Whoever holds a Hanukah candle in his hands and merely stands there, has done nothing (Orah Hayim).
All the holidays celebrated by the Jewish people are related to great historical events which helped secure Jewish existence. In addition to the festivals mentioned in the Torah, which were appointed for all eternity, the Jews in various lands have, in the course of their history, proclaimed festivals celebrating the salvation God sent them at various times and places.
The "Scroll of Taanit" alone lists thirty five such festivals, about which it is said: It is forbidden to fast or to mourn on these days. Our sages, however, did away with all of these festivals but Hanukah and Purim. About these two festivals it is said: If all new festivals will be done away with, Hanukah and Purim will not be done away with( Yerushalmi, Taanit, II).
The chief reason our lawmakers have given for retaining Hanukah and Purim as permanent national holidays is that both followed such crises in our national existence as have repeated themselves innumerable times in our long, remarkable history.
Both the miracle of Purim, which prevented the physical annihilation of the Jewsih people, and the miracle of Hanukah, which saved it from cultural and spiritual annihilation, have been repeated many times in Jewsih History. The celebration of these holidays is crucial to the maintenance of Jewish morale. They teach Jews never to despaur in times of peril, because at the right moment their salvation is sure to come.
Purim is entirely a product of exile. The terrible crisis the Jews went through at that time could not have come upon a people living on its own soil. The terrible decree that Haman issued against the Jewish people, "to destroy, to slay, and to annihilate all Jews," has never been issued against a people living in its own land. Only a "people scattered abroad and dispersed among the peoples" can be placed in such a predicament as were the Jews of Persia at that time.
Defense is not even possible away from home. The Jews were saved by a Jewish girl with whom the king had fallen in love and made his queen. Queen Esther, together with her uncle, Mordecai, who had once saved the King from assassination, upset Haman's evil plans. The decree could not be annulled but another decree was issued giving the Jews the right to "gather themselves together and to stand for their life."
Our Sages did not do away with the festival of Purim, because the tragic history of that period is recalled and repeated in every generation. When we study the events of theat dark era and we compare it to our own day, we find many similarities to it in the vicissitudes of our people, except that at that time, all the provinces in which the Jews lived were under the rule of a foolish despot who permitted himself to be convinced that the Jews should be enabled to defend themselves. Today's great powers, however are ostensibly constitutional, and their rulers fervent advocates of democracy. They can not be easily swayed...
Having decided to ignore the decree of Hitler whose purpose was the same as Haman's "to destroy, to slay, and to cause to perish all Jews," thereby making the world Judenrein, they did not reverse this "democratic" decision. The free, democratic nations in the United Nations decided to overlook the murderous acts committed in the lands of oil and wild savages against their Jewish inhabitants, and they have not altered this decision. There is only the shedding of crocodile tears over the plight of the Arab refugees, which these nations do not really want to improve, but to use as a means of exerting pressure on the fledgling State of Israel.
As we see, the terrible story of Purim has not changed. It keeps on repeating itself. The Talmud tells us: The story of Esther was told by the Holy Spirit, that is, by prophecy which foresaw that it would be long before the story of Purim would vanish from among the Jews and its sad memory from among their descendants. So long as Jews are dispersed among the nations, their fate remains a tragic one and Purim tragedy may be repeated at any time.
Hanukah, on the other hand, celebrated a great historical event which occurred when our people was in its own land. The story of Hanukah has as its locale Eretz Israel, and it tells of a severe spiritual crisis which our people went through at that time, one that threatened to destroy the Jewish Torah, the Jewsih religion. Were it not for the miracle of Hanukah, we would have vanished as a people in our own land.
Concerning the above-quoted passage from the Shulchan Aruch, that "Whoever holds a Hanukah candle in his hands and merely stands there, has done nothing," a renowned Hassidic Rabbi said: "He who has merely lit the Hanukah candles, and having fulfilled this precept merely stands there unmoved by the profound significance of the miracle of Hanukah, has accomplished nothing. The precept does not conssit merely in the lighting of a candle..."
Links to eternity: Jewish holidays and festivals; homiletical essays by Harris L Selig (pp 179-182)
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