Rabbi Shlomo Chanukah - 8th day of Chanukah Chanukah is named after the parshah of Zos Chanukah. What’s the difference between zeh and zos? About Mashiach coming, we say “Zeh Hashem kivinu lo,”55 and yet when it comes to Moshe Rabbeinu we say “V’zos haTorah asher sam Moshe lifnei Bnei Yisrael.” As much as we are reading about the sacrifices of the leaders of the tribes every day on Chanukah, we still don’t name Chanukah after these leaders. Only on the last day of Chanukah do we call the day Zos Chanukah after the parshah of the nesi’im, the leaders of the tribes. Who were the nesi’im? Just like the Germans, the Egyptians would appoint Jewish people to hit other Jews. Pharaoh made a new law that everybody has to make a certain amount of bricks. He then appointed Jews to be in charge of making this happen. So at night, when there weren’t enough bricks, the Egyptians would ask them, “Who didn’t make enough bricks?” The holiness of those Jewish overseers was that they never told who it was. Imagine: For not finishing a brick, you would get five lashes. Let’s say a hundred people didn’t finish their bricks — that one overseer would give 500 lashes to his brothers! When G-d said to Moshe Rabbeinu to make nesi’im for every tribe, the Ribono Shel Olam told him to take those overseers, Yidden who had mesiras nefesh for their tribe. When Aharon HaKohen saw that the nesi’im were initiated in the Beis HaMikdash “chalshah da’aso,” he was very sad. So G-d told him, “Your role is even more than the nesi’im — because you will make Chanukah.” What’s the pshat (simple understanding) of “chalshah da’ato?” Do you think Aharon HaKohen was jealous? You can interpret it in many ways but this way doesn’t make sense! Aharon HaKohen was beyond that. The Vorker explains that Aharon HaKohen felt small in comparison to the nesi’im. He said to himself, What am I doing? Okay, I’m bringing sacrifices to the Beis HaMikdash, but how does it compare to someone who gets 500 lashes for another Yid? So G-d told him that his children will be the Chashmonaim. They will be ready to take, not just 500 lashes — they will be ready to die, 2,000 times. Our holy sages say that the mesiras nefesh of the Chashmonaim was even greater than the mesiras nefesh of Yitzchak. Being ready to die for G-d and for the Beis HaMikdash is the highest level there is. So G-d says to Aharon “Shelach kayemes,” your children will have mesiras nefesh even higher than those nesi’im. So I want to say like this: We have two concepts, zeh and zos. “Zeh Keli ve’anvehu” is the holiness of G-d. “Zos” is the holiness of Yidden. Who was the first person who had mesiras nefesh for another Yid, to take pain for another Jew? is was Rachel when she accepted that Leah would marry her husband. is is Mashiach ben Yosef. The Boyaner Rebbe says that Yosef always says zos, “Zos asu veyichu.” The biggest mayven of the holiness of a Jew was Yosef Hatzaddik. How did he have so much koach to withstand the test with the wife of Potiphar? It was because of the holiness of the covenant, kedushas habris. Do you know what it means that your covenant with G-d is holy? It means that you know how holy it is to be a Jew. Mashiach is the one who reveals the holiness of G-d and the holiness of a Yid — the holiness of everything. The first thing is Mashiach ben Yosef, to reveal to us the holiness of Yidden. Moshe Rabbeinu talks to Yidden on the level of ‘”Vezos Habrachah,” not Zeh Habrachah, because the holiness of Yidden is zos. Zeh is about the One above. Zos is about us. The miracle of the Chashmonaim mamesh revealed the holiness of G-d and the holiness of the Beis HaMikdash. Deep down, the miracle of Chanukah was really revealing the holiness of Yidden. (Excerpt from The Soul of Chanukah)
Posted on: Wed, 24 Dec 2014 09:16:31 +0000
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