Rav Levi Yitzchak of Berdichev writes in Kedushas Levi that each year on Chanukah the strength of the original miracle of Chanukah is revealed and God showers His nation with salvation and redemption. The strength of the original miracle is a spiritual enlightenment which manifests in the physical world as salvation and redemption. The Sfas Emes explains that we can feel this spiritual enlightenment to the extent that we separate from the physical and attach to the spiritual.
How can we do this? Is there a technique we can use to connect to the spiritual? The Sfas Emes teaches us that there is. We can use the mitzvah to help us connect to that which is beyond the natural world. In fact, the Sfas Emes explains that this is the main characteristic of this mitzva and, in fact, of all mitzvos. So, to facilitate this attachment to the spiritual, Chazal gave us the mitzvah of lighting the Chanukah candles. Mitzvos are the tools that we use to turn mundane physical activities into spiritual endeavors. [A mitzvah is imbued with a spiritual aura. When a person performs a mitzvah, the spiritual aura of the mitzvah actually surrounds him. (see Nefesh HaChaim 1:12] Contemplating the spiritual enlightenment of the original miracle and its connection to the mitzvah of lighting the Chanukah candles helps us to attach to the enlightenment and to feel it.
The Chidushei HaRim continues this idea. He teaches that Chazal established the days of Chanukah as days of praise and thanks for the same reason. Praising God and thanking Him for the Chanukah salvation opens up the spiritual enlightenment of these days so that they affect us and enlighten us. The Chidushei HaRim teaches that this is the idea underlying the pasuk in Tehillim, “זֵכֶר עָשָׂה לְנִפְלְאוֹתָיו .../He made a remembrance for His wonders …” So that we may feel the spiritual enlightenment of the ancient miracles in our days, God turned them into mitzvos.
May we merit using all the mitzvos and the mitzva of lighting the Chanuka candles in particular as the tool they were meant to be, to help us come closer to God and receive His good.
Sfas Emes blog
