Of all
the miracles that occurred throughout the Chanuka story, the least important,
least critical, and least significant one would seem to be the oil lasting for
eight days- the very miracle that we glorify and celebrate above all others. We
went to a war with a massive army that had far more advanced weapons, and all
signs indicated that a slaughter was going to occur. The only Jews who remained
true to the Torah where about to be mass murdered. However, there was a miracle
that our tiny, not well-equipped army drove the Greek forces out of
Yerushalayim. Not only is that a tremendous miracle in nature, but it was
tremendously important. Without it numerous Jews would have been murdered. At
the same time, we faced, not a physical threat, but a spiritual one. The Greek
culture made its way into Judaism, and it was taking the nation by storm. Their
Hellenism was leading Jews to neglect the Torah for the values and practices of
the Greeks. Those Jews who deserted the Torah were called Mityavnim- meaning
people who were becoming Greek. That had never before happened. We had been
oppressed by many other nations, but there wasn’t a group called the
Mitashurim- people who were becoming Assyrians. We faced a real threat to our
religion and culture, and only by a series of miracles was it maintained.
Without them we wouldn’t have been here today. What would have happened if the
oil that was enough for one day only burnt for one day? Nothing! We’re not
talking about our spiritual or physical existence. We’re talking about one
positive commandment that we wouldn’t have done for one week. And seeing as how
we had no oil there’s no way God would have held us accountable. When something
is completely out of your hands, you’re exempt from performing it. We would
have gone back, waited a week, and been exempt from the performance of the
mitzvah until more oil came. No harm done. It seems like an almost unnecessary miracle.
Thanks God, but we wouldn’t have minded waiting for a week. What makes this
miracle so important to commemorate?
Neville
is perhaps one of the most abysmal, unimpressive wizards in the series… at
least for four books. He can’t prepare the simplest of potions without
seriously injuring himself or one of his classmates, he doesn’t master the
simplest of spells- not for Flitwick nor for McGonagall. He makes a fool of himself
the first time he flies. His family was sure he was a squib until they accidentally
dropped him out of a second story window, and he bounced back. Needless to say
that if he was the chosen one in the end, the Wizarding world would have been
in trouble. But interestingly, he’s exceptional in Herbology. He ends up being
a professor for the subject; he’s clearly not an idiot. No, I think what we see
from Neville in Herbology is what we see from him in the fifth book and on.
What someone can accomplish if it means enough to him. He’s a forgetful, klutzy,
sub-standard wizard, but all of a sudden something happens to him in the 5th
book. He joins the DA, and for the first time he’s learning spells not because
he has to or to prepare for a test, or because he’s afraid of the teacher. He’s
learning and practicing because it’s important to him, and what we see is
exceptional. For the first time he could disarm, stun, and preform difficult
defensive spells on a high level that not just any wizard could perform. When
Bellatrix breaks out of Azkaban we see a side of Neville that we would have
never thought possible. The only person mastering spells faster is Hermione,
and there are wizards in there who are of age and two years older than he is.
Ginny is exceptional when it comes to Jinxes, but in the DA meetings Neville
was just outshining the rest. He practiced at any opportunity; he wouldn’t
accept that that he couldn’t do something. Neville, the kid who was so
magically unadapt, went to the ministry and fought with Voldemort’s
Death-Eaters at the age of fifteen. He spent his seventh year fighting of the
Cruciatus curse. He killed one of Voldemorts Horcruxes. He proves to be one of
the bravest, most talented students in Defense Against the Dark Arts. How did
that happen? He showed almost no talent for four years. Neville displays the
power of desire and hard work. When his effort came from a personal burning
desire to succeed, there was no one better than him.
It says
in the Book of Maccabees that while fighting, the Jews skipped the holiday of sukkot.
They didn’t have the opportunity to celebrate it. They didn’t have the opportunity
to bring the sacrifices or to perform the various rituals, but it’s okay… they
had an excuse. There was nothing they could have done. There was simply no opportunity.
They were exempt. After weeks of fighting they returned to the Beit Hamikdash,
and their first thought wasn’t resting, feasting, or even celebrating. Their
first thought was we missed Sukot! How can we make up for all of those missed opportunities
to do a mitzvah?! They established an eight day commemoration opposite the
eight day holiday that they missed due to the war. The very laws of Chunaka
hint that to us multiple times. One opinion in the Talmud is that we should
light the candles starting from 8 and decreasing each night because the
sacrifices on sukkot decrease. There’s a minimum and maximum height off that
ground that the Chanukiah (commonly referred to as menorah) may be lit. Coincidentally,
these heights are the same as the minimum and maximum height that a sukkah may
be! The only thing the Maccabees wanted to do was make up for the commandments
that they missed even though they would never be held accountable for what they
didn’t do! It didn’t matter to them. They didn’t have to do these mitzvot; they
wanted to, and they weren’t willing to accept that they couldn’t fulfill the commandments
despite having missed the date by over two months. They established an eight
day commemoration because they wanted to, and because they had a burning desire
to come close to God through these Mitzvot. That effort and commitment was
incredibly powerful.
Perhaps it was the power of the
Jews deep seeded desire to connect with God and perform mitzvot that they didn’t
have to do that warranted the miracle of the oil. Perhaps God looked at us and
said that if you want to perform my mitzvot so badly that even when you don’t
have to you still invest all of your energy into performing them then where you
fall short of performing a mitzvah that you’re not even obligated to do,
lighting candles with no oil, I’ll take care of it. We showed that being exempt
from a mitzvah wasn’t cause for celebration for us. The mitzvot were the most
precious thing in the world to us, so Hashem enabled us to do every last one of
them even by miraculous means. Perhaps that’s what we should be learning from
Chanuka- the power of connecting to God from a deep-seeded desire to do so as
opposed to an obligation to do so. The Talmud says that a person should only learn
the areas that he desires to becasue that will be the only area he will truly
understand. Here in the time of Chanuka we commemorate a number of things. Our
culture and way of life were at risk of being wiped out. The Torah was at risk
of being forgotten to make room for new and exciting ideas. The solution to
this problem was not and never will be force yourself to do a lot of things you
don’t like. Just like Neville shouldn’t have continued with potions after his
fifth year, we shouldn’t invest all of our time in the areas that don’t
interest us. The way of connecting to God and learning His Torah on a more
powerful level is for it to be from a place of love and desire. Sure there are
basic obligations. But I connect to God by helping others and doing acts of loving
kindness then that should be my central focus. If I connect to God more through
learning than through praying, then rather than a four hour davening on
Shabbat, I’ll do an hour and a half and then learn. If you connect to God
through touring His amazing creations and seeing His beautiful sights then don’t
fight it; use it to bring yourself closer. Of course, we have the obligations
in the Torah that we cannot neglect, but we see from Neville the difference
between a person practicing from desire as opposed to a person practicing from
fear. We can only get to that place that the Jews were in, a place where their
first thought was we just want to do your mitzvot Hashem, if we connect to Him
and love Him. That can only happen by exploring by what means of connecting to
God am I most comfortable and most happy? To fight back against losing our
culture and losing our connection to Torah, we can’t just force ourselves and
everyone around us to follow it, we need to love it. We need to reveal what
element of the Torah we have a burning desire for. Then nothing and no one will
be able to take us away from it.
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