רי''ף, ר' יצחק אלפסי:
עד שתכלה רגל מן השוק עד כמה א"ר יוחנן עד דכליא רגלא דתרמודאי. פירוש: עצים ידועים אצלם ונקראים תרמודא ובני אדם המביאין אותם נקראין תרמודאי ומתעכבין עד אחר שקיעת החמה
RIF - Rabbi Yitzhak Alfasi (i.e., from Fez, North Africa):
Until when exactly is this time? Rabba bar bar Ḥana said that Rabbi Yoḥanan said: Until the traffic of the people of Tadmor [tarmoda’ei] ceases. Commentary: Wood that was known to them called Tarmoda. The people who would bring them were called Tarmoda'ei, and they would wait (and continue selling the wood) until after the sun set.
The word Tarmud occurs in one other place in the Talmud with several very negative descriptions of the peple from there. It is this text that the Mei Hashiloach is using rather than the better known fire wood collectors.
How dark is dark, in terms of the maximum time for mitzvah of lighting chanukah lights? Very dark. This is when everyone has stopped working and is back home. The tarmudai are those who still hope someone will come out of their homes to come and purchase wood. They are the ones who hope despite seeing all dark, and everyone went home. It is when those who hope despite all the darkness and solitude surrounding them - when they go home, that's when you give up lighting chanukah candles. Before that, you are still obligated to light.
This applies to Chanukah candles, and this applies to our relationships with ourselves, and this applies to the relationships we have with each other, and this applies to the world.
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This thought is from Rabbi Nelly Altenburger
the full source Sheet is here
https://www.sefaria.org/sheets/208894.12?lang=bi&with=all&lang2=en
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Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe (1902-1994)
My father-in-law reported this conversation with his own father Rebbe Sholom Dov-Ber, then the Lubavitcher Rebbe:
“The hasid asked: Rebbe, what is a hasid?
The Rebbe answered: A hasid is a streetlamp lighter.
In olden days, there was a person in every town who would light the gas streetlamps with a light he carried at the end of a long pole. On the street corners, the lamps were there in readiness, waiting to be lit. A streetlamp lighter has a pole with fire. He knows that the fire is not his own, and he goes around lighting all the lamps on his route.”
Today, the lamps are there, but they need to be lit. It is written, “The soul of man is a lamp of God,” and it is also written, “A mitzvah is a lamp and the Torah is light.” A hasid is one who puts personal affairs aside and goes around lighting up the souls of Jews with the light of Torah and mitzvot. Jewish souls are in readiness to be lit. Sometimes they are around the corner. Sometimes they are in a wilderness or at sea. But there must be someone who disregards personal comforts and conveniences and goes out to ignite these lamps with his or her flame. That is the function of a true hasid.
Additional reading
https://www.daat.ac.il/encyclopedia/value.asp?id1=3296