Chanuka 5785

Among the many fascinating discussions surrounding Chanukah, one question repeats itself every year: Why do we celebrate eight nights of Chanukah when the miracle of the oil seemingly lasted only seven nights? After all, there was enough oil for one night's burning—so wasn't the first night expected? This is the famous question of the Beis Yosef, Rav Yosef Karo (1488-1575).

The Beis Yosef himself offers three answers, but the question has riveted the minds of scholars throughout the generations, and to date, hundreds upon hundreds of answers have been offered to his question.

Armed with this information, someone once came to Rav Aharon Leib Shteinman's study in Bnei Brak and asked him, "I've been thinking about all these hundreds of answers to the Beis Yosef's question about Chanukah. But something doesn't add up here, how can we possibly have hundreds of answers when Chazal clearly tell us that there are only seventy faces to the Torah?"

The answer recorded by Rav Shteinman is quite cryptic, but essentially he told the questioner that the fact that there are 70 "faces" to Torah doesn't necessarily preclude the possibility of there being several answers to a specific question.

While Rav Shteinman didn’t go into exactly why this is so, if we look into the sources where “70 Faces of Torah” is brought, we can understand why the question was off the mark.

The concept of “70 faces of Torah” is originally sourced in Midrashic literature. After Moshe Rabbeinu finished erecting the Mishkan, all of the Tribal leaders brought sacrifices, and the pesukim record that each item brought had very specific numerical symbolism. The passuk says that the silver basin (used for the meal offering) weighed 70 shekel (Bamidbar 7:19)

The Midrash (Bamidbar Rabbah 13:16) comments:

“One silver basin [mizrak]” corresponding to the Torah, that is likened to wine…because wine is typically drunk from a bowl [mizrak]… that is why he brought a basin. “Seventy shekels, in the sacred shekel” , why? Just as the numerical value of wine [yayin] is seventy, so too there are seventy aspects to the Torah.

Sefer HaChinuch, a classical work exploring the roots of the mitzvos, says that this concept is the active ingredient behind one of the commandments. The passuk says:

"You shall neither side with the mighty to do wrong—you shall not give perverse testimony in a dispute so as to incline it in favor of the mighty." (Shemos 23:2)

The Chinuch (Mitzvah 77) explains: “The idea of the mitzvah is that one of the judges not go after the opinion of another greater judge or even after the opinion of the majority, because he trusts him — to make liable or to make innocent — if the matter is not understood to him in his own mind. [This is] meaning to say, do not say something about a dispute to incline — meaning only from the side of leaning towards the words of a great judge or towards the majority — and not from the side of your own understanding. Or if you want to be silent from [saying] that which is in your heart about the case and [instead] to incline after their words, do not do so.”

The Chinuch adds, “And this matter is from the power of the Torah’s wisdom, that many things are to be learned from one thing in it. And this is [the meaning] of that which they, may their memory be blessed, said, “There are seventy faces to the Torah.”

This principle also illuminates the very essence of Torah study. Torah isn't a static text with fixed interpretations, but rather a dynamic force where every person, according to their abilities, can provide a perspective to another dimension of understanding, provided it follows the “rules” Moshe received from Hashem at Sinai.

This understanding takes on special significance when we consider the Chanukah story itself. In the Al HaNissim prayer, we describe the victory as one of "heretics being delivered into the hands of those who toil in Torah.”

What is the inference of “those who toil in Torah”? The Etz Yosef explains that it refers to those who learn in depth and who go “back and forth” in understanding the truth of the Torah.

In his explanation to Birchas HaTorah (where the term “osek BaTorah” (toil in Torah) is also employed), Etz Yosef elaborates on the the idea of “toiling in Torah” and says that another essential quality of one who “toils in Torah” is that they consistently add onto their knowledge.

He brings the Zohar who says, “One should study Torah, toil in it, and be fruitful in it.” In explanation of “being fruitful in it”, Etz Yosef brings the Ra”ch who explains it to mean that one should always try to add onto a concept and further crystalize it, and what one learned yesterday should take on a new understanding from how he learned it yesterday…

On the other hand, the enemy-“Zeidim” were the opposite. According to the Elya Rabba (brought by Etz Yosef loc. cit.) the “zeidim” refers to the Hellenized Jews, Jews who abandoned the traditional way Judaism and instead fully embraced all aspects of Greek culture.

And what was the Greek agenda in regards to religion?

Rabbi Ken Spiro writes:

“Greek gods were described in human terms, and were often bested by humans in Greek mythology; with time, it became the style of intellectual Greeks to denigrate their gods and speak of them with biting cynicism.” (Crash Course in Jewish History, p. 146) “The attitude of polytheism was “I’ll worship your god, you worship mine. The more gods the merrier.” Everyone’s religion was as good as the next and none were taken seriously.” (ibid. p.155)

At the core, the Greek outlook on “gods” and “religion” was that although they had some power, it was the humans who was the center of all things, both in physicality, to ability to overpower another human or god, and intellectually, to comprehend things rationally. Those who excelled in both or one of these realms were considered successes by Greek standards.

(Parenthetically, the Olympics, whose roots go back to Greek origins, used to be exclusively focused on the individual human’s strength. It was only in recent times where “team sports” were introduced)

The Greeks' dismissive and disdainful attitude toward “religion” made their rejection of the Oral Law inevitable. How could a culture that mocked its own gods possibly embrace the idea of a Divine wisdom passed down with love and strict adherence to its commandments throughout the generations?

While the Greeks did accept the Written Torah, they rejected the Oral Law that gives it depth and meaning, thereby stripping Torah of its divine essence, reducing it to mere literature open to any interpretation, and certainly not a manual in which one must bind himself to a particular lifestyle.

In the end, Hashem gave the victory to the Maccabees - “those who toiled in Torah” - and it is in these days of Chanuka that the mystical sources say are a particularly auspicious to understand deep aspects of Torah and knowledge of Hashem.

Let’s take advantage of these few but powerful days and try to capture the all the light that lies within them.

Happy Chanuka!

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