Chanukah: Festival of Light

A businessman wanted to test which of his three sons had the most initiative. He gave each of them a day to fill a huge warehouse - whoever filled it completely (in whatever way) would inherit the business.

The oldest son figured he would use balloons. He spent the whole day and finally he had quite an impressive display but there was a lot of space between the balloons.

The next son decided that he would use bundles of hay. He also succeeded in almost filling the warehouse but there were still gaps.

The youngest son waited until five minutes before the deadline. Then he called out "Done it!" The others ran to see, wondering how on earth the youngest son could have succeeded.

Inside the darkened warehouse, the youngest son had lit a match. The entire building was full of light, every last corner. Needless to say, the youngest son won.

In the story of Chanukah, we are told that the miracle is that the oil burned for eight days, instead of one. The commentators ask why we celebrate the first day as a miracle also - since there was enough oil for one day, surely the miracle only started on the second day.

The answer is that had all the oil been consumed on the first day, there would have been no catalyst, nothing left for the miracle to start from. Therefore, they conclude, some of the oil must have remained for the second day, forming a basis for the subsequent miracles, and therefore on the first day also, miraculously, less oil was consumed than normal.

Why is this? It could be raining gold and silver coins but without placing a bucket or pot outside to collect them, nothing will happen.

We all know the story of the man who kept praying for a lottery win, promising G-d all kinds of wonderful things if he would only win the jackpot. After several months, a voice came down and said "I'm trying, but you have to at least buy a ticket!"

Mystical thought refers to lights, oros and vessels, kelim. The lights - blessings, influence, Divine effluence - require appropriate vessels to hold them, otherwise they cannot be contained. We need to make a vessel, in a natural manner, to channel the flow from above.

By our lighting the Chanukah candles (or through any precept of the Torah), thereby fulfilling a Mitzvah - commandment - we are making a vessel, a means to draw down the positive energies and blessings from above in a tangible manner.

We see from the first story that a tiny quantity of light can dispel a whole room full of darkness. Rather than focusing on the negative, by accentuating the positive, the negative dissipates by itself.  One good deed, one act of kindness, one moment of thoughtfulness has a tremendous effect on the world around us.