Why does God need our candles?

By Hazzan Jenna Greenberg.

This question is answered by our rabbis with a mashal, a midrashic story from Bemidbar Rabbah:

To a king who had a loved one. The king said, “know that I will eat with you, so go and prepare for me”. The loved one went and prepared an ordinary couch, an ordinary lamp [menorah], an ordinary table. When the king came, he brought his assistants around him and a golden lamp before him. When the loved one saw all the glory of the king, he became ashamed and hid all he had prepared for the king, since they all were ordinary. The king said to him, “Did I not tell you I would eat with you? Why have you prepared nothing for me?” The loved one said to him, “I saw all the glory that you came with, and I was ashamed and hid all I had prepared for you, for they were all ordinary things.” The king said to him, “By your life [I swear] that I will ruin all my things that I brought with me, and for the sake of your love I will not use anything except your possessions!” And so, the Holy Blessed One is entirely light, as it is said (Daniel 2:22) “And light dwells with God”, and God says to Israel “Prepare for me a menorah and lights.”

While the menorah in this story refers to the original seven-branched candelabra in the Temple, we can bring this idea into our Chanukah candle-lighting experiences that begin this evening and will last for the next 8 nights. As with many midrashim with these two characters, the king represents God and the beloved friend is us, the Jewish people. 

There are many lessons that this story teaches. The idea that sticks out most to me is that we all have the ability to bring more light into the world, regardless of how ordinary or extraordinary our candles are. We do what we can with the means that we have. We all have God’s divine spark within each of us and that, in and of itself, is extraordinary. What matters to God is that we fulfill the mitzvah of lighting the candles, regardless of the types of candles or chanukiot that we light. 

No matter how ordinary our simplest candles and most basic chanukiot are, we are not ordinary. We are extraordinary, as individuals, and as a community. We are extraordinary because the divine flame burns equally in each of us. Let us celebrate the light within us by adding our light to the world, being an or lagoyim, a light unto the nations. We are living in dark times, both seasonally and emotionally. May the lights that we kindle shed light to all humanity, helping good to overcome evil, helping light reign over darkness.

Chag Chanukah Sameach!