Our minds are at war with the foreign ideas rooted in doubt, which flow the abyss of darkness that has covered our world.
Can we rise above and reconnect from within the darkness and impurity that has infected our inner temple – our minds?
The answer is yes!
Chanuka (חנוכה) shares the same letters as Chana Twenty Six (חנה כ׳ו). Twenty Six being the numerical value of God’s name. On a deep level Chanukah is rooted within the yearning for rebirth and redemption. That is what the Hashmonaim wanted more than anything and that is what Chana so deeply desired.
Chana knew that the only way for her to fulfill her mission in this world was to have a child, but part of this mission was for her to tap into a part of herself that was so lofty, so intertwined with the Creator that she had to break the bonds of reality and not only change her mazal, but that of the whole Jewish people.
Chanukah is as much about prayer as it is about war. Prayer is at its core, the weapon of Moshiach (Likutey Moharan Part 1 Lesson 2) and it is this weapon that Chana taught has power to upend decrees given at the highest source. After all her prayer gave us Shmuel HaNavi and in turn, the anointed one, King David.
This oil of anointment, the oil of redemption led at its core to the battles of Chanukah
The Hashmonaim saw in their predicament and that of all of the Jewish people a moment in time where they could if the desire and faith was strong enough actually change reality and thus cosmic history. So they tapped into the faith of Chanukah. They reached a point like her where they went above Hashem, above the reality presented to them and brought down the lofty sparks of Redemption itself.
True, they eventually failed, but the light of Redemption held within their actions were imparted to each of us and ultimately Moshiach himself. This light is most powerful now at the darkest time of year, because it is within the greatest darkness that the most potent light is found.
What is this light?
Emunah, faith.
Yet, it was pithe kind of faith that was actualized by Chana through prayer.
Our minds can rise above our seemingly mundane existence, for we at our core are infinite expressions of Divine consciousness. All we have to do is yearn and pray and we too can rededicate our own inner Temples and in doing so bring the final Redemption.
(Based on Likutey Halachot Hoshen Mishpat Hilchot Matanah, Halacha 5)