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December 1, 1956

The Menorah and the Mizbeiach (1956)

Chanukah
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In the special Al Ha’nissim prayer which we recite on this Chanukah holiday, thanking G-d for all His favors to us, we recite a short account of the Chanukah story. In the course of so doing, we mention the evil Greek rule over Palestine, and the fact that conquering Greeks sought le’hash’kicham torassecha, to make them (the Jews) forget Thy Torah. Now, while it might be true that many an enemy of Israel has attempted to “make them forget Thy Torah,” we do not find that the Greeks expressly prohibited the study of Torah. We know that a couple of centuries later the Romans specifically forbade it. But the Greeks, according to the Book of Maccabbees, forbade only three religious institutions: Shabbos, Chodesh, and Milah. We have no record of them forbidding Torah. Why, then, this statement in the Al Ha’nissim that the Greeks tried le’hashkicham torassecha? Let me ask that question in another way: Rabbis are always upbraiding their people, demanding of them loyal adherence to the Torah. We cry and protest and lecture because the Jews are being alienated from their Bible. We want Jews to be good Jews, not Jews by birth or friendships alone. And yet there is always the wayward layman who asks: But am I not a good Jew? So what if I don’t observe Shabbos, Chodesh, Milah, so what if I smoke on the Sabbath, or never come to a synagogue to know when Rosh Chodesh prayers are to be recited, so what if I allow a doctor – a non-Jewish one yet – to circumcise my child? Does that mean that the Bible is not mine as well as the next fellow’s? Does that mean that I am not a good Jew? My diet may be non-Jewish, my work-schedule may be non-Jewish, my lack of support of a synagogue may be not in keeping with Jewish demands, but I’m good-natured, generous, I support certain social agencies which are Jewish-sponsored and I occasionally lend some money to my brother-in-law. Isn’t that what G-d wants? Isn’t that in the Bible? How can you say that I have forgotten the Torah, that I’m not a g…
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In discussing the commandment of Chanukah lights, the Talmud raises a problem which it formulates as: hadlakah oseh mitzvah, or hanachah oseh mitzvah. That is, what is the essential mitzvah of the lighting of the Chanukah light, is it the kindling of the light itself, or the placing of the lit menorah in its proper place. For just as we must kindle the light, so must we make sure that the menorah is placed in the proper spot. Thus, for instance, it must not be too low, and it must not be too high. More important in the days of the Talmud, before the advent of crowded cities and skyscrapers, when every family lived in a house which opened into a courtyard, which in turn opened into the public square, the Chanukah menorah was to be placed outside the door, in the courtyard, so as to ensure proper pirsum of the miracle – to publish or proclaim in public the fact that God’s providence extends over His people Israel. What then is the major aspect of the mitzvah of Chanukah: hadlakah or hanachah – kindling the light, or carrying the light to its proper place?Insofar as the Halakhah is concerned, the Talmud must of course choose one or the other; hadlakah or hanachah, kindling or carrying. In the larger sense however, when we deal with the light of Judaism, it seems to me that both are true. We must have both hadlakah and hanachah, the kindling of the light and the carrying it to its proper place. For the triumph of Torah, for the dissemination of Judaism, we need both kindlers and carriers – those who will provide the substance of the Jewish spirit, and those who will endow it with proper method; those who will give it content, and those who will shape its form; those who will provide the inner light of the spirit, and those who will drape it with the proper outer appearances; those, in other words, who will kindle Judaism’s light and those who will carry it to the darkest and remotest recesses of the hearts of almost lost Jews and Jewesses.Our problem in Jewish life has…
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Perhaps the most significant aspect of the most important feature of Hanukkah – the Hanukkah candles – is the increase in the number of candles from day to day. The lighting of the candles is progressive; that is, we proceed from least to most. The first night we light one candle, the second night two candles, the third night three candles, and so until the eighth night, when the candelabrum is ablaze with all eight candles. What we have is growth and increase and progress. It was the House of Hillel which gave this order its legal form when it said that mosif ve’holekh, the number of candles is to be increased each night, because ma’alin be’kodesh, because one must rise, increase, or progress in holiness.In a sense, this idea of increase, of addition, of the progressive candles, is a very deep and incisive commentary on Jewish life and what it should be. The Hanukkah candles represent more than merely the military victory of the Jewish Maccabeans over the Greek Antiochus. They symbolize as well the clash of cultures, the war of world-views. There was the Greek world, steeped in its oriental idolatry, pitted against a Jewish minority stubbornly proud of its pure belief in one God.One should not dismiss the Greek world lightly. The world’s greatest philosophers were nursed in the cradle of Greek culture. But the great difference between Hellenism, as the Greek culture is known, and Judaism, lies in this: The Greek world glorified contemplation, the Jewish world glorified behavior, mitzvot. The Greeks stressed creed, while we insisted upon deed. The Greeks were inclined to inactivity – the perfection of form, while the Jew insisted upon activity. The Greeks had many philosophers but few saints; many thinkers but few doers. With the Jews this was reversed. Our world was not one of cold thought, but one of warm action. And this Jewish attitude is best represented by the progressive candles – increase, growth, action, progress. I have no doubt that if the Greeks had won…
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