Tehilim: Chanukah Special, Seeing God in a Thank You
Welcome to NachDaily, covering the entire TANACH one perek at a time. I’m Rabbi Shaya Sussman, sharing words of chizuk and emunah as they relate to Tehilim, tefilah, and Chanukah.
The days of Chanukah are days of hoda’ah- gratitude. We give thanks to Hashem for all He’s done for us both as a collective nation and as specific individuals. During the Haneros Halalu prayer immediately after lighting the menorah, we say that the eight days of Chanukah were established k’dey lahodos u’lahallel es Shimcha hagadol - to express gratitude and thanks to God’s great Name.
Rebbe Nachman explains, in his sefer Lekutei Maran, that the more you give thanks to someone, the closer you are to that person. By recognizing and appreciating the goodness that person did for you, the closer the relationship becomes.
When we give hoda’a to Hashem, the Master of the world, therefore, the closer we become to Him. The more you recognize Him, the more you can feel His Presence.
Expressing your feelings of gratitude for all that God has done for you has the power to lift you up and allow you to feel a taste of the pleasure of Olam Haba, the World to Come. The more you thank Hashem, the closer you become to Him and His Divine light. Olam Haba is when we’ll truly recognize Hashem and bask in His Divine Splendor, feel the true pleasure of His goodness, and feel the healing rays of His Light.
By thanking Hashem for everything therefore, no matter how small, you can have Olam Haba in Olam Hazeh, tasting from the World to Come in this world! Speak to God about every tiny detail in your life, constantly giving Him thanks for the millions of good things He’s done for you from the day you were born until this very moment.
This is what we say during the Modim tefilah in the Shmoneh Esrei. We thank Hashem for all the miracles that He does for us every day, and for the goodness that we receive at every moment. What is the only goodness that we have at every moment? Our hearts are beating, we are alive!
In Lekutey Halachos, Rav Nosson explains that this approach to giving thanks to God is really an amazing path to come close to Him. This world is full of bitterness and suffering, life can be so hard, and you can feel so far from Hashem, the Source of all life. Every day can be filled with suffering, with no peace of mind and no rest.
Giving thanks, therefore, is really major because you can immediately remind yourself of all the goodness God has done, beginning with your ancestors.
The Medrash tells us that in the future all the korbanos, sacrifices, will no longer be brought except for the Korban Todah, the sacrifice expressing thanks and gratitude!
At the time of Chanuka, we were completely dejected, feeling as if God had left us, but He performed a miracle for us. Not only did we win the war and find pure oil, but that oil lasted for eight days.
We were overwhelmed with joy, happiness, and feelings of closeness to God. We recognized that He had really been with us the entire time.
Now we can understand why this was the last holiday that Chazal instituted before Am Yisrael went into galus. It enables us to look at all that God has done for us on both national and individual levels. From this we can learn the art of hoda’a, thanking God, which will fill us with the strength that we need to deal with the everyday challenges of life and to survive in exile.
This Chanukah, may we merit experiencing Olam Habah in Olam Hazeh, to begin giving proper hoda’a to Hashem. May the world be filled with the knowledge of God like the waters that cover the earth, and may we see the Menorah in the 3rd temple, lit and rebuilt for all to see.
Thank you for listening and have a wonderful day.
