Listen to the candles – dawn is near

“Darkness will envelop the world, and a thick cloud the peoples.” (Isaiah 60) Is the prophet not describing, chillingly, the world today?

The Malbim, Meir Leibush ben Yehiel Michel Wisser (1809-1879), expounds on the distinction between being gripped by darkness or in the midst of a thick fog. Darkness, he says, refers to people who have no faith, unable to see the light altogether. There are, however, nations who are believers, staunch monotheists. Though the sun shines on them it is clouded by a dense mist, blurring and clouding the light, obfuscating the clarity of their values and morality.

2024 is a time where obscurity and confusion reign in the world, in which good and evil are confounded. World leaders and governments are choosing to place themselves squarely on the wrong side of history. Morality and justice have to fight against destruction, murder, and the worst forms of abuse. A prime minister and a defense minister are prosecuted for defending their own people. The victims of one of the greatest, systematic forms of genocide in the history of mankind, a people dedicated to preserving the sanctity of life, are accused of this most heinous crime. Suddenly, right and wrong have switched places, and no amount of decrying it is helping.

The night is always darkest just before dawn. As the world is preparing for a new order, when truth and goodness will forever prevail, we are plunged into confusion and contradiction.

It’s in this blackness and haze that we celebrate Chanukah this year. The candles of this festival of light are lit as night falls, intended to shine into the obscurity. They are placed in our doorways or our windowsills, facing out to the dusky street.

We are told that we must listen to the candles, to hear the tale that they are sharing with us. This year, we can hear so distinctly what they are saying, their message so clear and pertinent.

Darkness cannot be swept out with brooms. The only way to combat it is through light. A little light chases away a lot of darkness. And the darker it is, the more the light is appreciated.

This is the light that inspires us, the light that guides us, the light that comforts us. Lit, as tradition has it, in increasing numbers night after night, it sends us the message that in the end, it will prevail.

Indeed, dawn is near. In the past 400+ days, we have witnessed rays of hope and of salvation. The very light we have been praying and hoping for through many dark centuries is peeping through the cracks with increasing frequency.

Thus, continues Isaiah, addressing the Jewish people, “Arise and shine, for your light has dawned, the glory of G-d has shone upon you. G-d’s presence will be seen over you. Nations will walk by your light. Whereas you had been forsaken, rejected. I will make you a pride everlasting. No longer will the cry, ‘Violence! [Hamas, in the original Hebrew]’ be heard in your land. Your sun shall set no more, for G-d shall be your everlasting light and the days of your mourning shall be ended.”

This Chanukah, listen to the little flickering candles, hear their message, and say ‘Amen!’.

• Rabbi Yossi Chaikin is the rabbi at Oxford Shul and the chairperson of the South African Rabbinical Association.