“RABBI’S MUSINGS (& AMUSINGS)”
Erev Shabbos
Kodesh parshas Miketz – Shabbos Chanukah
Erev Rosh
Chodesh Teves
29 Kislev
5783/December 23, 2022
GLORY OF A STORY
In the introduction to his book, The
Gates of the Forest, Elie Wiesel wrote that “G-d created the world because He
loves stories.”
The Jewish world gives a great deal
of credence and value to stories. In chassidic lore, stories are a means of
education, information and connection. Stories allow the common Jew to connect
with the saintly and to be transported into different times and places.
The Kotzker Rebbe wittily noted that
one who believes all the stories he hears is a fool. But one who believes they
cannot happen is a heretic.
The challenge of stories is that they
must be understood properly. Stories are memorable and resonates, so it’s vital
that their message not be misunderstood.
In recent columns I have included
some powerful stories. An insightful reader wrote that the issue with these
amazing stories is that “the number of failures exceeds the lucky ones.” Many
people read such stories and wonder why these types of things never happen to
them and why when they were in a difficult situation there was no story-like
intervention.
The reality is that most people do
not experience such outlandish and borderline miraculous displays of divine
manifestation. What’s more, even to those who have had such wondrous
experiences, it was an anomaly. The majority of their lives is more mundane as
well.
So, is there no point of reading and
relating all those wondrous stories? Should we not be promoting the unusual
events and instead focus on the far more common natural and expected events of
life?
If the answer is yes, then we have to
question our celebration of Chanukah. Why celebrate a one-time miraculous
event, that no one alive today witnessed?
The gemara in Shabbos (21b-22a)
juxtaposes two seemingly unrelated statements:
“Rav Kahana said that Rav Nasan bar
Minyomi explained in the name of Rav Tanchum: A Chanukah light placed higher
than twenty amos is disqualified because one doesn’t see it.
“Rav Kahana said that Rav Nasan bar
Minyomi explained in the name of Rav Tanchum: Why does it say, “the pit (that
the brothers threw Yosef into) was empty, there was no water in it” (Bereishis
37:24)? This teaches us that there was no water, but there were snakes and
scorpions in it”.
What is the connection between the
pit Yosef was cast into and the height limit of Chanukah candles? Is it just
that both statements were made by the same author?
The gemara (Yevamos 121a) says that
if a person falls into a pit of lions, we can’t be certain he was killed.
However, if he fell into a pit of snakes and scorpions, we can be sure he was
killed. Snakes and scorpions are aggressive and will attack even if unprovoked.
The fact that Yosef fell into a pit
filled with such venomous animals and yet emerged unscathed was an open
miracle.
When he was pulled up from the pit,
he had to endure a long and painful road which included many difficult
vicissitudes and tribulations. Aside from being abandoned by his family he was
imprisoned based on trumped up charges, where he languished for years. The open
miracle he had witnessed undoubtedly served as a source of encouragement for
him. He never forgot that G-d had shown him a personal act of love and that
carried him through the most lonely and painful times.
At the time of the Chanukah miracle,
there was a similar occurrence. Many people mistakenly think that after the
miracle of Chanukah the war with the Greeks was over. Far from it.
The Chanukah miracle occurred
during the third year of the war. After the faithful reconquered Yerushalayim
and the Bais Hamikdash and experienced the miracle of the oil burning for eight
days, the war dragged on for more than five years. Successive Greek emperors
could not make peace with the fact that they had lost the Land of Israel. Some
tried to reconquer it by force of arms, others by orchestrating internal strife
and a coup among the Jews themselves.
At the time of the miracle,
Matisyahu, the father of the Maccabees, and Yochanan, the oldest of the
brothers, were dead. The year after the miracle Yehuda HaMaccabee was killed in
battle. Three years after the miracle, during a major battle in
which the Greeks tried to reconquer Eretz Yisroel, Eleazar was killed when an
elephant he attacked and wounded fell and crushed him.
That being the case, the Chanukah
miracle wasn’t the end of the story at all. In fact, it was more towards the
beginning of the story. The miracle of the oil then served as an inspiration
and encouragement to the battle-bound Maccabees to stay the course. The miracle
gave them the assurance that Hashem recognized their heroic efforts and was
proud of their heroic efforts.
That is the poignant connection
between Yosef being thrown into the pit and the miracle of the Chanukah
candles. Both occurrences included a miracle which inspired their subjects to
maintain their faith during subsequent dark and difficult days.
Ramban (end of Parshas Bo) famously
writes that the purpose of open miracles is to help us recognize the hidden
miracles that happen all the time, and that whatever happens to a person is not
just a result of nature.
This then is the purpose and value of
the many incredible stories out there. It is NOT to convey to us that whenever
we are in a challenging situation, we can be assured that our challenge will be
reconciled in an incredible manner that will land our story in the next popular
Jewish storybook. Indeed, the overwhelming majority of the time we have to
struggle unremarkably. But those stories remind us that G-d is the ultimate
storyteller and can easily manipulate events and people to produce any outcome,
no matter how impossible it seems.
If such occurrences happen in our lives,
we surely need to treasure them and remind ourselves that just as in that
situation G-d’s Hand was clearly orchestrating events, so does He do so in more
hidden ways in every facet of our lives. But even when those events happen to
others, we can be inspired to remember that same lesson of faith.
In 1967 the Jewish world experienced
open miracles during the 6-day war. During the months before the war there was
palpable fear and dread, less than 20 years after the end of the Holocaust. No
one could have dreamed the supernatural victories that would be achieved in
less than a week. The recapturing of Har Habayis and the Old City of
Yerushalayim, Kever Rochel and Mearas Hamachpeilah, and the routing of hostile
surrounding enemy armies was previously unimaginable. Aside for generating a
feeling of euphoria, there was a feeling of Jewish pride for the first time
since before the Holocaust. There was a feeling that we truly belonged in Eretz
Yisroel, and G-d was guiding our course.
The miracles of that war, and other
incredible events, such as the Entebbe raid, need to continue to encourage us
and embolden us even now, decades later. Through all the pain and anguish in
our seemingly endless struggle to maintain our homeland, the open miracles we
witnessed then demonstrate to us that we are under the direction of G-d.
All too soon, the beautiful lights of
Chanukah flicker out. But their message can and must remain with us long
after the holiday is over, and long after the last donuts and latkes have been
consumed. It is the message that G-d is with us, even, or perhaps most
profoundly, in the darkness.
Shabbat Shalom & Good
Shabbos
Freilichen & Lichtig Chanukah
Chodesh Tov & Good Chodesh,
R’ Dani and Chani Staum