Chanukah Day #5 | The Most Famous Painting in the World

it's interesting chanukah is the only holiday in the jewish calendar that begins at the end of a month you see we follow the lunar calendar the jewish people are compared to the moon all of the jewish holidays are in the beginning of the month or smack in the middle of the month when the moon is either waxing and growing or complete rosh hashanah is on the birth of the new moon the first day of the month shwu is yum kipra are in the beginning of the month as the moon is growing becoming larger from day to day [Music] purim are right in the middle of the month when the moon reflecting the destiny of the jewish people is complete the one exception chanukah chanukah begins on the 25th day of the month of kislev as the moon is waning soon it's going to become completely invisible right in the middle of chanukah and then reborn again what is the secret and the significance of this you know friends the most famous painting in the world is the mona lisa standing in the louvre museum in paris it's the crown jewel of the louvre attracting more than 10 million tourists a year but what made the mona lisa so incredibly compelling is it the mystery of her identity we don't know who she is is it her enigmatic smile is it the fact that you're never sure if mona lisa likes you or dislikes you is it because of leonardo di vinci who painted it in the 16th century certainly all of these aspects are true but none of them account for the true secret of the renown behind the mona lisa the true story and credit is to be attributed to an italian handyman who worked in the louvre his name was vincenzo perugia 120 years ago in august 1911 this man who worked in the louvre stole the mona lisa it took more than two years it was only in september 1913 that the police apprehended him and restored the painting to the louvre but here is the fascinating thing during those two years more people came to visit the absent mona lisa than the people who came all the years earlier when she was hanging in the museum can you imagine as the painting hung there for decades it was popular but it wasn't so insanely popular but now when it was gone the entire world came to see the empty orphaned beer wall in the museum talk about absence making the heart grow fonder or in the immortal words of jonathan to david vinifkad you will be remembered because you will be absent so in a strange way the best thing that could have ever happened to the mona lisa is that she was stolen what a metaphor for life sometimes i feel absent i'm not fully present in life i feel like i'm stolen i'm forlorn i'm broken i'm wounded i'm lost but that's when your deepest value emerges that's when you come to discover the profoundest art in your own soul in your own mind it's when i disintegrate that i find and discover who i really am my true value my inner resilience what are my authentic priorities what am i living for it gives me the wisdom not to live a superficial external life motivated by peer pressure and social conformity but to really tune in to my truest piece of art to my truest value i have never met or heard of a great person who has achieved genuine greatness without profound failure and setbacks or in the immortal words of winston churchill my definition of success is jumping from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm and i want to tell you something else i have never met somebody who really inspired passion love and healing in other people without he or she themselves going through moments of profound doubt despair and disintegration it's when the moon goes into hiding when the light of the moon is invisible when you think it's all about darkness that the moon is actually becoming aligned with its own source of light with the sun it's in the absence of the moon when the moon discovers its true calling its true vocation it's true destiny there's a manifestation of the incredible brightness of the sun chanukah is about finding that essential light in the midst of the darkness which is why we celebrate it as the moon is declining as the moon goes into a state of concealment but is then reborn rediscovering its true eternal infinite value happy hanukkah [Music]