The soul of man is a lamp of G-d whose purpose in life is to illuminate the world with divine light.

G-d provided us with the ‘fuel’ that generates His light — the Torah and its commandments (mitzvot), which embody His wisdom and will and convey His luminous truth.

The Torah is the divine wisdom; but for divine wisdom to be manifest in our world, there must be physical minds that study it and comprehend it, physical mouths that debate it and teach it, and physical media that publish it and disseminate it.

The mitzvot are the divine will; but for the divine will to be manifest in our world, there must be physical hands that actualize it and physical materials with which it is actualized. And just as the divine oil cannot produce light without a material wick, neither can a wick without oil.

Therein lies the specialty of the mitzvah of kindling the lamps of the menorah in the Holy Temple. Every mitzvah generates light.

But this mitzvah (and the related mitzvot of kindling the Shabbat and Chanukah lights) not only transform us into metaphorical lamps, but also assume the actual form of a physical lamp — physical oil, a physical wick, and a physical flame that produces physical, tactual light.

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