Q&A: Beautifying the Hanukkah Menorah
Beautifying the Hanukkah Menorah
Question
I was wondering: if a person has the option of lighting Hanukkah candles with a menorah he inherited from a great and righteous person, but the menorah is, of course, very old, while on the other hand he has a very יפה and very new menorah, which is preferable to use for lighting? And why?
Answer
I do not see why there would be any preference for a menorah that belonged to a righteous person. We have not found any such category of beautification. The forms of beautification we do find all relate to the body of the commandment itself.
Certainly if you connect the beautification to publicizing the miracle, then it is clear that this is a law in the object itself, which everyone sees.
Discussion on Answer
What does "dearness" mean? Beautification?
There is "a commandment is dear in its proper time," and there the dearness is well defined. But with beautification, as I wrote, there is no connection to dearness.
In my humble opinion,
both menorahs involve beautification of the commandment:
one through its beauty,
and the other through the merit of the righteous person.
Therefore, the matter is left to the heart of the one lighting.