Three Candle-lighting Practices - Hanukkah, 2020

(2) "And Elohim blessed the seventh day and sanctified it"

God blessed [the day] with light.

When the sun set on the eve of Shabbat, the light began to function, whereupon all began praising,

as it is written, “Under the whole heaven they sing praises to God” (Job 37, 3); why?

“Because His light [reaches] unto the ends of the earth “.

Rabbi Yehudah son of Rabbi Simon said : The light that the Holy Blessed One created on the first day, a person could see with it from one end of the universe to the other. Once God saw the perverse actions of the people of the generation of the flood and the generation of the dispersion, God got up and hid [this light], and reserved it for the righteous in the future. From where do we know that God hid it? As it says (Job 38:15), “And [God] withheld from the wicked their light, and the haughty arm shall be broken.” And from where do we know that [God] reserved it for the righteous in the future? As it says (Proverbs 4:18), “And the path of the righteous is like a glowing light, that grows and shines until the arrival of day.”

R. Levi said in the name of Rabbi Zeira:

That light functioned thirty-six hours,

twelve on the eve of the Sabbath, twelve during the night of the Sabbath, and twelve on the Sabbath.

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When the sun sank at the end of the Sabbath, darkness began to set in. Adam was terrified - “surely the darkness shall envelop me” (Psalms 89:11) Shall he of whom it was written –“he shall strike at your head” (Gen. 3:15) now come to attack me?

What did God do?

Made Adam find two flints, which he struck against each other.

Light came forth and he said a blessing over it.

Hence it is written – “but the night was light about me [Ba’adeni”]

That is to say, the night was light in my Eden.

What blessing did he say? בורא מאורי האש

MISHNA: And these are the festivals of gentiles: Kalenda, Saturnalia, and Kratesis, and the day of the festival of their kings, and the birthday of the king, and the anniversary of the day of the death of the king.

GEMARA: Rav Ḥanan bar Rava says: When are these festivals celebrated? Kalenda is celebrated during the eight days after the winter solstice, and Saturnalia is celebrated during the eight days before the winter solstice.

The Sages taught: When Adam saw that the day was progressively diminishing, he said: Woe is me; perhaps because I sinned the world is becoming dark around me and returning to chaos and disorder. Perhaps this is the death that was sentenced upon me from Heaven. He arose and spent eight days in fasting and in prayer. Once he saw the season of Tevet, (i.e., the winter solstice) and saw that the day was progressively lengthening, he said: this is the order of the world. He went and observed a festival for eight days. Upon the next year, he observed both these and these as days of festivities. He established these festivals for the sake of Heaven, but they established them for the sake of idol worship.