Boruch Hashem

Pure Faith
An essay on Chanukah
BASED ON A DISCOURSE OF

THE LUBAVITCHER REBBE

Adapted by Rabbi Yehoishophot Oliver

Kislev 5772

Chanukah 5772

Preface On Chanukah we mark, among other miracles, the military victory of the Jews over the Greeks. And yet at its core, the struggle between the Jewish people and the Greeks was not about physical might and power. Rather, it was entirely a spiritual struggle, a titanic conflict between two utterly antithetical forces: wisdom of Kedushahholiness versus wisdom of Kelipahunholiness. Put differently, it was not a struggle over the Jewish body, but the Jewish soul. This is the topic of this essay, which is based on Sefer HaMaamarim 5729, p. 86 ff. This essay was made possible by the sponsorship of Shimshon Hoffman and family lilui nishmas Sarah bas Baruch; Yerachmiel Mitch Belzer and family, as a merit for Malkah bas Neyereh; and Ephraim Tunick and family, lilui nishmas Sheina bas Asher. I wish to thank them for their generosity, and I am sure that the tremendous merit of supporting the dissemination of Chassidus will bring them abundant material and spiritual blessings. The essays I write take a lot of time and effort. Please contact me to sponsor an article for (at least) $36 in honor of the birthday, wedding anniversary, or yarhtzeitof a loved one, or for a refuah shleimah or the like. Also, see here concerning the tremendous merit of supporting the dissemination of Chassidus, and the blessings that one receives for doing so. May this be the final good deed in exile, that will bring Moshiach now!

Rabbi Yehoishophot Oliver Baltimore, Maryland Kislev, 5772 rabbioliver@gmail.com 443 602 1068

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The Greeks agenda to Secularize Judaism, Gd forbid The Greeks sought to bring them [Jewish people] to forget Your Torah.1 The wording here is precise: The Greeks did not oppose Torah study per se; on the contrary, since Greek culture valued intellect as the greatest good, and they recognized the beauty, depth, and complexity of Torahas it is written, for it is your wisdom in the eyes of the nations2they held Torah study in high esteem as a most sublime, profound intellectual pursuit. In this sense, they were willing to allow and even encourage the Jewish people to study Torah. Rather, they opposed Torah study with the belief that it is Your Torahthat it is divine. Torah is not just another wisdom among many; it is more than even a very advanced wisdom, more advanced than all others. Likewise, Torah is not a tool for intellectual gratification and development, Gd forbidalthough it does carry those fringe benefits as well. Rather, although it involves the intellect, Torah is fundamentally differentit is holy intellect. In these ostensibly intellectual teachings, Hashem reveals to us His will and wisdom, which are infused with a sublime level of Gdliness that transcends intellect altogether. And so by studying Torah, the Jew is able to unite with Hashem, as it is written, Three knots are tied to one another: The Jewish people to Torah, and the Torah to Hashem.3 This means that by grasping the technical details of Torah,4 the Jew fuses his mind and soul with a level of pure Gdliness that completely transcends intellect. It was this submission to the suprarational that the Greeks so vehemently opposed, and which they sought to prevail the Jewish people to forgeteven, if necessary, through brute force.
Veal HaNissim liturgy. Devarim 4:6. 3 Cf. Zohar 3:73a. 4 Chassidus refers to this as levushei hasagahgarments of understanding.
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But before they resorted to force, how did they seek to contaminate the Jews Torah study? By systematically enticing them to become preoccupied with secular wisdoms and to view amassing secular knowledge as a highly desirable pursuit of inherent ethical value. In this way, the Jews came to treat these wisdoms as on a par with the wisdom of Torah (lehavdil). Once Torah wisdom is treated as the equal of secular wisdom, the student loses the sensitivity to the Torahs inherent holiness, and views it as a purely intellectual pursuit, may Gd save us. This is the deeper reason that when they broke into the Beis Hamikdash, the Greeks made a point of contaminating all the oil that they could find. Oil represents wisdom,5 and the Greeks fought with all their might to contaminate the holy oil of Torah with the impurity of secular wisdom, and thereby influence the Jewish people to treat Torah as if it were no different from other wisdoms, Gd forbid. The Greeks success at contaminating the pure oil in the Beis Hamikdash represented the fact that unfortunately, they had been largely successful at their mission of secularization, and many Jews in that time succumbed to the intensely powerful lure of Greek wisdom. At first they studied it as outwardly religious Jews,6 and then slowly they declined in their observance, until they dropped observance altogether,7 defecting to the ranks of the anti-religious Jewish Hellenists, who eagerly took up the battle-cry of the Greeks to modernize the old-fashioned and superstitious Jews (Gd forbid).8
Zohar 3:7b. Similarly, in more recent times, at first the Haskalah movement came and told the people that in addition to Torah, they must attain proficiency in secular wisdom. Since the desire for academic achievement naturally competes with the desire for Torah, especially since they took their wisdom from distorted sources, over the course of time the preoccupation with academia became increasingly important in their eyes, until they became heretics and cast off the yoke of Heaven altogether (Kuntres Umaayan, p. 46). 7 See Reshimos, Vol. 125, p. 5. 8 Similarly, in more recent times, the Jewish department of the Communist party, the Yevsektsia, which consisted largely of ex-Yeshiva students, were infamous for their ruthless persecution of religious Jews and their tireless efforts to uproot Jewish observance, far outdoing their non-Jewish comrades
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However, it is written, one nation will prevail over another nation9when one rises, the other falls.10 Although in context, this verse is discussing the conflict between Yaakov and Esav, the same principle can be applied to other spiritual conflicts. Thus, when the Maccabees fought vigorously back and promoted Torah study, they prevailed over the Greeks and the insidious infiltration of Greek wisdom in the Jewish community. Of course, the Maccabees did not merely promote Torah studythey promoted Torah study permeated with pure faith in Hashem, the Giver of the Torah, and it was this Torah study that dispelled the corrupt influence of the wisdom of Kelipah. The key to approaching the Torah with such faith is cultivating bittul, humility. Of the Torah it is written, It is not in the heavens, nor across the sea.11 The Talmud interprets: The Torah will not be found among the arrogant and in one who expands his mouth upon it.12 No matter how much Torah an arrogant, egotistical person studies, the light of Torah cannot enter him. Only when the student of Torah sincerely humbles himself to Hashem and to the holiness in His Torah is he a fit vessel for the Torahs light. And when one studies Torah with bittul, he is also able to study secular studies for the sake of Heaven. He views these studies as fundamentally subordinate to Torah, as having no inherent value, and as serving as nothing but a means to an end (to earn an ample livelihood or as a tool to understand a concept in Torah, and so on13). Then his Torah study will remain pure and untainted, and he will not be adversely affected by studying these wisdoms. Thus, we find that many of our greatest sages, notably the Rambam and the Ramban, attained great erudition in secular wisdom.14 Their bittul to Gdliness

in their ideological zeal. 9 Bereshis 25:23. 10 Ibid., Rashi. 11 Devarim 30:12. 12 Eruvin 55a. 13 Cf. Igros Kodesh, Vol. 3, p. 123 ff. 14 Tanya end ch. 8.
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was so sublime that they were able to use secular wisdoms themselves for the sake of Torah and divine service. Countering the Greeks agenda to secularize Mitzvah observance The same was true of the Greeks approach to Mitzvos: They sought to lead them astray from the Chukim of Your will.15 Now, there are three kinds of Mitzvos:

Eidos: Mitzvos that were established to commemorate a specific event, e.g., Shabbos, Pesach, or Sukkos. On its own, human intellect wouldnt realize how important these Mitzvos are, but once Hashem commanded us to keep them, we can come to understand and accept the reason behind them. Mishpatim: Mitzvos that human intellect can appreciate on its own, such as honoring ones parents, giving charity, and so on. Chukim: Laws that have no rationale, and that we perform simply because Hashem so commanded us. Of these laws it is said: The Satan and the nations ridicule the Jewish people, saying, What is this Mitzvah, and what rationale does it have?16

The Greeks didnt mind the first two categories of Mitzvos, Eidos and Mishpatim, because they can be explained rationally. But they vehemently opposed the observance of the Chukim of Your will, because the Chukim are suprarational. This can be explained on a deeper level. As discussed, the essence of the conflict between the Jewish people and the Greeks lay in a titanic struggle between faith and reason. We explained this above vis--vis the struggle over how to view Torah, and the same conflict existed in how to view Mitzvos. The Greeks sought to bring even the suprarational Mitzvos to conform with reason, while the Jews fought to make pure faith permeate all the Mitzvos, to have even the rational Mitzvos performed in a way that transcends reason.
15 16

Veal HaNissim liturgy. Rashi on Bamidbar 19:2.

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To explain, the Greeks would even have allowed the Chukim if they could be kept in a rational manner. But if the Chukim have no reason, how could they be fulfilled rationally? This would be a kind of argument from authority. An intelligent person can accept the advice of a renowned world-class expert even if he doesnt personally understand the experts rationale. He realizes that in order to understand the topic to the degree of depth that the expert has attained, he would have to spend many years of in-depth study, for many years inform one with wisdom,17 and so in this case, it is only rational for him to rely upon the experts vastly superior knowledge. All the more so, an intelligent person can accept that since Hashem created the universe, and His intellect is infinitely greater than ours, it is perfectly reasonable for me, a puny human, to obey the Creators instructions even when I do not understand them, and even when my mind tells me the opposite. This is the meaning of the precise wording of the Veal HaNissim prayer, which states that the Greeks sought to lead them [the Jewish people] astray from the Chukim of Your will. The Greeks would have allowed the Chukim if they had been kept in a rational manner, as explained. What they opposed was the Jews stubborn performance of the Chukim on account of Your willwithout any reason at all, not even the reason that Hashem knows better, but simply because Hashem so commanded. While the Greeks sought to make even the Chukim intellectually agreeable, the Jewish people strove to promote the exact opposite approachto bring even the rational laws, the Eidos and Mishpatim, to be performed like the Chukim.18 Yes, we ought to use our intellect to study and internalize the logical reasons behind the Eidos and Mishpatim. However, we should not do so because intellect itself so dictates. Likewise, Hashem is not instructing us to follow intellect because it has some kind of inherent value, Gd forbid. Rather, even when we use our intellect, as in the performance of these Mitzvos (and in Torah study, and so on), we
17 18

Cf. Iyov 32:7. Sefer HaMaamarim 5698, p. 175.

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ultimately do so simply because Hashem commanded us. Thus, at their essence, even the rational Mitzvos are suprarational. And therefore, had Hashem commanded us to do something else to serve Himeven something totally non-intellectual, like chopping woodwe would have done so with the same enthusiasm.19 Put differently, in every act of performing a Mitzvah, one should submit oneself to Hashem with two intentions:20 The individual intention: One should delve into the significance behind each individual Mitzvah, and remind oneself of its reasons and become inspired by them as one performs the Mitzvah. This is the external aspect of the Mitzvah. The general intention: As one performs the Mitzvah, one should be mindful that one is performing a divine command. This command is the essential core of the Mitzvah that is common to all MitzvosEidos, Mishpatim, and Chukim alike; positive and negative commandments alike.21 Since this involves obeying without (or before) understanding, this intention involves a certain self-sacrifice, a surrender of the ego and self that goes against human nature. This is the Chok aspect of every Mitzvah, which makes all the Mitzvos essentially suprarational. Although it may be difficult, a Jew is capable of this self-transcendence because of the natural love of Hashem (ahavah mesuteres) that flows from his Jewish Neshamah. Thus, all our observance of Torah and Mitzvos depends upon the foundation of suprarational self-sacrificean ability that enables the Jew to give up his life when faced with the challenge of dying al kiddush Hashem.22 It was this inner core that came to the fore in the resistance of the Maccabees. The Jews understood that the only way to fight against the Greeks war against faith was by intensifying their devotion in the very area that the Greeks sought to eradicateby arousing their own inner potential for suprarational self-sacrifice.
Likkutei Torah, Shelach 40a. Sefer HaMaamarim 5666, p. 54. Likkutei Torah, ibid. Tanya ch. 30. Cf. ibid. end ch. 25.
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And so the Jews started a war of the few against the many and the weak against the mighty.23 Since the Jews chances of winning in this insurrection were so minuscule, their behavior was not rational; some would call it a suicide mission. Rather, it was an expression of suprarational faith, and so it was the fit response to the Greeks efforts to eradicate the suprarational. The Greeks agenda: Degrade your souls to our level! This also sheds light on the Greeks demand of the Jewish people: Write for yourselves on the horn of an ox that you have no portion in the Gd of Israel.24 Here, too, in the case of the Greeks agenda to force the Jewish people to write words of heresy, we see how their oppression of the Jewish people was primarily spiritual. But what is the significance of the horn of an ox, and what led the Greeks, who were highly intelligent, to think that this act of coercion would somehow influence the Jews to give up their connection with the holiness of Torah and Mitzvos, Gd forbid? The answer is related to the different supernal origins of the Jewish people and the nations.25 There are four faces in the supernal divine chariot,26 and the souls of the gentile nations stem from the level known as the face of an ox. More precisely, their souls are derived from the horn of this supernal ox. Just as a horn is considered secondary to the animal itself,27 so does the horn represent the lower, external level of Gdliness from which the souls of the gentile nations (and the entire natural order, for that matter) are derived, which is related to the divine name of Elokim.28 In contrast, the souls of the Jewish people are derived from a higher, internal level of Gdliness, the name of Havayeh, as it is written, For
Cf. Veal HaNissim liturgy. Bereshis Rabba 2:9. 25 Torah Ohr, Vayeshev 30a. Ohr HaTorah, Chanukah 300a ff. 26 Discussed in Yechezkel 1:1-3:27. Obviously, there is no physical chariot or ox in the higher spiritual realms, and these are anthropomorphisms, as is common in the Kabbalistic teachings. 27 Chullin 117b. 28 Cf. Tanya, Igeres HaTeshuvah ch. 4.
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his nation remained the portion of Havayeh.29 This is alluded to in the verse, And He [Hashem] blew into his [Adams] nose a soul of life.30 Vigorous blowing represents expending ones inner strength.31 This is why the Greeks specifically wanted the Jewish people to write this statement on the horn of an ox. They wanted the Jews to degrade themselves to receive their sustenance from the same external32 level of Gdliness from which the gentile nations derive their sustenance, the Name of Elokim, and in so doing they would forfeit their special bond with Hashem and his Torah and Mitzvos, which would lead them to assimilate with the non-Jews, Gd forbid. Self-sacrifice: Essence and permanence How did the Maccabees respond to this threat? Our sages say, Dovid and Shlomo were anointed with a horn, and their kingdom continued. Shaul and Yehu were anointed with a jar, and their kingdom did not continue.33 Chassidus explains34 that the horn, which is above the head, represents serving Hashem with bittul and suprarational self-sacrifice, and this mode of divine service stems from the very essence of the Neshamah. Since Dovid and Shlomo displayed this self-sacrifice, their kingdom continued, i.e., it lasted in a permanent, eternal way, akin to a horn, which is solid and lasting. For since the essence of the Neshamah transcends change, by tapping into this energy, one brings permanence and eternity into ones own divine service. In contrast, Shaul personified Binah, understanding, for he had attained a sublime level of intellectual greatness. Now, of course intellect is vital in the service of Hashem; in particular, The mind
Devarim 32:9. Bereshis 2:7. Since, as Kabbalah teaches, Adam possessed a Jewish soul, this verse sheds light on the nature of the Jews special soul. 31 Tanya, beg. ch. 2. 32 Likewise, the Greeks sought to influence the Jews to engage in secular studies, known as chochmos chitzoniyus, lit., external wisdoms. 33 Megillah 14a. 34 Ohr HaTorah, Chanukah 301a.
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dominates over the heart.35 However, intellectual study only connects one with a level of Gdliness that is subject to change, and so Shauls kingdom did not last. The difference between the kingdoms of Dovid and Shaul was not only apparent after time, once Hashem promised that the kingdom of Dovid and Shlomo would last eternally,36 while the kingdom of Shaul and Yehu ceased. Rather, the difference between their kingdoms was recognizable from the outset: Shaul and Yehus kingdom was based on reason and intellect, and therefore its end was inevitable, while the kingdom of Dovid and Shlomo was based on bittul and self-sacrifice, and therefore it was immediately apparent that it was destined to last. This was the Maccabees response to the Greeks demand, Write for yourselves on the horn of an ox that you have no portion in the Gd of Israel.37 Seeing that the Greeks sought to degrade the Jewish people to the horn of unholiness, as explained above, the Maccabees realized that they must respond in kind, with the horn as it exists in the realm of holinessunyielding suprarational self-sacrifice that stems from the essence of the Neshamah. Through this approach they were victorious, and they came to thank and praise Gds great name, which refers to Hashems very Essence. Since they served Hashem with the essence of their Neshamos, they were rewarded with a personal revelation of Hashems very Essence. Likewise, in our time as well, the forces of secularism and hedonism rise up against us to destroy us.38 They strive both overtly and subtly to lure us, Gd forbid, to abdicate our special, chosen role as Jews, to give up our precious Torah and Mitzvos, and to assimilate into the nonJewish society. The only response to this pressure is mesiras nefeshto press ahead with uncompromising self-sacrifice and devotion to practicing and

35 36 37 38

Cf. Tanya ch. 12. I Shmuel 15:29. Bereshis Rabba 2:9. Haggadah.
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disseminating Torah and Mitzvos despite all the difficulties that one may face. Moreover, this approach should be more than merely one aspect of our divine service; it must be the very foundation of our divine service, such that it is recognizable from the very beginning. Only then can we be confident that our efforts will bear fruit that will last permanently, with Hashems help. Through this kind of divine service we will surely merit a miraculous victory in our time, and the ultimate divine salvationthe arrival of our righteous Moshiach, may he come NOW!

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