Tonight, beH we will light the candles of Hanukah. On the first night we make 3 blessings, and on rest of the holiday, we make two. One of the Berachot is להדליק נר חנוכה (Lehadlik Ner Hanuka ) to light the candle of Hanukah.
The Ben Ish Hai says, based on the Arizal, that when we light the Shabbat candles every week, we say להדליק נר של שבת -(lehadlik ner shel Shabbat) to light the candle of Shabbat. But on Hanukah we say, להדליק נר חנוכה
We don’t say “shel” -Why the change?
He explains that it’s because we want to invoke the rashei tevot (a word formed by using first letter of each word in the phrase)
taken from the words
להדליק- ל
נר- נ
חנוכה- ח
which, when rearranged, spell נחל NaHaL - which means river or stream.
When we light the candles of Hanukah, we open a stream of blessing that comes down from heaven. But this stream is contingent on the stream of Bitachon flowing up from us to Hashem.
We rely on G-d, and G-d showers us with blessing.
There are two sets of these Rashei Tevot that correspond with the word נחל (NaHaL) streams:
One, says the Ben Ish Hai, is נפשינו חכתה לה' (Nafshenu Hikita L’Hashem )
“Our souls are waiting for G-d’s salvation. “
The miracles of Hanukkah came about- both the war and the finding of the oil- when the Jewish people’s souls yearned and counted on G-d.
When our souls count on G-d, that is the flow of Bitachon that we send up towards G-d.
And G-d responds with another נחל (NaHaL) stream-
נצר חסד לאלפים (Noser Hesed La’alafim )
“G-d watches over the kindness for 2,000 generations” , which means G-d watches over the kindness of our forefathers, and He showers us with blessing because of them. We might not be worthy, but we too can open the stream of blessing, through the merits of our forefathers.
These are the two streams that we open when we light the candles of Hanukah:
1 -נפשינו חכתה לה׳ -If we yearn to G-d, then
2נוצר חסד לאלפים --G-d opens His wellspring of Hesed to us
This is what the Ben Ish Hai teaches.
Furthermore, many of us are familiar with the 13 attributes of Mercy of Hashem, which we many us say everyday, and that we all say many times on Yom Kippur.
These attributes are:
1-
-אל El G-d is a powerful G-d that brings us parnasa
2-
- רחום rahum He is Kind
3-
- וחנון V’hanun He is gracious even if we don’t deserve
4
- ארך Erech He is Long –
5-
- אפים Apayim -To get angry (plural)
6-
- רב חסד Rav Hesed G-d has a lot of kindness
7-
- אמת Emet – He is true
8-
- נצר חסד G-d remembers Kindness,
9-
לאלפים -for many generations
(The stream of נצר חסד לאלפים
is really the 8th and 9th attributes together )
Then comes 10-13
נשא עון, ופשע ,וחטאה ,ונקה
There are 8 days of Hanukah. Our rabbis tell us that each day of Hanukah arouses another attribute of G-d’s mercy.
The first day arouses the middah of El -power, then the second day is Rahum- kindness, and so on. The eighth day brings the 8th through the 13th attributes all together.
To show that we actually act this out, there are 13 “princes” of the Jewish people, and we read their korbanot throughout Hanukah.
One each for the 12 tribes, (Ephraim and Menashe are counted separately) and one for Levi, which is the 13th.
Each day of Hanukah, we read the korban of one of these princes. But on the 8th day, which is Zot Hanukkah, we read the eighth through thirteenth. We read these to arouse all these aforementioned attributes.
The point is, we don’t really appreciate what we are doing when we light the Hanukah candles, we have the potential to create our miracles, in our own lives
שעשה נסים לאבותינו בימים ההם , like Hashem did for our forefathers
בזמן הזה - In our times
But it all relies on נ.ח.ל -נפשינו חכתה לה-
Our souls waiting for G-d’s salvation.
In other words, we must rely on Hashem.
The more we rely; the more Hashem sends down his 13 attributes of mercy which comes through נוצר חסד לאלפים
(G-d remembers they kindness for many generations)
Have a wonderful day.