Another Bitachon thought related to Hanukah. As we mentioned, hoshech/darkness symbolizes the Greek tyranny. The Midrash says that the four exiles are hinted to at the beginning of Bereshit, with four different words, and the word that's used to hint to the Greek exile is the word darkness, because they darkened the eyes of the Jewish people with their decrees.
Rav Chaim Pilaggi, in his Sefer Moed L’Kol Hai (chapter 27, letter 78) says that there is a hint in the word Hoshech- it’s an acronym for the three Mitzvot that the Greeks attacked.
The ח Het stands for Hodesh- they attacked Rosh Hodesh, the ש stands for Shabbat, and the Chaf for kritat Brit/the cutting of the covenant, the term used Brit Milah. So they darkened our lives with the three decrees that attacked Hodesh, Shabbat and Kritat Brit.
He says that a pasuk in Michah (7,8) symbolizes that era:
אַֽל־תִּשְׂמְחִ֤י אֹיַ֙בְתִּי֙ לִ֔י כִּ֥י נָפַ֖לְתִּי קָ֑מְתִּי כִּֽי־אֵשֵׁ֣ב בַּחֹ֔שֶׁךְ ה׳ א֥וֹר לִֽי׃
My enemy, don’t be happy that I fell.
I got up. Even though I sat in the darkness, God is my light.
Simply, the meaning is, Even though I fell, I got up. Even though I’m sitting in the darkness, Hashem brought me light. But Rabbenu Yonah, in Shaar Teshuva (second gate, the fifth letter), quotes a Midrash that says, if I didn't fall, I never would've gotten up. If I didn't sit in darkness, Hashem would not have been light for me.
He says that a person has to believe, not that even though it's dark, there will be light, but rather, in the words of Rabbenu Yonah, The darkness is the cause of light.
The darkness is the cause of light. We can't understand how that is, or why it is, but the darkness of the situation will cause our light.
There's a famous story told by Rabbi Sher. When he was a young boy, he was very sick. His mother hardly had any money and when she went to the pharmacy, she had to beg, plead and promise in order to get the medicine that he desperately needed.
Then, on her way home, she was mugged and the bottle fell and broke. She was in total desperation. What would be? She went back to the pharmacy with the broken bottle and no money, and the pharmacist's face turned white when he saw what was actually in the bottle. He had given her the wrong medicine, which could have killed her son. Of course, he then gave her the right medicine for free, apologized, and so on. She told the story to her son to teach him the lesson that in life, sometimes the bleakest situations are really the source for light. Later on, Rav Sher added to the story that he always remembered this message from his mother. At a time when he was going in for open heart surgery, and his family was concerned (it was triple bypass for a total blockage) he told them this message from his mother, that this dark situation is going to bring us light. Years later, when he had a disease and they weren't sure if they could give him the proper treatments because they didn't know if his heart was strong enough, it turned out that his heart was as strong as it needed to be, because of that previous surgery.
So sometimes, the darkest situations are not just dark and then there's light, but they're actually the cause of the light. That is what a person has to believe. Rabbenu Yonah quotes Devarim (8,17),
לְמַ֣עַן עַנֹּֽתְךָ֗ וּלְמַ֙עַן֙ נַסֹּתֶ֔ךָ לְהֵיטִֽבְךָ֖ בְּאַחֲרִיתֶֽךָ
God pains us, God tests us, but ultimately it’s to make it good for us in the end.
That is a Hanukah lesson.
There are some people that say this pasuk in Havdala, and it shows up at other times in other prayers. But this is an important pasuk, specifically for the week of Hanukah.
אַֽל־תִּשְׂמְחִ֤י אֹיַ֙בְתִּי֙ לִ֔י כִּ֥י נָפַ֖לְתִּי קָ֑מְתִּי כִּֽי־אֵשֵׁ֣ב בַּחֹ֔שֶׁךְ ה׳ א֥וֹר לִֽי׃
Don't be happy, my enemy, for I fell. That's why I got up. I sat in the darkness, that’s why Hashem is my light.
That is a powerful Hanukah message. Have a wonderful day and a Hanukah Sameach.