This coming Wednesday night we begin the 8-day celebration of Chanukah. The word Chanukah being a contraction of 2 Hebrew words, חנו which means “they rested” and “כה” corresponding to the number 25, referring to the 25th day of the Hebrew month, Kislev. On this day, in the year 164 BCE, the ragtag Jewish military rested from battle having just recaptured the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. Cohanim entered the Temple area and found one jar of unadulterated oil. With it they lit the Menorah, the sacred candelabra in the Temple. Miraculously the one day’s oil supply lasted for 8 days, the amount of time it took to manufacture additional oil.

The miracle of the oil was testimony to the sages of that time that the military recapture and restoration of the Holy Temple was also a miracle. The following year, those 8 days were designated by the Sanhedrin, Judaism’s supreme court, as days of Hallel, giving praise and thanks to God, in order “to advertise” these miracles. However, it was another 2 hundred years until the rabbis added the mitzvah of lighting Chanukah candles on these nights as well.

Once the 2nd Temple was destroyed and thus the Temple’s menorah was no longer being lit, the rabbis extended the original designation of these days as days of Hallel to now include lighting candles as an additional vehicle forgiving give praise and thanks to God and to advertise the miracles of the military victory and oil. Lighting candles isn’t a separate mitzvah but rather an extension to the already established purpose of these days.

We can understand how saying Hallel expresses our praise and thanks, our gratitude to God. But how does lighting candles accomplish this requirement? Furthermore, what exactly are we advertising through our lighting? We will come back to that question.

As is true for every mitzvah, there is a precise legal structure to the lighting of the Chanukah candles. While not difficult to comply with, as with all mitzvot, understanding the particular laws brings to mind important concepts behind the mitzvah’s performance. To properly comply with the rules for lighting Chanukah candles, we must take care that there is another light on in the room while the Chanukah candles are glowing. Hence the “Shamash” candle on the menorah minimally satisfies this requirement.

A second law, more peculiar than the first, is that if someone sees or observes Chanukah candles, he or she must recite the blessing, “… who did miracles for our forefathers in those days at this time” (some say, “and in this time,” to include the current year. This is the blessing’s version according to Maimonides). Why would there be a law concerning those who see or observe the Chanukah lights? There is no blessing when, for example, we see a shofar, succah, or matzah. However, if the purpose of lighting Chanukah candles is to give praise and
thanks and to advertise the miracle, that purpose implies another person is necessary to complete the mitzvah. That is, one who sees the lights, the recipient of the advertisement.

However, I think these 2 independent laws, that the candles when lit require another light in the room, and that the one who sees the candles recites a blessing related to each other. What is their connection?

Light has 2 functions. One is for utility, for use. For example, the Shabbat lights and Yom Tov, holiday lights should be many, large and bright. You are supposed to use them for eating, reading, moving around in the home, and not to be in the dark. The rabbis created the Shabbat and Yom Tov lights precisely to bring enjoyment to the nighttime of Shabbat or holiday. However, Chanukah candles are halachically structured very differently. They are designated for the advertisement of miracles. Using them in any mundane way would be to break their designation, destroy their purpose. Using them for light to see things, to eat, to read, to light a cigar is not only prohibited but destroys, uproots their designation as Chanukah lights. This explains the law that you must have another light on in the room for as long as your Chanukah candles are lit.

Now what about the observer, the one who sees the candles? What are we advertising? What do we want the observer to really see, understand, and express?

The Chanukah candles are lit, of course, to advertise the miracle of the oil. But there is something more sublime in their lighting as well. In the daytime, the sun provides light for us to go about our day. Sunlight represents full, complete comprehension, as the expression goes, “the idea is as bright or as clear as day.” We live in the Sunshine State, not used as often when I lived in Seattle. At nighttime, the stars do not provide useful light, but they twinkle and draw our attention and curiosity. There is a mystery to them, and we think about the vastness of the universe. Modern science has proven that the light we see at night left those stars billions of light years ago. The stars are receding as the universe is expanding! Their light and background radiation, discovered in 1964 by Penzias and Wilson, verified that this immense universe had a beginning and hence a Creator with a purposeful creation.

When we look skyward at night it may lead us to express or exclaim our awe of the heavens and its Creator. We know very little about the Creator’s purpose, only what has been revealed to us in His Torah and by the prophets. The Torah makes clear that the same Creator of the universe, created a particular people, the Jewish people. He gave them a way of life to live by. He wants these people to exist forever, come hell or highwater.

Just like the majesty and awesomeness of the Creator lies behind the distant stars, so too behind that small Chanuka flame lies the sometimes obscure yet revealed idea of the Creator’s Providence. It ensures the existence of עם ישראל, the Jewish people. That is the message we want every observer, Jew and non-Jew, to see, understand and recognize. This Divine Providence to the Jewish people is eternal. It was true before the Maccabees; it is true for us today and it will be true for us tomorrow. As it says in Psalms “the Guardian of Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps. Hashem is your guardian” This is the sublimed message behind the Chanuka candles. The Second Book of Maccabees, chapter 7 verse, 16, exhorts us, “Do not believe that our people are abandoned by God.” Even for one moment!

Shabbat Shalom and Chanuka Sameach,

Rabbi Robert Kaplan
Rabbinic Dean, Posnack Jewish Day School