Rabbi's Blog

We as humans have a unique ability to act beyond our nature.

There is a well-known story about a turtle that was happily swimming along a river when a scorpion hailed it from the shore. The scorpion, unable to swim, asked the turtle for a ride on his back so he could cross the river.  

"Are you nuts?" exclaimed the turtle. "You'll sting me while I'm swimming and I'll drown."

"My dear turtle," the scorpion responded with a laugh, "if I were to sting you, you would drown and I would go down with you, and drown as well. Now where is the logic in that?"

The turtle thought this over, and saw the logic of the scorpion's statement.

"You're right!" cried the turtle. "Hop on!"

The scorpion climbed aboard, and halfway across the river the scorpion gave the turtle a mighty sting. As they both sank to the bottom, the turtle resignedly said, "Are you nuts? Don't you realize we are both going to die! Why did you do it?"

The drowning scorpion sadly replied, "It has nothing to do with logic. What can I do, it's just my nature! How can I change that?"

In this story, we see the great difference between man and all other creatures.  Like animals, we too come with a nature embedded in us. However, we humans have a unique ability to act beyond our nature.

In the Chabad esoteric teachings, man's spirit is divided between the intellectual faculties of the mind and the emotional feelings of the heart. In humans, the mind has the ability to govern over the heart.

We are in the midst of celebrating the holiday of , also known as the "Festival of Lights." I thought I would share with you the mystical aspect of the menorah, the eight-branched candelabra, and how it relates to our natural emotions, our "heart" and our ability to reach beyond our nature.

Seven of the branches of the menorah represent the seven archetypes in the human personality makeup.

Specifically, each of the seven branches represents a different emotion within man. Think of it this way: the millions of variations that exist in color are a collective expression of the three primary colors. Similarly, our emotions are very much the same. That is, we have primary emotions and all other emotions are merely an expression of the primary emotions.

The names of the seven types are Chesed ("loving kindness"), Gevurah ("discipline"), Tiferet ("balance, beauty"), Netzach ("persistence "), Hod ("splendor"), Yesod ("bonding") and Malchut ("reflection"). I'll talk about these in more detail in other columns.

We each come equipped with our unique personality, where our character expresses one or more emotion more strongly. That's our "nature." Some people are naturally more about "kindness" and others more about "discipline." Both "kindness" and "discipline" are not intrinsically positive or negative. There is a constructive and a destructive "kindness." Similarly, there is a healthy and an unhealthy "discipline."

Sometimes, the personality that is wired with "kindness" must learn to practice more discipline. And sometimes the disciplinarian must learn to be more kind.

The ultimate objective is for our spirit to reach beyond our nature and tap into a higher and deeper light. Thus, the eighth light represents our ability to reach beyond our nature.

When a person is internally inspired—kindled—then this person can use who he or she is, to connect to a more profound internal light. The menorah is all about kindling the collective souls—the seven primary personality types, so that we become messengers of illumination receiving inspiration from a higher spiritual light, the "eighth"—beyond nature and sharing it with others.  

The miracle of Chanukah is the triumph of this light over darkness. What could be more universal? The kindled menorah reminds us that, regardless of differences, we all can illuminate our surroundings with a shared transcendent light of goodness and kindness.

Unlike the scorpion, a human being is not bound by his or her natural makeup.

Happy Chanukah and Shabbat Shalom!

You are welcome to join us tomorrow at 6:30 p.m. for a Havdalah service and a lighting of  on Pacific Coast Highway near the intersection at Heathercliff Road/Emily Shane Way. Michel and Ellen Shane will be kindling the menorah named in their daughter's memory.

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 Menorah lighting and hot latkes!

The Festival of Lights begins Tuesday night. Chabad of Malibu will host a party and two Menorah lightings.

This coming Tuesday evening, Jewish people around the globe will begin celebrating the festival of Chanukah, also known as the Festival of Lights. In the early 1980s, the Lubavitcher Rebbe initiated a campaign to display the Chanukah Menorah in public areas so all people can benefit from the light and joys of the holiday.

The following is a letter from the Rebbe addressed to the participants in public Menorah lightings:

By the Grace of G-d

On the eve of Chanukah, 5741 [1980]
Brooklyn, NY

To all Participants in the Public
Lighting of the Chanukah Menorah
in the USA

Greeting and Blessing!

Chanukah, the Festival of Lights, recalls the victory—more than 2,100 years ago—of a militarily weak, but spiritually strong, Jewish people over the mighty forces of a ruthless enemy that had overrun the Holy Land and threatened to engulf the land and its people in darkness.

The miraculous victory—culminating with the dedication of the Sanctuary in Jerusalem and the rekindling of the Menorah that had been desecrated and extinguished by the enemy—has been celebrated annually ever since during these eight days of Chanukah, especially by lighting the Chanukah Menorah, also as a symbol and message of the triumph of freedom over oppression, of spirit over matter, of light over darkness.

It is a timely and reassuring message, for the forces of darkness are ever present. Moreover, the danger does not come exclusively from outside; it often lurks close to home, in the form of insidious erosion of time-honored values and principles that are at the foundation of any decent human society. Needless to say, darkness is not chased away by brooms and sticks, but by illumination. Our sages said, "A little light expels a lot of darkness."

The Chanukah Lights remind us in a most obvious way that illumination begins at home, within oneself and one's family, by increasing and intensifying the light of Torah and Mitzvos in the everyday experience, even as the Chanukah Lights are kindled in growing numbers from day to day. But though it begins at home, it does not stop there. Such is the nature of light that when one kindles the Chanukah Lights are expressly meant to illuminate the "outside," symbolically alluding to the duty to bring light also to those who, for one reason or another, still walk in darkness.

What is true of the individual is true of a nation, especially this great United States, united under G-d, and generously blessed by G-d with material as well as spiritual riches. It is surely the duty and privilege of this nation to promote all the forces of light both at home and abroad, and in a steadily growing measure.

Let us pray that the message of the Chanukah Lights will illuminate the everyday life of everyone personally, and of the society at large, for a brighter life in every respect, both materially and spiritually.

With esteem and blessing in the spirit of Chanukah,
M. Schneerson

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This year,  will host a Grand Chanukah Party at Chabad of Malibu on Tuesday, Dec. 20 at 5:30 p.m. All are invited. Please send us an email to [email protected] to tell us you are coming.

In addition, Chabad will have Menorah lightings at the Malibu Lumber Yard on Wednesday, Dec. 21 from 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. and at Malibu Colony Plaza on Thursday, Dec. 22 from 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.

You are most welcome to join us in these celebrations of light.

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Internal silence enables us to purge our old ideas from our mind so we can experience a true moment of chochma, or wisdom.

"The gate to wisdom is silence" —Pirkei Avot 3-14 

What is silence?

Have you ever experienced a time in your life when you had to solve a problem and were in desperate need of a solution and an answer that was just not coming? Perhaps you were a student preparing for an exam or a businessman looking for a solution. Whatever it might be, the frustration of not having the solution is frustrating indeed!

In Kabbalistic terminology, the first state of awareness, when a new idea enters our minds, it is called "chochma" (wisdom). Even more literally, the Hebrew word "chochma" is composed of two words: "choch" (power) and "ma" (what). Together, meaning "the power of ... what?"

When we recognize that we don't know, when we ask "what," we are enabled to become a vessel to receive new wisdom and answers. This is why wisdom is called "the power of … what?"

How do we hasten to obtain the real solution to problems that in the natural scheme of things do not seem to have any viable solution?

When we submit to the possibility that the answer lies beyond our current space of thinking, that is when we admit to ourselves that we ran out of ideas, then we can ask, "what?" Consequently, we become open to a "chochma" experience, that is when the split second of bright light fills our mind with a new flash of insight that seems to have arrived from beyond.

Know this: We cannot have chochma without internal silence.

Internal silence enables us to purge our old ideas from our mind so we can experience a true moment of "chochma."

Imagine how different our world would be if each person practiced a little more internal silence!

Shabbat Shalom!