Like other mitzvos, lighting ner Chanukah should be done with one’s right hand. The Rambam writes in Hilchos Chanukah 3:1 that we celebrate Chanukah because the Yevanim, the Greeks, stretched out their hands to Jews’ money and daughters – ופשטו ידם בממונם ובבנותיהם.
Why does the Rambam say that the Greeks stretched out their hands for the money of Klal Yisrael, it should say that they stole their money, or they cheated them out of their money, or they seized their money? What does it mean that they stretched out their hands to the money and daughters of Klal Yisrael?
A beautiful vort was said in the name of Rav Mordechai Shapiro by his son yibadeil l'chaim, Rav Efraim. Upashtu yadam bmemonam does not mean that the Greeks stole money that belonged to a Jew. Not at all. It has nothing to do with stealing the money that belonged to a Jew. I don't think that we find a Gemara that says that the Yevanim stole Jewish money. It means that the Greek culture infiltrated and changed the Jewish money and the Jewish women in a way that was not proper.
Chazal say that the Torah is sama d'chaya for he who holds it in his right hand, and it is sama d'maves for he who holds it in his left hand. What is the pshat in this statement of Chazal?
Rav Efraim Shapiro says that the right hand is the one with which you hold what is most important to you, and the left hand is the one with which you hold secondary things. If the Torah is primary, it is sama d’chaya, but for someone who holds it with his left hand, meaning that money is more important, honor is more important, a fancy home is more important, comfort is more important, then the Torah is sama d’maves. Not only is it not positive, but it is negative. The attitude towards Torah is crucial. When you have an attitude that Torah is primary, you live a Torahdika life.
Pashtu yedaihem doesn’t mean that we are worried about the Greeks stealing from us, as goyim stole from us throughout all of the generations. We are concerned about the Greeks changing us, giving us an American attitude towards money, an American attitude towards tzniyus. That is something that there is reason to be afraid of.
This attitude towards money continues throughout our galus in the Western countries that we live in, where the need for money is primary. ופשטו ידם בממונם means the Yevanim stuck their hands into our pockets, not to steal our money, but rather, on the contrary, in order to make money so important to us that it overrides the other things that we know we have to do to be matzliach in avodas Hashem.
