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Koschitzky Virtual Beit Midrash
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Yeshivat Har Etzion
The Haftara for Shabbat Chanuka
(Zekharia 2:14–4:7)
By Rav Yehuda Shaviv
Translated by Kaeren Fish
I.
The haftara chosen for Shabbat Chanuka relates to the festival rather than the parasha. The connection is easily detected in the verse which speaks of "the golden menora ... and its seven lights above it" (3:2) – lights obviously kindled with oil from the olive trees on the right and left of it.
In the opening verses of the haftara, the prophet brings the nation two messages:
1. "Behold, I come and I shall dwell among you";
2. "And many nations shall join themselves to God on that day, and shall be unto Me a people."
Lest Bnei Yisrael fear that their own special
status will be lost when the other nations also become a people unto God, the
prophet once again declares, "and I shall dwell among you." And lest
they fear that when many nations join themselves to God Eretz Yisrael will lose
its designation as the land of the nation of
Chanuka, more than any other time of the year,
reminds us of the conflict within the nation itself, the civil war between
religious loyalists who wished to preserve Judaism in its purity and Hellenists
who were drawn to the gentile lifestyle and sought to introduce their foreign
culture into
The spiritual root of this conflict (perhaps not
consciously realized) may have lain in a mistaken understanding of the universalist ideal expressed by Zekharia at the time of the
establishment of the
Any conflict causes the opposing stances to
become more extreme and for the opposition to become more marked. Such conflict
leads to the creation of barriers between
On the other hand, these verses also remind those
with a universalist view that even when the vision is
realized and many nations indeed join themselves to God, the national
uniqueness of
II.
Two leaders are mentioned in the course of this prophecy: one is Yehoshua, the Kohen Gadol – the religious-spiritual leader; the other is Zerubavel, the political-social leader. While the soiled clothes of the former are removed and he is dressed in festive garments, receiving a promise of Divine assistance if he fulfills his priestly duty in the Temple service and in the administration of justice, the latter is told that his leadership will be built not on might and not on power but by God's spirit. This presents us with a model of leadership: spiritual leadership alongside social leadership, the former embodied by the Leviim and the latter by the sons of Yehuda.
However, the days of Chanuka are reminiscent of a different leadership model. At that time, the leadership was not divided. Matityahu the Kohen was, by force of circumstance, both the social leader and the leader of the religious uprising. This combination of priesthood and royalty continued among his descendants even when the circumstances no longer required it. Lest we think that this might represent the proper model, the prophet describes the model of divided leadership, teaching that this is in fact preferable.
In this context we are reminded of Ramban's harsh criticism in his commentary on the verse, "the scepter shall not depart from Yehuda" (Bereishit 49:6), finding two faults with the example set by the Chashmonaim:
"This was the punishment
of the Chashmonaim who ruled during the