Intro to Halachah/RAB 507 - Class XI Hanukkah Candles vs. Shabbat Candles through the prism of Rabbi David Hartman z"l

(1)

In [the era of] the Second Temple, the Greek kingdom issued decrees against the Jewish people, [attempting to] nullify their faith and refusing to allow them to observe the Torah and its commandments. They extended their hands against their property and their daughters; they entered the Sanctuary, wrought havoc within, and made the sacraments impure.

The Jews suffered great difficulties from them, for they oppressed them greatly until the God of our ancestors had mercy upon them, delivered them from their hand, and saved them. The sons of the Hasmoneans, the High Priests, overcame [them], slew them, and saved the Jews from their hand.

They appointed a king from the priests, and sovereignty returned to Israel for more than 200 years, until the destruction of the Second Temple.

(2)

When the Jews overcame their enemies and destroyed them, they entered the Sanctuary; this was on the twenty-fifth of Kislev. They could not find any pure oil in the Sanctuary, with the exception of a single cruse. It contained enough oil to burn for merely one day. They lit the arrangement of candles from it for eight days until they could crush olives and produce pure oil.

(7)

It is a mitzvah to place the Chanukah lamp at the outside of the entrance to one's home, within the handbreadth that is closest to the doorway on the left side as one enters the home, so that the mezuzah will be on the right side and the Chanukah lamp on the left side.

When a person lives in a second storey apartment, he should place [the Chanukah lamp] in a window close to the public domain. If [a person] places a Chanukah lamp more than twenty cubits [above the ground], his actions are of no consequence, because [the lamp] does not attract attention [at that height]

(8)

In a time of danger, a person may place a Chanukah lamp inside his house; even if he lit it on his table, it is sufficient.

[Therefore,] another lamp must be burning in the house to provide light for one's [mundane] activities. If a fire is burning in the house, an additional candle is not necessary. For a prestigious person who does not normally use the light of a fire, an additional candle is required.

(12) The mitzvah of the Hanukkah candle is an extremely dear one. And one must be careful with it, to publicize the miracle and to increase the praise of God and the thanks to him for the miracles he has done for us. Even if one does not have anything to eat except from charity, he borrows, or he sells his clothes and gets oil and candles and lights.

(13) Therefore, if one has only a limited amount of money, and the mitzvot available to him are either kiddush of Shabbat or lighting the Hanukkah candles, preference should be given to buying oil for lighting the Hanukkah candles over buying wine for kiddush, since both are mitzvot instituted by the Sages. One gives preference to Hanukkah candles, as they have an additional component of recalling the miracle.

(14) 14 Someone had a light for his house or light for chanuka, or a light for his house or for the sanctification of the day; the light for the house come first for the sake of peace in the home. For surely God is erased in order to make peace between a husband and wife. Great is the peace for all of the Torah was given in order to make peace in the world as it says; her ways are the ways of pleasantness and all her paths are that of peace.

Rabbi Zevedeh, son-in-law of Rabbi Levi would tell the following story.

Rabbi Meir would teach a lesson in the synagogue of Hammata every Shabbat night. There was a woman who would come regularly to hear him.

One time the lesson lasted longer than usual.

She went home and found out that the light had gone out. Her husband said to her, "Where have you been?"

She replied to him, "I was listening to the lesson."

He said to her,

"May God do such and and such and even more, if this woman enters my house before she goes and spits in the face of that sage who gave the lesson!"

Rabbi Meir perceived through Ruach HaKodesh and pretended to have a pain in his eye

He said, "Any woman who knows how to recite a charm over an eye, let her come and heal mine."

The woman's neighbors said to her, "Your time to got home has come. Pretend to be a charmer, and go spit in the eye of Rabbi Meir."

She came to him. He said to her, "Do you know how to heal a sore eye through making a charm?"

She became frightened and said to him, "No."

He said to her, "Do they not spit into it seven time, and it is good for it?"

Ater she had spit in his eye, he said to her," Go and tell your husband that you spit in my eye one time."

She said to him, "But I spit seven times."

Rabbi Meir's disciples said to him, "Rabbi, in such a way do they disgrace the Torah? If you had told us about the incident with the husband, would we not have brought him and flogged him until he was reconciled with his wife?"

He said to them, "And should the honor owing to Meir be on par with the honor owing to Meir's creator?"

Now if the Holy Name, which is written in a state of sanctify, we are told by the Torah that it is to be blotted out in water to bring peace between a man and his wife, then certainly the honor owing to Meir may be dealt with similarly!"