The Miracle of Understanding

I played dreidel at work last week. While I could write about what it means to choose to share of myself in that space, the deeper spark that spread within me was something different.

I pointed out each Hebrew letter to the group gathered before me. I repeated the phrase aloud. One translation. This year I taught its meaning. One history. I understood enough to trace the journey of the words. I paused, unnoticeable time passing to my audience, for a separate celebration.

On this final night of Hanukkah, I wanted to redirect the light from quickly melting candles to the hope found in letters. I Googled quotes about letters. The first search revealed quotes about love letters. A separate kind of warmth. I searched again, this time for quotes about alphabets.

“I’m intrigued that the same letters from the alphabet are used

in the word silent and in the word listen. . .”

Nun, Gimmel, Hey, Shin

Four letters. I learned without words. Four letters of twenty two. I learned enough to play a game. A cultural connection through mimicry as games often attempt.

“. . . Perhaps it’s evidence that the most important part of listening

involves remaining silent.”

Nes Gadol Haya Sham

Four words. Last year I learned the sentence. Four words of 33,000. I learned enough to repeat. A cultural message remembered, each word its own life lived in memory, but with a limited future.

This year I realized I understood the curve of each letter, the meaning of each word and grammar constructs in the sentence. Nes, a noun, miracle. Gadol, an adjective, following its noun in the correct form. Haya, a verb, conjugated properly in the past tense. Sham, here, the context in which I live, same but different, than my family in Israel where the message ends, differently. I was living the miracle of the oil, a small amount that should not last, but would last. The letters had become an ability to write a future story.

Nun, Gimmel, Hey, Shin

Nes Gadol Haya Sham

A great miracle happened here.

Yes, it did. One of understanding.

**“I’m intrigued that the same letters from the alphabet are used in the word silent and in the word listen. Perhaps it’s evidence that the most important part of listening involves remaining silent.”

--Robert Herjavec