HANNUKAH - your light outwards

Hannukah is the last holiday established by our sages, and so it is as if this holiday accompanied us throughout the exile in which we are still. This holiday is full of symbols, just like metaphors, that can truly be taken as food for thoughts and fuel for action for what we are going through today.

We are now in the Hebrew month of Kislev, a month of miracles. It is the darkest time of the year in terms of daylight, the longest dark time in the days, but with this month we also have the faith of light, the lights of the hannukiah, and the days that are slowly getting longer again.

Within this month, we celebrate the holiday Hannukah, in which we learn about the Greeks that tried to assimilate the Jewish culture to their own. Another story of how the Jewish people could have been exterminated. The miracle of Hannukah is usually known and told as such: a light oil candle that was supposed to light for one day and lasted 8. Ok so what?

Rav Kook explains the symbolic of this miracle in two parts.

First, it is about the spark, the awakening.

It is told how the oils inside the temple became all impure when the Greeks came in the היכל « eychal », the internal part of the temple. Why is this detail important? Because the « eychal », as the internal part of the temple, represents the « internal part » of the Israel people as the internal part within each one of us. The oil may represent many thing but here it will be about the spiritual abundance, what can make a flame, our soul, burn within our body, the receptacle, the כלי.

And yet, as all the oils turned impure, a little leftover of oil remained intact and useable. And it was not any oil, it was the oil of the Cohanim, the most spiritual and pure people. This oil represents this part within us, which - come what may, stays always pure and intact. This is already a miracle, it gives hope.

Finding and lightening this oil is the first part of the miracle. It is the possibility, the capacity, the opportunity for us to awaken to our most sincere, authentic, pure version of ourselves, as an individual but also as a nation (actually we can take that at all scales).

Second, it is about how long the awakening can last.

This little amount of oil was supposed to be enough just for 1 day and it lasted not for 2 or 3 but for 8 days!

8 is the symbolic number of the infinite, transcending the laws of nature represented by the number 7 (as the world was created in 7 days, we can also see the 7 in for instance 7 colours, 7 musical notes, 7 chakras, etc). But how does this implement in our lives?

Usually when we awaken, for example when we take a decision to have a better health, make more sport, eat differently, wake up earlier… We do it for some time as the motivation is here but it does not last. And as a nation, here and now, in the present context, when the war started in October, we saw tremendous rise of unity and help within the people of Israel, together with an awakening about our Jewish identity. But after this first miracle of the spark, will we have this miracle of an awakening that lasts? Or will we come back to our routines and usual way to think and talk to each other? This is what Hannukah is coming to tell us, and it is supporting us to do this miracle!

But a miracle doesn’t arrive passively. We need to call it, to invoke it, to initiate movement. It is through committing ourselves to something, making this first step, that the life can come towards us, supporting us, in return.

In all this darkness, we have our own darkness. Our ego, our self-pity, our bad self-talk, our jealousy… And it is actually all an illusion, it does not define who we really are. It is like a shadow that would not exist if there was not a light, which is real. This dark side comes from our suffering. The author Lise Bourbeau talks about the 5 wounds of the soul we incarnate to heal: rejection, abandonment, humiliation, betrayal and injustice. I feel the people of Israel has lived exactly those 5 wounds since October 7th.

We can work on this dark side by taking a commitment. Any commitment that is pure. How to know if it is pure? As a woman I would say our intuition, the Binah בינה! But otherwise I would say the Torah and a bunch of wise people left us a lot of material to rely on and answer any question we may have. It does not have to feel like « religious » related, even though for me judaism is not a religion, it is a way of being and observing the life. It is the joy of life שמחת חיים that we chose actively no matter what, knowing that the self pity מסקנות is forbidden (source of decease). It is the art of asking questions, taking a step back, being humble and questioning everything even the Torah itself. It is about choosing the life and creating space for the life to happen within us, with faith אמונה.

For my part, I started to observe the shabbath, and do some morning prayers, and it resonates deliciously within me, giving myself more consciousness, gratitude, and rhythm connected to the time and nature in my life. I also decided to commit to a man, to a will of building a family. Those commitments, to Hachem, to Love, to the Life, are my ways to call in the miracle. In each of those commitment, that I take with the joy of life from the bottom of my heart, I think of my friends, my family members, and all the other people that I don’t know, that are in the army, that are hostages, that are healing physically and mentally, to all the mothers, sisters, wives, that are worrying and feeling alone, to all the people that are brainwashed and are still holding sticky hate within them, and to my little me who has been through so much and is here today standing still and I’m so grateful about it.

As the Maccabees went to fight against the Greeks, outnumbered and without right equipment to fight, it is said they had Faith in the heart, Prayer on the lips, and the ability of taking Action.

As vibrations shape the world, and words are vibrations, and even our whole selves we are vibrational beings, we can influence this reality, we can fight this darkness with our light and we don’t need a lot of light to make an ocean of darkness disappear. What we decide to consume and to give back to the world is now crucial.

The star of David, the two triangles, represent the concept of « As Above So Below ». Everything you do within you in your microcosm will have an impact on the macrocosm. That is where we also need the faith as we cannot have an immediate feedback if not at all. Yet signs are here all around for the one who can see them.

Wanting peace is one thing, but making peace, being kind, firstly towards oneself, is a practice. Not to be the slave of our thoughts and emotions just like not to be a slave of the public opinion and fake news or misinformation. We have meditation, or prayer, to train the mind for that. Just as to be grateful, it is a practice.

So let’s take commitments, feel what is right and act upon it, not letting ourselves in despair thanks to our faith and joy of life, and let’s feel empowered, that each of our actions do have a positive impact on this earth, that we are worthy, brave and beautiful.

I wish you a wonderful Hanukkah, may you let your light shine bright bright bright!