By a student
Thursday night my friend and I were picking up a couple of things and giving out candles for Shabbos to ladies at Yesh, the local grocery store. As we left, tiny little snowflakes started falling. We were so excited. Snow in Israel! We started taking pictures of the little bitty bits of snow we saw, and then it stopped. We were ecstatic to have happened to be outside when it snowed for 15 WHOLE MINUTES! We came back to seminary and the snow stopped.
Or so we thought.
Friday morning, Asera B’Teves, I woke up to a world of white. I bundled up and stepped outside to enjoy the downpour whirlwind of snowflakes.
Friday night. We were officially to have davening with seminary, but the snow hadn’t ceased. Trees were down and we were told to just daven with our apartment and then meet up at sem for the Shabbos meal.
I went to daven at shul with the minyan. Men were trudging through snow already over a foot high to get the shul, and looking from the women’s side I saw a small but complete minyan of black hats, black coats, and lots and lots of white – white covering the hats, white covering the beards. But they all came to daven.
Mid lecha dodi, the power went out. There was no light at all – complete and utter darkness. The davening just got louder, louder and more powerful. The second the lights were put out from an outside force, we began to see the light from the inside shine brighter than ever before.
The men carried on singing lecha dodi for a good 15 minutes because no one was able to see any words in their siddurim. Finally the Chazan started mizmor, and everyone on the men’s side joined in, singing aloud through Kaddish, Borchu, and Shema.
Boruch Hashem, half a moon appeared, shining light reflecting off the snow through the window. People stood by the window trying to catch whatever light they could to daven properly.
It felt like I’d always imagined the olden days. I always heard stories of the days before the printing press, and how the Chazan would daven aloud so the klal could answer amen and kedusha.
That was it.
The achdus and singing and making the best of this darkness began there in shul on Asera b’Teves. And it carried on.
After shul, one father who lived at the bottom of the hill found a creative way to go home. He sat down on the top of the hill, sat his boy on his lap, and slid down the mountain to his home.
I made my way to seminary past the fallen trees and chashmal wires. I entered the dark building to hear and then join a circle of singing girls around one small candle.
One girl, by hashgocha protis, had decided to light her Shabbos candle in the room that we would be eating in. Arm in arm we sang “Shalom Aleichem” and “Aishes Chayil” in the cold dark building bringing true warmth to each other on this powerful day of the 10th of Teves.
As soon as we finished singing, Rabbi Yosef Chitrik stepped into the room to make Kiddush. At that very moment, the lights turned on and they remained on until the very second he left, when the lights went out again. And so began our farbrengen in the dark.
We realized that the same way the siege made around Yerushalayim on asere b’Teves didn’t allow any Jews to go in or out of the city and therefore was really the refuah before the Makkah (Hashem gave them a chance to be stuck together and have achdus in order for the gzeira to be nullified) so too today, on Asere b’Teves 5774, the entire country is “sieged.”
In Yerushalayim itself no one was able to get in or out. No buses, no power, and a whole lot of snow made sure of that it would stay that way a while. And here in Tzfat, it was the same story. No power, no heat, no light – our only option was to be b’achdus and share our personal “light and warmth” with others. Besides the fact that with these condition practically the whole of Tzfat was keeping Shabbas. There was no other option.
We spoke about how asera b’Teves is a real eis ratzon because it was a start of the whole destruction of the Bais Hamikdosh, which really means – if we take into account the power of ahavas yisroel used to its fullest, asera b’Teves really is the start to the binion Bayis shlishi and the ultimate redemption with Moshiach and all the light in the whole world.
As someone said light, the lights turned on. No joke.
When there was light we noticed that outside was actually dark. When the light was off we noticed that outside was light.
When the light is on inside yourself, that’s all you see. But if you dim the light in yourself and have a bit of bitul you can actually see that another on the outside has so much light to share.
The lights went out again.
Throughout the night-long farbrengen, each time we spoke about Geulah, ahavas yisroel, achdus, or light the power came on. Each time we said golus, darkness, or division the power went out. I wasn’t alone. There are witnesses.
Nutty.
As the cold dark night carried on, we headed back to our rooms doubling and tripling up because some girls couldn’t get to their apartments in the dark slippery weather with live power wires loose in the area.
We said Shema and chitas as a klal because we couldn’t see anything! The only bit of light was coming from the moon. We slept bundled up in coats and blankets due to lack of heat. In the morning you would think all would freezing and you’d want to stay in bed.
But 8:30 am after a night-long farbrengen, I came to chassidus before Davening to see more girls there than ever before!
In the dark and cold, when people are pushed past their limits, they rise higher than ever before. We saw this clearly based on the fact that everyone pushed to prove to themselves and to the world that the cold dark bitterness won’t stop us from spreading our light of chassidus and achdus.
We had no power. We had no lights. We had no heat. But we had the power, the light and the varemkeit of each other.
Motzoei Shabbos we lit candles and sat around, Israelis and Americans singing and laughing and talking together. Even with not much In common, we now had a common enemy that drew us together. We were together to get rid of our enemy: darkness. negativity.golus.
Turning our darkness into light made this my lightest Shabbos yet.
כל הכבוד לחיה וויס!!
Keep these articles coming.
Really enjoyed Shobbos with you.Would like to hear more about your adventures in Tzfas.
That’s what you get when you fast and freeze Khaya’s style…Cosmic Consciousness!
Z.A.D.
Chaya. You’re coming from sunny Flo. Do you enjoy the snow?
chana sima
missing you so much
family Austin
So proud of my Pittsburgh girls for “bringing the potential light to reality”! Love, Mrs. Saxon
We miss you
Love you
Melb
so inspiring!! everything that seminary is is thanks to rabbi and mrs chitrik! we want to hear more keep on spreading the light!
bc the place to be!!!! theres rlly nothing like this place in the world!
Wow!!! I really miss Beis Chana Tzfas! Reading this article brought back so many memories of the warmth that you really feel from that place. Kol Hakavod to Rabbi and Mrs. Chitrik for running an amazing, warm, and inspiring seminary! Keep spreading the light and warmth to all!
I miss that place!
amazing howthe lights went out wehn they said golus and dark and ON when they said light!! sem is amazing!!!
girls /boys please share more of stuff like this it keeps the heart warm
amazing
Reminds me of when I was in seminary. And the power outage timing is really cool. I believe you. It just went on and off, on and off. Thank G-d our only outage was the night between Wednesday and Thursday. We sure aren’t jealous but it sounds like you did a pretty good job of making the best of it. 😀 I didn’t get to see any snow, and even though at first I was kind of disappointed it’s all for the best…right? Here I definitely see how it was for the best that we didn’t get snow. It just… Read more »
this is chassidus in action
thank you, it is reassuring to know that our “system” works
pictures please
is an amazing sem.
My favorite cousin.
Beautifully written! Kol HaKavod!! “Hi” to Mushkie & Faigy – my favorite girls in Tzfas!!!!!!!! Hope it’s even ‘warmer’ now!!
The power of Beis Chana in Sfat….
Wow Chaya the best roommate ever!!!!! Keep it up!
so special that the girls were able to take a hard, snowy situation and turn it into a beautiful, inspiring experience!
Thanks for sharing!
That is truly Beutiful!
I wish I was there 🙂