Why are the other nissim mentioned in the al hanisim and not the nes of the shemen?
ANSWER:
I'll tell you a little anecdote from the alter of Slabodka zichrono livrocho. It states in the Torah, zachor es hayom hazeh, asher yotsosem m'Mitzrayim... remember this day when you went out of Mitzrayim, b'chodesh ha'aviv... it was a spring day when you went out of Mitzrayim. So the alter said, Hakadosh Baruch Hu wanted to remind us that it was nice weather when we went out of Mitzrayim.
Our people were enslaved for so many years, for 210 years they couldn't leave Egypt, and they had been enslaved for so many years with backbreaking work, and finally the time comes to go out, and let's say it's a blizzard, they'd walk out singing in the blizzard. So are you going to stop and make note that it was a beautiful springtime too?
So the alter said no, even in a mountain of kindliness that somebody's giving you, you shouldn't overlook one grain of kindliness. And the fact that the geula took place on a beautiful spring day, you're walking out and you're singing Oz Yoshir, and it was beautiful all around! Nature was blooming! It was Nissan, that helped too; that's part of the enjoyment.
Therefore although the nes of Chanukah was nothing but the shemen, but it was a lot of fun beating the goyim, a lot of fun when a handful of men under Mattisyahu; Yehuda Hamacabi rushed forth with the sword and they hacked down an army that was far superior to them, and they left a field full of dead bodies, it was a lot of fun! Therefore we don't neglect that, we speak about that, but when we want to emphasize the nes we don't mix it, we don't mention the shemen, it's only a hint, v'hidliku neiros b'chatzros kodshecho, they kindled neiros too.
We don't want to speak about it at length, because it would lose its character, we defeated the enemy and we also had a nes of Chanuka – no no, it's belittling it. So the nes of Chanukah is played up by itself. Every night it's a ceremony by itself, and it's nothing but the nes of the oil.
In Shmonei Esrei we can afford to mention the other things too, but don't mix them, because you are making a mistake what Chanukah is about.
Good Shabbos To All
This is transcribed from questions that were posed to Harav Miller by the audience at the Thursday night lectures.
To listen to the audio of this Q & A please dial: 201-676-3210
The kuntru Tzitz Aharon from R Aharon Golvensitz zt'L of Bayit vegan beautifully answers this question by showing how the 15 or so phrases in Al Hanissim exactly correspond to a specific miracle at the Chanular time ear that are listed in Megilos Taanis.
Important Numbers
