Kindling Light in the Darkness

Newsletter November 13, 2023 Together, we're #keepingitsacred...

Yesterday, my family and I stopped by the stunning Malibu Hindu Temple for the rituals of their Diwali observance. Diwali is the Hindu holiday that celebrates the victory of light over darkness, and knowledge over ignorance. Anywhere people celebrate that value, I want to be there.

Removing my shoes at the entryway, feeling the cold marble floor on my bare feet as I walked the temple grounds, seeing the bright colors of saris and marigold garlands, I was transported back to a trip I took to India to study the Gandhian legacy in 2001 with Mahatma Gandhi's grandson, Arun. As some of you know, I became friends with Arun on that trip (and even recorded an episode of People Keeping It Sacred with him which you can view HERE). Sadly, he died this past May. He worked every day of his life for peace and understanding, often through the M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence, and his passing felt like a dimming of a great warm light of peace in the world.

Yesterday, I felt an acute chill of sadness and grief, as I stood in front of the Hindu Temple missing Arun and his calming and positive energy, contrasting that with the tumult that has entered the world in the past month. Where did his precious energy and wisdom go? I have been missing it and desperately trying to get it back, especially now.

I experienced this similar chilling feeling, too, when I learned of the assassination of Yitzchak Rabin. And also when I learned of the death, to cancer, of a dear friend and activist/philanthropist, Wally Marks. Each of their deaths represented more than the end of an individual; they represented the dimming of hope for a brighter future, personified.

Today, I felt that cold chill again when we found out that the body of Canadian-Israeli peacemaker Vivian Silver, founder of Women Wage Peace, and the Arab-Jewish Center for Equality, Empowerment and Cooperation, was found. Though we had thought she was taken hostage and had been holding onto hope that she would be released one day soon to return to her holy work, we learned today that she had been murdered at Kibbutz Be'eri in the initial attack, on October 7. She had dedicated her life towards affirming humanity in the Middle East conflict, often shuttling ailing Palestinian children across the border to Israeli hospitals to get care. She was a force of light and love in the world. We are left to ask: where did her energy go? Another win for darkness.

It feels like no coincidence that tonight, Jewish communities welcome in the new month, the month of Kislev-- known as the darkest month of the year (at least in the northern hemisphere), and one that calls us to prepare to observe Hanukkah with the lighting of the menorah. In this way, kindling light at the darkest time of the year becomes a religious act of courage and strength, and, I suppose, faith, that eventually the darkness of ignorance and fear and suffering will give way to the light of goodness and love and peace. Much like the message of lighting clay oil lamps for Diwali, or for Christians, illuminating the neighborhood with Christmas lights.

The moral of the story of each of these traditions is that in life, when we are faced with the chill of darkness, it is incumbent upon us to boldly kindle light. To cultivate it. To nurture it and magnify it so that darkness has nowhere to hide. So that the light of truth and peace can again take hold and we can bask in its warmth.

And it doesn't take much. As Rabbi Bachya Ibn Pakuda, writing in the 11th century in Spain once said, "A little bit of light dispels much darkness." It is a timeless principle that I find myself hanging onto tightly these days. Please join me as we hold onto this principle and kindle all the light and goodness we can in our homes, among our friends and community, and in the world. This is how we keep the month of Kislev sacred.

Together, we’re #keepingitsacred…

Rabbi Heather Miller

Founder, Keeping It Sacred

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