A Coincidence fell into my hands:
First, this may be the grandson of Rav Yoel Bin-Nun: BD”E Captain Shlomo Bin-Nun, 22 years old from Modi'in, fell in battle in northern Gaza.
Bin-Nun was a company commander Battalion 202 of the Paratroopers Brigade, fell on Wednesday night during operational activity in northern Gaza. http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/380428
The Coincidence, a Paper I recently found (or it found me) as I was rummaging through a file draw: [if so, i am placing this on my blog in the memory of the fallen Captain]
The Secret of Chanuka as Revealed by
the Prophecies of Chaggai and Zekharia
By Rav Yoel Bin-Nun
Translated by Kaeren Fish
Introduction
The prophets Chaggai and Zekharia accompanied Zerubavel and Yehoshua ben Yehotzadak in the great return to Zion following the declaration by Cyrus, king of Persia. They returned to Jerusalem and Judea, restored the altar, and eventually rebuilt the Temple, at the beginning of the reign of Darius. A third prophet – Malakhi – is associated with the period of the later ascent by Ezra (the midrash asserts that “Malakhi is Ezra” – Megilla 15a).
Zekharia’s wondrous visions present a challenge to students and commentators alike. Yet, the essence of his prophecy – like that of his predecessor Chaggai – is clear and simple: it is a message of consolation and salvation to the nation just now returning from exile; a prophecy about the rebuilding of the Temple and the return of the Divine Presence to the redeemed Jerusalem, together with her children who are once again filling her streets.
One cannot read these prophecies today without a tremor of emotion, in view of the return to Zion in our times. Even the menora and the olive branch, as the symbols of the State of Israel, have their source in Zekharia’s visions.
I was drawn to explore these prophecies in greater depth when I once happened to notice that it was on the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month (Kislev) in the second year of the reign of Darius, that Chaggai began uttering his prophecy concerning the laying of the foundation of God’s Sanctuary. In other words, many generations before the Hasmonean’s rededication of the Temple, the 24th (or rather, the 25th, as we shall see) of Kislev was the day of laying the foundation of the God’s Sanctuary! Is there some connection here? How could there not be? Is it possible that no one, throughout all the centuries since then, was aware of Chaggai’s prophecy? And if it was noted, why was it never mentioned in relation to Chanuka?
I proceeded in my exploration of these prophecies, seeking answers, and heard some hints to this connection from Rabbi Yeshayahu Hadari, shlita. I also found that Rabbi Yaakov Emden, in his work Mor u-Ketzi’a (siman 670) “discovers” this prophecy of Chaggai, interprets Chanuka in light of it, and asserts the authenticity of the lesson even though “the early masters never thought of it.” Another clue is offered by the Sefat Emet (Rabbi Yehuda Aryeh Leib of Gur) who, in his characteristic brilliant style, binds Chanuka to Sukkot.
At the same time, my journeys through the hills of Yehuda and Shomron offered clear evidence that the months of Cheshvan and Kislev are the season for olives and oil in Eretz Yisrael; hence the law that bikkurim can be brought to the Temple up until Chanuka. This represents the connection between the natural aspect of Eretz Yisrael (the oil season) and the miracle of Chanuka (the cruse of pure oil).
All of the above led me to an understanding of the festival that will be set forth below, concerning the prophecies of Chaggai and the visions of Zekharia, as well as a general account of the history of Chanuka.
Our journey begins with the prophecies of Chaggai and Zekharia, which – for the sake of clarity – will be discussed in order of the prophecies and their chronology.
A. Prophecies of the second year of Darius
1. 1st of Elul
In general, Chaggai – and Zekharia after him – deals with two main problems at three different periods of time. The first problem is unwillingness to build the Temple, even though Darius, king of Persia, is supportive of the returnees from exile and their endeavors (Ezra 5:7). This lack of interest and desire is cloaked in the righteous claim that the time is not yet ripe. “This people has said: The time has not come, the time for the House of God to be rebuilt” (Chaggai 1:2).
The prophet counters their “time” argument by pointing out that in their personal affairs they seem certain that the time is right for each of them to build his own beautiful home. If each is working on his own “wide house… with rafters of cedars” (cf. Yirmiyahu 22:14), then it cannot be that the time has not yet come to build God’s House, too. As King David expresses it: “See now: I dwell in a house of cedar, while the Ark of God dwells within a curtain?!” (Shmuel II 7:2). Therefore, Chaggai rebukes them: “Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your well timbered houses, while this House lies in ruins?... Because of My House that lies waste, while you run off, each to his own house” (Chaggai 1:4, 7). Because everyone is inclined to build a fine and comfortable house for himself and to invest his efforts in his own private domain, everyone ignores matters of communal importance, and certainly has no thought for Divine service.
God responds to this situation by striking a blow to the economic prosperity of the returnees, in the form of severe drought. In this way He seeks to shake them out of their complacent occupation with their homes and their fields, and to arouse them to soul-searching and a reevaluation of their ways (1:5-6; 9-11).
2. 24th of Elul
Chaggai’s prophecy has an impact on the people:
Zerubavel son of Shaltiel, and Yehoshua son of Yehotzadak – the Kohen Gadol, and all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the Lord their God, and the words of Chaggai, the prophet, as the Lord their God had sent him, and the people were fearful before God… And God stirred up the spirit of Zerubavel son of Shaltiel, governor of Yehuda, and the spirit of Yehoshua son of Yehotzadak, the Kohen Gadol, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people, and they came and labored in the House of the Lord of Hosts, their God… (Chaggai 1:12-14).
This “labor” appears to have amounted to general preparations and a gathering of the materials and tools for the building of the Temple (see Rashi and Radak, and the parallel expression in Shemot 36:6-7), since the actual construction commenced only in the ninth month (Kislev), as I shall explain below.
3. 21st of Tishrei
The second problem that Chaggai addresses is the people’s pervading sense of weakness and inadequacy. Regardless of how much work is invested in the building, the Temple that will arise cannot hope to approximate the splendor of the First Temple, since only a portion of the Jews have returned to the land, and they do not represent an independent, sovereign kingdom.
This realization finds expression in the first attempt to establish God’s House during the reign of Cyrus, in the second year of the return of the exiles from Babylon:
And many of the kohanim and the leviim and the older heads of the households, who had seen the First Temple – when the foundation of this [Second] Temple was laid, before their eyes, they wept with a loud voice, but many [others] shouted aloud with joy. And the people could not distinguish the sound of the shout of joy from the sound of the weeping of the people, for the people shouted with a great shout, and the sound could be heard from afar (Ezra 3:12-13).
The same phenomenon is the subject of Zekharia’s challenge: “Who despises the day of small things?... The eyes of God – they rove about throughout the land” (Zekharia 4:10).
The sense of inadequacy and the sin of weeping are the focus of Chaggai’s second prophecy, on the 21st of the seventh month (Tishrei) – the last day of the festival of Sukkot (known today as Hoshana Rabba):
Who of you that remain saw this House in its earlier glory? And how do you see it now – is it not in your eyes as nothing?! But now - be strong, O Zerubavel, says God, and be strong, O Yehoshua son of Yehotzadak, the Kohen Gadol, and be strong, all the people of the land, says God, and work. For I am with you, says the Lord of Hosts.
And lest they ask, “What should we do?” the prophet immediately specifies: “According to the word of My covenant with you when you came out of Egypt, and My spirit is present in your midst, do not fear” (Chaggai 2:3-5; see Radak and Ibn Ezra on verse 5).
The prophecy goes on to describe a great revolution in the world. There will be great honor for Israel, and a reversal of Israel’s dependence upon the nations to a situation in which all the nations will come to give glory to Israel and to the House of God, and – ultimately – a true peace granted by God.
These promises, all uttered under the heading of “in just a little while” (verse 6), were never realized in Zerubavel’s time. Indeed, they have not been realized in full to this day. Ibn Ezra (Chaggai 2:9) understands the promises as being conditional, based on the parallel prophecy of Zekharia (end of chapter 6) – a prophecy that concludes the series of Zekharia’s prophecies uttered during the second year of Darius’s reign, parallel to Chaggai and slightly later: “And [all of this] shall be, if you will diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God.”
1st of Cheshvan – Zekharia’s prophecy
Zekharia’s first prophecy is recorded as occurring on Rosh Chodesh of the eighth month, within ten days of Chaggai’s second prophecy. It conveys God’s anger that the people are not obeying the prophets (with apparent reference to the prophecy of Chaggai) and are repeating the behavior of their ancestors, who similarly failed to heed the words of the “early prophets” (the prophets of the First Temple). Zekharia beseeches them: “Do not be like your forefathers…” (Zekharia 1:4), and he reminds them that their forefathers had acknowledged their mistakes when they were finally exiled (1:6).
This explains the puzzling brevity of Zekharia’s opening prophecy, which otherwise seems to lack any message. What is it that Zekharia is demanding of his listeners? The solution is simple: this prophecy rests upon Chaggai’s preceding one, and urges its listeners to obey that prophecy immediately – as indeed happened on the 24th day of the ninth month. This view is further supported by the verses in Ezra, which mention Chaggai before Zekharia: “Then the prophets - Chaggai the prophet, and Zekharia son of Iddo, prophesied…” (Ezra 5:1); “And the elders of the Jews built, and they prospered through the prophesying of Chaggai the prophet and Zekharia son of Iddo…” (6:14).
24th of Kislev – “Now ask instruction of the kohanim, saying”
On the 24th day of the ninth month (Kislev), Chaggai returns to the problem he addressed earlier – the lack of desire to arise and build God’s House, owing to the fact that everyone is busy with his own affairs. This is the reason why God has brought the drought: in order to awaken them and draw them out of their self-absorbed focus on their private prosperity.
This prophecy opens with a sort of “quiz” addressed to the kohanim concerning matters of kodashim and taharot:
Now ask a teaching of the kohanim, saying: if a person carries consecrated meat in the flap of his garment, and with that flap he touches bread, or pottage, or wine, or oil, or any food – does it become consecrated? And the kohanim answered and said, No. Then Chaggai said: If a person who is impure, on account of [contact with] a dead body, touches any of these – will it become impure? And the kohanim answered and said, It will become impure (Chaggai 2:11-13).
While the Gemara (Pesachim 16b-17a) discusses these questions on halakhic grounds, Ibn Ezra takes a more literary view of the intention behind the questions:
That which is consecrated has no power to sanctify that which is not, by means of mediating contact, in the way that impurity resulting from contact with a dead body has the power to render something else impure. This is meant as a metaphor, like the technique of Natan, who spoke to David and caught him at his word (Shmuel II 12)… because they were building houses for their own needs, while God’s House remained in ruins… (Ibn Ezra on Chaggai 2:14).
According to Ibn Ezra, then, the prophecy is returning to its opening argument: the laziness of the returnees and their absorption in personal matters are what invite the prophet’s rebuke. This rebuke employs a halakhic metaphor: impurity spreads more easily than sanctity, or purity. If something that is ritually pure comes into contact with something that is ritually impure, the impurity spreads.
Hence we deduce that the manifestation of holiness in the world requires human effort and action. In the absence of this human investment, it will not appear miraculously from heaven. Only impurity and defilement can spread “on their own,” as it were, without any human effort. Therefore, declares the prophet, all sacrifices that are now being offered upon the altar, in the absence of the Temple, are impure – because the people have no wish to build it; they are waiting for it to appear on its own, to descend from heaven. However, the heavenly response is a drought as a result of their apathy and self-centeredness.
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