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OF M MM M O O O O N N N The Jewish Year
M M O O O O N N N seen through its months
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Issue #3 Vol #2 Kislev 5757 / 12 November - 10 December 1996
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This publication is available in Adobe Acrobat format
from The Ohr Somayach Home Page: http://www.ohr.org.il
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THIS MONTH'S SIGN: KESHET / SAGITTARIUS
Kislev's sign is the Bow (Keshet in Hebrew). At the beginning of Kislev the
first rainbow was seen after the Flood. The rainbow symbolizes the pact tha
d made with Noah never again to destroy the world with water. The symbolism
the bow also echoes the military victory of Chanukah _ the bow of purity of
Israel vanquishing the bow of impurity of Greece.
Mystically, the bow symbolizes the power of prayer: The closer the bow-
string is drawn downward, the higher the arrow soars skyward; similarly, the
deeper the source of a prayer, the higher it reaches into the heavens.
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Truth and Beauty
At this point in the year, when time is measured by how many shopping days a
left... the Jewish person often finds himself re-defining who he is in
relationship to his Judaism. The festival of Chanukah _ the most noticeable
aspect of Kislev, is all about redefining and rededicating ourselves to the
values and principles of Judaism. The word Chanukah itself means dedication
Peter Finch, the Oscar-winning Australian film actor, once remarked "When
you move an eyebrow in Cinemascope it travels three feet..." Our age is uni
in the way we place importance on the way things look, on their external
appearance: Whether that appearance is the carefully groomed lines of a Lex
sedan, or the mandatory shape of the human anatomy painfully carved in sweat
toil of so many man-hours of aerobics. We live in a world that is replacing
substance with form, reality with appearance.
In his Ode on a Grecian Urn, John Keats, the English Romantic poet, wrote
"Beauty is Truth, Truth, Beauty." Truth and Beauty _ two values representin
historic and perpetual confrontation between the People of the Book and The
"Beautiful People," _ between Jerusalem and Athens.
It is interesting that Keats chose to write his poem on a Grecian urn, for
it was Greece that gave the world the idea that Beauty is, in itself, a supr
ideal. Judaism says that this ideal can become an idol. If Beauty doesn't
dwell in the tents of Truth, then `Beauty' may become a `Beast' _ a pretext
hedonism and immorality.
But don't think that there is no place for Beauty in the Jewish world-
view. The Torah states categorically that aesthetics has a value, but only
the extent that it serves Truth, and uplifts the soul. In other words, Trut
Beauty, but what is beautiful may not necessarily be true. When you gaze in
the light of your Chanukah candles, remember that their light shines out wit
the radiance of the Jewish love for Truth in all the ages.
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The Light of Life
Imagine that someone gives you a million dollars to invest. You're pretty s
and make a few good investments, and very soon, the million is worth ten
million.
Obviously you have to give the original million dollars back to your
benefactor, but you do get to keep the other nine million.
It's the same way with the festivals: Hashem gave us Pesach, Shavuot and
Succot as gifts _ we didn't deserve them _ they are a free hand-out _ a mill
dollar gift. However, Chanukah and Purim were earned by the Jewish People.
The Jewish People earned Chanukah because they were prepared to give up
their lives in battle to preserve the purity of the Torah. Purim was the re
for the voluntary acceptance of the Oral Law in the time of Mordechai and
Esther.
There's an interesting parallel here: The `weapons' that Israel employed
to fight the threat of physical genocide at the time of Purim were spiritual
fasting, prayer and repentance. Whereas, at the time of Chanukah, the threa
Israel was spiritual genocide _ the Greeks wanted to uproot the faith of Isr
to darken the eyes of the Jewish People by removing the light of Torah. Wha
was the response to this spiritual assault? Physical warfare.
It's as though we say to Hashem "Your light is in our hands, and our light
is Your hands."
When we guard Hashem's light _ the light of Torah _ by showing that we are
prepared to give the light of our lives for it, as was the case during the
Maccabean war of Chanukah, Hashem guards the light of our lives.
Similarly, when our enemies seek to extinguish the light of our lives, as
at the time of Purim, our salvation comes by way of guarding Hashem's light
Torah and mitzvot _ and thus Hashem turns to our petition and guards the lig
of our lives.
"Your light is in our hands, and our light is Your hands."
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The Ninth Day of Chanukah
Why don't we keep nine days of Chanukah outside the Land of Israel?
After all, if in London and New York we keep eight days of Pesach as
opposed to seven days in Israel, why don't we also add a day onto Chanukah?
Come to think of it, why don't we also keep two days of Purim?
The Land of Israel is like a giant dynamo, pumping the spiritual energy
that keeps the whole world turning. When a person is in Eretz Yisrael, he
absorbs spirituality much more easily than in the rest of the world.
So, outside of the Land of Israel we are given a second festival day which
helps us to absorb their holiness in a way that could not be achieved in one
alone.
This is the case with the Torah festivals of Pesach, Shavuot and Succot,
which Hashem gave us. On these festivals, the holiness comes from above and
reaches downward to the earth.
But Chanukah and Purim represent Israel's aspiration to lift itself out
of this physical world toward the heavens _ the striving from below upward.
Through our own deeds we earned the festivals of Chanukah and Purim.
Thus, their sanctity is much more accessible to us. They are close to our i
soul and we are able to experience them equally, wherever we are in the worl
The lights of Chanukah are as bright for us in Los Angeles as they are in
the Holy City of Jerusalem.
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The Chanukah Bush
It's only a silent night.
It's only an electric glow
of winking, twinkling little stars
darkening your home.
But one little flask of oil ignored
in the florescent screaming
One little point of light undimmed
in all the dreaming
Shines on in every heart
in the holy of holy places,
untouched, undimmed, unsullied,
outshining the biggest, brightest
Chanukah bush.
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Sources:
o This Month's Sign - Shem MiShmuel, Rabbi M. Glazerson
o The Light of Life; The Ninth Day of Chanukah - Rabbi Eliyahu Kitov
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