During Chanukah last year, I was invited to give a lecture at Aish Toronto (we had gone to visit family in Canada during winter break).
The talk began with a comparison of the two mitzvos that relate to lighting candles: Each Friday afternoon, of course, we light the Shabbos candles, and during Chanukah, we light the Menorah and its candles for the duration of the Festival’s eight days.
Both of these mitzvos require us to light candles, but upon examination they appear to be radically different, almost opposite mitzvos. By my count, there are at least 6 differences between the Shabbos candles and the Chanukah candles:
- Utility: We are not allowed to benefit from the Chanukah lights (which is why a Shamash is added). By contrast, the whole purpose of the Shabbos candles is to benefit from them
- Nature: The mitzvah of the Chanukah candles is the kindling (if the candles get extinguished, you have already fulfilled your duty and don’t need to tend to it). Shabbos candles are not about the action, but about the result: having the light in the home
- Timing: Shabbos candles must be lit before darkness, by contrast, Chanukah candles can only be lit after darkness
- Positioning: The Chanukah candles must be facing outside for public exhibition; Shabbos candles are only meant for the people inside the house
- Variability: The Chanukah lights are dynamic: The Talmud teaches us that there are three levels of the mitzvah: at a minimum, one candle for everyone in the home. The righteous who seek mitzvos have one candle per person in the home. And the super-duper-uber committed successively add another candle each night, culminating in eight candles on the eighth and final night of Chanukah. The Shabbos candles don’t have these different levels.
- Primacy: Halacha teaches us that both mitzvos are so important that if you don’t have candles, you even need to knock on doors and beg to be able to acquire them. But regarding Chanukah candles the sources add that should you find no other way to acquire Chanukah candles, you must even sell your clothing to purchase them. The Shabbos candles do not make that requirement.
These two mitzvos are obviously very different.
I don’t want to spoil it for you but if you have the time to listen to the entire talk you will discover that the candles are representative of our Soul, which has a long and dramatic and even spine-tingling history. The essence of Chanukah is to take that candle that is submerged within us and to make it surface and shine forth brightly. Shabbat represents something very different.
If you don’t have the time to listen to it, I hope you find these differences intriguing and thought-provoking.
Question of the week
Since the beginning of the Jewish calendar year, the Parsha Podcast has featured a recurring segment at the end of each episode called A&Q. A&Q is the opposite of Q&A. Q&A is when the audience asks the presenter a question and the presenter offers a (hopefully satisfactory) answer. In A&Q the audience is presented with a question and they must supply the answer. At the end of each week’s episode, I provide a question on that week’s Parsha, and solicit answers from the audience.
The response to this segment has been off the charts!
Every week the incredible and indefatigable Parsha Podcast audience offer wonderful and diverse answers, many of which are featured in the following week’s episode.
My friend Paul suggested that I include the question of the week in the newsletter. I’m not promising to give any answers, but it’s a good thing to cogitate upon if you missed this week’s episode, and hopefully it will encourage non-listeners to join the Parsha Podcast community or at least to sample it.
So here it goes: Joseph undergoes many transformations in his narrative in the Torah, and all of them are initiated by dreams.
He has dreams of grandeur that amplify the enmity of his brothers. As a result of his seemingly megalomaniacal dreams, they hate him and want to kill him, ultimately settling for selling him as a slave.
In Egypt, Joseph is imprisoned, seemingly without any hope, and when he correctly interprets the dreams of two of Pharaoh’s aides his bona fides as a gifted dream interpreter are established.
In next week’s Parsha, Pharaoh has two bothersome dreams and when he is desperately seeking for an interpretation Joseph is ushered out of his incarceration. After he skillfully interprets the dreams, Pharaoh installs him as viceroy of Egypt.
it’s clearly not a coincidence that every transition in Joseph’s life is precipitated by a dream.
Moreover, the dreams come in pairs: he has two dreams that spark his brother’s hatred, the Butler and the Baker have a dream apiece, and Pharaoh has two dreams that spur him to find an explanation. Seemingly every step in Joseph’s development could have been effectuated by a single dream: He has one dream that causes the brothers to hate him; the Butler’s dream is correctly interpreted, and Pharaoh’s single dream is resolved by Joseph.
So here’s the question of the week: Why is every stage in Joseph’s progression caused by dreams, and why are the dreams all doubled? if you have any answers. email them to me rabbiwolbe@gmail.com