HaNerot Hallalu - Hannukah Torah for the First Night

In certain homes - ask Israeli friends about this - a formula is recited after lighting Hanukah candles. It starts Hanerot hallalu (“These candles”) and people sing it, probably as a way to make memorization easy. The purpose of Hanerot Hallalu is twofold: first, to give a short synopsis of what Hanukah is; and second, to make a somewhat unexpected statement about the candles themselves. The second stanza goes like this:


All the eight days of Hanukah, these candles are holy

And we don’t have permission to make use of them, but only to look at them

In order to thank and praise Your holy Name

For Your miracles and Your wonders and Your salvation.

The questions raise themselves: why can’t we make use of them?* why are Hanukah candles only for viewing?

The answer, or at least my answer, speaks to the idea of value, of worth. There are really two ways in which something is of worth - the first being that worth comes by virtue of utility - how something benefits, what its function is. But there is another manner of valuable things in this world: certain ideas, parts of our soul, the rare object, that are valuable simply because of what they are. Gems are the best physical example for this kind of worth: it isn’t that stones do anything in particular, but that we prize them because they are rare and beautiful. This is intrinsic value.


Functional value is crucial - I don’t think that we ask the question of how things are of use nearly enough - but it is also extremely seductive. It is much simpler and far easier to define the worth of anything solely based on its use. This is a kind of myopia that is progressively addictive and we find ourselves wrapped up in seeing everything, including other people, in light of what purpose they serve.


But intrinsic value - because something is good, because it is beautiful, simply because we love it
- has the effect of widening the eyes, expanding perspective. It is those things that are of intrinsic value which we tend to share both with the whole of humanity and across the whole of time: the beauty of art, the power of childbirth, the sublimity of nature, the holiness of the the good.


This is the Torah of Hanukah candles. We are asked to light them and then leave them be, for they are worthwhile in and of themselves. They are light for its own sake. And because they exist beyond function, in which only those affected find worth, we are able to share them with the entirety of our community. My teacher, Reb Mimi Feigelson, reminded me of the halakha that permits those simply walking down the street to make their required blessings over our Hanukah candles, the ones they see in our window. Intrinsic value belongs to everyone.


Our work in the Jewish world often steers us towards the value of function: it’s how we tend to explain Judaism to those we try to bring close (and sometimes to ourselves). We say that Torah makes people better human beings, that Judaism enriches lives and brings families close, that belief in God allows us to be grateful. We work to allow Torah, Judaism, community, God to serve Jews better - to be of use. But we should remember that often our work is simply to allow these great loves of the Jewish people to be: to enshrine them, to protect them, to bring to people into their light, and simply to let their light shine.


Hag Urim Sameach - A joyful Holiday of Lights,

Rabbi Scott Perlo


*This requirement, that Hanukah candles not be used for any other purpose than the mitzvah itself, is the reason for the candle we call the shamash. The shamash exists so that, should someone decide to read by the light of the hannukiah or use its light to find her way in the dark, it will be as if they used the light of the shamash for her purposes.



Recordings of Hanerot Hallalu:

Crazy Portuguese Chabad version

A new version


Wacky Stuff
The year of the potato - must be seen to be believed


הנרות הללו אנו מדליקין
על התשועות ועל הניסים ועל הנפלאות
שעשית לאבותינו בימים ההם בזמן הזה
על ידי כוהניך הקדושים.

וכל שמונת ימי חנוכה, הנרות הללו קודש הם
ואין לנו רשות להשתמש בהם, אלא לראותן בלבד
כדי להודות ולהלל לשמך הגדול
על ניסיך ועל נפלאותיך ועל ישועותיך.


These candles we light
For the redemption and the miracles and the wonders
That You performed for our ancestors in those days, at that time
Through the hands of Your holy priests

All the eight days of Hanukah, these candles are holy
And we don’t have permission to make use of them, but only to look at them
In order to thank and praise Your holy Name
For Your miracles and Your wonders and Your saving.

Hanerot hallalu anu madlikin
al hatshuot, ve-al hanisim, ve-al haniflaot
sheasita la-avoteinu bayamim hahem, bazman hazeh

Vekol shmonat yamei hanukah, hanerot hallalu kodesh hem
Ve-ayn lanu reshut lehishtamesh bahem, ele lirotan bilvad
kedei lehodot ulehallel leshimkha hagadol
al nisekha ve-al niflotekha ve-al yeshuatekha