W hat’s more exhilarating than recalling a vort you said many years ago to explain a difficult pasuk or gemara?
When someone else reminds you of a vort he heard from you that you had long forgotten.
A number of years ago a former talmid now baruch Hashem the head of a family himself came to Chicago to spend Shabbos Chanukah with his parents. After Maariv of Leil Shabbos he approached me to offer his “Gut Shabbos Rebbi ” and proceeded to comment “I will never forget the vort Rebbi told us on the Rambam at the end of Hilchos Chanukah back in eighth grade.” That was some 20 years earlier! Who would have thought that anyone had paid attention even then let alone that he would recall it now!
The Rambam famously categorizes the mitzvah of ner Chanukah as chavivah ad me’od — extremely beloved. As anyone familiar with the Rambam’s works can attest he is hardly prone to hyperbole or superlatives. Clearly there is a unique dimension to this mitzvah that sets it apart from all others. The vort as recalled by my former talmid is as follows:
