In the Gemara (Shabbos 21b) it describes how the festival of Chanuka was established by the Sages. The Jewish people defeated their enemies, the Greek army, on the 24th of Kisleiv. The next day, the 25th of Kisleiv, they started lighting the Menorah using one jug of oil that was able to burn only for one day, but it miraculously burned for eight days.
The next year the Sages established that from the 25th of Kisleiv, the Jewish People should celebrate for eight days every year. During these eight days, the Jewish People should recite Halel, psalms of praise to Hashem, and should add special praise of gratitude to Hashem, the passage of Ve’al HaNisim in Shemona Esrai in the bracha of Modim, and in Birkas Hamazon in the bracha of Nodeh Lecha. The Alter Rebbe will analyze the meaning of ‘הוֹדָאָה’ as more than simple ‘gratitude,’ but also meaning “admitting” that Hashem’s perspective is correct, as will be explained.
The Alter Rebbe said this maamar on the 19th of Kisleiv 5560, the first anniversary of his release from prison in the Petersburgh fortress on the 19th of Kisleiv 5559. Just as the Sages instituted Chanuka as a festival the year after the miracle of Chanuka occurred, similarly, the Alter Rebbe is implying that from the first year after his miraculous release, he establishes the day of the 19th of Kisleiv as a festival to be celebrated every year.
Understanding the Concept of Gratitude
The Gemara (Shabbos 21b): “The following year, they established them [the celebration of the eight days of Chanuka, and made them festive days] with reciting Halel and הוֹדָאָה -giving thanks to Hashem.”
We need to understand what is meant by ‘הוֹדָאָה -gratitude’:
It says in the Gemara (ibid.): “The time of the Mitzvah of lighting the Menorah is from when the sun sets until people stop walking in the marketplace.”
The Rif on that Gemara explains this means the Menorah must be lit within the first half an hour after sunset, since that is how long people are still walking around outside before it gets too dark to walk outside.
The Alter Rebbe will analyze this teaching on a mystical level, further in the maamar.
Blessing and Admitting in Prayer
The idea will be understood based on the following: We have in our prayers two expressions: 1- ‘בְּרָכָה - blessing,’ and 2- ‘הוֹדָאָה - gratitude.’
What does the word ‘הוֹדָאָה’ mean in our connection with Hashem? In addition to the meaning of gratitude, it also can mean “admitting”: Like someone who admits to his friend that he was correct in a matter that they were arguing about.
In our context, ‘הוֹדָאָה’ means that we are admitting that Hashem is correct in the issue we were disagreeing with Him about.
What were we disagreeing with Hashem about that we need to admit that He is correct?
The Nature of Pleasure and Life
The idea is as follows: Each person has the power of having pleasure, and he has a life force.
The way that pleasure works is, usually, from something outside of the person, like enjoying something physical like food, or when he understands a concept, which is also outside of the person’s essence.
Even though the process of understanding happens in the person’s mind, the idea itself originates outside of the person.
However, a person does not (usually) receive pleasure from his own life force.
But in truth, a person’s own life force is a greater source of pleasure than all the other pleasures in the world, since it is this life force that enables those pleasures to exist for him.
Only after a person is alive in this world is he able to enjoy something anything.
In conclusion, without life a person would not be able to have any pleasure, since he is not found in this world, therefore, life itself is the greatest pleasure possible.
We see this in common experience, that in truth a person’s life is more valuable to him than any other pleasure, for, a person will give whatever he has to save his life, as we see, that a person will willingly endure many painful medical procedures to stay alive.
From the above it is understood that life itself is the greatest pleasure, and yet, at the same time, a person does not (usually) perceive the enjoyment of life itself on a conscious level.
How is this possible that life itself is the greatest pleasure, yet we are not conscious of it?
The answer is that constant pleasure is not experienced consciously as pleasure.
Therefore: before the person was born into this world, he was not able to perceive the enjoyment of being alive; and after he is born into this world, his enjoyment from being alive is constant, and therefore he is unable to experience that pleasure of being alive. Because our pleasure of being alive is constant, it therefore is not experienced consciously.
However, in truth, this is big mistake.
The “mistake” is to take for granted the most important things in our lives, and the very fact that we are alive, and allow it to remain a subconscious awareness.
A person should use his mind to think about what is truly important, what is essential, and what is the ultimate pleasure that is the source of all pleasures.
On a simple level this means to be grateful for life itself. This is a conscious act that requires reflection.
On a deeper level, it means to be grateful to our True Life, which is Hashem, who is the Source of all life, including our life.
Just as the greatest pleasure is from life itself, but this pleasure is subconscious until we reflect upon intentionally; so too, the greatest pleasure is our Source of Life, Hashem, but we need to intentionally reflect upon that truth, that the ultimate pleasure in our Source of Life, who is the Source of all pleasure.
Reflection and Divine Service
Since, this is a fundamental aspect of a person’s service of Hashem, that he should know and reflect upon the following:
That it is not correct to say that only one time Hashem created everything out of nothing, rather, each moment He gives life and creates everything in His kindness, and without that happening, everything would cease to exist in a moment.
As we say (in our daily prayers): “Blessed is He who is creating the universe,” and it says (Tehillim 33:6): “with the words of Hashem the heavens were made, and by the breath of His mouth all their hosts (were made).”
To understand this with an analogy: A person’s words of speech receive their vitality and existence from his thoughts, since without thought there can be no speech, and thoughts receive their life and existence from the person’s intellect, since without any knowledge or ideas there can be no thoughts.
So too now, in our case, each level of the spiritual worlds receives its existence power and vitality from the level above, which in turn receives from the level above it, until they all receive their existence power and vitality from the “Words of Hashem,” Malchus of Atzilus, so that it is Hashem who is the one that is constantly giving existence and life to all the worlds every moment, by bring down His creative power and vitalizing power down the chain of words into every level every moment.
This is the deeper (non-literal) meaning of the first verse of the Torah: “בְּרֵאשִׁית-what is the first thing a person needs to know? בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים-that Hashem created everything!”
This is the beginning of wisdom, that a person needs to constantly receive a new appreciation of Hashem from his reflection upon this concept.
When a person will reflect upon all of this, then his enjoyment in his Source of Life will not be experienced as something constant and unchanging and therefore only felt subconsciously, rather it will be experienced as something new, since every moment Hashem creates him new out of nothing and gives him new life, when he experiences this, he would consider all other pleasures as meaningless compared to this great pleasure in his Source of Life, that he is able to experience as new every day, he would devote himself to only want to connect to Hashem, as it says (Devarim 30:19-20): “and you should choose True Life...to connect to Hashem...for He is your True Life.”
Metaphor of the Dove in Exile
This is the meaning of (Shir HaShirim 2:14): “My dove, who is trapped in the cleft of the rocks [in the crevices under the steps, show me your appearance, let me hear your voice, for your voice is pleasant and your appearance is comely].”
Shir HaShirim is a metaphorical story meant to describe the Jewish people in exile and their desire to connect to Hashem there. The Jewish people are called Hashem’s “dove” who is stuck in exile, like a dove trapped in the cleft of a rocky cliff, or hiding in a crevice under steps.
The “יוֹנָה -dove,” which represents the Divine intellect of the Jewish soul, which is called ‘יוֹנָה’ from the expression ‘אוֹנָאָה -cheated,’ since it feels cheated out of its lofty awareness of Hashem in Gan Eden and is forced to descend into the body, which is called “the cleft of the rocks,” since it is as coarse as a rock, and it is called “the hidden crevices under the steps,” since it is a body is a “crevice” that “hides” the Light of Hashem from it, the Divine soul.
For, it is written (Malachi 3:6): “I, Hashem, have not changed.”
This means that there is no change in His Oneness, just as before He created the world, He was alone, so too now He is One and alone.
Since the whole world is truly like nothing relative to Him, for Him, it is as if there is no world at all, since there a no limitations of time and space for Hashem, since they all derive from Him, and nothing exists outside of Him, and because He knows Himself, therefore, past, present, and future all exist simultaneously in Him, since they all derive from Him.
This is the meaning of what the Rambam wrote (Hilchos Yesodei HaTorah 2:10): “He [Hashem] is the knowledge and the Knower” at the same time, since His knowledge is derived from His Self.
However, even though in Hashem Himself there are no changes in His Oneness, nonetheless, in the place of His concealment we see “changes,” Meaning, we see a world that appears separate from Him, as though Hashem’s status of being alone with nothing separate has changed, G-d forbid.
This is the meaning of My “יוֹנָה -dove,” which represents the Divine intellect of the Jewish soul, which is trapped in the body, which feels ‘אוֹנָאָה -cheated,’ and sees what looks like “changes;” but in truth, a person needs to reflect upon all the above and come to realize that it is not true, and there no real “changes” to Hashem’s Oneness.
Levels of Comprehension: Hearing and Seeing
Nonetheless, even though in general during this contemplation a person will come to recognize the truth of Hashem, in this contemplative process itself there are two aspects, known as “hearing,” and “seeing,” and the level of “hearing” is not comparable to the level of “seeing,” since when one “sees” something he recognizes the truth of it without any doubt whatsoever.
As our Sages say (Tamid 32a): “Who is a “חָכָם-wise” person? One who sees ‘נוֹלָד-what will come to be.’”
Rashi explains: He thinks into what will probably happen in the future, and takes the necessary precautions to be ready for those probabilities.
The Alter Rebbe in Tanya Ch. 43 explains this on a deeper level: A truly wise person ‘sees’ the idea of ‘נוֹלָד-how everything comes into being,’ i.e., how everything comes into being every moment from Hashem’s creative power.
The following is a quote from Tanya chapter 43:
“Meaning, that the “חָכָם-wise” person is he who ‘sees’ [how everything is born and brought into tangible existence from the ‘אַיִן-transcendent’ power of Hashem behind creation, by means of the Word of G-d and the breath of His mouth].”
This is the meaning of the two terms used by Moshe (in Parshas Yisro) to describe the new judges he wants to appoint, they should be “חָכָם-wise” and “נָבוֹן-understanding.”
Rashi explains that Moshe wanted judges who were both “חָכָם-wise” and “נָבוֹן-understanding” but was only able to find judges that were “נָבוֹן-understanding,” since “חָכָם-wise” was harder to find.
He explains that “נָבוֹן-understanding” means someone who figures out how to manage what he already has, or compute the facts that are already in front of him. However, a “חָכָם-wise” person can think deeper and come up with original ideas and solutions. A “חָכָם-wise” is someone who can see past what is already in front of him and look deeper into the true inner nature of things. A “נָבוֹן-understanding” person can figure out things intellectually, but not necessarily “see” the idea in an absolute sense, outside of its original context.
These are the two levels a person can reach in his contemplation on Hashem’s creation of everything, One level is “listening,” meaning to comprehend on the level of “נָבוֹן-understanding,” The first level of understanding, where he understands the idea intellectually, is called “listening,” like one who hears an idea from someone else and must decide whether to believe them or not.
The second level is called “seeing,” that using his wisdom he discerns that this is absolutely true. This is called seeing, like when one sees something with his own eyes, that he has no doubts that it is true.
This is the meaning of the verse quoted above: “Hashem asks the Jewish people, let Me see how you “see” me in your contemplation on My truth, let Me hear your voice in prayer, and you should “hear” about My truth in your contemplation of Me.”
The beginning of the verse it describes how the Jewish soul, Hashem’s “dove,” is trapped in the body. Hashem says to the Jewish soul that to be freed from this situation it needs to relate to Hashem in the level of “seeing” and “listening,” which refers to both levels of comprehension of Hashem’s Oneness in the contemplation in prayer. Through this the soul can reconnect to Hashem.
Certainly, if he would constantly reflect upon Hashem’s True Oneness, then all the other pleasures of this world would seem insignificant relative to the pleasure of connecting to Hashem, like the light of a small candle is insignificant before the light of a huge torch.
Blessing and Admitting: Shabbos and Festivals
This difference between “seeing” Hashem’s Truth and “hearing about it” is the difference between ‘בְּרָכָה -blessing’ and ‘הוֹדָאָה -admitting.’
In other words, ‘בְּרָכָה-blessing’ which is related to the word that means to draw down and reveal, represents “seeing” Hashem’s Oneness. Whereas ‘הוֹדָאָה-admitting’ which means that we had a disagreement with Hashem about what is the true pleasures of life, and we ended up admitting that Hashem is correct, that He is the True Life and the greatest pleasure is to connect to Him. The fact that we had a “disagreement” and had to “admit” means that we do not “see” His True Oneness, we only “hear about it,” and that is why there is room for disagreement. If we would “see” His True Oneness there we be no disagreement in the first place.
The difference between these two levels of “blessing-seeing” and “admitting-hearing” is also the difference between Shabbos and the other festivals.
Since, the other festivals are related to the miracles that happened on them, since through them Hashem’s greatness and Elokus is revealed, and every created being becomes aware that everything comes from Him, since the miracle itself is an expression of Elokus, and therefore, this brings out in a person that aspect of ‘הוֹדָאָה -admitting,’ that he comes to admit that the truth is not like he thought all along, that the word seems separate from Hashem and that it seems like a change, G-d forbid.
