The Midrash (Bereishis 65-22) brings one of the famous stories connected to Chanuka. When Antiyachus came to Yerushalaim there were many Jews who had followed the culture of the Yevanim and became Helenists. One of them was Yoisi Meshuta.
Yoisi joined Antiyachus when he headed to the Beis Hamikdash. He was given a very tempting offer from Antiyachus. Antiyachus was too scared to enter the Beis Hamikdash. He told Yoisi that if he goes in first he can pick whatever he wants from the Beis Hamikdash for himself.
Yoisi entered and was taken aback by the amazing scene. Walls covered in gold, the Mizbeach from gold, the Shulchan (table) made of gold. But Yoisi’s eyes rested on the Menorah. He picked it up and carried it out.
Antiyachus was overwhelmed by the beauty of the Menorah. He told Yoisi, “this isn’t befitting for an ordinary person to have use of something like this. This will beautify my palace. Instead I will give you compensation. What you take out now you can have plus you can collect all the taxes for a whole year.”
Yoisi was about to become very wealthy. But Yoisi refused. He wouldn’t accept the offer of something else not even with a few years taxes. In fact he regretted altogether what he did. “Not only I angered my Creator once, I should anger him again?” is what Yoisi said.
Antiyachus became very angry. He had finally found a Jew willing to betray his Nation and his G-d, to desecrate His holiness and now he is regretting it, backing out and doing Teshuva. No Way. Antiyachus wouldn’t allow this to happen. Yoisi would have to go in again against his will.
He brought a carpenters table and bound Yoisi to the table. They brought a saw and started cutting him up alive. He was pouring with blood and called out, “woe is to me that I angered my Creator.” That is how Yoisi Meshuta died, may Hashem avenge his blood.
The question here is obvious. Just a few moments earlier Yoisi was willing to enter the Beis Hamikdash as much as requested and empty it out. What suddenly happened that caused such a changeover and regret that he wasn’t willing to do it again and furthermore start doing Teshuva?
Yoisi was carried away by the wind of Helenism. But when Antiyachus stopped him taking the Menorah he stopped a moment, woke up back into reality, realized the gravity of his actions, how far he had deteriorated spiritually and caught himself.
This same theme explains something that took place in this week’s Parsha. Balak sent officers from Moav and elders from Midyan to ask Bilaam to come to Moav and curse the Jews. Bilaam told them to stay overnight as he wants to hear what Hashem has to say. The Passuk tells us that the officers of Moav stayed overnight. The Gemara (Sanhedrin 105.) asks what happened to the elders of Midyan? The Gemara answers that they said, is there a father that hates his son? Obviously Hashem will stick up for His children. So they left.
So why did they come in the first place? Didn’t they know about all the miracles that Hashem did for Klal Yisrael? All the plagues in Mitzrayim, the splitting of the sea and more. So why did they come? But the answer is that originally they never thought. They were carried away by their hatred of the Jews. But when Bilaam said, “stay overnight”, they started thinking and realized how stupid they were for starting up against the Jews so they left.
But the same is with us too. A whole week we don’t have much time to think. We are too busy with our routine. But when Shabbos comes we stop and think, do some soul-searching and see if we are doing what we really want to do or are we being carried away by external winds and storms that are causing us to do things that are destructive to our bodies and souls.
The Baalei Mussar explain that to avoid being carried away one should never do anything in a hurry without a settled mind. How often do we do things in a rush without thinking and then regret our actions? It is practical in so many areas. We get carried away when we are mad at someone and say things that can be so destructive to them and ourselves and we want to kick ourselves for not thinking up front. We will run out of Shul early because we are sure that if we are late we will lose out so much. Did we lose out? How often we ended up still being on time but we missed so many Amens and Amen Yehei Shemei Rabba.
