The thirteenth "cheder" in the palace of Hayom Yom.
Thursday, 2 Teves, seventh day of Chanukah, 5703.
Shiurim: Chumash, parshas Mikeitz; Chamishi with Rashi's commentary.
Tehillim, second day of the month, from chapter 10 through chapter 17 inclusive.
Tanya, still in chapter 4, from the words "velachen nimshelah" until the words "hamilah umitzvoseha".
We already learned two days ago about the meaning of Chanukah, and last time the Rebbe spoke about the meaning of Chanukah more in the way of mussar and derush - what caused Jews to fall into things that were not good and to attach themselves to the Greeks, as the Rebbe detailed in the previous teaching. This time we move forward and learn the meaning of Chanukah according to chassidus: how the teachings of chassidus explain to us the meaning of Chanukah and the miracle of Chanukah - what the Greeks wanted, and how we merited, thank G-d, to overcome the matter.
The source from which the Rebbe takes this teaching, as he himself notes, is a maamar of the Rebbe Rayatz, dibur-hamaschil "Mai Chanukah" from the year 5701. The Rebbe took several lines from one place in the maamar and a passage from the end, joined them together, and put them into the teaching before us. Let us read the wording.
"The war of the Greeks was" - the Rebbe quotes from what we say in "Al HaNissim" that is added for Chanukah, "in the days of Mattisyahu" - what exactly did the Greeks want? "to make them forget Your Torah and to force them away from the statutes of Your will". In this sentence, as we will see in detail shortly, lies the whole secret of what the war of the Greeks against the Jews truly was, and the Rebbe repeated this idea over the years many times with interesting emphases.
Let us first state the point of emphasis, and then it will also be understood within the teaching itself. The Rebbe is precise - and this is ultimately hinted at as well in the maamar of the Rebbe Rayatz - that it does not say "to make them forget the Torah", but rather "to make them forget Your Torah". The precision is that they did not want to uproot the very study of Torah, for in the study of Torah itself there is logic and intellect, and even interesting intellect, and as it is said of the Torah, "for it is your wisdom and your understanding in the eyes of the nations"; even the Greeks recognized the deep intellect in the Torah. Rather, they knew that Jews study Torah in holiness, out of a recognition that this is not human intellect but divine intellect - "Your Torah", the Torah of the Holy One, blessed be He. Hence the emphasis: not "to make them forget Torah", but "to make them forget" that it is "Your Torah".
And so too regarding the mitzvos - "and to force them away from the statutes of Your will". There are two emphases here. First, as is known, there are mitzvos called "mishpatim" or "eidos", which are mitzvos grasped by logic and intellect; and to these mitzvos, which are understood by the intellect, the Greeks did not have so much opposition, since with intellectual matters they go along. What bothered them mainly was the observance of the "chukim" - an observance that is above human intellect. Hence the precision "to force them away from the statutes": mainly they wanted to uproot from us the chukim, the part that is above reason and understanding.
And there is an addition - the word "Your will", which comes to emphasize two things: a) that even with the mishpatim and eidos, the logical mitzvos to which they seemingly agreed, the truth is that a Jew's approach is that he fulfills those too because the Holy One, blessed be He, willed it so; and when they see that a Jew fulfills them because it is G-d's will, they are again unwilling that he fulfill even the logical mitzvos, since he connects them to the divine will. b) Moreover, even with chukim they could at a certain point agree that we fulfill them - for one can fulfill a chok even without understanding, relying on the fact that the Holy One, blessed be He, has understanding in the matter; "I still do not understand, but at least someone understands, and I am not doing something incomprehensible". But the true approach of a Jew must be: "I fulfill this not because there is some understanding to the matter in a hidden place - there is no understanding at all, not here and not there, nowhere; the only reason I fulfill it is because such is Your will, because this is G-d's will". That is what bothered the Greeks, and that is the emphasis in the sentence.
Let us continue reading: "as it is said", and as is known from the wording of the Midrash "(Bereishis Rabbah chapter 16)", that the Greeks said "write etc. [for yourselves on the horn of the ox] that you have no portion in the G-d of Israel". The full wording appears in the Rebbe's maamar, and the Rebbe here only abbreviated. The plain meaning: that you should write openly and publicly everywhere, even on the horns of your oxen, that you have no portion in the G-d of Israel. They wanted to uproot entirely the Jew's connection to holiness, to G-dliness and to the Holy One, blessed be He.
On this matter there is an interesting emphasis of the Alter Rebbe in "Torah Ohr": the ox is one of the four faces in the supernal merkavah - "the face of an ox"; the souls of the nations also receive from the ox, but from its externality, from the "horns and hooves", which are the refuse of the ox, whereas the Jews receive from the internality. The Greeks were jealous of the Jews and said: "write for yourselves on the horn of the ox" - you too should receive from the horn, from the externality - "and you have no portion in the G-d of Israel", that you should not receive from the internality. With this they wanted to uproot us from the inner connection.
And as he details further: "the entire war was against G-dliness" and against holiness. "That they should study Torah, that they should fulfill mitzvos" - they did not care that Jews study Torah, and they did not care that they fulfill mitzvos - "the mishpatim and the eidos", as mentioned, these are logical mitzvos, and they have no problem with their being fulfilled - "only that they should not mention that it is the Torah of G-d and that the mitzvos are the statutes of His blessed will; that they should not mention in Torah and mitzvos the matter of G-dliness", as long as they do not mention that this is the Torah of G-d. If you study Torah, study, but do not mention that it is "Your Torah", and that the mitzvos are "the statutes of Your will" - that the mitzvos are statutes of G-d's will. That must not be mentioned; not to mention the G-dliness in Torah and in mitzvos.
Therefore the Rebbe brings in Likkutei Sichos that the miracle of Chanukah was specifically with the lights of the menorah. Why was the miracle specifically in this, when the Greeks defiled the entire Beis HaMikdash - the mizbeach and other things? Rather, light is a symbol of something divine and spiritual; when one wants to express a spiritual matter one says "ohr", and such was also the way of the mekubalim, that when they wanted to express a divine revelation they called it "ohr". Light is the symbol of G-dliness, and therefore the miracle was in light - for the entire war was against the divine matter, and consequently the miracle too was in the divine matter.
What was the order of events? In one of the footnotes the Rebbe discusses this question, for it is related that they did indeed prevent the fulfillment of mitzvos in the literal sense, and not only fought against G-dliness. And there are two ways to view this: one way - that they began with causing G-dliness to be forgotten, and from that it developed that they also prevented the actual fulfillment of Torah and mitzvos, since they understood that in everything the Jews bring in G-dliness. And one can say the opposite - that they began with preventing the fulfillment of Torah and mitzvos, and at first their war was against the technical fulfillment, and from there they advanced to a deeper war, to uproot entirely our connection to holiness and to G-dliness. There are two ways to say what the point was at which they began and where they arrived.
In any case, this is the main and inner idea of Chanukah: Chanukah expresses and emphasizes the Jew's connection to the Holy One, blessed be He, to G-dliness, to holiness and to Torah and mitzvos - in an inner and true way.