This article was constructed with the help of either writings, lectures or shiurim of Rabbi’s , Berril Wein, Yissachar Frand Noach, Yossi Bilus, Baruch Dopelt
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Chanukah is wonderful! Chanukah is fun! Lighting the menorah and spinning the dreidel is always enjoyable! As a matter of fact, it has been pointed out that this is in keeping with Jewish practice. For some mystical reason, Jews keep this “Rabbinic” holiday with a tenacious loyalty. The 1991 JNF Jewish Population Survey found that of 5.5 million Jews in America more than 3.5 million have no synagogue affiliation. Yet, more than 74% celebrate Chanukah. Only later they may ask, “What’s Chanukah?”
One reason for this phenomenon may be that the Mitzvah of Chanukah is for “each person and his household”. There are no grand social production or central authority, no dues, fees, or bureaucracies to outdo. One only needs to have lived in a Jewish home and there is likely a happy Chanukah memory planted there.
However, there perhaps might be something more deeper than that. Lets explore why Chanukah is so popular. There is an obvious question that comes up every year about how the holiday always falls on the Shabbat when the parsha we read is Miketz. Conceivably, if we find the common denominator – Chanukah’s popularity will become more clear.
The Torah reveals to us as we open the parsha that Paroah has a dream. He is very disturbed by this dream wherein seven lean cows eat seven fat cows. None of the chachamim – intelegencia of Egypt can interpret the dream for him, and this troubles him even more. Even if we assume that the Egyptian Pharoahs were much more superstitious than modern man, it seems rather odd that a head of state should get so upset about a crazy dream. What is so upsetting about seven lean cows swallowing seven fat cows?
Can one imagine what would the Press do if they got hold of the story that Obama had a bad dream and is very troubled by it.
The late night talk show hosts would have a field day!! Imagine!! ” Yeah, seven skinny congressmen swallowing seven fat congressmen- there goes Obama-care”.
Please no garlic before you go to sleep; that is the cause of bad dreams. This opens up flood gate of nighttime medications usage. One can just imagine Nightquil stock rise to an all time high.
In order to understand the great concern Pharoah had for his bad dream, a little piece of history has to be presented for us to realize the pulse of society and how it changed due to the Jewish influence.
In the late 1800s there arose to prominence a highly influential German philosopher by the name of Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900). No serious thinker has done more harm to the Jewish people than Friedrich Nietzsche, whose writings were an important inspiration for Adolph Hitler and Nazism. Yet far from being an antisemitic, Nietzsche was one of the most pro-Jewish German writers of his time. Though debatable if Friedrich Nietzsche was anti-Semitic, no one debates that the Nazis used his writings to create the most lethal ideological brew in history – one leading to world war and the annihilation of 6 million Jews.
What we will take out of his philosophy, for our purposes, is what he wrote pertaining to Christianity. He begins by painting Judaism as the root of all evil. Nietzsche pointed out that the despised Christian religion had its roots in Judaism. Ideas such as “Love thy neighbor,” “turn the other cheek,” “be charitable” contradicted the idea of the Survival of the Fittest and the Übermensch. It was for the weak.
“All that has been done on earth against ‘the nobles,’ the ‘mighty, the ‘overlords,’…is as nothing compared to what the Jews did against them: the Jews, that priestly people who were only able to obtain satisfaction against their enemies and conquerors through a radical revaluation of the latter’s values, that is, by an act of the most spiritual revenge….It was the Jews who…dared to invert the aristocratic value-equation…saying ‘the wretched alone are the good ones, the poor, the helpless, the lowly….”
Nietzsche’s Philosophy was nothing new; he didn’t re-invent the wheel. Ancient world believed ” the strong survives and the week dies”. This belief was the way of the world.
Rabbi Yissachar Frand enlightens us through the teachings of Rav Shimon Schwab (1908-1995) that Pharaoh’s whole dominion, like that of any dictator, was based on the premise that the mighty will dominate the weak. “I have the troops. I have the force. Therefore I can impose my will, because no one can do anything against me.” No one can utter a word.
Pharaoh was so bothered by this dream because it portrayed a situation wherein the weak dominated the powerful. It was the seven lean cows that swallowed the seven fat cows. He understood that as not just a silly dream, but as a terrible omen from heaven. He saw this as a Divine message that his dominion was not secure despite his power. This message shook him to the core, for it undermined the premise of his whole monarchy.
Rab Schwab further points out that Parshas Miketz always coincides with Chanukah. This is a constant of the Jewish calendar. It is not just a coincidence. One of the major themes of Chanukah is the idea that “the mighty fell into the hands of the weak, the many into the hands of the few”, as we say in the Al HaNissim prayer.
This is what we taught the world. It’s an appealing concept that perhaps the underdogs can prevail. The Miracle Mets that rocked the Baseball world in 1969, Israel, a tiny country winning the ’67 War against the compiling Arab nations. There was no logic in their victories. The Macabees proved that the underdog can win. They proved that the laws of nature is not the prevailing last word. That there is a G-d and He can, at will, say” hey Mack, not so fast. I run the show. It’s my world”. He can proclaim “the fly will crush the elephant”; the Jewish people will win over the strongest army in the world and that oil can burn eight days rather than one.
The Macabees didn’t put their lives in danger for land or for a better materialistic lifestyle. They endangered themselves because the Jews’ primary essence “the Torah” was at stake. This is what they fought for; this is what they deemed important that they would risk their lives. The Torah is what makes us – Jews! And the fact that we defended it, G-d made us victorious!
We see the concept “G-d’s will prevails throughout the Torah” whether it be David over Goliath or even in our subject matter of Yossef and his brothers. Yossef survives against all odds and rises all the way to the top of the world. As he climbs the latter of success he even saves his brothers from the famine. This is what is so appealing about Chanukah. Perhaps we feel for the underdog because we are underdogs ourselves!!! Perhaps deep down in every Jewish soul they believe that against all of nature – G-d will change their fortune. Perhaps….perhaps, they believe in G-d.
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