Rabbi Shimon said: “Woe to the person who says that the Torah comes to give instructions and tell descriptive stories and simple tales. … Every word in the Torah reflects higher wisdom and higher secrets… The narratives of the Torah are only the outer clothing of the Torah. Whoever thinks that this outer clothing is, in fact, the Torah and there is nothing underneath the clothing is spiritually backward and has no portion in the World to Come…
ת"ר לפי שראה אדם הראשון יום שמתמעט והולך אמר אוי לי שמא בשביל שסרחתי עולם חשוך בעדי וחוזר לתוהו ובוהו וזו היא מיתה שנקנסה עלי מן השמים עמד וישב ח' ימים בתענית [ובתפלה] כיון שראה תקופת טבת וראה יום שמאריך והולך אמר מנהגו של עולם הוא הלך ועשה שמונה ימים טובים לשנה האחרת עשאן לאלו ולאלו ימים טובים הוא קבעם לשם שמים והם קבעום לשם עבודת כוכבים
Our Rabbis taught: When Adam saw the day getting gradually shorter, he said, ‘Woe is me, perhaps because I have sinned, the world around me is being darkened and returning to its state of chaos and confusion; this then is the kind of death to which I have been sentenced from Heaven!’ So he began keeping an eight days’ fast. But as he observed the winter solstice and noted the day getting increasingly longer, he said, ‘This is the world’s course’, and he set forth to keep an eight days’ festivity. In the following year he appointed both as festivals.
YKVK has given us the commandment to light the Hanukkah candles. As the season for each of the mitsvot comes along, the very power that was present in that onetime event is reawakened....
מאי חנוכה דתנו רבנן בכ"ה בכסליו יומי דחנוכה תמניא אינון דלא למספד בהון ודלא להתענות בהון שכשנכנסו יוונים להיכל טמאו כל השמנים שבהיכל וכשגברה מלכות בית חשמונאי ונצחום בדקו ולא מצאו אלא פך אחד של שמן שהיה מונח בחותמו של כהן גדול ולא היה בו אלא להדליק יום אחד נעשה בו נס והדליקו ממנו שמונה ימים לשנה אחרת קבעום ועשאום ימים טובים בהלל והודאה
What is Chanukkah, that our Sages taught: On the 25th of Kislev - the days of Chanukkah, they are eight, not to eulogize on them and not to fast on them? When the Greeks entered the Temple, they polluted all the oils in the Temple, and when the Hasmonean dynasty overcame and defeated them, they checked and they found but one cruse of oil that was set in place with the seal of the High Priest, but there was in it only [enough] to light a single day. A miracle was done with it, and they lit from it for eight days. The following year [the Sages] fixed those [days], making them holidays for praise and thanksgiving.
“Especially at this season, when lights were miraculously lit for Israel even though they did not have enough oil, there remains light even now to help us, with the aid of these Hanukkah candles, to find that hidden light within.” The Hanukkah candles are a spiritual symbol; the light of the commandments by which we search out our inner selves. We seek out the hidden divine light within ourselves; the mitzvot are light-seeking candles, instruments given to us to aid us in that search.
מאמר ד״ה ת״ר נר חנוכה
A mezuzah is placed on the right side of the entranceway; Hanukkah candles are kindled on the left. This distinction is rooted in the difference between Torah and mitsvot. While both bring about the upper unity, one does so from above, the higher entity reaching downward, while the other moves in the opposite direction, the receiver rising up from below toward the Source of blessing’s flow....This is the root distinction between Torah and mitsvot. Torah represents the drawing forth of light from the Endless, reaching far downward from above. “Y-H-W-H descended upon Mount Sinai.... And God spoke ...” (Ex. 19:20–20:1). That is why Torah is composed of halakhot (lit. “walkings”), based on “He walks in cosmic ways” (Hab. 3:6) and “walking toward me, my holy King” (Ps. 68:25). This is the light’s journey downward from the very Endless, through the wisdom (hokhmah) contained in Torah, as is known. Mitsvot are rooted in the act of walking upward from below. The essence of the commandments, 365 negative and 248 positive, is the raising up of lower waters, transforming darkness into light. This is the meaning of “the commandment (mitzvah) is a candle and Torah is light” Ki ner mitzvah v'Torah ohr..." (Prov. 6:23).
Torah is called light because it represents the divine flow from above. The mitsvah is a candle, a vessel to contain that light....Through the physical act of fulfilling the commandment, the corporeal comes to be included within the spiritual, raising it up to the highest rung. This is the case with the wool of tsitsit or the leather used in tefillin. It applies also to the sacrifices, where the physical animal is drawn into the spiritual realm, rising from world to world up to the highest Root, the Source of emanation. That is why they are called “a sweet-smelling savor unto Y-H-W-H” (Lev. 1:17). In such acts as tsitsit and tefillin we rise up to the Source of the divine will that is cloaked in those commandments. This is the meaning of the blessing formula “... who has made us holy through His commandments.” It is through this ascent that the light of Torah is drawn forth from the Emanator. This is manifest as the revelation of spiritual Torah light in each of the mitsvot....This divine light shines forth even into this world of separate beings, transforming darkness into light. “Even darkness is not dark before You” (Ps. 139:12). This is why we have Hanukkah lights, the word Hanukkah meaning “dwell in ‘thus.’” “Thus” (koh) refers to malkhut, which is given extra light so that she may light up those external realms known as “darkness.” “For You light my candle; Y-H-W-H my God brightens my darkness” (Ps. 18:29).This is the opposite of that “guarding” [of the entranceway] offered by the mezuzah, keeping the external (or “demonic”) forces from entering or seeing the light. The Hanukkah candles offer such an abundance of light that those forces are obliterated, “as wax melts before fire” (Ps. 68:3). That is due to the intensity with which divinity is revealed, so much so that darkness itself can no longer be dark. Unlike the case of a guard standing outside a closed door, here he gets up and opens that doorway. But the dark forces flee in awe before the power of revelation. This is a higher form of guarding, the protection offered by the light that lights up darkness itself, no longer requiring a closed door.That is why the Hanukkah lights are on the left side of the doorway, while mezuzah is on the right. The mezuzah represents the commandment whose light will rise up to keter, the highest place. But it can bring forth with it only the light surrounding divine hesed [the right side] that has already been revealed but is waiting to be coaxed forth from below. It does not have the power to light up the darkness. But the light of Torah comes from the place where light is most hidden. Torah represents the primal atmosphere, that of which Scripture says: “He sets His secret in darkness” (Ps. 18:12) and “Revealing the depths from within darkness” (Job 12:22). When this light of Torah shines forth from within the darkest hidden recesses of divinity, brought about by the rising up of the mitsvot, a new and more exalted light begins to shine....Therefore they taught that the Hanukkah lights are to be placed on the left, the side of gevurah (“power”), so that they break through the darkness above. Great power is required for this; “Y-H-W-H lights up my darkness” (2 Sam. 22:29). But this cannot take place unless the mezuzah is on the right side. Without it, the Hanukkah candles on the left would not be effective. “The commandment is a candle” is what allows for the increase of hidden light, manifest in the light of Torah.
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From Speaking Torah:
The complementary nature of these two types of sacred activity, Torah study and fulfillment of commandments, is a key theme in the teachings of R. Shne’ur Zalman and throughout HaBaD thought. Most powerful here is the notion that wisdom’s light, manifest in Torah, comes from within the uttermost dark, unknowable recesses of divinity. Because of that, it has the power to light up darkness below as well. These two entirely different types of darkness are thus remarkably linked.
(ה) אין מדליקין נרות חנוכה קודם שתשקע החמה אלא עם שקיעתה לא מאחרין ולא מקדימין. שכח או הזיד ולא הדליק עם שקיעת החמה מדליק והולך עד שתכלה רגל מן השוק. וכמה הוא זמן זה כמו חצי שעה או יתר. עבר זמן זה אינו מדליק. וצריך שיתן שמן בנר כדי שתהיה דולקת והולכת עד שתכלה רגל מן השוק. הדליקה וכבתה אינו זקוק להדליקה פעם אחרת. נשארה דולקת אחר שכלתה רגל מן השוק אם רצה לכבותה או לסלקה עושה.
(5) One does not light Chanukah candles before sunset, but rather when it sets, not delaying or lighting in advance. If one forgot, or intentionally delayed, and did not light with the setting of the sun, continue and light until people have stopped passing through the marketplace. And this is about half an hour of more. Once this time has passed, one does not light. And one must put enough oil in the lamp for it to remain lit until people have stopped passing through the marketplace. If it was lit but went out, there is no need to light it a second time. If it remains lit after people have stopped passing through the marketplace, if one wants to extinguish it or remove it, s/he may do so.