The Flames of Chanukah

There are only a few things in this world that a person can gaze at for a while and get lost in. One of those things is a flame of fire. As it flickers upward and back down again, tearing itself away from its contact with wick or wood, it somehow radiates a quiet tranquility. We are now in the midst of the 8 nights of Chanukah, commemorating the victory of Jewish freedom over hellenist Greek oppression - light over darkness. As we watch the candles dance on these nights of Chanukah, what lessons can we take into our lives from the flickering flames? 

  

A small candle lights up a dark room. Like the candle in the dark, our individual actions and positive thoughts and speech, can have a strong effect on our surroundings, especially in an area of spiritual darkness. 

Growing slowly, one candle at a time. Why don't we light all 8 candles each night? The lesson in lighting only one more candle each night, is that we must strive to grow as people and as Jews, one step at a time. One mitzvah, one action that we connect with. That type of growth is slower, but lasting.
One candle can light infinite others. When lighting from one flame to another, notice that the original flame loses nothing. When helping others, we may think we are diminished - our time, financially, emotionally. But the truth is that we gain and fortify ourselves greater than before. And the ripple effect of our actions can carry on infinitely. See this video for  an awesome example of this. There are so many other lessons, but let's end with this:

"The soul of a person is a candle of G-d" [Proverbs 20:27]. The soul descends into a body and material life, in order to carry out its individual mission on earth. On one hand, our souls desire to leave the "wick" - the body - and return to its source in heaven and spiritual bliss, like the candle always yearning upward. But ultimately the soul's purpose is on the wick, for only in the body is it able to perform its crucial mission of making the world a beautiful, G-dly place. Maybe the reason we like to stare at the flames of the candles, is because we are really staring into ourselves.

Shabbat Shalom & a very happy Chanukah to you!