Sparks of Light: Fourth Night

In 1948, shortly after the establishment of the State of Israel, a design competition was held to establish the official “semel Yisrael” or emblem of the State. The winning entry was submitted by brothers Gabriel and Maxim Shamir, Israeli graphic designers originally from Latvia. Their design was the now-iconic Menorah, between two olive branches. Why did they choose a Menorah as the central focus of their emblem? As the story goes, the brothers saw the Menorah as a symbol of the central purpose of the Jewish nation to be “a light unto the nations” (Yeshayahu 42:6).

This significant concept of being “a light unto the nations” has a strong connection to the widely accepted custom of lighting our Chanukah candles according to Beit Hillel. As we learn, there is a dispute in the Talmud between Beit Shammai and Beit Hillel whether to increase the number of candles each day from one to eight, or to start with eight and remove a candle each day for eight days. Although the definitive Halacha rules according to Beit Hillel, who argues that we add a candle each day, Rabbi Mendel Weinbach, zt”l, co-founder and dean of Ohr Somayach in Jerusalem, teaches a profound idea from examining these two differing approaches.

Rav Weinbach teaches that, as we know, darkness is the absence of light, and darkness is generally seen as representative of evil. You can fight evil in the world in two ways: either by fighting whatever is wrong in the world, or, you can create such a tremendous light where you are that the darkness just disappears. Chanukah expresses the victory of light over darkness, but which approach to banishing darkness/evil is most successful; do we use the flame to burn, or to illuminate?

Beit Shammai’s approach, by subtracting a candle each night, was to fight the corrupting aspects of the darkness, so that the burning of the flame symbolizes the weakening effect of the negative forces of the world on us.

On the other hand, Beit Hillel sees the battle against immorality in the world as a call to raise ourselves spiritually, to become living examples of morality by living according to Torah principles. This way the entire world would see us and want to imitate us. So, says Beit Hillel, the more successful method of wiping out darkness is by increasing the illumination of Torah everywhere. For this reason we increase the number of candles each night to remind ourselves of our responsibility, as Jews, to steadily increase the light of Torah knowledge and understanding in the world, by banishing the darkness of evil and becoming a light unto the Nations.

As Rav Weinbach writes: “the prescription for overcoming ‘darkness’ in our time, is the same as it was in the time of the Hellenistic oppression: by increasing our light. If we increase our learning, and if we increase our holiness, then we will truly be ‘A Light Unto The Nations’.”