3 minute read
Out of darkness, light!
By Rabbi Ammos Chorny
With Chanukah approaching on Thursday night, Dec. 10, we are bidden to light candles, recalling the rekindling of the menorah in Jerusalem after the Maccabees vanquished the Syrian Greeks and cleansed the Temple of their enemies' polytheistic, pagan culture. What a powerful way to indicate the restoration of our allegiance to God, since the original seven-prong menorah, has always symbolized God as the Creator.
Lighting candles is also a way to banish darkness. In a seasonwhen sunlight is less available than at any other time of the year, it is up to us to kindle the menorah to assure that the darkness will not overwhelm us. So it is, that we declare, “In darkness, let there be light.” What a graphic example of Judaism’s intrinsic optimism and buoyancy! Even when darkness is dominant, we’re to remember to act, imitating and replicating God’s creative surge.
We Jews are obsessed by light. In our weekday prayers we declare, “Lord, you cause light to shine over the Earth.” On Sabbath, we chant mystical poems asserting how, “Good are the lights our God has created…their radiant lights illuminate the universe.” Similarly, on a daily basis, we acknowledge that God “creates light and fashions darkness, ordaining the order of all creation.” By the same token, while “Torah” literally means “Instruction,” the Torah has been equated with “Ora” – “light,” as we believe the Torah is a source of light and enlightenment.
According to the story of Genesis, the light of Torah led to the creation of the universe. From the ancient rabbis’ mystical viewpoint, long before Moses’ era, the Torah appeared as white fire written on the darkened heavens, serving as a blueprint to map out the universe.
On the other hand, when God said, “Let there be light,” we can question what sort of light this was. Our earliest rabbinic sages 2,000 years ago, indicated this must have been divine light reserved for pious people (“tzadikim”), enabling them to see their way through the world to come! The rabbis derived this after wondering how there could be light before the fourth day of creation, when the sun, moon and stars came into being. Clearly the light of the first day of creation was instrumental in creating the beginning of time, after an eternal epoch of abiding primordial darkness and timelessness. The very notion that God created light while fashioning darkness went counter to widespread dualism of ages gone by.
According to the Zoroastrians, there were two gods: a god of light and a god of darkness, and both were locked in eternal combat. When goodness prevailed, it was because the god of light had the upper hand. When evil was perpetuated, the god of darkness dominated the world scene. The notion that separate but equal competing powers of light and darkness regulate human existence was challenged by Judaism, which stipulates that all things come from God. Ultimately, however, God expects us to use our free will, imitating His creative capacity to create light and fashion darkness as constructively as possible.
When faced with the darkness of economic deprivation, death or uncertainty, ours is the task of creating a brighter, more enlightened future. Out of darkness, we are to create light, clarifying our values, while determining from where we are coming and where we are heading. To do so is the only way to avoid falling into the chaotic pit of darkness and confusion that plagues humanity.
We would do well to adopt the motto, “Out of darkness, light!” That is Judaism’s essence. Surely it is a goal worth striving for, from day by day. Happy Chanukah to all!
Rabbi Chorny serves at Beth Tikvah.
