In "Likutei Halachos", Reb Noson teaches that Purim and Hanukkah were instituted by our ancient sages as a means to extend the lights of the Holy Temple into our diaspora homes. (1) (2) It was a great kindness which they extended to all the future generations. This is why when aligning these holidays on the sefirotic structure of man, they relate to the legs (netzach and hod). The legs are the part of the body which reaches downward. So too, these lights reach downward, descending from their high perch in holiness down to our lowly diaspora dwellings.
Furthermore, he notes that Purim and Hanukkah can occur on weekdays. The Hebrew word for weekdays is "chol", חוֹל. He relates this to the word for someone who's ill "cholah", חולה. These “weekday holidays” are the equivalent of God performing the kindness of visiting the ill, as the diaspora is a kind of spiritual illness. Since we are too spiritually ill to visit the Holy Temple, during these two holidays the lights of the Temple come to visit us.
I found this Torah teaching very inspiring and truly moving. However, I was left wondering whether there’s an Elul connection here as well. It couldn’t be coincidental that I came across this teaching on the first day of the Hebrew month of Elul.
On the first of Elul, Moses ascended to receive the second tablets. This second set was a spiritual descent from the first set; meaning, it was intended to bring down the lights to a much lower level. The first tablets were evidently too high for everyone. Its lights needed to be garbed in more layers to give it the insulation to reach further down. Accordingly, Moses did in his own era what our saintly sages who instituted Purim and Hanukkah did in their era.
The common denominator in all these cases is that for the lights to extend further downward, it helps if the Jewish people show that they want it; whether through returning to God and/or standing up to opposing forces. The Lubavitcher Rebbe taught that in our generation this effort is accomplished by truly wanting the Messiah to arrive. Expressions of such yearnings include studying and speaking about the messianic era. It’s truly our next level of spiritual growth.
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1. See "Likutei Halachos", “The Laws of Arising in the Morning”, Section 4: 11-16.
2. Diaspora is not only in geography. It’s also in time. As long as the Temple is absent even dwellers of the Holy Land are in some sense still in diaspora.
