SKG Articles: Kislev - the Month of Miracles

Greetings and Blessings for the month of Kislev. On Sunday, November 14th, is the new moon
that ushers in the awesome month of Kislev. The days are getting shorter, the nights longer,
Kislev is one of the darkest times of the year, and yet this month is a time of great light, a time
of expansiveness, a time of going forward in life. It is time of clarity, of rekindling one's dreams.
It is a month of miracles and redemption.

The energy of any month is epitomized by the holiday that is contained within the month.
Chanukah occurs at the end of this month and extends into the beginning of the next month of
Tevet. As we celebrate the holiday of Chanukah with the lighting of candles, we learn
experientially a most important and deep truth about life: There is Light amidst darkness!! At
the darkest time, there is light and there will be light. Actually the light in darkness shines even
more brightly because of the darkness that surrounds it. And if our spiritual eyes are really
opened, we will see that the darkness is simply a cloak that conceals an even greater light, the
light of miracles that is so much greater the light of reason that shines in the day.

In the times of spiritual darkness we must become spiritual warriors and learn how to bring
God's light into our lives and into the world. Through the medium of prayer, meditation, and
doing good deeds we allow more divine light to enter and pass through the vessels that
constitute our lives. The more good, the more mitzvot, the more meditation, the more prayer we
do, the more light we bring into the world. The Torah provides an arsenal of spiritual weapons
to increase light and combat darkness.

The increase of light in the world will not fully remove the darkness for the darkness remains
even in the presence of light. If we gaze at candles we will see that there is a dark light in the
middle of bright flame. The deeper challenge of our lives and the spiritual opportunity of this
month and the auspicious messianic times that we live in is how to find the light that is hidden in
the darkness so as to convert the darkness into light.

How Do we transform all the pain of the challenges that constitute the darkness we experience
in our lives and in the world and convert them into light and joy in the world. We can not figure it
out, find solutions with our minds. Chanukkah expresses the defeat of the Greek that
represents reason, and philosophy by the light of Torah that represents faith and divine
providence, and this is what Kislev is all about. We can only do this alchemy of converting
darkness into light through faith and grace. Faith is not a passive act of surrender, but rather a
very active and powerful engagement, a mystical union with the Divine that enables us to
transcend the confines of time and space. It is faith not the mind that opens us to new
possibilities and new dimensions, enabling us to go forward in ways that we could not do solely
on our own. When we are living on the level of faith, there is divine synchronicity. You run into
someone who can help you. You call someone and they tell you they needed you just at that
moment. Miracles are happening. We see the Divine hand, we experience the Shechinah in our
lives. Kislev is a time of deepening faith.

Interestingly enough, as an important aside, the light that shines in the darkness which
represents this month of Kislev is the moon, which is the feminine. Kabbalah tells us the
following midrash that at the time of creation, God created two luminaries to fill the skies, the
sun and the moon. Though they were initially equal in stature, the moon complained and
consequently its light was reduced. The sun representing the masculine was the great luminary
that was to rule by day and the moon, representing the feminine was the more hidden light that
would rule by night.

Kabbalah tells us that as we move closer to the messianic new age, the light of the moon, the
feminine, will become equal and even surpass the light of sun, the masculine. And this is what
we see happening in our days. The feminine is rising and by feminine I am not talking about
gender. There are women who are carrying the masculine energy and men who are carrying
the feminine energy. In our secular culture we have gone through a period of confusion about
what is masculine and what is feminine and are just beginning to sort it out.

Before the advent of the feminist revolution, the roles of men and women were fairly clear and
people may have felt secure knowing what they were supposed to do but they also felt
unfulfilled. Because these roles were so limiting, more and more people became more
interested in equalitarianism, in realizing their full potential. Women entered into the workplace
and embraced the masculine energy within them and men entered into kitchen, cooking, child
care, and getting in touch with their feelings. And this has worked for a while but now, in our
times, we are entering a new paradigm for the discovery and expression of the feminine and
masculine that is more fluid, more romantic, more fun and more reflective of what kabbalah
says about what is masculine and what is feminine and what will happen in this dance between
them as we approach messianic times, too lengthy a subject to go into at this time.

This paradigm shift, the rising of the true feminine may be threatening to some, but the true
feminine which is what Beit Miriam seeks to embody does not seek to imitate or dominate the
masculine but rather to restore the natural harmony between the masculine and feminine so
there will be more love and joy. The restoration of the feminine is the light of Shabbos, which is
feminine, that will fill everyday consciousness in messianic times.

Chanukkah provides a glimpse of the beginning of the rise of the light of the feminine, the light
of messiach that redeems the light that is within the darkness. Though the Maccabeans fought
the war and were credited for its victory, it is not as well known that it was two women both
named Yehudit that were the true hidden heroines. One Yehudit ignited the war and the other
finished it by seducing the Greek general Holofernes and beheading him. Through the miracle
of Chanukkah, the Holy Temple, the home of Shechinah, the feminine Presence of God, was
purified and restored.

Chanukkah marks the end of the teshuva period of this year that began on Rosh Hashanah.
The light of Chanukkah enables us to "return" to our true essence, to rekindle the dreams of
our hearts and soul that our rational minds could not believe. This is a month to pay attention
to your dreams, to the dreams that occur in a sleep state and to the awake dreams of your
heart and soul that are wanting to be realized.

Author: Melinda Ribner
Source: Beit Miriam E-mail Group