Yosef Roth
I heard this d’var Torah from my
dad who heard it from Rabbi Zucker.
It would seem that according to the Rambam, on Chanukah, if you didn’t
make a Shehechieonu on the first night on the candles, you don’t make Shehechieonu
the second night. But on Purim if you didn’t make Shehechieonu the first night
on the Megilah, you can make it the next day? What is the difference between
the days?
We say Shehechieonu on the persumay nisa, or publicizing the miracle.
The way to publicize the miracle on Purim was instituted differently by Chazal
than the publicizing the miracle on Chanukah. The way to publicize the miracle
on Purim is reading the Megilah. And reading the Megilah is publicizing the
miracle per se. The lighting of the candles on Chanukah is not a publicizing of
the miracle per se. There are a number of reasons why you would light candles
at night. The real publicizing of the miracle is the day of the twenty fifth of
Kislev. The Gemarah says that on the twenty-fifth of Kislev there are eight
days of Chanukah. So we see that the first day of Chanukah is the main day
therefore the publicizing of the miracle is tied to that day. Therefore if you forget
to make a Shehechieonu on the first day of Chanukah you cannot say it on the
second day. You have lost the day of the 25th. You cannot get that back. But on
Purim, since the publicizing of the miracle is the reading of the Megilah, if
you didn’t say Shehechieonu the first night, you can make it the next day. You
can still fulfill the reading and hence the mitzvah of publicizing the miracle.
How come Chazal instituted two types of publications? There are two ways
the Jews can be saved, by repenting or by the special relationship between the
Jews and God. So on Purim we were saved by repentance but by, Chanukah we were
saved by the special relationship with us and God.
On Purim since we were saved by repenting, Chazal instituted that we
commemorate with an action of reading the Megilah. On Chanukah no repenting
took place, so we commemorate with the day.