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Teachings
and Writings of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach
Hanauka
5752
Dearest
Friends,
You
can be the richest man in the world, you can have everything
between heaven and earth, you can be in the same room with
the one thing you have been looking for, but if there is no
light to show you where it is, then you do not have it. Chanukah
is the holiday of the inside light, the hidden light, the
light which is burning amidst the deepest darkness. At Chanukah
we celebrate the light which gave the Maccabees the strength
in the darkest period to believe that they can drive out the
Greeks in the Holy Land. You see, my best friends, when we
are born, G-d gives us everything, every day G-d gives us
everything; only sometimes we turn off the light by our mistakes.
Sometines we blow out our own candles, so on Chanukah haShem
gives us back the light we need the most.
Chanukah
is the holiday when the Talmud says, "Chanukah is a man
and his house," meaning that the whole family has to
come together. Because between husband and wife, parents and
children, you can stand next to each other for a thousand
years and be as far away as two million eternities. Chanukah
is the great light when we see each other again; according
to the Kabbalistic tradition it is deeper than Yom Kippur.
It is the holy of holiest, but not in the temple, in my own
house. We kindle the light by the door to tell the people
- the outside people - who have not yet found their own house,
who have not yet found their own soul, who have not yet found
even their own friend. And we share our light with them.
All
the hatred in the world is only because people don't see each
other. Chanukah is the holiday that we are closest to the
Messiah and, gevalt, do we need the world to see us one time!
And gevalt, do we need all the Jews one time to see the holiness
of being Jewish! Let it be this year. Amen.
Much
love,
Shlomo
Copyright
© by the Shlomo Carlebach Foundation
Teachings
and Writings of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach
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