Jan 27, 2025
Emily Dickinson // "There's a certain Slant of light, (320)"
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Emily Dickinson // "There's a certain Slant of light, (320)"
Today we enter Tevet - טֵבֵת - the darkest month of the Hebrew year.
The winter solstice just passed. The nights are long. The cold is deep.
And yet.
Hanukkah is still burning.
The candles we lit at the end of Kislev carry their light into Tevet's darkness.
This isn't coincidence.
This is the entire point.
Tevet teaches us something essential:
Light doesn't wait for spring.
It doesn't wait for warmth, or ease, or perfect conditions.
Light shows up in the deepest winter.
In the longest nights.
In the coldest moments.
That's when we need it most.
The same is true for you.
Whatever light you're carrying - your gifts, your voice, your dreams, your purpose - it doesn't need to wait for the "right time".
It doesn't need perfect conditions.
It doesn't need everything to be figured out first.
Your light belongs in the darkness.
That's exactly where it's needed.
This month, Tevet asks you:
What light are you holding back, waiting for better conditions?
What are you postponing until things get easier?
What gift are you keeping dim because it's "not the right time"?
Winter doesn't wait for permission to be cold.
And your light doesn't need permission to shine.
The Hanukkah candles taught us this:
One night at a time.
One light at a time.
Even when the temple is destroyed.
Even when the oil shouldn't be enough.
Even when everything seems dark.
You light it anyway.
So this beginning of the month, as we enter the darkest month:
Don't wait for spring.
Don't wait for warmth.
Don't wait for ease.
Bring your light now.
Into the cold. Into the dark. Into the winter.
That's where it belongs.
💙
Hello! I created this blog to share my joy in the Jewish calendar and Jewish history and Jewish diversity and complexity and humor and resilience.
Anon asks are off because this is a jumblr blog and I trolls aren't welcome. But asks are very much on. Please send me posts you think would fit the blog or Jewish anniversaries you think are worth commemorating here (and remember that the talmud tells us that whoever cites their sources saves the world, see Megillah 15a line 20).
oh i forgot the new old man
In Tevet, the month of anger, strength, and inner fire, we consider how to deal with the sparks of memory burning inside us. Samson (a person quick to anger) and his sister, Nashyan (a person quick to forgive), like two boughs balancing a tree, remind us when to remember and when to let ourselves forget.
Jill Hammer, The Jewish Book of Days (18 Tevet)
Interstate State Park, Wisconsin
Louis MacNiece, "Snow" (ID in alt text)
W. S. Merwin // "To the New Year"