I’m excited for Chanukah to begin next week! Some years it just sneaks up on me but this year I’m ready.
A quick reminder of one of the better-known answers to the question of why we celebrate eight nights of Chanukah if the miracle was only for seven (after all, the oil was expected to last through that first night):
The first night we commemorate the miracle itself that oil burns. We recognize that just as the subsequent seven nights were a miracle, the first night was a miracle, too — the miracle of nature. We remember that Hashem makes the rules and Hashem breaks the rules.
Sometimes in life we want to be able to do more but we are limited. In whatever situation, not just shidduchim. We don’t have the energy or the means to visit another doctor, pay someone to update a job resume, join a workshop we think could be helpful. And we worry that if we are not doing enough on our end, we can’t expect to see the results we are praying for.
Hashem makes the rules and Hashem breaks the rules. We do ours because it is a mitzvah, but Hashem isn’t bound by what we do or don’t bring to the situation. The One Who told oil to light can bend any part of the natural order to His will. He can extract solutions from places we didn’t know existed. He can uncover answers we didn’t know to look for. Miracles are Hashem’s nature. And nature is miracles.
So Chanukah isn’t really one plus seven. Chanukah is just eight. Because it’s all Hashem.
Sometimes a tiny drop of hishtadlus is enough.
Wishing you a lichtige Chanukah!
