Shiur provided courtesy of Naaleh.com
Adapted by Channie Koplowitz Stein
Dedicated to the Kedoshim of the Australian terror attack
Prior to creation, the Torah tells us, “the earth was empty and chaotic, and darkness was on the face of the deep.” Commentators explain that each of these negative descriptions is an allusion to one of our exiles, with darkness referring to the era of Greek domination. Why does the Torah equate Greek civilization to darkness in spite of its contributions to civilization?
As the medrash says, the Greeks, darkened the eyes of Bnei Yisroel with their decrees. Besides its ban on Shabbat observance, circumcision, and celebration of the New Moon, [Torah study was permitted, but only as an intellectual pursuit] the Greeks decreed that we write on the horns of an ox that we have no portion in the God of Israel. This decree is so strange that it begs exploration as to its meaning.
In Inside Chanukah, Rabbi Strickoff suggests that all travel at the time was by oxen drawn wagon. Therefore, writing this on the horn of an ox was a public declaration repudiating Hashem. When we now place our Chanukah menorah in a place of the public view, we publicly affirm our continued connection to the God of Israel and deny the earlier public perception.
Rabbi Bernstein cites two additional reasons from the Rambam for why the Greeks used this tactic against our faith. As an agricultural society, the ox was a prized possession in constant use for plowing the fields. The message would be constantly “in your face,” reminding you of this mantra. through your most prized possession and your daily work
The second reason is even more insidious. Ancient cultures did not have the baby bottles we use today to feed our infants. They would drill holes and scrape out the inside of the horns and use them to feed the babies. This way, the children would be indoctrinated with the message before they even understood it. [Similar to the way Hamas indoctrinates their youth from an early age to hate Israel and to aspire to be martyrs. CKS]
The Greeks also understood that the Jews would never renounce their God completely. However, they could influence the Jews to feel independent of Hashem, they could make the Jews adopt a sense of arrogance, that it was not Hashem, but their own effort that gets them everything they need, writes Rabbi Roberts. To this purpose they recruited the ox, a most arrogant beast, who lets nothing stand in its way, who will push its horns against any obstacle. The Jews could still believe in God, but would deny His mastery over all the world.
So much of western culture is derived from Greece. While Alexander conquered the entire known physical world, it was Aristotle who “conquered” the mind and spirit of the world with his philosophy. To him. all that existed was empirical. It existed only if it could be proven through nature, through what the senses could perceive. If it was not visible, it did not exist. Nature was his “god”, and everything in the world could be explained through nature. Therefore, a God that was not perceivable did not exist. All that existed was already “under the sun.”
But Jews believed that there was an invisible, spiritual world “above the sun”, that this world was only an entranceway to the permanent, spiritual world, writes Rabbi Roth zt”l in Sichot Eliyahu. Greeks wanted to destroy that belief, to sever our ties to religion. Rely on nature, on the ox you use for your livelihood. Nature is predictable, rely on the sun rising every morning. You think you need to do teshuvah and pray to God to cure your disease? We can identify the agent of disease through the microscope; mankind can discover the cure. Everything can be explained through the observance and predictability of nature.
But Rabbi Lopian zt”l begs to differ. Even things we think are predictable are not. Only Hashem has control over the rainfall, over childbirth and over resurrection of the dead. The weatherman is often wrong in his predictions; fertility issues are often confounding, and certainly, while full techiyat hameisim will only occur in the future, the have been instances of miraculous return from the dead that medical science could not explain.
By placing our menorahs in a doorway or window, we continue to defy the Greek mindset. We are publicizing our belief in Hashem’s overriding control beyond all things natural, for the flames in our Menorahs bear witness to the miraculous bit of oil burning brightly and unnaturally for a full eight days. By looking at the candles, we acknowledge that Hashem has given me everything, that just as the oil broke through nature, so can Hashem change nature for us. When we light the Chanukah candles, we have a most auspicious time to pray, to ask Hashem for His help, even if it seems impossible naturally.
The Greeks believed nature was immutable, there could never be anything new. We believe that everything is new, that Hashem creates a new day from nothing every day. reminds us Ohr Olam. We ourselves can create newness daily, especially in our dedication to Hashem, in our approach to our davening, to our learning, to our mitzvah observance. Keep it fresh, find new meaning, defy the Greek mindset. Hashem has given us the ability to make changes, to create. We and the world are not static.
In a sense, we are an ox. When we sin, we are letting our animalistic side prevail. This brings us back to the very first sin and the first sinner. Rabbi Bernstein cites the Gemorrah that after Adam sinned, he brought a sacrifice to God. That sacrifice was an ox, but an ox with one horn. That horn represents an aspiration upward, to reconnect to God, to regain the light of the spiritual being he had been.
The Greeks worshiped physical beauty as the ideal in its own right. The Jews appreciate beauty, but know that beauty itself can be elevated to serve a higher purpose. Should we remain in our animalistic, physical state, or should we aspire to take the physical and elevate it to the spiritual? The horn of the ox should not separate us from the God of Israel, but should be the symbol of our aspiration to a higher level.
Our battle with the Greeks was not so much a physical battle, as it was a spiritual battle. The proof is that the first thing the Chashmonaim did after their military victory was to go to the Beit Hamikdosh, search for some pure oil to relight the Menorah, cleanse the sanctuary of all pagan contamination, and rededicate Mikdosh.
We have been taught that the warriors called themselves Maccabees, an acronym for מי כמוך באלים יקוק./ who is like You, Hashem, among the gods? However, Rabbi Kofman zt”l relates that Rabbi Halperin zt”l of Manchester told him he had seen an ancient, hand written manuscript with a different spelling of Maccabbee and a different message: מעולם קוינו בך יקוק /our hope lies in You, Hashem, forever. The Maccabees went out to war with a sefer Tehillim, and this was their battle cry, as they would recite Chapter 91, “He Who sits in the refuge on high…”
The symbolism of the horn of an ox can be traced all the way back to Adam, writes Rabbi Shapira zt”l. Night began to set shortly after Adam sinned. Adam was distraught. Perhaps his sin brought this darkness. He fasts and does teshuvah. When the sun rose Sunday morning, realizing that this was the way the of the world, in an act of thanksgiving, Adam sacrificed an ox, an unusual one whose horns arose from the earth before its hooves. Alternately, when Adam saw the days were getting shorter and shorter, he again thought this was on account of his sin. He fasted and did teshuvah for eight days. After the winter solstice, when the days began lengthening, Adam celebrated for eight days to thank Hashem.
Adam understood that it is through the darkness that one gets to the true light. In this world of darkness, one must search for the light within the darkness, one must strive to create light. Adam celebrated the victory of light over darkness. the keren/horn/ray of light can pierce the darkness. That is what Adam celebrated.
This original celebration in honor of Hashem was later turned into the pagan worship of the solstice. The pagan Greeks worshiped Kronos, the god of time, success, harvest and agriculture, and wealth. The Greek celebration later became the Saturnalia, from the Roman version of Kronos, Saturn. It was completely a celebration of physical and material success. They could not see that one must work through the darkness, do teshuvah during the night, to see the light of morning. [Christianity then adopted the pagan dates to celebrate the birth of their man/god even though no sources agree with December 25 as the date of his birth. CKS]
On these days of Chanukah, as the hidden, primal light comes down, we are aware that we all have darkness in our lives. But, encourages us Rabbi Z. M. Zilverberg, just as light pierced through the darkness of Greece, so must we see the light comes to us through the darkness.
We light the Chanukah candles specifically at night, for in the dark that represents our exile, we search for the rays of light, for our connection to Hashem. Each night, that light grows stronger until we fill our lives with Hashem’s presence. While the ox represents physical pleasure, even the ox has a horn/ a ray of light. When we enjoy a moment, are we asking if our actions are also pleasing to Hashem? Our pleasure must still be connected to the God of Israel.
The famous adage goes, “Seeing is believing.” But the truth is, writes Rabbi Pincus zt”l, that our eyes, and indeed all our senses, are the biggest liars and deceivers. When all we believe is what we see, we are walking in the deepest darkness. It is only when we admit that we don’t know it all, that we don’t “see” it, that we begin to search for the truth, for that reality beyond physical vision. We do not see sound waves, but we can deduce their existence from talking on the telephone, for example.
We see the flower, but we do not see the God Who created it. A world that does not see Hashem, is a world of darkness. The Greeks wanted us to believe only in what we could perceive and enjoy. They wanted us to live in the world of the ox that plows the field, sees nothing more and aspires to nothing more. It is a world of blindness.
The Chafetz Chaim’s zt”l seventeen year old granddaughter once went to visit him, finding him poring over his seforim in a dark room. She asked him why he doesn’t go out into the daylight to see the world. He answered her with tremendous foresight rather than with physical sight, “You see these airplanes outside that are dropping bombs on cities? One day, they will reach the moon. They will eventually create bombs that can destroy the entire world. But we [with our Torah study] are creating human beings.”
After seven days of connecting to Hashem, we arrive at the eight day, זאת [8] Chanukah. In Chassidic tradition, our Rosh Hashanah judgment is not sealed until this day, writes Rabbi Meislish. Our prayers on this day carry special weight. We ask Hashem to restore our judges as in earlier times, and we beseech Hashem to judge us not just with justice but with righteousness, with tzedakah.
Our mission on Chanukah is to renew our connection to Hakodosh Boruch Hu every day. Chanukah is a regular day. It has no restrictions like Shabbat and Yom Tov. You can go to your job and maintain your regular routine. But precisely within the ordinary, open your eyes and see Hashem’s presence everywhere. If you cannot see Him and connect with Him, your reality is true darkness. Don’t just light the candle, but internalize it.
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