When You Raise Up the Lamps

The classic Biblical commentators are puzzled by the opening verse in this week's portion (Numbers 8:1-14).

"א. וַיְדַבֵּ֥ר יְהֹוָ֖ה אֶל־משֶׁ֥ה לֵּאמֹֽר"

1. The Lord spoke to Moses, saying:

2. Speak to Aaron and say to him: "When you light the lamps, the seven lamps shall cast their light toward the face of the menorah."

The Hebrew word for "Light the Lamps," Bahalotecha, actually comes from the root Oleh or Aliya meaning lift or go up. Why not use the actual word with the accurate literal meaning?

Clearly, there is a sublayer of meaning that can be coaxed out of this particular word. Can this be a mild protest against the nature of the exalted itself? Should not the esteemed virtue of the light be subject to the same scrutiny as the dark? If the holiness of the kindled lights must all also be uplifted, is that not a Biblical prompt, one which asks us to imagine the unimaginable downfall of light? I'm not sure. It could mean many things.

Perhaps it is even a sly gift from on high—seen through the counterintuitive mystical reading of the Zohar that sees the lifting up of the lights from downfall that is always mirrored in our downfalls. The destiny of humanity is deeply intertwined with the “destiny of G-d.” This daring Kabbalistic reading gives rise to the notion of “Shechinta Begulata”—the notion of a G-d who is “exiled” along with his children, signaling the ways the ruptured fabric of society mirrors the parallel rupture within the image of the Divine Itself.

Whilst aware of the need to not overhumanize an utterly unified infinite G-d, I like the notion of imagining G-d as a “Mentsch,” who can’t help but “feel” the suffering of his chosen nation and suffers along with them.

The notion of the "downfall of the light" might also be a useful construct to capture the particular collective sadness of having so many out there that have turned on our people. That the rabid mob mentality fueled by a dark and twisted surge of viciousness— where the rhetoric of the accusers is in itself the very maniacal brainwashed language that was the precursor to the Shoah, an actual genocide—offers scant comfort.

I do take comfort in knowing that G-d is right here alongside me, alongside all of us.

Light doesn’t need to defend itself; it’s light, after all. Sometimes it just needs to be raised up from where it has fallen so that it can go on being what it is and always, and will continue to be!