We see the minimum observance of Hanukkah on the first night — two lights. One light is the actual Hanukkah mitzvah * flame, what we Jews are commanded to kindle. However, we never leave this light alone. We use another flame to kindle this Hanukkah light, and we set it up to burn alongside at the same time. We call this other candle the "Shamash" * — assistant or Associate.
The reason for the Associate to stand alongside the Hanukkah mitzvah flame is thus:
The Hanukkah flame is holy — not to be used for any mundane purpose. In fact, we do not even use one Hanukkah flame to kindle the other Hanukkah lights. Instead, the flame's purpose is in the declaration that we recite from the prayer book. We testify to the miraculous victory of "physically strong into the hands of weak, many into the hands of few, impure into the hands of pure, evildoers into the hands of righteous, and the mischievous into the hands of those who occupy themselves with Your Torah." (A description of the Hanukkah victory follows this essay.)
The sacred light is for looking at, learning from, and inspiring praise of G-d. As written in the prayer book, "we do not have permission to use them" (the sacred flames) for any routine activity, even reading. However, it is not necessary to spend the entire time of the Hanukkah observance in idle contemplation. We use the light of the Associate for the mundane holiday pleasures of eating and singing. We use the light of the Associate to keep from stumbling or bumping into each other. So we leave this Associate to burn while the Hanukkah mitzvah flame burns.
What messages do we learn from the Shamash assistant candle on Hanukkah? Use the mundane to light the sacred, but don't stop there. Keep the mundane lit at the same time.
Don't equate religiosity with abstinence from ordinary life. Pursue both the sacred and the mundane side by side.
On the one hand, we learn not to misuse the sacred. And still we will enjoy staying close to the sacred without missing the good life of family and friends, especially for the sake of misguided religiosity and piety.
It seems to me that this message of the Shamash Associate candle with the Hanukkah lights also reflects another lesson. This lesson is about the relationship between the members of humanity who are not Jewish and the members of the Jewish people. The primary task of the Jewish people is to be sacred. There is ample evidence from the Scriptures, and most people will accept this premise.
The sacred is reflected in the Hanukkah mitzvah flame that we Jews kindle. The sacredness of the Jewish people needs to be fueled and protected. The flame of Jewish existence could easily be extinguished, and enough tyrants have tried. One message of Hanukkah is that no tyrant will ever succeed in diminishing the vibrancy of the Torah way of life.
But the Jewish flame is part of a larger picture. G-d's intention is for the entire planet Earth to be settled, and this task requires the multitudes of humanity. This is primarily not a Jewish task, due to the enormity of the work and the small size of the Jewish people. G-d entrusts the larger part of this task, filling the earth with human settlement, to the larger group of Noah's children.
It seems to me that Noahites — Noah's Children — are Associates in Jewish sacredness. We Jews can spend more and better time studying and teaching the Torah if we are relieved of some ordinary tasks of harnessing nature and obtaining the basic necessities of life. Let Noah's Children supply the initial spark of flame — advances in technology and culture. But don't let them fade or go away. They are like the Shamash Associate who stands alongside with illumination. They participate in the sacred so long as they stand up for the idea of the sacred not being misused.
If Noahites were to go completely their own way, the danger to Jewish sacredness would be real. Instead of being living lessons, we Jews would become islands of piety for our own sake. This is not G-d's intention. The Torah teaches us Jews that Jewish existence is welded into the body of humanity.
And where do we place the Shamash Associate candle? Jewish law instructs us to place it HIGHER than the Hanukkah lights themselves. A lesson here is that when a person kindles someone else's soul fire, they acquire a higher degree of improvement than the person who they were working with!
Two flames, one light.
Happy Hanukkah,
NathanielIn the Sefer HaMinhagim of Chabad, the sources for placing the Shamash candle higher than the Hanukkah lights are: Maharil, Kav HaYashar 96, Achronim on Rama 673:1.
Maharil: He placed the Shamash higher than the other candles. One indication to do this (siman) is from the Hebrew expression "serafim [a type of angel] stand above him" in Isaiah's vision (6:2) — serafim omdim mima'al "lo." "Lo" = 36, the 36 lights of Hanukkah besides the eight Shamashim (Associates) who are the serafim standing above.
Rama (673:1): "One should make them "longer."" (The Ba'er Hetev and Mishnah B'rura consider that placing the Shamash higher is included in the idea of this law of making the Shamash longer.)
The bottom line is that there is a strong basis in Torah law for placing the Shamash higher, especially in light of our knowledge that this is virtually the universal custom (minhag) of the most recent generations.
In Psalms (34:15), King David reminds us: "Stay away from evil and do good." Really, our good deeds are the primary purpose for living, especially as King David rhetorically asks earlier in this Psalm, "Who is the man who wants life?" (34:13) But in order to do good, there has to be the bare minimum of "staying away from evil."
The pursuit of goodness needs protection. The pursuit of goodness is like the tendency of a flame to rise. However, mundane pursuits have a tendency like the nature of the flame's fuel — subject to gravity. Mundane pursuits tend to deteriorate, and this deterioration is along a slippery slope headed into the depths of degradation. This sum tendency of ordinary human efforts wipes out any gains made in the realm of pursuing goodness.
A message from the Hanukkah lights is that best of intentions is not enough. The mitzvah lights are expressions of our best intentions. But above and beyond doing good with sincere intentions, we set up the Associate candle to keep from losing our holy aspirations.
When the Rabbis established the observances of Hanukkah, it seems that they did not want future generations to be celebrating only a military victory. In fact, the miraculous military triumph under the leadership of the priestly Hasmonean clan * may have culminated a day or several days before the Hanukkah miracle of the oil. At the very least, Jews recovered the Temple and Temple Mount on the 25th of Kislev – an obvious miracle on that one day. But first some background.
The events that we relive each year with Hanukkah celebrations took place during the time of the Second Temple in Jerusalem
Some of the Jewish people had returned to the Land of Israel from exile in Babylonia and had rebuilt the Holy Temple. Nevertheless, they remained subject to the domination of imperial powers – first, the Persian Achaemenid Empire; then later, the conquering armies of Alexander the Great. Upon the death of Alexander, his generals divided the vast kingdom among themselves. After a power struggle that engulfed all the lands of the Middle East, the Land of Israel found itself under the sway of the Seleucid Dynasty – Greek kings who saw themselves as the heirs to the ancient Assyrian Empire.
Although at first the rule of the Seleucids was benign, there soon arose a new king, Antiochus IV, who waged a bloody war against the Jews. His campaigns involved obliterating every trace of the Jewish religion. Antiochus's forces invaded and desecrated the Holy Temple. They placed an idol in the outer sanctuary and forced Jews to sacrifice pigs on the altar under the penalty of death. Antiochus forbade the observances of the Torah, especially the Sabbath, circumcision, and Torah study. Jewish marriages were not to be celebrated until the Syrian Greek authorities "initiated" the bride.
In 3621 (140 bce) after several years of physical and spiritual destruction in the Land of Israel, Mattathias the Hasmonean, aging son of the High Priest Johannan (Yochanan *), and his five sons staged a rebellion in the mountain village of Modi'in (Modein),* several miles northwest of Jerusalem. With a cry of "All who are with
After a year of leadership and many successful and miraculous battles, Mattathias died and his son Judah took command of the fighters. With the four initial Hebrew letters (MaCcaBEe) representing the Biblical slogan (Exodus 16:11) "Who is like unto Thee, O
The Maccabee forces entered Jerusalem and gained control of the Holy Temple precincts during the early winter of 3622
The Maccabees found only one small cruse bearing the seal of the High Priest. This was the only sacred cruse that the Syrian Greeks had not succeeded in defiling. Greek culture was uncomfortable with the Torah's
The process of preparing more sacred oil according to the specific details of the Torah would take a full eight days. Although the one cruse would ordinarily last only one day, the priests lit a makeshift Menorah anyway. The priests wanted to resume the Divine Service and rededicate the Holy Temple to
During the following year, Judah the Maccabee and his forces consolidated their power and established a new Jewish monarchy with Judah and his Hasmonean family as kings. The Rabbis of the Sanhedrin * began to debate the significance of all the miracles. They cooperated with the new Hasmonean kings, but they did not fully endorse the monarchy. The Torah law is clear that all rulership has to eventually be offered to the descendants of King David.
The Jewish people abide by the Torah as its constitution, where we see the hint that "The rod shall not depart from [the House of] Judah . . . forever . . ." (Genesis 49:10). The rod (scepter) is a symbol of rulership. In this verse, it represents King David who was the first king over all Israel to find favor in
Otherwise, the Rabbis did not quarrel with the Hasmonean family. On the contrary, if not for their fortitude and self sacrifice, the Jewish people would have succumbed to spiritual obliteration at the hands of the Syrian Greeks. However, Mattathias' sons fell in battle, one after another, once the Holy Temple had been rededicated. Some say that they were punished for not relinquishing leadership to one of King David's descendants after the crisis had passed.
Of Mattathias's sons, only one – Judah's brother Johannan (Yochanan) – returned to priestly duties by becoming the High Priest. He also composed a prayer commemorating the miracles. This prayer is now in every Jewish prayer book, and we recite it daily during the eight days of Hanukkah.
Anticipating the anniversary * of the defeat of the Syrian Greeks and the rededication of the Holy Temple, the Rabbis and the High Priest Johannan proclaimed the new festival of Hanukkah – Hanukkah being a Hebrew word for "dedicating." The celebration on the
So in the prayers for the celebration of Hanukkah, the Rabbis honored the memory of Mattathias the Hasmonean by name and hinted at the role of his son Johannan the High Priest. However, the Rabbis only referred to the other Maccabee brothers as "sons" – their praise lies in being sons of the priesthood of Aaron whose role was peacemaker and only reluctantly a warrior.
The Rabbis "fixed these eight days of Dedication" (Prayer Book) as a lesson teaching the supremacy of spiritual enlightenment over pragmatism, of Divine wisdom over human limitations. We recognize that the world we live in is not an end in itself but exists to serve higher purposes.
For more information, see Virtual Chanukah.
The Authorised Daily Prayer Book (Revised Edition)
Translated into English by Dr. Joseph H. Hertz, the Late Chief Rabbi of the British Empire
(New York: Bloch Publishing Company, 1948, 1955)Insights based on the works of the Lubavitcher Rebbe
The Jewish Time Line Encyclopedia, by Mattis Kantor
(Northvale, New Jersey: Jason Aronson, 1992)Our People: History of the Jews, by Jacob Isaacs
Revised by Rabbi Nissen Mangel
(Brooklyn, New York: Merkos L'Inyonei Chinuch, Inc., 1981)The Mizvah Candle, by Rabbi Yehuda Leove, the Maharal of Prague
Translated into English and annotated by Shlomo Mallin
(Israel: Ber - Aryeh International, 1977)Peirush HaTorah, by Ramban (Nachmanides) on Genesis 49:10 (Hebrew)
Hanukkah - HAH noo kuh; also spelled Chanukkah, KHA noo kuh
mitzvah - MITS vuh
Shamash - SHAH mush, shah MAHSH
Hasmonean clan - descendants of a priest whose name or title was Chashmonai
Yochanan - YOH khah nahn
Modi'in - moh dee EEN
makevet - mah KEH vet
(mah KAHV - Babylonian Talmud, Bekhorot 43b)A historian writing about the Jewish revolt of Bar Kokhba against the Romans, about 131 ce to 135 ce, may well have been describing the war of the Maccabees:
Judea was a land of largely of villages, not cities; its communities were small and spread out, and it was hard to pinpoint where attacks were coming from and how they were being organized. Bar Kokhba made certain that opportunities forlarge-scale engagements were impossible, forcing the Romans tore-organise themselves into small fighting units. The terrain was rough; bands of rebels appeared, attacked and were spirited into the landscape. Individual fighters were captured, tortured and put to death but no inroads were made into the hidden Jewish strongholds. For every village laid to waste by the Romans, another would produce its own small band offighters. . . . [T]hebest-trained andbest-equipped fighting force in the world might come to grief against partisans fighting on their own territory and for a cause for which they would willingly sacrifice themselves and their families. (Speller, Elizabeth. 2003. Following Hadrian: A Second-Century Journey Through the Roman Empire. New York: Oxford University Press, page 196)The victory of the Maccabees was a miracle given that the similar Bar Kokhba war for Judean independence failed.
Menorah - the candelabrum that was within the Holy Temple; muh NOH ruh
Sanhedrin - sahn HED rin; The highest court of Jewish law, including criminal and civil prosecution and punishment. Also, the highest academy for studying Jewish law. The Sanhedrin consisted of
seventy-one of the most talented and capable Sages of their time. It may be that theseventy-one were drawn from a pool of one hundred twenty qualified rabbis. During the time of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, the preferred location for sessions of the Sanhedrin was next to the Temple. The Sanhedrin was disbanded several generations after the destruction of the Temple. Since then, wherever Jews live, the criminal and civil laws of that country have the full force of Jewish law. In the United States, Jewish rabbinical courts are generally empowered to arbitrate certain types of civil cases, while the full enforcement of these rabbinical decisions remains in the hands of U.S. authorities. Recent attempts to reconstitute a Sanhedrin in Jerusalem have stalled.the anniversary - Possibly as early as the first anniversary. However, the wording in the Talmud is ambiguous. "In another year," as they tell us, "the Sages made the eight days a holiday" (Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Shabbat 21b). Maimonides also informs us that "the Sages of the generation made the eight days a holiday" (Code, Z'manim, "Laws of Megillah and Chanukah," Chapter 3, halacha 3).
Indeed, the holiday was ordained during that generation, but exactly when?
What seems simple is not so simple. The military victory of 25 Kislev was obvious to everyone – a visible, open miracle. In contrast, the miracle of finding the one small cruse of sacred oil which lasted eight days instead of one was a private miracle. It was private in the sense that only a few were aware that a miracle had happened. For most Jews, perhaps most or even all the Sages, it was a matter of trust that this miracle had occurred. The candelabrum was situated in the outer sanctuary of the Holy Temple which means that it was within the building of the Holy Temple, just not within the inner Holy of Holies. Only Priests would have witnessed the circumstances of lighting the candelabrum.
Here we see a dilemma. Should Jews, wherever they are, celebrate a private miracle?
Plenty of ink has been used over generations to address these issues. Suffice it to say, the Sages may not have finished their examination of the situation within the first year. Within a few years, though, the Sages decided that the military victory was also a spiritual victory against Hellenism. A devout monarchy – the Hasmoneans – restored eminence to the Jewish people and curtailed the pernicious influences of Greek culture in the Land of Israel. Therefore, the Sages established lighting candles in each household as part of the holiday's celebration, based on the pure light of the original eight days after the military victory.