Hanukkah is a time of igniting a fire, both in the candles and in ourselves, in our fervor for God’s commandments. Contemplating the miracles of Hanukkah teaches us that the world does not merely conform to natural laws; everything is constantly being created anew by the Creator. Hanukkah is a time of renewal and of recognizing the power of God, who in His goodness continually renews the work of Creation day after day.

Passion for doing mitzvot:

“Blessed are You, Lord, our God, King of the universe, who has sanctified us with His commandments and commanded us to light the Hanukkah lights.” It is known that a person’s main duty in prayer, Torah, and mitzvot is to impassion his soul and heart for [serving] God, with wondrous love and desire, by contemplating God’s greatness through delving deep into wisdom. Accordingly, one’s soul will be passionate about God, amid pleasantness, sweetness, and affection. It is known with regard to the joy of mitzvot that the most important thing is to do each and every mitzva with great love and desire and with immense enthusiasm (see Zohar 3:8a). This is the interpretation of the blessing: “Blessed are You, Lord…to light,” that is, we bless and praise God, who chose us as His people of distinction to perform His commandments while ablaze, with great passion, like a flame that ignites by itself [and does not need to be lit from an external source].

The miracle of Hanukkah is a concealed miracle:

Know that the miracles that the Creator, blessed be He, performs for us can be broken down into three types. There are concealed miracles and there are revealed miracles. The revealed miracles are like those that were performed for our patriarchs in Egypt…and the splitting of the Red Sea, which were changes to the natural order, and everyone saw these miracles plainly. There are also concealed miracles, like the miracle in the days of Mordekhai and Esther, where events appeared to follow a natural course…and the miracle mentioned in the Al HaNisim prayer said on Hanukkah, namely, that God delivered “the many into the hands of the few, the impure into the hands of the pure.” This too was a concealed miracle, as it was by means of a war. And the act of Judith [who killed the Greek general] was also to some degree in accordance with nature. Of course, it was really a miracle, and not the natural course of events, but it was a concealed, and not a revealed, miracle.

Further reading: For more on concealed and revealed miracles, see p. 215.

The natural order of the world is also directed in accordance with God’s will:

If a person, God forbid, does not believe in concealed miracles, then he thinks that this is the natural order of things, that is, that the sun shines during the day and the moon shines at night, and at night one sleeps and in the day he is awake, and one who expands his trade becomes richer, and one who travels far makes a profit, and when one is sick he should take medicine. He believes that this is the natural order. Yet when one sees concealed miracles, for example, when God, the Creator, blessed be He, delivered the strong into the hands of the weak, or the downfall of Haman, and all the more so with regard to revealed miracles, then a person sees that the world does not behave in accordance with habituation. Rather, God is the One who sets captives free and who raises those who are bowed down; He is the One who rolls away the light before the darkness [every evening]; He is the One who forms light and darkness; and God is the One who heals the sick.

The Holy One, blessed be He, renews the existence of the world every day:

The Creator, may His name be blessed, is the King of the Universe, and as King, He renews His world in accordance with His will, and there is no natural order that dictates the way the world always behaves. Rather, even with regard to the natural order, the Creator, may His name be blessed, who is the King of the Universe, renews it. By His will He renews the natural order, and by His will He negates the natural order. He does not say that that which was yesterday is what will be; rather, every single day [and every single moment], the Holy One, blessed be He, creates all His creations anew.

Why is this festival called Hanukkah, and what is the significance of the blessing: “To light the Hanukkah lights”?

The term Hanukkah comes from “dedication [hanukat] of the Temple,” an expression of newness. We acknowledge the concealed miracles and the fact that God constantly renews even the established natural order of the world, that is, that the world does not automatically behave in accordance with natural laws, God forbid. And this is [the spiritual meaning of the blessing] “to light the Hanukkah lights,” that is, this idea that God renews the world at each and every moment should always be emitting its light in our thoughts and should purify our hearts to serve Him, since we [learn from this concept that we are entirely] in His hands. (Rabbi Levi Yitzĥak of Berditchev, Kedushat Levi, Hanukkah)