Our haftorah is ALWAYS read on Shabbat Chanukah and on Parashat Beha'alotcha – always twice each and every year. And yet, despite its regular reading, it is a reading difficult to fully understand. In fact, Rashi opens his commentary to the sefer with the words: “[This Book] is very unclear (“stuma”) as it contains dream-like visions that are difficult to interpret...” Well, if it is difficult for Rashi, how much more so for us?
The first six of the fourteen p’rakim of Sefer Zecharya contain eight visions, two of them included in our haftorah (from Chapters 3 and 4). We will focus on the last vision, the one of the Menorah, as it is the connection to the opening topic of our parasha and to the holiday of Chanukah.
Our parasha begins with the mitzvah of Aharon, the kohen gadol, to kindle the golden Menorah in the Mishkan/Mikdash.
Rashi quotes the Midrash that this mitzvah was meant as a comfort to Aharon, who was not included in the inaugural korbanot of the tribal leaders. Hashem reassured Aharon that his task of lighting the Menorah twice a day was a greater meritorious act than the korbanot offered by the nesi’im. The Ramban clarifies the Midrashic approach, suggesting that it referred to the future lighting of the Menorah by Aharon’s descendants, the Chashmona’im, during their Chanukat Habayit in the Second Temple era.
HaRav Baruch Gigi of Yeshivat Har Etzion, troubled by the Ramban’s comment that “the lights will always illuminate the Menorah,'' suggests that this does not refer to the Menorah of the Beit HaMikdash (which, ultimately, would be destroyed) but, rather, the menorah lit by all Jews on Chanukah, the menorah kindled in all homes, marking the miracle Hashem brought for the Kohanim/Chashmona’im. And, Rav Gigi continues, saying that just as the Menorah’s light was not meant to illuminate the Inner Sanctuary but to brighten all who were outside of it (see Shabbat 22b), so, too, this menorah lights up the home and, by doing so, makes every home into a “mikdash m’at,” a miniature sanctuary.
When applying this approach to Zecharya’s vision, we may better understand his revelation from Hashem. Zecharya lived at the beginning of the Second Temple era. Although it was a time of great anticipation for a rebuilt Beit HaMikdash, a renewal of the sacrificial rite, and the hope for a restoration of the Davidic dynasty, it was also an era of challenge, fear, and doubt. It was at this particular time, therefore, that Hashem relayed to His prophet an essential message, that the light of the future will not be emanating from the Menorah in the Temple but from the small menorah surrounded by all the family members. The glow of religious fervor must first be kindled at home before it can hope to spread into the Temple.
The hope for a shining future must find its source in the home.
A message for us all!
RABBI EFREM GOLDBERG
RABBI NACHMAN WINKLER
