The Nine Chanukahs of Light

Today is Shabbat Chanukah. We are in the midst of a whole week of commemorating the events of the Maccabbean rebellion. We all know the story, that Mattisyahu and his sons led a war against the Syrian king, Antiochus, who had demanded that the Jews give up their faith and merge with the pagan Hellenism of the day. They were successful and recaptured the Temple. It had been desecrated with idols and the sacrifices of pigs. The Jewish soldiers cleansed the Temple, brought in the priests, and rededicated it. This is in fact where we get the name Chanukah, it means “dedication”.

There is a midrash, that says there was not just one Chanukah but actually seven.

The seven mentioned in the midrash are:

• The Chanukah of Creation
• In Genesis it says “when the heavens and earth were completed” The midrash says that “completed” refers to dedication because when Israel had completed all of the accouterments of the Tabernacle that Moses blessed them in dedication to be used in holy service. So, goes the midrash, God dedicated creation.
• The Chanukah of the Tabernacle
• As we just mentioned Moses dedicated the Temple to the service of Hashem.
• The Chanukah of the First Temple
• King David wrote a psalm for the dedication of the First Temple, which was actually performed by his son Solomon. Psalm 30 starts out, “mizmor shir chanukat habayit”, A psalm, a song, for the dedication of the temple.
• The Chanukah of the Second Temple
• In the time of Ezra when they rebuilt the temple, they dedicated it with sacrifices.
• The Chanukah of the Wall of Jerusalem
• When Nehemiah led the people to finish the wall around Jerusalem they dedicated it. In Nehemiah 12 it says, “And at the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem, they sought all the Levites from all their places, to bring them to Jerusalem to rejoice in the dedication”
• The Chanukah of Maccabees
• This is the Chanukah that we are currently celebrating.
• The Chanukah of Olam Ha-Ba
• In Isaiah 30 it says, “The light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days”. This, say our Sages, refers to the end of time, Olam Ha-Ba. When Hashem will dedicate the New Heavens and New Earth.

What I would like to propose to you is that there are in fact 9 Chanukahs, not 7; these round out the Chanukah menorah. In fact, that is my title for this sermon, “The Nine Chanukahs of Light.” The 8^th Chanukah of light is the Chanukah of Yeshua. As we will see in a moment, He is our example of total dedication to Hashem. The 9^th Chanukah of light is the Chanukah of us. Each and every one of us is called to dedicate ourselves Hashem. I would like to look at 3 specific aspects of Chanukah that Yeshua exemplifies and we are also called to.

First, Chanukah is about dedication to Torah.

Antiochus had ordered our people to give up Torah and adopt Hellenistic ways. Mattisyahu and his sons and those who fought with them refused to do this. They showed their dedication to Torah by resisting this forced enculturation and, with God’s help, defeating their enemies.

The book of Maccabees records Mattisyahu’s words to his sons as he lay on his death bed. He said:

My children, be zealous for the Law, and give your lives in behalf of the testament of our fathers. Be mindful of the deeds of our fathers, which they performed in their generations, that you may receive great glory and eternal renown. Was not Abraham found faithful in time of trial, and it was accounted to him for righteousness?... Be strong and courageous in behalf of the Law… gather about you all who observe the Law, and avenge fully the wrong done to your people.”

If it were not for their dedication to Torah, we might not even be here today. Judaism could have simply ceased to exist.

Yeshua Himself was also dedicated to Torah. Yeshua did not abrogate or cancel the Torah; instead He upheld it and gave it its fullest meaning. He said, “I did not come to abolish the Torah, but to fulfill it.”

His issue with the leaders of His day wasn’t that they obeyed the Law, but that they let ritual aspects of Torah supersede what He called the weightier aspects, namely mercy and compassion. He says to them, “You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the Torah—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.” Notice that He doesn’t tell them to not obey these lighter commandments, but that they should be practiced in addition to the weightier ones.

Yeshua showed His dedication to the Torah through His actions as well as His teachings. He consistently sent people that He healed to the priests for verification that they were in fact healed. He could have been a total rebel and told them not to mess with the priests and their rules. But instead He upholds their authority and ensures that they fulfill all of the aspects of Torah.

Chanukah calls upon us to also be dedicated to Torah. We are in an age not unlike that of the Maccabees. If you read historical accounts of Chanukah, you realize that observance was already on its way out when the edict came. Jews were already slowly being Hellenized; many had already fully assimilated into Greek culture. This is why the Sadducees were opposed to the doctrine of angels and life after death. They were priests highly assimilated into Greek culture. They felt it unsophisticated and contrary to modern philosophical thinking to believe in such things.

The reality is that it might have been for the best that Antiochus forced the issue with his edict, because it pushed the issue to the forefront. Had he not, some historians think that Judaism would have just simply slowly faded away.

Today is similar to that. We have a high rate of assimilation and inter-marriage. Torah observance is at an all time low in the United States and Israel. We must be dedicated enough to the observance of Torah that we do our part to preserve it. Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch said, “One single spark, loyally treasured in but one single Jewish heart, is sufficient for God to set aflame once more the whole spirit of Judaism.” Each and every one of us is that one small vial of oil, which God can do a miracle with.

Every morning we pray in the Shacharit service:

“Blessed are You, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, Who has sanctified us with His commandments and has commanded us to engross ourselves in the words of Torah. Please, Hashem, our God, sweeten the words of your Torah in our mouth and in the mouth of Your people, the family of Israel.”

The root word of Chanukah is Chanach, Chet-Nun-Chaf, which means “to train”. We are to train ourselves in Torah. Train like athletes do for a major competition.

The rabbis say that Chanukah marks a shift from Torah being transmitted by the prophets and the priests, to each individual Jew. When the Jews of that day were confronted with either apostasy or death, they were forced to internalize the Torah themselves and no longer just follow what their leaders said. After the Maccabean rebellion, the Torah is always quoted in the name of individuals. In the Mishnah we see references to the Torah of Rav so-and-so. We are called to make the Torah our Torah. We need to learn the Torah of Larry, and Julie, and Abby.

Chanukah calls us to be dedicated to God’s Torah, to teach it to our children, teach it to one another, and thereby preserve it.

Chanukah is also about being dedicated to shedding the light of Torah to the world.

We do this mostly by living out the precepts of Torah, in particular by doing gemilut hassidim, deeds of lovingkindness.

As the 8^th candle, Yeshua is our example par excellence in this area. We see Him consistently being drawn to and reaching out to the down and out, the unappreciated, the rejected, and the ignored. He eats with tax collectors and prostitutes. He touches lepers and pays attention to cripples and the blind. These are people whom society in this day as well as in His day tends to just overlook and cast aside. Yeshua loves them, lives with them, and grants them dignity.

As the 9^th candle, we too are called to live a life of chesed, of lovingkindness. The schools of Hillel and Shammai had a disagreement, as they often did, on how Hannukah menorahs should be lit. Shammai said that you should light all of the candles the first night and light one less each night. But Hillel said that you should light one candle the first night and one more each successive night because in matters of holiness we should be growing, not diminishing in them. This is the practice that our tradition has adopted. Chanukah is a call on us to be dedicated to growing ever more in our acts of hesed. In our own way, we can comfort the afflicted, give sight to the blind, heal the sick, and raise up those who are bowed down.

I have been reading lately Rabbi Jonathan Sacks’ book titled “To Heal a Fractured World.” This is an excellent book that I highly recommend. His basic premise is that what the Torah has given the world is this sense of being accountable for our fellow human beings. He says, there is divine justice, but God calls for human justice. He calls for us to act to stop injustices and to reach out to people who are in need. This is exemplified in God’s call upon Abraham to “walk before me and be perfect”. The rabbis interpret this to mean “Don’t wait for me to command you to do good. See the need and do it.” The Torah calls us to be people of lovingkindness.

As one Jewish mystic put it, “Another person’s physical needs are my spiritual obligation.”

We had an example this past week of one who lived this principle of taking care of others. Some of us were at the funeral of Allen and Larry’s father, Sam Singer. At the funeral we heard about how Sam was always there for people in his community, helping them out when they were in need. Allen talked about trying to fill his father’s shoes when his father had surgery some years ago. He was running about helping neighbors and widows with all kinds of things, wondering how his father did it all. This is a man who lived a life of chesed, a life dedicated to lovingkindness. Rabbi Dobrusin even connected it to Chanukah in his words at the funeral. He said, “Sam was a simple candle, but a candle that showed a light to all of those around him.” His life is an example to us all.

Yeshua said, “let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”

Maimonides said, “If a person is scrupulous in his conduct, gentle in his conversation, pleasant towards his fellow creatures, affable in manner when receiving them, not retorting even when affronted, but showing courtesy to all, even to those who treat him with disdain, conducting his commercial affairs with integrity… such a person has sanctified God’s name.”

Each and everyone one of us are a Chanukah of light. We can shed our light upon others around us through dedication to good deeds.

Finally, Chanukah is about being dedicated to the mission that God has given us in life.

The Jews in the days of the rebellion against Antiochus did not so much find God’s mission as it found them. The very circumstances that they were thrust into begged for them to stand up for Torah and the Jewish way of life and fight against tyranny.

Yeshua knew God’s mission for Him because it was revealed to Him by the Father. He dedicated Himself to fulfilling the office of Mashiach because it was God’s will for him.

Some of us will be like those in the days of the first Chanukah and discover what God wants us to do by the circumstances we find ourselves in. Some of will be like Yeshua had have God tell us what He wants. Whichever way we discover it, we need to seek out His mission for us and dedicate ourselves to its fulfillment.

We have been talking about mission. We are all called to the mission of observing and encouraging observance of the Torah. We are all called to do good deeds. Collectively, we as Jews are called to be a light to the nations, a holy priesthood. But each of us has are particular role, our sub-mission if you will in accomplishing this task.

Martin Buber said, “Every person born into this world represents something new, something that never existed before, something original and unique. Every person’s foremost task is the actualization of his unique, unprecedented and never recurring potentialities.”

Chanukah calls us to be dedicated to finding our particular mission in life and work towards its fulfillment.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I would just like to say that we should not be dismayed by the breadth and depth of these calls upon us. They indeed can be daunting. If you read a history of Chanukah, you will realize that the temple was dedicated before the war was over. Judah Maccabee sent soldiers to continue the fight with the city garrison while others began to clean up the temple. So we too can dedicate ourselves to these great tasks even though the battle isn’t over for us either.

Yeshua is the eighth Chanukah of light, our example of what it means to be dedicated to Torah, to the love of others, and to fulfilling our mission in life. He perfectly executed all of these.

As the ninth Chanukah of light, each of us are called to dedicate ourselves to Torah, to loving others and good deeds, and to fulfilling our mission in life. This Chanukah season, may each of us reflect on these and strive to fulfill them.

Proverbs says that each person’s soul is a lamp of Hashem. May we become a light that truly sheds light on all of those around us and may we all merit seeing that final Chanukah in the world to come. Amen.