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Getting to the Root

 

This Shabbos we will read the Parsha of Vayeishev where the Torah teaches us of how strife and discord developed among the children of Yaakov. The consequence of that strife ended up with the sons of Yaakov selling their brother Yosef as a slave. This is a Parsha that deserves much time and much focus to understand the nature of their contention and to appreciate that their quarrel was not petty jealousy. Nevertheless, with Chanukah beginning this Wednesday evening I wish to dedicate this week's thought to Chanukah.

 

In preparation for the Wednesday evening candle lighting, the first night, I would like to shed some light on the significance and gravity of that candle lighting.

 

Our Sages teach us that the menorah lights that we light on Chanukah have a specific sanctity to them; "and all the eights days of Chanukah these lights have holiness and we therefore have no permission to use their light only to see them..." I wish to underscore what the Sages are saying so that we can appreciate what is happening when we light those little Chanukah candles.

 

The notion of not being permitted to use the light of the candles due to their sanctity is similar to the notion of stealing. Just as you may not use your neighbor's article, so too, you may not use something belonging to HaShem. In other words, these Chanukah lights are HaShem's property!

 

We need to ask; who made them HaShem's property? Although it is a mitzvah to light the candles that does not make it property of HaShem. On the holiday of Succos the Torah instructs us to take an esrog (a certain citrus fruit) with three other plant products and hold them together. Although the esrog is being used in a mitzvah one is still permitted to enjoy its smell. It is not HaShem's property. It is simply an article of mitzvah. Why then are the Chanukah lights different?

 

Before we return to this question we must appreciate the significance of the menorah and her lights. The lights of the Menorah that the Macabees lit at the time of Chanukah symbolized the wisdom of Torah. Those lights represented their victory over the Greeks.

 

The war between the Macabees and the Greeks was based on ideology. The Greeks maintained that the notion of holiness/sanctity is nothing more than human fantasy created by some clever imagination. The Jew maintained that holiness and sanctity are the basis of all existence. There is nothing that can exist if it does not have some connection to HaShem. The Greeks began imposing their belief system on our people by forcing them to perform acts of desecration towards our Temple and Torah. The result of those forced impositions was a war in which the Macabees prevailed. Upon their victory they returned the service to the Temple.

 

Being that the Menorah and her lights represent the light and wisdom of the Torah the first service the Macabees wanted to restore was the lighting of the Menorah. When the miracle of the lights occurred (I refer to the miracle in which their only flask of oil which contained one days worth of oil burned for eight days, thereby giving them time to create more oil.) they designated this eight day period as a holiday on which all Jews for all times will light to their own menorah.  

 

We must point out that the Greek army was the most powerful military machine in the world in its time. We must also point out the Macabees were not at all trained in any form of warfare. It was clearly a miracle that this band of no-experience students of Torah prevailed over the Greek empire. What was the source of their strength? Their strength was their intense kedusha, holiness. In other words, these people in their dedication and commitment to HaShem and His Torah attained an attachment to HaShem of such a great magnitude that their spiritual strength prevailed over the mere physical strength of the Greeks.

 

Equipped with that kedusha they instituted the holiday of Chanukah in which they consecrated the lights to be dedicated to HaShem. Once they consecrated the lights of the Chanukah menorah that consecration became eternal for every Jew who will light the Chanukah candles every year from then on. Hence, through their consecration the lights, in fact, belong to HaShem and we therefore are not permitted to use them only to look and gaze at them.

 

There is still more that begs to be explained. How does that work? How can the Sages who lived in the Land of Israel in the time of the second Temple consecrate the lights that I light in Baltimore 2,300 years later?

 

The answer to this question will take us into an area where we usually do not find ourselves. However, in honor of Chanukah, the holiday of holiness and kedusha prevailing over the mundane, we will attempt to go there.

 

There are many planes of existence. Allow me to use a vertical model to illustrate the following point. We find currently ourselves on the lowest plane, the physical plane. We also have a neshoma (soul) which itself is composed of several components. Each component finds itself on a different level so that our neshoma actually exists on multiple planes. Every component exists on a plane higher than the component before it.

 

Allow me to introduce another principle regarding these planes of existence. In the lowest plane, the one we currently find ourselves, there are many barriers between the various creatures. Between one person and another there are many barriers. There are physical barriers, there are emotional barriers and there are intellectual barriers as well. As we ascend to the higher planes of existence the barriers diminish. The higher we go the thinner the barriers are, the less opaque they are until we reach the highest level where there are no barriers at all. Everything is one.

 

The root of the Jewish neshoma comes from the plane of existence where there are no barriers. On this level all Jews have the capacity to connect and influence one another directly. On this level time and space are transcended. The dedication of the Sages at the time of Chanukah was so great that the very core root of their neshoma was engaged in this consecration. Hence, that impacted every single Jew that will ever walk on this Earth.

 

So when we light our Chanukah menorahs this Wednesday evening we are able to harness our neshoma in dedicating it to HaShem and His Torah. I encourage you to gaze at those little lights that transcend time and space and find your neshoma inside them.

 

Have a wonderful Shabbos and a very happy Chanukah.

 

Paysach Diskind