Exegesis

Youth - a fool

Hebrew - who does not even know our language

Servant - and it is written in the laws of Egypt that a slave may not rule nor wear the clothing of an official.

(Rashi ad loc)

 

A Hebrew youth... a servant - Each detail adds more astonishment: he was an unschooled boy; a Hebrew - so he did not use the power of magic; a servant - who is not allowed to enter the houses of wisdom. In that case, it is Divine perception, for it is known that the family of the Hebrews is above the nature of other human beings, and things more exalted than the common way of the world are not beyond them, and so the matter has no end or boundary.

(Ha'amek Davar, ad loc)

 

 

A Miracle has Taken Place for Us; We have Understood the Price of Power

Not by might, nor by power, but by My spirit - said the Lord of Hosts.(Zechariah 4:6)

Shlomo Fox

"I do not know" - writes Rashi in his commentary on the Torah. He does not explain every word and verse, but nonetheless he sometimes takes the trouble to write the comment that perhaps best testifies to his greatness: "I do not know." These words imply recognition of the fact that everything has significance, even if we are not privy to it; sometimes a mystery remains unrevealed.

The vial of oil which lit the menorah in the Temple bears a secret within it, a secret which we did not want to reveal for many years. We wanted to view it as a miracle that did not take place for us; we saw it as an expression of a Diaspora mind-set, a move to erase the memory of Maccabian valor. We found support for this in the fact that the Al Ha-Nisim prayer only mentions the courage of the Maccabians and their war against the Hellenists. However, beyond the question of the miracle and the courage and their relative importance, I see the hidden mystery of the vial of oil as being a message concerning the price of the use of force. Let me explain.

Aharon Ze'ev's song, Anu Nosim Lapidim ["We Carry Torches"], set to music by Motti Ze'ira, remains part of the repertoire of Hanukah songs that we sing to this day:

We carry torches in gloomy nights,

The paths glow beneath our feet,

And he whose heart thirsts for the light will raise his eyes and heart to us -

To the light - and come.

No miracle occurred for us, we found no vial of oil.

We walked to the valley, we ascended the mountain,

We discovered the hidden springs of light.

No miracle occurred for us; we found no vial of oil.

We hewed stone until we bled - and there was light.

The song's original title was "Miracle of the Brave Heart," and it is that miracle which is the chief concern of the first verse, which for some reason has been deleted from the sung version:

We light these candles

For the miracles and wonders

Of these days and this season.

Miracles and wonders

Performed by human hands -

The miracle of the brave heart,

The wonder of the human spirit,

Which overcame the armies of great nations,

Made the poor mighty, strengthened the few,

And granted them victory.

In the spirit of his time, Ze'ev teaches that we are not dependent upon the mercies of Heaven, that the credit for both the Maccabian victory and our present-day victories belongs to "brave hearts" rather than to "masters of miracle." As is told regarding the conquest of Safed in the War of Independence: the conquest succeeded thanks to two factors - miracle and action. The action was the recitation of Psalms by the members of the Old Yishuv, while the miracle was the appearance of the Palmach forces.

 

What is a nes [miracle]?

In the song, Se'u tziyona nes va'degel ["Carry Banner and Flag Towards Zion"] the meaning of nes is a symbol, like the flag. In his book, Sefer Mahzor HaZ'manim (Am Oved: 5644, pg. 111) Prof. Schweid writes that a nes is a natural event that the believer takes as testimony to Divine intervention for the realization of a just goal.

What then is the "Nes of Hannukah"? When the Talmudic Sages sidetrack the Maccabian victory and tell the story of the vial of oil "through which a nes was accomplished and they used it to light [the Menorah] for eight days" (Shabbat 21b), did they really only intend to hide the physical victory because of their "Diaspora" mentality? Perhaps their intention was to hint to us that a deeper significance lies beyond the story of valor, that the vial of oil symbolized the potential hidden within us, which is revealed by acts of faith, in situations in which we thought we only had the strength to light for one day, yet, to our surprise, the oil burned for eight days?

The Talmudic Sages looked back on the Hasmonean period in its entirety, and were well aware of the price exacted by the Hasmonean victory. They were well aware of the destruction brought about by the Herodian kingdom and of the catastrophic consequences of the Bar Kokhba revolt. They were well aware of the corruption and defilement that came with sovereignty, of the internal destruction that grew into civil war. The Sages wished to emphasize the superiority of spirit as the message of the Hasmonean period, and they mentioned the Menorah and its light as symbols of the people's spirit.

Miracles were not unusual in the Second Temple period. According to the accounts offered by the Sages themselves, life in the Temple was regularly accompanied by miracles, two of which involved the Menorah: the western lamp of the Menorah was never extinguished, and the six flames of the Menorah always tilted towards the center flame, three from each side, so that each set of three tilted in the opposite direction. The Sages did not mention the story of the vial of oil in order to add yet another miracle to the list; neither did they wish to transform the victory into a miracle, purified of human involvement. Their goal was to change the message expressed by the holiday.

This approach may be found in Eli Ben-Gal's explanation of Beit Shamai's ruling that eight candles should be lit on the first day, removing one candle each day of the holiday (see his Keshe'okhlim im Ha-Satan Am-Oved:1989, pg. 323). He claims that this reflects the history of the Hasmonean period, which started out brightly but whose light diminished as time went on. Therefore, we light the candles in this fashion in order to remind ourselves that what happened then could recur in our own day. The lighting of candles comes to teach us that the message is spirit rather than power, and what could better symbolize the people's spirit better than the Menorah, with its illuminating light? And so, they replaced the physical victory with the miracle of the vial of oil.

The renewed message of Hanukah jibes well with the mishnah from the fourth chapter of Pirkei Avot:

Who is valiant? He who conquers his own inclination, for it is said: One who is patient is better than a valiant man, and he who controls his own spirit is better than one who captures a city (Proverbs 15:16).

The Sages' approach does not result from Diaspora thinking. It is founded upon the sober realization that power and its exercise can bring destruction.

Modern Zionism tried to turn this idea on its head and return power and sovereignty to the center stage. That is why the Maccabian victory captured its place in the Hanukah story. Along with it came the glorification of the Zealots of Massada and of the Bar Kokhba revolt, which came to be associated with Lag Ba'Omer. Incidentally, it is worth mentioning that according to the children's song which is sung to this day ("Bar Kokhba" lyrics: Levin Kipnis, music: Mordekhai Ze'ira), Bar Kokhba did not end his career with death and the failure of his revolt, but rather escaped his captors riding on the back of a lion.

Researchers of modern Zionism tend to view the Kishinev Pogroms as the turning point in the Jewish attitude towards power. A few years before the pogroms, in 5558, Bialik wrote his poem, Im Yesh et Nafshekha la'Da'at ("If You Want to Know"). In it, he describes the neck outstretched for slaughter, i.e., a martyr's death for the sanctification of the Divine Name, as the Jewish mode of reaction:

If your want to know the spring from which your killed brothers drew such strength and powers of the soul in evils days, so they could go forth joyfully towards death, to stretch their necks to every polished knife, to every extended axe; to climb the bonfire, to jump into the flames, and with [the word] ehad [one] to die a martyr's death...

However, Bialik took up a different line in the wake of the pogroms. His poems, Al HaShehitah ("On Slaughter") and Ir Ha'Harigah ("The City of Killing"), which were written in the shadow of the pogroms, express his change of view regarding power: no more passivity and prayer, but rather reproof towards God and criticism of the victims who stretch their necks to be slaughtered:

On the Slaughter (Iyyar, 1893)

Heavens, plead for mercy upon me! If there is a god within you, and a path to that god within you - which I have not found - then you pray for me!

I - my heart is dead, and there is no more prayer on my lips, and now impotence - no more hope - until when, until where, until when?

Hangman! O neck - arise to slaughter! Cut off my head like a dog's, your hand bears an axe, and all the earth is my gallows - and we - we are the few!

My blood is permitted - hit the skull and spurt blood of murder, blood of infants and elderly on your cloak - and it shall never, never be erased.

And if there is justice - let it appear at once! But if after my destruction from under the sky justice appears - let its throne be disgraced for eternity! Let the heavens rot with everlasting evil! And you, malicious ones, go in your violence, and live in your blood and be cleansed. Cursed be he who says: "Revenge!" Such a revenge, revenge of a small child's blood - even Satan has yet to create - and let the blood pierce unto the dark abyss, let it eat in darkness und undermine all the earth's rotten foundations.

After a year's time, Bialik expands upon the theme, and writes the poem B'Ir Ha'Harigah ["In the City of Killing"], which contains stringent criticism of the Jewish world that reacts to the destruction with blessings of Al HaNisim and questions regarding ritual purity. Bialik expresses deep sorrow over the profound degradation of the Maccabians' descendents:

Arise now and go to the city of killings. Arrive at the courtyards and se with your own eyes and feel with your own hands the clotted blood and dried brains of the dead, upon the fences, on the trees and stones, and on the plastered walls.

...

And those [women] who survived their defilement and woke from their blood - their whole lives had become abominable, and the light of their world defiled, eternal abominations, defilement of body and soul, outside and in - their husbands jumped up from their holes and ran to the House of God, and bless Al Ha'Nisim the Name of God their Savior Who lifts them up; and the Kohanim among them go out to ask their rabbis: "Rabbi! What of my wife? Is she permitted to me or not?" And all returns to its custom and all comes back to its usual course.

Now go and I shall take you to all of the hiding places:

The outhouses, pigpens, and other filthy places. And you shall see with your own eyes where they hid, your brothers, sons of your people, descendents of the Maccabians, great-grandchildren of the lions of [eulogized in the prayer] Av Ha'Rahamim, the seed of the "holy ones." Twenty in one hole, thirty [here] thirty [there]. They increased My glory in the world and sanctified My name in public...

With the passing years - and, especially, the creation of the state, the language inaugurated here by Bialik gave rise to accusations made against the victims of the Holocaust and criticism of them for having gone "like sheep to the slaughter." The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and similar examples of Jewish heroism were juxtaposed to the fate of the death-camp inmates, and the Memorial Day became "The Day of the Shoah and Heroism," where "heroism" referred to resistance by force.

In recent years, especially following the Yom Kippur War of 1973, a deep and growing change has taken place in Israeli public discourse and the notion of "peace" which until that time was thought of as an unachievable ideal, became a topic of discussion and reconsideration. Sadat's visit and the peace agreement with Egypt began a chain of moves that led to the peace agreement with Jordan, talks with the Palestinians that reached their apogee with the Oslo agreements, on to the retreat from Lebanon and the handing over of authority over Jericho and Gaza, and to the retreat from Gaza in the summer of 2005. This discourse points to a change in political and security thinking that testifies to the first beginnings of recognition that the state's strength is not solely a function of military might, but also of our ability to talk with the Arab world and build bridges to it, in order to change living conditions in Israel and the face of the Middle East.

This discourse has also brought about a re-examination of the Holocaust and the recognition that heroism is not solely a matter for the leaders and fighters of the revolt; those who survived the death camps also deserve to be treated as heroes. This is the ideological basis for the renewal of the Yad Va'Shem museum which does not only point out the heroism of the warriors of the uprising, but also speaks of the heroism of every human being.

It should be noted that already in 1954 Natan Alterman wrote his poem, Yom HaZikaron Ve'ha'mordim ["Memorial Day and the Rebels"] (Ha'Tur Ha'Shevi'I, pg.22), in which he relates to the "heroes among the community leaders and lobbyists" in an effort to do away with the negative view of the Judenratt. Alterman writes:

The fighters and rebels said: "The people also bestowed of its heroism and honor upon the Jewish fathers who said, ‘The resistance will bring a holocaust upon us,' and also to that boy or girl who went, lost somewhere, leaving only a small white sock behind, resting as a memorial on a stone in the archives.'"

And so he demanded that they also be viewed as heroes.

The discourse of secular Zionism has changed. However, religious Zionist discourse seems to still use the language of Bialik's "On the Slaughter," it has the orientation of Zionist discourse before it changed. Why?

It seems that it may be said that religious Zionism was a loyal partner in the history of the burgeoning state and in its wars, but was not a partner in its management and leadership. The people of Gush Emunim led a revolution in the religious Zionist mindset. In the wake of the Six Day War and immediately following the Yom Kippur War, they became imbued with militant language that required military solutions, to annihilate, kill and destroy became the main cry in the enemy's direction.

The change in political discourse which led to "peace" moves came up against hostile resistance from the religious Zionist discourse. It seems that while secular Zionism understood the limitations of power and especially the human price to be paid when that view is held, deciding as a result to try another path, religious Zionism had yet to internalize this move.

 

Back to the question: "what is Hannuka" for our times?

Taking the lessons of the Hasmonean period into account, the Talmudic conception offers to change the discourse and view courage not as the victory of power, but rather as a victory of the spirit. The holiday's symbol is not a weapon, but rather the spirit embodied in the Menorah and the vial of oil. The Sages developed a different discourse, according to which the hero is one who controls his inclinations. It seems that the Sages' conception is also appropriate for our days: Not by might, nor by power, but by My spirit, says today's Zionism.

The Geonim follow the Sages and also answer the question - "What is Hanukah?"

The Geonim answer that Hanukkah is celebrated eight days so that oil may be brought from Tekoa, i.e., oil produced without hired labor. And so it is written in the Geonic responsa (Musafiyah (Lick) #104):

Why do we celebrate the eight days of Hanukkah? Because of the miracle that occurred, when the Greeks defiled, etc.

And what is the point of eight nights, and that it did not last more or less [time]? That the oils come from Asher's territory, as it is written: May he dip his foot in oil (Devarim 33). There was a place called Tekoa, as they said: "Tekoa is the best for oil" (Menahot 85b). The oils would come from it, and from there to Jerusalem was an eight day journey, coming or going, and so it is said in Menahot. So they had to wait for them to bring the oil from there, and that is why they had a miracle for eight days.

The Talmud explains what is special about the oil from Tekoa:

The Rabbis taught: May he dip his foot in oil (Devarim 33) - that is Asher's portion, from which oil is drawn as if [water] from a spring. They said: Once the people of Ludkiya needed oil. They appointed an emissary, and told him: "Go and bring us a hundred myriads worth of oil." He went to Jerusalem and they told him - "Go to Tzor." He went to Tzor, they told him - "Go to Gush Halav." He went to Gush Halav, they told him - "Go to a certain man in a certain field." He found him tilling beneath his olive trees. He asked him - "Do you have the hundred myriad's worth of oil that I need?" He told him - "Wait until I finish my work." After he finished his work, he left his tools behind him and began clearing stones along the road. He asked him - "Do you have a hundred myriad's worth of oil?! I think the Judeans played a joke on me." When they reached his town, he had his maidservant bring out a pitcher of hot water and wash his hands and feet. [Next,] she brought out a bowl of oil and dipped his hands and feet in it, to fulfill the verse, may he dip his foot in oil. After they ate and drank, he measured out a hundred myriads worth of oil. He said to him: "Do you not need more?" He answered: "Yes, but I do not have [enough] money." He said to him: "If you want to take it, take it, and I will go with you and collect its price." He measured out eighteen myriad worth of oil. They said: "There was not a horse nor mule nor camel nor ass in the Land of Israel that they did not hire for that man." When they reached his town, the people of the town came out to praise him, and he said: "Do not praise me, but rather he who has accompanied me; he measured out a hundred myriad's worth of oil, and gave me [another] eighteen myriads on credit, to fulfil that which is said: One man pretends to be rich and has nothing, another professes to be poor and has great wealth (Proverbs 13:7)."

Regular oil can be found in the hills of Jerusalem, but oil for the Temple must be specially grown, only through it can the lighting be expressed. As Rabbi Mickey Rosen of the Yakar congregation in Jerusalem says: Only one who is "hot" ["madlik"] - can light [madlik].

To paraphrase Hannah Senesh's poem: "Happy is the match who ignites... the flame of peace."

Shlomo Fuchs teaches in Hebrew Union College, at Beit Shemuel, and at Kolot. He is the educational manager of the IDF project at Beit Morasha.

 

 

 

 

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