During Chanukah, we add the Al Hanissim prayer to the Amidah and to Birkat Hamazon. We thank G-d “for the miracles, and for the salvation, and for the mighty deeds, for the victories and the wars.” But if we’re talking Chanukah, and in particular Chanukah miracles, how can we ignore the most popular miracle of all, the miracle of the oil that lasted for eight days—which doesn’t show up anywhere in the whole prayer!
Nu?
The Rav, Rabbi Yosef Soloveitchik, arguably the greatest orthodox theologian of the 20th century, points the way to an answer. He refers to Maimonides, who says that the oil lasted for eight days, “until they were able to press out fresh pure oil.” (Hilchot Chanukah 3:2). Why, asks the Rav, does Maimonides go out of his way to add the phrase, “until they were able to press out fresh pure oil?” He could have just said the oil lasted for eight days. Period. The Rav answers that we relied on the miracle out of temporary necessity. But we get closer to G-d by seeing the divine within, and not outside, the laws of nature.
Look at it this way: having one cruse of oil last for eight days is surely impressive. But how about creating a world that on a daily basis produces enough oil to satisfy millions and millions of people? How impressive is that!! And all of that from a fruit the size of a thumbnail that grows on trees that can take a hundred years to fruit. Talk about miracles!!
In contrast, the miracle of the military victory, where G-d “delivered the mighty into the hands of the weak, the many into the hands of the few…” really is a miracle that is unsurpassed by the normal course of human events. The history of humanity is to a great extent written in the blood of the vanquished. Massive empires clash with unceasing destructiveness, and the “weak and few” are crushed beneath the rubble.
But not every time. Not in 164 BCE. And not in 1948 either. “A great miracle happened there and then;” and, as far as modern Israel is concerned, “A great miracle happened here and now.”
Thank G-d.
Indeed: Thank G-d.