Every artist knows that when he wants to make something shine he has to put it up against a dark background.

There was this nonkosher restaurant in Central Park maybe it’s still there called Tavern on the Green. The whole beauty the greatness of it was the thrill of seeing all those lights in the night against the park’s darkness.

Here in Eretz Yisrael you also sometimes see these big stretches of darkness and then little lights shining out from a small town. And your heart skips a beat and it says “Courage. These have courage.”

And sometimes it happens that our own landscapes get dark.

You meet someone and they look so down so sad and gloomy and you want so much just to shine some light to dispel a little of their darkness like a tiny match in a huge cave.

That’s how I started making shidduchim again.

It all started when someone stuck his head inside our car window to speak to my husband and I said to myself I’m going to move Heaven and earth to find this sweet boy’s other half. While I was moving stuff around trying to find her lots of other names and other gorgeous sweet people looking for their other half showed up. So I dug deeper and found more names and that’s how I’m back in.

I meet an old friend who has a nice girl. I hear her story. She’s had a long hard journey. She’s not right for the boy who stuck his head in the car window but for another boy who’s also had a long hard journey. Everyone thought that because this boy I’ll call him Shmuel put on jeans it meant he was finished. His family came to Israel from America and he never completely fit in because sometimes it happens that while Americans are red white and blue Israel is black and white. It took the family some time to realize who they were and where they’d landed and where they fit in. There can be totally dark times in those tunnels till you come out on the other side.

I call Shmuel.

“I think I have a girl for you” I say. “But before I suggest something let me hear what you’re looking for.”

I think the first thing he’s going to say is I want a modern type of girl. One who wants to go out to the mall and see movies.

But he says “I want a girl who has yiras Shamayim beauty isn’t the most important thing but that she wants to do chesed and that she wants an open house because she wants to help other Jews.”

Wow. Lights up my night.

Then someone else calls me looking for a shidduch for a boy they know. They “warn” me about him: “Well he’s a little modern and very into business.”

I call him directly and ask “What are you looking for?”

“Listen” he says “I’ve seen a lot of things out there. I’ve seen money come and go. I’ve also seen people who married for money and for beauty. And how it doesn’t work.” He pauses. “You know” he says “you may not have my other half but just that you’re taking the time to call me in Shamayim it counts as if you already made the shidduch.” He goes on “I want a girl who has true yiras Shamayim who has real emunah. Who wants to do chesed.”

And I’m on the other end smiling ear to ear actually tearing up a little about how much nachas how much joy and light these boys bring to the world.

And I picture each of them like the lights in the menorah standing in the window against the darkness.

So many parents who came to Israel raised their children totally in the dark. A new land a new language a new culture. We didn’t always know where we were going. We didn’t always know what we’d hit up against what would come out of the shadows.

But look what came out — look how they shine.