Hanukkah begins on Sunday night, December 18. This week, in advance of our celebration, here are some reflections on darkness and light.
This Shabbat, we will mark Shabbat Mevorchim. Literally meaning the Shabbat Where We Bless, it refers to the Shabbat before a new month begins. In this case, we are preparing for the month of Tevet. And, while we are preparing to bless a new month and its hopes and potential, the Northern Hemisphere is preparing for the Winter Solstice—the longest night of the year. It is, of course, no coincidence that Hanukkah coincides with the Solstice.
Legend has it that Rabbi Yakov Yosef, a student of the Ba’al Shem Tov, determined through complex calculations that the night of the Hanukkah victory and the re-lighting of the Hanukkiyah was, in fact, the night of the Winter Solstice—the longest night of the year. Whether that is apocryphal or true, it sets us up for the Hanukkah lesson beyond the oil and the Maccabees.
Rabbi DovBer Pinson, a Chabad rabbi and teacher of Jewish spirituality, offers the following:
The light that comes from fire is dependent on the burning and destroying of something else. Divine light, however, is self-derived. At the Burning Bush, Moses encounters Divine light. It shines like a fire, and yet the bush is not consumed. This light doesn’t necessarily take away the darkness—it somehow shines within the darkness. This is the “Ohr HaGanuz,” the ‘Hidden Light,’ the Divine light that burns within the darkness of Creation, yet doesn’t consume Creation. It is the light of Hanukkah, revealed in the darkest nights of the year and the darkest times of exile.
The night after the Solstice is shorter only by minutes—barely noticeable—and yet, the first glimmer of light begins to re-emerge. That glimmer of light, that smaller sliver that appears after the Solstice, awakens within us a new hope for the future. We kindle the lights of the Hanukkiyah for many reasons, but chief among them is to bring light—and with it hope—to ourselves, our families, and the world around us.
—Rabbi Sari Laufer