Hello, friends, and happy Chanukah! Here are my menorah pics from the first, third, and fourth nights. (I had to skip the second because that was erev Shabbos, and there was too much of a time crunch.)
Before I begin with my main message, I want to thank all of you who participated in the campaign for Rochel. With your help and that of many others, we raised half a million dollars in under a week. Her grandmother made a mass phone call to the crew of fundraisers and gave us a blessing that just as Rochel will have her home, may Hashem’s home on earth soon be rebuilt. If that’s not something that gets you excited, I’m sure you can get on board with it as a prayer for world peace.
And now for my main message. As I’ve told you before, I’ve been listening to lots of Torah classes lately. My favorite for this Chanukah came from Rabbi Shais Taub. It’s a long one, and it’s worth your time, but if you prefer, you can skip to my summary below.
Rabbi Taub opens up with the classic debate between the students of Hillel and the students of Shammai: do we add a new candle to our menorah every night or should we start with eight and then decrease to one? We follow the ruling of the students of Hillel, which means we add a new light every night, but the students of Shammai had a basis for their opinion. The other eight-day celebration in Judaism is Sukkos, or, to break it down, the seven days of Sukkos culminate into a holiday on the eighth day, Shemini Atzeres.
In the times of the Temple, Jews brought seventy bulls as sacrifices over the holiday. There were twelve offered on the first day, but then the number decreases each day that follows. The initial sacrifices served to neutralize our enemies, but as the holiday went on, the neutralized nations became our allies and friends. But on the very last day, only one bull was brought, and that was for the Jewish people alone. The metaphor that Rabbi Taub used was that the King threw a party and invited everyone He knew, but the last day was a private after-party for one guest alone.
The students of Shammai held that Chanukah should repeat this pattern of increasing intimacy, but Chanukah is different. It turns darkness into light in parallel to the way the sacrifices transformed hatred into friendship, but in this case, we add rather than subtract.
I’m leaving a lot out, but he also said that Chanukah is like an extension of Sukkos, another opportunity for us to repeat the teshuva we attempted in Tishrei. And if ever there was a year we needed a second chance at Shemini Atzeres, this is it. The terrorist attack of October 7th was the holiday of Shemini Atzeres. Our happiest day was transformed into one of catastrophe and mourning. So I pray that our enemies can be turned into friends, no longer with blood and sacrifice, but with mitzvos, knowledge, and light. May G-d help it to be so.
Happy Chanukah.