When the Greeks forbade the Jewish people from Mitzvah observance they had a special focus on stopping the Avodah, the Divine worship, performed in the Beit HaMikdash (The Holy Temple). Our Sages have taught us that when these kinds of national calamities befall the Jewish people, there are spiritual underpinnings to it. The Avodah of the Jewish became lackluster and sluggish, Hashem decreed that it would be taken away from them. Lacking enthusiasm means that the Avodah is not valuable to them. If it’s not valuable, then they don’t deserve it.
When the Chashmonaim (also referred to as the Maccabees) displayed their willingness to bring it back even at the risk of losing their lives, they showed how valuable it was to them. They were now worthy of getting it back for the Jewish people and Hashem gave them miraculous success.
Rabbi Yosef Mendelevitch is a refusenik from the Soviet Union now living in Israel who spent eleven years in Soviet prisons. Although he was cut off from the world he calculated when the Jewish holidays were approaching. As Chanukah was coming he yearned to light the Menorah. He managed to obtain a match from one of the guards and made wicks from some threads he pulled out from his prison clothing. But where would he get oil from? It was the day before Chanukah and the situation was bleak. But then he was struck by an idea. He picked up a jagged rock, walked over to a wall, and chiseled out the form of a Menorah in it . He then took his wick and wedged it firmly into a crack in the wall where he had carved out the form of the first candle. He struck his match against the wall and lit the wick in the wall. He gazed at it for the short while that it burned. This may not have been the fulfillment of the mitzvah but to Yosef the mitzvah was truly valuable. He yearned for some kind of connection to it and he got it.
Years later when he recounted this story a teenager asked him why he performed mitzvot under such difficult circumstances. He answered matter of factly but poignantly, "Can you tell a tree not to grow?" This adds another layer of understanding to the value of observing Hashem’s Mitzvot.The innate nature of a Jew is to grow closer to Hashem through His Mitzvot. To one who is in touch with that reality, there’s no other choice. It’s the essence of existence.
One who lacks enthusiasm for doing Mitzvot is lacking that connection with their essence. The Chashmonaim reconnected with that and expressed it each time they put their lives on the line for it.
May we be inspired by the dedication of the Chashmonaim to develop within ourselves the true value of our service to Hashem by internalizing those penetrating words of Rabbi Yosef Mendelevitch- "Can you tell a tree not to grow?"
Shabbat Shalom & Happy Chanukah!
Yitzchak