Holiness is Wholeness: According to Holy's Hebrew Root in White Light

I want to say something about white light or bright being the basis for the idea of holiness is wholeness. This idea gains credibility, if we understand light itself better. The following ideas are taken from the World Book Encyclopedia, the 1990 edition, among other sources like an ordinary dictionary. The ideas are pieces of writing with only the relevant parts of writing included, to avoid including too much information that is not relevant to light and its connection with wholeness. So the way to read this section is realize that you are reading a collection of definitions to help you better understand light.

Light - 3. brightness, illumination, often of a special kind. 4. a source of light, as the sun, lamp, etc. 6. the light from the sun; daylight or dawn.

Light - Violet light has the shortest wavelength that is visible. Red light has the longest. Between them lie all the other colors of the spectrum, each with its own wavelength. Seen together at the same time, the colors appear as white light. Sun light is white because it has all the colors. However, when it passes through a prism, the different colors separate and can be seen. (purple, blue, green, yellow, red)

Sunlight spread into its different colors by a prism creates a continuous spectrum. From violent to red, the spectrum blends smoothly from one color to the next. Many other sources of light do not produce a continuous spectrum. For example, a street lamp may produce bright yellow, blue and a few dimmer colors, but it also has dark regions in its spectrum. (Sometimes a spectrum has gaps).

Light - In 1666, the English scientist, Sir Isaac Newton, discovered that white light is made up of all colors. Using a prism, he found that each color in a beam of light could be separated.
(Sir Isaac Newton is by all accounts a Christian.)

Other sources to consult:
Alder, Irving. The Story of Light. Rev. ed. Harvey House, 1971.
Sight Light and Color. Simon & Schuster, 1984.
Waldman, Gary. Introduction to Light: The Physics of Light, Vision and Color. Simon and Schuster, 1983.

To me, the idea of white light makes sense in explaining the concept of whole. Notice in one piece of writing above that a prism can demonstrate that other forms of light are not whole, because they do not create a full spectrum when the prism is used. Parts, the opposite of whole, are well explained by either of two ways. First, the use of a prism to demonstrate parts through the separation of light into its spectrum. Or second, the use of sand to demonstrate parts, because it naturally breaks into particles without any assistance, like white light naturally is whole without assistance. The use of sand is significant because the Hebrew word for profane extends from a Hebrew word that means sand.

Nature seems to support the key concepts of whole in sunlight and parts in sand. These are the physical roots for what we translate as holy and profane. And these physical things of sun and sand are very clear things to most people without having to be an Isaac Newton. Likewise to the Hebrews, who would have been very acquainted with sun and sand as people well acquainted with deserts.

In Christ,

Pastor Jon