Finding Light

The Talmud teaches that if someone chooses to immerse himself in evil the way is open for him. Rebbe Nachman of Breslev has an interesting spin on this concept. He explains that the meaning is that even if one is immersed in evil there are doorways that he can find within the evil to use to get himself out of it.
There are two ways to deal with the difficulties and challenges of life. We can run from them, or we can wrestle with them. Sometimes, indeed, running is the best path. If someone finds herself so overwhelmed that she feels incapable of dealing with the particular challenge, escaping it may be the only path. But, invariably, the challenge will come again. Until the person figures out how to deal with, and overcome, that challenge it won't go away. To really deal with it, one needs to find the light that is there in the darkness.

The challenge posed by the Hellenistic culture is described by our sages as darkness. The Lights of Chanukah represent finding the light at the end of the tunnel; the struggle through the darkness until a solution is found.

The Hellenists tried to make the Jewish people forget Torah. They succeeded to a certain extent. It was this forgetfulness that brought about the phenomenon of disagreement which is so common in Torah study and in the Talmud. But there was a silver lining to the cloud. The challenges posed by this forgetfulness created a culture in which constant study and review of Torah was needed.

God allowed the Hellenists to come as the people were allowing their devotion to Torah study to wane. By rising up to the challenge and fighting the Hellenistic influences, they created a new paradigm whereby even though they were now flawed by forgetfulness they had the desire and devotion to struggle with the understanding of Torah, difficult as it was.

this was the light in the darkness that they found.

We can find it too. We need to utilize the daily inspiration from Chanukah candles to inspire ourselves to find the light in all o our own challenges.