Chanukah referring to the rededication of the Beis Hamikdash derives from the same root as chinuch (education). The two ideas are connected in that both emphasize the importance of beginnings and building a solid foundation.

We have just learned again through the life of Yaakov Avinu one of the foundational ideas upon which our chinuch must be based. After all his travails with Lavan and Eisav Yaakov wanted nothing more than just to rest a bit — vayeishev Yaakov. But it was not to be. HaKadosh Baruch Hu delivered as Rashi explains the clearest possible message that there is no peace and relaxation for tzaddikim in this world. No matter how much you have achieved no matter how great your spiritual level if at this moment your greatest desire is to stay put then your place is not in This World it is in the Next.

Standing still is not just a dangerous idea it’s an impossibility. That is the message of the ladder Yaakov saw in his dream as he embarked on the journey to Padan Aram. The angels were in motion going up and coming down. None were stationary.

If we are not constantly pushing ourselves to go up we will go down (see the Vilna Gaon to Mishlei 15:24). The spiritual gravitational forces operating upon us are constantly pulling us lower and if we are not exerting a countervailing force the trajectory is inevitably earthbound.

No matter what one’s past achievements there is no resting on one’s laurels. One of the sharpest pieces of mussar I ever received came well over three decades ago. Around the time that I started learning by Rav Tzvi Kushelevsky my classmates from law school were just starting to “make partner” in America’s most prestigious law firms. They were making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year while my kollel stipend was a few hundred shekels.

One morning in the middle of morning seder I put my head down for a few minutes. My chavrusah commented off-handedly with no evident malicious intent “It’s amazing how much some people sacrifice to learn Torah and how little they do with the opportunity after that.” He let me know that there was no time to pat myself on the back for having turned my back on a lucrative law practice.

IT IS DAUNTING no doubt to understand that stasis is not an option. But that realization carries with it a corollary that should empower us: If at any given moment we are either ascending or descending spiritually each moment is of crucial importance. Each moment is an opportunity to be used for either good or bad to open up in Rav Chaim Volozhiner’s language conduits of blessing to the world or chas v’shalom close them.

That appreciation of the preciousness of time and therefore of the importance of our lives was one of the ideas that most powerfully attracted many of the baalei teshuvah I know to Judaism. It is the key to feeling truly alive.

I realized recently that the happiest time of my day is during a  morning shiur on Mesilas Yesharim. Studying Mesilas Yesharim is a far cry from living according to Mesilas Yesharim. But even the aspiration to lift one’s sights upward makes one feel more intensely alive.

NOTHING IS SADDER than seeing someone — particularly teenagers — without any ambition or goals. And unfortunately that state characterizes far too many of our youth. A friend of mine who has taught for years at one of the many yeshivos that act as a reclamation project for boys who have already gone through 12 years of religious education described to me recently the daily (and unsuccessful) battle to get his talmidim to put away their handheld devices during Gemara shiur. Even during a private conversation many talmidim do not make eye contact or stop texting friends.

Their entire days are spent distracting themselves and avoiding ever having to think about anything. Texting is easier than cracking a Tosafos — so texting wins. These kids have too infrequently experienced the sweetness of exerting themselves to reach a goal of striving to achieve something.

Hearing about them I was reminded of Rabbi Noah Weinberg’s lectures on pleasure and pain. Reb Noah fought against the notion that pain is the opposite of pleasure. Comfort he insisted is the opposite of pleasure. The body seeks comfort sleep oblivion — less dramatic forms of suicide. The soul seeks growth knowledge inspiration. And the price for the latter is effort and pain.

IF EVEN YAAKOV AVINU could experience the alluring pull of comfort for a brief moment we can be certain that each of us is tempted — each according to his own level. Every time we notice those fighting to resist the lure of comfort and striving to grow we should take note and be inspired.

I have a neighbor who retired early from the practice of law and today spends his days learning including a full seder in a kollel with young men half to one-third his age. At the time of his retirement he was considered one of the top corporate attorneys in an international business center. And within the Torah community he was viewed as something of a talmid chacham for his breadth of yedios and penetrating analysis. He was honored and respected in every aspect of his life.

Yet instead of basking in that honor he decided to pick himself up and move to Eretz Yisrael and thrust himself into a world in which his store of Torah knowledge would no longer stand out and into a beis medrash filled with young Torah scholars whose minds can hold more information and process it far faster.

He chose to grow in Torah by becoming the tail of the lion. And so should we all choose growth. It starts one moment at a time.

Keeping the Lights Burning

The yungerman learned that there was an Egged bus from Bnei Brak that passed Tzoran once a day (no return) and began traveling there every afternoon. Within less than a year an abandoned caravan had become a makeshift shul and a kollel was established. Rabbi Bezalel raised the money for a mikveh which today serves over 400 families.

He also started a cheder. When I first met Rabbi Bezalel in late 2007 the cheder enrolled 86 boys from kindergarten through fifth grade. But it lacked Health Ministry approval and had too few students to qualify for Education Ministry funding. Rabbi Bezalel was not only the principal but also the secretary and janitor.

With $20000 raised from less than a handful of donors he was able to make the necessary improvements and enroll enough students for Education Ministry funding. Today the cheder includes 160 students and its graduates have gone on to learn in some of the finest yeshivos ketanos in the country. I cannot think of too many returns like that per tzedakah dollar invested.

Now Rabbi Bezalel faces another crisis. A court has ordered him off his current premises by December 31. His only hope is to rent an abandoned shell of an auditorium nearby or to receive a plot of land from the regional council on which to build a prefabricated structure. Though the cost of the latter is greater (NIS 400000 or $115000) he would thereafter be freed of monthly rent (NIS 15 000 for the auditorium) and he has a donor willing to eventually pay for a permanent structure (but nothing until then).

In either event he has barely over a month if he can raise the necessary funds to either completely redo the interior of the auditorium or to build a complete structure from scratch. Even with a great deal of “sweat equity” from parents and serving as his own building contractor it will be a 24/6 race against the clock.

What happens if Rabbi Bezalel has to close the school? There are no real alternative schools for the parents without dropping several degrees in the quality for their sons’ religious education. When Rabbi Bezalel first arrived in Tzoran there was barely a shomer Shabbos Jew to be found in Tzoran or the 30 communities in the area. Virtually all his parents are baalei teshuvah of a little more than a decade at most.

Some of the parents would probably move to Torah enclaves like Elad to ensure the quality of their children’s chinuch. But the move of relatively recent baalei teshuvah to all-chareidi communities has proven to be fraught with spiritual danger for both parents and their children alike.

Obviously I’m heavily invested emotionally in Rabbi Bezalel: I’m a sucker for mesirus nefesh. When I first traveled with him to Tzoran the car in which we rode was at least 100000 miles past the junk heap. At night he collected money in the Itzkowitz shtiebel in Bnei Brak for gas money to travel back and forth twice a day. And at 36 he was already notably hard of hearing as a consequence of the constant pressures on him including mortgaging his small apartment to keep the cheder going.

But ultimately the case for saving cheder Achdut Yisrael rests on the return of the one-time investment needed now — the 160 or more boys kein yirbu who will be learning yearly at the only traditional cheder (with Education Ministry standard secular studies) in the area for decades to come.

What better time than Chanukah to keep the pure light of Torah burning in an area that until recently was filled only with darkness? For further information contact me at jonathanrosenblum@gmail.com.