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<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>From: Micha Berger <A
href="mailto:micha@aishdas.org">micha@aishdas.org</A><BR>: All those miracles
were in the Bayis Rishon. There were no open miracles in<BR>: the Bayis Sheni --
with the single exception of the pach hashemen. This<BR>: miracle was therefore
seen as a throwback to earlier times and a brief sign of<BR>: Hashem's favor, a
momentary ray of sunshine in the darkening gloom. [--TK]<BR><BR>>>I would
have argued the exact reverse. How many people saw how much<BR>oil burned for 8
days? Only kohanim who were ready to serve and in the<BR>Heichal could have seen
them fill it.<BR><BR>This is very far from the national nature of the events
commemorated by<BR>the regalim or Purim.<BR><BR>I would propose that this is why
CHanukah isn't founded upon the miracle<BR>of the oil....<<</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>>>>>><BR>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.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>However I did not mean to imply that the oil miracle was the main reason
for Chanuka. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>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.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>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. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>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.)</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>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. </DIV></FONT>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff><BR></FONT><B><FONT color=#0000ff>--Toby
Katz<BR>==========<BR><BR></FONT><FONT lang=0 face=Arial color=#000000 size=2
FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="10"></B>--------------------</FONT></DIV>
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