ILLUMINATING CHANUKAH: Day 5! ("The Power of Self-Sacrifice!")

One of the central traits of the Jewish people throughout our history has been, "mesiras nefesh," or "self-sacrifice," meaning going to the very limits of our strength in order to Keep the Torah and serve G-d. The whole Chanukah story is founded on the incredible mesiras nefesh of the Maccabees, and the relatively small number of other Jews who joined them in order to resist the decrees of the Syrian-Greek empire. They went beyond what was "normal" and "natural," and consequently, Hashem responded by rewarding them (and us forever after) with something beyond the normal and natural: the open miracle of one night's worth of oil in the Temple burning for a full eight nights. When we, in our own lives, grab on to the holy trait of mesiras nefesh, we too can awaken a powerful response from Above...and achieve far more than we may think possible.