Chanukah Drama

Torah Portion: unconventional union between Yehuda and his daughter-in-law Tamar.

“Some three months passed, and Yehudah was told, ‘your daughter-in-law Tamar has…become pregnant by harlotry.’”

She sent word: “I am pregnant by the man who is the owner of these articles…Who is the owner of this seal, this cord (Sechel Tov) and this staff?”

Yehuda: “It is from me [that she has conceived]. She did it because I did not give her to my son Shelah.”

Torah tales reflect spiritual timeless experiences.

Ramban: Torah discusses the physical reality, but it alludes to the world of the spirit. (Shaloh)

Kabbala: Yehuda contains the four letters G-d’s name. Tamar (palm tree) represents the Jewish people’s bond with G-d. Talmud (Chagigah 45b): Just as the palm tree has but one heart, so too do the Jewish people.

The intimate union between Tamar and Yehudah - the Jew and G-d - occurs on the High Holy days.  But 3 months later (Chanuka) G-d is informed that the, “Jew has become pregnant by harlotry.”

AriZal: The judgment that began on Rosh Hashanah is completed some three months later, during Chanukah.

Tamar sends word: “Identify, I beg you, these objects. Who is the owner of this seal, cord and staff?”

On Chanukah - the Jew searched for the sealed cruse of oil, kindled the wicks (cord) of the Menorah, and in order to preserve his faith, he was forced for 2000 years - to take up the staff and abandon his home.
G-d: “The Jew is right; from me she conceived. She did it because I did not give her to my son Shelah.”
   
“If the Jew has, in fact, gone astray, it is my fault because I did not give Shelah (code name for Moshiach).      Rabbi Avraham of Avrutch (18th century, Z’fat).

Two sons fail this marriage.

First: doesn’t want the situation to change. He wants beautiful, not hard work.

Second: doesn’t want someone else to get the credit.
They represent the failure of the two Temples.

For marriage to work: adjust for change. (Two teachers: one believes in herself, the other believes in the child). 

Chassidus: Chanukah candles do not merely dispel darkness, they transmute it into light.

First two letters of the word Chanukah spell chen, beauty (literally means grace/favor). This aspect of beauty expresses itself through graceful symmetry.

“And Noach found chen (favor) in the eyes of G-d.” Noach is chen spelled backwards. Chen represents a symmetry comprised of two inverse elements reflecting each other. The symmetry of Chanukah is made up of darkness and light. Zohar: “Transforming chashocha (darkness) into nahora (light).”

Chanukah represents the ability to revive the Divine spark of light which is hidden within the darkness of even the ‘worst’ Jew.

Chanukah, the Festival of Light is paradoxical:

The essential miracle and message of Chanukah is the dominance of light over dark, of spiritual radiance over material gloom. But strangely enough the light that emerges from darkness is the strongest light of all.

In Time: Night vs. day

In space: We light the Chanukah flames, “At the door facing outward.”

In Structure: 8 vs. 7