The Day with a Split Personality

The 3rd of Tevet has the unique distinction among the 385 different dates on the Jewish Calendar of being the only date that has Hallel said on it in some years, and Tachanun during other years. 

It works like this: Kislev usually has 30 days (74.5% of the time), in which case, the 8th day of Chanuka is the 2nd of Tevet and the 3rd is the day after Chanuka, with Tachanun. But in the other 25.5% of the years, such as this one, Kislev has only 29 days and the 3rd of Tevet is ZOT CHANUKA, with full Hallel.

This dual nature of the 3rd of Tevet can be seen as symbolizing the nature of the month of Tevet and asa reminder of Tevet's message.

And that message is a mixed one. The month of Tevet begins with the last two or three days of Chanuka, the joyous celebration of G-d's miracles, of our victory over bitter enemies, of the restoration and rededication of the Beit HaMikdash and the holy service therein.

Not one week later, we are marking the multiple tragedies of the 8th, 9th, and 10th of Tevet — the translation of the Torah into Greek, the yahrzeits of Ezra and Nechemia, and the beginning of the siege of Jerusalem prior to the destruction of the first Beit HaMikdash. Although the events associated with these Tevet dates preceded the Chanuka story, their appearance on the calendar right after Chanuka says things to us.

We get an important perspective for Chanuka and its celebration. On the one hand, don't think that Chanuka is "and they lived happily ever after". They didn't. And we haven't... yet. Chanuka ushered in a significant 200-year period of relative autonomy, but there were ups and downs on a spiritual level. And subsequently, the Beit HaMikdash was destroyed and we were plunged into the worst and longest of exiles. And yet we still celebrate Chanuka. 

On the one hand, it is important to understand that we must be thankful for all of G-d's blessings, even if they are not everything we want and need. Chanuka is not diminished by the fact that there were problems with the Hasmonean dynasty, the Greeks, and then the Romans. (A lesson to learn for Yom HaAtzmaut - but that's another issue.)

On the othr hand, Tevet association with Ezra and Nechemia remind us that the relatively feeble return to Eretz Yisrael after the (relatively) short Babylonian exile resulted in a second Beit HaMikdash with and insufficiently broad foundation (people-wise and more) for it to be the permanent, eternal Beit HaMikdash.

KAF-HEI KISLEV - great victory, great miracles. Dedication of the Beit HaMikdash. And then Rosh Chodesh and a new month, a month that reminds us of the not-quite perfect circumstances. But also a month that reminds us of the prophecies and promises of the Geula Sh'leima, when the Four Fasts for the Churban will become YAMIM TOVIM, may it happen speedily in our time, AMEN.