Sharing Divrei Torah from time to time that are centered on Eretz Yisrael will help with keeping Eretz Yisrael at the front of our minds. I would like to share a short thought about Eretz Yisrael and Chanukah.
If you want to see something tangible of any of the Yomim Tovim throughout the year—if you want to touch something that connects you to Yetzias Mitzrayim, for example—you really can’t. Even if you travel to Mitzraim, the places and the physical remnants are no longer there. The same is true for Matan Torah, for the Midbar, and for Purim in Shushan.
Chanukah is different.
You can travel throughout Eretz Yisrael and see the places where the Neis happened. You can see buildings from the time of the Chashmonaim. You can see mikvaos from that period. The physical reminders—what you might call the “souvenirs” of Chanukah—are everywhere. And there is a reason for that.
Chanukah is the only Yom Tov whose miracle took place in Eretz Yisrael. All the other Nissim of the Torah happened outside the land: in the Midbar, in Mitzrayim, in Shushan. Chanukah alone happened in Eretz Yisrael.
That fact is not just interesting—it is halachically significant.
The Gemara in Megillah asks why we do not say Hallel on Purim. One of the answers given is that after we entered Eretz Yisrael with Yehoshua bin Nun, we only say Hallel for miracles that occurred in Eretz Yisrael, not for miracles that happened outside the land of Israel. That is why there is Hallel on Chanukah, but not on Purim.
A simple way to understand this is that we only say Hallel when a neis is complete. Complete means stretching all the way from Shamayim down to the physical world. In Chutz LaAretz, Hashem certainly performs great miracles for us. He protects us, like sheep among seventy wolves, throughout galus. But the fullness of the miracle does not extend all the way down.
Only in Eretz Yisrael does that completeness exist.
Eretz Yisrael is a place where the land itself has kedushah, where the kedushah “sticks.” The miracle, the closeness of Hashem, and the הארת פנים—the revealed presence of Hashem through salvation—are fully realized only in Eretz Yisrael. Therefore, only a Neis that occurs in Eretz Yisrael is complete enough for us to say Hallel. That is why Chanukah has Hallel and Purim does not.
Everyone knows that zos Chanukah is a special day, though many people are not entirely sure why. There is something somewhat mystical about it. One key idea is connected to the final day of Chanukah, called Zos Chanukah. “Zos” represents the receiving side—the mekabel—of ruchniyus. Zos is always associated with Eretz Yisrael.
Eretz Yisrael is a place of wholeness. The kedushah is not only in your mind; it exists in the land itself. The kedushah is present in the physical aspects of life, and the physical can itself be filled with ruchniyus. That is shleimus. That is Zos Chanukah. That is the unique salvation of this day.
May we be zocheh to come closer, to experience together the connection from the very highest levels to the very lowest—something that only Eretz Yisrael can truly offer.
