Hanukkah is a very special holiday. Each Jewish holiday represents a quality of a person. Just as each person has various facets, such as being a parent, spouse, teacher or lawyer, friend, musician, and so on, each holiday that the Torah gives us comes to emphasize and nurture one or more aspects of our lives.<\/p>\n
One of the qualities of Hanukkah is excellence. I'm referring to the capacity each person has to carry out their obligations or simple tasks in the best possible way. Life itself is a continuous presentation of challenges, some simpler and others more complex, and it requires that, faced with each challenge, a person make a decision and resolve the situation. Within this resolution process, there are levels: each person knows, at the moment of deciding to implement a solution, which level that solution corresponds to\u2014that is, whether it's the best solution in terms of cost, time, or effectiveness. There's always a balance, and the variables are considered to arrive at a solution that will have advantages and disadvantages, but which will be implemented because the positive outweighs the negative.<\/p>\n
But there's another level: the level where there are no downsides, only advantages. However, reaching that level requires extra effort, greater involvement in the situation, or, in other words, total commitment to the goal. (Note: this isn't a disadvantage in itself, since the objective of each challenge is to reveal one's full potential. Therefore, if a particular situation is suitable for expressing one's abilities, the effort invested is the very reason for the challenge, and thus cannot be considered a disadvantage in any way; quite the opposite.).<\/p>\n
That is the level of Hanukkah. The Talmud (Shabbat 21a) defines three ways to light the Menorah: 1) One candle per household each day, 2) One candle per family member each day, and 3) The number of candles corresponding to the nights of Hanukkah each day\u2014one candle on the first night, two on the second, and so on. Interestingly, the Talmud defines these three levels as: 1) The mitzvah of Hanukkah, 2) Mehadrin, embellishments (of the mitzvah), and 3) Mehadrin min haMehadrin, embellishments of the embellishments.<\/p>\n
Now, Hanukkah is the only mitzvah in the Torah that the entire Jewish people chose to fulfill in the best possible way, the Mehadrin min haMehadrin. This demonstrates that one of the qualities Hanukkah comes to develop and emphasize in humankind is the capacity to do things in the best possible way. Not just to fulfill an obligation, but to do so with excellence.<\/p>\n
May the Hanukkah candles illuminate our lives to reveal our inner treasures and, through our own redemption, lead us to the Final Redemption, swiftly in our days.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"J\u00e1nuca es una fiesta muy especial. Cada fiesta jud\u00eda representa una cualidad de la persona. As\u00ed como cada uno tiene varias facetas, como ser padre, marido, profesor o abogado, amigo, m\u00fasico y dem\u00e1s, cada fiesta que la Tor\u00e1 nos da viene a enfatizar y nutrir un aspecto (o varios) de nuestras vidas. Una de las… Read More \u00bbExcellence<\/span><\/a>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4197,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9,103],"tags":[971,1223,954,1015,945,974,1026,942],"series":[],"class_list":["post-2056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editoriales","category-januca","tag-hombre","tag-januca","tag-judio","tag-menora","tag-mitzva","tag-redencion","tag-talmud-2","tag-tora"],"episode_featured_image":"https:\/\/tuviaserber.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/Menora.jpg","episode_player_image":"https:\/\/tuviaserber.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/avatar1400.jpeg","download_link":"","player_link":"","audio_player":false,"episode_data":{"playerMode":"light","subscribeUrls":{"castbox":{"key":"castbox","url":"","label":"CastBox","class":"castbox","icon":"castbox.png"},"rss":{"key":"rss","url":"","label":"RSS","class":"rss","icon":"rss.png"},"spotify":{"key":"spotify","url":"","label":"Spotify","class":"spotify","icon":"spotify.png"}},"rssFeedUrl":"https:\/\/tuviaserber.com\/en\/feed\/podcast\/rabino-tuvia-serber","embedCode":"Excelencia<\/a><\/blockquote>