Let There Be Light

Rabbi Dr. Jana L. De Benedetti

At the end of each description of each day of the first Creation story in Genesis it says, “There was evening and there was morning.” This teaches us that God defines a day as starting in the evening and continuing in the morning. Throughout the Torah (Five Books of Moses) God commands us to make certain days holy, including Shabbat, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Passover, and Shavuot. In order to set those days apart from the ordinary days, we light candles before the sun sets, to welcome and sanctify the Holy Day.
Traditionally the candles are blessed at home, with the family gathered around. In many synagogues candles are blessed at the beginning of the evening worship service for the Holy Day. At home after the blessing for the candles is finished, the children are blessed – and often the spouses also are praised. The tradition of lighting two candles is thought to come from the fact that the two versions of the Decalogue (one in Exodus and one in Deuteronomy) command us about Shabbat in slightly different ways: one says, “keep” and one says, “remember.” We light two candles in order to do both. In some families instead of two separate candlesticks, a menorah is used. Some families have a tradition to use a menorah that has as many people as are in the immediate family. When I was growing up, we used a five-branch menorah until my sister was born, and then we switched to a seven-branch menorah.
The word “menorah” is mentioned many times in Torah when God is instructing how to make the seven branch menorah for the Tabernacle. This menorah later became the menorah in the Temple in Jerusalem which experienced the miracle of the oil at the Chanukah (dedication) of the Temple that inspired the lighting of the Chanukah menorah. A Chanukah menorah has eight branches, representing the eight days of the miracle, and of the holiday, plus one branch used for lighting the rest. It is obvious from the biblical explanations of lighting a menorah that for thousands of years, they were burning oil lights, and only recently wax candles became more common.
The candle lighting “ceremony” is a beautiful, spiritual way to usher in and sanctify the Holy Day that is about to begin. Since God forbade work on every one of the Holy Days, we need to be sure to light the candles before sunset. We also light them before we say the blessing. Every other blessing we say comes before we do the thing we bless – we bless the particular food before we eat it, we say a blessing for doing a commandment before we do the commandment. However, since we are forbidden to light a fire on Holy Days (and especially Shabbat), we are careful to light the fire before the sun goes down. The procedure is to light the candles, then block the light of the candles from your view by either covering your eyes or having your hands block the light of the candle from your view, then say the blessing that reminds us that God is the Ruler of the Universe and commanded us to light the Holy Day / Shabbat lights, and then finally move our hands away so that we can see the lights – as if for the first time. There is a common tradition to add another few meaningful steps… one is that after lighting the candles, and before saying the blessing, we move our hands as if to bring the light closer to us – to physically welcome and invite the Holy day into our lives. Often people say a silent, personal blessing after the candle blessing is said and before we look at the candles – it is another powerful way to recognize how close we are to God and God is to us as the Holy Day begins. Most often the candle lighting and blessing is done by the woman of the home. If there is no woman, a man should do it, and as described above, the whole family should participate. It is a powerful thing to acknowledge that most often in the home, the woman is responsible for the spiritual light of the family.
Light is often used as a symbol for the spiritual – and even for the spirit. There is a tradition among many Jews to light a candle as a reminder of the spirit of a deceased loved one. A tall candle is lit immediately after a funeral – and the candle will burn continuously for 7 days. As this candle slowly burns down it becomes an almost physical way of releasing the spirit of the loved one, and helping us to move on. Then on each anniversary of the loved one’s death, a candle is lit in the evening of the anniversary – this candle burns at least 24 hours. It serves as a reminder for the entire day of the anniversary of the death. The Holy Days also incorporate special prayers and readings to honor and remember those we loved who are gone.
Light is a powerful symbol of the divine spark that makes us human. A wonderful aspect of candlelight is that when we share it, the world becomes even brighter. Usually when something is shared, each person gets a part of what is shared. When sharing light, each person gets to let their own light shine, which significantly increases the light in the world. By lighting candles as the sun sets, we are reminded that even a small light dispels the darkness. We pray that we can bring awareness of the enlightenment of God’s spirit into the world.