Concerning the nes of Chanukah, the Gemara says in מסכת שבת דף כ״א עמוד ב׳: מאי חנוכה? What is the reason for the Yom Tov of Chanukah? And the Gemara answers: שכשנכנסו יוונים להיכל, when the יוונים came into the היכל, to the בית המקדש, טימאו כל השמנים שבהיכל, they made טמא all the oil of the היכל, וכשגברה מלכות בית חשמונאי ונצחום, when the מלכות בית חשמונאי overpowered them and came out victorious, בדקו, they checked, ולא מצאו אלא פך אחד של שמן, they only found one jar of oil, שהיה חתום בחותמו של כהן גדול, that was sealed with the seal of the כהן גדול, and they knew that this one was טהור, ולא היה בו להדליק אלא יום אחד, and there was only enough oil there to burn, to last for one day. נעשה בו נס, a miracle happened, והדליקו ממנו שמונה ימים, and they lit the מנורה from it for eight days. לשנה אחרת קבעום ועשאום ימים טובים בהלל והודאה. Next year they established it, and they made it into Yamim Tovim for Hallel and praise to Hashem. So the Gemara tells us clearly that the nes was that they had oil enough only for one day, and the Aibershter made a miracle that it lasted for eight days. Exactly how the miracle took place, exactly what they did with the oil, and how they divided it, or how they put it in, and what the miracle was, we find different sevarot, different ideas in the poskim. But generally it's divided into two categories. One sevara is that the nes took place in the כמות of the שמן, which means in the quantity of the oil, and another sevara is that the nes took place in the איכות השמן, in the quality of the oil. For instance, the Beit Yosef says that one way we could say is that the pach, the jar, every day after they emptied it into the menorah, remained מלא כבתחילה, remained full as before. So this is a way that the כמות of the שמן was changed, that even though normally it would have been empty, Hashem made a miracle that the pach, the jar, became full again. So there was more in the quantity of the oil. Or another sevara that the Beit Yosef says is that every day they found the נרות מלאים שמן, and after it burnt out, it filled up again, not in the jar, but the נרות filled up. But all this are ways in the כמות of the שמן, that there was more oil than there was originally, there was a miracle that it got filled up. The other way is that the nes was in the איכות of the שמן, in the quality of the oil, that that amount of oil that normally al pi teva naturally is only enough for one day, burnt for eight days, which means that every day only an eighth of the oil got burnt out. And as the Beit Yosef also says that it's possible that they divided the oil in the פך for eight חלקים, to eight parts, and every night they put in one part, one-eighth into the Menorah, and instead of burning only one-eighth of the night, it burnt throughout the whole night. Or as the Pri Chadash mevaser that the first night they poured in all of the oil into the Menorah, but every night only an eighth of the oil got burnt, which means that it wasn't a miracle in the quantity of the oil, that when it was empty it became full again, that more oil came, but it was a nes in the איכות, in the quality of the oil. And even though normally the oil should have been burnt up in one night, the quality of the oil changed that only an eighth of it was burned that night.

But as we all know, there are questions on both of these ways of explaining it. On that way of explaining it, that the nes took place in the כמות of the oil, in the quantity of the oil, so there is the famous question, and some say it's in the name of Rav Chaim Brisker, that how were they allowed to light the Menorah, the נרות המקדש, with that oil when the Torah says you have to have שמן זית להעלות נר תמיד, you have to light the Menorah with olive oil, and this was not olive oil, this was שמן נס. The extra oil that became after it was empty was oil that came through a nes, and it wasn't oil that was squeezed from a זית. So how can you use that for the Menorah? B'dochak you could answer that when the Torah says that you have to use שמן זית, the Torah doesn't mean that you actually have to have שמן, oil that was squeezed out of a זית, of an olive. It could be that the Torah means you have to have oil which has all the תכונות, all the qualities of שמן זית. And the oil that was here, that came through a miracle, was exactly like שמן זית. It had the color of the שמן זית, and it had the qualities of שמן זית, the fire that came when you lit the wick that was in the שמן זית was אורו צלול, was clear fire, like the Gemara says in שבת דף כ״ג עמוד א׳ that this is one of the qualities of שמן זית. So this quality was there too, so it had all the qualities of שמן זית, and me'meila it was kasher for the menorah. But it's self-understood that this terutz is a dochak, it's not a a clear terutz, because it is not so clear that when the Torah says שמן זית, the Torah doesn't mean שמן of a זית. Bifshitut the Torah means שמן that came out of a זית. And therefore, if we're going to answer that there was a change in the כמות of the שמן, and new oil came through a miracle, we're left with this question that how could they have used that oil when really the Torah says you have to have שמן זית, and this was not שמן זית, this was שמן נס, miracle that came through a nes.

According to the second ofen, that there was a change in the איכות השמן, there was a change in the quality of the oil, and therefore only an eighth burned the first night, and the second night another eighth, that for an amount of time that normally you would have to have the full pach to burn, it only used up an eighth of it, this is also not so simple, and there is a kushya on that, too. Because the din by the menorah is, as the Gemara says in מנחות דף פ״ט עמוד א׳, תן לה מידתה שתהא דולקת מערב עד בוקר, you have to put in the full amount, that it should be able to burn from evening to morning. And the Gemara says there, ושיערו חכמים חצי לוג, that the chachamim estimated that this is a half a log. And as Rashi brings this down in his pirush on the Torah in the beginning of Parshat Tetzaveh. So it comes out that every night when you fill up the menorah, you have to put in the full amount. And if we're going to say that first an eighth burnt up, and then another eighth, so it comes out that from the second day and on, it didn't have the full amount. So they were not mekayem this din of תן לה מידתה from the second day and on. And also, a כלי שרת always has to be malei, you always have to fill it up, as it's understood from the din that the Gemara says in זבחים דף פ״ח עמוד א׳, that כלי שרת אין מקדשין אלא מלאין, you could only mekadesh a כלי שרת if it's full. So from that we understand that the כלי שרת, always when you use it, has to be full. Now the Menorah was a כלי שרת, so in order to fulfill the mitzvah with the Menorah, it had to be full. Now according to this pshat, it comes out that from the second day on, it never was full, because the first day an eighth burnt up, and then was left only with seven-eighths, and the next day it was only left with six-eighths, etc., so it wasn't full the rest of the days. And the kashya we're asking here is not exactly as the kashya is asked in the Tosafos HaRosh and the Pri Chadash. They ask this kashya according to the sevara that the oil was divided lechatchila in eight חלקים, in eight parts, and they only poured in an eighth the first day, so they ask the kashya on the first night: How were you allowed to do that when you had enough oil to fill up the Menorah, so how were you lechatchila allowed to only pour in an eighth? And they ask the kashya based on the din תן לה מידתה. Since the din is that you have to put in the whole measurement, the whole amount, and they had the whole amount, so why didn't they put in the whole amount on the first night? The kashya we were asking is the kashya even more: That not only on the first night how were they able to put in only an eighth, even according to the opinion that they put in the whole thing, and only an eighth burnt up, the kashya is on the other days. On the other days, l'foal, they didn't have the תן לה מידתה, that they didn't put in the full amount. Even though they didn't have anymore, because they only had enough for one night, and after the eighth burnt up the first night, there was no choice, they didn't have anymore, but still, l'foal, this din of תן לה מידתה was missing. It wasn't their fault, they had no choice, it's not like the kashya they asked, that the first night there was a choice to put in the whole thing, and the kashya was how were they allowed to not put in. The kashya we're asking, they takeh had no choice, but l'foal it comes out that they were not mekayem, that they did not fulfill this din of תן לה מידתה the other nights. And even according to the way the Tosafos HaRosh writes that this din of תן לה מידתה is only היכא דאפשר, only if it's possible, and if it's not possible, then there is no din of תן לה מידתה, nevertheless, there is no issur according to this, they didn't do anything wrong, but nevertheless this mitzvah was missing a hidur. Since the way to do the mitzvah of נרות המנורה בהידור, to do it the way you're supposed to do it l'chatchilah, is if you put in the full amount, sei מצד תן לה מידתה, un sei miTzad the din that you have to have it malei, so it comes out that all other days except the first day, according to the opinion that they poured the whole thing in, and just one-eighth got burned up, so all the other days they were missing a hidur. And as we know that when Hashem made the miracle concerning the Menorah, it was to show that He is doing a miracle even in order to fulfill the מצוה בהידור, because otherwise, bichlal there shouldn't have been a miracle. As the famous kashya of the Pnei Yehoshua, that why did Hashem have to perform this miracle, since this is an avodah of tzibur, and we know that טומאה הותרה בציבור or טומאה דחויה בציבור. And when it comes to doing something in the בית המקדש that's noge'a to the tzibur, to the community, if there is no choice but to do it b'tumah, you're allowed to do it b'tumah. So in this case, they were allowed to do it b'tumah. Because if they had no oil tahor that they were able to light, and this is an avodah of the tzibur, they were allowed to do it b'tumah. So why did Hashem have to perform a miracle? And the answer that given is that Hashem wanted to show His love to the Yidden, that even in order to perform a מצוה בהידור, He performed a miracle. So it comes out that the whole inyan of the nes of Chanukah is connected to performing the מצוה בהידור. Now it comes out here that from the second night on, they did not do the מצוה בהידור, because to do the מצוה בהידור, you have to have תן לה כמדתה, so you have to put in the full amount, and also it has to be malei, and it comes out that from the second night on, they did not do it in this way, because they did not have the full amount. So it comes out that the second night there was an eighth missing, and also the second night on it wasn't full. So lichorah, this is a kashya on the second way of explaining the nes, that the nes took place in the איכות השמן, in the quality of the shemen, that only an eighth got burned, and the second night another eighth, etc. And the truth is, this kashya could go even a step further. In Shabbos, the sugya of Chanukah, the Rosh Yosef has a chakirah. He says that if we will hold that this din that you must have the full measurement is even bedieved, so the question would be, in a case where you don't have enough שמן כשר, enough כשר'ע, טהור'דיקע oil for the menorah, for all the nerot, is the din that you must add שמן פסול? If the din is that this din of שמן תן לה כמדתה is only lechatchilah, then we could say that if you don't have enough oil to fill up the menorah with שמן כשר, you don't have to add שמן פסול, שמן טמא, because bedieved it's good even if it's not full, even if you didn't put in the measurement. But there is a sevara to say that this din of תן לה כמדתה is even bedieved, so according to that, if you don't have enough oil that is kasher to put into the menorah, and since טומאה הותרה בציבור, you probably al pi din have to put in tamei'dike oil in order to fulfill the mitzvah of תן לה כמדתה. So it comes out that according to the sevara that תן לה כמדתה is even bedieved, they were not allowed to leave the menorah with only seven-eighths full. Al pi din, they would have to add שמן טמא in order to fill it up. And that we know they didn't do, because the whole nes was that they didn't use שמן טמא, and the question is, why didn't they do that? So this makes this kashya on this way of explaining the nes even stronger, that how can we say that the nes was that only an eighth burned, when it comes out according to this that the other days it wasn't full and it didn't have the full measurement, when according to this, they weren't allowed to do this?

So therefore, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, in Likkutei Sichos חלק ט״ו, page 185, explains the nes of Chanukah in a different way, and according to that, the kushyot that we asked before will be answered. He says that when we quoted before from the Beis Yosef, where the Beis Yosef says that the nes was that they put all the שמן in the נרות, ובבקר מצאו הנרות מלאים שמן, and the next day they found the נרות full of oil, so the way we learned before, the simple pshat in the Beit Yosef is that it got filled up again. Through the night it burned up, normally, like normal שמן זית would get burned up, but Hashem made a miracle that in the morning they found that the נרות were full again. Hashem filled it up again. And as we said before, this is according to the אופן that the נס was in the כמות of the oil, that the quantity of the oil was changed, that new oil came. So he says it's possible to say that this is not what the Beit Yosef meant. We could say what the Beit Yosef meant was, not that the oil got burned up, but afterwards the נרות were filled up again בדרך נס, but that it means that the oil burned, and at the same time while it was burning, it did not get used up, nothing was missing from it. And this fits to what the Chazal say in Midrash Rabbah on Shemot, in שמות רבה פרשה ב׳ ה׳, concerning the סנה, it says that the nature of אש של מעלה, of the fire that comes from above, is that שורפת ואינה אוכלת, it burns, but it doesn't eat it up, which means it doesn't use it up. So the same thing could have happened here, that the oil was burning, and at the same time nothing was missing. Because we have to say that when the fire was burning, it was burning because it used up some of the oil, because the din is that the fire of the מנורה has to come from burning שמן זית, because even if we're going to hold that you're allowed to use שמן נס, but one thing is for sure, that the fire, the light of the מנורה has to be such a light that comes from the שמן למאור. The Torah says שמן למאור, so the oil is supposed to make the אור. So therefore on one hand we must say that the fire that burned came from the oil itself, the oil was the one that caused the fire. But normally, when fire comes from the oil, the oil gets used up. If the fire is burning because of the oil, The oil is the fuel, then the oil gets used up. The miracle that happened here was that it got used up, and at the same time it didn't get used up. Which means that this was a דבר והיפוכו, it was two opposites at the same time. The oil got used up and didn't get used up at the same time. This is the concept that it says in the Teshuvat HaRashba, סימן תי״ח, concerning Hashem that He is נמנע הנמנעות. It is impossible to say concerning Him an impossibility, because there were certain חוקרים that said that יש טבע נמנע קיים בחק הבורא, that there is a concept of impossibility concerning Hashem. Ay, we know Hashem could do anything, what they what it means they said is that Hashem could change things, but to make two opposites happen at the same time can't make. For instance, to make something רוכב ובלתי רוכב, riding and not riding at the same time, they claimed it couldn't happen. Or when it says that there is no such thing as a פילא בקופא דמחטא, you can't make an elephant go through a hole of a needle because the elephant is big and the hole is small, they're two opposites. So they said Hashem could do it by making the elephant small or making the hole bigger, but to keep the elephant big and have the hole small, and still make it go through, which is a contradiction, that Hashem can't do. And the Rashba writes that it is not so, Hashem could even have נמנע הנמנעות, which means there is it's impossible to say then impossibility. Ay, it's a contradiction, but by Hashem there is no contradiction, He is beyond it. Because this whole contradiction is only a natural thing, but Hashem who is beyond nature and the Creator of the nature, so He is beyond that and He can make it happen. As we find concerning the Aron, that the Gemara says that מקום ארון אינו מן המידה, that the Aron in the Kodesh Hakodashim didn't take up place. The Aron took up place and didn't take up place at the same time. If you would measure the Aron, it had a certain place it took up. If you would measure the room, it had a certain amount. If you would measure from one side of the Aron to the wall and the other side of the Aron to the wall, it came out the same as if you would measure from the wall to the wall without the Aron. And at the same time, the Aron had to take up place. So there were two opposites there, it's נמנע הנמנעות. And the same thing we can say concerning the nes of Chanukah, that what happened there was, it was the inyan of נמנע הנמנעות, such a great miracle that Hashem showed His power of נמנע הנמנעות, that not only did He make a miracle, but He made such a miracle which is נושא הפכים, two opposites: that the fire burned, and it burned because it used up the oil, and at the same time, the oil was not used up. And according to this, all the questions are answered, because the oil that was left was the same oil that was poured in, so it was not שמן נס, and on the other hand, every night it was full because it never got used up, so they were mekayem this inyan of תן לה כמדתה and מקדשין מליאין, etc.