Turning on the spiritual lights

This Hanukkah, Jewish families across the world will gather around the menorah and stand together in the warm glow of its lights. There is a Chasidic saying that when one looks upon the Hanukkah lights one must not only look but listen — that means to listen to the lights and the stories they tell. The lights tell us many things, but I would like to share with you one idea.

What is light? Light is intangible. It’s not a thing. You can’t hold it in your hand. That’s why Torah is compared to light — “Torah ohr,” in the words of King Solomon (Proverbs 6:23.) Torah is spiritual, not material. And yet, it is the spiritual light of Torah that allows us to relate properly to the material world.

Picture yourself sitting in a completely dark room. Now picture yourself turning on the lights. Nothing has actually changed in the room. Nothing new has been brought there that wasn’t there before. Everything you now see was present before the lights were on. The difference is that you can now see what’s around you. Instead of stumbling over the furniture you can walk around it. And not only can you avoid stumbling on it, you can even make good use of it. There’s a chair to sit on; a book to read from; a hook to hang your jacket on; etc.

Now think of our lives like sitting in that room full of things. We are more affluent than any generation of Jews in history. We are blessed with material abundance. We are in a room full of beautiful, interesting, and useful things. Whether we stumble over the things in the room or make good use of them depends on one thing — turning on the lights.

Torah, spiritual light, gives us the vision to see the true purpose of the material world. We are meant to perfect this physical world, to refine it and uplift it. Our ultimate goal as Jews is not our heavenly reward in the afterlife but to make this physical world holier than heaven. May it be speedily and in our days.

Wolowik is the director of the Chabad of the Five Towns.