darkness

Light and darkness are the fundamental moral binary of scripture — God separates them at creation, John's Gospel makes this cosmic ('the light shines in the darkness'), and apocalyptic literature resolves them.

Light (ohr, phos) and darkness (choshech, skotos) are the primal moral opposites of scripture — God's first creative act separates them. John's Gospel frames all of history as the battle between the light that darkness cannot overcome.

The sanctuary (miqdash) is the place of divine light — the menorah burned perpetually within it. Darkness and the holy are fundamentally opposed: light defines sacred space, darkness marks its absence.