Appreciating God's Flowers
Chanukah teaches us that the physical world is where God placed us and we cannot reject it.
This week’s Parsha contains the puzzling story of Jacob’s physical struggle with an angel. In this story, Jacob was traveling with his family while preparing for potential war with his brother Esav, who sought to take revenge on Jacob for seemingly stealing his blessings. During these travels, Jacob forgot some inexpensive trinkets on the wrong side of a river that he had already crossed and made the risky decision to leave his family, at night and alone, to retrace his footsteps and reclaim his trinkets. When Jacob crosses the river, an angel attacks him and they wrestle until dawn when Jacob, injured but victorious, eventually lets the angel go.
Chanukah reminds us of the lesson of Jacob retracing his footsteps to retrieve his trinkets: the physical world is where God placed us and we cannot reject it.
This odd story gives rise to an obvious question: Why would Jacob risk his life for mere trinkets? Why worry about some petty gadget at a time when he was preparing for a potential attack on his family? Our sages answer that we learn a strange lesson from Jacob’s behavior: צדיקים ממונם חביב עליהן יותר מגופן [The righteous treat their money as more beloved than their physical bodies]. This answer, however, seems to just further our question: What is so important about a mere physical object that is more important than our bodies? Interpreted simply, Jacob’s actions and our sages’ explanation seem to promote the idea that one should prioritize money over everything else.
To understand these questions, it’s helpful to explore a connection in this episode to the upcoming holiday of Chanukah. The word used to describe the trinkets that Jacob had left behind, Pachim Ketanim [small trinkets], is the same word used for the jar of pure oil that was found during the miracle of Chanukah, a pach shemen [a jug of pure oil]. This commonality suggests a link between Chanukah and Jacob’s struggle with the angel that helps reveal the rationale behind Jacob’s risky behavior.
The Pnei Yehoshua, a famous 17th-century Talmudist, asks a little-known but devastating question about the miracle of Chanukah: Since there is a rule that tumah hutra b’tzibur [impurity will not nullify a mitzvah performed for a public service] and since the menorah lighting in the Temple was for public use, why was the miracle of Chanukah necessary at all? We could have simply used the impure oil; there was no need for the jug of pure oil to last 8 days!
The Pnei Yehoshua answers that by performing the miracle, God was making an extra special gesture, a chibah yeteira; by doing something that was not absolutely necessary, God was showing the Jewish people His extraordinary love for them. Providing necessities is, of course, important, but sometimes providing the people you love with things that go beyond necessity is how we demonstrate our truest, most precious expressions of care. For example, when we give flowers to those we love, the value of the gift lies in the affection the unnecessary flowers represent, not their monetary worth.
This answer helps clarify what the sages mean when they explain that a righteous person loves his money more than his body. They are referring to the spiritual, non-monetary value of the extras God provides us. Last week, in Stairway to Heaven, we discussed how viewing our careers as a partnership with God in creation elevates our work to become Holy and meaningful. Here, we see this concept extends to what we earn from our work. Tzaddikim [righteous people] view money as an expression of God’s warmth, an indication of their own path, passion, and partnership with God. Why do many people save the very first dollar they earn in their business, often framing it or hanging it on the wall? Because of its emotional significance. Similarly, Tzaddikim understand that while the physical body is given to us, money is earned through engagement and investment in life, often through blood, sweat, and tears. So this concept has nothing to do with being a cheapskate; it’s about recognizing the priceless value of our personal accomplishments and the relationship with God that they represent. If we view our work as just work, then money earned is just money, and it is inconceivable that trinkets would possibly be worth retrieving. But Jacob viewed his work as a deep partnership with God, and therefore his money, the result of that partnership, was precious.
Thus, when we can infer that Jacob did not place himself in danger in order to retrieve his trinkets because of shallow materialism. He crossed the river, at night and by himself, because these items had a value to him that was much greater than their monetary worth. For Jacob, material items, even cheap material items, could have immense spiritual value, as he recognized the relationship with God that bore out these items. In this way, the lesson of the past couple of weeks, of Jacob’s integration of the spiritual and physical, beginning with his statement to Isaac that he represents Esav, to his choice to sleep at Mt. Meron the rest of the night, and his promise to tithe, continues in this story of Jacob’s struggle with the angel, as it now makes clear that Jacob could sense the immense spiritual value in even the most mundane physical objects.
Chanukah is just around the corner. During Chanukah, we famously celebrate with material things: We eat potato latkes [pancakes] and sufganiyot [jelly doughnuts], we play dreidel [a gambling toy], and give gifts, often traditional gifts of money called “Chanukah gelt”. While we celebrate with materialism, the light of the menorah reminds us that we must find spirituality even within the darkness of a secular, physical world. Chanukah reminds us of the lesson of Jacob retracing his footsteps to retrieve his trinkets: the physical world is where God placed us and we cannot reject it. Instead, we must integrate the physical with the powerful spiritual light found within each of us, so we can appreciate the spiritual value of the world God gave us. In this way, like the lights of Chanukah, we can illuminate and bring hope to a dark world.