The second night – Chanukah 5781
I now know two other folks also lighting double Hanukkah candles to fulfill both Hillel and Shammai’s rulings. And I remembered suddenly a reading that Shammai’s rulings are the rulings of Olam Haba, The World to Come.
We Jews know the World to Come is the world that we are now creating, the world we are unfolding through our actions. It is not magically separate or distanced. It is not in the heavens, but here.
So here’s to bringing us all a little closer to The World of Redemption. Even something as seemingly small as lighting a hannukiah in another way brings with it a beauty and complexity of meaning that leads us to deeper connection.
What does it mean to realize that even as we make light, we also can lose light? What does it mean to mourn the loss of the dark times? How can we recognize the great balance, that we are never perfectly fulfilled in this life, never able to always increase the light, but that we nonetheless strive towards it? And how do we bless that darkness too?
eish zarah 