Hanukkah at the Roots: Night 8 - Infinity and Love

Rabbi Arthur Waskow is the Founder and Director of The Shalom Center.

The eighth candle of Hanukkah completes the sacred lighting, but it is more than a completion. The number 7 is fulfillment; the number 8 is Beyond. Infinity. (The mathematicians’ symbol for Infinity is the number 8, tilted to lie on its side. ∞ )

What does this teach us? Perhaps the most uncanny, “beyond,” one might say “infinite” story of Hanukkah is in and indeed beyond the Prophet Zechariah’s haftarah for Shabbat Hanukkah. Zechariah has a conversation with a Messenger from YHWH, the Interbreathing Spirit of the world. The Messenger shows him a secret Truth, then asks him whether he knows what it means. Zechariah keeps saying “No!” and the Messenger explains.

One of these images is that when the Second Temple is built, the Great Menorah, modeled on a Tree with branches, buds, bunches of green leaves unfolding every bud of Light, will be accompanied by an olive tree to its left and another to its right. The Messenger asks, “Do you know what this means?” and the Prophet says “No!” The Messenger says, “Not by might, and not by power, but by My [Interbreathing] Spirit says YHWH, Breath of Life.”

Already this is mysterious, uncanny. And beyond the haftarah is another image: The two olive trees are pouring golden oil straight into the golden Tree of Light. Human beings have crafted one of these trees; the epochs-long process of Evolution has crafted the other two. Together they bespeak the emergence of Holy Light and their relationship is Beyond the Telling and Beyond explaining. Infinite.

Our Hanukkah must reach beyond the many stories of its origins. Even beyond the many issues we have found in the stories — the agony of Israel and Palestine, climate, democracy, poverty, cruelty toward Trans people, racism, abortion rights.

We must act on these issues and reach beneath them and beyond them to the spiritual failings and the spiritual transformations that are encoded in them and beyond them.

Our failings stem mostly from Greed — Greed for more land, more possessions, more prestige, more wealth, more power. Our inner sense of transformation and the eco-social transformations we call peace and truth and justice stem from Love. Love, the Song of Songs tells us, is strong as death. A truth that is only true if we make it so.

If we do, we embody the Infinite, the Light that suffuses all the worlds.

— by Rabbi Arthur Waskow

Read/Watch/Listen:

At The Shalom Center, we are trying to get at the spiritual roots of societal transformation, so we may collectively embody the Infinite, symbolized by night 8 of Hanukkah. Tonight, we invite you to watch this short video, which conveys the work and vision of The Shalom Center.

Action Items:

If you were moved, inspired, or made joyful from this Hanukkah at the Roots email series, we invite you to donate to The Shalom Center — as a one time gift or recurring contribution — to help us continue to grow and pursue the wholeness of Infinity we all yearn for.

Kavannah

by Rabbi Arthur Waskow

The number 7 betokens fulfillment;
The number 8 betokens Beyond — Infinity.
We light the 8th candle
As an echo of the Infinite Light
That began Creation,
Enlightening all the worlds with holiness.
We light up Unity to learn
That self-affirmation/ self-restraint
Go hand-in-hand
That Greed is the Perennial Sin
And Love the universal Blessing.

Blessings

midrashic translations by Rabbi Arthur Waskow

Baruch atah / Brucha aht Yahhh, Blessed are You, Breath of life, Ruach HaOlam, Interbreathing of the world, asher kidshanu b’mitzvot, vitzivanu l’hadlik ner shel Hanukkah, Who makes us holy by connecting with the Breath and with each other, at this moment to kindle the light of Hanukkah to see our cousins.

Baruch atah, <Brucha aht> YHWH {Yahh} Eloheinu, Ruach haolam, she-asah nisim — lo v’chayil v’lo v’choach ki im b’ruchech — l’horeinu bayamim hahaeim baz’man hazeh.

Blessed are You, YHWH [Yahhh] our God, Breath of all life, Who has brought about amazing deeds — not by might and not by power, but by Your Spirit — through our forebears in those days and in ourselves, this very season.

Light shamash / helper candle and all 8 candles of Hanukkiah.