The Hidden Light

In the beginning, God made the heaven and the earth. The earth was null and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; the Spirit of God hovered over the surface of the water. God said, ‘Let there be light!’ and there was light. God saw the light, that it was good, and He divided between the light and the darkness. Bereishis 1:3
God saw the light, that it was good, and He divided ... He saw that it was not worth letting the evil people use it and He set it aside for the righteous in the Time-to-Come. Chagigah 12a
For thirty-six hours the light served [before God hid it from the world] ... Yerushalmi Brochos 8:5
The original light of creation was hidden in the thirty-six candles of Chanukah. B’nei Yisaschar
With the Hidden Light, God nourishes the world (Zohar, Shemos 149a).

* * * For the first day-and-a-half, the world without man enjoyed the awesome light of the first day of creation. However, as the Talmud teaches, this light was special and could be subject to abuse by the evil people of history. Thus, even before the creation of the first man, God "hid" the light.

We are faced with may questions: What kind of light was it? Why was it hidden specifically after thirty-six hours? What was it about the light that made it more subject to abuse than the rest of creation? Why would the consequences of such abuse warrant hiding the primordial light? And where in the thirty-six candles of Chanukah did God hide the light?

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