The Strength in Our Spiritual Genes

I’M often amazed by my ability to remember shiurim — albeit not many — from forty years ago with absolute clarity (even as I struggle to recall the shakla v’tarya of yesterday’s Gemara). And in my case, many of those shiurim center on Chanukah: learning Rav Hutner’s maamar 9 in Pachad Yitzchak on Chanukah with Rav Yaakov Shatz; a shiur on Chanah and her seven sons given by Rav Mendel Weinbach ztz”l.

Rav Mendel began by retelling the story of Chanah and her seven sons found, with some variations, in II Maccabees, Chapter 7, and the Gemara (Gittin 57b). The sons were brought before the Seleucid emperor Antiochus and threatened with cruel torture if they did not bow to an idol (in the version in Gittin). Each refused to comply, even after watching the hideous tortures endured by his brother(s) before him — their tongues extracted, skin flayed, and limbs cut off.

In the end, only Chanah’s seventh son, a mere boy, was left. He too mocked the emperor to his face and proclaimed his faith in Hashem. In one final attempt to save face, Antiochus offered him an opportunity to escape: Antiochus would place down his signet ring and the boy would pick it up, creating the mere appearance that he had bowed to an idol (according to the version of the Gemara). But again, the boy refused.

Before the boy was taken away to be tortured and executed, Chanah told him something to the effect, “When you get to Heaven, tell Father Avraham, ‘You built one altar for your son [Yitzchak], and, in the end, you did not sacrifice him. I built seven altars and sacrificed seven sons.’ ”