“Dear Me,” : A Chanukah Message

by Rabbi Mordechai Rhine

Paroh had a dream. In it he saw scrawny looking cows swallowing the fat cows. Paroh was troubled. He called all of his experts to interpret his dream because he felt that his dream needed an interpretation.

Rav Shimon Schwab writes, “Anyone reading this section of the Torah must wonder: What is Paroh’s problem? Many people have dreams and they just leave them be. Why is Paroh so insistent that there this dream needs an interpretation?”

Rav Schwab explains that normally people dream of things which they think about and fit their way of seeing the world. This dream, that the scrawny should swallow the mighty, was so out of character to Paroh’s way of thinking that he was sure that it contained a warning. As the leader of a world power, Paroh’s world view was “might made right;” his power was not challengeable. To dream of the weak swallowing the great could be nothing less than an ominous message.

By the time the story is over we see that Paroh’s premonition was correct. Mitzrayim’s interaction with the Jews will eventually cause the Jews to “swallow” the wealth of Mitzrayim and leave this mighty country as a “has been.”

This, too, is the story of Chanukah. The great and mighty empire of the Greeks thought to impose religious oppression upon the Jews. They undoubtedly thought “might makes right” and they would crush the Jews into submission. Yet, as we recite each year in the Chanukah prayer, G-d placed the mighty into the hands of the weak, and the revolt of the Macabees succeeded.

The miracle of Chanukah is one that we celebrate every year. In Jewish literature it is described as “exceptionally dear.” Why is this holiday so beloved? Because it represents the very essence of Jewish continuity. It defies the view of so many that might makes right. So many claim that It is purely “illogical and unfair” that the ones seen as scrawny and weak should succeed and persevere. But that is precisely what happens in the case of the Jewish people.

As Mark Twain observed, “If the statistics are right, the Jews constitute but one percent of the human race. … [Yet] He has made a marvelous fight in the world, in all the ages… The Egyptian, the Babylonian, and the Persian rose, filled the planet with sound and splendor, then faded to dream-stuff and passed away; the Greek and the Roman followed, and made a vast noise, and they are gone; other peoples have sprung up and held their torch high for a time, but it burned out, and they sit in twilight now, or have vanished. The Jew saw them all, beat them all, and is now what he always was, exhibiting no decadence, no infirmities of age, no weakening of his parts, no slowing of his energies, no dulling of his alert and aggressive mind. All things are mortal but the Jew; all other forces pass, but he remains. What is the secret of his immortality?”

Similarly, Rabbi Yakov Emden, in the introduction to his siddur writes, “When I contemplated the miracles of Jewish continuity I concluded that this miracle of Jewish survival throughout the ages is even greater that the miracles of the Biblical era. ” How remarkable it is that despite the might and evil thrust against us, we remain strong with a tradition that is reliable and intact. This defies conventional wisdom. Neither Paroh, nor the Greeks, nor any others who tried to rise against us throughout the ages could have anticipated that we- the ones they viewed as scrawny- would outlive them in a most dramatic way. This is the miraculous Jewish experience.

The Talmud tells us that often the one who experiences a miracle doesn’t recognize the miracle. This may be true regarding the Jewish people as well. We may need to consciously remind ourselves that as Jews we are walking, talking, living miracles. It is perhaps frustrating to many that the weak, few, and scrawny ones persevere and outlive their very mighty oppressors. But this is the way that G-d runs His world.

Which is why Chanukah is exceptionally beloved. It represents miracles that we as a nation willed into existence. We fought the war despite the odds that were against us. We lit the menorah despite the laws of nature that said it would burn out. We willed a miracle into existence be declaring that we would do our best and G-d would do the rest. And so may it be in every generation.

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