Hiddur Mitzva: The Triumph of Everlasting Beauty and Everlasting Truth

Shabbat Shalom and Chag Sameach.

The gemara in Shabbat 21b is the only place where our Sages choose to speak in depth about Channuka. In this section, the Rabbis teach about the lighting of the Channukah menorah and discuss its connection to the miracle of Channukah. Regarding the obligation to light candles for Chanukah, the Gemara states:
תנו רבנן: מצות חנוכה נר איש וביתו
The rabbis taught: the mitzvah of Chanukah is a candle for a person and his household. In an uncharacteristic fashion, the gemara then describes two additional levels of performing this mitzvah. Each additional level is a hidur, beautification, above and beyond the minimum requirement of one flame per household. The level of mehadrin adds one flame per member of the household, and by adding flames for each day we achieve the ultimate level of mehadrin min ha-mehadrin, two greater levels of performing the mitzvah. This custom of mehadrin min ha-mehadrin has become the standard practice. To be clear, on Chanukah, to fulfill the mitzvah of lighting the Chanukah candles, one fulfills his or her obligation by participating in lighting of one flame per household.

The Gemara then asks, “Mai Chanukah?” What is Chanukah? In a very brief statement, the Gemara explains that Chanukah is an eight-day holiday. After the Greeks defiled the Temple oil and the Chashmonaim were victorious they checked and only found one vessel that still had the seal of the high priest. The Gemara continues that there was only enough for one day and there was a miracle and they were able to light the menorah for eight days.

Finding the last small jug of the purest olive oil, the shemen zait zach, was certainly a miracle and even more so that this small jug lasted for eight complete days. However, the question can be asked, “Why did the Chashmonaem even bother to look for this jug of untouched oil?” They had cleaned out the Beit Hamikdash and removed the idols. They were ready to rededicate it and needed to light the menorah and its eternal flame, the neir tamid. The Chasmonaem could have relied upon the halachic principle that impurity is permitted for the community “tumah hutra b’tzibbur”. When the majority of the community has the status of tameh, ritual impurity, tumah hutra b’tzibbur permits communal offerings which are tameh to be brought by people who are tameh. This principle allows for offering the Korban Pesach by those that are impure if the majority of Israel is tamei even when there is the possibility to offer it a month later on Pesach Shaini. Similarly, it would have allowed the Chashmonaim to light the menora with impure oil in that time immediately following the war. Most of those who fought in the war were not tahor due to tumat meit- ritual impurity by making contact with the dead. There certainly are casualties of war which render a person in a ritually impure state. Therefore, certainly, most of Israel was surely ritually impure. In this situation, they were not obligated to light the menorah using pure untouched oil. They could have relied upon the principle tumah hutra b’tzibbur. However, the Chashmonaim chose to seek out the shemen zayit zach which still bore the seal of the Kohen Gadol and then to light it, knowing that they did not have enough to last for more than one day. This choice represents a fundamental aspect of the struggle and subsequent victory of Chanukah. At this moment of triumph over the spiritual oppression of the Greeks and threat of assimilation, the Chashmonaim intended to accentuate the spiritual distinctions of sacred and profane, pure and impure against the Hellenist culture which denied these concepts. They would perform the commandment of the lighting of the menorah in its pristine form, with only the purest of oils.

This choice was also an act of hiddur mitzvah, the beautification of the mitzvah. Rashi offers a unique explanation of this concept of hiddur. In his commentary on the Gemara in Sukkah, Rashi explains that the commandment to take pri etz hadar, a beautiful fruit, the etrog, requires hiddur mitzvah. He directs us to the verse from Shirat Hayam, “ Ze Keili v’anveihu.” This is my God and I will glorify him. Rashi on that verse offers two explanations. First he cites Onkelus who translates v’anveihu “I will build Him a sanctuary.” Rashi then offers a second understanding and says that v’anveihu means that, “I will declare His beauty and praise to everyone.” We now understand that for Rashi, performance of hiddur mitzvah means that the mitzvah is done in a way which establishes a closer connection with the Shechina, with God’s Divine Presence and which glorifies and exalts Hashem.

Striving to rededicate the Beit Hamikdash and light the menorah in the prescribed manner, rather then rely on a leniency was a form of hiddur mitzvah. Certainly, according to Rashi, it was a way to exalt the God who had saved them from oppression and a means to reaffirm their relationship through the Temple service.
Even, on a deeper level, the hiddur miztvah of using the pure shemen zayit zach was a statement of the values of Judaism in contrast to those of Hellenism. Rav Joshua Shmidman zt”l, who taught Talmud in McGill University, suggested that the Gemara, when speaking of the etrog gives us some insight into the Jewish concept of “beauty.” The hadar quality of the etrog, its “beautiful” nature and essence, lay specifically in its constancy, in its endurance, in this property of ha-dar be-ilano mi-shana le-shana., the beauty endures from year to year. In Jewish thought, Rav Shmidman explains, beauty “means the indomitable power of life, the determination to live on despite all difficulties, the affirmation of the victory of life over death, the drive for eternity.” An object that can live continuously and endure under even the harshest of circumstances is “beautiful” in the Jewish sense of the term.

Similarly we can understand another mitzvah in the Torah using the same shoresh, the same root of hadar, concerning the obligation to honor the elderly. In Vayikra, in Parshat Kedoshim, the Torah commands: V’hadarta p’nei zakein. This verse is usually translated, “honor the face of the old person. But, the word hadar literally means beauty. So what is this verse actually telling us?

The verse requires us to ascribe beauty to the old face. This very idea contradicts a basic attitude of Western civilization, which, since ancient Greek culture always associated beauty and youth. The Torah ascribes hadar to the old face because, says Rav Shmidman, “it expresses the ongoing triumph of a life which endured and persisted throughout the arduous passage of time.” In an old face, we observe determination, courage and the will to live.

This sentiment is expressed in an aggadita found in Gemara in Kiddushin 33a. It tells us that “Rav Yochanan (who, by the way, was recognized as a person of remarkable beauty), would stand before every elderly person (of all religions), saying, “How many troubles have passed before these individuals.” The Torah requires us to see aging people not as fading into oblivion, but to recognize in them the will to live. As Rav Shmidman explains: “The yearning of the immortal soul lies deep within each individual for eternity. The power to endure many long years, to overcome life’s obstacles and withstand its many hardships, defines a person as ‘beautiful’.”

The Menorah, the central part of the Avodah in the Beit haMikdash, and a symbol of the Jewish people itself is described in the Torah as the Ner Tamid, an eternal light. The pasuk in Sh’mot 27:20 says ”And you (Moshe) shall command Bnai Yisrael that they bring you pure olive oil, shemen zayit zach, specifically beaten out of the olive to make a light shine continuously.
וְאַתָּה תְּצַוֶּה אֶת-בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל, וְיִקְחוּ אֵלֶיךָ שֶׁמֶן זַיִת זָךְ כָּתִית–לַמָּאוֹר: לְהַעֲלֹת נֵר, תָּמִיד
The Midrash here quotes the verse in Yermiyahu, 11:16
זַיִת רַעֲנָן יְפֵה פְרִי תֹאַר, קָרָא ה’ שְׁמֵךְ—[לְקוֹל הֲמוּלָּה גְדֹלָה, הִצִּית אֵשׁ עָלֶיהָ, וְרָעוּ, דָּלִיּוֹתָיו]

“The Lord called thy name a leafy olive-tree, fair with goodly fruit.” The midrash asks why is it the olive tree that Israel is identified with? The answer is that there are similarities to the character of the fruit of the olive tree and Israel. Like the olive is beaten , pressed and then produces its oil which gives to the purest light, so too, says the midrash, are the people of Israel, despite all their oppression, cruelty and exile waged against them, they are not destroyed but, continue to shine even brighter. Yimiyahu declares that Israel’s persistence in the face of every difficulty is the very source of her beauty “the leafy olive tree, with beautiful goodly fruit.”

In the Haftorah we will read Shabbos, the prophet Zechariah declares the victory of the Shechinat Hashem, the Divine spirit over physical might. Zechariah is shown a menorah surrounded by two olive trees. This prophecy comes after the destruction of First Beit HaMikdash, and before the building of the Second Temple. The purpose of surrounding the menorah by two olive trees illustrates that despite destruction, Israel will continue to flourish and give even greater light.

In Aramaic, the root hay, daled, raysh means to return. When a student completes a tractate of Talmud he or she declares, “hadran alakh”. We will return to you. There is a conceptual connection to the Hebrew word, hadar. The word “beauty” of Hadar is something that is not lost, that endures forever. When we conclude a tractate of the Talmud we proclaim that our studies and the knowledge we acquired is not finished. Rather we will continue to go back, review and carry our learning forward. Unlike the Greeks and I may add contemporary culture, beauty is thought about in terms of instantaneous but fleeting appeal. Judaism teaches that beauty lies in that which is eternal and everlasting.

The concept of hidur mitzvah, beautifying the commandments, assumes a prominent role on the holiday of Chanukah. It is the only place in the Talmud where different levels of fulfilling the same obligation are offered. No other mitzvah has mehadrin and mehadrin min ha-mehadrin. What has occurred, however, is that this custom of mehadrin min ha-mehadrin has become the standard practice.

Our desire to light the candles in the best possible manner, parallels the lighting of the Chashmonaim that led to the miracle. Implicit in this hiddur is our desire to extract the most meaning from the mitzvah and to praise HaKadosh Baruch Hu through our actions. Mehadrin min haMehadrin is our statement of the beauty of our survival, the continuity of our tradition, our praise to Hashem and our attempt to establish a place for Shechinat Hashem.

Wishing everyone a Shabbat Shalom and Chag Urim Sameach.