From the Rabbi’s Desk
Rabbi Manes Kogan
Miketz- Shabat Hanukkah
What can we learn from the Hanukkah Candles?
We ascend in holiness and we don’t descent! (Beit Shamai and Beit Hillel)
We do rely on miracles!
New wicks each day! (Renew yourself each day!)
We start from the newest candle! (The present can also illumine the past!)
Spirituality without ulterior motive!
On Hanukkah we illumine the outside!
The Shamash should not be on the same level!
Body and Soul in the Hanukkah Candles (by Rabbi Simon Jacobson)
"A lamp is a vessel designed to convert oil into light. To this end, it arrays a quantity of oil and a wick in such a way that the former is drawn through the latter to feed a flame. While both the oil and the wick are combustible substances, neither could produce light on its own with the efficiency and stability of the lamp. The wick would flare briefly and die, utterly consumed. As for the oil, one would find it extremely difficult to ignite at all. But when the wick is inserted in the oil and lit, it absorbs, conveys and transforms the oil into a controlled and steady light.
"The soul of man is a lamp of G-d," whose purpose in life is to illuminate the world with divine light. G-d provided man with the "fuel" that generates His light—the Torah and its mitzvot, which embody the divine wisdom and will, and manifest His luminous truth. But the divine oil requires a "wick" to channel its substance and convert it into an illuminating flame. The Torah is the divine wisdom; but for divine wisdom to be manifest in our world, there must be a physical brain that contemplates it, digests it and expresses it via tongue and pen. The mitzvot are the divine will; but for the divine will to be manifest in our world, there must be a physical body who actualizes it and physical substances (hide for tefillin, wool for tzitzit, cash for charity, etc.) with which it is actualized.
By the same token, a "wick" without oil yields little light. A life without Torah and mitzvot, however aflame with the desire to relate to G-d, is incapable of sustaining its flame. It might experience flashes of ecstatic spiritual experience, but lacking oil of genuine divine substance, these quickly die out, and fail to introduce any enduring light into the world.
To realize its role as a "lamp of G-d," a human life must be a vessel that combines a physical existence (the "wick") with the G-dly ideas and deeds of Torah (the "oil"). When the wick is saturated with oil and feeds its spiritual yearnings with a steady supply of the same, the resultant flame is both luminous and sustainable, preserving the existence and productivity of the wick and illuminating the corner of the world in which it was placed" (from Rabbi Simon Jacobson)
"Chanukah marks a time when a handful of faithful Jews set aside the rules and standards of everyday life in a display of unequivocal commitment to G-d. They did not calculate the odds of a victory of "the weak over the mighty, the few over the many, the righteous over the wicked." They did not consider whether Torah law obligates them to sacrifice their lives in those circumstances. Indeed, the very miracle of Chanukah, in which a one-day supply of oil kept the lamps of the menorah in the Holy Temple burning for eight days until ritually pure oil could be prepared, was technically unnecessary: according to Torah law, the menorah could have been lit with impure oil under those circumstances. These Jews had only one consideration: how to fulfill the divine will in the best and most beautiful way. Everything else—their physical safety, the extent of their duty, the permissibility of compromise regarding the purity of the menorah’s light—was totally irrelevant. The Chanukah lamp is a celebration of a commitment that cannot be quantified or regulated, of a flame that transcends all boundaries and domains" (from Rabbi Simon Jacobson)
On Hanukkah we celebrate the commitment of the Maccabees and their willingness to defend their Jewish heritage. May it be Your will, our God and God of our fathers, that their commitment will inspire us to increase our commitment to defend our Jewish heritage and to maintain high and bright our Jewish torch!
Shabbat Shalom!