Festival of Lights??

Rabbi Maury Grebenau

Purim and Channukah are the two holidays with the distinction of being enacted
by the Rabbis, they are the only two major holiday that do not appear in the Torah at all.
Both commemorate a potential destruction of the Jews that became a miraculous triumph.
On the surface it seems that they are both celebrated with the time honored Jewish
tradition of eating. But let us take a deeper look into what Channukah is all about.

The Gemara (Shabbos 21b), in answer to the question of “what is Channukah?”,

tells the famous story of the last small cruz of oil, that when used to light the Menorah
(Candelabra) in the Temple, lasted eight days. The Gemara then goes on to say that they
established the days of Channukah as days of “Praise and Thanksgiving.” Indeed, we do
add the festive thanksgiving prayer of Hallel during Shacharis as well as the “Al
Hanisim” to the Amidah. But where is the mention of the eating and drinking that we
normally associate with our holidays, especially Purim?

The Maharam from Rotenberg1, a famous German Rav, explains that when the
Jewish people find themselves persecuted it is because they have become lax in their
service of God. The type of persecution that they are subjected to is actually directly
related to the area in which they have become lax.

In the Purim story the Jews made the mistake of going to King Achashveirosh’s
party and eating and drinking the non-Kosher delicacies that he served2. Because of this
Haman tried to destroy their physical bodies (which had benefited from the food). The
Jews repented and fasted for three days before Ester made her appearance in front of the
King, again directly paralleling their previous misdeeds. When the Jews are miraculously
saved they respond by making a holiday that focuses around eating and drinking3, hence
Purim!

If we look at Chunnkah we see the same progression of events. The Jews were not
being as careful with the service in the Temple as they should have been. The Greeks
begin to persecute them, specifically not allowing them to continue the service in the
Temple4. Once again the Jews began to repent and began to try and bring the sacrifices,
Greek persecution not withstanding. Even our miraculous victory against the Greeks is
performed through the Kohanim who worked in the Temple!

The logical celebration would be one centered around the service in the Temple.
Of course, the “service” of today is “Avodah SheBalev” (service of the heart), prayer. So

1
Quoted in the Bach (Orech Chaim 670:4 s”v V’Hayah)
2
See Talmud Bavli Megillah 12a
3
As it says in Megillas Ester (4:16) “days of feasting and festival”
4
The Greeks didn’t allow us to continue to bring the daily sacrificial offering (Tamid) and also
intentionally made all of the oil for the Menorah impure and unfit for use
Channukah becomes a holiday of prayer and thanks to Hashem5. Perhaps, then, the true
spirit of Channukah is not in the lights of the festival but the prayers that they inspire.
This idea is reflected by R’ Moshe Issurles (O.C. 670:2) who comments that the custom
is to sing zemiros at any meal on Channukah in order to turn it into a seudas mitzvah
(meal which is considered a Mitzva). The true essence of Channukah is a celebration
through Hallel and shevach to Hashem.

5
See Mechaber (O.C. 670:2) that according to this the meals of Channuka are optional, not obligatory as on
other festivals