As we engage in the Holiday of Chanukah, it helps to
understand what we are really trying to do beyond the candles, potato latkes
and gift giving. And by help I mean acknowledging and addressing the challenges
in our world.
There is a classic debate between the sages of Beit
Hillel and Beit Shamai on whether one should begin with lighting all eight
candles and light one less each night for the eight days of Chanukah (Beit
Shamai) or light a single candle on the first night and add one more candle
each night (Beit Hillel). Our spiritual and halachic mesorah (tradition)
teaches that we follow Beit Hillel but that paradoxically both opinions are
correct. How could this be?
Shamai is right in that in our physical world we observe
that when we light a candle it burns and we have less. This is a world of
limited and diminishing resources; people and things getting older, resulting in
death and despair.
However, Hillel is also right. Beyond the physical world
is the spiritual realm, where blessings and miracles are the norm, life goes
on, there is no time, decay or entropy. Where a feeble few can defeat a robust
army of many. Where in defiance of the nature of the physical world a candle
enough for a day can last for eight. See how the flame, in defiance of gravity,
burns upward. Or how when we share the flame with an additional candle we
don't have less light, we have more.
Is my paltry donated sum going to make a dent in the
suffering of the Filipino's recovering from that devastating typhoon? Yes it
will, potentially in an immeasurable way. As we light our candles let's
remember to go against our physical nature. Let's open up to our deeper,
soulful nature and visualize a world in which blessings, hope and miracles
arrive to address the suffering of our loved ones, neighbors and people the world
over.
