The last day of Chanukah is called “Zot Chanukah,” literally “this is the dedication” or “this is Chanukah,” since Chanukah means “dedication.” It is derived from the Torah reading of the day, which begins: “This is the dedication of the Altar.”1
The fact that the day’s moniker is “This Is Chanukah,” leads us to conclude that in some way this day expresses the essence of what Chanukah is and is the culmination of the preceding seven days.
Higher Than Nature
The number seven symbolizes nature and fixed cycles. There are seven days in a week, seven colors in the rainbow, seven musical notes, etc. The number eight, by contrast, symbolizes that which is beyond nature and its inherent limitations. Eight is otherworldly; it is miraculous; it transcends the confines of creation. On the eighth and final day of Chanukah, therefore, we leap beyond nature, reaching a far more elevated level than what was revealed in the preceding days.2
Read: What is the Spiritual Significance of the Number Eight?
Extended Window for Repentance
Chanukah serves as a continuation of the High Holidays. “What the righteous can achieve from G‑d on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur,” explains Rabbi Yisrael of Ruzhin, “every Jew can achieve on Zot Chanukah.3 In other words, anyone who did not fully repent during the Ten Days of Repentance can still have their repentance accepted until the eighth day of Chanukah. This idea is hinted to in the word zot in Isaiah: “Through this (zot), the iniquity of Jacob will be atoned.”4
Potential vs. Actuality
The great Houses of Hillel and Shammai disagreed about the order of lighting the Chanukah candles. The House of Shammai argued the candles should be lit in descending order, starting with eight candles on the first night and reducing by one candle each following night, whereas the House of Hillel argued for one candle on the first night, increasing each night until all eight are lit on the final night.
What was at the heart of their disagreement? The Rebbe explains that it is potential vs actuality. The House of Shammai taught that we should look at matters in their potential state. So the first night of Chanukah encompasses, in potential, all the nights to follow, whereas the House of Hillel maintained that we should look at things as they exist in actuality. So, on the first day, only one candle is lit, for it is only the first day of the festival, and so on.
Chanukah in particular reflects the aspect of the actual rather than the potential—and indeed, we light the menorah according to the House of Hillel’s method. This is why it is only on the final day of Chanukah — when all eight days and lights have been actualized and lit — that we say: “This is Chanukah.”
Read: “This Is Chanukah”
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