MORE   Ideas for Your Family's Hanukkah

 
The menorah is mentioned 27 times in the Torah. Precise details of its construction are given when Moses is alone, on the mountaintop, listening to God and seeing the Architect’s vision [Ex: 25: 31-40]. The menorah becomes a symbol of this listening and holding of the Light.

     The mystics say the light of the menorah is drawn from the or ganuz, the hidden residual of the original light of creation. Torah is that light filtered, condensed, and formed into creation, and encoded in letters dancing with energy, filtered through you, the words of Torah, and each new way you discover how to live that manifests as holiness.

The Torah is called a tree of life, the menorah is a symbolic embodiment of this tree of life. If you think about it, a classical menorah is obviously shaped like a tree! Kaballah is based upon the belief that it is possible for humanity to improve, gradually, over the generations via hard work on ourselves. Each branch of the tree holds the light in an energy cluster called a sephirah, a saphire point to which you can put your attention. A person is also a micro-tree of life, so this attention takes place within your soul and acts within you and beyond you. One point, for example, hessed, is overflowing loving kindness, this requires one to contemplate not only how to flow in such a way, but also to think about whether one allows flow to come toward oneself from others, and whether there is too much, or too little taking place. Visit the adjacent column for more of the qualities of the branches of the tree of life. I recommend Mysteries of theKabbalah by Marc-Alain Ouaknin for an excellent, easy to read and understand and very useful and well researched introduction to Kabbalah.

The original menorah had seven branches. The Hanukkah menorah is a commemorative edition, with nine branches in order to be careful not to copy the original and also to allow for one light for each of the eight days of the festival. [Evidence leads scholars to believe that it was Sukkot that was being celebrated when the Temple was rededicated, since they didn't have control of the temple to do so on time.] There is one extra branch for the shamash, a helper candle to ignite the others.

What about the miracle of the cruise of oil lasting eight days? This and many other stories arose long after the event, entering the realm of sacred myth. The Hanukkah menorah does recall miracles - that there was enough "oil" then and now, enough of the Jewish soul left after all the assimilation and trauma, to rededicate ourselves to the covenant of living as Jews. Hanukkah, in fact, means "dedication." Even today, a huge menorah with engraved scenes from Jewish history stands outside of Israel’s parliament, an enduring symbol of that dedication.

Finding
Significance
in the
Candles'
Colors

   With the invention of candles instead of oil flames, and now colorful candles are available, it is possible to study on each night of Hanukkah a different branch of the Kabbalists Tree of Life, which is what they see the menorah as representing.

   This is a hologram idea, that our mystics have long before holograms.    Inside of your is your inner menorah, with the qualities of the Tree of Life - and for the Kabbalists these qualities are equally present through out creation. Since, for them, it is the original seven branch menorah to which they relate, there are 7 colors. Let's add white, the color of transformation for the eight day.  Here is your study schema for Hannukah, each branch is called a sephirah in their model, a blazing gem of possibility.

Ultra-violet Hessed
Loving-kindness

Blue
Gevurah
Strength
healthy boundaries

Green
Tiferet Compassionate heart space

Yellow
Netzah
Drive and yearning

Orange
Hod
Incubation, development

Red
Yesod
Getting it out there

Brown
Malhut
Birthing, bridging worlds

White  Transformation of the soul