Some Historical Background: The Sefer Kedushas Levi originally appeared in its first edition in Slavita as a book containing discourses and teachings on the holidays of Channukah and Purim and regarding miracles, as well as a few samplings of novel chiddushim on Halachah and Aggadata from Rav Levi Yitzchak, his father Rav Meir of Huskav and his sons Rav Meir of Berditchev author of Keser Torah and Rav Yisroel of Pikov author of Likkutei Maharin / Toldos Yitzchak ben Levi.
The discussion of the Kedushos or sanctity of Channukah and Purim and the different facets of these holidays including the unique mitzvos that we perform on these holy days are divided into chapters called Kedushos, Kedushah Rishona, Shneiyah and so on. This is why the sefer was named Kedushas Levi. It was only in the later posthumous editions printed by the Berditchever's sons that Divrei Torah on the Parasha and Moadim, Likkutim on TaNach, Pirkei Avos and other collections appeared. In these later subsequent editions precedence was given to these new editions, until the Kedushos were relegated by all later printers to the back of the sefer. The collection of Divrei Torah on the parasha and Moadim gained such popularity that many have forgotten that actually the original sefer named Kedushas Levi and printed by Rav Levi Yitzchak himself during his own lifetime is in fact the Kedushos on Channukah and Purim.
Fourth Kedusha of Channukah
And now I shall explain the Gemarra (Shabbos 21b) [that to fulfill the mitzvah of lighting the menorah on Channukah according to] the Mehadrin min HaMehadrin [there are two opinions:] Beis Shamai say that on the first day we light eight candles and from then on we lights one less each day. Beis Hillel say that on the first day we light one candle and we add one candle each day.
And our sages say that the reason for Beis Shammai's opinion (that we light one less candle each day) is corresponding to the bullocks offered during the festival of Succos (which were progressively less each day). And Beis Hillel's reason (for lighting an additional candle each day) is that we [we have a general rule, we] progressively add to sanctity and holiness increasing it and we do not detract or lower our level of holiness.
It seems that they are in conflict. Now it is known that if a person lacks one of his basic needs such as food, drink or clothing then he greatly yearns that his lack should be filled and he has great anguish that he lacks this thing which his heart desires, additionally he also is pained by the feeling of the hunger or thirst itself.
Now if someone would bring bread and water from somewhere far away, as soon as he sees this food, even before he has partaken of it, even though he has not yet eaten nor drunk he is already happy and pleased since now he knows that he has something which will fill his lack. Now he is still hungry and thirsty. After he actually eats and drinks then he is even happier now that he is satiated and Hashem has slaked his thirst.
This is all discussing one who lacks and does not know how to fill this lack. For example a traveler in the desert; his weary soul is parched with thirst and he lacks the very basics of bread and water and clothing. Such a person suffers from two forms of pain and anguish: first his soul yearns that his lack should be filled and that his hunger, thirst and lack of clothes are filled and sated. And after Hashem sends him someone from afar to bring him what he needs such as bread, water and clothes then once he sees that whatever he needs is here before him, and he has bread in his basket, he is immediately satisfied and happy because he sees that he has with what to fill his needs, sate his hunger and slake his thirst.
Even though he has not yet eaten nor drunk nor dressed in these clothes, still immediately he is obligated to praise and thank G-d the Creator of heaven and earth Who has fulfilled his needs and placed bread in his basket.
Nonetheless he is still somewhat pained by his actual feelings of hunger and thirst (this is the second pain). Now after he actually eats and drinks and gets dressed then he also feels pleasure and delights since he is full, sated and his heart is satisfied. Then he needs to bless the Creator over this satisfaction and satiation as the verse says (Devarim 8:10) "and you ate and you were satisfied and you blessed Hashem your G-d." However is at home in civilization where everything is ready and set before him, then before he eats and drinks his heart is only desirous to eat or drink. And after he eats and drinks then he is satiated and satisfied and he blesses Hashem. However those wanderers who travel in the desert have two types of yearning and desire as we just explained and two forms of happiness, one form of happiness is the fact that they now have found a way to fill their lack, and the second is the actual fulfillment of that lack itself.
Regarding these desert wanderers King David said (Tehillim 107:8-9) "They thank Hashem for His kindness, . . .because he sated the yearning soul and a hungry soul He has filled with all manner of goodness," and it seems at first glance that the wording here is needlessly repetitive. However based on what I wrote that the desert wanderers "their souls faint," (ibid) over two things: First over the fact that they do not know how and from where they shall be able to fill their lacks and procure their basics needs, how will they sate their hunger and slake their thirst? And secondly they faint due to their actual hunger and thirst.
And after Hashem has "guided them on the straight path towards an inhabited city," those hungry and thirsty wanderers, even before they have eaten and drunk their fill still "they thank Hashem for His kindness," because "He sated the yearning soul," once they are in town and have bread in the baskets, then their yearning for food has dissipated since now in front of him is what he needs to fill his needs even though he has not yet satisfied himself his yearnings have gone. This is because a person yearns more for what is not in front of him as our sages said (Yoma 67a) "One cannot compare he who has bread in his basket to he who does not." Now he still lacks since he is till actually hungry and thirsty. And then after he eats and drinks he needs to bless the Creator over his satiation and this is the end of the verse "and a hungry soul He has filled with all manner of goodness."
Now when a person is missing whatever he needs to fill a lack, like someone who is a wanderer in the desert, he has great yearning since his [figurative] basket is empty of bread, and he has no idea how he will fill this lack.
After Hashem sends him someone, or sends him somewhere were his needs can be met, the moment he sees this he is overbound with joy! As time passes, a moment later once he is accustomed to this his feelings of joy diminish. And as more time passes his feelings of joy continue to decrease more and more. This is why it is proper to recite a blessing as soon as a person hears good news (See Shulchan Aruch Orach Chaim Siman 223 & commentaries). Then he is truly capable of blessing Hashem with happiness and joyful heart.
Now [the opposite is the case] regarding the feelings of actual hunger and thirst themselves, the moment one begins to eat and he is still hungry his joy is small. As soon as he eats more his joy increases. Once he has eaten his fill and he is satiated and satisfied then his joy is complete, and that is the time when he is required to bless his Maker as the verse says (Devarim 8:10) "and you ate and were satisfied and you blessed Hashem your G-d." However regarding yearnings for that which is not present before him, the first moment when he receives what he is yearning for the joy is the greatest and later it decreases.
It seems to me that this is the reasoning behind why the bull offerings decrease in number each day of Sukkos (which is the reason given for Beis Shammai's opinion on lighting Channukah candles in decreasing number each day.)
The principle joy of the festival of Sukkos and the reason why we call it "the time of our joy," (in the Nusach of YomTov Amidah) is because on Yom Kippur our sins were forgiven and Sukkos they are transformed into merits as we explained elsewhere (See KL HafTorah for Shabbos Teshuva, KL on Sukkos). Therefore on the first day of Sukkos when the destructive force of the evil inclination is transformed into merits then we feel the greatest joy for our sins being forgiven. On the second day we have already gotten used to this and become accustomed to the idea and so our joy diminishes, on the third day it has diminished even more and so on.
[On Channukah] they discovered a flask of oil sealed with the seal of the Kohen Gadol which had enough oil for one day and there was a miracle that the oil lasted for eight days. Now when they first found this flask and they saw that the amount of oil was only enough for one day, they did not initially know that there would be a miracle performed. They knew they needed enough oil for eights days as is explained by the Maharsha in the Ayn Yaakov study it inside. [The Maharsha Shabbos 21a? says s.v. "Timu Kol HaShemanim," it was not possible to get more pure oil in less than eight days because they were all impure with the tumah of death from the war as the Beis Yosef and Re'em wrote in his commentary to the Sema"g. And the Ran wrote in his commentary that it took four days journey to reach where the oil was made and bringing it back would take another four days.]
They therefore experienced two types of pain and anguish which we described above with the example of desert travelers. First they their souls yearned to perform the mitzvah of Hashem to light the menorah and they had no idea how they would be able to fulfill this mitzvah, to light the candles of the menorah since they did not know there would be a miracle. Now something which a person's soul yearns for and desires and he does not know how to fulfill his needs and desire this lack alone causes him pain and anguish. And further they were pained by the actual inability to light the menorah and fulfill the mitzvah.
Now when they saw how a miracle was done for them on the first night when they looked at the flask of oil and they saw that there was some oil still left in it as the Taz writes (Orach Chaim Siman 670) that the flask was not left completely empty so that a blessing could rest itself there. [The Taz writes that the Beis Yosef asked why do the sages establish Channukah for eight days since the flask of oil had enough for oil for at least one day it seems that the miracle was only actually seven days long?! It seems to me to answer this that retroactively we can see that even on the first night there was a miracle as well. We find in the holy Zohar (I 88a; II 87b: III 34a) where the story of Elisha who created a miracle with oil (Melachim II 4:1-6) that Hashem only does miracles by adding blessings to increase what there already is even if there is just a little then Hashem's blessings increase it, however something empty does not have blessings increase it since Hashem does not do such miracles which require creating something out of nothing (since Creation). Therefore it makes sense that on the first night not all the oil was used to light the candles of the menorah since if the flask would have been empty and all the oil used up there would be nothing left for the blessing to rest upon and increase. Rather surely they saw the miracle even on the first night when some oil was still somehow left over miraculously and on that small amount the blessings miraculously increased it. Therefore even on the first night they had witnessed the miracle.]
Then they say how Hashem loves His people, Beis Yisroel and does miracles for them, they were able to rely on this miracle and their joy was very great when they saw the gates of blessing opening up for them. They now saw that here was something to fill their lack and enable them to fulfill the mitzvos the blessed Creator by lighting the candles. They were overjoyed by seeing the gates of blessing open up and seeing that here was something that would fill their need and they felt just as those desert wanderers who have finally arrived and come to an inhabited town feel.
Now they had not yet seen with their flesh and blood eyes enough oil for eight full days and so it is as if there still was some doubt and they had a lack as one who is hungry lacks even when the bread is sitting in front of him before he has actually eaten it.
However after the miracle Hashem did for them actually took place and for eight actual days they light the candles then they were sated with the actual fulfillment of the mitzvah itself as one who was hungry and has now eaten and drunk his fill.
We see that the type of happiness and joy they felt was from seeing that they would now be able to fulfill the mitzvah of Hashem and light the menorah. And after they saw this on the first day when they saw the gates of blessing open up for them their joy was at its peak and it diminished day by day just as when "he sated the yearning soul," as we explained above. This is similar to the bull offerings of Sukkos as we explained that the joy is at its peak on the first day more so than on the other days when the Jewish soul experiences the forgiveness of sin [and its transformation to merits]. This is the reason behind Beis Shammai's opinion that on the first night of Channukah we should light eight candles and progressively decrease the number lighting one less candle each day, because the peak of joy is one the first day corresponding to the bull offering of Sukkos.
The reason for Beis Hillel's opinion is based on the feeling of joy and delight that Bnei Yisroel in that generation had from fulfilling the mitzvah of the menorah, which is similar to "a hungry soul He has filled with goodness," and this type of joy increases progressively day by day as they did another mitzvah each day. This is because each mitzvah adds more sanctity to a person and each day that they lit the candles of the menorah their joy and sanctity increased. Therefore Beis Hillel hold the opinion that on the first day you light one candle and you progressively increase by adding an additional candle each day, this is why they hold we rise in sanctity. This is why we find that the Gemarra says that Beis Shamma's opinion corresponds to the bull offerings of Sukkos and the reason for Beis Hillel's opinion is that we increase in sanctity.
And it seems to me that the primary feeling of joy according to Beis Shammai was their ability to fulfill the Creator's mitzvos and that they saw that the gates of blessing had opened up, whereas according to Beis Hillel the primary joy is in the fulfillment of the actual mitzvah itself.
This is illustrated by the following [parable:] There was once a country whose inhabitants lived quite a distance away from the king who ruled them. They had many basic needs that they needed the king in his kindness to fulfill, yet the king lived so far away. Suddenly one day the king arrived for a visit to this country. The countrymen asked the king for their needs and because he was kind and merciful the king fulfilled them.
One group of citizens had previously given up all hope of having their needs met, since they lived so far from the king they never thought he would come to visit them from afar. Their primary joy was the very fact that the king actually came to visit their distant country.
The second group of citizens knew that the king always travels and visits each country in his kingdom in turn, because he ruled over his entire kingdom in such a way that he needed to constantly see to the needs of each country. So they were constantly waiting and anticipating the king's eminent arrival to visit them even though he was distant and far away. Their primary joy was when the king actually fulfilled their wish and granted their needs.
And so it is here, there are those for whom the miraculous opening of the gates of blessings is far from them, [it is hard and difficult for them to believe in miracles] and then there are those he trust and believe that "Hashem is close to all those who call to Him," (Tehillim 145:18) and that He takes pride in Bnei Yisroel, and surely He will open the gates of blessing for them when they fulfill His commandments and that He will work wonders and miracles for them because "His rule is over everything," as we wrote elsewhere (BeShalach sv O Yavuar Nora Tehilos) that "the one to whom a miracle happens does not recognize that a miracle has been done for him," (Niddah 31a) and their primary joy was the actual fulfillment of the mitzvah of the menorah (rather than the demonstration that Hashem will do a miracle).
This was Hillel the elder's character trait, as is seen in the Gemarra Berachos (60a) where we read a story how Hillel the elder heard a scream as we he was passing through town, he remarked "I trust that this scream is not coming from my house," and the Gemarra ends with the remark that regarding [those like] Hillel the verse says (Tehillim 112:7) "From bad tidings he fears not, his heart is prepared, trusting in Hashem."
We see that Hillel's attribute was that he trusted in Hashem's kindness that He will always act positively and grant blessings. And that "Hashem is close to all who call to Him," and that he trusted in Him, as it says there that this verse can be reread backwards and forwards and forwards and backwards. So that it can be read as why was it that he fears not from any bad tidings? Because his heart is prepared and trusts in Hashem. And because Hillel was a man of chessed and loving kindness (Zohar III 245a) and he awakened supernal kindness and therefore he trusted in kindness from on High. We see that based on Hillel's attribute he always trusted in Hashem that the Holy One would not leave us and that he would open up for us the gates of mercy blessing in order that we will fulfill His commandments and then the primary joy would be the actual fulfillment of the commandment itself that we light the candles and each day the joy will progressively increase which is why Hillel's opinion is that we add a candle each day.
It also seems to me that Hillel's attribute is "his heart is ready and prepared trusting in Hashem," because of his humility (Shabbos 30b) and whoever is humble is attached to the attribute of Ayin – nothingness. And the whole world is always attached to Ayin seeing how the entirety of creation was created yeish me'ayin ex nihilo – something from nothing. This gives him complete trust, because the attribute of trust is based on this thought (regarding Creation) which we explained elsewhere at length. Therefore regarding Hillel it says "his heart was ready trusting in Hashem," it means that his heart was constantly pondering how the entire world and all of creation is ex nihilo, yeish me'ayin and therefore he trusted in Hashem as we explained elsewhere at length.
It also seems to me that it is possible that for because Hillel was always attached to the attribute of Ayin therefore when the gates of blessing were opened this was nothing novel for him. Because anyone attached to the attribute of Ayin has the gates of blessing opened for him as our sages say (Taanis 8b) "blessing is only found in something that is hidden from sight," something hidden from sight refers to the attribute of Ayin which is above all sight and this too we have explained at length elsewhere. Therefore the very fact that these gates of blessing opened up was nothing new or novel to Hillel. And therefore his primary joy was the actual fulfilling of the mitzvah [of the menorah] and this joy increased day by day.
Therefore Bais Hillel is of the opinion that each day we add additional candles as we go on, and may the merciful G-d open up for us the gates of blessing and mercy continuously Amen Selah!
Based on this we can understand the entire concept of Mehadrin min HaMehadrin. Why is it that specifically here [in the case of lighting the Channukah candles] we find the concept that we can have Mehadrin min HaMehadrin [as opposed to other mitzvos]?
Based on what we wrote this makes sense, because as we described there are those who perform the mitzvos even without delight however the righteous perform mitzvos with delight. The delight of each thing is known as "Daka min HaDaka – the finest of the fine," (See also Ohev Yisroel Chukkas sv VeHinei Osan Shnei Bechinos). This is why the incense offering on Yom Kippur was made off spices ground down to the "finest of the fine," (Yoma 43b) because Yom Kippur corresponds to the world of Binah (which is known as the world of delight Zohar III 94b; ibid 257a; Tikkunei Zohar Tikkun 24) and therefore it was Daka min HaDaka – from the finest of the fine.
We explained elsewhere how the spirituality found in everything is Daka – fine, and the delight and pleasure one receives from spirituality is Daka min HaDaka – the finest of the fine. Therefore because the disagreement of opinion we have here between Beis Shamai and Beis Hillel is whether we add candles each day or detract candles each day they are actually arguing over which form of pleasure and delight is greater? Is the delight experienced from the act of actually fulfilling the mitzvah greater? Or is the delight experienced from knowing that you have the ability to fulfill the mitzvah greater? As we explained above.
We find therefore that whether you add candles each day or detract candles each day corresponds to [an argument over] delight, and therefore we can say that the concept of Mehadrin min HaMehadrin is similar to Daka min HaDaka which corresponds to the world of delight.1 May the merciful G-d bless us with a bounty of shefa, delight, joy, happiness, blessings and life, Amen!
Notes:
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It should be pointed out that Rav Menachem Mendel of Lubavitch Zat'zal asked (Likkutei Sichos Inyanei Channukah) based on this that on Yom Kippur we should also find the concept of Mehadrin Min HaMehadrin. And this needs further study and clarification.
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