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Showing posts with the label candle

Dark

The Vilna Gaon explained that the Hebrew word Shachar, morning light, is derived from another Hebrew word, Shachore, or darkness.  If there is a morning for the soul, it is rooted in the night of the body.  Indeed,  the Talmud teaches, "It is only from darkness that can perceive light.  For a candle that burns at noon is worthless."

Light the Way

 "You can’t drive away the darkness with sticks or weapons. The only way is to light a candle and the darkness will disappear by itself. Our candle is the Torah."   -  Hafetz Hayim

Reach

“… I was once privileged to hear from my father (the previous Lbavitcher Rebbe) that his father, Rabbi Shalom Dover, of saintly memory, was once asked, ‘What is a Chabad-Lubavitch chassid?’ He replied, a chassid is like a street lamp lighter. In olden days, there was a person in every town who would light the streetlamps with a light he carried at the end of a long pole.  On the street corners, the lamps were there in readiness, waiting to be lit; sometimes, however, the lamps are not as easily accessible. There are lamps in forsaken places, in deserts or at sea. There must be someone to light even those lamps, so that they may fulfill their purpose and light up the paths of others. It is written, ‘The soul of man is the candle of G-d.’ It is also written, ‘A mitzvah is a candle, and the Torah is light.’ A chassid is one who puts his personal affairs aside and sets out to light up the souls of Jews with the light of Torah and mitzvot. Jewish souls are ready and waiting to b...

Listen, Real Listen

" Two people are charged with the task of recognizing a face in the darkness. One lights a candle and examines the face to identify it. The other, without a candle, trains himself to identify people by the sound of their voices alone. The first person achieves a clearer recognition, by sight, than the other can, merely by sound. However, the second person has taught himself a new talent, of listening to the voice of the other. And when dawn breaks, the first person will extinguish his candle but will be none the wiser as a result of his nocturnal experience; while the other will emerge from it with a newly developed capacity for listening as a channel of recognition." -  Rabbi Yizchak Hutner, Pachad Yitzhak, Translation Aviva Zornberg Watch with your eyes but listen with  your mind.

Reveal the Light

Every person must know and understand that in the depths of each being there burns a candle, and one person's candle is not at all like another's candle. And there is absolutely no one that has no candle. Every person must know and understand that he or she must work to reveal the   candle’s light publicly and light that candle as a great torch that will give light to the entire world. -Rav Kook

One Candle

A few months before she chose to leave a safe kibbutz in Israel to parachute into Nazi territory in order to organize Jewish resistance, Hannah Senesh penned a quote from a Jewish writer in her diary: “All the darkness cannot extinguish the light of a single candle, yet one candle can illuminate all the darkness.”

With Conviction Comes Light

A few months before she chose to leave a safe kibbutz in Israel to parachute into Nazi territory in order to organize Jewish resistance, Hannah Senesh penned a quote from a Jewish writer in her diary: “All the darkness cannot extinguish the light of a single candle, yet one candle can illuminate all the darkness.” This has been true since the beginning of time.  Even  Adam learned the power of one candle against a sea of darkness.

Temporal and Eternal Light

Do mitzvahs and create sparks or points of of light. Every act makes the universe more whole, and brighter. We edge towards the Ultimate Redemption with each mitzvah performed. Light tiny wicks and you will see they do not provide great illumination, but if we light enough of these candles the world will be ablaze. Where do the mitzvahs come from? Torah. Every mitzvah that we perform can be traced to the primary source of all, Torah. A question can be raised, if mitzvahs create light, what does Torah create? It is also light. Rabbi Menachem the son of Rabbi Yossi taught: “ ‘A mitzvah is a candle. The Torah is light.’ The verse used the analogy of a candle for a mitzvah and that of light for the Torah teaching that just as a candle only offers protection for a brief period, so too, a mitzvah offers protection only temporarily. The Torah, on the other hand, is described as light. Just as the light offers protection forever, so too, the Torah offers protection forever.” ~Talmud S...