"Waddya wanna do?" "I dunno. What do you want to do?" - The Jungle Book
So we're all hanging out in this long period after Sukkot. We love holidays - not only because they come with some seasonal food, a heavy dose of family, a short vacation. There is something else. We are twiddling our thumbs, wondering what Hashem wants from us, when suddenly He says: "I want you to take these branches and this fruit and shake it around in your little hut, and think about it a lot." Or "I want you to eat this cardboard-like substance and think about freedom for 7 days." Hashem tells us the channel through which He will be most available for that time.
So Hanukkah, and Hashem is available through, um, latkes? No. Dreidl? Well, no, but getting warmer. Lighting Candles? Not quite, but warm. The Talmud (Tractate Shabbat) says: "We say every day in the prayer 'Al Ha'Nisim (for the miracles),' that these days were instituted as days of giving thanks. This is our commandment, our channel to Hashem. Somehow, in the act of thanking and praising, we can connect deeper. And God knows you're thankful, but He wants to hear it anyway. Loud. Testify, child. Let it ring out, let it spill out into the streets. "Thank you!!! I appreciate it."
Rav Gavriel Goldfeder
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Rav Gavriel Goldfeder is one of the first semicha recipients of the yeshiva. A graduate of Drew University in Religious Studies, he came to Bat Ayin after stints in other yeshivot and found a spiritual and intellectual home. Here he met his wife, Ketriellah, who was a student in our short-lived Women's Yeshiva. Upon graduation, Gavriel took the position of rabbi of the Aish Kodesh Congregation in Boulder, Colorado and together with Ketriellah and their growing family, they are busy creating (in Gavriel's words), "a community infused with Torah values, passion for learning and prayer, consideration of one another, and action, as well as deep celebration of the joys of life." |