09 Dec SEEING WITH 20/20 VISION – THE ESSENCE OF CHANUKAH

A husband and wife
are getting ready to
go to sleep. The wife
is ready to close her
eyes and her husband
stands staring at

himself in the full-
length mirror. “What’s the matter with

you?” she says. Come to sleep already.”
He turns to her and says, “Look at this,
I am so depressed. All I see is a receding
hairline, a growing gut, and wrinkles
under my eyes and what hair I have left
is grey. Tell me something positive,
something uplifting so I can go to
sleep.” She thinks for a moment and
says, “Well the good news is your vision
is still 20/20.”
There is a very high association
between Chanukah and the sense of
sight. “HaNeiros halalu kodesh heim,
v’ein lanu reshus l’hishtameish bahem
elah lirosam bilvad.” As we will begin
to sing next week on each night of
Chanukahh, the candles are sacred, we
don’t have permission to benefit from
their light but their purpose is simply to
be looked at. Moreover, we have a
unique halacha on Chanukah. The
Talmud tells us and the Shulchan Aruch
records – ha’roeh mevareich, one who
can’t light for himself or herself and
sees the candles of someone else –
nevertheless makes the second beracha,
she’asah nissim la’avosainu. When I
see someone put on tefillin, take a lulav,
or blow shofar, I don’t make a beracha.
Only on Chanukah do I make a beracha
on seeing someone else do the mitzvah.
The Kedushas Levi, Rav Levi Yitzchak
of Berdichev, tells us that Chanukah is
the holiday of seeing. The different
moadim correspond with our different
senses. On Purim our hearing is
heightened as we listen to the megilla.
On Pesach our sense of taste is
sharpened when we eat matzah and
marror and on Chanukah, he says, we
evaluate our sense of sight, how well do
we see.
What kind of seeing are we honing? It
is not our physical sense of sight.
Indeed, in a sort of paradoxical way, our
eyes are a liability. You see, we often
feel that “seeing is believing.” If I can
perceive and observe it, it is true. If I
can’t, it is not real. Following this rule,
we have dismissed and disregarded
many of the most precious truths and
realities in our lives. There are ideas,
feelings, thoughts and dreams that are

authentic and genuine, despite the fact
that they can’t be seen or observed.
Our Rabbis describe the Greek empire
and Hellenist influence as choshech,
darkness. In expounding on the opening
verses of the creation story, the Midrash
Rabbah says choshech al p’nei sehom
– zu galus yavan, darkness on the
vastness, that is the exile of Greece.
Moreover, our Rabbis taught that
darkening our eyes was the goal of our
Greek oppressors – shehechshichu
einehem shel yisroel.
What is the difference between a room
that is filled with darkness or with light?
Is there any actual change to the room
itself? Whether the light is on or off in
the room, the furniture remains the
same, the layout of the room, the
placement of the door and the height of
the ceiling are a constant. What, then, is
the difference whether the light in my
room is on or off? The answer is just my
perception. The only difference is my
ability to identify and see the reality, the
truth and that which was right before
me all along. Chanukah is about seeing
things, people, ideas, and miracles that
are really right in front of me, even
though I may not be able to visibly see
them.
George Orwell once wrote: “To see
what is in front of one’s nose needs a
constant struggle.” One can live with
his eyes open, perfect vision, and the
light on and still be cloaked in darkness.
On the other hand it can be pitch black
all around and yet a person can see
absolutely clearly. The Chashmonaim
didn’t see their few numbers, weak
army, and impossible task. They saw
the mighty hand of Hashem, they saw
the obligation to fight, and they saw
Divine protection that would accompany
them.
Chanukah is about lighting the candles
and using them to harness our sight, not
opthalmologically speaking, but our
deep vision of what is true, precious,
and dear. When we look at our spouses
and children, do we see the amazing
blessing of their presence in our lives or
do we hear lots of noise, see rooms that
need to be cleaned up, and a messy
house? When we face a challenge do we
see no way out or an opportunity to
further lean on our Creator? There are
truths all around us; it is up to us to
decide what to look at and how to see.
In her “Hasidic Tales of the Holocaust,”

Professor Yaffa Eliach shared the
incredible story of Chanukah in
Bergen Belsen:
It was time to kindle the Chanukah
lights. A jug of oil was not to be
found, no candle was in sight, and a
Chanukia belonged to the distant
past. Instead, a wooden clog, the shoe
of one of the inmates, became a
Chanukia, strings pulled from a
concentration camp uniform, a wick,
and the black camp shoe polish, pure
oil.
Not far from the heaps of bodies, the
living skeletons assembled to participate
in the kindling of the Chanukah lights.
The Rabbi of Bluzhov lit the first light
and chanted the first two blessings in his
pleasant voice, and the festive melody
was filled with sorrow and pain. When
he was about to recite the third blessing,
he stopped, turned his head, and looked
around as if he were searching for
something.
But immediately, he turned his face
back to the quivering small lights and in
a strong, reassuring, comforting voice,
chanted the third blessing: “Blessed are
Thou, O Lord, our G-d, King of the
Universe, who has kept us alive, and
has preserved us, and enabled us to
reach this season.”
Among the people present at the
kindling of the light was a Mr.
Zamietchkowski, one of the leaders of
the Warsaw Bund. He was a clever,
sincere person with a passion for
discussing matters of religion, faith and
truth. As soon as the Rabbi of Bluzhov
had finished the ceremony of kindling
the lights, Zamiechkowski elbowed his
way to the Rabbi and said, “Spira, you
are a clever and honest person. I can
understand your need to light Chanukah
candles in these wretched times. I can
even understand the historical note of
the second blessing, “Who wrought
miracles for our Fathers in days of old,
at this season.” But the fact that you
recited the third blessing is beyond me.
How could you thank G-d and say
“Blessed art Thou, O Lord, our G-d,
King of the Universe, who has kept us
alive, and hast preserved us, and enabled
us to reach this season”? How could
you say it when hundreds of dead
Jewish bodies are literally lying within
the shadows of the Chanukah lights,
when thousands of living Jewish
skeletons are walking around in camp,
and millions more are being massacred?

For this you are thankful to G-d? For
this you praise the Lord? This you call
“keeping us alive?”
“Zamietchkowski, you are a hundred
percent right,” answered the Rabbi.
“When I reached the third blessing, I
also hesitated and asked myself, what
should I do with this blessing? I turned
my head in order to ask the Rabbi of
Zaner and other distinguished Rabbis
who were standing near me if indeed I
might recite the blessing. But just as I
was turning my head, I noticed that
behind me a throng was standing, a
large crowd of living Jews, their faces
expressing faith, devotion, and
deliberation as they were listening to
the rite of the kindling of the Chanukah
lights.
I said to myself, if G-d has such a
nation that at times like these, when
during the lighting of the Chanukah
lights they see in front of them the heaps
of bodies of their beloved fathers,
brothers, and sons, and death is looking
from every corner, if despite all that,
they stand in throngs and with devotion
listening to the Chanukah blessing
“Who performed miracles for our
Fathers in days of old, at this season”;
indeed I was blessed to see such a
people with so much faith and fervor,
then I am under a special obligation to
recite the third blessing.”
You see, that night in Bergen Belson,
Mr. Zamietchkowski only saw what lay
before him, dead bodies and terrible
suffering. The Rebbe also looked, but
he saw another layer of truth that was
equally accurate – that there was a
gathering of people who maintained
incredible faith despite the most horrific
circumstances.
As we celebrate Chanukah this week,
let us remember that there are truths all
around us not visible to the naked eye.
Let us use the light of the Chanukah
candles to inspire us to see the truth
with clarity and 20/20 vision.