The Healing Power of Chanukah

Chanukah takes place at a time when the days are shortest and darkness prevails over light, when the sap rests in the roots, and animals sleep for the winter. Now the soul is at the depths of its annual cycle and our feminine, receptive attribute is at its peak, like that of the evening of Shabbat. Perhaps that's why the female motif of Chanukah predominates, with its tales of Jewish heroines and the restriction of women performing work while the candles glow only at night. Only in a setting like this can the intuitive expression of Chanukah come alive.

Chanukah is not a Torah mandated holiday, but the Rabbi's of the Talmud, in their wisdom, realized that something was missing in the succession of Jewish holidays. The major festivals of Pesach, Shavuot and Succot were all agricultural celebrations, as described in the Torah. There is an active energy about these festivals, reminiscent of the activity of sowing, planting and harvesting. But in winter, we mainly stay at home lighting the menorah on each of the eight nights of Chanukah. It's a quiet time like that of nature outside. 

We celebrate a miracle that took place over 2000 years ago. A miracle that caused a flask filled with enough oil to burn for one day, to burn for eight days.  Why should a miracle, an event that defies the natural order and disobeys the law of cause and effect take place, if not for the will of God?  Within that thought lies the seed of transcendence, the potential for healing and the promise of new possibilities for us.

Jewish mystics and visionaries always understood, even to this day, that the entire sequence of holidays and festivals follow a path of body and mind healing, emotional development and spiritual growth, all of which are intrinsically interrelated. Much like the flask of oil that miraculously burned for eight days, miracles of restoring shattered lives happen every day.

The healing path is intimately connected with the agricultural year that begins with Pesach, acknowledging the Exodus from Egypt and the subsequent escape from bondage. As we read further into Exodus, we find that the Israelites hadn't found freedom yet; the fear of survival in the desert dominated their minds --anxieties of insufficient food and water or the horror of perishing in the desert. So what really happened on the first day of Passover was that the Israelites for the first time became aware that freedom was possible. That's all!  Awareness is an extremely powerful tool, and the first step that leads to growth, physical, emotional or spiritual. The first step in all healing is to become aware of the pain, which in some cases is enough to effect healing.

Seven weeks later, we arrive at the summer festival of Shavuot. Agriculturally, it commemorates the time when the first fruits were harvested and brought to the Temple. Spiritually, it celebrates the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai, or the Revelation when God first revealed Himself to the fledgling Jewish nation. At that time the people were ordered to accept the teaching, the laws and the precepts outlined in the Torah. Acceptance became the second principle in the path. Not only did they agree to accept the laws and commandments, but also implicit is that we must agree to accept all of the uncertainties that come before us each day, both the positive and the negative. 

Finally, the Festival of Sukkot enters in the fall on the fifth day after Yom Kippur. It is quite a drastic transition, from one of the most solemn holidays in our year to one of the most joyous. Sukkot is so unreservedly joyful that it is commonly referred to in Jewish literature as Z'man Simchateinu , the Season of our Rejoicing. Agriculturally, we celebrate the bounty of the harvest. On the spiritual level, healing takes place through rectification, the integration of all the spiritual work that we have done for ourselves during the preceding year.

In the cycle of time, the Jewish holidays bring us the opportunity to remember the spiritual and restorative work that we need to do for ourselves. We're not expected to change ourselves from one holiday to another, but each one cues us into yet another aspect of the healing process. Just as the Torah is reread year after year and the holidays observed, we try to grow spiritually a little more each year.

At Chanukah, one strand of thought says that we should not endorse the military victory of the Maccabees; they say only the miracle of the oil properly restored the appropriate glory to the Temple. But if we understand that the Selucid Greeks are merely metaphors for the real enemy that lurks in our souls, who defile our inner personal Temple, we then fight for a more noble cause. The military victory represents the culmination of the battle we fought all year against the enemies of our souls…illness, despair, depression.

At this particular Chanukah when the dark clouds of winter loom overhead, we need as much light as we can get. If every one of us would light one candle on each of the eight nights perhaps we can pave the way for a bright new future. It is said that miracles are not necessarily supernatural happenings. All of life is a miracle.  Every person we know—our friends and our family—are truly miraculous and the light of Chanukah allows us to see our miracle