Rabbi Janine's Messages

Dear Community,

Did you know that Chanukah has more than one origin story?

Many people know the story of the Maccabees and the miracle of the oil for the Temple which lasted eight days. But this is only one of the several origin stories of Chanukah.

Last week I shared a story about the creation of light. In this mystical understanding of the Creation story in Genesis, God creates light on two different days. The first light God creates is so powerful, the sages teach, that God chooses to store it away for Olam Habah, the world to come.

Related to this teaching, there is another origin story about Hanukkah centered on this first mystical light from Creation. According to this story, Hanukkah's eight nights correspond to the light that emanated throughout the universe for the first thirty-six hours of Creation. The first source of light shone for the first three days of Creation, before the second form of light was created on the Fourth day. Each day was said to have twelve hours of light and twelve hours of dark. This means each of the three days had twelve hours of this Divine Light, totalling to thirty-six hours. 

Thirty-six is a holy number. In Judaism, the number eighteen symbolizes chai/life. Thirty-six is twice that number, or double chai. It turns out that thirty-six is also the number of candles we light throughout Hanukkah (not counting the shamas, or helper candle, which is not included in the total of lights representing nights of Hanukkah- or else there would be a total of 9 nights of Hanukkah). 

The mystics love math. They love numbers and they especially love a tie in to a holiday. When we light out hanukkiah next week, we are not only rembering the ancient Macabees and the miracle of Hanukkah but also the miracle of Creation. Like on Shabbat, when we light our Hanukkah candles we bring into our midst the powerful, mystical light from Creation. 
 
May this Shabbat be filled with light and reminders of miracles. 
 

Shabbat Shalom, 

Rabbi Janine Jankovitz