4th Day of Hanukkah | Candle #5 Tonight
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Chag Urim Sameach! For the Festival of Lights, we hope these reflections on light will illuminate your week. As we reflect on the meaning of light, and our power to bring it into the world, we invite you to increase the light this Hanukkah with our Center for Tikkun Olam Hanukkah Give Back Guide.
In the beginning, there was light. According to the mystics, there was so much light in the world that even God could not contain it. Eventually, the light was too powerful—and it shattered, sending sparks all over the universe. Sun, moon, stars—the sparkles on the ocean and in our eyes. All of it is Divine light.This is the founding creation story of Lurianic kabbalah, the mysticism of the 15th century rabbi Isaac Luria, Ha’Ari. Shevirat ha-kelim, the breaking of the vessels, was the moment of the world’s creation, God’s power and light spreading forth over the unformed chaos.But as with the creation story in our Torah, the moment that God’s work is completed is the moment that our work, the work of humanity, begins. In Torah, that moment is represented in Shabbat, the moment our path crosses with that of the Divine. For the mystics, that moment is an ongoing one; the work of humanity is in collecting the sparks of Divine light, of putting the world back together—one by one and piece by piece. With each act of kindness, each moment of prayer—and this week, each light we kindle on the Hanukkiah, we bring the world a little bit more in balance…and a spark just that much closer to the Divine.
In the beginning, there was light. According to the mystics, there was so much light in the world that even God could not contain it. Eventually, the light was too powerful—and it shattered, sending sparks all over the universe. Sun, moon, stars—the sparkles on the ocean and in our eyes. All of it is Divine light.This is the founding creation story of Lurianic kabbalah, the mysticism of the 15th century rabbi Isaac Luria, Ha’Ari. Shevirat ha-kelim, the breaking of the vessels, was the moment of the world’s creation, God’s power and light spreading forth over the unformed chaos.But as with the creation story in our Torah, the moment that God’s work is completed is the moment that our work, the work of humanity, begins. In Torah, that moment is represented in Shabbat, the moment our path crosses with that of the Divine. For the mystics, that moment is an ongoing one; the work of humanity is in collecting the sparks of Divine light, of putting the world back together—one by one and piece by piece. With each act of kindness, each moment of prayer—and this week, each light we kindle on the Hanukkiah, we bring the world a little bit more in balance…and a spark just that much closer to the Divine.
— Rabbi Sari Laufer