Chanukah Dvar Torah
Here's the Dvar Torah i gave at our family dinner. I heard this devar while in Yeshivah.
The miracle of Chanukah is two things. One, the fact that the menorah oil lasted 8 days instead of one day. And two, that we were saved from destruction. What's the difference between our miracle of being saved on Chanukah and the miracle of being saved on Purim?
On Purim, we celebrate God saving us from the evil decree to kill all Jews made by Haman during the persian empire. This was a physical threat. Haman's decree was that everywhere in the entire empire, Jews were to be murdered. Yet to this physical threat, we responded with a spiritual answer.
The spiritual leader of the day, Mordechi, tells Ester to go undercover, infiltrate the government, and save the people. Mordechai tells her, "If you don't do this, God will still save the Jewish people, somehow. But you have the chance to do it now." So Ester takes on the mission.
However when it comes time for her to execute her plan, Ester, knowing it's all up to God, has the Jewish people pray for her success. For 3 days we fasted and prayed for our redemption from Haman's plans. And without lifting a single sword, God answers our prayers and saves us from total physical destruction. The exact opposite of what happens on Chanukah.
On Chanukah, Israel had been taken under control by the Syrian-Greeks. They decreed that Judaism was fine...for the most part. "Keep the mitzvot (commandments/obligations)," they said. "We understand mitzvot...don't murder, don't steal, these are quality philosophies." But they flipped out when they learned of the mitzvot that have no logical purpose, like the prohibition of shatnez (not wearing wool and linen in the same clothe), wearing tzitzit, or the prohibition against eating pigs.
The Syrian-Greeks, a people who worshipped reason, felt that these mitzvot defied all logic and reason. They therefore decreed that there would be no more practice of such silly behavior. Not a physical threat, but a threat to our spiritual life.
So what did we do against this physical threat? We, led by our spiritual leaders, took up arms and rebbelled! And just like on Purim, we won, through the help of God. My question is, why on Purim, did we use spiritual means to escape a physical threat? While on Chanukah we used physical means to escape a spiritual threat?
This is a question i learned in Yeshivah at Aish HaTorah The answer i came up with (or remember?) is as follows:
What happens to us in our physical lives is in God's hands. If you want to make more money, you have to go out and work, sure. But you should first pray for your own success, which is in Hashem's hands. If you want to meet the right person, you can sign up for jdate and everything, but in the end, it's God who will decide when you meet her which is why prayer may be more effective than jdate. Ultimately, God decides the day your are born, the day you die, etc. This is why "bad" people are often able to make millions.
On the other hand, our spiritual life, our relationship to God, is completely in our hands. It's up to you to build your spiritual life and relationship with God. No one can pray and wrap tefillin FOR me! No one can keep kosher FOR me. No one can keep Shabbat FOR me. It's all up to me.
Like my brother Ari says in his new song: "everybody's got a role that they were born to play; it's up to you now to perform." The role of the Jews, as defined by God's Torah, is to perform these mitzvot. And since the mitzvot are found in virtually every aspect of our lives, if someone tries to prevent my performance of that role, what am i left with?
Some may say, "Well you can still live a vibrant Jewish life without the mitzvot." That may be so. And i know amazing non-observant Jews who have made immense positive impacts on this planet and are very happy people. But clearly our ancestors felt that it was worth risking death and fighting against the mighty Syrian-Greek empire in order to perform the mitzvot. And furthermore, it was for the mitzvot that were the incomprehensible ones! And hence, we have the holiday of Chanukah.