By Rabbi Berach Steinfeld
An interesting question comes to mind regarding the Yom Tov of Chanukah. Reuven is incarcerated in jail and sees he will be able to bribe the guard to allow him to do one of the following; either to allow Reuven to light Chanukah candles, or the next morning bring him to a place where it is clean and Reuven will be able to say Hallel. Which one should he choose?
The Chochmas Shlomo in siman taf resh peh gimmel, seif aleph discusses this question. He says that in the Gemara Shabbos, daf chof alef, amud bais the gemara asks, “Mai Chanukah?” The gemara goes on to explain what happened on Chanuka and finalizes that the next year they established it as a Yom Tov by saying hallel vehodaa. There are 2 questions here. What is the gemara’s question, “Mai Chanuka?” Every child knows what Chanuka is! The second question is, why doesn’t the braiseh mention the mitzvah of candle lighting? The Chochmas Shlomo answers that the gemara is asking what is the ikkar of Chanuka? The gemara says that the ikkar is “hallel and hodaa.” It would appear that a person should use his chance at bribing the guard to enable himself to daven Hallel.
We see from this Chochmas Shlomo that the main part of Chanukah is to give thanks to Hashem for all the great miracles that he has done for us. Let us hope to merit to celebrate Chanukah and give thanks to Hashem in the Beis Hamikdosh in our days.
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