Tevet - A Time to Warm One Another with Love

Lately, every evening I have been looking back on the day just past. One by one, images of its events follow one another - from the earliest morning to the latest evening - and together they form one astonishing puzzle that I take with me into dreamland.

Last night I was lying in the dark children's room, and my youngest's steady soft snores as he lay beside me filled my heart with tenderness.

Suddenly I heard a soft, familiar melody. One of my daughters was singing a song that she had learned only a few days earlier in her singing lesson. It was an old Uzi Hitman song about the Almighty and about the peace we are still waiting for. In an instant, the song carried me back twenty years, to when my best friend Kayla had sung it just as softly, right beside me. Suddenly I felt tenderness fill my heart and my whole being even more, and then it spilled out, filling the entire children's room, the whole street, and the whole world.

This Shabbat we begin reading a new book of the Torah - Shemot.

Without a doubt, this is the most dramatic book of the Torah. The Jews in it will have to go through a great deal, suffer, be maimed, and some will even die. But the book begins with names. The Almighty lists the names of Jacob's descendants - counting them as one counts gold coins or diamonds - and this enumeration expresses His love and tenderness. This very love is the beginning of everything and the guarantee that a happy ending awaits us at the end of the book.

We are in the month of Tevet. It was in this month that Esther came before Achashverosh. The Sages explain that it all comes down to the fact that in Tevet - in the depths of winter - it is cold, and "people's bodies warm one another." You'll agree that it is much nicer to hug people you know out in the street in the middle of Tevet than in the middle of Av, for example.

It seems to me that now is just the time to remember the names of our friends and loved ones, to think of those we have not hugged in a long time - in person or online - and make up for lost time.

After all, if cold weather is sent our way, someone must need it.

Also, today - 20 Tevet - is the yahrzeit of the great Jewish sage - Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon - the Rambam.

For me personally, the Rambam also means love. Love for the Almighty and love for the Jewish people. After all, "From Moses to Moses, there was none like Moses." And the Rambam is also a little boy who did not become bitter or harden his heart, and who passed an important message on to all of us: love your children (and yourselves) as they are. Jews, don't skimp on love, affection, or tea leaves.