Baby, it’s cold outside. This week Shabbat was entirely on Zoom because of weather issues. (Windchills around 30 below). Friday night we were treated to some jazz piano of Chanukah favorites and a guided mediation on a candle developed by my professor Rabbi Goldie Millgram. I always find this mediation especially soothing. If you want to try it on your own, I have included it here: http://www.reclaimingjudaism.org/teachings/guided-meditation-flame

Wherever you are, please stay safe in these brutally cold days, and may your light shine brightly.

Here are Shabbat morning’s reflections:

Recently we have talked about dreams, and visions. Jacob’s sulam, that ladder or stairway with the angels that go up and down. Jacob wrestling with the angel. Joseph and the dreams about his brothers and parents. Joseph interpreting the dreams in jail. Joseph interpreting Pharoah’s dreams and rising to prominence as Pharaoh’s vizier, his right hand man, his number two guy Last week we looked at how to interpret our own dreams.  

This week’s haftarah also has a dream, a vision if you will, of what turns out to be the menorah.  

“He said to me, “What do you see?” And I answered, “I see a lampstand all of gold, with a bowl above it. The lamps on it are seven in number, and the lamps above it have seven pipes; and by it are two olive trees, one on the right of the bowl and one on its left.” (Zechariah 4:2) 

He then turned back to the angel and asked him what his dream meant. The angel interpreted the dream: 

“Then he explained to me as follows:. “This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel:. ‘Not by might, nor by power, but by My spirit.’ said the LORD of Hosts.” 

Debbie Friedman set it to music: 

Not by Might – Debbie Friedman (1990) 

While the explanation of the vision goes on in Zechariah, thus explaning the symbolism of each element of the menorah dream, the haftarah itself ends in a different place. “Whoever you are, O great mountain in the path of Zerubbabel, turn into level ground! For he shall produce that excellent stone; it shall be greeted with shouts of ‘Beautiful! Beautiful!’” 

That word translated as Beautiful, Beautiful is חֵ֥ן  Hain in Hebrew.  

That is a very interesting word and its repetitive use here. We know that if something is repeated, it comes to teach us something. There are no extra words in the Bible, we are taught. 

My first question then, is what do we mean by beauty? Each of you has a menorah—a chanukiah—perhaps more than one and I am willing to guess that each one is different.  Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. There is a tradition of hiddur hamitzvah, beautification of the mitzvah. That is part of why there are so many styles of menorot. The vision as described here in the text doesn’t really help me understand what the original menorah looked like. 

But the word hain often means something other than beauty. It can also mean favor or grace. You may know this word from the 13 attributes of the Divine, Chanun v’rachum. In that form it is often seen as solely the providence of G-d. Or you may know it from the phrase, “Matzah hain b’enecha, to find favor in your eyes,” when someone pleads with another, even in this chapter.  

It comes from the verb chanan. Meaning yearn towards, long for, be merciful, compassionate, favourable, inclined towards; It can also mean beautiful—as in eshet hain, a woman of beauty, of grace, of charm. We see this phrase towards the end of Eishet Chayyil, a Woman of Valor, that also talks of her gracious hain speech. That is still one I am working on.  

What then do we make of the use here? That this vision—of the menorah, of a world where we live not by might and not by power but by G-d’s spirit is beautiful. That it is how we guard our speech and be kind, gracious, compassionate.  That it is how we find favor in G-d’s eyes. 

There is one more place that hain shows up and it seems so appropriate for this Shabbat Chanukah. And that is in the Birkat Hocohanim, the priestly benediction. It appears in Numbers, in the parsha just before what we read earlier today. 

Yevarechecha v’yishmarecha, May Adonai bless you and keep you, guard and protect you. 

Ya’er Adoani panav elecha v’chunecha. May Adonai be gracious to you and grant you favor. 

Yisa Adonai panav elecha v’y’sem lecha shalom. May Adoani’s face turn toward you and grant you peace. 

That second line of the three fold blessing is closer to “May G-d’s light shine upon you and be gracious to you.” There is something really beautiful in the idea of G-d’s light shining upon us at Chanukah, this season of light. Maybe that is where the real beauty is, G-d’s light becoming our light so that we can shine in the darkness.  

For me then, this vision is one of beauty and hope. May we each be blessed with light and then may we continue to find beauty and favor as we share our light with others. Light one candle.  Not by might. Not by power. But by spirit alone shall we all live in peace. Amen.