Here’s a Chanukah Thought:
The dreidel is a spinning top used for a game we traditionally play on Chanukah.
Look at a spinning dreidel. Can you see any letters on the sides of the dreidel?
You can’t. The speed of the dreidel’s spin blurs the letters. You can’t even see that there are letters there at all.
But there are. Just wait until the dreidel comes to rest. As soon as it stops spinning, you can clearly see the four Hebrew letters on its four sides, standing for the words: Big Miracle Happened There.
What is going on? You could have sworn there were no letters on the dreidel when it was spinning. So where did they appear from all of a sudden when the dreidel stopped?
I think you know the answer. Our eyes can’t see something that is moving at such velocity. We can only focus on the letters when the dreidel slows down to a standstill. They were there all along. We just didn’t see them.
And so with life. Amazing things are happening to us right now. Miracles are all around us. But because we are lost in the rush of everyday, we don’t see them. Our head is spinning just trying to keep up with the pace of life… So we miss what’s really going on, we can’t see the miracles happening before our eyes, because it’s all a blur.
Chanukah is a time to pause and reflect on our bountiful blessings and to give thanks for the many miracles that surround us. On Chanukah we see the writing on the dreidel wall. Big Miracles Happened Right Here.
Credits: Rabbi Menachem Mendel Bluming of Potomac, Maryland and Rabbi Moss of Australia