Why all the darkness?

 Chanukah is coming!  What an exciting time for adults and kids alike.  Latkes, doughnuts, parties, Chanukah Gelt (money), and of course the most important observance – lighting the Menorahs.  We also add a special section in the Amidah prayer and Bentching, called “Ve’al Hanissim, say Hallel, and have wonderful parties, public Menorah lightings and sometimes a concert!

(Pardon the interruption…. Have you heard about the fabulous events we are hosting during Chanukah? There’s a public candle lighting at City Hall, a Hakhel Concert featuring Yoel Sharabi, and so much more! Learn more at chabadpaloalto.com/chanukah).

It is indeed a wonderful holiday, with a universal message – the triumph of light over darkness, of good over evil.  When there is darkness, light a candle, and you will increase the light and defeat the darkness.  

Someone asked me the other day: We focus so much on the message of light.  Why does there have to be darkness in the first place?  We know the old adage, that all our holidays celebrate the same thing: they tried to destroy us, we won, now let’s eat.  Very nice but why did the Jews have to go through the suffering at the hands of the Greeks and need a miracle to survive?

The same question can be asked about the holiday we just celebrated this week, the 19th of Kislev.  The founder of Chabad, Rabbi Schneur Zalman, was imprisoned for false accusations, putting the entire nascent Chassidic movement in danger, and was miraculously released.  On the other hand,  no miracle would have been necessary if he weren’t imprisoned in the first place!

And the same thing in our current Parsha.  Yosef was sold as a slave to Egypt and ends up in prison for a crime he did not commit.  Eventually he is released and becomes the ruler of Egypt.  Ok, very nice, but why did he have to go through all that?  And what about the Jewish exile in Egypt which resulted from Yosef’s being sold to Egypt.  We were miraculously redeemed and received the Torah and the Land of Israel, but why all the suffering to get there?  

The question of course is a broader one.  Why does it seem that there is so much suffering on the road to goodness?  Why do we need to dispel the darkness with candles?  Why can’t we skip the bad and just get the light?

I will not attempt to answer the question of why Hashem brings suffering.  Part of being human means we are limited in our understanding and can’t even begin to understand Hashem’s ways.  Nevertheless, the Torah gives us some insight.

The story of creation tells us that “it was evening and it was morning, one day.”  Hashem created a world for human beings to illuminate.  Hashem hid Himself from us, because He wants us to choose to bring Him into the world and in this way we become partners with Him in creation.  

If everything in the world was always rosy and wonderful, we would have no part in refining it.  Hashem wanted us to be the ones to illuminate the world, so it is up to us to find the light in the darkness.  The nature of the darkness of the world leads to people acting badly.  When left to its own devices, ego takes over and evil happens.  When we buck the trend and stand up for goodness, we are transforming the nature of the world to good.  

Yosef brought goodness and light to the darkest place on earth, Egypt.  Rabbi Schneur Zalman stood up for the spiritual needs of the Jewish people and revealed the light of the deepest secrets of the Torah.  In a time of danger, persecution and challenges to Torah, he taught unconditional love for everyone and empowered every individual to overcome their negative emotion and find a spiritual path to Hashem.

The Maccabees faced a nation, and a movement, to “modernize” Jewish life and move away from our traditions.  This was the way the world was going, and the natural tendency was to follow the trend.  They stood up for light, recognizing that far from bringing goodness, this distance from Torah was allowing darkness and evil to penetrate the world.  Their sacrifice for the light of Torah brought the great miracle of transformation, turning darkness to light, physical might to holiness, and evil to good.

One message of Chanukah is that the darkness and difficulties we face, as a nation or individually, are part of Hashem’s plan to give us the opportunity to transform the darkness.  Just recognizing that anything that challenges our connection to Hashem or that pushes us away from moral and ethical behavior is there as a test of how we will choose to act, empowers us to overcome the challenge and light a candle.  We have the power to do what is right in any circumstance, and as the Menorah teaches us, to illuminate the world, increasing the brightness every day.

Happy Chanukah!