יְמֵי הַחֲנֻכָּה

Through the commandment of the Chanukah candle one comes to know His glory, may He be blessed. That is: through being meticulous in fulfilling the commandment of lighting the candles — and especially when the commandment is fulfilled with great arousal and with genuine fear and love — one merits genuine knowledge and to recognize the greatness of Hashem, may He be blessed, each person according to his level. And also through being meticulous in the commandment of the Chanukah candle, the honor of Hashem, may He be blessed, is elevated and magnified in the world. And one merits to arouse people who are distant from Hashem, may He be blessed, to return to fear of G-d and Torah observance. And one merits genuine fear of Heaven, domestic peace [שְׁלוֹם בַּיִת], and prayer. Strife and slander are nullified, and peace flows throughout all the worlds.

Through being meticulous in the commandment of the Chanukah candle as it should be, one merits genuine knowledge and genuine memory [דַּעַת אֲמִתִּית וְזִכָּרוֹן אֲמִתִּי]. That is: one properly remembers that there is yet another world [שֶׁנִּמְצָא עוֹד עוֹלָם]. And through this remembering one is saved from many sins and iniquities, and merits proper fear of G-d.

The days of Chanukah are days of praise and thanksgiving [הַלֵּל וְהוֹדָאָה] to Hashem, may He be blessed. That is: on these days it is proper to contemplate the miracles and wonders that Hashem, may He be blessed, performed for our fathers in those days — and how He saved them from their enemies. And for these miracles one must give thanks and praise, and believe that Hashem, may He be blessed, performs miracles and wonders for Israel in every generation — and saves us from our enemies always. As stated in the words of our Sages, of blessed memory : "In every generation they rise against us to destroy us, and the Holy One, blessed be He, saves us from their hand." And likewise every person must know that Hashem, may He be blessed, performs miracles and wonders with him every single day — both in health and in Parnasah. As stated in the Shemoneh Esrei: "For Your miracles that are with us every day, and for Your wonders" etc. And especially spiritually — that Hashem, may He be blessed, assists one to strengthen oneself in faith, in fear of G-d, and in Torah observance. But because of a deficiency in completeness of faith, one does not feel and does not see the miracles and wonders that Hashem, may He be blessed, performs with every person individually. Therefore every person must strengthen himself in proper faith, and truly contemplate the miracles and kindnesses that Hashem, may He be blessed, performs with him every single day — and give thanks and praise to Him because of this. And this is the primary delight of the World to Come. That is: just as the primary delight of the World to Come is recognizing the greatness of Hashem, may He be blessed — so too through faith in particular Providence, through recognizing the miracles and kindnesses that Hashem, may He be blessed, performs — and through the praise and thanksgiving to His great Name — one comes to recognize His greatness. And through this one merits genuine prayer and Torah study for its own sake [לִלְמֹד לִשְׁמָהּ] — without falsehood, not for honor or money or the like — only genuinely for the sake of Heaven. And one merits to draw close to a true Rebbe. And one also merits true matches [שִׁדּוּכִים אֲמִתִּיִּים] — both materially and spiritually. And one merits completeness of speech — that is, to speak only words of holiness and truth, and to be saved from false speech, idle words, etc. And then one merits to draw the holiness and joy of Shabbas into the six days of the week, as explained in the chapter "Truth and Faith" §40. And through this the simple unity of Hashem, may He be blessed, is revealed — that is, one merits to feel and believe that all the changes that pass over every person are all accomplished through His particular Providence, may He be blessed, Who is called "the simple One, may He be blessed" [אֶחָד הַפָּשׁוּט יִתְבָּרַךְ]. To all the rectifications described in this section one merits through fulfilling the commandment of lighting the Chanukah candle with simple faith as it should be — and with proper fear and love. And also through the praise and thanksgiving to Hashem, may He be blessed, for the miracles and wonders He performed for our fathers in the days of Chanukah — saving them from their enemies — and through the recognition of the miracles and kindnesses that Hashem, may He be blessed, performs with every person individually every single day. Fortunate is the person who merits to fulfill the commandment of lighting the Chanukah candle and the commandment of praise and thanksgiving with simple and wholehearted faith, with proper fear and love [בִּדְחִילוּ וּרְחִימוּ] — and merits these rectifications, namely the good character traits described in this section.

In proportion to how much each person merits to accomplish on Yom Kippur through the petition of Slach Na [סְלַח נָא] — that is, in proportion to how much he merits to accomplish before Hashem, may He be blessed, the forgiveness of his sins and iniquities — so does he merit the holiness of Chanukah. For the holiness of Chanukah flows from the forgiveness of Yom Kippur — for Chanukah alludes to chanukas beis haMikdash [חֲנֻכַּת בֵּית הַמִּקְדָּשׁ] — the dedication of the Temple. That is: through fulfilling the commandment of the Chanukah candle, as described in the preceding sections, and especially as described in §3 regarding the matter of Chanukah — through this one merits to draw the holiness of the Temple. And to this one merits through the action of forgiveness and atonement of Yom Kippur, as explained in Likutay MoHaRaN Part II in the Torah "Ki merachamam yenahaigem" ["For He who has mercy upon them will lead them"]. And the primary holiness of the Temple that one draws on Chanukah is the merit of genuine knowledge — to know and to make known "that Hashem is the G-d" [כִּי ה' הוּא הָאֱלֹקִים] . That is: one should know and believe that all the matters that appear to occur by the course of nature are all by His particular Providence, may He be blessed. And only in order to test the person whether he will believe in particular Providence — did Hashem, may He be blessed, clothe His Providence in the course of nature, both generally and particularly. And one must know and believe that Hashem, may He be blessed, is the Creator of all the worlds and all the creatures, and guides and rules them alone. And all causes, events, and occurrences both generally and particularly — all are accomplished through His particular Providence without any natural compulsion whatsoever. And one must know and understand that no creature can do good or evil without His Providence, may He be blessed — as explained in Likutay Halachos. Therefore: when the person needs goodness or to be saved from evil — let him turn only to Hashem, may He be blessed, through prayer and request — for apart from Him there is no power that can save him from evil, and apart from Him, may He be blessed, there is no power that can do good with him. And through this genuine knowledge one is saved from iniquities — which is the primary mercy upon Israel. That is: the primary mercy upon a Jew is that he merit genuine knowledge — to know that Hashem is the G-d, as described above in this section. This genuine knowledge must be introduced also into children and students from generation to generation and forever and ever. And through this one merits great and genuine attainments called makkifim [מַקִּיפִים] ["encircling lights"]. And these attainments are the primary delight of the World to Come — and to them one can merit through the lighting of the holy Chanukah candle oil that one fulfills with faith, fear, and proper love. And through this one also merits holy Parnasah that flows from the supernal will [הָרָצוֹן הָעֶלְיוֹן] — that is, one merits to know and believe that Parnasah flows through His will, may He be blessed, and His particular Providence — not according to the course of nature. And through this Parnasah one merits at the time of eating to a most exalted will [רָצוֹן מֻפְלָג] — that is, to yearnings and longings beyond all measure for Hashem, may He be blessed. And this every person can understand — that for such a Chanukah as described above, it is possible to merit only through genuine closeness to the true Tzadik who is a true merciful one [רַחֲמָן אֲמִתִּי] — meaning one who is able to introduce into every person according to his level genuine knowledge — which is the primary mercy that can be shown and the primary good that can be done, as described above.