Rabbi's Blog

On Friday, August 31,^st 1990, my wife and I were traveling to Brooklyn for Shabbos on the Palisades Interstate Parkway. It was a rainy day; the roads had poor drainage and the car probably needed new tires. At the time, my wife was seven months pregnant with our first child. Driving in the left lane, the car hydroplaned off the road onto the median and a few seconds later the right tire caught the guard rail flipping the car over, sliding upside down another few hundred feet, stopping on the edge of an embankment. Many cars pulled over, and before we even exited the vehicle police and an ambulance were on the scene. We were taken to the hospital to check out the baby, and my wife and I both got a few stitches.

The Hebrew word for miracle is “Neis”. A variable of the word is Nas, which means to flee. By definition, a miracle is somewhere outside of the natural course or mainstream events of life. Miracles occur to everyone; the only difference between everyone’s miracles is the degree to which it veers off the course of what is ‘tevah’- natural. Perhaps not everyone in life experiences an accident (no one should) that is life-threatening, thereby realizing his or her life was spared by a ‘miracle’.  Nevertheless, miracles on smaller scales and proportions occur daily. 

The Gemara Shabbos 22a quotes Rav Kahana discussing a law about the height of the Chanukiyah. That is followed by another statement of Rav Kahana about the pit into which Yosef was thrown. The passuk in this week’s parsha Vayeishev Breishis 37:24 states: “V’HaBor Rake Ein Bo Mayim” - “And the pit was empty. It had no water. Rashi comments that the pit was empty of water but was full of snakes and scorpions from which Yaakov was saved. Why does the gemara put this second statement from Kahana here? Is it randomly mentioning ‘other’ words of this Amora, (like the Talmud often does) or is there a deeper connection between the story of Yosef and Chanukah?

Rav Meir Simcha of Dvinsk in his commentary on Chumash,the Meshech Chochma, explains a connection between the story of Yosef and Chanukah. The Gemara Brachos 54a in a Mishna states: “Whoever sees the place where a miracle happened for the Jewish people is required to recite the blessing, ‘Blessed is the One who performed miracles to our forefathers in this place’.” The Gemara question whether this is only meant for a miracle that happened for a group of Jews or also for an individual? The Gemara concludes that even an individual who experienced a miracle recites a blessing substituting the word ‘me’ for ‘forefather’. The Avudraham* explains that a miracle done for a group of Jews must be recognized by the entire nation, while a private miracle must be recognized with a Bracha by the individual, his children and grandchildren, particularly when it was something out of the ordinary.

The second Bracha we recite at candle lighting on Chanukah is specifically about the miracle of the jug of oil which did not run out as in the time of Eliyahu HAnAVI AND Elisha HaNavi. Clearly, this was an open miracle that goes against nature. Nevertheless, the primary miracle that the Jews celebrated was the military victory over the Assyrian Greeks. The Jews defeated Antiochus and were able to reign with a Jewish kingdom for another two hundred years from the Chashmonaim until the destruction of the second Beis HaMikdash. As a remembrance to that part of history, we burn lights in our homes without any specification. In order to display the miracle of the oil as well, the Rabbis said it must be within twenty amos from the floor so that our eyes actually see it. This concept to see it - D’Shalta Bey - was limited to the height of twenty amos as a remez/hint/sign that the light in the Temple would shine into the Heichal/Sanctuary ,and the opening of the Heichal was exactly twenty amos. There are two other Mitzvos that cannot be higher than twenty amos: the height of Schach on a Sukkah and the laws of carrying in a Mavui. In all three instances there is a need to publicize something and there is a limit in height to obtain that objective.

How does all this connect to Yosef? Rebbi Tanchuma in Breishis Rabbah 100 states that when Yosef was returning from burying his father Yaakov, he stopped by the pit which his brothers had thrown him into. The brothers became nervous thinking this would arouse Yosef’s anger against them. Now that their father Yaakov had died, they feared that Yosef would take revenge against them. Under normal circumstances and dealing with ordinary people, this concern would be a reality. Unfortunately, they underestimated their brother Yosef and all that he stood for. Yosef went back to the pit with the purest of intentions and for the sake of Heaven. The purpose of his return was to be able to say the bracha: “Baruch She’asa Li Neis BaMakom Hazeh”, “Blessed is the One who performed a miracle for me at this place”. 

Yosef recognized the principal miracle was getting out of the pit and through Divine providence rose to become the viceroy of Egypt. However, the blessing for the miracle still needed to be applied to something beyond nature, and that was his surviving a pit full of snakes and scorpions. This is why the Gemara in Shabbos describing the miracle of Chanukah was the miracle beyond nature: that of the oil and also of Yosef surviving the pit. The Medrash shows us that Chanukah and Yosef had both dimensions: victory with kingship and personal miracles of the oil and the pit that were beyond nature.

It is no coincidence that we read Parshas Vayeishev the week that Chanukah occurs. We need to relate our own lives to witnessing and recognizing the different levels and aspects of miracles. There are the ‘daily’ miracles that don’t require a bracha because they are within nature. But perhaps we need to step back and revisit the places where open miracles occurred for us and say ‘Baruch She’asah Li Neis BaMakom Hazeh’, thereby making this our own  unique and special Chanukah.

Ah Gut Shabbos,

Rabbi Avraham Bogopulsky

*David ben Josef ben David Abudirham (fl. 1340) or Abu Dirham (commonly misspelled as Abudraham) was a rishon who lived at Seville, Spain, and who was known for his commentary on the Synagogue liturgy. He is said to have been a student of Jacob ben Asher (Baal Haturim).  The rabbi is believed to be the ancestor of Solomon Abudarham (d. 1804), Chief Rabbi of Gibraltar.

Abudirham belonged to the class of writers who, in an age of decline, felt the need of disseminating in popular form the knowledge stored up in various sources of rabbinical literature. His book, popularly known as Sefer Abudirham, has no specific title beyond the name Ḥibbur Perush ha-Berakot we-ha-Tefillot, ("Commentary on the Blessings and Prayers"), probably because it was intended to serve as a running commentary to the liturgy. In the preface he states that he desired to afford the people, whom he found lacking in knowledge, the means of using the liturgy intelligently, and for this purpose he collected, from both the Babylonian and the Jerusalem Talmuds, from the Geonim and all the commentators down to his own time, the material for the explanation of each portion of the prayer-book. In order to elucidate the meaning and origin of each observance connected with divine worship throughout the year, he made use of all the works concerning the rites he could obtain, some of which were very rare. In addition he gave a systematic exposition of the Hebrew calendar, but at the same time, he lays no claim to any originality. He certainly succeeded, as no one did before him, in writing a commentary which is very valuable, if not altogether indispensable, to the student of Jewish ritual.