We say over Hanukah candles each night, “We are only allowed
to look at the candles, and are forbidden from making any other use of
them.” Thus we are commanded to
look at the candles. The meaning
of the commandment to look at the candles is because the candles illuminate
every Jewish soul, and allow us to look deeply into ourselves in the way that
every person should.
This commandment of looking deeply is related to the
statement in Ethics of the Fathers, “Look deeply into these three things and
you will not come into the power of sin.” Behind the miracle of the candles is illuminating the
eyes of those whose vision has dimmed. It says in the Gemara with reference to searching for
leavened stuff the night before Passover, ‘The light of a candle is beautiful
for checking.’ Proverbs
20 also says, “G’d’s candle is a person’s soul; He searches every chamber of
our insides.”
We can understand ‘checking the chamber of our insides’ as a
search for the point of life from G’d that is within every soul, as it is
written of the creation of Adam in Genesis 2, “G’d breathed a living soul into
his nostrils, and Adam became a living creature.” We search with a candle and feather in a person’s soul;
perhaps we will find a space where this divine soul can spread out further and
shine. Such a process of spreading
out the divine soul is literally like that of a candle, which seeks oil from
the wick.
In the Midrash we interpret the word ‘Seeking’ or חיפש like
the word for freedom, חופש… because the divine point of life banishes
concealment. Even if a person is
completely enslaved to his negative desires and can’t sense the truth, that
person can with the candle’s help search within himself for the divine…
The Gemara teaches that the mezuzah should be on the right
side of the door, and the Hanukah candles on the left side. Proverbs 3 teaches, “A full life is in
G’d’s right hand, and riches and honor are in G’d’s left hand.” The Mezuzah, which speaks of a full
life coming from obedience to G’d, represents one who clings completely to the
source of life, and is already connected to the world that is all light. A Hanukah light, on the left side and
connected to worldly honor and riches, is for even the one who has no
connection to G’d and is saturated with darkness. For even such a person, the Hanukah candles provide
illumination… The candles on the left side help reveal the truth to such a
person, and give him strength to return home.
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