Winter

Just when we got to the least amount of light of the entire year, it all turned around and started moving upwards. And all those small changes soon enough add up to significant changes...

The calendar is more than a measure of time; it is a cycle that charts our inner life and our relationship with our Creator.

If a cold and dark world mutes the light of G‑d and dulls our minds and hearts, it only accentuates the most basic and essential element of our relationship: the bond between the physical self of man and the quintessential being of G‑d.

Occasionally, we open the unused drawers in the back of my youngest son's closet to look at these relics from a distant past...

As per the Talmud, the month of Kislev marks the onset of the winter season in the Holy Land and is the third month of the "Season of the Rains." Link: Winter

According to Rabbi Judah (cited in the Talmud, Bava Metzia 106b), Tevet 29 marks the end of winter. (As per Genesis 8:22, the year consists of six 2-month "seasons": seedtime, harvest, cold, heat, summer and winter.)

Do you view our world as a place of cumbersome burdens or a place of magical opportunities?

I looked at it, and I wanted to crawl back under my warm covers. My children saw it, and to them it was something to experience, to feel, touch, handle and manipulate

Yad B’Yad, directed by Chabad-Lubavitch Rabbi Yaakov Gloiberman, distributed more than 20,000 winter blankets this year.