Okay, so this is more about the letter hey than about it's sister chet. It's also more about Passover than Chanukah.

There are two words that are very similar, yet opposites. Chametz is the regular, yeast-risen bread that is totally off-limits for Passover. Matzah is the flat, humble bread we eat instead. Now take a look:

חמץ Chet Mem Tzadik = Chametz

מצה Mem Tzadik Hey = Matzah

What's the difference between the two? A small window. That's what changes the hey into a chet. Otherwise, they're built of exactly the same letters (in slightly different order).

What's the window? It's the ability to climb out of yourself, out of the mess you got yourself into, and to see what needs to be fixed. When that window is closed, you've got chametz on your hands. Bad news. Open it and you're back to matzah.

Why does the window get closed? Because a person, like yeasty dough, gets too full of himself. Yeast feeds off the sugars of the dough and produces gases that blow it larger and larger. The ego feeds off the good deeds of a person and produces lots of hot air that swell his head way out of proportion. Once swollen, there's no way he can see himself objectively anymore. No way to return back to his authentic self. No way to recapture the divine spark that got buried under all that sticky dough. Stuck in a rut with only one way to go. (Sound familiar? We did that one in MT Therapy.)

So what do we do with this chet guy? One way is to just break a window in that solid wall and transform him back into a hey. Get him into a little humility, so he can see his mess and start to fix it.

But that's not the ideal. After all, the chet must have some purpose of its own. Human beings weren't given an ego, a sense of pride and self-esteem just so they could smash it down. Really, the ultimate redemption of the letter chet is not to be broken, but to rise so high that nothing can ever go wrong to begin with. That's what an ego is there for: So that a person will take ownership of his life and do the best he can, rising even higher and higher, seeking out a relationship with the ultimate, true Ego, the only one who can really call Himself "I".

But to get there, you need to first make yourself a humble hey. Now open that window and breathe in some fresh air.

(Note just for you Kabbalah buffs: Hey and Chet both signify Malchut. Chet is Malchut all by herself, while Hey is Malchut as Chochmah shines into her. Now go meditate on that one.)

Sources: See Menachot 29b, elucidated in Likutei Sichot vol. 1, pg. 130; ibid vol. 8, pg. 113. Sefer Ha-Erchin on chet, s'if 8.