More Light!

Lights“And now,” says the Divine to Moses, in our reading from the Torah this week, “tell the Children of Israel to bring you clear oil of beaten olives, for light, to kindle an eternal lamp.
In the tent of meeting, outside the curtain,
there shall Aaron and his descendants set it,
to burn from evening to morning before the Eternal One,
a statute for Israel for all time, throughout your generations.”
(Exodus 27:20-21)

Rav Avina said:  Look at lightning – just a fragment of the light at God’s command – see how it flashes in the sky, illumining the whole landscape from one end to the other. What need has God of our poor little lamp? (Vayikra Rabbah 31:8, and the teaching is attributed to Rabbi Berachiah in Tanchuma Beha’alotekha 7)

Rabbi Berachiah said:  Look at the human eye – we do not see by way of the white, but through the dark at the center.  The Holy Blessed One draws wondrous light out of the darkness, reveals deep and hidden things, knows what is in the shadows, and light dwells with the Eternal One. What need has God of our poor little lamp? (Vayikra Rabbah 31:8; attributed to Rabbi Yochanan in Tanchuma Tetzaveh 4, cf.  Beha’alotekha 5, 7)

And the rabbis say: All through the nine months of gestation, a lamp shines above the head of the growing child in the womb – and by that light the fetus sees from one end of the cosmos to the other, and all the Torah in between. What need has God of our poor little olive oil lamp? (Vayikra Rabbah 31:8.) 

To refine us in merit, through our refinement of pure olive oil?  (Vayikra Rabbah 30:13; Bemidbar Rabbah 15:2; Tanchuma Tetzaveh 5, 7, Emor 17, Beha’alotekha 2) 

To make atonement for our souls, which are like lamps, each human spirit a little godly light? (Vayikra Rabbah 30:13; Tanchuma Emor 17, interpreting Psalm 20:27)

To raise us up and give us an office of honor in the world, as we lift up a lamp for the Divine in the sanctuary? (Bemidbar Rabbah 15:7; Tanchuma Beha’alotekha 5, 7)

Perhaps.

“The Eternal One went before them by day in a pillar of smoke to lead them on the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light.” (Exodus 13:21) 

Once the tabernacle was set up, God said to Israel:

“Shine for Me now, just as I gave you light.” (Tanchuma Beha’alotekha 5)

God said: “The lamp of your soul is in My hands, and My light is in your hands.” (Shemot Rabbah 36:3; Vayikra Rabbah 31:4; Devarim Rabbah Re’eh 4; Yalkut Shim’oni, Emor; Midrash on Psalms 17:5)

“Just be careful to keep My lamp kindled when the world is dark, and I will light an unimaginable light for you in the time that is to come.” (Bemidbar Rabbah 15:2; Tanchuma Beha’alotekha 2, Tetzaveh 4, cf. 6, 7)

“Shine for Me in the world that is,” says the Eternal One, “and I will shine for you in the world that is to be.”

“For pitch darkness may cover all the earth, and shadows obscure whole nations; but the Eternal One will shine upon you – and upon you, and through you, God’s glory will be seen.” (Isaiah 60:2)

A blind person and a person who could see were travelling on the road together, the blind one holding the arm of the seeing companion.  
When night came, the sighted one said to the blind friend, “Come, light us a lamp.”  
“I have been depending on your vision all this way,” replied the blind companion, "and now you want me to light our lamp?”  
“Yes – oh yes – because you know how to find it in the darkness.”
(Tanchuma Tetzaveh 4, Beha’alotekha 5)

We stumble through this world, like blind people feeling our way in the dark, reaching out for a divine vision to guide us;  but within our own selves is the light of the Eternal One, and the lamp of redemption that is ours to kindle.

So — “Rise, and shine, for your light has come – and the glory of God shines all over you.” (Isaiah 60:1)