Night consumes the entire visual ambience of the Ner Mitzvah, a short text on the holiday of Hanukah, the festival of lights, by the Maharal of Prague. Volume I constitutes a long and vivid excursus on Daniel, visions of the night, the 4 Kingdoms, beasts rising from the sea, and Israel. Volume II revolves around the Hanukah lamps lit after sunset in the dark of night.
The total world picture of the Maharal is of an interconnected-interactive and active cosmos, the order of “nature” (teva), marked by imperfection (hisaron) and death. Across earth and heavens, the world picture is segmented and hierarchical, cut between three powers physical, animated spirit (nefesh), intellect (sechel) under the power of a fourth power, the divine. The Maharal’s point of view is centric, with Israel and Torah and Land and Temple in the middle (emzah), manifesting light, separate (nivdal) from and above nature, which is physical and murky.
The Ner Mitzvah is a political theodicy. If everything in the world is created for God’s honor and under God’s sovereign authority, then why did God arrange the world this way with these 4 terrifying kingdoms –Babylonia, Persia, Greece, and Rome– which represent imperfection and the violence of empire in the order of creation and in the world of created beings. What comes after the 4 Kingdoms in volume 1 is Volume 2: Hanukah, miracle, light, and beauty. (The Ner Mitzvah ends with critique of the Maharal’s generation, sectarian split from the community and rabbis don’t rebuke. Sages as essential fence in the world.) (About the political theology of the Maharal I’ll have more to say when I get to Netzah Yisrael and Gevurat Ha’Shem.)
The fourth beast, Rome, which is Christendom, which is Europe and the West was different from all the other beasts (Daniel 7:7), uniquely integrating the three powers that compose the human –physical strength, a soul [nefesh], and intellectual power—into one single power that knows nothing but itself (par.27). In this theory of empire, the 4th beast in Daniel’s night vision, a which can be read as a prefiguration of late modern captialisn, is uniquely attached to emptiness (ההעדר) which it brings to others. “And because of this, it destroys everything as well. Therefore, it says (Daniel 7:7) ‘its teeth were of iron.’ And it says (Daniel 2:40) ‘the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron, just as iron breaks and shatters all things, and as iron that crushes all these, it shall break and crush.’ And behold, each and every one that is close to emptiness and nullification is more diminished. Therefore, the first is compared to gold (Daniel 2:32), and after it silver (ibid.), and after it bronze (ibid.), and after it iron (ibid., verse 40), which is less than all. And in this kingdom, deficiency and emptiness are attached, and because of this, it also cuts and destroys everything” (par.33).
Why light the Hanukah lights after sunset and in the physical dark, still under the rule of the 4th empire? Because daytime reflects the natural order, whereas night, not day, reflects the world of miracle above nature.
The Maharal explains,
“[T]he time for lighting is after sunset, because the lighting of the candle is in remembrance of the miracles that God performed for them with the lights. And the day is designated for the governance of the world in its natural course, and the beginning of the night, which comes after the day, signifies miracles, which are above nature, and the night is particularly designated for miracles. This is explained in many places that the night is especially for miracles. Therefore, after the day, when the sun has set, it is fitting to light the candles to remember the miracle that God did for them, as it is after the governance of nature. But if one did not light after sunset, it is not in accordance with the natural order. And just as we established the eight days of Hanukkah, and we explained that the eighth is for the governance of nature, and the seven correspond to the seven days of creation, when nature, the governance of the world, was created. The eighth is for what is above nature, as are all miracles. And thus, the day is for the governance of the natural world, and the night is for something above nature. And thus, it is said in the Midrash that the night is especially for what is above nature. And so, they also said (Eruvin 65b) that the moon was created only for learning. All this is because the Torah is not natural, but rather divine. Therefore, after sunset, one should light the candles. And according to this reasoning, if one did not light from sunset until the foot has gone out from the marketplace, he should not light. Therefore, one should be stringent and careful about this” (par. 28 at Sefaria, translated by Chat GPT)
One day, the Messiah will come, today, if you listen to his voice. Today, do not violate communal norms, do not separate from the community and the words of the rabbis which are meant for protection and preservation. About this, the Maharal could not be more strict. “[O]ne who separates from the ways of the congregation, where the Holy One, blessed be He, is with the congregation, when one separates from the ways of the congregation, that is, from what the Sages established and what is customary, is as if they are separating from the Holy One, blessed be He (par. 39-40).
Both the human person in the world of nature and the world itself remain imperfect, transient. The world is a candle.
According to the Maharal,
“[A] person is prepared for this world, and this world is called ‘a candle,’ because the candle burns for a while and then stops. Similarly, a person in this world has an end (הפסק), just as the candle burns for a time and then extinguishes. And thus they said in the tractate Sotah (21b), “For the mitzvah is a candle and the Torah is light” (Proverbs 6:23), the mitzvah is compared to a candle, and the Torah to light. Just as a candle has an end, so too the reward for the mitzvah has an interruption. “And the Torah to light” — just as light has no end, so too the reward for the Torah has no end. Also, because this world is material, and it receives form. Therefore, this world is called ‘a candle,’ because the candle is material and receives light, which is considered like form. Thus, this world is completely similar to a candle. And it is said that one who is accustomed to a candle is prepared for this world, which is a candle. And because the person in this world is subject to death, he does not have this world in its completeness, but only when he has children who remain after him” (par. 33).
[Attached is a translation of Ner Mitzvah]
[I took the electronic copy of the text available at Sefaria and plugged it into ChatGPT. Numbers in brackets represent the paragraph-numbers at Sefaria. I have lightly annotated the text in bold font. Reader beware: the translation is checked for accuracy, but not completely]
