Light & Darkness

The path of light, sunglasses of the soul, the Lamplighter, the discovery of darkness, the inexistence of the universe, the spiritual significance of the rainbow -- 26 stories, essays and meditations on light and luminescence

Go out into the dark and make it shine. Let it shine even to those who aren’t looking for it. To those who don’t know they’re missing it.

Darkness is not just what fills the sky. It can fill our vision, craft negativities in the mind, and color the same in heart. What lives in our mind is closely linked to how we feel and defines our entire reality...

Its radiance beamed from one end of the world to the other

Darkness doesn’t necessarily mean evil; it means the absence of light. When life’s meaning seems inscrutable, when I’m running from task to task oblivious to the need for meaning, that’s called darkness.

The Rebbe smiled at the little boy. "In the game of life, we're supposed to be players—but many people choose to be observers, to just sit in the stands. But you," he said to the child, "be a player."

I recalled vaguely that there had been some Nashvillians visiting in Mumbai at the Oberoi restaurant, caught in the crossfire of terror. I tried to call one of them to invite her to our Menorah lighting.

Is the light of the Chanukah menorah so faint that it can only illuminate its immediate vicinity? And as such must be lit after dark, and in direct proximity to the darkness it wishes to counteract?