It is after Chanukah (holiday), which ended yesterday with Zot Chanukah (This is Chanukah). But when we wake up the next morning and those lights are gone, we find ourselves plunged back into the dark. What do we do? We know it’s time again to dust ourselves off, to remember that closeness and seek it out again, to attempt to come close, to think in my heart: What does it feel like?
In tefillah (prayer), we stretch out our hands. In tefillah, we close our hands like this, one over the other: one reaching out to Hashem, the other in humility. Can you be an arrogant person and cover your hands one over the other? Of course you can. Could you be an arrogant person and bow in front of God? Of course you can. It doesn’t make you humble because you bowed, because you clasped your hands. It doesn’t make you closer when you pick up your hands to Hashem. But if you think and feel yourself drawing close, then Borei Olam (Creator of the World) is indeed closer. Because God is always close. The distance between us and Hashem is only in us. So conquering imagined distance happens in imagination. And using that subconscious to feel closer to Hashem actually achieves the aims.
So may Hashem bless us to feel that connection, to feel that connection, to feel that connection, to feel that strength. Vayigash is Vayaseg. And may Hashem bless us to drive efficacy in our tefillot and to allow us to see our problems and talk to God directly about them, and not worry about the problems that we’re facing. In that Vayigash, may we find Vayaseg.