Your Face is a Walking Menorah

Through compassionate use of your ears, eyes and words, you can illuminate the world. By Elimor Ryzman A friend of mine suffered from infertility and had to undergo several treatments. When a person goes through the fertility journey, it is emotionally, physically, and financially draining. At her procedure, in walked a PUAH volunteer whose role is to make sure that there are no mix-ups in the lab. My friend expressed to me that she was feeling very anxious and overwhelmed and this volunteer looked at her with such compassionate eyes and a warm smile, and she prayed for her throughout the entire procedure. That gave my friend a tremendous amount of strength on that day. With the help of Hashem, after several failed rounds of IVF, that procedure was successful and my friend had a baby boy. Fast forward six years – my friend was taking out her son in honor of his birthday. During the dinner, from afar, she noticed the volunteer from 6 years before. She approached her with her son and told her the following. I am sure that you don’t remember me since you probably see so many people every day, but I will never forget your face. On a very challenging day of my life, it was you who uplifted me. You had such kind eyes, such a warm smile, and throughout my whole procedure you prayed. I want you to know that this is the boy that you prayed for and I will forever be grateful. Right there both of them were crying. To me, this is the message of Hanukkah. As we all know, Hanukkah is the Festival of Lights and celebrated through the Menorah. So what is the Menorah? The Menorah is a vessel that illuminates the world. The Kabbalists teach us that the seven branches of the Menorah that was in the Temple correspond to the seven openings in ones face. Take a closer look at your face and the menorah, you will notice something remarkable – they are almost identical in shape. Two ears, two eyes, two nostrils, and one mouth for a total of seven openings. The ultimate purpose of the menorah is to illuminate and bring light to the world. We each have our own personal Menorah within our face and therefore must also use our face to radiate light to those around us. Without even realizing, the PUAH volunteer had the power of the Menorah within her. She used her face – her compassionate eyes and shining smile to brighten up my friend’s day when she was down. We may no longer have the Menorah in the Temple, but we have the Menorah within our face. Let us use our personal Menorah that is within us: our compassionate eyes, listening ears and kind words to constantly illuminate the world and bring light to everyone around us. The light that we share will illuminate the world not just for 8 days but for a life time! For more Jewish inspiration visit https://www.aish.com – the world's leading Judaism website.