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Why celebrate the minor miracle of oil lasting eight days when greater miracles—the manna, the well—receive no holiday? The shiur develops a fundamental yesod: Jewish holidays never celebrate miracles but rather Klal Yisrael's spiritual growth. Chanukah (חנוכה) marks our recognition that Torah (תורה) is infinite, life-giving wisdom (eitz chaim), while Greek chachma studies only the finite and dead—a distinction reflected in the Gemara (גמרא)'s contrasting definitions of "chacham."
Rabbi Zweig opens with a fundamental question: Why does Chanukah (חנוכה) celebrate the relatively minor miracle of oil burning for eight days when far greater miracles—the be'er (well) sustaining three million Jews for forty years in the desert, the manna from heaven, or even the ner ma'aravi that burned continuously for 800 years in the Beis Hamikdash—receive no dedicated holiday? The answer lies in understanding what Jewish holidays actually commemorate. The shiur establishes a crucial principle: Klal Yisrael never celebrates miracles themselves. Miracles are simply Hashem (ה׳)'s way of operating within creation; celebrating them would be meaningless since Hashem created all natural laws in the first place. Rather, every Yom Tov marks a moment when Am Yisrael achieved a new level of spiritual growth and elevated their existence. The miracle serves merely as Hashem's message—a form of nevuah—explaining what growth occurred and in what area we progressed.
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Chanukah; Gemara Tamid (Alexander the Great); Pirkei Avos (definition of chacham)
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