Before creation only the light of Ein Sof, the Infinite One, existed. With the creation of heaven and earth, darkness was created. ‘…\u00a0and darkness was upon the surface of the deep …’, says Bereshit 1:2. The infinite Light was hidden in darkness. But is there a real separation, a real\u00a0distinction\u00a0between light and darkness?<\/p>\n
On Tisha b\u2019Av we read Echa, Lamentations, \u00a0in the dark. We mourned the destruction of the temple.\u00a0Tisha b\u2019Av \u00a0happens in summer , the lightest time of the year. There is an old custom in Italy to keep the candle by which we read Echa in the dark till Hanuka, to light the first Hanuka candle. At Hanuka we celebrate the rededication of the temple. It happens around the winter solstice, the darkest time of the year. Light and darkness are interwoven in creation as yin and yang. The whole Jewish year is intended\u00a0to see the Light in darkness.<\/p>\n
According to the Zohar, right after creation the world was still illuminated by the infinite Light, and Adam could see from one end\u00a0of the earth to the other. Only after people sinned, the Light was hidden and changed into Or Ganuz, the hidden light. But though it is hidden, it still exists, like the sun still exists when the earth has turned and we are at the night side. Often we don’t see the Light. But in our better moments our soul, the divine spark in us, can see something of it, and is our darknes not that dark any more. Like haShem showing this light to David who burst forth into praise: \u00a0‘How abundant is thy goodness …!’.<\/p>\n
We only can see the candles of Hanuka against a background of darkness. The candle in the desert at noon, of which the Sufi mystic Rumi speaks, does not give that much joy. We can only see the Milky Way at night, when we are far from the city, preferably in a not illuminated desert.\u00a0Moshe had to enter the dark cloud to speak with haShem. Mystics speak of the dark night of the soul, the spiritual crisis we experience on our way to union with haShem. In darkness the seed begins to grow in the earth.<\/p>\n