גמ׳ אמר רב חנן בר רבא קלנדא ח' ימים אחר תקופה סטרנורא ח' ימים לפני תקופה ...
GEMARA: Rav Ḥanan bar Rava says: When are these festivals celebrated? Kalenda is celebrated during the eight days after the winter solstice, and Saturnalia is celebrated during the eight days before the winter solstice....
With regard to the dates of these festivals, the Sages taught: When Adam the first man saw that the day was progressively diminishing, as the days become shorter from the autumnal equinox until the winter solstice, he did not yet know that this is a normal phenomenon, and therefore he said: Woe is me; perhaps because I sinned the world is becoming dark around me and will ultimately return to the primordial state of chaos and disorder. And this is the death that was sentenced upon me from Heaven, as it is written: “And to dust shall you return” (Genesis 3:19). He arose and spent eight days in fasting and in prayer.
The breath of a person is God's candle, searching all his inmost parts.
Sefat Emet- Reb Yehudah Leib Alter of Ger (1847-1905) - Translated by Art Green
It is written: “A lamp [candle] of the Lord is the soul of man, searching out all the belly’s chambers” (Prov. 20:27). The Gemara notes that searching requires a candle. One candle from another. “I will seek out Jerusalem with candles” (Zeph. 1:12).
Sanctuary [Mishkan] and Temple [Mikdash] are found in every one of Israel, as Scripture says: “I will dwell within them” (Ex. 25:6). These are present insofar as a person makes it clear to himself that all of life-energy comes from the soul. Thus we say each day: “The soul You have placed within me is pure….” This means that there is a certain pure place within each Jew, but it is indeed deeply hidden.
When the Temple [Mikdash] was standing, it was clear that all life-energy came from God. This is the meaning of [the verse:] “the indwelling of the Shekhinah in the Temple [Mikdash]] was witness that God dwells in Israel.” But even now, after that dwelling-place has been hidden, it can be found by searching with candles. The candles are the mitsvot; we need to seek within our hearts and souls in order to fulfill a mitsvah with all our strength. The word NeR (candle) stands for Nefesh Ruah (“soul” and “spirit”). To fulfill a mitsvah in this way we also make use of all our 248 limbs. These, combined with love and fear, together add up to the equivalent of the word NeR (248+2=250/NeR). Then we are ready to find the sanctuary, to come to the hidden point within.
Especially at this season, when lights were miraculously lit for Israel even though they did not have enough oil, there remains light even now to help us, with the aid of these Hanukkah candles, to find that hidden light within. Hiding takes place mainly in the dark; we need the candles’ light to seek and to find….
But Scripture also says: “At that time I will seek out Jerusalem with candles.” This means that even now Jerusalem and the Temple [Mikdash] can be found by searching. Even when it says: “She is Zion; none seeks her” (Jer. 30:17), this means that she requires seeking! This happens by the power of the mitsvot that you do with all your strength. They arouse the inner life-energy, which is the pure point. Of this, Scripture says: “Seeking out all the belly’s chambers.” By the power of inwardness we can find the hidden light within all our own inner chambers.
[This is the meaning of the verse: “A person must always measure himself as though a holy being dwelt within his innards.” Of a person who conducts himself in this way it is written: “Let them make Me a sanctuary and I will dwell within them.” Truly within them!]
Hannah Arendt, Men in Dark Times
...Even in the darkest of times we have the right to expect some illumination, and that such illumination might well come less from theories and concepts than from the uncertain, flickering, and often weak light that some men and women, in their lives and their works, will kindle under almost all circumstances and shed over the time span that was given to them