Cheyn

Parshios Miketz & Chanukah

By Rabbi Pinchas Winston

“Will we find [anyone] like this, a man in whom there is the spirit of God?” Bereishis 41:38

What follows is part of a multi-essay series called “Chanukah Lite.” Some references are to previous essays, but the overall message is clear without them. If anyone wants the rest of the material they can write me.

AFTER 1,656 years, God decided enough was enough. Mankind just got worse with each passing generation and ceased to justify his existence. A major flood was on the way to purge Creation of every last human being.

Except for Noach and his family. The Torah distinguishes Noach from the rest of humanity and their evil with one succinct verse:

Noach found chayn in the eyes of God. (Bereishis 6:8).

On one hand the word “chayn” is commonly used to describe someone who has a nice (for lack of a better term) aura about them. Such people are simply nice to be around and they tend to have a somewhat magnetic personality. It is often translated as “grace” but not everyone with grace also has chayn. 

Two points are noteworthy about the trait of chayn and demand investigation. The first is that it must be a very important trait to God if at a time when He judged the entire world for destruction that Noach was saved because of it. Secondly, it is the root of the word “Chanukah.”

Given the previous discussion, it must have something to do with the revealing of some form of hidden light. Given that it impacts the personna of a person, it must have to do with the revealing of the light of one’s soul. 

It is not a coincidence that the word “chayn” is the reverse spelling of “Noach.”

 When a person looks into a mirror, which is like looking into the eyes of another, and sees his reflection, it is in reverse. Looking into the eyes of God, so-to-speak, Noach saw his spiritual reflection, which was his chayn.

Of course God does not have physical eyes with which to look out, but He does have an outlook: Torah. Since Noach learned Torah

 and learned to see the world through its eyes he saw life in terms of its spiritual essence. This is what set him apart from the rest of his generation. They saw only a physical body. Noach saw the soul and lived his life accordingly.

The revelation of soul is the true source chayn that people sense in others. Thus the soul is called “Neshamah,” spelled Nun, Shin-Mem-Heh, which means “Nun there.” In other words, the soul itself is the light of the 50 Gates of Understanding, hidden within the person awaiting revelation. 

The level of soul called “Neshamah” even corresponds to the level of the sefirah of Binah, the level of the 50 Gates of Understanding. When a person is self-sacrificing for truth he reveals his soul, which is a revelation the 50 Gates of Understanding. It is this that turns a person into a human Ner Shel Chanukah.

Like Yosef HaTzaddik, the chief representative of the trait of chayn,

  For example. The 11th born son, he corresponds to Da’as Elokim. He has the capacity to find and reveal the Ohr HaGanuz, which is why he was named, “Tzafnas Panayach,”  which means “Revealer of Hidden Matters.”

 As Pharaoh himself says regarding Yosef:

“Will we find [anyone] like this, a man in whom there is the spirit of God?” Then Pharaoh said to Yosef, “Since God has let you know all this, there is no one as understanding and wise as you.” (Bereishis 41:38-39)

This is why two concepts that seem very different from each other are actually intimately related:

Rebi Chama bar Papa stated: Any person who is endowed with chayn is without doubt a God-fearing individual . . . (Succah 49b)

Why? A God-fearing person is someone for whom the will of God is a priority and who is therefore scrupulous to correctly execute it. Is a person with chayn, though pleasant to be around, necessarily someone whose has fear of God?

It depends upon one’s definition of fear of God. If fear of God really means fear of punishment then it will not result in the kind of approach to life that is chayn-revealing. On the contrary, such people tend to be very self-critical and critical of others as well, the opposite result of chayn.

If on the other hand a person understands fear of God to be more like the seeing of God in every last aspect of life, as Yosef learned to:

“God sent me before you to make for you a remnant in the land, and to preserve [it] for you for a great deliverance. Now, you did not send me here, but God, and He made me a father to Pharaoh, a lord over all his household, and a ruler over the entire land of Egypt.” (Bereishis 45:7-8)

Yosef learned this all-important lesson after spending two extra years in jail for not seeing life this way:

“Remember me when things go well with you, and please do me a favor and mention me to Pharaoh, and you will get me out of this house. I was stolen from the land of the Hebrews, and here too I have done nothing for which they have put me into the dungeon.” (Bereishis 40:14-15)

Ever since Yosef dreamed of greatness he was destined for leadership. However, it was not possible to develop such skills in his own home where he completely lacked the credibility to successfully lead. His brothers despised him and couldn’t take him or his dreams seriously.

So God sent him elsewhere. First he became responsible for the entire household of Potiphar:

Yosef found favor in his eyes, and he served him, and [Potiphar] appointed him over his house, and all he had he gave into his hand. (Bereishis 39:4)

In order to become second-in-command over all of Egypt, Yosef required additional experience. So, the wife of his master falsely accused Yosef and he was put into the king’s jail. This allowed him to continue with his success on a larger scale:

The warden of the prison delivered all the prisoners who were in the prison into Yosef’s hand, and whatever they did there, he [was the one who] did it. The warden of the prison did not inspect anything [that was] in his hand, for God was with him, and whatever he did God made prosper. (Bereishis 39:22-23)

After 12 years Yosef’s training ended. Pharaoh dreamed, the wine steward confessed, and Yosef was rushed from jail to second-in-command in Egypt. It was at that moment that the reason for 22 years of intellectual confusion and emotional hardship became clear, retroactively, and justified. Yosef finally had the intellectual framework into which to place all the details of his journey to leadership and form a big picture.

This sounds very similar to the story of Chanukah:

When the Greeks entered the Temple they defiled all the oils in it. When the Chashmonaim [later] prevailed against and defeated them, they searched and found only one jar of oil with the [unbroken] seal of the Kohen Gadol. It contained [only] enough oil for one day of lighting, and yet a miracle occurred and [with it] they kindled [the Menorah] for eight days. The following year these [days] were made a holiday with [the recital of] Hallel and thanksgiving. (Shabbos 21b)

Why did they not establish the holiday of Chanukah right after the military victory? Why did they only celebrate the great miracle the year later?

For the same reason. The hand of God in all that occurred only became clear to the Chashmonaim after the miracle of the oil happened. In retrospect they saw how God had the Greeks make their terribly inhibiting decrees to force the Jews of that time to fight for God and Torah and reveal the Ohr HaGanuz in the world.

 The miracle of the oil retroactively revealed the hand of God in all that occurred. 

When someone actually lives with this knowledge from day-to-day, from crisis-to-crisis, he does not see this only in retrospect. He sees it in real time, and his life reflects this vision. He looks for God in everything and, in response, God reveals Himself to such a person in everything. 

History is merely an ongoing dialogue between God and this type of God-fearing person. The mode of conversation may change from moment-to-moment, but not the level of relationship. The physical ceases to be a barrier between them and the Hidden Light of Creation. They can see it, and more importantly, they can reveal it. They illuminate, and they are illuminated, and their chayn is the very proof of this.

So are the miracles. The Talmud says:

If someone sees the name Chanina, Chananya or Yochanan [in a dream it is a sign that] miracles will occur for him. (Brochos 57a)

It is not difficult to figure out the common denominator of all three names: Ches-Nun, or chayn. In fact it is Chanina ben Dosa who teaches the sod of miracle working:

Once on a Friday night he noticed that his daughter was sad and he said to her, “My daughter, why are you sad?” 

She answered, “My oil container got mixed up with my vinegar container and I kindled Shabbos candles with it.”

He told her, “My daughter, Why should this trouble you? He Who had commanded the oil to burn will also command the vinegar to burn!”

A Tanna taught: The light continued to burn the whole day until they used its light for Havdalah. (Ta’anis 25a)

There are a lot of interesting ideas to examine here, but the overall point is that really there is no difference between nature and miracle. The only difference between the two is how often the former occurs compared to the latter. 

Oil does not burn because it is combustible. It is combustible because God says it should be—every time we light it. Vinegar is not combustible because God has decided that it should not be, and that is what we have become used to. Either way it is the ongoing will of God that determines the result of an act or event.

What is important to recall is that inside everything is the infinite light of Ohr Ain Sof. This gives everything the potential to do something miraculous if and when God wills it. Vinegar can burn just as easily and just as miraculously as oil when God says it should.

This was one of the main points of clash between the Torah outlook and the Greek outlook. Torah celebrates the infiniteness of Creation and seeks to unlock that potential. When this happens the reality of God is revealed in the world.

The word “chayn” even reflects this outlook. It is spelled Ches-Nun, and both letters represent the same supernatural reality. Just as seven represents the physical world, its square, 49, does so as well. And, just as the number eight, which is represented by the letter Ches, being one more than seven also represents the miraculous, so too does the number 50, represented by the letter Nun, being one more than 49 also alludes to the same idea. 

Thus the concept of chayn and miracle are intimately fused together.

The Greeks, on the other hand, celebrated the limitations of life, as do their followers until this very day. They were scientists, astronomers, physicists, medical practitioners, etc., who wanted to believe that the physical world is what it appears to be and nothing more. 

Greatness, from the Greek perspective, was a natural potential with which one was “fortunate” to be born. Tragedy was the result of not being so fortunate.

The Greek approach to life and this world said “what you see is what you get.” This absolved man from having to become more than he was born to be. It removed from life the notion that a person, through hard spiritual effort, could surpass his physical limitations. This they believed was physically liberating.

The Torah says just the opposite. It says that a person’s givens are exactly that, just givens. What someone does with them is what defines them as a person. They can choose to spiritually stagnate or to ascend to great spiritual levels. The choice is the person’s and the work, a person’s to assume.

This is why a major part of the battle, especially between mainstream Judaism and the Hellenists, was not Torah in general but specifically Torah Sh’b’al Peh, the Oral Law. Like the oil within the olive, and the soul within the person, the Oral Law is hidden within the Written Law, waiting to be found and extracted so that it can illuminate the world. It is the chayn of Torah.

Regarding the Talmud it says:

The people that walk in the darkness see the Great Light. (Yeshayahu 9:1)

By now it is clear what the “Great Light” is. It is the Ohr HaGanuz. Now it is also clear who merits the Great Light:

The masters of the Talmud are those who see the Great Light, because the Holy One, Blessed is He, enlightens their eyes. (Tanchuma, Noach 9)

Not coincidentally, there are 36 tractates in the Talmud Bavli, regarding which it states:

The Oral Law is compared to darkness because it is difficult to learn and involves hardship. (Tanchuma, Noach 9)

In other words, it requires mesiras Nefesh to learn and to learn well enough to access the Ohr HaGanuz hidden within it. When a person does this, he also dispels another kind of darkness:

The earth was null and void and there was darkness upon the face of the deep . . . (Bereishis 1:2)

“Darkness” [refers] to the Greek exile. (Bereishis Rabbah 2:4)

The darkness though is not the result of a solar eclipse, or a lack of fire. It is the darkness that results from a life devoid of the Ohr HaGanuz. It is the most limiting and dangerous darkness of all, because it is possible to live an entire life and not even notice it. 

So many have. 

So many do.

There is not a lot of chayn in the world today.

Then comes the 25th day of Kislev and Chanukah begins. Days of Binah. Days of chayn. Days during which one can access the Ohr HaGanuz like no other time of year, and its energy to rise above the everyday natural reality. It is the time of Ner Shel Chanukah, the one we kindle on the outside, and the one we ignite from the inside.