SONG OF THE SEA: Too awesome for praises, performing wonders!
You inclined Your right hand; the earth swallowed them up.
HAFTARAH: those that sit in judgment, and those that walk on
the path, tell of it. 11. Instead of the noise of adversaries, between the
places of drawing water,
TALMUD SOTAH: Daf 13 - the Light of Moshe; Jacob and Joseph
GENERATIONS FROM ADAM TO THE LAST KING OF JUDAH: Shelah
JOURNEYS IN THE DESERT: They journeyed from the Sinai desert
and camped in Kivroth hataavah.
On week 13, week of Chanukah, the verses of the Song of the
Sea speak of praising G-d, Who performs wonders, and Whose miracles led to
Jewish salvation. Praising G-d for his miracles is one of the key themes of Chanukah.
The Haftorah’s verses also describe the need to tell of G-d’s
miracles, and the fact that the Jews were no longer being persecuted “between
the places of drawing water,” a reference to the study of the Torah, which the
Greeks were attacking.
Daf Yud Gimmel (Folio 13) of Sotah is primarily about the
burial of Jacob and Joseph, although it also starts with a brief mention of how
when Moshe was born, the room filled with light. Regarding Jacob’s burial, the
Talmud highlights how the fight with Eisav was won, not by logical arguments,
but through the lone supra-rational act of Chushim, son of Dan. As mentioned
before, Dan connected to Teveth and Chanukah. As Eisav was making a baseless
claim, and asking for proof for this and that, Chushim could not bear to see
his grandfather’s burial delayed, went ahead and killed him. This is very
similar to how the Chanukah revolt started. Matisyahu was asked to slaughter a
pig on a pagan altar. Not only did he refuse, he killed the Jew and the Syrian
representative that had demanded this.[1]The Talmud’s
description of Joseph’s burial is also appropriate, as Yosef HaTzadik himself
represents Jewish strength in the face of Greek repression. (See Book 1, Week
11)
Shelah, Archpachshad’s son, has one of the names of Mashiach.
Shelah is also the name of Judah’s son, which he did not want to marry to
Tamar. Rabbi Yosef Jacobson explains the connection between Shelah and Chanukah:
The Truth
Emerges
Rabbi Isaac
Luryah wrote that "the judgment that began on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur
is completed some three months later, during the days of Chanukah." That's
why it is at this period of time - three months after the intimate union
between Judah and Tamar - that Judah (the metaphor for G-d) is
"informed" regarding the spiritual status of Tamar (the Jewish
people) and the verdict is issued that Tamar has no future.
"When
Tamar was being taken out, she sent word to Judah, saying, 'I am pregnant by
the man who is the owner of these articles. Identify, I beg you, these objects.
Who is the owner of this seal, cord and staff?'"
During that
fateful time, when the "prosecuting angels" have almost been
successful in demonstrating to G-d that the Jewish people are a failed
experiment, at that very moment, the Jew sends word to G-d, saying, "I am
pregnant by the man who is the owner of these articles!" The information
you received that I abandoned you, is a blatant lie! If I have gone astray here
and there, it is merely a superficial, temporary phase. Gaze into the deeper
layers of my identity and you will discover that I belong to You, that my
intimacy is shared only with You, G-d. "I am pregnant from Judah and not
from anybody else!" the Jew declares.
"Identify,
I beg you, these objects. Who is the owner of this seal, cord and staff?"
For during the festival of Chanukah - when the judgment of Rosh Hashanah is
finalized -- the Jew kindles each night a wick, or a cord, soaked in oil,
commemorating the event of the Jews discovering a sealed single cruse of oil
after the Greeks had plundered the holy Temple in Jerusalem (9).
The Jew
further points to the staff in his arm (10). In order to preserve his faith, he
was forced time and time again - for 2000 years - to take the wandering staff
in his arm, abandon his home, wealth and security, and seek out new territory
where he could continue to live as a Jew.
"Identify,
I beg you, these objects. Who is the owner of this seal, cord and staff?"
the Jew asks G-d. "It is to this man that I am pregnant!" Our loyalty
and commitment remain eternally to the owner of the "seal" and "cord"
of the Chanukah flames; our deepest intimacy is reserved to the owner of the
"staff" of Jewish wandering.
Who Is the
Traitor?
"Judah
immediately recognized the articles, and he said, "She is right; it is
from me that she conceived. She did it because I did not give her to my son
Shelah."
When G-d
observes the burning flames of the Chanukah menorah, He immediately recognizes
that indeed, His people have never left Him. True, the Jew does fall prey at
times to the dominating external forces of a materialistic and immoral world,
yet this enslavement is skin deep. Probe the layers of his or her soul and you
will discover an infinite wellspring of spirituality and love.
"If the
Jew has, in fact, gone astray here and there, it is my fault," G-d says,
not his. "Because I did not give Tamar to my son Shelah."Shelah is
the Biblical term used to describe Moshiach (11),the leader who will usher in
the final redemption. G-d says that for two millennia I have kept the Jewish
nation in a dark and horrific exile where they have been subjected to
horrendous pain and savage suffering. Blood, tears and death have been their
tragic fate for twenty centuries, as they prayed, each day and every moment,
for world redemption. But redemption has not come.
How can I
expect that a Jew never commit a sin? How can I expect that a Jew never try to
cast his luck with the materialistic world about him that seems so appealing,
when I held back for so long the light of Moshiach?
"It is
I, G-d, who is guilty of treason," G-d says. Not the Jew. Tamar is an innocent,
beautiful palm-tree, which still has only one heart to its Father in heaven.[2]
In the thirteenth week, the Jews journey from Sinai desert
and camp in Kivroth hataavah. The personal journey is to internalize the
concept of receiving the Torat haChassidut, and now focus on the concept of
burying one’s physical desires, through the concepts of Itkafiah and Itapcha,
basic notions in Chassidic philosophy. (explained previously in the blog) [3]Chanukah, as opposed to other holidays, is primarily a
spiritual holiday. There is no commandment to make a holiday meal. It is a
holiday to sing praise to G-d spiritually.
[1]
http://www.myjewishlearning.com/holidays/Jewish_Holidays/Hanukkah/History/Maccabean_Revolt.shtml
[2]
http://theyeshiva.net/Article/View/142/Have-We-Betrayed-Our-G-d-Has-G-d-Betrayed-Us
[3] http://www.kabbalahoftime.com/2013/11/explaining-chassidic-concepts-based-on.html;
http://meaningfullife.com/oped/2008/06.27.08$KorachCOLON_42_Journeys_Part_3.php:“The
Baal Shem Tov (citing Brit Menucha by the 14th century Kabbalist Rabbi Avraham
ben Yitzchak of Grenada) interprets the “Graves of Craving” as a state of utter
self-nullification through cleaving to G-d when one experiences the “death” of
cravings, they become buried with no potential of reviving inappropriate
desires.”