Hanukkah Is The Holiday Of Light Inside Us

When a person correctly arranges the three qualities inside him called “candle,” “oil” and “wick,” he reaches a state called “Hanukkah,” which comes from the words “Hanu Ko” – “stop here.” He thus reaches a short breather in the middle of the path.

The “oil” is our matter, the will to enjoy, the contents of the vessel or Kli. It is unable to light up on its own using the Light we attract from outside. It can only light up with the help of a wick. The wick has to be immersed in the oil, but a part of it has to reach outside, because the wick symbolizes the screen that we build outside our egoistic desire (outside the oil).

The only part of the egoistic desire that is able to shine (to be in contact with the Upper Light) is the part we are able to include inside the screen. Stated differently, only the oil that has saturated the wick can be lit up. This can only happen under the condition that the oil does not just permeate the wick, but also rises above the level of the rest of the oil (egoism), rising towards Bina – the Light, bestowal. Only then will it be able to shine!

The Light emanates from the upper end of the wick, the place where the wick comes outside and loses contact with the oil, egoism. The Reflected Light is the fire that ascends from below upwards, there attaining Keter of the ten Sefirot of the Reflected Light. At that point there is hardly any connection between the Reflected Light and the force of the desire to receive, egoism, which provides the power for the burning to take place. The oil ascends upwards along the wick, and that is the only place where contact is achieved, or equivalence of form between the oil in the wick and the Light. They can only shine together. The Light cannot manifest until it connects with the wick and the oil inside it.

By imagining a burning candle, we can understand the inner work of a person on the spiritual path and what we have to do in order for our soul to attain equivalence with the Light, the Creator. The desire does not disappear; rather, it must be entirely attached to the screen, the wick. From it we create the middle line inside us, to the degree we are able to bring the oil (desire) inside the wick.

The screen can include only a small part of the desire. The wick symbolizes this shaft, the thin line that is the measure of similarity between our desire and the Light. The screen, or the middle line, is built from these two forces – the oil and the wick, the right and the left lines. The right line is bestowal and Light, and the left line is reception, the oil. The middle line, which we create from the two Upper Qualities of reception and bestowal, is called the soul.