Chanukah: Calling Forth the Hidden Primordial Light of the Future

As Rabbi Elazar said: The light that the Holy Blessed One created on the first day, Adam could see from one end of the world to the other. But when the Holy Blessed One looked upon the generation of the Flood and the generation of the Dispersion and saw that their ways were corrupt,the Holy One arose and concealed it from them, as it is written: “And from the wicked their light is withheld” (Job 38:15).

And for whom did God conceal it? For the tzadikim in the future, as it is written: “And God saw the light, that it was good” (Genesis 1:4), and “good” is referring to none other than the tzadik...

I heard in the name of our Rabbi, the Rebbe Yisrael Baal Shem Tov regarding the teaching of our Sages of blessed memory, that the Holy Blessed One concealed the light - how could God hide it, if it is such a great light that it filled the entire universe, and a person could see with it from one end of the world to the other?! And he taught that God hid it in the Torah. For the Torah is so much greater - thousands of times more vast - than the world/universe (Eruvin 21a), and one who studies Torah for its own sake is granted access to this hidden light.

The light of the menorah during this month is an an aspect of the hidden light that was concealed within the Torah. And see what is written in the name of the Rokeach (a medieval Ashkenazi rabbi) that for this reason they instituted [a total of] thirty-six candles, to parallel the thirty-six times that “light” “candle” and “luminaries” are mentioned in the Torah, which hints to the hidden light that shined for the first human being for thirty-six hours but was then hidden away and concealed within the Torah.

And in my opinion, this is the reason that the name of this month (in which there is an illumination from the light hidden and concealed within the Torah) is “Kislev” - ki”s le”v - a covering [kisui] for the thirty-six [l”v] appearances of “light”, “candle” and “luminaries” of which an illumination is revealed during this month. R. Tzi Elimelech of Dinov, 1783-1841. Trans. R. Ami Silver, slightly adapted.

For this reason these days are called Chanukah, from the word chinuch [preparatory training] and practice for what is to come, for the future redemption. For then, the hidden light will be revealed to us in its fullness, as the Sages taught that “God hid it away for the righteous in the future”, as it says, “the sun will no longer be your light in the day, nor will the glow of the moon be a light for you. But God will be an eternal light for you” (Isaiah 60:19). And this will be at the end of this exile that began with the fourth Kingdom. But even before the end of the third Kingdom, the Kingdom of Greece, the Blessed God shined a small bit of that light for us, even after prophecy had ceased, so that the light can remain with us in this current exile in place of prophecy. For through this light a person can gaze from one end of the universe to the other. And it is therefore called the Chanukah candle, the candle of chinuch [preparatory training] and practice for the eternal light of the future redemption, when that hidden light - about which it was said “let there be light” - will be revealed. Trans. R. Ami Silver