Hanukkah is one of the most celebrated Jewish holidays by all, and there’s a reason for that. We celebrate the light and the darkness, freedom of religion, and the power of the Jewish people. All these things are true, but there’s one idea I’d like to share with you that may be less well known. I believe that, in the story of Hanukkah and the celebration, what the Chachamim (Sages) wanted to achieve, we need to understand one thing that is very important, and that is that we’re not really celebrating the war. We’re not celebrating anything other than the Hanukkiah (Hanukkah lamp) and the light.
When you look at the story of the light, there are important questions we need to ask. Number one: Why was Hashem so stubborn about finding pure oil? We know that there’s a halakha (Jewish law) that if you cannot get pure oil, you light with regular oil until you find pure oil. There’s nothing wrong with that in halakha. Whenever you have something that is tamei, impure, you could light it in a situation where there’s no access to something pure. So that’s number one. Number two: Why was it necessary for Hashem to make the miracle of the eight nights? Hashem does not make miracles just because He wants to; He does so whenever it’s necessary. Since we just asked the first question, the follow-up is that it wasn’t necessary to make this miracle. Even after they found one flask of pure oil, that flask should have lasted one day, and the other seven could have been lit with non-pure oil in the meantime, while they got their hands on pure oil. Why did Hashem go beyond the ways of nature and bend nature in order to bring about this miracle and make it last eight nights? It never happens unless it’s really necessary. The Bnei Yisrael (Jewish people) need to escape the Egyptians behind them. There’s no solution, no other way to save the Jewish people. We’re going to cut the sea in two. That’s necessary. Here, it wasn’t necessary, and God doesn’t just do miracles. What’s going on here?
We only celebrate the Hanukkiah with the lighting. That’s why we say only on that. We don’t say remembering the war, which was, by the way, if you compare both, the miracle of winning the war is a hundred times bigger than that miracles of lights. Every day in the Beit HaMikdash, they had miracles like this. They had 10 miracles that happened every single day in the Beit HaMikdash. But the miracle of winning the war—the only time in history that we find it—we don’t celebrate. So why do we davka (specifically) celebrate the lights and nothing else?
I’d like to share an idea with you. It’s based on a very interesting story. A few months ago, I had a congregant who was asking me about a car. He’s trying to lease a car from David Hillo, and he’s telling me, “I want to think about this car.” It was a beautiful, beautiful luxury car. I said, “We better have that, you enjoy that, okay? If you could—” I said, “If you could afford it, then get it. If you could afford it, then get it.” A few weeks later, I traveled to Paris, and I needed to rent a car. I have a very special status, those who know me, in the rental one of the rental agencies. The guy tells me, “You know what? You’re a good customer, etc. I’m going to spoil you. I’m going to give you a car.” He gives me the car I had been talking about with this guy. I’m driving this car. It’s the most incredible car to drive: so smooth, so powerful, incredible. But I start feeling a sense of Ga’avah (pride). I start feeling haughty, which is inexplicable, by the way. It’s not my car. I’m renting a car, and I paid for the cheap car, but I feel like a very rich guy driving this crazy car. Two days later, I come back to America, and the first thing I do is call this guy. I tell him, “I don’t think you should be getting that car.” He tells me, “Why? It’s not good?” I said, “No, it’s too good. I cannot handle the nisayon (test) of Ga’avah like this. I cannot take it. It’s too much of a test. I wouldn’t be able to pass that test.” I said, “I don’t know about you, but for me it would be too much Ga’avah to drive this car. I can’t tell you what I already got it.” I said, “Okay, you already got it. You already have it, then great, deal with it.” I said, “I don’t know how you’re going to deal with it, because when I was driving it, I had a very weird feeling. It’s too much for me.” He told me, “I had the same feeling as you, but when I got into the car, I was asking myself, ‘What zechut (merit) do I have? I don’t have more of a zechut than other people. Why am I driving this car?’ It’s more mechayev, it obligates me, forces me, it obliges me to be more generous, to give more, because I don’t deserve it.” I said, “Where’d you get this answer from?” It’s genius. You don’t deserve it, but you’re driving it, and therefore it’s mechayev you to return, to give more. He’s already a very generous person. We became even more generous because of that. What an incredible insight.
What does this have to do with Hanukkah? I’ll tell you what: you could find Hashem in any situation, even in the most mundane situations. It’s harder, though. It’s easier to find Hashem in a book of Torah, in a book of prayer, in a Beit Knesset (synagogue), or in doing an act of chesed (kindness) than to find Hashem in a nice building or in a nice car. But it’s doable. You could find Him, and maybe that’s what Hanukkah is teaching us. It would just be the story of the war, the story of the survival of the Jewish people, we already have Purim, we already have Pesach for that. What is Hanukkah adding about winning a war? We’re going to have thousands of wars, and Hashem is with us, and sometimes Hashem decides one way or another. But we already learn that from other Chagim (festivals). But when the Chachamim saw that Hashem made a miracle specifically for the lights, what is Hashem saying? In everything, even when you don’t need the Kedushah (holiness), you could find the Kedushah. You didn’t need to have these lights with Kedushah. You didn’t need to have the oil with Kedushah. It’s true that was allowed with that, but when you look, you could find Kedushah. Hashem will go out of His way to put His Kedushah on anything. We have to go out of our way to find Kedushah in anything, even in a large car. You could find Kedushah. Even in a luxury car, you could find meaning and the connection with the mitzvot (commandments). How do you do that? Hanukkah teaches you that there is Kedushah in everything. It’s up to us to look for it. Hashem went out of His way for us to understand that in every situation, every path, every item, you could find HaKadosh Baruch Hu (the Holy One, Blessed Be He). It’s up to us to look for Him. And that is perhaps one of the less well-known messages of Hanukkah.