This week we will discuss Hanukah thoughts. Hanukah is in the month of Kislev. Every month has a certain theme of what we're supposed to work on, which is hinted at in the name of the month. Nissan obviously has the root Ness/ miracle, and it's the holiday of miracles and so on. So what is Kislev’s Avodah? First we have to know what the root of the word Kislev is –
כ ס ל– Chaf Samech Lamed Kessel- what exactly is the meaning of the word Kessel?
The Sefer HaShorashim by the Radak, Rav David Kimchi, provides the meaning of shorashim/root words, based on context clues from pesukim
(The Radak was an expert in Navi, and also wrote a commentary on tanach). Sometimes a 3 letter shoresh has more than one meaning, that on a simple level, aren’t connected.
He says there are two sources for our shoresh Ksil. The first is found in a pasuk in Kohelet (4,5):
הַכְּסִיל֙ חֹבֵ֣ק אֶת־יָדָ֔יו
“HaKsil Hobek Et Yadav/the fool holds his hands together, which means he's lazy.
Another is ( Kohelet 2,14)
וְהַכְּסִ֖יל בַּחֹ֣שֶׁךְ הוֹלֵ֑ךְ
The fool goes in the darkness.
So then the root of the word would be k’sil/fool.
But another usage, found in Tehilim (78,7), is:
וְיָשִׂ֥ימוּ בֵאלֹהִ֗ים כִּ֫סְלָ֥ם
They put their reliance in God
And Iyov ( 31,24) says,
אִם־שַׂ֣מְתִּי זָהָ֣ב כִּסְלִ֑י
Did I make gold into my reliance?
So the word Kessel also means reliance. Seemingly, fool and reliance are unrelated shorashim, but there's a pasuk in Mishleh (3,26) that says,
כִּֽיה׳ יִֽהְיֶ֣ה בְכִסְלךָ וְשָׁמַ֖ר רַגְלְךָ֣ מִלָּֽכֶד׃
God will be your reliance and will protect your feet from stumbling, on which Rashi cites a Yerushalmi that says this refers to Bitachon in areas that you're foolish in, things that you don't know anything about. Others explain that it’s a higher level of Bitachon, in an area where people think you're a fool for even relying on God for that. It's so removed, it's so farfetched. How in the world do you even think it's going to happen?
Furthermore, Hovot Halevavot, in Shaar Bitachon (end of the seventh chapter), says there are 10 different levels of bitachon, and the highest one of is called Kessel.
So this is the highest level of the level of Bitachon, the level of bitachon where everyone says you're fool, but you rely anyway. Rav Sadok HaKohen, in his sefer Pri Sadik, on the topic of Rosh Hodesh Kislev (second letter) says that that's what Hanukah was all about.
Strong people were overtaken by weak, masses of people were overtaken over by the few… The Hashmona’im went against all odds. That was their high level of Bitachon called Kessel. And that is our job in the month of Kislev- to have reliance on Hashem, on this high level that's called kessel, even when everything is difficult.
As the pasuk says,
וְהַכְּסִ֖יל בַּחֹ֣שֶׁךְ הוֹלֵ֑ךְ
The fool walks in the darkness.
Hanukah comes at the darkest time of the year, with the longest nights and the shortest days. And in these dark times, when we're groping in the dark, we're foolish. We don't know what to do. We don’t know how to survive, how to get ourselves out of this situation, but we invoke that high level of Bitachon called Kessel. That's the Avodah/work of the month of Kislev, and specifically the week of Hanukah, which is the week of miracles, where the Hashmona’im showed us how, when you rely on Hashem, He comes through. That's Al HaNissim, against all odds. That's the Avodah of the month of Kislev.
Have a wonderful day.