KISLEV — THE GATE OF LIGHT IN THE DARKEST MONTH – Parshat Toledot and the permutations - OPENING — THE FIRST TO DO TESHUVAH Rosh Ḥodesh always carries the quiet hum of renewal. It slips in without trumpets, without fanfare, yet Chazal paint it as a spiritual reset button. Why? Because the moon was the first creation ever to do Teshuvah. The Gemara tells the story plainly: “אֵין שְׁנֵי מְלָכִים מִשְׁתַּמְּשִׁים בְּכֶתֶר אֶחָד.” The moon complained: “Two kings cannot share one crown.” HaShem answered: “Go and make yourself small.” (Chullin 60b) The moon recognized its mistake. It accepted the consequence. It did Teshuvah. And so, every Rosh Ḥodesh becomes a mini-Yom Kippur. This is stated explicitly in Musaf: “רֹאשׁ חֹדֶשׁ … זְמַן כַּפָּרָה לְכָל תּוֹלְדוֹתָם.” The Beit Yosef (O.C. 423) explains this phrase literally: Rosh Ḥodesh atones for the spiritual stains of the previous month. HaShem “remembers” us and lifts us from the Yetzer Hara. But Rosh Ḥodesh Kislev is different. It carries a sharper edge, a deeper power, an urgency of Teshuvah that no other month can claim. Why? Because Kislev is the fortieth day after Hoshana Rabbah—the final deadline of the Yomim Nora’im cycle. Old sefarim (quoted in Likutei Tzvi) explain: • Yom Kippur is the primary time of atonement. • If one misses that moment, the gates stay open until Hoshana Rabbah. • If one still doesn’t complete Teshuvah, HaShem gives forty more days—parallel to the forty days of Matan Torah—until Rosh Ḥodesh Kislev. And so Chazal referred to Rosh Ḥodesh Kislev as: “כְּיוֹם כִּפּוּר קָטָן” — a miniature Yom Kippur. (Based on Rashi printed in early Tanach editions, c. 1460; verified historically though not in modern standard editions.) This month opens with judgment…but also with light. And we need that light desperately. ACT I — THE FAST OF ROSH ḤODESH KISLEV The Only Explicit Rosh Ḥodesh Fast in Tanach In Yirmiyahu 36:9, we find something astonishing: “וַיְהִי בַּחֹדֶשׁ הַתְּשִׁעִי… קָרְאוּ צוֹם לִפְנֵי ה’ לְכָל הָעָם…” Chazal understood this as a fast on Rosh Ḥodesh Kislev. This is the only explicit Rosh Ḥodesh fast ever recorded. That alone tells you the spiritual weight of this day. What Happens in Heaven on Rosh Ḥodesh Kislev? The lights of Chanukah begin streaming downward from the very beginning of the month. And so many tzaddikim fast — even half-day fasts — to align themselves with this moment. This is a day not to be wasted. The Passuk which relates to the permutation of Hashem’s name for Kislev comes from the story OF MOURNING Yaakov AT GOREN HA’ATAD From Midrash Tanchuma, Vayechi 18: When Ya‘akov was taken to burial, the Canaanites gathered, took off their crowns, encircled the coffin, and declared: “אֵבֶל כָּבֵד זֶה לְמִצְרָיִם.” “This is a great mourning for Egypt.” Chazal say HaShem rewarded them for this act of honor. Rosh Chodesh Kislev is tied by Chazal to the opening words of this pasuk (Bereishit 50:11) as its first four words— וַיַּרְא יֹשֵׁב הָאָרֶץ הַכְּנַעֲנִי — form the permutation of HaShem’s Name for the month: ו – י – ה – ה Our Rabbis explain based on Vayare This is a month of seeing. A month where even outsiders “saw” the honor of Ya‘akov. A month where we must learn to “see” truth and light in the darkness. ACT II — KISLEV, LIGHT, AND THE 36-HOUR SECRET Kislev arrives at the darkest point of the year as we approach the winter soltice. Days are short. Nights are long. But this is precisely the month when the light is strongest. We have discussed in the past that the light of the first day of creation which preceded the sun is called the אוֹר הַגָּנוּז, the hidden primordial light, Chazal say Adam HaRishon experienced the אוֹר הַגָּנוּז, for 36 hours: • Created Friday morning • Sinned Friday near sundown • Allowed to remain in Gan Eden until the end of Shabbat (Bereishit Rabbah 12:6) We are all familiar with the lamed vavniks, we call them the 36 hidden sadikim which keep the world going. We are taught this light remains hidden within them and two other places. The rabbis refer to the 36 hours of shabbat – 6 preceding and 6 following - This same hidden light appears again in Kislev: • We light 36 Chanukah flames (1+2+…+8 = 36). • Kis-Lev may be split as: כִּיס – ל״ו “the hidden 36.” They are in the candles we burn and this is why our rabbis tell us its good to look at the candles, perhaps to access this special light of seeing, healing and connection. Rosh Ḥodesh Kislev is the seed of that light. The month begins dark but ends ablaze. The Name of HaShem in Kislev As we have taught each month, The Arizal (Pri Eitz Chaim, Shaar HaKavanot, Inyan Chodashim) teaches that each month has a permutation of HaShem’s Name drawn from a verse. Kislev’s permutation is: ו–י–ה–ה Derived from the first letters of: וַיַּרְא יֹשֵׁב הָאָרֶץ הַכְּנַעֲנִי (Bereshit 50:11) One can look at the letters and see in them • ו — abundance • י — חָכְמָה, vision • ה–ה — expansion of divine light into the worlds of Yetzirah and Asiyah Thus Kislev is the month of miracles, because miracles are simply the overflow of light into the physical. What Is a Miracle? A נֵס is something above nature. Its root, says the Radak, is “לָנוּס” — to flee, to rise, to escape the gravitational pull of habit. When a person goes beyond his nature — when he stops anger, stops jealousy, stops chewing on old pain — he rises above nature and taps into hidden light. This is why the Vilna Gaon (Even Shleimah 1:1) writes: “לֹא בָּא אָדָם לָעוֹלָם אֶלָּא לְתַקֵּן מִדּוֹתָיו.” “A person came to this world only to refine his character.” When you change a middah, you open a faucet that was always connected to Heaven. ACT II STORY — THE MIDRASH OF THE HIDDEN LIGHT Source: Pesikta Rabbati 6 – Chazal say that HaShem hid the light of creation and saw: גָּנְזוֹ לַצַּדִּיקִים לֶעָתִיד לָבוֹא. But on certain days the light leaks out: Shabbat. Chanukah. And—teachings of the Arizal and Rishonim— Rosh Ḥodesh Kislev, the opening gate of that light. ACT III — JACOB, ESAU, AND WHO OWNS THE MONTHS Now we step into a deeper layer. The Ben Ish Ḥai (Drashot, Year I, Parashat Vayéshev) brings a remarkable tradition: Ya‘akov and Esav divided the months. • Esav took the harsh months. • Ya‘akov took the bright ones. • But Ya‘akov fought to reclaim certain months: • From the summer … He wrestled back half of Av (אַחֵי מְנַחֵם אָב). • He seized Elul for Teshuvah. • And from the winter, he reclaimed Kislev, giving Am Yisrael access to its hidden light. And in fact, as I was discussing with Robert this morning as Hanukah extends into Tevet, we can extend the light into the darkest month which we will touch on next month. Kislev is not “neutral time.” It is contested territory that Ya‘akov pulled out of Esav’s hands. Rivka’s Fear — One Confused Child or Two Clear Paths? Now we can understand a deeper piece from the Chumash and this weeks Perasha. When Rivka becomes pregnant, the Torah tells us: “וַיִּתְרֹצְצוּ הַבָּנִים בְּקִרְבָּהּ… וַתֹּאמֶר אִם כֵּן לָמָּה זֶּה אָנֹכִי… וַיֹּאמֶר ה׳ לָהּ שְׁנֵי גוֹיִים בְּבִטְנֵךְ.” (Bereshit 25:22–23) Rashi, quoting Bereishit Rabbah 63:6, explains: • When she passed the beit midrash of Shem ve-‘Éver, Ya‘akov struggled to get out. • When she passed a house of avodah zarah, Esav struggled to get out. At first, Rivka is terrified: If this is one child, pulled with equal passion to holiness and to tum’ah — a split, torn, spiritual schizophrenic — then: “לָמָּה זֶּה אָנֹכִי?” What kind of “I” will there be? What kind of identity is this? HaShem calms her: “שְׁנֵי גוֹיִים בְּבִטְנֵךְ” — “You have two nations inside you.” Two children, each consistent in his own direction, can be addressed. One “child” living both lives at once — that’s the real disaster. That is the heart of our generation’s problem: People trying to be both — both fully “in” and fully “out,” both amud ha-tefillah in the morning and hefker at night. And that is exactly what Kislev comes to break. “We need to ask ourselves: How Long Will You Dance on the Fence?” Recall Eliyahu HaNavi’s cry on Har HaKarmel when he turns to the people and says: “עַד מָתַי אַתֶּם פֹּסְחִים עַל שְׁתֵּי הַסְּעִפִּים? אִם ה׳ הָאֱלֹהִים — לְכוּ אַחֲרָיו, וְאִם הַבַּעַל — לְכוּ אַחֲרָיו.” (Melachim I 18:21) Make up your mind. HaShem can deal with a sinner who knows he’s a sinner. What HaShem “cannot stand” — so to speak — is the pôsēaḥ ‘al shtei ha-se‘ifim, the one limping between two sides, pretending to be both. Kislev, the month Ya‘akov pulls back from Esav, demands that we stop living as if we are one child pulled toward two altars. Here Rav Ḥayim Palaggi (Mo‘ed LeKol Ḥai, Inyanei Kislev) gives us the practical avodah, the keys: For Kislev’s good mazal to manifest, we need three things: 1. No being “wishy-washy” Decide. Choose a side. Pick a mitzvah, a seder, a kabalah — and hold it. 2. Emet — ruthless honesty Even the אבק שקר, the dust of falseness, has to go. The Zohar (III:104a) compares sheker to a shadow that brings darkness; émèt is “קְיָימָא” — stable, lasting. Alef–Mem–Tav — first, middle, last of the alef-bet. Truth runs through the whole line. Sheker (shin–kuf–resh) are all unstable letters; the lie never stands long. And lets add … 3. Honor parents — in life and after life The Pele Yo‘etz (entry: Kibbud Av VaEm) writes that the neshamah only understands the language of spirituality: • Learning Torah • Saying Tehillim • Giving tzedakah • Doing mitzvot le‘iluy nishmat… Each act is like pressing the “up” button on a spiritual elevator. As their neshamot rise, they can intercede more powerfully for us. Zechut avot is not a fixed account; it grows as we add to it. It’s a two-way street: • Their merit protects us. • Our deeds raise them, so they can protect us even more. ACT III STORY — YA‘AKOV’S WRESTLING MATCH Source: Bereishit 32:25–32; Chullin 91a Chazal say that when Ya‘akov wrestled with the angel of Esav, the “avak”—the dust of their struggle—rose all the way to the Kisé HaKavod. Why emphasize dust? Because the fight wasn’t just physical. It was about control of history, of time, of the “dust” of this world. Who would command the long, dark nights? Who would own the months of confusion? Ya‘akov wins. He leaves limping, but victorious. From that victory we get the power of Kislev: • To stop being split. • To choose truth. • To turn the dust of struggle into the light of victory. CLOSING — THE MONTH OF HARMONY AND THE POWER OF VISION The Kedushat Levi (Chanukah drasha 2) says: On Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, HaShem remembers us. On Chanukah, we see the good. Kislev is therefore the month of vision. The pasuk linked to its permutation begins: וַיַּרְא יֹשֵׁב הָאָרֶץ הַכְּנַעֲנִי — form the permutation of HaShem’s Name for the month: ו – י – ה – ה We should have this in mind in the Amidah of Musaf when we bless the month … “And the inhabitants of the land saw…” This is the month of seeing truth beneath illusion. Light beneath darkness. Hope beneath fear. If Tishrei is Chesed of Avraham and MarCheshvan the Gevurah of Yishak, then Kislvev is linked to Yaakov and Tiferet — harmony after chaos — and it arrives to steady us. In a world shaking with uncertainty, Kislev whispers: “Look deeper. The light is already here.” Rosh Chodesh Kislev is not a date. It is a gate. Tomorrow night we stand before it. And HaShem waits for us to take one step — a small Teshuvah, a clear decision, a step beyond our nature. Because that is how miracles begin. Three commitments for Kislev, from Rav Ḥayim Palaggi: 1. Be unwavering. Pick a mitzvah and hold it like a lifeline. 2. Be honest. No dust of sheker. Clean the lens of the soul. 3. Honor parents. In life or in Heaven — lift them, and they lift you. And with that, the lights of Kislev open. May HaShem bless us with נִסִּים וְנִפְלָאוֹת, protect our children fighting for Am Yisrael, and show us the light that has been waiting since the first day of creation. אֲנָּא ה׳ הוֹשִׁיעָה נָּא. אֲנָּא ה׳ הַצְלִיחָה נָּא. Chodesh Tov and Shabbat Shalom
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