Part II. A Priestly Nation
Your Business Is My Business
Now we understand what it means in the Al Hanissim that we thank Hashem for fighting our fight. Because in those days, they lived up to the ideal of לְבַסּוֹף נַעֲשָׂה תּוֹרָתוֹ, that it becomes your Torah in the end. When the Chashmonaim and all the loyal Jews saw that the Greeks were tearing down the Torah and abolishing mitzvos, they didn't say, “Well, let Hashem come and He should rescue His Torah. After all, it’s His business. We'll do our part if it’s required, but it’s His business so let Him come and do miracles.”
You know why they didn’t say that? Because they didn’t think like that! It didn't occur to them that they were fighting for Hashem's Torah – doing Him a favor. “It’s our Torah and it’s our business,” they said, “and we’re ready to lay down our lives for it.”
The Inseparable Couple
That's how they considered it. קוּדְשָׁא בְּרִיךְ הוּא וְאוֹרָיְתָא וְיִשְׂרָאֵל חַד הוּא – The Am Yisroel and the Torah are one (Zohar, Acharei 73a). They’re inseparable! The Jewish way of life, that's the only way a Jew can live. Like Rabbi Akiva said, just like a fish cannot exist out of the water, a Jew cannot exist outside of the Torah. And therefore, to suppress the Torah meant to suppress the souls of the Jewish nation. They cared about the Torah. And they cared for it to the utmost because it was their Torah, their business, their life.
It was unimaginable to them; it was impossible that the Jewish people should continue existing without their Torah. If a Jew is without his Judaism, he doesn't want to live. Like the king who said, “Either I wear the crown or I don't want to live!” Either you wear the crown of Yisroel or otherwise, life is a waste. Because we're not interested in just existing, in being like the nations of the world. Just to live like a rabbit? Like a tree? כְּמִשְׁפְּחוֹת הָאֲדָמָה, like the nations of the earth? By no means! We live only with the crown of Torah on our heads. Otherwise, life is not worth living.
And that’s why they arose in revolt like lions. Because they could not tolerate the persecutions against their Torah way of life – it’s the only way to live – and so they rose up in great indignation, in a holy fury, to defend their existence as a Torah nation.
Fighting Our Fight
Now, they didn't have any army. They were not organized. They were few and weak, and here was a king with a powerful army. It was a hopeless cause. But what does hopeless mean when they’re coming against our way of life, our existence, our Torah?
And so, they persisted in their “hopeless” cause. But there was no thought of doing Hashem any favors; they fought for themselves. It’s our battle, our own personal cause. That’s what they were thinking. And therefore, when Hashem saved them, they felt like He was doing them the favor and they owed Him a great debt of gratitude for taking up their cause.
מוֹדִים אֲנַחְנוּ לָךְ – We thank You, Hashem, אֶת רִיבָם רַבְתָּ – that You took up their cause. You helped us save the cause of our Torah, our business! Torah and mitzvos is our nation’s business!
A Nation Of Priests
And this brings us to the entire role of our nation among the peoples of the world. Because it’s not just Chanukah. The days of Chanukah, בַּיָּמִים הָהֵם בַּזְּמַן הַזֶּה, that’s when the nation was tested if they’d live up to this ideal. It's an attitude for all year long and it’s for everyone. It’s a fundamental role of the Am Yisroel – that we live with the attitude that Hashem’s Torah is ours.
You recall when Hakadosh Baruch Hu was about to give the Torah, He told Moshe Rabbeinu that he should go down and tell the people a certain message, and among the points in that message was the following: וְאַתֶּם תִּהְיוּ לִי מַמְלֶכֶת כֹּהֲנִים – You are going to be for Me a nation of kohanim (Shemos 19:6). “I’m giving you the Torah now,” Hashem said, “and I want you to know that along with the Torah comes a certain responsibility, a certain role that you must undertake in this world: You’re a nation of kohanim.”
The Essence Of The Nation
Now, we have to understand what that means. What’s the function of a kohen? It’s somebody to whom a certain charge, a certain responsibility, is handed over. He was born into kehunah and he has a special interest in upholding that service, because that’s what makes him who he is. His entire identity stands on that worship. He has a personal interest in maintaining the worship. The business of kehunah is his business. It’s who he is.
And therefore when Hashem said, “You're going to be for Me a nation of kohanim,” it meant that the function of a Jew in this world is that the business of Hakadosh Baruch Hu has to be his business. Not like the people in the other nations who feel that it’s the business of their priests. “Let the priests worry about it. They’re running this show and we’re only spectators.”
Trading Idols
That's good for the nations of the world. The priest says “Boo!” so they say “Ooh!” That's why when a king in Europe came and told his people, “I have decided that from now on you're all Christians,” so they said “Thank you for the good news,” and they all accepted it. It was no problem. Because what difference did it make to them?
It wasn’t their business anyhow. They were interested only in pleasing their king and getting along with him. So instead of bowing down to the idol of... I won't say its name because you can't say a shem avodah zarah; I can spell it however – instead of bowing down to W-o-t-a-n, a certain Anglo-Saxon idol, now they bowed down to a different idol, to a dead man, J-e-s-u-s. The same idol. What difference does it make to them? It’s the business of the priests anyway.
But at Matan Torah we received a role not like that; we became a mamleches kohanim, a nation of priests. Not a nation ruled by priests; mamleches kohanim means a nation where all the citizens are kohanim.
Of course, there’s a priesthood that serves in the Beis Hamikdash, a certain technicality, but actually, there’s a bigger truer picture: וְאַתֶּם תִּהְיוּ לִי מַמְלֶכֶת כֹּהֲנִים – Each of you is a priest. Hakadosh Baruch Hu says, “You're going to be a nation of kohanim where every one of you has to be concerned about the Torah like it's his own private affair. To fight for My Torah is going to be your business.”
