Question: A miracle happened on Hanukkah when a candle that could only burn for a day kept burning for eight days. What is a candle, a wick, and oil from a Kabbalistic perspective?

Answer: A candle is a barrel with oil and a wick floating inside it. Thanks to the wick, we can light the oil that rises up the wick and burns. Separately the oil and the wick will not burn, but when the oil enters the wick, the candle lights up.

The wick embodies the rejection of light. The oil represents the fuel, but it cannot burn by itself. Therefore, we must understand that our growing egoism is transformed through our work into its opposite, as it is written: “The evil angel becomes the good one” or “The angel of death becomes the angel of life.”

The Maccabees found the barrel of oil because they tried to reach the quality of love and bestowal, the connection between them, and they were able to light it because they had great resistance to those segments of the population that bowed to the Greek idols and built Greek temples in Jerusalem.

The war of the Maccabees was internal, within themselves, not an external one with the Greeks or the Hellenists inside of Israel. When they overcame their egoistic resistance, they transformed their resentment between them into the wick inside the oil and were able to light it.

Therefore, the barrel of oil with a wick embodies specifically the person’s spiritual work. It means nothing to simply find a keg—the main thing is to be able to light it. When the Maccabees, by overcoming the resistance of their egos, united, the barrel was found that they were able to put the wick into and light. In other words, they transformed their egoism and it began to be illuminated by the upper Light, and their souls lit up, illuminated by the Light. This is the miracle of Hanukkah.

Question: Why did the candle burn for eight days instead of one?

Answer: It is because, if you work for the purpose of love and bestowal, you ascend higher. There are eight Sefirot from Malchut to Bina, eight parts of desires. Even though there is only one Malchut, through resistance, i.e., faith above reason, it illuminates all the Sefirot to the highest one—Bina.

The Maccabees were able to rise to the real quality of bestowal, which is called faith above reason. Reason is in Malchut, while faith— in Bina. The rise from Malchut to Bina embodies the miracle of Hanukkah.
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From KabTV’s “Kabbalistic Meaning of Hanukkah,” 12/7/17

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Lesson Preparation

Lesson on the Topic “Hanukkah”

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Peace”, Article “Clarification of the Excerpt from the Mishnah: “Everything Is in Deposit, and a Fortress Spreads Over All of Life”

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Question: What is the Kabbalistic meaning of the holiday of Hanukkah?

Answer: The Kabbalistic meaning of the holiday is that, having discovered ourselves to be absolute egoists who have no connection with the spiritual world and who live only their animal lives, we realize that we must shake off the dust of egoism from ourselves and begin to live with the Light within the heart—with the aspiration toward a heartfelt connection with each other.

Only in the connection between us can the upper world, the upper force, be revealed. Lighting a little flame between us—the quality of bestowal and mutual love—is called “Hanukkah.” From that little Light called Nefesh, then Ruach, Neshama, Haya, and Yechida, which are all mutual friendly relations, gradually begin to blossom, which lets us connect all our qualities and aspirations between us and begin to feel ourselves as one supportive, kind family.

This happens gradually. There are seven stages in the spiritual world: Chesed, Gevurah, Tifferet, Netzach, Hod, Yesod, and Malchut. It is just that we are rising from the bottom up, from Malchut to the highest, to Chesed, igniting within ourselves ever-greater light.

This is what Hanukkah represents (from Hebrew “hanu-kah,” “hanaya” ‑ stopover). After this stopover, there is a period until Purim when we achieve the Sefirot above Chesed: Bina, Hochma, and Keter. Then, absolute unity and complete enlightenment and the consecration of our mutual connection will be achieved, when we actually become as one whole, one soul, called “Adam.”

We have to aspire to this, because this is the goal of our lives, our existence, the goal of creation.

Question: Where in this path are the Greeks?

Answer: The Greeks are between us, these are forces that separate us, prevent us from uniting, push us away from each other, as the Egyptians had done earlier.

In other words, everything that prevents our unity and adhesion are called either the Egyptians, the Romans or the Greeks, depending on the level. But, in principle, it is our egoism.

Even now we obey the Egyptians and the Romans and the Greeks—the so-called “nations of the world,” who exist within us—the egoistic forces that control us.

Question: So right now we are not at war with them?

Answer: Not at all. What war? On the contrary, we invite all our external enemies to us. We don’t even consider them as enemies. We are elitists. We think that their culture, science, and education are what is best for us. We are not even planning on uniting.

Question: In other words, we want to live like them, but we should want to live like the nation of Israel?

Answer: Living like the nation of Israel doesn’t mean sitting from morning to night reading the Torah. We must build the right kind of society in which everyone would be connected by the laws of friendship and love. “Love your neighbor as yourself” is the main law of the Torah that we must begin to obey.

Question: When will the Maccabees come and start the war?

Answer: We are trying to do it as much as we can.

Question: Will it happen suddenly? In the last moment, when everything comes to a dead end, in suffering?

Answer: Hopefully it will not carry out like that. The Maccabees came when there was no other alternative, and Judah Maccabee screamed: “Whoever is for the Creator, follow me!”

Nonetheless, let’s hope that we will, gradually, through the dissemination of Kabbalah, come to a time when people will begin to understand us and will want to approach this idea.

Question: If we are talking in terms of the material world, then the Maccabees were Kabbalists?

Answer: Of course. “Everyone who is for the Creator, to me!” is a Kabbalistic call, that is: “Let’s unite! We agree to be the central point of connection.” Judah Maccabee was a great scholar, a great sage, a Cohen, and that is why he was able to do that. On his spiritual level he really did have the power to draw the entire nation to himself.

Question: In other words, the Creator, essentially, is unity?

Answer: Yes. The experience of unity or the experience of the Creator is one and the same. The Creator is not something that exists outside of us, but rather that force of unity and love that we achieve. We call it the Creator.
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From KabTV’s “Kabbalistic Meaning of Hanukkah,” 12/7/17

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My article “Beware! These Hanukkah Insights Require Some Mental and Emotional Effort” published in The Times of Israel. 

As we light candles, eat soufganiyot and spin dreidels this Hanukkah, here’s an infographic to give us deeper insights into the holiday’s customs and concepts. Since Hanukkah discusses the initial entrance into a new, vast reality of positive connection among people, then in addition to the points in the infographic, here are some further elaborations…

Hanukkah, the Festival of Light = the Festival of Positive Connection

The inner meaning of “light” means positive connections among people. It has nothing to do with the light of the sun, or candlelight, or even the light of contentment we feel upon resolving some great doubt. To bring connection among people is the role of the Jewish people, i.e. to be “a light for the nations.”

We Jews need to first realize positive connection among each other, via connection-enriching education, and by doing so, be a conduit for this light to flow through to the world. Hanukkah is a special time when we Jews can contemplate what it means, for us and for the world, if we realized our role of being “a light for the nations” in today’s turbulent times.

Hanukkah = the First Parking Spot on a Roadtrip to Love

By connecting in a positive way, we mend our shattered, egoistic connections. It’s a process, and Hanukkah is its first stop (Hanu [park/stop], Koh [here]). It symbolizes not doing to others what we hate. This process of correction continues until we reach “love your friend as yourself.”

We Jews both have the mission and the means to pioneer and pass this correction process onto the rest of the world. At Hanukkah, we stop at this juncture where we connect by “not doing to others what we hate.” It’s not yet love, but it’s a significant step in that direction.

The Greeks = The Ego

The Greeks are a specific discernment of our ego, where we rationally justify why we don’t need to put in efforts to connect with each other. It has nothing to do with Greek nationality or culture.

If we, on the contrary, awaken the Jewish tendency to unite, trying to connect above the ego that tells us otherwise (the Greeks), we’ll start feeling the light of positive connection shine in the world, an extraordinary sensation of a much fuller reality than we’ve ever experienced in our daily lives. It’s that special reality, which is locked behind our efforts to connect to each other, that we Jews have the key to unlock for ourselves and for the world.

The Miracle of Hanukkah = The Awakening of the Desire to Connect

While the Greeks, our egos, tell us every good reason why we don’t need to try and connect with each other, if we put in efforts above its rationale, finding even the smallest will to connect to each other, that connective desire is considered the miracle of Hanukkah. It’s miraculous because it doesn’t exist in the egoistic human nature. It’s a spark of desire that awakens in us, and if we cherish it like a precious candlelight that we want to protect from wind and anything else that could put it out, then we can let that candlelight last, and ignite the process of fixing our connections.

Beyond the rather childlike customs and stories, Hanukkah marks a very serious initial stage in the process of fixing our connections: “Don’t do to others what you hate.” While going through the motions of the Hanukkah customs and songs, why not also pay attention to our attitudes to each other? Are we making an effort to connect to each other positively, above any differences between us?

Let us use this Hanukkah to realize the significant step it represents toward our becoming “a light for the nations,” i.e. becoming an example of positive connection for the world.
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Question: Dear Dr. Laitman,

With great interest I discovered information about your activities on YouTube. When I began to watch the online conversations, I immersed in them completely. I have a feeling that the states that you are talking about are very close to what I feel about the world.

One thing confuses me (and I am asking you to explain this as honestly as possible, preferably in a personal message in order to exclude the involvement of public factors).

So: If I am not a Jew (absolutely not), how can I relate to the teachings that you are spreading? Is the wisdom of Kabbalah information that is intended solely and only for the Jews? I have seen a variety of your videos on this subject.

Most of them are of a universal nature (after all, we are all the result of a spark that comes from Adam), but some of them are predominantly Semitic-oriented in nature, and the rest are not at all.

Answer: Jews are not a nation, but a worldview. Read about the selection of this group from the masses of ancient Babylon—we have a lot of material about this.
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Related Material:
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Answers To Your Questions, Part 227

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Lesson Preparation

Lesson on the Topic “Covenant Of Salt” (Preparation for the Virtual Convention 2018)

Writings of Baal HaSulam, Newspaper “The Nation”, Title “The Individual and the Nation”

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Question: How and in what should one agree with the Creator, and where does one insist on one’s own will?

Answer: It is necessary to agree with the Creator in everything except for one aspect: constantly chase Him so that He will lift you spiritually.

It is best to do this by showing your desire to the Creator. For example, I am with my friends in a group and show Him that I want Him to create a pure, spiritual, non-egoistic mutual connection between us. In this way, I do not leave Him. I demand the fulfillment of a desire from Him, I call on Him to do so.

Question: Does that mean that the entire world and all its problems are necessary only to push a person into such a relationship?

Answer: Only for this. For everything to come together to connect into a single system—a common soul. It is this soul, which, as stated in the Torah, broke into billions of tiny pieces during the so-called fall, that we must assemble with the help of the upper Light.

But when the Light collects these fragments and begins to bring them together, they rub against each other with their sharp edges that cut, scrape, and do not want to reunite. This is the way the Light gathers us.

Therefore, we can only do it if we wish to rise in connection and love above the cutting sensations. If not, then we will remain lonely fragments, and the upper Light will continue to grind on us all the time. Imagine it as glass fragments that are thrown into a spinning drum and begin to rotate in it.

Question: Where is the person’s choice?

Answer: Do you have a choice? Are you born of your choice? Do you live by your choice? What did you choose in life? Nothing.

The choice is only in the “spinning drum”: to reach a state where you voluntarily want to connect with the others.

Remark: They say that there is no coercion in spirituality…

My Comment: If you wish to unite voluntarily, the coercion stops.

Question: What must happen for a person to voluntarily desire it?

Answer: Attract the upper Light. When it comes, it feels bad, it is darkness, great suffering. When you attract it, that’s good.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 7/1/18

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Reaching An Agreement With The Creator
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