In addition to donuts and gifts, one thing I’ve always loved about Hanukah is that it’s the only Mitzvah that most Jews around the world, regardless of their religious affiliation, fulfill in what is considered to be well above and beyond the basic Mitzvah. Somehow or another, the tens of millions of (Ashkenazic) Jews throughout history have never really questioned that the way to light Hanukah candles is to light 1 candle the 1st night, 2 the 2nd, and so on, until you have a house-warming 8-pronged candelabra (9 with the Shamash) on that last glorious night of the chag. This custom has withstood the various tests that have attacked other observances throughout history- both from the “right” and from the “left.” There’s a lot we can learn from something that seems to be so immutably ingrained in the Jewish psyche. What is it about lighting Hanukah candles that makes it the one Mitzvah we all do the same way? Let’s look at the origin of the mitzvah -

In Shabbos, 21B, the Gemorah outlines 3 different “levels” of fulfillment of Lighting:
1. “Ner Ish Ubeito”- that one person in each household lights one candle each night
2. “Mehadrin,” is that every person in the household lights their own candle each night.
3. “Mehadrin Min HaMehadrin,” each person in the house lights a total of 44 candles over the chag.

On this 3rd level - Mehadrin Min HaMehadrin - Beit Shammai and Beit Hillel argue: Beit Shammai asserts that on the 1st night, you light 8 candles, on the second, 7, down until the last night, when you light only one candle. Beit Hillel, on the other hand, says that you light one candle on the first night, 2 on the second, etc… until 8 on the last night.

Now, here, things get really interesting. The Gemorah offers 2 different explanations as to the logic behind Hillel and Shammai’s disagreement. According to Rabbi Yosi Bar Avin, Beit Shammai holds you light 8 to 1, because the mitzvah is supposed to tell us how many days are left to celebrate Hanukah’s miracles. Beit Hillel, however, lights 1 to 8, to represent how many days of the holiday have already.

Rabbi Yosi Bar Zveidah has a different theory as to the nature of the disagreement between Shammai and Hillel. Beit Shammai notes that for Sukkot, the sacrifices each day were brought in successively decreasing totals- 13, 12,…So, too, he argues, should Hanukah be done, lighting 8, then 7, etc. But Beit Hillel, according to Rabbi Yosi Bar Zveidah, believes that we are Ma’alin B’Kodesh, V’Ein Moridin (we must constantly be increasing in our mitzvoth), and thus should go from 1 to 8.

Given these opinions, what can we learn from the seemingly different understandings of Shammai and Hillel’s opinions on how many candles to light each night? Further, does this understanding make sense given the mesorah that, while we follow the opinion of Beit Hillel now, we will follow Beit Shammai in the near future of Yimot Mashiach?

To start, while it seems that Rabbi Yosi Bar Avin and Rabbi Yosi Bar Zveidah have entirely different ideas as to the root nature of Shammai and Hillel’s opinions, they in fact both result from the same understanding of the purpose of Hanukah. From the two Rabbi Yosi’s, we see that Shammai sees Hanukah as a finite holiday, and that it is a given that there will be 8 days to the chag (thus we light from 8 to 1). Further, Shammai suggests that Hanukah is actually modeled somewhat after our Torah-based chagim, and that we should follow the example of Sukkot, as we light candles to commemorate a holiday that is essentially in our past, and relevant only for the commandments established for us by earlier generations (or Hashem, Himself).

Beit Hillel, on the other hand, suggests that we must count each day of Hanukah that has passed- it is an ongoing miracle, in a sense, that we must live and celebrate with each successive day. Only after the 8th day, when we learn that the nes of the oil was no longer necessary, does Beit Hillel declare an end to the growing number of flames. This goes very well with our other understanding of Beit Hillel: that we must always increase our level of k’dushah, rather than allow it to decline. Unlike Sukkot which is declared as finite, Hanukah is an active struggle we live through as we try to increase our k’dushah.

So, we have Shammai who sees Hanukah as a given: something in our past which we commemorate and celebrate like any other holiday; and we have Hillel, who sees Hanukah as a new miracle every year, in which we constantly strive to improve ourselves. This makes perfect sense when we consider that we follow Hillel now, and Shammai in the future: the story of Hanukah identifies the greatest struggle we face as a People – loss of our unique identity and connection with G-d. So until we fully re-connect with Hashem, we must see Hanukah every year as a new miracle of oil, and a new challenge to fight off the Helenistic tendencies and forces of our surrounding environments. So we light from 1 candle to 8, recognizing our constant need to grow. B’ezrat Hashem, that victory will soon be complete, and we will have a new Chanukat HaBayit. At that point, we will be able to adapt Shamai’s philosophy and look back on Hanukah as a finite symbol of our victory, much like sukkot: a chag that is a given, and not necessarily a call for spiritual struggle. And I think this is the message that binds all Jews together in Hanukah, whether we realize it consciously or not. By lighting the way we do, with a new light every night, we’re recognizing that no matter who we are as individuals or a community, we need to grow and continue our struggle to become better on multiple levels. And if we do, we should soon find ourselves following Shammai, lighting 8 candles on the 1st night of Chanukah, in a world that would be Mehadrin Min Hamehadrin for all of us.