וְעַל הַנִסִים: On Chanuka in the standing prayer, as well as in the grace after meals, we praise HaKodosh Boruch Hu in a special prayer of ‘Ve'al Hanissim’.
You waged their battles: The battles of the B’nei Yisroel.
Wrong done to them: Wrong done to the B’nei Yisroel in those days.
The explanation: Of this statement that HaKodosh Boruch Hu fights with, deals with and avenges the wars and quarrels of the B’nei Yisroel.
What is written: In the Torah that HaKodosh Boruch Hu said about Pinchos the son of Elazar. Bamidbor (25:11) פִּינְחָס בֶּן אֶּלְעָזָר בֶּן אַהֲרֹן הַכֹהֵן הֵשִּיב אֶּת חֲמָתִּי מֵעַל בְנֵי יִּשְ רָאֵל בְקַנְאוֹ אֶּת קִּנְאָתִּי בְתוֹכָם וְלֹא כִּלִּיתִּי אֶּת בְנֵי יִּשְ רָאֵל בְקִנְאָתִּי “Pinchos the son of Elazar the son of Aaron the kohen has turned My anger away from the B’nei Yisroel by his zealously avenging Me among them, so that I did not destroy the B’nei Yisroel because of My zeal.” RaShI says there: By his avenging My vengeance, by his releasing the wrath that I should have released.
I would have had: In other words, that Pinchos did what HaKodosh Boruch Hu was about to do.
The explanation is consistent with what is written: בְקַנְאוֹ אֶת קִנְאָּתִי and Rashi explains this to mean: “When Pinchos zealously avenged My vengeance, and became enraged with the anger that I (HaShem) would have had”, and so the meaning of the words that we are saying in וְעַל הַנִסִים: “Avenged the wrong done to them” נָּקַמְתָּ אֶת נִקְמָּתָּם is - that HaShem has fought the battles that the B’nei Yisroel were supposed to wage, in other words; there is a war that the B’nei Yisroel need to wage (רִיבָּם their war) but HaShem wages this war himself.
The Battle for Holiness
The concept here is that the war that the B’nei Yisroel have to wage (רִיבָּם their battle) refers to the general battle with [the forces of the other side] - the Le’umas Zeh: The other side, The Sitra Achra, the side opposite to holiness. There is a Possuk in Koheles (7:14) that states: זֶּה לְעֻמַת־זֶּה עָשָה הָאֱלֹקִּים “Hashem has made this one opposite that one”. In Chassidus it explains that HaShem created the world with a fine balance of good and evil in order to give us a perfect choice of two equal paths. And therefore, what He gave to one He gave to the other.
That they: The B’nei Yisroel. Dwelling for HaShem blessed be He: As the words of our sages of blessed memory, that HaKodosh Boruch Hu 'Desired' to have a dwelling in the lower worlds, specifically that the lowest of the worlds shall be a receptacle suitable for the Divine presence to rest and to be revealed within them. It is explained in Chassidus, that this is the ultimate purpose, the raison d'etre for the creation of the world.
Preparing a Dwelling for the King
As in the parable of the preparations of a suitable dwelling for an important person coming to stay, and how much more so for a King, and especially how much more so if preparing a dwelling for a great, awesome King, that the property would first have to be cleared of any undesirables, and only then can beautiful furniture and ornaments be brought in, until it shall be suitable as a dwelling for ‘The King’.
Applying this principle to a person's 'Avodah' [we learn] that in order to perform the constructive 'Avodah' of וַעֲשֵׂה טוֹב, first there needs to be a preventative 'Avodah' of סוּר מֵׂרָּע, and since within this itself the requirement is to prepare a dwelling for a great and awesome King, it is not enough just to clean the dwelling, but also does there need to be a most thorough cleaning, meaning there needs to be the ultimate סוּר מֵרָע, so that not only is he pushing away the רַע – the bad, but also is he completely repulsed by anything that is evil, and [consequently] is there no possibility of him having anything to do with it, and as the Rebbe Maharash explains in his Maamor with the opening words: ‘Ravtoh Es Rivom’ (This Maamor was said more than one hundred years earlier) that there is a vast difference between them.
Repulsion from Evil vs. Turning Away
This is so because, when someone is repulsed by evil, he will become enraged with the evil and it will be his absolute enemy, whereas, someone who only 'turns away from evil’ is merely pushing the evil from his heart, due to the self-nullification of his own will for the supernal will of Hashem, but he does not hate the evil in essence, and then [in such an instance] there still remains room for the evil to take nurture from him.
This is so because he harbors a kinship and closeness that he still feels for that evil in essence, notwithstanding his active, complete and effective pushing away from himself. It is only when a person becomes enraged and angry with the evil, and absolutely hates it, only then is there ‘no room’ for the evil to take nurture from him, because [now] since he hates the evil with absolute hatred, how could the hatred receive any emanation from him? And as is known that the whole aspect of emanations is from the emotive attribute of ‘Chessed’, which is the concept of love and closeness, however regarding the 'left' that rejects and distances with the ultimate distance, it becomes impossible to receive any sort of emanation or vitality from it.
Spiritual Worlds and Levels of Service
Further and more to the point, the difference between just 'turning away from evil or being 'repulsed by evil is as different as is the spiritual world of 'Atzilus' to the spiritual worlds of 'Briyah, Yetzirah and ‘Asiyah.’ In 'Avodah it is as different as the 'Avodah of the ‘Intermediate’ ‘Benoni’ versus the 'Avodah' of a most ‘Righteous Tzaddik' as is known in Chassidus, that the difference between the most righteous ‘Tzaddikim' and those ranked below them is likened to the difference between the spiritual world of 'Atzilus' and the spiritual worlds of 'Briyah, Yetzirah and Asiyah’.
The spiritual world of 'Atzilus' is a world of absolute unity about which the Possuk לֹא יְגֻרְךָ רָּע “Evil does not abide with you”, that not only is there no actual evil there, but furthermore, evil could not possibly exist there. Whereas, unlike the spiritual worlds of 'Briyah, Yetzirah and Asiyah' even the world of 'Briyah' has within it an existence of evil, except that it is mostly good and only a tiny bit evil. This means that the evil is subservient to the good (and therefore we find that the spiritual world of 'Briyah' is sometimes referred to as the 'stopped up worlds') and yet, since some evil exists within it there is always the possibility that from it will emanate a nurture to the external forces etc.
Beinonim and Tzadikkim
And accordingly, this is the difference between the levels of the ‘Intermediate’ - 'Beinonim’ and the levels of the Most Righteous - 'Tzadikkim’.
This is so because, even though the intermediate level of 'Beinoni’ means that he has never sinned nor will he ever, nevertheless, he has the potential for the evil to nurture from him, because he is not utterly repulsed by evil in essence, only that he actively turns away from it. In contrast, the Tzaddik is so repulsed by evil that there is no possibility for evil to take any nurture from him at all.
