What an incredible opportunity to wake up to another one of these holy days of Chanukah. Besides the tremendous mitzvah we have to light the Chanukah candles, one of the core focuses of Chanukah is "Lehodos Ulehallel" - to express our gratitude and praise to Hashem. And as Torah Commentaries outline, it is a tremendously opportune time and place if one is able to do so specifically by the Chanukah candles.

"Hashem, thank You so much during the year for giving me the opportunity to believe in You. And as You've taught us from many Torah sources, that believing means specifically taking that leap of faith when I am not able to see and understand Your ways. Because although the Torah is replete with passages along the lines of "Ein Od Milvado" - that You, Hashem, exclusively orchestrate every single detail in my life and in everyone's lives, and there is no such thing as the course of nature and the normal way of the world, however, at the same time, usually throughout the year, You want me to live in a world where You are hidden behind the veil of nature, and my job is to try my best to find You through everything I'm doing. Because again, the point of my existence and my ultimate ticket to eternal pleasure in the next world, as outlined by many Torah sources, is to excel to my maximum degree in my Emunah and Bitachon endeavor, and specifically to believe when I don't understand. Whilst at the same time, thank You so much, Hashem, for giving us those opportunities where we do see You loud and clear in our lives. Because when that occurs, it gives me tremendous inspiration and motivation to be able to see through the veil of nature, throughout the year, when You are hidden.

Hashem, I'd like to just take a few moments now, whilst I have the opportunity, standing by these holy Chanukah candles, to look into my own personal life and appreciate and thank You for all the tremendous ways You've come through for me. Thank You, Hashem, so much for the gift of my health, the ability to breathe without struggle, the fact that I can see, and the fact that so much of the time I experience life without physical pain and suffering. Hashem, thank You so much for the gift to be able to have family, as well as the friends that You've given me, and the opportunity to share experiences together. Thank You so much, Hashem, for providing me from day one of my life, right up until today. Although there might have been times of struggle, and again, that You did for me also for good reasons, to help me grow in my endeavor of emunah and bitachon, however, at the end of the day, You have provided for me since day one, right up until today.

Thank You so much, Hashem, for the opportunity to be involved in a life where I am aware that my main purpose is to develop my emunah and bitachon. Thank You so much, Hashem, for sharing with us Your incredible Torah sources that allow us to grow in this tremendous endeavor. Hashem, I want to thank You deeply for all those times of challenge in my life, because I know that You love me and You created me just to give me good. And if You're sending me a challenge, it's only because You're giving me an opportunity to be able to believe that everything that You do is for the best. When I'm struggling with the pain and suffering of this illness that You've sent me, after contemplating on the fact a little bit, I've realized, Hashem, that You would only send me this out of Your love, because again, that's the only reason that You created the world, to share Your goodness with me.

And although there can be many reasons which are beyond my understanding, but one reason which I know is certainly applicable to me and objectively applicable to all of us, is that by sending me these times of darkness and suffering, You are thereby giving me a chance to practice my emunah and bitachon, that everything that happens is directly orchestrated from You, and You would only send me what is best for me. And similarly, thank You so much, Hashem, for all those times in my life that although I might not have experienced outright miracles, similar to the splitting of the sea or the miracle of the oil on Chanukah, however, I have certainly at times noticed Your divine providence in my life, and those times are certainly springboards of motivation and inspiration for me to live my life according to the values of emunah and bitachon. Thank You so much, Hashem, for these holy and incredible days of Chanukah."

What a tremendous privilege to be able to experience another day of these tremendous holy days of Chanukah. As the well-known Ramban at the end of Parashat Bo mentions: although usually Hashem decides to operate according to the laws of nature, however, at times Hashem decides to break the laws of nature in order to teach us and inspire us that ultimately, the laws of nature are Hashem Himself hiding behind the normal way of the world, giving us the opportunity to believe that Hashem is truly pulling all the strings, and therefore, although in times of old the world was also operating according to the regular laws of nature, however, when it came to the time of the exodus from Egypt, Hashem decided to break all of the laws, turning water into blood, as well as all the other miraculous plagues in Egypt, and culminating with the miraculous event of the splitting of the sea.

And as the Midrashim teach, not only did the waters of the sea split, but in fact, all water at all parts of the world split. Can you imagine for a moment: somebody's having a glass of water, and in an apparently obvious miraculous manner, the water in my cup splits. And when I find out that that happened to everyone in the world, and it was a clear miraculous occurrence, there is then no way to deny the fact that Hashem caused that miracle to occur. And in a sense, although witnessing such an experience is truly awesome, seeing the workings of Hashem so vividly clear, and not having the test of having to try to find Hashem through the veil of nature, however, in a sense, there is no opportunity to believe when one experiences such a miraculous occurrence, because I can see the workings of Hashem loud and clear, and that will certainly motivate me to follow the course of Emunah and Bitachon, and reach out to Hashem about anything and everything, follow His mitzvos with all their intricacies, whether I understand or not, and everything else that a life of Emunah and Bitachon leads to.

Because after witnessing such a miracle, I am living now on the inspiration that it is absolutely clear that Hashem runs every detail in the world. However, as mentioned many times, the Ramban in the same passage at the end of Parashat Bo writes that our ultimate focus and purpose in this world is Emunah, and in fact, there is no other reason that Hashem created the world in the first place, except for giving us the opportunity to express our Emunah. And as the Vilna Goan and many others that we've discussed mention, the purpose of all the mitzvos is to come to having Emunah in Hashem. And that being the case, usually Hashem wants the world to operate in a manner that He is hidden under the veil of nature, and if we do not make an active effort trying to find Him, we will just see nature, and we will not see Hashem. But Hashem in His great wisdom also understood that at certain times, in order to give us motivation and inspiration, He needed to reveal Himself in a more obvious, apparent way, so that thereafter when He goes back into hiding, we can live off the inspiration and motivation that we gained through those moments.

One of the main purposes behind lighting the Chanukah candles is in order to publicize the miracle that Hashem broke the laws of nature and caused the amount of oil which usually burns for only one day, to burn for all eight days. Most of the days that we live throughout our lives are not outright miracle days, however much of the fuel that we are able to gain to drive our lives according to the values of Emunah and Bitachon, can and should be derived from these above-nature experiences. What a tremendous opportunity we all have to fulfill the incredible mitzvah of lighting the Chanukah candles. And similarly, what a tremendous opportunity we all have to perhaps spend a little bit of time talking to Hashem around the Chanukah candles, digesting and appreciating the tremendous miracles that Hashem brought about for us during these holy days. And b'ezrat Hashem by doing so, that can be a tremendous springboard for us to take leaps in our journey of Emunah and Bitachon.

We are so privileged to currently be experiencing these eight powerful days of spiritual dynamite. Although usually throughout the year, we certainly are called on to make our maximum effort to grow in our emunah and bitachon, and as many Torah authorities outlined to us, such as the Mesillas Yesharim at the beginning of his book - that the purpose of life is to give us an opportunity to overcome the tests that Hashem sends us.

And in many ways, we are called on to view life as if it were in our own hands, of course, always according to the values of Emunah, such as reaching out to Hashem and asking Him for help, but again, assuming that it is our responsibility to do whatever we can from our side within our maximum capacity to overcome the tests and challenges that Hashem sends us, which are ultimately opportunities to reach our maximum potential for our eternal reward b'ezrat Hashem.

However, at the same time, these opportune moments that we have at different times of the year, where Hashem imbues a certain holiness, where the opportunity for connection is all that much more stronger; let us capitalize on the tremendous opportunity we have during these holy days of Chanukah, where the potential for closer connection with Hashem and for a tremendous boost in Emunah and Bitachon is available to every single one of us.

On Chanukah, we express our gratitude to Hashem, celebrating the tremendous miracles that He performed for us in times of old. We have the tremendous opportunity to perform the mitzvah of lighting the Chanukah candles, which ultimately commemorates the miracle which transpired in the Chanukah story. We know that the menorah in the Beis Hamikdash needed oil to be able to be kindled from. And when the Greek enemy destroyed the Beis Hamikdash, when the Jewish people came back and discovered just one jar of oil that was available to kindle the menorah, a miracle transpired and the oil, which was supposed to last for only one day, continued to burn for an entire eight days, an outright miracle.

The message of Chanukah is coming to teach us what we are really trying to work on throughout the year - Emunah and Bittachon - that Hashem exclusively orchestrates every single detail in every single one of our lives. Yes, usually, for whatever reason, Hashem does not decide to come through for us via the means of outright miracles, but He usually rather opts to work through the course of nature; but as the famous Ramban at the end of Parashat Bo teaches: just like Hashem is the One who is able to break nature and go against the usual order of the way the world operates, such as by splitting the sea, causing the miraculous plagues to appear in Egypt, and by extension, when Hashem performs these outright miracles, such as when Hashem caused the oil, which is only supposed to last for one day, to be able to burn for the entire eight days - this is a tremendous opportunity for us to inculcate Hashem's perspective, the only true perspective, the Emunah and Bitachon perspective, that although yes, we are usually called on to work within the laws of nature and to make our maximum effort, as if we are in control, to do the best that we can, however at the end of the day we are never to forget, even slightly, that Hashem exclusively orchestrates every single detail in every single one of our lives.

Just like Hashem was the One to change nature in the past and split the sea, bring about the plagues in Egypt, and more relevant to our times right now, to cause the oil to burn no shorter than eight times longer than it is supposed to according to the laws of nature, the message of Chanukah is coming to teach us that the laws of nature is just Hashem hiding within the normal way that the world operates, giving us the opportunity to look under the veil of nature and acknowledge that ein od milvado - there is nothing in the world except for Hashem.