Thinking Talmudist Podcast · Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe

00:00 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
Welcome back everybody to the Remarkable Thinking Talmudist Podcast. Okay, I don't know if it's remarkable or not, but hey, I love the Gemara. So it's not about the podcast, it's about the Talmud. That's remarkable. All right, we're now beginning Tractate Shabbat 21b, about 15 lines from the bottom.

00:26
I decided that for the next few weeks we'll be learning the Talmud that leads up, that tells us and teaches us about Hanukkah, the source for Hanukkah. What is it all about? Why? Why is it so important? First is because the Torah teaches it to us, but secondly, because too many times I've heard from students here at the Torch Center talk about how their rabbis, respectively or unrespectively, have talked about that Hanukkah is just a myth and Hanukkah is just a fairy tale. And just like Xmas is just a fake and there's no such thing as Santa and all of that nonsense, so too Hanukkah is just a fairy tale, and therefore I feel that it is prudent and a responsibility for us to correct those mistakes and to talk about it and to see the source and not be ignorant and what our heritage is all about. So to never compare between holy and unholy. So the Talmud. Here begins my Hanukkah. What is Hanukkah? Remind me, please, when we conclude this gemara to go back, because the Talmud really begins about 20 lines earlier and it starts talking about technical things. And then the Talmud stops and says whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Stop it. What are you talking about? Menorah, when we light, how we light? No, no, no, no, no. What is this Hanukkah? What's this all about? And that's where we're going to start Mai Chanukah. What is the reason for the Rabbinic Yom Tov of Chanukah? On account of which miracle did the Rabbis establish it? Because the Rabbis taught in Abraisa, found in Megillus Tainis.

02:20
On the 25th day of Kislev, the days of Chanukah commence. They are eight days in all. Dilol le'mispad behon, u'dilol le'his'anos, behon, on which we don't permit eulogizing and we don't permit fasting. V'kish'nich nesu'yeh yivanim le'hechol. For when the Syrian Greeks entered the sanctuary, timu all the flasks of oil that were in the sanctuary, and when the royal Hasheminean house gained the upper hand and vanquished them, the Hashemineans searched the Heichel area and found only one flask of oil that was lying out of sight, with the Kohen Gadol's seal still intact, and it contained only enough oil to kindle the menorah. For one day, however, a miracle was performed with the soil vihidliku mimenu shmona yomim, and they kindled the lights of the menorah with it for eight days L'shona acheres kovim va'asom yomim tovim. Recognizing that the miracle had eternal implications, in the following year the Chashmonaim and the Sanhedrin established and rendered these eight days permanent festival days Behalel ve'hodah, with respect to the recital of Halel and thanksgiving. That's the story. We're going to get to it in more detail, but let's see what the commentaries say here. This is when, after three years of fighting, the Hashmonaim expelled the Syrian Greeks from the Temple of Enverance. The recapture of the Temple and the miracle of Hanukkah occurred in the years 3597, which is 165 BCE. The war would continue for another generation until 3621, from the creation of Adam, which is 140 years BCE, when the Sanhedrin and the people proclaimed Shimon the last surviving son of Matisya or Ben Yochanan, their prince.

04:36
The Gemara's question here, what is Hanukkah? Seeks to identify the miracle that was the basis for the establishment of the holiday. The commentators also discuss the origin of the name Chanukah. In this connection, megillus Tynus and Psikta Rabassi link the name Chanukah to the rededication, which is called Chinuch, of the altar that took place after the retaking of the temple from enemy hands. Others interpret Chanukah as a fusion of two words Chanu. They rested Ka on 25,.

05:12
Chafhei is 25, the 25th day of Kislev, an allusion to the Hashemunayim's victory in battle. Ma'arasha also cites Bereshit Rabah, stating that the construction of the tabernacle in the wilderness was completed on this day, although it was not dedicated until the following Nisan. So if you remember, when we talked in the breakneck through the Bible class, we discussed how, after Moses descended from the heavens, after the Jewish people sinned with the golden calf, moshe went back up and he descended on Yom Kippur and he said the Jewish people sinned with the golden calf. Moshe went back up and he descended on Yom Kippur and he said the Jewish people, you have been forgiven by Hashem, because Hashem declared that was on Yom Kippur the following day. Moshe says okay, we need to have a physical resting place for God in this world, in our midst, so that we don't, god forbid, fall into idolatry. We're building a tabernacle, we're building a temple, and the Jewish people donated money and all of the plans.

06:14
Everything was constructed and ready to go on the 25th day of Kislev. The 25th day of Kislev, they were ready to go. Now it wasn't actually implemented and established in the temple till the beginning of Nisan, which actually started on the 23rd day of Adar, and every day they put apart and took it apart until the beginning of Nisan, which actually started on the 23rd day of Adar, and every day they put up part and took it apart. They put up part of the tabernacle and took it down. They put together all the different parts that were necessary to be constructed and then took it back down Every day, doing another part and taking it down what they did yesterday and another part and took it all down. And that way they learned how to assemble and disassemble the entire tabernacle for those seven days. On the last day, which was Rosh Chodesh, nisan, the seventh day, that's when they assembled it, the entire tabernacle, the entire temple that they had, which was a traveling temple, and then it stayed erect and ready to go, what day were all of these pieces ready to be assembled and put together and designed and all concluded? That was the 25th day of Hanukkah, which is the our sages tell us and we mention this many times every day in the Jewish calendar has a certain power to it. So this 25th day of Kislev, where all of the vessels, where all of the components of the tabernacle were concluded in their construction, that's the day, that's the day of establishment for the Jewish people. Even though it wasn't put into action until a few months later, the commentaries continue.

08:03
The rabbis decreed that heathens impart the Tumah of the Zav through direct contact, so someone who is a heathen. When they touch the oil, it renders it impure. However, the intact seal of the Kohen Gadol indicated that the Greeks never even spotted this one flask, for had they done so, the prestigious seal would have suggested to them that the flask contained gold or precious gems and they would have broken it. Hence the Hashmonim were convinced that this flask contained ritually pure olive oil which was fit for burning in the temple's menorah, citing a ruling from the Torah's Kohanim that allows the use of Tame oil, impure oil, for kindling the temple menorah. So why is it such a great miracle? You could just use, for the temple, impure oil. So what's the big deal? It's such a big miracle. Oh, because you had one pure one which lasted eight days. Okay, what's the? You could have used impure. You didn't need such a big miracle. Oh, because you had one pure one which lasted eight days. Okay, what's the? You could have used impure, you didn't need such a miracle.

09:20
Now Yeshua explains that it was by providential design that a miracle was performed with the single flask of undefiled oil to make the Jews aware that they were once more God's beloved, able to perform the mitzvah in a pure, unadulterated fashion. This was God showing them, but there's another reason for it, and the other reason is because when you are at the beginning of something, it is the most critical time for everything to be in the utmost purity. They're reestablishing the service in the temple after a while that it's been desecrated by the Syrian Greeks. It was proper for them to reestablish it in the purest of ways, not to rely on a ruling that they can use impure oil. All right Now.

10:13
Talmud said that it took eight days. It lasted eight days until other ritually pure oil was obtained. Other oil was located in a place that required a four-day journey to reach. Me'iri identifies this as the city of Tekoa, in the tribal portion of Asher, based on Mishnah in Menachos. Hence the oil from the single flask continued to burn miraculously until the round trip could be completed, which took four days there, four days back, that's eight days. Alternatively, since all the Jews were presumed to be contaminated with corpse tumma, because if someone comes in contact with a deceased body, with a corpse. They are rendered tame, impure as a result of the fighting. Seven days were required for the purification and an additional day was needed to crush the olives and process the oil and the last of the commentaries here says so.

11:19
The Bay is a very famous question of the Bay, yosef, I guarantee you, in one month we're going to have Hanukkah. You're going to hear this question a hundred times. Every rabbi is going to ask the same question. It's the Bay, yosef's question. What is that? What's the miracle of eight days? It should be seven days, right. They had flask for one day. So how many days is the miracle? The miracle is only seven days, not eight days, right. Over the centuries, many great Torah scholars have presented numerous answers to this justly famous question.

11:58
Bais Yosef himself offers the following three the Hashmonaim divided the holy, the pure oil, into eight parts and poured only one part into the menorah's cup each night, since the one-eighth portion burned the entire night. Each night, indeed, witnessed the miracle. Answer number one. Answer number two the flask remained full after every filling of the menorah's cups. Hence it was evident even on the first night that the miracle was occurring. And number three On the first night, the entire contents of the flask were poured into the cups and the menorah's lights burned all night. Nevertheless, the cups were still full in the morning, and so it happened each night. Hence, a miracle occurred on all eight nights. So it wasn't just one night that there was a miracle. The only seven nights that it was a miracle was actually eight full nights that it was a miracle Me. Seven nights that there was a miracle, it was actually eight full nights that there was a miracle.

12:55
Me'iri writes that on the first day of Hanukkah, we pronounce blessings for the miracle of our deliverance from the Greek oppressors and also as an expression of thanks for the discovery of the single flask of undefiled oil. Right, right Again. There are different reasons. They're all accurate. It means there's no contradiction here. It was one flask of oil that was found. That's agreed, according to all opinions, according to all commentaries.

13:24
The question is what's the miracle of eight days? It's the miracle of seven days. He's saying no, no, no, no. If they filled it up completely on the first day, completely, they filled up the menorah, and the next morning they come to refill it and it's still full. That's a miracle. Then, the second night, they light it again and again it's lit, it lights the whole night and it stays full till the next morning. So again, it's a miracle Every day for eight days until they came back. They went out and got it, they came back with more and at that point it empt. A miracle Every day for eight days until they came back. They went out and got it, they came back with more and at that point it emptied out on the eighth day, okay, al-hanisim.

14:02
So we add a few things in our prayer during the eight days of Hanukkah. One of them is al-hanisim is where we thank Hashem, in the thanksgiving section of the prayer, where we say modim, we thank Hashem. So there's a special thanks that we say for Hanukkah, which is on all of the miracles that God has bestowed upon us. However, the sages did not enact a prohibition on creative labor on these days. Like we have on Shabbos, we have a prohibition of doing any type of creative labor On Hanukkah. We don't have that.

14:35
The Ma'aram of Württemberg points out that the Breisa omits any mention of feasting on Hanukkah. You know, on Purim there's a mitzvah to have a feast. All holidays, we know, there's a mitzvah to have a feast. On Hanukkah there's no mitzvah per se to have a feast. The Levush explains that Hanukkah differs in this respect from Purim, where feasting is an integral part of the festival, because of the nature of the event commemorated.

15:01
The festival of Purim celebrates the deliverance of the Jewish nation from physical annihilation. Hence the celebration takes a physical form. In contrast, the Syrian Greeks sought not the physical destruction of the Jews but their spiritual obliteration. King Antiochus demanded that they reject the Torah and their beliefs. Appropriately, therefore, the celebration of their deliverance expresses itself in spiritual ways, in the lighting of lamps and in the recital of Hallel and the Alanissim, which is giving praise to Hashem. So our connection on Hanukkah is very, very different than Purim. Purim, they wanted to kill us physically. So we celebrate in a physical way On Hanukkah. They didn't want to kill us, they just wanted to defile us. They wanted us to leave our Judaism that we celebrate in a spiritual way.

16:00
Fire is the most spiritual thing we have in this world Ever notice that Fire is the most spiritual thing why? Because fire is also physical and spiritual. There is nothing to hold on to in fire. It's not there. You can put your hand right through it. As kids, right, we put our hand through the fire and look, nothing happens, but yet we feel the heat, we know it's there, it is real Because it's a total, perfect blend of the physical and the spiritual. That's why we start Shabbos with the lighting of the candles, because we're taking an entire She'ches, Yom Hintavot, all the six days of the week, where we work, and work and work, a physical toil and elevate it all and make it into something spiritual, where we're completely removed, on Shabbos, from the physical. We're living on a whole spiritual plane. My dear friends, thank you so much. I look forward to seeing you next week.