Rosh Chodesh Kislev: How to Overcome Winter Depression - Rabbi Ephy Greene

as we head into the winter we have to keep in mind that the winter can be a very difficult time for some people there's actually a clinical uh diagnosis called winter depression where people get more and more depressed because it's so dark and it's so cold they're inside all the time they're missing the sun they're missing the energy that comes with the summer with the vibrancy of being outside the growth and aside from being sensitive so that for people who may actually suffer we ourselves should be sensitive as to what it is that the winter is teaching us what it is that as we get into khodosh kislev what is it that it's we're supposed to develop with inside within ourselves there's a famous matter that adam arishon saw that the days were getting shorter and shorter and shorter as it became winter and he started to think that this is my ownish this is what hashem meant when uh when he said that i'm going to die and the days are going to get shorter and shorter and shorter until i actually have no day left and no life left and finally finally when he saw that the the sun started to last a little bit longer longer longer he realized he was not yet going to die and he gave great shout out the idea is that a person is supposed to look at their days as days of productivity a time to achieve a time to accomplish and realize that hayong katsar the day is short and there's a lot of work to be done and indeed as the mission always says about poland salem sometimes we are very lazy we don't appreciate really how much work we're supposed to be doing we don't feel motivated necessarily but the shortening of the days should come as a reminder to us that really so much needs to be accomplished the the night is coming the darkness is coming and just like those people who suffer from winter depression they feel like their life is being stepped out of them they don't have energy so we have to realize one day it might come that there's no energy and rather to energize ourselves now as much as possible and specifically during those dark hours specifically at night we know that ghazal tells us that the more a person learns at night the greater brock they have if you learn at night you have a special seat special shines on you during the day and so therefore the night is longer during the winter time specifically in order that we can grow more specifically so we can connect to in times of otherwise darkness that feeling of being in a place of detachment of darkness of feeling overwhelmed perhaps by the by the by the night of life is an opportunity to get in touch with something a little bit deeper a little bit more profound not superficial and to say it's nighttime i'm vulnerable and i open myself up to you and as i open myself up to that brings me closer to you and that itself is what gives me strength we should be zoha to go into the winter in a way which energizes us which makes us more vibrant specifically in the times of darkness and take the lessons of chanukah of the small candles the shamans the narrative shamans inside of each and every single one of us can light up the night can make the darkness so much brighter and bring a true energy to this world