Yesterday we explained from the Maharal that the miracle of the candles, which was a miracle that allowed the Jewish people to light the Menorah and fulfill the Mitzvah in the Bet HaMikdash seven days earlier, was not life-saving.
Accordingly, it is not the reason that we celebrate Hanukah, because it was not a life-saving miracle that had any impact on us today.
As we said yesterday, the main miracle of Hanukah was the miracle of the war.
But Rav Aharon Kotler, in his sefer Mishnayot Rabi Aharon vol 3, is bothered by this, and asks the following question:
If that is so, that the miracle is about the war, then why do we say Al Hanisim for eight days?
The Gemara says that we say Al Hanisim for eight days because the miracle happened for eight days (Rashi explains that the miracle of the Menorah happened for eight days- we will save for a later class the famous question of the Bet Yosef, of why we celebrate the miracle for 8 days when in reality, if they had enough oil for one day, the miracle that the oil lasted was technically for 7 days).
Regardless, the Gemara says that the miracle of the candles occurred for eight days, and that’s why we say Al Hanisim.
But Rav Aharon Kotler points out that if we are saying Al Hanisim because of the miracle of winning the war, that didn’t last for eight days.
So we go back to our question: It is correct that in Al Hanisim we mention the war, and it is true that it’s the miracle to focus on, and Al Hanisim does not talk about the miracle of the candles, but rather just that we got into the Bet HaMikdash and lit the candles in purity.
But when it comes to lighting the Menorah, we do light it for eight days, and we do say Al Hanisim for eight days.
So what miracle we are saying Al Hanisim for when we light the candles, if the miracle of the oil wasn’t life-saving?
His answer is based on the famous Ramban, which says that God told Aharon HaKohen when it came to starting the Mishkan that the Menorah would once again be established, in the time of the Hashmonaim, a time when the Jewish people would be spiritually annihilated by the Greeks.
So, say Rav Kotler, the miracle of the lighting of the menorah is not just about the mitzvah of lighting. It’s the symbolism. The Menorah symbolizes Torah, the continuation of the Torah and the Jewish people.
The concept of the pach shemen tahor/ vessel of pure oil symbolizes purity in religion, and that even if just a small amount of people are keeping the religion properly, God will make a miracle to let them spread and overtake the Jewish people. That is what Rav Aharon Kotler says.
He was the Rabbi that started the Lakewood Yeshiva in the 1940s with about 40 to 50 people learning there in a small house. People thought that he was crazy to come to America and try and bring full-time learning, without any extra outside influences, without any plans of career. It was just learning for the sake of learning, which we call Kollel. But he was going with the approach that God told us to put a Pach Shemen Tahor/ a jug of pure oil, and it would spread. We have witnessed this in communities all over the world. It starts with a small group of people doing things properly, and it ends up spreading, and spreading, and spreading. Therefore, says Rav Aharon Kotler, the miracle of the Menorah was in fact a generational-impacting miracle, which does impact us to this very day.
It was life-saving, community- saving and world-Jewry saving, and it occurs again and again.
So when we light the candles, says Rav Aharon Kotler, there is something else to think about: Yes, we should think about the war, and when we say Al Hanisim in the Amida, which was about the war with many in the hands of the few, and the strong in the hands of the weak etc.
But when we light the candles, besides for the candles of course being an indicator of the miracle of the war, the candles have their own symbolism of a different miracle: The miracle of the continuation of the Jewish people throughout the generations, through situations of challenge, situations of inquisition, anti-religious movements and other forces that are against the Jewish identity.
We need the pach shemen tahor/ pure vessel of oil, which symbolizes a group of people learning Torah properly, in the purest of states, that will spread and spread and spread, and reignite the Jewish people. These are, in the words of Rav Aharon Kotler, the miracles of the candles.
So we have two approaches, both of which are true.
One is the miracle of the war, which was identified through the candles.
The second is the miracle of the candles standing on their own. These are two beautiful approaches in what we are supposed to be thinking about when we consider the miracles of Hanukah.