[Avodah] pach hashemen

[T613K at aol.com]

From: Micha Berger _micha at aishdas.org_ (mailto:micha at aishdas.org) 
: All those miracles  were in the Bayis Rishon. There were no open miracles in
: the Bayis Sheni --  with the single exception of the pach hashemen. This
: miracle was therefore  seen as a throwback to earlier times and a brief 
sign of
: Hashem's favor, a  momentary ray of sunshine in the darkening gloom. [--TK]

>>I would  have argued the exact reverse. How many people saw how much
oil burned for 8  days? Only kohanim who were ready to serve and in the
Heichal could have seen  them fill it.

This is very far from the national nature of the events  commemorated by
the regalim or Purim.

I would propose that this is why  CHanukah isn't founded upon the miracle
of the oil....<<
 
>>>>>
I was answering somebody who didn't  think the pach hashemen was a big deal 
at all, since miracles were a  common occurrence in the Bais Hamikdash.  I 
can't find my source now but I  believe that miracles were /not/ a daily 
occurrence at all during the time of  the Bayis Sheini.
 
However I did not mean to imply that the oil miracle was the main reason  for 
Chanuka.  
 
The main reason was the victory of the Chashmonaim over the Greeks and  
Hellenizers.  And since that military victory was very short-lived, the  main 
reason for Chanukah was the ultimate triumph of Orthodoxy over Reform and  
Conservative ersatz forms of Judaism -- well, sorry about the  editorializing -- it 
was the triumph of the Torah camp over the Hellenizing  camp.  It was this 
latter victory which did indeed prove to be permanent,  despite the persistence, 
for a couple of centuries, of a Hellenizing yetzer  hara.
 
As for the miracle of the oil, by itself it wasn't the reason for Chanuka,  
but it served as a sign that the military (and spiritual) victory were Divine  
miracles, too.  
 
Without that sign of something overtly miraculous, people might have  
understood the Chashmonai victory --as indeed secular Zionists do understand it  -- 
as a tactical victory achieved through the superior military planning of  a 
clever group of guerilla fighters.  (This narrative was especially  popular when 
the guerillas were Jews fighting Brits in 1947 --  not  so much now when the 
Jews play the Greeks and the Gazan  Arabs play the Chashmonaim in the popular 
secular imagination.)
 
 
That's why I said the miracle of the oil was a ray of light in the  darkening 
gloom.  It showed that even when there was a general hester panim  -- as was 
the case throughout the Bayis Sheni and ever since -- there were and  are 
still moments in history when Hashgacha Pratis comes through in more obvious  ways 
to ensure the survival of the Torah community.  The oil  was the *sign* of a 
miracle -- the miracle is our  survival. 
 
 

--Toby  Katz
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