B"H

Thursday, Kislev 22, 5777 / December 22, 2016

Chanukah, the holiday of lights, begins Shabbat night. It is interesting to note that the first night of Chanukah can be any night of the week, except on a Monday night. 

Q.  What is the reason that the first night of Chanukah can never be on a Monday night?

A.  It has nothing do with Chanukah. It is a result of the fact that the Hebrew calendar is set in a way that the first night of Rosh Hashana cannot fall Saturday night, Tuesday night or Thursday night.  This arrangement automatically affects that the first night of Chanukah cannot be Monday night.

Q.  The miracle of Chanukah was that a small amount of oil, with the seal of the High Priest, which had enough only for one day, miraculously lasted for eight days. If there was enough oil for one day, then its lasting eight days was only a seven day miracle as for the first day there was enough oil.  Why do we celebrate the miracle for eight days?

A.Here are two answers given for this so obvious question: 1) A miracle doesn’t come from nothing. There has to be something tangible for a miracle to take effect on. Like the story with Elisha the Prophet, when he told a poor widow, who had only a small jar of oil, to go borrow as many pots from her neighbors as she could, and the oil from the small jar will keep flowing until she fills all. Even though a miracle was going to happen, she needed to have a bit of oil in the jar upon which the blessing would apply.

The same was with the miracle of Chanukah with the oil in the Temple. In order for the oil to miraculously get refilled each day, there had to be some oil left in the jar or in the menorah each day. 

Even though there was enough oil to fill the menorah for one day, they had to preserve some of the oil on the first day, so that the jar would not be completely empty and then there wouldn’t be anything for the miracle to take hold on. Thus, the fact that it burnt the full measure of a full jar of oil even the first day of Chanukah, was a miracle.

2) Some rabbis give another explanation for the eight days of celebrations. They say that even though there was enough oil for one day and thus the miracle perhaps was not needed for eight days, yet, the fact that this one jar of oil was found was a miracle in itself. Thus, we celebrate seven days for the miracle of the burning of the oil and the first day for the miracle of finding the oil.

On the lighter side:A woman goes to the post office to buy stamps for her Chanukah cards. She says to the clerk, "May I have 50 Chanukah stamps please."

"What denomination?" asks the clerk.

The woman says, "Oy! Has it come to this? Okay, give me 20 orthodox; 12 conservative and 18 reform!"

HAVE A VERY GOOD, HAPPY, HEALTHY AND SUCCESSFUL DAY