Likkutei Sichos: Volume 30
Likkutei Sichos, Vol. 30: When Was Chanukah
This shiur works through the Rambam and Meiri's disagreement over the date the war ended, showing how it tracks a deeper machloket over whether Chanukah was established purely for hallel v'hodaah or also for mishteh v'simcha. It compares Chanukah to Purim and Pesach to explain why some yamim tovim fall on the day of the miracle itself while others fall the day after, and closes with three levels of revealed kedushah behind these three chagim.
Likkutei Sichos, Vol. 30: Al HaNisim
This extended shiur works through why calling the fall of temeim, resha'im, and zedim a nes is such a hard phrase to explain, testing and rejecting the idea that Torah study simply weakens a person physically. It lands on the Rebbe's own answer: these three terms can only describe fellow Jews, since tumah, reshius, and zadus in the halachic sense don't apply to gentiles at all — meaning the true miracle of Chanukah was that the loyal minority overcame not just the Greeks, but the Hellenized Jews fighting alongside them.
Likkutei Sichos, Vol. 30: Al HaNisim 2
Following up on why Al Hanisim can call the fall of temeim, resha'im, and zedim a nes, this shiur turns to the sobering fact that truly observant Jews have always been a statistical minority — then and now — and draws chizuk from the idea that quality, not quantity, decides who wins. It ends by applying the same lesson to the individual: even someone who spends most of his day on gashmiyus can still make his few minutes of Torah and tefillah his real identity.