We are multifaceted human beings: the side we portray to our close friends and family is not the same as we show to the outside world. We have an outer and an inner personality. These two sides can at times conflict with each other. As King Solomon said, "There is no wholly righteous man on earth who achieves good yet never sins" (Ecclesiastes 7:20). However, just because we trip up and sin, it does not mean that we must change our entire outward persona.
There is a story about a businessman who was a member of a Hasidic fraternity in Russia about one hundred years ago. When this man used to go on business to St. Petersburg he dressed in ordinary business attire, but when we went to visit his Rebbe he would change his city clothing for the traditional Hasidic garb. One day he decided that he no longer wanted to be two-faced, so he wore his city outfit when visiting his Rebbe, whereupon the Rebbe said to him, “Previously I thought that when you were with us we saw the real you and in St. Petersburg you were putting on a charade. Now I realise that when you were in St. Petersburg you were exposing the real you and it was here that you were pretending.”
But which is it more important to maintain perfect, our inner persona or our outer persona? I believe that the story of Chanukah sheds light on this dilemma. Chanukah commemorates two miracles. The first is the fact that in 165 B.C.E. the Maccabees were victorious over the mighty Greek army. The second is that, on retaking the Temple, they found only one vial of uncontaminated oil, which meant that the candelabra in the Temple could have been lit for only one day. Miraculously, however, the oil burned seven times longer than expected and lasted for eight days. It is interesting to note that these miracles seem to be compartmentalised. Each evening of Chanukah we light the Menorah symbolising the miracle relating to the oil. But during daytime prayers (the evening prayer – maariv – is not considered compulsory) we add an extra prayer that speaks exclusively about the victory over the Greeks and excludes that miracle of the oil. Thus we celebrate one miracle mainly during the evening and the other mainly during the day.
I suggest that the two miracles represent our two personas. The victory over the Greeks represents the outer persona. The fact that the Maccabees went into the battlefield to repel the wicked, anti-religious Greek decrees was a very public display of loyalty to God. The miracle of the oil took place inside the Temple. It was not a miracle that was overtly visible to all and sundry. Yes, the miracle of the oil represents the purity of our inner persona. It represents the fact that God acknowledged that the Maccabees’ outer persona of going to war was not politically but rather purely religiously motivated. It seems that the over the centuries we Jews have accepted the miracle of the oil to be the overriding raison d’être for Chanukah.
This is demonstrated first by the Talmud (Tractate Shabbat 21b), which mentions the miracle of the oil as the reason for Chanukah, but it is also borne out by custom. On Chanukah we do not play war games; rather we eat oily foods such as doughnuts and latkes – commemorating the miracle associated with oil. And the only religious ritual associated with Chanukah is the lighting of the menorah. The fact that God performed a miracle in the Jews’ holiest and most religious place – the Temple – tells us that God sanctioned the actions and inner motives of the Maccabees. From this we may deduce that the main reason for celebrating Chanukah was that the Maccabees had not hijacked a religious ideal for a political motive and that their stated religious aims were the real reason for war. Thus, although the victory was indeed a great miracle it is not as significant as the miracle of the oil.
This tells us that we Jews hold the integrity of the inner persona above all else. By contrast, what modern society values is completely different. It shouts: image, image, image. It counts only what things look like on the outside. We are told to live only for the expensive car, the large detached house and the luxury holiday. Never mind that in order to achieve this we may have to sell our spiritual and inner persona. The message of Chanukah is that we should not compromise our inner persona, our core values and beliefs, for outer, material gains.
As much as possible, we must live a life that allows harmony between the inner self and the outer self.