A few of the thoughts that have been flowing through my mind.  The struggle of the artist as he tries to capture the dimensions of life on the two dimensional surface of the paper or canvas.  How can he portray movement, depth and the fullness of the form.  It has to be a dialogue.  The viewer has to join the artist in finishing off the work.  This throws the onus of the power of the work as much as it is on the artist as on the viewer.  With an ignorant viewer the painting remains unfinished.

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The beauty of the Chanuka lights. So small, strange to think of a modest light.  But that’s what these candles are.  If they get any bigger they lose their status as Chanuka lights.  The biggest and proudest Menorah will have the same size flame as the ten shekel version.  That seems to be one of the powers of Torah, the strength of the small and the power of modesty.  You don’t have to be big to be strong, long-lasting and relevant.  But the problem will be that you may go unnoticed.  But maybe that doesn’t matter.  Maybe we have become obsessed with noise, the louder the better.

 

What about the power of silence.  Why don’t I learn to hear the sound of what hasn’t been said?  I remember thinking a lot about silence.  Trying not to desecrate communication with too many words.  But soon I drowned myself in yet another unnecessary sentence.  Why can’t I stop and listen to the silence.  Maybe I’ll do that right now….from my breath my life starts to unfold.  Years fly by in my mind, people I knew and know appear and disappear.  The scratch on my head sounds loud in the silence.