a project of www.Chabad.org Chanukah 5763 (2002) The Lightness of Being Comment If you recorded every word you said for 24 hours, you'd probably find hundreds of refer- ences to light. Light, brightness, radiance -- these A little bit of light dispels a lot are the metaphors we use when we wish to speak about hope, wisdom, and goodness of darkness. Shutters and Blinds Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi Voices What does light give? The details. The color and texture. The fullness and the goodness. It balances the shadows and fills in the outlines, so that the remaining darkness only adds contrast, complexity, beauty and interest to my world Why Couldn't the Jews and Greeks Question Just Get Along? The Jews and Greeks could have learned so much from each other! Instead, the extremists of both sides hit the battlefield without actually The Path of Light being there When He made the world, He made two ways to repair each Eight Chanukah Stories Story Judea, 139 BCE... Heaven, 25 Kislev, 3622 from thing: With harshness or with creation... Mezhibuzh, 18th Century... France, compassion. With a slap or with a 1942... Kharkov, 1995... Los Angeles, 2002... caress. With darkness or with light. And He looked at the light and Seasons of the Eight Shades of Light saw that it was good. Darkness In the beginning, darkness and light were one. and harsh words may be neces- Soul Then G-d separated between revealed good and sary. But He never called them concealed good, challenging us to cultivate the good. day and transform the night Even if you could correct another person with harsh words, Parsha Vayeishev — Genesis 37:1–40:23 the One Above receives no pleas- What was the cause of the rift between Joseph ure from it. When He sees his and his brothers? What forces conspired to bring creatures heal one another with together Judah and Tamar? Who was Potiphar's caring and with kindness, that is wife, why was Joseph forgotten in prison, and when He shines His smile upon why are there so many dreams in the book of us. Genesis? For more information or to subscribe new material to one of our many insipiring added daily! periodicals log on to: This magazine contains sacred Torah www.Chabad.org material. Please do not discard. www.Chabad.org Comment The Lightness of Being by Yanki Tauber “The light at the end of the tunnel.” “You light up my life.” “He’s an enlightened person.” If you recorded every word you said for 24 hours, you’d probably find hundreds of references to light. Light, brightness, radiance — these are the metaphors we use when we wish to speak about hope, wisdom, and goodness. The candle flame, the ray of light, the glowing coal — these are the images in which we recognize our yearning for a better world, for a wiser, more virtuous, more G-dly self. We are encouraged by the fact that a luminous body like the sun, by simply being what it is, can have such a profound effect on entities and beings millions of miles away, enriching them with light, warmth, energy and life. We are encouraged by the fact that a tiny flame can banish a roomful of dark- ness. If so, all is not lost. If our own souls are “can- dles of G-d” (as King Solomon proclaims in the Book of Proverbs), then little me is not so little after all. The big bad world out there can yet be trans- formed. All we need to do is be what we truly are, to act out our innate goodness, and the darkness will melt away. Once a year, we celebrate this truth. For eight days and nights, we celebrate the power of light: in ascending number — one little flame on the first evening, two flames on the second, three on the third — we kindle the Chanukah menorah, recalling that miraculous victory, 22 centuries ago, of quality over quantity, spirit over materialism, right over might. And pray for the day when such victories are no longer “miracles”, but the way things are in G-d’s world. By Yanki Tauber, [email protected]; based on the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, www.therebbe.org Comment | Voices | Question | Story | Seasons of the Soul | Parsha | Week at Glance 22 2 www.Chabad.org tions. The medication had not created anything bad in Voices my life. It had not put bad thoughts in my head. It had not harmed my character turning me into the turd I Shutters and Blinds now seemed during this unpleasant state of aware- By Jay Litvin ness. Everything I was seeing existed. Only, it was only partly true. It was what remained when the light was blocked. It was what I could see in the monotone shadow that survived. In these days of Chanukah, light is on everyone’s Life without light is like looking at a beautiful park mind. We’re hearing a lot about the tiny little flames at night. The flowers and colors and texture are all that can cast away immense darkness. And as we hidden. All that remains are the large, scary outlines light the Chanukah candles, we are filled with hope of bushes and trees, boulders and rocks, hills and that our efforts will indeed cast away darkness and stairways. In the dark, these daytime objects of beau- bring light into our lives. ty and delight become imposing forms and weird But what is this darkness? Is it truly evil? This shapes that play on our imagination and conjure light? Is it really good? We are told that darkness has frightening scenarios. no existence, but if so, how can one dispel some- Has the darkness created these forms and shapes? thing that does not exist? Has it caused our flights into fear and anxiety? Has it Recently I had an experience that — pardon the created our spontaneously arising scenes of theft and pun — cast some light on this dilemma. mugging? I took a medication that had psychotropic side No. It’s done none of those things. The sun has effects. The result felt as if someone pulled the cur- simply gone to the other side of earth, its light tains on my awareness. All light was blocked and blocked from our awareness. And in doing so, it has only darkness remained. My vision was filtered by a caused our world to plunge into darkness. Ignorance. gray film obscuring all detail of color and texture. Illusion. Confusion. And fear. During this intolerable period of time, everything I could no longer hear the laughter in my chil- I encountered was irritating, depressing, dissatisfy- dren’s’ voices nor see the sparkle in their eyes. I could ing and miserable… including me. I was no fun to no longer see the clutter in my house as charming and be around. If I thought about my life, it seemed familiar. I could no longer remember the happy hopeless. When I remembered my childhood, I saw moments of my childhood nor see the countless only unhappiness. If I looked at my present situation blessings that filled my life. Even my accomplish- it seemed lacking and insufficient. My children ments paled in the face of what I could have done or turned from lovely and loving, to noisy and irritat- what others have done better. ing. My car was falling apart. My house dingy and The darkness and depression became so over- drab. whelming that I finally surrendered and stopped tak- There was literally no aspect of my life that ing the medication. Thankfully, within one day the escaped this oppressive fog as the medicine eclipsed light returned and with it my equilibrium, my happi- and obscured all light. Fortunately, I was able to ness, even a twinge of optimism. keep some grasp on reality. The pharmaceutical What had changed for the better? The details. The worked so fast that I was able to connect the dark- color. The texture. The fullness. And the goodness. ness and depression to its psychotropic effects. But There was enough light to illuminate a greater totali- my grasp was weak, and ultimately I surrendered. ty of my life, to reveal more of the goodness embed- Even though I knew that the medicine was caus- ded therein. Enough light to balance the shadows and ing my shift in perspective, still, everything I was fill in the outlines. Enough light to allow any remain- seeing through its black filter was true. The house ing darkness to add contrast, complexity and subtle- was dingy and drab. The children were irritating. ness, to add beauty and interest to my world, to The car was falling apart. And certainly my present enhance its wholeness. In short, there was enough situation did not match my life’s hopes and expecta- light to suggest the fullness of G-d’s creation, to allow for the interplay and reconciliation of opposites Comment | Voices | Question | Story | Seasons of the Soul | Parsha | Week at Glance 22 3 www.Chabad.org Voices Shutters and Blinds and contrasts. Light reveals G-dliness. Darkness is inconsequen- tial. Adding light - opening the shutters and blinds of awareness - remains our only concern. Kindling the lights on Chanukah, the only mitzvah. Revealing G- dliness, the only goal. And so, we light the Chanukah candles. The flame tenuously flickers for a few seconds and we hold our breath till it catches and shines. The children begin to sing. Suddenly we feel a bit brighter within. The glow begins to spread.