Chanukah – The Antidote When Shivat Tzion “Goes Awry”

Last year, a few weeks after the seventh of October, I “chanced” upon a trempist (hitchhiker) who needed a ride from Yerushalayim to Gush Etzion, where I live. The grateful passenger surveyed my sefarim-laden car seats and with his eyes on a Tanach, asked me the following – “If we had nevi’im (prophets) today, what message do you think they would broadcast concerning the horrific massacre and ensuing war of October 7?” Without waiting for an answer, he confidently confided his thoughts of a prophet coming to chastise the Jewish nation for judicial corruption, and encouraging them as Yirmiyahu HaNavi had preached to surrender to the enemy, and subsequently leave the Land of Israel and begin a third national exile as punishment for losing our way and defiling the Land. Somewhat aghast I instinctively responded, “Selicha, adoni (apologies, sir), but you just entered the car of someone who is currently teaching the prophets of Shivat Tzion, and the message for our own generation, nearly eight decades since restoration of sovereignty in our homeland after 2,000 years of exile, could not be more different than your projection!” I then proceeded to share with him the following prophetic messages of Chaggai and Zecharia recorded for our generation as well (Megillah 14a).

In the second year of Darius I of Persia (520 BCE), fifteen years after returning to the Land of Israel following the Proclamation of King Cyrus, the prophet Chaggai addressed the 42,360 Jews who had returned to Israel under the political leadership of Zerubavel. Disillusioned after numerous unsuccessful attempts to rebuild the Beit HaMikdash, Chaggai voiced the frustration of the people – “The time has not yet come for rebuilding the House of Hashem.” He then proceeded to reprimand them, “Is it a time for you to dwell in your paneled houses, while this House is lying in ruins?” In addition to chastising them for their personal smugness with the status quo, he enjoined them to look around at the current situation, i.e. they had secure homes and stability. How can they argue that the stages of redemption are not unfolding when they are successfully living in beautiful homes and settling the Land?! The process may be arduous and incomplete without the Beit HaMikdash, but the stages have clearly started and will continue in a positive trajectory if the people continue to stay in the Land and build!

We too have returned with hopes and dreams of a redemptive process unfolding before our eyes. Though current events have disappointed our anticipated course and provide us as a nation with opportunity for introspection and repair, we are not meant to interpret our losses as a prelude to exile; on the contrary, looking around as Chaggai encourages, we see the astounding achievements of the military, economy, high-tech, the flourishing of industries and immigration!

Chaggai chooses to continue his encouraging prophetic oration on the 24th of Kislev during the long dark nights of the winter solstice reflecting their somber mood, assuring them that the “spirit” of Hashem is present and the time for Hashem to “destroy the might of the kingdoms of the nations” has arrived. He subsequently encourages Zerubavel to wage war against mighty empires and for Yehoshua the kohen gadol to educationally and religiously prepare for the next stages of rebuilding the Beit HaMikdash. During the same season, Zecharia the prophet buttresses the words of Chaggai and through a prophetic vision of a menorah foretells “Not by might, nor by power, but by My spirit, says Hashem… Whoever you are, O great mountain in the path of Zerubavel, turn into level ground!”

Albeit these prophecies were not completely fulfilled by Zerubavel, they reverberated in the national-religious consciousness of the Chashmona’im 350 years later! During the dark age of Seleucid religious oppression, inspired by Chaggai and Zecharia, the Maccabees triumphantly rose against their enemies, reinaugurated the mikdash, and lit the menorah on the 25th of Kislev as a sign of fulfillment of Hashem’s “spirit” in their midst! 

The prophetic messages which I emphatically shared with my rather hapless passenger, ring true today as well. During these times of darkness, we are not meant to despair, but rather be inspired by the spirit of Hashem overtly manifest. Our celebration of Chanukah should rekindle the encouragement of fulfilled prophecies of the past and reignite our spirit to fulfill them to completion “bayamim haheim bazman hazeh, in those days, in this time.” 

Rabbanit Shani Taragin is Educational Director of Mizrachi and the Director of the Mizrachi-TVA Lapidot Educators’ Program.