בס"ד
ל"נ דוד בן יוסף ורחל
By Simcha Benyosef
The more we advance in the process leading to our desired Geula-redemption, the more we see that what is expected from us is nothing less than a total commitment to our love and devekut-passionate attachment and awe of the Creator. No half measures. And Chanuka, which is the light dispelling the darkness, shows us the way.
We will first explore how the desired relationship with the Creator manifests in Chanuka and we will then try to examine how this is relevant to us today.
Casting light into a few concepts of Kabbala
There are different levels of Divine revelation; a revelation means that the Holy Ein Sof-Infinite Being condenses His Light at different levels of constriction and allows us to relate to Him through His Names. At the level in which the Holy One relates to us as our King and Judge, we may relate to Him daily by calling Him through our prayers or reading of psalms with the four-letter Name, Havaya.At a higher level, for instance, as at the Giving of the Torah, we do not yet have the spiritual potential for direct communication.
The People of Israel are considered a single spiritual entity whose souls within their bodies are interconnected. The souls of Israel have an outer aspect which is too lofty to be contained by the body; this outer aspect has different levels, one higher than the other. The highest level of their outer souls – called surrounding souls – is attached to the Holy One on High.
The inner dimension of the Torah distinguishes between Knesset Israel Above , our collective soul roots attached to G‑d on High, and Kneset Israel below – namely, the spiritual entity of our collective souls in the world below in a state of spiritual togetherness under our physical forms.
The concept Kneset Israel Above is related to the idea of the Divine Presence-the Shechina. The word Shechina stems from the Hebrew word shochen-to dwell. We refer to the Shechina at the end of our three daily prayers, in Aleinu leshabeach, saying v’shechinat uzo b’gavhei meromim–meaning that the Shechina is in the loftiest heights. We are alluding to the point in which all our heavenly souls cleave to the Creator on High.
In the special prayer that the holy Rashash zt’l1 wrote to be said after midnight, we ask G‑d to give the Shechina a great ko’ach-power, to leave the realm of the kelipot-outside forces, to remove her impure and unworthy garments and have her enrobe a Purpira Ilaa Kadisha-a holy royal mantle, and have her ascend to the heavenly realm where she belongs.
This royal mantle alludes to the yichud-heavenly unification between the Holy One and Knesset Israel.This yichud was constant while the Temple was on its premises and in consequence, the People of Israel were invincible in those days. In our days alas, the yichud only takes place three times a day at the time of our three daily prayers.
There are forces of impurity constantly challenging our progress. These are spiritual forces dwelling outside the realm of holiness, into what we would call the realm of evil, or ‘the other side’, which stands in contrast with the realm of holiness, representing Hashem’s Presence; they are thus referred to as ‘outside forces.’
These outside forces only exist in virtue of the fragments or sparks of holiness that they snatch from the souls of those who transgress Divine Will as expressed in the Torah. Without these sparks, they would not have any existence.
The outside forces are part of the plan of Creation. By allowing both good and evil to exist, The Creator established a system in which man has free will to choose between the deeds bringing Light, and those causing the interference of the other side.
By engaging in forbidden involvements, a single individual can block the spiritual channels for the entire Community of Israel. More than that, man’s wrong involvements can inflict a blemish in the system of spiritual channels through which the Divine shefa-spiritual abundance travels until it reaches man, thus harming the entire Community of Israel2
On the other hand, however, the verse says: [Exodus 25:8] v’asu li mikdash v’shekanti btokham-“They shall make Me a Sanctuary and I will dwell within them.”Throughout his writings, Rabbi Luria reminds us that upon asking us to build a Holy Sanctuary, G‑d’s ratzon-Higher Will was that each one of us strive to become a dira betachtonim-dwelling place or Sanctuary for the Divine Presence in this lower realm of physicality. Indeed, were it not for the sin of the Golden Calf, each and every soul of Israel would have attained the spiritual completion to become a vehicle for the revelation of the Shechina, Who would literally dwell within the person3
As we will see, through the miraculous intervention in the rules of nature that was exposed in Chanuka, the Holy One showed His people in unequivocal terms that the object of Creation was the total unification between every single Jew within the Community of Israel and the Source of Holiness on high.
The Greek exile
It would seem that the exiles of Babylon, Persia and Rome were worse than that of Greece, for in the exile of Babylon was destroyed the First Temple and in that of Rome the Second Temple. Moreover, in the Persian exile the ruling nation wanted to decimate all the People of Israel. In contrast, in the Greek exile, the enemy did not destroy the Temple, nor did they impose an exile on the Jews; they only prevented the Temple service from taking place. Why, then, is the Greek exile considered the worst?
The Greek, with their impure source of wisdom, understood the heavenly essence of the People of Israel and the intention they had behind the measures they took was to uproot the People of Israel. The aim of the Greek exile was to prevent the heavenly union between the Holy One and the Community of Israel from taking place, so that the shefawould not go the People of Israel and from them to the rest of the world. In order to serve their purpose, they sullied the Temple with their impurities, sacrificing pig upon the holy mizbeach-altar.
The Eighth Day of Chanuka
The 8th day of Chanuka is known as zot Chanukah after the initial words of the Torah reading taking place on this day.
The essential feature of Chanuka is the miracle concerning the sealed container of oil that they found preserved intact and that they reserved for the menora. It is interesting that the Torah readings of all first seven days of Chanuka do not mention the menora – only the reading of the eighth day. The other readings are about the inauguration of the mizbe’ach which only benefitted from the miracle in a general way after their victory over the Greek dominion.
The fact that the Torah reading about the miracle– zot Chanuka –only took place on the 8th day shows that even though the miracle of the oil continued to occur during all first seven days, still, the climax of this miracle took place on the 8th day. The Sages teach that on this day, it is given for yeshuot-miraculous salvation to take place.
The Pri Etz Chaim teaches that on each of the first seven days shines one of the 13 midotof rachamim–Divine traits of compassion; on the 8th all the remaining others shine come forth together and then there occurs a yichud-heavenly unification on high.
Let us try to understand why this day is more special than the others.
The Beit Yosef (Rabbi Yosef Karo) teaches that as soon as they broke the seal of the preserved oil container and poured it into the menora flasks, the oil immediately replenished. This shows that on the first day there was a miracle as well. However, the Sages have argued that if such is the case, on the last day there was no miracle; namely, since the oil container refilled immediately upon using it on the 7th day, there was enough oil for the 8th day and no need for the miracle of replenished oil.
In the time of the Greek exile, there were two tzarot ruchaniot-spiritual sorrows: The avodah,divine service they performed in the Temple had to be stopped because the Greek had filled the Temple with their impurities, and as a result the heavenly Wife could not come back to her Husband’s home!
It is true that the Sages say that the Shechina never leaves the Temple; however, the People of Israel could not come to the Temple! It was as the saying goes; the maidservant took the place of her mistress!4 Meaning, the kelipa had taken over for the Shechina could not come to a place filled with impurity!
This is what made the Greek exile worse than all others. Although in the other exiles the Temple was destroyed, still the Shechina had gone into exile together with them, and there was no incidence of the maidservant taking her mistress’s place.
The situation during the Greek exile was as is written: “He Who dwells with them during their impurity” (Leviticus 10:10) – like a woman who lives in the same house as her husband, but they are not allowed to have a union.
In order to repair this situation, two elements were in order:
The first one was to remove the maidservant from the premises. The second one was to purify the People of Israel like a woman who is niddain time of her monthly impurity,and has to count seven pure days in order to be with her husband.
The repair took place in two motions:
One: the military victory by which the Greek were vanquished and left the Temple as well as the Land of Israel. The Temple then took its intended function teshvu ke’en taduru5living constantly with the Soul Companion with the total intimacy of husband and wife.
The Holy One and Knesset Israel were now together, but Knesset Israel was still like a woman who needs to purify herself before she is permitted to be with her husband: she needed the seven days of purity.
Two: The second motion came to be by means of the miracle of the oil to ignite the menora, for the essential purpose of the menora is to allow the Shechina to recover her intimate involvement with the souls of Israel.
A question has been asked: While they were at the desert, the Divine cloud was constantly resting on the mishkan. Was that not enough proof that the Al-mighty was with the People of Israel? Why was the proof of the menora required in order to show that the Shechina dwelled with Israel?
The reason is that the dwelling of the cloud over the Temple could be a way of showing that in a general way, the Divine Presence was with the People of Israel, but this togetherness could be like that a woman who is in the same home as her husband but there can be no intimacy between them. That is where the menora came in, to show that the Shechina dwelled with the People of Israel like a woman who is pure and may be with her husband. That is why it was the menora which drew purity onto Knesset Israel: thus, the importance of igniting the menora.
We thus see that although the actual miracle took place during the seven first days of Chanuka, the object of the miracle only occurred on the 8th day – the yichud-heavenly unification between the Holy One and Knesset Israel.On this day there could be a yichud, as in the case of a woman who is still impure after she has counted seven days of purity until she immerses in a mikveh.
It now makes sense that during the first seven days of Chanuka the Torah reading relates to the mizbe’ach, altar and only on the 8th day is the reading about the menora, to show that the real object of the miracle only occurred on the 8th day. During the first seven days there was a miracle but the positive result, the fruit of the miracle, only took place on the 8th day.
The Sages thus instituted that we ignite the Menora at the very beginning of ben hashemashot–twilight, namely the 20-25 minutes between sunset and nightfall. However, according to the yeshiva of kabbalists in the Old City of Jerusalem, Bet El,the correct time for beginning to ignite is the exact moment of shekia-sunset. Rabbi Israel Avichai, Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivat Bet El, adds that one may even light up to ten minutes before the shekiah, but not earlier than that.
This parallels the appropriate time for a woman to check herself on the seven days of purity, which must be completed before the onset of sunset. And on each succeeding day comes another level of purity where the impurity was present, and the new level of purity removed it.
According to the yeshiva of kabbalists in the Old City of Jerusalem, Bet El, one who lights only at or after hacochavim-nightfall-the visibility in the sky of three [middle-sized] stars, fulfills the mitzva but misses out on much of the spiritual benefit of Chanuka.
Zot Chanuka is thus a very special day for every reunion after a time of separation brings about a more intense level of closeness. And that is why on the 8th day we read all thirteen traits of Divine compassion. In each of the first seven days, one of the traits of compassion comes forth and is mentioned in our prayers, but on the 8th day, all the remaining traits come forth all at once. This sequence of events is reenacted on every succeeding Shabbat. On the sixth day of the week we prepare for the coming Shabbat, based on the verse in which we were told about the double portion of Manna falling on Friday: [Exodus 16:5] and it shall be on the sixth day when they prepare what they bring.
Seven days thus elapse before the next Shabbat day. We could thus look at these seven days as the 7 days of purity and the 8th day would be at the time of the Mussaf,additional Amida prayer, in which there is a heavenly unification. Then at the time of the Third Meal there is no yichud:the yearning for the unification that will take place on the following Shabbat then begins to be enacted.
All Judaism is built on these premises: The conclusion is that we must either devote ourselves heart and soul to help this unification take place or else we are contributing to the maidservant who usurped the place of her mistress and will have to live with the consequences.
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Simcha Benyosef studies the inner dimension of Torah as a means of healing and reconnec-tion to the Source of Life, as taught by the late chasidic sage Rabbi Moshe Luria zt’l, who passed away at the Kotel-‘Western Wall’ on the third light of Chanuka, and has published a number of books based on his teachings. Excerpts from the first two books listed below have been published on KabbalaOnline.org as stand-alone articles. They and several others are being reprinted for publication. The third book below is the only one currently available.Translation of Rabbi Eliahu de Vidas’ Beginning of Wisdom: The Gate of Love. (Ktav 2002).
Living Kabbalah: A Guide to the Sabbath and the Festivals in the Teachings of Rabbi Refael Moshe Luria. (Feldheim 2006).
Key to the Locked Garden: Learning to enhance the Shabbat Experience. (Menora Books 2018).
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