Chanukah 5785

It’s beginning to look a lot like … like what?

It's beginning to look a lot like ... like what? This is one of those years that Gd played a trick on us. He made Chanukah and Christmas on the same day! Normally Chanukah takes place before Christmas—so we’re celebrating and they’re not, or they’re celebrating and we’re not! Since 1900 there have been only 4 times that the 1^st night of Chanukah began on Christmas Day: 2005, 1959, 1921 and 1910. The 5^th takes place this year.

So, this year we don’t have to feel left out. Our children are off from school just as their children are. We’re singing Chanukah songs while they’re singing Christmas Carols. We’re giving gifts while they’re giving gifts—no “December dilemma.”

And so, I’d like to put Christmas aside and focus on Chanukah and a beautiful idea from the Chanukah story. Chanukah is an incredible holiday because it doesn’t feel like a typical Jewish holiday with sitting in shul for special Chanukah services, with long family meals and with days off from work.

How do we celebrate? Not much during the day. At night we pause for a few minutes, make 2 0r 3 brachas and light candles. It doesn’t seem like there’s not much there—a few bracha and a few candles. Yet the rabbis gave us one more thing to do: Pirsumey Nisa (Publicizing the Miracle). This means we have to not only light a Chanukia Menorah, it’s a mitzvah to publicize its miracle. So we kindle the Chanukah lights at a time and place where most people can see it—and that is in the early evening by a window or door facing the street.

What is the miracle of the Chanukah lights? You know the story. A long, long time ago, Jews came into the Holy Temple after it was defiled by Antiochus and tried to light the Menorah—but they couldn’t find any oil that wasn’t defiled by the Syrian Greeks. What happened? They searched and searched and finally found only one jug of pure oil—enough for only one night. Nevertheless, they lit it, and it lasted for 8 nights till they could get more pure oil. That’s the miracle.

That’s today’s equivalent might be you leaving on vacation and on the plane you notice your cell phone battery is at only 20%—and you forgot your charger! Nevertheless, it lasts till you get home 8 days later! Now that’s a Chanukah miracle!

However, that was only the 2^nd miracle. The 1^st miracle was that the Greek army invaded Israel, forbade the practice of Judaismn upon penalty of death, and tried to conquer the land. A family of Kohanim/priests that were hiding from the Syrian Greeks in caves in the hills of Modiin stood up. Remember, these were priests—not trained soldiers! They didn’t have swords or spears. And yet they challenged the greatest army in the world. It was insane. It would be like my and a bunch of my rabbi colleagues going up against the Navy seals??? Impossible!!! Now that was a miracle!

Let me give you another contemporary comparison. Let’s say you were driving around in Israel and made a wrong turn into Ramallah—a scary Arab neighborhood where they throw rocks and intimidate Jews. Soon your car is encircled by shouting terrorists. Can you imagine? It would seem like your life was over—Gd forbid.

         Now it just so happened that down the block a bunch of Israeli commandos were on a raid. They heard the commotion, came by and saved the day. Miracle. Right? You were almost dead. You’re all shaken up, so one of the commandos gets in your car to drive home with you. On the way home he sees you’re not calming down, and so he says, “There’s an ice cream store nearby, let’s get some.” You get there and it’s closed. The commando knocks on the door, and it so happens that the owner had come by to work in the back on his books. After he heard what happened, he gave you free ice cream.             The next day you meet a friend who heard what happened and you said to him, “It was a miracle. Can you believe the ice cream store was open so late?”

         And the friend replied, “What? I heard you were in Ramallah—headquarters of the PLO—and you think the miracle was the ice cream store?”

In the Chanukah story we defeated the Syrian Greeks—an impossible miracle! So why is the symbol of Chanukah the Chanukia Menorah and the lights and not the battle? Like the ice cream in the story, the lighting of the Menorah came after they had already won the war. Our Chanukah symbols should be swords and spears—not candles, not sufganiot donuts!

Now we come to this powerful idea I want to share with you. King Solomon taught in Proverbs (20:27): Ner Hashem, nishmat adam (The candle of Gd, is the neshama [soul] of man). Candles are a very powerful symbol in Judaism because they symbolize the soul. When someone passes away, we light a Shiva candle. Every year on the anniversary of the death we light a Yahrtzeit candle. Just like fire reaches upward, so the soul. That’s why we light Shabbat candles—to reach upward and elevate our homes in the spirit of Shabbat. We are more than just animals. What elevates us as human beings are our souls! As we read in the creation story (Gen. 2:7): Vayipach b’apav nishmat Chayim (and he[Gd] blew into His nostrils the soul of life). Gd blew into us a piece of Himself.

The Sages established the lights as the Chanukah symbol to tell us: “Do not get fooled by the hands of battle. We won the war not because of our hands, we won the war because of the Jewish soul.” Yes, it looked like we were holding guns, but those guns were being directed by a power greater than our hands. Yes, it looked like the soldiers were fighting a war, but the soldiers were really unleashing a greater power—their souls. And that empowered them to make the right moves.

We light candles on Chanukah to remember the spiritual component of this war. It wasn’t just an extra miracle at the end with the oil lasting 8 days. The Sages went for the candles to tell us not to ever forget what really won us this war. As we say in the Al hanisim prayer on Chanukah: “You delivered the strong into the hands of the weak, the many into the hands of the few…the sinners into the hands of the students of Torah.”  And so, the Sages demanded that we don’t just light the candles, but publicize it. They insisted we show the world that battles are not just won with our hands—but by our connection to Gd.

That’s why Isaiah (42:6) calls upon us to be an Or lagoyim “a Light unto the nations.” And so, in celebrating the holiday that originates in a successful war, forget the swords, take out a few candles, stand by the window and show the world that while we can fight battles … we do so knowing that it is really the soul through Gd that wins for us. Now that’s the real miracle of Chanukah!

       My friends, this year as we celebrate Chanukah, we are still literally at war—against Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran. Since Oct. 7 2023, I have told you many miracle stories from this war. Like the more than 30,000 drones and missiles—many the size of school buses—launched at Israel. Yet, 99% of them failed to hit anything! They could have killed thousands of Israelis—they killed none. 99% accuracy is simply not huzmanly possible in defending such an attack, but it is Gdly possible.

         Or like the religious Kibbutzim who—for some reason—were not attacked near Gaza on Oct. 7.

         Or like the young man at the Nova Music Festival—which was attacked 1^st on Shabbat Simchat Torah Oct. 7—who had pledged on Yom Kippur to observe Shabbat through Simchat Torah and took 7 friends with him a couple of hours before Shabbat on Friday Oct. 6^th from the festival to Ashkelon for Shabbat—saving their lives!

There are many hundreds of such stories that seem to be coincidence, but we know that what drove their success was not the hands of battle, but the soul connection with Gd. Today we have our own Chanukah stories. When we light the Chanukah candles we say in the bracha: “Blessed are You Hashem our Gd, King of the Universe, that perfomed miracles for our forefathers, Bayamim haheym bazman hazeh, it happened then, but it’s happening now.” We can’t let this Chanukah pass without stopping to realize that Chanukah is still happening all around us.

And especially this year, we should publicize the miracles —old and new—not just by putting our Chanukia at the window, but also by telling others of the Chanukah miracles both ancient and new. And when we see these modern-day miracles, let us use them as a way to connect them to the candles, to our souls, to our own relationship with Gd!

And finally, now more than any time since Oct. 7, there is reason for optimism with the defeat of Hezbollah, the fall of the Syria, and the defeat of Hamas’ leadership and most of its soldiers. As we gaze at the Chanukah lights, thinking about            miracles both ancient and new, let us pray for the release of the hostages and a lasting peace. Amen!