Shir Hashirim states, “Beautiful as the moon, radiant as the sun.” The Midrash explains: “‘Beautiful as the moon’ refers to Esther, who shined upon the Jewish people during the Persian-Median exile. The moon has a cycle of 30 days, and Esther likewise said, ‘I have not been called to the king for 30 days.’
‘Radiant as the sun’ refers to the Greek empire. Back then, the Greek high court sat in Athens on Sandrius street under the sun. Who can stand under the sun in the middle of the summer?! Everyone runs to escape it. Likewise, all ran from the Greek empire. But Matityahu and his children stood up with complete faith in G-d, and the Greek armies fled from them and were killed.”
Based on this Midrash, the “sun” refers to heat/passion towards inappropriate things, i.e. the hedonistic world-view that Antiochus wanted to force upon on the Jewish people with his decrees. Note the term used is “chamah”, meaning “heat”, rather the usual Hebrew word for sun, “shemesh”.
Accordingly, the underlying message of Chanukah relates to lighting the menorah at “sunset”: i.e., dimming one’s heat and excitement towards the unholy and replacing it with the light of holiness. Kindling the menorah leads to the time of Moshiach when the light of the moon will shine brighter than the light of the sun!
(Maimor Tanu Rabbanan Mitzvos Ner Chanukah 5714)
