A Message from Rabbi Tilsen:
The Miracle of Hanuka
The "miracle of Hanuka," we are told, revolves around a cruse of oil containing a one-day supply that sufficed for eight days. It was an eight-day Mediterranean cruse. As the Good Book says, "oils well that ends well." So what would have been so terrible if they ran out? Like, what if we ran out of herring at the qiddush?
Our people had just been through a drawn-out conflict with the greatest imperial power of the day, against the tyrant Antiochus; many people had been killed, homes destroyed, the Temple desecrated. In that context, how important could a mere cruse of oil be?
The central mitzva on Hanuka is the lighting of a Menora for the purpose of pirsuma nesa, of publicizing the miracle of Hanuka. It is important that each household light at least one single lamp or candle.
There is a general commandment of hidur mitzva, of doing each religious act in a nice way. For the sake of hidur mitzva, we take a beautiful menora (such as those available from the BEKI Sisterhood Giftshop), and use fine oil or lovely candles — not kerosene. Ideally, each member of the household has their own menora, and each lights a number of lights corresponding to the number of the day of the holiday.
The lighting of a menora to publicize the miracle is so important that the Shulhan Arukh, the sixteenth-century law code that serves as the common base for modern law, describes the obligation in this way:
צריך ליזהר מאד בהדלקת נרות חנוכה ואפי' עני המתפרנס מן הצדקה שואל או מוכר כסותו ולוקח שמן להדליק׃
שו״ע או״ח סימן תרע״א One needs to take great care in lighting the Hanuka lights; even a poor person subsisting on charity pawns or sells their cloak and buys oil for lighting.
Shulhan Arukh O.H. §571 Lighting the Hanuka lights is so important that a poor person is instructed to take on additional hardship to do it. The Shulhan Arukh says the poor person ought to make whatever sacrifice is needed to fulfill this mitzva.
But what of the poor person who can not afford all of this "hidur mitzva" but must struggle to light even one lamp? The Mishna Berura, written at the beginning of the twentieth century by the Hafetz Hayim, comments on the section of the Shulhan Arukh cited above:
ואם יש לו שמן בצמצום על כל השמנה ימים ולחבירו אין לו כלום מוטב שידליק בכל לילה אחד ויתן גם לחבירו׃If one has a limited supply of oil for all the eight days [of Hanuka] and one's neighbor has none at all, one should light each night only one light and give some to that neighbor....That is, we are told that we ought to meet the basic need of another person even at the expense of our own ability to fully perform the mitzva. We cannot flaunt our material blessings while our brothers and sisters go without.
This Hanuka, we are feeling a shortage of oil. Electric rates and fuel prices are rising and supplies are uncertain. And now we know that burning these fuels threatens our ecosystem through pollution and global warming. Whether rich or poor, Conservation and Renewable and Alternative Energy sources are a must. We must save some oil and save our planet for others and for future generations.
So turn down the heat, turn out the lights, use compact florescent lighting (CFL) and solar panels, walk, bike and carpool.
When we share our spiritual, financial and other blessings with others and consequently see their Hanuka lights — or their Holiday Candles — glowing in their windows, then we are truly fulfilling the mandate of Hanuka: Pirsuma Nesa, Proclaiming the Miracle.
For information on BEKI's program to promote Conservation and Alternative and Renewable Energy, see Environmental Responsibility at BEKI.
Congregation Beth El-Keser Israel
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New Haven, CT USA 06515-1724
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