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Rabbi Amalia Mark reflects on our collective fixation on utility, Hanukkah as an antidote to the grindset, sitting with the candles, and getting cozy and comfortable this Hanukkah season.
What do you usually do after lighting Chanukah candles?
My dearest memories of Chanukah are not of doughnuts, latkes, or presents (our family did one present, and it was always Jewish-themed).
When I summon the image of “Chanukah” to my mind’s eye, I see myself throughout the years, curled up on the couch in front of the Chanukah candles. I have a book in my lap. I’m reading by the candlelight. It is cozy and quiet. It’s just me and the candles.
Today, with a rambunctious toddler, “quiet” is less likely. But, I’m still looking forward to a moment or two of sacred stillness during the holiday.
Hanerot Halalu, a liturgical kavanah [Editor’s note: intention] said after the Chanukah blessings, includes the instruction:
וְכָל שְמוֹנַת יְמֵי חֲנֻכָּה הַנֵּרוֹת הַלָּלוּ קֹדֶשׁ הֵן וְאֵין לָנוּ רְשׁוּת לְהִשְׁתַּמֵּשׁ בָּהֵן אֶלָּא לִרְאוֹתָן בִּלְבָד
And for all eight days of Chanukah These Chanukah lights are sacred And we don’t use them for any purpose Only to see them, witnessing their light (My translation, with a little poetic liberty)
Chanukah, a rabbinic holiday which predates electricity by a good two thousand years, includes the mandate not to benefit from the light we kindle at the darkest moment of the year. No big deal, not using Chanukah candles for anything other than looking at the pretty lights, right?
Except, two thousand years ago, the only way to see at night was with the candles you lit.
With that context, the call to use the Chanukah candles solely for witnessing their lights is a truly radical request. In a pre-industrialization era, how could you possibly avoid the obvious utility of the Chanukah candles as tools to support the sewing, cooking, cleaning, and other million-and-one tasks necessary to live your life?
In our contemporary world, filled with so many ways to illuminate a space with ease, perhaps this is still a radical request.
How often do I find myself doing two thousand things at once?
I’m… writing an email, reminding myself to write a check for daycare, thinking about who we might want to invite for each night of Chanukah, planning the menu for Shabbat, watering the plants, checking my phone, mourning the news, looking up a Black Friday deal, realizing I forgot to return my library books, and on and on and on.
And in an age of digital doppelgangers, side hustles, your “5 to 9,” economic inequality, gig work, and social media, who amongst us has not heard the call to squeeze all we can from every available moment, private and public? We’re encouraged to stream, commodify, or monetize it all. How many of you, over Thanksgiving, told a well-meaning relative about a passion or hobby, only to be asked whether you’d thought about how to make a little money off of it? Potters, painters, poets, pastry chefs: I know you’ve heard that question.
Which brings me back to Hanerot Halalu. Each night of Chanukah we add a light, until there are eight lights on the chanukiyah (also known as a menorah) brightly shining. For each night of Chanukah, we have the opportunity to sit in radical presence with ourselves and with others. And, let’s be real, sitting and just…taking in the candles or ourselves with few distractions can be hard (see above for reasons why).
But we have eight whole days and nights to practice this work of sacred stillness.
In a world built on capitalism that calls us to consume, produce, and tie our worth to our output, Chanukah is a necessary antidote, calling us to the present moment. Chanukah calls us to exist simply because we can.
We should not need to find excuses to rest, to be present, to simply be. But, if you’re like me, finding it hard to untangle yourself from the urge to assign value based on utility, look to the light. The candles do not need to prove why they should shine. Neither do we.
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