The schools of Hillel and Shammai disagreed even about how to kindle a candle.
On Chanukah, Shammai said: begin with eight lights on the first night and remove one each evening, so that the lamps wane with the holiday. Hillel said the opposite: begin with one and add a light each night, so the flame grows as the story unfolds. The world still follows Hillel.
But why kindle anything at all? The Talmud (Shabbat 21b) tells the origin. On the twenty-fifth of Kislev, the eight days of Dedication begin — days on which no funeral oration may interrupt the joy and no public fast may be decreed.
When the Greeks had entered the Second Temple, they defiled every jar of consecrated oil they could find. The Hasmoneans drove them out and searched the ruins. Deep inside the sanctuary, they discovered one small flask still sealed with the stamp of the High Priest. One jar. Enough for a single day of light.
They lit the Menorah anyway. The flame held for eight days, long enough for new oil to be pressed and consecrated.
Hillel understood what Shammai missed: a miracle is not something you ration. You add another light.