Erev Chanukah
Rabbi Label Lam
Our Power is Found
A candle is a Mitzvah and Torah is light.(Mishlei 6:23)
These candles we light for the miracles and for the wonders and for the
salvations and for the wars that You did for our fathers in those days at
this time through Your holy Kohanim. And all eight days these candles are
holy and we have no permission to make use of them but rather only to view
them in order to acknowledge and praise Your Great Name on Your miracles
and on Your wonders and on Your salvations. (Recitation after lighting the
Chanukah Menorah)
Why are we so careful not to make use of the Chanukah Menorah? What praise
and acknowledgment is there beyond simple symbolism? What breathes the fire
of "holiness" into that tiny act of lighting a Chanukah candle? Anybody can
do that!
The answers may lie at least partially in gaining an appreciation of one
word. When we step up to the task of lighting the Menorah and other
Mitzvahs, a grand declaration is made: "You are the source of blessing
HASHEM, our G-d, King of the Universe, Who has sanctified us with His
Mitzvahs and commanded us to light the candle of Chanukah!" We say that we
are sanctified by the performance of doing a Mitzvah! What dynamic is at
play here?
Let's say I was to approach the Governor's mansion at 3:00 o'clock AM and
begin to knock on the door and demand a meeting with the Governor. Somebody
would likely shout out, "Who goes there?" I might sheepishly answer, "Label
Lam!" "Go away you fool!" they would appropriately respond and I would be
made to leave. However if I was carrying a message from the President I
would bang on the door more emphatically and when asked what the racket was
all about I would forget at that moment about myself and I would answer
with a sense overpowering urgency, "It's a message from the President!" The
door would open wide!
There's a Talmudic concept, "The messenger is like the one who sends
him." An act is greatly enlarged due to the "power of attorney" granted by
the sender. Even a simple task like lighting a Chanukah Menorah is enhanced
not so much by the originality or genius of the performer but by the
connection to The One Who commands him. The deed is not less than an
extension of the will of HASHEM, our G-d, King of the Universe. That is
what shines forth in the context of a Mitzvah!
From a slightly mystical vantage point the Nefesh HaChaim explains: "You
should know my brother that at the time it enters the mind of a person to
do a Mitzvah, immediately an impression is made above in his highest source
building and planting many worlds and yielding supernal powers. From there
is drawn to the person a force-field of light and a high and holy light
hovers over him and surrounds him.
Through the holiness and the surrounding light he becomes attached, so to
speak, with Him and His life force. It is this force of light that helps
him to complete the Mitzvah. Through the completion of the task he becomes
even more empowered. When he takes it to heart at the time of the
performance of a Mitzvah and he understands and feels in his soul that he
is surrounded and clothed at that moment in holiness and a spirit of
correctness is renewed within him."
Greek culture sought to tailor Judaism to fit only that which made
practical sense to them cutting away the essence. In defiance, for
thousands of years, we light a candle with no utility other than its
function as a Mitzvah, and flickering within that delicate Mitzvah -flame
our power is found.
Text Copyright © 2003 Rabbi Label Lam and
Torah.org
