Why We Add a Candle Each Night: Interpreting "Mehadrin Min Hamehadrin" in Lighting the Chanukah Menorah
The school of Hillel says that the very best way (mehardin min hamehadrin) of lighting the menorah is to add one more candle each night. The Talmud gives two reasons for this approach: a) because of the dictum that we increase in matters of holiness and b) to make it readily obvious which night of Chanukah it is. Will there be a practical difference between these two reasons? A difference in rulings between Maimonides and Tosafos is considered.
| Topics: | Maimonides, Tosafists, Menorah |
Rabbi Yaakov Wagner teaches chassidus and gemara at Yeshivas Tiferes Bachurim in Morristown, New Jersey. He studied at Yeshiva Gedola Zichron Shmaryahu, Toronto; Yeshivas Mir, Yerushalyim; Lubavitch Yeshiva, Toronto; Yeshiva Ohr Elchonon Chabad, Los Angeles, California and received Rabbinical Ordination at Central Yeshiva Tomchei Temimim, Brooklyn, NY.
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