Okay, so if you read YWN, chances are 10/10 that you know at least 76 different answers to the famous “Beis Yosef’s Kasha”.

The question is (basically):

“If the oil lasted seven days, why do we light the menorah for eight days?”

Answers to the Beis Yosef’s question both precede the Beis Yosef (the question was asked by many Rishonim before him), and people till today, keep coming up with new angles and twists to answer the question. Mi Ke’amcha Yisrael!

(Some answers you may not have heard: “seven days for the miracle of the oil, one day that people survived the Greeks… so the menorah was lightable!” and “the oil they found was not even enough for one day, so that day was a miracle too!” and “it’s got to do with the Hakamas Hamishkan, not about the oil found! There are some wonderful answers in this thread in the YWN coffee room. And here’s a sefer (pdf) with 500 answers to the question.)

But in this column, let’s go in a very different direction. Let’s talk about the all-important question that the Beis Yosef asks.

Here’s what I mean: why are there so many answers to this question, and why do so many Jews spend time thinking of angles to answer this question, and their questions posed by gedolim throughout the generations—much more than those who try to come up with their own questions? (Like “why does an apple have five seeds, not six? Yes there’s a fascinating answer to that as well.  I will put it up on YWN for Tu Bishvat, Iy”h!)

And the answer, or at least one of the answers to this question, is:

We like to answer the question of the Beis Yosef because He asked the question.

Because he asked it, we know it’s legitimate. Because there are so many other answers, we feel compelled to use our creative thinking and knowledge to come up with something unique we can call our own, putting our own “stamp” on something that is much bigger than ourselves.

In a business sense (admit it, readers, you knew I’d have to get business in here somehow!) this is the reason that when you ask your friends and workers for feedback on any form of marketing or outreach your business does, they are quite likely to say “it’s very nice, but you should put the picture over there, a bit to the left, instead of where you have it now…” it’s the desire to leave a mark, to show creativity, and to vicariously live “the grass is always greener” inside the life of the person asking you the question.

Question them!  There’s no chiyuv (obligation) to let other people live their lives via you!

I’ve had many times where clients are told by (mostly) well-meaning intentioned friends and relatives “I think that ad should have a brown, “wood panel” background…” or “your ad has too much text” or “your product packaging should me much more elegant.” Well maybe that’s true… or maybe it’s not, depending on who you are, what you are selling, and what your value proposition to the customer is!

On a side note… if the famous question of the Beis Yosef was “just” a question asked by a Rishon, would it have gathered the same level of interest as one that is well known because of it being asked by the Beis Yosef himself? How many of us would know about this question is it was, for example “The Meiri’s Kasha?”(Which it was, before the Beis Yosef asked it!)

The next time you look into a sefer, or hear a dvar torah at the Shabbos table, and a question is asked… “Why did Yosef give the Saar Hamashkim a different interpretation of his dream that the Saar Ha’ofim? Why didn’t he give ‘em both the interpretation that they would be placed back on their old positions? Don’t dreams work out according to the way they are interpreted?

Wait!!

Don’t just “hear the answer and say “Aaah! Gevaldig!”

Use your own head and try to think what you can be mechadesh, what novel approach and insight of your own you can tap into to create something you can proudly call yours! It’s this approach that makes “hearing a Dvar Torah” into something much more incredible, the ability to grow and shteig, bringing yourself to a higher level!

Talking about thinking differently, may I suggest that the “Beis Yosef’s kasha” is also a fantastic way to segue into history, telling your children about the Beis Yosef, about his life, and even to how Rav Ovadia Yosef Zy”a was able to use the Beis Yosef to instill pride in so many Jews and bring them closer to torah!)

And, another answer to the kasha of the Beis Yosef is that were there only seven nights of Chanukah, we would not know on night number 4 if we held according to Beis Shammai or Beis Hillel, since the number would be the same for both on that night. So we light eight to know that we hold like Beis Hillel, mosif v’holeich…

As Chanukah draws toward a close, may we all be zoche to take the kedusha of this tremendous Yom Tov with us and to continually move forward until the Menorah (the seven branched one!) is rekindled speedily in our days, amen!

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Rabbi Issamar Ginzberg is a well-known columnist, business strategist, and lecturer. He can be reached via email at [email protected]

NOTE: The views expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of YWN

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