On Saturday night we begin celebrating Chanukah, which often falls out right after this Parashah.
The Hebrew word for Chanukah is an acronym for “Ches neiros vehalachah K’Beis Hillel” (Eight candles and the halachah (law) is according to Hillel).
What was Hillel’s beautiful lesson to us?
There is told of a man that came to the big sage Hillel and asked him many obnoxious questions. Like: “Why do Persians have oval shaped heads?” Which Hillel answered with much respect and patience ” because the midwives there are not profesional and squeezed the babies heads.”
Then the man came again and asked “Why do the eyes of the people from Tarmud appear to be squinting?” Again Hillel answered him politely, “because they live surrounded by a lot of sand.”
And again he came asking, ” why are the feet of the Africans so wide?” “That’s because they live near swamps, so in order for them not to drown H”S created them with wide feet.” Replied Hillel patiently.
The entire story is very weird, as my husband says “when things don’t make sense we don’t know the whole story,” what was this man really asking? The real question was “why did G-d create ugliness and imperfection in the world?” And Hillel answered him, ” everything your eyes see as imperfection is really the secret of these peoples survival; if the midwives wouldn’t squish the babies heads, if the Tarmudin would of had wide open eyes and the Africans wouldn’t have wide feet, they wouldn’t of been able to survive.
So one of the many beautiful messages encapsulated in the Menorah, which holds eight different branches plus one shamash is that we all have a different light to shine in this world, nevertheless we are all a piece of the ONE, and alone we will never be able to accomplish our mission.
The next time your imperfection is bothering you, just remember that is exactly where your strength is and that is what makes you special.
Some experts taken from the book “Yemima Mizrachi Speaks” by Yemima Mizrachi
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