Being that today is Erev Hanukah, I thought it would be appropriate to share a Bitachon related thought on Hanukah. Most of us are familiar with the idea that the name Hanukah comes from a contraction of two words. חנו Hanu, they encamped, Kah/כה on the 25th of Kislev. That's the simple explanation. But the Sror Hamor points out that if that’s the case, the name should be חנו ב׳כה Hanu B’kah. There seems to be a missing Bet. You might say that sometimes we shorten things, but he explains that the pasuk of
Shema Yisrael Hashem Elokenu Hashem Echad has 25 letters, and it has in it what's called the secret of Hashem's Oneness, Hashem Echad. Hashem saw that we would experience a very long exile and we'd have terrible difficulties and challenges, to the point that Torah would almost be forgotten from the Jewish people.
And therefore, God wanted to create one small pasuk that contains most of the fundamentals that the Torah is dependent on.
So if heaven forbid that Torah were to be forgotten due to the great tsarot we have, we would still have this small Parasha of Shema Yisrael Hashem Elokenu Hashem Echad, and by involving ourselves in it, it's considered as if we involved ourselves in the entire Torah. That's why the Mitzvah of learning Torah shows up in the Parasha of Keriat Shema, where it says, “V’Dibarta Bam/Speak in it when you get up and when you go to sleep.” What is ‘it?’
V’Dibarta Bam is talking about the Torah general, but it specifically refers to Keriat Shema in the morning and at night, which is the minimal amount of learning. It says you're not supposed to publicize this, but the minimal amount of learning that one should do every day is Shema Yisrael Hashem Elokenu Hashem Echad because this pasuk has everything you need to know. As we mentioned before Rosh Hashana,
Shema Yisrael Hashem Elokenu Hashem Echad contains the three fundamentals of our faith-
-that God created the world,
-that God rewards and punishes,
-And that He he gave us the Torah
Shema Yisrael- God's talking to us here. He's speaking to us. He gave us the Torah.
Hashem Elokenu-Hashem is our God. He supervises us and takes care of us. And that's reward and punishment, in God's supervision. And finally,
Hashem Echad-there's no one else but Him and He is the creator of the world.
The Greeks were trying to cause us to forget Torah.
It says in Al HaNisim, they were trying to make us forget the Torah, and therefore there was a limit in Torah learning. And what they focused on in those days, says the sefer Srur Hamor (Devarim, chapter five) was the pasuk of Keriat Shema.
Shema Yisrael Hashem Elokenu Hashem Echad was their focus, and that was how they won the war. They won the war with strengthening their faith and Emunah in Shema Yisrael Hashem Elokenu Hashem Echad and that's why it got the name Hanukah-חנו כה
We dwelled, we were successful at war due to the 25 letters in the pasuk of Keriat Shema, and he says,
U’BmShem Elohenu Nidgol/With the name of God, we will put our flags, which is, you encamp with flags.
Our flag is the flag of Hashem. That is the success to our war.
It's interesting that it says the Greeks made 13 breaches in the walls.
Echad אחד is the numerical value of 1+8+4, which is 13. So they were trying to break the Echad, the Hashem Echad that we believe in, but they were not successful.
Therefore, this is a holiday when we're supposed to strengthen the constant of Shema Yisrael Hashem Elokenu Hashem Echad.
The rabbis tell us that there is some continuation of the high holiday season until Hanukah, and it makes sense because the whole High
Holiday season starts with our accepting the yoke of Hashem’s kingdom. We say Shema Yisrael Hashem Elokenu Hashem Echad in our Musaf of Rosh Hashana; it’s the 10th pasuk of Hashem’s Kingdom.
And that is, in truth, the essence of the message of Hanukah. Therefore, we're supposed to strengthen our belief and work on our Emunah and Bitachon during the holiday of Hanukah.