Finding Light

 "A person is obligated to say, 'The world was created for me’."  This statement from the Talmud is our instruction on how we are supposed to look at the world.  On the face of it the sages are telling us to view everything through the lens of personal needs.  Doesn’t this advice seem a bit arrogant and egotistical? 

 

Actually, the sages are trying to convey the opposite.  If we view our surroundings, taking personal responsibility for all that is, we will be more appreciative and deliberate about how we treat it.  After all, who would throw dirt or empty containers on their carpet?  Who would treat their personal possessions with derision?  And we see this kind of indiscriminate behavior around us.  The Talmud is advising a different attitude.

 

We are not supposed to see the world through the lens of selfishness but responsibility.  The world was not created to absorb our abuse but garner our appreciation. Thus, we acknowledge that “the world was created for me’” as a reminder that everything that exists is a gift.  Just as we repair our car, paint the house, mow the lawn, so too we are supposed to treat every encounter as if it belongs to us.  Nobody will come along with a lawnmower and do it for us!  We take care of our possessions because we are responsible for them.  Likewise, we have a unique responsibility to the world.  It belongs to us.

Legend:  Two Angels were dispatched by God to gather sentiments and bring them back to heaven.  Descending to earth the first angel was instructed to gather complaints and criticisms while the second collected thanks and gratitude.
When the two Angels completed their assignment and returned to their Maker the first Angel carried a basket overflowing while the other was almost empty.  

 

Hanukkah is a time of celebration, the uplifting of light and illuminating dark days with rays of hope.  Who does not feel the lightness and joy touch their soul during these days of celebration? 

 

And yet. How do we merge with the joy of the season when there is so much evil in the world?  When we are overwhelmed with evil carried out by the nefarious enemies of Israel?  Does this sound like we are speaking of the Maccabean revolt against the virulent hatred of the Syrian--Greeks?  Or the wicked Hamas bent on abuse and murder?   

 

History does have its way of repeating itself because people give vent to their worst impulses.   What Hamas did to us has happened before.  That is why the brilliant minds of centuries ago taught that from life’s inception we are to cultivate gratitude for everything.  With an attitude of appreciation, we develop different insight: we see life as full of opportunity and meaning even when it is dark….or especially when darkness descends over the world.

 

Our task is to never release our grip on hope.  That is why we light candles on Hanukkah. That is why we refuse to canonize the wars of the Maccabees.  War is not glorious.  Instead, we tell tales of light; we speak of defeating evil even when the odds are against us; and we bless God even as we mourn.

 
A prayer: Let me be in Your eyes and in mine, Lord, a vehicle of goodness and generosity and not of despair.

Healed

One of my favorite expressions: “Life and death are in the power of the tongue.”  It’s from the Talmud. 

Words develop a life of their own.  Once uttered, they become infused with all kinds of real and imagined energy.  They change people.  For life. 

Also, as everyone has experienced, once spoken…there is no taking words back.  Apologize as much as we want, the damage is done and, as the Good Book Proverbs says, “there is no way to make straight the crooked.”

                                                   *

Most of us, thank God, will never be called upon to kill another being.  Reading the account of one Ranger thrown into Mogadishu, Somalia during the US attempt to arrest warlord Mohammed Farrah Adid, some twenty years ago, the solider said, “When war starts, a solider wants like *!@!!  to be there, but once he’s there, he wants like !@!!. to come home.” 

Many of us may imagine ourselves to be a Schwartzennegger, blasting away all the bad guys.  To be truthful, we are on the battlefield every day of our lives –rushing to be the first to the bank teller, to be first in line at the checkout, to be in front of one more car on Forest Drive, to make more money than the next guy.  The excitement and the adrenaline produced by such encounters is the stuff of imagination, not reality.  In fact, it is as painful to be the one cut off, as it is to be the one doing the cutting off. 

The wars we usually wage are where we feel ourselves pitted against the person next to us.  Our weapon of choice?  Words.  They level opponents.  Reduce them to sniveling creatures.  They exaggerate and weigh mightily against the enemy while reinforcing us.

Inasmuch as words raze and destroy, they are also great healers, givers of life. 

Recently sent to me was the following exchange:

As I ate breakfast one morning, I overheard two oncologists conversing.  One complained bitterly, “You know, Bob, I just don’t understand it.  We use the same drugs, the same dosage, the same schedule and the same entry criteria.  Yet I got a 22 percent response and you got a 74 percent.  That’s unheard of for metastatic cancer.  How do you do it?”

His colleague replied, “We’re both using Etoposide, Platinum, Oncovin and Hydroxurea.  You call your EPOH.  I tell my patients I’m giving them HOPE.  As dismal as the statistics are, I emphasize that we have a chance.”

Life, regeneration and love are all waiting to be given voice.

Hanukkah's Lesson

In the oldest historical document about the Maccabean revolt, The First Book of Maccabees we read about a highly motivated but poorly armed group of Jews.  Having no military expertise, armed with no weaponry, possessing no tactical war plan, about the only thing they had was zeal and a belief in their mission for freedom.

After years of battling against the Greco-Syrian forces they recaptured the Temple.  This is their account:

Then Judah said to his brothers: Our enemies have fled.  Let us ascend the mountain and         cleanse the Sanctuary.  Immediately, they gathered as one to go up to Mt Zion.  And when they  

saw the Sanctuary defiled, the altar profaned, the gates burned, and shrubs growing through 

the once great courts they tore their clothes.  The wept and placed ashes on their heads….

Imagine the depth of anguish of these vagabond warriors.  After years of bitter hardship yearning to see their sacred Sanctuary they now saw the awful truth of what had happened there.

When the tears subsided, the Maccabees put away their swords and spears and began the long arduous task of cleansing the filth embedded in the stones.

The word Hanukkah means “dedication.”  Note that the word does not indicate anything about the vicious battles waged to regain the Temple.  Instead the words reflects the renewal of worship in the House of God.

When we look to the holiday of Hanukkah to plumb its meaning we are carefully guided by the sages who taught us that the eight day festival is not about war and survival but about dedication.

Here’s a question to guide us into the Festival of Lights: How can we use this time to rededicate (and maybe reorient) our lives toward God?  If it is not about war (think of your personal struggles to make more money, improve your home life, keep the house in working order, build a better clientele…) what can we do make our lives less of a struggle and more meaningful?

Maybe this eight day holiday is a chance to rekindle the dreams that we once held as sacred.  Maybe it is also an opportune moment to take a step closer to the core of our faith.