Thanks

Chazal give the following mashal: There was a blind man who was led on the way by a man who could see. When they arrived home the seeing man asked the blind man to light a candle for him. The blind man asked "The whole way you led me, whay do you need ME to light a candle for YOU?" The seeing man replied "I want you to light a candle on my behalf so that you don't feel indebted to me".

That is the menorah. When we traveled Hashem led us with his fire. He told us to light the menorah "on his behalf" in the mishkan so that we don't feel indebted to him.

What a HUGE lesson. Sometimes you do a favor for someone and he wants to repay you in some way. The greatest chesed you can do is ACCEPT the favor so that the person doesn't feel indebted to you. By REFUSING to accept you leave the person with that horrible feeling of OWING.

We also see that the menorah [and the menorah of chanuka which is modeled after the original menorah in the mishkan] is about expressing gratitude to Hashem and lighting candles to light the way for Him.

Based on the foregoing, Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz said that on chanuka we must talk about gratitude. Indeed the gemara calls these days days of hoda'a.