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Seasons of the Soul Seasons of the Soul Parsha a project of www.Chabad.org Chanukah-Vayeishev 5764 (2003) What is Chanukah? Seasons of Some history... What's a miracle? ... Power of the individual... The Greeks and the Jews... The mind What is Chanukah? When the the Soul and beyond... Chanukah today... Greeks entered the Sanctuary, they contaminated all of its oil. When the royal Hasmonean fam- Seeing Lessons ily overpowered and was victori- Seasons of Hedonism and ascetics are two sides of this same ous over them, they searched and Hellenic coin: when the soul (flame) meets the found only a single cruse of pure the Soul body (wick), either the flame gutters out, or it con- oil that was sealed with the seal sumes the wick leaving only formless soot behind. of the Kohen Gadol (High Judaism offers another model - the lamp Priest), enough to light the menorah for a single day. A mir- Eight Shades of Light acle occurred, and they lit the In the beginning, darkness and light were one. Seasons of the menorah with this oil for eight Then G-d separated between revealed good and concealed good, challenging us to cultivate the days. The following year, they Soul day and transform the night established these [eight days] as days of festivity and praise and thanksgiving to G-d Seasons of the Eight Chanukah Stories 139 BCE... Heaven, 25 Kislev, 3622 from cre- (Talmud, Shabbat 21b) Soul ation... Mezhibuzh, 18th Century... France, 1942... Kharkov, 1995... Los Angeles, 2003… Exposing the Light All the world's problems stem from Vayeishev — Genesis 37:1–40:23 light being withheld. Parsha What was the cause of the rift between Joseph and his brothers? What forces conspired to bring togeth- Our job then, is to correct this. er Judah and Tamar? Who was Potiphar's wife, why Wherever we find light, we must rip was Joseph forgotten in prison, and why are there so away its casings, exposing it to all, many dreams in the book of Genesis? letting it shine forth to the darkest ends of the earth. Especially the light you yourself hold. For more information or to subscribe new material to one of our many insipiring added daily! periodicals log on to: This magazine contains sacred Torah www.Chabad.org material. Please do not discard. www.Chabad.org seasons of the soul What is It was the first time in history that a people had fought not for their country or their lives, but for their Chanukah? beliefs and their right to religious freedoms. Problem was, the Syrian-Greek army was the most by Tzvi Freeman powerful in the world. Their soldiers marched in a compact formation of overlapping shields and long spears, almost invincible in those times. They had advanced weapons, were highly trained and even brought elephants to the battlefield. The Jewish resistance, on the other hand, began with a handful of Did Chanukah happen years ago? Or is it happen- brothers of the priestly class, calling themselves the ing now? Was there ever a time when it was not hap- Maccabees. pening? The story of a little candle pushing away the There were many acts of courage, but the monster of frightening darkness is ever-alive within Maccabees firmly believed that their victory came each of us — and in the world outside of us. from Above. Eventually, they received a sign that it You might call it the cosmic mega-drama. Watch was so: When they took back Jerusalem and the it happen at the dawn of each day and at every win- Temple, they searched and found a single flask of ter solstice, with every breath of life, every cry of a undefiled olive oil — just what was needed to light newborn child, every blade of grass that breaks out the sacred menorah. Although the flask held only from under the soil, every flash of genius, every enough for a single day, the light of the menorah stroke of beauty, every decision to do good in the miraculously burned for eight complete days, pro- face of evil, to build where others destroy, to move viding just enough time to prepare new oil. To the humanity forward when others pull us toward chaos. Jewish people, this was like a nod from Above, that, All those and more are Chanukah. yes, He was with us all along. Some History Chanukah Insights: You would have thought the Jewish people and Miracles the ancient Greeks would get along. After all, they Without miracles, we might come to believe that had so much in common. Both valued wisdom and the laws of physics define reality. Once we witness beauty. Many Greek philosophers even acknowl- the inexplicable, we see that there is a higher reality. edged a single, great Mind behind all the cosmos, And then we look back at physics and say, “This too similar to Jewish monotheism. is a miracle.” The miracle of a small flask of oil burn- Well, they did manage somewhat — at first. The ing for eight days was this sort of miracle. Jews tolerated Greek rule from the time of Then there are those small miracles that occur Alexander of Macedonia. Many Jews studied every day. Those acts of synchronicity we call ‘coin- Hellenist philosophy and King Ptolemy had the cidence’ because, in them, G-d prefers to remain Jewish Torah translated into Greek. But when King anonymous. But when we open our eyes and hearts, Antiochus attempted to force Hellenism down our we see there is truly no place void of this wondrous, throats, we rebelled. unlimited G-d. These were the sort of miracles the Antiochus forbade ritual circumcision. Mothers Maccabees saw in their battles against the mighty openly circumcised their infant boys in defiance. Greek army. Antiochus forbade the keeping of the Sabbath. Jews The Power of the Individual were forced to leave Jerusalem so they could keep the day of rest holy. Antiochus forbade the study of Chanukah was a victory of few over many. Each Torah as a sacred text. Jews found ways to teach Maccabee was a hero, essential to the victory. classes of children and adults in secret. When the One could think that, in those days, when the pop- Greeks raised up idols in the cities and towns and ulation of the world was so much smaller, a single demanded that the Jews worship them, all-out war individual would have more power to change the ensued. world. In fact, just the opposite is true. Technology and information has put enormous power in the Seasons of the Soul | Parshah | Week at Glance 2 www.Chabad.org seasons of the soul What is Chanukah? extreme, it can produce a Stalinist Russia or a Nazi Germany. A healthy mind is one that recognizes that there will always be wonder, because G-d is beyond the human mind. And a healthy society is a balanced hands of whoever wants it. one, whose soil nurtures human accomplishment but whose bedrock is the ethical standard of an Eternal Just over fifty years ago, one madman came to the Being. verge of destroying the world. His failure to develop atomic weapons on time is still inexplicable — it can Last Word only be attributed to the great mercies of the One Some people are waiting for a final, apocalyptic Above who takes care of His world and promised it war. But the final war is not fought on battlefields, would always stand. Today we have seen that not nor at sea, nor in the skies above. Neither is it a war even an army is needed, nor warheads or missiles — between leaders or nations. The final war is fought but only an obsessive will to destroy. in the heart of each human being, with the armies of Such is the power of darkness. his or her deeds in this world. The final war is the battle of Chanukah and the miracle of light. A thousand times over is the power of light, of any one of us to transform the entire world to good. A By Tzvi Freeman; [email protected] see http://www.chabad.org/article.asp?aid=3009 for bio, info small child kissing the mezuzah on the door of her and more articles by this author as well as to order his book, house, an act of kindness asking nothing in return, a "Bringing Heaven Down to Earth". sacrifice of convenience to benefit another-each of these things are as bursts of light in the nighttime sky. True, they make less noise. Rarely are they reported in the daily news. But while darkness pass- es as the shadows of clouds on a windy day, this light endures, accumulating until it leaves no room for evil to remain. The Mind and Beyond Today’s Western society is built on the founda- tions of these two cultures: the Jewish and the Greek. Both treasured the human mind. The Greeks reached the pinnacle of intellect at their time. But the experi- ence of Mount Sinai had taught the Jew that there is something greater than the human mind. There is a G-d, indescribable and inexplicable. And, therefore, a world could not be built on human reason alone. The idea annoyed the Greeks to no end. While they appreciated the wisdom of the Torah, they demanded that the Jews abandon the notion that it was something Divine. Ethics, to an ancient Greek, meant that which is right in the eyes of society. To a Jew, it means that which is right in the eyes of G-d. The difference is crucial: Ethics built solely on the convenience of the time can produce a society where human beings are The content on these pages is produced by Chabad.org, and is copyrighted by the author, publisher and/or Chabad.org.
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