for Chanukah, which day of the month was it? מצינו ב' שיטות בראשונים. There are two opinions in the Rishonim. דעת Rambam, the Rambam says, היו בכ\"ה כסלו, was 25th of Kislev, which is the first day of Chanukah. ובלשונו, the Rebbe quotes his לשון, the לשון Rambam is like this: first he explains there was a war, וכשגברו ישראל על אויביהם ואבדום, when the Yidden went over the goyim and they destroyed them, בחמישה ועשרים בחודש כסלו היה, was the 25th of כסלו, ונכנסו להיכל, that's when they went into the בית המקדש and they cleaned it out, etc. So the שיטת Rambam is that they won the war on the 25th of Kislev. The second shittah is דעת Meiri. The Meiri says clearly, שהתגברות זה היה בכסלו בכ\"ד בו. It was the day before, on the 24th of Kislev. The next day was the day that we have Chanukah, and the Rambam says we have Chanukah on the day they won the war. והנה ידוע, the Rebbe is going to explain what's the מקור, what's the the source, the reasoning behind these two opinions. So we know שיש ב' דעות בנוגע לגדרו של ימי חנוכה. We know there are two opinions in what the days of Chanukah are: אם קבעום רק להלל והודאה ולא למשתה ושמחה, the two opinions, one opinion is that they made it only for Hallel v'hoda'ah, thanking Hashem, and not for party, not for משתה ושמחה, או שקבעום אותם אף למשתה ושמחה, or the other opinion that they made it not only for Hallel v'hoda'ah, also משתה ושמחה. ובלשון Rambam, the Rebbe quotes for the second opinion, which that it is ימי שמחה, he quotes the Rambam. What does he say? שמונת ימים האלו, these eight days, שתחילתם ליל חמישה ועשרים בכסלו, that they start from the 25th of כסלו, ימי שמחה והלל, it's days of simcha and Hallel. So here we have the שיטה of the Rambam that it's ימי שמחה, and then the other שיטה that it's not ימי שמחה, it's only Hallel v'hodaah. Now לכאורה יש לומר שזה קשור עם הפלוגתא הנ\"ל. These two opinions, whether they made it also for ימי שמחה, is connected to the other מחלוקת. Which other מחלוקת? באיזה יום היה נצחון המלחמה, which day they won the war. ובהקדם, first I'll explain, bring, the Rebbe says, מה שנתבאר במקום אחר, what I explain in a different place. Where is the different place? That sichah that we just learned before, הערה 12, Likkutei Sichot חלק י' עמוד 142 ואילך, that's the sichah that we just finished. So there the Rebbe says, I explained שהפלוגתא אי ימי חנוכה הם ימי שמחה, this מחלוקת whether the days of Chanukah is days of שמחה, תלויה בטעם קביעות ימי חנוכה, depends why the חכמים made the Yom Tov of Chanukah. לדעת שימי חנוכה הם רק ימי הלל והודאה, according to the opinion that it's only made for Hallel v'hodaah, which is not the Rambam, so why did they make Chanukah? For what? Nu, tell me. If it's not if it's not ימי שמחה, it's only Hallel v'hodaah, it's only for the oil. נקבע היום טוב בעיקר על נס הנרות. So the main reason for the Yom Tov is the נס of the candles. דכיוון שזהו בעיקר עניין רוחני, since the main reason for the Yom Tov is a רוחניותדיקע thing, the fact that there was a the light, the mitzvah of נרות of of of the מנורה you were able to do properly for eight days, לכן גם חגיגת היום טוב על ידי הלל והודאה להשם. So how do we celebrate the Yom Tov? Also עניין רוחני. So praising Hashem, thanking Hashem, doing all the רוחניותדיקע things. So according to the one that says, not like the Rambam, that it's not for a it's only for a רוחניותדיקע עניין, the reason we have Chanukah is not for a גשמיותדיקע, not mainly for the war, which is גשמי, but mainly for the רוחני, so they hold that the way to celebrate is only a רוחניותדיקע עניין, הלל והודאה. מה שאין כן לדעת הרמב\"ם, according to that, עיקר קביעות ימי חנוכה מנצחון המלחמה. The main reason is for winning the war. לכן תיקנו חכמים שיהיו גם ימי שמחה. That's why the חכמים said you have to have ימי שמחה, which is שמחה גשמית וגופנית, it's a physical שמחה for the body, כמו שנצחון המלחמה היה הצלה גופנית, just like the winning of the war was a physical winning. וזה שנקבע גם להלל והודאה, שהוא עניין רוחני, according to the Rambam, why did they also make it Hallel v'hodaah? יש לומר שזה עניין נוסף בשביל נס הנרות, עניין רוחני. That's because of something else also happened. And that's how you learn Peshat in the Gemara. The Gemara knew that the main thing is the war and that's why ימי שמחה. The Gemara שאלה is מאי חנוכה, why is there also Eppes a רוחניותדיקע also? Because there was a רוחניותדיקע נס also, something רוחניותדיקע also. So now we know what the Machloket is, whether it's ימי שמחה or not. על פי זה יש לומר, ששני העניינים שכתב הרמב\"ם, now this can tell us that the two things that the Rambam writes, which are the two things that we had already from the Rambam now? One, that it's ימי שמחה, and what's the other thing from the Rambam? That it happened on כ\"ה. שימי חנוכה הם ימי שמחה, and the second thing, גם נצחון המלחמה בכ\"ה, that the winning of the war was כ\"ה, שייכים זה לזה, they're connected. Why? כי לדעתו According to the רמב״ם, איז דער יום טוב חנוכה לזכר שני ענינים שאירעו בזה היום. According to the Rambam, the reason for Chanukah, for the יום טוב חנוכה, is for two things that happened on that day that we have Chanukah. So therefore, since Chanukah is כ״ה, and Chanukah is also made for the winning of the war, nu, סתמא when did they win the war? כ״ה. מה שאין כן הדעה שקביעת יום טוב דחנוכה שתחילתו בכ״ה מפני נס הנרות ולא משום ניצוח המלחמה, it's for the neirot, not for the war, יש לומר שהיא בהסכם להדעה, that fits with the opinion, שניצחון המלחמה היה יום שלפני פניו, כ״ד בחודש. The nes of the war happened the day before, וכ״ה בכסלו הוי רק נס הנרות, and that כ״ה is only the nes of the neirot. One thing is clear: the nes of the menorah happened כ״ה, that's clear. So if the reason for the יום טוב חנוכה is the nes of the neirot, the neirot happened happened כ״ה, could be כ״ה. When did the war When did they win the war? It's no re'ayah, could be כ״ד. Nobody We have no reason to say it happened כ״ה. That's not the reason for the Yom Tov. A Yom Tov is made on the day the miracle happened. If the miracle If the reason for the Yom Tov is the oil, the nes of the oil started on כ״ה. Fine, so that's it. The יום טוב חנוכה is mainly not for the war, so the war could have been the day before. Mah she'ein kein if you hold that the Yom Tov was made for the war also, and since the Yom Tov starts on כ״ה, and they usually make a Yom Tov at the day of the nes, and the Yom Tov of Chanukah is made for two nisim, the nes of the oil and the nes of the war, so bepashtut, the nes of the war also happened on כ״ה. So the Rambam learns this too, so the Rambam goes לשיטתו. One second, the Rambam goes לשיטתו. The Rambam who holds that the nes of Chanukah was for the war also, that's why he could say that it happened on כ״ה. But the others who hold that the Yom Tov is not for the war, it's mainly for the שמן, so we don't know when the war was, so it's possible כ״ד. Okay. No, first of all, even for that you could say they celebrated eight days, because חנוכת המזבח they celebrated eight days. And a Chanukah and they celebrate, I mean the ניצחון המלחמה for eight days. Besides that, if you have the if you have the the nes of the oil also, so we continue it. Maybe It could So it's possibly one day. As a matter of fact, there are some shitos that hold, as an answer to the famous kashya of the Beis Yosef, why do we have a nes why do we have Yom Tov eight days when the nes of the oil was only for seven, right? They had enough for one day. That one day is not a miracle, one day was normal, the extra seven. So one of the answers is that one day is for ניצחון המלחמה, and then seven days is for the oil. Nes of the oil happened seven days. So, lefi zeh, it fits. We'll see how. It's not so pashut, but this is it. ועל פי זה מדויק לשון המאירי, this even fits to the לשון of the Meiri. כשמבאר תוכן חגיגת הלילה הראשון, when the Meiri explains the meaning of the celebration of the first night, שלא היה בו לכאורה שום נס בשמן, as we said, לכאורה there's no nes of the oil the first day, שכתב, he writes: מברכין על הגאולה ועל הודאת מציאת הפח. We thank Hashem for the geulah. What's the geulah? Winning the war. And the finding of the The mere fact that they found the oil, that deserves a special day also. היינו, comes out according to the מאירי, שלא יסתפק בזה שמברכין על הגאולה ניצחון המלחמה. He doesn't say just that we celebrate the first day, the extra day, should be seven, we celebrate an extra day, is because of ניצחון המלחמה, אלא מוסיף גם על הודאת מציאת הפח. He says it's also because they found the oil. It לכאורה would have been enough, you would say like this: the first day is because we won the war. What did we say before? If you hold that it happened on כ״ה, I mean on כ״ד, when do you think, do we have Chanukah because of the war? If it's כ״ד, it's not because of the war. So he says, כי מצד הגאולה עצמה, had it been because of the גאולה, היו קובעים זה היום טוב ביום כ״ד. They would have made it כ״ד, which is יום ניצחון המלחמה, according to the Meiri that they won the war. ולכן מוסיף, that's why he adds, שהטעם לזה יום ראשון דחנוכה הוא, what's the reason for the חנוכה, גם מצד מציאת הפח, that they found the oil, הקשורה עם הדלקת המנורה דכ״ה. That's connected already to the menorah. The menorah started כ״ה, and they found the oil, could be they found it early, but they found it in order to be able to burn it, to light it. So it comes out everything fits now. Meiri learns that the nes is only because of the שמן, mimeila, and the שמן was כ״ה, the war is not the reason for Chanukah, so the war could be before, כ״ד, and the Rambam learns that the nes is that Yom Tov is also for the war, and since the Yom Tov starts כ״ה, the war must have been finished כ״ה. So far, so good.

זאגט דער רבי, אמנם but כד דייקת, כד דייקת, when you look a little bit further into it, אין הדברים מוכרחים. What we said till now is not so simple. Why? Let's just stop a second before. When you celebrate the winning of a war, when do you celebrate? The day after you won the war or the day you won the war? How is it by Purim? Next day. Oh! See, the Rebbe goes here with the premise the whole time that the winning of the war, if you celebrate because of the winning of the war, and you celebrate כ״ה, must have been the winning of the war was כ״ה. Who says that's true? That's what he says. Lechora it's not like that. שהרי בפורים מצינו מפורש, פורים it's clear שהיום טוב הוא בשביל נצחון המלחמה, the Yom Tov is because we won the war אשר ישלטו היהודים המה בשונאיהם, the Yidden fought the goyim and they won over the enemies, ומכל מקום נקבע היום טוב לא ביום הנצחון אלא ביום המנוחה. The Yom Tov was established not the day they won the war, because when did they fight? י״ג. When is Purim? י״ד. Same thing Shushan Purim. Shushan Purim ט״ו because they fought י״ג and י״ד, so they the next day is the one that you have. אלא ביום המנוחה, the day they rested, the day after the war. The pasuk says clearly, ונוח בארבעה עשר, they rested on ארבעה עשר, ובחמישה עשר בו, and then in in in Shushan the the 15th also, ועשות אותו יום משתה ושמחה. So they made the day after. Oh, אויב אזוי the Rebbe what what I said before is not true. ואם כן, גם בחנוכה אפשר להיות כן. So Chanukah you could say that The Rebbe is trying to say, if the Yom Tov Chanukah is because of winning the war, when should the Yom Tov have been? כ״ד? It's not true. דאף שנצחון המלחמה היה ביום כ״ד בחודש, even if you hold that the winning of the war was כ״ד, מכל מקום נקבע יום טוב על נצחון זה ביום שלאחרי זה, you still have the day is the Yom Tov established the next day כ״ה בכסלו, שהוא יום המנוחה, the day of resting. וכידוע הרמז בשם חנוכה, there's even a remez why it's called חנוכה, חנו כ״ה. What does חנו כ״ה mean? They rested, they didn't fight on כ״ה. היינו שכ״ה הוא יום המנוחה. The יום המנוחה is that they rested. So the whole pilpul the Rebbe says I said till now is not really true. וכן נקט אדמו״ר הזקן, the Alter Rebbe says there, the Yom Tov of פסח הוא ביום שנעשה הנס. Yom Tov Pesach takeh is when they have the nes. The 15th day of Nisan, what happened on that day? The Yidden went out of Mitzrayim on that day. And then the Alter Rebbe adds, מה שאין כן חנוכה ופורים, he counts Chanukah and פורים, שהם ביום המנוחה. Says Chanukah and Purim is not the day of the war of the winning of of the nes, it's יום המנוחה. So the Alter Rebbe says clearly that it's possible to say that כ״ה is the Yom Tov and it's the יום המנוחה, and the Yom Tov was and the nitzachon was the day before. על פי זה נמצא, according to this it'll come out שלדעת הרמב״ם בשביל שנצחון המלחמה היה ביום כ״ה, that the Rambam says clearly that they won the war on כ״ה, וסבירא ליה שקביעת היום טוב הוא על שם נצחון המלחמה כנ״ל, and he says that the winning of the war the reason for the יום טוב is for winning of the war, ולדעת הפרי חדש לפי שיטת הרמב״ם יום ראשון דחנוכה הוא רק על שם נצחון המלחמה, the פרי חדש even adds, like I said before, that according to the Rambam, why do we have eight days not seven? The first day is for winning the war. הרי היום טוב דחנוכה הוא לא ביום המנוחה שלאחרי זה כמו בפורים, so it comes out that Chanukah according to the Rambam, the Rambam says it was כ״ה, so the יום טוב is not on the day after the war, on the day of the מנוחה, אלא ביום הנצחון, כמו בפסח, like Pesach, which is not like the Alter Rebbe says. מה שאין כן לדעת המאירי, according to the מאירי שנצחון המלחמה היה בכ״ד, according to they won the war כ״ד, הרי קביעת היום טוב שהוא גם על הגאולה ביום המנוחה כמו בפורים. So it comes out that Chanukah is like Purim. They they won the war כ״ד and כ״ה was the day after, that's why we have the יום טוב. So al kol panim פנים what we can't explain what they said before, that the rea- that the two things go together, that the reason the Rambam says that it the war finished כ״ה because he holds that the יום טוב is because of the war, because if the יום טוב would be because of the war, they should have made it in כ״ו if if it finished כ״ה. So what is the machloket? So the Rebbe says,

ויש לומר שהפלוגתא אם חנוכה היה ביום המנוחה או ביום הנצחון, the machloket whether Chanukah was on the day of after the war or the day of winning the war, תליא בהסברת השייכות של נצחון המלחמה ליום טוב דחנוכה, will depend on the sevara of how much is the winning of the war connected to Chanukah, in which way, כלומר, This is what the Rebbe, this is what it means. The Rebbe wants to say it like this: lekulei alma, according to everybody, היום טוב דחנוכה שייך הן לניצחון המלחמה והן לנס הנרות. Everyone agrees that the war, that the Chanukah is for both, for winning the war and for the nes of the of the oil. אלא דפליגי, they argue, אם הנס דניצחון המלחמה אינו אלא הקדמה והכשרה לנס הנרות. Is the nes of the war only like an introduction, a means to an end? What's the end? The end is the nes of the נרות, שהוא הגמר והשלימות, that's the whole end. וזהו וזהו סיבת קביעת החג. That's the reason for the Yom Tov. So it comes like this: The reason is for both, but the whole idea of winning the war is not the real reason, it's because this is the way we were able to have the nes of the נרות. או, or, שניצחון המלחמה לא נחשב כהקדמה בלבד, winning the war is not just a means to the end of the nes of the נרות, אלא דומה בתוקפו לנס הנרות, ושייך לקביעת ימי חנוכה. It's just as important in itself. Ah? We'll see in a second. סתם ענף, it looks like that's not... That's the way to explain the machloket, as we'll see in a second. Didn't explain it yet, but he just wants to say the nekudah, that everyone agrees that ניצחון המלחמה is a reason, but is it a reason on its own? In other words, you have two separate reasons: winning the war, the nes of the oil, or the ikar is the winning the the oil, and that the war also, but the war, winning the war was only a means to get to the גמר, to get to the שלימות, to the completion of the whole thing. And this will be the reason for the machloket. והביאור בזה, the explanation will be like this: ימים טובים שנקבעו לזיכרון על נס שאירע לבני ישראל בזמן מסוים, יש בהם ב' אופנים בפרט. All those ימים טובים that they were set, established to remember a certain nes that happened to Yidden a certain time, there are two ways to look at it. One way is: היום טוב נקבע על הצלת וגאולת ישראל, ולא על אופן ההצלה והגאולה. The Yom Tov was made because we were saved. So has nothing to do to how we were saved. That's not part of the Yom Tov. The fact is we were in trouble, Hashem took us out of trouble, saved us, that's the Yom Tov. Now, makes a difference how we were saved? Makes no difference. As long as we were saved, that's one way. The second way is: קביעת היום טוב לא היא רק על עצם ההצלה והגאולה של ישראל, the establishment of the Yom Tov is not only for the עצם זה that we were saved, כי גם על אופן הגאולה שהיה באופן מיוחד, also how it was done. There is a special Yom Tov made in the way the הצלה, the way Hashem saved us. We'll see. ויש לומר שלדעת Rambam, it comes like this: according to the רמב״ם, זהו אחד החילוקים בין פורים וחנוכה. That's one of the differences between Purim and Chanukah. דאף שבשניהם היה הצלה וגאולת ישראל מיד אויביהם ושונאיהם, both of them Yidden were saved from their enemies, ואדרבה, עיקר הצלה וגאולת ישראל בגלוי הייתה בימי הפורים, where did Yidden get saved even more? Purim! שאז ניצלו מגזירת המן, they were saved from המן, שביקש להשמיד, להרוג ולאבד את כל היהודים מנער ועד זקן טף ונשים ביום אחד, they wanted to kill all the Yidden in one day, and we were saved. הרי בפורים עיקר קביעת היום טוב הוא על התוצאה, פורים the reason we were we have a Yom Tov is for the result. What's the result? הצלת וגאולת ישראל, Yidden were saved. והטעם אמרו, what's the reason why we're we don't care in the פרט, but the main thing is what happened, the bottom line? כי הצלה וניצחון המלחמה גופא לא היה על ידי נס גלוי, because the way it happened was no miracle. I mean, no revealed miracle. על ידי נס המלובש בדרכי הטבע, a nes that's put into teva. So you can't make the we can't make the Yom Tov to celebrate the bottom line that we were saved, and also to celebrate the nes of how we were saved, because that wasn't a real open nes. שכן בחנוכה, שקביעת החג היא לא רק על התוצאה, Chanukah the Yom Tov is not only for the result, which is ישועת והצלת ישראל, the Yidden were helped and saved, כי אם גם על אופן הנס, we celebrate also how it was done, על הניסים, מסרת גיבורים ביד חלשים ורבים ביד מעטים, the Eibershter made nissim and made us win the war even though they were stronger, they were more. So the nes the Yom Tov of Chanukah was to celebrate even the way the nes, the way we were saved. ולכן, and that's the bottom line, therefore, פורים נחשב ניצחון המלחמה רק כהכשרה והקדמה לעיקר, ישועת ישראל, פורים the way it was done, the way the Yidden were saved, Purim we do not celebrate the whole השתלשלות of how what brought to the All that is only an introduction to the bottom line, and the ikar is the bottom line. ולכן נקבע החג, therefore the Yom Tov was made, לא ביום שבו היה נצחון המלחמה, not the day we won the war, אלא ביום המנוחה שבו מתגשמת הצלת ישראל, the day that we rested after the war, cuz the winning of the war was not part of the celebration. If we celebrate the winning of the war, then you have to celebrate when we won the war, because here what counts is the bottom line, and that's all we celebrate. We don't celebrate the other details, even though it was it was cuz most of it was מולבש בטבע. Even the winning of the war was not such a big nes, because they all got scared, pashut! It says throughout what happened throughout the whole year when they sent the letters and everything, everyone got scared, so we won the war. איש לא עמד בפניהם. Yes, it was also a nes, but not a main nes, not a, eppes, all the circumstances and everything that happened, so there's nothing to celebrate, to make a big Yom Tov out of it. So mainly we celebrate the bottom line, the salvation. When is the salvation? Not the day you won the war, the day after, the one is over, the war is over, the next day. Now we look around and we see we're all here and, Baruch Hashem, we're saved. So this the Yom Tov is on the day after the winning of the war. שאינו כן חנוכה, שגם הנצחון הוא מעצם הנס השייך ליום טוב. In Chanukah, we celebrate the war itself, not just the result of the war, because the war itself was a nes. הרי קביעות היום טוב הוא באיזה? באיזה יום שהיה הנצחון. So the Yom Tov is made on the day that we have the we won the war. So comes out that this is all, so lefi zeh, we won the war on כ״ה and we celebrate כ״ה. This is all explained which shittah? Shittat Rambam, that we won the war on כ״ה and we celebrate כ״ה. Why do we why do we celebrate כ״ה as part of celebrating the winning of the war? Because it's also part of the Yom Tov. The chachamim made the Yom Tov to celebrate the winning of the war, so we celebrate the day we won the war. Ai, how come by Purim we don't celebrate the day we won the war? Because winning the war is not part of the Yom Tov, because it's not a real real outright nes, efes a nes lema'alah miderech hateva. Now that's only according to Rambam. According to the Meiri, that he says that we won the war כ״ד, and the Alter Rebbe holds like who? Like the Meiri, cuz the Alter Rebbe said that Chanukah and Purim, he puts them both together, Chanukah and Purim we celebrate the day after the war. He says Chanukah and Purim, he doesn't say just Purim. What's the sevara in that that shittah? והנה הובא לעיל, we said before, דאדמו״ר הזקן נוקט כשיטת המאירי. The Alter Rebbe holds like the Meiri. ומבאר, the Alter Rebbe explains, שחנוכה אינה כמו פסח. It says Chanukah and Purim, Chanukah not like פסח, שחנוכה נקבע ביום המנוחה. Chanukah was established the day after the war, that we rest. והנצחון היה ביום שלפניו, the winning of the war the day before. מה שאין כן בפסח, שהיום טוב נקבע ביום שנעשה הנס. Pesach it was established the day of the nes. And, by the way, the Rebbe just gives the reason the Alter Rebbe says, כמו שמבאר שם הטעם על פי פנימיות הענינים, the Alter Rebbe gives the reason why take is Pesach different than Chanukah, said, כאשר הנצחון והיום טוב הם בשני ימים, הרי זה מורה שהנצחון הוא ענין נפרד מהיום טוב עצמו. He says that if you if the the Yom Tov is the day after the winning of the war, it means the winning of the war and the Yom Tov are like two separate ענינים, ורק הכנה אליו, it's only a preparation. מה שאין כן בפסח שהיה הנס על ידי שנגלה עליהם מלך מלכי המלכים הקדוש ברוך הוא בכבודו ובעצמו, שלמעלה מחלוקת דרגות, פסח, the Eibershter revealed Himself in such a high level that you can't say there are two דרגות. Like this, you could say there's one דרגה, this another דרגה. לכן היו שני דברים ביחד, they both came together, בלי התחלקות בנוגע לישראל... נגף למצרים ורפואה לישראל. Not to divide one day the Mitzrayim were killed and one day we got freed, cuz it's higher מדרגות, that's a רוחניות'דיקע ענין. But the bottom line is that the Alter Rebbe holds that Chanukah we celebrate the Yom Tov the day after the winning of the war. הא? No, we'll see in a second, we'll see how it comes out. So he says, so lichora the Alter Rebbe does not hold like the Rambam. אבל יש לומר שתוכן ביאור אדמו״ר הזקן מתאים גם לשיטת הרמב״ם. You want to say the way the Alter Rebbe explains, it fits to the Rambam also, שהנצחון המלחמה היה בכ״ה. Even though the Alter Rebbe says that the Yom Tov was celebrated the day like like Purim, the day after the war, תוכן, the Alter Rebbe could hold it was on כ״ה, why? כי אינה דומה חנוכה לפסח. Chanukah is not like פסח, שבפסח היו שני דברים, נגף למצרים, מכת מכת בכורות, ורפואה לגאולת ישראל, בנס אחד. Pesach take they were together: the Mitzrayim got hit got hit which was מכת בכורות, and the geulah, he says, came together בנס אחד. וכשכותב Alter Rebbe, the Alter Rebbe explains it, מסיים and says מה שכתוב בספרים שזה היה קודם חצות או לאחר חצות אינו אלא הקבע בזמן הנס, he says some say it was before חצות, after חצות, says no, the moment of מכת בכורות, that's when really the Yidden were freed. So really it was all together. מה שאין כן חנוכה, אף שגם נצחון המלחמה היה בכלל הנס שעליו נקבע יום טוב. Chanukah, even though we say winning the war is also one of the reasons why we have a יום טוב, עכ״ז עיקר הנס דחנוכה היה נס שמן והנרות. The main reason of Chanukah is the oil. שבזה היה נס גלוי ממש, it was ממש an open miracle, ולא היה בו להדליק יום אחד ונעשה בו נס שמונה ימים, only enough for one day, the rest for eight days. וה-8 days, שנס הנרות מורה על הצלת דת ישראל, the nes of the candle shows the salvation not of the Yidden, of the religion. היפך ביטול דתם, they tried to destroy our religion, this changed it. אם כן היו כאן ב׳ נסים שונים שארעו בשני זמנים שונים. Two nissim happened in two separate times: נצחון המלחמה ונס פח השמן שהוא שלימות הצלת דת ישראל. The פח השמן is the שלימות, but that happened a separate time. So Pesach we celebrated all the same day because it takeh happened together, and Chanukah it didn't happen together, it takeh happened separately. Huh? No, the whole thing is to be free of to be able to do Yiddishkeit, and later on, the Yiddishkeit was done b'tachlit, with a hiddur, with with with the proper oil. So the so be'emet you could say like this: that the Alter Rebbe could hold that it happened on כ״ה, in not במציאות, no, the Alter Rebbe happened on כ״ד, sorry, but the Alter Rebbe fits, the sevara of the Alter Rebbe fits even according to the Rambam. Even if it was כ״ה, but they're two separate inyanim. Lema'aseh the Alter Rebbe holds it's כ״ד and he says it's the day after, but in inyan it could fit even if it happened כ״ה, even if you hold like the Rambam. And what's the machloket, if it's so what's the machloket the Rambam and the Meiri? דתוכן פלוגתת הרמב״ם והמאירי, the reason of the machloket is if נצחון המלחמה בחנוכה היה בכ״ד או בכ״ה, whether it was כ״ד, yesh lomar, we could explain it like this: laMeiri, according to the מאירי, אף שביחס לפורים נחשב נצחון המלחמה דחנוכה בכלל הנס, like this, according to the Meiri, winning the war is part of the miracle, עכ״ז עיקר הנצחון דחנוכה הוא נצחון הדת, the main נצחון is נצחון of the religion, the רוחניותדיקע, ובפרט שנצחון המלחמה לא היה נס גלוי כנס פח השמן, שהרי לנצחון זה אחיזה בטבע, also it wasn't a real it was a nes, but not as strong as the oil. By the oil it's mamesh lema'alah miderech hateva. Oil that's not there and all of a sudden appears, that's lema'alah miderech hateva. To win a war, it's מלובש בטבע. Okay, vadai the Eibershter made a nes because it was many against few, strong against the weak, but sof kol sof it has an אחיזה in teva. It wasn't like all of a sudden all the goyim died, that would be a נס גלוי. They didn't die. You had to fight with them and you did the war, and there were mistama casualties by Yidden also. Ela mai, we still won the war. So it's a nes, but not such a strong nes as nes of פח השמן, so the nes of the oil, that's the ikar. ונס דנצחון המלחמה נחשב רק כהכשר להעיקר. The nes of the war is only a hachshar, an introduction, a preparation to the ikar. So the Meiri holds that way. ולכן סבירא ליה דגם בחנוכה היום טוב לא היה ביום נצחון המלחמה, כי אם ביום המנוחה. So he says that when they won huh? How is that a preparation? Well, we wouldn't have the nes of the oil if we wouldn't have the winning of the war. Yeah, if we wouldn't win the war, we wouldn't have we wouldn't be So that's the ikar. The ikar is the bottom line that we got our religion back. No, farkert, it's not the ikar, so נצחון המלחמה is not the ikar. It's only a הכשר to the ikar, only a preparation to the ikar, because the main thing we want to get to is to be able to keep Torah u'mitzvot. So that brought us to be able to keep Torah u'mitzvot by winning the war, so it's a הכשר. It's not the ikar. The ikar is the end, not the war. Right, and you can't keep Torah u'mitzvot without winning the war, so you have to win the war first to keep Torah u'mitzvot. So this is only an introduction. So ולכן סבירא ליה, that's what the Meiri holds, דגם בחנוכה היום טוב לא היה ביום נצחון המלחמה, כי אם ביום המנוחה. He says when do we win the when do we we have יום טוב חנוכה, not the day we won the war. If winning the war would be an ikar on itself, so the celebration of winning the war would have to be on the day it happened. But since we're saying it's not really a celebration in itself, it's only in order to get to the real stuff which is the כ״ה, that's why it could be the day after. That's why ביום מנוחה, כמו בפורים, because what did we say before by Purim? Why is it the day after? Because it's not the ikar. The winning of the war is not the ikar. The ikar is that we we survived and we're now alive, and that's it, we're all safe. The way we got safe, that's not important, that's why the day after. Chanukah, according to the Meiri, is the same thing: winning the war is fine, it's important, but that's only a הכנה, only a הכשר. So when do we celebrate Chanukah? The day after the war, just like Purim we celebrate the day after war. ועל פי זה מובן מה שמדייק המאירי שבלילה הראשון מברכים על הגאולה ועל עדות מציאת הפך כנ״ל. That's why he says on the first night we we bench for the geulah. In other words, we do celebrate the נצחון המלחמה, but כ״ה, not כ״ד. Why? Because he goes לשטתו that we celebrate the winning of the war, but the winning of the war was only a preparation. And if it's only a preparation, when do we celebrate that? The next day. שאין כן Rambam סבירא ליה, the Rambam holds שגם נצחון המלחמה והצלה גשמית היא ענין עיקרי בחנוכה. The Rambam holds that we celebrate both, but both not one as a ikar and one as a טפל, they're both ikar. אף שגם הרמב״ם סבירא ליה שאחד הדברים העיקריים בנצחון דחנוכה הצלת הדת, he agrees that there's fact that we're able to do the mitzvot is an ikar, but the winning the war is also an ikar. And if we celebrate as an ikar winning the war, when do we celebrate it? The day. That's why he says we must say the winning of the war happened on כ״ה. Huh? The Alter Rebbe could hold that b'foal it was כ״ד, b'foal, but according to the and and, but ikar, but sof kol sof because it's, and and why do we celebrate the next day? Because it's not the ikar, the whole like the Meiri. But in inyan, it could fit to the Rambam also. Because the Alter Rebbe is mechalik between Pesach and and Chanukah, that chiluk between Pesach and Chanukah is clear, even according to the Rambam. The Rambam wants to, because Pesach was together and here it wasn't b'foal, it wasn't together.

ולפי זה יוצא שלדעת הרמב״ם ג׳ חלוקות בדבר. According to the Rambam, there are three three types: פורים, קביעות היום טוב אינה ביום הנצחון, אלא ביום המנוחה. Purim, when do you establish the Yom Tov? Not the day you win the war, but the day after. And the reason is why? Because that's not the main thing. חנוכה, קביעות היום טוב הוא ביום שהיו בו ב׳ הדברים. Chanukah, when it's nitzachon hamilchamah and there's pach hashemen, you celebrate that day that they both happened, שהם ב׳ דברים שונים שהיו בשני זמנים, two things that happened at two separate times, but still we celebrate them both in the same day. Why? They're like a separate inyanim, but each one is an inyan ikari, and if it's an inyan ikari, you got to celebrate it the day it happened. ובפסח היו שני שני הדברים, נגוף למצרים ורפוא לישראל בנס אחד. And Pesach they were mamash together. Chanukah they were separate, the two separate inyanim, one after the other, but both on the same day. And Pesach they both happened at the same time, and if they're at the same time, that's why we do it on the same day. So it's Pesach and and Chanukah seem to be the same thing, but for two different reasons. Pesach we celebrate the Yom Tov on the day the nes happened, and Chanukah we celebrate the day, according to the Rambam, the day it happened, but these are two different reasons. By Pesach we celebrate the same day because they mamash came together, they're they're one inyan. Chanukah, they're two separate inyanim, but separate inyanim enough to celebrate the same day, because one because they're both a ענין עיקרי. And here not just an ענין עיקרי. So the Alter Rebbe says that the חילוק פסח and Chanukah fits even according to the Rambam, because בפועל there is a חילוק even according to the Rambam in Pesach and Chanukah. But l'maaseh, the bottom line comes out the same, that on Pesach we celebrate the same day of the nes and Chanukah the same day of the nes. No. No, halachah is not a difference. Yes, the next day. It's one, some say that that's why, because if they only found it on כ״ה, it was כ״ה afternoon that they, we light it כ״ד in the evening, which is really supposed to be for the day before, but it's for the כ״ה. But it's not the lighting of the menorah, because they didn't light the menorah at night, they lit the menorah before night. So this lighting was done for כ״ה.

ולפי המבואר בכמה מקומות, the Rebbe says, based on what it says in different places in פנימיות התורה, חסידות, שהגדר של יום טוב הוא דהוי יום מיוחד שבו היה וישנו התגלות והמשכת קדושה נעלית בעולם. According to חסידות it says, what's pshat a Yom Tov? Yom Tov means that that day there's a special גילוי שכינה. Was the first time and every year on that day. יש לומר ששלושת האופנים האלו מעין גילוי האופנים מגילוי קדושתו של הקדוש ברוך הוא בעולם. So these three levels we said are three levels of Shechinah, of kedushah in the world. Purim is געווען התגלות הקדושה בעיקר בהצלת ישועת ישראל. Purim, the main kedushah was that we were saved. ואיבוד המן וניצחון המלחמה כהקדמה להתגלות זו. This התגלות of kedushah to the Yidden happened because we killed Haman, so basically killed the klipah, mimela there's התגלות of kedushah. Chanukah, גם בניצחון המלחמות התגלות קדושה. The winning the war itself was a geder of kedushah. אבל דרגת הקדושה אינה בשווה להתגלות הקדושה שנעשית בנס פך השמן. That itself was hamshachah of kedushah, but not in the same level as the שמן. ופסח הייתה התגלות קדושה אלוקית נעלית כל כך, Pesach such a great גילוי אלוקות, שהגילוי שהגילוי היה בשני עניינים בשווה. There were two giluyim of Shechinah and both equally. שגם בנגפו את מצרים, also in the killing the Mitzrayim, the מכת בכורות, הייתה התגלות קדושה השווה לקדושה שהתגלתה בהצלת ישראל, was an equal level of kedushah to the level of kedushah that came with the fact that the Yidden were saved. Okay.