Dvar Torah- Shabbat Chanukah Parshat Viyeshev
By Chaim Shapiro

Today is not just Shabbat Parshat Viyeshev but also Shabbat Chanukah.

I would like to open by asking and answering a well known question: As we know, women are exempt from positive time-bound mitzvoth. So why are they obligated to participate in mitzvah of lighting Chanukah candles?

The first answer is the easiest to understand and is given to us by Rabbi Yehoshua Ben Levy in Masechet Shabbat. They light because they were part of the mitzvah. I will expound what “part of the mitzvah” means in a minute.
The second and third answers are found in Megilla, Daf 4 amud aleph. The Gemara says- “they too were involved in the miracle.” Rashi says they were part of the decree and were also saved, therefore, they also must take part in the mitzvah. The Rashbam, cited in Tosefos, disagrees with Rashi and says: without women, there would not be the mitzvah at all. They were the messengers of redemption and through them we were saved.

Now to connect the Halacha of lighting to the story of Chanukah and the story of the Parsha.

Yehudith was the daughter of Yochanan the Cohen Gadol. The king (Holofoness) instituted a decree that all women on their wedding night had to have relations with a government official. Yehudith took action and fed and gave drink to the general until he eventually fell asleep. As he slept, she cut his head off and hung it on the city walls. The Greeks saw the power of the Jewish woman and fled.

Tamar became the wife of Yehuda’s firstborn, Er. He did evil in the eyes of Hashem and was killed. Yehuda then gave his next son, Onen to Tamar. He too was evil in Hashem’s eyes and was killed. Fearing certain death to his third son, Sheila, Yehudah did not let him marry Tamar.

Yehuda’s wife died and he travelled to Timneh. He came across Tamar on the side of the road. She was there because she received a prophecy telling her that the Mashiach would come from her. This is learnt from Rashi, pasuk 14. It states, “she made herself available to Yehudah because she wanted to have children with him. Through Tamar’s actions Peretz and Zerach were born.

When Yehudith decided to seduce the general, the elders begged and tried to persuade her not to do so. She was set on her ways and knew she had to do it, even if it meant risking her own life.

Both Yehudith and Tamar had to take action into their own hands. They went the extra mile to be courageous when others would have been fearful.

So as we see , the Jewish women were and continue to be responsible for our great victories. In the case of Chanuka, they were directly involved with the ness and , therefore, are not only entitled to, but are obligated to participate in the mitzvah.


SShabbat Shalom and Chag Sameach