Ascend or Descend!

With Chanukah quickly approaching, I want to share a profound idea presented by Rabbi Mendel Weinbach o.b.m. which expands and illuminates Chanukah and its rituals.

There is an interesting debate in the Talmud between the Sages of Bais Hillel and Bais Shamai whether we start Chanukah with one candle on our Menorah and add a new light each night, or do we start Chanukah with eight candles and decrease one candle each subsequent night.

The Halacha indicates that we follow the ruling of Bais Hillel, which is to add a candle each day of Chanukah. This is universally followed.

The Talmud explains the basis of this dispute as follows: Bais Shamai’s rationale for beginning the first night with eight candles and eliminating one candle each following night follows the order of the 70 bulls that the Torah commanded us to be sacrificed over the course of Succos in the Temple. On the first day of Succos, 13 bulls were offered, and each subsequent day one less was brought so that on the seventh day seven bulls were offered. The sum of the bulls brought on these seven days was seventy. These 70 bulls corresponded to the 70 nations of the world, and through these sacrifices blessings of prosperity and peace would be directed to all the nations. Unfortunately, the nations of the world did not understand the beneficial nature of the sacrifices, and destroyed our two Temples. Our sages tell us that had the nations realized the good blessings they received, they would never have destroyed the Temples!

The decreasing order of these offerings symbolized the diminishing of the corrupt and negative influences the nations wished to place on us. Lighting the menorah in decreasing fashion also serves to minimize the corrupt influences of the nations.

The Greeks did not destroy the Temple but contaminated it. Chanukah celebrates our return and the restoration of holiness to the Temple.  Bais Hillel argues that since holiness was restored to the Temple and in matters of holiness we increase and move upward, we should light the Menorah in an ascending order to illustrate the increase of holiness.

The Chanukah miracle occurred during the Hellenistic oppression by the Greek dominion. This third exile of the Jews lasted 180 years, and was dubbed “the exile of darkness” because the Greeks made every effort to make the Jews see and understand the world in a way alien to the light of Torah. To accomplish this, the Greeks forbade the observance of our fundamental Mitzvos, such as Shabbos, Bris, and Rosh Chodesh which establishes the dates of our holidays.

The Torah compares Greek mythology and culture to darkness. There is nothing as dark as the enslavement of the human mind by the Greeks.

Darkness is the absence of light. Evil is synonymous with darkness, and things that are negative we call dark. The darkness of night is indicative of descent, as it begins with – nightfall, while the day/light begins with – sunrise, which indicates an ascent. Also, the nature of a flame is to always point itself upward.

Darkness can be combated by creating light and the miracle of Chanukah expresses the victory of light over darkness. Thus the Chanukah miracle occurred through lighting the Menorah with ritually pure oil because the Menorah in the Temple represented the light and radiance which emanates from our pure Torah.

The question is what is the best strategy to combat the distortion of darkness? Is it to burn away and destroy evil or is it to create a greater light so that the darkness just vanishes?

A flame has two very distinct properties: it can burn up and it can illuminate. In combating evil in the world we can destroy it or we can illuminate it with Torah creating a great light in the world that dispels the darkness. This is the nature of the dispute between Bais Shamai and Bais Hillel. What is the best method to drive out darkness?

Bais Shamai understands that we combat the negative corrupting aspects of world culture by wiping out its influences following the decreasing pattern of the sacrifices offered on Succos. Thus, the Menorah is to be lit the same decreasing way. The burning quality of the flames of the Menorah symbolizes the diminishing and destroying the effects of Greek-like paganism and the negative forces of the world that affect us.

Bais Hillel says to battle against immorality by raising ourselves spiritually, to become the embodiment of morality in the world by living according to the standards and principles of the Torah. Ultimately, at the end of days, the world will notice us and want to imitate us. Thus Bais Hillel increases the number of candles each night to remind ourselves of our responsibility to increase the light of Torah knowledge and understanding and banish the darkness of evil by us becoming a light to the nations!