על ניסיך שבכל יום עימנו (חנוכה תשפ"ה)

Every part of you is fair, my darling,
There is no blemish in you. From Lebanon come with me;
From Lebanon, my bride, with me!
Trip down from Amana’s peak,
From the peak of Senir and Hermon,
From the dens of lions,
From the hills of leopards.

With me [will you come] from Levanon O bride. When you are exiled from this Levanon [Beis Hamikdosh], with Me you will be exiled, for I will go into exile with you. With me from Levanon will you come. And when you return from the exile, I will return with you, and also throughout the exile, I will be distressed in your distress. Therefore, [Scripture] wrote, “with me from Levanon will you come.” When you are exiled from this Levanon, you will come with Me, and [Scripture] does not write, “With me to Levanon will you come,” to denote that from the time of your departure from here until the time of your return, I am with you wherever you will go and come. You will look from the peak of Amanah. When I gather your dispersed ones, you will look and ponder what is the reward of your actions from the beginning of your faith [=מֵרֹאשׁ אֲמָנָה that you believed in Me, [e.g.,] your following Me in the wilderness, and your travels and your encampments at My command, and your coming to the peak of Snir and Chermon, which were the lions’ dens, Sichon and Og. Another explanation, “מֵרֹאשׁ אֲמָנָה” [=from the peak of Amanah], this is a mountain on the northern boundary of Eretz Yisroel, named Amanah. In the language of the Mishnah, [these are] the mountains of Amnon [or] Mount Hor, about which it is stated, “from the Great Sea you shall draw a line extending to Mount Hor.” When the exiles gather and arrive there, they will look from there and see the boundary of Eretz Yisroel and the air of Eretz Yisroel, and they will rejoice and offer thanks. Therefore, it is stated, “תָּשׁוּרִי [=You will sing] from the peak of Amanah.”

O my God, my soul is downcast;
therefore I think of You
in this land of Jordan and Hermon,
in Mount Mizar, where deep calls to deep
in the roar of Your cataracts;^-b
all Your breakers and billows have swept over me. By day may the LORD vouchsafe His faithful care,
so that at night a song to Him may be with me,
a prayer to the God of my life.

Know! the essential reason for exile is nothing other than a lack of ÆMuNaH (faith), as is written (Song of Songs 4:8), “Come, gaze from the peak of AMaNaH.” And emunah is synonymous with prayer, as in (Exodus 17:12), “his hands were emunah,” which Onkelos renders: “[his hands] were spread out in prayer.” And [prayer] corresponds to miracles, the supernatural. For prayer transcends nature; the natural course dictates a certain thing, but prayer changes nature’s course. This is a miracle. And for this, one needs faith. A person has to believe that there is a M’chadesh (an Originator) with the power to originate as He sees fit. Now, the quintessence of faith, and thus prayer and miracles, is only in the Land of Israel, as is written (Psalms 37:3), “Dwell in the Land and cultivate emunah.” The principal elevation of the prayers is there, as in (Genesis 28:17), “This is the gate of heaven.” Because of this, when Avraham erred in saying (Genesis 15:8), “How shall I know [that I will inherit it]?”—thus blemishing his inheritance of the Land, which corresponds to faith/prayer—<he brought on> the exile in Egypt. And it was specifically “Yaakov and his [twelve] sons who descended into Egypt” (Joshua 24:4; see Genesis 46), for they correspond to the “twelve versions of prayer” (Zohar III, 170a). And, [God] exiled them <to Egypt, because> the Land of Egypt is the antithesis of [the Land of Israel, the place of] NiSiM (miracles), as is written (Exodus 14:27), “And the Egyptians NaSiM (were fleeing) against it.” For [Egypt] is not the place of miracles. It is also not the place of prayer, as in (Exodus 9:29), “When I go outside the city I will spread out my hands [in prayer].” [Our Sages taught:] All exiles are known as MiTZRayIM (Egypt), because they MeTZeiRIM (cause anguish and suffering) to the Jewish people (Bereishit Rabbah 16:4). Thus, when a person blemishes faith/<miracles>/prayer/the Land of Israel, he descends into <the depths of> exile. This is the meaning of what our Sages taught: The Mashiach son of David will not come until the [last] penny is gone from the pocket (Sanhedrin 97a) —i.e., gone are the atheists who have no faith in miracles and explain away all miracles as natural phenomena. And the quintessence of miracles is in the Land of Israel, for the Land of Israel drinks first (Taanit 10a). Its drink is from the t’home (depths), which connotes [the miraculous and amazing, as in] (Ruth 1:19), “the entire city TeiHoMe (was amazed).” Something that is miraculous amazes everyone. And this is (Psalms 42:8), “Deep calls to deep.” There are “upper miracles,” which correspond to the upper t’home, and there are “lower miracles,” which correspond to the lower t’home (Shemot Rabbah 5:9). {I saw the Angel of Rain. It had the appearance of an egla (ox) and prita sifevatei (its lips were split open). It was standing between t’home (the deep) and t’home (Taanit 25b).} Encompassing all miracles, both t’home, is an angel that has “the appearance of an EGLa (ox).” This corresponds to EeGuLim (circles), which is an aspect of faith, as is written (Psalms 89:9), “Your faith encircles you.” “And its lips were split open” alludes to prayer, as in (Psalms 51:17), “Lord, open my lips.” Thus, [the angel] encompasses all miracles. This is the meaning of, “until TiKhLeH PRuTaH min haKiS (the [last] penny is gone from the pocket).” For there are people who conceal all miracles, which are encompassed in the angel whose “lips were PRiTaH.” They m’KhaSim (conceal) [all miracles] with natural explanations. When this is TiKhLeH (gone), and there is abundant faith in the world, then Mashiach will come. For the redemption essentially depends upon this [abundant faith], as is written, “Come, gaze from the peak of Amanah.”

Yet, even then, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them or spurn them so as to destroy them, annulling My covenant with them: for I ה׳ am their God.

An alternative understanding was taught in a baraita: “I will not reject them”; this was in the days of the Chaldeans, when I appointed for them Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah to pray on their behalf. “Nor will I abhor them”; this was in the days of the Greeks, when I appointed Shimon HaTzaddik for them, and the Hasmonean and his sons, and Mattithiah the High Priest. “To destroy them utterly”; this was in the days of Haman, when I appointed for them the righteous leaders Mordecai and Esther. “To break My covenant with them”; this was in the days of the Romans, when I appointed for them the Sages of the house of Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi and the Sages of other generations. “For I am the Lord their God”; this will be in the future, when no nation or people of a foreign tongue will be able to subjugate them further.

In this verse Solomon teaches that a person’s life span is extended or shortened in accordance with his merits or the punishment for which he has qualified. Such results are due to נס נסתר, intervention by G’d in a person’s fate by miraculous ways which are not visible to us. The various types of miracles are divided into two groups. 1) There are clearly manifest miracles; 2) there are miracles which are totally concealed from man as the onlooker. The miracles which are recognized as such are the extraordinary occurrences which have befallen people or which have occurred for the benefit of people such as the producing of water from a rock, the descent of bread from heaven, i.e. the manna; even the sudden appearance of the quails in large numbers after their appearance had been predicted was a clearly manifest miracle. When Avraham overcame the four mightiest kings and their armies in battle having with him only 318 men, this too was a clear miracle. Even though no specific supernatural event occurred at that time the victory was a נס נסתר, a “hidden” miracle, i.e. it became clear to everyone who knew what happened that G’d must have intervened in the outcome of that military encounter.
Lengthening someone’s life span or shortening it is also a hidden miracle. This is what Solomon said here. Although constant worries are by definition factors which weaken a person and undermine his health, and such people could be expected to die after less than a normal life span, Solomon says that if the worry was due to their being righteous people this will contribute to their normal life span being extended rather than shortened. The reverse is true of the wicked. Although their carefree and worry-free mode of life could be expected to result in their living longer than their righteous counterparts, the facts are the reverse. Such wicked people will enjoy fewer years than the righteous who constantly worry about their sins and the retribution they will have to face eventually. The essence of Solomon’s teaching here is that the only true yardstick for who enjoys long life and who dies (apparently) prematurely, are considerations of merit and lack of merit. Our sages illustrated the truth of Solomon’s statement by pointing out that during the entire 410 years that the Temple of Solomon stood there were only 18 High Priests, whereas during the 420 years of the second Temple there were a total of 300 High Priests. The reason was that the high Priests during the first Temple were all righteous individuals whereas most of the High Priests during the second Temple were not righteous. This is why there were so many of them.