RebbetzinHeller's blog

 
I don't know how the weather is where you are, but here where I am, a quick glance out the living room window at the gray overcast sky, makes me enormously grateful for my warm home (possibly too warm due to minor disputes between me and the rest of the world about how warm you need to be in the winter). As I sit beside the computer, with a hot glass of tea at my side, inside my warm home, I would like to retain this grateful feeling forever. It's so easy to forget the simple goodness of living, and to focus instead on the continuum of "Things To Do."
 

This past week I was in Prague. As some of you know, it is arguably the most beautiful city in Europe. The city has 9 neighborhoods that are called areas. Area 1 is the Old City. Virtually every building is a work of art. The pastel facades are hundreds of years old, decorated with multi-colored layers of ornament and often full of gargoyles or idols. The first day our guide took us to the central palace. I have never seen a place of such intertwined beauty and horror. I didn't quite know where to place it; the clash between intricate beauty and the obscene falsehood was overwhelming.

We are beginning the second book of the Torah: Sefer Shemot, and reading the first parshah called "Shemot"-which means "Names." The theme of this Book is geulah-redemption, which is why in English, Shemot is called the Book of Exodus or "Sefer Hageulah."
 
The parsha begins with a mini-census listing all of the members of Yaakov's family. However, the same information was given in greater detail in the previous parshah at the end of Sefer Bereishis (Genesis). This leaves us wondering why once is not enough. 

Tonight is the last night of Chanukah. Remember seeing the menorah lit against the blackness of the Jerusalem sky?
 
Two nights ago I was in the Old City. It was raining torrentially, and you could barely see beyond your nose. The menorahs on the roofs of the buildings right over the Kotel shone brilliantly. I walked through the narrow streets and couldn't help but think of the Maccabees searching the ruins of the Temple in the dark and in the rain, hoping against hope that they would find a vial of pure oil.

When you think of the victory of light over the darkness that the ancient Greeks tried to spread, you can't help but think of the world as it is today,

Do you ever wonder why things can't go just a little more smoothly? As soon as you take a deep breath and say to yourself, "Okay, now I can relax", something new appears on the horizon forcing you out of the delightful little cocoon you wished you could crawl into.

I just got back from the States on Friday, and I am still settling in. It is so wonderful to be back! Just walking up the path to Neve takes me to another world, one in which the main thing is moving forward. This time, my trip to the States was different than any of the other ones that I made. I went straight from the airport to Monsey. My husband had a great time with the GPS! It only took a little longer than if we had just followed my son's instructions.... There is something about coming to grips with the fact that we are all under surveillance via satellite to one degree or another that makes us realize that no one is anonymous and unseen nor has anyone ever been anonymous and unseen. Every interaction is meaningful and part of something bigger than the moment.

How are all of you Avrahams doing out there in Ur Kasdim?

When I was a child, I loved going to the movies. Besides seeing the films (which in those days were far more innocent than today's movies), I enjoyed the ambience of the theaters of that era. They were the sort of places that made fantasy flourish. Their wall-to- wall carpeting, huge mosaics of pseudo fine art, "gold" pillars, plush chairs, and hushed darkness all worked their magic. My cousin Barbara and I often arrived early.

Getting back into real life is quite an adjustment! The holiday season can leave you spiritually uplifted enough to find day-to-day reality challenging, significant, but still just a trifle irrelevant to what you just spent so much time defining as the Big Picture.