Chanukah Day 1
Tonight we light One.
The holy soul within you is a one-and-only. It is a singularity, and it should be a source of humility [anavah] to reflect on the fact that you are only one of over 8 billion people currently alive in our world.
That statistic might (and should!) make you feel small but, as our tradition teaches humility is about taking up your rightful space and, like the Chanukah candle, you are also a unique source of bright and radiant light in the world. As it says in the Book of Proverbs: Ner HaShem nishmat adam – “The human soul is the candle of God.” Only humans have this spiritual soul, neshama; not animals.
Like the flame that rises from our first candle, God has kindled a light within us that comes from the Divine source. Like the candle’s light, it is radiant, pure and illuminating. And like the candle’s light, it is fragile and vulnerable to being extinguished.
Small and mighty, each of us, and that is why the Mishna (Sanhedrin 4:5) teaches:
Anyone who destroys one soul, it as if he destroyed an entire world. And anyone who sustains one soul, it is as if one sustained an entire world.
May the candle you light tonight burn brightly. May the candle you are radiate its illumination into your life and, through you, into our dark world.
*And if you missed my introduction to Chanukah, please click on my Notes page.
Didn't expect such a profound connection between a 'singularity' and humility. Thank you for this beautiful reminder of our unique, fragile light. It really makes you wonder.
There’s something deeply grounding in the way this holds both humility and radiance at the same time. Being “one of eight billion” can feel small — but the teaching reframes that smallness as sacred, not insignificant. Humility isn’t shrinking; it’s standing in your rightful space without pretending to be more or less than you are.
The candle image makes that real. A flame is fragile, yes — easily extinguished — and yet it illuminates everything around it. Its vulnerability is not weakness; it’s the very condition that allows it to give light. That tension feels honest.
And the Mishnah teaching sharpens it even further: sustaining one soul is sustaining an entire world. That line refuses abstraction. It insists that each life carries immeasurable weight. The candle you light isn’t symbolic only — it’s a reminder that what you protect, nurture, and sustain in yourself and others is world-sized.
There’s quiet strength in that kind of spirituality. Not loud. Not performative. Just steady light in a dark room.