Chanukah: Building with Divine Design

This week we read the haftorah for Shabbat Chanukah as it contains a vision of the golden Menorah. The Menorah described in this week’s haftorah and envisioned by Zecharia is a very unusual menorah. It is not the menorah we are familiar with from the Beit HaMikdash nor from the holiday of Chanukah. The Menorah in Zecharya’s vision is a fascinating self-contained system. The menorah had an olive tree on each side which provided the oil that dripped into the seven bowls on the top. Zecharya questioned the angel to understand the system. The angel’s response was, “Isn’t it obvious, you don’t know?” to which Zecharya responds that he doesn’t understand the message of the menorah. The angel explains that the message of Hashem is directed toward the leader of the Jewish people, Zerubavel. He is being instructed that it is neither with might nor with strength but rather with the spirit of Hashem that he will lead.  

What is the message that baffled Zecharya and was ultimately meant for Zerubavel to hear? What is the meaning of this unusual menorah? Radak explains that it was the self-contained system of the menorah which puzzled Zecharya. Zecharya wondered how there could be light without any outside intervention. How can the menorah “run by itself”? The angel explained to him - and ultimately to Zerubavel, that Hashem gives each person the abilities and talents necessary to impact this world, the capacity to generate one’s own light.  

Zerubavel was given his unique G-d-given strengths to rebuild the Beit HaMikdash and it was only a matter of tapping into these strengths. Rather than waiting for an outside interceder, Zerubavel needed to access the G-dliness within him to rebuild the Beit HaMikdash as symbolized by the Menorah. לֹ֤א בְחַ֙יִל֙ וְלֹ֣א בְכֹ֔חַ כִּ֣י אִם־בְּרוּחִ֔י, not with valor or strength but rather with My Spirit.