includes a Shabbos. Now clearly this should not be attributed to some coincidence of the calendar. If you have eight days beginning on Chof Hey Kislev, it's going to encompass Rosh Chodesh. But there are no coincidences in the timing of Yomim Tovim. The pshat is clear. The bechina of Rosh Chodesh, the segulah of Rosh Chodesh, the Levana b'chiddusha, Rosh Chodesh is a zman of hischadshus, as we know. And clearly the coincidence in the literal sense of the term of Chanukah and Rosh Chodesh highlights the fact that Chanukah also is a Yom Tov of hischadshus. Now surely it's the case that there is an element of hischadshus every day. And that is both מצד הקדוש ברוך הוא המחדש בטובו בכל יום תמיד מעשה בראשית.
So in the briah b'chlal. But then for every person b'p'rat. Right, we know in the dinim of netilas yadayim, birchos hashachar, the Tur always quotes the Midrash of חדשים לבקרים רבה אמונתך. So there is this inyan of hischadshus every day, not just in Chanukah. But what it means when we say that Chanukah is a Yom Tov of hischadshus is similar to when we discuss the segulah of the Yom Tov of Pesach, that it's a time for deepening one's emunah. It doesn't mean that emunah is an avodah, is a chovas halevavos which is only noheig on Pesach. But it means that many avodos, while they're perennial in the sense of our chiyuv, there's also a special time, a special zman which is especially mesugal, especially conducive to developing, to cultivating, to internalizing that koach, to perfecting that avodah. And the Yom Tov of Chanukah is such a time for the koach of hischadshus. Now this dimension of Chanukah which we're discussing converges with the well-known and very fundamental idea in sefarim that Chanukah is a Yom Tov of Torah she'ba'al peh. Because what distinguishes Torah she'ba'al peh from its counterpart in Torah she'bichsav is chiddush. That's exactly, Torah she'bichsav, there's no chiddush in Torah she'bichsav. It's there. Chiddush is in Torah she'ba'al peh. Chanukah is a Yom Tov of Torah she'ba'al peh precisely because Chanukah is a Yom Tov, is a zman of hischadshus. Just to read you one line in the Pri Tzadik: ימי חנוכה הם זמן וחנוכת כל שבתות השנה שהם התחדשות האור דתורה שבעל פה וכמו שהיה חנוכה במשכן ובמקדש בהתחנך בעבודה כן חנוכת החשמונאים חנוכה לאור תורה שבעל פה שהיא בכל שבתות השנה שזוכה לאור תורה שבעל פה.
And of course one is reminded of the arichus in Nefesh HaChaim in Sha'ar Daled about the role of chiddush in Torah Shebe'al Peh. But let's try to understand a little bit more in a very practical vein the role of hischadshus within our lives. The function of this koach of hischadshus within our lives. So this koach of hischadshus which Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave us, it's a miraculous koach, allows us to live in the present. What does that mean to live in the present? Without this koach of hischadshus a person, each of us, could be a captive of the past. What does that mean? What it means is that if I suspect anyone of us, certainly if I were to step back, I would think about countless errors, blunders, missed opportunities. It would be difficult if not virtually impossible to avoid sinking into a depression. And unfortunately, puk chazi, sometimes we do see that. We see that in people, people who are captives of the past. The koach of hischadshus, which again Chanukah is a zman to deepen it, to expand that koach, allows us to live in the present. Not to ignore the past obviously in terms of not being mivazbez, obviously not to ignore the past in terms of not learning the lessons of one's mistakes and one's errors. But then to overcome it and to be so energized and so excited by this morning's morning seder, and tomorrow morning's seder, that the chiyus a person gets from that, that chiyus, that hischadshus, allows a person again to transcend what otherwise could be the crushing burden of the past. And that's part, that's one application of this koach of hischadshus. Another application of the koach of hischadshus, hischadshus, this koach of hischadshus, allows a person to persevere in the face of adversity. I don't know that anyone sails through life without encountering periods of turbulence, of adversity. Without hischadshus, a person is gradually worn down, his energy, his kochos dissipated, and he becomes enervated. The koach of hischadshus, again, besides its application in Torah, besides the first application we mentioned, allows a person to persevere. Something new, there's no, there's no wear and tear on something just brand new. What's worn, what's torn, is old. Something that's new, chadashim labekarim, doesn't have those signs of wear and tear. What's the source for this hischadshus? But the source for this is hischadshus. Yes, in fact, as we all do, we follow routines. So how is it that a person is able to tap into this capacity for hischadshus and not to feel bored, not to feel weighed down by a routine which just seems to be cyclical, constantly repeating itself? A person gets up every morning, eats the same cornflakes, gets on the same train, goes to work, does the same type of work in the office. So takka, how is a person supposed to experience hischadshus? How does a person experience hischadshus? What source is there for hischadshus? The answer is that the way we're infused with hischadshus is through avodas Hashem. What's lemala min hazman is by definition forever new, forever young. In the Shir Hayichud which we say Kol Nidrei night, there are lines which describe Hakadosh Baruch Hu as forever young, that there's no zikna. Because what's lemala min hazman, what's lemala min hazman, by definition, is always new, always fresh, always vibrant. If the center, if the what the Sfas Emes would call the nekuda pnimis of a person's existence is his avodas Hashem, is his connection to avodas Hashem, and what's more, everything in his life revolves around that. As the Rambam describes in Hilchos Deos in Perek Gimmel, וכל מעשיך יהיו לשם שמים, that min shas achilaso, massa u'mattano, everything a person does, everything a person does, if it's done deliberately for the right reason, can and should be leshem shamayim. So that elevates everything a person does, even the most mundane of routines, and על אחת כמה וכמה involvement in Torah u'mitzvos, it elevates it lemala min hazman. And then what you hear about, right? You hear in the world of such a thing as a midlife crisis. People are bored. That's because what's tachas hashemesh, אין כל חדש תחת השמש. אין כל חדש תחת השמש.
So there's only so many times you can read the same book. Right? You read it once, so the jokes are funny and the plot is suspenseful, and maybe it preserves some of that on a second or third reading. But ultimately, אין כל חדש תחת השמש, it's inevitable again that it loses until there's nothing and there's just a sense of emptiness, there's a void. The only thing, the only thing which is not governed by that law of nature is what's lemala min hazman, is what's lemala min hazman. And by anchoring our lives, our existence in avodas Hashem, in our relationship with Hakadosh Baruch Hu, who by definition is lemala min hazman, that's what allows us. to feel and experience ta'amu u'reu, that sense of hispashtus. This requires a certain approach and attitude not only towards one's mundane activities but even even to Torah and mitzvos. I was speaking with someone this week telling him how I'm unable unable to maseig how you can come into a shul Shabbos morning and hear talking, the disruption of talking, how you talking? How can it be? I told him when people go to the theater, so they go into the theater, and from the time from the time the performance begins until the curtain goes down, whether it's the theater, whether it's the opera, so they're silent, they're silent, they're focused on what's happening. How you talking? So he answered, his answer was: well if they had to go to the theater every week, they would probably talk when they go to the theater also. And he's probably right, he's probably right. Rachmana l'tzlan, if a person goes about mitzvos in a fashion of mitzvos anashim melumada, so a person can fail to appreciate or experience the hischadshus which is intrinsic because it's l'maala min hazman. The Sfas Emes comments on וכל יום יהיו בעיניך כחדשים. So what, the Torah's telling us to imagine? The Torah's telling us to pretend? The Sfas Emes says: no, d'ha chadashim. Again, קודשא בריך הוא ואורייתא חד הוא, and as we've explained hischadshus is by definition a mida of Hakadosh Baruch Hu by virtue of His eternity, so then Torah is also chadash. So why what's the need? Because in order for us to recognize it, in order for us to experience it, so we have to have that attitude of וכל יום יהיו בעיניך כחדשים. If we have that attitude, if we have that approach, so then what we'll realize is they in fact are chadashim without our yi'yu b'einecha. You know the Sifrei Chassidus, just to close with with two he'aros. Sifrei Chassidus quotes that there is a tradition in the sefarim that right, we all know that that we continue to to wish a gut yom tov, some people say a piska tava, whatever the whatever the lashon is through Hoshana Rabba. There is a tradition mentioned quoted in the Sifrei Chassidus that somehow or other chasima was not totally totally nigneres until Zos Chanukah, until the last day of Chanukah. And while I don't presume to suggest that what we've discussed tonight explains that, but maybe a little bit, maybe just the tip of the iceberg. Again, the only other yom tov which coincides with Rosh Chodesh is Rosh Hashanah, also the inyan of hischadshus. The chasima, if you take a look in in the Ne'os HaDeshe from the Avnei Nezer and and others from Beis Sochatchov, so this point is discussed. Part of the chasima is is what hischadshus a person has gained for the coming year. And the gmar of that hischadshus is achieved, is consolidated and this becomes crystallized in these holy days. The hischadshus which gives us a koach of Torah she'be'al peh, the hischadshus to live in the present, the hischadshus to persevere, the hischadshus to center our lives on that which is lemala min hazman. The background in terms of Krias HaTorah for Chanukah are the parshios of Yosef HaTzadik. This is something which obviously merits its own iyun, but clearly one element, one mida of Yosef HaTzadik, you know Rashi comments in Parshas Vayeshev when Yaakov calls Yosef, so Yosef says hineini. Rashi says a lashon zrizus, lashon zrizus. Zrizus is a manifestation of hischadshus, manifestation of hischadshus. Right, when you finish running the marathon, you're not—there's no zrizus, right? You lean, you break the tape, and you collapse. There's no—there's no hischadshus. Yosef HaTzadik had that b'china of again of zrizus, and zrizus again which flows, which is a manifestation of hischadshus. It was that which allowed him to persevere as he did, and hence that forms the backdrop for the Yom Tov of Chanukah.