The Holiday of Hanukkah takes place during the depth of winter, often around the winter solstice. The Babylonian Talmud in tractate Avodah Zarah locates the holiday’s origins at the beginning of human history, during the time of Adam and Eve, framing Hanukkah as a celebration of the return of light in the darkness.
With regard to the dates of these festivals, the Sages taught: When Adam the first man saw that the day was progressively diminishing, as the days become shorter from the autumnal equinox until the winter solstice, he did not yet know that this is a normal phenomenon, and therefore he said: Woe is me; perhaps because I sinned the world is becoming dark around me and will ultimately return to the primordial state of chaos and disorder. And this is the death that was sentenced upon me from Heaven, as it is written: “And to dust shall you return” (Genesis 3:19). He arose and spent eight days in fasting and in prayer.
Once he saw that the season of Tevet, i.e., the winter solstice, had arrived, and saw that the day was progressively lengthening after the solstice, he said: Clearly, the days become shorter and then longer, and this is the order of the world. He went and observed a festival for eight days. Upon the next year, he observed both these eight days on which he had fasted on the previous year, and these eight days of his celebration, as days of festivities. He, Adam, established these festivals for the sake of Heaven, but they, the gentiles of later generations, established them for the sake of idol worship.
(חינוך בית יהודא פרק ה'.)
I heard in the name of our Rabbi, the Rebbe Yisrael Baal Shem Tov (may the memory of the righteous be for a blessing) regarding the teaching of our Sages of blessed memory, that the Holy Blessed One concealed the light (Bereshit Rabbah ch.3 and ch.11) - how could God hide it, if it is such a great light that it filled the entire universe, and a person could see with it from one end of the world to the other?! And he taught (may his memory be a blessing) that God hid it in the Torah. For the Torah is so much greater - thousands of times more vast - than the universe (Eruvin 21a), and one who studies Torah for its own sake is granted access to this hidden light.
The miracle of the light of the Menorah during this month is derived from the hidden light that was concealed within the Torah. And see what is written [further on] in the name of the Rokeach (Rokeach HaGadol 225) that for this reason they instituted [a total of] thirty-six candles, to parallel the thirty-six times that “light” “candle” and “luminaries” are mentioned in the Torah, which hints to the hidden light that shined for the first human being for thirty-six hours but was then hidden away and concealed within the Torah. And in my opinion, this is the reason that the name of this month (in which there is an illumination from the light hidden and concealed within the Torah) is “Kislev” - ki”s le”v - a covering [kisui] for the thirty-six [l”v] appearances of “light”, “candle” and “luminaries” of which an illumination is revealed during this month. And attached to this light is Tevet, “the light was good.”
For this reason these days are called Chanukah, from the word chinuch [preparatory training] and practice for what is to come, for the future redemption. For then, the hidden light will be revealed to us in its fullness, as the Sages taught that “God hid it away for the righteous in the future”, as it says, “the sun will no longer be your light in the day, nor will the glow of the moon be a light for you. But God will be an eternal light for you” (Isaiah 60:19). And this will be at the end of this exile that began with the fourth Kingdom. But even before the end of the third Kingdom, the Kingdom of Greece, the Blessed God shined a small bit of that light for us, even after prophecy had ceased, so that the light can remain with us in this current exile in place of prophecy. For through this light a person can gaze from one end of the universe to the other. And it is therefore called the Chanukah candle, the candle of chinuch [preparatory training] and practice for the eternal light of the future redemption, when that hidden light - about which it was said “let there be light” - will be revealed.
Kabbalists teach that this primordial light of creation was tucked away, and hidden, so that it could be preserved for future use. Our Sages refer to this light known as “Ohr HaGanuz” (Hidden Light), a metaphysical spiritual light.
Ami Silver comments on this, “The ability to “see from one end... to the other” implies a kind of total vision of things, and an ability to grasp reality in its true nature. Kabbalistic and Chassidic teachings draw upon this concept of the “Hidden Light” of Creation - in Hebrew the אור הגנוז (“Ohr Haganuz”) - and unpack its basic message: There is something profound at the root of all that is; something that we cannot see, but that exists nonetheless in a hidden way. And, that something is a primary animating force of our universe - it is as ancient as Creation itself, and will be accessed again at some future time.
Kabbalistic and Chassidic writings identify Chanukah as a time in which this Hidden Light takes center stage. During “the festival of lights”, we are given special access to this Hidden Light, and the candles that we light during this time of year represent a way of making contact with the original light of Creation.”
A Candle in the Womb: MIDRASH TANHUMA, PEKUDEI 3
Midrash Tanhuma is a Midrashic collection, a genre of ancient Jewish literature, likely composed between the 9th and 11th centuries. It consists of teachings, stories, and interpretations on various sections of the Torah, providing insights into moral, ethical, and spiritual dimensions of Jewish tradition. This Midrash is commenting on the Torah portion of Pekudei in the Book of Exodus.
"Before an embryo is formed in the womb ... the Holy One says to the soul: "Enter into that sperm and that egg. ...I have created you for this purpose."...
The Holy One sends the soul off and the angels bring it to the womb. Two angels feed it and care for it.
A candle burns over its head... By the light of the candle they teach the embryo Torah.
After nine months ...the angels say: "... when the time comes to leave, you will not want to go." The child enters the air of the world.
The angel laps it on the upper lip ... and it forgets all its Torah and all it has seen and known."
|
Pondering Questions
|
Closing:
The light that we celebrate during Hanukah is the light of the Ohr HaGanuz- the primordial, hidden, metaphysical, spiritual light that Adam could use to see “from one end of the world to the other”:seeing a connected consciousness, experiencing the invisible that unites us all. This is the light that we are re-discovering, this is the light that shines in the flickering flames of the menorah.
Looking into the Flame - Rabbi Dovber Pinson
Looking at the flames, what do we see? Noticeably there are three basic elements to the fire; the flame, the wick and the oil or wax. Says the Zohar; the body is similar to the wick, the flame itself is analogous to the divine presence that rests above the head, and the oil that fuses the two together, allowing the flame to join and remain connected with the wick is our ma’asim tovim-good and illuminating deeds. (3:187a)...In truth we are like a flame. The totality of who we are is reflected within the flame. The spiritual elements of self, the fire reaches upward, the physical body which gravitates downward is the wick, and our good deeds allows for a full integration among all aspects of self, body and soul.
The flame is who we are. Appropriately, the Hebrew word nefesh (spirit), comprised of the three letters, nun, pei, shin, is an acronym for ner (flame), pesilah (wick) and shemen (oil).
Penetrating a bit deeper we begin to notice the fire itself and become aware of the different shades of color within the flame. Essentially, there is the dark, intense blue light on the one hand, and on the other extreme a white luminous, almost transparent light.
What do these colors represent? The Zohar describes the following;
“In the flame itself there are two lights: one white and luminous, the other black or blue. The white light is the higher of the two and rises steadily. The black or blue light is underneath the other, which rests on it as on a pedestal. The two are inseparably connected, the white resting and being enthroned upon the black…This blue or black base is in turn attached to something beneath it which keeps it in flame and impels it to cling to the white light above. This blue or black light sometimes turns red, but the white light above never changes its color. The lower light, which is sometimes black, sometimes blue, and sometimes red, is a connecting link between the white light to which it is attached above and to the concrete body to which it is attached below, and which keeps it alight. This light always consumes anything which is under it or which is brought in contact with it, for such is its nature, to be a source of destruction and death. But the white light which is above it never consumes or destroys and never changes.
(1 Zohar. p. 51a.)
So there are two differences, one is that the darker light continually fluctuates and changes colors, whereas the white light is a constant. Another variant is that the darker fire, unlike the white light, needs to consume and destroy another to exist.
This lower more dense fire is a reflection of all of physical life, in which life feeds off death and everything in nature is continuously altering and putting on different coats. In the physical plane of existence, in order for one living organism to survive it must consume another form of life. After the body has served its purpose, it slowly rejoins the earth and transforms into the soil upon which new life grows. Mineral becomes plant, plant becomes animal, animal man, and man in turn returns to earth.
White Fire - Higher, white fire is our spirituality, that which does not need to overwhelm or negate the other to exist. The whiter and more transparent the shade of fire becomes the deeper the level of soul it represents until the peak of the flame, a point in which the transparent fire becomes almost invisible and dips into the infinite space and merges.
Within the human psyche there are levels of varying consciousness. The outermost manifest surface self is our autobiography, that which is in a constant state of motion and movement, so long as we are sensing this part of self is expanding, much like the lower fire that fluctuates, jumps around, changes colors depending on the heat. Higher and deeper within us rests the core of self, the essence of soul. The self that is the unchanging that registers the changing, the continuous that observes the discontinuous, the uninfluenced that informs the influenced.
The ecstatic dancing flames as well as the more subdued gentle flames mirror life itself. Every moment we live, and with every breath we take, we are constantly moving, shifting back and forth, inhaling and exhaling, expanding and contracting. Meta-physically speaking, every moment of life we are continually being recreated, becoming embodied and expiring and then re-embodying again.
The movement upwards and beyond is ratzu–a deep desire to expire and lift off, whereas the movement downward and within is shuv–a deep awareness that the purpose is within the here-and-now. The constant flickering of the lower flames jumping and leaping higher is the ratzu. Shuv is the more settled and clearer whiter light. The spiritually less evolved levels of self desire expiration, to transcend world, and in the process neglect body, yet the deepest awareness is one that is in total harmony with its divine purpose, which is to be within the world, as you are intentionally embodied, and there catapult a transformation. Obviously, the shuv reality is a profounder level and state of bitul-negation of separate self, as one is more in tune with the divine reality and the ultimate purpose.