A Chanuka Lesson: Spirituality and Torah Learning Levels the Playing Field

Recently saw a short but sweet message extracted from the Al Hanisim prayer added to Shemonei Esrei and Birchat Hamazon on Chanuka.

The essence of the miracle recounted in Al Hanisim is "masarta giborim b'yad chalashim, v'rabim b'yad me'atim" - you (Hashem) handed over the strong to the weak, and the many to the few." These are, indeed, miracles since, according to the natural order of things, the strong should vanquish the weak, and the many should defeat the few.

However, what is so miraculous about the subsequent outcomes: "the impure in the hands of the pure," "the wicked in the hands of the righteous," and the "evil in the hands of those absorbed in Torah?" These seem more like factual statements, not miracles.

Torah Behavior Inside and Outside the House

In last week's parsha Ki Savo, Rav Shimshon Rafael Hirsch comments on the pasuk (28:6): baruch ata b'voecha, u'baruch ata b'tzetecha - Blessed thou shalt be when you come, and blessed thou shalt be when you depart. Rav Hirsch explains: "you are blessed in your home life and in your public life."

IMHO, we can expand on Rav Hirsch's terse comment with an idea I heard in a shiur available on the YU Torah website given by Rabbi Shalom Rosner (formerly of the Island shul in Cedarhurst, and now of Beit Shemesh), and Rav Hirsch's own explanation of the meaning of the term "baruch" earlier in sefer Devarim.