The Wonderful World of Thirty-Six

There is an undercurrent to history that is, for the most part, undetected by the average person. It is a thread of light from which all truth emanates, a light that is known only by those who are sensitive to the higher spiritual reality of creation. It is a light that was hidden by the Creator Himself, on the first day of creation, for the sake of being revealed by those who understand its connection to the number thirty-six, and, for that matter, the holiday of Chanukah. Welcome to the Wonderful World of Thirty-Six - a journey in search of the hidden light of creation.

1995, 80 pages Order Code: WT Softcover: 7.95 US (pocket size)

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Digital Edition: 2013, 47 pages

Contents

INTRODUCTION

1. THE HIDDEN LIGHT 2. AIYEKA 3. NOACH, CHAYN & YONA 4. AVRAHAM AND LIGHT 5. YA’AKOV AVINU 6. THE SHEVATIM 7. MOSHE AND THE JEWISH NATION 8. WHY THIRTY-SIX?

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Introduction

The Torah tells us that on the first day of creation God made light. (Bereishis 1:1) A few sentences later, the Torah tells us that on the fourth day of creation, God formed the sun, moon and stars. (Bereishis 1:14) So what kind of light was it that God made on the first day, and where is it?

The Torah itself doesn’t answer these questions, at least not directly. However, the Talmud Yerushalmi (Brochos 8:5; The thirty-six hours consisted of the twelve hours of Day Six before the seventh day, and the twenty-four hours of Shabbos itself. However, Rashi (1:14) indicates that the light served all seven days (or at least the first three days until the sun and moon were operative), and the Ramban concurs (though he also says that it did not remain in the same state). Others write that the light was hidden in stages, or, that it was hidden on the first day and revealed again on the sixth day for Adam’s sake, only to be hidden once again after Shabbos (just as the earth was cursed on the third day though the actual curse did not take affect until after Shabbos with the rest of the curses given to man, woman, and the serpent). explains that, after "serving" for exactly thirty-six hours in Gan Aiden, this light was hidden away for the righteous for a future time. Rashi explains that God did this to protect the light from being abused by the evil people of history. (Bereishis 1:4, q.v. V’Yavdel)

Well, that explains at least why we can’t see this special light. However, Rashi’s explanation doesn’t indicate where the light was hidden, or even what the light of the first day of creation was like.

To unlock the mystery of the light requires a key, a very special key, perhaps we should call it a secret key. Even finding the "key" requires a clue. The clue is thirty-six.

Thirty-six? How is the number thirty-six a clue to the hidden light of creation? To begin with, it seems that the light which shone for thirty-six hours was hidden within thirty-six - the thirty-six candles of Chanukah! (Rokeach) What does this mean? What connection can there possibly be between the thirty-six-hour light of the first day of creation and a holiday which didn’t exist until, well, the thirty-sixth century from creation? (The miracle that led to the establishment of the holiday of Chanukah occurred in the year 3597 from creation.)

Is it a mere coincidence that the first reference to the light of creation (rut, a word that is referred to exactly thirty-six times throughout the Torah), is also the twenty-fifth word of the Torah? After all, the holiday of Chanukah itself begins on the twenty-fifth day of Kislev.

And was it a coincidence that the twenty-fifth place the Jewish people camped during their forty years of desert wandering was called Chashmonai, the name of the family of priests

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who initiated the rebellion that led to the Chanukah miracle?

It doesn’t stop there. After God created man and gave him the responsibility of tending the Garden of Eden, Adam ate the forbidden fruit, and God called out to him,

"Aiyeka?" - Where are you? (Bereishis 3:9)

The way the word aiyeka is spelled would usually be pronounced eichah, which means "how," not "where are you." Perhaps this is hinting a different understanding of the word. Indeed, the rabbis view the word aiyeka as a gematria which equals thirty-six:

Aleph = 1... Yud = 10 ... Kaph = 20 ... Hei = 5

And this unusual word can also be broken up into two words:

"Ai Ko" - where is twenty-five?

Are we referring to Chanukah here? Is this some kind of code? What does the Torah want us to learn from this?

It is certainly difficult to make any sense out of this at this point. But it’s not difficult to appreciate why God’s approach to Adam after violating the purpose of creation would include a strong reference to the light of creation, albeit in an obscure way. After all, it is the light that is called "good," an indication that the creation of light was in keeping with God’s plan for the world.

And guess what? The Hebrew word for good - tov - begins with the ninth letter of the Hebrew alphabet, the letter "tes," itself representing the number nine. What makes this so significant is that, in a Sefer Torah this letter has four tagin (crowns) on it. The product of nine and four is of course thirty-six. (B’nei Yisaschar)

Furthermore, the word tov itself has a total numerical value of seventeen, which, when reduced to its mispar katan is equal to eight - the number of days over which we light the thirty-six candles of Chanukah!

(It is interesting to note at this point that the mispar katan (Every Hebrew letter is represented by a numerical value (e.g., Aleph = 1; Beis = 2, etc.), which means that a word can be represented by the sum total of its letters. For example, Adam (man) is equal to 1 (Aleph) + 40 (Dalet) + 400 (Mem), or 441. This value, in turn, can be reduced to a number between zero and ten by adding together the numbers of the total, i.e., 441 = 4 + 4 + 1 = 9. Nine is called the mispar katan (literally, "small number") of Adam, which alludes to the essential quality of man.) of the Hebrew word for truth, emes, is equal to nine, the same mispar katan of the number thirty-six and many other important holy concepts in Torah.)

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In any case, one message is clear. Thirty-six is a number that alludes to an exceedingly important concept within creation, one that expresses the very purpose for creation. The number thirty-six seems to allude to a theme that was given expression in the form of a supernal light, hidden away for the righteous, of which there happens to be thirty-six in every generation. (Sukkah 45b)

Just one last point. Though it is not quite clear just where in the Chanukah lights the hidden light of creation can be found, we have information on how to get there. If one studies the Babylonian Talmud, of which there are thirty-six sections, (B’nei Yisaschar) one will eventually merit the "Great Light." (Tanchuma, Noach 9)

The journey begins into the wonderful world of thirty-six, and though this book may not provide the complete picture, let it at least be an introduction to one of the most awesome concepts known to mankind.

* * * * * * * * *

Before embarking on that journey, it is only fitting to acknowledge where that journey began for me.

Approximately eight years ago, I was involved in a book called, Patterns in Time: Chanukah, by Rabbi Matis Weinberg, shlita. It was during this time that I was exposed to many of the ideas and sources found in this book. The midrashim that formed the basis for Rabbi Weinberg’s book continue to have a profound impact on me, and were the source of inspiration to further my own personal investigation into the concept of the "Hidden Light" of creation, and its relationship to the number thirty-six.

Thank you once again to Mrs. D’vorah Miller for her invaluable editing, and to all those who offered important input: Michael and Malkah Levinson, Rabbi Dovid Slavin, shlita, Rabbi Avi Blumenthal, shlita, Jonathan Mayer, Brian Rubenstein, and others.

A special thank you, once again, to Rabbi Mordechai Friedlander, shlita, for his invaluable time, his profound concern, and his wise guidance.

Speaking of hidden lights - there is my wife, Ahava, who works behind the scenes to help my books see the "light of day"; our children: Rivkah Malkah, Moshe Yosef, Chananyah Aharon, and Dovid Simcha; our parents: Jack and Betty Winston, and Rabbi Avraham and Rozie Neumark, whose love and support never waver. Thank you Helen and Joe, as always.

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Pinchas Winston Tishrei 25, 5756

The list of people to whom I must show appreciation for all I have become and have been able to achieve grows with each book. My light is a collective light, made up of the brilliance of others. If I reflect anything positive, it is the light of Torah I reflect. And for all of that, I have only the Source of Light Himself, Hashem Yisborach, to thank.

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Chapter One

The Hidden Light

In the beginning, God made the heaven and the earth. The earth was null and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; the Spirit of God hovered over the surface of the water. God said, ‘Let there be light!’ and there was light. God saw the light, that it was good, and He divided between the light and the darkness. Bereishis 1:3

God saw the light, that it was good, and He divided ... He saw that it was not worth letting the evil people use it and He set it aside for the righteous in the Time-to-Come. Chagigah 12a

For thirty-six hours the light served [before God hid it from the world] ... Yerushalmi Brochos 8:5

The original light of creation was hidden in the thirty-six candles of Chanukah. B’nei Yisaschar

With the Hidden Light, God nourishes the world (Zohar, Shemos 149a).

* * *For the first day-and-a-half, the world without man enjoyed the awesome light of the first day of creation. However, as the Talmud teaches, this light was special and could be subject to abuse by the evil people of history. Thus, even before the creation of the first man, God "hid" the light.

We are faced with may questions: What kind of light was it? Why was it hidden specifically after thirty-six hours? What was it about the light that made it more subject to abuse than the rest of creation? Why would the consequences of such abuse warrant hiding the primordial light? And where in the thirty-six candles of Chanukah did God hide the light?

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Chapter Two

Aiyeka

The woman saw that the tree was good to eat and attractive to the eyes, and [she] desired it to understand and ate and gave to her husband with her, and [he] ate. The eyes of the two of them were opened, and they knew they were naked ... Bereishis 3:6-9

They knew they were naked ... Even a blind person knows when he is naked; rather ... they had one mitzvah and were ‘stripped’ of it (Bereishis Rabbah 19:6) - Rashi.

... and they sewed fig leaves and made a belt for themselves. They heard the voice of God coming in the garden in the breeze of the day, and the man and his wife hid from before God in the trees of the garden. God called the man and said to him, ‘Aiyeka?’ (Where are you?)

Rebi Shimon ben Pazi said: The word aiyeka is only used as a gematria equaling thirty-six .. . Midrash Zuta, Eichah 1:1

("Why was Israel smitten with ‘Aicah’? Because they transgressed the thirty-six krisos (transgressions punishable by excision from the Jewish people) of the Torah." (Sanhedrin 104a) This again shows the correlation between ‘Aicah’ and the number thirty-six.)

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *The Torah called the original light of creation "good," implying that it was an accurate fulfillment of the Divine intention when creating the world. Adam’s violation of the commandment to not eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil was just the opposite, and as such, an abrogation of the very concept embodied by the supernal light.

Aiyeka - where are you? - also means "Thirty-six!" as if to say, "How have you acted in a way that reveals the Hidden Light that shone for thirty-six hours, and which embodies all that thirty-six stands for?" Thus, as much as the original light of creation was hidden within the first week of creation, it is still possible to reveal it through our actions, or, conversely, keep it hidden.

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Chapter Three

Noach, Chayn & Yonah

God said, ‘I will wipe out man which I created from the face of the earth - from man to beast to crawling creature to birds of the sky, because I regret what I made.’ Noach found favor (chayn) in the eyes of God. Bereishis 6:7-8

Adam never answered the question "Aiyeka" sufficiently enough to be permitted to remain in the garden. The ten generations which followed moved further away from the purpose of creation. This made God "regret" His creating them and warranted annihilation. Only Noach merited to survive Divine retribution, finding chayn in God’s eyes [chayn is the reverse of his own name (Noach), and the root of the word Chanukah (chan uka)].

How did Noach earn this merit? The Torah says regarding the birth and naming of Noach:

Lemech lived 182 years and fathered a son. He called his name ‘Noach,’ saying that he would provide relief (y'nachamainu) from the work and toil of our hands caused by the ground which God cursed.’ Bereishis 5:28

He would provide relief ... He provided relief from the toil of their hands; for until Noach they were without plowing implements; he made for them ... the ground used to produce thorns and thistles when they sowed wheat because of the curse of Adam; in Noach’s day there was relief from this - Rashi

. Whatever Noach’s merit was, it had to do with chesed, and this was enough of a fulfillment of the purpose of creation for God to let him survive. For this reason, Noach also became a conduit of sorts for the Hidden Light of creation, binding him conceptually to the spirit of the chayn of Chanukah, which falls out on the twenty-fifth day of Kislev.

He [Noach] waited another seven days and again sent the dove (yonah) from the ark. Then, toward the evening the dove returned to him carrying a plucked olive leaf in its mouth. Bereishis 8:10

God said, ‘The olive brought light to the world,’ as it says, ‘Then, toward

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the evening the dove returned to him carrying a plucked olive leaf in its mouth.’ VaYikrah Rabbah 31:10

"He [Noach] waited another seven days and again sent the dove..." into the exile of the Greeks who blackened the faces of the Jews"... the dove returned to him carrying a plucked olive leaf in its mouth ..." Had not God enlightened the wise to light the candles with the oil of olive, the remainder of Yehuda would have been lost forever ... "a plucked olive leaf in its mouth." ... From the moment the leaf was plucked off in her mouth "twenty-five" was to dwell upon the Jewish people - the twenty-fifth of Kislev. Tikunei Zohar 13

How is the Jewish people like the "dove"? When Noach was in the ark, the dove came to him with an olive branch. God said, "Just as the dove brought light to the world, so too will you (Jewish people) bring olive oil and light it before Me." Tanchuma Tetzaveh 5

The Greek exile did not occur until the thirty-fifth century, almost eighteen hundred years after Noach stepped off the ark. Yet, the midrash insists on paralleling the actions of Noach with the events that led to the redemption and a holiday celebrated by lighting thirty-six lights of olive oil. What is the parallel, and just how profound is the connection? And, what does all this have to do with chesed ?

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Chapter Four

Avraham and Light

Avraham was ninety-nine years old and God appeared to him and said to him, ‘I am El-Shaddai - walk before Me and be complete!’ Bereishis 17:1

With God Noach walked ... Regarding Avraham it says ‘walk before Me; ’ Noach depended upon his Helper, (God,) whereas Avraham pursued righteousness independently - Rashi (Bereishis 6:9).

Noach, for all his righteousness and chayn still did not reach the level of Avraham, who epitomized the trait of chesed. While Noach was a reflection of the Hidden Light of creation, Avraham was more:

God said, ‘Let there be light!’ And there was light (Bereishis 1:3). And there was light ... This is Avraham (Bereishis Rabbah 2:3)

There can be no greater compliment than to be called "light," specifically the original light of creation. All that Avraham accomplished and represented was, in the end, a complete expression of the concept of the Hidden Light of creation and thirty-six.

Through Avraham the concept of chesed drew the world closer to its intended perfection:

A world of chesed You created (Tehillim 89:3).

Finally, after twenty long generations since Hashem asked Adam, "Aiyeka," Avraham answered the question through his devotion to chesed. For this he merited to father a nation that would be eternally bound to the Hidden Light of creation, as signified through the covenant of bris milah:

This is My covenant which they will keep between Me and you and your seed after you; they will circumcize every male ... A son of eight days you will circumcize ... Bereishis 17:10-12

The eight days of milah are the eight days of Chanukah ... Tikunei Zohar 13

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Chanukah is when the Jewish people light thirty-six candles from within which the light of creation is released.

The eight days of milah are the eight days of Chanukah which follow the twenty-four letters of:

Boruch shem kavod malchuso l'olam va'ed

(Blessed be the name of His glorious kingdom forever) and are the letters of unity in the Shema (which has twenty-five letters). Ibid.

Fascinatingly enough, the acronym of the above verse is:

bscm lu - In Sh’chem thirty-six

Sh’chem was a place in Israel whose inhabitants all performed bris milah in order to intermarry with the descendants of Ya’akov (Bereishis 34:24). Then, two of Ya’akov’s sons, Shimon and Levi slaughtered the people while they were recovering. It is Sh’chem about which Rashi comments, "It is a place set aside for punishment" (Bereishis 37:14).

In the end, it is the eight days of milah and Chanukah that lead Avraham right to "ko" - twenty-five and a supernatural relationship with God:

Avraham rose up early in the morning and saddled his donkey and took two young men with him and Yitzchak his son; [he] split wood for the offering and got up and left for the place about which God had told him. On the third day, Avraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. Avraham said to the young men, ‘You stay here ("po") with the donkey and I and the young man (Yitzchak) will go over there ("ko") and prostrate ourselves and return.’ Bereishis 22:3-5

On the third day, Avraham noticed a mountain bathed in the light of a fire that reached from earth to the heavens with the Cloud of Glory resting above the mountain. ‘What do you see?’ he asked Yitzchak. ‘I see the Divine Presence on the mountain,’ Yitzchak answered. ‘What do you see?’ he asked Yishmael and Eliezer. ‘We see nothing.’ they answered. ‘Since you see nothing and the donkey also sees nothing, you belong here with the donkey,’ said Avraham. Bereishis Rabbah 56:2

In gematria kollel, "po" is equal to eighty-six, the numerical value of God’s name Elokim

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which alludes to the aspect of Him that works through nature. "ko" in gematria kollel is equal to twenty-six, the numerical value of the Ineffable Name of God, the Tetragrammaton, which alludes to the aspect of God that works above nature.

This was Avraham’s message to Yishmael and Eliezer: Since you cannot see the miracle, it is clear that you are subject to the laws of nature, as is the donkey. Your relationship to God is through nature. However, since God has made us privy to His supernatural manifestation, it is on this level that we must relate to him.

Avraham was able to project his light, the light by going there - "ko" - with his first son to be circumcized on the eighth day from birth. This imbued within the Jewish nature and psyche access to the Hidden Light of creation and the concept embodied by the number thirty-six. Had Avraham not succeeded in this area, redemption from the Greek exile would have been hopeless - fulfillment of the purpose of creation would have been impossible.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *The mispar katan of chesed and bris is nine which is equal to that of light , the same mispar katan of thirty-six and truth.

chesed =

8 +60 + 4 = 72 7 + 2 =9

bris =

2 + 200 + 10 + 400 = 612 6 + 1 + 2 = 9

ohr =

1 + 6 +200 = 207 2 + 0 + 7 = 9

shchem =

300 + 20 + 40 = 360 3 + 6 + 0 = 9

emes =

1 + 40 + 400 = 441 4 + 4 + 1 = 9

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Chapter Five

Ya’akov Avinu

Sarah conceived and gave birth to a son for Avraham in his old age at the appointed time God had said. Avraham called his son that Sarah bore for him ‘Yitzchak.’ Avraham circumcized Yitzchak his son when he was eight days old as God had commanded. Bereishis 21:2-4

When Yitzchak was circumcized on the eighth day of his life, he became infused with all that "eight" represents, raising him forever above the natural world. This is why he, at such a young age warranted to see the Divine Presence like his father and why he was so willing to offer himself up as a sacrifice to God:

Yitzchak said to his father Avraham, ‘My father ...’ ‘I am here my son.’ he answered. He said, ‘Here is the fire and the wood - where is the sheep to be offered?’ Avraham answered, ‘God will reveal the sheep to be offered, my son.’ The two of them walked together. Bereishis 22:7

... Even though Yitzchak understood that he was going to be slaughtered, they still walked together with equal intent - Rashi.

Yitzchak’s life was not free of struggle. Still, the issues of “thirty-six” and “twenty-five” did not play such a major a role in his life, at least not in any obvious way. Certainly this is true in comparison to the life of his son, Ya’akov. Ya’akov’s life from beginning to end seems to have merged the realities of the Hidden Light of creation with mankind.

Considering the following midrash, it is not surprising that the account of Yitzchak’s life (even after the Akeida) is not as elaborate as Ya’akov’s:

Rav Shmuel ben Rebi Yitzchak said, ‘Avraham would not have been saved from the furnace of fire had it not been for the merit of his future grandson, Ya’akov.’ A parable explains this: once a man was brought to be judged before the Sultan who then ruled that the man should be burned to death. However, by way of astrology it was revealed to the Sultan that in the future, the man (should he not be executed), would father a daughter who would one day marry the king. The Sultan said, ‘It is worth

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saving this man’s life for the daughter that will one day marry the king!’ Thus, though Avraham was judged to be burned in Ur Kasdim, when it was revealed before God that in the future Ya’akov would descend from Avraham, God said, ‘It is worth saving Avraham in the merit of Ya’akov!’ Bereishis Rabbah 63:2

Avraham was a tzadik whose very life embodied the values of the Hidden Light of creation. Yitzchak was a pure individual who reached a great spiritual climax at the tender age of thirty-seven. However, as the midrash alludes, it was the life of Ya’akov that truly told the story of the light that was hidden for people such as Ya’akov Avinu.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

And these [aileh] are the generations of Yitzchak, the son of Avraham ... Bereishis 25:19

Her days became complete to give birth and she had twins in her stomach. The first one came out completely red and covered in hair like a wool coat, and they called him, ‘Eisav.’ After that his brother came out holding his ankle, and he called him, ‘Ya’akov ...’ Bereishis 25:24

He called him ... The Holy One, Blessed is He [called him ‘Ya’akov] - Rashi.

The midrash which states that Ya’akov was the merit necessary to save Avraham from the flames of Ur Kasdim is based upon the above possuk, "And these are the generations ..." Though the possuk refers to both Eisav and Ya’akov, its deep meaning alludes specifically to Ya’akov.

Perhaps then, in this case "aileh" having the numerical value of thirty-six refers to Ya’akov, as if to say, thirty-six was the descendant of Yitzchak, meaning Ya’akov. This is not so absurd considering how much of Ya’akov’s life was connected to this number and considering that he resembled an angel:

Ya’akov: the gematria is [equal to] Malach HaElokim (Angel of God) - Ba’al HaTurim (25:27)

On the other hand, perhaps it is the combination of all three Forefathers that resulted in a perfect expression of the supernal light, a synergization given form in the life of the last father, Ya’akov.

Avraham = 1 + 2 + 200 + 5 + 40 = 248 Yitzchak = 10 + 90 + 8 + 100 = 208 Ya’akov = 10 + 70 + 100 + 2 = 182

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Total of the three fathers = 638

(The mispar katan of "638" is "17" - 6+3+8 - the gematria of the word "good" [Tov] used to describe the original light of creation, which can be reduced even further to "eight").

So Ya’akov bought the birthright from Eisav (Bereishis 25:31). He took the blessings from Yitzchak (Bereishis 27:1). He fled for his life from before Eisav. But it is not until much later in Ya’akov’s life that thirty-six and Chanukah become prevalent factors in his story of Ya’akov, sometimes against his will:

It was morning, and behold it was Leah [Ya’akov had married] ... Bereishis 29:25

For seven years Ya’akov toiled for Lavan in order to marry his youngest daughter Rachel (Bereishis 29:20). But, Lavan, ever the trickster, gave Ya’akov Leah instead whom he had not wished to wed. However, God thought otherwise, and "injected" thirty-six into his life (Leah=30+1+5). It was through Leah that Ya’akov fathered the source of kings (Yehuda) and priests (Levi).

Eventually, Ya’akov married Rachel also. Rachel died at the young age of thirty-six while giving birth to Ya’akov’s twelfth son, Binyomin. This was just before Ya’akov entered the land of Canaan - after being away from home for a total of thirty-six years!

From here we learn that Ya’akov hid in the house of Eiver for fourteen years and after that went to Charan ... twenty [additional years] Ya’akov was away from his father in the house of Lavan, and two years he delayed along the way - Rashi (Bereishis 28:9)

And as he approached the borders of Canaan, it was then that Ya’akov’s life became truly intertwined with thirty-six, and the Hidden Light of creation. It was then that Ya’akov also achieved a spectacular self-transformation. For, in going back across the Yabok River for some small containers, Ya’akov made possible the thirty-six candles of Chanukah:

Ya’akov took them and crossed them over the river and all that was with him. Ya’akov remained alone ... Bereishis 32:24

He remained for small jars (Chullin 91a).

God said to Ya’akov, ‘For endangering yourself for a small container, I Myself will repay your children with a small container to the Chashmonaim [at the time of Chanukah].’ Midrash Tzeidah LaDerech

However, the container Ya’akov returned for was no ordinary container, nor was it empty:

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From where did Ya’akov get this jar? When he picked up the stones from under his head and returned them in the morning, he found a stone that had a jar of oil in it, and he used it to pour on the top stone. When it refilled itself, Ya’akov knew it was set aside for God. He said, "It’s not right to leave this here ..." Yalkut Reuveni, VaYishlach

Fleeing for his life Ya’akov left Be’er Sheva for Charan where his uncle Lavan lived. Just prior to leaving Canaan, Ya’akov camped for the night at Har HaMoriah, the place Avraham referred to as koh, the place from which God created the entire universe. After praying there, an angelic voice called out:

Ya’akov has arrived! The great Ya’akov who, like the sun, sheds light on the universe! Bereishis Rabbah 68:12

There Ya’akov slept the night with a stone as a pillow, and there he dreamt prophetically of a ladder that reached into heaven. The next morning, Ya’akov took the stone he had slept on and built a monument to commemorate his prophetic vision.

After building the monument, Ya’akov then anointed it with oil, miraculous oil he had miraculously found at a holy place for a holy purpose. Fifteen hundred years in the future, in the same holy spot, Ya’akov’s descendants would also miraculously find miraculous oil ... oil they would merit to discover, because an ancestor called "light" traveled back across the river for it!

And in returning for the small little jar of oil that never diminished, Ya’akov battled with a "stranger" the entire night.

Ya’akov remained alone, and a man battled with him until the morning light. When he saw that he could not overcome him he touched his hind thigh and uprooted the thigh of Ya’akov ... Bereishis 32:25

The battle was not a typical fight between two men. The night was Jewish history and its long bitter exiles; the angel was all the enemies of the Jewish people that would try to extinguish the light of Torah and the people meant to be a light unto nations. Ya’akov’s victory was the eventual redemption of the Jewish people ... and the Hidden Light of creation:

He said to him, ‘What is your name?’ He answered, ‘Ya’akov.’ He said, ‘No longer is it Ya’akov, but Yisroel, for you fought with God and with men and overcame. Bereishis 32:28

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No longer is it Ya’akov ... "He strove with an angel and overcame it; he cried and pleaded to him (Bocho vayischanen lo... )"Hoshea 12:5 - Rashi.

B’ch"o vayischanen l"o... ("he cried and pleaded to him") can be read as, on the twenty-fifth (bc"h Kislev) there will be a chayn (i.e., Chanukah) of thirty-six (l"o numerically is equal to thirty-six).

Even the gid hanashe where the angel injured Ya’akov before taking his leave, is tied to the holy oil of Chanukah (Ohr Torah 10), conceptually and numerically ...

gid hanashe = 3+10+4 + 5+50+300+5 = 377 ... 3 + 7 + 7 = 17 ... 1 + 7 = 8

This is the same gid hanashe that Yosef had removed before his brothers eyes:

U’tvoach tevach v,hachain - Slaughter and prepare ... (Bereishis 43:16)

Prepare ... Remove the gid hanashe in front [of the brothers]. Chullin 91a

The five last letters of U’tvoach tevach v’hachain spell Chanukah, and their total numerical value is equal to 44, the number of candles of Chanukah (including the shamashim) - Eliyahu Rabbah, Chanukah 10.

And how could the damage caused by that long, bitter night be healed?

The sun shone for him (lo) ... (Bereishis 32:32)

The sun shone for him (lo) ... The word l"o refers to the thirty-six candles of Chanukah - Maharil (Avodah Zara 3b).

When Ya’akov left Peniel, the place that he "saw God face-to-face," he left a changed man. Ya’akov’s victory was as much an inner one than any other kind of victory. It transformed him into Yisroel - the namesake of all his descendants and the description of the perfected nation ... the "light unto the nations."

However, as climactic as the victorious moment was, Ya’akov still had to "grow" somewhat into the role and instill the trait of Yisroel into the national psyche of the people he had begun to create. Unfortunately this drained Ya’akov of his life’s energy and even led to an early death at the age of 147 years.

First, his daughter was violated in Sh’chem, the place "set aside" for punishment

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(Bereishis 37:14; Rashi). Even as disastrous as this was, somewhere amidst the tragedy and confusion lurked the light of creation, albeit hidden. This we have already seen from the acronym of "Blessed be the name of His glorious kingdom forever" - Boruch shem kavod malchuso l'olam va'ed - bscm lu - In Sh’chem thirty-six.

Shortly after dealing with that episode, Yosef, Ya’akov’s chosen spiritual heir was sold into slavery by his brothers. This occurred, of all places, in Sh’chem. At what age was Yosef sold? At seventeen years of age - the numerical value of "good" which the light of creation was called.

For twenty-two difficult years Ya’akov could not be consoled over the loss of Yosef, who can be compared to the light of the menorah:

Ya’akov settled in the land of the sojournings of his fathers, in the Land of Canaan. These [aileh] are the generations of Ya’akov: Yosef was seventeen years old ... Bereishis 37:1

Ya’akov settled ... A flax-driver came into town with camels laden with flax. A smithy wondered, ‘Where will all this flax go?’ A certain wise guy answered, ‘One spark from your bellow will burn it up!’ Thus Ya’akov saw all the chieftains of Eisav mentioned in the previous chapter (i.e., Chapter 36!) and asked, ‘Who will be able to conquer them?’ What’s written after? ‘These are the generations of Ya’akov: Yosef .. .’ as it says, ‘The house of Ya’akov will be fire, the house of Yosef will be a flame, and the house of Eisav will be straw; one spark will go out from Yosef and burn it all up - Rashi.

A spark which comes from a hammer and damages makes one culpable. If a camel was loaded with flax which pressed through the door of a store and caught fire from the storekeeper’s candle, burning down the building, the camel owner is culpable. However, if the shopkeeper left his candle outside, the shopkeeper is culpable. Rebi Yehuda says, if it was a Chanukah candle, he is not culpable. Baba Kamma 62b

Making a very long story shorter, Ya’akov and Yosef are eventually reunited in Egypt. At the extremely emotional reunion of father and son, while Yosef cries on his father’s neck, Ya’akov recites the twenty-five letters of the Shema.

The last seventeen years of Yisroel’s (Ya'akov's) life were spent in Goshen (Gsnah is the acronym found on the dreidel nes gadol hayah shom - a great miracle happened there). Yisroel taught his own grandsons as he saw his son, Yosef, resume his role as leader of the family. And when he finally died, Divine tribute was paid to Ya’akov; for he was the prism through which the light of the first day of creation shone and splintered off into his descendants. The Talmud states that,

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In the beginning, before the Egyptians saw the way the entire world honored Yisroel (Ya’akov), they did not conduct themselves honorably toward the brothers of Yosef. However, after they saw how they were honored by the entire world, they too paid their due respects. The following possuk indicates this, "And they came to the threshing-floor surrounded by thorns. " (Bereishis 50:10). Is a threshing-floor made of thorns? Rav Avahu said: This is to teach you that they [the kings of the entire world] surrounded the coffin of Ya’akov with crowns like a threshing-floor surrounded by thorns ... They went to do war, but when they saw the crown of Yosef on the coffin of Ya’akov, all of them took off their crowns and placed them on Ya’akov’s coffin: thirty-six crowns they placed on the coffin. Sota 13a

There is no denying it: Ya’akov fulfilled the purpose represented by thirty-six: He shone with the light of creation.

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Chapter Six

The Shevatim

The entire story of Yosef and his brothers can be seen through the eyes of Chanukah and thirty-six. There are not many gematrios to speak of that allude to the wonderful world of thirty-six, perhaps because the entire story itself is such an allusion:

The tribes were involved with the sale of Yosef; Yosef was immersed in mournful thoughts about his separation from his father; Reuven was involved with mourning over his sin; Ya'akov was mourning for Yosef; Yehuda was busy taking a wife for himself (Tamar). And the Holy One, Blessed is He, was busy creating the light of Moshiach. Bereishis Rabbah 85:2

The midrash is not merely summarizing disconnected events of the day. Rather, what the midrash means to indicate is that all the events that occurred in the story of Yosef and his brothers, whether they realized it or not, were min hashamayim - directed by Heaven. These events would make possible the revelation of the light of Moshiach, the Hidden Light of creation, the light of the thirty-six candles of Chanukah. (B'nei Yisaschar says that every Chanukah at the time of lighting, the Hidden Light is revealed, and this is the light of Melech Moshiach.)

It is not unlike a dreidel which rotates when spun from the top. (Ta'amei HaMinhagim 859: The reason why we play dreidel on Chanukah, and why at Purim we use a grager, is because at Chanukah time the initiation was not from below, but from above ... For this reason we play dreidel and grip it from the top. At Purim time, they instituted fasts, sackcloth, and ashes, which was an initiation from below; thus we grip [the grager] from below.) In the case of the shevatim, the "spinner" was the Master of the Universe, and the body of the dreidel was Yosef and his brothers. But the brothers seemed to see the events of their lives differently, viewing themselves as the "spinners" - the ones in control. It was this perception that was the source of their errors and suffering.

The first such example of error due to misperception was the incident in Sh'chem. (Bereishis 34:1) After Ya'akov's daughter was violated by Sh'chem (the son of the ruler of Sh'chem), the brothers, understandably, were enraged; it had been a gross violation of the

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sanctity of the family of Ya'akov. However, when Sh'chem came with his father to Ya'akov's camp to make peace, and to marry Deenah, the brothers negotiated a settlement:

They said to them, 'We cannot give our sisters to a man who is uncircumcized; this would be disgraceful to us. We can only agree to do this if you become like us and every male circumcize himself ... ' Bereishis 34:14

As the Torah reports, the men of Sh'chem consented. However, to Shimon and Levi, this act was not "compensation" enough for the violation of their sister. On the third day after the milah, the day on which they were weakest, the people of Sh'chem were attacked and wiped out by Shimon and Levi.

Their act of zealousness was not met with approval by their father, who must have been equally if not more incensed at the violation of his daughter.

Ya'akov said to Shimon and Levi, 'You have confounded me and given me a bad reputation among the Canaanites and Perizites who live in the land. I have a small number of men. They can band together and attack me, and my family and I will be wiped out.' Bereishis 34:30

Confounded me ... The Canaanites had a tradition that they would be defeated by the sons of Ya'akov, but not until we increased and inherited the land;[and for this reason] they remain quiet. - Rashi

However, now they will think the time has come and attack us [while we are few in number]. - Sifsei Chachamim

It seemed that Ya'akov and his sons had two different approaches to the crisis. Whereas Shimon and Levi took the initiative to avenge the honor of the family and teach the world a moral lesson, Ya'akov decided to take the matter in stride. What happened to Deenah was min hashamayim. (The midrash (to which Rashi refers, 32:23) cites that, because Ya'akov hid Dinah from Eisav at the time of the confrontation just prior to the incident at Sh'chem, she was later violated.) Recognizing this and living with this reality was what Ya'akov perceived to be the true challenge of the moment.

However, the brothers did not apply the lesson taught at Sh'chem. They continued to take matters into their own hands, often taking an initiative that was not theirs to take. It was this boldness that led to their hatred and jealousy of Yosef, which was the catalyst to sell him into slavery.

Yosef was Ya'akov's prodigy for many reasons, none of to which the brothers could relate. In Yosef, Ya'akov saw the continuation of the spiritual legacy begun by Avraham and further cultivated by his father Yitzchak and himself; the brothers saw spiritual ruination

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and an instigator. While the brothers saw the "surface" of Yosef which seemed negative, (The midrash says that Yosef appeared to his brothers like a tattle-taling, self-centered, egotistical boy, a viewpoint that was totally incorrect but not unfounded, at least superficially.) Ya'akov looked beyond and saw only spiritual greatness. For this reason, the brothers conspired to rid Jewish ancestry of this "bad" seed, without first consulting their father .

When Yosef was sent by his father to inquire after the peace of his brothers who were out grazing the herds, he obeyed without second thought though he knew how his brothers felt towards him. Upon seeing Yosef coming in the distance, the brothers first thought to kill him. However, Yehuda's mercy prevailed, and they instead threw Yosef into a waterless pit:

... And the well was empty, there was no water inside it (Bereishis 37:24). From the fact that it says the well was empty, would it not be clear there was no water inside? Rather, it teaches you that there was no water, but there were snakes and scorpions. Shabbos 22a

What makes this midrash fascinating is that it is found in the only gemora that deals with Chanukah. And the author of this statement is the same author who stated just previously:

... Chanukah candles placed higher than twenty amos are possul [they do not fulfill the mitzvah since the eye cannot see clearly something placed at that height].

Perhaps there is another connection between the two Talmudic statements, one that answers another question: Why didn't Yosef's brothers see the miracle that Yosef survived in a pit full of snakes and scorpions? Had they recognized this miracle, perhaps they would have come to the realization that Yosef was more righteous than they had first thought; perhaps they would have changed their plans. The Talmud seems to allude to the fact that Yosef was in fact beyond their eyeshot - twenty amos below the ground, (The equivalent of thirty feet. The Hebrew word mayim is equal to the same mispar katan as thirty-six, i.e., nine.) and more deeply, beyond their mind's eyeshot. (In other words, so certain were they of their thinking, that it mentally blinded them to Yosef's fate. He might as well have been twenty amos away.) As Divine Providence would have it, a wagon train of Midianites passed by at that time, and the brothers decided to sell Yosef into slavery.

The brothers sat down and ate a meal. When they looked up they saw an Arab caravan approaching from Gilead. The camels were carrying gum, balsam, and resin, transporting them to Egypt. Bereishis 37:25

The camels were carrying ... Why does the verse reveal what they were carrying? To make known the reward of the righteous. For it was the way of Arabs to transport kerosene and tar which have a terrible odor; but for this [the sale of Yosef] spices were prepared which do not smell bad (i.e., God arranged that they carry spices knowing that Yosef would travel

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among them). - Rashi

This fact too was hidden from the eyes of the brothers. They acted with the full conviction believing that they were in the right, (They even bound God by an oath to not tell Ya'akov what they had done and that Yosef was still alive.) while Yosef was in fact on his way to become viceroy of Egypt. This was the beginning of the fulfillment of his dreams; he was assisting in the making of the light of Moshiach.

The Midianites, the Torah relates, sold Yosef to Potiphar, Paroah's chief butcher . It did not take long for Yosef to earn the full respect of his master, who quickly made him responsible over his entire house. The only problem was that Potiphar's wife also took notice of Yosef, for different reasons, but this too was min hashamayim:

Yosef was handsome (Bereishis 39:6)... He saw himself as a ruler and began to eat and drink [as one of royalty] and curled his hair. The Holy One, Blessed is He, said, 'Your father mourns [for you] and you curl your hair! I will sic a bear on you (i.e., the wife of Potiphar).' - Rashi

In the meantime, the brother who was Yosef's chief antagonist was faring just as badly. Yehuda had lost the respect of his brothers after they saw the impact the loss of Yosef had had on their father (it was Yehuda's decision to sell him). And if that was not enough, he was made to appear as a fool through the incident of Tamar.

Yehuda married a wife who bore him three children, Eir, Onan, and Shelah. The oldest son, Eir, married Tamar, a righteous woman. (She was the daughter of Noach's son, Shaim (Bereishis Rabbah 85:11).) However, Eir himself was not so righteous and deserved death from Heaven. After he died and left his wife childless, Yehuda told Onan to marry his brother's wife in order to prevent the end of his dead son's name. (After Mt. Sinai and the giving of Torah, it became a mitzvah to perform yibum, i.e., a man is to marry his brother's childless widow (Devarim 25:5).)

However, Onan was more like his brother than his sister-in-law, and he too angered God and deserved death. After Onan died, Yehuda was worried that Shelah too might suffer the same fate if he married Tamar. He instead instructed her to return to her father's house for a while until Shelah was older.

Time passed, and even though Shelah was now of an age to marry Tamar, Yehuda did not arrange it. Knowing that her fate lay with Yehuda's family, Tamar took the initiative to complete the process that Yehuda had started many years before.

Dressed as a harlot to attract Yehuda, Tamar positioned herself at crossroads near the place Avraham used to live, a place she knew every passer-by stopped to visit. Yehuda noticed her, but recognized her as a harlot and passed her by. But Heaven knew who she really was and asked, "From which union will kings arise if not from this one?" (Bereishis Rabbah 85:8)

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Thus, even against his will, Yehuda was drawn towards the veiled Tamar. In a sense it was another act of "measure-for-measure," for one who does not recognize the hand of God becomes a pawn in His plan. Had Yehuda been more keenly aware of Divine Providence, he might have noticed that something unique was happening.

A deal was struck between Yehuda and Tamar for her hire: One kid goat from the flock. In the meantime, Yehuda was to leave his signet ring, his cloak and his staff as a pledge until he could make good on his word. Yehuda later went his way, unaware that, min hashamayim Tamar had conceived a child who would be the ancestor of Dovid HaMelech, and eventually, Melech Moshiach.

After Yehuda returned home, he sent the kid goat he had promised in exchange for the pledge he had left behind. The "harlot," however, was nowhere to be found. Afraid that further pursuit of her would lead to humiliation, Yehuda left well enough alone and went on with his life.

Three months later Yehuda was informed that Tamar was pregnant. Being the daughter of a priest, she was punishable by death, and the necessary arrangements were made to carry out her execution by burning. (I saw in a sefer some time ago that the burning was to take place on the twenty-fifth day of Kislev - the future day of Chanukah!) In the meantime, Tamar said nothing to reveal the father of her children (she was pregnant with twins).

At the last moment. Tamar sent the signet ring, cloak and staff to Yehuda saying, "The man to whom these things belong, he is the one who made me pregnant." Tamar reasoned that if Yehuda admitted that they belonged to him , then she would be saved. However, if he chose to remain silent, then she was prepared to die with her secret.

But Yehuda did not remain silent:

Yehuda recognized [the ring, cloak, and staff] and said, 'She is more righteous than I am. She did this, because I did not give her to Shelah my son.' Bereishis 38:26

Thus Tamar was saved from a fiery death, and Yehuda was forced to admit his error. But more importantly, the Master of the Universe brought creation one step closer to the light of Melech Moshiach with the birth of Peretz.

In Egypt, the "bear" hunted Yosef. Time after time, the wife of Potiphar sought Yosef, but to no avail. On one occasion, after Yosef refused his master's wife, she accused him of attacking her. To save face, Potiphar had no choice but to heed his wife and put Yosef in jail. This seemed a downturn in events as prison was a far cry from the lifestyle Yosef had enjoyed in the house of Potiphar. But this was an important step in elevating Yosef to an even higher position.

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In prison, Yosef also earned the respect of his new master the prison warden. In the meantime, Divine Providence had Paroah's chief butler and wine steward thrown into the same cell as Yosef, and both servants dreamed. The next morning, they were in search of a dream interpreter; Yosef availed himself to explain the meaning of their dreams. For the wine steward, he interpreted favorably, predicting a return to his former glory. For the baker, however, he predicted capital punishment.

Up until that point, Yosef had performed well, ascribing his ability to interpret dreams to God Himself. But now Yosef added words that cost him two extra years in prison. He told the wine steward:

When things go well for you, please do a kindness for me and mention me to Paroah, and have me released from this prison. I was kidnapped from the land of the Hebrews. Here also I did nothing, and yet they placed me in this pit. Bereishis 40:14

But later the verse says,

... And the chief wine steward did not remember Yosef and forgot him. Bereishis 40:23

Forgot him ... Because Yosef depended upon him to remember him, he had to spend two extra years [in prison]. - Rashi

One might ask: Did not Yosef make a simple effort to free himself from prison? Was his effort so unreasonable as to constitute a violation of trust in God? Some answer this question by stating that as Yosef haTzadik, he should have not made even such a simple request; on his level of spiritual greatness, it was enough to trust entirely in God.

However, perhaps Yosef's error was something different. After all, why did Yosef feel compelled to explain how he arrived in prison, revealing that he was kidnapped and falsely accused? Was not all of that min hashamayim and therefore for the good? Perhaps, as much as Yosef knew that, it wasn't real enough on the level it could have been to him. The two extra years in prison made the hand of God in his life even more apparent than before. It prepared him to be the vehicle to teach this central theme of, "everything originates from Heaven," to his brothers, who still grappled with the issue.

After the two years passed, Paroah too dreamed, the famous dream. He dreamed of seven thin cows that consumed seven healthy cows and of seven poor stalks that consumed seven healthy stalks. No one in the entire kingdom was able to interpret the dream to Paroah's satisfaction, which reminded the wine steward of a young Jew in prison who had a knack for interpreting dreams accurately. After thirteen years, the time had finally come to fulfill Yosef's boyhood dream of becoming a ruler.

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As the Torah relates, Yosef so satisfactorily interpreted Paroah's dreams that Paroah saw in him wisdom beyond his years and the help of Heaven. For this reason, he elevated Yosef from prisoner to Second-in-Command, which is exactly where he had to be to drive the message of Chanukah home to his brothers. Paroah called him, Tzafnas Pa'aneach, (Bereishis 41:45) which, as Targum Onkeles translates, means the (man through whom) the hidden is revealed.

As Yosef had interpreted, Egypt enjoyed seven years of plenty, which were followed by years of terrible famine. However, the famine was not confined to Egypt; Canaan too ran out of food, and the brothers were forced to go to Egypt in search of food that Yosef had stored during the years of plenty. The stage was set for the dramatic confrontation between Yosef and his brothers, who had not seen him for twenty-two years.

The entire famine which affected all the nations of the world at that time was to bring the brothers down to Egypt in search of food, in order to resolve their conflict. The entire history of the Jewish people depended upon this resolution, for it was to prepare the way for the light of the Moshiach, and the entire history of the world for that matter. And once they arrived, and Yosef took note of their arrival, the process of resolution accelerated towards its climax.

Yosef saw his brothers and recognized them and acted as a stranger towards them, speaking harshly, 'From where did you come?' They answered, 'From Canaan, in search of food.' Yosef recognized them, but they did not recognize him ... Bereishis 42:7

... because they never saw the potential in Yosef to ever become what he had become ... because they never saw the hand of God in his dreams, and in all that occurred ... because they only looked at the surface, which blinded them to that which was hidden.

And Yosef remembered his dreams that he had dreamed and said to them, 'You are spies who have come to see where the land is vulnerable!' Bereishis 42:8

The accusation shocked the brothers, who took it at face value. They were caught off guard and put on the defensive, forced to clear their names. Had they been accustomed to looking beyond the surface for the truth, they may have broken Yosef's code. They may have caught on that Yosef, by accusing them of being spies (m'raglim), was in fact revealing his hidden identity.

m'raglim is an acronym for ma'imi Rochel g'navtem, l'Midyanim Yishma'ailim m'chartem (from my mother Rachel you kidnapped me; to the Midyanim and Arabs you sold me). - Bris Shalom

Perhaps Yosef was testing them to see if their perspectives had changed. The fact that they could not understand his clue indicated that they had not, and therefore Yosef embarked

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upon a course that would dramatically disturb his brothers and eventually shock them into seeing the truth. As Yosef knew, there was no other way to correct what they had done wrong and to set Jewish history back on track.

On the defensive, the brothers felt compelled to tell Yosef about their family, which is what he wanted. This set the stage to bring Binyomin down to Egypt and replay the incident of the sale of Yosef. The brothers were given their supplies and the second oldest brother, Shimon was kept as a guarantee that they would return with Binyomin, Yosef's brother from the same mother which would verify their story. (This, perhaps, was another clue, for it was Shimon who initiated the incident in Sh'chem.) The rest of the brothers were free to return, for, as Yosef said,

I fear God (Bereishis 42:18). (This was another clue, for it was unusual for an Egyptian ruler to express such a sentiment.)

The events of what had just occurred hit the brothers like a nightmare, which made the hand of God ever more obvious:

Each man said to his brother, 'This is happening because we are transgressors, because we saw the suffering of our brother [Yosef, twenty-two years earlier] and how he pleaded with us, yet we did not pay attention to him.' Bereishis 42:21

However, it wasn't until they reach the inn, on their way back to Canaan, that they really felt like fugitives:

They loaded the food onto their donkeys and left. One of them opened his sack to feed his donkeys at an inn and saw his money at the top of his pack. Each one said to his brother, 'My money [with which I paid for the food] has been returned!' 'It's in my pack!' Their hearts sank. 'What is this that God has done to us?' they asked each other with trembling voices. Bereishis 42:26

In spite of this, it still did not occur to them that Yosef was behind everything. Their perspective did not permit them to see the hidden. In the meantime, they returned home to their father Ya'akov, who was still mourning the loss of Yosef. (Often a sign that the person has not really died, which Ya'akov may have intuited.) They related what had happened and delivered the horrible news that another son was missing.

Though they were prepared to return to Egypt to free Shimon, by presenting their youngest brother as proof of their plea of innocence, Ya'akov would have nothing of it. Binyomin was the only remaining son of the wife he loved most (Rachel, Yosef's mother), who had died at age thirty-six. Why place this son in jeopardy?

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All the confusion and trouble did not entirely humble Yehuda, as Rashi indicates. After Ya'akov refused to send his sons back with Binyomin as they themselves would have done, Yehuda remarked:

We'll wait for the old man until there ceases to be bread in the house. - Rashi

It did not sound as if Yehuda yet respected his father's viewpoint in matters. Like always, the brothers felt that their way of seeing and doing things better fit the needs of the future Jewish people. But, with each mistake the tables turned until they were forced to submit to the views of Ya'akov and Yosef.

When the brothers eventually returned to stand before Yosef with Binyomin, they first encountered Yosef's overlord (his son Menashe, which also spells Shmoneh, eight, and hashemen, the oil). Immediately they recounted finding their money, preempting any accusation that might be added to the previous one of being spies. Menashe's answer must have really taken them by surprise:

'Peace be unto you. Don't worry. Your God, the God your father gave this hidden treasure to you ...' Bereishis 43:23

Again, it was an Egyptian saying words that should have come out of the mouth of a son of Ya'akov. More mystery, more clues ...

U'tvoach tevach v'hachain - Slaughter and prepare ... (Bereishis 43:16)

Prepare ... Remove the gid hanashe in front [of the brothers]. Chullin 91a

The five last letters of U'tvoach tevach v'hachain spell Chanukah, and their total numerical value is equal to 44, the number of candles of Chanukah (including the shamashim) - Eliyahu Rabbah, Chanukah 10.

Yosef was referring to the meal that he planned to have with his brothers after they returned from Canaan with Binyomin. He wanted to remove the gid hanashe which is hidden within the leg and which alludes to the struggle Ya'akov had with the angel of Eisav after returning for small jars of oil. This was another hint to the brothers. Yosef was bringing home his message.

After a peaceful encounter, true to his word, Yosef freed Shimon and returned him to his brothers. They dined, and after they had finished, loaded up their donkeys with provisions. They prepared to go home, but when they were not looking, Yosef had his silver chalice hidden in the sack of Binyomin.

The brothers had not traveled far before Yosef's men caught up to them, and accused them

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of stealing the goblet - the worst nightmare they could have dreamed. Once the chalice was found in Binyomin's sack, they had had all they could take. Tearing their clothes like mourners, they returned to Egypt defeated and downtrodden.

Even still, they accused Binyomin of being guilty rather than assuming his innocence:

'Thief, son of a thief ... son of Rachel who stole Lavan's items of idol worship.' Bereishis Rabbah 92:8

Just as they had wrongly accused Yosef, they wrongly accused Yosef's brother. Just as they had judged "guilty" based upon what their eyes saw, and not what was apparent to the mind's eye, they judged Binyomin to be guilty based upon surface evidence. In doing so they set themselves up for a very hard fall, when the hand of God, and the hand of Yosef would become perfectly apparent.

Yehuda said, 'What can we say to my master, and what is our righteousness. God has found the transgression of your servants ...' Bereishis 44:16

In other words, Yehuda was telling Yosef, the situation has become so ludicrous that we don't even suspect you anymore. When things this strange happen, it is the hand of God working directly in the affairs of man, and obviously He wants us to be enslaved to you for our past mistake.

But, Yosef was not finished yet. Yehuda's admission was only a partial one. Even when events don't seem so strange, the hand of God is there working, and it is for us to assume this, rely upon it and show appreciation for it. Once the brothers understood this, Yosef could prove that each one could be a vehicle to fulfill His will. Nothing stands in the way of fulfillment once a person lives with this reality. But overlook the hand of God, and you become a mere pawn in His master plan of making the light of Melech Moshiach, of ushering in the grand finale of history.

Back in Egypt, Yehuda confronted Yosef when the latter turned down his request to spare Binyomin and instead enslave the rest of the brothers. According to the midrashim, the ensuing discussion threatened to become quite violent, at which point Yosef felt compelled to announce what he had held back until just the right moment:

'I am Yosef' (Bereishis 45:3).

The brothers were completely speechless and terrified. They were afraid of Yosef, but more importantly, they were afraid of how, for twenty-two years they had totally missed the point. They had thought that they had been the ones in control the whole time, only to find out that they had instead been pawns in God's plan to elevate Yosef and bring the Jewish people down to Egypt.

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Nothing is worse than being only a pawn in God's history; nothing is worse than misreading the opportunities of life. Nothing is worse than finding out that you were concealing the light of creation, when you had thought that all along you were revealing it.

The rest of the story of Yosef and his brothers is history. The brothers recovered from their shock well enough to return home and reveal to Ya'akov what he had suspected all along. And with the news of Yosef's physical and spiritual survival came the need to emigrate from Canaan, to descend into the exile foretold to Avraham over one hundred years before.

Finally, after twenty-two long years, the "spark" was reunited with the "flame," and a new era of Jewish and world history was ready to begin. The hidden had been revealed, and the light of creation was allowed to shine for a time. It was peace and tranquillity that Yisroel enjoyed the last seventeen years of his life. (The age at which Yosef was sold. The Mispar Katan is Eight, alluding to the eight days of Chanukah.)

The period of transition came to a close, and the torch that had previously been passed from individual to individual would now be passed to an entire nation whose mission it would be to shine with the light of creation. And the individual responsible for this phase of the transition had himself been a repository of the spectacular light of the first day of creation.

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Chapter Seven

Moshe and the Jewish Nation

A man from the house of Levi married a daughter of Levi. The woman conceived and gave birth to a son. She saw that he was good and hid him for three months. Shemos 2:1

When Moshe was born, the house was filled with light. It is written here, "... And she saw that he was good ..." and there it is written, "God saw the light, that it was good ... " Sota 12a

The fact that the same word describing the Hidden Light of creation ("good") is also used to describe Moshe himself, may, on the surface, seem insignificant. However, the rabbis saw in this a connection between the Supernal light and Moshe Rabbeinu, the future leader of the Jewish people.

What makes this connection even more significant is the date of Moshe’s birth: 2368 from creation, thirty-six years after Egyptian bondage actually began. (According to the Torah, Paroah did not feel free to enslave the Jewish people until after all of Yosef’s brothers died. The last brother to die was Levi, in the year 2332 from creation.) Furthermore, just as the light of creation was hidden after shining for thirty-six hours, the light that was revealed through the birth of Moshe after thirty-six years of enslavement was also hidden.

From an early age, the Torah reveals, Moshe had access to the light of Chanukah. Though he grew up in the house of Paroah, free of the problems of his brothers in the fields, he still chose to go out among them and empathize with them. It was on one such excursion that he saw an Egyptian beating a Jew.

He saw an Egyptian hitting a fellow Jew. He looked there and there, and when he saw that no one else was around, he smote the Egyptian and buried him in the sand. Shemos 2:12

He looked there and there ... He saw what he [the Egyptian] did in the house, and what he did in the field ... He saw that no one else was around ... That no one would come from him who would convert. - Rashi

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According to Rashi, Moshe’s vision extended to beyond what the eye could see. The midrash states that the reason why the Egyptian beat the Jew is because he had been with the Jew’s wife and now wished to do away with him. Moshe, through prophetic vision, was able to see this.

According to Jewish law, this was reason enough to kill the Egyptian, and any Jewish judge would have had no second thoughts about carrying out such a punishment had he been in a position to do so. However, Moshe hesitated: Though a normal "judge only has what his eyes can see," (Baba Basra 131a) Moshe was able to see into the past and future while standing in the present.

Moshe saw with the Chanukah-vision, as the verse states, "He looked there and there - ko va’ko," each word equals twenty-five, alluding to the twenty-five of Chanukah. For this is exactly what the Hidden Light provides, a view beyond the immediate, physical appearance of situations and things. In this way, the true, hidden potential is revealed.

The darkness of exile achieves one thing specifically: distance between the Jew and God. The longer the exile, the greater the distance between the two, until the closeness becomes all but a faded memory. The more painful the exile, the more doubt infects the mind of the Jew regarding the special relationship between God and the Jewish people, symbolized by the menorah. (Shabbos 22b: The entire 40 years the children of Israel traveled in the desert, they did so by the light of the menorah; it testified to all that the Divine Presence dwelled among Israel.)

Chanukah comes every year and proclaims: Look not only at the present moment, at the surface of events and things. Look beyond what the eye perceives: Look at what was once in the past and what is promised for the future, and use this to buoy yourself through the rough waters of the present. This is the basis of the longevity of Jewish faith, a faith that for any other people with a similar history would have long ago disappeared.

It is through a historical perspective that incorporates all relevant issues - past, present, and future - that the Hidden Light of creation comes alive, through the thirty-six ner shel Chanukah. And this was the message that Moshe was hand-picked by God Himself to reveal. In fact, according to tradition, Moshe taught the entire Torah to the Jewish people within thirty-six days! (Seder Olam Rabbah 10)

The menorah, the symbol of Chanukah, represents the understanding that lies below the surface. When God would teach Moshe a new law, He would speak to him from on top of the kapores over the Holy Ark, within which the Written Law had been placed. However, for the explanation of the law, Moshe turned southward towards the menorah. (HaEmek Davar)

The menorah was not the only implement of the priestly service that contained the message of thirty-six. For example, the robe worn by the high priest while serving in the Tabernacle (Shemos 28:31) contained thirty-six bells sewn onto its hem. (Zevachim 88b)

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These bells, says the Talmud, atoned for loshon hora, derogatory speech about others, a sin of very serious proportions and one for which a person can lose his portion in the World-to-Come.

Considering that it is speech that distinguishes man from animals, it is not surprising to find such a strong connection between speech and the light of creation. Speech is the measurement of godliness of an individual. (See Targum Onkelos on Bereishis 2:7.) This is especially understood when one learns that speech specifically distinguishes the Jew from the nations of the world:

Moav said to the Elders of Midyan (BaMidbar 22:4) ... What did Moav see that made them seek the advice of Midyan? When they saw that Israel was victorious in a supernatural way, they said, "Their leader [Moshe] came from Midyan. Let us ask them what is his trait." They [Midyan] told them, "His strength is only in his mouth." They [Moav] said, "We will attack them with someone whose strength is in his mouth too." - Rashi

The account of Moshe, Balak and Bilaam is recounted in the fourth book of the Torah, BaMidbar. The word midbar means "desert," but with a slight vowel change, it is transformed into the word medaber, which means "speaking." Perhaps when the Talmud teaches that one, in order to receive Torah should make himself into a midbar, (Eiruvin 54a: If a person makes himself like a desert (midbar) upon which everyone treads, his learning will endure; Nedarim 55a: Since he makes himself like a desert, ownerless to all, the Torah will be given to him as a gift.) it alludes also to the concept of medaber.

This is why the holiday that celebrates our freedom from Egyptian slavery is called Pesach, which can be divided into two words, peh sach - the "mouth that spoke." (Maharal) Our redemption from Egyptian bondage had to do with our level of spirituality regarding speech, which was refined through the Pesach Seder.

Perhaps this is even why the book that deals with Jewish preparation to live in the land of Israel, Sefer BaMidbar, is focused on incidents that deal with speech. For example, Parshas Ba-Midbar involves the counting of the Jewish people, a concept that is associated with speech. (As well, the parsha discusses the seder (order) of the camp, regarding the location of each of the tribes.)

Then there is Parshas Naso. Naso, among other matters, deals with the suspected adulteress, the Nazir, and the Priestly Blessing.

Shlomo HaMelech, when describing the adulteress remarked,

Thus it is the way of the adulteress to eat and wipe her mouth and say, ‘I have done nothing. ’ Mishlei 30:20

The cleverness of the above metaphor becomes clear through Sefer BaMidbar. As we will

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see, the difference between one who succeeds in achieving Elokus with the wisdom of thirty-six and one who does not, depends on how one uses the mouth. A medaber - a speaker, in the ultimate sense - is one who strives for Elokus; an "ingestor" is one who flees from it. (Speech emanates from within a person and impacts the world outside of him; ingesting is the result of taking and consuming from the outside world. The former act is one of chesed, while the latter one is an act of selfishness. Whenever one acts or speaks for selfish reasons, it is called "ingestion." Whenever one eats for selfless reasons, it is compared to pure speech.)

The sota, the suspected adulteress, we learn, is ensnared through her mouth:

The son of an Israelite woman and an Egyptian man went out among the Israelites and the Israelite woman’s son had a quarrel with an Israelite in the camp. The Israelite woman’s son then blasphemed God’s name ... His mother’s name was Shelomit, the daughter of Divri, from the tribe of Dan. VaYikrah 24:10

The son of an ... Egyptian man ... It was the Egyptian whom Moshe had killed [in Egypt] ... His mother’s name was Shelomit, the daughter of Divri, from the tribe of Dan ... The verse publicly mentions her name to tell you how properly Israel acted, telling us implicitly that of all the Jewish women, she alone was a harlot; Shelomit ... She was called this because she was always babbling: ‘Peace (shalom) be upon you. Peace be upon you.’ She used to continually babble with many words. - Rashi

Perhaps this is why the sota is made to swallow the bitter waters to determine her innocence or guilt. For having improperly used her mouth and for lowering herself to the level of an animal, (which is why her sin-offering is only barley, the food of a donkey,) she is as such.

From a man’s mouth you can tell what he is (Zohar BaMidbar 193).

The nazir, the gemora in Talmud Sota points out, is the response to the sota. By verbally proclaiming to be a nazir, the nazir avoids that which caused the sota to stumble. And as wine (which is consumed) also caused her lewdness, the nazir abstains from wine.

The priestly blessing is one of the best examples of the ultimate use of the power of speech. Through it the priests invoked the name of God, something which can only be done in an ultimate state of purity, to bless the nation. This is mankind exhibiting the highest form of speech.

After Parshas Naso comes Parshas BeHa’alosecha. BeHa’alosecha, says the Ramban, contains an allusion to the future rededication of the menorah in the time of the Chanukah victory. (Which, interestingly enough is found in Chapter Eight.) In this parsha (the thirty-sixth parsha in the Torah!), complaints by the people led to Divine punishment. And at the

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end of the parsha, Miriam is punished for speaking loshon hora about Moshe.

Parshas Sh’lach recounts how the spies spoke loshon hora about the Land of Israel, which led to the additional 38 years of wandering in the desert.

Parshas Korach details the rebellion Korach led against Moshe. Korach himself was incited with loshon hora about Moshe, and he incited others through subtle coaxing. Korach was punished "measure-for-measure" for improper use of speech: The mouth of the earth swallowed him and his followers.

Chukas contains the episode that cost Moshe the chance to enter Israel. Instead of bringing forth water by speaking to the rock, he did so by hitting the rock. Living in Eretz Yisroel successfully is measured by how well the Jewish people maintain their level of Elokus, which is measured by how dependent they are on nature to survive.

In a land that is also above nature, (Devarim 11:10) a descendant of Avraham should strive to live above nature. Israel is a place where the rains fall because God decrees it, regardless of seasons and cloud formations. A Jew’s mouth is where the "key" lies to unlock the door to physical and spiritual survival. The Jew must integrate this most important message into his life.

... It is not by bread alone that man lives, but by all that comes of God’s mouth. Devarim 8:3

This point was clearly made when Moshe was denied access to Israel for physically bringing forth the water, as opposed to doing it spiritually, through speech.

Parshas Balak clearly illustrates the importance of speech. Bilaam, the non-Jewish prophet whose "strength was in his mouth" and who kept claiming that he could only say that which God placed in his mouth, insisted on using his mouth for unholy purposes. The result was self-destruction, but only after a humiliating episode. While on his way to meet with Balak, the king of Moav, Bilaam’s donkey spoke, leaving Bilaam quite speechless. The message: use your mouth improperly, and you are no better than a donkey, perhaps even worse. Is it a coincidence that Bilaam’s name comes from the root which means "swallow" (bolei-ah)?

The truth is, this message was not a new one, just a forgotten one. For, after Adam ate from the forbidden Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, he was also reduced to the level of a donkey:

When The Holy One, Blessed is He, told Adam, ‘Thorns and thistles you will plant ... (Bereishis 3:18)’ tears formed in his eyes. He said before Him, ‘Master of the Universe! Shall I and my donkey eat from the same trough?!’ Pesachim 118a

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Toward the end of Parshas Balak, the Jewish people, through the advice of Bilaam, are drawn into sin. Divine retribution was swift and harsh. Someone named Pinchas acted zealously on behalf of God, killing the conspirators. Among the many rewards Pinchas received, there was an additional letter added to his name: a yud. (His name went from Pnchas to Pinchas.) This addition transformed his name, which now meant, "my mouth urged me to do it." (Rabbi Shimshon Raphael Hirsch, Parshas Pinchas.)

Pinchas, through his act of zealousness, became the very embodiment of all the Jewish nation stands for, "saying little, doing a lot," and using the mouth as a vehicle to understand and interpret the will of God. For behaving in this fashion, he returned himself back to the state of mankind prior to the consumption of the forbidden fruit: He became immortal (he became Eliyahu HaNavi, who ascended to Heaven in a fiery chariot and never died).

A fitting end to Sefer BaMidbar is the list of laws of oaths and conditional statements, both of which are used to gain control over physical desire. These are the final laws before beginning Sefer Devarim, which also means "words." Having completed the book of "speaking," the Jewish people were ready to enter Eretz Yisroel.

An allusion to Chanukah in Sefer Bereishis, among others, is the name of the twenty-fifth camp where the Jewish people stopped during the forty years in the desert: Chashmonai. Chashmonai was the name of the priestly family that led the rebellion against the Greeks, which led to the miracle of Chanukah on the twenty-fifth day of Kislev. Interestingly, BaMidbar is a book which, contains exactly thirty-six chapters.

The people who would later be called a "light unto the nations" had to first gain access the source of that light, the source of the hidden truth, in order to exemplify it for the rest of mankind to see.

This is the goal of the bris (covenant; whose mispar katan is that of thirty-six, i.e., nine), and the Torah (whose mispar katan is also equal to nine). (Torah = 400 + 6 + 200 + 5 = 611 + 1 (the kollel) = 612 ... 6 + 1 + 2 = 9.) Bris Milah is a covenant between God and the Jewish people, representing our commitment to use our creative powers to reveal the light of creation that is hidden within Torah. (See the Pri Tzadik, Parshas Balak.) We do this primarily through speech. Hence, bris milah means, the "Covenant of the Word."

The ultimate level a person can reach is:

... God said, ‘My spirit that is upon you and My words that I have placed in your mouth ... ’ Yishayahu 59:20

This is the level of d’var Hashem - the word of God, which comes from Above but through the mouth of man. It was this level that Pinchas reached (indicated by the yud added to his name), which made him a vehicle through which God was able to act, a

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mouth through which God was able to speak:

God said to Moshe, ‘Pinchas, the son of Elazar, the son of Aharon the kohen returned my anger ...’ BaMidbar 25:10

How is this level achieved? The midrash provides the answer:

‘The people that walk in the darkness saw the Great Light ... ’ (Yishayahu 9:1) ... The masters of the Talmud (Oral Law) are those who see the Great Light, for the Holy One, Blessed is He, enlightens their eyes ...

Torah Sh’b’al Peh (Oral Law) is compared to darkness, because it is difficult to learn and involves hardship... Tanchuma, Noach 9

The Talmud explains the principles laid down by the Written Law, probing deep into its concepts to better grasp the message of God and the responsibility of man. If one thing can be said about the Talmud, it is that it does not take ideas for granted. In a talmudic discussion one must keep in mind that, very little is what it seems to be on the surface. (The Torah alludes to this idea on many levels. Thus, it is fitting that the half-way point of total words contained in the Torah is, darosh dorash (VaYikrah 10:16), which also mean "investigate," as if to say, what has come before this point and what comes after it must not be taken only at face value if it is to be truly understood.)

... You delivered the strong into the hands of the weak, the many into the hands of the few ... Prayer for Chanukah

It is the Chanukah-vision, the message that shines from the lights of the menorah, that symbolizes that which the Talmud teaches. In a very real sense, each section of the Talmud corresponds to one light from the menorah kindled throughout the eight days. Perhaps this why it contains thirty-six tractates, consisting of the Torah that was taught over in thirty-six days, by the man born thirty-six years after the darkness of exile began.

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Chapter Eight

Why Thirty-Six ?

By now it should be clear that there is a deep, philosophical undercurrent that flows through history - Jewish history specifically and world history in general. The events of daily life may appear exceedingly mundane, like the waters of the sea that calmly and continuously wash upon the shore day after day. However, just as the surface waters belie a whole world that exists hidden below, so does daily life conceal the wonderful world of thirty-six.

God created the world for the sake of man, so that he could strive and have the opportunity to become God-like to the best of his ability. And in doing so, he can merit eternal life in the eternal world, the World-to-Come. However, this reward is only given at the end of life for those who successfully endure the process.

The "process" is developing an intellectual awareness and appreciation of moral virtues, and then guiding one’s life according to them. This might be simple enough to accomplish when life is "smooth sailing." But usually it is not - it is often complex and extremely distracting, often unbalanced and sometimes threatening. Nevertheless, behind it all is the hand of God, orchestrating the events throughout the millennia to bring history to a grand finale when the purpose of creation will reach fruition.

The only question a person need ask is, "What role do I play in history?" The answer is: it depends. It depends upon one’s personal potential. The answer also evolves as long as a person lives, grows and changes. And often the impact of a person is not known until long after the person has left this world.

To successfully travel the road to personal greatness one needs self-honesty, intellectual integrity and a love of ideas. These tools encourage a person to not take life for granted, to avoid making superficial assumptions about a world that is far from superficial. It is this attitude towards life that fosters important traits such as fear of God, love of one’s fellow man and self-confidence.

The guidebook for life’s journey is the Torah. Within it are the axioms of truth upon which the world was founded. But they are truths that are revealed only according to the seriousness of the one who comes to learn them. They are truths that are revealed only to those who develop intellectually and spiritually.

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When one travels this road and reflects the light of Torah, he shines with the Hidden Light of creation, as was the case with Moshe:

Moshe came down the mountain with the two tablets of testimony in Moshe’s hands; but Moshe did not know that the skin of his face beamed while he spoke to Him [God]. Aharon and all of the children of Israel saw Moshe, and behold, the skin of his face beamed. They were afraid to approach him ... Shemos 34:29

More importantly, a person develops a vision of reality that allows him to see beyond the present moment and beyond the surface of what stands before him. It is only with such a vision that one can discover his hidden potential, and the hidden opportunity of the moment in order to grasp it, and in doing so, grasp eternity. This is the message of thirty-six. This is the brilliance of the special light of creation. But why thirty-six?

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *The number thirty-six has fascinating properties. For example, it is a number that when multiplied by any other number always produces a quotient whose mispar katan is equal to nine, the mispar katan of truth:

Emes = 1 + 40 + 400 = 441; 4 + 4 + 1 = 9 For example: 36 x 1 = 36 3 + 6 = 9 36 x 2 = 72 7 + 2 = 9 36 x 3 = 108 1 + 0 + 8 = 9 36 x 25 = 900 9 + 0 + 0 = 9 And so on.

One would expect the number that symbolizes the truth to be connected to the concept of truth on some level. However, this still does not indicate why the light of creation shone for thirty-six hours, as opposed to only nine hours. (The pesuchos and stumos in the Torah are Divinely established breaks in the text, which, according the Ba’al HaTurim were given to Moshe as time to intellectually digest what he had been taught. According to Halacha, a valid pesuchah or stumah must have a space of at least nine letters.)

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There is a correlation between the Hidden Light of creation and Chanukah, a holiday which had to be eight days long because of what the number eight represents (i.e., the supernatural). This correlation does preclude the number nine.

What logical sequence of lighting the candles could result in a total of nine candles over eight days? Looking beyond the number a clue to the significance of thirty-six may be in the way it is written out in Hebrew: uk, especially since each letter represents many concepts.

For example, the letter lamed is a towering letter that represents the King of Kings, God Himself. Within the Aleph-Bais it is flanked by the letter chof and the letter mem, which with the lamed, spell the world melech, or king. (Osios R’ Akiva) Furthermore, the letter lamed is a composite of two letters: chof and vav, whose numerical values are 20 and 6 respectively, the total of which is 26, the numerical value of the Tetragrammaton Name. (Ba’al HaTurim; this is the name of God that is not pronounced as it is spelled, because it is so holy. It is also the name equal to the gematria kollel of the number 25.)

When the letter lamed is spelled out as a word, it forms the word that means both teaching and learning. And because it is the twelfth letter of the twenty-two letter Aleph-Bais, it is considered to be the center and the "heart" of the Aleph-Bais; It is an acronym for laiv meivin da’as - a heart that understands wisdom. (Osios R’ Akiva)

For these reasons and many others, the letter lamed symbolizes learning and teaching (i.e., lilmod and lelamed), and purpose. Chanukah, which means "dedication" and which is the root of the word chinuch, which means "education," represents these ideas.

The concepts represented by the letter vav are just as profound. It is the sixth letter in sequence, which represents physical completion. The physical world was completed in six days, and a self-contained object has six dimensions. (Maharal)

The midrash states that Ya’akov "seized" the letter vav from Eliyahu’s name as a guarantee that the prophet would eventually herald the redemption of the future Jewish people. (Usually Ya’akov is spelled without a vav and Eliyahu is written with a vav. However, there are five instances when Ya’akov is written with a vav and Eliyah without the vav. The midrash states that the letter vav was transferred from Eliyahu’s name to Ya’akov’s as a guarantee for redemption.) Thus vav is also a symbol of redemption.

In the Torah, a letter vav added to a word written in future tense becomes past tense, symbolizing the vav’s ability to transcend time. For this reason the vav is also a symbol of eternity. This is why the courtyard of the Mishkan was surrounded by curtains suspended from hooks, which in Hebrew are vavim. This alluded to the eternal quality of all that occurred within the Tabernacle.

Also within Torah, the addition of a vav or the lack of one that might have been there often indicates a hidden meaning. For example, the Torah states:

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God said, ‘Let there be lights (m’o’rs) in the firmament of heaven to divide between the day and the night, and they will be signs for the appointed times, the days and the years. And there were lights (m’oo’rs) in the firmament of the heaven ...’ Bereishis 1:14, 15

Traditionally, the missing vav in the first reference to the lights is taken to mean that the original light of creation was diminished, reserved for the righteous in a later generation. (See Rashi on 1:14 and 1:4.)

As well, the letter vav stands for the sixth sefirah, a kabbalistic metaphor for a specific manifestation of a higher spiritual reality. The sixth sefirah is called yesod, which means "foundation," referring to the trait of tzadikim, of which there are thirty-six hidden in each generation. It is they who spiritually form the foundation of the world.

Such homiletic interpretations are countless and yield deep insight into our world. However, perhaps one of the most profound aspects of Lo and the key to unlocking the mystery of thirty-six, is the simple fact that it spells the word to him.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *There is another approach to the meaning of Lo.

The evil son, what does he say? ‘What is the service to you?’ (Shemos 12:26). To you, and not to him (Lo) , and because he excludes himself from the rest, he is a denier of Torah ... Hagadah Shel Pesach

Traditionally, these words of the Hagadah are understood to mean: to you - you who faithfully sacrifice the Pesach offering - and, not to him - not to the evil son. However, according to the Brisker Rav’s understanding of the evil son’s question, "to him" might mean God Himself.

According to tradition, the Jewish people were mired in the idol worship of Egyptian society. In order to merit redemption, they had to make a physical and psychological break from the Egyptian way of life. For this reason, the midrash explains, the Jews were commanded to take a sheep, the Egyptian god, and parade it through the streets with the expressed purpose of slaughtering it to God.

But, the evil son asks: who worships sheep today? What use is there in continuing the same service of sacrificing the Pesach offering, other than to merely commemorate what once occurred? For sentimental reasons, this may appeal to you, but don’t try to tell me that it has any value to Him!

The Hagadah’s answer to the evil son: break his teeth.

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Why deal with the evil son so harshly, and what does the expression break his teeth mean? The answer to this question requires a few words.

From the very first moment man was created, he has had to use his intellect to try to understand the end of Divine reason, to interpret the will of God. The result has been horrific, resulting in mortality for mankind and unforgivable genocide throughout the millennia.

In the end, the question has to be asked: whose will was fulfilled? When a person says he was doing his will, to whom does "his" refer? His will, that is, to the will of God, or his will, that is, to his own will? With the yetzer hara firmly embedded in our hearts, it is easy to confuse one with the other.

The mishnah states a solution to the dilemma:

Make His will like your will, so that He will make your will as His will. Pirke Avos 2:4

A person has to make it his only desire to fulfill the will of God. He has to avoid the pitfalls of rationalization by using his tremendous power of intellect only up until the will of God and not beyond it. This was the threshold the "evil son" crossed when he used his intellect to rationalize the will of God.

For this reason, the Hagadah says, we break the evil son’s teeth, so-to-speak. The word shein (teeth) numerically is equal to 350, (Which, in mispar katan is eight.) which is also the gematria of the word seichel, which means intellect. It is as if the response to the evil son is: abuse your intellect, lose your intellect - a true principle in Torah.

And just as it is possible to confuse our will for the will of God, it is also possible to mistake to whom the world belongs. Though the Torah addresses this issue in more than one place, it does so quite succinctly in one specific place.

God spoke to Moshe saying, ‘Tell the children of Israel to take for Me an elevated-offering ...’ Shemos 25:1

(It often happens that a chapter central to a discussion that ties back to Chanukah is number related to Chanukah. For example, the chapter number here is twenty-five. Even though chapter numbers were assigned by non-Jews for easy reference for debating Jews, it is also true that there is no such thing as a coincidence. It is not difficult to believe that God could have set up the Torah in such a way that future generations wishing to number the Torah in a logical way would yield chapter numbers that could have deeper meaning to future generations of Jews. At the very least, it is fascinating.)

Take for Me ... For Me, for My sake. - Rashi

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After all, the whole world is His. - Sifsei Chachamim

What the Sifsei Chachamim is addressing is why Rashi felt compelled to explain what seems to be obvious. If God requested an offering to be brought to build His sanctuary, would not one reason that it is being brought for His sake?

What bothered Rashi was a simple paradox: how does one give a gift to someone who already owns the gift? The answer is, they cannot. Therefore, says Rashi, the gift God requested was not the physical object itself, but the way in which the gift was to be given - with the full understanding that the entire world belongs to God ... it belongs Lo.

When man is confused, either thinking that he is fulfilling the will of God when he is not or thinking that he owns property that he does not, he crosses into the realm of transgression. This is perhaps the meaning of the following lesson.

Yehoshua led the Jewish people into the land of Canaan, (Yehoshua 3:1) and the fight for control of the land began against the original Canaanite nations. Since the Jewish people were fulfilling the command of God by subduing the nations of Canaan, they were promised miraculous victories against the powerful Canaanite nations. All went well until the battle of Ai, during which the young Jewish army suffered casualties - thirty-six in total! (Yehoshua 7:5; the Talmud (Baba Basra 121b) says that actually only one person died, but that he was the equivalent of the majority of the Sanhedrin, which is equal to thirty-six, just like the majority of one’s life is considered to be thirty-six years (Baba Basra 155b, Rashbam). Incidentally, the name of the person who was killed in the battle was Yair ben Menashe, whose name means "will be enlightened." Menashe was the same name Yosef gave to his son in Egypt, and consists the same letters as the word "shmonah," which means "eight," and "hashemen," which means "the oil." Yair ben Menashe was the ancestor of Yishai, the father of Dovid HaMelech and source of Moshiach.) What was the cause of the devastating loss? A man by the name of Achan ben Karmi had taken spoils of war from Yericho, something forbidden by Yehoshua. It was this violation that interfered with Divine assistance in the battle against Ai.

Perhaps this is why God approached Adam with the question, "Aiyeka?". It was as if He was saying, "Did you take that which did not belong to you but belonged to Me?" Perhaps this is also why the Talmud states that "the property of the righteous is more valuable to them than their own bodies" (Chullin 91a; This is in the chapter called "Gid HaNashe," and on the page where the Talmud interprets Yosef’s words to mean, "Slaughter the animal in front of his brothers and remove the gid hanashe," the reference in which there is an allusion to Chanukah. Also on this page is the discussion of how Ya’akov went back for the small jars, for which he merited the miracle of the small jar of oil at Chanukah time (see the chapter titled, Ya’akov Avinu).) - because they view themselves as guardians of the Holy One’s property.

It is this perspective that is the source of mesiros nefesh - self-sacrifice, which is what Chanukah is all about. To sacrifice one’s self for one’s own benefit is not heroic. But, to endanger one’s self for a higher cause, specifically for the Higher Cause, is the highest,

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the most noble form of self-expression. It is also something made possible only by the belief that no will matters but His; no property is anyone’s but His.

Such form of self-sacrifice was inspired by Yosef and exemplified by his brother Reuvain (the root of whose name means "see"). The midrash explains the following verse from Shir HaShirim in an obscure way:

The mandrakes have released their scent, and at our doorsteps are to be found delicacies. Shir HaShirim 7:15

The mandrakes ... This refers to Reuvain; have released their scent... This alludes to when he saved Yosef from being killed by his brothers; at our doorsteps are to be found delicacies ... This refers to Chanukah. Ateres Z’kainim; Midrash Pliah

The mandrakes referred to by the midrash are the ones Reuvain collected from the field for his mother, Leah. (Bereishis 30:14) According to Rashi, Reuvain specifically picked these flowers, because they were ownerless, growing wild. According to the Talmud, they were also supposed to be instrumental in producing another tribe.

Nevertheless, upon request, Leah gave them to her sister Rachel, proving, according to the midrash, that Leah accepted Rachel as being the main mother of the tribes. This was a tremendous act of self-sacrifice by a woman whose name totals thirty-six, and who died at the age of forty-five (mispar katan: nine).

But the mesiros nefesh didn’t end there. According to the midrash, why was Reuvain named as he was?

Leah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Reuvain ... Bereishis 29:32

She said, ‘See the difference between my son and the son (Eisav) of my father-in-law (Yitzchak) who sold his birthright to Ya’akov. This one (Reuvain) did not sell his birthright to Yosef, and yet did not complain [when Yosef took it from him]. And not only did he not complain, but he even wanted to take him out from the pit!’ - Rashi

The difference between Eisav and Reuvain, among other things, was that Reuvain understood that the birthright was not his to sell. Nor were the dudaim (mandrakes) his to sell. The earth and its fullness is God’s, (Tehillin 24:1) and therefore, it is He who decides who has the firstborn rights, and who truly owns the mandrakes.

We are merely the guardians of this world, allowed the privilege of benefiting from its fullness.

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Before the light of creation was hidden, one could never have doubted this or ever become confused about it. This is why the light had to be hidden, for had it remained revealed, free will would have been impossible. It is hidden, but not completely, for it is meant to be revealed through the actions of man, through a nation created to reflect that light.

When a person integrates this understanding, regenerated and symbolized by the thirty-six lights of Chanukah, one enters a realm beyond the ordinary, deceptive world of daily life. One enters the world of miracles, because it is the world of mesiros nefesh:

Rav Papa asked Abaye, ‘What was unique about the previous generation for whom miracles occurred, while for us they don’t?’ ... He answered him, ‘They were self-sacrificing for the holiness of the Name.’ Brochos 20a

The essence of such self-sacrifice is knowing that there is more to life than meets the eye. It is in knowing that there is a "hand" above that moves things, people, events, world history towards an ultimate goal - the period of Moshiach. It is in knowing that one who usurps the will of God becomes a pawn in His master plan, not a forger of it. And finally, it is in knowing that there is no way to fulfill personal potential other than in making His will your own, by recognizing that His will is all that counts and that everything belongs to Him.

This is expressed in the fantastic, wonderful world of thirty-six.

© by Mercava Productions

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http://www.neveh.org/winston/wonder36/