Dubious Rights

.

2. The right to Bear Arms.


5. The right to remain silent


.....forever silent shhh.


.

I cry....

Sadness...just utter sadness is all I've felt since Friday. The tears seem ready 24/7..at the mere mention of the word Newtown.  Complete strangers to me. Chances are very good that not one of those killed would have ever crossed my path at any point of my life. And yet..the emotion is so strong.

I cry for the children..but also for the very concept of childhood...that has been so violated.

I cry for humanity. For the soul that inhabits my being...

People love throwing around the world Evil...

Evil is where the boundaries of our empathy end. 

The spot where we are no longer ready to accept human failing..there we create a black curtain, and anything beyond that spot we simply call evil and are satisfied.

Alcoholism and many other conditions used to be evil..but now we've invited them into our side of the curtain for the most part.

I cry for the inability to accept humanity completely..

I cry for innocence..which children represent and deep down we all wish we could find inside ourselves.

I cry for the fact that adults cannot elicit the same tears that children do.

For in adults we see our own failings and fears projected..

But most of all..I cry

for the last horrible moments these angels had to endure

...and for the many years that their parents and loved ones will yet grieve

my own redemption

According to tradition, the flames of the Menorah are a manifestation of the Ohr Haganuz, the Hidden Light, which is hidden away for the Redemption.

Chanukah is when we take the light of redemption and bring it into the here and now.

It's when the universal redemption becomes personal.

Instead of reacting to adversity with "oy we need moshiach.." we achieve a personal state of mind where the adversity is not overwhelming.

It's rising above..pettiness.

It's putting together the fragmentation that brings duality and unsettledness into our lives.

The Ohr Haganuz the Hidden Light is set aside for the days of universal redemption but on Chanukah we can access it easily, meditate in her ethereal glow  and with it experience personal redemption.

The Bais Yosef asked the famous question, why is Chanukah eight days if the miracle was only seven. 

And now I wonder perhaps it is only seven days, but after seven days of light and having achieved a measure of personal redemption how can one not wish the same on the rest of the world. And so we light one more night and we pronounce Zos Chanukah..This is Chanukah instinctively in our desire for the greater Geula.

Happy Chanukah