Is it considered a meritorious practice to have a fancy/expensive/large menorah? Normally the imperative to beautify mitzvos is related to the mitzvah item itself (e.g. talis, tefillin, esrog), so here I would assume it would mean to have beautiful candles.

2 Answers
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First of all, note that opinions brought in Avnei Nezer 2:500 that you need to have the candles lit in some sort of kli (vessel) and not just loose. According to these opinions, the menora itself is a mitzva object.

That said, even if you don't rule that way we have a notion of hiddur mitzva even for things that aren't direct mitzva objects such as the quill used to write Sta"m (Shabbat 133b).

The Mishna Berura (673 sk 28) does note that one should expend effort to have as nice a menorah as one can.

@ba I know :( I tried earlier. Isn't there a way to report that to them or something?
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Double AA♦Dec 5 '12 at 5:22

If you have the teshuva in front of you could you write down what his reasoning is for this? I wrote down this teshuva by me last year in regards to a different shailo that I had (maybe I'll post it here.)
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YehoshuaDec 5 '12 at 12:19

It might be worth mentioning that we likely do not pasken like this Avnei Nezer -- see for instance the Mishneh Berurah 671:18 and the Aruch HaShulchan 673:6
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CuriouserDec 5 '12 at 16:57

@Curiouser Avnei Nezer is essentially contemporary to those sources. See also Rivevot Efraim 1:434:2 who seems to treat not having a menorah as a bedieved.
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Double AA♦Dec 6 '12 at 16:27