Chanukah is an interesting יום טוב. First of all, the miracle we are commemorating was unnecessary. We rule that טומאה הותרה בציבור, that if something is a service for the entire כלל then the laws of טומאה are overruled. Had they not found the one jug, or had it in fact gone out after one day, halacha would have dictated that they should light with impure oil, so while it is nice and sweet, the oil that didn’t stop burning was unnecessary. Secondly, it was not a model atmosphere. They didn’t light a beautiful golden menorah, that one had been stolen by the armies that had ravaged the בית המקדש. Instead all they had was a makeshift menorah made of aluminum that they fashioned on the spot. The בית המקדש had just been vandalized and ransacked, there were likely spray-painted swastikas (or at least the 2nd century BCE equivalent) on the wall and floor of the היכל. Doubtful that they had the בגדי כהונה. The שכינה wasn’t there, no grand revelations or prophecy, they should have felt like just a ragtag group of Jews who were fighting desperately for what they believed in. Now imagine that scene in your head. Not exactly the way we picture it, and nothing to glamorous either. Yet they made a holiday to commemorate this. A holiday longer than any of the others that we have nonetheless!
Let’s talk about the future of the חשמונאים, just a quick refresher for those of us who were snoozing in Jewish history class. After the war was won and Yehuda Hamacabee died, Shimon, Yehuda’s brother takes over the seat of power, but he and his sons are murdered by his son in law. Only Yochanan Hirkanus survived, and he then takes over as כהן גדול and political leader. But when he died, the power was split between his wife who became political leader and his son Aristoblus who became כהן גדול. But Aristoblus didn’t like the divide, so he throws his mother in jail where she starves to death, and he imprisons three of his brothers, so they can’t overthrow him. The great dynasty was destroying itself from within. This was not a pretty scene. So why is this unnecessary miracle, and a war that was won but ended with a leadership that disintegrated into civil war designated forever as an eight-day festival?
Maybe חז”ל saw all of this and for exactly that reason made Chanukah into what it is. They knew that we were about to embark on a journey through exile that would last millennia, and that the Jewish nation needed this holiday. How many times do we have a small victory? An instance when we are faced with a challenge that by nature we should fail, but we push ourselves hard and we win the battle. A tiny jug of our fuel and energy that by nature should only “last” 24 hours, but with tremendous strength and effort we bend nature and this energy blasts us into a realm that we never thought possible. We push ourselves past the limit of what thought possible of ourselves and we connect to Hashem. We see the “oil” burning when we know it shouldn’t be and we feel like we are on top of the world. Then the יצר הרע comes in, and he says “you think you’re on top of the world? look at your menorah, it looks like a tin can! You’ll have a civil war in a few years. The forces inside of you are going to struggle for power and murder each other. Your בית המקדש is vandalized and spray painted, you may have won this war, but you’ll never be able to make anything of yourself.
This is the reality of גלות, and many times the יצר הרע is right. We have so many dark parts to us, and it is an uphill battle to fix a defiled בית המקדש. But one of the messages of Chanukah is to know that each battle won is a celebration. Each one of us has a בית המקדש inside of us, and sometimes it is defiled and appears ugly, but it is a pure and holy בית המקדש nonetheless. And even a tin menorah can hold the oil that can blast Godly light into the world. Maybe this is what the חז”ל wanted us to see in 2017 after 2000 years of oppression, abuse and depression.
May we all use the lights of the menorah to look deep inside ourselves and see the beautiful menorah and בית המקדש that exists in all our hearts.