Chanukah is connected to Torah Sh’ba’al Peh. It’s not mentioned in Tanach, there’s not even a tractate for Chanukah in the Mishnah.  Rav Yitzchak Hutner shows that, even today (when the Talmud is written down), there remains an aspect of Torah Sh’ba’al Peh.  For example, one place in the Talmud is barely explained and requires another area in Gemara in order to understand it.  Sometimes the Mishnah is deliberately missing vital words and needs to be explained.  These examples demonstrate that learning has to be from Rebbe to talmid and cannot be understood without oral instruction.

     The Yevanim wanted to destroy Shabbos, Chodesh and Mila.  The eight days of Chanukah contain Shabbos and Rosh Chodesh, and eight days are reminiscent of the days until Mila.  Shabbos and Mila are in the Torah, but the basis of Chodesh was a calculation that Rabban Gamliel had on tradition, i.e. Torah Sh’ba’al Peh.

     The Kohanim fought the massive Greek army, and regained the Mikdash.  They wanted to kindle the Menorah, but all the oil had been contaminated by the enemy.  Miraculously, they found a sealed jar with the stamp of the Kohein Gadol.  It would take eight days to get new, pure oil, and it would take eight days for the men themselves to become tahor.  So they needed this one jar to last eight days, which seemed impossible.  There are many explanations as to what exactly happened, but somehow the oil lasted for the entire eight days.

     Sheim was originally a Melech and Kohein. Sheim lost the Kehuna to Avraham, but in our parsha, his daughter (or a descendant), married Yehuda and became a Matriach of Malchus Beis Dovid. This reminds us that the two are distinct, Malchus (from Sheim Yehuda and Tamar), Kehuna from Levi and Aharon. (As we said, this was the mistake of the later Cheshmonaim — to hold both positions.)

     The moon comes and wanes, eventually disappearing from sight altogether.  Similarly, Malchus Beis Dovid comes and goes, but it will come again.  Yehuda was forsaken by his brothers because he did not completely save Yoseif, but regains his leadership position in parshas Mikeitz.

V’kavu Shmonas Yomim L’hodos U’lehaleil (They established eight days to thank and praise)

     Hoda’ah could be Admit or Thank, see Rav Yitzchak Hutner:   A person doesn’t want to thank (he wants to be independent); to thank is ‘admitting’ that he needs the other person.  See Modim D’rabanan prayer (in chazaras hashatz), which goes back and forth between ‘thanks’ and ‘admission’.

     Yehuda was ‘modah’ to Tamar i.e., admitted and acknowledged that she was right and he was wrong.  Dovid — their descendant — admitted to the Navi that he had sinned.  He is the great author of the Tehilim, which proclaim our ‘acknowledgement’ and ‘thanks’ to Hakodesh Baruch Hu.

     During these eight days we sing the Hallel — to thank for the miracles and admit to Hashem that we can’t do it alone.