Chanukah Miracles Then and Now by Rav Yaakov Feitman

Jewish Thought Chanukah Miracles Then and Now

By Rav Yaakov Feitman

“If a group will sanctify themselves beyond the usual limitations, being willing to sacrifice their lives for Hashem, then concomitantly Hashem will conduct Himself with them on the supernatural level as well.”

One of the many eternal lessons we derive from Chanukah is the importance of hishtadlus. As many students and parents have discovered, a report card has one section for achievement and another for effort. The wise parent looks most carefully at the hishtadlus or effort mark than the actual academic result. My rebbe, Rav Yitzchok Hutner, zt”l, used to mention that “Klal Yisrael did not have that much nachas from its geniuses.” The surprise in this statement is that he himself was an incredible genius, an iluy from birth and a Gaon in later life. However, he knew that even intellectual power has its limitations. Nevertheless, there is no limit to how much can be accomplished through willpower, attitude, bitachon, and ultimately trying one’s best.

For the Chashmonaim, it would have been very easy to give up hope very early. On the warrior side, we had virtually no army at all versus the Greek professional soldiers who were trained and armed to the teeth. However, when Yehudah the Maccabee declared that we must wage war against the Yevanim, the heroes who stepped forward did not make cheshbonos, calculations. They simply volunteered based upon their emunah and bitachon. When only one vial of oil was discovered, it seemed obvious that it could not last very long. But they lit the Menorah anyway. They decided that once Hashem had sent them the miracle of victory, now their job was to light the Menorah. Not acting depressed at the odds of achieving a lasting flame, not concerned if the mitzvah could be done properly, they did their best – and as they say – Hashem did the rest.

A famous saying of Rav Chaim Soloveitchik, zt”l, of Brisk teaches that the tiny bit of oil was divided into eight so that at least each night, when waiting for the new oil, there would be some light. But more importantly, each lighting had to be done with real “regular oil,” not miracle oil. This was because the Torah commands that olive oil be used and not the oil of miracles. Therefore, if the oil would burn out and then continue to give light, it would not fulfill the mitzvah. Thus, the miracle had to be in the quality not quantity of the oil. The lesson is that human action can be more efficacious and proper even than an open miracle.

This is the connection between the miracle of the oil and that of the war. The Maharal (commentary on the Siddur, page 96) writes that in general Hashem does not perform miracles so that people can do mitzvos. If one can’t than do the mitzvah, then he is patur – exempt. The miracle of the neiros was performed so that we would know that the victory was not tactical or strategic but was purely a neis gadol. We may now add that it was also so that we could do our hishtadlus and then Hashem would finish the job.

This approach allows us to answer an important question raised by both commentaries and poskim. Chazal tell us, according to one opinion, that there were literally only 13 men fighting the entire Greek army. How were they even allowed to attempt to wage this war when we know that there is a rule ain somchin al ha’nes – we are not permitted to rely upon miracles? The answer may be found in the Medrash (Maaseh Chanukah, quoted in Bais Hamedrash 1 and by Rav Dovid Cohen, Rosh Yeshivas Chevron, in Yemei Chanukah, page 3): “Matisyahu the Kohain Gadol declared, ‘I have full faith in Hashem that He will perform great miracles for us.’” What happened to not relying on a nes? The Netziv (Shemos 19:6) explains that it all depends. “If a group will sanctify themselves beyond the usual limitations, being willing to sacrifice their lives for Hashem, then concomitantly Hashem will conduct Himself with them on the supernatural level as well.” Furthermore, the Gemara (Berachos 20a) raises the perennial issue, “Why did the earlier generations merit miracles and we do not? The answer is that they were moser nefesh – gave up their lives – for the glory of Hashem, so they were granted miraculous salvation.”

We can now understand this crucial distinction between then and now. Those generations, such as the Chashmonaim, were willing to die al kiddush Hashem and did all solely for the honor of Hashem. In fact, it is clear that Yehudah Hamaccabee did not act until he felt that the disrespect for Hashem and the Torah could no longer be tolerated, so he acted accordingly. We should add that when Avrohom Avinu fought the Four Kings, it was as if someone today decided to wage war against America, Russia, China, and Japan. One opinion in the Medrash is that Avrohom, too, had only Eliezer with him when they won the war and rescued Lot. That, too, went completely against nature, but Avrohom was the first to be willing to go through fire to sanctify Hashem’s Name, so he was able to completely transcend the laws of nature. For Avrohom and the Chashmonaim, it was simply a matter of doing their hishtadlus.

Perhaps all of this seems to be long ago, so let us listen to an amazing Chanukah story from a much more recent generation, which teaches us this same lesson. I heard the following story from one of the participants.

Rav Chaim Stein, zt”l, and a few other Telzers were on a long train ride during World War II on one of the nights of Chanukah. The Rosh Yeshiva had never missed lighting Chanukah candles, even under the most dire of circumstances and deeply lamented that it appeared as if this time he would not be able to do so. All of a sudden, in the frozen wastes of empty territory, there was a knock on the door of their cabin. When Rav Chaim opened it, there was a gentile standing there asking if anyone needed candles. He handed over eight large ones and disappeared into the night. The talmidim later assumed that Rav Chaim and his companions were zocheh to a visit from Eliyahu Hanavi that night. Years later, when the Rosh Yeshiva was asked by Rav Yitzchok Erlanger if the story was true, he admitted that indeed it was. However, he also added that “you should know that one who tries tremendously to fulfill a mitzvah is helped from heaven to accomplish his goal” (see also Otzar Hasipurim, page 596, No. 588). Rav Chaim, with whom I had the privilege to be extremely close and who was the sandek for one of my sons, was a member of our generation, but he lived the life of the Chashmonaim and the miracle of Chanukah.

May we too merit Hashem’s help in performing His mitzvos.