Mehadrin min hamehadrin! On Chanukah, there is a universal practice to light the menorah in the way that is most ideal, the most beautiful. There is a positive command of hiddur mitzvah, making a mitzvah physically appealing and beautiful. We spend a little more for a nice esrog or mezuzah. People defined as mehadrin would then seem to be “those who make mitzvahs physically beautiful.” The mehadrin from amongst the mehadrin, an expression reserved for those who light Chanukah candles in ascending order, adding one every night, are those who make things even more beautiful. Rashi (Shabbos 21b) throws us a curveball. He says that mehadrin means “those who chase,” and explains that it is an abbreviated way of saying “those who chase after the mitzvos!” Mehadrin in regards to Chanukah has nothing at all to do with beautifying the mitzvah in its normal sense. It has to do with chasing after mitzvos.
“You shall come to the Kohen who will be in those days and you shall say to him, ‘I declare today to Hashem your God that I have come to the Land that Hashem swore to our forefathers to give us’” (Devarim 26:3).When a person brings his first fruits to the Temple, he is to tell the Kohen that he has come to the Land. R. Shimon Sofer of Krakow (Michtav Sofer, drush 1, p. 3 s.v. amarti), the son of the Chasam Sofer, wonders why there is any need to state this self-evident fact to the Kohen. After all, the man is standing in Jerusalem – why state the obvious?
He begins his explanation by citing a teaching of his father. The Chasam Sofer (Drashos Chasam Sofer,2 p. 398b s.v. akdim) explained that many times in Rashi’s commentary to the Torah, (e.g. Vayikra 8:2, Bamidbar 8:6) he teaches that when one is told to “take” another person, it means “persuade that person” and let him or her be “taken” with your words. He says that it is not really possible to take a person anywhere. A person is made up of spirit and flesh – with the mind being the most important part of a person. The body is nothing more, says the Chasam Sofer, than a “clump of dirt and mud.” Thus, you can only take another person by engaging his spirit – his mind and psyche. It is only then that a person moves. R. Shimon Sofer explains that this is also how we are to understand Hashem’s directive to Avraham, Lech licha “to the Land that I will show you.” According to R. Sofer, Lech licha means, “Go, to you.” For Avraham’s mind and soul were really in the spiritual place that in the physical plane can be called the Land of Israel. All that he was missing was the bringing of his body there. That was remedied by his “going” with his body “to himself.”
R. Yosef Karo wrote almost the same thing: “A man’s soul is where his mind is thinking and musing,”(Magid Meisharim, Mahadura Kamma, Beshalach) as did the Baal Shem Tov (cited in Toldos Yaakov Yosef to Chayei Sarah).
R. Shimon Sofer taught that this is the reason we have to announce our location. It is a simple matter to physically be located in the Land of Israel. It is a far more challenging matter to be there spiritually. When the fellow says that he has come today to the Land, he is saying, in R. Shimon Sofer’s words, “With this bringing [of First Fruits] with happiness and a good heart, to rejoice before Hashem, to thank Him and bless Him for the desirable good, wide Land that He gave us, with this I announce that I have truly come to the Land.” When you can stop your busy life, and make your mind present, you can truly be somewhere. Your body can be locked up, far from the place that you want to be – but you cannot be held back. Nothing can stop your mind from going wherever it needs to. If you ever have to make the choice of being somewhere with either your body or your mind, choose the mind. That is who you really are.
When we celebrate the completion of learning a section of Torah, we recite the Hadran. The word hadran shares a root with the word mehadrin – it means to chase. “We will run after you (or return to you),” we say to the Torah we just learned, “and we will not forget you.” When you are chasing something, and your mind is preoccupied with it, you do not forget it, for it is where you really are. Chanukah was a time when the Greeks sought (as we say in al hanisim) lihashkicha torasecha, to make the Jews forget the Torah. They decreed that we not study it. Our response, to combat the danger of forgetting the Torah, is to chase after it. To do mitzvos with a thrill and excitement. We chase more and more after Torah and Jewish things, are passionate about what we are doing, loving every moment of our observance and really putting our minds and souls into what we are doing. Only then will we manage to fight the challenge of forgetting the Torah. For when you chase something, though your person is by definition at a distance, your mind is as close as it can be! The observance and passion and love for Torah that the mehadrin min hamehadrin Jew exhibits is just like his menorah, for it features another light every day. Far from the super mehadrin fellow being austere, grim, and worried, he is passionate, excited and can’t wait to light the next candle. Join the chase after Torah and mitzvos; it’s much too exciting to ignore!
Rabbi Elchanan Shoff is the Rabbi of Beis Knesses at Faircrest Heights in Los Angeles. He is known for his dynamic and engaging teaching style and many classes and programs. His shul, on the edge of the Pico Robertson area, has expanded the Jewish neighborhood’s borders, and provided a place for young families and singles to connect to one another and Hashem.
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