Rabbi Mansour 09
Shabbat morning class
פרשת מקץ-שבת חנוכה
The eighth day of Hanukah is one of the holiest days of the year. The Admur from
Ruzhhin teaches, that what a simple man can accomplish on the 8th day of Hanukah,
even great Tzadikim cannot accomplish with their Tefilah during Neilah of Yom Kippur!
What is so special about the 8th day of Hanukah? On Rosh Hashanah we are judged, on
Yom Kippur the judgment is sealed, on Shemini Atzeret it is delivered. We still have one
last chance to change things until the 8th day of Hanukah, after which everything is
completed and starts to get carried out. Therefore it is a very special day to beg
Hashem for mercy for all that we need, and that we should have only good decrees
upon us. This is hinted in the number of Pesukim contained in the Parashiot that we
read in the month of Elul, when we approach Rosh Hashanah (At the end of every
Parasha it lists the number of Pesukim and a סימן to remember the number. There are
deep concepts in these סימנים and numbers. Rabbi Dovid Feinstein wrote an entire
sefer explaining some of these concepts). In פרשת נצבים there are 40 Pesukim
corresponding to the 40 days of Teshuvah from Rosh Hodesh Elul till Yom Kippur. In
פרשת וילך there are 30 Pesukim corresponding to the 30 days from Rosh Hodesh Elul till
Rosh Hashanah. In פרשת האזינו there are 52 Pesukim corresponding to the 52 days
from Rosh Hodesh Elul till Shemini Atzeret (the day the decree is delivered). What
about the 8th day of Hanukah, where is this hinted? From Rosh Hodesh Elul till the 8th
day of Hanukah there are 122 days (the 4 months of Elul, Tishrei, Cheshvan, and Kislev
total 120 days plus the first 2 days of Tevet total 122). If we add the total number of
Pesukim in these 3 Parashiot- 52+40+30=122, showing us that the culmination of all
these days of judgment and holiness is 122 days later, which is the 8th day of Hanukah.
In addition, the Parasha before נצבים is כי תבא which has exactly 122 Pesukim, showing
that we are about to begin the 122 days of the judgment process!
Parashat Miketz is always read on Hanukah and there are several hints and
connections to Hanukah in this Parasha. At the end of the Parasha, not only does it say
how many Pesukim are in it, but it is the only Parasha that lists how many words are in
it, and that is 2025 words. Why list the number of words? One answer is that there is a
Machloket in the Gemarah about the meaning of the word אברך (the word Pharaoh
used to describe Yosef). Rabi Yehudah says it means אב בחכמה ורך בשנים - that he was
old in wisdom but young in years. So it is comprised of 2 words אב-רך , but Rav Yose
ben Dormaskit argues and says that אברך is from the word ברך (the thigh), meaning
that they all bowed down to Yosef. So Rav Yehudah held that אברך is two words and
Rabi Yose ben Dormaskit held that it was one word. So at the end of the Parasha we
have a count of the words, to teach us that the Halacha is that אברך counts as only 1
word. Hacham Baruch ע'ה said another answer which connects Miketz with Hanukah.
The word נר -candle is numerically 250 and we light it for 8 nights so 8x250=2000, when
do we begin lighting them? On the 25th night of Kislev, so 2000+25=2025. So the
number of words in the Parasha hints to the holiday of Hanukah.
There are 10 Sefirot, the 7 lower Sefirot are what we associate with during the 7 days of
the week, each day for a different Sefirah, with Shabbat being the Sefirah of Malchut as
it says ישמחו במלכותך . We rarely associate with the top three Sefirot (on Shabbat,
during the 3 Tefilot, we actually connect to the 3 upper Sefirot. On Friday night with the
third, on Shabbat morning the second, and the highest Sefirah- the Keter, we connect
with during Minhah of Shabbat, which is the pinnacle of Shabbat. This is why the Satan
does alot to try and prevent us from praying Minha Shabbat in shul with proper
Kavanah). On Hanukah we have an 8 day holiday, the number 8 represents above 7,
above the 7 Sefirot that we normally connect with. (This is why the Kohen Gadol wore 8
garments showing he was involved with these higher levels). During the eight days of
Hanukah we are actually connected to the upper Sefirot. This is hinted in the miracle of
Hanukah, which involved שמן -oil. The word שמן is like the word שמנה , the number 8,
which represents the Sefirot above the seven Sefirot that we associate with today.
Therefore Hanukah represents being above nature and hints to the future eternal
world, when Mashiach will come and we will have the third Beit Hamikdash. The word
משיח is .מדליקיו שמנת ימי חנוכה – ר'ת
There are 3 months that are linked to the 3 Batei Hamikdash. The month of Kislev is
linked to the second Beit Hamikdash, since it is the month of Hanukah, when they
reinaugurated the second Beit Hamikdash. The Month of Tishrei is linked to the first
Beit Hamikdash since that is the month it was inaugurated in. Although it was ready to
be inaugurated by King Shlomo in the month of Cheshvan, Hashem said to wait until
Tishrei (another 11 months) to inaugurate it. The month of Cheshvan "felt bad" that it
did not get the first Beit Hamikdash, nor does it have any other holiday in it. Hashem
told Cheshvan not to worry, it will have the greatest day, and that is in the future with
the inauguration of the third Beit Hamikdash which will be permanent. Therefore the
third Beit Hamikdash is connected with the month of Cheshvan (that’s why Shlomo
Hamelech wanted to inaugurate the first Beit Hamikdash in the month of Cheshvan,
because he knew that if he would do so then it would be eternal, but Hashem said he
had to wait). The Pasuk says מושיבי עקרת הבית אם הבנים שמחה - this refers to רחל אמנו
(she was the אם -mother) and she was happy ( שמחה ), since her children, Menashe and
Ephraim (from Yosef) and Binyamin, correspond to the three months that the Temples
עקרת הבית) ) will be completed in (in the desert the Jews would travel with flags that
corresponded to the months of the year. Ephraim, Menashe and Binyamin were all on
the same flag that represented the first three months of the year). Ephraim
corresponds to Tishrei, the first temple. Binyamin to Kislev, the second temple.
Menashe corresponds to Cheshvan, the third Beit Hamikdash. The third Beit Hamikdash
will be an eternal one, so everything associated with it has to be eternal. What is
eternal? The Torah is eternal. The Torah begins with a ב, it ends with a ל, and the
middle letter is the ו from the word והתגלח (in פרשת שמיני ) these 3 letters make up the
word בול - the month of Cheshvan is referred to in the Pasuk as חדש בול (since בול is
from the word מבול -the flood that took place in this month of Cheshvan. מ -בול a forty
day flood). Cheshvan is when the third eternal Beit Hamikdash will be built so this
eternal aspect is hinted to it its name בול ,חדש בול being the first middle and last letters
of the eternal Torah. What else is eternal? The נשמה - the soul. This eternal aspect of the
soul is what Yosef Hasadik was hinting to when he named his son מנשה , which is the
same letters as נשמה , since he knew that this son corresponds to the third Beit
Hamikdash of eternity, he was hinting to something else eternal: the Neshama. So
Menashe represents the time of Mashiah and the third Beit Hamikdash when we will
connect with the upper three Sefirot. Menashe was born in פרשת מקץ which we always
read on Hanukah. Also whose קרבן do we read about on the eighth day of Hanukah?
Menashe, which brought his קרבן on the eighth day. This all hints to the connection
between Hanukah (which as mentioned is 8, above today’s nature) and the connection
to the upper Sefirot, the eternal world of Mashiach, and the third Beit Hamikdash.
Another connection between מקץ and Hanukah is that the Greeks tried to distance us
from anything that brought us close to Hashem. So they banned מילה, שבת, ראש חדש
.The Shabbat brings Hashem down to dwell with us, like it says את השבת לדרתם , it’s as
if it says לדירתם (to dwell). The ברית מילה makes us worthy to have the שכינה of Hashem
upon us, like we see by Avraham that after he did the ברית מילה it says ' וירא אליו ה - that
Hashem appeared to him. Rosh Hodesh is the time of the new moon, when we say
ברכת הלבנה , we try and do so on מוצאי שבת , since we are dressed in nice clothing and
still have the בשמים from הבדלה on us. We are going to greet the שכינה as we say at the
end of Birkat Halevanah להקביל פני אביהם שבשמים פעם אחת בחדש דים - the יונים did not
want us to connect with Hashem so they banned these 3 Mitzvot. The first letters of
these 3 Mitzvot are שבת מילה חדש)-שמח ) that is why we say חנוכה שמח . This holiday
represents our reconnecting with Hashem, represented by these 3 Mitzvot. That is why
they were called חשמונים , which starts with the letters ר''ת) חשמ of חדש שבת מילה ). This
is hinted to in the Parasha when it says about Yosef- וחמש את הארץ - (literally-he divided
the land) וחמש is also these 3 letters showing that Yosef was spiritually fortifying מצרים
with these 3 Mitzvot. The Jews kept Milah throughout their stay in Egypt. They also
kept Shabbat, since Moshe told Pharaoh that the Jews will not work properly without a
day off. So Pharaoh asked which day should I give them off? Moshe picked Saturday,
even though the Mitzvah of Shabbat was not yet given. That is why later on when
Hashem gave the Mitzvah of Shabbat, Moshe was very happy that he picked the right
day! Like it says .ישמח משה במתנת חלקו
There is another connection to Hanukah in the Pasuk about Yosef dividing the land. In
פרשת וישלח we read about how the angel of Eisav attacked Yaakov and hit him in his
thigh. Why did the angel attack him? The Targum Yonatan Ben Uziel explains, the
reason He attacked him was because when Yaakov had left to run away from Eisav, he
promised that he would give to Hashem a tenth of whatever he was given- וכל אשר תתן
לי עשר אעשרנו לך . So the angel told Yaakov what about your children?! You must give a
tenth of them as well! You have 12 children; you have to give one to Hashem! So
Yaakov calculated which one of his sons he should dedicate to Hashem. He started to
count his sons, excluding the 4 Bechorot (the 4 firstborns from each of his 4 wives)
because they fall into a different category. He started the count with Shimon and went
"around the order" and the tenth one was Levi. As follows:
1)Shimon 2)Levi 3)Yehuda 4)Yisshachar 5)Zevulun 6)Naftali 7)Asher 8)Binyamin
9)Shimon 10) Levi.
So he dedicated Levi to Hashem to be the tribe of Kohanim and to serve Hashem. This
is hinted to in the spot that the angel hit Yaakov. He hit him in the כף -the thigh.
100 =כף and 100 =מטה לוי , to show why he was being attacked, since Yaakov had not
yet dedicated Levi to Hashem as מעשר from his children. When we analyze further we
see that actually Yaakov had promised to give 20 percent to Hashem like it says עשר
תעשרנו (double tenth). So he had to give a second child to Hashem. Who was chosen?
יששכר . Using the same system as above, the tenth comes to יששכר as follows: 1)
Shimon 2)Yehuda 3)Yisshachar 4) Zevulun 5) Naftali 6)Asher 7) Binyamin 8) Shimon
9) Yehuda 10) Yisshachar.
Yaakov dedicated יששכר to Hashem to be devoted to learn Torah exclusively, while
being supported by זבולון . By dedicating his two son’s יששכר & לוי to Hashem, Yaakov
was actually preparing the Jews for the miracle of Hanukah, since the miracle of
Hanukah was done thru the חשמונאים who were Kohanim- the children of Levi. It was
instituted and set as a holiday by the סנהדרין -the Supreme Court, who were from the
tribe of יששכר , as it says וקבעו שמונת ימי חנוכה . This is alluded to in the Pasuk when it
says that Yaakov went back for פכים קטנים – small jugs. The only other time we see this
word פך , is by Hanukah with the פך שמן - jug of oil. So he went back for the פכים , which
is plural, alluding to the 2 sons he was dedicating to Hashem, to set up the miracle of
Hanukah- done with the פך שמן . The Pasuk by Yosef says that he was .וחמש את הארץ
Targum Yonatan Ben Uziel explains that וחמש is 1/5th, which is 20 percent. Yosef set a
20 percent tax on Egypt, to help set up the miracle of Hanukah like his father Yaakov
had done when he dedicated 20 percent of his children- the sons לוי and .יששכר
