Talmud Bavli
Talmud Bavli

Chasidut for Shabbat 44:8

תא שמע דאמר רבי יהושע בן לוי

one may not light from lamp to lamp.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' For the lit lamp or branch is already sanctified, as it were, whilst no complete religious observance is fulfilled by the act of lighting the next, on the present hypothesis. ');"><sup>14</sup></span> For the scholars propounded: Does the kindling or the placing constitute the precept? — Come and hear: For Raba said, If one was holding the Hanukkah lamp and thus standing, he does nothing:<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' He does not fulfil the precept. ');"><sup>15</sup></span> this proves that the placing constitutes the precept! — [No:] There a spectator may think that he is holding it for his own purposes.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Whereas the essence of the Hanukkah lamp is to advertise the miracle. ');"><sup>16</sup></span> Come and hear: For Raba said: if one lights it within and then takes it outside, he does nothing. Now, it is well if you say that the kindling constitutes the precept; [for this reason] we require the kindling to be [done] in its proper place,<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Sc. outside; supra 21b. ');"><sup>17</sup></span> [and] therefore he does nothing. But if you say that the placing constitutes the precept, why has he done nothing? — There too an observer may think that he lit it for his own purposes. Come and hear: For R. Joshua b. Levi said,

Kedushat Levi

Our sages z"l said "the lightening makes the mitzvah" (Shabbat 22b). This is to say that a person needs to become a flame (set oneself on fire, become ardent) in their service, and this is the lightening, and because the ardor can be for empty things, the tzadik only becomes ardent for holiness, and this is called resting since rest [ie setting] is called 'the vessel in which the love is inserted', that by the insertion of the love into the vessel there is resting of the love that rests upon the thing. And this is 'one who says resting [setting the candles] makes the mitzvah', that the lightening will insert love into the vessel, that will become ardent in its service, and this is what the true sages hinted at that the setting the candles is the character trait of kingship, that through this [one is] making the Creator king, by becoming ardent there is rest in the service to the Blessed Creator.
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