Today’s class is dedicated for the Refuah
Shelema of Bolisa bat Chana and Shaul Ben
Adel- Priscilla and Charles Sutton. May they have a speedy recovery.
When it comes to Chanukah, there are special prayers that we say.
One is Al HaNissim, and another is HaNerot
Hallelu.
Each of these refer to two different types of miracles. In
the Al HaNissim prayer, we use the termעל
הנסים Al HaNissim, which
means “on the miracles”, and we also use the words ועל הנפלאות V’Al
HaNiflaot which mean, “and for the wonders.” At
the end of Al HaNissim we say ועשית עמהם נסים ונפלאות
You did with them miracles and wonders
In HaNerot Hallallu, we say that we light the candles Al HaNissim V’Niflaot- on the miracles and on the wonders What
is the difference between a miracle and a wonder?
The Shem Hashemuel says that the
term נס/ Ness- miracle,
refers to both a
נס נגלה-an open miracle,
and a Ness Nistar- נס נסתר – is a hidden miracle. A Ness Nistar means everything worked out perfectly. You met the right person at the
right time, or you were missing money,
and then you got that exact amount in the mail from a refund somewhere from
three years ago… All of those, what we
call, Hashgacha
Pratit stories are miracles, they’re Nissim,
but they’re hidden.
A Pele, a wonder, refers to something that is clearly extra-ordinary, that can not be explained in any normal manner. When Shimshon’s parents
brought an offering, it says that the angel went up in a flame to the heavens. It says he did something wondrous - that’s a Pele. There is no explaining that. That
is like the splitting of the sea. A Pele is something that you cannot explain
by any natural means. That’s the difference between a נס ness and a נפלאות - פלא /Pele
If you keep your eyes open when you pray Shaharit, you’ll notice
that in Az Yashir, by the splitting of the sea, it says
נורא תהילות עושה פלא
G-d is too awesome for praise, He does, wonders.
There is a nuance in these
two Hebrew words, describing miracles.
So why do we mention both a Ness and
a Pele when it comes to Chanukah?
Why both a miracle and a wonder?
As we know, Chanukah commemorates two major events. We have to remember both of them. One of them is the miracle of the oil
that lasted for eight days. The other one, that people don’t talk about as
much, is the wars. The Maccabim,
a small group of kohanim (not a professional army of warriors), took on the entire Greek
army, which was a superpower at that
time. That was an unbelievable miracle. But there’s a difference. The oil was a Pele. It was a wonder. You can’t explain
one day’s worth of oil lighting for eight days and nights.
The war was a ness-
a miracle. They had some good luck, and they
had some good tactics.
You could conceivably
explain away how this
small motley group of kohanim was able to take on the Greek army. We have stories like that in
history. It can happen. Somehow, someway, they had some good ideas and they won.
That is a Ness. It’s not a Pele. We have to remember both.
Our rabbis tell us that the reason why G-d made the Pele , the wondrous miracle of the oil, is so that we’d appreciate and understand that the Ness, which could have been explained in natural ways, was all from G-d.
So the reason for the Pele was to reveal
the Ness.
The Meshech Chochma points out a similar concept in the story of Yosef HaSaddik, which
we also read in these weeks.
Yosef had a Ness and Pele down to him.
He was thrown into a pit, and the pit had snakes and scorpions in
it. And the fact that he fell on top of snakes and scorpions, which were
extremely venomous and poisonous, and nothing happened to him, that was a
wonder/a Pele . So much so, that in Parashat
Vayechi when Yosef was coming back from burying his
father, the Midrash tells us that he passed by the pit that his brothers
had thrown him into and made a beracha על הנס שעשה לי במקום הזה
On the Ness that was done
for him in that place.
This is a beracha we say when an extraordinary miracle occurs for us.
That was the Pele that happened to Yosef.
But what was purpose of that Pele/wonder?
To show Yosef that there would be more Nissim coming up. He would be made into
the viceroy of Egypt, by ending up in Potiphar’s house, by being sent to jail, by interpreting the dreams of the
baker and the butler, and eventually by interpreting Paroah’s dreams. This
would be a Ness. Of course, it would not be extraordinary. It was all explainable,
but it was a Ness. And the Pele was there to revels the Ness.
In life, we have to understand that we don’t see Pelaot/
wonders in our days. But we do see Nissim. When people, lo Alenu, go into the hospital, and they get the
right doctor and the right medicine, at the right time, those are Nissim. We have to believe in miracles. That G-d will Bezrat Hashem
heal those that need a Refuah, in
wondrous ways.
We actually
say that in our beracha for health. We use the words ומפליא לעשות it
happens in wondrous ways.
The rabbis explain that this refers to our body and soul being
connected, because there is no natural
explanation for how the soul stays in the body. Why our soul stays when we have
the right nutrients, and leaves when we don’t, is one of the wonders of G-d.
B’ezrat Hashem, Hashem should make Nissim
v’Niflaot, and heal all those that need to be
healed.
Amen
