Although you may see Menorah’s in Public places and in front windows, the actual instruction of our Sages is that the Mezuzah is placed on the right and the Menorah on the left so that we are surrounded by Mitzvos.

 

According to Kaballah there is something else at play here. The Mezuzah is a Mitzvah, an instruction that carries in it the Shema prayer which contains our mediation on G-d’s unity and the love that flows from there. It is considered an upward movement.

 

The purpose and hopefully result of any upward movement in a relationship is the response that follows.  The response is the light that comes down from Hashem.  That is the light of the Menorah.  

 

So the Mezuzah is the up and the Menorah is the down. You might say the Mitzvah is the up and the Torah which is light is the down.

 

When we engage in the Mitzvah we connect upward and when we study Torah we experience the response.

 

One who has only Torah doesn’t even have Torah. Action is both the key and the catalyst then brings the result. And the result activates us once again for after all the Torah’s instruction is to do Mitzvos. 

 

This Chanukah, whether you light the Menorah in your doorway, front window or in the public square, remember the ups and downs of Chanukah and the Chanukah message.

 

Nothing can stand in the way of our resolve to have a relationship with Hashem and to manifest that relationship in the very physical world around us.

 

Happy Chanukah and Good Shabbos!