How wonderful it is when family gets together to light the Chanukah Menorah and sing the song הנרות הללו, whereby recognizing the miraculous intervention of Hashem in our lives. Singing and glaring at the flickering tapers of light emanating from the menorah, the message is clear, “We have the power to bring light to the world and to our own families, if we but make sure that our lights are קודש הם, that they are holy by the way we live, and encourage others to do so as well.”
At the same time, I begin to realize that darkness is not simply the absence of light, but a creation in of itself, as we say in the Brachos of Krias Shma,” יוצר אור ובורא חושך, He creates light and creates the darkness.”
It seems, as we observe the world around us, we realize more than ever our struggle to build fortresses of light, and at the same time to remove the ugliness of darkness that man seems to be engulfed in. At that moment we become aware that Chanukah must become our inspirational time to envelope ourselves in the light of Torah, in a way that Yiddishkeit brings light, harmony, and especially greater love into our hearts.
I am reminded of an insightful question that the
Ger Rebbe asked, reflecting on the miracle of Chanukah, “We know that when the Chashmonaim dedicated the Temple they, immediately, went to light the Menorah. Not having the Gold Menorah, they took their wooden spears and shaped them into receptacles for the oil. We all know that there was no pure oil to be found, until a small cruise of oil was found and this small amount of oil lasted for eight days until they were able to make more oil, and thus a miracle occurred. Just as Hashem, miraculously, intervened for the oil to burn, why could He not, at the outset, perform a more obvious Miracle by creating a Golden Menorah to be used rather than the wooden ones provided by the Chashmonaim?”
The Ger went on to explain, “There are two aspects of the Jewish personality, there is the Chesonious, the outer part of the person, and there is the P’nemius, the inner part - one’s inner being. Hashem, purposely, did not make the miracle with providing a Menorah, for that is the outer part, the Chesonious of the Mitzvah, and for that any material could be used, but when it comes to the P’ninious which is represented by the פך שמן, then Hashem will bring it about in a miraculous way, to emphasize the importance of the P’enimious of our actions.
The lesson is quite simple; For a Jew, the Ekar is the P’nimious, the inner being, and this must be, at all times, pure, even if it takes a miracle to bring it about, while the outer garment of a Jew is secondary, not that important.”
Our aim is to invest our lives in our Penimious to have a לב טהור, a pure and understanding heart encouraging us to perform in a way that will bring about a dedicated and sincere life.
Yosef in this week’s Parsha, was continuously convinced, that even though his brothers did wrong to him, it was always seen as an Intervention by Hashem, and it was a fulfillment of the wishes of G-D. Yosef speaks with the purity of a heartfelt person, he speaks to his P’nimious and acts with the pure Shemen of his life, which brings a glow of light to an episode in his life that was full of darkness. We see the true personality of Yosef and his true P’nimious.
When we live a life which is dedicated by our P'nimious , then we begin to understand why we act according to the sage Hillel, who instructs us to light the Menorah by beginning with one candle and increasing it with one candle every night of the eight nights of Chanukah. He does so to teach us that, מעלין בקודש
“That our aim in life is to always strive daily to reach a higher degree of Kedusha, and this can only be achieved by constantly being touch with our PENIMIOUS!
May our lives always be aglow with lights of Bracha emanating from Hashem, our true Miracle Worker.
No comments:
Post a Comment