By Shevach Lambert
Appeared in print December 17, 2011
My favorite kavannah, or conscious intention, recited just before lighting the Chanukah candles bids me to lishneh choshech ba’ner, ‘transform darkness into light.’ I usually think of light as simply dispelling darkness, but something about the Chanukah light metaphorically transforms darkness itself into light.
The first two Hebrew letters of the word ‘Chanukah’ spell chen, or grace, symmetry. Rabbi Yitzhak Ginsburgh teaches that chen is the beauty found in the harmony of opposites, when two inverse elements somehow reflect each other. The Chen of Chanukah is darkness and light, choshech and ner, the initial letters of which also spell chen. Although they are opposites, darkness and light require each other to be meaningful. We cannot conceive of the dark unless we have light with which to contrast it. The symmetrical bond between these contradictory elements reflects an underlying unity that is their common source.
This in turn casts the story of Chanukah in a new light. We are taught that the true miracle commemorated by the holiday is not that a single cruse of oil burned for eight days instead of one. The real miracle is that the people lit the oil in the first place, in absolute faith that it would burn long enough to rededicate the desecrated Temple back to its original purpose. The lack of oil seemed to present an insurmountable difficulty, yet their boundless faith allowed them to use this difficulty to rise to new heights. The finite limitations of the oil combined with the infinite faith of the people to create a miracle, which arose from a unity of opposites – finite materials vs. infinite trust. Had either element been lacking, no miracle would have occurred.
The idea that opposites like darkness and light, finite and infinite, arise from a hidden unity lends a deeper dimension to my contemplation of the Chanukah lights. It suggests to me that those things I consider antithetical to my best interests may possess something positive; a light concealed within the darkness. What may initially strike me as the opposite of my hopes and expectations may in fact contain the light needed for me to see beyond my self imposed limitations.
The Chanukah story resonates with me whenever I encounter my own seemingly insurmountable difficulties. Just as the Jews back then chose to create a miracle out of an impossible situation, I can transform the darkness of a difficulty into the light of a lesson. If I can release my habitual resistance to a problem, and thus loosen its psychological hold on me, I can begin to see these difficulties not as problems opposing my desires, but as messages sent from above, telling me what about my life and attitude needs the most work right now. It’s my feelings about the difficulty, not the difficulty itself that creates the problem. Indeed, had not this challenge arisen, I would not have the opportunity to transform its darkness into light. Chanukah reminds me to seek the light of holy potential within even the darkest difficulty.
Shevach Lambert is a member of Temple Beth Israel.