The Taz's Answer to the Beis Yosef's Question
Above, we asked the Beis Yosef's question: There was enough oil for the first night, so why do we celebrate the first night of Chanukah? Why is Chanukah eight days if the miracle was only for seven?
The Taz (670:1) answers that because the oil of the first night wasn’t entirely consumed, we celebrate on the first day of Chanukah. Navi (II Melachim 4) states that a woman (the wife of the navi Ovadyah) said to the navi Elisha that she has debts and the creditors threatened to take her two sons away as slaves. Elisha asked her, בבית לך יש מה, "What do you have in your home?" She replied that she had some oil. Elisha said, "Borrow empty vessels from your neighbors and pour the oil into those vessels." Miraculously, the oil kept flowing until all the utensils were filled with oil, and she was able to pay her debtors.
The Zohar explains that the miracle occurred solely because this woman had a drop of oil in her home. If she had nothing in her home, the brachah wouldn't come because "when nothing is there, the brachah will not come to create something new." If there is even a tiny drop, the brachah can increase it.
This is how we know that in the days of the Chashmonaim, in the Beis HaMikdash, when they lit the menorah on the 25th of Kislev from the oil they found, some of it must have remained until the morning. The miracle wouldn't have created new oil if no oil remained from the first night.
The Taz writes, "In retrospect, they realized that a miracle happened on the first night. Had the oil been completely consumed the first night, there couldn't have been a miracle the next night. Certainly, some oil [miraculously] remained from the first night. The brachah came upon that remaining oil. So, we see that there was a miracle on the first night, too."
Reb Aryeh Leib zt'l, the Maharal Tzinz ('ז לחנוכה דרוש ,למנחה קומץ) explains the Taz with a mashal:
Someone had ten crates filled with gold coins. Nine were stolen. Using the gold coins from the tenth crate, he hired police to search for the nine stolen crates. He vowed that if the gold was found, he would give three gold coins from each box to tzedakah.
The crates were eventually found, and true to his promise, he gave a gabbai tzedakah 27 gold coins, three from each box. However, the gabbai asked for another three gold coins from the tenth crate. The man replied, “That crate wasn't stolen. My gratitude to Hashem is that He brought back the nine crates. Why must I thank Hashem for that tenth crate, which was never stolen?”
The gabbai tzedakah replied, “Had the tenth crate also been stolen, you wouldn’t have had any money to pay for the search. The fact that it wasn’t stolen is part of the miracle, and you should thank Hashem for that, too.”
On Chanukah, we praise Hashem for the menorah that lit seven days more than expected, and we also praise Hashem for the oil that was left over on the first night because, without that oil, the miracle couldn’t have occurred.
We learn from this to praise Hashem for all the miracles we receive, including those that prepare the path for other miracles. We have a lot to be grateful for, and Chanukah is when we attain this awareness.
