When we think of the place of Chanukah in the Jewish
calendar, our thoughts always turn to the month of Kislev. It is interesting to note, however, that
Chanukah is the only Jewish holiday that actually spans portions of two months;
five days in Kislev, and three in Tevet.
This oddity is even more striking when we consider that the two months
have very different connotations for our people.
Kislev is looked up to as the culmination of the Maccabean
war, a time of Chanukah, renewal of the Temple after its defilement by foreign
evil forces. For Chabad Chassidim, it
contains the 19th of Kislev, a time of the remarkable liberation of
the Alter Rebbe. By contrast Tevet
contains (other than my birthday) only days of sadness of note. The Eighth of Tevet is the Day that Ptolemy
II forced the Jews to translate the Torah into Greek. The Ninth of Tevet marked the death of the
great Ezra the scribe, one of the greatest Jews of all time, who was
instrumental in bringing our nation back from the Babylonian exile and
rebuilding the Bet HaMikdash. And of
course the Tenth of Tevet, on which we mark not only the previous two events,
but also the beginning of the end of the First Temple, when Nebuchadnezzar set
the two and one half year siege of Jerusalem.
Altogether an unpleasant month, to say the least.
The juxtaposition of Chanukah between these two very
different months is surely no accident.
Let us think about what the events described represent on a deeper
level.
Chanukah is about renewal.
The Temple, all its utensils and all of its holy oil (save one flask),
had been contaminated. On a larger
level, the Hellenists had succeeded in contaminating the minds of much of the
intelligentsia and elite levels of Jewish society. The
Maccabean revolt was about renewing authentic Judaism, expelling the physically
and spiritually oppressive Greek regime, and rekindling the holy pure light of
Torah in the Holy Temple. Although
ultimately the Renewal did not last, and the Hasmoneans themselves succumbed to
Hellenism, the new beginning at Chanukah was glorious, and the lights that they
kindled stayed with the Jewish people forever.
All of Tevet Days were of an opposite nature. The Septuagint translation by Ptolemy,
occurring close to the time of the Chanukah story, was a time of sadness
because it represented a darkening of the light of the Torah. As Eliyahu Kitov wrote, “Once the Torah was imprisoned in the Greek
translation, it was as if the Torah were divested of reverence. Anyone who
wanted to find fault with its logic, could now do so, based on the translation.
The Sages, therefore, likened the event of this day, to the day on which the
Golden Calf was made. For just as the Golden Calf had no reality, and yet its
servants regarded it as having real substance, likewise the translation, devoid
of the true substance of Torah, allowed non-Jews to imagine that they already
knew the Torah.” It was the beginning of the end of our
exclusive relationship with the Torah, and caused a great diminution of its
light.
The death of Ezra represented
a great light that had not fulfilled its potential. Ezra, one of the greatest Jews ever, battled
mightily to bring the Jewish people back from Babylon and re-establish the
primacy of the proud Torah life in Eretz Yisrael. As the leading Sage of the “Men of the Great
Assembly” he instituted vital methods that allowed Torah and Judaism to
flourish once again in the aftermath of the horror of the Babylonian Exile. Although he accomplished enormously, his
dream of truly re-establishing Jewish sovereignty in the Land was foiled, as a
plurality of Jews opted to remain in the Diaspora, and ignore the call of the
hour to return Home. His death, and the
end of his striving, marked the beginning of the end of the Second Temple,
which could not last forever having begun on such a shaky foundation.
And of course the Tenth of Tevet represents truly the
Beginning of the End; that is its essence.
Although the destruction of the Bet HaMikdash did not happen until two
and a half years later, the die was cast and doom was all but inevitable.
Chanukah, living both in Kislev and Tevet thus contains
within it both a message of renewal and doom; of new hope and the end of a
dream. Surely a mixed message, if there
ever was one. But perhaps this is just
the point of Chanukah.
Judaism does not back away from the fact that, for a
thinking person, life is complex, full of contradictions, and not given to easy
formulations, thought developed remarkably in book of Kohelet (Ecclesiastes).
There are moments of great promise, and crushing defeats; marvelous joys and
unspeakable suffering, and all of it under the directorship of a Loving and
omniscient Almighty G-d whose ways are often inscrutable to us. We learn to look for the meaning that is over
the Sun, trusting that ultimately His plans will result in a glorious future.
Chanukah was a bright light in a darkening gloom. Occurring after the events that would
ultimately result in the destruction of the Second Temple, Chanukah provided a
small but inextinguishable light that would burn through the decline, through
the expulsion, through 2,000 years of exile, and into the beautiful renewal of
Jewish life that we experience today.
The small light coming from a flask of pure holy oil that was not, and
will not, be extinguished, and emulate the eternal flame of soul of our
people. In a famous comment, the Ramban
says in Bamidbar 8:2 that Hashem promised Aharon שלך
גדולה משלהם, your portion is
greater than that of the princes of the other Tribes in that their gift to the
Temple would end when it was destroyed, while his descendants (the Hasmoneans)
would light a light that would continue favor, in to and through the Great
Exile. That light gives us strength not
only in the darkness of winter, but in all moments of darkness in our lives, in
all situations and at all times of the year.
The Jewish world has known a great deal of sadness
lately. The terrible Chilul Hashem
caused by the reaction of the Satmar leadership to the Weberman case, the
suffering of so many in Eretz Yisrael in the recent skirmishes, and notably,
the incredible devastation caused by Hurricane Sandy that hit our community so
disproportionately. We are left with a
darkened community and world, but also one which can be, and will be warmed by
the eternal light and warmth that Chanukah represents. The placing of the days of Kislev before
Tevet, and the fact that the majority of the Chanukah days are in Kislev, serve
as an affirmation that we will choose to focus on the promise of renewal and
eternal light, in the face of the undeniable presence of the negativity of
Tevet. We pledge to look at the coming
of Tevet as not a time of lessening light, but in keeping with Bet Hillel, of
ever growing and increasing light, until the ultimate redemption that it
heralds.
In closing, I am looking forward to a trip I will be taking
in a few short weeks to Eretz Yisrael to attend the wedding of our son Dovid
Ezra (who was named after the original Ezra described above). As fortune would have it, we will be stopping
for the day in Rome on the way to Israel, and I plan to take advantage of
that. I hope to go to the Arch of Titus,
perhaps the greatest symbol of our Exile outside of Israel, and look at the
Menorah on its face, and reminisce on the time that the evil Titus gleefully
carted off our national treasures as his spoils of war. How exciting it will be to travel from there
to the wedding of our son in Bet Shemesh, the house of the rising sun, among
the blessed re-jew-venataion of Eretz Yisrael with Torat Yisrael in our
time. May we all merit to be there
together soon!
