""The soul of man is the candle of God" (Mishlei 20:27).
The flame never rests, for it lives in perpetual conflict between two rivals. It clings to the wick, thirstily absorbing the oil that fuels its existence. At the same time, it ripples upward, seeking to escape its material prison. It knows that its separation from the wick would be the end of its existence as a manifest and luminous flame, and yet such is its nature.
This is the paradox of the flame of life. Its attachment to the wick and the fuel in the lamp sustains both its continued existence and its ceaseless struggle for annihilation.
""The soul of man is the candle of God," man also contains these two contradictory yearnings. On the one hand, he is drawn towards himself and the materiality of the world, towards life and existence. At the same time, he aspires to reach a point beyond himself, to overcome the chains of materiality and the past. The tension created by this conflict is the essence of human life."