The following are some precious observations and thoughts about Chanukah that I was privileged to hear in person from Rav Yaakov Kanievsky ztvk'l, the Steipler. These comments of Maran zt'l were of course only intended to arouse discussion among Torah scholars, and not to determine halochos.
"And Buy Oil And Lamps"
The Rambam (Hilchos Chanukah 4:12) writes: "The mitzvah of Chanukah lights is an extremely beloved mitzvah; a person must be heedful to do it in order to declare the miracle publicly, to add to Hashem's praise, and to show gratitude to Him for the miracles that He did for us. Even if he is totally supported by charity, still he must borrow money or sell his clothing and buy oil and lamps and light them."
How much "oil and lamps" does this destitute person need, who had to sell his clothes to purchase them?
The Gaon R' Meir Simcha of Dvinsk zt'l, in his Or Same'ach, comments on the Rambam's statement that, "he must buy oil and lamps" saying that the Rambam means that he must buy enough "also for the hiddur—the additional, nonobligatory lights; that is why the Rambam says that this is `to add to Hashem's praise.'"
Maran remarked that since the basic obligation of the mitzvah is to light one lamp only, how is it possible that Chazal obligated a poor person, who is sustained by charity, to borrow money or sell his clothes so as to light lamps whose obligation is merely a hiddur? He concluded that the comment of the Or Same'ach is a great chidush.
Indeed, the Mishnah Berurah (Orach Chaim, beginning of chapter 671) cites the acharonim's opinion that the obligation to borrow money or sell one's clothing is only for the one lamp that is the basic obligation.
These Lights Are Sacred
In the declaration that we say after lighting the Chanukah Menora we says, among other things, "...and for all eights days of Chanukah these lights are kodesh." This apparently means that the Chanukah lights have kedusha, but from the gemora (Shabbos 22a), however, a clear-cut proof can be presented to the contrary.
The reason that the gemora forbids counting coins opposite a Chanukah lamp is only so that people will not feel that mitzvos are lowly, not because of their intrinsic kedusha. This difficulty with the Rambam's decision is well known and has been widely discussed by prominent Torah scholars.
Maran zt'l reconciled the difficulty: that "they are kodesh" does not mean a kedusha like kedushas kodshim; it refers to the basic meaning of kodesh, denoting something that is separated from other things, and that people abstain from using or deriving pleasure from. We find that even tumah is sometimes referred to as kedusha, since any thing that is separate from the ordinary world of people can be regarded as kodesh.
For example, "Lest the fullness [of the vineyard] become kodesh" (Devorim 22:9). Rashi explains this on the basis of the Targum, which is tista'eiv, "become unclean." Rashi says that "anything that is rejected by man, either because of its great worth, as with hekdesh, or because of its degradation, such as something forbidden, may appropriately be called kodesh, just as in `Do not come near to me, since I made you kodesh' (Yeshayohu 65:5)."
Rashi explains in a similar manner that "You will be kedoshim" (Vayikra 19:2) as meaning to be perushim (standing apart from pleasures).
Additional research references:
(1) Menochos (42a): "When a mitzvah can be done by a gentile, a Jew does not need to make a brocho on it." Rashi explains (ibid.) that a brocho is not made on that mitzvah since a person cannot mention in the brocho the words "kidshonu" since a gentile can do the mitzvah, too.
(2) Chidushei Rebbe Akiva Eiger, Yoreh De'ah 240:1.
Days Of Joy And Hallel
The Rambam, in Yad HaChazokoh (Hilchos Chanukah 3:3), writes: "For this reason the Sages of that generation fixed the eight days commencing from 25 Kislev, to be days of joy and Hallel."
A famous question is why the Rambam does not mention that our sages fixed the days of Chanukah to praise and express gratitude to Him by saying the prayer Al HaNissim in Shemoneh Esrei and in Bircas Hamozone? Why is only Hallel mentioned and the other prayers omitted?
Maran answered that possibly the Rambam does not mean, when he mentioned Hallel, the same Hallel that Sages enacted for other days. He may have meant a more general sense of hilul— praising Hashem. The Rambam is, thus, actually writing that the days of Chanukah are days of glorifying HaKodosh Boruch Hu, and included in the ways of glorifying Him is naturally also the praise and expression of gratitude in the prayer Al Hanissim.
Parenthetically, the precise character of "the days of joy" mentioned by the Rambam is a topic for itself. We will, nonetheless, not refrain from citing some references: Tosafos, Taanis 18b, s.v. halocho); Bach, Orach Chaim chap. 671).
The Beis Yosef's Kushya
Most cheder yingelach has heard of the Beis Yosef's kushya (in the beginning of Hilchos Chanukah), in which he asks why our sages fixed eight days of Chanukah, when actually the miracle was only for seven days. The oil that they had at the start was sufficient for one day, and therefore that day should not be included in the days of miracles.
In his third answer the Beis Yosef writes: "On the first night they put all the oil in the lamps and the lights burned the entire night, and in the morning they found that the lamps were full of oil (no oil was consumed despite it burning a whole night), and this happened every night."
Rav Chaim Soloveitchik zt'l of Brisk asked a very difficult kushya on this answer of the Beis Yosef: the halocho is to light the lamps with pure olive oil, but this oil that was not consumed was miracle oil, not olive oil.
Maran zt'l showed us (on the second day of Chanukah 5742) what he wrote in his sefer Sha'arei Tevunah (chap. 5, in the note) to reconcile this difficulty in the Beis Yosef's third answer.
He writes: "It seems that a differentiation can be drawn between the power fire has to make light from oil, and the fire being able to later burn and consume the oil. The characteristic of Heavenly fire is mentioned in Chazal (Tosafos s.v. she'ein, Chagigah 27a, Yoma 21b) that fire from Heaven does not consume its fuel." The oil was lit by the fire as ordinary olive oil is lit; its not being later consumed is because Heavenly fire does not consume its fuel.
