A Flame in Your Heart

As Chanukah approaches has it ever crossed your mind that the candles in the menorah have something to say about our present-day lives? Have you ever noticed a veritable educational system in those glowing lights and especially in the halachos governing their lighting? The courageous victory of the Chashmonaim the triumph of few over many of the righteous over the wicked the wondrous miracle of the pure flask of oil notwithstanding there is another current message applicable in these very times in which we live.

Let us step out and look at the lights flickering quietly at our doorsteps or windowsills and try to discern their message. What life path should we follow to remain in their glow?

Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch tells us that the first thing we need to know is that Chanukah is about chinuch as its name suggests. The word chinuch denotes dedication. Chanukah began with the rededication of the Temple raising it from the tumah of the Greek idols back to the state of taharah and at the same time the Jewish People’s rededication to the purity of Torah ideology. Indeed it used to be customary in our communities to devote time and thought during Chanukah to questions pertaining to the chinuch of the young generation.

Rav Hirsch points out that even the laws that prescribe the form of the candles we light and the manner of lighting them teach a lesson about the torch of chinuch that we pass to the next generation. The Gemara begins with the words “The Rabbis taught: A candle to each man and his household. And for those who would enhance the mitzvah a candle for every individual”(Shabbos 21).