What Is Chanuka?

Chasidic Discourse, or “derashot” go deep into the inner meaning of the texts of the Bible and the Talmud. Below we find a prime example of Chassidic “drash” on the subject of Chanuka in the words of one of the recognized geniouses among the Chassidic Rebbes, Mordechai Yosef of Isbitsa. His explanations serve to reveal the messianic illuminations and their obsidian glow within in the well known laws of Chanuka and verses from the Psalms. Such “derashot” are focus-points for meditation which leads the open hearted into worlds of light they only dreamed of.

A Chassidic Discourse on the meaning of Chanuka by Rav Mordechai Yosef of Isbitza (1800-1854) Translated and Adapted by Betzalel Edwards


The Talmud asks, “What is Chanuka?” (Shabbat 21b) We find it written in the Psalms (119: 105), “Your word is a candle to my feet, and light for my path.” “A candle to my feet,” meaning that God illuminates into us the Torah in a way that we may know how, “His Kingship in all of His dominion,” (Tehillim, 103:19), and be aware of God’s dominion in each detail of action. “A light for my path,” means that God illuminates a special recognition also in a general way, for, “the kingdom is His.” We can understand the imagery of the candle and light a little better now, because a candle is a specific, even private illumination, and light is a general, all-inclusive illumination.

God created the world in general, and divided it into three categories - time, place, and person. We find the Psalms (139:16) saying, “He fashioned days, and it is in one of them.” (This is generally understood as meaning that when God created each of the six days of creation He knew everything, every detail, that would ever happen in that day for all time to come.) From this verse we can see how in these three categories, God the choicest element chose in particular through which to illuminate in a revealed way a specific light and the recognition of His sovereignty.

In the category of place we find concentric circles of sanctity. God created the world in general, where the land of Israel is sanctified above the whole earth (See Mishna Kelim, Ch. 1:6), Jerusalem sanctified above all the land of Israel, the five hundred square cubits of the temple mount sanctified above Jerusalem, and the courtyard and the chamber of the Holy Temple sanctified above them all. God commanded us to light the Menorah in the chamber of the Holy Temple in order to shine His light at the choicest level of sanctity of place.

In the category of time He created the six days of creation, in particular the day of Shabbat, and then we also find the commandment to kindle the light of Shabbat.

In the category of person He chose specifically the nation of Israel out of all the nations. For now, until the final refinement (birrur) in Israel, He chose the tribe of Levi, and among them the Cohanim, and among them the High Priest, and gave him in particular the commandment to light the Menorah. In the days of the Hasmoneans, the Holy One, blessed be He, shined into them with an illumination from the future, for at that time the Cohanim merited sovereignty (Malchut). In the same way, with the coming of Moshiach ben David, when the process of spirit refinement will be complete, it will become apparent that then the chosen tribe is Yehuda (the tribe of King David and the Messianic lineage). So then, when the Hasmonean (Cohanim, from the tribe of Levi, and not of the tribe of Yehuda) merited this sovereignty (Malchut), the light that recognizes the chosen status of each individual soul in Israel shined with great intensity. The miracle of the Menorah established an individual “candle” or illumination to mark the chosen status of each individual soul in Israel.

This is as King David said in the Psalms (87:6), “God will count, when He writes down the nations, and for Zion He will say each one born to her.” “Count, when He writes down the nations,” for with the nations, God’s Providence is only for the endurance of the species, like other parts of creation. “And for Zion He will say each one born to her,” is that for Israel the Providence of the Holy One, blessed be He, is for each individual soul, each individual one born to her. The verse continues, “and He will establish her at the highest,” means that for every one born to Israel, immediately upon birth, there is a recognition that the choicest soul has been born anew, and this is as it is said, “a candle for every one.”

This is hinted at in the difference of opinion between the house of Shammai and the house of Hillel about how to light the menorah. Shammai teaches us to start with all of the eight lights, and reduce one each night until on the eighth night we light only one. Hillel teaches us to light one candle on the first night and add a candle each night, so we end up with eight candles on the eighth night. We follow the practice of the house of Hillel. What they are really arguing about is how the final, “birrur,” the spiritual refinement necessary for the messianic age, will take place in Israel.

The house of Shammai asserts that we light all eight on the first night, and remove a candle each night, which represents the refinement as destroying the waste, decreasing and continuing until the Kedusha (holiness) remains, completely clarified. The house of Hillel asserts that we add and continue, adding a candle each night, for here the principle is to cause the Kedusha to spread forth at all times, and from this it follows that the waste will be nullified. This is also of the meaning of the Halacha for the time of lighting the candles, “from the setting of the sun until the foot – regel, in Hebrew- finishes from the market, (meaning at the time they would close the Market in ancient days, just after nightfall). Homiletically, or “on the inside” this is saying that (when we light the candles) no force of habit – “hergel,” in Hebrew - will be found in any soul in Israel. This is the mitsvah to light it in the doorway of the house from outside, meaning that the candle – this recognition discussed above – should shine a light so that every step we take is for the sake of Heaven.

There is another version of the time for candle lighting, based on the statement in the Talmud (Shabbat, 21b), “(You can light) until the wood-sellers will leave the market (who would stay after everyone else had left to gather leftover wood, meaning later into the evening).” This hints at the time when the final clarification in Israel will be complete. Concerning this it is explained in the Tractate Yevamot (17b), “they established six thousand archers (who went and raped the daughters of Jerusalem at the time of the destruction),” meaning that their seed was mixed into Israel. Such a mixture of external influences among Israel is the principle reason for the lengthening of the exile.

When this becomes clarified, then the will of God will be explicit before us, and this is, “from the setting of the sun,” for the sun hints at the principles of the words of Torah, and in the future these principles will not be necessary, (meaning you won’t need to look into the Torah or ask a Rabbi), but rather God will cause an effluence of explicit understanding to each one in Israel for each specific action. This is as it is said, “a Chanuka candle that is placed above ten cubits is invalid,” which is true for a sukkah and a “mavoy,” (an open street or alley, concerning its width in the laws of Eruvin, symbolic Shabbat boundaries). (So for the three general divisions of existence) the Chanuka candle represents person, sukkah represents place, and the mavoy (in the laws of Shabbat) represents time, for the choicest of times is Shabbat.