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Hanukkah, in its spiritual meaning, is the revelation of a timeless inner process. The external events of 170 BCE—Antiochus’s desecration of the Temple, the persecution of the people, the uprising of the Maccabees, and the miracle of the oil—are branches of a deeper root: the eternal struggle between unity and egoism, between the force of love and bestowal that dwells in nature, which we call “the Creator” in the wisdom of Kabbalah, and the divisive egoistic force that is human nature.
This story begins not with the Maccabees, but with Abraham in ancient Babylon. He was the first to proclaim the call: “Whoever is moving toward the Creator, follow me!” Under this banner, he gathered people from many nations and backgrounds, teaching them the purpose of creation, the unity of all reality, and the motion to unite in order to discover adhesion with the upper force, the Creator, a force of love, bestowal, and connection.
The Maccabees continued Abraham’s work on a later, more developed level. Again, internal and external egoism rose up, which is represented by the Greeks. Once again, a small group united around a single spiritual idea, that of the need to unite above the divisive egoistic forces, and revealed within themselves the upper force of unity, bestowal, and love.
That is the miracle of Hanukkah.
Kabbalists describe the story of Hanukkah from a purely internal level, that the victory is not a physical military victory, but the victory of uniting above the egoistic-divisive drives that tear away at us from within. When the Maccabees united, they attracted what Kabbalists call “the light of Hassadim (mercy),” which is another way of saying that they drew the omnipresent force of bestowal into their connections. In that light, the tiny amount of oil, which represents the minimal desire for spirituality that we host within us, was able to burn for eight days. Oil represents the spiritual desire; the wick represents the effort to rise above egoism; and the flame is the light that arises in their connection.
Whenever people unite above their egoism, this light appears. It is the same miracle in every generation: the miracle of the Creator that becomes revealed in the unity among people.
Modern life is filled with its own “Greeks,” i.e., idols of success, pleasure, self-glorification, and empty pursuits. People run through life like actors imitating roles that lead nowhere. Although today’s idols are exposed as hollow, we still chase them. This inner battle between egoism and unity is exactly the same war that the Maccabees, Babylonians, Egyptians, and Romans fought. There is only ever one war.
Accordingly, the miracle of Hanukkah is the miracle of unity among people emerging above the divisive egoistic forces in any generation and at any time. As today’s world appears to be on a declining course with increasing divisive and hateful sentiment seeping into our relations, we always have the ability to attract the positive unifying force that dwells in nature into our relations, which can calm the world, organize everything optimally, and make our lives whole. That is always the miracle: the revelation of the Creator in unity above division.
Based on KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on December 17, 2014. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
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