Hanukkah explains how to achieve the correction of desires in which the higher power will be revealed. All that is in creation is the desire to bestow, called the Creator, and the desire to enjoy, called creation.
The higher the level of the development of the desire: inanimate, vegetative, animate, and human, the more developed the creation is and the more it differs from the Creator.
It turns out that the further away the light and darkness are from each other, the greater the opportunity the creation has to distinguish them, to discern the advantage of light from darkness, and thus advance.
Sometimes the creation has to go through very unpleasant states: enormous light, thick darkness, and endless differences between them. All this throws the creation in different directions, but there is no way out; it is necessary to go through such polar states in order to develop.
Therefore, the Creator gives us the feeling of darkness from the concealment of light. And we feel ourselves in complete darkness, uncertainty, despair, fear, and anxiety under the threat of war. These states can manifest themselves physically, or they can be purely internal experiences. A person is obliged to go through these unpleasant states and immerse himself in them for some time until he decides that he needs to get out of them.
And most importantly, why get out of them? At first, the reason is only to feel better and not suffer, which is a natural, corporeal reaction. Or he thinks that it is not proper for a person to be in such a low state. Or maybe he is even able to find another reason for getting out of the darkness: the desire to please the Creator and responsibility to his friends.
Depending on this reason, his feelings change when leaving a black line. Maybe he considers the state good not because it is pleasant, but because he understood where good is and where evil is. Or maybe he is simply glad that he felt good, confidence, and calmness returned. Everything depends on how much a person sank into the darkness and accordingly how high he was able to rise to the light. This is exactly what we see in the state called Hanukkah. After all, it is not achieved in one go, but at each stage there is a mini-Hanukkah. Each time there is darkness and war, enemies attack our desire to reach the Creator, merging, and unity. At first, this desire in a person is very small, and he feels discomfort, darkness, uncertainty, and fear, as if the whole world is rising up against him. But little by little, thanks to study, overcoming, and efforts to achieve the goal, he finds a “jug of oil” among complete ruins. Although his heart, that is, the Temple, is broken, he finds a point in the heart, a small jug of oil and can light it. He understands that this salvation came from the Creator, and he rises, purifies and sanctifies himself.
And so until the next time… Each time the darkness is blacker, the fear is stronger, the world is destroyed more and more thoroughly, and it is unclear how it can ever be fixed.
But when I overcome this fall despite everything: I come to lessons, meetings of friends, and workshops, then time does its job, and after a certain amount of effort, I deserve to come out of the darkness again. So each time I win a little more and more in this great “Maccabean war.”
Each time the difference between light and darkness increases and brings a feeling of helplessness, fear, despair, and even physical discomfort and illness. And in accordance with this, I find out that all this comes from the Creator who is good and does good, and there is no other way than to increase the gap between darkness and light until this difference turns into a spiritual vessel.
This is not done in one go. One must go through many states so that the difference between descents and ascents increases significantly. Each time I will define anew what a descent is and what an ascent is, darkness and light, until these definitions become more qualitative. Then I will acquire a spiritual vessel, understanding that both darkness and light are necessary, these two opposites opposite each other.
I will be ready to hold these two opposites and will not allow myself to be thrown from one to the other like a small child who sometimes cries and sometimes laughs. I will begin to control both states by canceling myself. This is called being a spiritual embryo, when no matter what states I go through, I decide that I need them.
And even if next time I again fall into darkness, into a descent, and will not be able to control myself, because each time I fall lower and lower. But I already know that this is how it should be and, understanding the general process, I thank the Creator and justify him. This is how we advance.
Hanukkah exists in every state that we go through on the path to achieving the property of bestowal, Bina. When we succeed in bringing our Malchut to Bina for the first time, this signifies the beginning of spiritual development, the embryo. And the completion of this process of building bestowing desires (Galgalta Einaim) is called the full, real holiday of Hanukkah.
This is not just a stop (Hanu-Ko) on the way, but a revolution in work, starting from the state of Hanukkah and further. After all, there can be no stops in spirituality. But we change the method of work, and after that we begin to work with the desire to enjoy, using it for the sake of bestowal, approaching the holiday of Purim.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/13/17, “Hanukkah according to Kabbalah”
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Faith above reason is built precisely above reason, when I measure how much I managed to rise above my corporeal pragmatism to judge from the perspective of bestowal. This means to think about what I can give, what I can sacrifice, and what pleasure I can bring to my friends and through them to the Creator.
