FOR CHANUKAH
OUTSIDE LIGHTING
Over the past couple of weeks, two pictures received major attention in all the news media that generally carry human interest stories. One image shows a police officer bending towards a homeless person sitting on a sidewalk in New York. This officer was offering a pair of boots to the barefoot man. It was later revealed how this police officer had discovered this shoeless person on a particularly cold night, and his heart just could not allow him to ignore the man whose feet were in desperate need of protection.
It was a good-feeling, warm-the-heart kind of story. And the picture was extremely moving. It is no wonder that it became so popular.
At around the same time, in the same city, another picture was publicized, which caused shock and sadness to whomever saw it. This was a picture of a man standing on the tracks of the New York Subway. A deranged person had thrown him into the well of the tracks, and he desperately did what he could to jump out. But it was not enough. A train was bearing upon this doomed person too quickly for escape. The picture shows the train within just a few feet of him. He did not make it out of the tracks, and this would be the last picture ever to be taken of him, in his final seconds on this earth. Alas, no one standing on the platform was able – or had the desire – to save this desperate person.
Merely seeing this picture breaks one’s the heart. One cannot help wonder how anyone could have stood there and watched this horror unfold. This picture, and all its aftermath, also became popular, but for all the wrong reasons.
There is no doubt that both of these stories are newsworthy. There is also no doubt that without the evidence in the form of pictures, no one outside of the immediate vicinity of where these stories took place would have heard about the sensation of either of them.
Stories happen every day. The news media, though, usually focuses on what most people consider to be sensationalism. They create news out of those stories suited to their tastes and business acumen. And it seems to work, for this has been the nature of the news business for decades.
Without the available picture, however, the sensation is limited. How many would have been made aware of these stories without the pictures? Should the news not stand on its own when a police officer’s heart was moved to purchase a brand new pair of boots for a freezing homeless man? What about the poor fellow thrown to his death onto the subway tracks: should it not cause an outcry without the picture? During this past week, a woman rescued not one, but two men from the New York Subway tracks, saving both the man who jumped in, and the one he intended to save. There was no picture available, and so this story went the same way the rest of the regular stories go.
Without the pictures, without the visual experience, things are not the same. The impact of seeing is much more powerful than any other mode of communication. This idea is also reflected in Jewish law: A witness can never become a judge. A judge is designated to be impartial to the case before him. If a person witnessed an episode with his or her eyes, no other presented evidence can possibly be debated to persuade that person’s mind to think differently and actually judge the case. Witnessing something through sight makes an impact incomparable to any other means.
The festival of Chanukah, currently being celebrated (until Sunday night), is the festival which, more than any other Jewish holiday, highlights the importance of visualization.
Chanukah, in fact, celebrates two separate miracles. The first one involves a small band of Jewish heroes, headed by Judah the Maccabee, who took on the mighty armies of the Seleucid-Greek Empire. There was not supposed to be a real chance for a much smaller and weaker army of untested Jewish guerilla fighters to overthrow this huge military. Yet, the small Jewish army not only did just that; they defeated their enemies soundly.
The festival of Chanukah, however, uncharacteristically does very little to highlight this monumental, even epic miracle. The miracle is mentioned in passing during prayers. Chanukah, instead, focuses on the second miracle: When the Maccabees entered the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, they found a single unopened cruse of oil, sufficient to last for just one day. Miraculously, it lasted for eight days. When Chanukah is celebrated, it is exclusively through the kindling of the Menorah, the candelabrum, for eight days, increasing the number of lights per night. Even the traditional oily foods (potato latkes and doughnuts), celebrate the miracle of the oil.
The requirement of the oil celebration is simple enough: To kindle lights each night, preferably with olive oil, or with any other mode that produces light. These lights are kindled inside the home, or immediately outside of one’s home. The purpose of these lights, though, is to publicize them, in the most obvious way, to all people, both inside the home and especially outside.
There is no other Jewish festival whose emphasis concentrates on the outside. Even the joyous festival of Purim, which shares similarities with Chanukah, focuses on the inside. It requires the reading of the Megillah, the book of Esther, which is an “inside” activity. Its other requirements, such as the sharing of foods and gifts to the poor, are also normally focused on the “inside” community of friends and needy people. The festival of Sukkos, which requires food to be partaken in an outdoor booth-like structure, does not emphasize those on the outside. Interestingly, when mentioning the military miracle of Chanukah, it is done during an “inside” activity of prayer.
Chanukah, in its main observance, asks of its celebrators to do one thing: Bring light to the outside. The exact same light that is kindled for the inhabitants of the house must be shared with the outside world.
An additional point regarding the illumination of Chanukah is the makeup of the Menorah. Unlike the Temple’s seven-branched Menorah, the one used on Chanukah is comprised of nine branches, one for the each of eight successive night, and one called the “Shamash,” which serves as the candle to kindle the Menorah each night.
This “servant” candle, called the Shamash, is required to be held apart from the main Menorah lights. It serves as reminder to the importance of the main lights. If one needed fire, this candle is available, without using any of the important fires burning as the Menorah itself. Customarily, however, in almost every Menorah this “Shamash” candle is held a little higher than the eight main Menorah lights. This light, whose entire purpose is simply to kindle and “stand guard” over the other lights, holds a more prominent place than the lights of the main show! Is something not wrong with this picture?
The answer is about the importance of the visual experience of kindling lights. When serving as a kindler to another, one deserves a place of prominence, regardless of who is more prominent.
Every individual can and does benefit from the visual impact of light. No one can see anything without some form of light. As such, light is not merely a crucial component to the proper functioning within this world: it controls almost every vital and essential element in this world, from growth, to rain, to heat, to sight, and to the work force. The metaphor of spiritual energy is also expressed through the radiance of light.
For such is the importance of visualization: it is how the world functions.
When it is dark, physically and especially emotionally, light is elusive. Darkness has a tendency to engulf the “outside.” A person can find him or herself in a situation of concealment, of cold, of darkness. One can feel as though the tunnel of darkness is endless.
Chanukah, in the dark of winter, exhorts its followers not to get lost in the darkness. It emphasizes, more than any other festival, the providing of visualization, so all can notice how the darkness of the “outside” can be transformed into light. And when it serves as the provider of light, one is given a prominent seat in the scheme of things.
Seeing is not believing. Seeing is knowing, beyond a shadow of a doubt. Seeing is also what is necessary for the most powerful impact.
This impact of the Chanukah lights is designed to carry the person through the year. Whenever darkness appears, at any time of the year, one should recall how much impact the visualization of light can have to vanquish that darkness. One then carries the clear light throughout the year, illuminating the darkest corners, transforming even the outside into a place of light and joy. Happy Chanukah!
SUMMARY: To see is to know. Chanukah is all about light, which provides the impact of visualization to last through any dark moment for the entire year.