Our Chanukah study and celebration generally focuses on renewal. After the Maccabee victory the Jews purified the Beit Hamikdash and renewed the Temple service and restored Jewish rule over Jerusalem. However Rav Aharon Lichtenstein zt’l (in a talk that he delivered in 1999) notes that the word “Chanukah” means to dedicate something for the first time, to inaugurate, to innovate. Chanukah was not only about restoring that which was. Chanukah was also about inaugurating and creating new ideas that would help the Jewish People going forward. Rav Lichtenstein notes that these two motifs of renewal and inauguration are reflected in the Al HaNisim prayer. First we say that Chanukah celebrates restoring that which was: “Afterwards, Your sons entered the Holy of Holies of Your Abode, cleaned Your Temple, purified Your Sanctuary.” But restoring that which was is only half the story. Chanukah is also a celebration of dedicating something new, as Al Hanisim goes on to say: “and kindled lights in the Courtyards of Your Sanctuary, and designated these eight days of Chanukah.” The first time the root of “Chanukah” is found in the Torah is in Bereishit 14:14. When Avraham hears that his nephew has been captured, he prepares to go to battle to bring Lot back: וַיָּ֨רֶק אֶת־חֲנִיכָ֜יו. Rashi explains the word “Chanichav”:
it [חֲנִיכָיו]
is an expression of the initiation (lit. the beginning of the entrance) of a
person or a utensil to the craft with which he [or it] is destined to remain.”
Something new must have been created as a result of
Chanukah. Rav Lichtenstein notes that in the aftermath of the Chanukah story, a
new formal obligation of Hallel and thanksgiving was instituted to thank Hashem
for enabling the Greek defeat at the hands of the Maccabees. While on other
holidays we recite Hallel, Chanukah is the only holiday on which Hallel is
intrinsic and integral to the definition of the holiday. As we say at the very
end of the Al Hanisim prayer for Chanukah, our Rabbis “designated these eight
days of Chanukah to thank and praise Your great Name.”
While lighting Chanukah candles in our homes may seem like a
reenactment of the restoration of the Menorah service in the Temple, there are
major differences between the two. For instance, while the Menorah was a seven
branched candelabra, our Chanukiyah has nine branches. Also, the Menorah was only lit in the Beit
Hamikdash, and we light our Chanukah candles at home. Ner Chanukah belongs to
an exclusive list of Mitzvot D’Rabbanan, commandments instituted by the Rabbis.
We consider these mitzvoth to be binding just like a Torah-sourced mitzvah. We
see this from the fact that we recite a bracha over lighting Chanukah candles
in which we say “You, God, have sanctified us with mitzvoth and commanded
us to light Chanukah candles”. The power and importance of
Rabbinic Judaism is a second innovation created by Chanukah.
Third, Rav Lichtensetin notes that after the Chanukah
victory, the Jewish People enjoyed Jewish sovereignty over the Jewish homeland
for over two centuries. While there may have been problems with that Jewish
Commonwealth, it is an accomplishment to be celebrated. It was also a new era
for the Jews, one which had not existed in Israel for centuries.
The story of Chanukah as a celebration of both renewal and
inauguration, of both continuity and change, resonates with me at this
particular juncture in the history of our kehillah. Our mission is to be true
to our values while being open to innovation and change. We should celebrate
our past and embrace changes that will allow us to shine even brighter in the
future.
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