What should I think about as I light the Menorah?
Think thoughts of emunah, specifically that Hashem is not just ‘out there’, He is really here in this world, and absolutely everything is fully connected to Him. On Chanukah, Hashem made amazing miracles which showed us this truth very clearly!
When you stand with the shamash in your hand, and you say the brocha of Lihadlik Ner, think to yourself, “I am lighting up the world with a candle of emunah, and I am lighting up my neshama with a candle of emunah! I really desire that from now on, my emunah shouldn’t just be something I ‘know about’ but rather it should be fully alive and on fire in my neshama!! Then, when you lower your hand towards the wick, think to yourself that you are bringing this light down into this world, into your heart. Ignite your heart with the fire of emunah, that Hashem alone is the Oso v’Oiseh v’Yaaseh l’chol hamasim (Made, Makes, and will Make everything). This will also bring you to a deep satisfaction from everything that happens to you, because you have an utmost clarity that Hashem is the One Who does everything!
What should I be doing after candle lighting?
When going to a wedding, there are some people who run in to say a quick mazel tov, and then there are the close friends or relatives who spend a lot of time at the wedding. They want to truly experience the joy that their friend or relative is getting married! The same is with the Chanukah licht. We should try spending as much time as possible experiencing our newfound emunah, and taking it in. It is preferable to try and sit by the candles for a half an hour, but the main thing though is not how much time you sit there, but how much heart you put into it.
As long as the candles are burning, they generate ohr and instill Hashem into us. The candles are a generator of dveykus! It is a very auspicious time that carries the power to wake up feelings of emunah in a very real way. Try staring at the candles and thinking about this, and then beseech Hashem to light up your heart with emunah. Use this quality time to sing to Hashem with your family and talk to them about emunah.
Remember, the candle in this world is a merkavah for the ultimate light, the Shechinah! When you are looking at the candle you are connecting with the Shechinah!
Could the rebbe give some more practical guidance of what to think about when sitting at the candles?
There were two main parts to the miracle of Chanukah: One was the miracle of the jug of oil that burnt for eight days, and the second was the victory of the chashmonaim in their war with the Greeks. These are two things we can try thinking about.
The Jews at the times of the Chanukah miracle all had the status of ‘Tamei’ (impure). According to Halacha, if everyone is tamei they would in fact be able to light oil that is tamei as well. This means the entire search for a pure jug of oil was just based on their desire to go above and beyond and use pure oil anyway! By making a miracle even though it wasn’t strictly ‘necessary,’ Hashem showed us how much He values every desire for good that we have, even a small step towards purity! Think about this, and talk to your family about this.
The second thought we can have is about the victory of the war, how the kedusha won over the klippah, even though the klippah looked so mighty and big! Like we say מסרת גבורים ביד חלשים, ורבים ביד מעטים. Sometimes we may feel pulled towards Western culture and think to ourselves, “Look how great this looks, let’s try this too! Everyone is doing this and it really looks wonderful!”
When these thoughts come to mind, remember the Chanukah miracle, how Hashem took the mighty Greek empire, that looked so enticing and sophisticated, and totally crumbled it. The mighty Greek emperor died like an animal, and the small primitive Klal Yisroel prevailed!
We have been lighting these candles for more than two thousand years, and we’ll continue to exist and light these candles for all of eternity. As Chazal teach us, after Mashiach will come, (soon and quickly!), all of the Yomim Tovim will be annulled except for Chanukah and Purim. Try to think about how empty the klippos are, even if they look beautiful, and in contrast, how truly beautiful and infinite Yiddishkeit is, even if it doesn’t always look that way!
Chinuch is the first priority!! Lighting the Menorah has to be a real experience for our children, and it is very important that every child feel connected in their own level and age. This is an experience that is seeped into their bones.
Think creatively about how to make every child be part of it. Maybe let them help you prepare the candles. If your minhag is that every child lights his own Menorah, listen to his brachos, watch carefully how he lights, and compliment him on doing a great job.
Once you do this, kids will often allow you a few minutes to light your own menorah with proper focus. You may also try to sing a slow song of dveykus while you are making a bracha and lighting, and your kids can sing along and be part of your lighting as well.
Afterwards, sit down with them, talk to them, sing with them and eat with them. If you actually prepare yourself with stories of emunah, or divrei Torah that your wife and children can relate to, they will usually be interested in listening.
Maybe you can tell the little ones to go play after a few minutes, and stay with the bigger children. Each person should think about what works best for his own family. Such an experience gets sapped up in our children’s neshamos! Even if by mistake your child knocks down the menorah, do not shout at him; try to keep a happy demeanor the whole time! This teaches them what the Chanukah licht really are, an experience of emunah!
Later on, once the kids are asleep, take time for yourself, sit by the candles and think about the things we spoke about earlier, and talk to Hashem. It is preferable to put in a lot of oil so that the candles should still be burning, but even if they aren’t burning anymore, your neshama is definitely still burning!
First of all, we have to know that if Hashem gave us eight days, this means we need eight days to absorb the ohr. There are no ‘extra’ days, so it is important that we do what we can to connect to them all.
If one feels a feeling of distance and katnus (lit. smallness; a feeling of spiritual disconnect), it is fine, this is part of the way Hashem is giving you the ohr. Every ohr has different ways it manifests itself, and one of these ways is through katnus.
The goal during katnus is to bring yourself to a feeling of connecting to Hashem even though you don’t feel anything. This shows that your relationship with Hashem is not dependent on anything — including feeling ohr and feeling connected (ahavah sheina tloyah bdavar).
When you don’t feel anything, come with clarity and the conviction that there is definitely meaning here even if you don’t feel it, in a way this can give you even a deeper connection than than when you do feel it.
In such a situation, remind yourself: Even though I don’t feel anything as I light the Menorah, I trust that I am filling up my pockets with emunah for the whole year!
It is a good idea though to try and prepare yourself for the mitzvah, not just to “fall into it.” Each person should prepare in whatever way talks to his neshama. Some find it meaningful to go to the mikvah before candle lighting, or at least to wash his hands. Some like wearing Shabbos clothes or other special clothes, these things can actually wake up your nefesh and fill it back up with ohr.
What is special about the last day of Chanukah, Zos Chanukah, and what does it mean that there is chasimah (final sealing of judgement for the year) on this day?
In the writings of the Arizal we find that every day of Chanukah corresponds to a different middah of the thirteen middos harachamim, and the eight day corresponds to all of the last six middos together.
What this means in a very simple way is that after working on bringing down our emunah into our lives, throughout the last seven days, as we described above, we are now on a higher level. We now see the world through a new lens of emunah. Up until now we were bringing Hashem’s light into our world, finding Him even in places that look like they are empty of His presence, but now we get to enter a new domain, where all we see is Hashem, and this world is just a small part of His infinite presence.
Even if it looks like there are lots of things going on around us, we now can feel that these are all just different ways how Hashem is revealing himself, but really there is one thing only, Ein Od Milvado! The whole menorah is alit! There is no place that is not saturated with Hashem’s light! Even if sometimes you may not see this very clearly, when mashiach comes you will see that everything was like one long, beautiful niggun, where the low parts and the high parts all make the song so meaningful!
We get this clarity automatically after we have done our part during the last seven days. Just like when you make a new acquaintance, at first you find some things in common, you do each other favors, and slowly you develop the relationship. After some time, your relationship becomes a lot deeper than doing each other favors; it develops into a deep and real connection. It is similar in our relationship with Hashem — we do the work to slowly develop our relationship more and more as we bring Him into more areas of our life, until we all of a sudden find ourselves fully living with Hashem, and seeing only Him!
This is why Zos Chanukah is a day of chasimah. A chasimah of din (judgement) does not just mean it is a judgement that will determine what will happen to us during the coming year. Din means how much I will be able to live with Hashem, and how real will Hashem be in my daily life.
On the chasimah of Zos Chanukah, we ‘sign in’ to live with Hashem in the most real way! In everything we see only Him! This gives us the strength to dive into the frost of the winter, the long and dark nights, and see Hashem is there too. This gives us the ability to battle all the klippos. (This is why right after Chanukah is the non-Jewish holiday, cause now we have the strength to battle even the most impure klippah.)
This is why Chanukah will keep going even after Mashiach comes, because this is the ohr of Mashiach, to see only Hashem, Ein Od Milvado, efes zulaso!!
This article was found in Nekuda Tova Issue 62 Chanukah.