Ilustration Credit: Rivka Tsinman
Midrash מִדְרָשׁ
Are you afraid of the dark?
According to this midrash, אָדָם הָרִאשׁוֹן (Adam ha-Rishon, the first human) was!
תָּנוּ רַבָּנַן: לְפִי שֶׁרָאָה אָדָם הָרִאשׁוֹן יוֹם שֶׁמִּתְמַעֵט וְהוֹלֵךְ אָמַר אוֹי לִי שֶׁמָּא בִּשְׁבִיל שֶׁסָּרַחְתִּי עוֹלָם חָשׁוּךְ בַּעֲדִי וְחוֹזֵר לְתֹהוּ וָבֹהוּ וְזוֹ הִיא מִיתָה שֶׁנִּקְנְסָה עָלַי מִן הַשָּׁמַיִם.
עָמַד וְיָשַׁב ח' יָמִים בְּתַעֲנִית וּבִתְפִלָּה.
כֵּוָן שֶׁרָאָה תְּקוּפַת טֵבֵת וְרָאָה יוֹם שֶׁמַּאֲרִיךְ וְהוֹלֵךְ אָמַר מִנְהָגוֹ שֶׁל עוֹלָם הוּא. הָלַךְ וְעָשָׂה שְׁמוֹנָה יָמִים טוֹבִים. לְשָׁנָה הָאַחֶרֶת עֲשָׂאָן לְאֵלּוּ וּלְאֵלּוּ יָמִים טוֹבִים.
Our Rabbis taught: When Adam ha-Rishon saw that the days were getting shorter, he said: Oy! Maybe I sinned and it’s because of me that the world is getting darker and returning to tohu va-vohu (chaos). Maybe this is the death I’m supposed to be punished with from Heaven.
He got up and sat for eight days in fasting and prayer.
When he saw midwinter, and that the days started to get longer, he said: This must be the way of the world. He went and made eight days of holidays. The next year he made both of these (sets of eight days) into holidays.
- What did Adam do wrong that might have caused the growing darkness? (See Bereishit ch. 3 for the story!)
- If the days began to get longer simply because that’s “the way of the world,” why did Adam make a holiday as if it were a miracle? What does that teach us about how to look at the way the world works?
- The holiday Adam made is just as long as Hanukkah - eight days. And Hanukkah is always in the part of winter when the nights are longest and the days are shortest. The days usually start to get longer - which means the dark winter starts the process of going into spring - shortly after Hanukkah. What does this midrash add to our understanding of Hanukkah?
- How do you feel in winter, when the days get shorter and the world starts to feel more and more dark? How might Hanukkah candles teach us to find and increase light at those times?
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