Chanukah 5772: Thirty Six Points of Light

By Rabbi Neil Fleischmann

1. Underneath it all is the light of truth. Chanukah represents that hidden light. You look at the light of Chanukah and don’t immediately think miracle. But it’s there. Chanukah is about revealing the hidden light.

2. Over Chanukah we light a total of thirty-six lights (8+7+6+5+4+3+2+1=36). Thirty-six lights represent the hidden light of truth.

3. Adam was in Paradise, where he merited the ohr haganuz-- hidden light, for thirty-six hours (12 on Friday + 24 of Shabbos).

4. Adam lost his outer covering when he was expelled from Gad Eden. The finger and toe nails we have are the remnant of that original covering. We look at the light and reflect it off our fingertips on Motzai Shabbos-Saturday night, the time when that light was lost.

5. We light one more candle each night of Chanukah representing the fact that our life purpose is to ever increase holiness and light in this world.

6. At havdallah we look at our nails, first, with our hands outstretched and then with our fingers curled towards us. First we see them all stretched out, in different sizes. Then we bring them close, look close, and see them evenly. At first things seem out of sorts but everything is more evenly balanced when you look again.

7. There are 36 hidden tzadikim-righteous people in this world.

8. The month in which Chanukah begins, Kisleiv, can be punctuated to read kas/lamedvav – the hidden 36.

9. There is always a celebration of Rosh Chodesh during Chanukah. It is a time of light and renewal.

10. On Rosh Chodesh the first sliver of the light of the moon reappears, after it seemed to have disappeared forever into the darkness.

11. We humans are like the moon; we fade and come back.

12. The first mitzvah presented to the Jewish People as a whole was the new moon, which serves as a metaphor of our historical destiny – to wane and flourish.

13. We specifically light the menorah at night, representing the light coming out of the darkness.

14. If lit in the doorway, the menorah is placed on the left side, representing the weaker side of us and the light that still shines and emanates from our souls.

15. “There is a light in the darkness of everybody’s life.” (pop culture song of the seventies, yearbook quote of my dear, late, friend – Scott Gordon)

16. Chanukah was established “lehodot u’lehalel”-to thank and praise. We sing G-d’s praise for salvation, but also thank Him for the dark times, without which the happy ending wouldn’t have been possible.

17. Dovid HaMelech – King David wrote that we speak of G-d’s kindness in the morning, when we see it and his faith in the night, when He believes in us, and we in Him, despite the darkness.

18. The day is the redemption and the night is the exile, which - we believe – is an intrinsic part of the redemption.

19. Via one reading, Dovid HaMelech’s words, “lehagid baboker chasdechah, ve’emunatchah baleilot” means, “to speak of your kindness in the morning and your faith in the night.”

20. G-d has faith in us in the night, is with us in our pain. During a time of assimilation and lost he saw out light still flickering and fanned the flame of salvation.

21. In the beginning of time, Adam saw the days getting shorter and thought that this was the death that was his punishment for disobeying G-d and that the world was reverting to darkness.

22. When Adam saw the days begin to get longer he set up an eight day holiday celebrating the way that G-d made the world; before the diminishing light disappears, the remaining spark grows and the days are again filled with light.

23. Al HaNissim speaks of the war victory. The Gemora defines Chanukah by describing the miracle of the oil.

24. The Maharal explains that the people didn’t see the three year war as miraculous. The miracle of the oil clearly was miraculous and reflected back on all that came before it as miraculous as well.

25. Dovid HaMelech writes “Aromimchah Hashem ki delitani - I will praise you G-d for you have lifted me up.” The word “delitani means to make like a deli - bucket which is lowered into the well empty to disappear. So too with us; we’re thankful for the entire process.

26. Mashiach was born on Tisha B’Av.

27. History is divided into three sections. I. Creation II. Torah III. Redemption. The period of redemption begins with the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash.

28. We live after the time of open miracles and prophecy. Yet, if we look we can see miracles every day.

29.  The point of the big miracles, like the exodus from Egypt, is to remind us that everyday is a miracle.

30. Pure oil was found for one day. It lasted for eight. One approach to why we celebrate all eight days is that the oil was divided into eight parts and miraculously lasted the full day on each of the eight days.

31. Rav Dovid Feinstein suggests that the oil lasted naturally for one day and then miraculously for seven more. We celebrate the first day as a reminder that the fact that oil burns at all is a miracle.

32. The only difference between nature and miracle is how often they happen.

33. Rabi Chanina ben Dosa’s daughter set out vinegar instead of oil for Shabbos candles. Rabi Chanina said, “He who said that oil will burn will say that vinegar should burn.” He mentioned G-d’s saying that oil should burn as a reminder that oil burning is a miracle.

34. The mitzvah of Chanukah relates to the miracle of the oil, not the military victory. The war we won was only a means to freedom to practice the faith of our fathers, rededicate the Temple, and re-light the menorah.

35. When the Macabees found oil for one day, they used it all for that day, leaving the future to G-d, and they merited a Divine miracle. They lived with faith, as we should strive to do, one day at a time.

36. G-d “separates between holy and profane, light and dark, Israel and the nations.” There can be light or darkness, but not a mixture of the two. One must prevail.