The Light Within
Tech Tribe Dispatch #283
💡 Think:
We find ourselves in the midst of the Jewish month of Tevet. It’s the coldest of the year. Outside the world, blanketed in snow and lethargic with frost, turns inwards.
The sunsets early and the night stretches on for hours. It’s also a month when no new Jewish holidays begin.
We’ve reached our nadir. It feels as if nothing can be darker.
But the coldest month is also the portent for the most light.
Yes, all revelation is gone. But when we look away from the externalities, we find that we gain warmth from the deepest parts within. We are no longer basking in the summery, superficial, warmth of G-d. We’ve matured. Now we are bound up in the deep, intimate embrace with the Al-mighty. It’s embrace of two people, finding warmth not from the externalities of the world, but from their bond. Tevet is the month where our essence, bound up with that of our Creator, shines forth.
The reality is that there is light in Tevet as well: The last nights of Chanukah can be found in this month.
Every night of Chanukah we increase in light. One flame becomes two, then three ... all the way to the final night, when eight flames illuminating the darkness — All Lights Night
But what happens on the 9th night? Or the 10th? How can a holiday that symbolizes the ever increasing power of light over darkness, seem to fizzle out into nothingness, leaving us forlorn in the cold inky blackness of the longest nights of the winter?
Chanukah doesn’t end, it burns brighter an brighter each night. After Chanukah WE are the lights. We burn with the flame of a body possessed of a G-dly soul. We have an inner fire that no wind can put out, no water can douse. Like the ice itself that becomes a vessel of light, now we realize that the greatest fire and source of them all burns within us.
🏃 DO:
✨ Join us Friday, February 7th, for our February First Friday curated conversation on Minyan and the Metaverse!
🎩 It’s a family celebration - and you’re invited! Join our son Mendel’s Bar Mitzvah 7pm, Tuesday, February 18th!
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🎧 Listen:
🕯️ Mourn:
Max Chiswick, Professional Poker Player and Educator, Art and Clothing Collector, Chabad and Travel Enthusiast With an Irrational Love for Carrots, Dies at 39. Max had been in touch with us about some of his app ideas, and most recently attended our October event Building Bridges: Jews, Israelis and Tech
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📚 Read:
🤖 A Woman Wonders if She’s Human in “I’m Not a Robot”
🎵 What Happened When an Extremely Offline Person Tried TikTok
❤️ She Is in Love With ChatGPT
🔥 Lit:
This week, light Shabbat candles in NYC at 4:38 PM
For Shabbat candle-lighting time in your area click here.
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