The Gemara teaches that eulogies and fasting are prohibited on Chanukah and then goes on to say “What is Chanukah? Our Sages taught: On 25 Kislev the eight days of Chanukah [begin] on which we do not deliver eulogies and we do not fast.”

This halachah addresses the emotions of a person who feels he must fast to atone for his sins. Such a person feels the urgent need to fast but during the eight days of Chanukah it’s forbidden for him to fast for this is a time for different feelings not the emotions of a fast. In other words the halachah that one shouldn’t deliver eulogies or fast affects the emotions and this teaches us that a person should have a heart moved by emotion. (Rav Aryeh Leib ben Nosson Levin Maarchei Lev)

“At what number would you like to receive text messages?” The young woman behind the counter has good reason to be cheerful; I’ve just agreed to a membership card at her store. Now she wants a number to send SMSs about special deals.

“I can’t receive messages” I say showing her my kosher cell phone.

She regards me with a mixture of surprise and pity and I struggle to suppress an amused smile. If I want to call someone I call and say hello ask how she is; I listen to her she listens to me and we talk to each other instead of my expressing myself in a handful of letters crowded on the screen and then waiting for her to fire back her own message like two cannons on a battlefield.

There are special mitzvos that dictate how we must use our emotions. With regard to how we relate to our friends there’s the positive commandment of “V’ahavta l’rei’acha kamocha — You shall love your friend as yourself” and the negative commandment of “You shall not despise your brother in your heart.”

These mitzvos do not deal with action: A person who merely asks about his friend’s wellbeing without taking any interest in the answer hasn’t fulfilled the mitzvah requiring us to take a loving interest in every Jew! Even though we’re obligated to fulfill every mitzvah “because Hashem commanded it” as a decree from the King this doesn’t conflict with the manner in which the mitzvah should be done. We must observe the mitzvos as royal decrees but also implant within ourselves the feelings Hashem has commanded us to feel.

And this is true of Chanukah as well. When a person delivers a eulogy or fasts he must actually feel the sorrow of the eulogy or the contrition of the fast instead of merely making an external display of it. Therefore at times when our feelings should be different — such as on Chanukah a (joyous) time when Hashem showed us that He’s the Master of all of nature and when we see that everything in the world exists because of Hashem’s kindness — on these days we should feel gratitude and praise Hashem and it should be impossible for us to have the feelings of mourning or the sorrow of a eulogy or fast. (ibid.)

It seems that all of the gadgets and devices around us have caused us to become mechanical; people are afraid to feel to think to be alone with themselves.

But the Torah which plumbs the depths of the human soul does not content itself with creating intelligent automatons. “Yes sir ” the Torah says “you can order olive oil wicks a menorah and sufganiyot filled with jelly with just a few clicks on your computer. But we want your heart; without that you have not accomplished anything.”

In a generation of projectors LED and neon lights computerized illumination and multicolored lighting the tiny unsophisticated flames of the Chanukah candles touch souls.

It asks of us that we open up a piece of our hearts to it that we think for just a moment about Hashem. We must think about the miracles that Hashem performed for us in those days how He showed His mastery over the world by turning nature on its head and how His infinite love accompanied those few souls who declared their allegiance to Him. That love is still there we just need to open our hearts to it.