A Warmer Winter?

Rabbi Mendel Kaplan Chabad @ Flamingo

Despite old-man-winter’s brutal arrival in Buffalo and south of the Mason-Dixon Line, thus far we’ve been spared. Instead of the usual harsh Canadian winter, meteorologists are predicting the mildest February in years.

Weather experts say a persistent flow of warm air from the Pacific is spreading across the country, bringing the warming trend. During normal winter weather, Arctic air blasts southward, disrupting the westerly flow and cooling different parts of the country at different times.   

“Global Warming”? “Don’t even go there, this is weather, not climate”, says David Phillips, senior climatologist at Environment Canada. “Remember, much of the country had the coldest December in history in 2000. Winter is just having a difficult time gaining a foothold in this country”. (National Post, 01.08.02).

The lack of snow and ice doesn’t really upset me, after all, I’m not much of a skier or skating enthusiast, but I‘ve got something going when it comes to mystical philosophy. Immediately the Chassidic credo; “everything in the material world mirrors the spiritual”, comes to mind. So, I’ve been thinking what’s the deeper message and inner meaning of a warmer winter?

King David states (Psalms 84.12) “Ki Shemesh U’Magen Hashem Elokim -For a sun and shield is Hashem your G-d.” Superficially, the meaning of this verse is that throughout Israel’s dark and menacing exile, G-d is our light and protector.

The mystical Jewish tradition maintains that “Shemesh U’Magen”, “the sun and its protective shield” are more than an ordinary reference to light and protection. Instead therein lies encoded a cardinal metaphor regarding the Divine. “Shemesh U’Magen” represents spiritual, revelation, warmth and comfort, just as the physical sun (via its protective atmosphere) reveals, warms and comforts us.   

In a discourse on the “meaning of winter” the Rebbe logically follows this projection, and posits that less sunlight, less warmth and less comfort mean a period of time when spirituality is more difficult to access and connect to. Contrastingly the summer represents a time of divine revelation, a time in which it is easier to connect to our inner spiritual reservoir.

 The mystical meaning of a “warmer winter?”  By now it should be obvious.

In the simplest of terms; during the winter people become “bearlike” (no pun on the stock market intended) and tend to hibernate. Months can go by without neighbors seeing each other, and the higher the snow accumulation, the lower the attendance at Shul.

Let’s take our cue from heaven, if less precipitation is falling, perhaps our Shul involvement should be rising.

Our beloved Rebbe once related the following story: One night there were no candles at the court of the Ba’al Shem Tov. The Ba’al Shem instructed his disciples to bring icicles (called “ice candles” in Yiddish), and light them. Needless to say that night instead of studying to the light of “wax candles,” the “ice candles” illuminated the Beth HaMedrash!    

The lesson? If we work at it hard enough, the warmth of yiddishkiet can warm the most frigid of environments. A warmer winter is within reach. Join us and learn how to make your spiritual barometer rise!

With warmest regards,

Rabbi Mendel Kaplan