Your best friend is going to Eretz Yisroel to visit for a few days. You give him your 'wish list'--the things you really need him to bring back for you, and a couple of personal things to take care of. '...and please don't forget my list!' Upon his arrival back to Chutz L'Aretz, you ask him, 'Did you remember my list?' He responds, 'Yes, of course I did not forget it--I read the list every single day of my trip.' With this response, you realize that he has not accomplished what you had hoped.
When we light the Neiros Chanukah, we read 'She'asa Nisim La'Avoseinu', and we say 'Haneiros Halalu...K'dei L'hodos Ul'Hallel...' It is imperative that we not merely read from the list, for if we do that, we are only reading it, without actually accomplishing our task of acknowledgement and thanksgiving. Instead, we should take some time to think about the great revealed miracles of Chanukah--the few and the weak defeating the many and the strong; the oil continuing to burn--and through this to exuberantly give thanks and praise to Hashem for all of the miracles--small and large, open and hidden--that he has performed for our people and for each of us individually through the millennia, then and now.
In fact, the Alter of Kelm (1:125) writes that the primary obligation of pirsumei nisa, spreading awareness of the miracles, applies to the person himself--when he lights the neiros, he should think about and feel the profundity of the miracles and accept upon himself Ol Malkus Shomayim with heartfelt simcha. Source: Sifsei Chaim (Moadim 2:29 )
Practical Suggestion: Before reciting the 'She'asa Nisim' every night, attempt to recall and appreciate some of the nisim of Chanukah, miracles through the ages, and miraculous events that you more recently have experienced. Perhaps you can even shed a tear of joy at some point. Is this too lofty a concept? Would you merely read your friend's list--or bring back what he wanted?
If you can do this, your 'Maoz Tzur' will be more than a well-known jingle or nursery rhyme, but a song of appreciation as pure as the olive oil for our miraculous salvations throughout the ages, from Galus Mitzrayim through the unparalleled miracles of the 'Ketz HaYeshua.'
In the zechus of our true appreciation of, and refinement through, Hashem's miracles, may we be zoche to the fulfillment of 'Oz Egmor B'Shir Mizmor Chanukas HaMizbayach.'
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Reprinted with permission from Hakhel MIS
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Important Numbers
