If a person correctly organizes the three inner qualities—the “candle,” the “oil,” and the “wick”—within themselves, they come to a state called Hanukkah (from the words “ḥanu ko,” “they stopped here”), meaning a short respite in the middle of the path.
“Oil” is our material, the desire to enjoy; it is the content of the vessel (Kli). It is not capable of igniting itself from the light that we draw from outside; it is only with the help of the wick.
The wick must be immersed in the oil and also protrude from it. It symbolizes the screen that we build outside the egoistic desire (outside the oil). That part of the egoistic desire that we are able to include within the screen, that is, the oil that has soaked into the wick, only that can shine and come in contact with the upper light.
But this is only on the condition that the oil cannot merely penetrate inside the wick, but also rise above the level of the oil, the egoism, toward Bina, toward the light, toward bestowal. Only then can it shine!
The light emerges from the upper edge of the wick, where it comes out and loses its connection with the oil, with egoism.
The reflected light, the flame rising from below upward, reaches Keter in the ten Sefirot of reflected light, and there the connection between the reflected light and the force of the receiving desire, the egoism, from which the force of burning comes, almost breaks.
The oil rises upward along the wick, and only there is contact achieved, a similarity of properties between the oil in the wick and the light. Only together can they shine. The light cannot be revealed until it connects with the wick and the oil within it.
By imagining a burning candle, we can understand the inner work of a person: what we must do with ourselves so that our soul attains similarity to the light, to the Creator.
The desire does not disappear; all of it must join the screen, the wick. From it we create our middle line to the extent that we are able to bring the oil, desire, into the wick.
Only a small part of the desire can be included in the screen. The wick symbolizes that core, that thin thread by which the correspondence of our desire to the light is measured.
The screen, the middle line, is built from these two forces oil and wick, left and right. The right line is bestowal, light, and the left is reception, oil.
The middle line, which we create from the two higher qualities of reception and bestowal, is called the soul.
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From Daily Kabbalah Lesson on 12/13/09, Rabash, Letter 43
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Question: How do Kabbalists understand that it is time to move from Hanukkah to Purim?
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