R’ Levi Yitzchak of Bereditchev z”l (1740-1810; famed chassidic rebbe) writes, citing the Zohar, that 36 “lights” are “lit” in Heaven to parallel the 36 candles that we light during Chanukah. Together, these 72 candles allude to the name of G-d that has 72 letters.
R’ Levi Yitzchak continues: When we add to the foregoing the eight candles that we light as shamashim, one each day, plus the eight shamashim that are lit in Heaven parallel to ours, there are 88 candles. This alludes to the word “pach”/“snare” in the verse (Tehillim 124:7) “Our soul is like a bird that escaped from the snare of hunters; the snare broke, and we escaped.” (The gematriah of “pach” is 88.) Because we escaped from the snare of Antiochus, we cause these 88 candles to be lit. Eighty-eight is also the gematriah of the initial letters of the phrase (Tehillim 33:20) “Our soul longed for Hashem.” These are the same initial letters as are found in the blessing “L’hadlik ner Chanukah”/“To light the Chanukah candle.” This is the text of the blessing according to the Arizal, omitting the word “shel.”
Based on the above, writes R’ Yaakov Yechizkiyahu Greenwald z”l (prominent Hungarian rabbi; died 1941), we can better understand the text of “Ha’neiros hallalu”/“These candles...,” the paragraph customarily recited after lighting the menorah. The text of this paragraph presents several difficulties: Why do we say these “candles” (plural) on the first night? Also, why do we say this paragraph after lighting the candles? (In contrast, when we perform other mitzvot – for example, when we don tzitzit and tefillin – the paragraph in which we describe the reason for the mitzvah is said before performing the mitzvah.)
Finally, how can we say “These candles are holy,” when the Gemara (Shabbat 22b) seems to state expressly that the candles are not holy? (They do, however, have the status of mitzvah objects, which must not be treated disrespectfully.)
R’ Greenwald answers: Even on the first night, when we light only one candle, there is more than one candle lit because our one candle has a parallel in Heaven. And it is to those lights in Heaven that we refer when we say that the candles are holy, not to our own candles, which have no holiness.
Why do we recite this paragraph after lighting our candles, not before? Because only after we light our physical candles are we prepared to light the spiritual lights above.
