Caulfield Shule and Rabbi Genende wish all our members, congregants and friends Chag Urim Sameach, Happy Chanukah and Shabbat Shalom. Among the indispensables of life are surely dreams and light. I can’t imagine a world without light and I am pained to think of a world without dreams.Light not only illuminates the darkness allowing us to live comfortably during the night hours, it also brings a sense of contentment and an appreciation of beauty. The rabbis refer to the Shabbat candles being a source of “shalom bayit” or peace in the home. Light lifts the human spirit and restores hope; light in its many subtle and changing forms stimulates our senses.Dreams too are harbingers of hope; they free us from the quotidian. They remind us of other possibilities. And just as light is a symbol of positive potency so a dream is about the capacity to change the world around us. As Martin Luther King put it: “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” Dreams like light drive out the darkness.I have been thinking of light and dreams because today is the first day of Chanukah and the parasha this week is Miketz, a parasha about dreams and dreamers. The twenty-fifth word of the Torah is “ohr”, light and it refers to that iconic moment when “God said, ‘Let there be light’, and there was light”. God’s light illuminates a world of astonishing emptiness and deep darkness and forever implants in the human spirit, the longing to bring radiance into places of despair and confusion. The twenty fifth day of Kislev, first day of Chanukah, reminds us of a time when a little light was found, a small cruse of oil that restores a Temple, reaffirms a commitment ,renews a sense of pride and independence to an embattled people.Shakespeare suggested “How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a weary world.” Jews have always seen themselves as light bearers, a mitzvah as a little candle (“ki ner mitzvah veTorah Ohr…” for a candle is a mitzvah and the Torah a blazing light”). The disproportionate number of Jews in the caring and helping professions, in philanthropy and the area of social justice across the world attests to this. As do the number of Jewish writers, musicians and artists. Over the past few weeks the IDF and Israeli medical teams have been at the forefront of efforts to help the beleaguered Philippines. They were among the first to arrive, to set up field hospitals and to deliver babies. The first baby born at the IDF field hospital was named “Israel” by his mother and another born a few days later was called “Shai” after the Israeli military attaché Shai Brovender. Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon speaking to his Filipino counterpart said it was Israel’s “moral obligation” to help the Philippines in the wake of the typhoon. Spreading the light is not just about a “feel good moment”; it is an imperative. Similarly the Hebrew word for charity “Tzedakah” as often noted, is not just about charity, it’s about tzedek or justice. If we have the means or opportunity to help others, we have the obligation to do so. JFK put it well when he said: “To those whom much is given, much is expected.” On a local level the fundraising of Jewish Aid for the victims of the typhoon (jewishaid.org.au/typhoon/) is a great example of this noble obligation. Dreams like light create hope. Dreams criss-cross the Torah and our parasha is about one of the greatest dreamers Joseph. His own dreams were prescient and indicated a changing economy (the dream about the sheaves) and global order (the dream about the stars, sun and moon). In this week’s parasha, Joseph moves from vision to reality as he wisely interprets the dreams of Pharaoh and becomes viceroy of Egypt. He also implements economic strategies. It’s one thing to dream and quite another to turn a dream into reality. As Jews we have never lost the capacity to dream; the Talmud suggests that it’s a “siman rah” a bad omen if you don’t dream or remember your dreams. The psalmist reminds us “we were as dreamers.” It’s however, Anais Nin’s words that I would like to conclude with: “Throw your dream into space like a kite, and you do not know what it will bring back, a new life, a new friend, a new love, a new country. ”At Chanukah time, like the Maccabees of old, we cast our dreams into space, we imagine a better world, one free of the threat of a nuclear Iran or a disaster-stricken Philippines, one where people reach out with warmth in their hearts, light in their eyes and energy in their hands. Shabbat shalom and Chag Sameach Ralph Genende
Posted on: Thu, 28 Nov 2013 11:21:18 +0000
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