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Finding Light

Friday, 11 December, 2009 - 9:40 am

Posted by Rabbi Mendy Herson

“For You (G-d) light my flame; G-d illuminates my darkness” (Psalms, 18:29)
That’s a quote from King David, and he seems to be saying that our souls - while they are Divine - aren’t always ablaze, glowing and brilliant. Sometimes we need extra ignition or accelerant to get it aflame.
That’s interesting. When is my soul afire? And when does it need kindling?
When I’m finding comfort and beauty in life’s purpose, in my contribution to the world, in my committed relationships and my reason for being, then my soul is shining. My internal world has clarity; life makes sense and there is no darkness to battle.
But when my attention is distracted by life’s glitter, by the beckoning flicker of pleasurable self-indulgence then my soul isn’t flaring; it’s obscured and ignored.
That’s Darkness.
Because darkness doesn’t necessarily mean evil; it means the absence of light.
Darkness equals confusion. When life’s meaning seems inscrutable, when I’m running from task to task oblivious to the need for meaning, that’s called darkness.
I may even be having fun, and convincing myself that pleasure equals light, but my soul – my life’s purpose – is obscured from my mind’s eye.
And that’s darkness.
The soul needs to shine, to blaze forth and dispel the psycho-spiritual haze.
And that’s one of Chanukah’s messages. While we celebrate the Jews’ victorious military struggle against the Syrian-Greek Hellenists, we are celebrating their own inner struggle with themselves.
Hellenism equaled materialism and pleasure; those are things which can make a more disciplined life seem boring by comparison.
Each Jew needed to make a deeply personal choice: Would they struggle to find their internal lamps, to ignite their souls? Or would they acquiesce to the ‘beauty’ of self-indulgence, and label darkness as light?
In searching themselves, the Maccabees found their internal flames and personal victory. This led to public victory and the Miracle of the Lights.
Chanukah begins tomorrow. Friday evening.
So make a blessing and light that first candle.
Look at the flame and see yourself, your soul and its light.
Commit to your personal Chanukah victory.
Comments on: Finding Light
7/21/2012

Ara wrote...

These people have a point. People have such icelndibre wisdom, and knowledge of suffering of others, and with the aid of the media we can see everything that happens on any side of the globe. But knowing that somewhere life is more difficult, doesn't make your own life any easier. Emotions are the one thing that humans fall at the feet of, and no matter what we do, we'll never control depression no matter how unjustified you might think it.I mean . when my father disowned me, it REALLY didn't make it easier knowing that some kid in Iraq had no shoes. I'm sorry and that sounds selfish, but it doesn't. Just because somebody is facing horrors you can't imagine it doesn't mean your life is easy.Oh and as for the youth thing . my adoptive little sister (beautiful, sweet kid) is six. She's lost her mom and her abusive dad so she came to stay with us. She's seen our family torn apart, and she's seen us lose our father, and a brother. Sometimes she'll tell us something about her life before that we never knew she has horrific memories that nobody knew existed, but she keeps them all in her head.So don't say she doesn't know about pain because she does and she's still found more interesting things to moan about than you have.DamOh yeah Nights It makes sense, and I think you might be right. My quest is beating cancer and sometimes when my whole body is throbbing, and I want to throw up every four and a half minutes it feels like I'll never be where I want to be, or be free of this shit. Guess we sometimes need to modify our quest into something we can achieve. That's the only way you keep from losing sight of your end-post.Oh yeah, and also trying not to see it as a start and finish try to see it as an ongoing work in progress. Later.