The Baal Shem Tov had a special custom when the month of Kislev arrived. In the evening, he would gather together the children from the local cheder, including his own grandchildren, and tell them the story of the miracle of Chanukah. And to their delight, he would also help the children construct a new menorah each year.
They made a base, eight branches with cups to serve as vessels for the oil, two decorative lions with their red tongues extended, and a kind of hollow finger on the right side for the shammos, the “servant” candle used to light the other candles. This design was later known as the Baal Shem Tov’s menorah.
The Chassidim said that the menorah constructed by the Baal Shem Tov and the children looked like the menorah in the Second Temple which never fell into Roman hands when they destroyed the Temple. It is said that this menorah ascended into heaven and when the holy Messiah comes, will return back to earth and light the path for the redeemed.
On the first night of Chanukah, when the first candle was to be lit, this special menorah built by the Baal Shem Tov and the children was placed in the study hall of the Baal Shem Tov’s shule. Many Chassidim travelled great distances to be in the company of the Baal Shem Tov when the menorah was lit.
The Baal Shem Tov always taught Torah before lighting the candle. One year when all the Chassidim were packed into the study hall, he taught the following as soon as the evening prayers were completed.
“The verse says: ‘When you light – literally, ‘elevate’ – the candles.’ Why does it say: ‘When you elevate’? It is because someone who lights the Chanukah candles must also light himself and someone who elevates the candles must also elevate himself to the level of self-sacrifice.”
Then the Baal Shem Tov’s face began to shine with fervor and he asked, “Is everyone ready for self-sacrifice, like that of the Maccabees – Matisyahu and his sons?”
All the Chassidim together with the children who had constructed the menorah, answered in one voice, “We’re ready!”
Then they started to sing a niggun and to dance – and as they sang and danced pouring out their very souls, it seemed to them that they were lifted up in flames above the ground on which they danced. The Baal Shem Tov danced with them, hand holding hand, shoulder against shoulder. Every once in a while, a certain Chassid jumped up on the shoulders of his friends and loudly called out the “Shema” (Hear O Yisrael, the L*rd our G*d, the L*rd is One)!”
Before the Baal Shem Tov lit the candle, he gazed fixedly at the congregation and at the Chassid who had been calling out the Shema. Then, after meditating with closed eyes for a long while, he opened his eyes and said, “Why do we draw out the final syllable of the word echad (Hebrew for one) when we chant the Shema? It is because the essence of everything is the One – the One above and the One below; without the ‘One’ there’s no Shema.”
And the Chassidim, who were listening to this teaching with their eyes closed absorbed it fully, and their feeling of brotherhood and of oneness, immediately increased and was strengthened, because they understood that the essence of Chassidism is the “One.”
As usual, the chorus of singers began a new niggun for chanting the Shema for that year. The Chassidim used to say that whoever has not heard the yearly melody for the Shema sung in the beis medrash of the Baal Shem Tov has never truly heard a niggun in his whole life.
The Baal Shem Tov continued by teaching about the parts of the menorah, beginning with the base on which rested the eight branches with their eight cups to hold the pure oil, in which the oil-saturated wicks floated, to be lit.
He said, “The power of the branches is in their all having one foundation, one base, which unites them and brings them to the level of holiness. Although each wick burns in its own cup – yet, because they all have a common base, it’s as if they’re all a single branch. And that’s the reason we make only one blessing for the candle lighting, saying, ‘Blessed are You, O L*rd our G*d … who has commanded us to light the candle of Chanukah’ – because all the eight candles are like one candle that’s completely holy.”
Suddenly, a voice broke the silence, the voice of a grandson of an elderly villager named Reb Pinchas, one of the foremost Chassidim. This little boy called out, “What about the shammos, Rebbe?”
The boy’s voice rose up, as if from the hearts of all the children there, for they were all wondering why the Baal Shem Tov had not yet taught about the “servant candle.” Even the Chassidim and those in the Baal Shem Tov’s inner circle, who were startled by the cry that disturbed the silence, opened their eyes wide, expectantly wondering what the Baal Shem Tov would say.
He stood there quietly for a little while, then looked tenderly at the child – who was himself surprised by his own voice and question – and said, “The holiness of the shammos is not less than that of the other candles. In fact, it even has an extra degree of holiness because one is permitted to use its light, which is different from the other candles whose light one is not permitted to use for any purpose, but only to view. And that is the special merit of the ‘hewers of wood and the drawers of water’ among the Jewish people. That thanks to their help and supplies, the kohanim could offer up the sacrifices on the altar in the Temple.”
Then, turning to the little boy who had called out the question, the Baal Shem Tov added, “and you, boychik’l, may G*d grant that you have the merit to be one of the holy servants, one of the shammosim, who bring the redemption!”
And so it was.
Freely adapted by Tzvi Meir HaCohane from a story in MA’ASEH B’RABBI YISRAEL BAAL SHEM TOV as translated in THE LIGHT AND FIRE OF THE BAAL SHEM TOV by Maggid Yitzchak Buxbaum and reprinted with the kind permission of the Baal Shem Tov Foundation and the Maggid Yitzchak Buxbaum. Please visit www.baalshemtov.com
