Day Four: Light vs. Hidden Light
Over the eight days of Chanukah we light 36 lights. The Rokeach (Hilchot Chanukah 225) tells us that these lights are not regular lights. The 36 lights correspond to the 36 hours, from the first Friday morning until after the first Shabbat, that the original, hidden light of creation was in use in this world. The Chanukah lights are a reflection of the original light of creation, and we light it in order to see the world in a different way.
Think for a moment about the amazing miracle of light. Light was the first thing Hashem created, it revealed the first moments of existence, and continues to reveal to us the world outside ourselves. For this reason, it is an almost universally used metaphor for knowledge. The light of this world, together with the miracle of our thinking mind, was given to us so that we could comprehend and perceive truth.
However, light has a limitation. It can only reveal to us the external structure of the world around us, but it can’t reveal to us essence. And so, I can look at my friend, and I can see a warm smile, and wavy hair. I can even see kindness in the smile and intelligence in the eyes. But I cannot directly perceive her essence.
Our knowledge of our own existence is unique to ourselves and is inherent within us. We can’t get to it through any of our senses. Close your eyes. You know that you exist, but not through your senses or your mind. You can’t quantify it, but this knowledge is the entire basis of our life. Nothing can be more meaningful than the awareness of being; it is existence itself. Our deepest sense of self is the awareness that we are chelek Elokah mima’al, a portion of the Divine Above (Iyov 31:2) – a single minute revelation of true existence.
Chazal tell us that the Torah is light, and the Greeks are darkness. The great darkness of the Greeks was that they refused to accept the limitations of human senses and the human mind. Anything not grasped by our logic or our senses was not worthy of attention. This unfortunately included our connection to our deepest selves. This is the tragedy of the Greek exile.
The real difference between darkness and light is the difference between being trapped within ourselves and being able to see beyond ourselves. If we define reality only as what our limited mind can comprehend, then we remain trapped within ourselves. In darkness, the only thing you can see is yourself. On the other hand, if we use the light of the candles to connect to the inner essence of ourselves, we gift ourselves with the ability to reach beyond ourselves, and into the infinite expanse of a spiritual world. Joy is what follows naturally from being connected to our deeper selves.
The joy of Chaunukah, and our triumph over the Greeks, comes through our Chanukah candles. We look at the lights, but we aren’t allowed to use them to perceive the external world. They are a reflection of the original, hidden light of creation. They help us see the reality, that we are a spark of Godly revelation. We illuminate our world when we take the time to sit, to gaze at the lights, and reconnect to the essence of who we are.
To explore this idea further in the sefer, see pages 46, 115-117, 158-159, 222-223 and 236-237.