Every year, as Chanukah approaches, I am filled with a feeling of a familiar and pleasant excitement. This anticipation is one of the gifts of the holiday, which brings light and warmth to the cold and dark winter months that surround it. In this sense lighting the Chanukah candle is more than just fulfilling a commandment. Though we say in the blessing "and He commanded us to light the Chanukah candle", the mitzvah is much more than just lighting a candle. The Chanukah candle functions both in time and space. In fact, the Gemara in Masechet Shabbat articulates these two elements of the mitzvah, both the lighting of the candle and the light it provides in the appropriate space.
תנו רבנן: נר חנוכה מצוה להניחה על פתח ביתו מבחוץ
אם היה דר בעלייה – מניחה בחלון הסמוכה לרשות הרבים
ובשעת הסכנה – מניחה על שלחנו, ודיו
Our rabbis taught: Regarding the Chanukah candle, one is obligated to place it by the opening of his house on the outside.
If he lives above the ground floor, he places it in the window that is closest to the public.
If he lives in an area where it would be dangerous to publicly declare his Jewish observance, he can place it on his own table and that is enough to fulfill his obligation.
From the words of the Talmud, it is clear that the Chanukah candle should be visible from the outside. A man exits his house and places it near the opening, or in a window. In general, we interpret this as “pirsumei nisa”, publicizing the mitzvah, the duty to make known the miracle of Chanukah to the public. However, placing the Chanukah candle on the outside of our home, creates an additional element.
Once the door is closed it becomes part of the wall of the house, a clear barrier between the safety of the house and the dangers of the world.
The house provides for its occupants warmth, protection, intimacy, and a place of rest and becomes their home, because it creates a barrier between indoors and the outdoors. The home, in essence, is like a lair, a place to hide, closed off from nature and her wind, rain, cold and heat. Thus, when you enter the house and close the door, the rest of the world disappears. On the other side, when you leave the house and close the door, the protection and warmth the house provides are left behind as you go into the world.
In this sense, the door of the house is not part the wall but rather an opening, a gate, an intermediate area, the tangent to outside world and the house at the same time. It is the physical expression of the tension one feels between the safety of the house and the danger of the outdoors. At the door of the house, a complex conversation takes place between everything the person protects and guards, and the great sky and the great winds that blow outside.
And so, in the heart of the winter, a man opens his door and exits his house, placing a candle near the door. There is no doubt that the candle tells passers-by the story of the great miracle of Chanukah; still the very act of standing at the door of the house with a candle in hand draws attention to the border that exists between the house and the outside. The candle embodies the essence of the house, the fire, the love, and the intimacy that prevails in the house. When a person places this candle at the doorstep, he exposes it to the great darkness outside. In this liminal space when his personal candle, the candle of his soul, stands ready to be exposed, to stand at the door of the house and illuminate and be illuminated.
In this sense, Chanukah is the holiday of the doorway, the transition from inner to outer and from private to public. Rebbe Nachman of Breslav formulated this idea through a mysterious story he told on one of the nights of Chanukah in 1909. In this story, a man goes out to light a Chanukah candle, and immediately after he lights it, a foreign guest enters his home. The guest begins to interrogate the man about his work, his house, his family, etc. The man is both fascinated and perturbed by the guest. At one point, the guest grabs the man, spreads his wings and launches him into the sky. In the middle of his surprise flight, the man suddenly finds himself back in his home, without the company of the guest. Then he looked again and found himself floating in the air with this strange guest and his wings bridging heaven and earth.
Through the use of literary motifs of fantasy, this mysterious story expresses the importance of lighting a candle on the door of the house from the outside. This allows for opening of the house to the outside world, which offers a magical spreading of wings to spaces your house could never reach while continuing to protect the comfort of your house with this small, personal, and intimate candle.
