The Holy Martyrs in Pittsburgh

While the martyrs were slain, most Jewish congregations read from their Torah scrolls about two different kinds of births, both of which profoundly affected history and, according to Judaism, will yet even more profoundly affect destiny.

One was the miraculous, yet open, birth of Isaac, the very first person to be born Jewish. By the character of his birth, you might say that he was born in the light!

The other was the obscured and, though well intended but, incestuous births of the ancestors of Ammon and Moab. They were conceived and born secreted away from society in the bowels of a cave. They were born in the darkness!

With both kinds of birth, the one in the light and the other in darkness, God planned the genetics of the Davidic dynasty and ultimately the Messiah himself. The open birth of Isaac obviously led to the birth of his grandson Judah, the progenitor of the Davidic dynasty.

Then on the hidden, womb-like, levels was born the progenitors of two women who would eventually marry into the Jewish royal line. They too shared in the ancestry of this line of Jewish leaders, leading to the Messiah himself.  They were Ruth the Moabite, the grandmother of King David, and Naamah the Ammonite, the mother of Rehoboam. And so God uses spiritual darkness as a tool to bring about spiritual light.

The most powerful reason I have heard to date, why spiritual darkness leads to spiritual light is because ultimately there is no darkness at all. Everything which appears as darkness, is merely suppressed light! However, since suppression takes a lot more energy than expression, only the very strongest and brightest of lights can undergo suppression, transforming into darkness. The deeper the suppression, the stronger and brighter the light!

Since, light is the default state of reality, darkness is an inherently unstable situation. It’s one that’s an imposed! Among many other things, this explains why there’s so much energy locked up in matter waiting, under the right conditions, to be released as nuclear energy. The relative darkness of matter only exists by the suppression of a certain kind of light known as electromagnetic energy.

I keep reiterating this idea to my study partners in my weekly study sessions in the teachings of Rabbi Nathan of Nemirov.  The teaching we are currently studying discusses how a person can be positively motivated by finding his or her “good sparks”, which means recognizing one’s own good deeds which point to the inner goodness lodged in one’s own heart.

My study partners asked me, “If darkness is really the light, then why are we searching for sparks?”

I responded, “You know how a garment can have a thread sticking out, which if pulled can unravel the whole garment?”

“Yeah”, they nodded and smiled.

I continued,”Though part of the garment, this thread has not become quite worked into its fabric. Similarly, the spark in the dark is like that thread. It tells us where to pull, so we can unravel the darkness and expose it for the light that it is. It’s a key allowing us to open up the darkness.

“Being an imposed state, darkness can never be total. To one extent or another, it will always fail to assimilate every bit of light into its larger bulk. There will always be a spark or two or likely more which threads out from its fabric.”

Yesterday, moment of darkness was cast over the world in general and over the Jewish world in particular. Eleven Holy martyrs ascended in sanctification of God’s Holy Name. It didn’t happen in Western, Central or Eastern Europe, places historically noted for soil soaked in with Jewish blood. It happened right here in America, right in the very State I live in.

However, unlike the historic tragedies of Europe, I was comforted to hear how many leaders and people of good will throughout the world took on the Jewish tragedy their own. They turned to a mourning Jewish community with practical aid, vigils, prayer meetings and supportive words of comfort. They recognized that anti-Semitism is a vile extremism which, as Rabbi Jonathan Sacks states, only begins with the Jews and pretty soon threatens the entire social structure of a good and decent society.

I cannot claim to know what hidden light lies within the darkness of centuries upon centuries of anti-Semitism and persecution of my People. Though I look forward to this precious light with absolute faith and trust, it has yet to be revealed. I have heard some speculations, but never truly found any of them satisfying. One example of such being, that the State of Israel was a divine gift which emerged from the holocaust; as if implying that the holocaust is somehow justified by the creation of a Jewish State. Can any land, even holy land, be worth even a single human life, let alone six million?

Even if I do not yet see light unravel, with such outpourings of aid and support, I think we see some sparks; in fact many of them. They are in the form of good hearted people world over, who really want to see a better world; one where hatred disappears and life finally finds and celebrates its true meaning and purpose. Working together with these people, might yet help to unravel centuries of bitter darkness and usher humanity into a future filled with hope, celebration and light.  

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