These divrei Torah were adapted from the hashkafa portion of Rabbi Yissocher Frand’s Commuter Chavrusah Series on the weekly portion: #1361 – Can Women Make Latkes While The Chanukah Candles Are Still Burning and other issues? Good Shabbos!

The Shulchan Aruch paskens (Orach Chaim 187:4) that Al Hanissim is added to Birkas Hamazon before the bracha of “Al hakol” but if someone forgets to mention it, he does not need to repeat bentching. (The same applies if someone forgets to say it in Shemoneh Esrei.) The Rama adds that if he forgets to say it in its proper place in bentching, he may still insert it together with the other “Harachaman” statements by saying “The Merciful One should perform miracles for us like He did in those days at this time, etc.” And this, says the Rama, is our practice.

I heard a schmooze from Rav Yerucham Olshin, in which, he asks two interesting questions: First, he asks that we do not usually ask the Ribono shel Olam to perform nissim (miracles) for us. Why, then, do we ask, “Harachaman…should do nissim for us”?

How does Rav Olshin know that we don’t daven for nissim? He cites a very famous Gemara (Berachos 54a): If someone’s wife is pregnant and the person prays “May it be His will that my wife gives birth to a boy” this is a tefillas shav (a prayer in vain). From the moment of conception, the gender of the baby is already determined. Once someone’s wife is already carrying a boy or a girl, davening that the child be of a certain gender is a wasted prayer. Nothing is going to miraculously change after the gender has been determined.

However, the Gemara asks from the Medrash that Leah’s daughter Dena was originally supposed to be a male child and only “afterwards” did she turn out to be female. (At the time, Leah already had six sons and the two handmaidens each had two sons. Leah knew prophetically that Yaakov would father twelve sons and she didn’t want her sister Rochel to have fewer sons that the handmaidens so she prayed that the child she was carrying be a girl.) Leah prayed that her ‘son’ should be a daughter. The Ribono shel Olam made a nes (miracle) and He switched the embryos in utero. The embryo that Leah was carrying (Yosef) wound up in Rochel, and the girl with which Rochel was pregnant (Dena) wound up with Leah.

Nevertheless, the Gemara says this is not normal practice, and normative prayer protocol is not to ask the Ribono shel Olam to perform nissim for us. The Matriarchs have a different standard of tefilla, but the rest of us are not allowed to pray for changes to the natural order. If that is the case, asks Rav Olshin, why on Chanukah do we say “He should make miracles for us as He did in those days?”

Rav Olshin quotes his second question in the name of his grandfather, Rav Aharon Kotler, zt”l. The Mishna (Avos 5:7) says that ten nissim were done for our fathers in the Beis Hamikdash. Among them was that no woman ever miscarried from the smell of the sacrificial meats, the sacrificial meats never spoiled, no fly was ever seen in the house of meat cutting, the Kohen Gadol never had a seminal emission on Yom Kippur, the rains never extinguished the fire on the Mizbayach, and so on. The point is there were nissim there on a regular basis. If so, why is such a big deal made about this nes with the minute amount of pure oil for the Menorah lasting for eight days? No holidays were proclaimed to commemorate the ten nissim mentioned in Pirkei Avos. What was so special about the nes of the oil?

Rav Olshin suggests that there are two kinds of nissim. He quotes a Ramchal that the nissim we are familiar with that happened throughout Tanach (whether it be the splitting of the sea or the war with Og king of Bashan or the Mann, and so forth) were pre-programmed into creation. The Ribono shel Olam set up the world in such a way that these miraculous events were (for lack of better terminology) already “baked into the cake.”

There is, however, a different type of nes. That is a nes that the Ribono shel Olam does for someone who is moser nefesh (exhibits self-sacrifice) for a particular mitzva. If a person is moser nefesh for a specific mitzva, the Ribono shel Olam responds on a personal level and makes a nes for that particular person as a reward for the mesiras nefesh that he exhibited. This is the nature of the nes of Chanuka.

The nissim that took place on a regular basis in the Beis Hamikdash were part of creation. They were pre-programmed into His world and we don’t make a special Yom Tov for those kinds of nissim. But, as the Bach explains at the beginning of Hilchos Chanuka, Ner Chanuka is different. The Greeks knew that if they could extinguish the light of the Menorah, the Jews would be lost. They sensed intuitively that the light of the Menorah gave spiritual and physical strength to the Kohanim and the rest of the Jewish nation. Therefore, they went out of their way to defile the oils. Likewise, the Kohanim made exceptional efforts to find and procure pure olive oil. When the Kohanim exerted extreme mesiras nefesh for the mitzva, they brought out kochos that they didn’t even realize they possessed. The Ribono shel Olam will, in fact, perform nissim in response to such devotion. That is why we can ask “May the All Merciful One perform miracles for us as He did in those days at this time.”

This means that in response to our mesiras nefesh and devotion, the Ribono shel Olam will, in fact, perform nissim. The nes of Chanuka embodies this capacity that many people possess – to be able to reach beyond their means. The nes of Chanuka represents people who were not realistically capable of defeating such a mighty army, and yet found the inner strength to reach beyond their means and be moser nefesh, such that they achieved such a military victory.

One of the takeaway lessons of Chanuka is that we all have such strengths that are hidden inside of us. We always need to ask ourselves: Am I doing as much as I can do?

There is an interesting Medrash (in Sefer Shemos): When Moshe Rabbeinu went out to see the suffering of his brethren in Mitzrayim and he saw how tortured they were, he saw that the Egyptian taskmasters assigned jobs appropriate for big and strong people to small and weak people, and jobs appropriate for small and weak people to big and strong people. Men’s jobs were assigned to women and women’s jobs were assigned to men.

Rav Efraim Wachsman recently said at the Agudah convention that it is understandable why it would be considered torture to have a woman do a man’s work and a weak person do a strong person’s work. But why was the reverse considered torture – for strong people to do work that was appropriate for weaker individuals? How is that to be understood as “and they embittered their lives” (Shemos 1:14)? It would seem like these strong men had a lucky day. They were only asked to schlep five pounds of bricks when, in reality, they could have schlepped twenty five pounds of bricks!

Rav Wachsman answered that when a person knows he is capable of doing more and he doesn’t have the opportunity to do what he is capable of, that is a bitter experience. Everyone wants to feel satisfied and fulfilled with their accomplishments in life. When a person feels that he is wasting his time and potential, the experience can indeed be called “va’yemareru es chayeihem.”

The nes of Chanuka proves that the Chashmonaim were moser nefesh and went beyond their means and beyond their apparent capabilities. That is one of the lessons we need to take away. The Chashmonaim were like a bunch of yeshiva bocuhrim and they were nonetheless successful in defeating the greatest army of their time. They saw that they had kochos that they couldn’t imagine. Therefore, the nes of Chanukah includes the prayer “May the Ribono shel Olam perform nissim for us.” If we will be moser nefesh like they were moser nefesh, the Ribono shel Olam will perform nissim for us as he did “in those days at this time.”

Transcribed by David Twersky; Jerusalem [email protected]

Edited by Dovid Hoffman; Baltimore, MD [email protected]

This week’s write-up is adapted from the hashkafa portion of Rabbi Yissochar Frand’s Commuter Chavrusah Series on the weekly Torah portion. A listing of the halachic portions for Parshas Miketz is provided below:

• # 035 – Chanukah Issues
• # 077 – Prohibitions During Times of Crises
• # 126 – Dreams in Halacha and Hashkafa
• # 173 – Dreams in Halacha II
• # 219 – Chanukah Issues II
• # 263 – Women and Chanukah Candle Lighting
• # 309 – “Lo Sechanaim” Giving Gifts to Non-Jews
• # 353 – Chanukah and Hidur Mitzvah
• # 397 – Lighting Neiros in Shul; Other Chanukah Issues
• # 441 – Taanis Chalom
• # 485 – Miracle Products and Other Chanukah Issues
• # 529 – Ner Chanukah: Where, When, and Other Issues
• # 573 – The Silver Menorah and Other Chanukah Issues
• # 617 – The Bad Dream
• # 661 – Davening for the Welfare of the Government
• # 705 – Chanukah Candles, Hotels and Chashunas
• # 749 – Solomonic Wisdom
• # 793 – Oops! 3 Candles on the 2nd Night
• # 837 – Hairbrushes on Shabbos – Permitted or Not Permitted
• # 881 – The T’reifa Chicken Scandal
• # 925 – Kavod Malchus – How Far Can You Go?
• # 968 – The Minyan: Must Everyone Be In The Same Room?
• #1012 – Preparing for Shabbos – Thursday or Friday? And other Issues
• #1056 – Oops! I Made A Bracha On The Shammash
• #1099 – Havdalah or Ner Chanukah – Which Comes First? And Other Issues
• #1142 – Must I Give Up My Hiddur Mitzvah For Your Kiyum Mitzvah?
• #1185 – A Smorgasbord of Chanukah Delicacies
• #1229 – Which Is Better: Lighting Menorah Yourself Later or with a Shaliach/wife at Proper Time?
• #1273 – Chanukah Lights Motzei Shabbos: How Early? Havdala Before or After Chanukah Lights?
• #1317 – Oops! I Bentched Shabbos Candles But I Forgot To Bentch Chanukah Licht. Now What?
• #1361 – Can Women Make Latkes While The Chanukah Candles Are Still Burning and other issues
• #1405 – Can You Light Chanukah Candles In Your Car and other Chanukah issues
• #1448 – I Had a Dream
• #1493 – Should I Worry If I Have a Bad Dream?
• #1537 – The Annual Issues with Lighting Chanukah Neiros on Erev Shabbos Chanukah
• (2022) – Solomonic Wisdom

A complete catalogue can be ordered from the Yad Yechiel Institute, PO Box 511, Owings Mills MD 21117-0511. Call (410) 358-0416 or e-mail [email protected] or visit http://www.yadyechiel.org/ for further information.