Chanukah Day #7: Why the Jug of Oil, Not the Military Victory, Became the Story

I want to ask you a question imagine if following the victory of the six-day war when Israel liberated the old city of Jerusalem and the Kotel amara V the Western Wall a Jew would have kindled a candelabra with oil enough to burn for one night and it would last for six nights what would be our emotional response certainly we would feel very good and happy for this show of heavenly grace but you know that this would not be the critical story the critical story is that seven Arab armies vowed to annihilate all of the Jewish people living in the Land of Israel they wanted a second outch wits twenty years after the first Auschwitz there were three million Jews living in the Holy Land whose lives were speared as a result of that extraordinary victory during those six days in which Israel was also multiplied many times over from its original size that was the story even if this manola would have not burned by the western wall it would have not taken away in the slightest from the extraordinary salvation during the six-day war and yet when it comes to Chanukah strangely the focus becomes something that seems relatively speaking quite inconsequential and insignificant the Talmud says in tractate Shabbos 21 be when the Harshman arm triumphed over the Syrian Greeks and they went into the temple and they couldn't find any pure oil and they searched and they found one jug of oil and it could only burn for one night and it lasted eight nights they made a holiday of Hanukkah for a days and I ask you a question let's say they would have not won the war let's say the Harshman oi'm would have been defeated by the Syrian Greeks there would be no Jews left today there would be no Judaism left today it's the victory of the Hashem and I am over the Syrian Greeks in the year 164 before the Common Era that allowed Judaism and the Jewish people to survive to this very day but what happened if they would have lit the menorah with the oil and it would have lasted only one and there would be no menorah for seven nights what would happen nothing they would wait till they obtain new oil and then they would like the menorah and yet in the Talmud the focus of the celebration of Hanukkah is the kindling of the menorah in the temple and the fact that the cruse of oil lasted for eight nights the answer to this my dear friends is simple and profound the military victory of the Harshman oil was something extraordinary and spectacular it's something that we need to celebrate and be grateful for and we dedicate the AL hanison prior to that victory of the weak against a strong and a few against the many and yet sadly the political and military victory did not last the Harshman oi'm re-established jewish autonomy in the land of israel they got rid of the authority of the Syrian Greeks and their oppression but you know what the fashion monoid dynasty itself descended into horrible corruption strife and civil war many of the cash mana leaders themselves became assimilated and began to uproot Judaism from the Holy Land murdering some of the great sages a century later they brought in Rome and Rome took over Judea and the Jews lost all of their autonomy and a century later Rome destroyed the second temple in Jerusalem and the entire menorah and the entire independence introduced by the freshman RM was gone as a exile a long exile of almost 2,000 years has commenced in Jewish life so you see as powerful and as extraordinary as the military victory of the cushman I am against the Syrian Greeks it did not last therefore the Talmud teaches us our main celebration of Hanukkah is what happened after the victory of the war when they took that little cruse of oil and they thought it would be extinguished after one night but it proved to be inextinguishable and this came to represent the power of Judaism and Jewish faith that in the mightiest of wins and the darkest of nights it would never be extinguished and as Jews gathered each Konica to light the menorah they sat and they looked at the menorah and they saw and they listened to the story that the flames represent it's a story about one little cruse of oil that seemed to have so little oil that its light could not last for long and yet it's light continued to burn and this gave them the message that through thick and thin our light will continue to burn nothing can extinguish your own light nothing can extinguish the light of the Jewish people and never will the light of Torah be extinguished Happy Hanukkah this class is brought to you by the yeshiva net please help us continue the classes make even a small contribution at triple w dot they ueshiba net / donate