It is rare for the Talmud to include instructions on how a mitzvah can still be observed in times of crisis within the original outline of the mitzvah’s basic rules, making this one particularly noteworthy: “In times of danger one places it on the table, and that is sufficient.” The indication at the very core of the mitzvah is its inability to be disturbed by a change of circumstance. It is equally accessible in times of difficulty and times of wellbeing.
Similarly, Ramban writes that the Chanukah lights are, in a certain sense, superior to those kindled in the Beis Hamikdash.
How so? The lights of the Menorah were dimmed with the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash and the subsequent exile of the Jewish people from our homeland. The lights of Chanukah, however, remain unaffected by galus and continue for all times.
These ideas express the symbolism of the Chanukah lights as something eternal and immutable—namely, the Jewish soul’s unbreakable attachment to G-d. An integral component of the mitzvah is therefore the method in which the lighting of the Chanukah lamps can be observed under all circumstances, even when surrounded by physical threats. Moreover, the constancy of the mitzvah, which can be fully observed even in exile, highlights the fact that even darkness caused by our own misdeeds (such as our sins that brought about the exile) can never weaken the power of the Chanukah lights. For the lights of Chanukah represent the Jewish soul’s attachment to G-d, a bond that can never be broken.
—Likkutei Sichos, vol. 3, p. 818
