There are few among Chasidic masters — and indeed among all Jewish personalities throughout the course of history — as beloved as “Reb Zusia: or Zusha (the Sweet One) of Anipoli. With non-assuming righteousness, almost child-like sincerity and profound self-effacement, Reb Zusha embodied real, natural, down-to-earth holiness. The Kotzker Rebbe referred to Reb Zusha as “a genius in humility.” Among the students of the Maggid, Reb Zusha was deeply respected even while sometimes considered humble to a fault. In his unselfconscious innocence he would never refer to himself as ich, “I”, rather he would say, “Zusha doesn’t understand” or “Zusha is hungry,” etc.
One year, before hadlakas neiros on the first night of Chanukah, Reb Zusha began to cry… “Oy!” he exclaimed under his breath, “Kodesh heim, kodesh heim! These lights are holy! How could it be that someone as lowly as Zusha has the gaul to approach the menorah and kindle a flame? Oy, Zusha you have some nerve, such chutzpah! How dare you light the holy Chanukah candles!” Sinking into his chair and placing his face in his hands, he seemed to fall into a faint.
After many minutes, Reb Zusha lifted his head with a relieved smile, wiped his tears and proclaimed aloud, “Ah, yes! The Gemara (Taanis 25a) speaks of the daughter of Rebbe Chanina ben Dosa who mistakenly lit vinegar instead of oil on one Erev Shabbos … A nes gadol, a great miracle occurred, and the vinegar burned as oil! But she was still so worried; her face fell, and she exclaimed, “How could I have done such a thing? And who am I? What if this miracle has used up all of my zechuyos— merits?” Then her father, the wise Tanna Rebbe Chanina, smiled at her with compassion and gave her chizuk. “My sweet, precious one! Don’t you see? When oil ignites and illuminates, it is just as miraculous as when vinegar ignites and lights up the room! And מי שאמר לשמן וידלוק הוא יאמר לחומץ וידלוק, ‘The One Who instructed the oil to light can tell vinegar to light!’”
Reb Zusha then cried out, “Yes! The same Ribbono Shel Olam who allows oil to ignite is the same God who made the vinegar of Rebbe Chanina’s daughter ignite — and He is the very same God now telling me, the sour, bitter, unworthy Zusha to light these holy candles!” The tzaddik Reb Zusha stood up, and with awe and joy, sang the berachos, lit the first Chanukah candle, flooding his home, the street and the whole world with light.
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Chanukah marks the celebration of our persistence in face of enemies from within and without who sought to undermine our identity, our sense of self and our belief in the segulah, the unique preciousness, of Klal Yisrael. Painfully, many rejected their faith in Hashem and their holy Jewish pride; the gezeiros (decrees) of the Yevanim had struck at the core of their souls, their spirituality and their confidence in being God’s Chosen People. The Greeks had even commanded Klal Yisrael: “Write on the horn of a bull, שאין לכם חלק באלהי ישראל, that you have no cheilek, no ‘part’ in the God of Israel” (Midrash Rabbah, Bereishis, 2:4). “Who do you think you are?”
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A unique aspect of hilchos Chanukah provides instructive insight: “One who sees a burning Chanukah candle (even while walking on the street) must recite the blessing (Shabbos 23a). Seeing these holy lights is clearly unlike seeing matzos on Pesach, or seeing someone taking the arba minim on Sukos. As the commentaries point out, the reason is because מצות נר חנוכה מצוה חביבה היא עד מאד, “The mitzvah of Chanukah candles is exceedingly precious!” (Tosfos, Sukkah 46a; Rambam, Hilchos Megillah v’Chanukah, 4:12)
An insight of Rav Joseph Soloveitchik fills out this picture:
“HaNeiros halalu kodesh heim,” these candles, they are Holiness … The Gemara (Shabbos 22b) instructs us: ‘Throughout our sojourn in the wilderness, the light of the Menorah, the ner tamid, the unending light, emanated from the Mishkan as עדות היא לבאי עולם שהשכינה שורה בישראל, testimony to all of the world that the Shechinah, the Divine Presence, rests upon Israel.’ Thus, lighting the Chanukah menorah is a demonstration that the light of the Shechinah, the light of Kodesh, rests upon Am Yisrael eternally and always, wherever we may be: “Kodesh heim”— They, the Jewish People, are themselves holiness.”
In Yiddishkeit, the lights we kindle in our divine service are meant to be understood as manifestations of our soul: נר ה׳ נשמת אדם, “The lamp of Hashem is the soul of man” (Mishlei, 20:27). Furthermore, the letters of נפש, nefesh— soul, is a roshei teivos, an acronym of ner (the kli, vessel), petil (the wick), shemen (the oil). This is who we are: lamps of the Holy One!
Beyond recreating the experience of the victory of light over darkness in the Maccabean revolt, kindling our Chanukah candles demonstrates faith in ourselves, that יש לנו חלק באלוקי ישראל— “We do have a cheilek in the God of Yisrael.” In our homes and in the public domain, the pirsumei nisa, the public display of our Chanukah light, cultivates confidence in our souls, empowering us and our people to believe in the light that we generate in our divine service. Each one of us is exceedingly precious; our souls are a cheilek Elokah mi-ma’al mamash, literally “part” of the God of Yisrael above. And when we just light one small candle in the darkness, it is “exceedingly precious’ and sweet in Hashem’s eyes.
May our hadlakas neiros this year sweeten all our bitterness, bring the victory in our inner and outer struggles, vanquish all darkness, wipe away the tears, and illuminate the whole world with the holiness of the Shechinah — the ner tamid of the collective soul of Am Yisrael.
Rabbi Judah Mischel is executive director of Camp HASC, the Hebrew Academy for Special Children. He is the mashpiah of OU-NCSY, founder of Tzama Nafshi and the author of “Baderech: Along the Path of Teshuva.” Rav Judah lives in Ramat Beit Shemesh with his wife Ora and their family.
