The war of the Maccabees is the war of every group, society, all people, as well as each individual with himself in order to rise by faith above reason over his egoistic opinion and unite with others. This is the only way that the miracle can happen.¹

When a ten attains faith above reason, it becomes a burning lantern, a bucket of oil from which you can light an infinite number of other lanterns. But first of all, this state called Hanukkah—clean oil approved by the stamp of the high priest, Cohen Gadol, this force of unity, faith above reason—must be achieved within the ten.

In order to achieve that, the ten must come out and convince others of the necessity of such faith above reason, so that the external pressure as well as the internal realization of its necessity would give them the opportunity to unite above each person’s ego and become a holy lantern with oil. So, before the Jews left Egypt, the Pharaoh, personifying all egoism, had to learn about this outcome and let them go. And therefore, Moses had to go to Pharaoh and convince him to let the Jewish people go.²

The strength of our unity must become so powerful that it would defeat all the forces of separation. But it is thanks to separation that we increase the power of connection, burning the forces that push us apart, and raise our unity above them. Good only comes out of evil.

The Pharaoh sits inside each of us and declares: “I will not let you connect with others. No matter how hard you try to escape from me, nothing will help.” And so, day after day, this war goes on.³

Hanukkah (they rested here—Hanu Ko) is a respite between two wars. The war for the desire of bestowal happens first, before Hanukkah, and then the second one for the desire of reception. These are the two completely different kinds of war, so there must be a pause between them.

We change our approach: at first, we wanted to reach the degree of Bina; therefore, we did not use our desire to enjoy. The more we rejected our ego, the closer we got to Bina. Upon completion of this war, we received the lantern with oil that burned for eight days. So, we see that our whole path was lighting these eight candles, the Light of bestowal, and attaining the quality of Bina.

And now that we are on the level of Bina, we begin attaching the desires to receive to ourselves, to receive in order to bestow. Meaning, we gradually descend from Bina, each time picking up a certain desire in order to use it for bestowal until we bring it to Bina, to bestowal. This is the work of Purim.

Our approach changes drastically from one war to the other. At first, we had a mandate: receive nothing! And now, it is the opposite: receive, even if it comes with some restrictions. This is a different attitude, a different goal.

Hanukkah is not a construction. We did not build anything but only looked for sparks between the ruins, in the wreckage of a broken desire to enjoy. And after that, the construction of the Temple begins with the use of this desire to enjoy. That is, we achieve a common connection, including the egoism of each one as building material.

The resting stop is necessary because you can not gradually transfer from one war to another. At first, the war was against reception. And when we reach the pinnacle of this rejection of reception on all levels and degrees of Malchut, meaning the level of Bina, then we have no choice but to make a stop before the new work begins.

The miracle of Hanukkah consists of receiving the Light from above due to all our efforts, which helps us find the bucket of clean oil, light it, conclude the war, and start the new battle after some rest. All the help received from above is the miracle.⁴
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/3/18, Lesson on the Topic “Hanukkah”
1 Minute 27:30
2 Minute 46:50
3 Minute 49:25
4 Minute 1:08:22

Related Material:
The War Of The Maccabees
The Maccabees And The Greek Ideology, Part 1
What Did The Maccabees Fight Against?

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