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Chanukah Kavanot 5th & 6th Days



The Ramchal in Kitzur Kavanot explains that Chanukah is the Tikkun – fixing – of the verse, “Sick throughout the day.” (Lamentations 1:13)

V. Back Up Toward heaven


The complete verse is, “From on high He sent a fire into my bones, and it overcame them. He spread a net for my feet. He hurled me backward. He made me desolate; sick throughout

the day.”

The Mitzvah of the Chanukah candles is to make the flames point up, as the verse says, “When you kindle the candles upward.” (Numbers 8:2)

On Chanukah we used the fire that was sent down at the time of the destruction to defeat our enemies. When we did so, we transformed a flame that came down as a flame of destruction, and pointed it back up to heaven as a flame of accomplishment.

Our intention when we light the Chanukah candles should be able to take all our negative experiences, which we often feel is God rejecting us, and reverse their direction and nature, from down to up, and from destructive to constructive, thereby healing us of any spiritual pain. (Based on teachings of the Ramchal)

VII. The Restoration of Three Gifts

We received and then, at the time of the destruction, lost three gifts: The Land of Israel, Children, and the ability to lead lives attached to God. We are literally sick over the loss of these three gifts. (Ibn Yachiah)

We suffered the loss of the three gifts at the hands of the Syrian-Greeks, who ruled the land, corrupted our children, and prohibited us from living lives of D’veikut. The Chashmonaim successfully fought to regain all three.

Chanukah is our opportunity to regain all three. We must pray for all three as we recite the blessings over the Chanukah candles.

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