Being Thankful - for What?

I was fortunate to hear this from R' Yaakov Hillel recently, and it is an absolute gem. He asked the Beis Yosef's question, and shared a very sweet idea about gratitude. The question is why we celebrate 8 days of Chanuka and not 7, seeing as there was enough oil for a day, meaning the extra benefit form the miracle was 7 days worth.

Chacham Hillel pointed us to a Rashi (29:35) that is based on a Midrash: הפעם אודה: שנטלתי יותר מחלקי, מעתה יש לי להודות - This time, I will thank: since I have taken more than my share. Consequently, I must offer up thanks. — [from Gen. Rabbah 71:4].
Although simple understanding of this would indicate that her rationale was that each wife would be mother to 3 of the tribes, and now that she had exceeded her fair share, she was grateful for the extra good G-d had done to her, but Chacham Hillel tells us this is not so.

The beauty (and difficulty!) of the Hebrew language is that it is hard to accurately translate as we don't know what the writer's intent was. But we can interpret Rashi differently - I've exceeded my portion (3), now I realise I ought to have been thankful before, ie she realised that there are no cheshboinos (plans), we can't second guess G-d. She realised she was wrong to have assumed that 3 is a "fair share", that even what is natural and makes sense is a miracle. This is a hard hitting idea. Each breath we take - who says that all the mechanisms that enable you to breathe - enable you to breathe? Who says up is up? By what mechanism is water wet? What binds all the atoms that you are made of? These are all absurd examples, but that is exactly the point - we are so familiar with things we consider "normal" and "natural", that we erase the incredibility we should really see this, we see them as "natural".

There is an amazing Gemara (Taanis 25a) about the righteousness and power of R' Chanina ben Dosa, that illustrates this point. He came home one Shabbos and saw his daughter weeping, and he asked why. She informed him that she had lit a lamp for Shabbos, that she had thought was filled with oil, but was in fact filled with vinegar, and she was weeping that they would have no light for Shabbos when the wick reached the vinegar, at which point it would extinguish. The reply: "מי שאמר לשמן וידלוק הוא יאמר לחומץ וידלוק" תנא היה דולק והולך כל היום כולו עד שהביאו ממנו אור להבדלה - "He who said that oil should burn will also say to vinegar to burn." And the lamp burned the entire (night and following) day until they lit a Havdala candle with it. This story speaks volumes about how skewed our perceptions are: nature is not natural.

R' Hillel explains that we celebrate the "extra" Chanuka to teach us something that seems so obviously in our faces that we don't see it - that we must be thankful for every single thing we have and do.

The way of a Jew is "modeh ani" - it's a chiddush, some people don't wake up. Thank you Hashem. "Zokef kfufim", "matir assurim", some people can't walk; paralysis, suddenly, after a lifetime of mobility. Thank you Hashem. When we realise that not only are the "miracles" miracles, but everything in between - "nifle'osecha v'tovosecha sheb'chol es, erev v'voker, v'tzohoroyim" - then we're really on our way to true hodo'oh of HaShem, and a better understanding of Hashem as the constant Boreh Olam.

[And then, just to add some R' Noach Weinberg zt"l (who he didn't mention), this is what really leads you to happiness, in line with Chazal's sameyach b'chelko. If you really understand your chelek, if you really grasp all that you have, if you take nought for granted and truly value the billion good things in your life, if you just stop for one minute a day and actually *try* to count your countless blessings...that's the "Happiness Game".]

Thanks Doniel for clarifying!

Also, Brisk Yeshivish has a post I enjoyed greatly on Chanuka.

Benefitting from Miracles

R' Chaim Brisker asks how the jug of oil the Hasmoneans found in the Chanukah story was suitable for use beyond the first day, seeing as it wasn't olive oil after the first day, it was שמן נס, and the commandment to light the Menorah was with olive oil specifically. However you answer the Beis Yosef's legendary question, at the end of the day, 7/8 days were lit with something that might physically have been olive oil, but wasn't from an olive! What was the point of using it after the first day? And secondly, there is a Gemara in Taanis 24 that states that one shouldn't benefit from a miracle:

"...מהא לא תזבנון, דמעשה נסים הוא..."

An example of this maybe the stories of old school Rabbonim in Eastern Europe who didn't have food for Shabbos, and when the Rebbetzin found something for them to eat, the Rabbi would refuse it on the grounds it would diminish from his Olam Habah, perhaps with this Gemara in mind.

Let us go on a tangent for a moment, to R' Yonasan ben Uziel by Parshas Vayakhel, in Shemos 35:27, where it says the princes, הַנְּשִׂאִם, brought הַשָּׁמֶן לְמָאוֹר and spices, but it says הַנְּשִׂאִם without the letter י. which Rashi explains to mean that their intentions were good, but their actions were lacking, in that they underestimated the will of the Jewish people to donate materials for the construction of the Mishkan, so their name was shortened here to teach us to act wholeheartedly. R' Yonasan ben Uziel explains differently, and he read Nesiim with no letters as Neshaim, Aramaic for clouds.

(כז) וענני שמיא אזלין לפישון ודליין מתמן ית אבני בורלות חילא וית אבני אשלמותא לשקעא באיפודא ובחושנא ומחתן יתהון באנפי מדברא אזלין רברבני ישראל ומייתן יתהון לצרוך עיבידתא

(כח) ותיבין ענני שמיא ואזלין לגן עדן ונסבין מתמן ית בושמא בחירא וית משחא דזיתא לאנהרותא וית אפרסמא דכיא למשח רבותא ולקטורת בוסמיא

Essentially, clouds came to the princes, with stones, oil and spices from Heaven! Hafla VaFeleh! (Unbelievable!)

R' Chaim Zevin asks R'Chaim Brisker's question here, how could they use these for the Mishkan, they might have physically been olive oil/stones/spices, but again, they were Maasei Nissim. And again, the Gemara in Taanis.

We can answer this by looking at our Sidra, 8:11

וַתָּבֹא אֵלָיו הַיּוֹנָה לְעֵת עֶרֶב, וְהִנֵּה עֲלֵה-זַיִת טָרָף בְּפִיהָ - the bird came back in the evening with an olive branch in it's mouth.

Hardly earth-shattering.

On this, the Ramban says:

"רבי ביריי אמר, נפתחו לה שערי גן עדן והביאה אות"

that ".....the olive branch was from Gan Eden". Earth-shattering!

Knowing this, R' Tzvi Pesach Franck concludes that we can differentiate between miracles. The cases we are discussing were not Yesh Meayin- something from nothing. These were Yesh MeYesh, something from something, they were in Heaven! They were then moved to Earth. They were thus completely permissible, much like the Manna, which was not a new "thing", rather, it is what the angels grind to make their bread (Tractate Yuma). He draws the conclusion that nothing new was created, which was what the issur by Taanis was referring to. That is to say that the miracle was not their creation, which would be forbidden to benefit from according to Taanis 24, but rather, their miraculous manipulation to be somewhere else at the relevant times.

Sneak peak at Parshas Toldos 27:25, where it says:

"וַיֹּאמֶר, הַגִּשָׁה לִּי וְאֹכְלָה מִצֵּיד בְּנִי--לְמַעַן תְּבָרֶכְךָ, נַפְשִׁי; וַיַּגֶּשׁ-לוֹ, וַיֹּאכַל, וַיָּבֵא לוֹ יַיִן, וַיֵּשְׁתְּ"

"And he said: 'Bring it near to me, and I will eat of my son's venison, that my soul may bless thee.' And he brought it near to him, and he did eat; and he brought him wine, and he drank."

If we read backwards slightly, the more astute reader will note that at no point did his mother prepare wine, and R' Yonason ben Uziel again points out the previous idea of things existing in Heaven and says

ואמר קריב לי ואיכול מצידא דברי בגין תברכינך נפשי וקריב ליה ואכל ולא הוה חמרא גביה ואזדמן ליה מלאכא ואייתי מן חמרא דאצטנע בעינבויי מן יומי שירוי עלמא ויהביה ביד יעקב ויעקב אמטי ליה לאבוי ושתי

".......an angel brought wine made from grapes that were in heaven since Creation......"

We can ask the same questions, Maasei Nissim, and assur to benefit from, and the answer is in the quote. They were in Heaven from creation. No problems! But what a phenomenal Yesod about the nature of Heaven...

Geshmack !