A cup half empty could mean that you already enjoyed a half a cup of something delicious.

A cup half empty could also mean that you are still filling up your cup. 

 

So are you really a pessimist if you see our cup as half empty?

 

Do we light 8 lights of the Menorah on the first night and go down from there or do light 1 light on the first night and go up from there?

 

This is a Mishnaic debate between Shamai and Hillel.  

 

In truth Shammai and Hillel are both looking at the situation optimistically.  

 

Shamai is looking at the perspective of how much work is left.  On night two there is less work then on night one.  The cup is half empty because we already enjoyed half a cup.

 

Hillel is looking at how much work has already been accomplished. saying that on night one we are just getting started. On night two we’ve already accomplished more. 

 

Shamai is looking at the world from an up>down perspective. He’s a little bit more plugged in to heavenly perspective.  He’s into transformation that is accomplished from the up>down perspective, shining the light onto the darkness.  And so each night more of the darkness has been illuminated and there is less work still to do.

 

Hillel is looking at the world from the down>up perspective.  He’s a bit more grounded.  For Hillel transformation happens by going into the darkness and so on each night we recognize what we’ve accomplished.

 

They’re both right but each has its time and place.  Right now in the midst of the work, in the midst of the darkness our work needs to be about getting into the weeds, getting into it.  And so we follow Hillel’s opinion because in holiness we need to constantly be going from down to upwards.

 

But our Sages teach that in the Moshiach era, when the light will go from above down and all will be revealed, the Chanukah festivities will be celebrated according to the opinion of Shamai.

 

For now, we’ve got work to do!  Let’s get on with finishing to clean up the darkness. 

 

Happy Chanukah and Good Shabbos!