Channukah Ignites the Soul and Defeats Darkness

In the Greek worldview, fashioned by Aristotle, the universe is a static universe and always exsited; it did not have a point of beginning. Aristotle held that time is infinite, as he could not conceive of time having a beginning point. The philosophy of Aristotle was that the human mind is reality; whatever the mind comprehends is truth. Whatever the mind cannot comprehend, cannot and does not exist. They deified the human mind and posited that their analysis and perception is the only reality; something bigger than the human mind is incomprehensible and therefore does not exist. This is the ultimate arrogance whereby the human intellect has gone beyond its own limitations and has declared it to be the sole arbiter of truth and justice.  

According to Greek philosophy, all is predetermined and all of history is a closed system of cause and effect. There is no Planner, no plan, no destiny, and no Free Will. They believe that the world is theirs, and all of reality is determined by them. Moreover, they denied that the world was given to them, altogether. They posited that the world was always there and was not created. This is a denial of creation and a Creator. 

As such, Greek thought posits that no act by any human being needs to be appreciated, as it was programmed to be, always; nothing new happens in the world as all is a matter of predetermination. Therefore, in the world envisioned by the Greek Empire there is no room for thankfulness, or saying thank you; rather our world is a world of entitlement.

The Greeks attempted to uproot the concept of thanks from the world. They would say, “Should one thank the waters of the sea for flowing, the blue sky for enlightening the day, or the rain for causing his crops to grow, which, according to them, have been pre-programmed by nature? Theirs is a life of lonely darkness, where there is no-one to thank, and nothing for which to be grateful. It is a life without meaning where everyone and everything is predetermined and no-one accomplishes anything out of their own Free Will. Life is merely a series and an accumulation of causes and effects which happen randomly, without reason. In effect, life is meaningless. 

In contradistinction, Avraham Avinu traversed the world and saw newness, renewal and change. Breishis Rabba 39:1 teaches: "God said to Abram, 'Go forth from your land…'" (Breishis 12:1) Rabbi Yitzchak said: this may be compared to a man who was traveling from place to place when he saw a castle burning. He said, "Is it possible that this castle lacks a person to look after it?"

The owner of the castle looked at him and said to him, 'I am the master of the castle.'" What happened with Abraham our father was similar. He said, “Is it possible that this universe lacks a Guide to look after it? God looked at him and said, “'I am the Master of the Universe, whom you seek.”

What does the Medrash mean that “the castle was burning?” It means that it was constantly being destroyed and renewed every second. When a fire burns, the fuel that feeds the fire is consumed, such that the flames one witnesses this second are “new” flames, because the fuel that produced the flames has been consumed, and new fuel is causing the production of the current flames. Avraham Avinu saw the world as a burning castle, as he understood that God was renewing the atomic and molecular structure of the universe every second, resulting in Avraham seeing the world as “burning” anew every moment. As a result Avraham Avinu realized that it was incumbent upon him to express gratitude; this was the birth of humility. He realized that the world was not his, and was being renewed every moment by a Transcendent Being. 

Avraham Avinu brought to the world the revolutionary concept that man is a facet of a higher Reality that Brought him into existence. He discovered that the world was brought into being ?? ????--something from nothing. He taught us the absolute truth that there is a Being beyond man's comprehension--Who Brought the universe into existence. Esav and his descendant Aristotle believed that man was Existence itself. Theirs was a distortion of the mind. Avraham Avinu intuited that Reality is expressed through man; but man is not reality itself. He understood that man exists within Existence, and that man’s mind is the vehicle to reveal a deeper Reality. He brought us the consciousness that the Point of Origin is beyond the existence that it created.  

 On Chanukah the descendants of Avraham Avinu waged war against the Greeks with open miracles of a war against a world empire. During this war, the world witnessed one cruse of oil that lasted for eight days, which revealed a Dimension and Phenomenon that originated from a Place beyond man’s comprehension.

Shabbos 21b states that the Hasmoneans defeated the Greeks and established a Festival of Lights...??????? ?????????? -- to thank and to praise God. The weak defeated the mighty, the many in the hands of the few, those engrossed in Torah defeated the insolent who believed that they were reality. 

The ultimate defeat of the Greeks is to be able to express thanks. When someone of their own Free Will performs an act of kindness, that act was not predetermined; nor was it pre-programmed in the fabric of the universe. Therefore, that act of kindness must be acknowledged with gratitude.

Lighting the flames of the Chanukah lights expresses this victory over the Greek philosophy of predetermination, as every second we are seeing a new, renewed flame burning new oil. The flame we saw a second ago is not the same flame we are seeing now, as fuel that produced the flame of one second ago, was based on fuel that has already been consumed. The flame itself embodies and expresses newness and renewal, for which we are required ??????? ?????????? -- to thank and to praise God by singing Hallel.  

Why does the Rambam cite the halacha of saying Al Hanisim--the essence of which is ??????? ?????????? -- to thank and to praise God, in the laws of general prayer--and not in the laws of Channukah? In Hallel we say, ??????????? ???????? ???, ????????? ????? ??????? ?????--the heavens belong to God and the earth He Gave to man. God Only Asks one thing in return for the gift of life: to thank and to praise Him. Chanukah, which established that gratitude and thanks is the true fabric of life, is a matter of prayer which is recited after Modim in the Amidah and after Nodeh Lecha in Grace after Meals. To thank and praise God is the essence of our existence and therefore God Had No Choice but to deliver the many in the hands of the few and to have one cruse of oil last for eight days--in order to show the Greeks and the world that thanks to the Creator vanquishes the arrogance and the darkness of the human mind. 

The lighting of the Chanukah lights expresses the burning and renewal of the world every second, and our obligation to thank God for Renewing the world for us as a matter of ongoing prayers to God. The Chanukah lights appear to be burning as one continuing flame--one continuous burning. But it is not true; the flame you are seeing now is a new flame burning new fuel, at this moment.

The flame you saw one second ago was a different flame, having been produced by a different drop of oil, which has now been consumed. Therefore the Chanukah obligation to offer thanks and praise to God for His Continuing and Moment-by-Moment renewal of the world, rightfully belongs in Hilchos Tefillah as it is part of our ongoing prayers and God Consciousness. The act of lighting of the lights--and watching them burn and renew, expresses the thanks and praise that defeated the darkness of the Greeks.