Our Attachment to Hashem Through the Chanukah Lights

In the Bas Ayin on Parshas Vayeshev, the Avritcher reads the account of Yehuda and Tamar (Bereishis 38:24–25) through the Arizal as a picture of Rosh Hashanah, Chanukah and the judgment of Klal Yisroel. The three months from Rosh Hashanah to Chanukah are the time when judgment is sealed. The Soton, the accuser, comes before Hashem, alluded to by the name Yehuda, which contains Hashem's four-letter name, and charges that His kallah, Knesses Yisroel, has been unfaithful and is attached in dveikus to sin. Knesses Yisroel answers that she is attached to the One to whom everything belongs, le'ish asher eileh lo, where the words eileh lo equal seventy-two, the gematria of chessed. Even if the exile and the burden of earning a living cause her to stray, in the depths of her heart she is attached in love to the Creator. Then she presents her proof. The seal is the sealed jug of oil of the Kohen Godol, the threads are the wicks of the Chanukah lights, and the staff, hamateh, equals kli in gematria, the vessel. The mitzvah of the Chanukah lights, with oil, wick and vessel, shows that Klal Yisroel follows Hashem and does His will. And Hashem answers, “She is more righteous than I,” admitting that any straying is because Moshiach has not yet come to end the exile. Rav Elozor Twerski of Faltishan used to say that this teaching was really from Rav Mottele of Chernobyl, the Bas Ayin's Rebbe, and was included in his talmid's sefer without attribution.