In the normal course of events a person is attracted to someone more powerful or capable of helping him. Being an opportunist is no longer a disgrace but a recommended lifestyle for the twenty-first century. Popular sayings are that "a person must know on which side his bread is buttered" and that "one should join the winners not the losers."
HaRav Shamshon Raphael Hirsch zt'l therefore said that Chazal obligated each home to light a Chanukah light to teach us that even in the worst situation the candle of truth will not be extinguished. "Even if they act as unruly as they wish, even if they pour all their hatred on Judaism, even if they persuade masses of Jews not to observe Torah, as long as they have not extinguished the last spark in a Jew's heart, in the most remote village, `He Who sits in Heaven laughs at them' (Tehillim 2:4). One spark is enough to ignite a Jewish heart, to set ablaze the flame of Judaism.
"Even when the non-Jews were metameih all of the sacred oil and left only a small jug with the Cohen Godol's seal in a distant corner in a loyal heart, it was enough to save the Mikdosh when necessary. This single jug lit the holy menorah in the Beis Hamikdash where the Cohanim Gedolim had disgraced the avodoh and rebelled against Hashem. This light of truth burned somewhere in a small village of Modi'in, in Matisyahu's home.
"You are therefore also obliged to light a Chanukah light in your home. Your home's value should not be insignificant in your eyes. Even if you are the last remnant in whose veins flows the blood of the Macabees and their spirit is preserved in your house, you should know that it is enough for one Jew and one Jewish home to re-establish the Beis Hamikdash's foundations. Even if you do not have friends who believe like you and the spirit of the Chashmonaim has, chas vesholom, departed from your surroundings you should not weaken your stand. Instead you should continue to increase your loyalty to this spirit and give it credence in your home."
Indeed standing firm against those who do not cling to the way of truth demands tremendous power. In the last generation Jews who were yerei'im usheleimim resisted demanding tests which resulted in their severing themselves from financial security. We will indicate two famous examples.
In the years after the State of Israel was established when Torah Judaism had almost no influence on the government, Jews were forced to bang on the doors of offices and organizations of Jews ranging from the Mapai (Leftist) Party to the National Religious Mizrachi Party. Any material help was furnished under the explicit condition that the recipient fully accept the party's authority. Our Torah Sages during that generation warned Jews not to be allured to such and other benefits, and to relinquish job advancement and monetary gains in instances when this would cause a decline in the clinging to the pure Torah hashkofoh.
An additional example, one nearer to our period, is when a certain religious party helped spiteful heretics who want to uproot our religion. Maran the Rosh Yeshiva zt"l cried out bitterly that they should disengage themselves from this way. He warned that they should not be tempted by a lavish budget and governmental power and the such, since it is only a bribe that impairs a person's judgment. He demanded that they fight for the truth even when it seems that we are on the side of the "losers" since the truth eventually succeeds.
Indeed the Torah World has had difficult tests but has clung to the way of truth. The singular jug of oil has remained tahor despite governmental attempts to be metameih it and we did not follow the "strong" and those who are "successful" but stood fast and unwavering. We remained clinging to the inner truth from the time the Torah was given from Shomayim.
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Another moral lesson can be learned from Chanukah. If our spiritual mentors had not told it to us we would not have dared to say it.
When we reflect about the colossal work of the Chashmonaim for their generation and the following generations we surely want to know what happened to them in the end, to know how they later were zocheh to continue and lead am Yisroel.
Chazal, however, tell us that no remnant of their eminent family has remained. Chazal even say that if someone claims that he stems from the Chashmonaim we must consider him a slave (Kiddushin 70b). The alarming explanation to the Chashmonaim's shocking punishment is found in the Ramban (Parshas Vayechi): "`The staff shall not depart from Yehuda' (Bereishis 49:10) means that Yehuda's staff shall not pass to one of his brothers. Malchus of Yisroel should be from [Yehuda] and none of his brothers should rule over him . . . When Yisroel continued at length to appoint a king to reign over them from other shevotim, and this continued king after king, and the malchus of Yehuda did not return, they transgressed the testament of the elder (Yaakov) and were punished because of it.
"This is why the Chashmonaim were punished in the times of the second Beis Hamikdash. Although they were extraordinary chassidim and if not for them the Torah and its mitzvos would have been forgotten from Yisroel, they were severely punished. Four descendants of the elderly pious Chashmonaim (Yehuda, Elazar, Yonoson and Shimon) who reigned one after the other were killed by their enemies' sword despite their might and success. Their eventual punishment was what Chazal say that `whoever says he comes from the house of the Chashmonaim is a slave' since they were all destroyed because of this sin. Even though there was a descendant from Shimon who was punished because he was a Tzeduki (Yochonon Cohen Godol, a descendant of Shimon, who served eighty years as a Cohen Godol and at the end became a Tzeduki), all of the offspring transgressed only in their being kings not from the sons of Yehuda and from the house of Dovid and they altogether removed the staff [from Yehuda]. Their punishment was a measure for measure and HaKodosh Boruch Hu made their slaves (the house of Hordus) rule over them and [these slaves] annihilated them."
Maran HaRav Levenstein remarks that only after we reflect and realize the great spiritual zchus of the Chashmonaim can we can learn a pivotal lesson. "If we imagine the reward each person receives for lighting a Chanukah light, furthermore the reward of all the Jews for one Chanukah, and later the reward for all the times it was Chanukah in the past until Moshiach comes, the tremendous reward is inestimable. All this was the zchus of Matisyahu the Cohen Godol's mesirus nefesh. It is altogether impossible to imagine his reward. Nonetheless, the gemora tells us that someone who says he comes from the house of the Chashmonaim is a slave. The Ramban in Parshas Vayechi explains they deserved such a terrible punishment that not even one of them was left alive and most of them were killed by the sword because they transgressed the testament of the Elder, Yaakov Ovinu a'h, who said `The staff shall not depart from Yehuda.' Although they were the conquerors, they still did not deserve malchus.
"Someone who thinks how immense is the middoh of justice displayed here is moved greatly. Their zchus that if not them, chas vesholom, Torah would have been forgotten from Yisroel, did not help them. Although their reward is limitless they in some way not obeying the Torah had to be punished through being killed by the sword and not one of them remaining . . . since it was a measure for measure because of their [actually] being servants to Yehuda."
All the zechuyos of the Chashmonaim family who with great might protected the truth against the Greeks and the Jewish Hellenists could not safeguard them the minute they did not comply with the Torah's commands. This teaches us that even previous loyalty to the truth does not give any allowances for the future. "You should not believe in yourself until the day of your death" (Brochos 29a). The great zchus that was once theirs did not bestow them with a kinyan chazokoh and eternal spiritual stature.
Even those who have been eternalized in Jewish History as having been moseir nefesh for the truth are required to remain completely loyal to the Torah. The Chashmonaim's house was tested throughout the years if they were not trying to continuously benefit from their past zechuyos and preferring their position of power more than what the Torah had commanded them. The moment they "transgressed the testament of the Elder" as the Ramban writes and they annulled "The staff shall not depart from Yehuda" all of their tremendous zechuyos of fighting fiercely to protect the Torah against the wicked Greek kingdom were not enough.
One's guarding the truth is daily and continually tested. A person must constantly adhere it. He is not given any allowance for of his earlier zechuyos. Only those who are persistent in clinging to the Torah without any flaws are zocheh always to be considered guardians of the holy Torah.
"This was not the chain of the Chashmonaim house in which the belief of Matisyahu passed from generation to generation. This family was not satisfied with the status of being guardians of the Torah who because of their might returned the nation to the Beis Hamikdash. That family raised their hands later against Yisroel and its Torah with that same sword that was beforehand raised for Yisroel and for the Torah. After the family distanced itself from the Torah and from Yisroel and aspired to be a family of kings like all non-Jewish kings, it neither succeeded in remaining on the throne nor in the kehunah gedoloh of the Beis Hamikdash. The family was wiped out but the nation remained strong. Neither in the Beis Hamikdash nor in the palaces of the kings did the spirit of the Chashmonaim's emunah pass from one generation to the other. It did, however, pass in the families of Am Yisroel. There, the candle of the Chashmonaim found its eternal rest. A cloud of dust transferred the destroyed mizbeiach of Hashem and the broken throne of kingdom, but when the cloud of smoke dispersed, the nation was seen to be standing erect. Although there was no longer any mizbeiach or throne, the nation was mighty in its spirit and zealous for Hashem's Torah" (HaRav Shamshon Raphael Hirsch, Ma'agal Shonoh).
