Last Day of Chanukah!
Chanukah Lesson- TOTAL Commitment
For Year 2 of Parsha Lesson, I will be focusing on one practical middah, character trait, to think about in the week ahead and steps we can take to attain it.
Background
Everything that happens in this world, particularly to the Jewish people, is carefully orchestrated and dictated by Hashem. Therefore, Chazal (the great Torah scholars who passed down the Torah) will often explain why certain events happened to the Jewish people from the standpoint of ‘why would Hashem do this to the Jewish people.’ The decrees against the Jews in the days of the story of Chanukah were also, obviously, orchestrated by Hashem.
The Ba”ch (one of the commentators on the Book on Halacha- the Tur) when he says over what the story of Chanukah and the miracle of Chanukah was about, explains that the reason for the decrees of the Greeks was as punishment for the Jewish people being “weak” in the service of Hashem. Since the Jewish people weren’t strong, committed in their service of Hashem, Hashem brought on them the decrees of the Greeks.
Question
If the Jewish people weren’t serving Hashem with enough commitment and devotion, why would Hashem therefore cause there to be decrees which outlawed the service of Hashem!? It seems to be just the OPPOSITE of what the Jewish people needed at that time! They needed more encouragement and ease in order to serve Hashem, not more obstacles!
Answer
R’ Nosson Meir Wachtfogel (the Mashgiach or Dean of Students, of Beth Midrash Govoha) explained that by the Greeks outlawing service of Hashem this forced the Jewish people to serve Hashem at a danger to their lives. This ‘giving of themselves’ to Hashem is exactly the antidote to serving Hashem in a lethargic and “weak” way.
R’ Wachtfogel goes on to explain that serving Hashem by ‘giving of one’s self’ is not only to the point of giving up one’s life, rather, it manifests itself in how one goes about keeping the Torah. Does someone keep the Torah with an attitude that he does the mitzvos of the Torah and refrains from doing sins when it is only convenient and easy? Or, does someone show grit and tenacity in serving Hashem even when it is difficult, embarrassing, unpopular and uncomfortable?
This difference in how one goes about something is very profound and gets to the heart of who he is and how he defines himself.
Lesson
We often think that to deal with a problem we need to solve it. R’ Wachtfogel, with his brilliant insight into how people work, is teaching us a trick as to how to deal with laziness. That trick is to be ‘moser nefesh’ or to ‘give of one’s self’ for whatever it is that a person finds important and meaningful.
In order for a person to be successful at anything it is very important to have passion and devotion. How does one deal with a situation whereby they realize something is important and they would like to be successful with, however, they do not have passion for?
The classic and very helpful advice, is to act as if one has passion. If one were to go about something that they did not care much about, with a vigor and enthusiasm as if they had passion for it- this will spark within the person a fire and drive to attain the goal at hand.
This is very helpful advice, although it can be tedious and painstaking. R’ Wachtfogel shares with us a shortcut and a different way to attack this problem: be moser nefesh, give of yourself. Fully give yourself over without any care to embarrassment, discomfort, or difficulty to whatever your goal is and you will come to feel a tremendous sense of passion and vigor which will fuel your action.
First Step
One of my Rebbeim shared that fear of failure, embarrassment are often the greatest obstacles to a person succeeding at anything. If a person can articulate a goal that he has and then accumulates one by one, instances of where he felt fear of failure or potential embarrassment and then overcame that- this will be his fuel to succeed.
A person does not necessarily need to wait for such an opportunity to present itself, but rather to prepare such a situation and then put themselves into it. This will have the added benefit of the person being prepared mentally and emotionally for the challenge which can make the initial steps easier.
Have a wonderful Shabbos!
Rabbi Eli Meir Kramer
