Often times we catch ourselves dreaming about making an impact on the world. Our minds race with visions of big achievements and accomplishments, and we hope for the day that we can solve a particular crisis, or enlighten the world in a meaningful way. We then realize that in order to turn these dreams into reality, we need to take practical steps toward these goals. The festival of Chanukah, which celebrates those who have made a unique impact on Jewish history, teaches us how to achieve those grand dreams we aspire to; we can learn this from where, when and how we light the menorah.

A. The Gemara in Shabbos (21b) tells us two, almost contradictory, statements about where we light the menorah. It says that the mitzvah is “ner ish uveiso,” that it is lit by each household, but then says that the menorah should be placed close to the entrance of the house outside of the home. [In the Diaspora, we usually light inside the home, but ensure that it is visible to those outside the home.] This duality, whereby the menorah is lit in the home, but in a way that can be seen outside, teaches us a powerful lesson: that the homes we live in are our miracles, and a home and family has the power to transform the world around us. After all, the Chashmonaim were led by a single family of Matisyahu and his sons! Our success is not found in the masses but in a small number doing the right thing. As we say during Chanukah, “V’rabim byad meatim” — “The many were delivered in the hands of the few.” Although we Jews make up a small percentage of the world population, we can still have a lasting impact on the world around us. We need not travel to the end of the world and back to make an impact. Sometimes all it takes is the light from our home to illuminate a whole world.

B. When do we light the menorah? We light during the night, in the heart of winter, when the nights are the longest. It can feel like the night will last forever, and yet we add a small flame of light every night of Chanukah to remind us that even when all hope seems lost, and the world is too dark and complicated to repair, our job is to create a little bit of light to keep moving forward. Rav Hirsch describes this most strikingly in his book Horeb: 

Each year, when the Chanukah season recurs, lights are kindled in every home of Israel, and by every son of Israel, and the events of those days are celebrated in word and in song, paying homage to God. Thus the darkened courses of Israel are lit up by this message: “The spiritual light of Israel will never be dimmed.” And even if round about you everything becomes defiled by the oppression of the time, so long as the light remains pure within the confines of only one house or within the breast of only one man, live on joyfully amid all the wanton aberration, even die joyfully under the frenzy of a madman, for the spiritual life of Israel is saved: God watches over it; and even by the light of one man He rekindles it anew. “Not by might, nor by power, but by My spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts (Zecharia iv, 6).”

Rav Hirsch Horeb Part 2 Chapter 34 Chanukah page 154

C. How we light the menorah also teaches us a valuable lesson. Instead of starting with eight, we light one candle on the first night of Chanukah, and build from there. Each day we are mosif veholech, we add on a little bit more to what we did yesterday. One person can inspire another, who can inspire another, who inspires another, one person at a time.

Chanukah teaches us how to bring light into this world; by bringing light into our homes that can emanate outward, by inspiring us during the dark night to have a bit of hope, and that all it takes is just one individual to inspire another, who will then in turn inspire another, with ultimate hopes of making an impact in the world around them.