Shavuah Tov! Rosh Codesh Tov! Happy Chanukah!
Tonight is The last night of Chanukah when we light the 8th candle.
The Talmud in Tractate Shabbat relates the argument of the two saves Hillel and Shamai had concerning the lighting of the Chanukah candles.
Hillel advocated of lighting the candles as we know today. On the first night we light one candle, on the second night we light two candles, and so on. Every day adding a new candle to the already existing one so on the eight night all candles in the Chanukiah would be lit.
Shamai on the other hand disagreed and advocated that we light the Chanukah candles starting with lighting all of them on the first night, then seven candles, then six candles and every night one candle less.
His logic came from the belief that when the Macabeets conquered the Greeks this redemption came from the weakening and eventual defeat of not only the Greek armies, but also the Greek culture. G-d had mercy upon his people and brought defeat on them. Therefore it’s only fitting that we should light the candles in descending order.
It is important to note that the argument between these two sages was for the sake of heaven and both of them had very good reasons for their rulings.
Hillel’s ruling is the one we follow because when asked why? He answered ” compare the lighting of the candles in ascending order to the concept of continually increasing in holiness. Hillel saw the effort made on our part to bring about that very salvation. It was the self sacrifice of the Macabeets ( a few against many) that brought the miracle. In life we just have to do our part and the outcome is in H”S hands.
So in a nutshell the two concepts are: one is to wait for the downfall of our enemy as the pivot of our salvation. The other view is the effort made on our part to bring about that very salvation.
Our Chassidic Masters taught “you cannot dispel darkness with a stick, you must light a candle. The benefit of a candle is two fold. It brings light to the one that lights it and it also helps someone nearby, without diminishing its light.”
