As Chanukah Wanes: Guest Post by Debra Shaffer Seeman (Written on the 8th Day, Inspired by Previous Post on the "Beyond")

If creation is 7 days, the perfect completion. And Chanukah is 8, למעלה מן הטבע - that which goes beyond the natural world - then here we find ourselves on that day. That 8th day of Chanukah; the day that goes beyond. That day when boundaries melt and worlds conflate and being created into the perfect world isn't quite enough anymore. This is the day of completion plus one. It's the day when the Divine sparks within each of us dance freely and join up with their Source under the cosmic disco balls of the worlds. It's the day when the fire, the heat and light and warmth and scorch and potential for both building and destruction, when the flames no longer visible to the naked eye take root within us to be accessed during the darkness of the seasons to come. It's the day when we transition the light, the totally and completely non-utilitarian light, the light which may be used for nothing except to teach us to truly see, the "new ray of peace uncalled (which) illumes my inmost mind" - it's the 8th day when we transition that light from "beyond" into the rest of our lives.